Military Justice Reform Act of 2015

I want to inform everyone of a pending piece of legislation that Senators Ayotte and Gillibrand are planning to offer as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act. We believe this is important legislation and hope you will, too. 

The idea behind the legislation is that innocent military family members who endure significant sacrifices over many years should not be deprived of benefits they would have been afforded just because the service member is convicted of a crime in which the family was innocent.  Specifically:

• Would give the innocent dependent of a military member who loses benefits due to misconduct access to the portion of benefits he or she would have received in a divorce settlement if the member had not committed misconduct.
• Would provide transitional compensation to allow a dependent to receive payments and benefits for up to three years after the service member forfeits his or her retired pay (conceived to act in many cases to provide benefits while the dependent is awaiting a final divorce settlement in order to qualify for the benefit described above).

To read the entire bill click here, to read a one page executive summary click here.