WASHINGTON – The House Appropriations Committee advanced a draft defense budget bill Thursday that takes aim at the Pentagon’s diversity training and abortion reimbursement policy — as well as the former intelligence community officials who smeared The Post’s Hunter Biden reporting.
Republicans’ fiscal year 2024 version of the National Defense Authorization Act lays out a $826.45 billion budget – covering everything from weapons to troop pay, as well as laying out what the Pentagon can’t fund.
The GOP-proposed NDAA, which passed the Appropriations Committee 33-27 along party lines, would bar the military from spending any funds to ensure troop access to abortion — cancelling Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin‘s October 2022 memo allowing female service members leave to get the procedure in states where it’s legal.
That memo, issued in response to the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade last June, also offered to pay for women’s travel for abortion services and created a program to support DoD doctors prosecuted for carrying them out, all of which would end under the bill.
Ridding woke policies
The bill also includes a formal ban on troops using government-issued travel credit cards “for entertainment that includes topless or nude entertainers or participants” or computer networks that do not block porn websites, though the Pentagon already bars such activities.
Another provision would ban the department from spending any money to “discriminate” against people who speak or act against gay marriage in the service of a “sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction.”
It would also bar funding “surgical procedures or hormone therapy” for transgender troops, as well as activities that “bring discredit upon the military, such as drag queen story hour for children or the use of drag queens as military recruiters.“
The proposals enraged Democrats, including Appropriations Ranking Member Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who told the defense subcommittee in a closed meeting Thursday that the bill “is a non-starter,” according to her prepared remarks.
“Republicans are seeking to reverse bipartisan policies to have equality for women and to make it uncomfortable for LGBTQ+ Americans to serve in the military,” she said. “Fostering an environment where every American who would willingly put their lives on the line to protect and serve this nation feels they are welcomed and supported should not be controversial.”
Most of the conservative social issues are unlikely to be included in the final law. Congress typically spends months amending proposed NDAAs each year, and with a Democratic Senate and White House, such issues as abortion and LGBTQ+ restrictions are expected to be cut out.
To that end, DeLauro criticized GOP members for including the hot-button political issues in the bill, urging her colleagues “to focus on the end goal of funding our government rather than pushing messaging bills that have no future.”
Funding
The bill would also give the military a boost of 3.6% over 2023 spending levels – roughly $286 million more than what Biden asked for in his proposed Pentagon budget this spring.
That includes a 5.2% pay raise for troops and support for Taiwanese military training programs and weapons deliveries to the island. The bill stops the Biden administration from cutting four ships from the Navy’s fleet and invests in key defense capabilities such as the F-35 fighter jet and the nuclear triad.
“The bill prioritizes funding to counter China, optimize DOD’s workforce, promote innovation, support service members and their families, and increase DOD’s role in combatting the flow of fentanyl, synthetic opioids, and other illegal drugs into the United States,” GOP members of the committee said in a statement Wednesday.
The GOP bill would also prevent the Pentagon from sending funds to the Wuhan Institute of Virology or to fund “any work to be performed by” the New York-based EcoHealth Alliance “in China on research supported by the government of China.”
While the proposed defense budget provides more than what Biden asked for, it also cuts $20 billion from various Biden-proposed programs, civilian job positions and other discretionary spending. Under the current bill, those funds would be redirected to “address war-fighting needs, counter China, and support our service members and their families,” according to their statement.
“The allocations before us reflect the change Members on my side of the aisle want to see by returning spending to responsible levels,” Appropriations Chair Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas.) “They also fulfill our commitment to focus our limited resources on the core responsibilities of the federal government. National security, veterans, and border security are our priorities.”
Among the cost-saving cuts? Several Biden-led initiatives that forced the Pentagon to prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as climate change issues – which Austin has called “an existential threat to our nation’s security.”
Checking Biden
The bill would effectively exempt the Pentagon from complying with President Biden’s prior DEI executive orders, such as the annual requirement for all agencies to submit annual plans to boost equity in government programs.
“Equity” in government terms differs from “equality,” which considers all people as deserving an equal chance at success — if not equal outcomes. Equity instead attempts to level the playing field by providing certain “disadvantaged” groups – such as minorities – with opportunities that exclude everyone else.
The GOP bill would ban the DoD from spending money on any DEI efforts and “activities that promote or perpetuate divisive concepts related to race or sex, such as the concepts that one race or sex is inherently superior to another,” such as teaching Critical Race Theory.
Additionally, it would defund the office of the DOD deputy inspector general in charge of investigating diversity and inclusion violations, supremacists, extremists and criminal gang activity in the services. That position was created under the 2021 NDAA.
Aside from social issues, the bill would also rip security clearances from all 51 former intelligence officials who falsely cast doubt on The Post’s Hunter Biden stories by signing the “spies who lie” letter saying the infamous laptop leak had “the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
The bill would also prevent the Pentagon from implementing climate change programs, including a proposed rule to require the DoD acquisitions teams to select only the greenest contractors for multimillion-dollar weapons and military equipment purchases – even as the defense industry races to keep up with growing production needs.
While Republicans said cutting the proposed rule and preventing future funding for climate change programs represents “cuts to wasteful spending,” subcommittee member Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) said such programs are critical to national security.
“Cuts to climate resiliency programs will leave the department more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change,” she said in a statement. “The cost of repairing unprepared installations damaged by hurricanes, flooding and wildfires will rise.”
It would also bar the Pentagon from spending any money to “influence congressional action on any legislation or appropriation matters,” though lawmakers regularly rely on the expert testimony of Pentagon personnel to decide defense matters.
