Senate showdown over military sexual assault bill

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has secured public support from nearly half the Senate, but not enough votes, for her proposal to give victims of rape and sexual assault in the military an independent route outside the chain of command for prosecuting attackers.Gillibrands solution for a problem the military calls an epidemic appears to have stalled in the face of united opposition from the Pentagons top echelon and its allies in Congress, including two female senators who are former prosecutors.Opponents of the proposal by Gillibrand, D-N.Y., insist that commanders, not an outside military lawyer, must be accountable for meting out justice.Even so, major changes are coming for a decades-old military system just a few months after several high-profile cases infuriated Republicans and Democrats.”Sexual assault in the military is not new, but it has been allowed to fester,” Gillibrand said in a recent Senate speech.

via Excite News – Senate showdown over military sexual assault bill.