(The Center Square) – U.S. lawmakers will hold a hearing Thursday on “woke ideologies” influencing the military and how that may be negatively impacting national security, including recruitment of new members.
Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs Chairman Glenn Grothman, R-Wisc., will host the hearing.
“The men and women who bravely serve within the military must stay focused on combat readiness, not left-wing objectives which serve no military purpose,” Grothman said in a statement. “It is imperative to extract this poisonous and unhelpful thinking from our military and return the armed services to their core functions.”
A laundry list of controversial examples of military spending have fueled these concerns including DOD funding for drag shows, as well as training members on things like white privilege and pronoun usage.
This hearing comes as the Department of Defense continues to report difficulty meeting recruitment targets. The DOD reported last month that it had missed its fiscal year recruiting goal by 41,000.
In fact, that shortfall only comes after the military branches had already lowered their recruiting goals. The DOD did not list the growth of progressive ideology as a reason for the shortfall, but other experts and critics have cited that ideology as a key factor.
At a hearing last March, Grothman has raised concerns about “progressive ideals” and its impact on recruitment.
The concern over progressive ideology in the military was at the forefront of the debate over and eventual passage in December of the National Defense Authorization Act, which funds the military for another year.
One provision passed by the U.S. House but removed by the Senate was a provision preventing the Department of Defense Education Activity, which educates on-base children, from promoting critical race theory.
“The House-passed version also put an end to taxpayer-funded abortion travel, transgender surgeries, and President Biden’s radical climate agenda in our nation’s military,” Rep. Brad Finstad, R-Minn, said in a statement at the time. “Unfortunately, the Senate chose to strip these provisions and instead used the NDAA to implement its far-left agenda by continuing to fund these woke policies.”
Now, those policies are under further scrutiny as it is already time to start formulating the next NDAA.
“Our military has one primary function: defend Americans and American interests at home and abroad,” Grothman said. “At least this was the primary function until the Biden Administration force fed progressivism into the branches of the armed services.”
