Paul introduces legislation to protect Selective Service privacy PDF Print E-mail

Paul introduces legislation to protect Selective Service privacy Legislation, which has more than a dozen cosponsors, will stop Clinton Americorps initiative from using teenagers' draft files

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For Release: Wednesday, June 18, 1997

WASHINGTON, DC -- In an effort to stop a step toward the merger of the Selective Service with the Americorps program, US Representative Ron Paul (R-Surfside, Texas) has sponsored H.R. 2029, The Selective Service Registration Privacy Act, which was introduced Tuesday evening and has a dozen original cosponsors.

The legislation will prohibit Americorps from using any Selective Service Administration resources, including draft registration information. Current law requires 18-year-old males to register with Selective Service. The legislation's cosponsors include representatives Sam Johnson (TX), Roy Blunt (MO), John Cooksey (LA), John Doolittle (CA), Van Hilleary (TN), Wally Herger (CA), Asa Hutchison (AR), Donald Manzullo (IL), Ed Royce (CA), Mark Souder (IN), Bob Stump (AZ) Dave Weldon (FL), John Hostetler (IN) and Todd Tiahrt (KS).

"President Clinton is proposing the 'Service to America Initiative' which would allow Selective Service resources to be used to promote his brand of federally subsidized 'volunteerism' in Americorps," said Paul. "In fact, the President has proposed increasing the budget of the Selective Service to carry out this 'initiative.' Further, I cannot abide by President Clinton's plan to stick taxpayers with the $1 million price tag this project will carry. To use Selective Service, ostensibly a program designed to enhance our national security, as a means to bolster President Clinton's liberal, failing Americorps is completely ridiculous."

Paul said the real danger with letting Americorps get its foot in the door of the Selective Service system now is what that could portend for the future.

"I absolutely do not want my grandsons to be forced into Americorps' 'national volunteer service' and be sent to distribute needles in some drug-infested area, or be forced to pick-up trash in the national parks, but that is exactly where this could lead," Paul said. "Already the president and his croonies have warped the meaning of volunteers by federalizing and paying these people, so it is not a stretch of the imagination that this same crew would try to draft our sons into 'volunteering' with Americorps."

Paul's legislation has been referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce, as well as the National Security Committee. Paul is a member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, which has oversight of the Americorps program, and he has vowed to see the "unconstitutional boondoggle" eliminated. The National Security Committee oversees the Selective Service program, and is chaired by Rep. Floyd Spence (R-SC).

"While we are waiting on an opportunity to stop Americorp, we can not allow this new 'back door' attempt to strengthen it to slip by us. If we do not stop these two programs from merging, I believe our attempt to end Americorp will become more and more difficult as time wears on," said Paul. "Americorps has absolutely no constitutional basis, no rational economic basis, and no pragmatic basis; it is simply another liberal program aimed at making more people dependent on government largess, at the expense of the hard-working taxpayers."