KINGS POINT, N.Y. — U.S. Merchant Marine Academy cadets should be given satellite phones or other devices that would make it easier for them to report sexual abuse or harassment when they are at sea working as interns on commercial vessels, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said Tuesday.

The proposal was one of several policy initiatives the New York Democrat said she plans to introduce in the Senate after academy leadership halted a program that places cadets on commercial vessels amid concerns of alleged abuse.

Academy administrators say sexual abuse surveys, interviews with cadets returning from the Sea Year program and other feedback led to the decision last summer to pull personnel off commercial vessels.