Members of the U.S House of Representatives,

As you prepare to debate and vote on H.R. 2670, the annual National Defense Reauthorization Act (NDAA), we strongly urge you to take into consideration key policy provisions that will determine whether or not the NDAA is worthy of support. 

These considerations should be made through the prism of whether the legislation provides for the restoration of our military’s fighting capabilities, renews a spirit of purpose among servicemembers, wisely allocates resources to better protect the nation, and eliminates the woke cultural rot that has permeated the Department of Defense. The NDAA must embrace policies necessary to defend the American people and our republic from looming threats and beyond as opposed to satisfying the desires of D.C. elites and well-connected entities tied to the defense industry.

The United States military is currently facing one of its worst recruiting crises since the inception of the all-volunteer military. There are many reasons for this, but foremost among them is a sustained and pervasive culture of wokeness–characterized by the embrace of race essentialism and destructive diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives designed to diminish the military’s core mission and fracture servicemembers along lines of identity to advance a radical leftist agenda. 

The infusion of far-left politics into our Armed Forces threatens the survival of our nation and cannot be tolerated. Yet, it has become endemic–the chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force brags about diversity quotas in its officer selection process, the Pentagon uses taxpayer money to fund abortion tourism for servicemembers and implement Green New Deal climate zealotry into its vehicle operations, and DOD infuses Critical Theory and other radical neo-Marixst ideologies throughout the service academies. The NDAA must bring an end to this divisive and destructive agenda. 

Further, readiness levels remain alarmingly low. Recent reports have highlighted that nearly 40 percent of the Navy’s submarine fleet remains offline. The F-35 fleet–the nation’s premier fighter tasked with carrying out our most critical missions–is operating below 60 percent readiness. Modernization efforts have stalled and the U.S. lags far behind China in ramping up our naval fleet to meet the new goal of 355 operational ships. This comes as Americans continue to watch helplessly as we are drawn further into the Ukraine conflict with increasingly higher levels of funding–the total now exceeding $100 billion–that deplete our resources and weaken America’s ability to deter communist China’s aggression in the Pacific.

The following amendments have been made in order and Citizens for Renewing America strongly urges lawmakers to support these critical legislative provisions:

• Number 377 prohibits the Secretary of Defense from paying for or reimbursing expenses relating to abortion services. This is the amendment version of H.R. 1297.
• Number 194 prohibits TRICARE from covering and the Department of Defense from furnishing sex reassignment surgeries and gender hormone treatments for transgender individuals. 
• Number 515 prohibits funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, as well as EcoHealth Alliance, any subsidiary of EcoHealth Alliance, any organization directly controlled by EcoHealth Alliance, or any organization or individual that is a subgrantee or subcontractor of EcoHealth Alliance.
• Number 30 prohibits provision of gender transition procedures, including surgery or medication, through the Exceptional Family Member Program.
• Number 105 strikes $300 million of Ukraine funding.
• Number 1206 prohibits security assistance for Ukraine. 
• Number 472 requires the President, in coordination with the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State, to develop and submit a report to Congress that contains a strategy for U.S. involvement in Ukraine 
• Number 1219 strikes Section 1224 of the bill, which extends lend-lease authority to Ukraine.
• Number 310 amends Section 904 to prohibit federal funds from being used to establish a position within the Department of Defense for anything similar to Chief Diversity Officers or Senior Advisors for Diversity and Inclusion.
• Number 363 prohibits funds authorized for DoDEA from being used to promote that idea that, 1) Any race is inherently superior or inferior to any other race, color, or national origin. 2) The US is a fundamentally racist country. 3) The Declaration of Independence or the US Constitution are racist documents, 4) An individual’s moral character or worth is determined by the individual’s race, color, or national origin. 5) An individual, by virtue of the individual’s race, is inherently racist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously. 6) An individual, because of the individual’s race, bears responsibility for the actions committed by other members of the individual’s race, color, or national origin.
• Number 1000 prohibits the Department of Defense from making participation in training or support for certain race-based concepts a requirement for hiring, promotion, or retention of individuals. It also ensures that employees and service members cannot be compelled to declare belief in or participate in training that promotes such concepts as a condition of favorable personnel actions.
• Number 1465 eliminates any offices of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion along with the personnel in said offices within the offices of the Armed Forces and Department of Defense.
• Number 1464 codifies Trump administration guidance to prohibit the display of unapproved flags.
• Number 1386 prohibits Department of Defense Education Activity schools from purchasing and having pornographic and radical gender ideology books in their libraries.
• Number 394 prohibits any adverse actions against cadets or midshipmen based on their COVID-19 vaccination status. Further, states that an individual may not be denied admission at a service academy based on their COVID-19 vaccination status.
• Number 1006 amends service reinstatement and protection provisions in the FY2024 NDAA for service members who refused Covid vaccination to also include members of the Coast Guard. 
• Number 1558 bars cluster munitions or cluster munitions technology from being sold or transferred to Ukraine.
• Number 189 expresses a sense of Congress that the US should not continue subsidizing NATO member countries who choose not to invest in their own defense by meeting the 2014 Wales Summit Defense Spending Benchmark. 
• Number 314 prohibits federal funds for training on diversity, equity, and inclusion. 
• Number 1383 requires that any DOD component that fails to pass an independent audit have 1.5 percent of its budget returned to the Treasury for deficit reduction. Exempts personnel accounts and Defense Health Program. 
• Number 365 requires the Department of Defense to perform an audit. If it fails to, the discretionary budget authority available for the Department of Defense, the military department, or the Defense Agency shall be reduced by .5 percent. 
• Numbers 1345 prohibits DoD from establishing new DEI administrator positions and/or taking actions to fill vacancies in currently existing DEI billets.
• Number 1421 prohibits any funds authorized in the bill from being used by the military service academies to discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity in academy admissions or to establish quotas for admission on the basis of race or ethnicity.
• Number 1556 prohibits DOD from carrying out Biden’s climate change executive orders.

Passage of these amendments is necessary to begin the process of revitalizing the purpose and power of our nation’s Armed Forces and protect the American people. There are those who seek to destroy our republic from within and from beyond our shores. The NDAA must recognize and confront this reality. Adoption of these amendments is critical to that mission.

The American people expect and deserve their military to be exemplary. Unfortunately, this is not reflected in the military’s current state. The humiliating failure of leadership stemming from the disastrously-managed Afghanistan withdrawal continues to fester, the pervasiveness of radical DEI and Critical Theory throughout the ranks of our service branches continues to divide and deter recruitment, and the diminishing trust Americans have in the efficacy of the Armed Forces continues to jeopardize our ability to both project power and defend the nation.

PDF: Letter to Congress on Consideration of Key Policy Provisions in the NDAA (H.R. 2670)