Jeff Sheng

Tech. Sgt. Erwynn Umali, left, and Will Behrens are married at the McGuire-Lakehurst-Dix Joint Base in New Jersey on June 23.

Two U.S. Senators have introduced legislation to ban same-sex marriage ceremonies from occurring on military bases, following approval of a similar measure by the House of Representatives.

Sens. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss., co-authored the legislation presented Tuesday that would prevent marriage or “marriage-like ceremonies” of same-sex couples at military facilities. It would also allow military chaplains to opt out of performing such a union if they object for “reasons of conscience,” Inhofe’s office said in a statement.

Some same-sex civil unions have taken place at military facilities — including in Louisiana and New Jersey — since the military in September 2011 repealed its “don’t ask, don’t tell policy,” ending the ban on openly gay and lesbian service members.

“President Obama and his administration are dismissing their responsibility to uphold the law of the land by unilaterally deeming DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act, which bars federal recognition of same-sex marriage) unworthy of enforcement,” Inhofe said.

The Department of Defense doesn't comment on proposed legislation, spokeswoman Eileen M. Lainez told NBC News, but she sent guidance distributed last year that allows for a military chaplain to decide whether or not to participate in a private ceremony — whether on or off a military site — “provided that the ceremony is not prohibited by applicable state and local law.” The chaplain’s participation and use of military facilities for such functions does not constitute department endorsement.

Six states and the District of Columbia allow same-sex marriage, while 31 states have constitutional amendments that effectively ban it. Plaintiffs in several lawsuits challenging DOMA have asked the Supreme Court to hear their case in the high court’s next session.

Sue Fulton, communications director at OutServe, an association of actively-serving LGBT military personnel with more than 4,500 members, said the proposed legislation violated service members' exercise of religious freedom and noted that a chaplain would never be forced to conduct a ceremony he disagreed with.

“This is something that is most often a private religious ceremony between two people — at least one of them who is serving — and their friends and family and their chaplain,” she told NBC News. “And, for a Congress member to get in the middle of that when they’re just trying to have their life and exercise their own religious freedom, is despicable.”

The House of Representatives in late July approved an amendment to the 2013 defense spending bill that would prohibit money being spent by the military to violate DOMA. Similar versions of it had previously passed the House, according to The Hill.

"The military is an entity of the federal government, and federal law states that marriage is between a man and a woman," Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who proposed the amendment, said on his website. "Despite this, the Obama administration has allowed same sex marriages to occur on military bases. These marriages violate ... DOMA. My amendment prohibits the use of both military funds and facilities for same-sex marriages.”

A study released on Monday found the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” had not had a negative impact on force readiness, recruitment or retention, contrary to predictions that it would. The research was conducted by the Palm Center, which researches sexual minorities in the military.

Implementation of the repeal was "proceeding smoothly" across the Department of Defense, said Lainez.

Since “don’t ask, don’t tell” ended, the Defense Department has held a gay pride event and allowed service members to march in pride parades in uniform, according to reports.

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The Pentagon is rebranding and reorganizing its clandestine spy shop, sending more of its case officers to work alongside CIA officers to gather intelligence in places like China, after a decade of focusing intensely on war zones.

Several hundred case officers will make up the new Defense Clandestine Service,  according to a senior defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the classified program.

Drawn from the Defense Intelligence Agency, the officers will be sent to beef up U.S. intelligence teams in areas that are now receiving more attention. Those include Africa, where al-Qaida is increasingly active, to parts of Asia where the North Korean missile threat and Chinese military expansion are causing increasing U.S. concern.

Defense Department case officers already secretly gather intelligence across the globe on terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and other issues, mostly working out of CIA stations in embassies and operating undercover like their CIA counterparts.

But an internal study by the Director of National Intelligence last year found the agency still focused more on its traditional mission of providing the military with intelligence in war zones, and less on what's called "national" intelligence — gathering and disseminating information on global issues and sharing that intelligence with other national security agencies, the official said.

The study also found that the Pentagon did not always reward clandestine service overseas with promotions, so its most experienced case officers often left for the CIA, or switched to other career paths within the Pentagon.

The new service is intended to curb personnel losses, making clandestine work part of the Pentagon's professional career track and rewarding those who prove successful at operating covertly overseas with further tours and promotions, like their CIA colleagues.

The case officers in the field — some military and some civilian — will answer directly to the top intelligence representative in their post, usually the CIA's chief of station, in addition to serving their agency back home. The arrangement is likely to curb complaints seen in earlier expansions of the Defense Department's spy mission, which the CIA and other agencies saw as the military stepping on their territory.

The changes were worked out by the top Pentagon intelligence official, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Michael Vickers, and his CIA counterpart who heads the National Clandestine Service, and briefed to Congress before Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed off on the new program last Friday.

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WASHINGTON -- U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Wednesday that the Pentagon is preparing new initiatives to try to curb sexual assaults in the military -- a problem he believes could be six times greater than reported.

Panetta said 3,191 sex assault cases were reported in the military last year, but because so few victims come forward, he believes the real number is closer to 19,000 assaults. In 2010, 3,158 cases were reported.

"It is an affront to the basic American values we defend and it is a stain on the good honor of the great majority of our troops and our families," said Panetta during a press conference at the Pentagon.

“These women and these men who are willing to fight and die to protect and serve our country – they deserve better protection. Their families and dependents also sacrifice and serve. And so for this reason, we must spare no effort to protect them against this heinous crime. … One sexual assault is one too many.”

Panetta said new initiatives include extending victim services to military spouses as well as Pentagon civilians and contractors working abroad. Also, more money will go toward training investigators and lawyers to go after and prosecute perpetrators.

Under the new measures, service members who file sexual abuse charges can immediately transfer to a new unit or base to avoid harassment or contact with the accused attacker.

The proposals require congressional approval.

'Deeply regret'
Panetta spoke two days before the premiere of a new documentary about sexual assault in the U.S. military, titled "The Invisible War." The film is being shown at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

Saying he wanted to speak directly to the victims of sexual assault in the Defense Department, Panetta said somberly: "I deeply regret that such crimes occur in the U.S. military ... I'm committed to providing you the support and resources you need and to taking whatever steps are necessary to keep what happened to you from happening to others."

Announcement of those two changes accompanied the Pentagon's annual report last month showing assault cases rose at the nation's three major military academies in the latest academic year from one year earlier.

The Defense Department's "Annual Report on Sexual Harassment and Violence at the Military Service Academies" for academic year 2010-2011 found there were 65 reports of sexual assaults involving cadets and midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy, the U.S. Military Academy and the U.S. Air Force Academy. That was up from 41 reported assaults in the prior academic year. Officials said they could not conclusively identify the reasons for the increase but that it could be because the department has worked to encourage more victims to report assaults.

Beyond the academy report every December, the Pentagon also releases an annual report each March on sexual assaults throughout the services.

This post includes reporting from The Associated Press.

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