Sessions Votes to Support our Men and Women in Uniform

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Pete Sessions (R-TX), Chairman of the House Rules Committee, today issued the following statement on the House’s passage of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017: 

“One of my most important duties as a Member of Congress is to ‘provide for the common defense." Today I proudly fulfilled this duty and supported the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, which will help guarantee that our men and women in uniform have the tools and resources necessary to protect us at home and abroad.

“In addition to restoring troop readiness, providing quality care for our service members, and prioritizing critical policies, this bill also contains many important provisions, including an amendment that I submitted that protects young women from being mandated to submit their personal information to the federal government to sign up for the selective service. We currently operate with a purely volunteer military and I have no doubt in my mind that should a time come where our country needs men and women to defend our great nation, patriots from across the country will voluntarily heed that call. I see no reason to further the Selective Service, let alone expand it to eighteen year old women. That is why after close consultation with my colleagues I ensured that this reckless policy was not put forward.

“I would like to thank the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Chairman Mac Thornberry, for his commitment to working with all of the Members of his committee to pass this bipartisan bill and to the all of the Members who testified at the Rules Committee for engaging in this deliberative process. This bill is the product of hours of thoughtful debate between Members on both sides of the aisle, after which the Rules Committee made in order 181 amendments. I sincerely hope that our Commander in Chief puts politics aside to join us in supporting the brave men and women who serve our country and sign this bill into law.” 

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Created:
May 19, 2016