Congresswoman Elaine Luria Urges NDAA Conferees to Retain Provisions to Address Sexual Assault, Sexual Harassment, and Domestic Violence in the Military

Press Release

Last week, Congresswoman Elaine Luria joined several of her colleagues in urging the Chairs and Ranking Members of the House and Senate Armed Service Committees to retain provisions addressing sexual assault, sexual harassment, and domestic violence in the military in any conference agreement for the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

"Sexual assault, sexual harassment, and domestic violence cannot be tolerated within our Armed Forces, and these legislative provisions are an important first step to eliminate this abhorrent behavior," said Congresswoman Elaine Luria. "As a twenty-year Navy veteran and a military spouse, I am proud to support policies that will help our armed services become even stronger and more cohesive."

The first letter, with 53 cosigners, advocates for retaining 10 sections of the House-passed NDAA (H.R. 6395):

Establish a military-civilian task force on domestic violence and improve data collection about intimate-partner violence;
Create new military court protective orders to better safeguard victims, especially by improving enforceability across jurisdictions;
Improve coordination of support services for survivors of military sexual trauma;
Implement a military-wide "Safe to Report" policy so that survivors of sexual assault are not deterred from reporting by the threat of punishment for minor collateral misconduct, such as underage drinking;
Launch a pilot program to test a new model for prosecution of sexual assaults at the military service academies;
Require reporting to Congress on sexual assault investigations that take longer than 6 months;
Require reporting to Congress of sexual assault and harassment that occurs during the pre-accession medical examination process;
Establish a confidential reporting option for sexual harassment and expand the military's Catch a Serial Offender Program to cover sexual harassment as well as sexual assault; and
Reform outdated military appellate procedures that disproportionately impact justice being served in sexual assault and child abuse cases.
The second letter, with 38 cosigners, provides a detailed rationale for creating a sexual assault prosecution pilot program at the military service academies. In 2017--18, 15.8% of female cadets and midshipmen and 2.4% of male cadets and midshipmen experienced unwanted sexual contact. The last 4 years of data show that the number of cadets and midshipmen experiencing unwanted sexual contact doubled, while reporting rates for sexual assault decreased from 16% in 2013--14 to 12% in 2017--18. Less than half of women indicated that they trusted their academy to protect their privacy, ensure their safety, or treat them with dignity and respect if they reported a sexual assault. This carefully designed pilot program would transfer authority to launch sexual assault investigations and initiate courts-martial from commanders--who know the involved parties, creating the potential for bias--to an independent chief prosecutor. It would also test whether ensuring independence over these crucial decisions would encourage survivors to report assaults and promote accountability for perpetrators. Congresswoman Luria supported the amendment to the NDAA in full committee markup that added this language to the bill.

You can read the text of each letter here and here.

Congresswoman Elaine Luria represents Virginia's 2nd Congressional District. She serves on the House Armed Services Committee, where she is the Vice Chair of the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, and the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, where she serves as Chair of the Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs Subcommittee.

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