Today, Democratic Women’s Caucus (DWC) Co-Chairs Congresswomen Jackie Speier (CA-14), Lois Frankel (FL-21), and Brenda Lawrence (MI-14), and Vice Chairs Congresswomen Veronica Escobar (TX-16) and Sylvia Garcia (TX-29) issued the following statement on the wins for women in the House Passage of H.R. 4350 the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22).
“Today’s passage of the National Defense Authorization Act not only advances our national security through the adoption of key provisions that promote equity for the women who put their lives at risk every day to protect our nation and increase stability and security around the world, it is history in the making. After fighting for 10 years to remove cases of sexual assault and sexual harassment from the chain of command, and hundreds of thousands of survivors being denied justice, we are removing these cases from the chain of command,” said the Members. “DWC Members’ amendments also will help to end gender disparities in the military, including by strengthening the meaningful participation of women in national security and our military; ensure servicemembers and their families have access to critically-needed resources, such as child care, parental leave, and contraception; and help Afghan women refugees—who are literally fighting for their lives as well as their freedoms—more easily find safe haven in the U.S. As this bill heads to the Senate, we urge our colleagues to retain all provisions that support our brave women servicemembers so that they can succeed in their vital roles, make our armed services more inclusive of women and especially women of color, help our military families to grow and thrive, and give a hand up to women around the world fighting against the yoke of misogyny and repression.”
DWC Members’ NDAA provisions to advance gender equity would:
Remove Barriers to Afghan Women Refugees Fleeing Afghanistan offered by DWC Chairs Congresswomen Speier, Frankel, Lawrence, Escobar, and Garcia: Removes barriers to and improves the processing of applications and evacuation of Afghan refugees, especially prominent Afghan women and individuals working in support of democracy and human rights including women's rights.
Increase Parental Leave for Servicemembers offered by DWC Co-Chair Congresswoman Speier: Offers 12 weeks of caregiver leave for primary and secondary caregivers (up from 6 weeks and 2 or 3 weeks, respectively), including adoptive parents and for long-term placement of foster children; allows secondary caregiver leave in the event of miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant death; harmonizes postpartum deferment policies across the services to allow one year before new mothers are required to participate in overnight travel, physically demanding training exercises, or physical fitness tests; and standardizes convalescent leave policies across the services.
Expand Child Care for Military Families offered by DWC Co-Chair Congresswoman Speier: Requires the military services to develop a plan to renovate or replace all “Poor” and “Failing” condition military child development centers within 10 years, pilot a public-private partnership to expand child care capacity in regions with high unmet demand, and allows Department of Defense (DOD) to expand the in-home child care fee assistance pilot program to all installations.
Report Wait Times for Child Care at Military Child Development Centers offered by DWC Co-Chair Congresswoman Speier: Requires DOD to report to Congress on average wait times for military families with immediate need for child care at each installation.
Provide Contraception Coverage Parity for Military Families offered by DWC Co-Chair Congresswoman Speier: Eliminates copays for Food and Drug Administration-approved contraception for TRICARE beneficiaries for one year, equivalent to the coverage by health plans under the Affordable Care Act.
Independent Analysis of Transferring Prosecutorial Decisions on Additional Offenses to an Independent Military Prosecutor by DWC Co-Chair Congresswoman Speier: Requires the Secretary of Defense to appoint an independent committee, with no current military personnel or DOD employees, to review and recommend whether to move prosecutorial decisions for additional offenses such as murder (beyond those included in the Chairman’s Mark, which relate to sexual assault, domestic violence, and other special victim offenses) from commanders to an independent military prosecutor.
Remove Barriers to Servicemember Access to Contraception offered by DWC Co-Chair Congresswoman Speier: Requires DOD to report to Congress on how it is addressing barriers that prevent servicemembers from receiving their preferred means of contraception, including during deployment.
Establish Independent Investigations of Sexual Harassment offered by DWC Co-Chair Congresswoman Speier: Requires the military services to investigate sexual harassment allegations against servicemembers using specialized personnel outside the chain of command who are trained to investigate sexual harassment.
Authorize a System of Military Court Protective Orders offered by DWC Co-Chair Congresswoman Speier: Allows military judges to issue court protective orders compliant with the Violence Against Women Act, providing better protection and enforceability for servicemembers and family members experiencing intimate partner violence.
Expand Victims’ Rights offered by DWC Co-Chair Congresswoman Speier: Provides victims of an offense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice the right to be informed of pre-trial agreements, separation-in-lieu-of-trial agreements, and non-prosecution agreements; and require the Secretary of Defense to establish policies to share certain evidence, such as the statements of a victim and forensic examinations of the victim, with a Special Victims’ Counsel or Victims’ Legal Counsel.
Consider Restitution for Victims offered by DWC Co-Chair Congresswoman Speier: Requires DOD to report to Congress on its progress in evaluating options for mandatory restitution for victims of offenses under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Publish Additional Data on Military Sexual Assault offered by DWC Co-Chair Congresswoman Speier: Updates the Annual Sexual Assault Report to include breakdowns of sexual assault prevalence by installation, occupational area, gender, race, and ethnicity.
Develop Options for Independent Reserve Investigations of Sexual Assault offered by DWC Co-Chair Congresswoman Speier: Requires the services to review current options for reserve component investigations of sexual assault in the absence of a criminal investigation and identify alternatives that would utilize independent, experienced investigators.
Inform Survivors of Sex-Related Offenses of Action Taken Against Assailants offered by DWC Co-Chair Congresswoman Speier: Makes a technical fix to the law that prevented DOD from informing a survivor of sex-related offenses of adverse actions taken to hold the perpetrator accountable.
Offer Referrals to Civilian Legal Counsel for Victims offered by DWC Co-Chair Congresswoman Speier: Requires DOD to inform survivors of military sexual trauma and domestic violence of civilian organizations that provide legal advocacy for survivors.
Standardize and Better Integrate Gender Advisors offered by DWC Co-Chair Congresswoman Speier: Requires DOD to submit a report and brief Congress on its plan to implement the Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military’s recommendation to standardize and better integrate gender advisors and women, peace, and security principles across organizations within the Defense Department.
Confront Sexual Harassment of DOD Civilians offered by DWC Co-Chair Congresswoman Speier: Requires DOD to implement Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommendations to improve the Department’s efforts to prevent and respond to sexual harassment of civilian employees.
Advance Integration of Women in the Marine Corps offered by DWC Co-Chair Congresswoman Speier: Clarifies that Marine Corps basic training must be gender integrated at the platoon level, and extends the gender integration requirement to Marine Corps officer training and any new basic training site that the Marine Corp might establish.
Protect Women and Girls in Afghanistan offered by DWC Co-Chair Congresswoman Speier: Requires DOD to report to Congress an analysis of defense programs in the region that could be leveraged to protect the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan and an assessment of military capabilities that could be used to assist with Department of State (DOS)-led efforts to protect the rights of Afghan women and girls.
Expand TRICARE Coverage offered by DWC Co-Chair Congresswoman Speier: Adds TRICARE coverage for preconception and prenatal carrier genetic screening tests. Adds reporting requirement for utilization of the newly covered tests.
Pilot Program to Assess Barriers to Women’s Participation in National Security Forces offered by DWC Co-Chair Congresswoman Frankel: Requires a pilot program to assess the barriers to women's participation in the national security forces of six participating partner countries.
Military Education Curriculum to Include Gender Analysis offered by DWC Co-Chair Congresswoman Frankel: Requires that the professional military education curriculum address gender analysis, the meaningful participation of women in national security activities, and the relationship between such participation and security outcomes and encourages women’s admission to service academies and engaging with girls and women along educational pipeline to increase the number of women interested in and pursuing national security careers.
Improve Retention of Women Servicemembers offered by DWC Co-Chair Congresswoman Lawrence: The Secretaries of the military departments shall share and implement best practices (including use of civilian industry best practices) regarding the use of retention and exit survey data to identify barriers and lessons learned to improve the retention of female members of the Armed Forces under the jurisdiction of such Secretaries.
Establishing a DOULA Pilot Program offered by DWC Co-Chair Congresswoman Lawrence: Requiring the establishment of a DOULA pilot program at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
Honors Women Who Served in WWII offered by Assistant Speaker Katherine Clark (MA-05): Expresses the sense of Congress that the United States honors the women who served in World War II and former Rep. Edith Nourse Rogers for her role in establishing the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps and the Women's Army Corps.
Modernization of the Selective Service System offered by Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan (PA-06): Clarifies that the purpose of the Selective Service is bigger than just drafting combat replacements. It ensures the Selective Service System is able to provide the DOD with the all sufficient numbers of personnel with the necessary skills in the event of a national mobilization – which means cyber, STEM, technical talent, among others. It’s not limited to the outdated use of those drafted for combat replacement roles.
Spouse-Specific Transition Assistance Program offered by Congresswoman Robin Kelly (IL-02): Establishes a pilot program requiring a spouse-specific Transition Assistance Program to support military spouses through their partner’s transition out of the military, with a focus on job readiness, resources for veterans and their families, and mental health first aid training to help spouses recognize the warning signs of mental illness or substance abuse concerns.
Improve Access to Menstrual Hygiene for Armed Forces offered by Congresswoman Deborah Ross (NC-02): Requires a report on the availability of menstrual hygiene products on military bases and accommodations related to menstrual hygiene available to members of the Armed Forces.
TRICARE Coverage of Preconception and Prenatal Tests offered by Congresswoman Ross: Requires a report on potential TRICARE coverage of preconception and prenatal carrier screening tests for certain medical conditions.
Sense of Congress on the Safety of Afghan Women and Girls offered by Congresswoman Kathy Manning (NC-06): Adds a Sense of Congress on the safety of women and girls in Afghanistan.
Access to Quality Child Care offered by Congresswoman Nikema Williams (GA-05): Tasks the Small Business Administration with maintaining a resource guide for small businesses operating as child care providers that includes guidance on topics such as operations, finances, and compliance with relevant laws. By helping child care small businesses start and grow, more kids and parents can have access to quality child care.
National Equal Pay Enforcement Task Force Reestablishment offered by Congresswoman Williams: Reestablishes the National Equal Pay Enforcement Task Force, a federal interagency task force focused on improving compliance, public education, and enforcement of equal pay laws.
Military Nutrition Improvement offered by Congresswoman Susie Lee (NV-03): Requires GAO to conduct an assessment of the quality and nutrition of food available at military installations for members of the Armed Forces.
Fair Credit for Servicemembers Act offered by Congresswoman Linda Sánchez (CA-38): Extends consumer credit protections to active duty armed and uniformed consumersin a combat zone, aboard a U.S. vessel, or away from their usual duty stations and prohibits the inclusion on a consumer report of adverse credit information that occurred while a uniformed consumer was serving. This isespecially important for women, who generally have less access to financing.
Sense of Congress on Prioritizing Countering Misinformation and Disinformation offered by Congresswoman Sánchez: Expresses the sense of Congress that the US should prioritize countering misinformation, increasing North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) resources, building technological resilience, and supporting NATO and NATO Parliamentary Assembly, and specifically reiterates the United States’ commitment to women’s equal rights and dedicates additional resources to understanding and countering the effects of gendered disinformation to democracies.
Reporting Requirement on Veterans’ Use of Housing Programs offered by Congresswoman Sánchez: Requests a report to Congress from the VA and Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretaries on obstacles that women veterans, LGBTQ+ veterans face in accessing housing programs. The report additionally requests the report to examine obstacles that veterans with multi-generational or extended families face in accessing these programs.
Menstrual Products Stocked in all Restrooms in Public Buildings offered by Congresswoman Grace Meng (NY-06): Requires that menstrual products are stocked in and made available free of charge in all restrooms in public buildings, including the Smithsonian Institution, the National Gallery of Art, and the U.S. Capitol.
Awareness Campaign Regarding Types of Fertility Treatments Available to Veterans offered by Congresswoman Meng: Requires the VA to conduct an awareness campaign regarding the types of fertility treatments, procedures, and services available to veterans experiencing issues with fertility, and requires the Department to submit a report to Congress on how the Secretary plans to better engage women veterans to ensure they are aware of the covered fertility services available.
Central American Women and Children Protection Act offered by Congresswoman Norma Torres (CA-35): Adds the text of the Central American Women and Children Protection Act of 2021, which directs the DOS to enter into bilateral multi-year agreements, known as “Women and Children Protection Compacts,” with the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, specifically to strengthen the countries’ criminal justice systems and civil protection courts, create safe communities and protect vulnerable families, ensure the safety of children in schools and promote early prevention and detection of gender-based violence and domestic abuse, and increase access to high quality health care.
GAO Recommendations to Address Disparity in Military Uniform Costs by Gender offered by Congresswoman Julia Brownley (CA-26): Requires DOD to implement GAO recommendations to address disparity in military uniform costs by gender and allows for a one-time retroactive payment from DOD to women service members affected by disparity in uniform costs over last 10 years. The revision makes the payment optional and makes clear that retired/separated members are not eligible, and our second revision was necessary to fix something with the caption at the request of Leg Counsel.
Study of DOD's Policy to Discharge Women Based on Pregnancy or Parenthood Between 1951-1976 offered by Congresswoman Brownley: Requires GAO to conduct a study of DOD's policy to discharge women based on pregnancy or parenthood between 1951-1976 based on Executive Order by President Truman. Requires study to include number of women impacted, identify the impact on their access to VA benefits and health care, and make recommendations on restoring access.
VA Advisory Council on Women Veterans to Make Their Report an Annual Requirement offered by Congresswoman Brownley: Mandates the VA Advisory Council on Women veterans to make their report an annual requirement, to allow Congress and the public better understand the changing and diverse needs of the woman veteran population.
