Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) said Wednesday that Congress has become “an enabler” of sexual assault in the military after new sexual abuse allegations surfaced against an Army sergeant tasked with sexual assault prevention.

Speier, long a critic of the military’s approach to sexual assault, said in a statement that Congress is complicit because lawmakers have failed to pass legislation that would take the cases outside the military’s chain of command.

“Another sex scandal rocks the military. A service member responsible for preventing and responding to sexual assault is being investigated for perpetrating the heinous crime he is supposed to prevent,” Speier said.

Republican senators briefly hijacked a hearing on Iran Wednesday to lambaste the Obama administration on the largely unrelated issue of CIA cash payments to Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The angry lawmakers took advantage of a rare appearance by the State Department's third-ranking diplomat to demand answers on the decade of cash payments that The New York Times brought to light last month. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman refused to answer in public.

“Delivering cash to an elected leader – does that help us root out corruption in that country?” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) rhetorically asked Sherman. 

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) followed-up by questioning the example that the United States is setting. 

“Would we object if other nations delivered bundles of cash to President Karzai?” he asked.

Top Defense Department officials are getting increasingly frustrated with the services' ability to curb cases of sexual abuse within their ranks, particularly among service members tasked to prevent such cases. 

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel conveyed his concerns over the issue to President Obama during their weekly meeting at the White House on Tuesday, according to Pentagon press secretary George Little. 

A bipartisan group of more than two-dozen lawmakers say Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel should “change course” and allow the Navy to avoid furloughing its civilian employees.

The 27 House lawmakers wrote a letter to Hagel on Tuesday calling his decision to require civilian furloughs across the services “misguided.”

“The idea of mandating civilian furloughs across the DOD flies in the face of implementing sequestration prudently,” the lawmakers said in the letter, spearheaded by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.).

A Senate panel is expected to vote next week on arming vetted Syrian rebel groups. 

The House Appropriations Committee moved its first spending bill Wednesday as the military construction and veterans affairs subpanel passed a $73.3 billion measure.

The appropriations bill is $1.4 billion above the funding level enacted in 2013 and $1.4 billion below President Obama’s 2014 budget request.

The measure provides $9.9 billion for military construction projects and $63.1 billion in discretionary funding to the Department of Veterans Affairs, an increase of $2.1 billion compared to last year’s levels.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered the services to retrain and rescreen sexual assault prevention personnel after the incident at Fort Hood.

The Topline: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced Tuesday that the Pentagon would be furloughing most if its civilian workforce by up to 11 days this year.

Hagel made the announcement at the MArk Center in Alexandria, Va., where he struck an apologetic tone to the civilians he was speaking before. He began his speech by riffing on the times we live in — saying he was “not a dinosaur” in a reference to new technologies — before he delved into the furloughs.

Hagel said that the decision to furlough was not made lightly, and that it was only undertaken when there was nothing left to cut without jeopardizing national security.

“We’ve taken it as close to the line as we can, where we’re still capable of protecting this country and the country’s efforts around the world,” Hagel said at the town-hall event.

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Navy leaders got their wish when Pentagon leaders absolved the service's civilian shipbuilding cadre from mandatory furloughs. 

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