WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a massive overhaul of the reporting processes for military servicemembers to file whistleblower complaints and report discrimination during a speech last Tuesday, September 30, in Quantico, Virginia.
“I call it the “no more walking on eggshells” policy,” Hegseth said to an audience of top-ranking generals and military officials.
According to memorandums that Hegseth signed, the Department of Defense will be reforming the Military Equal Opportunity (MEO) and Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) programs that servicemembers and civilian employees of the military use to file complaints regarding discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, and other personal characteristics. For example, a servicemember who is denied a promotion based on what they believe to be racial discrimination would file a Military Equal Opportunity complaint.
Hegseth also announced reforms to the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the military, which deals with investigations of fraud, waste and abuse of power or government funds.
“We are overhauling an Inspector General process, the IG, that has been weaponized, putting complainers, ideologues and poor performers in the driver’s seat,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth emphasized in both his speech and the memorandums that the Department of Defense will punish those who file false and duplicate complaints. According to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, it is already illegal to file a false complaint, for example, forging a document to use as evidence in a case.
Military lawyer Brenner Fissell said he agrees that the Inspector General process has been abused and needs reform.
“I have, in my experience, seen how the whistleblower and IG complaint system is used as a generalized employment grievance repository, and it doesn’t seem like it’s functioning in the way that it really should be, which is for waste, fraud and abuse on a systemic level,” said Fissell, who serves as the vice president of the National Institute of Military Justice.
The new rules for the OIG set a 7 day time limit to determine if a complaint merits investigation.
For MEO and EEO complaints, that credibility review process will now be limited to 30 days. However, Fissell said that these processes can take months, suggesting 90 days to be a more reasonable time frame.
“It’s an aggressive timetable to be sure. It’s pretty easy to implement that [reform] because it means you’re just going to throw out a lot of stuff if there’s not credible evidence. The overall effect is they’re going to be throwing out more claims,” Fissell said.
Another change to the MEO program mentioned in a memorandum removes anonymous reporting options and replaces them with a confidential complaint reporting option. This means that complaint filers would have to disclose their name in the complaint, even if it is kept confidential.
The Department of Defense’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO) made it clear in an update on their website that the changes to anonymity reporting “do not pertain to Restricted Reporting of sexual assault.”
Hegseth stated in his speech that infractions like racial discrimination and sexual harassment will continue to be “ruthlessly enforced.”
Elisa Cardnell, president of Service Women’s Action Network, works on supporting active duty and veteran women service members report sexual harassment, find mental health resources and file Veterans Affairs claims. She said that even though the sexual assault reporting process is separate and has not been directly affected by the new directives, she is keeping an eye on future changes.
“Any time you set that culture where, instead of being open to hearing when something happens, you are shutting these things down preemptively, you may see some hesitancy to report assaults, harassment, and other crimes,” Cardnell said.
Carnell said that the stigma associated with reporting assaults or whistleblower complaints as well as the consequences of taking time off work or family already prevent many people from filing complaints.
“There is a barrier to submitting those complaints regardless of whether it’s for the sexual assault or whether it’s for the equal opportunity side or an OIG investigation,” Cardnell said. “While, of course, we do know that false complaints exist, they are not the problem that they have been made out to be.”
Rep. Marilyn Strickland (D-Wa.) said that Hegseth is attempting to get rid of accountability in the military as part of a broader movement to remove DEI initiatives and eliminate “wokeness.”
“He views anyone who wants to call out misdeeds or call out discrimination as somehow “being woke,” when in fact, the application of justice and fairness is part of why people want to serve,” Strickland said.
