A Contrary to earlier reports, the U.S. Senate has joined the House of Representatives in moving toward a foolhardy attempt to ‘automatically’ register all draft-eligible U.S. citizens and residents for a possible military draft, by extracting and aggregating information obtained from other Federal agencies.
The proposal for “automatic” draft registration is among several previously-undisclosed provisions related to Selective Service in the newly-release version of the National Defense [sic] Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2025 approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and to be considered by the full Senate.
The 1,197-page SASC proposal for this year’s NDAA was approved by the committee in closed session last month, and only a summary was released. At the time, a spokesperson for the SASC told me that if “automatic” Selective Service registration had been included in the bill, it would have been included in the summary. That proves to have been incorrect: The proposal for “automatic” draft registration was included in the SASC version of the bill, but not in the summary.
Other previously-undisclosed provisions related to Selective Service in the SASC version of the NDAA include:
- Exemption of women draftees from involuntary combat assignments: The Senate version of the SASC would expand draft registration to young women as well as young men, but would also provide that, “In the event that women are required to register for the Selective Service System or to be automatically registered for the Selective Service System, women may not be compelled to join combat roles that were closed to women prior to December 3, 2015, to train or become qualified in a combat arms military occupational specialty, or to join a combat arms unit.” This provision is, presumably, an attempt to mitigate the objections of pro-draft sexists who don’t want women drafted at all, even while they don’t object to men being drafted.
- Repeal of Federal law disqualifying nonregistrants for the draft from Federal jobs: The SASC version of the NDAA would repeal 5 U.S.C. §3328, which disqualifies those who were required to register for the draft but haven’t done so, or knowingly and willfully failed to do so when required, from any Federal job. Lifetime disqualification from Federal jobs is a threat used to scare young people into signing up for the draft. But the requirement that nonregistration be provably “knowing and willful” has rendered this law an ineffective waste of effort for Federal agencies. A notice published in the Federal Register in February 2024 by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which handles appeals of denial or termination of Federal employment on the basis of nonregistration with the SSS, “For cases received by OPM to adjudicate, approximately one percent of these individuals are removed or denied employment per year on average over the past three years.” In other words, 99 times out of 100, there’s no evidence of knowledge and willfulness, and nonregistrants are able to keep their Federal jobs.
- Senate confirmation of the Director of the Selective Service System: The Director of the Selective Service System (SSS) would once again be made subject to confirmation by the Senate. The Director of the SSS used to have to be confirmed by the Senate, and confirmation hearings sometimes provided a forum for questioning by Senators about SSS policies and practices. But the requirement for Senate confirmation for the Director of the SSS and many other “second-tier” office-holders was removed by the Presidential Appointment Efficiency and Streamlining Act of 2011. The Vacancies Act, which limits the duration of temporary “acting” stand-ins for Federal officials, applies only to offices subject to the requirement of Senate confirmation, which no longer includes the Director of the SSS. So an “Acting Director” of the SSS can remain in charge of the agency indefinitely. President Trump appointed an incompetent political crony as Director of the SSS, without the need for a Senate hearing or confirmation. President Biden has not appointed a Director of Selective Service, leaving the SSS under an “Acting Director” throughout his term. The move to make the Director of the SSS subject to Senate confirmation appears to be an attempt to assert closer Senate oversight over the SSS, or at least its overall direction.
The version of the NDAA proposed by the SASC will be the starting point for consideration of the bill by the full Senate. But it remains unclear what amendments (which in the past have included proposals for repeal of the entirety of the Military Selective Service Act) will be introduced or considered on the Senate floor, or whether this bill will even be considered by the Senate in its current form. In some recent years, the annual NDAA has been referred directly to a House-Senate conference committee to work out the differences between the House and Senate versions before being considered by the full Senate.
What’s a near-certainty is that this “must-pass” bill will be enacted into law, in some form, later this year – probably by a lame-duck Congress after the elections – and that the inclusion of the same provision in both the House and Senate versions would make it more unlikely (although not impossible) for it to be removed as part of a package of compromises by the conference committee.
Practically, constructing a complete and accurate list of potential draftees and their contact information for provable delivery of induction notices from other existing Federal wouldn’t be easy, cheap, or ‘automatic’. The National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service (NCMNPS) studied the feasibility of “passive” registration for a draft based on other existing databases, but eventually ruled this out as an option. A staff report to the NCMNPS, released in response to one of my FOIA requests, found that:
“The integration of one or more state/federal databases for a post-mobilization registration system would be an inherently difficult integration challenge – particularly as the database compilation would be using existing databases and not fielding a new data collection effort. As Social Security Administration database experts asserted in an interview with staff, integrating data requires a high degree of synchronization, regression testing, and performance tuning… The Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) maintain the most prominent federal databases to use as a source of information for passive, post-mobilization registration. While databases maintained by both agencies are fairly robust in their identification of individuals, their ability to contact and track individuals is not currently a priority.”
Politically, registration and other preparation for a draft, by whatever means, makes war more more likely and enables military strategists to plan and commit to larger, longer, less popular wars without having to think about whether enough people will be willing to fight them.
There have been no hearings on the proposal for “automatic” draft registration, and no funding for it is included in the Selective Service System’s budget requests. There’s been no meaningful debate about this proposal or the reasons military strategists want the U.S. to have a ‘credible’ threat of a draft, even if a draft is inactive and unlikely.
Members of the U.S. Senate and House need to hear from their constituents, sooner rather than later, that you oppose draft registration, whether in its current form or carried out “automatically”, whether for men or women or both, and whether for combat or any other military assignments, and that you support (1) removal of automatic draft registration from the NDAA, and (2) reintroduction and consideration of the Selective Service Repeal Act as a standalone bill and/or as an amendment to the NDAA.
Edward Hasbrouck maintains the Resisters.info website and publishes the “Resistance News” newsletter. He was imprisoned in 1983-1984 for organizing resistance to draft registration.
The demonstrations should be starting soon! This is not bloody Israel, this is the United States of America!
Exactly. In Israel, their citizens are 10 times more smarter than the average American.
Is that why they're genocidal?
They have been taught from their first day in school to hate. It is why 90% of the Jewish population of Israel are all in on the "war", with 68% believing more killing has to be done by the IDF.
NO ONE SHOULD EVER BE DRAFTED!
Is there a potential war on the horizon?!……….
War industry is ramping up hardware production and warm bodies are going to be needed to use all that material up so more can be manufactured. Yes, war is coming and it will be the biggest catastrophe since WWII.
It takes time to rev up things to war time manufacturing. At the present time, we cannot even produce enough 155mm howitzer shells to ship to Ukraine.
Wash. policy is totally bonkers and is thoroughly psychotic at the moment. Loss of reason is the definition of psychosis and Wash. can and will do anything, even if it’s not reasonable or practical. But, you are right.
Precisely. Brings back the lovely memory when I reported for the draft in '65.
”There’s something happening here, what it is ain’t exactly clear, there’s a man with a gun over there, telling me, I got to beware! It’s time you stop children, what’s that sound, everybody look, what’s going down?!”
"you'll be dead before your time, yes you will, yes you will"
The war for Peace starts now!!!
FOR ALL OUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS!
“Teach your children well!”
"'Volatile-ity' in the pursuit of Peace is no vice." Apologies to Karl Hess, Barry Goldwater's speech writer. ;-)
You rock, totally John!
Purple hair folk will refuse to fight.
Good for them.
I guess some boomers don't remember how their parents howled over men's long hair styles and women's mini-skirts way back in the '60s. BFD re. pop fashions. I wouldn't dye my hair, but other's do. So what? It's their hair, isn't it?
I'm all for mini-skirts e.g., eye candy.
“Grow your hair long!” I remember it. Mini skirts and go go boots too. Today it’s purple, red, pink, orange, you choose the color.
Washington! Get ready! HERE WE COME!!!
Peace signs do not rust!
Dragging our young against our wishes to fight wars for the politicians and bankers, where they all magically find bone spurs to dodge the draft and the poor are sent to their deaths. Conscription is nothing but modern slavery.
The Founders should have added to the Constitution that any politician who votes for a draft automatically gets themselves and their family members drafted first with zero exemptions.
I wrote Surfers Manifesto and had to stop and wait for the weirdness to catch up. Young surfers are facing the draft and begin creating a new government… Parents and the very young join in as war resistors;
https://www.constituentassembly.org/Chapters/surferManifesto/intro-surferManifesto.html
I'm for equal opportunity for all of you. Why are the Ukrainians the only ones dragged, while kicking and screaming, to die in war? Send your kids. I have other plans for mine.
Does “automatic” draft registration" mandate “automatic” conscription? Wouldn't that be involuntary servitude?
Just like automatic weapons, our senators spray all over the place.
More like a tomcat sprays.
Kinda like fed and state taxes? :P
There’s already de facto “automatic” draft registration.
Nearly everyone has a Social Security number, and it wouldn’t be that hard for the Social Security Administration to just send the Selective Service System a list of all those people within specified age brackets if the feds decided to do a draft. And since the SSN is tied to employment, etc., they’d even know where you live/work.
Those draft eligible geeks and hackers better start now to destroy the digital system unless they want to die in vain like all the others who fought undeclared wars since the end of WWII.
That would be nice, but I doubt they’ll have to.
Any serious move toward a draft would result in a whole lot of politicians out of office very quickly. Not necessarily in ways that would allow them to enjoy their lavish retirement plans.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5d74e183f7565bd93ec0a46d288b14baef9fdc50273cebfa66a8abe4af0ad669.jpg
The only good slaver is a………….!
The auto draft should start with sons of all members of congress…!
Get your filthy, ghoulish claws off of my children.
We will go fight your wars just as soon as you and your family have been killed in action first.
Well, if they do decide to draft women, there will be the biggest baby boom since the one after WWII. And, how will that work? Will the state provide child care while the women are spilling their guts along with the men? This country, i.e. the gov. is totally insane and getting nuttier every day. The only way the insanity may end is through mushroom clouds? But, that will take the sane along with the insane. Here's a song, with lyrics and recording by the old band, "LOVE" this song once again resonates truth many years after it was written and recorded. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8msBNKm-pW4 Mushroom clouds are forming And the sky is dark and gray Little children dying In a age of hate and war We can love again Only God knows when Help us with our problems I don't need you bothering me Can't you tell me that I'm free Mushroom clouds are forming And the sky is dark and gray.
Humans can adapt, which has its good side and bad. The bad part is Americans are adapting to their gov. policies of endless war through interventions around the world to secure all the world's resources, currency and trade to benefit the billionaires in the US/UK/Zionist empire. I seriously doubt there will be any protests until American blood is spilled; that will be the wake up call, but how long did it take for protesting the Vietnam war? And, what good did it really do since the war ended in 1975 after Wash. ran out of money by bankrupting the country and had to go on fiat money to keep the economy from collapsing. Some day things are going to get very hard for us. Prepare yourself and be ready to protect yourself and your interests.
Now the warmonger House members and Senators want to have an automatic draft registration system.
In so doing, they can enroll forcefully young Americans in their pursuit of permanent imperialistic wars abroad.
What lies at the end of such a warmongering stand? Decadence, autocracy, misery for most Americans and profits for the members of the military industrial complex.
What would President Dwight Eisenhower say? The establishment of a permanent military industrial complex has now been accomplished.
https://www.archives.gov/mi…
This speaks to the allowance of 'single able-body' men to cross our borders unchecked. There's rumor that for fast track citizenship, they must be willing to serve in the armed forces, and they've been provided with debit cards issued by the UN…
Hey senators: you first…. shorter: the current three branches are a clown show.
I thought we defeated this kind of philosophy/mindset in WW2???
Fascism was the evil government that thousands of drafted Americans were sacrificed to "defeat" them and "win" WW2….looks like THEIR philosophy and mindset AND FORMS AND ACTIONS BY OUR GOVERNMENT sadly shows THEY won….bipartisanly.
Gee..yet another "excuse" to further CENTRALIZE and EMPOWER the Databases of our now FASCIST GOVERNMENT to be used to strengthen DC and be able to conduct wars abroad AND AT HOME…BIPARTISANLY
Equal Rights should Equal Sacrifice. And, no draft for elective wars but only for an imminent military invasion of the US by hostile military forces.
And you probably would not even need a draft in that event. Plenty of Americans would be willing to volunteer in such a case. Today's jaded recruitment teams would be very surprised to say the least. Patriotism takes on a different color when your nation is actually invaded, than it does protecting flag bases across the globe.
What is the name of the individual who wrote that provision into the bill or came up with the dumb ass suggestion to put the draft provision in the Bill and was that individual elected or part of the unelected warmongering unelected bureaucracies?
Many of us will continue urging our younger colleagues to continue on resisting and breaking this unjust and immoral law…
Until it lies as broken in the dust again as Ozymandius.
The idea of young people fighting old people's battles is passe for sure.
Anyone proposing this will be voted out of office. Pronto!