They are debating the "Military Justice Improvement Act" that will change who makes the decision whether to prosecute these sexual assault crimes.

Instead of the current chain of command, it would fall to independent military prosecutors to make the call.

Last year, the U.S. military saw 26 thousand cases of unwanted sexual assault and that's a 37 percnet increase from the year before.

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon is on board with the bill.

"This is not a gender issue.  This is a violence issue. It is a violent act-- that's why it's called assault.  And violent crimes involve control and domination and the Department of Defense found that half the victims are men.  14-thosuand of the 26-thousand victims were men."

More than a quarter of the sexual assault victims say the unwanted sexual assaults involved someone in their military chain of command.