Blake Hall
There are not one, not two, but three bills circulating Congress in response to recent debate that the Selective Service System should start drafting women.
Here’s a breakdown of the bills and their main differences:
1) Draft Our Daughters
The first bill was introduced a week ago by Rep. Duncan Hunter and Rep. Ryan Zinke to make women eligible for the draft.
According to the policy’s text, the bill would “amend the Military Selective Service Act to extend the registration and conscription requirements of the Selective Service System, currently applicable only to men between the ages of 18 and 26, to women between those ages to reflect the opening of combat arms Military Occupational Specialties to women.”
Hunter and Zinke do not personally want women to be included in the draft, but they introduced the bill anyway to keep the conversation within the halls of Congress.
Sen. John McCain has announced his support for the bill, and several military leaders have voiced their support for including women in the draft as well.
2) Protect Our Daughters
Meanwhile, Sen. Mike Lee is introducing a proposal that would essentially maintain the status quo. Between ages 18 and 25, men would be required to sign up for the Selective Service System. Meanwhile, drafting women would remain illegal despite female service members being allowed to apply for combat roles in the military.
Like Hunter and Zinke, Lee mostly wants the decision to revise the draft to remain in Congress’ hands.
“We need new legislation making clear that if the United States is going to change this policy, Congress must be the one to do it,” Lee said.
Presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have already announced their support for Lee’s bill.
“I’m the father of two little girls,” Cruz explained before the New Hampshire primary. “I love those girls with all my heart. They are capable of doing anything in their hearts’ desire, but the idea that their government would forcibly put them in the foxhole with a 220-pound psychopath trying to kill them, doesn’t make any sense at all.”
3) Abolish the Draft
A third bill was introduced Thursday that would make both sides of the argument null and void. Rather than drafting women or men, this policy would destroy the draft entirely.
Rep. Mike Coffman, the lead sponsor of the bill, believes that now that women are allowed to apply for combat roles in the military, there is no need to draft anyone. He also notes that the Selective Service System costs $23 million a year to maintain even though it hasn’t been invoked since 1973.
“Our all-volunteer military has given us the most elite fighting force in the history of this country,” Coffman said in an official statement.