McCain (left) predicted long-term problems for the military’s recruitment . | REUTERS Senate stares down Pentagon on Hill

Top military leaders marched into battle Tuesday — with Congress.

The brass appeared at a Senate hearing, where they took heat from Republicans and Democrats so fed up with the Pentagon’s handling of sexual assault they’re pushing to take the cases outside of the hands of commanders — a step the military has resisted fiercely.


Whether the Senate can stare down the Pentagon and force such a significant change will be a test of whether a long simmering issue has reached a boiling point.

( PHOTOS: Female war veterans: From uniform to Congress)

“You have lost the trust of those men and women who rely on you… they are afraid to report, they fear their careers will be over… that is our biggest challenge right there. Right there,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) told a decorated panel of military officials.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno called preventing sexual assault the service’s “number one priority,” but military officials united in opposition to Gillibrand’s proposal, which would take away commanders’ authority to determine whether sexual assault cases go to trial.

“If you’ve heard each of us suggest that the role of a commander is central in solving this problem, it’s because we believe that the role of the commander is essential to any change we will be able to make on this issue,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey told the committee, defending the current processes.

Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard leaders testified Tuesday on a panel convened by the Senate Armed Services Committee to hear opinions on pending sexual assault bills.

The committee is expected to take up the issue when it begins working on a defense authorization bill next week. Already, more than 40 senators have sponsored or co-sponsored seven bills aimed at reducing military sexual violence.

The problem of sexual assault has been on Congress’ radar for years, but it has received renewed attention in recent weeks when a new survey showed 26,000 troops experienced an unwanted sexual incident last year and separate allegations of sexual assault surfaced against military officials responsible for preventing such crimes.

Military officials also argued the chain of command is essential to maintaining “good order and discipline” in the ranks.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen pushed back by saying sexual assault was undermining unit cohesion in a more corrosive manner, as more women join military ranks.

In an impassioned defense of her proposed measure, Gillibrand recited statistics showing that few sexual assault victims take their cases up the chain of command.

“Why can’t you maintain good order and discipline without [that authority]? You have those… today and you do not have good order and discipline,” Gillibrand said.

Dempsey responded: “I am aligned very closely with my peers here on the idea that we should try to fix this through the commander and not around them.”

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), himself a former Naval aviator, told the panel that he was so disturbed by rampant sexual assault in the military that he cannot give his “unconditional support” to women thinking of joining the armed services.

McCain told a panel of top military officials appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday that he was approached recently by a woman who asked if he would approve of her daughter joining the military. McCain replied that could not give his full support because of the severity of the problem.

McCain called sexual assault a threat to the “basic human rights” of military service members and predicted it would become a long-term problem for the military’s recruitment and retention of women.

McCain did not say whether he’d support Gillibrand’s proposal.

Indeed, both senators and service chiefs talked broadly about the need for a dramatic “cultural change” in the military on the scale of racial desegregation and the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

But for some service chiefs, the imperative of creating “cultural change” was a vehicle through which to argue for the retention of the chain of command’s current prerogatives — since commanders would need to lead this change.

“I want the commander fully involved in the decisions that have an impact on the morale and the cohesion of the unit,” Odierno told the committee. “It is not too much responsibility. In my mind it sets the tone for the unit in order to execute under the most strenuous conditions, and I need commanders that can do that… if they can’t do it, we hold them accountable.”

Dempsey and top military service chiefs had a supporter in Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), who urged caution about further changes in legislation related to military sexual assault.

Inhofe said that the most recent defense authorization bill passed by Congress had 10 provisions relating to sexual assault, many of which haven’t had time to take effect yet.

“Our commanders haven’t had enough time to implement the most recent changes and now some think we need to change things again. I think that would be a mistake to legislate initial demands on the department and the services until they have had an opportunity to assess the effectiveness of these recent legislative requirements,” Inhofe said in his opening statement before the committee.

Following the testimony of senior military leaders, Gillibrand expressed hope that, much like Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the military would come to align with her eventually.

“Early on in the fight to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the military did not support [repeal] either,” Gillibrand told reporters as senior military officials exited the hearing room. “The military is often reticent to change the status quo. But what you did hear from the panel at least was the passion to get rid of the scourge of sexual assault and rape in the military, and that’s a very good instinct.”

On the other hand, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s proposal to prevent a military authority from overturning the findings of courts-martial found wide support among the military’s top officials.

Still, the Joint Chiefs chairman warned that there were still “inadequate protections” in place to prevent sex offenders from joining the military.

“A sex offender could, in fact, find their way into the armed forces of the United States. In fact, there are cases where a convicted, where a conviction wouldn’t automatically result in a discharge,” Dempsey said, adding that this situation “absolutely” needed to be changed.

To this end, Dempsey said he supported Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s (D-Conn.) proposal to mandate a punitive discharge for service members convicted of sexual assault.

“Automatic discharge for convicted felony offenses, particularly in the case that we’re discussing — sexual assault — is an idea that I would align myself with,” Dempsey said, after questioning from the Connecticut senator.

In contrast, Dempsey would not yet commit to supporting the bill introduced by Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) that would provide sexual assault victims with a Special Victims’ Counsel and prohibit sexual contact between instructors and trainees during basic training and for 30 days thereafter.

“It would be hard to justify not supporting what seems to be basic common sense,” Ayotte told Dempsey, who said he had not yet been able to discuss the proposals with Secretary Hagel.