House committee debates amendment to bar use of service members in partisan displays
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Summary
Members debated an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would codify limits on using uniformed service members in political events and photo opportunities; debate drew bipartisan concern about politicization of the armed forces.
Representative Ryan offered an amendment to the NDAA that would restate and make statutory existing Department of Defense guidance limiting partisan political use of service members.
The amendment’s backers said it would protect service members from being used in politically charged displays. “This is an obvious and unfortunately necessary amendment stating the obvious because of the unfortunate time that we are in and the worrisome and continued politicization of our military,” a proponent said during debate.
Supporters framed the change as simply making DOD guidance the law. Representative Deluzio said the amendment “would simply make that guidance the law, a policy that I think we all support in this committee,” and called it “the right thing for the country and for our troops.” Representative Garamendi and others urged stripping the amendment of partisan heat and assessing it on policy grounds.
Opponents raised examples they said showed inconsistent enforcement and called out perceived selective outrage. Representative Van Orden said he did not recall similar criticism when a former Navy secretary publicly endorsed President Biden and characterized criticism of the amendment as a “political move.”
The committee proceeded to a voice vote and then recorded votes were requested and postponed; the transcript shows the vote on the amendment was deferred for a later recorded vote. No final committee tally on the amendment appears in the recorded portion of this transcript.
Why it matters: supporters say the amendment would protect the military’s nonpartisan role; opponents said enforcement examples and context matter and some urged caution about converting guidance into statutory language.
Details and next steps: the committee took a recorded vote request and postponed the recorded vote. The amendment’s ultimate disposition is not finalized in this transcript.
