Defense bill includes ‘anti-woke’ bans on spending for military drag shows, critical race theory
WASHINGTON – This year’s edition of the annual defense spending bill includes a series of “anti-woke” measures pushed by House Republicans — including the stripping of funding for military drag show performances and outlawing instruction in critical race theory.
“I fought hard to ensure that DoD does not spend any funds on drag queen shows and children’s drag queen story hours,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) told The Post of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, published late Wednesday.
“These far-left hyper-partisan distractions do nothing to boost readiness and capability,” he added.
The bill also calls for slashing the Biden administration’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in the military. The text specifically calls for eliminating the Pentagon’s DEI chief position and requiring Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to “assess and validate the need for every position in the DEI bureaucracy.”
“[The bill] prohibits funds for any DoD advisory committee dealing with race, gender identity, sexual orientation, or social justice,” House Republicans said in a statement Thursday.
Biden has made DEI one of his administration’s top priorities, requiring all federal agencies to produce annual reports assessing and creating diversity efforts in each of their departments.
The draft bill would also prohibit the Pentagon from contracting with NewsGuard Technologies, a company that claims to “factcheck” reporting and issue “risk of harm” ratings to various media – but in reality has largely censored conservative outlets.
“[The bill] prohibits DoD from contracting with NewsGuard Technologies or similar advertising firms that blacklist conservative news sources,” according to the statement.
Further, the bill’s final draft would eliminate all funding for the Pentagon’s ‘Countering Extremism Working Group,‘ which the House GOP called “politically biased.”
The group is meant to “address the threat posed by prohibited extremist activities” and tackle “discrimination, hatred, and harassment” in the services, according to the Defense Department.
However, Republican leaders have said the group – formed in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021 riot by former President Donald Trump’s supporters at the Capitol – has unfairly targeted conservative troops.
The bill would also get ahead of a pending federal rule that would require the Pentagon to select only the greenest contractors for multimillion-dollar weapons awards – even as the defense industry races to keep up with growing production needs.
“[It] blocks the DoD from requiring defense contractors to document the impact their weapons systems have on greenhouse gas emissions and submit plans to reduce emissions,” according to the House Republicans statement.
It’s unlikely that all of the provisions will make it through the process of negotiations with Democrats in passing the NDAA. Previously, the left has fiercely denounced their Republican counterparts for including conservative priorities in what is typically a bipartisan annual process.
“Extreme MAGA Republicans have chosen to hijack the historically bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act to continue attacking reproductive freedom and jamming their right-wing ideology down the throats of the American people,” House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) and Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) said in a July statement after an earlier version of the bill passed the House.
However, Rogers told The Post that the GOP provisions would benefit military readiness.
“The focus of our military,” he said, “must be to maintain the most capable and lethal force in the world.”