Deep into the debate of the annual National Defense Authorization Act Wednesday night, a slate of amendments came up in the House Armed Services Committee going after what Republicans call “Wokeness in the Military.”
The GOP proposals were targeted at two Pentagon policies to promote diversity. The first amendment would remove consideration of “politics, race, color, sex or religion” from the Department of Defense’s “military accession, promotion, and command selection.” The other amendment would force military service academies to exclusively use a merit-based criteria for admissions.
Both proposals were sponsored by Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, and both were adopted on party-line votes during the marathon committee markup Wednesday.