Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) on Sunday called on Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) to bring her military sexual assault bill up for a vote on the Senate floor.
Speaking to host Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Gillibrand said the bill, which she reintroduced in April, is “how we build a military justice system that’s worthy of the sacrifice our men and women in the military make.”
Gillibrand lamented the current system under which military sexual assaults are investigated, which requires a commander to look at an investigation and decide whether it will go to trial. The New York Democrat pointed to bias against sexual assault survivors as well as Black and brown service members as a reason for a new system.
“Take biases out of the system across the board, you need a trained military prosecutor to make these decisions about whether it should go to trial. That takes it out of the chain of command,” Gillibrand said. “The chain of command has bias because they may know the perpetrator, the accused. They may know the survivor. And they may have a certain lens about which service member is better for fighting a war or better for good order and discipline within the ranks.”
“Over the last 10 years, the number of sexual assaults have gone up, but the percentage of cases going to trial and ending in conviction have gone down. Under President Trump, the statistics and details got even worse. And so we are not moving in the right direction,” Gillibrand added. “And, last, our allies have already done this.”
Gillibrand attempted to get a vote on her bill last week but was met with opposition from Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed (D-R.I.).
Reed argued that the issue would be included in a sweeping annual defense policy bill and that it should go through his committee instead.
Tapper asked Gillibrand why she thinks Reed is blocking her legislation.
“You would have to ask Jack Reed,” Gillibrand responded. “But his insistence on narrowing this bill to one crime, the crime of sexual assault, you’re going to have — you’re going to basically break apart the criminal justice system within the military. You’re going to create one set of justice for one set of plaintiffs and defendants and the rest for everybody else. It’s not fair.”