Jackie Speier

By declaring #IAmVanessaGuillen, thousands of service members and veterans have taken to the streets and social media, demanding safety and respect.

I fear that when we make it a gender issue that we actually lessen the overall impact of sexual assault on men in the military.

Everyone has to understand the message that sexual assault, sexual harassment aren't tolerated.

What are we doing to get it to stop trending?

We are not going to let Vanessa to have died in vain. And every step will be pursued to find justice.

I think it is very important, as we study this issue, to recognize that Colonel Wempe's investigation was not scientifically based.

In the case of Vanessa Guillen, she told her family, her friends, and fellow soldiers about the harassment.

We have to do better by our women. We have to do better by our women minorities, our black and browns, our Latinas.

If Vanessa shared her concerns with others, who were supposedly interviewed, how could the investigation have found no credible evidence of harassment by Vanessa?

I want to focus my deepest sympathy to her family and my continued partnership, collaboration with Congresswoman Garcia.

So as we said last night, to get a real fulsome evaluation would require separating out the women so they could talk with a sense of ability to talk freely without having it create retaliatory actions.

It has been my honor to work with Congresswoman Susan Davis on this issue.

I really think that being accurate is really important on this issue.

When the story of Vanessa Guillen broke, my heart sank because, in my community 13 years ago, the story was very similar.

I think it sends a message to the soldiers: don't rock the boat.

I think it is really important to be accurate and fair and not let the stats twist the truth.

The amendments that are currently within the FY 2021 NDAA that relate to changing the reporting chain... it absolutely must pass within the NDAA this year.

I am deeply troubled, however, by the statement you made in your prepared remarks in which you said estimated prevalence rates of sexual assault in the Department of Defense have decreased by over one-third in the past 14 years.

Leaving that number of people still impacted by sexual harassment means that you've got thousands of soldiers.

So if you look at the data, it hasn't gotten better. You, I fear, plucked this high-water mark to make the case that somehow we are doing better when, in fact, we aren't doing any better.

What standard is being used by investigators and SHARP in determining 'credible' evidence?

We have a real problem.

We need that bias to be removed. We need for reporting chains to be permissible for soldiers and other service members to be able to speak with comfort and without fear of retaliation.

Why were the statements made by her family, her sisters and fellow soldiers found 'not credible'?

Understanding that NCOs are many times the individuals preying on the young service members, are soldiers empowered to report outside their chain of command?