Mrs. Gillibrand madam president . The presiding officer the senator from new york. Mrs. Gillibrand i rise today to speak about my amendment to the National Defense authorization act, an amendment known as the bipartisan military justice improvement act. I want to start by thanking my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their strong and unwavering leadership on behalf of our brave men and women in uniform. I could not be more proud of the bipartisan work that has been done to do the right thing. I want to thank senator reid, senator booker, senator heller, our three most recent supporters of our bill. I want to thank them for scored scored for their leadership to end the scourge of Sexual Violence in the military. I want to thank the senator from missouri for her unwavering commitment for helping victims of Sexual Assault. Although we disagree on my amendment, i want to remind all our colleagues that the Defense Authorization has been made stronger in innumerable ways by senator m
Evening will be rebroadcast saturday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern time on booktv on cspan2. This weekend booktv is live in florida for the Miami Book Fair international. Coverage kicking off saturday at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan two cspan2. Coming up on c span two tonight debate on the Sexual Assault in the military. Then the Georgetown Law Center exam congressional proposal to change nsa surveillance programs. Thats followed by a hearing examining how security clearances are granted. On the next washington journal, pennsylvania congressman discusses the health care law. The senate this week is working on the 2014 Defense Program bill. Senator kristin jill brands amendment would remove decision on Sexual Assault prosecutions from military commanders and give them to military lawyers. Senator Claire Mccaskill decision keep them with the military chain of command but add more oversight responsibilities to the chief. In this hour, the two senators describe their positions. T . The presi
Gets used for corporations and the wealthy. Thats not a guess, by the way. That is the way the republican budget budget is structured. Thats their budget numbers. Awful it to lower all of it to lower tax rates for corporations and the rich. Theyre willing to spread the wealth around, as long as it stays in the same hands. Were at the gates of ali babas cave, this special treasuretrove of earmarks for the rich and connected. Were at that place where the lobbyistists queel the special x deals. Were knocking on the door of tax spending that has been completely untouched, completely untouched in the deficit reduction so far. And our republican colleagues are getting a little twitchy. Come on, fellahs. Out of nearly 14 trillion in tax spending and earmarks, cant we put just 7 of it, just 7 of it toward the debt and the deficit . Our proposal is to leave 93 of the treasure in the cave. Thats not unreasonable. Whats unreasonable, whats unbalanced is the republican desire that not a nickel in
So, ladies and gentlemen, and congressman, thank you very much for that conversation. Heres how were going to proceed for the remainder of our our. We will engage in a short and brief conversation up here. Ive a couple of questions im going to pick up on based on your comments this morning and then we will open the microphone for questions from the floor. So be thinking about the questions that you want to ask and when the time comes well ask you to raise your hand and do our usual procedure of wait for the microphone and identify your identify yourself. Let me start out with a couple thoughts of your very useful description of both while youre doing what youre doing and what you hope to do. Theres a lot on worth the effort peace if you will. I think he made the case very strongly for why its important or critical. Its a little harder though to talk about the possibilities, not necessary the possibilities of undertaking the effort of the possibilities of achieving results. How are you
So rather than revamping the entire military Justice System, which i believe carries massive risk, our proposal improves and it updates the Current System. Unfortunately, the gillibrand proposal, i believe, takes radical steps, and it undermines a commanders responsibility for his or her troops. Under that proposal, almost all crimes, from forgery to sexual violence, theyre removed from a commanders purview. It doesnt bring that focus to the challenge were facing. Our proposal does. The other proposal detaches the commander from his or her unit, and it removes all responsibility. I do not want to remove the responsibility from a commander. We trust these people to watch our best and our brightest, our children and our grandchildren, as they go into battle. We need to trust them in this as well. Senator mccaskill brings a wealth of experience to bear on this topic from her days as a prosecutor. And i believe we should all be listening to her. She mentioned in november that the other pro