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| House Overwhelmingly Rejects Draft; 402 Members Vote No |
October 05, 2004 |
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| Washington – Congresswoman Heather Wilson today welcomed a bipartisan House vote overwhelmingly rejecting the draft 402-2.
Only two Democrats and no Republicans supported the bill, sponsored by Rep. Charles Rangel, Democrat of New York. While the bill would have required that all young persons in the United States, including women, perform a period of military service or civilian service, the legislation never had significant support in Congress. Identical legislation (S. 89) introduced in the Senate by Sen. Ernest Hollings, Democrat of South Carolina, is not expected to be taken up for debate.
“Today’s vote is a strong statement of support for the all-volunteer Army,” said Wilson, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. “Over the past 31 years, our all-volunteer Armed Forces have been the most formidable and successful in the world. I am against the re-institution of the draft, as are the administration, the Congress and the American people.”
“At the height of the Cold War and when I served, we fielded 18 all-volunteer divisions. We are now down to 10 divisions, and there is no need for a draft to add more divisions to the Army. We have never had a draft for the Air Force or Navy.”
To reduce the pressure on the National Guard and Army Reserve, Wilson led the bipartisan effort to add 39,000 troops to the Army and Marines over the next three years through recruiting, as specified in the House-passed Defense Authorization Act, now being considered in conference. Wilson is a conferee on that legislation.
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