Political Quotes

“I rise today to once again call for every Senator to have the opportunity to consider and cast their vote for the Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act. The bill would remove all serious crimes except for military-specific crimes out of the chain of command and give it to trained military prosecutors to decide whether or not to move that case to trial. Making that change would end days of asking commanders, who are not trained lawyers, to make complex legal decisions in cases where they often know both the accuser and the accused. That change is necessary. It is necessary because the current military justice system is simply not delivering justice, especially not to servicemembers of color. I am proud that our legislation has recently won the endorsement of our colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus, who have highlighted how this reform would address the systemic barriers to justice our servicemembers of color face. I want to thank the CBC for their strong support. I share their urgency when it comes to addressing those systemic injustices. Right now, Black servicemembers are up to 2.61 times as likely to face disciplinary action as their fellow White servicemembers, and Black and Hispanic servicemembers are more likely than White servicemembers to be tried in general and special courts-martial across the military services. The Joint Service Committee on Military Justice began collecting data on race and courts-martial last June.…”