Democratic women on the House Armed Services Committee are demanding the Defense Department explain why at least some military services have paused sexual assault prevention training amid of a review of whether materials run afoul of President Donald Trump's orders to scrub anything related to diversity and gender identity.
In a letter Monday to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the lawmakers noted the sexual assault prevention training is required by law and called on him to answer how exactly Trump's orders led to the pause.
"This decision is not only irresponsible but also dangerous, sending a clear signal that leadership is willing to deprioritize a systemic issue that continues to harm service members," the lawmakers wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained exclusively by Military.com. "Given the military's well-documented struggles with addressing sexual violence, pausing this critical training is indefensible and raises serious questions about the commitment to protecting those who serve."
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The letter was organized by Democratic Reps. Sara Jacobs of California and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, who is the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee's personnel subcommittee and an Air Force veteran. It was co-signed by all the other female Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee.
On his first day in office last month, Trump signed an executive order demanding an end to all "diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility" programs across the federal government. The executive order did not define what that means, which has led to a scramble across government agencies to remove any references to women and minorities that might upset Trump and his appointees.
A separate order Trump signed on his first day in office eliminated the federal government's recognition of transgender people and deemed anything related to gender identity to be impermissible "gender ideology."
In the military, the diversity order initially led to assurances from officials across the services and Pentagon that, after years of congressional restrictions on diversity measures, the order would have little to no impact. But in reality, the order led to widespread confusion, as well as concerted efforts to curtail outreach to minority groups.
In some cases the removal of materials has been short-lived after public outcry or key words were deleted. For example, Army and Navy webpages that featured histories of female soldiers and sailors were recently restored after being briefly offline. In the case of the Navy site, the word "diversity" was removed from the web address when it was restored.
Business Insider first reported last week that Navy and Marine Corps training for sexual assault prevention and response, known as SAPR, was paused amid a review of whether the training complied with the executive order.
The Navy confirmed to Military.com that it quietly paused all its SAPR training last week.
An email from the Navy's top base commander that was provided to reporters and posted online said that he was "advised to stand down ALL SAPR training until we receive further guidance" by a senior lawyer.
Destiny Sibert, a spokeswoman for the head of the Navy's Installations Command, confirmed that the email was authentic and that the sea service halted the training "in order to complete a review of the internal curriculum to ensure compliance with recent executive orders."
While Sibert said that the goal was to keep the pause as short as possible and there would be no disruptions for sailors, she wouldn't say what was being targeted for removal and didn't answer Military.com's request that the Navy share what was removed once the review was complete.
The Army, meanwhile, reviewed its training and found it to be in compliance without pausing it.
Officials at the Pentagon stressed that only the trainings were being paused and "sexual assault prevention and response programs and policies remain in place."
One official who spoke on the condition of anonymity told Military.com on Tuesday that the Defense Department was "revising content to remove references to 'gender,' 'gender identity,' and 'gender ideology' and replacing these terms with 'sex.'"
"These changes in terminology required a thorough review and administrative edits to SAPR policy, programs and training, but their critical work in the mission continues without pause," the official added.
The SAPR training has been required by law for more than a decade as part of Congress' efforts to stamp out sexual assault in the military. It is required for incoming service members, new commanders, first responders, victim advocates and as part of professional military education.
Despite the efforts by lawmakers and military officials, sexual assault rates in the military have remained troublingly high. The Pentagon's most recent sexual assault report, released in May, found that military sexual assaults were down in 2023 compared to 2021, the first time in nearly a decade there was reduction in assaults. But that still meant that about 29,000 service members were sexually assaulted.
During his confirmation process, Hegseth faced pointed questions about his commitment to fighting military sexual assault -- in large part because he himself faced allegations of sexual assault in 2017. Hegseth maintains the encounter was consensual, and he was not charged.
In written answers to questions about how he plans to prevent military sexual assault, Hegseth said during his confirmation process that his "ambition would be to drive sexual assaults in the military down to zero and any steps we can take toward that goal I will consider."
In their letter to Hegseth on Monday, the House Armed Services lawmakers were at a loss for how Trump's executive orders could apply to SAPR training.
"There is nothing in the executive orders published to date that would remotely lead to this result," they wrote.
The lawmakers demanded to know the rationale behind pausing the training, how long the pause will last, and if any lawyers weighed in on whether the pause violates the law requiring the training.
They also asked for information on how many victim advocates are missing out on training, whether any steps are being taken to ensure reporting of sexual assault doesn't decline during the pause, and whether the trainings are being restructured.
"The safety and well-being of our service members must remain a top priority," they wrote. "The DoD has a duty to maintain a safe and professional environment amongst all branches of our military, and this move signals a disturbing lack of commitment to that mission."
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