Ruth Moore Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Ms. PINGREE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding and for her great work on this issue.

I also want to thank Chairman Miller, Chairman ABRAHAM, Ranking Member Brown, and my good friend, Ranking Member Titus, for all their work on this piece of bipartisan legislation. I think it is clear this committee is truly working for our Nation's veterans.

Mr. Speaker, almost every day I hear from another veteran who is the survivor of sexual assault in the military, men and women of all ages and from every branch of the service.

I have heard from survivors of sexual assault from World War II, the war in Afghanistan, and every conflict in every era in between. There are veterans who are suffering from PTSD because they were sexually assaulted, and they are not being treated fairly.

With this bill, we are fighting to hold the VA accountable and making sure that they are following through on their promises.

The VA has acknowledged that PTSD from combat is a real injury and needs to be treated that way, and it should be the same for those who suffer from PTSD from sexual assault.

A Pentagon report showed 19,000 women and men were sexually assaulted in the military just last year, but only about a quarter of those assaults were reported and even fewer ended up with a prosecution.

I am glad the Defense Department and the VA has increased training and prevention efforts around rape and harassment, but let me be clear. As you have already heard, the problem is not fixed.

Survivors of sexual assault have been blamed and harassed, crimes have been covered up, and survivors themselves have been the subject of further harassment and recrimination. In the latest Pentagon report, 62 percent of the individuals who reported sexual assault have also reported retaliation.

Mr. Speaker, I want to talk for a minute about a very brave woman, Ruth Moore, a veteran from Maine and the person who we named this bill for.

Ruth fought for 23 years before she was finally given the benefits we owed her. When I met her in my office in Maine 4 years ago, she could barely tell her story.

Bit by bit, she has rebuilt her trust of people in positions of responsibility to the point where she is able to tell her story publicly. There are thousands and thousands of Ruth Moores out there who have been fighting for their benefits for years or even decades.

The Ruth Moore Act of 2015 is an important next step in ensuring that the VA treats these veterans fairly. To be clear, this bill does not create any new benefits for survivors of sexual assault or give special treatment to the survivors of sexual assault. This bill just tries to level the playing field, to hold the VA accountable, and ensure these veterans are treated fairly.

We were able to pass this bill in the last Congress, and I urge my colleagues to do so again this time around. This issue is too important. It cannot be ignored.

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