Lois Frankel: “I thank the gentlewoman for her son's service and for her service, too. I know what it is like to be the mother of a…”

“I thank the gentlewoman for her son's service and for her service, too. I know what it is like to be the mother of a military person. Mr. Speaker, we are waiting for--Representative McSally is going to be with us in a few moments, and I thought, as we wait for her to join us--as I said, she is at a hearing now. Unfortunately, the hearing is on the topic of sexual harassment in the military academies. I wanted to just state for the Record the folks who participated at our Democratic Working Women's Group hearing that we had a couple of weeks ago, we talked about Lance Corporal Marisa Woytek. We talked about Erika Butner, who is a Marine Corps veteran, and both, unfortunately, were victims of this Marines United scandal. We also heard from James LaPorta, who is a journalist for The Daily Beast and a former U.S. Marine Corps sergeant who has covered Marines United extensively. His work has appeared in The Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune, among other national publications. During his 8 years on Active Duty, Mr. LaPorta served within the infantry and intelligence communities, deploying multiple times to the war in Afghanistan. We also heard from Miranda Peterson. She is the executive director of Protect Our Defenders, which she joined in 2013. Protect Our Defenders' mission is to uplift and support survivors of military sexual assault, and to improve and reform the U.S. military's process for addressing rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment.…”