[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 187 (Wednesday, December 7, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H8204-H8207]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
MOTION TO INSTRUCT CONFEREES ON H.R. 1540, NATIONAL DEFENSE
AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2012
Mr. McKEON. Madam Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Armed
Services, I ask unanimous consent to take from the Speaker's table the
bill (H.R. 1540) to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2012 for
military activities of the Department of Defense, for military
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy,
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for
other purposes, with a Senate amendment thereto, disagree to the Senate
amendment, and agree to the conference requested by the Senate.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from California?
There was no objection.
Mr. SMITH of Washington. Madam Speaker, I have a motion to instruct
at the desk.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the motion.
The Clerk read as follows:
Mr. Smith of Washington moves that the managers on the part
of the House at the conference on the disagreeing votes of
the two Houses on the Senate amendment to the bill H.R. 1540
be instructed to insist on the amendments contained in
subtitle I of title V of the House bill (sections 581 through
587 relating to improved sexual assault prevention and
response in the Armed Forces).
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 7 of rule XXII, the
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Smith) and the gentleman from California
(Mr. McKeon) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Washington.
Mr. SMITH of Washington. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
This is a very important provision of the House bill dealing with
better combating sexual assault within the military. Now, this is a
significant problem that has been documented by many studies and many
media reports. I want to particularly congratulate members of my
committee, Ms. Loretta Sanchez, Ms. Tsongas, Ms. Speier, and Mrs. Susan
Davis, who have taken a leadership role in this to try to implement
policies to control sexual assault within the military. The provisions
that we've put together in the House help move us forward towards
addressing that issue, make sure that it takes on the importance that
it deserves, and empower the military to make the decisions they need
to better protect against sexual assault within the military.
I particularly applaud Ms. Tsongas. This is her motion to stick to
the House provisions in this area. I urge the conference committee to
do that going forward.
With that, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McKEON. I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of Washington. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Slaughter).
Ms. SLAUGHTER. I thank the gentleman for yielding. And, Madam
Speaker, good afternoon.
Sexual assault in the military continues to be a serious problem. It
impacts thousands of service women and men each year.
While I'm pleased with the recent improvements made by the Department
of Defense, there remains much more to be done. It is vital that we do
all we can to protect the men and women in the military who protect us.
I am very pleased that both the House and the Senate passed language
improving the military's response to sexual assault in their respective
versions of the National Defense Authorization Act.
{time} 1250
Earlier this week, I, along with Representative Turner and 45
colleagues, sent a letter to the House and Senate Armed Services
Committees asking them to strongly consider the House-passed provisions
dealing with military sexual assault.
The language contained in the House version makes necessary
improvements to protect our service women and men. Specifically, the
House-passed language strengthens the rights of sexual assault victims
by clarifying victim access to legal counsel, and record maintenance
and confidentiality, which are critically important. It also ensures
expedited unit or station transfer when a servicemember has been
victimized.
Imagine being a victim of rape, which one young soldier told me about
at a hearing, while serving in the military, and every morning she had
to salute her rapist. That's what the members of our Armed Forces have
experienced and will continue to experience if we don't do something to
change that situation.
The House-passed language also stresses the need for the NDAA to
include comprehensive training and education programs for sexual
assault prevention within the Department of Defense. The Senate version
does not include this protection, which is part of H.R. 1709, the Force
Protection and Readiness Act, which I introduced earlier this year.
I am pleased this motion to instruct conferees on the NDAA recognizes
the importance of this issue, and I ask the conferees to seriously
consider including the strongest possible language to prevent and
appropriately respond to incidents of sexual assault in the military.
Mr. McKEON. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of Washington. Madam Speaker, I yield the balance of my
time to the gentlewoman from Massachusetts (Ms. Tsongas).
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentlewoman from
Massachusetts will control the balance of the time.
There was no objection.
Ms. TSONGAS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
While one in six women will experience sexual assault in her
lifetime, as
[[Page H8205]]
many as one in three women leaving military service report that they
have experienced some form of military sexual trauma.
By the Pentagon's own estimate, as few as 13.5 percent of sexual
assaults are reported. Additionally, while 40 percent of sexual assault
allegations in the civilian world are prosecuted, this number is a
staggeringly low 8 percent in the military.
The military has been slow to take the appropriate actions necessary
to protect victims of sexual assault. For example, rape victims still
do not yet have the right to a unit or duty location transfer following
an assault. This means victims of sexual assault are often forced to
live and work alongside their perpetrator, facing repeated stress and
trauma due to the constant contact they may have with an assailant who
is part of their unit.
As unbelievable as it sounds, this is exactly what happened to Marine
Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach, who accused her assailant of rape, and
then spent the next 8 months exposed to the accused rapist, who later
murdered her and buried her with the body of her unborn son in his
backyard.
Although these events happened in 2007, the Department of Defense has
not adopted provisions that would allow victims to escape constant
contact with their assailant. We ask men and women who serve in the
military to put their lives on the line for our country, and they
shouldn't fear harm from their fellow servicemembers. We simply must do
more to protect them.
In May, this House passed H.R. 1540, which included strong bipartisan
provisions that would allow victims of sexual assault the right to
transfer units, the right to counsel, the right to privileged
communications between a victim and a victim advocate, and the right to
get records of their sexual assault so they can be eligible for
veterans' benefits. These provisions came from a bipartisan bill that I
introduced with Mr. Turner of Ohio.
Our language stipulates that confidential communications cannot be
used by the defense attorney against a victim during court proceedings,
and they remain actually confidential. These provisions will encourage
more victims to come forward and get the help they need to heal, and
will encourage more victims to participate in the legal process of
prosecuting perpetrators of sexual assault, both of which are critical
to maintaining readiness and unit cohesion in the military.
These provisions also establish full-time sexual assault response
coordinators and victim advocates and ensure they are well trained for
the job and able to properly serve victims of sexual assault. The 2009
Defense Task Force Report on Sexual Assault in the Military Services
found that current victim advocates and sexual assault response
coordinators are unprepared for the duties of the position.
In the words of a current unit victim advocate, ``I would truly be
unprepared if a sexual assault were to occur and my services were
needed. It is my opinion that active duty victim advocates are not
prepared to deal with sexual assaults and could potentially deter
individuals from coming forward.''
Having full-time SARCs and VAs with extensive training and
certification will ensure that they are truly a valuable resource to
their unit and to victims who come forward.
This language also improves the retention of sexual assault records
and guarantees that victims of sexual assault will have lifetime access
to these records for a variety of purposes, such as being considered
for veterans benefits and given priority consideration for counseling
at Veterans Affairs.
Currently, survivors of sexual assault have to jump through multiple
bureaucratic hurdles to prove that their symptoms are connected to an
incident of sexual assault in the military in order to be prioritized
for mental health counseling or be eligible for benefits.
Servicemembers find it difficult to obtain documentation proving their
sexual assault once they have left the services because many of these
documents are destroyed at DOD after only a few years. This language
ensures that the documents are maintained.
This language also requires DOD to prepare a record of all court
proceedings in which a charge of sexual assault is adjudicated and
provide a copy to the victim. Because victims of sexual assaults serve
as a witness rather than an active participant in trials where their
case is litigated, they often do not understand the outcome of their
case. These records are prepared where convictions result, but when
charges are dismissed, or when a perpetrator is found innocent, the
victim has no reliable way to understand what happened and why his or
her case was dismissed.
Making sure victims understand the outcome of their case is important
to providing closure for victims and making sure they are an active,
respected participant in the legal process.
{time} 1300
It will help to alleviate much of the mistrust that servicemembers
and victims of sexual assault in the military harbor when it comes to
how a sexual assault case will be handled if they make a report.
Similar provisions were included in the Senate's version of the
defense authorization, but these provisions do not clearly spell out a
victim's right to counsel and do not provide for a comprehensive
education and training program.
Yesterday a bipartisan group of 47 Members, led by Ms. Slaughter and
Mr. Turner, sent a letter to the chairman and ranking member of both
the House and Senate Armed Services Committees in support of the
House's language. This motion simply instructs our conferees to insist
on the House language, language that will protect our servicewomen.
I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support the motion
to instruct conferees.
With that, Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McKEON. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. TSONGAS. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the
gentlewoman from California who has taken such an interest in this very
grave issue and played an important leadership role, Congresswoman
Speier.
Ms. SPEIER. I thank Ms. Tsongas and the ranking member, Mr. Smith,
for bringing this motion. Thank you, Madam Speaker, for the opportunity
to say a few words here.
This is a cancer that is eating up our military. For 25 years, we
have debated and discussed and reported on it, and yet the numbers are
staggering. By DOD's own estimates, 19,000 men and women in the
military each and every year are sexually assaulted or raped. Only 13
percent actually report these sexual assaults and rapes, and 90 percent
of them are involuntarily honorably discharged.
There is a message in the military: Shut up, take an aspirin, go to
bed, sleep it off. These very modest elements are really very
important, but if we're really going to deal with this issue, if we're
truly going to say that you are no longer going to be more likely to be
a victim of violence in the military by a fellow officer than by the
enemy, if we're really going to be able to change that construct, then
we're going to have take the reporting of these crimes away from the
chain of command and put it in a separate office where we will have
experts, both military and civilian, that will be able to prosecute
these cases and actually investigate them.
Right now there's a huge conflict of interest. I spoke on the floor
this morning about Petty Officer De Roche who was raped by two officers
in Thailand when they were on port of call. She was raped twice by each
of these men. She then went to report it and was told to leave it
alone. She was then put in a medical hold for 24 hours, for days. And
then what happened, she was eventually allowed to leave the ship and be
put in another service setting.
But do you know what happened to those two assailants, both of whom
admitted that they had raped her?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Ms. TSONGAS. I yield the gentlewoman an additional minute.
Ms. SPEIER. One of them had 6 months of reduction in pay; one of them
got demoted, one of them did not; but neither of them served any time
for having admitted that they had raped her. They got what was called
nonjudicial punishment.
What a joke that in this country we give a unit commander the
authority to be judge and jury and then not even have these individuals
who commit
[[Page H8206]]
these violent crimes have to pay anything. It doesn't go on a record;
there is no sexual assault database. That's the way we've been running
the military, and that must stop.
Ms. TSONGAS. I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. McKEON. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I just have to respond to the last speaker that we had.
We have this language in the bill. We have worked with Ms. Tsongas.
She's done great work with Mr. Turner. We have been out of the majority
for 4 years. We now have the majority. I'm not going to say that it
shouldn't have been fixed before; it should have. But we have this in
the bill. But to attack the military and make them like they are the
worst people in the world--19,000 is excessive. It is something that
never should have happened. This will take care of it.
We just had talk of a revered football coach we found right in their
organization of a very upstanding university that we all have thought
great things about, has all kinds of problems with sexual abuse.
I refuse to have the innuendo or the charge that the military is
corrupt top to bottom, which is what you basically inferred in what you
just said.
We support this. We put it in the bill. We think that it is very
important to take care of this problem.
Ms. SPEIER. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. McKEON. I'd be happy to yield.
Ms. SPEIER. I did not say that the military was corrupt. What I did
say was that the way----
Mr. McKEON. Reclaiming my time, you did charge them with some very
serious issues and besmirch the character of the military.
Ms. SPEIER. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. McKEON. I'd be happy to yield.
Ms. SPEIER. What I would say to the gentleman from California is
this: that the Congress of the United States has, for almost a quarter
of a century now, been looking at this issue. We have not done a good
job----
Mr. McKEON. Reclaiming my time, as the new chairman of the committee,
the first bill that we have brought forward, we have it in the bill. We
are moving to take care of it.
Ms. SPEIER. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. McKEON. No. I think we've probably said enough.
What I would say at this time is we do support this. The bill was
overwhelmingly supported out of committee 60-1, 322-96 in the House.
We're moving strongly on this issue. We will support it through the
conference and do our best to see that it remains in the bill because
it is such a very important issue.
With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. TSONGAS. Madam Speaker, I did not mean to yield back my time; so
I ask unanimous consent to reclaim my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from Massachusetts?
Mr. McKEON. Reserving the right to object, I understand that I did
that once myself, yield back my time inadvertently.
With that, I would be happy to see that my colleague has the balance
of her time to close, and I withdraw my reservation.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentlewoman from
Massachusetts is recognized.
There was no objection.
Ms. TSONGAS. I thank the chairman.
It has been my honor and pleasure to work in a bipartisan fashion on
this legislation that seeks to address the great challenge of military
sexual trauma. I think that we have incorporated into the House version
of the bill some very significant reforms that will help to protect
victims, unfortunate victims of this great affront to young people
serving in our military; will seek to better protect them as they seek
to bring to justice the perpetrators; will better train those who are
put in a place designed and created--these are positions created to
help victims deal with this tremendous trauma, seek out appropriate
legal remedies and do it in a way that does not further victimize the
victim.
Does that mean there is not always going to be additional work to do?
Absolutely, always; otherwise, we would all be out of a job if we
didn't have to simply come back and revisit and revisit and revisit
these issues.
But I want to make it very clear that this has been a great
bipartisan effort. I'm very thankful for the support we have received.
The military has made tremendous efforts. But obviously we would not be
here today discussing this if there were still not a long way to go.
I appreciate the fact that this has been recognized on both sides of
the aisle, and I thank you for allowing me to reclaim my time.
I will now yield 1 minute to the gentlelady from California,
Congresswoman Speier.
Ms. SPEIER. I thank the gentlelady from Massachusetts for yielding me
the time.
I would just like to say to the gentleman from California and to my
colleagues on the Armed Services Committee, I am very grateful that
this language is in the motion to instruct the conferees.
My only point is that until we create an independent office to handle
these cases, we continue to place the unit commanders and the base
commanders in a conflict of interest. What happens when the unit
commander is, in fact, the assailant? That means that the rape victim
has to go to her rapist and seek to have help and to report that rape
to her unit commander.
{time} 1310
What we need to do is create an independent authority that will have
the expertise, which a unit commander is not going to have, regarding
sexual assault and rape and have investigators who have, again, the
expertise to look at these cases so that the unit commanders and the
base commanders are not flummoxed by the various issues surrounding
this very, very serious subject.
Ms. TSONGAS. I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the previous question is
ordered on the motion to instruct.
There was no objection.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to instruct.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Recorded Vote
Mr. SMITH of Washington. Madam Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.
A recorded vote was ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clauses 8 and 9 of rule XX, this
15-minute vote on the motion to instruct will be followed by 5-minute
votes on the motion to permit closed conference meetings on H.R. 1540
and the motion to instruct on H.R. 2550.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 421,
noes 2, not voting 10, as follows:
[Roll No. 892]
AYES--421
Ackerman
Adams
Aderholt
Akin
Alexander
Altmire
Amodei
Andrews
Austria
Baca
Bachmann
Bachus
Baldwin
Barletta
Barrow
Bartlett
Barton (TX)
Bass (CA)
Bass (NH)
Becerra
Benishek
Berg
Berkley
Berman
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Blumenauer
Bonner
Bono Mack
Boren
Boswell
Boustany
Brady (PA)
Brady (TX)
Braley (IA)
Brooks
Broun (GA)
Brown (FL)
Buchanan
Bucshon
Buerkle
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Butterfield
Calvert
Camp
Campbell
Canseco
Cantor
Capito
Capps
Capuano
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carney
Carson (IN)
Carter
Cassidy
Chabot
Chaffetz
Chandler
Chu
Cicilline
Clarke (MI)
Clarke (NY)
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Coble
Coffman (CO)
Cohen
Cole
Conaway
Connolly (VA)
Conyers
Cooper
Costa
Costello
Courtney
Cravaack
Crawford
Crenshaw
Critz
Crowley
Cuellar
Culberson
Cummings
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
Davis (KY)
DeFazio
DeGette
DeLauro
Denham
Dent
DesJarlais
Deutch
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Dold
Donnelly (IN)
Doyle
Dreier
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Edwards
Ellison
Ellmers
Emerson
Engel
Eshoo
Farenthold
Farr
Filner
Fincher
Fitzpatrick
Flake
Fleischmann
Fleming
Flores
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foxx
Frank (MA)
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Fudge
Gallegly
Garamendi
Gardner
Garrett
Gerlach
Gibbs
Gibson
Gingrey (GA)
Gohmert
[[Page H8207]]
Gonzalez
Goodlatte
Gosar
Gowdy
Granger
Graves (GA)
Graves (MO)
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Griffin (AR)
Griffith (VA)
Grijalva
Grimm
Guinta
Guthrie
Gutierrez
Hahn
Hall
Hanabusa
Hanna
Harper
Harris
Hartzler
Hastings (FL)
Hastings (WA)
Hayworth
Heck
Heinrich
Hensarling
Herger
Herrera Beutler
Higgins
Himes
Hinojosa
Hirono
Hochul
Holden
Holt
Honda
Hoyer
Huelskamp
Huizenga (MI)
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurt
Inslee
Israel
Issa
Jackson (IL)
Jackson Lee (TX)
Jenkins
Johnson (GA)
Johnson (IL)
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, E. B.
Johnson, Sam
Jones
Jordan
Kaptur
Keating
Kelly
Kildee
Kind
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kinzinger (IL)
Kissell
Kline
Kucinich
Labrador
Lamborn
Lance
Landry
Langevin
Lankford
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Latham
LaTourette
Latta
Lee (CA)
Levin
Lewis (CA)
Lewis (GA)
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe
Long
Lowey
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lujan
Lummis
Lungren, Daniel E.
Lynch
Mack
Maloney
Manzullo
Marchant
Marino
Markey
Matheson
Matsui
McCarthy (CA)
McCarthy (NY)
McCaul
McCollum
McCotter
McDermott
McGovern
McHenry
McIntyre
McKeon
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
McNerney
Meehan
Meeks
Mica
Michaud
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller (NC)
Miller, Gary
Miller, George
Moore
Moran
Mulvaney
Murphy (CT)
Murphy (PA)
Napolitano
Neal
Neugebauer
Noem
Nugent
Nunes
Nunnelee
Olson
Olver
Owens
Palazzo
Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor (AZ)
Paul
Paulsen
Payne
Pearce
Pelosi
Pence
Perlmutter
Peters
Peterson
Petri
Pingree (ME)
Pitts
Platts
Poe (TX)
Polis
Pompeo
Posey
Price (GA)
Price (NC)
Quayle
Quigley
Rahall
Rangel
Reed
Rehberg
Reichert
Renacci
Reyes
Ribble
Richardson
Rigell
Rivera
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Rokita
Rooney
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross (AR)
Ross (FL)
Rothman (NJ)
Roybal-Allard
Royce
Runyan
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (OH)
Ryan (WI)
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Scalise
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schilling
Schmidt
Schock
Schrader
Schwartz
Schweikert
Scott (SC)
Scott (VA)
Scott, Austin
Scott, David
Sensenbrenner
Serrano
Sessions
Sewell
Sherman
Shimkus
Shuler
Shuster
Simpson
Sires
Slaughter
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Smith (WA)
Southerland
Speier
Stark
Stearns
Stivers
Stutzman
Sullivan
Sutton
Terry
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tiberi
Tierney
Tipton
Tonko
Towns
Tsongas
Turner (NY)
Turner (OH)
Upton
Van Hollen
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walberg
Walden
Walsh (IL)
Walz (MN)
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watt
Webster
Welch
West
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Wilson (FL)
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Wolf
Womack
Woodall
Woolsey
Yarmuth
Yoder
Young (AK)
Young (IN)
NOES--2
Amash
McClintock
NOT VOTING--10
Castor (FL)
Diaz-Balart
Fattah
Giffords
Hinchey
Myrick
Nadler
Richmond
Waxman
Young (FL)
{time} 1338
Messrs. CRENSHAW, CRAWFORD, BRADY of Texas, Mrs. CAPPS, Messrs.
McCARTHY of California, HUIZENGA of Michigan, Ms. CLARKE of New York,
Messrs. ENGEL, and KING of Iowa changed their vote from ``no'' to
``aye.''
So the motion to instruct was agreed to.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________