Senate panel calls for women to sign up for military draft

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

May 12, 9:19 PM EDT

Senate panel calls for women to sign up for military draft

By RICHARD LARDNER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The GOP-led Senate Armed Services Committee has seconded a call by its counterpart in the House to require women to register for a military draft, setting the stage for a significant cultural change triggered by the Pentagon's decision to lift all gender-based restrictions on front-line combat units.

Any justification for barring women from draft registration was erased last year when the Pentagon announced all military jobs would be open to women, the committee said late Thursday in a summary of its annual defense policy bill. Women must begin to sign up with the Selective Service beginning in January 2018, according to the committee's measure.

The committee added that the top officers in each of the military branches also expressed their support for including women in a potential draft during testimony before Congress.

The United States has not had a military draft since 1973, in the Vietnam War era, but all men must register with the Selective Service within 30 days of turning 18. Women have never been required to register and have never been part of a wide-scale draft.

Prospects for a draft are dim. Military leaders maintain that the all-volunteer force is working and do not want to return to conscription.



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