The change to the defense authorization bill gutted a provision from
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) that would have given military
prosecutors — and not commanders — the decision to prosecute major
criminal cases, including sexual assault.
The vote was a major
blow to Gillibrand’s efforts to overhaul the military’s judicial system,
a cause that has pitted her against Levin, the long-time Democratic
chairman, and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), one of the committee’s
loudest voices for reform.
Gillibrand vowed to fight on, telling
reporters she would attempt to secure enough votes to pass it as an
amendment to the defense authorization bill on the Senate floor.
“I
think it has a chance of passing, and I think if we keep working hard
to get the votes we need, we could get to 51,” she said.
Levin’s
amendment divided Democrats 7-7, but had the support of most Republicans
on the committee, with the exceptions of Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Sen.
David Vitter (La.), who supported Gillibrand’s proposal.
The
panel voted against Gillibrand’s measure in a rare open markup that the
committee held to debate the sexual assault measures.
Gillibrand
argued that the commanders have failed to properly address assaults
despite promises of zero tolerance. She said removing cases from the
chain of command would make it more likely for victims to come forward
because many now fear retaliation.
“The chain of command has told us for decades that they will solve this problem, and they have failed,” Gillibrand said.
But
Levin warned Gillibrand’s plan would have unintended consequences, and
said he was proposing a more effective way to curb sexual assaults.
“I
do not support removing the authority of commanders to prosecute sexual
assault cases and putting that decision in the hands of military
lawyers outside the chain of command,” Levin said. “I believe that doing
so would weaken our response to sexual assault and actually make it
less likely that sexual assaults would be prosecuted.”
Levin
argued that commanders would not be able to change the military’s
culture if they lost the authority to prosecute the cases.
“It is harder to hold someone accountable for failure to act if you reduce their power to act,” Levin said.
Wednesday’s vote occurred in response to wide, bipartisan outrage in Congress about sexual assault cases in the military.
President
Obama called on the military to do more to tackle the problem, and
military leaders have vowed to change the culture to curb the number of
assaults within the ranks.
But the military brass opposed the
proposal from Gillibrand, the most far-reaching of the dozens of bills
lawmakers put forward to address military sexual assault.
Chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey and the service chiefs
were unified in their opposition to removing cases from the chain of
command.
Under Levin’s proposal, the military service secretaries
will review cases where a commander disagrees with a military lawyer
over prosecuting a sexual assault case. When both the lawyer and
commander decide not to prosecute, the commander’s commander will review
the case.
The amendment also makes it a crime to retaliate against victims of sexual assault.
McCaskill,
who has long been a voice on the committee for addressing sexual
assault, on Wednesday said she and Gillibrand share the same goal but
have an “honest disagreement” about the solution.
“I believe
these reforms will hold the chain of command accountable and force them
to be part of the solution, and it will prevent the unintended
consequences of dismantling a system of military justice that has long
been a centerpiece of discipline in the our military,” McCaskill said on
the Senate floor.
“Make no mistake about it, the changes we are
making are aggressive, historic, victim-oriented and unforgiving to the
predators.”
In addition to Levin’s new proposal, the committee
made several other sexual assault reforms, including stripping
commanders’ ability to overturn guilty verdicts in a post-trial review
and establishing new whistle-blower protections.
Gillibrand said Levin’s proposal was a step in the right direction, but argued it did not get at the heart of the problem.
“It’s not that the commander is disagreeing with his lawyer. It’s that the victim is fearing retaliation,” Gillibrand said.
Sexual
assault victims’ advocates who had aligned themselves with Gillibrand’s
measure said they were disappointed by the committee’s vote.
“Senator
Levin’s proposed amendment is a tweak to a fundamentally broken
military justice system,” Protect Our Defenders President Nancy Parrish
said in a statement. “It is yet another half-measure that kicks the can
down the road and will not fix the ongoing epidemic of sexual assault in
our military.”
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), a co-sponsor of
Gillibrand’s bill, told The Hill on Tuesday that she was also gearing up
for a floor fight.
“If he’s going to keep everything inside the
chain of command, I think he’s missing the whole point of why we have a
problem,” Boxer said of the Levin amendment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
-
Recent presidential tradition includes leaving a handwritten letter in the Oval Office for the next man who takes the o...
No comments:
Post a Comment