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.), 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.
