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You should see a five minute count down clock on the Software Platform display but if necessary i will gently remind members when their time is up. So welcome, everyone. Today we be focusing on Racial Disparity in the military Justice System. Were here to discuss the inequality and injustices that people of color experience in the military Justice System including those in criminal investigations, Courts Martial and nonjudicial punishment. The fact that we live in a country with ingrained racial bias does not justify the per petuation of racism in the United States military. Our Service Members commit their lives to protect our country. We must commit ourselves to ensure that the military treats Service Members of color equally and justly. We will not solve this problem by hiding it or denying it. We will not solve this problem pretending that it is solely the result of uncontrollable societal problems by pretending that our actions did not contribute to the continuation of justice by refusing to seek change because we are so comfortable and confident in, quote, the way things have always been done, unquote. The way things have always been done is wrong. The results are repugnant. I hope that all our military leaders in the room are prepared to acknowledge the need for a reckoning and prepared further to institute bold measures to fix the inherent bias in the military Justice System in america. Gao most recent report found that black Service Members were more likely to be the subject of recording investigations and more likely to be tried in general and special Courts Martial than their white counterparts. Importantly, gao found that the results were statistically significant. Racial data on nonjudicial punishment was not uniformly collected. They found that black airmen were twice as likely to face nonjudicial punishment than white airmen. If history provides us some solace, the military led the way long before schools or lunch counters were ingrated. In 1948 president truman signed executive order 9981 directing equal treatment for our black Service Members in the military. Subsequently the army, navy, air force and marine corp complied, quote, in 1949 the air force issued a, quote, bill of rights for blake airmen and the Navy Proposed a recruiting program to enlist black sailors. The marine corp eliminated the segregated training platoons and various post facilities, unquote. But integration did not equal acceptance. Racism and discrimination both personal and institutional continued. People of color who wish to make a career in our military have faced uphill fight and weve done too little to assist them. 72 years after integration, the fight for equality and justice continues. We still struggle to carve out an equal place for people of color. Struggle to ensure they have the same opportunities to serve and advance in their careers. And struggle to ensure them equal justice. We have to look no further than the military leaders in this country. Almost exclusively white men. It was heartening to note that general Charles Brown has become the air force chief of staff. Just this week. At 72 years. I would like to hear from the first panel of what needs to change. What needs to be done to bring transparency to the system and ensure accountability for every commander who uses the military Justice System in a biassed and discriminateory manner. I wouldnt like to hear how you could recognize bias in the military Justice System and what you could do to ensure that justice is dispensed fairly and consistently. Before i introduce our first panel let me offer Ranking Member kelly an opportunity to make his opening remarks. Thank you, chairwoman spear and thank the witnesses for being here. Thank you for holding this hearing at such a fitting time. As americans across this country of all backgrounds are struggling to better understand Racial Disparity across society at large and to take substantive actions that actually make a difference, this is a fitting time to have this hearing. I want to welcome both of our panels to todays hearing. We appreciate your attention and commitment to remedy a very grave problem that if left unchecked to undermine the readiness of our armed forces. Racial disparity is a very real societal problem and across various criminal justice we see lopsided rates that should concern every american. This country is struggled to confront and fix that problem for decades and we continue to do so. But as the events of the last several week demonstrate, we have a long way to go. As a former District Attorney and city prosecutor, i have seen my share of it. And it is something neither i nor any of us could ever shy away from or get complacent about. This is a problem we all collectively need to confront head on. What do i think we can and must make a very real difference is in our military. Ive served in the military for over 33 years, commander of the battalion and brigade levels and i know the bond our Young Warriors share regardless of background. I was proud two weeks ago when 371 soldiers from the 155 kbhat team all answered the call and deployed to washington for the civil unrest on three hours in the. They were a very Diverse Group with 43 from either africanamerican or minority backgrounds. They trained together. They deployed together. And they did their duty as a team together. Which is what makes our military so great. They answered the call. Did what they were asked to do and they did it with honor and integrity. They and all Service Members place their trust in each other and their leaders and that why our military is so formidable. This is in context that lays bit of the foundation for what makes disparity in military justice so troubling for me. Leaders need to do the right thing always. Treat every soldier, sailor, airman and marine are dignity and respect. If Racial Disparity persists, it always has a negative impact on recruiting, ready i yns and the culture of our military. I understand that the statistics, the effect, but what we need to understand is the cause, fashion the right remedies and we need to do it acquisitionly. Section 4501 tack sec death to evaluate the causes of racial, ethnic and gender disparities in the military Justice System and to take steps to remedy dir parities. And i look for calls and potential solutions and where the department is in causes and remedies. I understand the air force is innish ated an Inspector General with panel of experts to explore the problem. Im interested in hearing from the services about any similar or complementary initiatives. I did know that the space force is not here today. And as a new force i think they have a chance to get it right from the start. They could be Ground Breaking and groundsetting because they start from zero. Madam chairwoman i think it is a great start and i look forward to todays discussion. And i want to thank the witnesses and share their collective expertise with us and i yield back. Thank you, mr. Kelly. Each witness will have the opportunity to present his or her testimony and each member will have an opportunity to question the witnesses for five minutes. We respectfully ask the witnesses to summarize their testimony in five minutes. Your written comments and statements will be made part of the hearing record. I ask unanimous consent that nonsubcommittee members be allowed to participate and ask questions after all of the subcommittee members have had the opportunity to ask questions. Without objection, so ordered. Let me welcome our first panel. Retired colonel Don Christiansen president of protect our defenders and brenda feral director of defense capability and Management Team of the u. S. Government accountability office. Ms. Pharrell is joining us via web ex. Welcome. All right. Let you begin with colonel christiansen. Chairwoman spear, Ranking Member kelly, distinguished members of sub committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you to examine the issue of Racial Disparities in the military Justice System. Like our country, the military has a long and painful history of mistreating racial minorities. Black Service Members have continued to be prosecuted and punished at a much greater rate than white counterparts. More over they suffer promotions rates and lower promotion rates and vastly underrepresented in the officer corp especially at the general and flag officer ranks. To improve the fairness of the military Justice System, in 2016 we filed a series of freedom of information act requests to each Service Seeking ten years of data on military disparities in the justice process. The data provided in rates per thousand. We released a study of our findings in june of 2017 that showed widespread Racial Disparities in all of the services. We examined a total of 32 years of data and in every single year black Service Members were punished at a significantly higher rate than white Service Members. Based on aur findings congressman dated a Government Accountability office to review the despair ates which was completed in march of 2019. The jao found significant Racial Disparities but most shockinglily they found none of the services had done anything to find the causes or solutions tor the disparities. As part of the answer to our 2016 foia request the air force stated it had a Cross Functional Team led by Diversity Inclusion to recommend policy changes, process modifications and or additional study as appropriate. In july of 2017 we found an additional foia request seeking the identity of the team members as well as the Team Findings and recommendations in addition to other information. This was the start of a grilling 3 year long study to force the air force to meet the foia obligations. Thankfully we were represented by the Veterans Service clinic which enabled us to file suit in federal court. Despite efforts to conceal finding and recommendations of the team, the federal judge eventually ordered the air force to disclose the requested documents under the threat of sanctions. The documents that we received are startlingch the panel and followup study by air force man power found that the Racial Disparities were quote consistent and persistent and getting worse. The air force admitted that the numbers were concerning and the importance of having, quote, equitable and consistent disciplinary processes. These findings were made in 2016 and despite concluding that the air force, quote, must clearly address the disparity in some way, end quote, the air force appeared to act on the teams recommendations and address the issues. Another disturbing finding of our review of the documents is the air force legal communities efforts to discredit the data showing their own data showing significant Racial Disparities. Despite the strong conclusions of a1, j. A. Has attempted to discredit the importance of the data, specifically in the background paper that ja created in 2016 claiming that the disparity between blacks and white are punished could be the result of a small number of additional actions. Lieutenant general rockwall reinforced this message recently in a briefing to the air force four stars where he told them, quote, even a few additional disciplinary actions have a far greater impact on the report rate per thought for black air mern, end quote, due to the smaller number and went on to misleadingly illustrate the point by using a ratio of ten to one of white airmen to black airmen rather than the raetz of five to one. That it could be explained by a few disciplinary actions is false and j. A. Needs to stop this line of argument. The disparity in calendar 19 in air force alone represents an additional 520 article 15s for black airmen, not an additional few as implied by the legal world. In other words, black airman received approximately 1,105 article 15s last year. If they were punished at the same rate as white airmen they would have only received 585. The impact of Racial Disparity across all of the services in the last ten years would easily be in excess of 10,000 additional extra punishments meeted out against black men, not a few additional actions. Air force needs to focus on finding solutions and causes, not discrediting the significance of its own data. We released our report in may of 26 of this year and it had an immediate impact. I credit the air force and general for acting quickly by ordering an investigation. But what must not be forgotten is the action initiated by the air force last week to investigate disparities, would not have occurred if they had been successful in keeping this information from being disclosed. This hearing today would not have been held but for the fact that we were willing to force the air force to disclose damning information that it wish to keep hidden. This is a reminder of the importance of transparency and why the military must faithfully meet the foia obligations. How much further could the air force be in addressing the Racial Disparities if had put the energy in finding solutions in 2016 rather than seeking to cover up its embarrassing failures. I look forward to any questions you may have. [ inaudible ]. All right. Now we are going to hear from ms. Brenda pharrell from the gao in a has recently provided the report. Miss pharrell. Thank you, madam chairwoman. Ranking member kelly and members of the subcommittee thank you for the opportunity to discuss gao findings and recommendations about Racial Disparities in the military Justice System. The uniform code of military justice, the ucmj was established to provide the statutory framework of the military Justice System. It contains articles that punish traditional crimes, such as unlawful drug use and assault as well as unique military offenses and including diser shun. Every active member of the army, navy, marine corp and air guard is subject to the mcja with individuals disciplined from fiscal years 2013 through 2017. A key principle of the ucmj is that a fair and just system could foster a highly disciplined force. My statement is based on our report issued in may 2019 on the capabilities to assess Racial Disparities among other matters. Let me briefly summarize any written statement. My statement is divided into three parts. The first part addresses the collection of race and ethnic Group Information in the military Services Investigations, military justice and Personnel Data bases. We found that the services did not collect information about race and ethnic group in the data bases. Thus, they were limited in their ability to identify disparities which are instances in which r