On the recordSeptember 21, 2021
To the members of the Rules Committee, I appreciate the hard work that you have put into getting this bill to the floor. I am only going to speak about one issue in this particular NDAA, something that I have been working on for 10 years. This is a helmet that was given to me by sexual assault victims in our military. Since I started working on this issue, 200,000 soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen have been sexually assaulted in the military, 20,000 a year. We have spent $2 billion on programs in those 10 years that have yielded us nothing but more sexual assaults. Finally, in this very bill, we are doing what we should have done 10 years ago. We are taking these cases out of the chain of command and making the decisions by those who are professionals, who are lawyers, who are trained, along with the investigators, so that we will have a situation where sexual assault victims feel like they can come forward and file their cases. I have had too many servicemembers say to me that they were ready to fight against the enemy that was outside the wire; they never thought the enemy was going to be a fellow soldier. I am grateful to all my Republican and Democratic colleagues who have recognized, finally, it is time to put their safety first. {time} 1645
