Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

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Mr. REED. Madam President, reserving my right to object.

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Mr. REED. Madam President, like the Senator from New York, I believe that we should transfer crimes regarding sexual misconduct to a special prosecutor, as the Senator of New York has outlined, and that is a decision that many of my colleagues have made over the last few months. In the past, they have been opposed, as I have opposed that approach.

The difficulty is the transfer of other crimes like burglary, arson, financial mismanagement, misappropriation of government funds or properties. Those issues have not been carefully studied, and they should be studied, and that is the purpose of the committee.

We will take this up. We will study it very closely. We will also look at something that I think has to be looked at seriously: How do we implement this reform, and how much time do we need? The last time that we made a major change to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, we allowed the Department of Defense 2 years, and they took all of it. The present legislation would allow 18 months. This is something we have to look at.

We also have to look at the resources that are needed. This involves a change in the structure of the military legal system, and the committee is a place where we will get the best views of people who have dedicated themselves in the Senate to thinking hard and thoroughly about issues of military justice, issues of military preparedness, and all of these things.

Looking forward to a debate, but looking also forward to, I think, what is becoming increasingly secure--the transfer of responsibility for sexual assault and crimes of that nature to an independent prosecutorial approach--it is something I think that we can anticipate going forward.

And with that, I would object.

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