Democratic New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s yearslong effort to overhaul military sexual assault policies reached a significant milestone last week: filibuster-proof support from more than 60 senators plus growing support in the House, marking rare bipartisan and bicameral agreement that puts the legislation on track for passage.
A turning point in building support for the changes was when Sen. Joni Ernst, a former commander in the Iowa Army National Guard and herself a survivor of sexual assault, signed on to a new bill that included changes and compromises from Gillibrand’s previous bills.
The Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act of 2021 aims to “professionalize” the military justice system by moving decisions on whether to prosecute serious crimes such as rape, sexual assault, murder, and manslaughter, to professional military prosecutors. This shift, the bill authors hope, will have the effect of sending more sexual assault crimes to be prosecuted rather than crimes being ignored or swept under the rug and, in turn, will encourage more women to come forward.
It also requires more training and education on sexual assault in the armed services and improved installation of security measures such as locks and cameras in living spaces.
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Gillibrand, a leader of the #MeToo cause in the Senate, previously saw her Military Justice Improvement Act fail on the Senate floor twice — coming five votes short of invoking cloture in 2014 as a stand-alone bill and failing in 2015 when offered as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.
“This is a defining moment,” Gillibrand said in a statement. “For decades, sexual assault in our military has been an uncontrolled epidemic hurting readiness, recruitment, and morale.”
One turning point that prompted a wave of support was the murder of 20-year-old Army soldier Vanessa Guillen by another soldier at Fort Hood in Texas after she had informally reported sexual harassment twice and it was not moved up the chain of command.
“Because of that Fort Hood report, the horrible behavior, that bad command environment, it has really been obvious to me that we need to make a very different change,” Ernst said in a CBS interview on Sunday.
Gillibrand hopes that the legislation will receive a floor vote.
Following news of supermajority support, Ohio Republican Rep. Mike Turner, co-chairman of the House Military Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Caucus, announced that he would co-sponsor of the companion bill in the House, giving it bipartisan support in both chambers.
However, despite the filibuster-proof support, the bill faces opposition from some conservatives who say that it will undermine the strength of the chain of command.
“Depriving commanders of the ability to send serious criminal cases to a court-martial undermines their ability and responsibility to enforce good order and discipline, which in turn erodes their ability to fight and win wars,” Thomas W. Spoehr, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for National Defense, argued in an article earlier this month.
Ernst said in a CBS interview on Sunday that she shared those concerns in the past. But the bill now, she said, “Still allows the notification of that commander so that the commanders still can go forward and make changes within that command. They should understand if there is bad behavior happening in that command, then they have the opportunity to fix it.”
Unit commanders, a release from Turner noted, retain the authority to prosecute military-specific offenses.
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And unlike in previous years, Gillibrand is not facing strong opposition from the Pentagon. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said earlier this month that he was “very open” to the possibility of removing investigations from the chain of command: “We haven’t moved the needle. That’s the bottom line. We haven’t resolved this issue.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has declined to take a position on the chain of command issue but has ordered an independent review commission on sexual assault and harassment.
