Defeat the 2023 NDAA! by Republican South Dakota State Representative Taffy Howard

Defeat the 2023 NDAA!

Subtitle: Or at least substantially modify it

Guest post by USAF Veteran and Republican South Dakota State Representative Taffy Howard

Bottom-Line Up Front (BLUF): The 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has passed out of both the US Senate Armed Services Committee as well as the US House Armed Services Committee, and unless major changes are made, every Republican needs to vote against this bill.

Actions Required: A message has to be sent by all concerned Americans that Republicans have the backs of our military and are not going to tolerate any more unjustified COVID mandates, any more waste of taxpayer funds on the explosion of diversity and inclusion garbage being pushed on our military, or having transgenders openly serving and undergoing sex-reassignment surgeries at the expense of military readiness.

Background: House members are currently submitting their desired amendments, and sadly, it appears South Dakota’s lone voice in the House, Dusty Johnson, my former opponent, has learned nothing from being recently primaried and has yet to learn what it means to take a stand. Many actual conservatives (such as Representatives Boebert, Biggs, Gosar, Gohmert, Banks, etc.) are submitting much-needed amendments to this bill, while Dusty is very concerned about allowing commanders of installations outside the United States to have the ability to allow representatives from financial services providers to participate in orientation briefings for members newly arriving at that installation and refuses to sign on to any conservative’s amendments.  And while there’s nothing wrong with his amendment, and I hope it gets added on, I have an issue with the fact he refuses to support conservative House members in fighting against the radical left’s agenda to break down the readiness of our military force.

There are several House members who have amendments calling for a stop to the complete insanity of covid shots being forced on our military – Boebert, Gosar, and Mike Johnson among them. I would encourage everyone to pick up RFK, Jr.’s book, “The Real Anthony Fauci” for a deep dive into the corruption inside the government agencies pushing the COVID shot, and please help our military by reaching out to your representatives and asking them to remove this unjustified mandate on our military.  I’m convinced Fauci belongs behind bars for the lies and cover-up he has perpetrated on not just our country, but the world as well.  How many lives have we lost because of his desire for money and power?

Louie Gohmert (R-TX) has a great amendment calling for a 5-year moratorium on real estate purchases in the US by foreigners. In 2000, Chinese owners owned roughly 192,000 acres of US farmland.  By 2019, more than 35M acres of US farmland was owned by foreigners, which was a 60% increase from the prior decade.  For our nation’s food security, we cannot allow our farmland to be taken over by foreign interests.  His amendment would allow for some time to evaluate the situation and figure out what course of action to take going forward. 

Mike Waltz (R-FL, has an amendment that does not allow any near peer access to our military installations. Some of our near-peer competitors are China and Russia, and this seems like a good and common sense amendment.  According to a March 10, 2020 article at Defense.gov here, we are facing the highest level of near peer threats to our nation since the Cold War.  We were caught flat-footed last fall when China sent a hypersonic missile around the world, while we do not have the same capabilities.  Russia is also ahead of us in that technology.  We must be vigilant and realize the serious threat we are facing from some of our near peers right now.

I love Andy Biggs’ (R-AZ) amendment calling for an audit of the DoD. We need more audits of all government institutions, period.

There are several amendments dealing with the increasing threat we are facing from China (again, Dusty has not signed onto any of these).

Darrell Issa (R-CA) has a great one that would say that a chaplain in a service member’s chain of command could approve their religious accommodation request. As of March 2022, the Army had approved ONE religious accommodation request out of 3,760.  They refuse to disclose any more information, but I would bet money that it’s along the same lines as the THREE the Marines approved where the service member is probably already on his way out the door due to retirement or a planned separation.

According to an article by USNI News, the Air Force had approved nine as of February, 2022.  According to the June 22, 2022 COVID update put out by the Navy, they have approved 13 accommodation requests for Individual Ready Reservists (out of 812 requests by reservists according to the USNI News story), but they are all conditional.  If the members are called up to active-duty, they would have to get the shot.  The Navy has not approved one single accommodation for active-duty members out of 3,368 requests.

I have yet to hear of one single legitimate accommodation where an active-duty member in the other branches is not already planning on leaving and just needs a little time to get to that point.  The Navy actually claims on its MyNavy HR website that, “Accommodations of sincerely held religious beliefs and are a pillar of the Navy’s commitment to treating all Sailors with dignity and respect.”  That would be funny if it weren’t so false on its face.  Meanwhile, the forced separations continue, with the Navy having forced out 998 active-duty members and 209 Reservists.

Lauren Boebert (R-CO) is really going after the trans agenda and has several amendments dealing with that dagger at the heart of military readiness. Does everyone realize that the military has already done almost 250 sex-reassignment surgeries on military personnel, and I have to believe, based on where the VA disability system has gone over the last generation or so, that every single one of those will be receiving taxpayer funds for the rest of their lives after they leave the military due to their “disability”?

One of her amendments on this topic would halt all sex-reassignment surgeries within the DOD. Could someone please explain to me how a military member working in an office where 75% of the military are still tele-working cannot receive a religious accommodation to the COVID shot due to “mission readiness,” yet allowing someone in the military to undergo a surgery that takes them out of commission and makes them undeployable probably permanently is not impacting mission readiness?! It is absolutely insane, and we all need to be speaking out on this.

Just a note on this issue: the Army says that, in order to qualify for gender-transition care, soldiers have to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria. According to the American Psychiatric Association, gender dysphoria refers to psychological distress resulting from an individual’s biological sex conflicting with their identity. Up until 2019, this was a mental disorder. To this day, you are disqualified from serving in the military if you currently have or have a history of mental disorders!  When 71% of those with gender dysphoria have another mental disorder as well, should they really be serving in the military? Again, the Left is using the military as a cultural experiment to the detriment of our force readiness. And with China and Russia behaving as they are these days, is this really where we want out military to be right now?

Another Boebert amendment would defund the “gender advisory workforce.” Good for her! Again, no Dusty on this issue, too.

There is so much useless garbage being forced on our military and so, so much of it is a complete waste of time and taxpayer resources. The celebrations for Pride month across the DOD: how much did that all cost in time and resources? The diversity and inclusion offices popping up all over: again, how much does that all cost in time and resources? How about instead we use that money on more ACTUAL military training?! All of this useless activity represents an opportunity cost in lost time and resources for equipment/training which ultimately adversely affects mission readiness and combat effectiveness. Is it worth it?! Conservatives and most Republicans in general say no, but I guess South Dakota’s lone representative does not agree.

Boebert also has an amendment that calls for a report from the DOD on discharges due to COVID and how the numbers have impacted readiness. Right on!

Have I said how much I respect Lauren Boebert?! She knows these don’t have a chance in a Democrat-controlled House, but she is actually expressing the will of her constituents in being the voice of our military members who are hoping against hope that someone will notice the politically and culturally correct garbage being forced on them. Most of our service members signed up and took the oath because they simply wanted to serve our country. They are tired of being used as a leftwing social experiment, whether medically or culturally. At least Boebert and a few others have the courage to speak up about it.

Conclusion: Our military is being targeted by the Left; they are systematically trying to eliminate any conservatives from the ranks in order to remake it according to their globalist worldview. Will you help be their voice and put pressure on your US representatives to support the aforementioned amendments to the 2023 NDAA? Military members are almost powerless to speak out while still wearing the uniform because it would very likely cost them their career; they need We-the-People to fight for them!

[More on Representative Taffy Howard can be found here.]

The End.

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