Resolving the Military Recruiting Crisis

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. McCORMICK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the conference report for the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.

I am proud to report that this conference report includes language that I authored to both rein in government-sponsored censorship and help resolve the military recruiting crisis.

The 2024 NDAA will require advertising agencies placing military recruitment commercials to certify that they have not placed advertisements in news sources based on personal or institutional political preferences or biases or determinations of misinformation.

This language is intended to prevent the Department of Defense from contracting with advertising agencies that utilize blacklists provided by organizations like Global Disinformation Index and NewsGuard, which have been found to be biased against conservative viewpoints.

Mr. Speaker, of the five Defense Department service branches, only two, the Marine Corps and Space Force, met their Active-Duty enlisted recruiting goals for fiscal year 2023. Last year, the Army missed its recruiting goals by 25 percent.

In the midst of this recruiting crisis, it makes zero sense to artificially limit the reach of our military recruitment advertisements. It is especially foolish when those limitations target the sites frequented by the people most likely to volunteer to serve.

I am grateful to Chairman Rogers, Speaker Johnson, and Ranking Member Wicker for fighting to include this important revision.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source