Impatient Congress presses ahead on military sexual-assault law

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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/11/07/207883/impatient-congress-presses-ahead.html



Impatient Congress presses ahead on military sexual-assault law
By Michael Doyle — McClatchy Washington Bureau
Published: November 7, 2013

WASHINGTON — In what seems like a case of ready-fire-aim, Congress is rewriting military sexual-assault laws and policies without waiting for the recommendations of an expert panel that lawmakers themselves once deemed necessary.

On Thursday and Friday, in a courtroom several blocks from the Capitol, the nine-member expert panel established by Congress was to continue its painstaking study of how the military responds to sexual assault. The panel’s recommendations won’t be finished until next summer.

Congress, meanwhile, is already pulling the trigger. As early as next week, the Senate will vote on some potentially far-reaching changes to military law that include a controversial proposal to remove sexual assault and other serious felonies from the usual chain of command.

“Congress set the timeline,” Army Maj. Gen. Gary S. Patton, the director of the Defense Department’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, said cautiously in an interview Thursday. “The panel has been very deliberative in its collection of information . . . we will be as responsive as possible.”