Announcement By the Acting Chair

Floor Speech

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Mr. CRANE. Mr. Chairman, today, I rise before you with a critical amendment that remedies the harm imposed by political and military leaders who emphasize social justice, progressive dogma, and climate issues against the dedicated men and women of our Armed Forces, who joined to defend our country.

My amendment specifically prohibits DOD from considering race, gender, religion, or political affiliations, or any other ideological concepts as the sole basis for recruitment, training, education, promotion, or retention decisions.

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Mr. CRANE. Mr. Chair, I think it is interesting that my colleague talks about the divisiveness of this amendment. It is not divisive at all. What is divisive is how the military is becoming a political and social experiment.

I don't know how many people over there or how many other people in this Chamber served in the military, but I happened to join the Navy the week after 9/11. I can tell you this, Mr. Chair: I served with all sorts of people from all over the country of multiple colors.

Do you know what, Mr. Chair? The people whom I served with were there not because of what race they were. They were there because they passed the standards. They were there because they were the best of the best.

Do you know what, Mr. Chair? That made me feel really safe when we were going into the most dangerous parts of the world.

That is what we need to continue. We need to have a military that continues to be the strongest military in the world because of standards and because the people whom we have there are the best of the best.

The military was never intended to be inclusive. Its strength is not its diversity. Its strength is its standards. Diversity can be a great thing, but that should not be our focus.

I can tell you right now that you can keep playing around with these games of diversity, equity, and inclusion, but there are some real threats out there, and if we keep messing around and keep lowering our standards, it is not going to be good.

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Mr. CRANE. Mr. Chair, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Harris).
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Mr. CRANE. Mr. Chairman, that was unbelievably inspiring. My amendment has nothing to do with whether or not * * * Black people or anybody can serve. Okay. It has nothing to do with the color of your skin, any of that stuff.

What we want to preserve and maintain is the fact that our military does not become a social experiment. We want the best of the best. We want to have standards that guide who is in what unit, and what they do.

And I am going to tell you guys right now the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, the North Koreans, they are not doing this because they want the strongest military possible. I hope my colleagues on the other side can understand what we are doing.

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Mr. CRANE. Mr. Chair, can I amend my comments to people of color?

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Mr. CRANE. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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