A Pentagon panel recently recommended that independent authorities have the call on prosecution, leaving a final decision on that recommendation with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who created the Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military.
With the support of 61 senators, the legislation is now essentially filibuster-proof in the Senate. The Senate filibuster rule requires at least 60 votes for most bills to advance.
And in a sign of new support in the House, in a statement Friday, Turner said that moving prosecution authority for these types of crimes outside of the chain of command “should be on the table.”
Turner will serve as the original House Republican cosponsor of the bill, leading the effort on the House side to pass the legislation.
The legislation in question “strikes a critical balance so that high-level felony cases are fairly prosecuted, offenders are held accountable, and victims are protected while providing commanders the additional tools necessary to retain control over their units and focus on mission success,” Turner said.
“Despite an increased focus on combating sexual assault in our military, this remains a serious issue in our ranks that we have the responsibility to address, and this legislation would take a pivotal step in the long fight for military justice reform,” the congressman also said.
“Congressman Turner is a longtime leader in the fight to combat sexual assault in the military and has a proven record of enacting legislation to deliver justice for survivors,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, said in Turner’s release. “I’m grateful for his strong support for the Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act, which would take the decision to prosecute sexual assault and other serious crimes out of the chain of command. This is a truly bipartisan bill and it’s time to get this done.”
Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, have been the chief sponsors and authors of the bill, with co-sponsors including members of both parties.
A sexual assault charge was referred to general court-martial last month in the case of Air Force Maj. Gen. William Cooley, a former commander of Air Force Research Laboratory, which is headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) Commander Gen. Arnold Bunch Jr., the general court-martial convening authority in the case, referred against Cooley one charge under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, including three specifications of sexual assault under Article 120 against Cooley. Article 120 concerns sexual assault.
A time and place for the court-martial have not been determined yet, an AFMC spokesman told the Dayton Daily News.
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