The annual defense spending bill passed the House on Thursday at a whopping $840b, or roughly 4 Elon Musks.
And what does the country get for a 4X Elon price tag? The bill included “legislation aiming to help the United States better compete with China technologically, address mistakes made during last year’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, improve scrutiny of the military aid supplied to Ukraine and target a rise in domestic extremism.”
But not all House members were on board with every provision.
Without Bigots, Who Will the Military Recruit? wonders Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs…
For example, one provision that garnered zero Republican support and passed on a strictly party-line vote instructed “the government to investigate white supremacist and neo-Nazi activity in the military and federal law enforcement.”
Republicans, predictably, were incensed. Taking the House floor to grandstand in defense of…white supremacy?…Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona ignored all evidence of the ongoing problem within the military to pretend not only that extremism in the military doesn’t exist, but that even the suggestion that it should be monitored is dangerous.
Said Biggs, “This type of malignancy, this type of imputation of bad conduct, in a generic form, in a generalized form, because that’s what this amendment does, actually will make it harder to recruit.”
And what would the provision do, that Biggs claims is so insulting as to imperil the very fabric of our future military?
As described by Vice, it “would mandate the chiefs of the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Defense to produce a report assessing the extent of white supremacist or neo-Nazi activity in their ranks and how they plan to address it. They’d have 180 days from the enactment of the National Defense Authorization Act to compile that report.”
You’re telling me they’d be required to compile…a report???
It’s worth noting that this is the same Andy Biggs who begged former President Trump for a blanket pardon following his illegal attempts to help overturn the 2020 election.
And it’s the same Andy Biggs who evidently thinks Hunter Biden is the President of the USA.
So forget that the provision’s sponsor, Illinois Democrat Brad Schneider, was responding to a Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency report from May entitled “INSIDER THREAT AND EXTREMIST ACTIVITY WITHIN THE DOD.” This is probably a made up problem, right Andy?
As put by the American Independent, “Noting that the amendment would help agencies track and address the problem, Schneider explained, “These are exceptions. They are rare, but we must do everything we can to identify them and thwart them before risks become reality.”
But this is Congress, and Congressional Republicans are nothing if not performance artists. So…