Townhall: Paul, Cruz Turn Military Sexual Assault into Bipartisan Issue
In a press conference on Tuesday, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) publicly joined Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) in her efforts to address and combat sexual assault in the military.
Bipartisan outrage sparked in May when the Pentagon’s annual report highlighted that up to 26,000 military members reported cases of sexual assault; that’s an increase of 7,000 cases from last year.
At the press conference, Paul became the fifth Republican to sign the proposed legislation, requiring all sexual assault charges to be removed from the military chain of command and handled instead by independent, military prosecutors.
Cruz was already one of four Republicans to vote for the bill on June 4th when it was presented-and shot down- in a Senate Armed Services Committee meeting.
Read more.