WASHINGTON–U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, on Friday released the following statement:

“For years, I have been pressing the Coast Guard to be fully transparent about the extent of sexual assault and racial discrimination on the campus of the Coast Guard Academy. It is beyond the pale that despite my repeated calls for disclosure, the Coast Guard's leadership spent the last three and a half years hiding this report from Congress. Anyone involved in this cover-up should be terminated. It's that simple.

“It is infuriating that Academy leadership and senior officials were aware of the devastating number of cadets who were raped or sexually assaulted on their campus, and yet they chose to brush it under the rug. I fear how many more victims did not come forward because the Academy’s actions – or lack thereof – telegraphed that their trauma would be ignored. 

“For the past five years, I have repeatedly called for Coast Guard leadership to stop hiding the truth about the well-documented abuse and harassment that occurs on their campus. I plan to meet with Commandant Fagan to require there be meaningful steps taken to correct course. The men and women of our Coast Guard deserve nothing less.”

Murphy has a long pushed the U.S. Coast Guard to deal with harassment and bullying at the Coast Guard Academy. In 2019, he criticized the Coast Guard for covering up allegations of harassment and for failing to appear before the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security and Oversight Committees investigating the allegations. That same year, following an OIG Whistleblower Retaliation Investigation and other reports of bullying, harassment and retaliation at the United States Coast Guard Academy, Murphy wrote a letter to the Coast Guard Commandant demanding reforms to the Academy’s climate of bullying, harassment and retaliation. In 2018, Murphy along with U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Rep. Joe Courtney (CT-02) wrote to Admiral Schultz seeking information on racial disparities at the Coast Guard Academy.

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