Green Bay Reporter

On September 1, 2023, Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI) released the following statement in response to a recently enacted DoD policy that strips gendered pronouns from awards honoring the men and women who serve in our Armed Forces. 

"The Secretary of the Air Force stated that our military is ‘not as ready as we need to be’ to face the challenge posed by the Chinese Communist Party. Yet, amid this challenge and compounding military recruiting and budget crises, the Pentagon has once again chosen to waste time and resources on wokeness instead of warfighting. The Department recently stripped gendered pronouns ‘he’ and ‘she’ from awards honoring the brave men and women who dedicate their lives to this country. Instead they require all awardees, regardless of preference, to be reduced to a gender-less, collective ‘themselves’ – substituting grammatical error for honor. 

“This is insane. House Republicans have raised serious concerns on the Pentagon’s growing DEI bureaucracy and its impact on recruiting, yet top defense officials repeatedly downplay these concerns and double down on these kinds of crazy policies. This year's NDAA took steps to stop this behavior, but more must be done to ensure the Pentagon is laser-focused on lethality, not pronouns.”

The steps this year's NDAA took to push back on wokeness in our military:

Banning Critical Race Theory (CRT)

• Prohibits funding for the teaching of CRT in the military.
• Prohibits funds for any DoD advisory committee dealing with CRT.
• Requires DoD to report to Congress on how much time and taxpayer dollars have been wasted on CRT training.

Ending DEI Overreach

• Repeals the DoD’s unnecessary Chief Diversity Officer.
• Guts the Pentagon’s DEI bureaucracy by prohibiting the DOD from paying anyone whose job it is to carry out DEI programs more than $92,000 (GS-10 level).
• Requires the Secretary to assess and validate the need for every position in the DEI bureaucracy.
• Eliminates funding for the DoD’s politically biased Countering Extremism Working Group.
• Prohibits DoD from contracting with NewsGuard Technologies or similar advertising firms that blacklist conservative news sources.
• Prohibits funds for any DoD advisory committee dealing with race, gender identity, sexual orientation, or social justice.

Prohibits Drag Shows

• Eliminates funding for drag shows, Drag Queen Story Hours, or similar events.
• Halts the Navy’s promotion of a drag queen as a “Digital Ambassador”.

Protecting Parents Rights

• Includes a Parents Bill of Rights to ensure parents of children in DoD schools have the right to review curriculum, books, and instructional materials; meet with teachers; and provide consent before any medical exams or screenings by the school.

Preventing a Military Green New Deal

• Does NOT authorize climate change programs.
• Blocks DoD from requiring defense contractors to document the impact their weapons systems have on greenhouse gas emissions and submit plans to reduce emissions.
• Ensures military ranges in the Gulf of Mexico remain open for critical training.
• Cuts funding for questionable combat vehicle electrification research programs.
• Prohibits funds for DoD advisory committees dealing with environmental justice.

Original source can be found here.