House panel investigates Racial Disparities in the military Justice System to be here for military legal officials and the president of protected offenders during this House Armed Services subcommittee hearing. [inaudible conversations] like to thank you for joining our remote hearing. In ott [inaudible] establishing and maintaining a quorum or dissipating in the proceedings and voting could members participating remotely must continue to use Software Platforms video function while attending the proceedings and other technical problems that render the member unable to fully participate on on camera today for members participating remotely experience as technical difficulties sees contact to the Committee Staff get assistance they will help you get reconnected them recognize video from a we participation will be broadcast in the room in via the Television Internet feed their members participate in remotely are asked to mute their microphones when they are not speaking. Doing so will help to ensure the Remote Technology works properly could members participating remotely will be recognized normally for asking questions but if they want to speak at another time they must seek recognition verbally. Member should be aware theres a slight lag of a few seconds between the time you start speaking and the camera shot switching to you. To account for this please do a quote preamble whatever that means unquote and your remarks before you get to your actual question. Members who are participate in remotely are reminded to keep the video function on the entire time they attend a proceeding for those members may leave and rejoin the proceedings and of the members depart for a short time for reasons other than joining a different proceeding they should leave the video function on spread as members of the asked to join an different proceeding they should exit the Software Platform entirely and then rejoin if they return. Members art buys that ive designated the Committee Staff member if necessary unrecognized members mike a front to cancel inadvertent background noise that may disrupt proceedings. Members may use the Software Platform chat feature to communicate with staff regarding Technical Support issues. Finally remotely producing member should see a five minute countdown clock on the Software Platform displayed but if necessary i will gently remind members and their time is up. Welcome everyone. Today we will be focusing on Racial Disparity in the military Justice System. We are here to discuss the inequalities and injustices that people of color experience in military Justice Systems including those in criminal investigations, courtmartials and nonjudicial punishment. The fact that we live in a country with an ingrained racial bias in no way excuses or justifies the perpetuation of racism and the United States military. Our servicemembers commit their lives to protect our country. We must commit ourselves to ensure that the military treat servicemembers of color equally and justly. We will not solve this problem by hiding it or denying it. We will not solve this problem pretending that it is solely the result of uncontrollable societal problems by pretending that her actions to not contribute to the continuation of injustice by refusing to seek change because we are so comfortable and confident and quote in the way things abaris been done and unquote to the way things have always been done is wrong. The result are repugnant. I hope that all of our military leaders in the room are prepared to acknowledge the need for a reckoning and prepared further to institute old measures to fix the inherent bias in the military Justice System in america. Gaos most recent report found black servicemembers are more likely to be the subject of recorded investigations and more likely to be tried in general and a special courtmartial than their white counterparts. Partly gao found results were statistically significant. Facial data on nonjudicial punishment was not uniformly collected. Protect our defenders in their best edition found black airmen were twice as likely to face nonjudicial punishment than white airmen. As history provides us some solace for the military that the wind integrating our black servicemembers long before schools or lunch counters were integrated. 1940 president truman signed executive order 9981 directing equal treatment for black servicemembers in the military. Subsequently the armynavy air force and marine corps complied. 19 fernandez air force issued a quote l. Of rights for black airmen of the Navy Proposed a recruiting program for enlisting black sailors. Integration did not equal acceptance. Racism and discrimination both personal and institutional continued to people of color who wished to make a career in our military have raised uphill fight and we done too little to assist them through 72 years after integration the fight for equality and justice continues. We still struggle to carve out an equal place for people of color struggle to ensure they have the same opportunities to serve in advance an advance in their current struggle to ensure they have equal justice. We have to look no further than the military leaders of this country almost exclusively white men. It was heartening to note that general Charles Brown has become to air force chief of staff just this week. 70 years but i would like to hear from the first panel would need to change in the system and ensure accountability for every commander who uses the military Justice System and a biased and discriminatory manner. For the second panel i would like to hear how is the senior military lawyer for each service you can educate leaders at all levels to recognize bias in the military Justice System and what you can do to ensure that justice is dispensed fairly and before i introduce my our panel that may give officer kelly a chance. Thank you for holding this hearing at such a fitting time greatest americans of all backgrounds are struggling to better understand Racial Disparity across society at large and to take substantive actions that could make a difference this is a fitting time to this hearing that i want to welcome both of our panels. We appreciate your attention and commitment to remedy a great problem that if left unchecked can underline the readiness of our armed forces. Racial disparity is a very real societal problem and across various criminal justice as we see lopsided rights prosecution and incarceration that should concern every american but this country a is struggle to confront and fixed the problem for decades and we continue to do so but as the event over the past couple weeks of weeks demonstrate we have a lot more to go but his former District Attorney and city prosecutor ive seen my share of it and something neither i nor any of us should ever shy away from or get complacent about the dsouza probably all collectively need to confront headon. Whered i think we can and must make a real difference is in our military. Ive served in the military for over 33 years in the brigade level may note the very real bond our Young Warriors share regardless of background that is very proud to weeks ago when 371 soldiers or mississippi in the 155 Armored Brigade Combat Team all volunteers answered the call and deployed to washington for the civil unrest on three hours notice. They were a very Diverse Group with 43 either africanamerican or minority backgrounds. They trained together, they do play together and did their duty as a Team Together which is what makes our military so great. Answer the call did what they were asked to do and they did it with honor and integrity. They and all servicemembers place theres trust in their leaders and that is why are military is so formidable. This is in context plays a bit of the foundation for what makes the disparity in military justice so troubling for me. Leaders need to do the right thing always betrayed every soldier, sailor or airman and marine with dignity and respect and protect that trust that binds warriors together. Racial disparity persists it always has a negative impact on recruiting readiness and the call to her military. Understand the statistics, the effects of what we need to understand is the call to fashion the right remedies into a quickly. Section 5401 of the nba a in confrontation duguid at the colleges of racial ethnic and gender disparities in the military Justice System and to take steps to remedy disparities but images and hearing from our witnesses on any ideas for rooting out the cause of this problem and potential solutions and where the department is in their valuation of causes and remedies for the understand they are forces initiating an Inspector General desiccation with panels of experts to explore the problem more holistically but images and hearing from all the services about any similar or complementary initiatives. I do know that the space force is not here today and is a new force that think they have a chance to get it right from the start. They conveyed groundbreaking and ground setting because they start from zero. Madam chairwoman i think its a great start and i look forward to the days discussion. I want to thank the witnesses for attending todays hearing and share the collective expertise with us. Senate thank you mr. Kelly. Each witness will have the opportunity to present their testimony to member will have an opportunity to question the witness for five minutes. We respect laos witnesses to summarize their testimony in five minutes. Your written comments will be made part of the hearing record. I ask unanimous consent the nonsubsidy members be allowed to stay and ask questions after all the subcommittee members have had the opportunity to ask questions. Without objection, so ordered. But we welcome our first panel. Retired colonel Don Christensen is up or take their defenders and Brenda FarrellManagement Team of the u. S. Government accountability office. Ms. Farrell is joining us via webex. Welcome. Let us begin with colonel christensen. See mature woman speier distinguished members of the subcommittee thank you for the opportunity to appear before he took salmon the issue of Racial Disparities in the military Justice System provider country the military has a long history of mistreating racial minorities. Black servicemembers have continued to be prosecuted and punished a much greater rate than white counterparts are moreover they suffer from lower promotion rates and are vastly up were representative in after the court specially hit the general and flag officer ranks produced part of the defenders ongoing effort to improve the fairness of the military Justice System 2016 we sought information request to each service on Racial Disparities in the military justice process. The data provided to us in rates per thousand after eventually seeing the data we released a study of our findings from june of 2017 that showed widespread Racial Disparities and all of the services. We examined a total of 32 years of data and in every single year black servicemembers were punished at a significantly higher rate than white servicemembers. Based on her by the Congress Mandated the Government AccountabilityOffice Review of disparities which was completed in march of 2019. The gao found significant Racial Disparities that shockingly the gao found none of the services had done anything to find causes or solutions for disparities. As part of the answer to our 2016 foia request the air force data created quote a cross team led by diversity can inclusion expert to recommend policy changes, process modifications for additional study is appropriate. In july of 2017 we sought the attendees and the qualifications of team members as well as the teams finding and recommendations in addition to other information. This was the start after grueling threeyear long struggle to force the air force to meet its foia obligations. Thankfully we were representative by the Veterans Legal Services clinic which enabled us to file suit in federal court. Despite numerous efforts by the air force to conceal its findings and recommendations of the team the federal judge eventually ordered the air force to disclose request documents under the threat of sanctions. The documents were received were startling or the panel of followup studies by the air force found Racial Disparities were quote consistently persistent in getting worse. The air force admitted the numbers were quote concerning and imports of having quote at what went consistent disciplinary processes. These findings were made in 2016 and despite concluding that the air force quote must clearly address the disparities some white quote the air force appeared to act on the recommendations and address the issue. Another disturbing finding from our review the documents is the air force legal committees efforts to discredit the data showing their own data showing significant Racial Disparities. Despite the strong conclusions that since day one j. Has attempted to discredit the importance of the data specifically in the background the ja created in 2016 they claim the disparity between lax and whites that are punished can be the result of a small number of additional actions are Lieutenant General rockwood air force adds to kid general reinforced this message in a briefing to the air force fourstar we he told unquote even a few additional disciplinary actions have a far greater impact on the rate per thousand due to their smaller numbers the general rockwell illustrated his point using a racial 101 of white airman to black humans rather than the rate of 5130 ideas decadelong disparities can be explained a few additional disciplinary actions. Ja needs to stop this line of argument that the disparity in nonjudicial punishment since calendar year 19 in the air force alone represents an additional 520 article xv for black airman not an additional few as implied by the legal world. In other words black airman received approximately 1105 article 15 year. If they replenished at the same proportional rate as white airman they would have only received 585. The impact of Racial Disparities across all the services in the last 10 years would easily be in excess of 10,000 additional extra punishments meted out against black airman or black servicemembers not a few additional. The air force need to focus on finding solutions and not discrediting its own data. We released a report in may of 26 of this year and it had an Immediate Impact at a credit chief wright in the general for acting quickly by ordering an investigation by the wet mosque to not as the action initiated by the air force last week to investigate disparities would not have occurred if they had been successful in keeping this information from being disclosed. This hearing today would not have been held but for the fact we were willing to force the air force to disclose information that it wished to keep hidden priebus as is a reminder of the importance of transparency by the military must faithfully meet its foia obligations. How much further could the air force be in addressing Racial Disparities if that they have had to put the energy in trying a solution 2016 rather than seeking to cover up its embarrassing failures but i look forward to any questions you have. [inaudible [inaudible] all right, now we are going to hear from ms. Brenda farrell from the gao that is recently provided the report. Ms. Farrell. Some may think you madam chairwoman Ranking Member kelly and members of the subcommittee pray thank you for the opportunity to discuss yells findings recommendations about Racial Disparities in the military Justice System. Uniform code of military justice the usm day was established for fight the statutory framework of the military Justice System contains articles that punish traditional crimes such as unlawful drug use as well as unique military assistance including diversion but every servicemember of the army and navy the marine corps the air force and the coast guard are subject to ucmj with more than 258,000 individuals disciplined from fiscal years 2013 through 2017. A key principle of the ucmj is a fair and just system of military law in a highly disciplined force. My statement is based on a report issued in may of 2019 on the military Services Capability to assess Racial Disparities among other matters prevent me briefly summarize my statement. My statement is divided into three parts. The first part addresses the collection of ethnic groups information and the military Services Investigation military justice and Personnel Database but among our findings we found that the service