The ‘Draft Women’ Legislation Roller Coaster Ride

draftwomen

During consideration of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in the spring, the proposal that women be required to sign up with Selective Service just as are men started on a roller coaster ride in the United States Congress. That ride had a couple more turns this week. On Tuesday, a United States Senate and House of Representatives conference committee, which was creating a compromise version of the NDAA because the two bodies had passed differing bills, released a final bill that leaves out such a requirement. Then, on Thursday, the Obama administration announced support for requiring women to register with Selective Service.

If women are mandated to register with Selective Service, then the expectation would be that women are in the pool of people for drafting into the military if conscription is reintroduced in America. Thus, such a mandate in the NDAA or other legislation may be viewed as a women draft provision.

In the spring, a women draft provision was added to the House version of the NDAA in a peculiar way. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) proposed the requirement during House Armed Services Committee consideration of the bill. Hunter said he did so to start a debate regarding the ongoing expansion of women’s involvement in US military combat, which he opposes. But, then, the committee voted on April 27 to approve the requirement, with Hunter voting against his own proposal.

On May 16, before the House Armed Services Committee-passed NDAA was moved to the House floor for debate and a vote of all House members, the House Rules Committee removed the provision from the bill. The altered bill was then considered by the full House, which approved an NDAA with no women draft provision included.

But, given that Congress is made up of two bodies, there was still a chance for a women draft provision to make it into the NDAA that Congress would send to President Barack Obama. Indeed, the Senate Armed Services Committee on May 12, as had its House counterpart before it, included in its version of the NDAA a requirement that women register with Selective Service. Ultimately, the full Senate passed an NDAA that includes a women draft provision.

The roller coaster ride seems to be reaching its end – for now. It appears that the House and Senate will pass an NDAA that includes no requirement that women register with Selective Service and that Obama will sign that legislation into law. But, the significant support for such a provision indicated by votes in the House and Senate suggests a strong effort will continue in Washington, DC to mandate women register with Selective Service.

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

One thought on “The ‘Draft Women’ Legislation Roller Coaster Ride”

  1. The draft, conscription, however it’s described, is the same thing countries which have Official Royalty do and have done since the first person crowned himself king and said God or the Gods had selected him. The King officially owns the peasants, which is a medieval French term for people of the land.
    The land and the people are owned. Period. That’s the theory at least, and Kings keep coming up with bull-poo-poo about God leading the Leader.

    The current narrative that the U.S. is not a top down dictatorship but instead a Republic or Democracy, same as Nimrod or Ramses or Darius, they all claimed the service of the Lesser People. It’s called Polishing A Turd. “Our” government have polished that turd till it shines like burnished bronze, but they can’t for some unknown reason get rid of that aroma.

    If they want to conscript anybody, make it the people who make money off the blood of others. Like Wall Street. The boardrooms of every corporation, have the Suits and Ties marched out at gunpoint, and as a bonus force them to pay the expenses for conscripting them. Same Way They Treat “We, the Peasants”

    And make up some cockamamy crap about The Lady of the Lake held forth the sword Excalibur, thereby signifying that I, Arthur, should be the King of all the Brit screech of a needle on a phonograph record … Strange ladies lying in puddles distributing swords is no basis for kingship…

    But, yeah, the draft was and always will be involuntary servitude. One would think the most unCivil War decided the issue, but here in Colorado there was a ballot iniative as of 5 weeks ago to bring back Slavery if it’s for punishment of criminals. The “criminals” part to be decided arbitrarily by the corporate court system. Not a joke.

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