US

Measure To Force Women To Sign Up For Draft Passes House Panel

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Jonah Bennett Contributor
Font Size:

A provision to force women to sign up for the draft just narrowly cleared the House Committee on Armed Services, passing an important hurdle in the legislative process Wednesday.

This provision, originally introduced by GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter as a way of pointing out the logical implication of allowing women serving in combat roles, would mandate that women, just like men, sign up for Selective Service within 30 days of turning 18, Military Times reports.

Hunter did not support his own measure. It passed anyway, albeit only narrowly, by a 32-30 vote.

Women have been excluded from the draft because they were excluded from combat roles. Now that Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has turned that arrangement on its head, opening up all combat roles to women in December, the justification for not drafting women has evaporated.

Hunter wasn’t about to wait to let the Pentagon or White House decide on the matter, which is why he introduced the measure, although he is in principle opposed to allowing women in combat roles and has been a stringent critic of Carter’s decision. The measure is his way of pointing out the absurdity.

“Right now the draft is sexist. Right now the draft only drafts young men,” Hunter said, according to The Washington Examiner.

Yet, Hunter’s measure attracted support from across the aisle.

“While you may be offering this as a gotcha amendment, I think there’s great merit in recognizing each of us have an obligation to be willing to serve our country in time of war and provide some period of time when we do some kind of service,” Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier said, as she registered her support for the measured.

Several top military officials have supported the idea of making women sign up for the draft. However, the general sentiment is that it’s unlikely a draft will be used again. The last time the draft was used was back in 1973. Even during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, no one really considered the option of a draft. This year’s National Defense Authorization Act also includes a provision to mandate that the military run a study to see if the draft is necessary in the future. Selective Service costs the government about $23 million a year to run.

The next step for this legislation is for the Senate to review House panel changes.

Follow Jonah Bennett on Twitter

Send tips to jonah@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel