National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 -- Continued

Floor Speech

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Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, I rise to urge my colleagues to vote yes on this strongly bipartisan amendment. The central question is simple--whether this Congress is doing everything we can to protect members of our military. The metric of success is not how many reforms we have passed; it is whether we have passed all of the reforms that are necessary to make the difference. If you think the assault rate that is exactly where it was in 2010 is unacceptable, then vote yes. Some 20,000 sexual assaults, rapes, and unwanted sexual contact in 1 year alone is unacceptable. If you think an average of 52 cases every single day is unacceptable, then vote yes. If you think it is unacceptable that three out of four servicemembers still don't feel it is worth the risk of reporting, then vote yes. If you think that zero progress on retaliation isn't good enough, then vote yes. If you think a sexual assault survivor being 12 times more likely to suffer retaliation than see their offender get convicted for a sex offense, then vote yes.

Let's do the right thing. Let's take action and stop the assaults, stop the retaliation, and build trust and professionalize our military justice system.

I yield the floor.

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