{"id":2282403,"date":"2024-06-24T03:54:01","date_gmt":"2024-06-24T07:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ndaa-merit-provision-enables-more-military-identity-politics\/"},"modified":"2024-06-24T04:01:59","modified_gmt":"2024-06-24T08:01:59","slug":"ndaa-merit-provision-enables-more-military-identity-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ndaa-merit-provision-enables-more-military-identity-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"NDAA &#8216;Merit Provision&#8217; Enables More Military Identity Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fndaa-merit-provision-enables-more-military-identity-politics%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2282403&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The summary covers concerns and critique regarding \u2064the implementation of Diversity, Equity, and \u200bInclusion\u200d (DEI) practices in the U.S. military as outlined \u2063in the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2025. Critics argue that these practices,\u2063 under the guise of promoting diversity and inclusivity, continue \u200bto enforce\u2062 discriminatory measures based on race and \u2063gender, which they claim\u2064 defeats the purpose of meritocracy. Section 523\u200c of HR 8070, while intended to advance meritocracy, is criticized \u2064for its vague language, which could \u2064allow military bureaucrats to \u2062sustain racial discrimination and misinterpret \u2064gender\u2063 definitions in a way that could\u2062 disadvantage women. <\/p>\n<p>The Department of Defense (DOD) asserts that \u2064maintaining a balance in \u2063the racial and sexual makeup of\u2062 the military is crucial for discipline and national defense. However, the House-passed NDAA allegedly does \u2064not prevent the DOD from \u200cusing race and gender as criteria in personnel decisions,\u2062 thereby challenging\u2064 the essence \u200dof\u2062 merit-based advancement. \u2063Concerns are\u2063 raised \u200bthat the current focus on DEI has \u200cdiverted attention from crucial areas such \u200das combat readiness and recruitment.<\/p>\n<p>Proposed changes to the NDAA \u2064include defining merit through specific, objective criteria and excluding irrelevant factors such as race or gender identity, and explicitly preventing the DOD from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/21-woke-mandates-reveal-californias-radical-education-bender\/\" title=\"California's Radical Education Bender Exposed by 21 Woke Mandates.\">incorporating gender identity<\/a> under \u2064the term &#8216;sex&#8217;. Critics\u200d argue that \u200dwithout these amendments, the NDAA would \u2064not effectively change the DOD&#8217;s current practices, potentially allowing the \u200dcontinuation of policies that they view as discriminatory and counterproductive to military effectiveness.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The American public is demanding action to restore meritocracy in our military, and to stop toxic diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) mandates that discriminate based on race.<\/p>\n<p>The House version of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2025 includes some measures to accomplish these goals. One misguided though well-intended provision in the House bill, however, would advance the woke agenda instead of mitigating it.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/118\/bills\/hr8070\/BILLS-118hr8070rh.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sec. 523 of HR 8070<\/a> was billed as a \u201cmeritocracy\u201d provision, but its lack of precision will allow Department of Defense (DOD) bureaucrats to continue discriminating based on race in military personnel actions. Pentagon ideologues will also interpret the undefined word \u201csex\u201d in ways that harm women and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/not-at-all-secret-gay-agenda-disney-employees-break-down-adding-queerness-to-shows-and-degenderizing-theme-parks\/\" title=\"\u2018Not-At-All-Secret Gay Agenda\u2019: Disney Employees Break Down \u2018Adding Queerness\u2019 To Shows And Degenderizing Theme Parks\">promote radical gender ideology<\/a>. Unintended consequences matter, especially when undefined words are enshrined in law.<\/p>\n<p>Biden\u2019s Department of Defense <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/20\/20-1199\/232539\/20220801205901633_20-1199%20Harvard%20FINAL%20Revised.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">argued<\/a> before the Supreme Court in <em>Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and UNC<\/em>, that granting racial and \u201cgender preferences\u201d in admissions to the Military Service Academies and to civilian colleges hosting ROTC programs was necessary to achieve a balance between the racial and sexual makeup of the enlisted force and the officer corps. Without that balance, they argued, minority soldiers would be less likely to follow orders, and our national defense would be imperiled. Despite <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/transcripts\/1197953097\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">new litigation<\/a> challenging racial discrimination at the service academies, the DOD is still <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/DeptofDefense\/status\/1626959842572222465\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">claiming<\/a> that \u201cdiversity is a strategic imperative.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As passed by the House, the NDAA \u201cmerit provision\u201d directs DOD to base personnel actions on \u201cindividual merit and demonstrated performance \u2026 without regard to the political affiliation, race, color, religion, national origin, sex, or marital status\u2026\u201d of the service member.<\/p>\n<p>At first blush, this language seems like it will stop DOD\u2019s discriminatory practices. Upon further analysis, however, it is apparent that if the House-Senate conference committee retains this provision in the final bill, it will give DOD congressional cover to continue its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/top-insurance-company-facing-major-lawsuit-after-white-trucking-dispatcher-realizes-he-was-discriminated-against\/\" title=\"Leading insurance company sued for discrimination by white trucking dispatcher.\">racially discriminatory practices<\/a> and allow men to occupy private spaces previously reserved for women.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the NDAA\u2019s \u201cmerit provision\u201d is very similar to DOD\u2019s current <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dmi-ida.org\/knowledge-base-detail\/dod-military-equal-opportunity-program\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Military Equal Opportunity (MEO) program<\/a>. Under the MEO program, the Biden administration has been able to grant racial and sexual preferences in personnel decisions such as promotions, command selection, and assignments, as well as granting protected status to \u201cgender identity\u201d and sexual orientation.<\/p>\n<p>The time, effort, and money spent by DOD on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defense.gov\/News\/News-Stories\/Article\/Article\/3055525\/dod-pays-tribute-to-lgbtq-service-members\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">celebrating<\/a> \u201cgender identity\u201d has made the military an attractive employer for those wishing to undergo <a href=\"https:\/\/www.army.mil\/standto\/archive\/2021\/06\/25\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">transgender surgery<\/a> on the taxpayer\u2019s dime. DOD\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esd.whs.mil\/Portals\/54\/Documents\/DD\/issuances\/dodi\/130028p.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">policy<\/a> allows men who believe they are women to dress like women, use women\u2019s berthing and bathing facilities, and serve under physical standards applicable to women, with or without genital surgery.<\/p>\n<p>The military\u2019s obsession with advancing DEI has created an inability to meet <a href=\"https:\/\/www.military.com\/daily-news\/2024\/01\/22\/uphill-battle-boost-recruiting-military-faces-falling-public-confidence-political-attacks-economic.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recruiting goals<\/a>, lowered morale, resulted in less time for training for essential <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/06\/17\/the-militarys-biggest-problem-is-readiness-not-recruiting\/?\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">combat tasks<\/a>, and a <a href=\"https:\/\/warontherocks.com\/2023\/03\/addressing-the-u-s-military-recruiting-crisis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">decrease in readiness<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>To establish a true meritocracy, stop the DOD from using race and sex as proxies for merit, and reestablish biological reality, the NDAA needs to be amended in three ways before it lands on President Biden\u2019s desk:<\/p>\n<p>First, personnel actions need to be based <em>exclusively <\/em>on merit. As currently written, the House-passed version of the NDAA requires DOD to consider \u201cmerit and demonstrated performance\u201d in personnel actions, but it does not require those actions to be based <em>only<\/em> on \u201cmerit and demonstrated performance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Without this change, the DOD is free to consider other extraneous and irrelevant criteria to meet their DEI goals if they also consider \u201cmerit and demonstrated performance\u201d in some degree.<\/p>\n<p>Second, <em>merit <\/em>needs to be defined by specific objective and measurable criteria, such as training, experience, and special skill qualifications. Importantly, the definition needs to specifically exclude race, sex, \u201cgender identity,\u201d \u201cgender expression,\u201d and other irrelevant factors.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cwithout regard\u201d language of the provision is a weak attempt to address this point but is not sufficient to force DOD to abandon its discriminatory policies. Unless explicitly ordered from doing so by Congress, DOD idealogues will continue to view race and sex when factoring a service member\u2019s merit. In the DOD\u2019s worldview, a person\u2019s skin color, sex, \u201cgender identity,\u201d or \u201cgender expression\u201d are just as important as technical competence. \u201cDiversity,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/thejointstaff\/status\/1284241794318901249\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according<\/a> to DOD, \u201cis our strength.\u201d The only way to end this practice is for Congress to explicitly define what constitutes merit.<\/p>\n<p>Third, Congress must preclude DOD from interpreting \u201csex\u201d to encompass \u201cgender identity\u201d or \u201cgender expression.\u201d The term \u201csex\u201d needs to be defined in terms of a person\u2019s natal biological reality, not \u201cgender identity\u201d or a bureaucratic \u201cgender marker.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Without these changes, the DOD will seek to circumvent Congress\u2019s directives. I\u2019ve been in meetings with senior Pentagon leaders in other contexts where the discussion centered on how to get around statutory language that hindered the DOD\u2019s preferred policies. That same type of meeting will take place to address this issue.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike the DOE\u2019s expansion of the definition of \u201csex\u201d in Title IX, which has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wdsu.com\/article\/bidens-title-ix-rule-blocked\/61144152\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">enjoined<\/a> by at least two federal courts, DOD\u2019s internal rulemaking is not subject to judicial review under the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/wex\/administrative_procedure_act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Administrative Procedure Act<\/a>. Thus, DOD is free to interpret the loose and undefined language in the NDAA in a manner that will allow them to continue to promote their DEI agenda. The federal courts will not solve the problem. DOD\u2019s interpretation will prevail unless and until Congress changes it.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the strongest evidence that the merit provision will not stop DOD\u2019s discriminatory practices is that the Biden administration is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/SAP-HR8070.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">not opposed<\/a> to its inclusion. If the White House or DOD thought that the meritocracy provision in the NDAA would slow down their efforts to continue to discriminate based on race or hinder their efforts to use the military to further their agenda, it would have been on the administration\u2019s list of NDAA provisions that it opposes. It wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>If congressional Republicans had included a single word and clarified a few definitions, they could have closed the loopholes DOD will exploit to continue their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/10-books-every-conservative-should-read-in-2021\/\" title=\"10 Books Every Conservative Should Read In 2021\">divisive identity politics<\/a>. The House of Representatives left the loopholes open, no doubt causing Biden administration officials to smile. What is wrong with this picture?<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      William Woodruff is a professor of law emeritus and a retired Army lawyer. As an Army lawyer, he served as chief of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-biden-chief-of-staff-ron-klain-joins-legal-firm-two-months-after-leaving-white-house\/\" title=\"Former Biden chief of staff Ron Klain joins legal firm two months after leaving White House\">litigation division<\/a> and was responsible for defending the Army\u2019s interests in civil litigation involving Army policies, programs, and operations.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The American public seeks action to reinstate meritocracy in the military and halt discriminatory DEI mandates. The 2025 National Defense Authorization Act in the House proposes measures towards these objectives. However, one provision in the bill, though well-intended, appears misguided<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":742,"featured_media":2282404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Military-pride.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[32368,32367,4505,32366,5894],"class_list":["post-2282403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-identity-politics","tag-merit-provision","tag-military","tag-ndaa","tag-politics"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Military-pride.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2282403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/742"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2282403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2282403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2282404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2282403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2282403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2282403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}