Political Quotes

“I am reserving the right to object. This amendment list does not include my amendment No. 1932, a bill that the Presiding Officer and I have worked on and a bill that the majority leader has voted for. This amendment is so simple. It professionalizes how the military prosecutes serious crimes--serious crimes such as sexual assault, rape, and murder. It removes the systemic fear that survivors have in reporting these crimes. According to the Pentagon's most recent survey, almost 21,000 servicemembers were sexually assaulted in 2018. This is a 30-percent increase from the year before. The current climate is not good for survivors. Currently, most survivors are retaliated against when they come forward and report these crimes. In fact, the rate of retaliation is two-thirds of all survivors, unchanged from past years. Worse than that, of the cases that the command considers for action, of those unique few, only 10 percent of those went to trial. Year after year, we have hearings, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Ranking Member. We have hearings and the commanders and generals come forward and say: Ma'am, we have got this. Let us take care of this. We have got this. We know what we are doing. We understand. We are going to take this crime so seriously. We are going to prosecute these cases. Leave it to us. We know what we are doing. It is infuriating.…”