Sens. Isakson and Perdue Oppose Selective Service Requirement for Women
From a joint press release:
U.S. Senators Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and David Perdue, R-Ga., joined 15 of their Senate colleagues in a letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the Armed Services Committee of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, urging them to keep unnecessary, controversial political measures out of the National Defense Authorization Act as they conduct conference negotiations.
A provision that was opposed by Isakson and Perdue was included in the Senate-passed defense authorization measure to require women to register for the Selective Service. The Georgia senators argue that this requirement has not yet received the proper study and debate and would throw the brave men and women of our armed forces into the middle of heated national political debate.
“When this legislation was passed by the Senate, I urged the president not to play politics with our service members or our national defense, because last year’s presidential veto of this critical legislation was absolutely shameful,” said Isakson. “Today, I urge this committee to do the same by removing the current language that would, for the first time, prematurely and without proper study of its implications, require women to register for the selective service. To be the best militarily, we need an all-volunteer fighting force in which both men and women can choose to serve our country in uniform and advance in rank based on their merit and qualifications. By increasing what we are spending on our national defense to better equip and train our armed forces, we preclude the need for a draft.”
“Today, our all-volunteer military is made up of our nation’s best women and men who have completed rigorous training to obtain their rank and position,” said Perdue. “This critical legislation directly supports our nation’s missions and ensures that our troops have what they need to be successful in the field. Our nation has not had to rely on a draft in almost 40 years so changing the requirements for an inactive program, like the selective service, should not be a high priority of Congress at this time.”
The National Defense Authorization Act passed the Senate on June 14, 2016, by a bipartisan vote of 85-13, and the U.S. House of Representatives in May by a vote of 277 to 147. A House-Senate conference committee now must seek to reconcile the differences between the two versions of the bill.
A copy of the letter can be seen after the break.
Dear Chairman McCain:
Ranking Member Reed:
Chairman Thornberry:
Ranking Member Smith:
We, the undersigned, request your consideration on a matter of great importance as you prepare for conference negotiations on the FY17 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
As you know, the Senate-passed bill includes language that would, for the first time, require women to register for the Selective Service. We believe it is better to refrain from this expansion and to instead, task an independent commission to study the purpose and utility of the Selective Service System, specifically determining whether the current system is unneeded, if it is sufficient, or if it needs an expanded pool of potential draftees.
We should not hinder the brave men and women of our armed forces by entrapping them in unnecessary cultural issues. Our all-volunteer military is the best military the world has ever seen, and women who wish to serve in this military are free to do so. The provision of the FY17 NDAA requiring women to register for the Selective Service should be removed.
We respectfully ask that you remain mindful of our opposition as you negotiate the final conference product. Specifically, we urge you to adopt the House position.
About Author
lawtonsack
Lawton is a graduate of Georgia Southern University (the GSU) with a degree in Information Technology. He has held numerous positions within the Georgia Republican Party throughout the years.
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Thank you, Senators!
While I agree that the need for a SSS need to be studied, I am not sure I understand the connection between that and how this endangers the military today. There are already women in the military. So why would having them sign up for SSS disrupt anything? Can someone connect the dots for me?
In case you were wondering, the bill in question, S.2943 – National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, passed the Senate 85-13 with both Isakson and Perdue voting in favor, which makes Isakson’s “When this legislation was passed by the Senate, I urged the president not to play politics with our service members or our national defense” a bit rich.
If Isakson now believes that requiring 18 yo women to register for the (non-existent) draft would ‘hinder the brave men and women of our armed forces’ and wants to reconcile the language out of the final bill, fine, only his argument shouldn’t be Obama.
In fact, I doubt Isakson gives a rat either way but since it’s an election year he’s officially outraged enough to carry water for BusTed Cruz and some of his House stooges who just can’t stand the idea of conscripting little white girls.
“the idea of conscripting little white girls.”
Where in the hell did you come up with that? They don’t want to conscript ANY little girls!
Sorry, but when I see Cruz I see George Wallace. It’s not Cruz’ fault he was born 50 years too late to stand in the schoolhouse door in front of the cameras and posture about ‘the asinine bussin’ of lil school chirren’.
Here’s what Cruz really said on women registering for the draft, and I leave it to you if it’s less fevered than what I suggested.
‘. . . the idea that we would draft our daughters to forcibly bring them into the military and put them in close combat, I think is wrong, it is immoral, and if I am president, we ain’t doing it.’
Cruz went on to note that he is a father to two daughters, and he wants them to follow their dreams.
“But the idea that their government would forcibly put them in a foxhole with a 220-pound psychopath trying to kill them doesn’t make any sense at all.”
Your effort to make Cruz a racist with the “white girls” comment was way off base and you know it! Just because you see Wallace doesn’t make Cruz his clone. And the quotes you cite from him about conscripting girls are 100 percent right! Low blow, X.
Cruz brings out the worst in me but I don’t think I was off base in pointing out Cruz is a panderer and a self-promoter who always knows when the cameras are running, just like Wallace. The only reason he’s not a racist is that overt racism has gone out of style.
I think there are several explanations for this move. The main one is that the Republicans have gotten into a battle they might not be able to win for a cause that is, at best somewhat less than urgent. Meanwhile, we’re just over two weeks from the end of the fiscal year.
If you regularly follow #gapol on Twitter, you will have noticed literally thousands of Tweets shouting #DontDraftOurDaughters. Republican women, especially those associated with the “Patriot Journalists Network” are big time opponents of the bill, and are letting everyone they can know. I’m sure they are using more than Twitter to get their message across.
Registering for the Selective Service is a long way from being drafted. The last time people were drafted was in 1972, the last draft lottery, where 19 year olds were given a number that specified the order in which they would be drafted was in 1975 (I had a fairly high draft number in that last lottery). In any case, getting women to register for the selective service is not a super high priority measure.
Which brings us to the strong desire on behalf of Republicans to actually pass the NDAA before the end of the fiscal year, so that it can be voted on separately from what is likely to be a short term funding measure, followed by an omnibus. that otherwise would contain all defense spending, and become a target then for Democratic fire, so to speak. Eliminating the SSS registration gets rid of one of the major obstacles to getting the measure passed.
I didn’t need to read any of their reasoning. These are guys that almost certainly opposed don’t ask don’t tell, and then almost certainly opposed gays serving opening in the military.
Remember when Johnny and Perdue complained that injecting Planned Parenthood into Zika funding was politicizing the budget process? Neither do I.