Senate Armed Services Committee's Provisions on Sexual Assault Are Insufficient, Says NWLC

(Washington, D.C.) Yesterday, the Senate Armed Services Committee voted to strike a bipartisan provision of the National Defense Authorization Act advanced by Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand that would have given military prosecutors—not commanders—the power to decide which sexual assault crimes to prosecute and would have otherwise improved the military justice system. Instead, the Committee adopted the proposals of Senator Carl Levin, the Chairman of the Committee, to make retaliation a crime and require review by a service chief when commanders decline to follow the recommendation of a military lawyer not to prosecute.

Looking ahead to the full Senate vote on this issue, the following is a statement by Nancy Duff Campbell, Co-President of the National Women’s Law Center:

“We praise the nine Democrats and Republicans of the Armed Services Committee who supported Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s bi-partisan provision that would reform the military justice system by transferring the decision-making on whether and how to prosecute serious offenses, like sexual assault, out of the chain of command and into the hands of experienced military prosecutors.  By keeping the power to decide which sexual assault cases to try within the chain of command, the changes adopted by the Committee are insufficient to address the serious problem of sexual assault in the military.  Nowhere else in our U.S. system of justice does one individual—especially one with an inherent conflict of interest—have the authority to serve as prosecutor, judge and jury.  We encourage Senator Gillibrand to offer her proposal when the full Senate takes up the defense spending bill, and urge the Senate to adopt it.  It’s time to stand up for survivors of sexual assault and fix a system that is not working. 

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