On June 14, the House approved, 315-108, the FY2014 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 1960). The House Armed Services Committee passed the measure on June 5 (see The Source, 6/7/13).
According to the committee report, the legislation would authorize $544.4 billion in discretionary funds in FY2014 for programs at the Departments of Defense and Energy and $85.8 billion for overseas contingency operations. The FY2013 bill authorized $544.8 billion for the departments.
The bill contains several provisions to address the incidents of sexual assault in the military. Noting the increased attention to the issue, the report notes, “[T]he scourge of sexual assault has no place within these ranks. The committee has made sexual assault prevention and prosecution a cornerstone of this bill” (p.4). H.R. 1960 would amend the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) to strip commanders of their authority to dismiss or reduce guilty verdicts in sexual assault cases. The five-year statute of limitations would be lifted, therefore allowing prosecution of these cases at any time (p. 158).
Minimum sentencing guidelines would be established for service members found guilty of sexual assault or related crimes. The bill also would provide guidelines to commanders on the temporary reassignment or removal of someone who has been accused of committing a sexual assault (p. 159). The bill would require victim’s counsels to be specially trained to provide legal assistance to victims of rape or sexual assault. The measure also would add rape, sexual assault, or other sexual misconduct to the protected communications service members can have with Members of Congress or inspectors general (p. 160).
The committee also expressed its concern that the Department of Defense (DoD) has not focused “on efforts to assist male service members [who are victims of sexual assault] to ensure [they]receive the specialized care that may be needed” and would direct the comptroller general to assess the steps taken to address the issue and provide the appropriate medical and mental health services (p. 149).
Additional provisions that would address the issue sexual assault in the military can be found in Subtitle D – Military Justice and Legal Matters – of the committee report (p. 158).
Expressing its concern about increases in domestic violence and child abuse within military families, the committee applauded the DoD’s efforts to hire “additional domestic abuse victim advocates; [expand] the New Parent Support Home Visitation Program; [hire] additional clinical providers and staff to oversee programs and personnel; [implement] and [track] domestic violence training; and [develop] a formalized oversight framework for domestic violence programs to improve management and delivery of services” (p. 145).
The bill would authorize $20 million for local education agencies (LEAs) impacted by the enrollment of dependent children of service members and DoD civilian personnel and $5 million for LEAs with significant enrollment changes due to base closure and realignment (p. 166).
During consideration of the legislation, the House passed, by voice vote, an en bloc amendment by Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-CA) that includes the following amendments:
The House approved, 235-189, another en bloc amendment by Rep. McKeon that incorporates the following amendments:
The House passed, by voice vote, a third en bloc amendment by Rep. McKeon that includes the following amendments:
The House also passed, by voice vote, an en bloc amendment by Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX), which contained an amendment by Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY) regarding the care and treatment of service members with urotrauma. The House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Health held a hearing on this issue on May 21 (see The Source, 5/24/13).
