During consideration of the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 8070), Representative Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) offered an amendment to eliminate any offices of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within the armed forces and Department of Defense, along with the personnel in those offices.
The House adopted Norman’s amendment on June 13, 2024 by a vote of 211 to 208 (Roll Call 267). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because neither Congress nor the president has any business promoting “woke” DEI policies to socially engineer an effeminate, egalitarian, and/or insubordinate culture in the armed forces. Since the Obama administration, DEI-related changes have resulted in not only homosexuals serving openly within the ranks, but women in combat and “transgendered” troops. This subverts order, discipline, and the very existence of the military itself, which is to be provided for by Congress, according to Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. Federal lawmakers and the commander in chief should, in a manner worthy of self-government, “bear true faith and allegiance” to the same constitutional principles that our nation’s service members also take an oath to “support and defend.”
