Office Address
123/A, Miranda City Likaoli Prikano, Dope
Phone Number
+0989 7876 9865 9
+(090) 8765 86543 85
Email Address
info@example.com
example.mail@hum.com
123/A, Miranda City Likaoli Prikano, Dope
+0989 7876 9865 9
+(090) 8765 86543 85
info@example.com
example.mail@hum.com
A
bipartisan bill has been introduced to enhance accountability and transparency
within the U.S. Coast Guard to protect service members against sexual assault
and harassment.
The Coast
Guard Protection and Accountability Act of 2024 was introduced by the
Chairman of the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee, Daniel
Webster (R-FL), and the Subcommittee’s Ranking Member, Salud Carbajal (D-CA).
Co-sponsors included Sam Graves (R-MO), the Chairman of the Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee, and Rick Larsen (D-WA), the committee’s Ranking
Member.
The legislation aims to bolster
protections for Coast Guard members against sexual assault and harassment and
will also ensure a systematic response to these incidents, based on the
findings of a Coast Guard’s investigation known as Operation Fouled Anchor
(OFA).
Initiated
secretly in 2014, Operation Fouled Anchor revealed that the Coast Guard
mishandled allegations of rape, assault, and other misconduct at the Coast
Guard Academy between 1990 and 2006, resulting in insufficient accountability
for perpetrators and inadequate protection for victims. However, despite the
Coast Guard’s extension collaboration with Congress on related issues, the
Coast Guard did not share the results of OFA with Congress until June 2023
after it was leaked to the media.
In
August 2023, a Transportation and Infrastructure Committee investigation into
Operation Fouled Anchor revealed inconsistencies and inefficiencies in the U.S.
Coast Guard’s handling of sexual misconduct, and that the service’s processes lacked transparency, focus on prevention, and
failed to adequately support victims.
In
response, Admiral Fagan ordered a review
of practices to prevent and respond to sexual assault and harassment within the
Coast Guard. The review recommended increasing focus on prevention and
intervention, skills-based training, leadership development, effective use of
survey information, and caring for victims. Over 30 actions were directed to
implement these recommendations.
The
Coast Guard Protection and Accountability Act of 2024 mandates an annual report
to Congress on the Coast Guard’s implementation of recommendations from an
Accountability and Transparency Review, establishes a Government Accountability
Office study on the effectiveness of these actions, and requires the Coast
Guard to maintain prosecution-related documents for seven years.
Chairman Webster calls the Coast
Guard’s decision not to release the findings of the Operation Fouled Anchor
report “deeply troubling.”
“The
Coast Guard leadership at that time was imposing higher levels of scrutiny over
sexual assault and harassment in the maritime industry, which they regulate,
while simultaneously failing to consistently and transparently address sexual
misconduct within the Service,” said Webster. “The men and women serving in our
Coast Guard, whom we ask so much of, deserve better from their leadership.“
Tags: operation fouled
anchor ;sexual assault and
harrassment; u.s. coast guard
