SASC Completes Markup of 2012 National Defense Authorization Act
Posted by Greg in 
Senate Committee on Armed Services Completes Markup of 2012 Defense Bill
Included are groundbreaking provisions that would help eliminate military rape and sexual assault, and ensure the continued implementation of DADT repeal
Today the Senate Armed Services Committee completed the mark up for the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and included amendments in the bill that would help stem the epidemic of military rape and sexual assault and ignored amendments that would delay the implementation process for repealing the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
Sexual Assault Provisions
The Committee approved an amendment offered by Senator Collins (R-ME) that requires the military to implement some of the recommendations of the Defense Task Force on Sexual Assault in the Military Services (DTFSAMS) based upon Senate bill S. 1018, the Defense STRONG Act introduced by Senator Kerry (D-MA).
Specifically, the bill would strengthen support for sexual assault prevention and legal protections of sexual assault survivors by:
- Increasing the rank of the Director of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response office to a General, or its civilian employee equivalent
- Require an appropriate number of Sexual Assault Response Coordinators (SARCs) and Victims Advocates (VAs) be assigned to each military unit
- Ensuring that survivors have access to appropriate military counsel and maintain their confidential reporting status while seeking counsel
- Ensuring that conversations between survivors and victims advocates and helpline counselors are confidential and cannot be used in court
- Ensuring that SARCs and VAs are not collateral duties, but are full-time servicemembers or civilian employees
- Ensure that SARCs and VAs are properly trained and certified
- Provide survivors with consideration for expedited transfers from bases if they so desire
These provisions were introduced into last year’s defense bill, but were stripped by the Senate, so it is a major victory to have them included in the 2011 bill. The Senate version of the bill did not include two provisions found in the House bill: A provision requiring the permanent retention of records related to rape and sexual assaults is being considered in an underlying bill, and provisions requiring appropriate training at all PME schools is already being implemented by the DOD.
UCMJ Revisions
The bill revises the Uniformed Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) in two ways. It changes Article 120 (Rape) from its current complex and confusing multi-layered single statue to create three separate articles of the UCMJ that will correct deficiencies in existing law. This simplified statute will make it much easier for prosecutors and investigators to pursue perpetrators and increase the likelihood of convictions. Although this is a good start, this revision could be much stronger if the DOD would follow the lead of more than 30 states and adopt an “affirmative consent statute” rather than continue to adhere to the archaic “force-based statue.” Changing the definition of sexual assault from a “no means no” to a “yes means yes” criteria would aid in prevent assaults by providing a clear, well defined, trainable standard of conduct for all servicemembers, make bystander intervention easier for peers to police their own and cases of rape and assault provide a clear prosecutorial route for investigators, lawyers, judges and juries leading to increased convictions and harsher punishments for offenders. Our hope is the military takes another look at this key difference in statutory law and moves to affirmative consent ASAP. SWAN presented this groundbreaking proposal directly to the House Armed Services Committee staff in April will continue working to see this change.
The new Defense Authorization bill also brings military law out of the 19th century by completely repealing the archaic Article 125 (Sodomy), no longer making sexual acts between consenting adults illegal. This has been repeatedly advocated not only by SWAN but by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, the Cox Commission, and the Pentagon’s own Comprehensive Review Working Group (CRWG).
DADT Repeal
The Senate did not include any of the reactionary and distracting amendments related to the repeal of the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy that were inserted into the House version of the bill. These were designed to slow down the military’s implementation of DADT repeal. This is a positive move by the Senate and indicates a desire to move forward with repeal, considering that the President signed DADT repeal into law more than 6 months ago. It is good to see the Senate remain focused on the serious issues facing our military and not waste time and money on trying to get the toothpaste back into the tube.
Moving Forward
The 2011 NDAA now heads to the floor for a full Senate vote, then on to President Obama for signature. SWAN urges everyone to call your Senators and urge them to vote the 2011 NDAA through as is, with no changes. The number for the Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121. You can find out the names of your members of Congress here.
SWAN’s staff has worked non-stop for the past few months alongside other active duty military groups, veterans organizations and members of Congress along with their staffs to ensure that this year’s Defense Bill contains provisions that will help improve the military and make it a safer place for everyone to serve. As with any legislative effort, there were many, many other useful amendments that did not make it into the final bill, but we are thankful and appreciative to those who fought to make this bill what it is today and look forward to a quick passage into law.
