WASHINGTON — The $740 billion 2022 National Defense Authorization Act includes provisions to overhaul the military justice system's handling of sexual assault cases.
The bill would remove superiors from the direct chain of command from making decisions in sexual assault cases.
"I think one of the biggest things in the bill this year is the largest reform of the Uniform Code of Military Justice in almost 40 years," said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Smith (D-Washington).
Smith continued: "I have mentioned a couple of times how important it is to give the men and women who serve in our armed forces the support they deserve to protect this country. We have failed in that regard in dealing with sexual assault."
During Monday's marathon House Rules Committee hearing, Republican members questioned what is being done to learn about the decisions that went into the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Green went so far as to offer an amendment demanding the resignations of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley.
"My amendment expresses it is the sense of Congress that these men are unfit to serve in their positions as Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff," she said
In the end, the bill, if passed later this week by the full House, would include a 2.7% pay raise for the troops, preserves three existing guided missile cruisers the Navy proposed decommissioning; plus, it pays for advanced procurement for three Virginia Class submarines, and, purchases three Arleigh Burke Class guided-missile destroyers.