By Congressman Jim Banks, US Navy veteran
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.
REP. BANKS APPLAUDS PASSAGE OF ANTI-WOKE FY24 NDAA (Press Release, 17 JUL 23)
Today, in response to the passage of the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, Anti-Woke Caucus Chairman Jim Banks released the following statement:
Said Chairman Banks:
“We saw today that the open amendment process gives anti-woke legislators the chance to defund and eliminate radical-far left programs in the federal government.
This year’s NDAA is the most conservative I’ve seen since I got to Congress, and members of the Anti-Woke Caucus played a leading role in that victory.
I hope conservatives in the House learn from today’s vote and use our leverage during the upcoming appropriations process to defund wokeness in every federal agency.”
The following anti-woke amendments from Chairman Banks were in included in the FY24 NDAA:
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- Rep. Banks’ DEI Pay Cap amendment prohibits the Secretary of Defense from appointing or employing a military or civilian employee whose duties include diversity, equity, and inclusion with a rank or grade in excess of GS-10.
- Rep. Banks’ Merit-Based Personnel amendment requires DOD to issue policy that all military accessions, assignments, selections, or promotions must adhere to merit-based principles and prohibits numerical quotas in applicant pools.
- Rep. Banks’ Navy Digital Ambassador amendment suspends the Navy Digital Ambassador Program, which used drag queen videos in its recruitment efforts.
- Rep. Banks’ Service Restoration amendment prohibits DOD from taking adverse action against troops based solely on their refusal to receive Covid-19 vaccines and lets soldiers discharged for vaccine refusal reenter the service as if they had just taken leave for study.
- Rep. Banks’ Board of Corrections amendment direct DOD’s Boards of Correction to grant requests from unvaccinated, discharged servicemembers discharged to change their reason for discharge and re-entry codes.
- Rep. Banks’ Covid Reinstatement Process amendment requires DOD to set up a reinstatement process for troops discharged for COVID vaccine refusal at their prior rate/grade and requires DOD to contact every member discharged due to Covid for possible reinstatement.
- Rep. Banks’ Expanding Covid Protections and Reinstatement to the Coast Guard amendment amends provisions in Rep. Banks’ three above amendments related to servicemembers who refused COVID vaccination to also include members of the Coast Guard.
- Rep. Banks’ EV Infrastructure Availability Determination amendment blocks major DOD contracts for electric non-tactical vehicles until the Pentagon can certify that there is sufficient charging infrastructure in combat zones to not harm military effectiveness.
- Rep. Banks’ Service Academy Racial Discrimination Prohibition amendment prohibits racial discrimination and quotas in service academy admissions.
- On Wednesday, July 19th, the Military Personnel Subcommittee, which Rep. Banks chairs, will hold a hearing on “Admissions, Curriculum, and Diversity of Thought at the Military Service Academies.”
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