Opening Statements

Today, Rep. Trent Kelly (R-MS), Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel, made the following remarks, as prepared for delivery, on the Subcommittee's hearing titled "Role of the Commander in Sexual Assault Prosecutions."

"Thank you, Chairwoman Speier and I want to welcome our witnesses. I especially want to thank the survivors of sexual assault for their bravery and for being here today to share their experiences.

"The UCMJ has evolved significantly over its 75 year history, but the past ten years have seen particularly significant changes. From dramatically improving victim rights to establishing new sexual assault offenses, the UCMJ has experienced substantial improvement. Notably, the 2017 NDAA contained the most comprehensive overhaul of the UCMJ in over 50 years, the result of a multi-year study by the Military Justice Working Group. In fact, these extensive reforms were just implemented on January 1st of this year. Clearly, much work remains to ensure every sexual assault perpetrator is held accountable. However, I would caution against additional major changes to the commander centric justice system when we have not even seen the results of the reforms instituted just 90 days ago.

"There can be no doubt that the problem of sexual assault remains one of the most challenging and persistent issues in society. As a former district attorney who has prosecuted sexual offenses, I can attest that these horrific crimes have long-lasting impacts on both the victims and the community. But, I can also tell you from personal experience that the answer to solving this problem in the military does not lie in attempting to replicate the civilian prosecution system, where less than .5% of sexual assaults will ever result in a conviction.

"Congress has established multiple independent commissions to study sexual assault in the military, and specifically the role of the commander in prosecution, and I want to thank the Chairwoman and others on this committee for their role in establishing them. Not one of these independent panels, however, has recommended removing the commander. In fact, one of those panels, the Response Systems Panel, included former Democrat Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman and Ms. Mai Fernandez, a civilian prosecutor and Executive Director of the National Center for Victims of Crimes. Both Representative Holtzman and Ms. Fernandez came to the panel believing that removing the commander "sounded right". But after hearing from hundreds of expert witnesses and reviewing the data, both changed their mind. Representative Holtzman said that if removing the commander and putting the power in the hands of "prosecutorial bureaucracy" would make a difference, 'I would be saying junk it. We can't have the present system. But we haven't seen any evidence of that.'

"Three weeks ago, one of our former military personnel subcommittee colleagues spoke on this subject. Senator Martha McSally bravely came forward to tell about her experience of sexual assault in the military. In a subsequent letter to the Acting Secretary of Defense, she stated: 'I strongly believe we cannot take responsibility away from commanders due to the unique role commanders play in culture, readiness, good order and discipline, and mission.' Senator McSally went on to call for the Defense Department to establish a task force to look for meaningful and immediate changes to improve sexual assault prevention and response.

"Madam Chair, I fully support this task force and I ask that Senator McSally's letter to the Acting Secretary of Defense be made part of today's record.

"As a former commander and district attorney, I know that sexual assault is a scourge on both the military and society as a whole. But from both a military and legal perspective, I am convinced that removing the commander from the process will not help the root issue, and will likely undermine the process. I am committed to working to find meaningful, effective solutions to this problem. I look forward to hearing from today's witnesses about how to do that.

"Thank you, and I yield back."
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