Two panels of experts brief members of the House Armed Services Committee on how the services plan to keep members and their families safe and ready, specifically through preventing and responding to domestic violence, May 26, 2021.

Transcript

Committee and we are now going to bring this committee hearing to order. I want to welcome everyone and this is going to be a completely virtual hearing. Um and we have a very important topic to talk about today. But first let me welcome our new ranking number two, the committee congressman mike Gallagher. He has completed four years in the House of Representatives previously, he was a U. S. Marine captain, served seven years in the Marine Corps and was deployed twice to Iraq. Uh He also has the distinction of being the fastest man in Congress in a three cave. Right, I’m not going to shout. Um We’re going to talk about a very, very important, serious and troubling topic today. It is the military’s prevention and response to domestic violence. The startling statistics, according to the CDC, suggests that one in four women and one in seven men will experience what is called quote severe physical violence by spouses or intimate partners in their lifetimes. That’s 25% of women in this country who will be battered and bruised, strangled and stabbed, shot and maybe even killed. Mhm. It is a scourge that we must pull out of the Shadows because we know if it’s 25% the women who are victims of severe physical violence. So too are the women that make up our military and military families. The first step in cheering any ill is to define the problem. and for over 20 years, Congress has asked the Department of Defense to do just that, but it has not. The problem remains undefined. In fact, earlier this month, the G. A. O. Released a study that found that despite a statutory requirement since 1999 D. O. D. Has not collected comprehensive data on the number of allegations of domestic violence, a subcategory of different types of domestic abuse that constitute offenses under the uniform code of military justice and related actions taken by commanders. And even though we know the data is inaccurate, we know that over 40,000 incidents met D. O. D. Criteria for domestic abuse between 2015 and 2019 and that 74% of these incidents were physical abuse. How many more were never counted by the department? How many were never reported For more than 20 years? No one can say. According to the D. O. D. Annual report on child abuse and neglect and domestic abuse in the military. Most of the perpetrators and victims are our most junior service members and spouses. They are the young, the unexperienced, they’re away from home, many of the first time isolated from family and friends and support systems and in many cases struggling financial. All of, you know, the data shows that COVID-19 has only exacerbated the isolation and the financial stressors suffered by these families. It is too easy to hide behind facts and figures. I want to be very clear about what physical abuse is. According to the national domestic violence hotline. It is an intimate partner or spouse who pulls your hair or punches or slaps or kicks or bites, chokes or smothers you. It is a person who forbids or prevents you from eating or sleeping, who uses weapons against you, including firearms, knives or bats, who prevents you from contacting emergency services, including medical attention or law enforcement, who harms your Children, your pets, who drives recklessly or dangerously while you were in the car or abandons you in an unfamiliar place, who traps you in your home or prevent you from leaving, who throws objects at you or prevent you from taking prescribed medication or denies you necessary medical treat. That is physical abuse. There is also emotional advert verbal abuse, financial abuse, stalking, sexual abuse and sexual and reproductive coercion to put a human face to this epidemic. Miss Amy Logan has bravely agreed to tell her story. Her testimony is riveting and exposes all the flaws in the military’s handling of domestic violence. It also reminds all of us that there is a mother, a father, a sister, a brother, a child Behind those 40,000 incidences of domestic abuse recorded by the D. O. T. We can no longer ignore this. The safety and well being of our service members and their families is at risk. So the D. O. D. And the services. The question is, what are you doing about it? How are you addressing the shortfalls jail for this president? How are you educating our service members and their families about the resource citizens that we have? How did they know who to call to get help and please? Congress has made some progress in addressing this issue in fy 21 D. A. N. D. A. The subcommittee provisions to establish a 30 review of the military’s response to domestic violence was included to provide Congress with additional independent findings and recommendations to address intimate partner violence, however much more must speak. I’ll specifically point out that last Congress, a provision that I offered that created a military court protective order that are enforceable across jurisdictions was unnecessarily stripped out income. Congress and story in conference witnesses today will testify why court protective orders are so necessary. Now, ranking member, Gallagher uh are recognized for your opening remarks. Thank you so much, Chairwoman Spirit. It’s an honor to join uh, the subcommittee and I look forward to working together and today’s hearing addresses an issue of supreme importance domestic violence, which I think we can. All three has absolutely no place in our military and I want to welcome both panels to today’s hearing. I specifically want to thank Miss Logan for volunteering to be a witness today. I can’t stress how grateful I am for the courage and your willingness to tell your story. The former Marine Corps officer um I had to deal with issues involving domestic violence in my unit. I found it important to discuss and define domestic violence with my marines um also called intimate partner violence. Um it includes four types of appalling behavior, physical violence, sexual violence stalking and psychological aggression. Speaking of the magnitude of the problem, the latest C. D. C. Statistics indicate that about one in four women and nearly one in seven men have experienced uh sexual violence, physical violence and or stocking by an intimate partner during their lifetime and reported some form of domestic violence related impact. Over 43 million women and 38 million men experienced psychological aggression by an intimate partner In their lifetime. These numbers are quite simply staggering. In my home state of Wisconsin, for example, domestic violence claimed 72 lives in 2019 in my hometown, Green Bay. We have a number of organizations like the Golden House and the wise women gathering place that provides safety and support victims of domestic violence. Unfortunately, these services are always in critical demand and demand outstrips supply in the military. The fiscal year 2020 report on child abuse and neglect and domestic abuse in the military show the rates of both types of incidents have decreased over the past 10 years, but the numbers overall are still very concerning. Additionally, unmarried intimate partner abuse. An adult sexual abuse increased at an alarming rate. There are also six intimate partner abuse fatalities in fy 2020. We need to do everything we can to drive these numbers down. Um, one case is one too many when it comes to domestic violence in my opinion. And so we also need to commit to the affected families that we will provide them with the resources they need to get through these very difficult situations. But this is only part of the issue with domestic violence. The other part is trying to prevent domestic violence remember occurring in the first place. The prevention part is what I want to understand. Our service representatives on our second panel in particular. What are we doing and how are we getting after these issues? Do we truly understand the data and are the services reporting incidents in the same manner? So we know how many cases there are and the magnitude of this issue in the military. I also want to learn about any new initiatives that may improve domestic violence abuse prevention and response and so on. Panel one I look forward to hearing from our witness that is a survivor of domestic violence and understand your experience is better and your thoughts on what can be done to improve the process. We’ll also hear from a military service organization on their role in domestic violence and from the G. I. O. Which is just completed an in depth report of domestic abuse in the military. So thank you again for all being available for this hearing. I look forward to the discussion and the questions and answers. Okay. Mhm. Remember um completed his remarks. Thank. Each witness will provide a brief opening statement and each member will have an opportunity question. This is five minutes between respectfully as the witnesses for testimony in five minutes and the statement made part of the hearing record. Welcome Welcome to our first panel is Amy Morgan, a strong co director of last week, The Star Family a Pharos. But there my team at the government accountability office. Thank you all for your time today. Um we’ll be hearing from you. We’ll start with Miss Logan and Miss Logan. Let me just say before you made your opening statement when I run. No, I believe it. How strong you were then and are now um how you uh expose what are gaping holes in our system in terms of responding to the victims and I’m just grateful. And today please begin. Thank you Madam Chair. Okay, I want to start by thanking the committee for the work you are doing around such a difficult and important issue. My hope is that in hearing my testimony, the committee considers adopting real changes and how the military handles reports of domestic violence in its ranks. I am the ex spouse of a soldier who was an E nine in the United States Army. I met him toward the end of his military career and we always lived off base what I knew of the military and their resources from what he shared with me. Two years into our relationship, I realized I was in an emotionally and verbally abusive marriage. three years into our marriage. Things turned physical. Shortly after moving to a new city and a new installation. I was a stay at home mom with no family nearby and not a lot of friends. One night my ex husband charged at me, grabbing my shoulders and he me strike me in the leg that night. He shattered and completely damaged my cellphone, leaving holes and dents on the floor from the impact. He told me I would rather go to prison than let you leave with our child. I took this as a verbal threat to my life. The police arrived after receiving a disturbance call and my ex has been charmed the male police officer into believing that I broke my cell phone and that we just had an argument. The next today I went to the local magistrate office. I was told that what they saw on the police report, I would more than likely not be granted a restraining order. A few days after this incident, I went with our child to a women’s safe shelter. While my ex husband was at work, my ex husband tracked my location and came to the shelter. The police came, gave him a warning and he was asked to leave. Through this whole process. The police were called three times regarding my ex husband and it is my understanding that the local army base was never notified. During our divorce process. The brigade military and family life counselor who worked with my ex husband attended every court hearing. We had and testified on behalf of my ex husband at our divorce hearing. This was the third person in the military who heard of the physical abuse and higher command was still not notified of the situation. It wasn’t until my divorce hearing. After gaining knowledge of the history of potential abuse, my ex husband had done to other individuals that I gained the strength to come forward to the military. I went to the family advocate office and shared all that had happened. I requested to receive a military protection order. I was not granted one. The case review committee met and did determine that my case met the criteria for emotional and physical abuse. The colonel who led the committee was my ex husband’s brigade commander and his command partner. It is my understanding that the colonel did not feel that my ex husband needed any treatment and that my ex husband stayed in his command the whole time. After the CRC ruling, I filed a report with the inspector general’s office regarding how the colonel handled my case as well as the influx actions. I remember one individual telling me it is our job to make sure this doesn’t end up. On CNN the eggs department determined that the chain of command can best address the matter is presented. I was shocked. The I. G. Department took my complaint straight to the person. My complaint was against. I proceeded to file a congressional inquiry to assist in looking into my concern From this inquiry. The commanding major general started a 15 6 investigation. I believe some changes were made. However, I do not know the full outcome. Throughout all of these military investigations. I felt they questioned the validity of my complaint based on what I did not do. Instead of what was done to me. Individuals in the military responsible for decisions regarding domestic abuse need to learn more about abuse. It is rarely ever an isolated incident. It is rare that just one form of abuse is being used. They need to understand that fear keeps you trapped and isolated. You experience what someone can do to you and you constantly live in a state of fear. This plays a part in every decision that a victim does or does not make. I have a few suggestions for the committee to consider commanders and colonels who directly work with someone accused of domestic violence. Should not oversee any investigation or committee regarding this issue. Soldiers who commit acts of domestic violence do not need anger management. They have a control and an abuse issue. Any treatment plan investigation or committee needs to include both talking to the alleged abuser and the alleged victim. When I G. Departments communicate with the military spouse, I recommend someone be present who can explain the process. Commanders, kernels and military personnel need to properly report all allegations and conduct proper investigations. My story is not just my story. It represents the stories of victims and survivors who are too afraid to come forward. It represents individuals who work with victims in the military who feel they are constantly hitting roadblocks when trying to help. I hope today this testimony can be a voice for them too. I think the committee for your time. Mhm. Thank you again. Slogan was again remarkable testimony and there to us. Um Next we will hear from this Jessica Strong chairwoman sphere, ranking member, Gallagher and distinguished members of the subcommittee on military personnel. Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. My name is Dr Jessica Strong and I am the co director of Applied Research for Blue Star Families, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting military and veteran families. Blue Star Families is nationally recognized for our annual Military Family lifestyle survey, which covers a wide variety of topics that impact military and veteran families. Today I’m here to share with you what our previous surveys have revealed about intimate partner violence or I. P. D. In Blue Star Families 2015, and 2017 surveys approximately 1% of active duty spouse and service member respondents reported being hit, kicked, punched or otherwise hurt by their significant other in the past year. However, as Miss Logan mentioned this, physical violence is not the, not the only, but the most obvious symptom of intimate partner violence. Perhaps more alarming is that approximately 9-15% of our active duty family respondents reported that they did not feel safe in their current relationship. This is a potential warning sign of abuse. Finally, in our 2019 survey, approximately 2% of both spouses and service member respondents reported they had experienced intimate partner violence within the past year. These findings corroborate that data gathered by the Department of Defense in 2019, Which reported incidents of spousal abuse at about 1.1%,, This seems small, but the rate is over twice that of the national population at 0.42%,, many factors that are endemic to the military lifestyle placed military spouses at greater risk of experiencing IPTV, including economic vulnerability, social isolation, mental health concerns, and military culture itself. I will say a few words, just about each. Military spouses are uniquely vulnerable to economic abuse, wherein abusive partners use their financial power to control their spouse’s behavior because of that frequent relocation, limited childcare and the service member’s job demands. Military spouses face significant challenges to employment. The unemployment rate for military spouses as many times that of their similar civilian peers, and of those who are employed. Two thirds of the active duty spouse respondents to our 2020 survey indicated they were underemployed working in positions that are not commensurate with their education, experience, salary history or desires. Others have simply left the workforce. Consequently, military spouses frequently do not have a sufficient independent source of income on which to support themselves and their Children should they choose to leave their abusive partner. Another risk factor for IPB mentioned by MS Logan is social isolation. This is also too often a natural byproduct of the military lifestyle. Active duty families relocate on average once every 2-3 years. This requires families to separate from their established support systems. In fact, almost half apartment Families in our 2020 survey reported that isolation from family and friends was a top stretcher during the military time. The COVID-19 pandemic with its associated shutdowns, restriction of movement orders and mandatory quarantines may have intensified this concern. A third risk factor is mental health issues such as PTSD. These have also been repeatedly linked to HPV. While certainly not the most, not the singular cause, the prevalence of PTSD in the military may increase the incidence of IFB. In our 2020 survey, 11% of our active duty service members and 7% of their spouse respondents reported they had a current diagnosis of PTSD. Finally, military culture itself may contribute to the relative prevalence of ITV due to its essential normalization of violence and predominantly masculine culture. Any plan to reduce IPTV must address the underlying factors that make families vulnerable and therefore must seek to a empower military spouses financially, be eliminate sexist attitudes within the military and see combat social isolation. We must collectively work to address the upstream causes of military spouse unemployment, including a lack of affordable childcare, the unpredictability of service member day to day job demands and hiring and promotion discriminations, eliminating sexism from the military will require systemic cultural reform. We therefore encourage Congress to implement the recommendations made by the Fort Hood Independent Review Committee to alleviate instances of sexual harassment, assault, and gender discrimination across the services. Finally, to combat social isolation, Congress ought to work with community based military support organizations to bolster active duty military family members sense of belonging to their local civilian communities. I would again like to thank the distinguished members of the subcommittee for their efforts to address this deeply troubling issue. I. P. V. Is a crime and it is neither a normal nor unacceptable byproduct of the military lifestyle. Blue star families have fought to the subcommittee’s work to protect military family members from these acts of violence. Thank you. Mr. Wrong, you’re dad was under compelling um from this friend of feral. Uh huh witnessed our committee. She’s the director of fence capabilities and management team for a Madam. Chair. Ranking member Gallagher members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss Gos recently issued report on domestic abuse prevention and response in the military. Domestic abuse can result in devastating personal consequences and is a significant public health issue that causes substantial societal costs. D. O. D. Has stated that domestic abuse is incompatible with military values and reduces mission readiness. My written statement today summarizes our report issued earlier this month On domestic abuse in the military, which included 32 recommendations to d. o. d. Do the concurred with each of the recommendations. My statement focuses on some of the key findings in that report. Let me briefly summarize it. My statement is divided into two parts. The first addresses the extent that Doody has met statutory requirements to collect and report data on on reports of domestic abuse. Do you Dean met a statutory requirement to collect and report data for incidents that met its criteria for domestic abuse. But as noted earlier by the chair, it is not collected and reported accurate data from the number and type of all domestic abuse allegations received. As a result, judy is unable to assess the scope of alleged abuse and the rate of substantiation to address these challenges. We recommended that D. O. D. Clarify its guidance to the services for submitting data and develop a quality control process to ensure complete and accurate data on allegations of abuse. In addition, we found that while there has been a statutory recurrence since 1999 D. O. D. Has not collected comprehensive data on allegations of domestic violence, a subset of domestic abuse that constitutes criminal offenses under the uniform code of military justice and related actions taken by commanders Since 2015 D. O. D. Has made an effort to aggregate these data at the department level. However, the data collected by D. O. D. Do not cover the full scope of acts that may be considered domestic violence. Further, nearly half of the non pending command actions were categorized as other, making it impossible to know if these allegations were unfounded or if the incidents were not prosecutable for other reasons to address these challenges. We recommended the duty evaluate and if needed clarify or adjust the responsibilities for tracking domestic violence allegations and related command actions. The second part of my statement addresses the extent that D. O. D. And the military services have implemented and overseeing domestic abuse prevention and response activities. We found that gaps exist in key areas, including creating awareness of domestic abuse, reporting options and resources allegations, screening victim risk assessment and commanders, disposition of incidents. For example, we found that the military services perform limited oversight of commanders, disposition of domestic violence incidents We’ve heard too, is command actions. These command actions can have significant implications for victims and alleged abusers. For example, a commander’s decision to pursue a court martial, non judicial punishment, administrative action or no action can impact victims eligibility for transitional compensation benefits and whether the alleged abusers are subject to the Lautenberg amendment restricting firearms possession. Currently, the Uniform Code of Military Justice authorizes commanders at the lowest level to determine the initial disposition for non sexual domestic violence incidents. A. D. O. D. Official told us that as of november 2020 officials were not aware of any initiatives within duty to study risk associated with the current disposition model or the feasibility of potential alternatives. Performing such an assessment could provide the department and the Military Services with a better understanding of such risk and their exulting potential impacts. As a result, we recommended that jodi assess the potential risk associated with its current disposition model for domestic violence incidents and the feasibility of potential alternatives that may respond to such risk. Now I’m sure that concludes my statement. I’ll be pleased to take questions when you and the other members are ready spare. Uh huh. Um yeah, the opportunity to ask questions of our canvas. Uh let me start by asking uh Logan. It appears it’s like the testimony that who were um mhm mm Can the test and the resources after a statement? I’m sorry congresswoman here and spear it cut up a little bit. The question. Could you repeat that please? Mm Yeah, of course. Uh basically customized. It appears that that should make it people not in fact the resources or misused. Uh huh. I’m wondering ever any kind of resource that’s truly there for you that you were taking the gentilly. Um I believe your question is in regards to resources that were shared with me and what resources I used, Is that correct? Yeah. Okay. I’m sorry. There seems to be a bit of a delay. So um being living off base and only hearing what my ex spouse of the military um I did not know of resources I at that time did not know that I could go to the family advocacy office. Um It wasn’t until actually um a counselor that my ex husband agreed to go to when she reached out to the family advocacy because she was concerned for my safety when they reached out to me that I became familiar with that resource. Um The my ex husband’s command did not share that resource with me. Um And um so it was at that time that I found out about that I was I did not know many resources outside of that. Um When I did decide to bring things forward. Um What I knew was of my family advocate advisor. Um And they were a great resource. I will say that she was a great resource but outside of that I was not offered any other resources serious prolong correct yes help. Um He um was I didn’t meet him until later in his career. Um He had been in the military I believe since um he went in shortly after high school after he got his G. E. D. I believe. So he had been in the military for quite some time. I met him when he was an E. Eight going into E. Nine. Your uh just for other experiences in his local and his um term and military that witness heather conditions they all reported. No. So um around the time of our divorce, um I was able to connect with some of the previous relationships and they shared their testimony with me. And it was at that time that I found out that each one of them had experienced alleged abuse by my ex husband. Um They each shared that they were too afraid to bring things forward to the military. We all were told um that he could lose his job, He could lose his right to carry, he could lose everything. And as mrs strong shared um you realize you don’t have a job, you don’t know what you’re going to do and so you are a bit afraid of um bringing things forward because of that fear that they could lose their job and then you lose your support. Um at the same time you just wanted to stop and you want help. Um They believe one did mention something to a higher command. Um I do not believe she did not bring things fully a full, um She didn’t file a full complaint. Is my understanding that she did mention something to a higher command. Um They I believe made him go to anger management and I believe my ex husband laughed it off and and didn’t take it seriously, madam madam share. I think we might have lost you. Was anyone else hearing the chair woman’s audio? I cannot hear the audio. Okay? I cannot hear. Okay, so staff. Um could you alert the chairwoman and offered some guidance? She’s back actually. I moved now to a secure location here. Thank you. Miss Logan again, we will now move to ranking number Gallagher. Thank you so much. Miss Logan again. Thank you for sharing your story and and you know the kurds that that takes. Um, do you think our local installation commanders should engage the local community? The better understand the resources off base in the local community that might be available? Might that have helped in your case? Or in other cases I think there there can be better communication between these local resources and the military resources. Um, uh, you know, civilian wise when I brought stuff forward to, I don’t think the full resources were shared with me too because one of the police officers didn’t um, fully believe my incident. Um, but yes, I agree. There could be better communication between the two. And then in your testimony, you indicated that you didn’t charge, uh, you didn’t file charges of domestic abuse immediately after the incident based on what you know, Now, how would you advise victims in a similar situation? Um, I would advise to do so. I think um initially as I shared you you are very scared and um you are very scared of how they might react. You’re very scared. I was not shared that I could file file charges of that. Um That was not told to me by the civilian police officers um or my lawyer at the beginning. Um So I would advise to do so because um you know from my experience I was questioned. Well why didn’t she? Why didn’t you? Why didn’t you? Thank you Miss Farrell, thank you for your testimony. A number of the recommendations in the jail report on domestic abuse um indicate as you alluded to in your testimony that duty has significant issues with with data, with domestic violence data in terms of reporting collection, tracking guidance, standardization quality control. As we sit through all of the recommendations in your opinion, what should be the first actions the priority actions that duty takes to fix these issues? Thank you for that question. Uh There is much work for D. O. D. To do and we hope they used the report as a roadmap to correct the deficiencies that we are pointing out. But I would think that if you try to characterize uh solutions for the issues related to the data, they basically fall into two categories, guidance and accountability. Uh As we noted, we don’t know the full scope of all the allegations and the types of allegations of domestic abuse in the military because the services use different approaches to count allegations who are the services, you know account each allegation associated with the report separately. The other two count uh multiple allegations from that one report. So two of the services could be undercounting and there’s other coding issues with the Navy that prevent us from understanding what the type of abuse is being performed. So clarifying the guidance to make sure you know what you’re going to collect and in the case of domestic violence, putting someone in charge that can work across boundaries to obtain the information on domestic violence because that data does exist on domestic violence. It just hasn’t been going forth to the right office to manage it. Thank you. That’s very helpful. And in the short time, I have left Miss Strong. Are you aware of any programs in the civilian community that are comparable to diodes? Domestic violence programs that could be used perhaps as benchmarks for success? This kind of gold standard that we might emulate. That’s an excellent question. Thank you. Ranking member Gallagher. I am not aware of any gold standard programs. I know that there are many, many community programs that support victims of domestic violence and intimate partner violence. Um, but I’m not aware of any in particular that should be held up as Exemplars. Okay, well I appreciate it and I, I yield my remaining seconds back. I thank the gentleman. Uh, Miss Hoolahan is now recognized for five minutes. Thank you Madam Chair. And I hope that my visiting puppies are not going to be too much of a problem. They’re just starting to bark right now. I really also want to say thank you to you all for coming today and sharing your story, particularly Miss Logan. It actually brought me back to being a military kid to having a military mom moving a lot and being with families who were under an enormous amount of stress. Uh, and my mom was kind of always the squadron, you know, wife, that squadron the excel, his wife, the Ceo’s wife that may not serve the base life and all of the kinds of things that you’re talking about have brought back really difficult memories and I’m appreciative of you sharing them. I want to associate myself with Mr Gallagher’s questions and remarks, which is what is it that we can do to find best practices and standards of other industries and environments that are similar to the very isolating environment than it is to be a military spouse. Is there anything that we can wrap our brains on to find something that’s quite so singularly. Um Isolating is the perfect word as it is to be alone and moving possibly every single year to a new environment separated from your family. So I’ll put that to the side. Uh my questions. However, one question is your doctor strong and your testimony, you talked about, you know, kind of the idea of gender tropes and the your the correlation, strong correlation that there is in the military gender discrimination to female members of the service. And I want to make sure that we acknowledge that that’s an issue that this issue of kind of gender tropes for, you know, large is an issue in our in our military that’s increasingly having more and more members who are female beyond the acknowledgment that we should make that clear that this exists. Is there anything else that the services can do about kind of changing that culture that, frankly toxic culture that involves uh gender tropes traditional gender tropes, And that’s for dr Strong. Yes, ma’am, thank you for the question. I very much appreciate the attention that you’re bringing to the environment and the military culture. I do think that that is if we’re going to prevent intimate partner violence and the number of any number of other issues. That is one of the places that we do have to start. As I mentioned in my testimony, looking at the recommendations from the Fort Hood Independent Review Commission is a great place to start. They have a lot of really good recommendations to implement across, uh, not only the army that the other services as well. Um, also I would suggest looking at ways to continue to build belonging in the community and finding support for those military families so that there is a place to go. As Miss Logan mentioned, they’re often the communication that they get is from the service member and if the service member is the person who is perpetrating, then you’re not going to be getting good information there. So building that sense of belonging for first passes and families so they know the resources and they have a place to go is also a good place to start. Thank you. You’re welcome. And I also wanted to add my support for trying to find a way to harmonize data to the degree that we can that across the D. O. D. Um, to make sure even this is to this barrel, um, to make sure that we are standardizing the way that we assess data. I was fortunate enough to be on the trip with the chairwoman to Fort Hood. And one of the things I was struck by was um, an increased awareness of the fact that the police police force outside of the base needed to be better at communicating within the base to talk about things like soldiers who were AWOL, wondering what the analog is there to make sure that we’re communicating across baselines or post lines from the service, uh, competes to the police as well with my men and something. This barrel was wondering if you could comment on how we can standardize or harmonize that across the DND. Are you talking in terms of more about the data? Are you talking in terms more about that civilian military coordinated response? It’s both in the sense that the data is as an aggregation of a lot of people’s experiences. And there are the individual, you know, incidences or contacts between civilian law enforcement and, and spouses or military families. Uh, and you know, that’s the one on one thing. But there also is the aggregate, which is, we kind of at least I was struck by the fact that the Fort Hood, uh, law enforcement sort of were throwing their bladder information over the wall and wondering what happened to it after it went over the wall. I can imagine that it would be the same kind of concern with this kind of information as well. There needs to be better military civilian coordination. I mean, it is known that it is an effort on both parts for the prevention and response. And there are numerous examples along the lines that you’re talking about, especially protective orders, which has come up earlier. Uh, some within the military, including the commanders, do not realize that a violation by an active duty service member of the civilian protective order is punishable under the uniform code of military justice. And that is something that could be corrected with the services, all the army, the Navy and the Air Force putting in their regulations as is required by the doughty, the process to punish violators of both military and civilian protective orders. To date, only the Marine Corps has done that. So that that’s a that’s a big gap. And because those regulations don’t define the responsibilities for prosecuting those who have violated those military and civilian orders. Uh some spouses or intimate partners would not think about going to the military for help when there has been a violation of that civilian or there’s much more. But I know you’ve got other. Thank you. I appreciate it. In fact happened back. But thank you. Thank you very much. The gentle lady’s time has expired. Uh This peril just for clarification purposes, you have made recommendations to the department as a result of this report. Have they responded yet? Yes, they have. They were provided a draft report before it was publicly issued and they did agree with all of the recommendations. We will continue to monitor those recommendations as you know, uh to understand if they do take actions to meet the intent. All right, thank you This device. You are recognized for five minutes. Well, thank you Madam. Chair for hosting today’s important hearing and thank you to all the witnesses for being here today. Domestic abuse and domestic violence uh impact far too many Americans. The CDC estimates one in four women and one in 10 men will experience some form of domestic violence or abuse in our lifetime. And I think it’s imperative that we diligently worked to address this issue within the diode to ensure that the policies and the programs are in place to prevent these horrific incidents from occurring and to rapidly address them when they do occur. My first question is to miss Logan. You mentioned in your testimony that you had an advocate that helps guide you after you started the process of charges against your ex husband. Do you believe that appointing an advocate early on to help a spouse in a domestic violence or domestic abuse situation would be helpful? Maybe someone who is independent of the military? Yes. What helped me with her instances that she had also experienced domestic abuse and she was familiar with the military. So her knowledge of both avenues was very beneficial for me because I did not know a lot of the military protocol and resources. She was able to provide that. So yes, I do believe that would be a benefit. So providing something like that. D. O. D. Why do you think maybe a great sort of assistance for those victims? Yes, I believe that what I came across as it was either somebody that knew the military or knew about abuse and didn’t know about both. So the more that you can appoint that know about both, I think would help find those solutions and find those gaps and even discover knowing that history of abuse, knowing what the signs are and what the red flags are to maybe try to bring it to light earlier before an incident happens. Great, thank you for that. Um dr strong. You mentioned in your testimony that there is a connection with PTSD and domestic biggest and domestic violence. Um, my question to you and maybe this is a little bit of conjecture. But do you believe that we are addressing the PTSD issue? Uh, so that we don’t see devi or domestic assault on the back end. I appreciate the question. Thank you. I’m not certain that we’re doing all that can be done to address PTSD and other issues of mental health because it is simply PTSD. It’s also other mental health diagnoses and substance abuse. And I think that also involves the only addressing the stigma of accessing services for those those those conditions are issues but also addressing providing resources so that those substance abuse, mental health underlying disorders can be addressed prior to before something extends into a domestic violence or intimate partner violence incident. Thank you for the question. Thank you. And then my last question is related for any of you. Um if you know, could you share your perspectives on whether the D. O. D. Is doing enough to protect Children in households where domestic or intimate partner violence is occurring. We’ve talked a lot about spouses that Children are sort of, I think behind the scenes and that is such a crucial piece. So what can we do? What can we be doing to make sure about um those Children are being protected as well? It’s Oh Uncle 1st. Can you hear me? Yeah. We actually issued a report related to this topic on child abuse. Not Yeah. I think you’re talking about Children whose parents could be abused. But uh last year we did issue a report looking at uh military Children who were victims of child abuse. And found many of the similar findings that we’re talking about today connected with the framework to manage these like uh the incident determination committee at the installation level. When they first get uh an incident, they determine if it should be counted as child abuse just as the same as they would look at domestic abuse to see if it should be counted. And we found problems with that structure that committee last year and made recommendations about the composition of that committee. We thought medical personnel should be included to make sure it’s a victim needed medical services that those would be rendered. So we had a host of recommendations and that record as well to address that issue. But there is definitely some overlap about protection of the Children whether they’re in the household experiencing this with the other family members or they’re the victim themselves. Thank you. Let’s throw madame Sherry your back. Yeah. Yeah. The Gentle Lady’s time has expired. The general lighting from Texas is recognized for five minutes. Thank you. Thank you so much, madam Chair And I want to express my gratitude to our chairwoman for having such an important hearing and to our panelists for sharing this really critical information. Uh information frankly that confirms what so many of us already know and understand about the failures that that exists within the military organization. Miss Logan. I’d like to start my questions with you and I want to thank you for sharing your painful experiences with this committee and as well as with the public that is watching at home. Um, yeah, I represent a congressional district that is home to Fort Bliss, one of the biggest military installations in the United States. And so you know, I know from having spoken with constituents and as well with service members, this is a problem everywhere including here at our military installation. Um, Miss Logan, you know, we one of the things that you mentioned that, that I’d like to focus on a little bit. You mentioned talking to other survivors and about what they had heard back. And I wrote down the, what they heard back was the fears around losing the spouse, losing a job or the career essentially being over if if abuse was reported. And um, you know, obviously it has to get reported. Um, we don’t want it to, to, we also want to try to address it as quickly as possible. Do you think that if folks on military installations, if support that was available for you, if there had been intervention with your husband, do you think that could have helped address the abuse situation? Is there something that we can do or that the D. O. D. Can do at the very front end that is that that tries to help mitigate not just the abuse but things spiraling out of control. Thank you for your question. Um Yeah and I apologize for the lung. You know, he’s going on. Um it’s a difficult question to answer. My understanding is research with with individuals who are abusive is such a small percentage that actually change. So it’s very hard to say that if they were to come in and um intercede and try to bring some fourth of treatment, it’s hard to say that that would, could have potentially slowed down or stopped other incidences after the fact. I think knowledge to know that there is protection that can be offered for people to come forward. Um, you live in such a state of not wanting to do anything to make them up that coming forward is just one another thing that would, um, so to know that there is some protection offered um, to keep you safe in coming forward. I don’t know how to get that to the victims. That’s a difficult question, but I think that is important, but there is stuff in place to help protect them in bringing things forward. I appreciate that you make a very valid point. You know, one of the other areas of concern is that 70% of married, active duty service members live off installations, making it very easy for them to feel isolated from resources and outreach programs. Obviously you did not have um you know, you weren’t provided with the kind of support and programs that you needed. What can we do for families who live off of installations to ensure that you do have access to that information about resources that can protect you, keep you and your Children safe. That is a great question. And one that I have thought over and over to try to come up with an answer to myself because um I know there’s programs there, I know the information is there, I know we can always go to the, you know, open houses that they to welcome new people to an installation. Um I don’t know if mailing stuff in the home that can get lost. Um I apologize, I don’t think I have a clear answer. It’s something I continue to think about on an ongoing basis because there needs to be a solution to reach them. Mhm. But it’s I don’t have that clear answer as to how yet. And I apologize. Oh no, no, no apology. Um Amy it’s on us. We’ve got to clear this out for you dr strong. I think I saw your hand go up. Did you want to respond to that? I would love that. Thank you very much for the opportunity to it at 30 seconds please. I will be as quick as I can. I think that one of the keys is building connections in the community most when when we ask in our survey where you go for help, people don’t go to resources. They go to their families and friends, they go to their local connections. So we need to build those connections for spouses in the communities that they live in so that they can go neighbor and say I’m having this issue. What do I do? The neighbors to friends? The local connections are the ones who have those resources. Thank you so much and thank you for indulging that. I’m sure you’ll get of course. Um Miss Logan. Did you were you ever required to provide your email address to the installation to the command? I don’t remember. I I apologize. I know. Um they I’m assuming they had when when I got my spouse the I. D. Um I’m trying to recall. I don’t remember. I know I would meet command and by only interaction with them would be at certain functions. My exposed did not let going through those functions. So we didn’t always go to every function I was invited yet. I think that’s part of the solution is requiring that the spouse has, that their email is provided so that the family advocacy, Yeah. Program can actually provide information to them whether they need it or not. All right. Mr Fallon is recognized for five minutes. Mr Fallon. I see your your camera is on you are A W. O. L. All right. Um, is Mr Jackson available? Mhm. Mr Jackson. All right. We’ll turn to both of them once they return. Um, Miss Strickland is next. Mr Kirkland. Think you’re muted. Mr Fallon does not have questions. Um, the Strickland. Yeah, Madam Chair. I don’t see her on the she was here earlier. Mr B. C. Is next. You are. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to ask dr Strong Uh, specifically about just how the military handles, uh, incidents as they occur in a single basis. A personal story. I can remember years ago. I was about 20, years old at a friend’s house. And uh, we all had to leave the house because her mom had a friend coming over and the friend was in some kind of distress and when we left as what was happening and she said, well, her husband’s a police officer, uh, and he beats her up really badly. And when he, and whenever she calls the police, they come over and say, we’re going to walk around the corner with him so he can cool off. And when we were at Fort Hood recently, I was on the coattails of Fort Hood a couple of weeks ago and one of the mps that we spoke to said something that reminded me of that day and I still couldn’t believe it because now police departments don’t routinely do that. I’m not saying that it never happens anymore. But now, even if the person doesn’t want to press charges, if they see that there’s been evidence of domestic abuse, somebody can go jail. Um, yeah. And so when the mp told us that, that oftentimes he has to tell people, hey, you know, why don’t we, why don’t we cool off or there’s a cooling off period. It really, it doesn’t surprise me how prevalent is, you know, is it to have people think, you know, we’re just, you just need to cool off. And if the, if, if the person that is being abused doesn’t want to cooperate, what are the protocols put in place for the military to still act? Even if, even if, even if there’s no corporation, like can sometimes happen in the civilian world? Well, thank you for that question. Representative Bc. I’m, I’m afraid I don’t have the answer to that. I don’t know enough about the protocols for both of the mp response or the civilian police law enforcement response. Yeah I would love to hear Miss Farrell has response yet. You’re muted as feral. You’re muted. I can address part of it sir. Uh I don’t know the protocol if it if it comes through the law enforcement except once law enforcement including the mps are aware of it that should trigger uh some type of investigation. Even if it after the investigation, it doesn’t go anywhere. But the first step is that it should be reported to the family advocacy program at the installation level. Uh And sometimes at the installation level is coming from law enforcement. Sometimes it’s coming from the command. Uh There’s different avenues. It’s at that screening that often we found incidents are being screened out inappropriately. Uh That that initial screening says that all incidents should go forward to the incident determination committee unless there is no possibility that the incident meets the D. O. D. Criteria. It’s very basic at that stage. But we found incidents where officials at installations were acknowledging that if they felt there had been no impact to the victim, they did not move that incident forward to the committee. If they felt that uh there was pushing and shoving and it could have been self defense, they did not move it forward. And both of those instances the incident determination committee is supposed to determine that. So there it should be reported regardless of whether it’s the mp that’s witnessing it or some other person that uh with law enforcement. I hope so. It even if even if the person is not cooperating you’re saying there should still be something. Yes that’s another situation when it’s screening that often the people at the installation level will say well the individual recanted and so there was nothing to it. But it still should go forward to that instant determination committee. Thank you, madam. Chair are you back? Yeah the gentleman yields back. We can do a brief second round. If anyone has any additional questions they would like to ask of the panel. It wasn’t a period feel. I have one last question. Miss Farrell. Uh you talked just now about the incidents um review committee. It sounds like from what I’ve read they are not being instituted appropriately or not being instituted at all. Is that correct? The uh incident determination committee is an algorithm that is required by D. O. D. For all the services that has been for years. The army is the only service that has not fully uh implemented the I. D. C. So there could be some inconsistencies and outcomes or treatments that are provided to the victims. For example because of that inconsistency right now with the army lightning behind the other services. All right. And finally uh you indicated that 50% of the incidents are reflected as other. That would mean that about half of these cases are subject to empty J. Or some other form of um review or penalty or, No it’s actually 43%. It’s over 7000 cases that have been decided. We don’t know. The category is so broad. Uh It could be that the command did not think the evidence was there. It could be it’s not the right jurisdiction. It could be death. It could be a variety of reasons why there was no action taken. Our point is you don’t know which ones were unfounded by the command and other reasons. There is a category for courts martials and non judicial punishments and admin actions. So this is the other category is what we really just don’t know what the other part. That’s correct. It’s so broad and that’s the reason we say there’s very limited oversight because the percentage is so high. Obviously there’s gonna be some in that category but we wish we had more information in order to actually understand the compact trillion actions. Thank you. Um I see that Mr kim has joined us. Do you have any questions you’d like to ask the first panel? No questions at this point. Thank you. All right. Um I want to thank all of our panelists. You’ve been generous with your time and your testimony and compelling so very much appreciate all of your information that you provided. If you have additional thoughts you want to share with us, please feel free to contact us. We’re certainly going to incorporate much of your recommendations as we consider the N. D. A. This year. So thank you again. Well now transfer to our next panel and the members of our next panel include Miss Patricia Barone, who is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy at D. O. T. Colonel Steve Lewis, the Family advocacy program, Manager of the Army, Colonel Andrew Cruise, the Chief Air Force Family advocacy program at the Air Force This pistol Griffin, the deputy Director of Family Support at the United States Navy and Miss lisa F. Yordano, who is the Assistant Branch Head Prevention and clinical services at the U. S. S. Marine Corps. Welcome all of you. Um We will begin with your testimony. MS Baron Karen, are you with us? Is on okay? We can hear you now. Yes we can. Thank you. Thank you, chairwoman spear ranking member Gallagher and members of the subcommittee. My colleagues and I thank you for your steadfast support of our service members and their families and we appreciate this opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the department’s efforts in addressing this very serious issue of domestic abuse within the military community. Collectively, we represent the many dedicated family advocacy program professionals across the Department of Defense who do work tirelessly every day to support our service members and their families to keep them safe and resilient man. You’ve already introduced my panel so I won’t take up time there but I do want to say to the witnesses on the previous panel and especially to miss Logan, please know that we appreciate this opportunity to hear from you first hand and we will take your stories, your recommendations and personal experiences back to our respective teams to inform our important work. So thank you so much Again. The Department of Defense is committed to enhancing their welfare and well being of our service members and their families, which includes preventing and responding to domestic abuse and serious harm to our Children as um as well as it being the very right thing to do. It is also imperative to the readiness wellness and resilient of our forces as a 30 year military spouse, a registered nurse working in the community mental health field, a lifelong advocate for service members and their families and a parent of a former female soldier who is now a military spouse herself. I do consider this issue of the utmost important to the department and I have seen the tremendous negative impacts that can result when not properly prevented, recognized and treated. I believe my breath of experience coupled with the continued close collaboration of the services and our service colleagues will help bring a balanced approach and a renewed energy to addressing this issue. I do know I speak for all of us today when I say that we are fully committed to serving our service members and families in this regard, we have made some good progress and positive strides since the last time we appeared before the subcommittee. But I do acknowledge that there is more work to be done I can’t share with you collectively that we have focused on upstream prevention, incorporating evidence, informed strategies and approaches recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and we have also focused on oversight. We have been hard, we have been working hard on standardizing processes and procedures and we wholeheartedly support the conclusions reached in the G. A. O. Report. The department concurs with all 32 recommendations which impact the Office of the Secretary of Defense and individual Services. Again, we appreciate this opportunity to speak with you today on these issues and others within the family advocacy portfolio. And before I close I know I speak for my colleagues. When I say thank you to the members of the first panel for their advocacy and for sharing their respective experiences and Miss Logan. Especially you for having the courage to come forward and sharing your story. Your voice will help us as we move forward. Chairwoman, spear ranking member Gallagher and the members of the subcommittee. Thank you again. We stand ready for your comments and questions. All right, thank you MS Baron. You have spoken on behalf of all of the services as I understand it. So we will now go to questions let me ask you despite being a statutory requirement for decades. Can you explain why we still don’t have an accurate picture from D. O. D. On the amount of domestic abuse incidents as reported by G. O. What does the D. O. D. Need to get this done? So we could have a complete picture if you can grab onto that in a minute please. It’s a great question Ma’am and I won’t want to tell you that I received a briefing on this very subject when I first got here in January 2021 and I am personally committed to making sure that this um solution gets to fruition. Um and we would be happy to get you. We have started on some of the procedures that we need in order to get this done and we’d be happy to um inform your staff a little bit a little bit later. All right. We’re gonna stay on this because we need to have complete data and we’re gonna require another meeting with you, maybe a briefing format in the next couple of months because this is um it’s just really unacceptable. Yes, ma’am. Colonel Lewis, the army is the only service that has not fully implemented the incident determination committee process that is required by law And that all the other services adopted in 2014. The army continues to ask the O. D. For extensions. Um I find that totally unacceptable. What are you doing about it? Please amuse yourself. Thank you madam. Chairwoman. Yes. The army is uh is the service behind for the incident determination committee. However, I do want to say that prior to the policy being published, we asked for and received a exception of policy to do a comprehensive study of the incident determination committee. Actually um Colonel we’re not interested in more studies we want you to set up this is required by law. You should be setting up this incident determination committee. It should be populated as it’s required by law by medical professionals and by others within the service and it’s not acceptable to do another study. Yes thank you madam. Chairwoman The study was completed and we have drafted our policy and it’s now sitting with senior leaders awaiting it’s final approval. We also have a fully resourced implementation plan that we have briefed to be and we provide D. O. D. Quarterly updates on the implementation plant. So we are when this policy is signed we are ready to launch our implementation to transition the remaining installations that don’t have an I. D. C. We did launch the incident determination committee at 10 installations which had the majority 70% of our cases reviewed by the incident termination committee. When we did the pilot study. All right, I’d like to ask each of the services to weigh in on this question. The G. A. O. Report indicated that 2100 incidences between 2015 and 2019 met the criteria for severe, I underscored severe physical abuse. Yet in 43% of these cases, command took no action against the abuser installation officials. Tokyo that in some cases commanders look the other way because they are too focused on how the incident will affect the abusers career or the command’s operational need and not the victims need or the need to hold the abuser accountable. Um There’s a conflict of interest here that we’ve seen for years in the sexual assault area. If lower level commanders are conflicted and unwilling to take decisive action against service members who engage in severe physical abuse, then why shouldn’t this disposition be elevated to 06 or higher? And I have your response, Colonel Lewis? Yes. Thank you, madam. Chairwoman. We do acknowledge the findings of the G. A. O. And looking at disposition decisions and we do look forward to working with D. O. D. In reviewing that. And but it’s premature for me to bring forward policy recommendations without having reviewed that with army senior leaders. Okay. But you didn’t answer the question, are you not alarmed by the fact that in 43% of these cases that no action was taken and it met the definition of severe physical abuse. There’s no need to answer that. Mr Griffin. You’re recognized your response. Yes. Thank you. Chairwoman sphere uh We basically this is outside of our area of responsibility but we would like to take the information to our proper Navy leadership for an action. Well, I guess then the question is to Miss Baron. Why would you have someone here at this hearing? Who can’t respond to that question is barren. My time is expiring here. And I still want to hear from MS Philando from the Marine Corps and Colonel Cruise. Yes, ma’am, mm. Thank you. Chairwoman scare This is lisa napolitano from the Marine Corps. I’d like to also thank Miss Logan for sharing your powerful testimony. That’s primary focus is prevention and response, which which includes advocacy. Um Fat does not make recommendations to the Commander on how they hold a service member accountable. So as far as that portion, I’d have to defer to legal counsel or the Commander’s. Thank you. All right, Colonel Cruise. Um unit, I believe we still can’t hear you. All right. Um, maybe you can give me a response that’s written. Let me move to ranking member Gallagher. Thank you. Chairman Spirit for all the witnesses. But starting with MS Baron. Um and then the service representatives. So we have a jail report including 32 recommendations for actions. The Geo just testified. They hope is a sort of a blueprint for action. Is there a plan of action at D O. D. And with milestones that we can track your progress on implementing GOS recommendations. Uh Thank you for the question. We actually had started implementing some of the some of the recommendations before they were even reported if you will. So we have made some progress on some and current actually getting close to fruition currently working on others and we’d be happy to give you provide you a kind of a status if you will at a later time. That would be helpful. And I assume you then uh that that process of tracking and implementation would be standardized across the services. We are working on standardizing across the services. Yes, sir. It’s a challenge as you know, but we’re working on it and then I’m not quite sure who to direct this to. So mister maybe you can help me. How do you how do you maintain contact with the victims that you serve so that you know, your programs are hitting the mark and get feedback from the community most affected by this. So in in general, um and the services can answer more specifically um in general, part of what needs to happen is a good feedback mechanism for the victims that we serve that is done through the installation staff office offices, but we also have military family life counselors, um, uh, At all installations as a matter of fact, 2300 of them at the moment. And that is another avenue where families can give us the feedback that we need. Well, I would, I guess I direct that same question to the services uh because it’s found up in the bigger question I think of how do you how are we measuring the effectiveness of our domestic violence programs? And it strikes me that getting feedback from the people most effective is one way to gauge whether we’re actually having an impact. So I just would ask that question on maintaining contact with the victims we serve and by extension measuring our effectiveness to the services. I start with the army just because you know, it’s big army. Yeah, thank you congressman Gallagher. I would like to say that as Mr Barron mentioned. So the installation level, the Family Adversity Committee led by the garrison commander has representatives from the coordinated community response and they look at at least at the installation level program outcomes mainly and they hear the voices of the victims from the victim advocates that are communicating in that forum as well as through the family embassy program managers at the headquarters level. We do look at the trends of reporting but we also work with our medical counterparts in looking at overall measures like treatment treatment completion as well. Mhm. Okay. Um Who Marine Corps? Since I’m a Marine? I’m gonna pick on you. Thank you congressman for the question. That’s a very important one. Uh So the Marine Corps is just completed and calendar year 2020. Um an evaluation of our family advocacy program and new current support programs. And it was a comprehensive evaluation that consisted of needs assessment provider, surveys measures of performance and some measures of effectiveness. So we just completed that and we’re preparing to uh start some working groups with our installation family of c programming, new parent support programs and then Colonel Cruise. I don’t know if we’re your mute problems got fixed, but I invite you to comment as well. Thank you sir. Hopefully you can hear me claire. So the Department of the Air Force Family Housing Program uses the domestic abuse victim advocates uh that are vital for coordinated community response to family non treatment and provide 24 hours seven days a week uh administrative care to the victims. Along with that we we do have client satisfaction surveys that we give to our so our families, we also measure our effectiveness in our treatment by having a child abuse, potential inventories and couple of satisfaction inventories free and post after they received treatment and also feed board feedback informed treatment. Um So those are some of the things we do in the Air Force. Thank you. Well the Navy may be saved by the bell here because I have 15 seconds and it’s my first hearing as ranking member and I don’t want to test the patience of the of the chairwoman. So I will follow up with the Navy on that question going forward and yield back for seconds. I have remaining actually ranking member. You can certainly ask the question. So okay, thank you. Let’s hear from the Navy. Thank you. Ranking member Gallagher. And I appreciate the question. And so the Navy is very concerned about ensuring that our family members and our spouses and victims have a voice and in the C. N. O. Directed the Navy family Framework, a governance board that actually look at The services that we provide to families. We conducted a survey. 20,000 people. Uh family members responded basically identifying the need. I think you’re viewed it. Yeah. And you please. There you go. So at 20,000 surveyed we lost you. Yes, thank you. And so we have the Navy family framework and we identify uh 22,000 people, family members that participated in the survey, both virtual and in person. And we identify the need that we needed to have a better connection with our families. And we developed a app from that and it contains all the resources that they need in order to ensure that they are fully aware of the resources that’s available throughout the Navy as well as giving them a voice on providing us with feedback as to things that we need to do as a service to support them. Mhm. Thank you very much. My time as a sport. All right, the gentleman’s time has expired. Uh Let’s move now to the gentlewoman from texas miss escobar for five minutes. Thank you madam Chair and and many thanks to our our witnesses for the services. I want to ask a little bit more about the metrics that you use to evaluate the effectiveness of your respective military service, domestic abuse awareness campaigns and ask you also about your overall resources and outreach, can you each please detail those two things the metrics that you use to evaluate the effectiveness of your awareness programs and how do you get resources and outreach to our families? Thank you to go first. Thank you for this is Colonel Lewis from the Army. So I first of all I want to say, we heard uh and we we learned a lot from the hearing you had in 2019 and under and took action from that where we talked about outreach to families. We actually initiated a study with the Rand Corporation in order to help us better understand the best practices to reach families living off the installation, recognizing That 70% of the families lived off the installation as well as isolated families were more address. So we’ve received some initial findings from that. That is, it’s going into its second year of the study and we continue to recognize that it’s important for us to reach out to families where they work, play and pray, stealing their words and get to them there uh so that we can we can provide services in terms of measuring the effectiveness, effectiveness of our programs. We continue to look at this utilization rates of the information ship, whether it’s clicks on websites or uh information distributed and disseminated at public gatherings. Mhm. Okay. Thank you Colonel Lewis Colonel Cruise. Oh yes ma’am for the question. So the Department of the airports found amnesty program. Uh That’s information to the spouses through the Department of the Air Force Key spouse program, cucumbers, orientation, patient and jeremy Partnership councils, collaboration with the Community Violence Prevention Integrator and with the Violence Prevention Integrator is each installation. Uh They are they are to provide information to families. We also work with all the helping agencies and the community action team and what we do is we provide um all available resources and put pampers together for the installations. Our metrics as mentioned before for treatment um are not abuse potential inventories and also a couple of satisfaction inventory. We also have some secretary prevention tools that were used in the new parents support program Two to look at measures of effectiveness as well. Thank you. Thank you, Colonel Cruise, Miss Griffin. Yes, thank you for the question. Uh in terms of looking at what we provide, uh in terms of getting outreach to our families, we have a free and family support website at the headquarters level where it identifies all of the resources that we provide through our web pages. We also utilize resiliency workshops that are available across the fleet. And those workshops invite family members to be apart so we can hear about what the needs are and address those at that time. We also have family readiness groups that also work directly with families to provide resources and information across our our portfolio to ensure that they have all the resources and information they need. And we also have ombudsman. Um Bussmann serves the same purpose, but they do a little bit more closer contact with the families to ensure that the support is needed. Their integration into the military life is um is significant and central to their role. We also look at metrics are awareness campaigns. No, not we do not look at during a one year camp, I mean one month campaign, but we really look at it enduring effort. And so those metrics are counted throughout the year, where we’re identifying the number of surveys that we received and how we’re able to still do effectiveness in our outreach regarding awareness months. And that’s for child abuse as well as domestic abuse. Uh Miss Thank you. MS Al fondo. We only have about 10 seconds go ahead and complete a few sentences. Yes, ma’am. I’ll just highlight a few of the effective campaigns that we do. We have a centralized marketing strategy and the Marine Corps that we use. Um and we also use a collaborative community response coordinated effort with our partners and on and off the installations. Additionally, we highlight our national awareness months um that’s domestic violence and child abuse and we know in our mission um We have a goal to continue to outreach. Our family members. We do have measures of performance that we collect with. Our feedback forms and measures of effectiveness are really difficult to get prevention efforts and outreach. Um So that is something that we are opening to hear how others do that and to improve our efforts. Thank you, madame Sherry. You’re back, gentlewoman yields back. You now will recognize MS vice from Oklahoma for no Despise from Oklahoma for five minutes. Thank you madam Chair. This question is directed up Colonel Cruise. I represent thousands of service members and civilian personnel who work at Tinker Air Force Base. Because you tell me about how the Air Force Family um advocacy program works with the military families, where there is a known history of domestic abuse or domestic violence, particularly as it pertains to ensuring the welfare of Children. Thank you for that question, man. So Department of the Air Force Mission uh Family Embassy program is to build healthy communities through implementing programs designed corporation and treatment of domestic violence and child abuse and neglect. So what happens at each base as each incident has taken to our incident determination committee, which is our central registry board and from the Central registry board, which is a administrative board recommendation is made for to see whether or not criteria was met using D. O. D. Definitions or domestic abuse and if and if the definitions were met for criteria, then treatment is provided for the family. Throughout this process, we have domestic abuse victim advocates that will be there for the victims and their families to ensure that they get the resources they needed with collaboration with the other base agencies like the legal office, law enforcement and some of the other helping agencies like Chaplin and those other resources that they’re available at each Air force base. Thank you. Thank you. Um And then this question is for any of our panelists here, can you talk a little bit about the differences with how your offices interact with families based on whether they are on or off base and how that relationship made um influence the types of services that they’re receiving. If I might start. Um This is patty from Osd um Ma’am. What we really try to do is reach our families that are off the installation through military one source which is our our our very um a full program of resources and information. Now I know that it’s not always easy to access military. It is very easy to access military one source, but it’s not always easy to get the word out about military One source. And and uh and that’s where we are thinking outside the box about different opportunities in different ways that we can make sure that our families, especially those outside uh that live outside the installation are aware of military one store. It can lead to all sorts of support, all sorts of help. It really is a great program. So let me let my service counterparts to talk a little bit more specifically. Okay, thank you Congresswoman Vice. I want to say that the covid pandemic really gave us an opportunity to learn great lessons learned about reaching out to families, especially when they’re isolated and we’re in their shutdown period. And we truly recognize that one we expanded on our virtual presence using facebook platforms to provide prevention education and information reaching out to families. But the other thing that we found out was that virtual care was very welcomed by virtual services was welcomed by victims, especially those that have transportation problems or maybe daycare props. So we continue to use virtual care, virtual health care delivery as needed to support the families as long as the that they interviews and the sessions are not compromised by maybe a perpetrator offender that’s over watching or up standing over the victim during those assessments. But we still work through as part of our assessment with the victim. And if I may follow up Colonel, do you expect to be to continue to utilize those resources even after we have seen an improvement in the pandemic? Yes, that again was one of the great lessons learned that we have to continue to expand our virtual presidents both for prevention efforts, but also for our treatment efforts. So that remains as a as available for for families as they request any of the other services want to comment. And for the Department of the airports, family and Rescue program. We utilize the services both on and our base. We have mutual agreements with law enforcement, also child protective services and domestic shelters. So we work hand in hand with the community to ensure that we provide a safe environment for victims and we provide the optimal treatment as well. But we’re always looking at ways to improve and to join the pandemic. We did have to use virtual platforms. So what we just, what we’ve learned to do is virtual like parenting training and virtual anger management and some couples communication classes all virtually. And also the new parents support program. We were able to meet moms at their homes, uh, during the pandemic. Using virtual platforms as well. So let’s turn to be something that would probably be using in the future as we continue with the pandemic. Thank you. You have expired. Uh, the gentleman from pennsylvania, Miss Hoolahan is recognized for five minutes. Hi and thank you. And if it’s okay, I’d like to start with a question for all of the service members and maybe go kind of around the horn with this simple kind of yes or no question from the data that we understand right now are the rates of intimate partner violence higher in the military than they are in the civilian sector. And if it’s okay, I’ll start with Colonel Lewis to say if they are to your knowledge, higher or lower are the same. Uh, thank you congressman who and for the question, I’m going to have to take that for the record. I don’t have that data on him and, and to Colonel Cruise. So, um, as far as the rates, um, I’ll have to take that for the record. But for me to the airport family, ask your program. You know, we’re not sure what the correlation is are the factors are, but we’re the Department of the Air Force Family as the program. We will monitor the situation and continue respond and provide domestic violence support to the victims to ensure they say. And from the Navy for Miss Griffin. Yes, Thank you for the question. And this too is out of our area of responsibility, but we will certainly take it for the record and differ. And the Marine Corps, Miss uh Donald, I hope I pronounced that right. Valdano Man. Thank you. Thank you congresswoman. That’s a great question. Um, I also will have to take that for the record as I don’t have the data on hand. However, we will not lose sight even if our numbers are lower of uh offering the services that we have available. And I and I ask these questions because I believe that there is data and I will I will welcome it when it comes back. That that would indicate that the level of uh sexual violence as well as domestic violence is higher in our services than it is in the civilian population. And I think that’s one of the things that I’m, I’m interested in and follow me in my circular logic. Societies that have higher domestic violence in family conflict resolution tend to be more violent and more involved in more than those who have lower family violence rates. So this is something that’s really concerning when your business, you’re on an on air force, that when your business is national security and readiness. And so this is something that really deserves our attention to kind of suss this out. Uh, and assuming that were, you know, a place that does care regardless, Hailo or in between, what kinds of steps are we taking to address? What is a culture, frankly of kind of, um, toxic gender tropes to make sure that we are ready, uh, and that our military, who are women who serve in uniform and their families and the men who serve in uniform and their families are safe. What are the specific steps that we’re able to do to address this masculinity? The issue that we’re talking about domestic violence, ma’am, If I may, uh, for OsD, we’ve contracted with the rand corporation to look into just exactly that, what are the factors with, of military, family life or military life that might lend themselves to domestic abuse and um, an intimate partner violence. Um, but the services might have more with my remaining time or any of the service members able to help me with that question because our fire panelists talked a little bit about sort of a culture of gender, um, effectively stereotypes, male versus female relationships and those sorts of things. And so I’m trying to follow up in the real world, you know, in the real service to understand whether the with her testimony alliance with what we’re doing to address this issue. Thank you Congresswoman Holahan Lewis again. Thank you. I think the forehead independent review committee along with the testimony today that we heard today again points out that it gives us an opportunity to really take a deep look at the climate and culture of the Army and the Secretary of the Army did establish the People’s First task force to assess an action on the forehead. Independent recommendations. And climate culture is part of that. Thank you sir. And any other folks. Mm Yes. Before Department of the Air Force, known as the program, it’s a victim centric service and safety are paramount. So no matter who the victim is, we’re always striving to improve our services to ensure airmen, guardians and their families are getting the best care possible. We’ll continue to look at our processes and collaborate with Operation Ar ou steve FAP and other services to make sure that we eat the victims and needs. Thank you. Yes, I would like to speak on behalf of the Navy and so we have the culture of Excellence which basically embodies an approach that we’re looking at what right looks like, and really spending more time on developing our sellers and ensuring that we have them noted as signature behaviors. And that’s something that we’re continuing to work at. Thank you. And with that Daniel back and thank you, madam. Sure the gentlewoman yields back. Do any of my colleagues wish to do a second round? Are there any questions that any of you would like to follow up with? Thank you member, Gallagher I have done. Thank you. All right. Um, I just have a couple Colonel cruise jail found that the Air Force’s training for service members about domestic abuse does not cover the required topics. What have you done to fix that? Yes, ma’am. So, uh, working, we’re currently working on a hard point template to ensure that all the topics are in the template. Uh, one of the issues is that inconsistencies, so we do have, it is an R. A. F. I to ensure that this training is conducted but it’s not an identified. And so we are going to include an R. F. I. All the required topics. The other thing that we’re going to do to ensure consistency is we’re going to make it part of our certification process. So it’s basically our inspection process and we’re gonna monitor it to ensure that each face, each installation has has the training that the commanders that is here in the States are supposed to be getting. Thank you. Thank you. Colonel Miss Griffin. The G. I. Report says that the Navy delivers periodic training on domestic abuse at quote Commander’s discretion, which sends me through the roof. Um Why is this critical training discretionary? And will the Navy commit to making it mandatory? Yes. We are currently have an updated policy which was updated May 2020 and it does direct uh senior leader advisers. Those are our sailors that are E seven and above as well as our commanders when they assume command within 90 days to receive this training, Uh and this training does align with d. o. d policies and we have created a curriculum that covers all of the 13 elements that are required for the training. All right. So if I went back to the G. A. O, they would say that you are now providing that as a mandatory training. Not at the discretion of the commander. Yes, ma’am, columnist atmosphere. Alright. My final question is for you, MS Baron. Um, one aspect of the family advocacy program that generates confusion among service members is its dual role in providing support to victims and as a disciplinary institution. This is especially dicey when both the intimate partners accuse each other abuse, abused women have called my office who have sought support services from family advocacy and then have been treated as though they were the perpetrator. Is this a fundamental flaw in the design of the program? Or are there ways that the services could better clarify the various roles and responsibilities that the fact has to service members and military family members receive services? I think I’m on unit now. Yes, man, that I agree with you. If that that is a very frustrating situation to be in where you you go to get support and then you you get blocked somehow. What I think we need to do is what we started to do and that is making the commanders making senior N. C. O. S aware of WhatsApp does how we support victims? How every victim that comes to anyone that comes through that door that is reporting an incident needs to be uh, talk to, uh, have the advocacy, um, uh, councilor create the safety plans and then and then move on to the incident determination committee so that all reports of abuse are collected and we can create a better picture to our command and to our services about what might be going on, what what trends are going on and how to get support to anyone that is telling us that there is an issue and there’s a problem and they do not feel safe at home. All right. But it does, I think help us recognize that you cannot serve in this case, both the victim and the service member or vice versa. So I think we’re going to have to look at that more closely. Um, those are all my questions again, anyone else with questions? All right, thank you all for participating. This is an area that we are very concerned about. I don’t know that we um, solved every question here. I know the GOS report is something we’re going to follow very closely and really require compliance. Um, it’s not good enough to say working on a plan or we’re studying it. We need to see consistency across the services. We need to see data that is consistent and every one of you should be prepared to answer the question Miss Hoolahan asked. Which was is it worse than the military than in the civilian population? And the answer is yes. Um, so that should increase our interest in wanting to try and fix this. And with that we will conclude the hearing and we stand adjourned. Thank you all for your participation.