A bipartisan group of senators is renewing its push to take prosecution decisions on military sexual assault cases out of the chain of command as an amendment to the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said she has received a commitment from leadership that her proposal will be taken up as an amendment to the defense policy bill and will require 60 votes to move forward. Twice before, the plan has failed to reach that threshold, with a 55-45 vote in 2014 and a 50-49 vote in 2015.
The Military Justice Improvement Act would allow military lawyers, not commanders, to decide whether to prosecute sexual assault cases. Supporters say that it will cut down on retaliation in the chain of command and put these decisions in the hands of trained legal professionals.
But opponents, including the Pentagon, have said that removing this authority from the chain of command could hurt military leaders’ ability to maintain control among troops they oversee and fix the problem of sexual assault.
Gillibrand said she is “hopeful” that it will pass this time around after an investigation this year alleged that the Pentagon was giving lawmakers misleading information on how often military commanders and civilian lawyers prosecuted sexual assault cases, and making statistics look better than they really are.
“I’m calling for another vote on my bill because the Senate held its previous votes under the influence of false and misleading information,” Gillibrand said in a statement.
But Gillibrand said she has not yet secured support from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. And she said that while she has spoken with Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who previously opposed the bill, she doesn’t know if the senator will support her plan this time around.
The proposal has never broken along party lines and enjoys bipartisan support on this effort as well. When Gillibrand spoke about the amendment on Tuesday morning at the Capitol, she was joined by Republican Sens. Rand Paul and Chuck Grassley as well as Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Mazie Hirono.
“There’s nothing Republican or Democrat about a rape,” Blumenthal said.
Gillibrand said she is “frustrated” by President Obama for not coming out in support of her proposal, noting that as commander in chief, he could make this change on his own.
“We believe the president should show leadership here, and when he does we will pass legislation to support it,” she said.
Samantha Jackson, a former military spouse who was raped by her husband at the time but says she was discouraged from pursuing charges by the chain of command, will deliver a petition to the White House on Tuesday with 100,000 signatures urging the president to support this reform.