When Republicans took back the House last November, we pledged to end the Biden administration’s partisan weaponization of our federal government.
We did just that by passing our annual defense spending bill, the National Defense Authorization Act – NDAA, for short – last Friday.
As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and a Navy veteran, I can say confidently that this year’s NDAA is the most pro-American, anti-woke defense bill ever to pass through the House.
The bill does two crucial things: it charts a course toward a safer, more secure United States and it rejects the woke programs and policies undermining America’s national security.
To the first point, this year’s NDAA bolsters our troops with a 5.2% pay raise, the largest in two decades. It provides key oversight measures, including an audit of the more than $76 billion that American taxpayers have sent to Ukraine. And in response to China’s rapid military build-up, the NDAA also provides for more ships and drones so the United States can maintain its military dominance around the world.
To the second point, the bill refocuses Biden’s Defense Department on its key mission of defending against foreign threats by shutting down divisive and partisan DoD programs.
For starters, as my colleague Matt Gaetz pointed out, every dollar spent by the military on sex reassignment surgeries means four more dollars spent on psychological care for those who get them. Just this week, a memo from the Biden DoD showed that transgender troops receiving treatment don’t have to meet physical fitness standards and are exempt from deployment. It’s common sense that American taxpayers should not pay for sex reassignment surgeries at the DoD, which is why our NDAA ends that practice.
Other common-sense policies in the bill include halting taxpayer dollars from going toward reimbursing travel expenses for those seeking abortions across state lines, as well as eliminating those positions at the Pentagon dedicated solely to promoting “diversity, equity and inclusion,” or DEI. People like Kelisa Wing, the DoD education system’s diversity chief who was reassigned after he blatant racism was uncovered earlier this year, should be permanently out of a job.
I was pleased that the bill included my provision to cap all DEI-related personnel at the GS-10 level. Right now, DEI administrators are paid about five times more than brave enlisted privates who’ve volunteered to fight and potentially die for our country. The bill also includes my amendment ensuring all military accessions, assignments, selections, and promotions are decided by merit rather than race or sex. Merit-based personnel policies are crucial in every part of the federal government, but in our military it is a matter of life and death.
Further, as Chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel, I’m proud to have led the effort to make amends to the servicemembers wronged by the Pentagon’s harmful COVID-19 vaccine policies.
At a time when the military faces a historic crisis in recruitment and retention, Republicans are using this year’s NDAA to restore public trust in our armed forces and repair active-duty servicemembers’ relationship with the top brass.
That’s why I fought hard to include provisions in the bill protecting troops from formal reprimands for refusing to get the shot, setting up a formal reinstatement process for discharged, unvaccinated servicemembers, reinstating them at their prior rate and rank, and expanding all vaccine-related protections and reinstatement policies to include the Coast Guard.
In sum, the House version of the FY2024 NDAA refocuses the Defense Department’s mission on what it has always been: To provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation's security.
Now that the NDAA is heading to conference committee, where it will be merged with the Chuck Schumer-led Senate’s version of the bill, House Republicans must stand by our anti-woke victories. The House-passed NDAA articulates a non-partisan, patriotic and meritocratic vision for America’s military and we must stand by that vision. Our national security – and our nation’s character – depend on it.