Unanimous Consent Request--S. 1520

Floor Speech

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Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Madam President, I rise for the ninth time to once again call for this entire body to have the opportunity to consider and to cast their votes for the Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act.

This commonsense reform would ensure that people in the military who have been subjected to sexual assault and other serious crimes get the justice they deserve.

I have been calling for a full floor vote on this bill since May 24. That was 22 days ago. Since then, an estimated 1,232 servicemembers will have been raped or sexually assaulted.

Two in three of those survivors will not even report it because they know they are more likely to face retaliation than to receive justice.

Tonight, I want to share the story of just one of these countless survivors of sexual assault in our military who bravely shared her story with me.

A husband and a wife both served in the Marine Corps when the wife was assaulted by another marine. Her commander concluded that she deserved ill treatment for wearing running shorts and makeup. Her husband said that when he read the opinions of the command-appointed investigator, he found that he compared rape to prostitution or marrying a rich man. The wife said of the retaliation after she reported the assault that ``[t]he humiliation of the retaliation was worse than the assault because it was sanctioned from those same leaders I once would have risked my life for.''

I ask my colleagues--I ask my colleagues to imagine living through the worst day of your life and knowing that nothing would happen to your assailant. Imagine knowing that there was a bill that could change this system that failed you, knowing that Senators from both sides of the aisle have come together to advocate for it, knowing that if it were allowed to be voted on, it would pass.

Now imagine the vote getting denied night after night after night, watching the government that you volunteered to serve and defend continue to fail you.

We have to do better. We can start by bringing this legislation to the floor.

1520 and the Senate proceed to its consideration; that there be 2 hours for debate, equally divided in the usual form, and that upon the use or yielding back of that time, the Senate vote on the bill with no intervening action or debate.

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Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Madam President, I respect the chairman and his need to carefully review this legislation, but we have been reviewing the legislation for 8 years, and we have been having hearings on this legislation and the issue of sexual assault in the military for 8 years.

We have been passing legislation through the committee for 8 years, but this vote has been denied every time.

In fact, when don't ask, don't tell repeal was being filibustered by the Armed Services Committee chairman and other Members of that committee, we ultimately took that vote to the Senate floor. It was an up-or-down vote to repeal don't ask, don't tell.

In this case, the committee has been considering this thoroughly and carefully for 8 years. And even if the chairman believes that he hasn't fully vetted it or reviewed it or had the careful consideration, many of the Members of the committee have. We have been diligently looking at this issue for 8 straight years. It is time to bring this to the floor.

I am confident that if we bring this to the floor, we will be able to reform how we deal with these cases; we will be able to change the system for the better; and that we will be able to finally begin to overcome the scourge of sexual violence in the military.

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