Republicans against woke initiatives in the Army

Several Republican senators introduced a bill to cut federal spending to encourage woke initiatives at the Pentagon. The bill, entitled the Restoring Military Focus Act, seeks to eliminate the position of Chief Diversity Officer from the Department of Defense and prohibit the establishment of similar offices focused on a personnel agenda oriented around race and gender ideologies.

The initiative, promoted by several Republican senators, ultimately seeks to prohibit spending taxpayer money on so-called "diversity, equity, and inclusion" initiatives within the Department of Defense. Senator Roger Wicker (Mississippi) noted that “the spread of gender and race ideology at the Department of Defense is toxic and diminishes our fighting force."

"Our military should be focused on protecting our national security, not on promoting woke nonsense," added Sen. Marco Rubio (FL).

This is not the first time Senator Marco Rubio has criticized recruitment policies. In August, he posted this video questioning whether the military is ready to fight:

In the new bill, the senators claim that "while Russian aggression, Chinese belligerence, and other threats jeopardize international stability, the Biden Administration devotes valuable taxpayer funding and resources to woke diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives within the US Department of Defense."

In a letter to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, Senator Wicker expressed concern that the Pentagon's progressive agenda is harming military readiness. Senator Wicker also recently wrote an op-ed in National Review in which he argued that restoring troop morale by eliminating critical race theory should be one of the top priorities of Congress' work on national defense.