Political Quotes

“I rise to speak about the amendment. Under our current military justice system, when a servicemember is accused of sexual assault, the decision to prosecute isn't actually made by a trained prosecutor or a lawyer of any kind. In fact, it is made by a colonel or a brigadier general or another high-ranking military officer. Our commanders are the best in the world when it comes to tactics and strategy, but most of them have little to no experience in legal or criminal matters. And why should they have that experience? Our commanders are not prosecutors. They are not lawyers. They are warfighters, and their job is to keep our country safe, not make legal judgments about whether to prosecute a rape. The current military justice system has failed our sexual assault survivors for too long. This amendment very simply takes the decision about whether to prosecute these crimes and gives it to trained, experienced, independent military prosecutors. We have all the evidence we need that this problem has not gotten better in the last year. We have more data. We have looked at more case files. We have heard from more survivors. It is clear little has changed, despite the Department's persistent claims that things are getting better, that they are making progress. When the Department of Defense estimates that there are 20,000 servicemembers who are sexually assaulted in a year, that is not progress.…”