Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has spearheaded a years-long push to overhaul the military justice system, particularly how sexual assault allegations are handled. She’s garnered widespread bipartisan support, even from some of the members of the extreme right in the Senate, but despite that support she was thwarted again in the compromise National Defense Authorization Act the chairs and ranking members of the defense committees hammered out over the last week. Despite the fact that 44 senators and 22 members of the House—ranging from Sens. Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, and Tommy Tuberville on the far, far right of the Senate to Reps. Barbara Lee, Jackie Speier, and Karen Bass—wrote to the chairs, urging them to keep Gillibrand’s Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act, as passed by the Senate, in the bill. In addition to addressing the deficiencies in addressing sexual assaults in the military, the bill reformed racial disparities in the military system. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus stressed that, under the current system, prosecution decisions are made by disproportionately white military commanders, and Black and brown service members are disproportionately likely to be court-martialed for some offenses like fighting or theft. Those and other key reforms majority Democrats have been striving for in the bill—including finally repealing the 2002 Iraq War Authorization!—have been stripped out, largely thanks to the fact that the filibuster still exists in the Senate and what Gillibrand warned might happen: ”Our reform has the bipartisan support of 66 senators and 220 House members,” she said before the committees conferenced. “The only way it does not become law in the NDAA is if a handful of powerful men rip it out behind closed doors.” Read more