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WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a hearing of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee (SVAC), U.S. Senator Angus King heard testimony from Julie Howell, the Associate Legislative Director of Paralyzed Veterans of America, about how the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) can better reach out to and care for women veterans who experienced Military Sexual Trauma (MST) during their military service. Today’s hearing was designed to examine the structural and cultural barriers keeping women from seeking the help they are entitled to, and explore ways to improve their quality of life and care.

Military Sexual Trauma (MST) is the term used by the VA to refer to sexual assault or harassment during military service. Approximately 33% of all women experience some version of MST during their active duty service (compared to 2% of men). However, many existing VA resources are underutilized — approximately only half of women who experienced MST use VA programs to heal from sexual assault and harassment.

In Senator King’s exchange with Ms. Howell, she shared observations and insights:

“Ms. Howell, you talked about outreach, suggestions for improving outreach. You heard my questions for the prior panel, what can we do specifically? Better connect to TAP (Transition Assistance Program)? What is it going to take to get more women veterans into the system where help is available,” asked Senator King.

“Thank you for that question, sir. The work that VA is doing to get the word out in TAP is great. That is also a very small portion of the veteran population. Most veterans engage with VA several years after they have already separated. They engage with all the support services years after,” responded Howell.

“And one of the most dangerous periods is the immediate post-separation,” said Senator King.

“If I may just take a second, sir, one of the questions you asked to the first panel was, why such a small percentage of women veterans are actually engaging with VA? What do we need to get them there? But then, you also just answered your own question in that, this trauma happens at DoD and then we expect VA to fix the problem. Many women are not comfortable going to VA because, what happens when you run into a bunch of people that you then assume are a danger and a threat,” began Howell.

“Like my neighbor commented earlier, women are not a monolith. No veteran group is. We need various channels to be able to create a net so that all those outreach efforts can align. You can do your standard let's go have 140,000 touch points with veterans throughout a year, but if you are not engaging with the local communities that those women feel comfortable in, you will miss those folks. While, yes, it is absolutely critical to focus on transitioning service members, plenty of MST claims come in after decades after these women serve who don’t feel comfortable addressing that concern in the moment. It’s a trauma response, as was said earlier. So, we can’t think that any one outreach method is going to be an encatchment for all veterans,” finished Howell.

“Be in touch with us, with the committee, with the Chairman, with my office. Because the most valuable commodity around here are ideas. You are in touch with the field to tell us what can be done, what the steps are,” said Senator King.

“One of my problems on Armed Services since the very beginning of my tenure here is that I believe the Defense Department should spend as much time, money, and effort on transition out as they do on recruiting in. We are looking for all kinds of ways to improve the handoff, for example by notifying the state veterans offices when someone is going to be coming out and going to their state. But please, give me as much help as you possibly can. Your testimony has been very sobering,” concluded Senator King.

Senator King has been a strong supporter of increasing resources for victims of sexual trauma. Most recently, he led a bipartisan letter urging the VA to remove barriers to women veterans seeking support for sexual trauma. Last year, he also sent a letter to the Secretary of Defense highlighting the wide-ranging implications of the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, especially on victims of MST, and the challenges that restrictive abortion laws pose to servicemember health and finances, military readiness, recruitment, and retention. 

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