Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2024
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. NORMAN. Mr. Chair, I cannot believe I am up here having this debate, particularly at this critical time for our military--$1.4 billion in 2022 for money spent on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
A woke military is a weak military. The military's sole purpose is to provide for the defense of our great Nation. Our military's focus should be the protection of the American people and our freedoms, not liberal feelings.
Therefore, my amendment would eliminate any offices of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Armed Forces and the Department of Defense.
Woke ideology undermines our readiness in a variety of ways. It undermines cohesiveness by emphasizing differences based on race, ethnicity, and sex.
We recently had 160 retired flag officers write a letter to Speaker McCarthy and House Armed Services Committee Chair Rogers about the dangers of DEI and the opposition to it in the military.
The officers wrote: ``We respectfully request that Congress, pursuant to its constitutional powers `to raise and support Armies' and `to provide and maintain a Navy,' take legislative action to remove all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs from the Department of Defense.''
Another one: ``Our military must be laser focused on one mission: readiness, undiminished by the culture war engulfing our country.''
DEI is dividing, not unifying, our military and society.
Another one: ``We have fought for our Nation and are sounding the alarm that DEI poses a grave danger to our military warfighting ethos and is degrading warfighting readiness. Social engineering, commonly called wokeism, has no place in our military.''
Finally: These indoctrination programs differentiate servicemembers along racial and gender lines, which runs completely counter to the military imperative to build cohesiveness based on common loyalties, training, and standards.
What is more, the Army missed its recruitment target by 25 percent in 2022 at this critical time in the history of this great Republic. This is a Bud Light level of failure.
Mr. Chair, I urge that this amendment be adopted in light of an administration that has completely left our Nation vulnerable.
President Biden told a group of overseas Air Force airmen that the Joint Chiefs of Staff had determined that the greatest threat facing America was global warming, a claim that the Joint Chiefs had to walk back.
He didn't mention Russia. He didn't mention China. He didn't mention the threat of the debt that has engulfed this country. He mentioned global warming.
As I mentioned, the DOD spent $1.4 billion on their equity action plan. That is money we don't have, and it just adds to the national debt.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. NORMAN. Mr. Speaker, this is just more liberal gibberish. $1.4 billion? Sir, you tell these young people behind me, you tell them instead of building ships, instead of building airplanes, instead of protecting cybersecurity, you are going to really pay for transgender operations. Hogwash.
You try to make that case to anybody in this room, and they would laugh--well, it is so serious, they wouldn't laugh.
Let me tell you some other things that I am sick and tired of-- feelings. Talk to the military Gold Star mothers who have lost their children. Tell them what you just said on this House floor.
An Admiral told midshipmen at the Naval Academy that they need to read ``How to Be an Antiracist,'' a book that teaches the only remedy to pass discrimination.
Another one. Military recruitment videos in recent years have touted the military's inclusivity to LGBT members. They use a rainbow flag.
Enough is enough. Americans are tired of this. Why do you think there is a shortage of people entering the military who have to put up with this kind of thinking?
For this reason, we shouldn't even be wasting our time debating this thing, but it is what it is. Thanks to the Biden administration and their anti-military and anti-readiness, it is a time in America that we are in severe danger economically and security-wise.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. NORMAN. Mr. Chair, again, like the other amendment I have, I cannot believe we are sitting here debating this.
What my amendment does is prohibits provisions of gender transition procedures, including surgery or medication, through the Exceptional Family Member Program.
Let me tell you what the Exceptional Family Member Program is. It provides resources to military families with special needs.
This program is designed for military spouses, children, and other dependent family members who require ongoing medical educational services such as individuals with autism, asthma, chronic respiratory illnesses, Down syndrome, and many others.
The military has tried to politicize this matter, and my amendment ensures that we reserve the valuable programs and the dollars for these programs, which would go toward the intent of what it was put in for in the first place, which is to help families with special needs and prevent the further dissolution and misguided dollars spent on something like gender transition procedures.
My amendment also prohibits the change of duty station simply for the purpose of providing a child with easier access to these procedures.
I urge adoption of this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. NORMAN. Mr. Chair, let me tell you the dollar amount spent for the past 5 years--$15 million. That is $15 million for surgery for a man who can't decide whether he is a man, or a girl who can't decide whether she is a girl. Imagine that.
You tell those families that have children with Down syndrome, you tell those families that have severely autistic children you are going to spend it for changing genders?
I don't mind somebody questioning their gender but pay for it yourself when you have to have it, not on the backs of our brave military families.
In the past 5 years, $15 million was spent to treat 1,892 transgender troops. Well, isn't that something? You want somebody who is trying to decide if they are a man or a woman on the firing line?
Is that really a question to decide in the military? There was $11.5 million spent on psychotherapy and $3.1 million for surgeries.
The price tag for individuals getting this surgery and treatments after have ranged from $8,000 to $100,000. Related healthcare coverage is only going up.
My point is, I think, to make this argument, particularly with dollars that could be spent helping meaningful children who have disabilities should be made. To spend this money that we don't have just really spits in the face of our military families.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. NORMAN. Mr. Chair, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. NORMAN. Mr. Chair, I will just say that it is this kind of thinking that has the military in a demoralized state.
It is this kind of thinking, this kind of rationalization of our hard-earned tax money that has the military recruitment numbers way down.
It is this kind of woke thinking that is penalizing families that want to serve this country, families who have children with these disabilities who need the care that they would deprive them of because they want to fund somebody who doesn't know what gender they are.
It is this kind of thinking that America is sick and tired of. Ask any military family, and they will tell you the same thing.
I yield back the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source