Senior officers from all military branches have insisted that military commanders must have absolute authority over all crimes committed by service members. This has come on the heels of legislative proposals, spearheaded by democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, to strip military commanders of the power to prosecute crimes, most notably sexual assaults, as a result of the ever-increasing number of sexual assaults in the military. According to senior military officers, it is  absolutely necessary for military commanders to have authority to prosecute service members for all crimes that they commit. But, in practice, this is not the case.