Military Justice Improvement Act
Floor Speech
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I rise today to speak about the need to strengthen our military and stand by our brave men and women in uniform by passing the bipartisan Military Justice Improvement Act.
I start by thanking all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for the seriousness with which they have approached this issue and the effort they have put into looking at the solution survivors of sexual assault in the military are asking for. I specifically thank my friends from Missouri and New Hampshire for their determination and leadership in fighting for victims of sexual assaults in our military. I look forward to voting for their bill on the floor today.
I defer the colloquy to Senator Inhofe.
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All of the arguments we have heard today are technical arguments, arguments about why we can't possibly do this. But the victims and the survivors of sexual assault have been walking this Congress for more than 1 year, asking that we do something to protect them, to give them a hope for justice.
It is not whether anyone in this Chamber trusts the chain of command. The people who do not trust the chain of command are the victims. Even General Amos has admitted that. He said the reason why a female marine does not come forward is because she does not trust the chain of command, that breach of trust. That fundamental breach of trust has been broken for victims of sexual assault.
Listen to the victims. Retired Marine LCpl Jeremiah Arbogast was drugged. He was raped. He got his perpetrator to tell what happened on tape and went through trial. His perpetrator got no jail time. He saw no justice.
He said: ``I joined the Marines in order to serve my country as an honorable man, instead I was thrown away like a piece of garbage.''
He attempted suicide, severed his spine, and now advocates for this measure from a wheelchair.
Those are the stories we are hearing from victims over and over.
Sarah Plummer, U.S. Marine Corps, said having someone within your direct chain of command handling this case doesn't make sense and is like ``getting raped by your brother and having your father decide the case.''
That is the view and the perception of the survivors.
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I want the focus where it needs to be. This is not an opportunity to congratulate ourselves on the great reforms we have done. All of the reforms we have passed today are meaningful and useful, but this problem isn't even close to being solved. Under the best-case scenario, 2 out of 10 case are being reported today.
Let's refocus on what is actually happening in our military today. Let's focus on what U.S. Air Force veteran Amn Jessica Hinves said:
Two days before the court hearing, his commander called me on a conference at the JAG office, and he said he didn't believe that he acted like a gentleman, but there wasn't a reason to prosecute.
She was speechless. She had been promised a court hearing, and she was told 2 days before the commander had stopped it.
Trina McDonald, U.S. Navy veteran, said:
At one point my attackers threw me in the Bering Sea and left me for dead in the hopes that they silenced me forever. They made it very clear that they would kill me if I ever spoke up or reported what they had done.
She did not report these attacks.
Continuing:
The people that were involved in my assaults were police personnel, security personnel, higher-ranking officers, the people that I would have to go and report.
Last but not least is Lt. Ariana Klay, U.S. Marine Corps. Her home was broken into by two colleagues and she was raped brutally. She ultimately reported the crime and attempted suicide. Her perpetrator was convicted--and convicted of what? Not breaking and entering, not rape--calling her a slut.
The thing that makes me most angry is not even the rape itself; it's the commanders that were complicit in covering up everything that happened.
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