On Jan. 19, 2022, Gen. Daniel R. Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau, and Brig. Gen. Charles M. Walker, director of the Office of Complex Investigations, spoke at a congressional hearing with the Subcommittee on Hearing Military Personnel on Jurisdiction, Investigation and Prosecution of Sexual Assault and Harassment in the National Guard.

Representative Jackie Speier chaired this hearing and highlighted one of many instances where the National Guard failed to respond properly to Lt. Col. Teresa James’ reports of sexual harassment of her subordinates. This situation did not stop there, the Inspector General supported his complaint of reprisals by his change of command for having defended his troops. Rep. Jackie Speier also said reports of sexual assaults increased from 173 in 2009 to 607 in 2019. What was missing from this hearing was that neither the Department of Defense nor the National Guard Bureau did not calculate the prevalence of sexual assault or harassment, it was only done for active duty components.

For everyone’s understanding, whenever there is an unrestricted report by a member of the National Guard Service (even reserve) for any incident of sexual assault that occurred in a non-title duty 10, the responsibility for the investigation rests with the local civil authorities. Title 10 duty is basically a federal activation for deployment or various missions. Instances that do not fall under Title 10 are exercise weekends, annual unit training, or various other training courses.

What was concerning about this hearing was that General Hokanson said they had not implemented any of the recommendations of the Defense Department’s Independent Review Board into sexual assaults in the army. The reason given was funding and lack of resources for implementation, and they are still working on how to implement the recommendations. The second concerning issue was that Brigadier General Walker did not realize that sexual harassment was added to the Code of Uniformed Military Justice when the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 became law. on Dec. 27, 2021. It’s unclear how the National Guard would do that. treat sexual harassment as an official crime. Fortunately, the issue of sexual harassment has been debated at length between the generals and congressional officials, and it looks like there will be more to settle after this hearing.

Finally, congressional officials became very alarmed when they discovered that the Office of Complex Investigations was only brought in to investigate when the command adjutant general referred the matter to them. This leaves victims with no options, especially if the chain of command has a conflict of interest with the accused.

Please share your concerns with members of your Congress.