National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. TURNER. Mr. Chairman, I am here today to speak in favor of the National Defense Authorization Act, and I am very privileged to serve as the chairman of the Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee.

I first want to begin by thanking Chairman McKeon and Ranking Member Smith for their support for the provisions in the bill that go to address the important issue of sexual assault in the military.

Ms. Tsongas and I were tasked by the ranking member and the chairman to come up with a bipartisan solution. We worked directly with the staffs of both the ranking member and the chair, and we believe that we have put provisions in this bill with the full bipartisan support of the committee, which will end the re-victimization of the victim. We have a problem of sexual assault in the military, and that problem is that the perpetrators feel safe and that the victims feel insecure and re-victimized. This bill includes provisions of the Turner-Tsongas BE SAFE Act. It also includes provisions from Representatives Heck, Walorski, Noem, Castro, Sanchez, and Duckworth.

Basically, this bill will strip commanders of their authority to dismiss a conviction for a serious offense by a court-martial, and it significantly limits the commander's ability to modify or dismiss the sentence determined by a court-martial, but we go even beyond that.

This bill says if you commit a sexual assault, you are out. If you have an inappropriate relationship between a trainer and a trainee, you are out. No longer will it be tolerated for someone to commit a sexual assault and stay in the military. No longer will victims ever have to passionately tell in a hearing before Congress that they were forced to salute someone who had committed a sexual assault against them.

We ask for the Department of Defense to convene an independent panel to review all of the Uniform Code of Military Justice as it applies to sexual assault so that we can see if there are additional provisions and reforms that need to be enacted.

I want to thank my ranking member, Loretta Sanchez, on the Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee. We have worked together to make our priority that of serving our men and women in uniform in the area of Afghanistan. Also, we've added over $1.3 billion in the President's budget that was requested to be authorized to address urgent operational needs for the warfighter, including counter-improvised explosive device requirements.

The bill includes support for the production in our Nation's heavy armored vehicle industrial base by maintaining the minimum sustained production of upgrade modifications for the Abrams tanks and heavy improved recovery vehicles.

The committee bill retains the Air Force's Global Hawk Block 30 unmanned intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft to support the deployed warfighter rather than placing these aircraft in storage as the Air Force plans to do.

The committee bill also addresses the critical need to reduce the weight of individual warfighter equipment, improve acquisition practices used for this gear, and it requires the Secretary of Defense to assess options for providing personnel protection equipment specifically fitted for the female warfighter.

Our subcommittee is very proud to look at all of the aspects and ways that we can support the warfighter. Again, I want to thank the chair and the ranking member for their steadfast support in addressing the epidemic issue that we have of sexual assault in the military.

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