[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2230 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2230

 To address the prevalence of sexual harassment and sexual assault in 
                           the Armed Forces.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              June 3, 2013

Ms. Loretta Sanchez of California introduced the following bill; which 
            was referred to the Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To address the prevalence of sexual harassment and sexual assault in 
                           the Armed Forces.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.

    (a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Track It to 
Prevent It Act''.
    (b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents for this Act is as 
follows:

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Findings.
Sec. 3. Definitions.
Sec. 4. Improved climate assessments and dissemination and tracking of 
                            results.
Sec. 5. Inclusion of letter of reprimands, nonpunitive letter of 
                            reprimands and counseling statements.
Sec. 6. Service-wide 360 assessments.
Sec. 7. Health welfare inspections.
Sec. 8. Review of security of military installations, including 
                            barracks and multi-family residences.
Sec. 9. Review of the Office of Diversity Management and Equal 
                            Opportunity role in sexual harassment 
                            cases.
Sec. 10. Authorization of appropriations.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) According to the Department of Defense, 3,374 sexual 
        assault cases involving a member of the Armed Forces were 
        reported in fiscal year 2012, a 6 percent increase in the 
        number of reported cases in fiscal year 2011.
            (2) However, approximately 26,000 members of the Armed 
        Forces made an anonymous report of a sexual assault in fiscal 
        year 2012, a substantial increase from fiscal year 2011.
            (3) According to the Department of Defense, of the 6.1 
        percent of female members of the Armed Forces who experienced 
        ``unwanted sexual contact'' in fiscal year 2012, 77 percent 
        also experienced sexual harassment and, of the 1.2 percent of 
        male members of the Armed Forces who experienced ``unwanted 
        sexual contact'' in fiscal year 2012, 52 percent also 
        experienced sexual harassment.
            (4) Sixty-two percent of those members who experienced 
        unwanted sexual contact also perceived some form of social, 
        administrative, or professional retaliation.
            (5) Climate assessments are required by law and commanders 
        at all levels must comply as it is their core responsibility to 
        create a safe and healthy environment for the unit.
            (6) Trends in bad behavior and reoccurring actions that 
        harm the members of the unit, such as sexual harassment and 
        sexual assault, must be identified earlier through improved 
        performance assessments and better reporting by commanders at 
        all levels.
            (7) According to a recent Government Accountability Office 
        report, two of the primary reasons why members decide not to 
        report sexual harassment and sexual assault incidents are 
        because they do not think anything will be done about the 
        incident if they report it and they think that reporting the 
        incident will adversely impact their military career.
            (8) As long as commanders at any level continue to condone 
        or ignore certain types of sexual misconduct, this behavior 
        will continue to be prevalent in the military obstructing the 
        change in culture.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act
            (1) The term ``sexual harassment'' has the meaning given 
        such term in Department of Defense Directive 1350.2, Department 
        of Defense Military Equal Opportunity Program.
            (2) The term ``sexual assault'' means any of the offenses 
        described in section 920 of title 10, United States Code 
        (article 120 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice).

SEC. 4. IMPROVED CLIMATE ASSESSMENTS AND DISSEMINATION AND TRACKING OF 
              RESULTS.

    (a) Improved Dissemination of Results in Chain of Command.--The 
Secretary of Defense shall ensure that the results of command climate 
assessments are provided to the relevant individual commander and to 
the next higher level of command.
    (b) Performance Tracking.--
            (1) Evidence of compliance.--The Secretary of each military 
        department shall include in the performance evaluations and 
        assessments used by each Armed Force under the jurisdiction of 
        the Secretary a designated form where senior commanders can 
        indicate whether the commander has conducted the required 
        climate assessments.
            (2) Effect of failure to conduct assessment.--If a 
        commander is found to not have conducted the required climate 
        assessments, the failure shall be noted in the commander's 
        performance evaluation and be considered a serious factor 
        during consideration for any subsequent promotion.
    (c) Tracking System.--The Inspector General of the Department of 
Defense shall develop a system to track whether commanders are 
conducting command climate assessments.
    (d) Unit Compliance Reports.--Working with the Inspector General of 
the Department of Defense, unit commanders shall gather all the climate 
assessments from the unit and develop a compliance report that, at a 
minimum, shall include the following:
            (1) A comprehensive overview of the concerns members of the 
        unit expressed in the climate assessments.
            (2) Data showing how leadership is perceived in the unit.
            (3) A detailed strategic plan on how leadership plans to 
        address the expressed concerns.

SEC. 5. INCLUSION OF LETTER OF REPRIMANDS, NONPUNITIVE LETTER OF 
              REPRIMANDS AND COUNSELING STATEMENTS.

    The Secretary of Defense shall require commanders to include letter 
of reprimands, nonpunitive letter of actions and counseling statements 
involving substantiated cases of sexual harassment or sexual assault in 
the performance evaluation report of a member of the Armed Forces for 
the purpose of--
            (1) providing commanders increased visibility of the 
        background information of members of the unit;
            (2) identifying and preventing trends of bad behavior early 
        and effectively disciplining repeated actions which hinder 
        units from fostering a healthy climate; and
            (3) preventing the transfer of sexual offenders.

SEC. 6. SERVICE-WIDE 360 ASSESSMENTS.

    (a) Adoption of 360-Degree Approach.--The Secretary of each 
military department shall develop an assessment program modeled after 
the current Department of the Army Multi-Source Assessment and Feedback 
(MSAF) Program, known in this section as the ``360-degree approach''.
    (b) Report on Inclusion in Performance Evaluation Reports.--Not 
later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 
Secretary of Defense shall submit to Congress a report containing the 
results of an assessment of the feasibility of including the 360-degree 
approach as part of the performance evaluation reports.
    (c) Individual Counseling.--The Secretary of each military 
department shall include individual counseling as part of the 
performance evaluation process.

SEC. 7. HEALTH WELFARE INSPECTIONS.

    The Secretary of each military department shall conduct health 
welfare inspections on a monthly basis in order to ensure and maintain 
security, military readiness, good order, and discipline of all units 
of the Armed Forces under the jurisdiction of the Secretary. Results of 
the Health Welfare Inspections shall be provided to both the commander 
and senior commander.

SEC. 8. REVIEW OF SECURITY OF MILITARY INSTALLATIONS, INCLUDING 
              BARRACKS AND MULTI-FAMILY RESIDENCES.

    (a) Review of Security Measures.--The Secretary of Defense shall 
conduct a review of security measures on United States military 
installations, specifically with regard to barracks and multi-family 
residences on military installations, for the purpose of ensuring the 
safety of members of the Armed Forces and their dependents who reside 
on military installations.
    (b) Elements of Study.--In conducting the review under subsection 
(a), the Secretary of Defense shall--
            (1) identify security gaps on military installations; and
            (2) evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of using 24-
        hour electronic monitoring or placing security personnel at all 
        points of entry into barracks and multi-family residences on 
        military installation.
    (c) Submission of Results.--Not later than 90 days after the date 
of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to 
Congress a report containing the results of the study conducted under 
subsection (a), including an estimate of the costs--
            (1) to eliminate all security gaps identified under 
        subsection (b)(1); and
            (2) to provide 24-hour security monitoring as evaluated 
        under subsection (b)(2).

SEC. 9. REVIEW OF THE OFFICE OF DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT AND EQUAL 
              OPPORTUNITY ROLE IN SEXUAL HARASSMENT CASES.

    (a) Review Required.--The Secretary of Defense shall conduct a 
review of the Office of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity for 
the purposes specified in subsection (b).
    (b) Elements of Study.--In conducting the review under subsection 
(a), the Secretary of Defense shall--
            (1) identify and evaluate the resource and personnel gaps 
        in the Office;
            (2) identify and evaluate the role of the Office in sexual 
        harassment cases; and
            (3) evaluate how the Office works with the Sexual Assault 
        Prevention and Response Office to address sexual harassment in 
        the Armed Forces.

SEC. 10. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of Defense 
such sums as may be necessary to carry out this Act for fiscal year 
2014.
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