(Press Release) U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today introduced a bill that would prohibit the Department of Defense from prioritizing the demographic characteristics of service members above individual merit and demonstrated performance.
Titled the “Military Merit, Fairness, and Equality Act of 2023,” the measure is Wicker’s latest effort to force the Biden Pentagon to abandon divisive social policies like critical race theory (CRT) that are a distraction from readiness.
“The toxic, so-called ‘equity’ agenda at the Department of Defense damages readiness and falsely suggests that our military has a problem with diversity,” Wicker said.
“My legislation would stop this overreaching social policy at its source and protect the values of merit and equal opportunity that have made our military the most powerful in the world. The Pentagon must focus on deterrence over division.”
Wicker’s legislation would define “equity” for the Pentagon as “the right of all persons to have the opportunity to participate in, and benefit from, programs, and activities for which they are qualified” and would ban any Department of Defense-affiliated institution from any training or instruction that would violate this merit-based definition of equity.
The act follows several related efforts from the Mississippi senator to take on the emergence of toxic political diversions at the Department of Defense.
In March, Wicker delivered remarks on the Senate floor where he blasted Pentagon bureaucrats for focusing on waging culture wars instead of deterring real wars.
In the 117th Congress, Wicker cosponsored the “Combatting Racist Training in the Military Act” with Senator Tom Cotton, R-Ark., which would completely ban critical race theory in the military.
Wicker has repeatedly pressed the Secretary of Defense to explain other divisive policies, such as the dismissal of a Space Force Commander and the standing up of several working groups on race, political extremism, and climate change that would diminish military readiness.
Read the legislation here.
A BILL
To ensure treatment in the military based on merit and performance, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Military Merit, Fairness, and Equality Act of 2023”.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The United States Armed Forces is the greatest civil rights program in the history of the world.
(2) Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Colin Powell wrote that “the military |has] given African-Americans more equal opportunity than any other institution in American society”.
(3) Today’s Armed Forces is the most diverse large public institution in the country, and brings together Americans from every background in the service of defending the country.
(4) Military readiness depends on the guarantee of equal opportunity, without the promise of an equal outcome, because warfare is a competitive endeavor and the nation’s enemies must know that the United States Armed Forces is led by the best, brightest, and bravest Americans.
(5) The tenets of critical race theory are antithetical to the merit-based, all-volunteer, military that has served the country with great distinction for the last 50 years.
SEC. 3. DEFINITION OF EQUITY.
For the purposes of any Department of Defense Diversity. Equity, and Inclusion directive, program, policy, or instruction, the term ‘‘equity” is defined as “the right of all persons to have the opportunity to participate in, and benefit from, programs, and activities for which they are qualified”.
SEC. 4. PROHIBITIONS.
(a) Directives.—The Department, of Defense shall not direct or otherwise compel any member of the Armed Forces, military dependent, or civilian employee of the Department of Defense to personally affirm, adopt, or adhere to the tenet that any sex, race, ethnicity, religion or national origin is inherently superior or inferior.
(b) Training and Instruction.—No organization or institution under the authority of the Secretary of Defense may provide courses, training, or any other type of instruction that directs, compels, or otherwise suggests that members of the Armed Forces, military dependents, or civilian employees of the Department of Defense should affirm, adopt, or adhere to the tenet described in subsection (a).
(c) Distinctions and Classifications.—
1. In general.—No organization or institution under the authority of the Secretary of Defense shall make a distinction or classification of members of the Armed Forces, military dependents, or civilian employees of the Department of Defense based on account of race, ethnicity, or national origin.
2. Rule of construction.—Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to prohibit the required collection or reporting of demographic information by the Department of Defense.
SEC. 5. MERIT REQUIREMENT.
All Department of Defense personnel actions, including accessions, promotions, assignments and training, shall be based exclusively on individual merit and demonstrated performance.
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