Letter to the Honorable Ashton Carter, Secretary of Defense - Military Sexual Assualt

Letter

Dear Secretary Carter:

Congratulations on your recent confirmation as the Secretary of Defense. President Obama has shown significant faith in you and your ability to lead our nation's excellent military forces in a time of great importance in our history.

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. We have a moral duty to do everything we can to protect those who sacrifice so much to protect us every single day.

There has been significant progress on this issue in recent years, from establishing the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO) and assigning a high level officer to direct it, to the inclusion of multiple provisions related to military sexual assault in National Defense Authorization Acts, such as expedited base transfers, extended maintenance of records, training in specialized victim-sensitive techniques for criminal investigations, and the creation of a Special Victims' Counsel to best serve those affected.

Secretary Leon Panetta joined Congress in addressing this critical issue by issuing specific directives that evidenced the commitment of the Department of Defense to combatting sexual assault in the military. The Director of SAPRO, Major General Snow, indicated during a recent briefing to Members of Congress that Secretary Chuck Hagel further elevated the issue to have a place on the agenda every week in his meetings with the highest-ranking members of his team. That focus has led to various improvements, although there remains much more work to be done.

We respectfully request that as Secretary of Defense, you continue the commitment shown by your predecessors to addressing sexual assault in the military, bringing the full weight of your office to bear on improving the military's response to sexual assault and preventing it from happening in the first place. We are particularly concerned by recent evidence that the rate of experiencing personal or professional retaliation for reporting an incident of sexual assault is unacceptably high. Our service members must feel safe in reporting sexual assault if there is to be true progress toward ending it.

We look forward to partnering with you to protect our servicewomen and men.

Sincerely,

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