Waxman slams DOD for blocking sexual assault testimony

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
by Amy Weiss

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,  threatened contempt for DOD officials for not allowing the Director of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO), Dr. Kaye Whitley, to testify before a subcommittee hearing on Sexual Assault in the Military. Dr. Whitley was subpoenaed by the subcommittee, but did not appear at the hearing. The hearing's purpose was to measure the progress that has been made since the last time it investigated the matter in 2006. Principal Deputy Undersecretary for Defense Michael Dominguez told the subcommittee he ordered Dr. Whitley to ignore the subpoena because "responsibility rests with" him and insisted he could answer the subcommittee's questions.

National Security and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee Chairman Rep. John Tierney (D-MA) and Waxman grilled Dominguez about that decision.  Dominguez said he decided to order Whitley not to report after consulting with "DOD leadership" which included the Assistant Secretary of Defense of Legislative Affairs and DOD General Counsel.

Waxman told Dominguez:

Do we have to subpoena the Secretary to get people in the Department to come before us? We subpoenaed her, you've denied her the opportunity to come and testify and put her in a situation where we have to contemplate putting her in contempt. I don't even know if we can hold you in contempt because you haven't been issued a subpoena. Mr. Chairman, the Department of Defense has a history of covering up sexual offense problems.

We all remember Tailhook and the scandal and how the military tried to cover that up. And I don't know what you're trying to cover up here, but we're not going to allow it, we're going to talk further about what recourse we have. I don't know if we need to subpoena the Secretary and then hold him in contempt, Mr. Chiu and hold him in contempt - you, and hold you in contempt. Those are better options to me than to hold her in contempt when she's put in this untenable position when her line of command instructs her not to comply with a subpoena of the United States Congress.

I don't know who you think elected you to defy the Congress of the United States, we're an independent branch of government...

Tierney declined to allow Dominguez to testify. Ranking minority member of the subcommittee Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT) agreed with Tierney and Waxman's assessment.

Also testifying before the subcommittee were Ingrid Torres, a Red Cross employee who was raped by an Air Force officer working on a military base, and Mary Lauterbach, mother of Maria Lauterbach, the pregnant Marine killed last year after filing a rape claim. Torres and Lauterbach shared their stories and suggested improvements to be made, including: standardizing the SAPRO program across the entire DOD, put more resources into prevention, strengthen the victim's advocacy programs.

Torres also said SAPRO should adopt provisions from H.R. 3990, the Military Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Act, which strengthens protection for military and civilian personnel and is currently sitting in the Armed Service Subcommittee on Military Personnel.

Lieutenant General Michael D. Rochelle, an Army Deputy Chief of Staff, and Brenda Farrell, Director of Defense Capabilities and Management at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) also spoke to the subcommittee. Lt. Gen. Rochelle said there was much work to be done but that preventing sexual assault is essential and is a priority of Army officials.

Farrell authored a 25-page GAO report outlining the progress DOD has made and the work that still needs to be done. The report found:

(1) DOD's guidance may not adequately address some important issues, such as how to implement its program in deployed and joint environments;
(2) most, but not all, commanders support the programs;
(3) program coordinators' effectiveness can be hampered when program management is a collateral duty;
(4) required sexual assault prevention and response training is not consistently effective; and
(5) factors such as a DOD-reported shortage of mental health care providers affect whether service members who are victims of sexual assault can or do access mental health services.

The case of PFC LaVera Johnson, a soldier who claimed rape and supposedly committed suicide, a charge some don't believe, was also brought up today. When one committee member told Lt. Gen. Rochelle that Johnson's father still had questions the Army had not answered, Rochelle said he believed Army officials had been very forthcoming with evidence but agreed to take a list of the questions and respond to Mr. Johnson.

Check out the subcommittee's Web page on the hearing for more info.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT

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