Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today to speak on the National Defense Authorization Act and how the Senate, and particularly the women of the Senate, are working to address the crisis of military sexual assault. I thank Senators Mikulski and Collins for organizing and bringing us together this morning. I thank Senators Levin and Inhofe for their leadership, and I thank Senators McCaskill and Gillibrand for working on this critical legislation over the course of the past year. Of course, I thank all of the women of the Senate. We have heard from many of them this morning and will hear from more because this is an incredible year--a year that I hope will be remembered as a decisive one in the effort to eradicate military sexual assault once and for all. We are all too well aware that sexual assault continues to plague our Armed Forces. We have all seen the horrifying numbers. In 2012, the Department of Defense received 3,374 reports of sexual assault in the military. But by the DOD's own estimates, 26,000 incidents of unwanted sexual contact actually took place during that period. That means that only 12.9 percent--a small fraction--of all incidents were actually reported. Of the 3,374 reported offenses in 2012, only 880 faced command action for sex crimes. Of those 880, 594 faced court-martial, and 302 of those courts-martial resulted in convictions.…”