Rep. Susan Davis Statement on the Latest Incident of Sexual Assault

Statement

Congresswoman Susan Davis, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Military Personnel, released the following statement on the report of sexual misconduct at Fort Hood.

"Last night we learned of yet another disturbing incident of sexual assault within our military. For each of these high profile cases, there are scores of similar reports that don't receive any media or public attention. And for each of those, there are many, many more that aren't even reported at all.

"Sexual assault is a serious enemy. It is in direct opposition to the core principles of our armed forces, it undermines confidence and readiness, and it is attacking our greatest asset our men and women in uniform. We must defeat this enemy and we must do it now.

"I know DoD leadership is trying to solve this problem, and I appreciate Secretary Hagel's strong response and recent initiatives to eliminate sexual assault in the armed services. But the harsh reality is our military is failing. Americans don't accept failure and I worry that we are approaching a crisis point. Yet I have always believed that our strongest lessons are learned amidst failure. I'm optimistic we can do that again now.

"But we cannot continue to do the same things and expect a different result. As ranking member of the Military Personnel subcommittee, I am working closely with my colleagues to identify what policy changes will dramatically reduce sexual assault within our forces."

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