Mikulski pushes for panel on service academy heads

Sen. Barbara Mikulski is calling attention to a new commission that would focus on how well superintendents of military service academies are working to fight sexual assault.

Mikulski announced Monday that language to create a Commission on the Selection, Retention and Quality of Service Academy Superintendents has been included in the fiscal year 2014 Department of Defense Appropriations bill.

The measure has passed the Senate Appropriations Committee, which Mikulski chairs.

Mikulski, D-Md., says that while she has been hearing for 25 years that the military should have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to sexual assault, the problem keeps getting worse.

She says the battle to end sexual assault in the military needs to be fought at the institutions that train future leaders.