Now that the Republicans are the majority in the House of Representatives next session, they are targeting Pentagon funding in an attempt to replace political priorities with military ones.
House Republicans are weighing an effort to tie next year’s funding for the Pentagon to demands that include ending the military’s vaccine mandate and increasing scrutiny of where U.S. aid to Ukraine has gone.Conservatives in the House have pushed their fellow Republicans to punt a vote on the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act [NDAA] to January, when the GOP will control the lower chamber.GOP congressional leaders have signaled they may be on board with the plan.House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) suggested after Republicans held their leadership elections that he would work to hold up the defense spending bill until 2023.“I’ve watched what the Democrats have done on many of these things, especially the NDAA — the wokeism that they want to bring in there,” McCarthy said earlier this month. “I actually believe the NDAA should hold up until the 1st of this year and let’s get it right.”
There are indications that Democrats may try including the NDAA in a final end-of-year spending package, instead of allowing a separate vote on the defense bill, due to the lack of floor time before Congress leaves for the year. They would try to jam through social justice and progressive priorities onto the military before leaving in December.
…For example, Democrats have included language in the fiscal year 2023 NDAA to extend the military draft to women, prompting Republicans led by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., to introduce the “Don’t Draft our Daughters” amendment.”The defense bill isn’t the place for Democrats to indulge the wild ideas of their latest social experiments, like forcing women to register for the draft,” Cotton told Fox News Digital. “If Democrats want to protect America and keep our troops safe, they should agree to pass a clean bill and leave their woke pet projects out of it.”In other cases, Republicans are looking to include language to chip away at Biden administration policies they oppose.[Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-TN] told Fox News Digital that she is worried about President Biden’s military vaccine mandate and will work to protect Americans against the “New Axis of Evil,” such as China and other adversaries, by ensuring the NDAA “protects our troops from being fired due to Biden’s vaccine mandate.” She said blunting the vaccine mandate is even more critical as the military faces a recruitment crisis.
The move pairs with a recent GOP report on “Woke Warfighters.” Part of the proposed Republican plan, “Restoring Military Focus Act,” would be to remove the Pentagon position of a chief diversity officer.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) argued in the 18-page document Monday that the White House’s “sustained assault fueled by woke virtue signaling” is “eroding our greatest source of security” in the world.“Our military’s singular purpose is to ‘provide for the common defense’ of our nation. It cannot be turned into a left-wing social experiment,” Rubio and Roy wrote. “… It cannot be paralyzed by fear of offending the sensibilities of Ivy League faculty lounges or progressive pundits.”The report was meant to lay the groundwork for the lawmakers’ forthcoming “Restoring Military Focus Act,” which would eliminate the Pentagon’s chief diversity officer position responsible for implementing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the DoD.In a statement unveiling the report, Rubio said the military “parroting woke nonsense” was “dumb” and “dangerous.”
If the House can reverse any of these woke policies, it would truly be in the best interest of our military and the nation.
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