Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise today in support of amendment No. 49 on the International Military Education and Training Program. IMET is, as we all know, a prestigious and competitive program that trains the next generation of senior leadership in our allies' militaries around the globe and enables us to maximize the competitive advantage our alliances and partnerships provide. However, as of 2019, approximately only 8 percent of the IMET's participants were women. That percentage increase was only 2 points since 2015. We can and must do better to ensure that we continue to provide this world-class training to our female military leaders around the world. This amendment would simply require a gender analysis assessment of the program to better understand the impediments to increasing the number of female participants and address any specific needs the women in the program may have. By signaling the importance of including more gender diversity in the program, we are encouraging our partners and allied militaries to invest more heavily in the recruitment, training, and promotion of women within their security forces. We do know that this is not just important; it is smart. We know that our world is more peaceful and prosperous when women are involved in national security and defense decisionmaking processes.…”