‘Woke’ military provisions are sticking point for GOP as defense policy bill looms

Republicans are rejecting the inclusion of “woke” military policies in the annual defense policy bill known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and plan to work to include provisions to counter the “savage” policies of the Biden administration as Democrats rush to push. through a vote before the end of the year.

There has been discussion that Democrats may try to include the NDAA in a final year-end spending package, rather than allowing a separate vote on the defense bill, due to a lack of time for the session before Congress leaves for the year. Senate Republicans say that strategy calls into question whether Congress can pass an NDAA, which sets military policy and spending levels for the Pentagon and other agencies of the nation’s national defense infrastructure.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, accused Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., of playing politics with the NDAA by delaying its passage until the last minute and preventing robust debate on its content.

“The military appears to be Chuck Schumer’s new favorite political football,” Blackburn said. “We’ve passed defense authorization 61 years in a row. Right now, I’m confident there will be broad bipartisan support for No. 62, which makes this tight timetable even more unnecessary.”

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Sen. Blackburn accused Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., of playing politics with the NDAA.
(Elizabeth Frantz/Pool via AP)

Republicans oppose several provisions of the NDAA that Democrats consider.

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 amendment “Do not draft our daughters.”

“The defense bill is not 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 wild animal projects out of it.”

In other cases, Republicans are seeking to include language to eliminate Biden administration policies they oppose.

Blackburn told Fox News Digital that she is concerned about President Joe Biden’s military vaccine mandate and will work to protect Americans against the “new axis of evil,” like China and other adversaries, by making sure the NDAA “protect our troops from being fired for firing.” to Biden’s vaccine mandate.” He said scaling back the vaccine mandate is even more critical as the military faces a recruiting crisis.

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“I will not stop fighting for our heroic service members,” Blackburn said.
(Drew Anger/Getty Images)

“Passage of the NDAA is critical to national security,” said a Senate GOP aide. “We want to do that. But members remain concerned about the vaccination mandate for the military, which has created a military recruitment crisis.”

Blackburn introduced a separate bill in September that would end any punishment for service members seeking a religious accommodation in the Pentagon’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, after Biden said the pandemic was “over “.

The senator also offered two amendments to the NDAA in June to ensure that military parents have control over their children’s education and to further restrict congressional funding for the Defense Department’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Both amendments were defeated by Democrats during a markup of the Armed Services Committee.

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“We have to have the troops and the equipment to keep us safe,” the GOP aide added, noting that much of the push is also coming from the House.

Earlier this month, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., called for delaying a vote on the NDAA until 2023 because of wake-up calls included in the legislation .

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, D-Calif., called for delaying the NDAA until 2023.
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

“I’ve seen what the Democrats have done, especially in the NDAA, the ‘wokeness’ they want to put into it,” McCarthy said during a pre-Thanksgiving press conference. “I actually think the NDAA should stay until the first of the year, and let’s do it right.”

Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., explained why he voted against the FY 2023 NDAA in a statement in July: “Medical tyranny and wake-up calls do not improve our ranks; these policies undermine them and our combat readiness, and subsequently undermine our country.Furthermore, it is baffling and incredibly revealing that the left’s ideology and obsession with vaccination is prioritized at a time when all branches are fighting to achieve recruitment and retention goals.”

The conservative Heritage Foundation released a report over the summer, urging Congress to eliminate provisions of the NDAA that would “encourage corporate vigilantism.” The House bill, which passed in July and is now being negotiated in the Senate, contains a provision that would require public companies to annually disclose “racial, ethnic, gender identity, sexual orientation and “veteran status of its directors, candidates, and senior managers,” according to the report. In addition, the provision would create a group that would focus on “increasing corporate diversity.”

“Aside from the obvious question of how this provision was determined to be appropriate for inclusion in a defense policy bill, the larger issue is that this requirement has no place in US corporate governance.” the Heritage report states.

Republicans have vowed to clean up the “wake” of the US military once they regain their majority in Congress.

“I think it’s one of our top priorities to clean up the mess the administration has made with the excessive and dangerous COVID mandates on our troops at a time when we have historically low recruitment,” said Representative Jim Banks, R-Ind. , member of the House Armed Services Committee.

Banks continued, “When it comes to the posturing hearings and the legislative process of the NDAA, I think you can expect more of the same than you’ve seen in the last two years.”

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Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, previously said the GOP will put military personnel issues at the top of the agenda in January and also promised to target policy “awakening” of the Pentagon.

Fox News Digital’s requests for comment from the ranking GOP members on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees on the NDAA were not returned.

Fox News’ Michael Lee contributed to this report.