Jackie Speier: “I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for yielding me time. Seventy men and women serving in the military every…”

“I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for yielding me time. Seventy men and women serving in the military every single day are sexually assaulted and raped. While we sit here and we talk, that's going on. For over 25 years--for over 25 years--we have known about this problem and we have done very little. Aberdeen, Tailhook, the military academies, Lackland, all of these are happening under our collective watch, and we have found it acceptable to hold hearings, to bring the brass up here, have them say the right words--``zero tolerance''--and then we would go about our business. That is not good enough. And while the NDAA has some good fixes on the end of the process, we still have much to do on the front end. There is a reason why there are 26,000 sexual assaults and rapes a year in the military and only 3,300 have the guts to come forward. It's because if you come forward, you're retaliated against. Some 63 percent are retaliated against. And of those 3,300 that report, only 500 of those cases are going to go to court-martial and only 200 will end up in a conviction. So why would anyone report? Because your odds of getting justice are just not there. That's why it is important for us to have a debate on this House floor about taking these cases out of the chain of command.…”