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 The bill, sponsored by New York Democratic Senator Kirsten
Gillibrand only got 55 of the 60 votes it would have needed to go
ahead under Senate rules. The vote was 55-45, with 23 senators
crossing party lines.
Immediately after that bill failed, the Senate voted unanimously to
advance a separate reform measure that would not go as far as
Gillibrand's.
Despite months of intense lobbying, Gillibrand and her supporters
could not overcome Pentagon leaders' insistence that such a
fundamental change would weaken the chain of command and that
officers should have more responsibility, not less, for addressing
sex crimes.
"We know the deck is stacked against victims of sexual assault in
the military, and today, we saw the same in the halls of Congress,"
Gillibrand said after the vote, adding that she would continue to
press for reforms.
Gillibrand's "Military Justice Improvement Act" had been a focus of
intense debate over how the Pentagon should handle assault cases. A
study released in May 2013 estimated that incidents of unwanted
sexual contact, from groping to rape, had jumped by 37 percent in
2012, reaching 26,000 cases.
The Senate voted 100-0 to proceed with the second bill, sponsored by
Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri and New Hampshire
Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte, who both opposed Gillibrand's
legislation.
The McCaskill-Ayotte bill, among other things, would eliminate the
so-called good soldier defense, which refers to the ability of a
military court to reduce the sentences of troops who are found
guilty of sexual assault but have strong military records. It leaves
responsibility for prosecution with commanders.
The final vote on the McCaskill-Ayotte bill is expected on Monday.
EMBARRASSING CASES
The Department of Defense has also been struggling to deal with a
spate of high-profile cases of sexual assault, including some
involving personnel charged with combating the crime.
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On Thursday, an Army official said Lt. Col. Joseph Morse, chief of
the Army's Trial Counsel Assistance Program and a top sexual assault
prosecutor, had been suspended recently pending an investigation
into allegations he groped a female colleague.
Also on Thursday, Brigadier General Jeffrey Sinclair pleaded guilty
to having an adulterous affair, asking junior female officers for
nude photos and possessing pornography on his laptop, although he
will fight sexual assault charges.
President Barack Obama in December ordered a year-long review of the
military's handling of sexual assault cases.
Several reforms have already been enacted, but Gillibrand pushed to
go further. She contended that, among other things, too few victims
have been willing to come forward because of the need to deal with
the chain of command.
U.S. military leaders opposed her proposal. They said they worried
it would weaken the command structure even as they acknowledged an
"epidemic" of sexual assaults within the ranks.
Some key members of the Senate, including Carl Levin of Michigan,
the Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also
opposed the measure.
Forty-three Democrats, 11 Republicans and one independent voted to
go ahead with the bill. Thirty-four Republicans, 10 Democrats and
one independent voted against it.
(Additional reporting by Missy Ryan and Richard Cowan;
editing by
Sandra Maler and David Gregorio)
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