Congress is preparing to dig into the Pentagon’s plan to lift the ban on women serving in combat, but some lawmakers are not happy with the answers they’ve received so far.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., promised hearings in the Senate Armed Services Committee, which he chairs, saying that an issue of such national importance must have oversight by Congress.
“I don’t know if it’ll be in the personnel subcommittee or the full committee, but there will be a hearing. There has to be. It’s a major decision, Congress has to review it,” McCain said last week. “I have no problem with it, but there has to be a hearing.”
His counterpart in the House, Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, also promised to “conduct proper and rigorous oversight” in a statement following last year’s announcement that all combat specialties would be opened.
Rep. Steve Russell, R-Okla., and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said concerns voiced by some members of the committee in a letter sent last year to the Pentagon have not been adequately addressed, especially regarding whether the changes will force women to sign up for the draft.
“There are many things on the Selective Service system that people aren’t aware of or aren’t addressing at all,” Russell told the Washington Examiner. “The military’s response to the letter just says they’re in consultation with the Justice Department.
“We need to have a much more thorough answer and analysis than that they’re in consultation,” he continued.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced in December that he would open all combat specialties to women, including infantry and special operations, regardless of a Marine Corps request to leave some positions closed. The historic lifting of the ban on women in combat raised a pile of questions about how it would be implemented, including how to integrate women without affecting unit cohesion or readiness and if women would now be required to sign up for the draft.
Critics of the decision have urged officials to look more closely at surveys that showed the majority of special operators do not want women in their unit and studies that suggested the average women serving in an infantry position may perform worse and be more likely to suffer a serious injury.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a former Marine, called the Navy Department’s plan to mix genders at boot camp and give sailors and Marines gender-neutral job titles “just stupid.”
The plans are “a bigger threat to the men and women of the Marine Corps than ISIS,” Hunter told Politico.
Navy Secretary Ray “Mabus’ social meddling puts every Marine in harm’s way at greater risk,” Hunter told Marine Corps Times. “None of the secretary of the Navy’s policies help us close with and destroy the enemy with fire and close combat.”
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said last week that all the services have submitted their implementation plans for review. All changes must be implemented by April 1, though officials acknowledge it will take much longer than that to see women in some career specialties that require special training.
Russell, who completed Ranger School himself, asked the Pentagon last year to provide the evaluation paperwork for all female candidates who attempted Ranger School last year, including the three who passed, to investigate whistleblower allegations that the women had faced lowered standards.
The Army agreed to give Russell access to the documents, but the congressman said the documentation it provided includes a mix of records for female and male candidates that are so heavily redacted it’s impossible to tell with any certainty who is who.
“Whether intended or not, the Army seems to be playing a game of hide and seek,” he said. “Had they provided the documents we asked for, we could have laid this to rest. Now, it’s causing a great many of us to raise our eyebrows asking why are they trying to obfuscate on this matter.”
Congress has the authority to order the Pentagon not to lift the ban on women in combat, but Lisa Schenck, associate dean of George Washington University Law School, said that’s highly unlikely given the political climate and make-up of Congress. The hearings, she said, are likely just fact-finding missions so those lawmakers with no military experience can learn what effect women in combat may have on readiness.
If lawmakers did order that the ban remain in place, they could only be overruled if the ban was declared unconstitutional because of gender discrimination, Schenck said.
