[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 122 (Tuesday, July 13, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4861-S4862]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--S. 1520

  Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, I rise today to once again call for 
every Senator to have the opportunity to consider and cast their vote 
for the Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act.
  The bill would remove all serious crimes except for military-specific 
crimes out of the chain of command and give it to trained military 
prosecutors to decide whether or not to move that case to trial. Making 
that change would end days of asking commanders, who are not trained 
lawyers, to make complex legal decisions in cases where they often know 
both the accuser and the accused. That change is necessary. It is 
necessary because the current military justice system is simply not 
delivering justice, especially not to servicemembers of color.
  I am proud that our legislation has recently won the endorsement of 
our colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus, who have highlighted 
how this reform would address the systemic barriers to justice our 
servicemembers of color face. I want to thank the CBC for their strong 
support. I share their urgency when it comes to addressing those 
systemic injustices.
  Right now, Black servicemembers are up to 2.61 times as likely to 
face disciplinary action as their fellow White servicemembers, and 
Black and Hispanic servicemembers are more likely than White 
servicemembers to be tried in general and special courts-martial across 
the military services.
  The Joint Service Committee on Military Justice began collecting data 
on race and courts-martial last June. Even in the brief period of time 
they have tracked, the disparities are tragically clear. In the Army, 
just 21.4 percent of Active-Duty servicemembers are Black, but Black 
servicemembers account for 35.5 percent of the accused in general 
courts-martial. In the Air Force, just 14.7 percent of Active-Duty 
servicemembers are Black, but they account for 23.1 percent of the 
accused. In the Navy, 17.2 percent of Active-Duty servicemembers are 
Black, but they account for 34.3 percent of the accused. Those figures 
speak to an inherent bias in the system that must be addressed.
  Congressman Anthony Brown, who served in the military for 30 years 
and worked as an Army judge advocate general and as a clerk for then-
Chief Judge Eugene Sullivan at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed 
Forces, recently wrote in the Washington Post about the need to pass 
this legislation.
  He wrote:

       Following the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna 
     Taylor and too many more Black and Brown Americans, there has 
     been a nationwide call to address the disparities in our 
     criminal justice system. But these efforts cannot overlook 
     the criminal justice system that is not on the front pages or 
     in [the] television news--[that is] the one in [the U.S.] 
     military. The current military justice system is not serving 
     our country's higher values of justice, equity and fairness. 
     It has put servicemembers of color at a disadvantage and left 
     them subject to a commander-controlled system they do not 
     trust.
       In a survey last year of members of the Air Force and [in 
     the] Space Force, 3 in 5 Black servicemembers said they would 
     not receive the same benefit of the doubt as their White 
     peers if they faced disciplinary action. One-third believed 
     the military justice system is actively biased against them.
       Those fears are corroborated by the facts. . . . Our 
     military justice system mirrors the discrimination in the 
     civilian criminal justice system, sometimes rising to a life-
     or-death matter. A 2012 study showed that, before its last 
     use decades ago, nearly two-thirds of servicemembers 
     sentenced to death were servicemembers of color. These long-
     standing disparities and this unjust system demand our 
     attention and action.

  These disparities are longstanding. A task force established by 
President Nixon's Secretary of Defense in 1972 identified many of the 
same issues and same causal factors we see today. The task force 
reported:

       In the course of our conversations with black and Spanish-
     speaking [servicemembers] throughout the world, we became 
     convinced that the black or Spanish-speaking enlisted man is 
     often singled out for punishment by white authority figures 
     where his white counterpart is not. There is enough evidence 
     of intentional discrimination by individuals to convince the 
     Task Force that such selective punishment is in many cases 
     racially motivated.

  I know that some of my colleagues have called for more time to study 
this issue. I would point them to a 2020 review from the Air Force 
inspector general, which found that for every year between 1999 and 
2019, Black airmen were 60 percent more likely to face court-martial 
and 74 percent more likely to receive nonjudicial punishment from their 
commanders than their White counterparts. That is 20 years of data 
telling the same unacceptable story. What more proof do they need?
  It has been nearly 50 years since the Nixon administration's task 
force brought this issue to light, and we have seen little positive 
change. Our servicemembers cannot wait any longer. Congressman Brown is 
right--this unjust system demands our attention and action.
  As Members of Congress, we have the constitutional duty to provide 
oversight and accountability over the Department of Defense. We have 
the job of writing and revising and improving the military code of 
justice. It is a congressionally created code. Addressing these 
disparities is our responsibility and no one else's. This bill will 
help us do that. Now is the time to act.
  In addition to the Congressional Black Caucus, this bill is supported 
by legal experts and servicemembers. It has the support of almost every 
veteran group I can find, from the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans group 
to the Vietnam veterans group, to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. This is 
supported by our servicemembers and our veterans.
  It also has the support of a growing number of bipartisan Congress 
Members in the House. It also has the support of 66 U.S. Senators--a 
filibuster-proof majority. If the vote were called today, it would 
pass. This bill should be voted on.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at a time to be 
determined by the majority leader in consultation with the Republican 
leader, the Senate Armed Services Committee be discharged from further 
consideration of

[[Page S4862]]

S. 1520 and the Senate propose to its consideration; that there be 2 
hours for debate equally divided in the usual form; and that upon the 
use or yielding back of that time, the Senate vote on the bill with no 
intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.

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