'Wokeism' Is Hurting U.S. Military Recruitment, Congressman Warns

A Republican congressman will introduce a trio of amendments Wednesday as part of an effort he hopes will decrease a focus on military extremism while boosting recruitment.

First-term Missouri Representative Mark Alford, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, will introduce the three amendments during a markup session for the Pentagon's 2024 defense bill. The amendments focus on the Department of Defense's anti-extremism efforts, as well as evaluating funding and staffing levels associated with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin introduced a report in December 2021 aimed to counter extremist activity within the U.S. military's own ranks, which mentioned funding mechanisms for DEI consistent with the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Alford said today that his committee is "very interested in getting the 'wokeism' out of the military."

"You guys got to start acting like generals and not politicians," Alford told Fox News, referencing Austin and Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley. "We've got to get the diversity, equity and inclusion programs out. These investigations of what they call extremists in the military—these are patriots who love our Constitution, who love our institutions, who love the way voting is supposed to be."

Alford cited the mandating of the COVID-19 vaccine as reasoning by some military members for wanting to root out these current provisions, rather than get kicked out of service.

Those vaccine mandates cost the government thousands of servicemembers who used a religious or medical exemption, Politico reported, on top of the 8,400 servicemembers who were booted out for refusing the shot. There is still some uncertainty about what will happen to those servicemembers' personnel records now that the mandate has been rescinded. The AP reported in February that not many of those who were separated have expressed interest in returning to service.

"We are fighting for every person we can get in the military," he continued. "We have a big shortfall right now; the Army missed its goal by 25 percent last year. Only 9 percent of young people have any interest in getting into the military.

"We need to encourage people to get into the military who love their country, who want to fight and possibly die for their nation."

Two of Alford's amendments, shared with Newsweek by Alford's office, would not authorize the DoD to appropriate any 2024 defense funding towards DEI programs or the Countering Extremism Work Group.

The third amendment would order a staffing assessment within the Pentagon's DEI office, requiring officials to validate every civil service position versus current civilian personnel requirements and "submit to the Secretary the alignment of total force manpower resources of the Office against core missions, tasks, and functions, including a mapping of missions to the originating statute or Department policy."

The findings would have to be reported to Congress one year after enactment.

"These amendments are critical to eliminating the wokeness in our military and the unnecessary extremism working group," Alford told Newsweek in a statement. "We should not be wasting manhours and taxpayer dollars on programs that do nothing to benefit our military but rather hamper recruitment and retention efforts."

On May 18, DoD Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh was asked about a lack of updates from the Pentagon about progress in curbing extremism since Austin's December 2021 report—which includes "six recommendations and actions across four lines of effort," including military justice and policy, supporting an oversight of an insider threat program, investigative processes and screenings capability, and education and training."

"One portion of that, the training piece, has been implemented and it continues to be implemented across the department," Singh said last month. "Again, all recommendations have been assigned are with the appropriate principal staff, but at this time, I just have nothing more to announce."

A Pentagon spokesperson told Newsweek it would be "inappropriate to comment on pending legislation."