Sam Brownback: “I want to make note of a report that came out today that is one, I think, we are going to be seeing and hearing quite a…”

“I want to make note of a report that came out today that is one, I think, we are going to be seeing and hearing quite a bit more about in the U.S. Senate. It was a report of the Congressional Commission on Military Training and Gender-Related Issues. I rise today to briefly comment on the status of the report and the testimony that was submitted today by the members of the Congressional Commission on Military Training and Gender-Related Issues, a hearing that took place in the House Armed Services Committee. While not the final report of this commission, the initial report does give indications as to their findings and, I think, warrants some discussion in the U.S. Senate. A number of Members will recall, last year we had a spirited discussion about gender-integrated barracks during basic training. The discussion was centered around issues of, is this the most effective way to train our young men and women in the services, to have gender-integrated barracks? These are young men and women just entering into the military. They are going through basic training. There are a lot of difficult issues that they are facing, as they are being trained into a fighting force. Then on top of that, we put them in the same barracks together at night, after they have been side by side during the day.”