WASHINGTON — The newly released defense authorization bill for fiscal 2023 all but completes a decade-long campaign to overhaul the tradition-bound military justice system, advocates of the change say.
The measure achieves changes in areas where these advocates contend the fiscal 2022 NDAA fell short. The new bill, released Tuesday and expected to go to the White House for enactment soon, moves authority over prosecutions for major crimes from military commanders, where they have long resided, to professional prosecutors who will start work late next year.
The changes have been driven from the start by many lawmakers’ concerns about thousands of sexual assaults and rapes in the military each year, a problem that surveys show has only grown worse. According to the latest anonymous survey, covering fiscal 2021, there were 36,000 rapes and sexual assaults that year just among active duty, with thousands more sexually harassed — even as Congress and the Pentagon have heightened their focus on the scourge.
