Undersecretary for personnel and reiness testifies on recommendations of the independent review commission to prevent military Sexual Assaults and provide care and support for victims. [inaudible conversations] good afternoon, everyone. Welcome. Will callhe committee of military personnel submmittee to ord, and thi hearing today isbout an update on the implemention of recommendations of the independent review commission on Sexual Assault in the mitary and establishment of the office of special trialounsel. We are delhted that you a all here. This is a very impornt hearing because, in fact,e a doing a benchmarkeviewf the work of the dod as it implements the particular recommendations. Asou all of indendent review commission released the report and july 2021, so it is important that we closely monitor implementation of those recommendations. Also, last Years National fense authorization act included historic military justic reforms, so we need to ensure the implementation of ose pvisions is clely aligne with the ircs recommendations. The implementation of the 82 irc recommendations is urgently needed, because the suation is creasingly dire. The crisis of military xual assault and harassmencontinues unabated. The fy2021 department of defense annual report on Sexual Assault in the military delivered catastrophic news, over 8 of activeduty women and about. 5 of aiveduty men indicated experiencing some form of unwanted sexua contact. Foromen this is the highest prevalence rate reported sin the annual studyas instituted. And the news doestet better. In 2021, survey resultslso found that 29 pcent of servicewomen expienced Sexual Harassment. 29 . A 5 increase, and men and women ike experienced greater workplace hostility compared with findings from 2018. There have bn plenty of studies that have indicated that Sexual Harassment begets Sexual Assault. Servicemembers Sexual Assault reports increased by 13 in 2021 compared to 2020, yet the overall rate of those who experienced Sexual Assault and came forward to report has decreased. So its really the perfect storm, the worst of the worst because you have numbers going up and jeff reporting going down. Finally, and alarmingly, the data also shows that trust in the military to protect privacy of ctims, ensure safety, and treat victims with dignity and respect is going down. It is vital for the department and services to implement and execute the ircs recommendationexpeditiously for the readiness of our force and the safety and wellbeing of our Service Members. It is essential for our military leaders to address a culture of harassment and mistrust. To teach our Service Members they can not only trust their leaders enough to follow them into harms way, but to also protect them from danger within the ranks. Sexual assault and harassmentn our military is a readiness issue. It makes our force less lethal; it makes recruiting a challenge. It makes young men and women scared to serve; and it often damages or cuts short the military career of the victim. A july 2022 memo from the army showed that the propensity to serve has gone down 9 , and the reasons include 34 do not like the lifestyle, and 28 fear the issue of Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault. We cannot protect and defend the United States when were protting and defending our own servicemembers from the enemy. We cannot ask our children to serve, when their parentsant be sure their commands wont protect them from abuse. I have spent the last ten years battling this cancer and with this most recent report, i know we still have a long way to go. But i also know the department is working hard to implement new Prevention Strategies and a completely new and independent military Justice System to eradicate this scourge. I feel confident that if the department of defense keeps their foot on the pedal and congress doesnt turn a blind eye, this is the beginning of the end for those who wish to harm their brothers and sisters in arms. I will not be sitting as chair of the military personnel subcommittee come next year, but i implore like colleagues to regularly provide oversight on the implementation of the iocs recommendation. I will still be watching and i will still be speaking out. I will mak sure the voices of our servicemembers are heard and heard loudly. I would like to hear from the first panel the status of the ircs recommendations and implementation. What has been completed so far . What is going well . What challenges are you facing . What are your timelines for full implementation . What resources do need to get this right for our Service Members . From the second panel i would like to hear how your military Department Plans to execute dods irc implementation plan, and what progress your services have made in implementing military Justice Reform . What are your timelines . What resources do you need . Additionally, how are you going to increase trust in your military leaders . What cultural changes do you intend to make so that the military really is a place that treats all members with dignity and respect . Before introduce our first panel i would like to offer the ranking member, mr. Mr. Gal, an opportunity to make opening remarks. I think the chawoman and i share your conces about, lets say the sense of urgency or lk thereof at times a addressing these challenges facing servicemembers, their lders and our military. The irc was created by the Biden Administration 2000 with the handling of Sexual Assault, harassment and victim support of the military. Some of the commissions recommendations are worthwhile but others i find problematic. The department is use the irc to legitimize a wave of new regulation with minimal inlvement from the legislative branch, dods on press releases highlight recommendations quote have are beg implemented wherever possible. Unfortunately that has come with minimal plan, arbitrary goals a little regard to staffing requirements. I was troubled about the department has pla are nearly 2000 socalled prevention workforce staffers over seven ars while there still no coherent plan for a new convention program. The impetus behind these new hires is as was explained to us concerning you Sexual Assault prevalence data. Indeed it isery concerning. Recent survey data show the prevalence of unwanted sexual ntact has increased from 6. 2 to 8. 4 . It indicates over 60 the Sexual Assault go unreported. The same data show servicemember trust in military Justice System has plummeted in the last two years after being stable for dedes, as a chairwoman pointed out those nearly 30 drop in key metric senator gillibrand privacy, trust in military justice. Thats a big alarm bell i think for all of us. Im concerned, however, we have torn down rather than build up the role of leaders at t ground level in supporting and embracing victims, or being leaders at all any meaningful sense. We need policies they give victims and leaders clarity but funneling victims in of trauma into bureaucratic program that is divorced from leadership may not always be the best answer. Its my belief leaders on the ground a best positioned to rebuild the sense of trust, security and privacy. In person victim services, hopefully some of that pressure will use now that the pandemic restrictions have been lifted, dod is pressing ahead with a massive military justice and prevention workforce hiring plan and again, i opinion we dont have a clear plan delivered by dod forhat these new hires intend to accomplish how the rules of uniformed personnel will change and how they will impact military carr paths, the standard response that weve heard from the administration is more bodies, my powerpoint, were offices and i hope to learn toy thathe department has a coherent plan to respondo these trds, i thank you, madam chairwoman, i yield back. In creating special trial counsels as to whether or not action should move forward for a courtmartial. And the other thing important to point out, the reason whye have professionals now were going to be focused on prevention it wasnt taken seriously,hey were necessarily professionals, they were even interested doing the job somewhere even found guilty of Sexual Assault, professionalizing the universe is very important, with that i welcome our first panel in the personnel and readiness of the department of defense, no stranger to us since he used to sit with us, we welcome here today. Chairwoman spear, banking number gaagher and distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss the status of dods implementation of recommendations approved by secretary austin from the 2021 independent review commission on Sexual Assault in the military also known as irc, madam chair as a departing congress at the end of this term i want to begin by ting the opportunity to thank you for your your Extraordinary Public Service and your dedication to armed services. Your legislative accomplishments, passion and constant dedication to work with the department has mad us better and improve lives of countless Service Members. Thank you. Most imptant you have stood up for those who have often in most need of allies in support, your exceptional advocacy will be forever appreciated by Service Members, now in many years into the future indeed t historic and unprecedented nature of the reforms we are discussing today which lay a foundation for progress that will outlast each of us in no smart part because of your leadership. Secretary austin has made addressing sexual aault of top priority. In 2021 he signed apple mentation roadmap, memorandum a comprehensive approach and recommendation across four tiers. And to implement necessary enhancement to infrastructure, apply best practice strategies, expand r d programs and practices and expand programs and policies outside of the dods purview. To ensure expedia implementation on the isu reforms works closely with the services to provide guidance and oversight mechanisms to ensure implementation stays on track. These mechanisms include the irc outcome of metrics evaluation that provides a framework for apple mentation ineffectiveness and regular progress reviews to enter through Senior Leadership and membership from across ost and the services, the love of oversight is a pressure from previous reforms efforts in this area and not only are we making progress were Building Infrastructure needed to make real lasting change in a brandnew dedicated prevention workforce which apple operating capacity will include over 2000 personnel stationed around the world, the department has worked to create a targeted recruitment plan to support the services in their hiring efforts and i establish a dedicated direct hiring authority which assigned last week to more quickly identify and onboard prevention workforce professionals. We are also working closely with the military services to professionalize the departments victim response workforce which includes ensuring we have the capacity to focus on victims ensuring independence of our response workforce by placing it in the chain of command and standing up a Training Center of excellence to standardize skills across the services. Another significant entertaining undertaking is military Justice Reform through the implementation of the office of special trial counsel which i know you will hear about in greater detail from the next panel. This effort will ensure independent expertise and prosecutorial decisions and essential to the restoring trust and the perpetrators of Sexual Assault accountable. The fy 21 annual report on Sexual Assault shows what our prior activities in the irc on Sexual Assault in the military have already documented Sexual AssaultSexual Harassment remain persistent and corrosive problems in our force. While the numbers are deeply disappointing, they largely reflect before the department began implementation of this historic reform, the findings of this report reinforce the urgent need to continue this unprecedented action, the department is undertaking to address Sexual Assault in our military. The department has clearly heard from her Service Members the action and change are desperately needed and the department is answering that call. Getting this right requires we move our expeditiously as possible to implement change while also ensuring we do not rush to failure and if we rationale to pieces and establish trust with her Service Members again. Progress is far has been made possible with constructive leadership emphasis in your continued engagement on the issue, deliver problematic and procedural changes chairwoman spear we all recognize and solve the problem of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment we have the result to effectively positively and lasting change as secretary of defense austin has stated on more than one occasion we have a true opportunity to lead in we will. Again i want to express my gratitude to you in this committee for the leadership and support as we partner together on this cortical issue, thank you and i look forward to your questions. Take you secretary i will recognize myself for five minutes to ask questions. Let me start with the independent investigation of Sexual Harassment. Can you provide us an update of the departments efforts in this regard . Thank you for that question, the independent investigation is something that was part of the fy 2022, without being there we are making progress on that we are providing guidance to the services we expect to have a mantra policy in place very soon, we are on track to meet the timeline that was sent out in the fy 22 to me that process. There will be independent investigations, it will not be done under the chain of command by someone assigned within the unit to provide that investigation who is not skilled to do so. Yes, maam. What we did we took it a step further, the higher see recommendation that we provide an independent investigator, what we have done we stated we will provide an independent trained investigator to do the independent investigations but right now we are laying out the guidance for the services, you can ask the services they are making progress as well, what we will do we are in place to meet the timelines set forth in the 22 nda. I noticed she is in the audience today will remember her sister was Sexual Harassment subsequently murdered and dismembered, what progress has been made in adding sexualharassment reports to the serial Offender Program . Thank you, maam that was a recommendation of the irc as well and something that we are working on, in regard to that we run across Privacy Policy concerns of implementation and that, what were going to do we are going to study this, commission has study to look at this and how we can implement this to the catch data frame untrained database at the same time trying to take care of the privacy and policy concerns that are out there. It is something that we are working on working to implement. May be for the record you could clarify what the privacy concerns, it already exists for Sexual Assault victims so they do so voluntarily. And it is kept private except for those able to look at it. Ab can do that later. You could be training 2000 conventional specialist as the new workforce is trained where are you going to assign them first. Thank you for that question the prevention workforce is an integral part of what were going to do what we need to do in order to gain trust with her Service Members and to have a professional workforce that is going to be dedicated to training not only our Service Members but working with the chain of command. One of the things that we continually hear from the chain of command they want to do the right thing but they dont have the tools this is going to provide them with the tools in order to do that, our emphasis is what weve been able to do we know the high risk installations are a First Priority those are the ones we build the workforce we want to make sure they have the workforce in place first but as we continue to build the workforce we need to make sure he gets throughout the military and the prevention workforce throughout our global force. You already identified the highrisk facility . Can you make that available to the community as well. We can provide it. Let me just in with the issue we spend a lot of money, a lot of time on command Climate Survey they provide a wealth of information about whats going right and was going wrong i want to do what progress is being made in implementing the recommendation in terms of creating polls surveys which are short and can be rolled out very quickly what corrective action plans and how were going to measure the climate at the unit level, youre right on the demand Climate Surveys are very important, it is a tool that we are we working right now, the pulse surveys are going to be part of that survey as well and we built us. Our pl