Senate vote blocked on Gillibrand's military sex assault proposal

How could Utah Sen. Mike Lee block this? What do you think about this?

"A vote on Gillibrand's amendment was blocked by Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who was acting to protest a decision denying a vote on an amendment of his own.

The Senate approved a fiscal 2017 defense policy bill Tuesday after skipping votes on several major amendments, including a proposal by New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand to transfer from commanders to military prosecutors decisions on whether to prosecute military sexual assault cases.

“That we have 20,000 survivors of sexual violence and the Congress can’t allow for a vote is just a reflection of the (Defense Department's) unwillingness to tackle this issue effectively and to accept the fact that they have a huge problem,’’ Gillibrand said in an interview after the 85-13 vote on the defense bill."

Debunking Claims of Progress on Military Sexual Assault
The sexual assault rate remains the same as 2010
20,300 service members were sexually assaulted in 2014. 76% of male and 56% of female victims were assaulted at least twice, resulting in over 47,000 assaults against service members.1 1 in 7 victims were assaulted by someone in their chain of command.
The retaliation rate remains the same as 2012
62% of victims who reported sexual assault still faced retaliation.
Victims don’t trust the system
86% of victims did not report the crime in 2014. 1 in 3 victims still believed that reporting would hurt their career; the process would be unfair; or that nothing would be done. 1 in 4 feared retaliation from their chain of command or coworkers.
Sexual harassment rate is alarmingly high
134,500 service members experienced severe and persistent sexual harassment or career-harming gender discrimination.2 60% of these victims were harassed by someone in their chain of command.
RAND concludes: “At such high rates, sexual harassment... could affect cohesion within military units [and] degrade mission effectiveness.”
Reliance on unscientific survey
The DoD says victims are satisfied based on their Survivor Experience Survey, which even the Pentagon admits is not representative of all active-duty survivors. To the contrary: According to RAND, nearly half of survivors (45%) were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their treatment by their supervisor or chain of command.
Sexual harassment often mishandled by chain of command
44% of sexual harassment victims were encouraged to drop the issue. 41% said the person to whom they reported took no action.
Retaliation
Remains the Norm
Harassment Cases Often Mishandled
Low Trust and
Satisfaction
Fact Sheet
The data is clear: despite efforts to argue the contrary, research shows that the military has failed to
address the sexual assault crisis.
Unit Cohesion is at Risk
1 The majority of victims are assaulted more than once over the course of a year. In 2014, there were 3.57 sexual assaults per 100 active-duty service members, out of a total 1,317,561 members. This translates to 47,000 sexual assaults against active-duty service members in 2014.
2 In 2014, 10.21% of the active-duty population experienced sexual harassment or gender discrimination.
http://www.ProtectOurDefenders.com
Read the full report:
http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR870z2.html