One of President Barack Obama's most trusted aides, Valerie Jarrett, hosted a bipartisan delegation of lawmakers on Thursday to discuss ways to combat sexual assault in the military, the White House said, emphasizing that such crimes "will not be tolerated."
"The group discussed various legislative proposals as well as actions that the administration could take to hold offenders accountable, improve the reporting process, support victims and work towards the prevention of sexual assault," an Obama aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Yahoo News.
The meeting included Republican and Democratic lawmakers from the Senate and House of Representatives.
Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, one of the participants, took to Twitter to hail the effort.
V productive meeting at the @whitehouse this AM w/@vj44, Tina Tchen & my colleagues re legislation to address sexual assault in the military
— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) May 9, 2013
Below is the list of attendees as provided by the White House:
Tina Tchen, Executive Director of the White House Council on Women and Girls
Liz Sherwood-Randall, White House Coordinator for Defense Policy, National Security Staff
Kathryn Ruemmler, Counsel to the President
Miguel Rodriguez Director, Office of Legislative Affairs
Lynn Rosenthal White House Advisor on Violence Against Women
Senator Kelly Ayotte
Senator Susan Collins
Senator Deb Fischer
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
Senator Kay Hagan
Senator Amy Klobuchar
Senator Claire McCaskill
Senator Patty Murray
Senator Jeanne Shaheen
Representative Susan Davis
Representative Chellie Pingree
Representative Tim Ryan
Representative Jackie Speier
Representative Niki Tsongas
Representative Michael Turner
Representative Jackie Walorski