Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand came up short Thursday in her yearlong campaign to overhaul military sexual-assault policies, falling five votes short of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster, Politico reports.
The New York Democrat’s bill, which would have removed the chain of command from prosecuting sexual assaults and other major military crimes, was derailed in the Senate on a 55-45 vote, closing out one chapter in a debate that divided the Senate but not along typical partisan lines.
Ten Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and 2016 presidential hopefuls Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky, backed Gillibrand’s controversial chain-of-command bill. But that wasn’t enough to overcome 10 Democratic votes against her, including prominent defense hawks like Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin of Michigan and Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri. Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) also opposed the bill.
Gillibrand’s campaign went down to the final hours and minutes before the vote, and the outcome remained uncertain to the end as about a half-dozen Republicans and one Democrat — Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia — refused to say publicly where they’d fall.
Warner ultimately sided against Gillibrand, one of several surprises during the tense roll call.
Levin said in a statement:
We will vote today on two bills regarding sexual assault in our military. I believe the strongest, most effective approach we can take to reduce sexual assault is to hold commanders accountable for establishing and maintaining a command climate that does not tolerate sexual assaults. To do this, we must maintain the important authority to prosecute sexual assaults that our military commanders now have, and add greater accountability for those commanders.
The statement is long. Click on the link above to read it in full.
