Today’s Times
- The Pentagon released a survey on Tuesday estimating that 26,000 people in the armed forces were sexually assaulted last year, up from 19,000 in 2010, prompting an angry President Obama and Congress to demand action, Jennifer Steinhauer reports. Just two days after the officer in charge of sexual assault prevention programs for the Air Force was arrested and charged with sexual battery, Mr. Obama expressed visible exasperation with the Pentagon’s attempts to bring sexual assault under control.
- The Obama administration is on the verge of backing the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s plan for a sweeping overhaul of surveillance laws that would make it easier to wiretap people who communicate using the Internet, Charlie Savage reports. It is most likely to set off a debate over the future of Internet privacy and freedom.
- The Heritage Foundation released a report on Monday estimating that immigration legislation would produce a “lifetime fiscal deficit†of at least $6.3 trillion, Ashley Parker reports. Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida and a chief author of the legislation, aggressively pushed back against the report, saying, “Everybody else who has analyzed immigration understands that if you do it, and we do it right, it will be a net positive for our economy.â€
- Congressional Republicans say the testimony that a State Department official is expected to give Wednesday will be a damning indictment of the administration’s handling of the September attacks on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Jeremy W. Peters and Eric Schmitt report. But much of what the witness is expected to say raises questions that have already been addressed in previous hearings and in a critical report by the State Department, the writers report.
 Happenings in Washington
- President Obama will meet with electric utility chief executives to discuss lessons learned from Hurricane Sandy as another hurricane season approaches.
- He will then link up with a group of Asian-American and Pacific Islander leaders for a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.
- In the evening, Mr. Obama will have dinner at the Jefferson Hotel with members of the House Democratic leadership.
- Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. will attend the address given to a joint session of Congress by President Park Geun-hye of South Korea.
