Hazing in the Military

Floor Speech

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Ms. JUDY CHU of California. Mr. Speaker, this month marks the fifth anniversary of the death of my nephew, Harry Lew. While deployed in Afghanistan, Harry was hazed and brutally assaulted by his fellow marines for almost 4 hours. Twenty minutes later, he took his own life. He was 21 years old.

Harry's story is not unique. I have now heard from families and servicemembers across the country who have their own tragic stories and tried to seek help, but many are at a loss of where to turn. That is because the Pentagon's guidance on hazing is unclear, inconsistent, and imperfectly applied. Without an accurate system of tracking hazing incidents, we have no way to actually know the full extent of the problem. This failure costs lives.

It is time the military treat this problem seriously. My bill, the Harry Lew Military Hazing Accountability and Prevention Act, would require the Department of Defense to track and report annually on the problem of hazing in the military.

Our men and women in uniform protect us. We must do what we can to protect them.

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