By Miriam Raftery

November 18, 2013 (Washington D.C.) -- A battle is brewing in the U.S. Senate over a proposal aimed at protecting women in the military from sexual assault.

According to the Defense Department, REPORTS of sexual assaults shot up 46 percent in the last budget year, with 3,353 complaints filed from October through June.

But Senator Kirsten Gillebrand points out that an anonymous survey of military personnel conducted by the Pentagon found that the 26,000  said they were sexually assaulted last year. Senator Gillebrand says most sexual assaults were not reported because victims didn’t trust the chain of command or feared retaliation. So she is proposing to strip commanders of authority to prosecute cases of sexual assault, instead handing off these cases to experienced military lawyers outside the chain of command.