Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I'm proud today to stand with my colleagues, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and Dr. Benishek, in support of their amendment to include the Military Justice Improvement Act of 2013 in the National Defense Authorization Act, and I regret that this rule for this bill did not allow that. The Military Justice Improvement Act will reform the military legal procedure for handling sexual assault cases by giving a military attorney outside the victim's chain of command the ability to initiate legal proceedings. This is a fundamental change from currently requiring a sexual assault victim to first turn to their commanding officer to investigate and decide how to advance the case. {time} 1340 As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, I'm proud to support this bill that will decrease the occurrence of sexual assault within our military ranks. The current state of 26,000 reported sexual assault incidents in 2012 is completely unacceptable. This amendment will strengthen initiatives already in the Defense bill that aim to reduce this way-too-high number. Our military men and women deserve better, and this bill is a strong step in the right direction. Also, Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to the amendment by Mr. Coffman that would direct the Defense Department to contract any function not considered to be inherently governmental, with no regard to policy, risk, or costs.…”