If the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 is approved, it would shrink the United States military under the pretense of frugality, namely by “pink slipping” career service members who’ve endured combat. Meanwhile, it could possibly use the military to grant amnesty to illegals.
According to a summary of the NDAA, the House Armed Services Committee supports a 20 percent cut in personnel by the Department of Defense to reduce headquarters’ budgets and workforce.
Breitbart News previously reported the proposal contains language that would use the military to grant amnesty to thousands of illegal aliens if they enlist in the military—essentially meaning that in addition to the cuts of Americans from service, Congress and the administration would be allowing illegal aliens to take scarce service jobs from Americans.
Breitbart reported, “The House Armed Services Committee has already passed the NDAA which contained the secretive amnesty for illegal aliens. The nature of the amnesty is that those so-called ‘DREAMer’ illegal aliens who have received President Barack Obama’s first executive amnesty—the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which currently just shy of a million illegal aliens have received—would now be able to get legislative and permanent amnesty if they enlisted in the United States Armed Forces.”
Reps. Dave Brat (R-VA) and Mo Brooks (R-AL) previously responded to the amnesty provision in a joint statement.
“With passage of this amendment, a majority on the Armed Services Committee urged the Secretary of Defense to hire DACA illegal immigrants, rather than American citizens, at the same time the Pentagon is in the process of laying off tens of thousands of American troops,” Brat and Brooks said in a joint statement.
“According to Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno, the active Army will be cut by and/or lay off more than 80,000 uniformed personnel by the end of fiscal year 2017. Further, competition for enlistment is so challenging that American high-school graduates now face, ‘more difficulty qualifying for the armed services than ever in the 40-year history of the all-volunteer force,’” they added.
The most widely used data to gauge change in size of military is gleaned from active-duty figures.
According to Section 401 of the Act, the net change to the size of the active duty personnel would shrink by 1,800 to an estimated 1.3 million by September 30, 2016.
Active Duty changes by service branch are as follows:
– The Army alone would shrink by 15,000 to 475,000
– The Marine Corps would shrink by 100 to 184,000
– The Navy gains 5,600 sailors, growing to 329,000
– The Air Force gains 7,700 airmen, growing to roughly 320,700
Career service members who endured combat are reportedly the ones who are getting pink slips in the name of budgetary cuts.
Under the NDAA, U.S. military reserves personnel would be reduced by roughly 9,800 to a total of 811,000 reserves. That means as a whole, including active-duty and reserves personnel, the U.S. military would shrink by 11,500 to an estimated 2.1 million (1.3 million active-duty; 811,000 reserves).
According to Defense News, due to the requested budget cuts, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey previously told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the military wouldn’t be capable of carrying out its current strategy for national defense due to the funding.
In a press release video, Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-TX) of the House Armed Services Committee said, “We’ve got to be more agile in order to meet the threats – and this NDAA takes some steps into helping us be more agile and also to get better value for the taxpayer dollar.”
He continued, “It’s always tempting to say ‘we spend so much money on defense’ – there’s always a place we can cut – and the truth is there can always be cuts, but you have to think about the consequences of those cuts and in the case of defense those consequences are often life or death.”
Last year, Breitbart News reported that if “the sequestration funding cuts that Congress passed and President Obama signed into law continue, the Army may shrink to less than 450,000 soldiers by 2019, bringing it to its pre-World War II size.”
Under the NDAA, as of 2016, the Army would have 475,000 soldiers, only 15,000 more than Breitbart’s previous calculation for 2019.
A House Rules Committee hearing over the NDAA is scheduled for 3 p.m. Wednesday.
Brooks has an amendment to remove the amnesty language that puts illegal aliens ahead of Americans from the bill, an amendment that has earned the support of both House Armed Services Committee chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) and Rules Committee chairman Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX).
“The Gallego language in the bill is wholly inconsistent with thoroughly vetted Republican philosophy. As such, the Chairman supports the Brooks amendment to strike that language,” Sessions spokeswoman Jill Shatzen told Breitbart News on Wednesday.
Breitbart News’ Edwin Mora contributed to this report.
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