Political Quotes

“I rise to express my strong support for efforts to stamp out sexual assault in our military, and I wish to begin by thanking the Senator from Maryland and the Senator from Maine for their extraordinary leadership in bringing us here to speak on this issue. For over 20 years our military has said it has a zero tolerance policy toward sexual violence. Government agencies have put out 20 reports examining the problem and suggesting potential solutions. Yet, shamefully, incidents of sexual assault involving our military personnel continue at staggering rates. Data from the Department of Defense indicates that thousands of men and women serving in the military are subject to these horrific experiences every year. More than 20 percent of women serving in the military have reported unwanted sexual contact at some point during the course of their military service. Perhaps most shameful, about half of all female victims in a 2012 DOD survey indicated they did not report these crimes because they believed such reports would simply be ignored. This is an outrageous situation. We have called on the military over and over to solve this problem, and they have failed. Simply once again calling on the military to reform will be an exercise in futility. Worse, it will be a breach of trust with the men and women who are future victims of sexual predators lurking in the military. These are important steps forward that we take today.…”