Marshall Sanford: “I will ultimately vote today for the National Defense Authorization Act because it's a necessity, and I think it's…”

“I will ultimately vote today for the National Defense Authorization Act because it's a necessity, and I think it's important we authorize this spending so that procurement, research, and a host of other long-term projects stay on track. That's the good news. The bad is that there are many wrongs tucked into this bill. It continues to use wartime contingency funds for recurring operations. It has an earmark for New Balance shoes. I could go on, but I write to highlight what I think will be the most damaging part of the bill-- exempting women from the draft. In the spring, Secretary Carter made women eligible for combat roles, and this was supposedly about equality. This bill goes a step further and makes it law that woman will be preferentially treated. Doing so is not good for morale and readiness because troops know you can't have it both ways in life. Either we are all on the team together and treated equally--or we are not. I said in February that the Secretary of Defense's new policy of opening front-line combat roles to women would unleash political forces that in the end would make our military weaker. All this could have been avoided if we had been allowed a national debate, but the administration rushed to stack up perceived political wins while it could--and so we are where we are.…”