By Dave Smith / IFI -
According to an Associated Press report, the U.S. Senate voted to approve a $602 billion defense bill which also mandates that our daughters register for Selective Service and a possible future draft. This gender blind, biologically indifferent proposal was sponsored by U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), who also happens to chair the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee.
Both Illinois U.S. Senators, Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk, voted in favor of this irresponsible legislation. The over all vote was 85 in favor, just 13 opposed.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) spoke out in opposition to the measure, saying in an official statement that this political correct bill “is being used as a vehicle to further agendas that have nothing to do with actually defending America. Despite the many laudable objectives in this bill, I could not in good conscience vote to draft our daughters into the military, sending them off to war and forcing them into combat.”
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 (S. 2943), if passed by the U.S. House and signed into law by President Barack Obama, would require:
(1) The duty to register imposed on male citizens and persons residing in the United States by subsection (a) shall apply to female citizens of the United States and female persons residing in the United States who attain the age of 18 years on or after January 1, 2018.
(2) The responsibilities and rights of female registrants under this Act shall be the responsibilities and rights of male registrants under this Act, and shall be subject to such terms, conditions, and limitations as are applicable under the provisions of this Act to similarly situated male registrants.
(3) Any reference in this Act to a registrant or other person subject to the duties, responsibilities, and rights of a registrant under this Act shall be deemed to refer to female citizens of the United States and female persons residing in the United States registering pursuant to this subsection.
The bill now heads over to the U.S. House.
