Capital New York: Gillibrand predicts a majority, and maybe 60, for her military reform bill
Capital New York reports:
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said any new rules being drafted by the Defense Department to cover sexual assault cases in the military would be “helpful,” but that she still expects to convince a majority of her colleagues to support an overhaul of the system that takes those cases outside the chain of command.
“Yeah, I think we will get to 51. Definitely,” she said after a press conference in Brooklyn today. “I’m trying to get to 60.”
It’s not clear exactly how many votes Gillibrand needs, because she’s facing some institutional resistance, namely from Armed Services chairman Carl Levin and another Democratic colleague, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who plan to offer a more moderate reform bill that emerged from committee last month.
