Turner, Slaughter, and Tsongas Push New Defense Secretary Ash Carter to Focus on Curbing Sexual Assault in the Military

Press Release

Today, Representatives Mike Turner (R-OH), Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY), Niki Tsongas (D-MA), and 50 of their colleagues are sending a bipartisan letter to new Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter asking him to focus on curbing military sexual assault in the military.

"As you are well aware, preventing and appropriately responding to the tragedy of military sexual assault is an issue of extreme importance for the wellbeing of our brave servicewomen and men," the representatives wrote. "We have a moral duty to do everything we can to protect those who sacrifice so much to protect us every single day."

The representatives called on Secretary Carter to follow in his predecessors' footsteps and continue to make reforming the military's sexual assault prevention and response program a top priority. Despite increased awareness and concrete steps taken by the Pentagon to lower the incidence of sexual assault and make it easier to deliver justice to survivors, the rate of sexual assault in the military remains pervasively high, as does the rate of survivors who experience retaliation from their peers after reporting. According to a report released yesterday by the Pentagon, 43% of women and 36% of men who reported unwanted sexual contact while attending the academies -- the most elite military training institutes in the country -- have experienced retaliation. And 22% of women who experienced unwanted sexual contact said they did not report it because they were afraid of retaliation from the offender or the offender's friends.

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