Senate to vote on military sexual assault bill

Sen. Richard Blumenthal is co-sponsoring bill on military sexual assault.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal is co-sponsoring bill on military sexual assault.

The Senate votes today on legislation to overhaul prosecution of sexual assault crimes in the military, taking the decision out of the chain of command and handing it over to independent uniformed prosecutors.

The Military Justice Improvement Act, technically an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, is a response to accusations that the current system of prosecutorial decision-making in the military puts too much power in the hands of commanders who all too often side with primarily male defendants and compound the trauma of primarily female accusers.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., the amendment’s lead author who has turned sexual assault in the military into a signature issue, cites a Department of Defense survey showing three out of four service members did not have enough trust in the system to report an assault; and one in seven survivors were assaulted by someone actually in their chain of command.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal is a co-sponsor.

Daniel Freedman