Lansing Sun

Representative Elissa Slotkin (D-MI 7) has been named to the House and Senate conference committee that will craft the 2024 National Defense Reauthorization Act (NDAA), the bill that funds America's military. However, the House has been without a speaker, and conflict has erupted in Israel after a brutal terrorist attack by Hamas, sparking a war between Israel and the terrorist group.

Now that a new speaker has been elected, Slotkin and the other committee members will have to decide whether to adopt the House version of the bill, which focuses on key defense spending, or the Senate version, which includes controversial social spending. This social spending includes reimbursing abortion travel, paying for gender reassignment surgeries, drag shows at military bases, and so-called racial equity training.

According to CNN, the death toll from Hamas' attack on Israel has risen to over 1,400 people, including at least 30 Americans. Hamas is currently holding at least 155 hostages, according to the Israeli Defense Force. 

CBS News reports that Israeli soldiers have witnessed the bodies of beheaded infants at the Kfar Aza kibbutz, and the Israeli Defense Forces have discovered the aftermath of horrific violence, releasing images of blood-spattered rooms and the burned and mutilated bodies of Hamas' victims.

ABC News reports that at least 29 Americans have been killed in Israel, with some remaining missing or captured.

If Slotkin’s earlier opposition to the House version of the bill is any indication, the Michigan Congresswoman will be a supportive voice to keep gender and equity spending. Slotkin voted against the House’s version of the military spending bill in its final form, including all of its amendments, posting on X, formerly Twitter, that the amendments to strip the controversial social spending were her reason for her first-ever “no” vote on NDAA.

The House voted to pass the NDAA with the social spending restrictions in July by a margin of 219 to 210. The bill authorizes $886 billion for national defense programs and includes provisions to counter China's influence, promote tech innovation, and improve military readiness and missile defense capabilities, according to CNN.

The House version included several provisions that would eliminate all Pentagon Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs and personnel, block military school libraries from purchasing or possessing “pornographic and radical gender ideology books,” and bar the DOD and DOD health programs from covering gender reassignment procedures.

The Jackson-Roy amendment, which prevents the DOD from reimbursing service members for abortion-related expenses, was also passed in the House version. The amendment argues that the DOD's policy for reimbursing abortion-related travel expenses violates the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal funds for abortions, the Texas Tribune reported.

The House version of the bill also includes an amendment that codifies a ban on drag shows on military bases and prohibits DOD funding for such performances, according to The Hill.

Also included and passed in the House bill were several amendments from Congressman Jim Banks, whose office referred to the Banks amendments as “anti-woke amendments.” The Banks amendments included a provision to suspend the Navy’s Digital Ambassador Program, which had been using drag queen videos as part of their recruitment efforts.

The so-called “anti-woke” Banks amendments also took on racial quotas in admissions to service academies as well as DOD policies related to promotions and assignments. According to a release on Banks’ website, the Banks amendments would eliminate racial discrimination and quotas in admissions for military academies, like West Point, and would further require the DOD to issue a policy that all military accessions, assignments, selections, or promotions must be decided based on merit and also prohibit any quotas being assigned to applicant pools.

A lawsuit challenging West Point's race-based admissions policies was recently filed by Students for Fair Admissions, the same group that won an affirmative action case against Harvard and UNC-Chapel Hill earlier this year, according to CNN.

A Magnolia Tribune report from February 2022 found that US Service members had spent 5,889,082 man-hours on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion trainings and seminars since President Biden took office the previous year. The report also included a letter from General Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time, stating that during that same period the DOD had spent $476,874 on DEI trainings and a further $535,000 on a training program called “Extremism Stand Down.”

A survey conducted by the Heritage Foundation earlier this year found that 68% of active service members witnessed some level of politicization in the military, and 65% expressed concerns about this development.

Now that Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) has been elected as the speaker of the House, the House and Senate have until November 17th to pass a series of spending bills, including the NDAA, as reported by CBS News.