Transcripts For CSPAN2 Hearing On Sexual Harrassment Retaliation Issues At Fort Hood 20240712

Next a house hearing on Sexual Assault in the military after the death of private first class Vanessa Guillen. They reviewed how Sexual Assault is reported. Victims advocates recommended changing the process. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am the chair, jackie speier, we will have a hearing entitled hashtag me too moment, an examination of Sexual Harassment and perceived retaliation in his apartment of defense at fort hood. The hearing will come to order. We are here to discuss the pernicious military culture, time and time again, report after report exposes an environment ripe for sexual veracity where women are afraid to report their harassers because of fear of retaliation, ostracism or worse, fear that they wont be believed in the harassers wont be held accountable. By declaring hashtag i am vanessa gillen, thousands of taken to the streets and social media demanding respect. Demanding the rules of the, quote, old boys love and locker room talk are no longer the price of admission, demanding the sexually explicit language in the motor pool, in the field, in the office stop, demanding that the unwelcome stairs in the Dining Facility and unyielding sexual propositions or worse stop. In an institution that prides itself in cohesiveness, to leave no soldier behind, we are failing. The use servicemembers and veterans who have taken to the streets, spurred by the horrific circumstances surrounding specialist Vanessa Guillens disappearance and murder raise their voices and lay their story of Sexual Harassment in the military. For too long they have lived in suffered in silence, silence by a culture that doesnt trust women, questions or competence, suspicious of their motives, perceive them as weak and unreliable but their voices will never again be silenced. When our servicemembers put their lives to defend our nation, when their parents, brothers, sisters, loved ones interested child, sister, friend to the military it should be with the comfort that they will not be sexually harassed, demeaned, raped, or brutally murdered by one of their own. Guillens death will not be in vain. You know the story by now. Specialist guillen was murdered in an arms room on fort hood on april 20 second 2020. For her family and loved ones, there is the memory of an Outstanding Young soldiers and the terrible belief that she had been sexually harassed by someone in her chain of command. After specialist guillens sister reported she had been harassed, the president hundreds of current and former military members, women and men, share their stories of Sexual Harassment, assault, and fears of retaliation under the social media Hashtag Hashtag i am guillen and hashtag i am vanessa. Stories like tristans who is in her first week of tech school when she went to a Birthday Party for a fellow airman where she was drugged and sexually assaulted. She had her assailants all received the same punishment, letter of reprimand for underage drinking. Stories like crystal who joined the navy at age 18, on her first deployment was called, when she reported the Sexual Harassment to an official she asked that it be kept confidential but her request was not honored. After the sharp told one of her supervisors the harassment got worse and her commander told crystal that she needed to, quote, grow up. The abuse didnt stop and instead turned physical. A sharp official discouraged her from reporting it saying she could ask herself is it worth it . Crystal reported the assault anyway but her assailants were given a slap on the wrist and one was even promoted. Stories like tylers, and ordinance marine and newly open about his sexuality, respected Staff Sergeant would tease him in front of other marines but also offered to serve as his mentor. This mentorship continued until Staff Sergeant sexually assaulted tyler. Tyler confided in a fellow marine who suggested tyler keep his mouth shut about the incident because he thought the leadership to defend the Staff Sergeant, tylers career would be cut short. Tyler took the advice, kept silent and ultimately transferred to the army. These stories and thousands more provided the catalyst for grassroots movements combating Sexual Harassment, assault in the military to spring up across social media. Rallies individuals were held in specialist guillens name to promote awareness and demand reform. The coast guard is outside the Committee Jurisdiction but the cultural rot is the same. Recently sarah faulkner, the coast guards first female rescue swimmer spoke out against the extreme hostility and debasing she endured throughout her distinguished career of 20 years. She has become a rallying cry for other women and men in the coast guard as dozens more have come forward to share their stories of harassment and assault despite coast guard leadership pressuring them not to speak out or even post support online for sarah and her colleagues who were also interviewed. In the 5part investigative series that was printed recently in 29 daily newspapers in 14 states servicemembers everywhere have raised their voices to demand accountability, callout their perpetrators and demand change now. Their voices are a warning to those who deny the problem. Will glorify a culture not of honor, duty and respect but a culture imbued with misogyny and reticence to change. This is my warning. Sexual harassment, Sexual Assault, retaliation, are never acceptable. Find solutions, fix problems, get out of the way. As john lewis would call us to do, then get in the way. We will not continue to lose soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines because Sexual Harassment is one of the most pervasive and degrading facts of military life. This is a quote from a female servicemember in the story of the Washington Post in 1980. That was 40 years ago. Little has changed in those 40 years except weve thrown a lot of money at the problem. I estimate close to 1 billion now and what do we have to show for it . We are going to explore that today. I have spent ten years on this issue. I dont take any pride in the numbers going down going up because frankly not much has changed. For all we have done not much has changed. We havent fixed it. Until we get very serious about this, nothing is going to change. I think the panels that are here today, we will be hearing from you shortly. Before we introduce the first panel let me introduce Ranking Member kelly for his opening remarks. Thank you, chairwoman speier and for holding this important hearing on this important topic today. Thank you to our panelists for sharing your findings. It is vitally important we understand any positive or negative trends in fort hood. I think both panels will help us get respected on that. Sexual harassment is a scourge across society rooted in ignorance and disrespect that has no place in our military. When younger men and women put up their hand and swear the oath to protect our constitution and country they do it with the understanding and belief that they protect us and that we will protect them. We will protect their dignity, honor their sacrifice, recognize and defend their professionalism, for it maltreatment undermining that commitment and dishonest the sacrifice for each and every one of us. When i was a Brigade Commander in the army i dealt with Sexual Harassment, and sometimes exploited because a gender. The only way to counter the threat is quick and Decisive Action at every level in the chain of command, fighting to establish a culture of intolerance for Sexual Harassment. Sexual harassment demeans the service of these victims are more professional, capable, and committed that those who victimize them. Sexual harassment is a societal problem, that doesnt mean we can accept any lesser levels of harassment in the military and call it a victory. The military is better than that grounded in common values, that have no place for harassment, or exploitation of other Service Members. Any level of Sexual Harassment is unacceptable. Reporting may be trending favorably and that is important so leaders can illuminate and eradicate problems, prevention and response may be improving but any level of harassment is too much. We need to find creative ways for educating and empowering leaders at all levels and the most vulnerable populations of servicemembers to shape culture of intolerance and set conditions, and response at all levels. Im interested in hearing any ideas for how we can make that happen. How we can make institutional change because our servicemembers deserve our fool attention and every effort we can muster, to counter the corrosive impact of any level of Sexual Harassment. I think it has to be personal. It has to be not in my army, not in my navy, not in my coast guard, not in my air force, not in my marine corps. It has to permeate through every senior leader, every noncommissioned officer from the Sergeant Major of each of those services on down and make sure we wont tolerate it from anyone, not in my army, not in my dod. Thanks again for calling this hearing and with that i yield back. Each witness will present his or her testimony at each member will have an opportunity to question witnesses for five minutes. We ask the witnesses to summarize their testimony in 5 minutes or less. Your written comments will remain part of the hearing record. I ask unanimous consent that subcommittee members be allowed to participate and ask questions after the subcommittee members have the opportunity to ask questions. There are also members of the house, members of the Armed Services committee, i would ask they too have the opportunity to ask questions, without objections so ordered. Let me welcome our first panel, Deputy Director of Sexual Assault and Response Office at the department of defense. Then we would hear from patrick wimpthe. You may begin. Patrick wempe. Ranking member kelly, members of the subcommittee and other members, good morning. Appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today. I have committed my life to supporting and caring for child victims and adult victims of violent crime. Since 2007 my efforts focused on prevention and response to Sexual Assault. I wish the circumstances were different and we were not here to discuss the loss of a servicemember, soldier, a daughter. Even with my 30 years investigating violent crime, supporting victims, counseling the wounded did not prepare me for situation like this. This touches us all in some way. But no one feels the loss more than the family. I can only hope the groundswell of support, love, compassion and inspiration that has come in the last few weeks in vanessas name can bring comfort to those who loved and knew her. For the record, no one should suffer but the family suffered. My organization, the department of defense, Sexual Assault Response Office establishes policy and conducts oversight, encourage greater reporting and power survivors to recover and prevent the crime. Harassment policy, investigation and military Justice System outside my portfolio we are keenly aware how these issues play a Critical Role in our work to prevent Sexual Assault and allow those who choose to make a report to do so without fear of retaliation. Although more work remains many of our efforts have resulted in certain powerhouses. The department has two key metrics in the Sexual Assault program. Estimated prevalence or how often it occurs is a number we want to go down and second the number of reports we want to go up which means more victims coming forward to connect with care and support services as well as the defenders appropriately accountable. The data tells us the estimated prevalence rates of Sexual Assault in the department of defense decreased by a third in the past 14 years and reporting of Sexual Assault is four times what it was in 2006. However, in our most recent activeduty survey we saw an increase in the prevalence of Sexual Assault, in addition in that year about 24 of women and 6 of men on active duty indicated experiencing behavior consistent with Sexual Harassment the year before being surveyed. We know we must do more. Fear of retaliation complicates our efforts to encourage greater reporting of misconduct and connect with restorative care. Not all behaviors perceived to be retaliatory, constituting retaliation that is actionable, all behaviors, actionable or not greatly undermine our efforts in this, incongruent with expectations for dignity and respect, to be blunt such behaviors are absolutely unacceptable and have no place in a military that is striving for greater respect and inclusion for all. Achieving and sustaining progress requires continuous institutional examination, reflection and evolution. We acknowledge the gap between where we are now and where the department desires to be. We are committed to working towards lasting, impactful, cultural change. Thank you for your support to the men and women who serve our nation. Look forward to your questions. Patrick wempe. Distinguished members of the subcommittee, good morning. As the Inspector General for Army Forces Command i appreciate the invitation to share information and insights from our inspection of the Sharp Program conducted at fort hood, texas june 20 ninth through july 3rd, 2020. Let me begin by expressing my sincerest condolences to the guillen family. I cannot fathom the acute sorrow and grief they feel with the loss of their daughter, what happened is tragic and should never happen to a daughter, sister or soldier. The team serves as the eyes and ears as commanding general Michael Garrett to meet expectations, we interact with members of the community in a variety of ways at all levels. In our role of inspectors we look at organizations and programs to assist them against existing guidance and organizational findings to identify trendss and systemic factors affecting our units and our people. Our assessments on decisionmaking, on june 20 seventh 2020, general garrett directed me, at fort hood. General garrett was consistent with this type of short notice inspection, as quickly and accurately as possible identify Critical Issues to help fort hood leaders understand the strengths and weaknesses of their institutional environment and recommend specific actions to make improvements. Six personnel conducted the inspection augmented by a sharp trainer and special counsel at fort bragg. This included a written survey of 225 soldiers from 12 battalions and 6 brigades, 14 Small Group Sessions and command Team Interviews with four battalions in two brigades gathering inputs from 200 soldiers and leaders. Additionally we conducted 16 sections with Sharp Program personnel from company to four level. With 450 personnel from across fort hood our inspection was not able to incorporate specialist guillens unit. We reschedule to it completed the inspection on july 1st but the tragic development the evening prior and early that morning cost us to reconsider our plan. I advised, general garrett concurred that due to those developments, impacts on soldiers, we should not complete the inspection of the unit at that time the we believe our findings reflect the climate across fort hood we acknowledge conditions within the 3 cr could differ somewhat between those of the rest, therefore general garrett directed our team returned to fort hood on july 27, 28, to complete our inspection of 3 cr. Time by my deputy and rig Sergeant Majors returning from four hood today and will continue the analysis of the collected data upon their return. At fort hood, with a Sharp Program needing to improve in certain areas but one which units general execute the standard. We observed consistent demonstration and Program Knowledge and awareness of reporting procedures, importantly most soldier said they would report harassed. Most would report if assaulted. Nearly all said that the leaders take it seriously. Our team can identify our team did identify areas needing improvement. A fewed soldiers indicated a hesitancy to report sharp incidents for several disparate reasons. Some soldiers express junior leaders in particular lack the practical experience to respond to a Sexual Harassment or assault incident. Extended hiring timelines for new Sharp Program personnel can result in episodic, episodically unfilled positions. Finally come some soldiers indicated that the sharp training they received is repetitious and unimaginative. Rt made several efforts to reinforce soldiers trust in the process and in the chain of command. Fort hood leaders were receptive and committed to making the necessary changes to address identified a shortfalls. In conclusion, no single inspection can be definitive. We believe our inspection results provide an accurate assessment of the Sharp Program and climate at fort hood. While differences may exist in individual units, reported overall is meeting the standards prescribed by Army Regulations and policies and the forscom team is good to improvements. I get i appreciate the subcommittees invitation to appear today and i look forward to your questions. Thank you, colonel. I yield myself five minutes. Dr. Galbreath, we have spent many, many hours together over the last eight or ten years. I have a great deal of respect for you. I am deeply troubled, however, by the statement you made in your remarks in which you said, estimated prevalence rates of Sexual Assault in the department of defense have decreased by over onethird in the past 14 years. So i pulledrs the figures. Fiscal year 2002 for service women, the w prevalence rate was 24 . In 2006 the year give you quott was 34 . In 2010 at was 21 . In 2014 it was 21. 4 . In 2016 it was 21. 4 . 16 it was 21. 4 . In 20 again it was 24. 2 . If you look at the data it hasnt gottenn better. You i fear plucked this high watermark to make the case that somehow were c doing better wh, in fact, we are not doing any better. Would you like to comment on that . Yes, maam. I would agree with you that the rates you quoted for Sexual Harassment have not changed. The dated that i was citing in my prepared statement were for rates of Sexual Assault over the past 14 years, and we have seen decreases in the prevalence of those but you absolutely right, there is to decrease in the province of Sexual Harassment that weve seen sustained over time. And youre saying if i would like to look at the Sexual Assault data we are going to see, we will not see a similar listing of data that it has dramatically decreased . It has decreased, just. Im going to look that up before the hearing is over and will get back to it. The inspection at fort hood found survey response, respondents did not trust their immediate supervisors to handle a Sexual Harassment or Sexual Assault incident. Supervisors also report they themselves did not feel it quick to handle aned incident despite training here your report also indicates that we need to create a focus onat this. What do we need to do . Everyone has to understand the message that Sexual Assault, Sexual Harassment are not tolerated. But its more than that. We are not born with the skills to necessarily understand whats acceptable and whats not acceptable when we deal with people on an everyday basis. Leaders are not necessarily born with these skills and followers are not necessarily born with these skills to confront people productively but yet have rational a discussions about wht is offensive to them. We bring people in from the service from a wide variety of backgrounds here so for that purpose leaders absolutely need the tools to be able to detect what problems they have in the units. And through that we had been revising our climate surveys to help them identify those topics that are challenging for leaders and to move the needle. In addition to that our junior supervisors, our newest people who see our folks at greatest risk for Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment every day, they also need those skills to be able to understand what Sexual Harassment looks like, how to shut it down and had to encourage everyone to participate in a unit that has respect, and immediately. Im going to have to leave it there because i like to ask a question of colonel wempe. Colonel, we talked last night and you indicated to me that you had these listening sessions and talked to over 223 servicemembers, is that correct . And the servicemembers were mixed in terms of gender, correct . That is correct, madam chair. As we said last night, to get a real fulsome evaluation would require separating out the women so they could talk with a sense of ability to talk freely without having it create retaliatory actions. Do you recognize that mightve been a a better purpose, a bettr way of handling it . Madam chair, i certainly acknowledge the point. What gave us confidence that wee were getting good inputs from all soldiers in this sensing sessions was the very good alignment with the results we got from the anonymous surveys which were entirely anonymous. The results were consistent on trust in the chain of command and balloonist report between the anonymous surveys and information we were hearing soldiers in sensing sessions. I acknowledge the point of the value of the gender specific sensing sessions. In this case there was good correlation between the subjective informatione we got n the survey information. You also said 18 of the 52 women surveyed, more than a third, reported being sexually harassed. Why doesnt your data report include the data on any gender specific way so that we can look at how female soldiers feel as compared to male soldiers . The inspection report that we provided was actually provided to general garrett which is our norm. We provided to our command the dreck says to the duty inspections. And ino this case inspection was focused on the f broader climate at fort hood, and the execution of the Sharp Program at fort hood. And we need to provide him some answers fairly quickly so he would know if there was an immediate problem that needed to be addressed immediately at fort hood. So our inspection report really focus on the major points that we felt were important, the level of trust in the leadership which was high, 94 based on the survey, willingness to report which although not still 100 and we still have challenges there, the willingness to report both assault and harassment incidents was also high, 86 and 87 respectively. So based on the survey we did and the subjective information and t anecdotal information we t from soldiers that we talked to them,ie we felt that for the purposes of this inspection, that immediate initial look at fort hood and their program we felt that answer the immediate questions that needed to be answered. We dont necessarily promote our inspection report as the definitive answer thank you, colonel. My time has expired. Ranking member kelly. Thank you again, chairwoman speier. I want to talk a a little bit. It sounds like that there is a lot of confidence at fort hood in leaders were at the company and higher level. And that any method dissatisfaction is with those at the lieutenant platoon level or at squad level or at some lowerlevel, the junior leaders. I thinknk it support for peopleo understand that in perspective. A Second Lieutenant probably has six months of experience inec te army, or in the navy, an ensign in that case. But they are coming from a culture that would like to others on her Service Academies but i would say that probably 80 of our officers are commission from services outside of the cabbie if not a greater number and most of them come from colleges and universities and rotc. There are exceptions. I would also state most of the issues are with soldiers have been in for less than two years. Sove the of brought a culture wh them. I see our Senior Leadership, thats general garrett who i know and is a superb leader, i see a much greater focus across dod from the seniorlevel leadership, but they are noat longer even lip service. Do youhe see that where our senr leadership, our senior enlisted leaders are pushing down, we will not tolerate . Do you see that in application . As a matter of fact i do. I regularly train individuals in theeg ranks of 05oh six, e7te night and also senior civilians. The changes ive seen over the past ten years are substantive, that the fluency their interest in obama Sexual Assault is increase substantially. They could probably use a little bit more help with Sexual Harassment understand what to do but yet ive seen a great change. Which brings me to my next point. We need to do a better job of the pms, the primary military specialist or the colonel was in charge of our rotc programs. We need tos. Better job in our selection of drill instructors or people who are responsible for these young men and women who come into our service. Im telling you we have to teach it from day one. Weve got to let them know that it will not be tolerated in our army. So i just ask that you refocus your efforts to guess our problems have changed over time. Im saying theyve t gone away. If change. They would from theas Senior Leadership endorsing tailhook, other examples, to now its at the junior come people coming in bringing the culture within and outside only way to eradicate that problem is to send pms is to our colleges and universities which most people comee from, is to basic training, drill instructors who teach him day one, that means more women, more minorities, that means in those positions. The use to be look at pms thats not a good assignment. We need to change that dynamic so would you get a pms job it means a Senior Leadership of the army, trust you the most to bring in our most crucial asset, our individuals. Tell me what you think about that, colonel wempe. Will skypen the issue. Ill speak to what we saw at fort hood during the inspection. As i mentioned, the trust. To the survey and the actual discussions. The trust in the leaders was high. The awareness and the emphasis on the challenge of sharp and the problems that presented. If that was very high. Soldiers were very aware of the Sharp Program, the processes in their opportunities and mechanisms to report. When we took away from that was there was a priority on chart at fort hood. The concern expressed to us by soldiers, with those junior level leaders, was not one of trust per se. It was that they trusted their leaders to take it seriously the junior leaders may not have either the Life Experience of military friends to do with the situation as it was presented to them. So the recommendation to get that issue was expense to us was really the focus some training on the firstline supervisor of that junior leader in the deity initiative said and looks like theyre addressing that challenge. Very quickly with a few seconds i have left. On the means is we have the greatest in seo core in the world. We are the greatest military in the world because of our noncommissioned officers. I can tell you, any success adequate experience analyzing phrases, so maybe we need to shift the focus we need to train sergeants. We need to train first sergean sergeants, platoon sergeants or the equivalent in the navy. Those guys have the Life Experience in there at the levels where they can impact. They have got to trust her platoon leaders, and sergeants. Thank you. Thank you. I express as well as my his colleagues dolan says to the families. And others. Ive been working with this as well for many many years. I remember some of the initial work that we did. And especially, trying to create what became the special victims council. That seemed to be something that if nothing else, give the victims the confidence there was somebody there for them. Because i think what we heard was they felt extremely alone. Nobody would listen and they really didnt believe that anybody cared. So that made some difference. Some are still struggling though partly. You changed nine major laws. Whatever the number was, people told us, let this change things. And we are still at this. I remember in a check the date again. Guess it was june 14th of 2013. In general in australia told people, if you have some sexist problems or issues, gets out. It out now. That resonated with us hereto. Because we believed that it may be some of the are not Strong Enough. From our leaders. And quite honestly, we did not hear that. Although i have to say that i have Great Respect for many of the generals that we were working with at the time. But youre saying from the junior level folks. So that means we have to look at the promotions. What is the climate under which they were working they created their units. And i know we have looked at this and talk about it. But somehow or other, that is not getting through. I also checked back to see, what is happening with australia today. Are they doing a lot better than we are freighted and if you want to check the article, they are not actually in there suggesting that the media is still acting on the belief the boys will be boys. In that system is not going to change very much. I hope we are better than that. I worry as we continue to come back, that is not always the case. I am pleased they cited the fact that women are saying that they have more trust in some of their leaders. And leaders that yvonne further the services pretty and ive heard that as well. Especially in the navy. Because i asked them a lot. Ive always been concerned that somehow when it comes to promotion that were not looking at the right things. We have got to do that. So i wanted to go back very quickly. I know my time is running out. Are you planning to go back to fort hood inspection of the unit do we need to know more about that. Congresswoman, we did actually send a team back. In the last two days, they have been inspecting the units. Because we were not able to inspect it when we were together the first time in late june, early july. I think you can appreciate in this form in particular, and operate by fairly strict relations regarding the confidentiality wc. We do that to protect the soldiers. Because we need them to talk to us and we need to protect them when they do. When be appropriate to talk details about this specifically today. Charlies great details but we did return to the specialist be days. Initial feedback i got from our Inspection Team led by my deputy was very experienced ideas that what they saw was very well aligned with fully sought the remainder of the post when we were down in the first time. If some slight variations in specific with the answer date. No specific variances from what we saw. And just as importantly, they thought they had very transparent and honest if open the soldiers. My time is almost up. When asked about the able process. The specifics are that. Because we had concerns about that in the last hearing. Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you for the hearing in the subject area and the youth of our countries are future. Unless you know this right up top of your head, what percentage of the age eligible youth, young people in list or seek to enlist in the military today for a full percentage. If you dont have a car thats fine thats fine. Im sorry sir i dont know freighted. When the story of Vanessa Guillen broke, my heart broke. In my community, 13 years ago the story was very similar. Stories began to circulate of the Sexual Assault that she had reported. The accused became the primary suspect in her body was ultimately found in his backyard he had murdered her and her body. In this instance, vanessa. My heart sank because once again, the question arises, has the military done anything wrong. In this instance, there were things that really went wrong the window needed to be addressed. I think our oversight, we need to look what has the deity done. Fully not doing pretty night honor to work with the congresswoman. Susan davis on this issue is a result of his death. I got involved with this. We gave victims the ability to transfer. We gave victims, their own counsel and even setting a course of the victims can help their only representation to guide them through this. We divided up her whole task into three categories. Prevention, make certain that we lessen Sexual Assault and harassment. Protection, how we ensure that they have the tools they need. And then prosecution. Ensuring that those who perpetrate these crimes are there. Surely, we can see that we are falling short. I have one question. I fear that when we make it a gender issue, leslie lessen the overall impact of Sexual Assault on men in the military. He gave the percentages for its my understanding that actually more men are assaulted the women. So that was the case up to 2016. 2010 was virtuous fewer men assaulted. As far as numbers go up with women. What i find it interesting about the percentages in the extended week talk about afraid to report to mothers afraid to report in the system in retaliation predict theres also cultural. What are we doing to address this issue of assuring that people will feel that they can come forward. We were at the marines residence. He was telling us what he was doing on the Sexual Assault. An officer, people at the table who during the discussions that she herself would feel afraid to report freighted that of course means that everybodys a victim pretty unit if youre not a victim, but if you believe you are assaulted, that its not worth it to come forward, that your still a victim of the system. Tell me what youre doing in this regard. Were making it very clear from the very highest levels of leadership on down. Then encouraging people to come forward and report is much mars saying make a report worried mandeb systems that protect the confidentiality of people. Thats something that we did that actually brings in many more people than we ever recognized we come in to a report. Just by offering them that confidential ability. In addition that we have to have highly trained people when people do walk in the door, they are heard and respected and assisted in the way that they want. And then we have to have services that appeal to people that really do make a difference in the lives. With respect to harassment and the increase in reporting. As we try to shift our culture, we want more reporting. When we want people to have to be more critical of the environment that theyre working in so that we didnt have the ability for intervention. He could so easily translate into encouraging the environment that promotes Sexual Assault. It. The policies that would put into place for Sexual Assault of 2000, quadrupled the number of Service Members that make a report every never now. We could do the same for Sexual Harassment. I really think that being accurate is really important on this issue. So have the staff give me that stat. On Sexual Assault in the military sense 2006 freighted into thousand six it was 6. 8 percent for women in 2010 it was 4. 4 percent and in 2012 it was 6. 1 percent and in 2014 it was 4. 9 percent in 2016, it was 4. 3 percent in 2018, it was 6. 2 percent. So it was 6. 8 percent in 2006 and it was 6. 2 percent in 2018. That is not a third class. If what you are doing is combining women and men in the military to get that reduction of one third, i dont think thats fair. From income away from sixpoint or 1. 8 percent 2. 7 tenths of a percent from 2,622,018. I think it is really important to be accurate and fair and not let the stats twist the truth. With that, next. Thank you. And i think our panel for being here today. I too was from. Disturbed by vanessas death prayed having lost a sister at a young age. It is something that is devastating for a family. With that get right to my questions. Reportedly for Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment, the number of Court Marshals and injury he sustained about study for 2018 and 2019. While the numbers of administrative actions rose indicating in some instances commands were choosing to stop the perpetrators on the wrist or unload them from the Service Rather than take appropriate disciplinary action. Looking we do to ensure that the commanders are properly investigating and responding to Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment allegations. For Sexual Assault, no commanders are allowed to investigate the crime print all allegations of Sexual Assault are required to be provided to the military criminal investigative organizations. That is been the departments policies from about 2006 freighted for Sexual Harassment, when formal reports to youre correct in investigations are conducted at the command level. I think the best thing that is happened with that though is to get sore ensure that the general Court Marshals convening authority over that individual command is notified of that form of harassment complaint that means is in the light of day. In other peoples eyes are on it. So the reports and restricted, were survivors confidentially disclose an assault without stating or starting an official investigation, saw 17 percent increase from last year. With 2126 reports. To feel that is an increase in restrictive reports demonstrate the lack of in the chain of command. Actually sir, i believe its the exact opposite. I believe they come forward because they perceive as a viable way to protect their confidentiality. It is a of fact, we believe that any report is a good report from the standpoint of allowing our Service Members get here and help that they need. So fit they had faith in the chain of command, why wouldnt they not make an official report. A. Our policy recognize that the reporting of sexual deeply personal decision. So we empower everyone to make the decision that is right for them. We have got to respect that some people make a report will never be right but for others, we give them every opportunity to come forward and in addition to that is a restrictive recorder, you have the opportunity to convert the report to unrestricted participate in about a quarter of the people do that every year. In addition that weve also have a catch serial program which allows them to submit their names and their offender into a system and if theres a match, then we contact them back and see if they would like to participate in the Justice System. So Sexual Assault seems to be more prevalent among Junior Citizens relatively new to the military. So what efforts are put into the system for those who are most at risk. How are we reaching our young junior personnel who are new to the military. And to let them know that this is not acceptable. So we have a variety of ways that we go after them. That first, within 14 days of joining the military, your informed about the Sexual Assault program. This of basic training and then when you go to your vet school, get Additional Information about what is acceptable and was not as far as behavior goes. In addition to that, weve taken a number of different efforts since may of 2019 to ensure the junior leaders that are supervisors will have the skill to be able to address behavior when they see it and shut it down. In addition to that we also providing commanders with new revised surveys that allow them to detect and then take action on challenges with in those units. Says this Training Provided on an annual basis as well. There is annual training. Basic training is on annual parade is when you first come in. This way of masking. It is their refresher every year pretty. Sr. We heard from Vanessa Guillens family. She came forward and tolan family members she trusted that she was being shut under assaulted and did not feel carful reporting that to her chain of command. That is not uncommon. We have heard that so many times here. We need to do something to change that. And without a yield back. Ice to share your reluctance in embracing restrictive reporting. I think it sends a message to, dont rock the boat, this just did the hope that you need. Lets move forward. Lets just put this behind us. Im really not a fan of it. But its in system today. Thank you madame chairwoman for another hearing about the issue. Thank you for your continued leadership in your partnership. I am very grateful for it. Thank you for being here to our witnesses and our panel. All of us have been shocked and horrified about the news of Vanessa Guillen. And once again, my sincerest condolences to her family. Briefly, i ask unanimous consent to enter into the record, two letters from the texas legislator calling on the u. S. Congress to investigate sexual tragic disappearance of Vanessa Guillen and produce findings with utmost transparency. The first from the texas Womens Health caucus. This ticket from the texas Senate Hispanic caucus. Without objection. Thank you that interpreted the call on congress for an investigation along with our chairwoman. Gentlemen, right after the chairwoman mentioned, right after the discovery of Vanessa Guillens murder. In the brutal details became public. You saw women all over the country, talking about their experiences on social media, and on zoom conversations. Having conversations at home. An alarming component of the conversation that i had with one soldier. She talked about the incredible frustration that she and her colleagues had in knowing that Sexual Assault are not even fully investigated or they feel theres not justice attached to those investigations. So she said why bother reporting Sexual Harassment if the results with regards to sexual results are terrible. And she said in fact, that she has been deployed and she said, she knew that there was basically a war outside of the wire that she was prepared for. And there was one inside of the wire she was not prepared for. Just for context. So, i want to ask you specifically, the ig report indicates that most soldiers responded, that they would report assault. 86 percent would report it. However, the same investigation shows that just 50 percent of those who were assaulted in the last year, actually reported it. I didnt see that your recommendation address these issues. Why not pretty and also how should deity and sharp addresses disparity. If i could just make a point to clarify. What we did was an inspection rather than investigation. And those are two distinctively different things. For the inspection, it did indicate that only 80 percent of those have been assaulted reported yet 86 percent indicated that if they work reported were assaulted, they would report. I think this statistic is a little bit misleading because it was such a small sample size for those who had been sam turn assaulted. There were four and two of those had reported. So very small sample size. And because it was an anonymous survey, we werent able to dig into this case specifically as to why are white they did not report. More broadly and i think its very important point that even though a 6 percent in the case of Sexual Assault, indicated they would report. 87 percent indicated that they had reported if he had been a victim. We know not everybody reports. Our assessment indicate the footage is very high and that in no way detracts from those who choose not to report for whatever reason. In terms of that difference between a very high level of trust in command, is still high of lesser level those of willing to report either assess harassment or assault. In this sensing sessions we really tried to understand why that was, why there would be that disparity between the trust level and willingness to report and what we found, and broke down into ay number of different reasons, deeply personal is being made by somebody who has experienced significant event. There wasnt any one reason of those that stood out to us as to why he would not report if they had experienced exit. Just super quickly, have any recommendations you made been adopted . We had. They are doing planning down there already in there alreadyn terms of how to elevate particularly some of the training recommendationsen we made. Additionally, some of the other programmatic recommendations we made about the processing of new Sharp Program personnel, our team look into that earlier this week while they were down there for theha revisit. It appears they didnt see, our team could not see a specific reason for a backlog in the processing. Itee was just a process that is very deliberate and very, j very careful about who ultimately goes into the Sharp Program position. Im out of time. Thank you so much. I yield back. Ms. Luria, youac are recognized. Thank you, madam chair, and i would just like to start by saying i entered the military july first, 1993 and i feel like in all those years since then in the 20 years i served very little has actually change in what is happening. You talk over and over again about the programs youve implemented. I lived through that. I lived throughgh those changes, all of them but actually feel like we actually have to do something differently. I applaud chairwoman speier year for an effort you put into this years ndaa that ms. Sherrill and i supported and we would like to look at how that type of change of an independent prosecutor or something in addition to supplement, to help with this problem with the chain of command can help with this situation in the future and peoples ability to report. I would like to yield remainder of my time to ms. Sherrill. Thank you so much. I couldntth agree more. It feels like many of the issues that heard about in 1990 when i was 18 and and entered the academy we are still talking about today. I would like to mention some things. Im going have to head down to the floor after this site you want to quickly say thank you so much to ms. Del gaudio for coming today. She is a member or she is from my state of new jersey. She has stood up for women throughout new jersey for many years now and now i am proud she is, to stand for without the nation so thank you so much for coming m today. Something that chairwoman speier said that has been c very concerned is in your finding about 18 of the roughly 50 women reported being sexually harassed, is that correct . Yes, that is correct. And you said that the majority of women in your survey would report this. They told you they would report Sexual Harassment, is that correct . Yes, that is also correct. Have been reports from over onethird of the women on the base that they have been sexual harassed, is that what the reporting has told us . R congresswoman, i would have to take that for the record. We did notid look at the overall reporting percentages or prevalence at fort hood as part of our inspection so i would have to take it for the record. It occurs to me that there would be a good way to check your survey to determine if, in fact, that women are really feeling free to comef forward ad i would suggest that if over a third of the women at fort hood are reporting being sexual harassed, that that is certainly a real concern of mine and something that really has to have further looking into. I also want to focus on the finding that the Sharp Program at fort hood is operating just added it was after finding . Yes, it was. If that is true it really leads to serious questions about the usefulness of the Army Standard itself. Iv Sharp Programs operating at standard missed the Sexual Assault and eventual murder of a soldier at fort hood, the standard is flawed. What steps are being taken by the army to assess that standard itself and what changes would you recommend . Our inspection did not look at the actual policies or regulations themselves. We strictly looked at the units ability and the level of execution against those standards. I would have to defer to others in terms of any initiatives or movements within the army to change the standard itself. I do think, however, having said that, we didnt look at the specific standards, if the intent of the policies and regulations is to maintain focus on the topic of sharp and the prevention of incidence and the reporting of incidence, what we saw was in the units that we talked to, we did see a lot of awareness of the topic, a lot of engagement i and investment in e topic at all levels of the soldiers that we talked to, and an absolute appreciation of the priority that needs to be placed on it. We did see that, so that respect i think the intent of the standards as they pertain to soldiers p and how they do shar, i think what we saw at fort hood indicates that it was having a very good effect notwithstanding the effect, or the point, the broader point i made may not be having the entire factin we are looking for. I think maybe our measurements effect need to be adjusted simply seeing reporting overer a third of the women beig sexual harassed if we have a number that took place on fort hood. I have grave concerns about how were measuring success in this instance and a think we are failing quite frankly. My time is up and i get back but thank you soo much for your testimony today. Today. It is true there is a Short Program and people know about the Short Program, you are able to check those boxes, you also indicated that the sharp 360. The one that they have a facility, bar, and act out, that was not well known to any of the people or very few of the people that you interview. Is that correct . That is correct. We were not aware of it before we got down there, one of the Short Program people that we interviewed on the first day mentioned it in our team went and took a look and we they were impressed with the platform for sharp training that the facility provides and the few shoulders that had gone through Small Group Training at the facility spoke very, very well of the facility but its absolutely true was not well known. The Short Program is online for the most part. In terms of the regulations and the policies, what that requires of the units, yes, madam chair it was online from what we saw. Youre recognize for five minutes. Madam chair, thank you for convening todays hearing. As a mother, as an indigenous woman and a proud member of this committee, im deeply saddened and disturbed to hear about the loss of specialist vanessa, and i understand i am not alone in feeling this way. I said my heartfelt condolences to gloria and myra, vanessas mother and sister to the men and women in our military communities and our witnesses here today who are also grieving and searching for answers. It wish that circumstances were different and that congress couldve done more sooner to address the pervasive climate of Sexual Harassment and assault in our military. I hope todays hearing will lead us down a relentless path toward swift military adjustments reform which from my colleagues say they waited a long time for these things and protections for all of our men and women who serve. I understand the Inspector General of fort hood concluded the Short Program and executed as prescribed and needs Army Standard. Many military women have come forward to share their own personal stories of Sexual Harassment in a Sexual Assault. These women have shared and been overlooked in silence. How do you rectify your findings with the real lived experiences of these women and is there something that has been overlooked . Congresswoman, the execution of the program is standard, the problematic of the start progr program, that was one of the objectives we looked on that was focused on, are they doing the training and doing it consistently, what is the level of awareness of soldiers of the Short Program itself, all of that was very strong for what we saw with the units that we inspected. Probably more critical for the question, the objective that are inspection that looked at climate and it affects whether or not the incident happened but what happens after an incident happens. So we put a lot of focus on that objective, the one of climate, although it is true from the survey information or the subjective information or from talking to soldiers entrusting the leaders into take it seriously was very high, trusting the willingness to report was also high, that does not preclude the experience of individual soldiers and we know the incidents are still occurring, common sense says that, our survey indicated that in the dod statistics indicate that. We know the incidents are still occurring and we know there is work to do, focusing on the 16 or 17 and why theyre not reporting and how we can make it more comfortable or easier for them to report, i think thats very important. So that we really understand the problem and its scope. Better than we do now. Im just curious, have you personally read any of the me too military stories that are out there . Im not on social media ive not read them directly, i read a lot of the press reporting about the stories that have been on social media. Me two stories are very personal, there from the women themselves and i would encourage you to take a look at some of those because they think theyd be very informative. I yield. Madam chair, i yield. Thank you. Mr. Crow, you are recognized for five minutes. Thank you, chairwoman for holding the trulyir important hearing on a critical issue for our young mennd and women. The military goes to Great Lengths to instill esprit de corps to instill culture among its ranks. When i was a young enlisted soldier my career started when i was in the enlisted ranks as a private. I remember going to basic training, and the amount of time thathe was spent learning knowledge, you were given this book and you were told to memorize the army song, army history, the great battles in american history. You memorized the ranks, the command structure. Its a reflection of the priorities of the force, where you spend your time and construction was broken down by the hour, x number of hours on marksmanship, x number of hours in physical fitness. And where we spend our resources. So with that in mind im concerned that our time and resources still do not adequately reflect the priority and the urgency of this issue. Dr. Galbreath, you said that within 14 days new recruits are informed about the program, and then when they go to their advanced training, they are provided quotedv Additional Information about the program. So can you shed some additional light for me as to how many hours of instruction and how much time is spent for these new recruits who getet their first exposure to military culture and the priorities of our force to instill in them how critical this issue is . I dont have that number on me because this is a Service Equity that they all execute just a bit differently, but it is once again this is a potential amount of time spent. I just dont know what it is per service. I think you would want to know that. You are one of the top leaders in the program that is designed to instill accountability into our force and i understand theres some disparities, but this starts from day one. Im dismayed, to say the least, that you dont know how much time and effort is spent instill in culture and priorities on our recruits from the first day they step off that bus, right . Because when you get yelled at by the drill sergeant , but were clearly not doing that with an issue of critical importance that comes to the the esprit de corps, the culture, the culture of our military. I want for the record to get information from you and id want to know that this will remain a priority. R dr. Galbreath, can you tell me how many of the sharp representatives throughout the force i believe that the gs level, they start at the brigade level, how many of those are women . The vast majority of them are women. I dont have the exact percentage of what the gender breakdown is, but speedy so its overer 50 . Understanding. Vast majority is all that you know. Again, thats a number i would expect you to know. Reflection y and how allocating the resources and what we would expect as a leader as this organization would have the information, you would know how many women are out there within our units actually addressing this issue. The last part in question id like to make, dug tailing on the Ranking Member general kelleys comments about the impact of mcos because we talked a lot about the Office Record and the buck stops with officers, the d c is are critical, i could not agree more with general kelleys comment that if you want to know whats going on in the barracks and off hours on the weekend, its our sergeants, are mcos that know its going on within the units and i dont believe were adequately training and equipping mco core through the mco Development System and Education System to lead on this issue. My last statement would actually be a request that we figure out a way to better equipped and use them as her eyes in years and tools on the frontline to address this crisis. Thank you, madam chair, i yield back. I think the gentleman thank you, madam chair, thank you so much for your leadership on this issue and for agreeing to let me wave in since a do not serve on this committee. With that said, gentlemen, if i get some of the acronyms wrong, please bear with me because im not a n member of this committe. Madam chair, your leadership on this feature hase. Been consistt and youram support as a member o represents the guillen, in houston, i can tell you they know that you are there with them and that this committee is supportive. Because not only does the family grieve, houston greaves, the nation grieves. When we see in march in houston a 3000 people in the middle of the heat, but we also see marches across america about 40 or 50 on one saturday. This is a topic that is very, very, very concerning to many, many people. Im going topl pick up where my colleague left off. When were these standards, standard for criterium for reviews or inspections, when with those developed . Just quickly, they year. The year. I believe the dod level standard was last updated in may of 2017 i believe. So is there a below standard, above standard or set the onlyel option . The policy both dod and army prescribes what the requirements are for training and for programmaticir thinks. But for you t to decide whetr the programs are working, is the only option that can be instead or not standard . Like im used to performance reviews, theres above standard, below standard or needs improvement. They are either standard or not standard. And our methodology as igs, because we do with so much subjective information as we receive it from soldiers, our assessment that we make about whether or not its meeting the standard is, it includes some information but also includes a lot of subjective information from the soldiers. We just make our assessment so that is the only option . And that is correct. Because it iss disappointing that it is a steady, there would still be about onethird or more of that is not reporting. If you look at especially i looked at e i i also dont understand the difference between a, formal complaint and informal complaint. In dealing with Sexual Harassment specific of the formal complete would be one to the chain of command or two of va in a goat through the formless process of investigation. Tell me about informal. Informal would be the soldier for timeliness purposes the ideal is the soldier deals with it immediately at the issue gets remedied immediately. It wouldnt be that she told her parents. It wouldnt be that she told her sisters. It would be that she told her friends on the base, thats informal in my view. Informal in this context from the army would be reaching out to somebody within the unit or within so if you told a number of her unit at her unit was not in the survey, correct . That survey was just completed with her unit, the previous two days. Right but if you told someone in her unit, that would be informal . A victim would have the option of making them regardless of who the told they would have its a very direct question. If she did share her story with friends and her h unit, is thatn informal complaint . It could be less she intended it toe be a formal complaint. We certainly dont know her intention. She cannot tell us. She could tell her story we probably wouldnt have to have this hearing, but, unfortunately, she is not with us. So if she told her friends in the unit or someone on the base, is that an informal complaint . If she did not express the intent to make it a formal complaint, then that would fall into the speedy you are thinks it would have to go insane sheila, you know what, i was Sexual Assault adjusted but it do want to make that informal complaint . Someone has to consciously say that s they have to want to make an informal complaint . It seems a little the victim has the option either making it thats their decision. Its really disturbing to me that the numbers still dont look a good, and when i looked t your, i guess it is appendix f of the report, what did catch my eye is this formal, informal complaint and how it mixes with your numbers. You also have anonymous complaints. I wont ask you about those because im sure that i will hear that the victim had to have some conscious level of saying it was non anonymous. I like to think youll need to rethink your assessment, something other than just standard. Because obviously that doesnt quite meet todays demands. I dont know, like what the history is of how those were developed, but i think if were going to look at making change that is maybe one of the institutional changes we need to make. Then i want totu quickly ask dr. Galbreath. You mentioned in response to my colleague, there was a very great number of women that were sharp officers or Program Manager . Sexual assault advocates. Are any of those women of color . Yes, they are. Do we know how. Many. Was i have 2000 Sexual Assault victim advocates, about 2500 our fulltime members, and some of them are people of color. Okay. In inspection but its not an investigation because you wanted to make sure that we quickly went in there until whats going on in fort hood. You started june 23, no july 27 . We arrived and began work of june 29. That is not really in a hurry because she went missing april 22. I sent a letter of inquiry o i went a letter of inquiry and visited june 23rd. Four months later is when you started your inquiry. Does it usually take that long . Because news reports from the very, very beginning mentioned Sexual Harassment. Her family shared that story from the very, very start. Why did it take so long for you all to try to go in to look at the snapshot in case you needed to do something. Miss garcia, we are going to have to ask for a very short answer. Okay. Thank you. The investigative efforts began immediately. We were not part of the investigation by cid. So i cant speak to their timeline or details. No, i was asking your response to Sexual Harassment. Our inspection was to look at the climate at fort hood. It was general garrett that assigned that task. Yes. Thank you. Miss Sheila Jackson lee, youre recognized for five minutes. Madam chair, thank you so very much for your stupendous relationship and certainly the opportunity thats been given to women members and men members. United States Congress to work with you on this extremely important work. Thank you to congresswoman davis that led that effort and we have had the opportunity to work with susan as well. I joined my neighbor and dear friend, congresswoman sylvia garcia, who has given stupendous leadership, tragically, to this issue and my fellow colleague, congresswoman escobar. I, too, have come on this committee because of the enormous pain that the whole community, the whole state of texas and of course, now the nation feels about janessa. So my colleague has focused on questions i would like to followup up on at the same time i wanted to make sure that we all saw what kind of vibrant young soldier that the nation lost. This represents a youngster in high school who was the best athlete. There were men who said i cant believe how athletic and strong she was. The minute she graduated on june 9th she shipped off for basic training. A true patriot and a family who came to america and did all they could for their children s true contributors to this nation. I think what pains me she was missing for 70 days and the gruesome brutality of her murder. Murder. I want to focus on the legislation that i think is imperative. So, i want to, though you were, i understand, congressman speer mentioned another. Read this in. Army Officials Say never reported Sexual Harassment through official channels. She had told her mother that a soldier had harassed her, and told her best friend that a soldier walked into the shower. That was known throughout houston and painful. She told her mother. Her superiors would laugh or brush it off, if she said something. She bristled at the idea of quitting the army, she would not violate her oath. So, we have a real problem. My colleague pursued informal, this is not a complete system. If you have young soldiers, male or female, but in this instance saying her superiors would laugh or brush it off, then did your study pierce into, as congressman crowe said, i think he called them the sergeants ncos, did you pierce into, did you try to understand, to break that culture . Did you interview . And out of that report did you develop policies that do not go to the umbrella, the base commander, but get to the individual nco . Because we lost a life because some young soldier, so athletic thought that they would bristle or that they would laugh it off. The number one question. I want to get this other one in. I think there was a number that you were able to get everyone or you thought you reached everyone except 16 or 17 , need to get that explained. Leaving that number of people still impacted by Sexual Harassment means that youve got thousands of soldiers. Because we have millions of soldiers that may be impacted by the failure of real policies of dealing with ending sexual harassme harassment, then the last question would be, its trending upwards as i understand, what are we doing to get it to stop trending, but the first question is really, how do you how did you assess or pierce where vanessa was for her to have relief . All right, miss jackson, we have 11 seconds, see if you can fill those. In the case of our inspection, congresswoman, we did ask those questions, again, trusting the leadership, indicated to us by soldiers was very high. And in assessing sessions and interviews with them we tried to bore into why they would not report. A variety of reasons, very personal reasons why they wouldnt report. Certainly how they would be perceived by others was one of the various reasons they indicated they would not report. Thank you, madam chair, i want to join with congressman crowe, we need to deal with the sergeants and ncos, there has to be better culture for men and women enlisted. I yield back. Thank you, i want to thank our two witnesses for your tomorrow today. I think its very important as we study this issue to recognize that colonel wempes investigation was not scientifically based, and you cannot extract from that that it is relevant to the entire force. I think you would agree with that, doctor, correct . Thank you very much. Well now have our second panel come forward. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] the hearing will come back to order. I now welcome our second panel, miss melissa bryant, Grass Roots Movement, u. S. Army veteran. And miss lucy dellgadio. Thank you both for being here today. Miss bryant, would you like to begin. July 29th, 2000. I was a 20yearold cadet stationed at fort hood for Cadet Training as part of rotc. At first i was intimidated by the sheer expanse that was fort hood, amazed you could drive for miles and miles and still be on post. I was assigned to a military police unit there was no platoon leader to shadow to learn how to be an officer. I shadowed the sergeant, and spent time in the arms room, the range, motor pool and post exchange, joking around ignoring the occasionally overt sexual comments, i wanted to fit in. I had a silver sign on my cap, i ras lower than a cadet and a private. And laughing off comments made about my physique with junior enlisted soldiers all because i didnt want to make a scene, it wasnt like you to pull rank when youre a cadet. And the men while nice guys were indifferent of the nature of the banter. And i imagine thats how she felt when someone outranked her, lower in her direction than not in command. Congresswoman spier, and Ranking Member and members of the committee, on behalf of gender diverse veterans and allied supporters, we thank you for the opportunity to address the critical issue of Sexual Harassment and retaliation in the military following the tragic murder of u. S. Army specialist Vanessa Guillen. Sexual harassment in the military is not only an epidemic of fear, it is a National Security risk. The integrity of the unit cohesion thus reducing personal readiness, it compromises mission and readiness taking members out of the combat ready ranks emotionally, critically and in specialist guillens case violently and permanently. It has to do with dominance and nothing to do with sexual gratification. Those of us lucky to survive this, pervasive hostility, Veterans Affairs once we take off the uniform in an attempt to claim benefits for post Traumatic Stress disorder from mst. One in five with harassment were sexually assaulted, permissive environment for harassment can falsely perceive permission for an assault by an offender. It is concluded by dod that Sexual Harassment is the leading factor affecting the unit climate on Sexual Assault. The data also show the majority of victims were harassed by someone in their chain of command. And perhaps most stunning, 1021 complaints were investigated in 2019, 10 increase from fy18. Its common belief that the reportings is ramped up education efforts to destigmatize reporting Sexual Assault in the ranks. It begs the question whether dod had the full grasp of the broad scope of the problem. And specialist guillen expressed to her family, the majority much mst survivors to remain silent. The latest data show 64 of women who reported a Sexual Assault faced retaliation that 66 of retaliation report alleged that retaliator he is were in the chain of command. And discharged other than honorable conditions thus impacted their Service Connect connected benefit claims as veterans. In fy18, one in four victims who did not report assault feared retaliation from their coworkers. Many have internalized that it would be unfair results in no outcome or worse, adversely impact their career and the trauma doesnt end there. One in five Women Veterans accessing va have reported being the victim of mst and 25 of the Women Veteran population reported inappropriate comments by veteran counterparts while receiving care. And i hope this eliminates seeking j inventory when mst survivors which mst survivors endure, prevent loss of life from suicide or homicide. Reblaming, revictimization when recalling the experience later in the life and ptsd and other ailments from the military Justice System that repeatedly failed them. It does not always bet better with time and we cannot loose another specialist guillen. Not one more. Again on behalf of the thousands of Service Members and veterans allies of all stripes who mobilize in the last few weeks to demand justice for specialist guillen and thousands who came before her we thank you for the opportunity to share our views on this miscarriage of justice to advocate for swift passage of military justice reforms such as those underlined in congresswoman spiers. Would you please wrap up, miss bryant . Yes, maam. I agree with Ranking Member kelly mst is a scourge on our armed forces in the trust and institution thats the u. S. Military and leading in this grass roots to not only shut down fort hood because of specialist guillens future and until until conducted. Thank you. Thank you, miss bryant. You are now recognized for five minutes. Good morning congresswoman speier, Ranking Members and committee. Im a United States army veteran and advocate and member of a coalition of gender diverse veterans seeking justice for specialist guillen and survivors. Ive served as a reservist. My advocacy work is sexual crimes predominantly women who experienced harassment affecting their military service. I was born in new jersey to cubanpuerto rican parents. After my father passed an away in 1989 my mother could not afford two daughters in college and i followed in my brothers footsteps. Im one of minorities who follow this path and we seek to create equity and serve as patriots that we are. If i use one word for my military service, its tarnished. In 1990, i experienced racial slurs and and even trusted members would affirm to me its just part of military culture. I was sexually assaulted overseas in 1992 by a senior nco, reporting through my chain of command was my only option and nothing was done. I was told that any pursuit for justice and accountability would ruin his career, despite being a highly motivated soldier who was good at her job, retaliation still impacted my career. I did not speak openly about my military service or assault until 2015. These stories we bring to you are like broken records. In 92, same year i was assaulted, one testified before the senate Armed Services committee about the topic, she and others made it clear at that tailbrook was the tip of the iceberg. Today i testify before you 27 years later working tirelessly with a powerful Grass Roots Movement that confirmed on the fight for justice for specialist haveVanessa Guillen, 20yearold who died. We fear for our future, we fear for retaliation and ive come to see this too many times amongst my own story. Nearly every year it points to the rise in numbers of cases yet we dont know how many have gone unreported. Who are the people not reporting . Theyre the privates and the lieutenants, the sergeants, the commanders. Theyre the ones who do not feel safe reporting. They are the havevanessa guille if only a small number report assault and rape, who is going to take the risk to report harassment. There is no selfreporting mechanism. Theres no protection for our victims, theres no accountability for predators. The murder of Vanessa Guillen is one, a long line of issues going on in fort hood. The base is a hot spot. This year 23 soldiers in fort hood have died or found dead. It begs the question, what is happening at fort hood. Each new story that ive received from women at fort hood are heartbreaking. My mom and aunt pressured me to Say Something, but i didnt. Cid closed my case without notifying me. He got off with just an assault charge and later promoted. I was pushed out for not getting over what happened to me. The triggers never go away, they just lessen with time. These are the steps i asked for congress today. Open the congressional investigation into the death of specialist Vanessa Guillen, including a visit to fort hood so you can review the facilities yourself firsthand and see whats taking place there. Remove reporting of Sexual Assault and harassment from command jurisdiction and create an outside investigation entity. Command have proven that they are incapable investigating themselves and bringing accusers to justice. Require all future dod annual reports to include data separated by installation to identify the problem post for readiness and compliance issues. The culture of power and control creates and molds toxic leadership. This system is so static, it is gorilla glued to the floor of the basement. We cant see the Glass Ceiling when it comes to elimination of Sexual Harassment and fault in the military. If this is going to change the dod must take this issue seriously. Zero tolerance means zero tolerance. Military justice must be swift and must be just. Thank you and i look forward to your questions. Thank you for your powerful statements. Miss dell gaudio. You referenced there were 23 soldiers at fort hood who died or found dead. Im deeply troubled by the homicides that have taken place that are still unsolved, you mention suicides, combat death, and do you have the other 11. We have reports from other avenues, ill further melissa, if you want to address that . No, i dont of it either. I was saying that it is something that we do recognize the permissive environment Sexual Harassment has seen an impact of, in a portion of those 23 deaths, those homicides that have taken place, but we would have to give that back to you for the record, maam. Where did you get the data . All over the news media, different reports that weve seen from different individuals that did not want to disclose who they are within the fort hood community. All right. Miss bryant, you reference that a third of those who are harassed are separated, which was astonishing number i hadnt heard before. Where did you come up with that figure . Yes, chairwoman. That is, excuse me, pulling my i believe that was pulled from one of the va reports that i have from the Veterans Benefits administration. The one third that were separated under other than honorable conditions as well has also been noted. Im sorry, im looking for my exact quote here. Well, maybe you can just provide it to the committee. Its something that we have to look at with greater detail. Im going to allow you each a minute of time to talk to us without the benefit of notes or scripts. Tell us what we should do. First and foremost, the amendments that are currently within the fy2021 ndaa that relate to the reporting chain, that relate to allowing a removal of bias in the chain of command, taking it to a special prosecutor, to be able to have impartiality in investigations and in prosecutions of sex crimes in the military absolutely must pass. And this would remove the implicit bias. I can speak as a former captain, a former commander, when i was just 25, 26 years old and i had an nco who came and spoke to me and told me about her Sexual Harassment and assault and i didnt know what to do at the time. This is in 20052006 time frame and i didnt know what i should have been doing at that point. I asked her repeatedly, i want to make this a Public Record and see if we can assist you in any way we can and she declined. And this has been repeated over time. 15 years, 20 years, nothings changed, tailhook nothings changed. We need the bias to be removed and the reporting chains to be permissible for soldiers and other Service Members to be able to speak with comfort and without fear of retaliation. Thank you. Miss del gaudio . I have to say that listening to the panel before me, i felt that they were doing a lot of blame on the Sharp Program and i dont think thats fair. I think we have to look at ncos, the toxic creation of their leadership because thats where it stems from. Its just a continual cycle of toxic leadership that is the gratification of degrading women, degrading men, degrading, you know, our lbgtq community. Its just the way the military works and, sir, when you said about its not my army, that really affected me. Because when i went into the army, i followed my brothers footsteps. He was my recruiter and he assured that that his army was going to take care of his little sister and it didnt, it didnt take care of me. We have to do better by our women. We have to do better by our women minorities, our black and brown, latinas. Were affected that e1 to e4 pool in the army are targets. We have to do better by them because nine out of 10, those women want to stay and their experience doesnt let them stay and retention is blown away. I wanted to stay in the military. I wanted to make it a career. My brother served in the marines for 22 years. My brother served in the army for 32 years. I wanted that and it was taken away from me because i didnt feel safe. Thank you very much. Ranking member kelly, youre recognized. Thank you, chairwoman speier, first of all, thank you each of you for your service to this great nation. Thank you, even if it was a bad experience, still thank you for choosing to serve our country. That is very admirable. I do want to talk about it bothers me that we talk about 23 deaths and we relate all of those to Sexual Harassment, but we dont know who the 23 are. That bothers me. Thats a statement that, i dont need numbers thrown out, i need actual facts that have a basis so that bothers me, and then i want to touch a little bit on specialist guillen. Amazing human being and that should never have happened, an amazing soldier. That should never have happened. I dont think theres anybody on this panel, i dont think theres anybody at fort hood, i dont think theres anybody in the department of defense who in any way can justify her unlawful and awful killing. My heart and soul goes out to that family. When you serve your nation, you expect to be protected. That being said, the Sexual Harassment and the martyr of two separate things. They are not connected in any way and to suggest otherwise is just not true. That is not what the facts now, there may be other facts later that reveal that, but i can tell you from my knowledge, and ive had people testify on this, and ive been to fort hood. I spent over a year of my life at fort hood and it is a large sprawling complex. I think each of you we have to be real careful because words have meaning and there are consequences to tying things together that are unrelated and i think they have a negative impact on what were trying to achieve because im going to tell you what im trying to achieve. I want a department of defense that no Sexual Harassment or no Sexual Assault ever occurs. That no racism, no extremism, is ever allowed. Now, i know thats a rainbow and cherry tree approach because there are bad people in this world and there always will be and some of those will become soldiers, sailors, airmen or marine. That is my goal. What can we do, what can we do to our nco corps because i think thats the key. I think thats the key. What can we do to train or instill or inspire our Service Members at the proper level to let people know when you do this, the entire army, the entire navy is going to out you. Were going to put you out there to shame you for doing these dastardly deeds that youve done. What can we do in training our ncos. In training our ncos, thats key to this. Its at all levels, at the service academy, its at boot camp, at ait, it needs to be continuous and irritative. We need to inculcate into our ranks that there will be consequences and repercussions for your action. I disagree, that the ive experienced, lucy experienced and specialist guillen, to talk about our uniforms and grope and im reclaiming my time. A hostile environment. Reclaiming my time. I absolutely agree with what you just said. What im trying to do is what can we do for our ncos, our junior officers, our senior officers, what can we do to make sure that this doesnt continue to happen, thats what i want to do. I agree theres a problem so im not disagreeing. Its not a yearly discussion, its a continuous discussion. We just do, you know, a few hours in basic training, a few hours in ait, maybe they go to bnoc or others, it has to continue. Its a conversation, its happening all the time. We have to have the candid discussions. We have to create a culture if i say to melissa, im being harassed, its a it has to be a courageous conversation. We do not create a courageous conversation. We have to instill that in our military. If a woman, a man, wants to go into the military, we have to say, okay, xy and z could possibly have and you can be courageous enough and we can protect you. Let me reclaim. I agree. Weve got to teach them early and measure like mr. Crowe says, its got to be on time and hours and blocks of instruction, continue not onli online, and throughout a career. With that ill yield back. Thank you. I think the key is weve got to change the whole program because online is not cutting it and i agree with you. I think the ncos need to have specialized training as well. Miss davis, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair and thank you, miss bryant, miss del gaudio. Im very pleased that youre here. Thank you. And for all that youve done to certainly highlight and bring the attention to specialist Vanessa Guillen. I wanted to ask you about a little bit about your look at what happened regarding awol for miss guillen. What did you see that was correctly . What blew me away is if a weapon went missing, nobody would have been allowed to go home. Her property was still her unit. That should have indicated something. We were more accountable for the weapons in that unit than for our own soldier right there. That blew me away. A weapon had more accountability and that young woman soldier. That to me was heart of wrenching. We have to do better by us. If you have evidence that happened. Her stuff was there. Vanes vanessas stuff with as there and awol to miss bryant, i understand that private gregory for morales under the sim circumstances. Was it because they just decided that there was something about maam, i think the issue that is the elephant in the room in the military is addressing race. Is addressing the intersectionality that impacts our service, those of us, women are color know that burden all too well. Im sure the Committee Heard the five years that bo bergdahl and how much the army and military spent looking for him. She was missing, her stuff was there and no one went looking for her because black and brown women go missing all the time and no one cares. There was a sense that she walked away and that was striking. Truly striking. Were trying to get at some of the ways in which, as people are recruited, come into the service, serve for nco or noncommissioned officer or even through the ranks of officers, is there something in the way that we conduct surveys, climate surveys that doesnt allow people to come forward and truly say what they know, as if you see something, do something . What can be done about that as individuals, as youve experienced that, some of our colleagues have experienced that as well . I think its having listening sessions with your command is not acceptable. I think you have to have that gender specific conversation because i know that if im in the room with my male counterparts, im not going to be as honest and open as possible to what happened to me. I think there should be an independent party practice when it comes to survey initiation. I think we also need to do better, what type of data were aggregating. You know, age, rank and age, rank and gender is just not enough. We need to know what type of ethnic background you are. We need to know your sexuality. We need to know all those factors and i think that will do a great justice when it comes to being more honest and open. Should there be a greater hand when someone is being considered for a promotion that the members of the unit, that the family has an opportunity to weigh in in a way thats different from what happens today . I was plagued by promotion, not getting promoted because of my weight. The army weight requirements i never met. So the burden in 1992 of getting constantly tape measured was, a, horrible, but, b, was part of the harassment that i endured because when an nco is tape measuring you and touching you in places that you dont want to be touched, its horrifying. So that alone, i missed two promotions because i was two pounds overweight and my bmi did not match. That is the absolutely absurd. I was a highly motivated soldier. It shouldnt have meant that my two pounds were going to deny my promotion. Thank you. Thank you for that. Now, my understanding is now ncos do not take those kind of measurements. Thank god. Thank god for the bmi machines because those tape measures were awful. Excuse me for that comment. Miss escobar, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you both of our panelists for being here and sharing your stories with us. We know that Vanessa Guillen told her family she was afraid of reporting Sexual Harassment and you both have been subjected to harassment and assault. I think its very important for this committee as we continue to try to change things, that have been going on since women entered the military ranks, and actually before that, because men also are victims of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment. Help us understand when you do report it, can you tell us what happens . What are the actual moments and what happens in the moments and the weeks afterwards that creates an environment of fear and retaliation . I would say that what happens versus what should happen is the problem. And that is that there are formal reporting requirements. And i understand that the colonel articulated, pretty detailed, in a pretty detailed way within the sapro guidelines. However, thats not what actually occurs and thats what we experienced ourselves over time thats what weve heard repeated by thousands of women and male survivors as well, who say that they did speak to a command. They did speak to someone and it just didnt go any further. Or they were told, well, why dont you think about this, think twice. Again, we constantly think of the refrain, think of soandsos career. Sometimes think of your own career and thats what happens where that fear of retaliation comes. Its a hopelessness, where you feel as though whats the point i also want to quickly answer back to congresswoman speiers question. Can you form an advocate of protect our defenders, its rerived from the dod sapro report from 2016. For me, it was, are you sure . Are you sure that happened . And that shouldnt be a question asked. Are you sure it happened . I heard that statement for a whole week. Are you sure it happened . And from multiple members of my chain of command. And thats whats disheartening is that they just dont believe us. Or theyre just protecting the person who is higher ranking than you. I was an e3. Shouldnt have never happened to me. And once you did, because both of you reported and even after the clearly the first steps, youre discouraged, you are told to think of your career, think of the person who assaulted you or harassed you. Think of their career. So, thats the first point where we need reform. What happened after you reported . When you decided, regardless of the consequences, its important for me to report. What happened then . In my case, unfortunately, i shrugged it off. I was gaslit as an officer that was the price of admission to being in the army. I was often the only woman officer around. I also felt very much of a mama bear, protective mode for my fellow soldiers so i would try to protect them when they would come to me, and then further on report, but in my own case, i wasnt Strong Enough to do the sa same. Mine was just completely swept under the rug. I dont have anything, no justi justice. Being here today is somewhat justice for me, speaking to you all is justice for me, being able to speak about it honestly and openly is justice and a lot of us feel this way because nothing gets done. Thank you both. Madam chair, this is very similar to what i have heard in my own district from victims, an inability to get information about why something was dismissed, an accusation was dismissed, why there was no further investigation leaving victims even more confused, leaving victims even more distraught, feeling like there is no justice. And this is for assault, much less for harassment. This is why i do support our efforts to look at innovative ways to reform the system which includes taking it outside of the chain of command. Thank you both very much. I yield back. Thank you. Miss del gaudio, what happened to your assailant . Maam, i dont know. He he just went going on. He stayed within the military. He stayed within the military. I, again, when i left, i left. I completely disconnected. Thank you. Miss garcia, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair and its good to see you all again. Just hearing your stories, just really tears at my heart because again, it brings so many memories of the Vanessa Guillen case and of course, hearing from her family members, her sister, her mother, about the story which she shared with them, and i can assure you that we shared this with her command as soon as i was able to communicate with him and i could also tell you that it was disappointing when i visited fort hood in june 23rd, which already was two months after shed been missing, that they admitted that they had not pursued investigating the Sexual Harassment allegations because they were doing a criminal investigation and i still recall the meeting because i pointed out that sometimes the Sexual Harassment can be the motive, the motive for a murder. But yet, they said, well, were only doing criminal, so i think that there may have been a disconnect because its possible that it could have been connected. They just didnt pursue that line of investigation. Now they have, but they continue to say that theres no credible evidence. So apparently, so far they have found anything from the parents or friends not credible, but were still working on it. So thank you for being here and sharing. You know, its just so hard to even crystallize a question. Youve heard the previous testimony from the panel and the colonel saying that he was looking at it quickly to get a snapshot of what was going on. But we know she went missing the 22nd and they didnt start till july 27th, four months later. Is that quick . Is that indicative of the inaction and response to these kinds of allegations . And thats a question for both of you. Its absolutely indicative of the lack of caring for a soldiers life. To also answer that question i want to note back to the 23 others that died. This is a report from the army to cnn. Seven were off duty accidents, seven were suicide. One was combat, four were homicide, two Natural Causes and one undetermined. Does that include the i mean, i think there now is five soldiers from fort hood that have died within a year. Or does that also question the alleged perpetrator of this case . It does and i think that when you talk about especially suicide, when i talked about in my opening remarks of what we experience, even as veterans, as a veteran advocate, i deal with women and men who are survivors who have ptsd from msd who have Suicidal Ideation and sadly succumb. And theres the command environment for hostility and ultimately what happens to our bodies when we cant take it anymore. Miss del gaudio, your response to your question. Ill speak personally. The minute it happened for me, i became a different soldier. And my command treated me differently and my behavior changed and thats the problem. They start they started looking at me as a behavioral problem, not as an assault victim. And thats something that needs to be addressed in that in this culture because the minute we claim our Sexual Harassment, the minute we claim hour assault, then we start the its ptsd right away. You become angry, you become bitter, very responsive to things taking place and you become defensive in your issue. Right. So let me ask you the question i try to ask the colonel. What about this business between informal and formal . Youre shaking your head, what does that mean . The formal is going through your chain of command, they do the paper work, blah, blah, blah. The informal is when i when it happened to me in 1992, you know, we didnt have social media. We didnt have mechanisms to, you know, record something. So again, i would take that message that the parents have received, the call that she made to lupe, the call she made to friends, to me thats informal. Apparently its concluded its not credible. Yeah, credible honestly if she told her parents and shes not here right now to testify, that should Say Something and speak volumes. All right. Your times expired. Yield back, thank you. Miss jackson lee, youre recognized for five minutes. [inaudible] your microphone. Certainly thank the Previous Panel as well for their service. Would you kindly, both of you, just give me, miss bryant, i want to call you captain. What was your time of service . What years were you in . I served in active duty from 2001 through to 2009, maam. And miss del gaudio . From 90 to 98, active and reserve. So in the course of both of you, there were conflicts, wars that this nation was involved in and i would imagine every single soldier was valuable and should have been considered as such. As i understand, miss guillens last days as she came in on a day off or extended herself as any good soldier, wasnt at a picnic, was there counting arsenal weapons, if you will, and she was doing her job. So im going to pose this line of questions. I understand her family came up, as close as they are, in the getting that regular call, the very day that she was missing and arrived about 2 30 a. M. In the morning, but did not get seen until 9 a. M. So my question is, i understand discipline. Im a civilian. What does that culture do . To me, that looks offensive. Its time lost in the investigation. Obviously 70 days or however long it was and my colleague indicated, that, too, seems to diminish human life when all the movies that we see, military movie says dont leave one soldier behind. Captain and then i didnt get miss del gaudios rank as well. Ill call you that as well. Captain. Its absolutely a miscarriage of justice to not have that investigation move forward. Ive raised about Bowe Bergdahl earlier and i cant help, but think when he walked off his fire base in 2009, i was in the pentagon at the time i was a gs14 by then. And we had meeting after meeting, battle update brief after battle update brief of a man who walked off the base and captured by the taliban or others, i should say. And shes right there with the resources of the Killeen Police department as well as the military fort hood. Miss del gaudio, any comment on that length . For me, i think its disrespectful. Her family went there to look for her. You should have worked with urgency and immediacy. I know my family would have been really looking for an answer and for them not to give it to them is just disrespectful. Discipline and war readiness shouldnt have nothing to do with human decency and i think one of the issues in the culture of the United States military overall is that they equate discipline and the toughness of the military with dealing differently with human needs. I believe Vanessa Guillen in terms of Sexual Harassment. I believe it in terms of her parents, i believe it. So let me get this question in. You mentioned that cid, this is an internal process, closes cases. I think someone messaged they closed their case. I know theres been great progress with congresswoman speiers on process. And whats your rank, miss del gaudio. E4, they went on their career and got promotion and someone said they got promotion, i think the important to hear what the military hears what when an investigation i know innocent until proven guilty, but went on and got promoted. It speaks to the culture of the military. The essence of what needs to change. Its something when their career, when the offenders career is more favored upon, when the preponderance of evidence is not considered, oftentimes youll hear that statements are inconclusive, that sworn statements are inconclusive. And no one is going to lie about their assault or harassment, we took an oath. So that statement on its surface needs to be accepted. We need to believe women, we need to believe in the investigation until youve turned over every stone. So the young lady that provided the statement for me, when she found out i was testifying, she had someone contact me and, again, you know, she didnt know that cid closed her case until she she was unnotified until she asked whats going on. Thats when she told her, oh, your case is closed and that just, its like a common theme. When you talk to survivors, its all of these statements that i made are common themes. You know, cid closed the case without notifying me. He had the assault charge and then promoted and then were just, were made to be the bad guy. Thank you, miss del gaudio. Im sorry. Our time has expired. Thank you all for being here. Your testimony was extraordinarily powerful and i think for all of the members who have participated in the panel, its been a very sobering one and a very important one. I want to say to the guillen family that we are not going to let vanessa to have died in vain and every step will be pursued to find justice. Theres legislation that will be introduced, but beyond that, i intend to lead to fort hood next month and i invite my colleagues to join me and we are going to continue to investigate this. Thank you for being here, we stand adjourned. Thank you. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] today the spacex crew will talk with reporters about their mission to space and reentry to earth. Watch live at 4 30 eastern on cspan, online at cspan. Org or listen live with the free cspan radio app. This week, two hearings before the senate. On wednesday at 10 a. M. Eastern, sally yates, the former acting attorney general at the start of the Trump Administration testifies on the russia investigation before the judiciary committee. Then on thursday at 10 a. M. Eastern, chad wolf acting secretary for the Homeland Security will report on protests and unrest across the country. Watch live on cspan, online at cspan. Org or listen live on the free cspan radio app. And the u. S. Senate about to begin its session. Theyll resume debate on the nomination of mark menses to be and weeklyar