mr. mckeon: mr. speaker, i yield two minutes to my friend and colleague, the gentleman from texas, vice chairman of the committee, the chairman of the subcommittee on emerging threats and capabilities and member of the congress of the conference committee, mr. thornberry. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields to the gentleman from texas two minutes. mr. thornberry: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise in support of this conference report and it is a broad-ranging conference report that affects everything from personnel policies to weapon systems to research and development across the department of defense and the military. and i especially commend chairman mckeon, ranking member smith and the staff who have worked since -- all year to make this possible but worked especially hard in the last few days to make this conference report possible before the congress adjourns. there are a number of good, important provisions in this bill that strengthen our country's national security. but in light of the

mr. mckeon: reserve my time. the speaker pro tempore: any objection -- mr. mckeyon: i reserve a point of order and right to object. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the right to object. and the gentleman now is recognized on his reservation. mr. mckeon: i understand that i did that once myself. yield back my time inadvertently. with that i would be happy to see she has the balance of her time to close. the speaker pro tempore: the reservation is withdrawn. and without objection, the gentlelady from massachusetts is recognized. ms. tsongas: i thank the chairman. it has been my honor and pleasure to work on a bipartisan fashion on this legislation that seeks to address the great challenge of military sexual trauma. i think that we have incorporated into the house version of the bill some very significant reforms that will help to protect victims. unfortunate victims of this great affront to young people serving in our military. will seek to better protect them as they seek to bring to justice the perpetrators. will better train those who are put

mr. mckeon: continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: continues to reserve. the gentleman from washington. mr. smith: thank you, madam speaker. at this point i yield the balance of my time to mrs. sonkas of mass. she will -- ms. tsongas of massachusetts. she will control the time from this point forward. i yield the balance of our time to ms. tsongas and she can yield as she wants. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the gentlelady from massachusetts will control the balance of the time. ms. tsongas: thank you, madam speaker. and i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. tsongas: while one in six women will experience sexual assault in her lifetime, as many as one in three women leaving military service report that they have experienced some form of military sexual trauma. by the pentagon's own estimate, 13.5% of sexual assaults are reported. additionally while 40% of sexual assault allegations in the civilian world are prosecuted, this number is a staggeringly low 8% in the military. the mili

mr. mckeon, as well as the gentleman from washington, mr. smith, for having mutual cooperation in the armed services committee and this particular bill. there are sometimes when congress has a reputation of being somewhat contentious and partisan, sometimes deservingly so. however, i have been a member of the armed services committee myself for several years and i recognize that they clearly understand article 1 of the constitution that requires a common defense of our country and that in that particular committee partisanship really has been checked at the door regarding the product of the armed services committee which is this annual defense authorization bill. in essence, i think the process has been good. the efforts have been good and it has made a significant issue that we are bringing here to the floor ready to pass in its final version from the conference committee. there are significant underlying issues i think we will talk about during the course of its discussion on the rule and perhaps the bill as well that those things i think