WASHINGTON — The murder of Army Spc. Vanessa Guillen, who was found slain after being reported missing from Fort Hood in 2020, continues to resonate as a rallying cry for action on Capitol Hill to improve the way the military handles sexual assault and harassment.
Now, 20 months after the 20-year-old Houston native’s killing, Congress has passed a series of historic reforms to combat military sexual assault and harassment and improve how the crimes are prosecuted — delivering on some, though not all, of the changes lawmakers and activists have advocated for for months.
Guillen, whose dismembered remains were found two months after she went missing, told her family she was being sexually harassed at work before she disappeared. The Army later confirmed that she had been harassed, but by a different service member than the man accused of killing her.
These reforms — which include stripping the authority to prosecute sex offenses from military commanders — were passed as part of this year’s National Defense Authorization Act, the annual defense spending bill that the House and Senate struggled to come to an agreement on as the end of the year approached.
On Dec. 7, leaders from the House and Senate Armed Services committees unveiled a revised 2022 National Defense Authorization Act in an attempt to work around existing gridlock and ensure the bill is passed before the end of December.
The House passed the revised version that night and the Senate approved the final bill on Dec. 15, sending the $768 billion package to President Joe Biden’s desk, where he signed it into law on Dec. 27.
“The Act provides vital benefits and enhances access to justice for military personnel and their families, and includes critical authorities to support our country’s national defense,” Biden said in a statement after the signing.
However, not all lawmakers are content with the changes in the revised legislation.
“House and Senate Armed Services leadership have gutted our bipartisan military justice reforms behind closed doors, doing a disservice to our service members and our democracy,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y, a longtime advocate for reforming prosecution procedure in the armed forces.
“Despite claims otherwise, the NDAA does not remove the convening authority from military commanders,” she said in a statement. “This bill represents a major setback on behalf of service members, women and survivors in particular.”
In addition to moving decisions to prosecute rape, sexual assault, murder, manslaughter and kidnapping out of the chain of command, the legislation will also create offices for independent military prosecutors to handle these cases. These offices will be under civilian control, reporting to the secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force.
The defense bill, now law, also includes legislation Texas Sen. John Cornyn introduced after Guillen’s death that will require military installations to review and improve policies and procedures for reporting missing servicemembers, and to partner with local and federal law enforcement to improve information sharing.
“We must defend the brave men and women who put their lives on the line for our safety at home and abroad,” Cornyn said in a statement on Dec. 28. “This legislation will help us prevent tragedies on bases like the heartbreaking deaths of soldiers at Fort Hood by requiring updates to military installation security procedures and by focusing on stronger partnerships between installations and law enforcement.”
But like Gillibrand, Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., who has worked for over a decade to shine light on the problems the military has had in both preventing and prosecuting sexual assault and harassment, said the defense bill still has flaws.
“While this bill creates a standalone military offense for sexual harassment, there is a fatal flaw in that it fails to provide independent prosecution of sexual harassment cases, clearly state and require the independent investigators to be outside of the chain of command of the victims and those accused, and require training for the independent investigators,” Speier said in a statement.
Many lawmakers and activists acknowledged the revised bill’s shortcomings, but still celebrated it as a historic achievement.
“We got in this fight after the tragic murder of Spc. Vanessa Guillen, and we have pushed and pushed and pushed and while all provisions were not included in the Senate’s agreed version, it is a major step in getting justice for victims and protecting our soldiers,” said Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, after House passage. Guillen was one of Garcia’s constituents.
Rep. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., was a key Republican voice in the push for reform, and said he fought for the change in honor of Guillen.
“The issue of sexual assault and sexual harassment in the military isn’t a Democrat or Republican issue – it’s an American issue,” Mullin said. “We must strengthen the military’s ability to protect its most important resource, which is the people who willingly sign-up to protect all Americans.”
Gillibrand, who promised to continue her advocacy, has been pushing for sexual assault and harassment policy reforms within the military for almost a decade with a number of other senators, including Texas Republican Ted Cruz.
“It is imperative that victims of sexual assault and harassment who serve in our Armed Services can step forward in the pursuit of justice without fear of not be taken seriously or fear of retaliation,” Cruz said when he, Gillibrand and others introduced a bipartisan military justice bill together in April.
In 2013, Cruz and Gillibrand co-wrote an op-ed emphasizing the need for reform, saying the problems with the current chain of command system warrant intervention from Congress. Cruz and Gillibrand have since introduced a number of bills and initiatives to improve how the military prosecutes serious crimes, including sexual assault and harassment.
“What we’re doing now isn’t working,” the senators wrote in 2013. “And the evidence suggests that it would be far easier for victims to come forward with complaints of unwanted sexual contact if, instead, an experienced, objective third-party evaluated these allegations, rather than a soldier’s commanding officer. Our proposal would do just that.”
After Guillen’s death, continued study of the environment at Fort Hood in Central Texas, the nation’s largest military installation, showed a culture of sexual harassment and a lack of action from leadership.
“It is absolutely tragic that it took Vanessa’s murder, and the incredible loss that her family has had to endure, to bring us to this moment,” said U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, at a press conference in November. “But she brought us to this moment, and we have never been closer to reforming the military in a way that respects and upholds the dignity of our servicemembers the way that we are today.”
Advocates and allies were disappointed, however, when an amendment that would allow victims of sex-related offenses and their families to file claims with the U.S. military was left out of the revised version of the defense bill, Univision reported.
The amendment, written by Gillibrand, would have permitted payments to service members who experience injury or death because of a sex-related offense committed by another service member or Defense Department employee that the military failed to prevent.
“As soon as they start seeing how many people are held accountable, and how much it’s costing them, then something will be done, there’ll be accountability,” Mayra Guillen, Vanessa’s sister, said in November. “They won’t just move them from base to base thinking that it’s going to be a forgotten story. My sister hasn’t been a forgotten story and won’t be a forgotten story, I can assure you that.”
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