Firestorm erupts over provision requiring women to sign up for military draft

(The hill) – Senate Democrats added language to the annual defense authorization bill to require women to register for the bill, sparking a backlash from Republicans and social conservatives and complicating the bill’s chances of passing the bill on the Senate floor before the election day.

Conservatives led by Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Ky., will certainly try to remove the provision requiring women to register for the bill, which could pose a tough vote for Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Jacky Rosen, D-Mt. Nev., and other Democrats in tight re-election races.

Republican candidate Sam Brown, who is running against Rosen, is already making this an issue in the Nevada Senate race.

Brown, an Army combat veteran who was severely burned by the explosion of an improvised explosive device, criticized Rosen in a video for voting to require women to register for the draft.

“Look at my face. This is the high cost of war,” he recently posted on the social media site X.

“Amy and I volunteer to serve and honor all who serve,” he wrote, referring to his wife. “But forcing America’s daughters to register for the draft is UNACCEPTABLE. Shame on Jacky Rosen.

In the video posted below these comments, Brown pointed to the scars on her face as evidence of the dangers women would face in combat theaters.

“Look at my face. This is the high cost of war and I just found out that Jacky Rosen voted this week to make draft registration mandatory for our daughters. You’ll be hearing more from me about this,” he said.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, called the provision requiring women to register for the draft “insane.”

He accused the Biden administration of trying to implement a woke agenda at the Pentagon.

“There should be no women in recruitment. They shouldn’t be forced to serve if they don’t want to,” he told Fox News. He criticized Democrats for wanting to experiment with the military, saying that “normal people say, ‘Leave our daughters alone.’”

Hawley led efforts to eliminate language requiring women to enroll in the defense authorization bill in 2021 and 2022.

A group affiliated with former Vice President Mike Pence also weighed in on the issue Wednesday.

The group, Advancing American Freedom, wrote a letter to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, Ky., and President Mike Johnson, R-La., declaring that “the notion of the United States of America requiring women to register for fighting our wars is simply unsustainable and must be fought at all costs.”

Wicker, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he will try to remove it from the bill.

“I oppose this. I do not think this is the time to get into a debate in either house about this. We are not even close to implementing a project, and for me it is a distraction when we need to talk about real issues that are immediate,” he said.

“I hope this happens, whether in the plenary or in a conference,” he added.

But Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., defended the proposed policy change, arguing that women can fill many combat roles without serving as front-line infantry troops.

“Women are doing remarkable work in our forces today, and if we were in a situation that required a draft, I think we would need every able-bodied citizen aged 18 and over,” he said.

“If we go to a draft, that means we are in a very, very serious situation,” he added.

“It’s not like World War II, where we need a lot of infantry. We need cyber experts, we need intelligence analysts, linguists, etc. Wait a second, there are a lot of women out there who can do this better than men,” she argued.

He said the GOP’s intense opposition to the proposal “just doesn’t make sense.”

Senate aides point out that the issue cuts across party lines, with some Republicans generally supporting the requirement that women enroll in the Selective Service System like men when they turn 18.

Senate Republicans are already raising questions about whether Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., will introduce the bill soon, given the dwindling number of days on the legislative calendar before the election.

“I hope we get to the ground. It is very important that we have this debate publicly… I hear rumors that the Democratic leader may not bring it to the plenary. I hope this can be reversed,” Wicker said.

McConnell on Monday urged Schumer to bring the defense bill to the floor “without delay.”

The Republican leader praised the Senate Armed Services Committee for passing the defense bill earlier this month, but later suggested that Democrats could prolong the process of bringing it to the floor.

“But in the immediate aftermath of the committee’s action, top Senate Democrats destroyed any expectation that they were ready to begin taking the demands of national defense seriously,” he said.

Voting to require women to become eligible for the draft could come back to hurt Democrats in Republican-leaning or battleground states like Montana and Nevada.

National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Steve Daines, R-Mont., seized on the issue last Congress when he supported an amendment in 2022 to remove a provision requiring women to register with the Selective Service System in the Defense Authorization Act National (NDAA).

“Brave Montana men and women fulfill the Treasure State’s rich legacy of service by voluntarily joining our nation’s armed forces. There is no need to force our nation’s daughters into the draft,” Daines said at the time.

Hawley offered an amendment to eliminate the women’s language bill from the NDAA in 2021. His action put pressure on Democrats to ultimately remove the issue from the bill without voting on the amendment in December of that year.

He also sponsored an amendment to the 2022 defense bill to remove language requiring women to register with the Selective Service System, which was co-sponsored by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Mike Lee, R-Utah, Marco Rubio, R-Fl., Roger Marshall, R-Kan., John Boozman, R-Ark., James Lankford, R -Okla., and Daines.