Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today to speak in regard to the National Defense Authorization Act, and in particular to certain sections of that bill which target a serious but often underaddressed problem facing the men and women of our Armed Services. This is the issue of sexual assault. I introduced this legislation on this issue in the spring with Senator Susan Collins, and I remain deeply concerned about the subject. Many of our colleagues are aware that sexual assault is a persistent problem within our Armed Forces. In fact, reports of trauma have risen in recent years. In March, the Department of Defense put out its annual report on sexual assault in the military. According to the estimates, there were more than 3,000 reports of sexual assault in the military last year. That includes reports by both male and female victims, exposing attacks perpetrated both by and against members of our military. And those are just the reported attacks. Since the Department of Defense estimates that only 13 percent of victims actually come forward, we can assume the real number of sexual assaults is much higher--upwards of 19,000. The Department of Veterans Affairs has reported similarly disturbing figures: More than 20 percent of female servicemembers seen at VA medical facilities say they were sexually assaulted or harassed during their service. Let me make this clear. We know the vast majority of the men and women serving in our military would never be involved in a sexual assault.…”