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House approves amendment to battle white supremacy in federal uniformed service
The House voted yes on Wednesday to approve an amendment in the coming year’s defense spending bill that would require defense officials to present a report on white supremacy in the military and federal police.
The House voted yes on Wednesday to approve an amendment in the coming year’s defense spending bill that would require defense officials to present a report on white supremacy in the military and federal police.
The amendment was added to the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act by an entirely partisan vote with 218 Democrats voting yes and 208 Republican voting no.
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The full National Defense Spending Act will likely pass in the house this week, after which, Senate has the vote. Although the atmosphere in the Senate is historically less partisan than the House, the amendment could still be shot down in another party-line vote.
If passed, the Defense Secretary, FBI Director, and Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security would be required to publish a report outlining instances of white supremacy and neo-Nazi activity in the military and federal law enforcement, to include the number of uniformed service members who were separated from service for extremist ideology.
The amendment would also require leaders from the authoring agencies to detail how they responded to “planned or effectuated incidents” of White supremacist and neo-Nazi activity.
The bill was sponsored by Democratic Congressman from Illinois, Brad Schneider who said, that “such behavior, such extremism is a threat to us in all segments of society.”
He also argued that while such extreme ideology in the DoD “are rare… we must do everything we can to identify them and to thwart them before risks become a reality.”
Republican Representative from Arizona, Andy Biggs said that, “This amendment attempts to create a problem where none exists by requesting investigations into law enforcement and the armed services for alleged rampant white supremacists or white national sympathies.”
If the measure passes and the report is written, it would be presented to Congress in full, and authorized unclassified portions would be made available to the public.
