Sam Brownback: “Mr. President, my amendment is common sense. It simply requires separate barracks for male and female recruits during…”

“Mr. President, my amendment is common sense. It simply requires separate barracks for male and female recruits during basic training. Further, the amendment protects the privacy of recruits by limiting access to barracks after hours to those of the same gender. I might note for the Senators that the House has considered much stronger language, and actually enacted in their bill, in the DOD authorization, the separation of genders during basic training. But we fall far short of that. This is just about barracks and housing during basic training. I believe this is a sensible step in restoring privacy and dignity to the military basic training experience and will allow our young recruits to focus on the serious tasks before them.”