Military Justice Reform Adopted Into Annual Defense Bill
The entirety of Sen. Gillibrand’s bill has landed in the NDAA. But supporters worry that the political hurdles are far from over.
BY AMELIA POLLARD JULY 23, 2021
After nearly a decade of wrestling with the political whims of the military’s version of #MeToo, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s (D-NY) military justice reform bill has secured another potential path to ratification by making its way into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The NDAA is a must-pass policy measure typically adopted in December. But it’s also a notorious target for political deals, and can be unreliable ground for even popular measures.
Gillibrand has worked diligently on legislation that would bring all non-military felonies out of the traditional chain-of-command process and have them pursued by independent prosecutors. The legislation was triggered by a high-profile epidemic of sexual assault in the military, where victims struggled to bring their assaulters to justice.
Despite securing an impressive 66 co-sponsors for the bill this legislative session, Gillibrand and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), who teamed up to rally support, still faced a block on the Senate floor, ultimately preventing a stand-alone vote. As the Prospect reported last month, that block came in an unexpected form: from Senate Armed Services Committee chair Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI).
https://prospect.org/politics/military-justice-reform-adopted-into-annual-defense-bill/