Chip Roy Introduces Bill to Kick Wokeness Out of the Military

As war with China over Taiwan looks increasingly likely and tensions with Russia heat up thanks to the war in the Ukraine, you’d think that the US military would start taking things seriously and start focusing more on warfighting than finding woke commissars to push a leftist agenda on the troops.

But, of course, that’s not what is happening and the military is as woke as ever. So, to start fighting back against that, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas has introduced a bill, the “Restoring Military Focus Act” that would get the military refocused on warfighting.

It would do so by eliminating the position of Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer appointed by the Secretary of Defense, eliminating the Senior Advisor for Diversity and Inclusion appointed by the Secretary of each military department, and prohibiting the use of federal funds to establish any other, similar positions at the Department of Defense.

Announcing the plan in a statement, Rep. Roy said:

The Pentagon’s job is to develop our men and women in the Armed Forces into a united, lethal, and battle-ready force to defeat our enemies and defend our interests. It is not supposed to be a woke social engineering experiment wrapped in a uniform. The American people gave House Republicans the power of the purse in November; we need to deliver on our promises and restore mission focus to our Armed Forces.

He also said, in the statement:

“The Defense Department has allocated tax-payer dollars to support Chief Diversity Officers tasked to establish ‘training in diversity dynamics’ and ‘evaluations and assessments of diversity.’ We need to stop the politicization of the Department of Defense and keep our Armed Forces focused on their goal of defending our national security.

“The Restoring Military Focus Act is an important and necessary step to push back against the progressive agenda at the Department of Defense.”

An explainer for the anti-woke bill provides that “We need to stop the politicization of the Department of Defense and keep our Armed Forces focused on their goal of defending our national security. The Restoring Military Focus Act is an important and necessary step to push back against the progressive agenda at the Department of Defense.”

Rep. Roy’s bill is more important than ever given how tensions with peer or near-peer competitors around the world, namely Russia and China, are increasing and some sort of conflict is looking more and more likely.

Roy’s bill would fire those woke officers by repealing Sec. 913 of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which established their positions. That section of the NDAA states:

The Chief Diversity Officer (1) is responsible for providing advice on policy, oversight, guidance, and coordination for all matters of the Department of Defense related to diversity and inclusion; (2) advises the Secretary of Defense, the Secretaries of the military departments, and the heads of all other elements of the Department with regard to matters of diversity and inclusion; (3) shall establish and maintain a Department of Defense strategic plan that publicly states a diversity definition, vision, and goals for the Department; (4) shall define a set of strategic metrics that are directly linked to key organizational priorities and goals, actionable, and actively used to implement the strategic plan under paragraph (3); (5) shall advise in the establishment of training in diversity dynamics and training in practices for leading diverse groups effectively; (6) shall advise in the establishment of a strategic plan for diverse participation by institutions of higher education (including historically black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions), federally funded research and development centers, and individuals in defense-related research, development, test, and evaluation activities; (7) shall advise in the establishment of a strategic plan for outreach to, and recruiting from, untapped locations and underrepresented demographic groups; (8) shall coordinate with, and be supported by, the Office of People Analytics on studies, assessments, and related work relevant to diversity and inclusion; and (9) shall perform such additional duties and exercise such powers as the Secretary of Defense may prescribe.’

The head of Air Mobility Command, for instance, recently told the officers under him to start developing war plans with China. That order came in a highly publicized memo in which he also argued that war with China within the next two years is highly likely given the division and lack of focus in the West and Xi’s desire to retake the island of Taiwan.

By: Will Tanner. Follow me on Twitter @Will_Tanner_1