Ken Calvert: “This amendment risks undermining the readiness of our military at a time when we can least afford it. It does so by…”

“This amendment risks undermining the readiness of our military at a time when we can least afford it. It does so by prohibiting the implementation of a careful and thoughtful policy developed by a panel of military experts last year regarding military service by transgender individuals. Then-Secretary of Defense Mattis wrote that, in his best professional judgment, allowing military service by transgender individuals in the absence of this policy could ``undermine the readiness, disrupt the unit cohesion, and impose an unreasonable burden on the military that is not conductive to military effectiveness and lethality.'' This current policy is not--I repeat, not--a ban on service by transgender individuals. It carefully balances the readiness needs of the military with the medical needs of transgender individuals who wish to serve. As new recruits, those individuals can serve openly under their biological gender so long as they have not suffered from gender dysphoria within 36 months and have not undergone gender transition procedures. Furthermore, the new policy only applies to those seeking to join the military after its April 12, 2019, implementation and allows the service and the Coast Guard to waive its application in individual cases. This issue is not one of social policy but of deployability.…”