Military Justice Transparency Act
Latest action. Referred to the House Committee on Armed Services.
Military Justice Transparency Act
This bill requires the Department of Defense (DOD) to take specified actions to further detect and address racial, ethnic, and gender disparities in the military justice system.
Specifically, DOD must require each military department to
record the race, ethnicity, and gender of the victim and the accused for each investigation of an offense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ);
record the race ethnicity, and gender of each individual against whom non-judicial punishment is imposed under the UCMJ and set forth information separately for each type of non-judicial punishment imposed;
record the race, ethnicity, and gender of each individual convicted in a court-martial and set forth such information separately by the type of court-martial, the offense involved, and the case outcome; and
publish specified data in the annual military justice reports.
Not later than 30 days after the date on which the annual military justice reports for FY2022 have been submitted, DOD must brief Congress on its strategy to detect and address racial, ethnic, and gender disparities in the military justice system.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) must report on its findings regarding racial disparities in the military justice system, any steps being taken by DOD to address such disparities, and the status of implementation by each military department of recommendations set forth in the GAO report titled Military Justice: DOD and the Coast Guard Need to Improve Their Capabilities to Assess Racial and Gender Disparities (GAO-19-344).
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on August 31, 2021. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on August 31, 2021: Referred to the House Committee on Armed Services.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 117th Congress (2021-22), 362 of the 15,242 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 2.4 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Mondaire Jones (D-NY) introduced it on August 31, 2021, and 1 member has since signed on as a cosponsor.
They are 1 Democrat.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on August 31, 2021, 1883 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 1883 days ago, on August 31, 2021.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 117th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2023 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers