Rep. Banks’ Anti-Woke Amendment Included in FY24 NDAA
Washington,
June 21, 2023
Today, Rep. Jim Banks (IN-03), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Military Personnel and Chairman of the Anti-Woke Caucus, passed an amendment mandating merit-based personnel systems at the Department of Defense in the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act. Read the amendment here. Said Rep. Banks: “America’s military became the greatest fighting force in the history of the world by promoting excellence, embracing colorblind principles, and attracting our nation’s best and brightest. The Biden DoD’s indefensible race and gender-based treatment of servicemembers is making our military weaker and our nation less safe. Anti-woke legislators should continue to roll back the Biden administration’s radical attempts to deny Americans’ equal protection under the law.” Background: Rep. Banks’ amendment requires DoD to base its accession, assignment, selection, and promotion processes on merit and bans the services from taking into account race and gender during their recruiting processes. At a Military Personnel Subcommittee hearing on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies, multiple service heads refused Rep. Banks’ request to pledge not to factor race or gender into their recruiting processes. The Biden DoD has repeatedly set numerical racial quotas in its recruiting applicant pools. Rep. Banks’ amendment bans this practice. |