WASHINGTON
– Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) issued the following statement after the Defense
Department’s Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the military
today
recommended
shifting “legal decisions about prosecution of special victim cases out of the
chain of command.”
“Today’s
recommendations affirm what we already knew to be right, and what Senator
Gillibrand and I have been trying to implement for the last eight years. In
order to fix the broken system and secure justice for survivors of sexual assault,
prosecution decisions need to be taken out of the chain of command. Last week,
the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs said he wanted to wait for these recommendations,
and the Secretary of Defense already supports this idea.
“It’s
time for Congress to pass our legislation. It’s time to end the procedural
delays. It’s finally time for change and accountability, so the people who
serve our country in uniform can be more confident that they will receive
justice.”
Grassley,
alongside Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), have introduced the
Military
Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act, which would codify the
recommendation to remove prosecutorial decisions from the chain of command, and
make other significant improvements to the military justice system.
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