- Will come to order.
I wanna welcome everyone to this hearing
of the Military Personal subcommittee
on Domestic Violence in the Military.
We are here today because domestic violence
has become a forgotten crisis in our military.
It's been 15 years since the DOD Task Force
analyzed domestic violence within the military,
yet we have seen unsettling warning signs since.
Within the last few months DOD reports have highlighted
concerning failures in our service's
Domestic Violence Prevention systems.
The DOD has not responded urgently.
Today we will hear from three survivors of domestic violence
in the military who are bravely coming forward
to share their experiences in the hopes
that others may be helped.
Their stories are riveting.
They are painful and they are real.
Because we lack data that is recent, plentiful
or granular we must rely on survivors, advocates
and experts to help us understand the unique challenges
of dealing with this crisis within the military.
Major Leah Olszewski is still on the run
from a violent abuser.
Air Force officials at every level refused to help her
despite knowing of past incidents.
Kate Ranta found justice in the civilian,
not military court system.
But only after her violent ex-husband
who was a allowed to go free
and retire from the Air Force shot her and her father.
Rohini Hughes and her son Jay were verbally
and physically abused by her husband,
who as a JAG used his knowledge of the system against her.
These incidents impact victims, families, communities.
The DOD must learn to believe survivors
and take action based on their claims and evidence.
Denial, favoritism and a complex bureaucracy
cannot shield dangerous perpetrators.
Domestic violence is not unique to the military.
According to the CDC one in four women
and nearly one in 10 men have experienced
intimate partner violence in their lifetimes.
And as with civilian domestic violence there is no,
quote typical unquote military domestic violence case.
That means policy must account for
and address a wide range of potential aggravating factors.
Adverse childhood experiences may create a propensity
for domestic violence.
Poor role models can make it hard
to peacefully resolve conflicts.
Law enforcement providing access to childcare
and early education, military leadership, Congress
and the criminal justice system all have roles to play.
But we must also mitigate the factors of military life
that can exacerbate the risks of domestic violence.
Families cope with new responsibilities,
frequent moves and tough challenges.
Service members may be consumed by military duties
and struggling with post-traumatic or other stresses
and a thirst for high-risk behaviors
after multiple deployments.
Military spouses are often isolated, underemployed
and struggling to make ends meet.
Living far from friends or family
and unfamiliar with local resources.
It's unfortunately easy to see how these conditions
can make domestic violence possible,
more dangerous and persistent.
When young men and women join the military
they become our responsibility
as one of our nation's most precious resources.
We are equally responsible for military families
who sacrifice along with the service member.
And we are responsible for military children
because exposure to domestic violence has longterm affects
and because military children are disproportionately
likely to join the military themselves.
I believe the military takes this problem seriously.
But it's clear that leadership needs to address
this threat with renewed urgency.
Commanders at every level need to make
combating domestic violence a personal,
and I underscore that, a personal priority.
In recent years Congress has added
a UCMJ Domestic Violence Criminal Article,
required new reporting on DOD's prevention
and response systems and explored expanding
special victims attorneys to cover domestic violence.
There is far more to be done
and I hope to learn about some of these options today.
Today we will be joined by two panels.
The first will consist of military
domestic violence survivors and experts.
On the second we'll have DOD officials
responsible for designing
and implementing relevant policies.
We will focus on three main questions
during today's hearing.
First, are we taking the crime
of domestic violence seriously enough?
Who does it affect and what happens to them?
Second, how should we prevent domestic violence,
reach out to and care for survivors
and deal with perpetrators?
Third, what do current DOD programs look like?
What are their strengths
and how can we further improve them?
Before I introduce our first panel,
I'd like to offer ranking member Kelly
an opportunity to make opening remarks.
- Thank you, Chairwoman Speier,
for having this very important hearing today.
And this is a issue that I've been engaged in
since I was a city prosecutor in 1999
at the misdemeanor level
and later as a district attorney at the felony level.
And I know of no more serious issue than domestic violence
and what it does to families and lives
and all those who it's around.
I wish to welcome both of our panels to today's hearing.
I particularly wanna thank you three survivors
of domestic abuse and for your bravery
and your willingness to share your stories here today
and the issues in your story.
Domestic abuse is a serious national issue.
On average nearly 20 people a minute
in the United States are physically abused by a partner.
Unfortunately, the military is not immune
to this national problem.
Domestic violence in the military has lasting
negative affects on not just the family in which it occurs,
but also in the military community as a whole.
It is imperative that the Department of Defense
have a comprehensive prevention and response program
to ensure that military families have the resources needed
to identify and prevent domestic abuse.
And that survivors of domestic abuse have the legal,
medical and behavioral health resources
needed to rebuild their lives
and those affected by these acts.
As a former district attorney and city prosecutor,
I prosecuted domestic violence crimes
and have put domestic abusers behind bars.
I'm a firm believer in education
and transparency in order to prevent
domestic violence situations.
And when I say education it's not just for the victims
it's for peers, it's for the abusers,
it's for the chain of command.
It is understanding what domestic violence is and is not.
Understanding what the solutions are.
How to get to credible solutions and it is very important
and it is a longterm process to educate all those involved
so that we know exactly how to deal with this problem
'cause it is not acceptable that it stays even.
We want it to get better.
I know firsthand how difficult
these cases can be to prosecute
and how traumatic the process can be for the whole family.
Many times they use power of separation from friends
and associates and families to keep them
from having a helpline to reach out for.
They use financial resources
and lack that the victims have.
They threaten that I'm the only breadwinner.
I understand all these unique situations
which many people in America just quite frankly,
don't understand and it is a an education process
that commanders at all levels need to understand.
From ongoing counseling to financial insecurity
it is imperative that a family receive the support they need
after the criminal case has concluded.
Not just during, but after.
No matter how many resources we provide survivors;
however, our primary goal should be to prevent
domestic violence to begin with.
I'm encouraged that the Department has a new prevention plan
of action which is a comprehensive approach to prevention
including a focus on awareness and early intervention.
I'm also encouraged that
the Domestic Violence Response Program leverages
the entire scope of community-based resources.
I look forward to hearing from our witnesses
who are survivors of domestic violence
about their experiences and what can be done to improve
the process from your point of view.
I'm also interested to hear from the other witnesses
on the first panel some of who have partnered
with the Department of Defense to ensure
their comprehensive prevention and response programs
benefit from civilian best practices.
Finally, I look forward to hearing
from the Department of Defense on the current program
and any new initiatives that may improve
the domestic abuse prevention and response program.
Thank you, Madam Chair, and I yield back.
- Thank you, Mr. Kelly.
Each witness will have the opportunity to present his
or her testimony, and each member will have an opportunity
to question the witnesses for five minutes.
We respectfully ask the witnesses to summarize
their testimony in five minutes if at all possible.
Some of your stories are riveting
and we will be somewhat lenient in that regard.
Your written comments and statements
will be made part of the hearing record.
Ms. Kate Ranta, survivor and advocate.
Ms. Leah Olszewski, survivor.
Mrs. Rohini Hughes, survivor and advocate.
Miss Arlene Vassell,
Vice President of Program Prevention and Social Change
at the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence.
Mr. David S. Lee, Director of Prevention Services;
PreventConnect.
Mr. Brian Clubb, Coordinator,
Military and Veterans Advocacy Program
Battered Women's Justice Program.
Thank you all for being here.
Miss Ranta, would you like to begin.
- My name is Kate Ranta
and I am a survivor of domestic and gun violence.
My former spouse, Thomas Maffei,
was a major in the Air Force.
In 2009 we were living in officer housing on Fort Belvoir.
It was there that he began to show
increasingly abusive behavior toward the children and me.
He controlled every aspect of our lives.
During this time Thomas was also pushing to retire.
We were moving to Florida when the retirement came through.
But as the time approached to close on the house
we bought there he still wasn't retired.
So he said that he would forge orders
and give them to those responsible for arranging PCS moves.
He said they wouldn't even question it and he was right.
We moved into our new home in early September 2010.
Thomas' behavior become erratic.
On January 2, 2011 he took it to another level.
He picked a fight with me,
then locked me out of our bedroom.
I heard the sound of a gun chambering.
Terrified, I dialed 911 and ran out of the house.
Then I heard the garage door open
and out he came holding our toddler who was only two.
He got into the car and I jumped in with them.
He raised his fist at me, his eyes were black.
And he told me to get out of the expletive car
or he would punch me in my expletive face.
I jumped out and he sped off around the corner.
When I ran back to the house the police were there
and so was Thomas.
He was giving his military coins to the officers.
Telling them that he was a veteran.
He wasn't he was still active duty.
And that he had survived a Humvee explosion in Iraq.
He didn't, he had never deployed.
To them he was a hero and I was the hysterical wife.
The next day I got a temporary restraining order,
a civilian one and he was served.
I called his commander at Andrews Air Force base,
Colonel Timothy Applegate.
And told him about the domestic violence incident,
about the restraining order,
about his soldier not being in Virginia but in Florida
and about the fake moving orders.
He was quick to get me off the phone.
He knew he was in trouble, too.
He'd had no idea that Thomas wasn't even in Virginia
for those past four months.
Thomas also knew he had to get back to Virginia
which was what he did.
In the meantime, I was connected with OSI
and reported the situation to them as well.
As a result of that, Thomas was moved out
from under Colonel Applegate
and placed with a new commander,
Lieutenant Colonel Michelle Ryan at Bolling Air Force Base
as OSI began its investigation.
He was to remain on Bolling with check-in times
so they knew he had not left the base.
During the months he was held at Bolling,
Thomas went AWOL two different times.
Both times I got calls from Lieutenant Colonel Ryan
that he had not checked in as he was required to do.
That they could not make contact with him.
That my family and I should go somewhere
where he couldn't find us as she couldn't guarantee
that he wasn't on his way to Florida.
Both times they found him a day or two later,
but she gave excuses about his whereabouts.
OSI completed its investigation in mid-March.
They were looking into spousal abuse as well as fraud.
I was contacted by an investigator who let me know
that they'd found him guilty of both
and would be recommending court-martial.
I was relieved.
That was until he told me that Thomas' punishment
could actually be up to his Command.
And that there was a chance
that nothing would happen to him.
Shortly after OSI closed the case,
Lieutenant Colonel Ryan called me.
She said that they had handled it administratively
and that Thomas would be retired at the end of March.
I literally begged her to reconsider.
She said he'd served 25 years
and charging him would cause him to lose his pension.
The military lifted the restraining order they put on him
and he was released out into society.
A year and a half later after months
and months of civilian court hearings,
Thomas showed up with a nine millimeter Berretta,
ambushed me at my apartment and shot through the front door.
My father and I were standing inside the door
pushing against it trying to keep him out.
My son, William, was standing just behind us.
Thomas pushed his way in and shot some more.
A bullet went through my right hand.
He shot my dad point blank in his left side
and I thought my dad had died.
A bullet also went through my left breast,
just missing my heart.
Another bullet went into my dad's left arm
leaving it paralyzed.
Thomas did this in front of William,
his own son, who was only four.
His own son who screamed, "Don't do it, Daddy,
"don't shoot Mommy."
By some miracle we all lived.
The three of us got out of the apartment
and Thomas surrendered at the scene.
He spent almost five years in jail
before we had the civilian trial
where he was found guilty of pre-mediated,
attempted first degree murder
and sentenced to 60 years in prison.
So we saw justice on the civilian side,
not the military side.
All of this was avoidable.
I hold his command fully responsible.
They knew he was dangerous, but instead,
they chose not to do a thing about it.
Domestic violence in the military is rampant.
There are tons of Thomas Maffeis in their ranks.
I hope this committee will be as appalled as I am
about what happened to us and will take steps
to change this, take care of our own culture,
in the military at the expense of women
and children who's lives are at stake.
Thank you.
- Thank you, for that very compelling testimony.
Ms. Olszewski.
Pronounce it for us so we.
- [Leah] Olszewski.
- Olszewski, okay.
(Leah laughs)
- Thank you.
Good afternoon, my name is Leah Olszewski.
I'm a Major in the Army National Guard, entrepreneur,
daughter, sister and one-time intimate partner
of an Air Force Senior Master Sergeant Erik Cardin.
Senior Master Sergeant Cardin mislead me from day one.
Initially, under the impression
he was still at Air Force Special Operations Command,
I later learned he had been fired
and kicked out of the unit two years earlier in 2014
for violence and abuse on service members.
Abuse that according to several airmen
should have gotten him kicked out of the Air Force entirely.
The Air Force then sent Senior Master Sergeant Cardin
to Afghanistan for a year where his commander told him
if he did not stop his behavior
he was going to end up in jail.
In 2016 Senior Master Sergeant Cardin was rewarded
with a leadership role at Travis Air Force Base, California.
One of his fellow noncommissioned officers
warned Travis leaders of the Senior Master Sergeant's
history but was dismissed.
They said they knew.
Within nine months of being
at his Travis Air Force Base unit
Senior Master Sergeant Cardin was fired and kicked out again
this time for three significant
acts of violence on service members.
Once again he was shuffled and made someone else's problem.
No counseling, no court martial, no consequences.
A month after being fired Senior Master Sergeant Cardin
and I moved in together
and the severe abuse emotional and physical began.
Over the next six months I was a slut
or a whore just like other women,
should know my place as a woman.
He isolated me, was jealous, enraged and explosive.
He constantly threatened me to break my neck
and bust my teeth out.
There were five physical assaults including strangulation.
Then on October 11, 2017 my world came to an end
when preceded by three days of emotional abuse
he kicked me in the abdomen with both of his feet,
among other things, he knew I was pregnant.
I called the police and he ran from the house.
Over the next three days I miscarried.
When Command learned of the physical abuse
they simply said run away, Leah, he's doing you a favor.
For the next 11 months and to this day,
I have battled the Air Force to do the right thing.
Every entity on Travis Air Force Base from Command
to Family Advocacy to Security Forces failed me.
They just waited on the Senior Master Sergeant to retire.
I asked for help from Command
at joint base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, Scott Air Force Base,
and directly from former Air Force Secretary Wilson,
General Goldfein and Chief Master Sergeant
of the Air Force Wright with no response
or a minimal entirely ineffective response.
The Air Force Inspector General
later dismissed several of my complaints.
As they always had,
the Air Force turned a blind eye, sometimes actually,
actively supporting Senior Master Sergeant Cardin,
instead of holding him accountable.
On September 1, 2018 the Air Force honorably retired
Senior Master Sergeant Cardin.
No demotion, no court martial, no consequences.
Now, he laughs in court about the miscarriage,
abuse and my suffering and has continued to terrorize me
by skipping over 48 other states
and moving down the road from me knowing I was here.
He had no friends, no job, no family, no clearance
and no reason to be here.
He violated his restraining order in April
and is retaliating against me still
by trying to ruin what's left of my Army career.
I live in fear, heavily burdened every day.
The Air Force is responsible for enabling
and emboldening Senior Master Sergeant Cardin
over many years, for putting service members
and communities at risk and for all of my losses.
If they'll do this to me,
they'll do this to everyone and anyone.
If Air Force leaders won't even listen to its own members
regarding Senior Master Sergeant Cardin,
let alone me and years of workplace
and domestic violence equate to nothing in their eyes,
how many others are there and what does it take?
What does it take?
Thank you for your time.
- Thank you so much, Ms. Olszewski.
Now, Mrs. Hughes.
- Honorable members of the Armed Services subcommittee,
staff, respected experts and witnesses present here today.
As a former citizen of New Delhi, India
and now a U.S. citizen,
I am a proud military Air Force spouse, a former spouse.
I humbly and thankfully submit my testimony
while being grateful to you for this opportunity to share
my story on behalf of countless military families,
my families and my son, Jay Hughes,
who is with me here today.
I'm a patriotic, military spouse
who served as a Key Spouse Program Manager
for various Air Force units.
And I have been a proud stay-at-home mother
for the last 20 years while serving our military,
our community and my family.
My former husband, Major Matthew, Matt, Earnest Hughes
is a prior Navy Reservist,
a former active duty U.S. Air Force
JAG Corps officer in AFLOA at Joint Base Andrews.
And currently has a private practice in Rockville, Maryland
while still serving as an active reservist
at an unknown location.
Major Hughes has had four tours of deployment.
On December 24, 2014 our world shook
and was changed forever when my husband wiped out
all our accounts, canceled our credit cards
and made stop payments on all outstanding checks.
He followed these actions with an email to me
stating erratic and controlling demands
with a timeline attached for each demand.
These demands clearly defined us as slaves to be objectified
and owned, not to be loved, not to be respected
and not to be honored.
Examples of Major Hughes's behavior was repeatedly
laughing while degrading, tormenting,
enjoying his cruelty towards us.
Major Hughes would twist our son's nipples while laughing,
forcing his thumbs inside an open bleeding wound
on Jay's shaking knee.
Laughing and stating that it didn't hurt him.
He did this repeatedly.
He neglected our unsupervised son
while being intoxicated for several hours
which traumatized Jay who believed his father was dead.
On other abusive occasions,
Jay would lock himself in a bathroom in fear for his life.
Another instance, Major Hughes dumped a large box of food
on top of our sickly daughter's feverish body.
Our years of abuse we sought medical,
after years of abuse, I'm sorry,
we sought medical and mental health assistance.
When he discovered this he made us feel guilty
and prohibited us from going to hospitals and doctors,
even after our daughter's failed attempt of suicide.
Then he demanded I pay rent
for continued shelter in our home
or accept his offer of $200 per month for sex
in exchange for shelter while he collected BAH.
We were forced to perform all of the household duties
while he leisurely worked on his body.
He would continuously yell in our faces,
calling us losers and dumb and lazy.
Even when I miscarried or was giving birth to our children.
On December 31, 2014 I contacted Mr. Peter Katson
at the Pentagon's Legal Assistance Office
who encouraged me to contact the AFLOA commander
Colonel Thomas Zimmerman.
My husband was reported to Child Protective Services
in December 2014 for child neglect
and abuse by our counselor formerly at Meir Clinic,
Fairfax, Virginia.
He has been reported again since 2015
by Walter Reed National Military Medical Clinic,
joint base Andrews Family Advocacy Program
and Fort Belvoir Adolescent In-Patient Unit.
And yet I am being falsely accused of parental alienation.
In March 2015, Major Pamela Blueford
at the Joint Base Andrews Family Advocacy Program,
FAP, began reviewing the complaints submitted
by Dr. Comilang at Walter Reed
and began treating me with hostility
during an interrogation in front of Miss Mary Young
the Victim Advocate at FAP present at that time.
She questioned my intentions
and motives for seeking mental health assistance
while repeatedly telling me
these types of allegations could negatively affect
my husband's career in the Air Force.
Major Hughes's deputy in AFLOA told me my marriage
would likely be headed towards divorce
while stating that this was a civil matter,
disregarding the reported evidence of abuse.
Additionally, she stated that as long as my husband
was paying rent, even though we chose not to return
to the home due to our fears of our safety,
he was providing adequate support
and would not be mandated to provide any money to us
for food or lodging while we continued to be homeless.
In July 2015 Major Hughes separated from active duty
in the Air Force to go to the Reserves.
He utilized his separation orders
to terminate our lease prematurely
under the provisions of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act
forcing my family into homelessness for almost two years.
There were many other documented events of abuse
none of which supposedly met the Joint Base Andrews
FAP abuse criteria.
However, it did meet DOD's abuse criteria by 100%.
After each abusive episode Major Hughes would drink,
deny his abusive actions and behavior, words and events,
grin and laugh.
This forced us to begin documenting
a series of abusive events.
We learned new terms such as narcissism, sociopath,
gaslighting, and coercive control and parental alienation
from our therapists concerning Major Hughes.
After several months of being ignored
by my husband's command, AFLOA, interrogated
and treated unprofessionally by FAP,
Major Pamela Blueford continued to deny me
the written documentation of the finding.
I was informed by Miss Mary Young at Joint Base Andrews
FAP that this unprofessional behavior and aggression
was a normal occurrence in the FAP office
towards victims all the time.
I'm sorry may I just grab some water.
- [Chairwoman] Sure and then would you be able to sum up?
- Yes, ma'am.
This former JAG has also utilized his position
in exploiting the Service Member Relief Act in civil court
in front of a former JAG judge forcing me to pay
almost $30,000 in legal fees which I cannot afford.
(she sighs)
This is a black eye on our U.S. Military.
It is the invisible scars that forever haunt me
and my children through the failed suicide attempt
from my daughter and my son's suicidal ideations.
Major Hughes prohibits him from seeking medical attention.
I fear losing my son to suicide,
while he eliminates all his assistance
that he desperately needs.
It is through our faith in Christ
that we are able to sustain
and be here in front of you today.
Unfortunately, my story is not
an isolated set of events or incidents.
Many military spouses experience similar abuse,
desertion, abandonment, but are afraid to come forward
because they are groomed not to expose their abuse
while they're being silenced.
Thank you for this opportunity today.
- Thank you very much, Mrs. Hughes.
Ms. Vassell.
- Good afternoon, Chairwoman Speier, Ranking Member Kelly
and distinguished members of the committee.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony
on the importance of prevention.
I thank the committee for holding this hearing
to discuss life saving prevention practices and strategies.
As mentioned before I'm the Vice President
of Programs, Prevention and Social Change
at the National Resource Center of Domestic Violence
with over 20 years of experience
responding to the needs of survivors across the nation.
Our mission at the National Resource Center is to strengthen
and transform efforts to end domestic violence.
Since its inception in 1993,
NRCDV has played a key role in providing
collaborative learning and resource development to end
and prevent domestic violence.
The purpose of my testimony is to share
strategies for prevention that could be implemented
by the military.
These strategies can help prevent domestic violence
before it happens benefiting not only military families,
but all our communities across the country.
The prevalence data has been shared
but what I do wanna emphasize is domestic violence
causes profound and enduring health, economic
and other consequences across the lifespan.
So it doesn't stop.
Additionally, studies focusing on children
exposed to violence finds that one in five children
witnessing parental assault
also leads to increased risk of experiencing
and/or perpetrating domestic violence as adults.
I also wanna emphasize that children are resilient.
It's not a cliche and can bounce back
with the appropriate age development
and culturally specific interventions.
Prevention is much more than education
and it goes beyond the individual.
We must use the public health approach to prevent
first time victimization and perpetration from happening.
Violence can be prevented and its impact reduced
in the same way that public health efforts
have prevented and reduced pregnancy related complications,
workplace injuries, infectious diseases
and illnesses resulting from contaminated food
and water in many parts of the world.
Sexual violence and domestic violence are more complicated
than other public health issues,
because of the intentionality of harm
and the social stigmas associated with their occurrence.
Primary prevention efforts, though,
impact modifiable factors associated
with domestic violence such as;
reducing acceptance of violence, challenging social norms,
practices and policies that support
or reinforce gender-based violence.
When violence occurs there's a sense of urgency
to intervene, support victims, hold abusers accountable.
We know these things are necessary
but to stop violence before it ever happens
it is vital that we recognize that the connections
among issues of health, safety, economic security
and other factors affecting wellbeing can increase
public understanding of the complexity of the violence.
This understanding according to the CDC,
the Center for Disease and Control and Prevention,
will help inform primary prevention efforts.
Our approach at the National Resource Center
on Domestic Violence is awareness plus action
equals social change.
We have seen success in using this formula
and many organizations
and communities have adapted this approach.
Awareness, increased knowledge, action,
we develop and disseminate resources and tools
to proactively prevent first time victimization
and perpetration by interrupting the culture rules,
norms and constructs that it supports.
Based on evidence, my expertise
and experience collaborating with various
military communities throughout my career,
my recommendations for the military are as follows,
some already mentioned.
Develop and implement a comprehensive domestic violence
response and prevention plan.
Create and foster a culture of equity, dignity
and respect promoting health and safety.
Create polices and practices that support survivors,
always believe survivors and hold abusers accountable
so that all service members know that domestic violence
is not acceptable and will not be tolerated.
Develop and maintain collaborative relationships
with community-based practitioners,
social justice organizations,
local domestic violence agencies and state coalitions.
Collaboration is key
in ending and preventing domestic violence.
No single agency can do this alone.
Equip service members, all levels,
with tools to recognize warning signs and encourage safe
and effective bystander interventions to reduce
or prevent violence and assault.
As we continue to enhance responses and offer survivors
and their families services that are survivor-centered
and trauma-informed and lifesaving.
We must continue to hold abusers accountable
while also creating an accessible pathway for healing.
And most importantly, we must commit resources
to addressing the root causes of violence
and prevent perpetration and victimization
from ever happening in the first place.
As mentioned before, effective prevention programs
require cross discipline and multi-sector collaborations.
Thank you for your support
and interest in prevention efforts, strategies
and evidence-based practices.
Preventing violence means changing our society
and its institutions, eliminating attitudes,
beliefs, behaviors, environments and policies
that contribute to violence and promoting those
that create thriving communities for individuals to live,
play, work and worship.
Thank you.
- Thank you, Ms. Vassell.
Mr. Lee.
- Good afternoon, Chairwoman Speier, Ranking Member Kelly
and members of the Committee.
I also wanna thank the survivor panelist for their courage
to speak and really highlight the importance of the need
of changing the culture in our society.
Changing the culture in our Armed Services,
so we no longer accept domestic violence
and make those changes that can lead to a place
where people can live their lives to their full potential.
I am the Director of Prevention at PreventConnect
a national resource center dedicated to advancing
the prevention of domestic violence and sexual assault.
Through my experience we've been able to see
many ways that prevention does work
and can be able to make a difference.
I'm pleased today that we're addressing
both survivor perspectives and prevention strategies
for our nation's Armed Services.
It is necessary to be informed by survivor experiences
to be able to define how we're gonna go ahead
in being able to create the changes we need to do.
It's essential to respond to the needs of survivors
in a trauma-informed manner,
to assert the dignity of all people
and to hold those who have committed abuse accountable.
However, those responses after violence has occurred
are not sufficient to prevent such forms of violence
from happening in the first place nor are they sufficient
to prevent them from happening in the future.
Only with an intentional investment in prevention
will we be able to change the culture
that creates the condition which allows domestic violence
and other forms of violence to continue.
Prevention requires much more than awareness.
Prevention is about creating a culture
that challenges violence and the behaviors
and the attitudes which contribute to it.
We can learn from several other efforts
that have been taking place.
In the Department of Defense's 2018 Annual Report
on Sexual Assault in the Military,
the report noted that historically activities
aimed at preventing sexual assault have primarily centered
on raising awareness about the crime.
These approaches have likely contributed
increases in victim reporting and use of support services
but civilian sector research suggests
that awareness programming does not translate
in the kinds of longterm behavior change required
to prevent sexual violence at the organizational level.
This is also true for domestic violence.
In order to do this we must invest in prevention
in the Armed Services, to build a prevention infrastructure.
There are many elements this should include.
We need to have committed leadership for not just addressing
domestic violence but its prevention.
A commitment to be able to look at creating
that change of culture that's going to name the problem
and take action and be willing to able to prevent it.
It's gonna require staff who receive good training
in prevention, in understanding the issue
and having staff that are dedicated to prevention
beyond just responding to the needs of those
who've experienced domestic violence.
It's gonna require collaborative and engaging partnerships
with other prevention efforts.
We have to look at issues of domestic violence
as we're also looking at sexual assault, sexual harassment
and other mental health issues.
And it requires collaboration with local, state
and national civilian domestic violence prevention efforts
to build cohesive prevention messages and programs
that are gonna work off each other and build off each other.
There are many prevention strategies
can be able to make a difference
or have an impact that we can see
and we've been dedicating our work
and seeing the work that's taking place.
Not much has been taking place within the military itself
but we have worked with families, workplaces,
schools and colleges and sport
where we're seeing the beginnings
of the potential for change
and there's several opportunities.
Part of it for example
in the Blue Shield of California's 2019 Report,
Life Course Framework for Preventing Domestic Violence
they talked about we have to mitigate
and reduce childhood exposure to domestic violence
by investing in prevention approaches aimed
at improving the outcomes for parents and their children.
In the Center for Disease Control's 2017 publication,
Preventing Intimate Partner Violence Across the Lifespan:
a Technical Package of Programs, Policies and Practices
they highlight strategies that can be able
to prevent domestic violence.
This involves engaging influential adults and peers
in particular doing work with, engaging men
to be able to reexamine masculinity
so we can create a new form of manhood
that's dedicated towards promoting gender equity,
not male dominance.
For the Armed Services we should look at the lessons learned
in sport and fraternities, for example,
where we've been able to make changes.
We need to create protective environments
that the Armed Services can take efforts informed
by school-based and workplace initiatives
to make shifts in their culture to enhance safety,
promote healthy relationships and respectful boundaries.
And we can strengthen economic supports for families.
Efforts that strengthen household financial security
and work supports are part of a comprehensive way
to be able to prevent domestic violence.
Domestic violence shatters lives and families
and adversely affects the capacity of the Armed Services.
With an investment in prevention we can make a difference
in the lives of service members,
their families and the community.
As we continue this journey towards prevention
we build health relationships, healthy families
and healthy communities.
- Thank you, Mr. Lee.
Mr. Clubb.
- Yes, I may have to use your mic here.
I'd like to thank you, Chairwoman Speier,
Ranking Member Kelly and the members of this Committee
for the opportunity to speak on this important topic.
I'm the Coordinator of
the Military and Veteran's Advocacy Program
for the Battered Women's Justice Project.
I'm also an attorney and a retired Marine officer.
Our program's funded by a grant
from the U.S. Department of Justice Office
on Violence Against Women.
And through our work in the field
there are a number of issues we have identified
that straddle the prevention of and the response
to domestic violence in the military and impact safety.
And in the interest of time,
I'd like to summarize a number of issues
that I've identified in my prepared testimony.
The Armed Forces Domestic Security Act
requires that civilian protection orders
or CPOs be given the same force
and effect on military installations as they have
in the jurisdiction in which they are issued.
However, it's difficult to enforce a CPO
if key personnel on a military installation
do not know of its existence.
Registration procedures for CPOs can ensure
that installation commanders
and military law enforcement know about them
and that knowledge is crucial to enforcement.
But despite the fact that the DOD policy
permits such procedures my experience is
that it's rare the installations have them.
Commanding officers also have the authority
to issue Military Protection Orders
or MPOs to any service member under the command
and have wide discretion as to whether or not to do so.
Commanding officers sometimes issue only verbal orders
that do not provide protected parties with a written copy
nor placement in the service member's record book
which are both required under DOD policy for written MPOs.
In addition, this policy avoids the DOD requirement
to submit MPOs to the National Criminal Information Center.
This requirement was instituted in response to federal law
which mandates that commanding officers notify appropriate
civilian authorities when any party to an MPO
does not live on a military installation.
Unfortunately, the recent DoD IG report did not
look at this particular issue let alone
the Service's compliance with the actual federal law
and what it directs the military to do.
Another concern about MPOs is expiration dates.
Federal law states the MPOs shall remain in effect quote,
until such time as military commander terminates
the order or issues a replacement order unquote.
Several years ago the Department of Defense
began a process to revise the standard MPO form.
However, that process is stalled
and in interim DOD has not issued any guidance
regarding the issue of expiration dates.
Arguably as a result, commanding officers violate
federal law every time they sign an MPO
with an expiration date.
There's also an issue of firearms.
Much research exists on the use of firearms
in domestic violence homicides.
And firearms are the most common manner of death in civilian
as well as military, domestic homicides.
Federal law and many state laws restrict the possession
of firearms by those who are subject to CPOs.
However, we have no data as to how
or if the military is enforcing personal
firearms restrictions against service members,
against civilians who are on military property
and subject to those orders.
Or whether commanding officers include firearms restrictions
when they issue Military Protection Orders.
One issue that's not in my prepared testimony
that I think it has been raised
by the testimony of the survivors here today
is deferential treatment to senior service members.
I oftentimes hear from individuals,
to include some of the members on this panel today,
in which it appears as if commanding officers
and the whole military response is much more deferential
to individuals of senior rank,
as well as those individuals
who are coming close to retirement.
The last issue I'd like to address is collaboration
between military installations and local communities
in which they are located.
Collaboration is crucial as military related victims
and their abusers are often navigating two different
and sometimes conflicting systems.
These two systems must actively work together,
effectively share information and evaluate their processes
in order to ensure that negative consequences don't occur
and to increase safety for victims and others.
DOD policy does direct collaboration
between military officials and civilian counterparts,
but beyond military FAP programs
and their civilian counterparts,
my experience is that the levels of collaboration
between military installations, local communities
as a whole is at best spotty.
Collaboration takes a willingness of all parties
and DOD policy by itself cannot enforce
those in civilian communities to do so.
Our organization previously partnered
with the National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence
and DOD on a multi-year project to create a military,
civilian coordinated community response model.
That worked to identify the difficulties in establishing
and maintaining military civilian collaboration
to include jurisdictional issues,
different reporting systems,
confidentiality and, of course, cost.
I look forward to answering any questions
that you or the Committee members may have.
Thank you.
- Thank you, Mr. Clubb.
Thank you all for your outstanding testimony.
And to the survivors, such extraordinary courage
and such painful memories
that you had to live through once again,
but in so doing you've provided us with a great deal
of understanding of how ubiquitous this issue is.
And as Mr. Clubb said for those
who are senior service members or near retirement,
you are poster survivors of what happens
under those circumstances.
Let me just start.
Mr. Clubb, you referenced the use of firearms.
If someone in civilian life now has been
convicted of domestic violence
or even if they have been charged but not convicted,
there is the means by which you can
take their firearms away for a period of time,
the red flag law as being one of the examples.
Does it not have a negative impact
on the service member if they can't use a firearm
in the course of their duties and therefore,
makes the commander less likely to want to impose an MPO?
- Chairwoman, there are two specific
federal domestic violence statutes
or subsections within the federal gun control act.
There's the Lautenberg Amendment
which provides a prohibition for ammunition
and firearms for anyone who is convicted
of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.
There's also a provision which restricts both possession
and ownership of firearms and ammunition if an individual
is subject to a qualifying court order,
specifically in which there's a domestic relationship,
intimate partners due process, et cetera.
The Lautenberg Amendment does
prohibit individuals lifetime,
there's no exemption for that.
So if any individual's convicted of a misdemeanor
crime in domestic violence and they serve in the military
they eventually will be processed out,
because of their inability to carry a firearm.
The qualifying court order prohibition
does not have that same response.
Or it does not require through DOD policy
any sort of eventual discharge for that reason.
There's also the Official Use exemption
that allows government employees,
to include military service members,
who have to carry a firearm for the performance
of their duties in order to do that
and not violate federal law.
It's not been my personal experience that
and most of that is hearing from victims and survivors
and from attorneys and advocates that are working
on these issues directly, direct cases,
in which there is commanding officers not wanting to issue
Military Protection Orders for that reason.
But at the same time, I think there's a lack of knowledge
among commanding officers in general.
- Thank you.
To each of you extraordinary women.
If you had one thing that you would like to have seen
changed in your circumstances that would have improved
your ability to deal with the trauma of domestic violence
or one thing as you look to speaking out
on behalf of domestic violence victims who come after you,
what would that be?
- Well, for myself and my family
I think the pivotal moment was when OSI closed the case
and I was told that it would be up to his command
whether to do anything about it or not.
I was naive, I'm not from a military family.
I had no idea how to navigate this system
and it made no sense to me.
But as I said at the end of my statement,
I do hold his command fully accountable
for the eventual outcome,
because I had done everything right.
I had reported.
I had gotten the protection order.
I, you know--
- OSI had recommended--
- Right, and OSI had recommended a court-martial for him
and I do believe that had he been held accountable
and had the military taken care of things on their end,
you know, the lethality that eventually happened
on our end almost death could have absolutely been avoided.
So just the idea that, okay, well he served 25 years
and his pension would be affected to me was like outrageous
and he should've absolutely been held accountable.
Being found guilty of fraud and spousal abuse
and court martial recommendation
should have absolutely happened.
And I really do believe that we may have avoided near death.
- [Chairwoman] Thank you.
- Likewise, on the command issue specifically,
because going back many years
command failed to do anything with him previously.
I think my goal is still to have him court-martialled
which can be done from what I understand
without bringing him back to active duty.
And again, that goes back to the failure to court-martial
him years ago really stems from command more than anything.
Now, I had multiple issues
with Security Force investigators never investigating.
OSI not knowing for, you know, seven or more months
just a wide variety of failures.
But in the end, it was Command going back many years
that failed to do something that could have prevented
me from ever meeting him potentially
or could have mitigated
or completely prevented his abuse of me.
- Mrs. Hughes.
- I have to agree with my other colleagues
in addition to the Command
definitely being held responsible.
The failure of their role in stepping forward
and recognizing the reported abuse, the evidence of abuse.
In addition to FAP's failure in stepping forward
and implementing and executing the DOD's abuse criteria.
I don't believe that that was done in my case
and that seems to be the main common thread
among many other military spouses who are groomed to,
first of all not bring the abuse forward
because of this fear is instilled in us.
And we're groomed to believe that it'll destroy
the service member's career,
but then when we do come forward
it's completely screened out by concluding
that it didn't meet the abuse criteria
shutting down each and every resource
that we could possibly obtain in seeking justice
or protection for ourselves.
Thank you, ma'am.
- Thank you, Mr. Kelly.
Five minutes.
- Thank you, Chairwoman, again.
And first of all, we talked about strangulation.
And when I was a district attorney in Mississippi
I was very helpful in trying to get the law changed
so that become a felony in Mississippi,
'cause that is one of the most controlling behaviors
that a domestic abuser can have is strangulation.
And so, I guess my question to you guys,
if you know the answer, if not I hope DOD is listening,
I'll ask it later.
Is strangulation a felony domestic violence in the military?
- Congressman, I know that
with the addition of the UCMJ Article, I believe it's 128b
that establishes domestic violence assault.
I believe that strangulation is included in that.
But, of course, it depends on how
it is prosecuted in the military
and cLearly if it's non-judicial punishment
that's not a conviction and--
- Thank you, I want to get to some more.
But number one is we gotta make sure strangulation
at least has the ability to be prosecuted as a felony.
And second, my wife is a Victim Assistance Coordinator
back home for the DA's office
and so we're very involved and engaged in this.
And one of the things that Mississippi also passed a law on
while I was district attorney that is if you're charged
with domestic violence, misdemeanor or felony,
you're not allowed to plead that down
to some other violation
that does not include domestic violence.
So you can't plead to something
that is not domestic violence.
So that the Lautenberg Amendment does kick in.
'Cause it is very important that when someone
has committed a domestic violence act
and they've been convicted of that
that they lose their ability to carry a firearm.
And part of the problem is, quite frankly ATF
would not prosecute or do anything with those things
when reported when I was a prosector.
ATF would not come take the guns away when I would call them
and say this guy is a convicted domestic violence guy
that has a firearm and they would not come take it.
And we've gotta enforce the laws that we have.
Rather than looking for new laws,
let's enforce the laws that we have also.
'Cause I think that is helpful to enforce Lautenberg
to not be able to carry a firearm forever
once you're convicted of a felony or of domestic violence.
How helpful would it have been to you survivors
had the military when you talk about pensions
for senior, if they would have said
if convicted of domestic violence
whatever degree of pension you've earned to this point,
as a senior service member, goes to your spouse
and children to take care of them, but you don't get it.
How helpful would that have been to you three?
- Yeah, so extremely helpful.
So, like I said I'm not, I don't know really the ins
and outs of the military.
I was only married to him for three years.
My understanding was that as the spouse
I was not really entitled to any of his pension
because we had to be married for 10 years.
But we do have a child together
and, you know, my child hasn't seen a dime
of his precious pension that they so wanted him to keep.
So, yeah, it would been extremely helpful
if that had been an option.
- Because that financial instability
or the ability to pay your bills
and take care and have a place to live.
I heard your story.
To have a place to live that he has to look for a place,
not you, he has to look for a place.
Not your kids, he has to look for a place to live.
So we need to make sure that we're educating folks
so they know that if someone leaves it's not the victim,
it is the abuser who has to leave.
And now, if they're found innocent,
then that's a whole different ballgame.
But until that point, once the accusation is made,
we need to take care of our victims
and make sure that they have a place to live,
that their healthcare and that their pay continues
whether that be through whatever.
Would those type of policies at DOD
help you as a victim until resolved in finality
and then also not being able to plead down
to something less than domestic violence?
Would that be helpful?
- So I know for me, sir, it's a little bit different.
But luckily there's a California Victim's Compensation
program which I've been able to get some assistance from.
So for me it's a little different, obviously,
but I did incur, I went into huge debt
leaving out of California and things of that nature.
I don't know that I'm actually, really eligible for anything
but, so for me it doesn't really apply.
So I just want to.
- And then the final thing
and I guess I just got time for a comment.
But I wanna make sure that we understand
how to get either civilian protection orders
and Military Protection Orders.
There needs to be a policy of who in the chain of command
get those and there be a validation that they have to be
and they're required by the violator
to turn those over to the chain of command
which becomes a crime if they don't do so.
And with that I yield back, Chairwoman.
- Thank you, Mr. Kelly.
To your point 70% of our service members live off base.
So, the likelihood of a CPO being identified
by the perpetrator and reporting it to the Command
is somewhat I think challenging.
It seems like we need to put something in place
where there's a sharing of that data between the two,
the civilian and the military.
- Chairwoman, there is a DOD policy
that requires service members to reveal
or tell their command when they're not eligible.
But whether or not, especially younger service members
really understand that if they have a protection order
against them is debatable.
- Right, all right Ms. Davis for five minutes.
- Thank you, thank you, Madam Chair.
(clears throat)
Excuse me.
Thank you all.
I really appreciate your testimony.
I wanted to just start with Ms. Vassell for a second
because you listed a number of best practices resources
and as I'm sitting here listening to those,
I'm wondering whether our survivors are sort of thinking
about those too and then feeling so frustrated
because none of those things seemed to be there for them.
And so, where's the connection?
You know we often talk about best practices.
We wanna change the culture.
We want people to be able to go for help when they need it
and maybe even if they're not sure they need it.
But they have a sense that something is wrong
in their situation.
I know it was mentioned that,
you know we need to connect some of the training,
the culture and, yet, we're talking about this.
And it's been a long time that we've been talking about this
and that's my frustration.
So the question that the Chairwoman asked
about pointing to one thing
that would have made a difference,
could you point to a systemic problem
that we could fix that would prevent
this from happening to anyone else?
Do you feel that you answered that question
or is there something else in this that is just amiss?
- Ma'am, I believe as Mr. Kelly mentioned
we currently have excellent provisions in the legislation.
We currently have an incredible DOD abuse criteria,
I don't believe that it needs to be improved.
I believe it needs to be executed.
I think there's a major impediment
and gaps that we need to recognize today
that unfortunately the commanders,
either through the lack of knowledge or the lack of desire
or the lack of, I say this respectfully, their arrogance.
They're not executing what Congress
and the military has already put in place.
So even though I appreciate the best practices
from my colleague, I think it's imperative
that we look at the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.
It's an incredible federal law placed
and set to serve the military families,
yet it's being exploited by the service members.
So what can we do to tighten it?
So I don't believe that new practices
are going to be necessarily a negative,
they would certainly help,
but I think focusing on what we currently already have
and executing it and holding individuals
and commanders accountable is where the key is.
Because I think one common thread
amongst all three of us is the commander's failure to act
and hold the service member responsible.
Thank you, ma'am.
- I just wanna comment.
And how would you communicate that?
As a spouse I know that one of the issues
is the fear of somehow interrupting a spouse's career
or a partner's career or whatever that may be
and somehow that being such a wholly negative
and fearful thing to do.
What would you change?
- So, I personally was not very afraid of the possibility
of something happening to his career.
I really felt like he needed to be held responsible.
He had done this to me.
He had done this to my children.
I was in the right in the sense
that I had done the things that I was supposed to do
and he wasn't being held accountable.
And I think the frustration comes with, as we've said,
you know going to the Commander, nothing happening,
but then where do you go from there?
And not knowing how to navigate
and it's just incredibly frustrating
and you feel very, very helpless.
And it's just like an entire cultural shift
that has to happen.
And I don't, other than speaking out
and telling my story anywhere and everywhere,
I don't know how to do that.
- If I could quickly touch on that.
So in my case, I was concerned about protecting him.
That's often the case with domestic violence victims
but I also thought about my own career with the military
and how to tell my Commander, hey this is what's going on
and it all came down very, you know,
it's just difficult for me.
So I think domestic violence victims
that are service members have their own set of issues
on top of being a spouse.
- Do we need better helplines for fear of...
But being able to identify someone higher up.
You don't feel that that's a resource, either.
- I also, I made phone calls.
I relied on friends that were Air Force service members
who cared about what I had been through to contact
and get email addresses for the next chain of command,
the next chain of command,
although they did nothing as well.
So, I think it's a good idea to know where you can go
but if different entities aren't really sharing
that information because they have something to cover up
or anything like that--
- You think you could, had this been
only in the civilian sector you think that,
where would you have gone in that case?
- Right, I'm not sure.
I've never been a domestic violence victim
so I wouldn't say that I had clarity on that as well.
But surely within the military
which they're supposed to have higher standards,
I would have expected more.
- Thank you, I know my time's up.
Maybe we'll come back--
- [Rohini] Ma'am just lastly,
I'd like to answer your question.
- Mrs. Hughes, we're gonna come back to you.
- Oh, thank you. - All right, Mr. Mitchell,
for five minutes.
- Thanks very much, Madam Chair.
We owe spouses and children of service members
a great deal of gratitude
and attention for the sacrifice
they go through while people serve.
People like the individuals you described today
they're not effective service members either.
Let's be honest about it.
We do not want those people serving in our military.
They're dangerous.
They don't represent our military well.
They don't represent our nation well.
So the idea that somehow we're protecting their career,
they shouldn't have one.
That's in my opinion something we need to address
in terms of policy discussions with the Pentagon.
If need be legislatively.
If you're a domestic violence perpetrator,
you would do that to other people
and that's a violation of our morals.
So I don't care about their career.
Let me ask you a question.
It seems to me there was a system in place,
you went through the process
but it just flat out didn't work.
Is that a correct assessment, ladies?
Go ahead, of course.
- Sir, this is an answer in conjunction
to answering Mrs. Davis'.
When I contacted the federally regulated
domestic violence hotline to discover
and seek out any sort of resource
that the military had failed to provide me
because they only differed me to calling 211
when we were going into homelessness.
I was told that as a DV victim I would be deferred back
to the military installation's FAP for further assistance.
Which had already turned me down
and told me they were not going to be able to do anything.
The only thing that they offered
for assistance was counseling,
which I had already been receiving from Walter Reed, sir.
- Let me ask each of you.
If you got any information if any of the commanding officers
that you contacted through the process in any manner
were held accountable or questioned about this at all
by their senior commanding officers?
- Yeah, I'll answer for my case.
Like I said he was retired.
To my knowledge Colonel Applegate is retired
and retired in 2013.
Nothing ever happened to him.
As far as I know, it got swept under the rug
that he was made aware that Thomas Maffei was AWOL
and not even living in Virginia
and had gone to Florida.
And then Lieutenant Colonel Michelle Ryan,
my understanding is she works at the Pentagon
and I think she also retired, too.
Nothing ever, nothing ever happened.
After we were shot, I sent his mug shot
and media links to both of his commanders
and sarcastically thanked them for, you know,
for protecting their soldier,
instead of the soldier's wife and children as I had warned
and I received no response.
- And if I could say also, I actually filed.
So SecAF office, Lieutenant Colonel Tyler Lewis
told me in September 2018 after I found out
they had honorably retired Senior Master Cardin,
that I would have to show all the failures of the Air Force
before they would relook him.
So I filed a Security Forces OSI and a Command complaint
which the command complaint alone was about 60 pages.
Initially the Air Force IG, SAF IG had said
that they were concerned for my safety
and wanted me to file a complaint.
Well within two months of filing that Command Complaint,
they basically dismissed it
and they said this case is closed.
We consider this case closed.
And they would not look at any of the commanders
who had failed years before, during my time
and thereafter going all the way up to the SecAF office.
- Yes, sir.
- Many of the issues that these survivors have addressed
I think goes back to commander discretion
and we give, understandably give military commanders
a wide range of discretion on many issues.
Regarding domestic violence that discretion in many cases
involves lack of prosecution, concern about
ruining the service member's career, et cetera.
Some of the things that we've discussed today.
- Let me stop you a second, sir,
and I appreciate that.
You don't have discretion,
they should not have discretion
when it comes to abusing your spouse or your children.
What the hell is that discretion?
And I think, Madam Chair,
we should have the ranking members from the Pentagon
come over here and have a conversation
how they're holding their commanding officers
accountable for failure to deal with this.
Because there's a system there.
We've money in the system.
They have polices in place,
but they don't wanna damage someone's career?
They don't wanna damage their own career.
They're damaging our military.
They're damaging families.
It's unacceptable and if they don't like that criteria
we could find other officers that want to have an Army
or Armed Services that is respected in the world
and in our own nation.
But to abuse your spouse, and my times out, I apologize.
To abuse your spouse or children
because you have a psychological issue
or whatever other reason you may justify it
is unacceptable in our military.
It's unacceptable to our society.
But we're sure not gonna tolerate it.
So we need to have them come over here
and explain to me what they're gonna do
to hold them accountable because it disgusts me.
And I appreciate you all coming, thank you.
- Mr. Mitchell, thank you for your comments.
What has played out here is really
abuse of command discretion.
And in all of your cases, a determination was made
that the service member should be protected
over the family member and the children.
So much like we've done with sexual assault
we may want to take these cases up to a higher level.
So that you don't have that just inherent
conflict of interest that exists
because the commander knows the service member.
If it goes up to another level that might.
- Madam Chair, in my opinion until we have
that higher level of command
and we hold a commander accountable for their career
for failing to manage their forces,
we're never going to get there.
I agree with you.
And it needs to be something that if you won't manage
your own personnel then you don't belong being a Colonel
or what other and you go.
As soon as few people are held accountable in the system,
you understand this Mr. Kelly,
soon as some people are held accountable
then in fact they'll take it seriously.
And we need to insist that they're going to be
or we'll simply find some other officers
to lead our military.
It's disgusting.
All right, thank you for your deference.
- Thank you.
In addition to holding some of the DOD officials accountable
I think what we also need to do
is bring the Inspector General in.
Because the Inspector General for DOD has already identified
a number of failings in each of the services in terms
of complying with DOD regulations on appropriately
identifying, fingerprinting, handling these cases
in a manner that's appropriate.
Yes, now to our colleague Mr. Cisneros for five minutes.
- Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
Thank you you all for sharing your story today.
Mr. Clubb I just kinda wanna followup on the same thing
about the commanding officer discretion.
And you had mentioned something earlier
but non-judicial punishment.
How likely are the commanding officers gonna deal
with this through NJP rather than kinda actually reporting
or trying to do it through a court-martial?
- I have not seen duty statistics
or service statistics on this the way statistics
that we've seen on sexual assault, for example.
That they may have been cited to this Committee in the past.
I think part of the reason for that is
that until just last year
there wasn't a Domestic Violence Article in the UCMJ
And I believe there's difficulty in tracking.
I've not served as a judge advocate in the Marine Corp,
but it's my understanding talking to those
that are serving within the Services
that there are ways of flagging cases
as they go through the system,
even before there was a Domestic Violence Article
to identify who the victims are
and identifying cases as falling under this criteria.
But not seeing those statistics from,
which cases are going to court martial,
which cases are going to NJP or declining prosecution
or any action, I can only speculate on that.
- Does the commanding officer have any responsibility,
like we said 70% of you know military personnel
are likely to live off base.
So this domestic violence is likely to happen off base,
out of the commanding officer's jurisdiction
you know with civilian authorities.
When those individuals are brought to the Command,
what responsibility does a commanding officer have
to take action on that?
- Well, (he sighs) commanders can prosecute cases
that happen off installation.
And I think part of what I referenced earlier
about military civilian coordinated and community response
is the coordination, collaboration, sharing of information
and determining who is gonna take cases.
And which, either the civilian authorities can prosecute,
military authorities or potentially both in deciding
the best place to handle a case judiciously and effectively.
- Mrs. Hughes, I wanna follow up on something
you had said earlier, too, right.
You said as a military spouse you're kind of groomed,
you know, not to come forward,
not to report domestic violence,
to not really say anything.
And I think this is part of that culture
that's like instilled in you, right, that we need
and we all agree, that needs to be changed.
But who is this that's instilling this in you
and says, no don't come forward?
I mean is it other spouses?
Is it Air Force personnel?
Is it Air Force service members?
Who is really, who is this culture that's doing this.
Telling you not to say anything?
- Sir, thank you for asking that question
'cause I think it's a very pertinent question.
I am the former Key Spouse for the Air Force,
in addition to the Key Spouse Program Manager.
I worked very closely with the first sergeants
and the commanders and the wing commanders.
And I saw time and time again,
that as we collaborated in the Key Spouse Program Manager
the culture there seems to stem from the military personnel
that are grooming these Key Spouses to ensure
that the victims of domestic abuse do not come forward,
do not share the information with the first sergeant
or the commander because it's gonna ruin the career.
And then the first sergeants are coming alongside
the victim and reiterating that information,
saying that now if you report this,
let me remind you what the consequences will be.
You're not got any BAH,
you're not gonna get any type of housing assistance either,
you'll be kicked off base.
So these are the kind of fear tactics
that are being instilled in these victims
that are the military spouses and children as well.
Thank you.
- Now, I think I have time for one last question,
but hopefully I don't butcher it too bad but, Ms. Olszewski?
- [Leah] Olszewski.
- Olszewski, sorry.
- [Leah] Good enough.
- So you were married to the service member, correct, right?
- [Leah] No, we lived together.
We had shared bank accounts, shared lease.
- So, just one thing and I know this is something
that we talked about a lot you know throughout Congress
and we talked about the boyfriend loophole
being that you weren't married.
Did you ever come to a situation where they were saying
that, hey, well you're not married.
This isn't really domestic violence.
Can you talk about that?
- Right, I think that was the thing.
And that's why the commander said to me that day,
"Hey, just run away, Leah, he's doing you a favor."
Because he thought, oh, this is so simple
they're just boyfriend, girlfriend living together.
So I did feel that the Air Force
really looked at us solely as intimate partners
I guess according the Family Advocacy that's what we were.
And then they feel once an intimate partner,
always an intimate partner.
But again, I didn't really get any benefit
of being a service member
in terms of even Social Victims' Counsel
which is primarily for sexual assault.
Which is great, but so there were issues with that.
It was really challenging but now, of course,
that he's filed you know a bogus IG complaint on me
because I was an O4, he's saying that I.
Now he's filed an IG complaint in the past few months
saying conduct unbecoming of an officer
because I'm an O4 and he was an E8 at the time.
So he had no problem back then.
So SOCOM Commander had no problem back then
with any of this and now it's being filed
and my rank is now being used against me to a degree.
So when it's convenient we're just intimate partners
and boyfriend/girlfriend
and when it's not suddenly military service comes into play.
- My time's expired, thank you very much.
- Thank you, Mr. Cisneros.
I have one question before we go onto Ms. Escobar.
The family assistance program, FAP, Family Advocacy Program,
excuse me, is going to be testifying next.
Each of you had interactions
with the Family Advocacy Program.
So after you answer Ms. Escobar's question
I would like for you to think about
what didn't work for you in the F-A-P or FAP.
Okay, Ms. Escobar for five minutes.
- Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
And thank you for your continued focus on issues
that need to be brought to light and that need transparency.
And many thanks to our witnesses,
especially for your courage
and for your willingness to tell your story
and help us address an issue that very badly
needs to be addressed in as best we can.
Because of your experience I'm wondering if you could share,
and this is open actually for all of you,
any of you who would like to answer this question.
Where have we failed you?
Where are some specific instances where we could have
and should have done better so that we can look to rectify
this in the future.
So that wherever it was that we failed you,
we can try to fix it?
And it's open to any of you who,
anyone who would like to go first.
- Okay, I'll touch on it really quickly.
'Cause I know everyone else has something to say, too.
So I kind of believe in what Mr. Mitchell had mentioned
about bringing the leadership, calling them out.
I believe that does matter
because it seems like a lot of things
that go on are from the top down
and really needs to be from the bottom up.
So something like the Air Force really needs to involve
victims in terms of changing things.
So I don't think that a lot of quote/unquote leaders
will do anything until they are actually called out.
And I think that's a huge thing to start with that process
and then purge them
from the military system as he mentioned.
- [Veronica] Thank you.
- Yeah, in my situation I was basically frozen out.
I had no resources.
I had no way of knowing how to navigate what to do next.
I was just fortunate that I had military wives
that helped me, you know, point me in different directions
on who to report to and what to do.
I mean I had no guidance at all from his commander.
His commander just wanted, you know,
wanted to sweep it under the rug.
So, I mean, you know they just wanted to make it go away
and that was a humongous failure.
- Ma'am, as far as I'm concerned
I see it as a major Command failure.
Because I believe that the Command can hold FAP responsible
to upholding the DOD's abuse criteria.
Because the commander has enormous amount of influence
in these CRB hearings that are taking place
under the FAP umbrella
which unfortunately is failing the system.
So I say this very humbly and respectfully,
if we're gonna put service members in command positions
that are leadership positions, as Mr. Mitchell mentioned,
can we please ensure that these individuals
have the moral grounds to uphold
and lead such critical issues such as sexual assault
and domestic violence and domestic abuse.
And if they don't or if they chose not to,
then I humbly request the subcommittee
to assign an Oversight committee.
Which oversees these commanders
and holds them responsible and that
that committee would be under your subcommittee
that would work collaboratively
with these commanders at each military installations.
Thank you, ma'am.
- [Veronica] Thank you.
- And just hearing from the survivors today
and throughout my career
and, again, thank you all so much for your ongoing courage.
The best practices that I had mentioned earlier
were more focused on prevention, right.
Preventing the violence
from even happening in the first place
and creating a culture within the military installations
with like zero tolerance and it will not happen,
perpetration will not happen, victimization will not happen.
But hearing from the survivors and survivors
that I've continuously heard from
what I would say is policies,
practices, day-to-day practices need to match policies.
Abusers need to be held accountable
regardless of their rank,
like Mr. Mitchell had mentioned earlier.
Responses to survivors if we're gonna talk about, you know,
what happens after an incident occurs.
It should be survivor-centered, should be trauma-informed.
The survivors that are sharing with us today
this should be a ongoing process.
Whatever is being enforced or developed should be influenced
by survivors throughout the entire process.
Not after the fact to say, well would this work?
So I think engaging survivors throughout the process,
listening to survivors about what works,
what doesn't work.
And with enhanced responses and prevention,
collaboration with practitioners, with preventionists,
with domestic violence programs, I think
would be another best practice that I would talk about.
I've coordinated projects that included installations
and domestic violence agencies that resulted in a toolkit
for installations and for civilians.
So, just talking about collaboration, collaboration.
I sounds like it's not helpful but it works,
both for prevention and for intervention.
And so being survivor-centered, being trauma-informed
and holding perpetrators, abusers accountable.
- Thank you, unfortunately my time is expired.
Thank you.
- So the question on FAP.
Can you give us, you know, 30 seconds of what FAP did
or did not do for you?
- I didn't even now about it.
Actually in your office today was the first time
I'd even heard of FAP.
So, that's a failure.
Again, I had no navigation.
I had no resources.
I had no idea where to turn.
So I can't even say that they failed me,
because I didn't even know about it.
So, obviously, there's some link missing there.
I'm sure there's people that are like me.
- Ms. Olszewski.
- So I actually filed a Family Advocacy complaint
with AMC IG and they found
five of six failures to have occurred.
So I did not learn of FAP either through anybody
other than my own efforts
through the VA actually on Travis Air Force Base.
And Family Advocacy failed to include evidence.
They ignored the strangulation, miscarriage,
you name it, they never reported to the commanders
or shared their information, that unrestricted aspect
didn't even occur.
So, yeah, I find Family Advocacy to be kind of a,
I wanna say a joke, but it's bad.
- Thank you, Mrs. Hughes.
- Ma'am in my particular case my cases of abuse in 2015
were never opened.
I didn't discover this until I contacted someone
at Lackland Air Force Base
and then finally the abuse cases were opened in 2019.
Only to come to the same conclusion
that it didn't meet the abuse criteria.
To me I'm being told repeatedly
that FAP is not a entity to adjudicate.
It is just an entity to provide resources.
However, I disagree from my experience that
that is exactly what's taking place.
- [Chairwoman] They adjudicated and didn't provide services.
- That is correct, ma'am.
- All right, Mr. Lee, you had said in your testimony
that holding days of recollection
or weeks of domestic violence awareness is in part
what we tend to do as opposed to actually drill down
and provide the prevention.
I wanna give you the last word for the panel.
- Right, so every October we declare
Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
And indeed, many places will have a proclamation
and there'll be an announcement that goes out.
What we need to be able to do is,
it's about making that investment in prevention.
And being able to look at that 12 months a year.
About how leadership is going to be involved,
about how we're not gonna just educate,
but be able to change the structure
and look at how we can use military culture
to be able to say that this is not acceptable.
When we see a culture that,
and we heard so many stories of denial
and not being able and not about accountability.
The values of the military are about the values
that are aligned with saying that we stand with each other
so that we are stronger together
and not a way that's gonna be sacrificing people
in the greater mission.
So we need to find a way to use those messages.
And there are prevention programs that we can do
that I've described in my testimony
that we can be able to do
that we've been doing in college campuses,
that we've been doing with high schools
that we've been doing with sport.
That we need to be able to start looking at how
we can implement that in military settings
so we can be able to change that culture
from the lowest rank to the highest officers
to be able to make that change.
- All right, thank you very much.
You've been outstanding witnesses.
We're now going to take a couple minutes recess
so we can reset for the next panel.
Thank you, again.
Are we ready?
- [Kent] Yep.
- Now we are moving on to our second panel
and I'd like to welcome Mrs. A. T. Johnston
the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense
for Military Community and Family Policy
at the Department of Defense.
And Mr. Kenneth Noyes, excuse me,
Associate Director for the DOD Family Advocacy Program,
Department of Defense.
Mrs. Johnston, I think you have a statement.
- Yes, ma'am, thank you.
On behalf Mr. James Stewart and the cadre of dedicated
and expert professionals in the Family Advocacy Program,
thank you, Madam Chair, Ranking Member Kelly
and members of this distinguished subcommittee
for your unfailing support of quality of life programs
that keep our service members and their families
strong and resilient.
Ensuring the continued welfare
and wellbeing of service members
and their families is a responsibility
the Department of Defense takes very seriously.
As family readiness is an imperative
to readiness of the Force.
I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today
to discuss the Department's efforts in addressing
the serious issue of domestic abuse
within the military community.
Okay, tilt it up?
Sorry, joining me today is Mr. Ken Noyes, Associate Director
from the Office of Military Family Readiness Policy
which is the policy proponent
for the Family Advocacy Program.
Before moving on, I'd like to thank the witnesses
on the first panel who shared their personal experiences.
Each of you has taken a traumatic,
heartbreaking event in your life
and turned it into a call to action.
We hear you and we will continue to improve our programs
and services.
You and all other victims of domestic violence
deserve nothing less.
We consider our prevention and response actions
to be comprehensive; however, we recognize
that domestic abuse presents human factor challenges
that require continual training, education
and improvement in the effectiveness
and responsiveness of our system.
We cannot do it alone.
We must and we will continue to work with our community
and federal partners, as well as,
with leading experts in academia.
While we continue to make significant progress
in our efforts to effectively address
and prevent domestic abuse within military community
the Department is acutely aware
that there is still much work to be done.
We remain committed to the safety and welfare
of our service members and their families
and can never forget that our families unfortunately,
are not immune from the serious national public health issue
that is domestic abuse.
We need and we welcome the continued interest
and support of this committee and Congress
in advancing this critical work.
And with that, we look forward to your questions.
- Mr. Noyes, do you have any,
do you have a statement? - No.
- [Chairwoman] You do not.
All right, I guess my first question, Mrs. Johnston
is based on what you heard in the last panel
what steps are you gonna take?
- First of all, all the testimony
was absolutely heartbreaking but what that does is
that is a call to action to us.
In these particular cases I don't know the specifics
so in that regard I would have to refer them
back to the Services for action.
- Well, but first of all, two of the victims
didn't even know that FAP exists.
So wouldn't that suggest to you that you have a job to do
in terms of making sure that all families know the services
that are available at FAP?
- Yes, ma'am.
We have the overarching policy in the Department
and then we, again, we work with the Services to make sure
that all resources are known.
Unfortunately, it's not a perfect system
and we'll continue to work it.
- Okay, that really doesn't answer the question at all.
Just because you're the overarching authority
and that the Services all have to perform their function
doesn't mean that you don't have a responsibility
to demand of them that they do a better job
of providing information, education,
and maybe some of these survivors could be of some value
to you in trying to determine how better you can make
that available to victims.
It would seem to me that one of the questions
that was raised is FAP there to provide resources
or to somehow make a determination as to whether
or not a case should move forward or not?
- Yes, ma'am.
FAP is absolutely there to provide resources
but that it also the function to do a determination.
And with that, I'm gonna let Mr. Noyes address that issue.
- Thank you, ma'am.
Chairwoman Speier, I just wanna address your question
about outreach and the awareness of FAP.
Certainly we know that we have more work to do.
Domestic violence is a scourge
and the work that we all have to do together as a community
and as the DOD means that the best way forward is to ensure
that prevention and response are coordinated efforts,
because we know that 70% of our families
live off installation.
In terms of how we make service members
and their families aware of FAP,
we have multifaceted awareness campaigns
that happen in October and, of course, we understand that
that is a limited way in which we reach out,
it is one way in which we reach out.
We also work with the Department of Defense school system
to ensure that they are aware of our services
and in fact, they work with families every day
and make referrals to FAP every day.
We have child, youth and family programs
under the umbrella of the military, community
and family policy who also help us
in our outreach to families.
So that they're aware of the services that we provide.
We also work with law enforcement, with Command
and with the entire coordinated community response
which is the core of how we address domestic abuse
on the installations and we work together to provide
the awareness and the outreach to the communities
to understand the services that we provide
and where we can be found.
And, again, we know that there's more to be done.
Our services often come with some of the things
that the victims talked about and that is stigma,
not being supported to move forward
and certainly that gets attached to FAP at times.
And we have a lot of work to do
to overcome the stigma for people
approaching Family Advocacy Program
along with our intersecting and other components
that have the same challenges with people coming forward.
In terms of your other question about accountability
and whether we're a program that focuses on response,
interventions, clinical services, support groups
and advocacy that is indeed our mission.
Is separate is a parallel process to the work
that Command, law enforcement,
judges do in order to hold offenders accountable
we must ensure that FAP is seen as a social service provider
that protects families working in tandem
with the coordinated community response that supports them.
So that law enforcement, Command and the court,
the military court system can hold them accountable
for domestic abuse, child abuse and neglect
and the other intervening forms of violence
and harm--
- All right, Mr. Noyes my time is almost expired.
Let me just say this.
Two out of the three victims today
didn't even know you existed.
We've made trips to bases around the country,
talked to spouses, oftentimes they don't know you exist.
So you've got to look at another way of communicating
with families because the existence of your resource
is there, it's being underutilized or not utilized at all.
And I think that we need you to show greater accountability.
I might also add that I think that trying to,
when there is domestic violence to bring counseling together
for the two parents and try and keep the family together
may not be the best strategy.
And that appears to be one of the efforts
that you continue to pursue
and I think that will be discussed at another time.
But my time's expired.
Mr. Kelly, for five minutes.
- I'm gonna get back to the Chairwoman's point.
What additional resources, if any, are necessary by you guys
to make sure that everyone knows that FAP is available?
I mean is there something we can give you
or what is a plan of action to make sure that at least
they have knowledge that you exist?
Is there a plan of action or can we provide more resources
that make that so that the majority of,
I mean some people will never know,
but the majority of people will know that FAP exists
and what it exists for?
- To be honest, I was not aware that people not aware.
I know that commanders know of FAP;
therefore, I think that part of the strategy is a reminder
of the programs when there is a FAP case,
the commander actually oversees
the Incident Determination Committee.
Would you like to?
- [Kenneth] Certainly.
- Before you get to that
I've got other things I wanna get to.
- Yes, sir.
We have a comprehensive prevention plan that expired in 2018
and we are working now to move forward
to create that new prevention plan
based upon the CDC socio-ecological Model
that other witnesses spoke about earlier.
Part of that is a comprehensive communications plan
working with the intersecting components
that work against violence so SAPRO,
Sexual Assault and Harassment,
the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
Looking at--
- All right, that's long enough.
But here's the bottom line.
If they don't know about it, it doesn't exist.
And so figure it out.
If you need more resources let us know.
But if they don't know about it, it does not exist.
Going back, can you describe the community-based approach
to domestic violence prevention and response
and what resources do you leverage to do that?
- Yes, sir.
The community-based response is we work with those folks
outside the gate who also have programs.
In some cases there'd be a memorandum of understanding,
in other cases, a memorandum of agreement.
But our programs allow us to make sure that,
both on the base and off the base
that we are able to offer our services.
- And just as a suggestion, and whether
or not you may already do it and I hope that you do,
but every base, active duty base,
okay has a local law enforcement
and local community there we need to be plugged in
at the hip with their victim assistance coordinator
whether that be at the county or the district level
or city level, whatever that is.
But we outta be plugged into the hip
so that nobody gets the gaps.
You know in the military we always
have to protect the boundaries
that's where the enemy always likes to attack,
because nobody's looking.
And we can do the same thing with our communities,
our cities or counties whatever that case may be,
we need to be plugged in with their law enforcement
and their victim assistance coordinators
to make sure that, we outta be talking.
And so if we're not at least let's make sure
we've got a plan to talk to communities.
- [Kenneth] Thank you, sir.
- [A.T.] You turned it off.
- I just wanna add that in terms of our connection
to the civilian community and the partnerships
that we have in order to protect domestic abuse victims
and their families the domestic violence,
I'm sorry, the domestic abuse victim advocates
that are funded through OSD funding work very closely
to help support the needs of victims and their families.
And they work really closely with community-based programs
to ensure that they have the intersecting supports
that should the DVAS not be able to provide
because of potential overwhelming need
or wherever there may be a small installation
that's isolated that really needs
the use of community resources to help serve people
that they are constantly working
and reaching out, going to courts,
helping them get MPOs and CPOs--
- I've only got a minute left.
So I wanna get to the next point.
I understand that those have been violent in one context
are likely to be violent in another, okay.
So people who mistreat soldiers or airmen or sailors
are also likely to be the same ones
who are mistreating their spouse.
And so, what are we doing to identify
and address violent behaviors at work that may carry over
or that translate into domestic violence over?
What are we doing to train our commanders
so that they see this bullying at work
probably translates into bullying at home
or domestic violence at home?
What are we doing to inform
and teach commanders and soldiers?
- [A.T.] All right,
I will need to take that back for the record.
That is not an area that FAP has oversight in.
- And with that, I just you know,
we've got a long way to go.
There's nothing more important.
But I'm gonna tell ya, it all comes down to emphasis
and I would just say, whether or not,
we can always have more education,
but it's about transparency, it's about knowledge
and it's about educating.
And so we've got some work to do
to make sure that we educate the spouses
and children to make sure that they know
about the program and what resources are available.
And with that, Chairwoman, I yield back.
- Thank you, Mr. Kelly.
Not to beat a dead horse, but in meetings at the various
bases what we heard about FAP was that they showed up
at the hearing with the survivor
and that was about the extent of it.
So while you referenced that just now,
I think it's so much more than that.
And I think you're hearing that from all of us here today.
Do you have any funding for research in your offices?
- We actually do fund research.
The services use our funding to also fund research
that they identify based on trends
and gaps that they see in their communities.
We work with multiple--
- All right, Mr. Noyes, what I think we want then
is where that money has been spent
and what has it been spent on?
Because I think we need to know more about
when the domestic violence occurs.
I've read one study that suggests it happens upon returning
from deployment and if that's the case,
then we need to make sure there's the appropriate resources
available to families at those particular junctions.
Ms. Davis.
- Thank you, thank you both for being here.
Mrs. Johnston you said to the survivors we hear you.
And I think the question often that their wondering
is do you believe us?
And I'm wondering if you have any thoughts or Mr. Noyes,
about the extent to which we're talking I would hope
about perhaps a relatively small number of commands
that seem predisposed not to believe
what survivors bring to them.
Can you discuss that?
Why would that be the case,
if you think it might be the case?
- I can't speak to an individual commander
and what they would be thinking.
What I can say is that there is a process by which folks
come into Command and I would be hopeful
through that process in most cases
we will weed out these kinds of issues.
But that would be where I would think that
that would be the place that we'd see that.
- In terms of FAP's connection to Command
and the way that they work with Command,
it is very focused on when a victim
is being served either clinically
or through a domestic abuse victim advocate that,
assuming that it's an unrestricted report,
that the FAP manager or other personnel in FAP
will tell the Command based upon
what they've learned in the case
about the high risk or safety issues.
And in that way that's they way
that FAP is working both with Command
and law enforcement is to ensure
that they understand the gravity of both risk
and of safety to ensure that appropriate measures
can be taken on the Command or law enforcement side.
And that's where in terms of thinking
about the difference between FAP
and the law enforcement and command system
where we support victims and sharing
what is happening to them and the risk attached to that.
So that then Command and law enforcement
and staff judge advocates will take it
from there to hold the offender accountable.
- Yeah, so you have a responsibility then to share
that information that you receive that could bring
the behavior of a commander for example into question
to follow that through.
Is that correct or?
- In terms of Command response and responsibility
it is the Services responsibility to hold them accountable.
Our role is to ensure that they understand what's happening
with the victim and the offender in unrestricted cases.
And I would have to defer to the Services otherwise.
- And I think we're familiar obviously with sexual assault
in the military in terms of restricted and unrestricted,
but in terms of that responsibility to provide
that information to the Command, you're saying that you
have that responsibility only if it's unrestricted?
- We have a responsibility at FAP first
and foremost to the victim being victim-centered
and trauma-informed.
If a victim has chosen a restricted report,
she or he they have made that decision for themselves.
Our responsibility is to ensure that the Services
and, therefore, the Services in monitoring the installations
follow DOD policy as it relates to restricted reports.
And that is to provide Services without informing Command
and law enforcement because the victim chose that.
- Chose to do that.
Okay, and that maybe something that we should perhaps
in domestic violence we should look at that
as it relates to sexual assault as well.
But my question also is, how do you,
how do you get feedback?
Because it seems that perhaps there could be a better way.
Like what we do in commands when we get the Climate.
You know every year, every few years, right?
I don't know whether families
would necessarily fill out evaluation forms,
maybe that's better for research, the Rand Corporation,
whoever, but how do you know?
Could you even say 10% of our families,
35% of our families have no idea what we do
versus, how do you go about understanding
the extent to which people know
when they could use your services?
And that they're there?
So that somebody, you know, even first off.
I think actually even when people are getting married,
for example, because it's the Services
it's an important thing for people to know
what's available to me?
What can I count on?
What can I...
How do people do that?
What do you know about?
Do you know how they feel about that?
- So, I would say that in terms of educating,
which is I believe what you're asking,
educating spouses and intimate partners
about what is available to them it's back to ensuring
that the coordinated community response is working in tandem
with us in each piece of their area of work.
So, mental health, hospitals, child and youth programs,
education, we work together to ensure that each of us
shares what we know about the other programs as well
and have a referral mechanism,
information referral mechanism in place
so that we can make sure that families and--
- Yeah, I think my time is up, I'm sorry.
I mean Military OneSource is one avenue perhaps, but.
- Also the annual, not annual, but biannual spouse surveys
where we actually do survey the spouses
on a variety of topics.
So just this past year, not on the active duty
but the reserve, we actually asked the question
do about FAP, have you used FAP,
do you know about the new parent support program?
Have you used the new parent support program?
So, we should be getting those results
and we'll be able to better tell the awareness of those.
- [Chairwoman] So when those results come in would you
present them to the Committee?
- Yes, ma'am.
- [Chairwoman] Mr. Kelly.
- Yeah, I just wanted to follow up on Ms. Davis.
She's talking about a Command Climate survey
which they do every time you have a new commander
and then at the end of that.
And so, we need to look at something
so that they at least have the opportunity to fill that out.
So that we get some data on what they know
and if what they know is true.
So I don't know how we look at that,
but that would be very helpful.
- [Chairwoman] Ms. Escobar for five minutes.
- Thank you, Madam Chair.
So, you sat through the first panel
and you heard the survivors basically say
that they had, two of the three,
that they had no idea that you existed.
You heard one of the survivors say
she had access to zero resources.
So having taken that information in
and having heard some of the questions
from some of my colleagues what in your mind
do you need to do to make this better?
- Family Advocacy Program at DOD has the responsibility
to monitor compliance with policy at the service level.
I am committed and I know Mrs. Johnston is committed as well
that in our oversight we meet with the Services regularly.
We bring issues to them, they bring issues to us.
We look at challenges in how we might
better inform policy or practice.
What other research might we be doing together.
And this is a place where as we're developing a revised
oversight framework that quarterly when we meet with them
these issues will be on our agenda.
So that we begin to figure out how better to, one,
reach people so that they understand
the services are available.
But also then, coordinate on planning on
where we place priorities moving forward.
- And tell me, if you could,
how often do you update your outreach plan?
Is there an annual strategic planning process?
Is there a review of where you've been most successful?
Where you've not been most successful?
What research informs that plan
and who is a part of building that plan?
- We work very closely with military community outreach
which is partly Military OneSource but also Public Affairs.
And not only our awareness campaigns
but in looking back at our prevention plan both primary,
secondary and tertiary prevention
to include communications and outreach.
It's all part and parcel of a comprehensive planning
that takes place with the Services
and with the other components that we're involved
with under the umbrella of military,
community and family policy.
And all of that work is happening now.
We expect that in the prevention work
that we're doing at the DOD level with other components
that address violence and harmful behaviors
that comprehensive communication strategies
and outreach strategies,
certainly will have to be a part of prevention.
So that work is continuing and I expect
that within the next year or so
we would have a comprehensive plan
that speaks to communications, outreach
and using the CDC's socio-ecological model
to address primary prevention.
- So the plan that you say will be ready in about a year
or two are you updating an existing plan?
- Part of that work is to update an existing plan.
That plan was in place 2014 to 2018.
We continue to use components of it moving forward
as we plan either for new policy,
new practice and standards or for a strategic plan.
- So, am I understanding you update it every four years?
Is that what you're saying?
- To my knowledge the prevention plan was for five years
and now we are looking at making decisions
about whether we will do another one for five years.
Whether that timeframe needs to be different
or whether we need to change our strategy
and look at creating a prevention policy
including communications and outreach
or whether that would need to be standards
that are brought into DOD policy as well.
- Do you know in the existing plan,
as well as the plan that you are now proactively working on,
what role do survivors play in informing that plan?
- Based upon my knowledge that is some significant work
that remains to be done.
I know that at the service level they have held focus groups
to understand better about what survivors
and families need in order to address domestic abuse.
Again, that is done installation to installation,
it is not policy the DOD imposes on them.
- My time is about to expire I would offer a recommendation.
The recommendation is that this process,
this planning, be survivor-centric.
That means their voices have to be predominant
in the planning phase.
That means their experiences need to be heard
so that you all are able to more adequately
be a presence there for them.
They need you.
They need the services that you provide.
They need the outreach and the only way we're gonna fix this
is if you listen to them.
- [A.T.] Thank you, and we will take that back.
- Thank you, my time is expired.
- Thank. you, Ms. Escobar.
Mr. Kelly.
- One further suggestion, exit surveys.
Whether it's through separation, divorce,
separation from service I think you could gain
a lot of information if you get exit surveys
with spouses and children when they leave the service.
Especially when they do it separate from the service member.
I think you could get a lot of helpful information.
And with that, I yield back, Madam Chair.
- Thank you, Mr. Kelly.
Mrs. Johnston, Mr. Noyes,
thank you very much for participating in this hearing.
I think you've heard loud and clear
that there's a lot of work that needs to be done.
I realize that you are an umbrella entity,
but you do meet quarterly with each of the Services.
I am frankly sick and tired that we have each service
having a different set of standards
and ways of providing services
to their service members and families.
I think there should be some consistency
across all the services.
But having said that, as you meet with them
I think it's going to be important for you to ask them
to do a comprehensive drill down on
what the needs are as it relates to domestic violence.
I understand that you provide
all kinds of other services under FAP,
but specifically as it relates to domestic violence.
One of the things we heard was that service members
will oftentimes isolate their spouse
and not offer their emails for communication purposes.
We've gotta find a way around that.
You've gotta be able to use email or Facebook
or any number of other opportunities that exist
on these various bases to communicate with these families.
And certainly, your FAP programs at each of the services
can identify how to do that.
But that's gotta be one of the first steps
that I think you undertake
in order to be able to communicate better
and give more information to the community that exists.
So, with that, we'll stand adjourned.
Thank you.
- [Kenneth[ Thank you