Republican senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz have joined Democrat senator Kirsten Gillibrand in a bipartisan effort to reduce sexual assaults within the military by removing cases from the chain of command, NBC News reports. This gives Gillibrand an added boost in lobbying for a vote on her proposal despite opposition from the Pentagon.
Gilliband has been pushing the legislation for months, in hopes of changing the current system used by the military to prosecute sexual assault cases.
"This is not a Democratic idea. It is not a Republican idea," Gillibrand said. "It is a good idea that meets the needs of the victims, creates transparency and accountability and creates the needed objectivity that this issue deserves."
The New York senatorhas long said that victims in these cases have feared retaliation for reporting sexual assault cases to supervisors in their chain of command. The military brass, however, have argued that changing the accountability of supervisors would undermine the trust, which is crucial to the armed forces, NBC News reported.
"I was persuaded by Senator Gillibrand's exceptionally passionate and able advocacy," Senator Cruz said. He joined other Republican senators Chuck Grassley, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mike Johanns in Senator Gillibrand's effort.
"The Invisible War," a 2012 documentary directed by Kirby Dick, revealed how the institutions themselves "perpetuate the crime as well as its profound personal and social consequences."
