On the recordMay 14, 2002
It is my hope that the House tonight will send a very clear message to the Department of Defense that its policy on the wearing of the abaya, first making it mandatory and then strongly encouraging women service members in Saudi Arabia to wear the abaya, is completely unacceptable to this House and to the American people. This bill, when passed, and I believe it will be passed and included in the defense authorization bill, or a stand-alone bill will pass the Senate, will end the DOD policy that affects American servicewomen serving in Saudi Arabia. The sad thing is that this bill is needed at all. This policy should never have been put in place in the first place. When it was put in place and brought to the attention of senior commanders at the Pentagon, it should have been immediately repealed as transparently unconstitutional.
Source
govinfo.gov
