Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., has asked the House Armed Services Committee to hold a hearing to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct, assault, and rape committed by military training instructors against trainees. Based on investigations into the alleged crimes, the Air Force has removed temporarily 31 of 375 instructors at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. Gen. Edward Rice Jr., the commander of the Air Force’s Air Education and Training Command, acknowledged during a June 28 press conference at Lackland that a probe revealed that "a number of MTIs [military training instructors] are alleged to have participated in the illegal activities." Rice said the command is conducting a review of the processes by which instructors and trainees are trained and how instructors are selected. The command also plans to hire more instructors, he said. "Regardless of whether the activity occurred in basic military training or in the technical training environment, personal relationships of any kind between trainees and instructors are strictly prohibited by our regulations and our instructions," Rice said.