by Ben Whedon
On Friday, the House approved an $883.7 billion defense spending bill that includes provisions on a range of provisions on social issues such as abortion, LGBT issues and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices.
Including such provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) will certainly create conflict with Senate Democrats, who have not yet introduced the upper chamber’s version of the plan, he says Hill.
The measure was adopted by a vote of 217 to 199, with six Democrats voting against and three Republicans voting against.
Some of the more controversial parts of the bill included provisions blocking funding for certain treatments for transgender people, preventing funding and/or freezing DEI programs in the military, and blocking funding for soldiers traveling out of state for abortions.
The NDAA is one of 12 annual appropriations bills that fund key reserves within the government, in this case the Department of Defense.
Republican lawmakers do long-emphasized concerns about the military’s drift into a culture war and social issues like DEI, LGBT practices and abortion under the Biden administration. Several of them insisted that the Pentagon’s prioritization of such initiatives may come at the expense of its core mission.
“The Biden administration has made implementing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives a more important mission than protecting Americans,” Virginia Republican Bob Good said in April. “Our military is strongest when it focuses on training patriotic men and women to become the world’s deadliest fighting force.”
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Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him X, formerly Twitter.
