Roscoe Bartlett: “these are very difficult remarks for me, but I cannot keep faith with hundreds of thousands of Americans without rising…”

“these are very difficult remarks for me, but I cannot keep faith with hundreds of thousands of Americans without rising to express major concern about a portion of this bill. The Family Research Council, the Christian Coalition, Concerned Women for America and Focus on the Family are all calling for a no vote on this bill. They are doing that because they love this country. They are doing that because they really support a strong military. Their concern is that this report failed to include language on requiring separate gender training in PT, in small units recommended by the Kassebaum-Baker panel, included in our House bill and endorsed by a letter to the conferees signed by all of senior leadership and by all but one of our full committee chairs. Not a single woman plays professional football. Not a single woman plays professional baseball. Men and women are different, and they need to be trained separately in PT. No matter how long we worship at the altar of political correctness, it will not change this fact. We need to send this bill back to conference so we can report out a good bill that we can pass that is really going to support our military. If we continue with the present policy, it assures continued embarrassing sexual misconduct scandals. The chaplain at Fort Leonard Wood said what we are trying to do runs contrary to the powers of nature. Secondly, it is contrary to good order and discipline. It puts readiness at risk.”