Offenses in 2012, only 880 faced command action for sex crimes. Of those 880, 594 faced courtmartial and 302 of those courtmartials resulted in convictions. So all in all, we have a situation in which 880 people faced any kind of discipline for a sex crime out of the universe of 26,000 potential incidents. Thats only 3. 4 of total incidents in which someone was held accountable and only 302, or 1. 1 , were actually convicted of a crime. That is not a good set of numbers, mr. President , and it sums up why this problem has been fest experg why we need action this year. But i think we also know that were not all here because of the statistics. Were here because of real people. Because each and every one of the numbers is a personal story of grief and we know them all too well. Whether it was a Sexual Assault scandal last year at Lackland Air Force base in texas where a dozen or more basic Training Instructors were accused of sexually assaulting female trainees, or the more reason case at
A senator madam president . The presiding officer the senator from south dakota. Mr. Thune madam president , i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Thune madam president , i come to the floor today to talk about the damage obamacare is doing to the struggling economy. Now after months of unrelenting coverage of obamacares many problems and after fridays release of decembers dismal jobs report, im sure democrats here in the senate would prefer that we talk about almost anything else. After all, when you have held most of the power in washington here for the last five years, you dont want to mention the fact that your main legacy is a sluggish economy and a disastrous train wreck of a health care program. This past friday, we found out that december marked the weakest month of job growth since january of 2011. The economy added just 74,000 jobs in december, less than half of the monthly job growth needed for a real recovery
Vigorously prosecute offenders and hold commanders accountable for establishing zero tolerance policies. Policies. Mr. President , to say that general caseys response was disappointing, would be an understatement. I am convinced that if the military had heeded the concerns that i and others like senator mikulski raised back then, a decade ago, this terrible problem would have been addressed much sooner, saving many individuals from the trauma, the pain and the injustice that they endured. Back then, sadly, the attitude of the high ranking officials who were testifying at that 2004 hearing was dismissive even though these crimes never should have occurred in the first place, traumatized the survivors and erodes the trust and discipline that are fundamental to every military unit. Thankfully, the attitude i perceive among military officers today is markedly different from the one that i encountered nine years ago. The work of translating the military stated policy of zero tolerance into
Dozens and dozens of jury trials. And no one has interchange this more than i have. We embrace in the underlying bill. The time period in which a victim decides that she is going to come forward out of the shadows and hold her perpetrator accountable is invariably very close in time to the time of report. It is how she is treated at that juncture, more so than anything else. More so than whether she has been victimized in the military or whether she has been victimized on the streets of your hometown. She is coming forward with the most personally painful moment of her life. Now, keep in mind that if youre coming forward with the most personally painful moment of your life, how complicated that gets if you know the defense is going to be that you wanted it, that it was consensual. And then it is even more difficult. That is why the vast majority of these crimes in our country are never reported, ever. Never reported, ever. It doesnt matter whether its military or civilian, and how can
Military. I found it to be pretty easy to mr. President , i first raised my get on. Concern over the militarys my wife is a school teacher. We figured out we can save about inadequate response to the growing crisis of Sexual Assault 800 a month by going off her nearly ten years ago. Coverage from her schoolteacher i remember it well. Plan. This care it was a hearing before the Senate Armed Services committee i had to look at it five times. In 2004 at which i expressed my then i called up the people on the phone, on the policy. Growing alarm about the number they said all i have to do is of Sexual Assaults in the call them back and i could sign military and the inadequate up. Response by the leaders of the i am not asking for a tax break. Military to provide adequate care for the survivors and to if there wasnt this care plan ensure appropriate punishment and if they didnt get it rammed for the perpetrators of these hrough, we would not be reprehensible crimes. In an exchange that i had