Jackie Speier: “I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for allowing me to speak. My colleagues have all spoken eloquently on the floor…”

“I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for allowing me to speak. My colleagues have all spoken eloquently on the floor today about the importance of addressing this issue of sexual assault and rape in the military. What we hasten to do around here is pat ourselves on the back for all the things we have done. But let me tell you what the elephant in the room is here today. The elephant in the room here today is we have not had a robust debate on chain of command. And why are my good friends on the Republican side of the aisle unwilling to have that debate? Let's just air it. The Senate has taken up this issue in their committee. They've had a full-out hearing on it, and yet we have not done that in the House in the Armed Services Committee. I had an amendment that was taken up last night by the Rules Committee. It had 134 cosponsors. It was bipartisan in nature. What's wrong with taking up an amendment with over a quarter of the membership of this House on the floor in what is supposed to be an open debate on this issue? We will not fix this issue, Members, if we don't fix it on the front end; and the problem is on the front end where people feel they cannot file their complaint for fear of retaliation. And when complaints are filed, and there were 3,300 of them filed in 2011, only 500 of them were investigated and sent to court-martial, and less than 200 actually had convictions.…”