Legislation Update-MJIIPA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
17 June 2021
PRESS CONTACT:
Victoria Moore
Legislation Update-MJIIPA
Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act of 2021 (MJIIPA)
Washington D.C.: The Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN) strongly supports bringing the Military Justice Improvement & Increasing Prevention Act (MJIIPA) (S. 1520) to the Senate Floor as a stand-alone bill immediately. SWAN’s staunch support for this Bill goes back to its first introduction in the Senate––as the Military Justice Improvement Act (MJIA)––almost a decade ago. Under the bipartisan leadership of Senators Kristin Gillibrand (D-NY) and Joni Ernst (R-IA) a group of at least 65 Senators have come together in filibuster-proof support for the MJIIPA––for which there is also strong bipartisan support in the House of Representatives. Current indications are that instead of receiving a Senate floor vote, the Bill could stay locked in the Senate Armed Service Committee and then made part of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Negotiations for any year’s NDAA are complex and open to all sort of trade-offs that could greatly water down the provisions MJIIPA as it is currently written.
If passed as written, MJIIPA will remove prosecutorial decisions on the disposition of non-military-specific felony-level crimes––such as sexual assault and murder––from the hands of line-military commanders and place that authority in the hands of military prosecutors from the Services’ Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps. This represents a major and long-needed change to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Line military commanders too often lack the legal training to make such decisions and often face conflicts of interest between their obligation to render justice fairly and other pressing obligations. Line commanders will still retain authority over those accused of felonies in other ways and will have responsibilities toward them as the investigative and legal processes play out.
SWAN has a robust track record of support for survivors of military sexual assault. Over the years we have worked closely with Congress, the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the General Accountability Office (GAO) to both prevent sexual assault and to provide justice and support for victims and survivors. SWAN representatives have testified in a number of Congressional hearings on sexual assault and have continuously engaged in discussions with both Members of Congress and their staffs and with representative of the Executive Branch on this matter. We have collaborated with many other not-for-profit groups working toward the same goals and we are an enduring source of information on military sexual assault for the media, for researchers and for members of the public wanting to learn more and how to help end military sexual assault.
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