National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, before he yields the floor, I wish to commend my colleague from Connecticut in terms particularly--and I am going to go into some of the history with respect to this so-called zero tolerance policy because I think when we look back over history, there is a very big gap between the past pledges of zero tolerance for sexual assault and the realities of what we have seen. That is one of the key points the Senator from Connecticut has made, among many others. I thank him for it. It was a very valuable presentation.

I also commend the Presiding Officer for her extraordinary work. Again and again, she has outlined what I think is very constructive; that is, the areas where there is common ground here, common ground to try to address an issue that I just went through with Senator Blumenthal. We have heard past pledges about it, and it has not really come to be. The Presiding Officer has done very fine work. Senator Gillibrand, Senator McCaskill, Senator Ayotte, I know the best, but a whole host of Senators have been interested in this issue. I also see my friend from Rhode Island Senator Reed. He and Senator Levin have been very interested in this issue over the years. So there has been plenty of good work. I think the question now really is: How are we going to make a fundamental break from policies that over the last couple of decades simply have not worked?

Go back to the Tailhook scandal. That was in 1991. Over the course of a 4-day conference in Las Vegas, more than 100 Naval and Marine Corps aviation officers sexually assaulted 90 victims. We watched the Secretary of the Navy resign after Tailhook. His replacement said that ``sexual harassment will not be tolerated'' and that ``those who do not get the message will be driven from our ranks.''

Then there was the Aberdeen debacle 5 years later. Five years after we were told this would not be tolerated, 5 years later, we had the Aberdeen debacle. Army Secretary Togo West delivered remarks to the Senate Armed Services Committee titled ``There's a Problem, And We Mean To Fix It.''

Once again, years go by, and we have another such problem. That was the 2003 scandal at the Air Force Academy where 19 percent of women cadets reported having been sexually assaulted and 7 percent reported having been the victim of a rape or attempted rape. The Air Force Secretary told Congress, ``We will not tolerate in our Air Force, nor in our Academy, those who sexually assault others; those who would fail to act to prevent assaults.''

So, again, we heard--and certainly I am not here to doubt the sincerity of those who made those comments, but yet the pattern continues. We have a horrible set of sexual assaults, not just one but multiple ones. We have these pledges for zero tolerance. Yet we have one event after another. After the 2003 scandal, there were again the pledges of zero tolerance. We had the Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland scandal where some 30 training instructors were accused of offenses ranging from improper relationships with trainees to sexual assault and rape. In response, the Secretary of Defense said--as did many of his predecessors in the military--``the command structure from the chairman on down have made very clear to the leadership in this department that this is intolerable and it has to be dealt with. We have absolutely no tolerance for any form of sexual assault.''

So the pattern through all of these instances is ``zero tolerance. We will fix this.'' These comments--as I say, I do not question the sincerity of those who made them. These were officials in the military who served their country with great distinction and great valor. But the bottom line is the bottom line: When they said there would be zero tolerance, somehow those policies did not actually work as it related to real life for those who wear the uniform of the United States.

Today the military officer in charge of sexual abuse education at Fort Hood is under investigation for running a prostitution ring. Two Navy football players await trial in a military court on charges of sexual assault. Today a West Point sergeant stands accused of secretly videotaping female cadets in the shower. So it seems to me that because of the good work of so many here--I cited the Presiding Officer; Senator Reed, who is managing the bill at this point; Senator Gillibrand; Senator McCaskill--I believe we are now in a position to finally make some significant changes and turn these past pledges of zero tolerance into a new reality that really ensures that those who wear the uniform of the United States do have a new measure of protection from sexual assault.

In effect, this is a new zero tolerance policy, a new policy that says: Zero tolerance for promises that go unfulfilled. Zero tolerance for a culture in which these assaults are treated as something less than the violent crimes they are.

Zero tolerance for a system that continues to fail so many victims.

The Pentagon estimates that in 2012 some 26,000 servicemembers experienced sexual assault. Some, I know, have looked at this issue as sort of a glorified hazing matter, boys being boys, a discipline issue.

Senator Fischer, one of our colleagues who has come to the Senate most recently, has been correct to point out this is not a gender issue, this is a violence issue. It is a violence issue because sexual assault is called assault for a reason. It is assault. We are talking about a violent crime that involves control and domination.

I think it is also worth noting that somewhere in the vicinity of close to half of military assault victims are men. In fact, the Department of Defense estimates that 14,000 of those 26,000 victims last year were men.

Colleagues are waiting to speak, and I would simply wrap up by way of saying that I think the bill, the committee bill, takes some constructive steps in the right direction. I wish to see it go further. It is why I joined a bipartisan group of colleagues to support Senator Gillibrand's legislation that would remove the decision to prosecute from the chain of command and give it to experienced, impartial military lawyers.

Suffice it to say we are going to have to come to grips, colleagues, with this question of assault--and particularly sexual assault--in a variety of forums.

This is not the place to discuss it, but yesterday Senator Cornyn, I, and Senator Klobuchar introduced a fresh approach to dealing with sex trafficking, which is also sexual assault. There will be an opportunity to discuss that bipartisan bill in the future.

This is the time. This is the time to close the gap between all of those unfulfilled promises about how there will be zero tolerance for sexual assault and a new reality that affords a new measure of protection from sexual assault for those who wear the uniform of the United States. This is the opportunity we have in the Senate today and the opportunity we have to achieve that goal in a bipartisan manner.

I yield the floor.

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