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| (Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call File Photo) |
Today, the Senate blocked a bipartisan bill that would have introduced major changes to the way the military handles sexual
assault cases by removing commanders from the prosecutorial decision-making
process for sexual assault cases. Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand from
New York sponsored the bill, which received 55 of the 60 votes necessary to limit
debate. Opposition to the bill was led by Republican Senator Claire McCaskill
of Missouri who argued that this would do little to address the problem of
sexual assault in the military and would weaken the military chain of command.
Three months ago, Congress also passed reforms to the
military’s handling of sexual assault cases, including ending the statute of
limitations for sexual assault or rape cases and preventing military commanders
from overturning jury verdicts on such cases. Read Susan’s post here or more
information/discussion on that.
The military sexual assault issue is extremely complicated.
I’d rather not get into the nitty-gritty of that, but there have been numerous
high-profile cases against military officials. Even today, it was reported that
the Army’s top special prosecutor was placed under criminal investigation for
assaulting a woman in 2011.
The bipartisan nature of the bill is very interesting. I am
sure a more in-depth analysis of the vote will come out soon, but it is also
noteworthy that the vote will have an impact with more hardline Republicans.
Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican from South Caroline, warned that the votes infavor of the bill might not bode well for 2016 GOP hopefuls.
I’m sure there will be a lot more about this in the coming
days, but as it stands, what do you guys think about the current political
debacle/the future direction of this debate?
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