In the next few days, the Senate will continue consideration of the annual FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) will be offering her bill – the Military Justice Improvement Act (MJIA) – as amendment #4310 with 33 bipartisan cosponsors. According to the Pentagon, 62% of female sexual assault victims who reported their assaults experienced retaliation – a rate unchanged over the last two years. For that reason and a lack of faith in the system, many do not report sexual assault incidents. We are asking everyone to urge their Senators to support the amendment and support military sexual assault survivors.
The MJIA amendment requires an independent, experienced special prosecutor to handle military sexual assault cases, taking the process out of the military chain of command. With 33 bipartisan co-sponsors for this amendment, we need you to let your representatives know that military sexual assault survivors deserve justice now.