The US Senate voted decisively on Tuesday to approve a defense policy bill that authorizes $602 billion in military spending, of which $800 million have been set aside for Pakistan, but with strings attached to it.
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Under the Senate bill, women who are turning 18 years old on or after January 1, 2018, will be forced to register for Selective Service, just like men.
Senate’s provision requiring women to register for the draft differs substantially from the House version.
Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of NY was also frustrated; the impasse blocked her three-year effort to pass an amendment reforming the way the USA military handles sexual assault cases.
“It is a radical change that is attempting to be foisted on the American people”, Cruz said in a statement.
President Barack Obama’s efforts to shutter the Guantanamo Bay detention center suffered a blow Tuesday as the Senate passed a bill that blocks federal funding for the initiative.
In February, the top leadership of United States military testified at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing about how to implement the Obama administration’s decision to open all roles in the military to women.
The U.S. Senate has approved a provision to require the Defense Department to provide military service members with American athletic shoes upon arrival at basic training. Last week, speaking of the new draft bill on the U.S. Senate floor, Cruz (father of two young girls), had plenty to say. A YouGov poll released earlier this month found that 43 percent of women, a plurality, do not believe that women should be required to register for the draft.
Clinton expressed support for such a measure despite the fact that polling shows women are narrowly against the idea of having to register for the Selective Service. The House of Representatives passed similar military defense legislation, but left out any provision about women and the draft.
Another contested amendment is the expansion of the military draft to include women.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, wrote an amendment that would prohibit the government from compelling women to sign up for Selective Service and would direct the Pentagon to conduct a study into the merits of mandatory military service.
The Senate bill would grant the U.S. military a budget of $602 billion. Ben Sasse, one of six Republicans who voted against the bill, Congress is using the amendment to fight a “culture war”.
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Opponents of the measure claim that women have no place on the front lines.
