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US House Committee Proposes 'Automatic' Sign-Up for Military Draft
by Edward Hasbrouck | May 23, 2024
On Wednesday, during markup of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2025, the U.S. House Armed Services Committee approved an amendment to the NDAA that would automatically register all draft-aged male U.S. residents with the Selective Service System for a possible military draft, based on information from other Federal databases.
This system of automatic draft registration would replace the system in effect since 1980 in which young men can decide for themselves whether or not to sign up for the draft – and so many choose not to register that the Selective Service database would be useless for an actual draft.
The automatic draft registration proposal was instigated by the Selective Service System as part of its annual budget request to Congress, introduced in the HASC by Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), "wholeheartedly" endorsed by HASC Chair Mike Rogers (R-AL), and approved by voice vote of the full committee without audible opposition.
Rep. Houlahan had been one of the leading proponents of proposals in previous years to expand draft registration to women as well as men. Her latest proposal for automatic registration of men only for a military draft indicates that she is more deeply committed to militarization than to any purported feminism.
The provisions for automatic draft registration are now included in the version of the NDAA that will go to the House floor. The NDAA is a "must-pass" bill, so these provisions are likely to remain in the version of the NDAA adopted later this year by the full House unless some House member introduces, and the full House agrees to vote on and approves, a floor amendment to remove them. It remains to be seen whether a similar provision will be included in the Senate version of the NDAA, although we fear that this may be likely.
The proposal for automatic draft registration makes it urgently important to find House and Senate sponsors to reintroduce the Selective Service Repeal Act, which had bipartisan sponsorship in both the House and Senate in 2021-2022 but never got a hearing in either the House or Senate Armed Services Committee, much less a floor vote in either chamber of Congress.
The proposal that was added to the House version of the NDAA would authorize the Selective Service System (SSS) to issue regulations requiring any Federal agency to hand over any information in Federal records "necessary to identify or register a person subject to registration" with the SSS, and to register them without their participation or consent. The SSS would also be authorized to issue regulations requiring individuals to provide information directly to the SSS, perhaps to cover instances in which individuals could be identified from other Federal records as subject to a military draft, but not with enough information – such as a current address – to register or draft them.
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News update for 25 May 2024. The British are gearing up:
News update for 25 May 2024. The British are gearing up:
Recruits are forced to act as corporate mercenaries:
This doesn't place America in danger. It places US defense contractor profits in danger:
Long, slow decline of the US military's all-volunteer force puts America in danger
Our All-Volunteer Military Force Implodes
Long, slow decline of the US military's all-volunteer force puts America in danger
Our All-Volunteer Military Force Implodes
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