Senate Democrats facing tough reelections this November are struggling to take a side on whether women should be required to register for the military draft.
The controversial provision was included by Democrats in the annual defense bill known as the National Defense Authorization Act, which was recently advanced by the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Several Senate Democrats who represent battleground states declined to stake out a position or said they were unaware of the proposal. The major policy change would present possible political peril for vulnerable incumbents as Republicans seek the majority.
“I didn’t know about that,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) told the Washington Examiner.
Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) said he was also unfamiliar with the provision and noted the NDAA was not finalized.
Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) said he’d “have to take a look at it.”
“I need to try to figure out what they’re doing,” Tester said. “I’ve been more focused on making sure … that the Navy, and the Army, and Air Force, and Space Command are able to recruit who they need, and taking care of our veterans so all are volunteer, and we never have to go to a draft.”
There hasn’t been a draft in over 50 years since the Vietnam War in 1973, according to the Selective Service System, when nearly 1.9 million men from 1964-1973 were called upon to serve. Congressional approval is required to invoke a draft.
The topic also divides Republicans. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has previously supported including women, while Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), the top Republican on Senate Armed Services, opposes it.
Still, it’s Democrats who hold a one-seat Senate majority. The contentious subject has already become a flashpoint in one of the country’s most competitive races in Nevada between Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Republican nominee Sam Brown.
Brown, an Army veteran whose face was severely burned from an improvised explosion device while serving in Afghanistan, highlighted his personal experience as he chastised Rosen for backing the NDAA as a Senate Armed Services panel member.
“Look at my face. This is the high cost of war,” Brown said in a video posted to social media. “I volunteered to serve. My wife volunteered to serve. I honor all those who volunteer to serve, but this is absurd. This is unacceptable. Our daughters will not be forced into a draft.”
Rosen’s campaign declined to comment. Her congressional office confirmed she voted to advance the $923 billion NDAA, the committee tally of which is not made publicly available. The panel advanced the legislation 22-3 last week.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) noted the House version of the NDAA includes a provision that would change the draft process for men aged 18-26 from having to register themselves to automatically being added upon turning 18. She also highlighted the House and Senate will need to reconcile their differences through what’s known as going to conference, but she failed to express her stance on drafting women.
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Similar attempts by Congress in recent years to add women to the draft through the NDAA have ultimately failed.
“There’s obviously going to have to be, either in preconference or conference, some considerable discussion between the two houses on their approach to this,” Baldwin said. “I have to look further into that. I just heard about it.”
