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Senior commanders of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and other military branches have expressed concern about legislation that would bring sweeping changes to the military justice system, expressing their views in letters to a prominent Republican opponent of the bill.
Military leaders, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, presented their arguments to Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. The legislation, which supporters say would better combat sexual harassment and assault within the military ranks, has the support of two-thirds of all senators.
The bill would change the way the US military prosecutes sexual assault, murder and other serious crimes within the ranks by stripping commanders of their long-standing power to decide whether to send such cases to trial. Instead, those calls are made by independent military prosecutors.
Military leaders argued that removing all serious crimes from the chain of command would undermine military leadership and possibly lead to unintended consequences, including a potential erosion of prevention efforts.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff is made up of the military leaders of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Space Force, and National Guard, and has a president and vice president. While military service leaders are required to answer lawmakers’ questions, it is unusual for military leaders to present such detailed arguments against pending legislation.
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