WATCH: Fort Hood Independent Review Committee testifies at U.S. House hearing

WASHINGTON, DC — The five members of the Fort Hood Independent Review Committee testified Wednesday in front of a U.S. House subcommittee.

The testimony came after the Army a day prior announced that 14 senior leaders and enlisted personnel at Fort Hood were either fired or suspended following the independent panel's review of the command climate and culture at the base.

The review committee was launched in the wake of the disappearance and killing of Spc. Vanessa Guillen. It recommended 70 changes be made at Fort Hood and throughout the Army.

Maj. Gen. Scott Efflandt, who was the top military commander at the post when Guillen was killed, at the time of Guillen's disappearance and murder was among those relieved of duty.

Among the panel's findings was that the Army's sexual harassment prevention office at the post and Army-wide was "structurally flawed" and needed to be addressed. The Texas installation leads the Army in the number of violent crimes and cases of sexual assault and sexual harassment cases.

The House Subcommittee on Military Personnel, chaired by Rep. Jackie Speier (D-California), heard Wednesday's testimony from the review committee.

Speier is also the primary sponsor of the 'I Am Vanessa Guillen Act' which would allow soldiers to report sexual assault or harassment outside of their chain of command, and would reform how the military prosecutes cases of sexual assault.

"This report is a damning indictment of Fort Hood and it's leadership," Speier said in her remarks at Wednesday's hearing.

Guillen's family has welcomed the news of the panel's findings and of the firings and suspensions of senior leaders at Fort Hood, but continues to press for Congress to pass the 'I Am Vanessa Guillen Act.'

"We cannot lose another soldier" said Natalie Khawam, the Guillen's family attorney who has led the advocacy for congressional passage of the legislation.

She described the legislation as the only way that military victims of sexual assault and harassment can step forward and "not be afraid that they are going to be discharged because they said something or said the wrong thing."

"One of the things that soldiers at Fort Hood -- many of them needed -- was to be believed and that is what we did," said Queta Rodriguez, a member of the independent panel. "And that is what we did. We listened. So, if any of them see this I want to tell them -- we believed you. That's a really important take away -- we believed."

Rodriguez was one of two board members who met individually with 647 soldiers at Fort Hood -- 503 of them were women. What they found in those interviews with female soldiers was disturbing, they told reporters -- there were significant numbers of unreported cases of sexual assault and sexual harassment.

"One of the really shocking elements of the interview period were the number of unreported sexual harassment and sexual assault incidents," said Carrie Ricci, another board member. "Of the 503 women, we discovered 93 credible accounts of sexual assault. Of those, only 59 were reported. And we also found 217 unreported accounts of sexual harassment. That's a really significant number. Of those, over half were reported."

Ricci said the lack of reporting was due to a lack of confidence in the system and "absolutely affects the reporting of those incidents."