Democrats in both chambers are vowing to resist GOP attempts to halt Defense Department training aimed at countering extremist groups’ attempts to influence servicemembers.
The Senate Armed Services Committee report accompanying its fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act calls on the Pentagon to “immediately” halt the counter-extremism programs. The committee approved the bill in June, but the legislative text and the report weren’t made public until Monday evening.
The language has no legal effect, but its adoption shows the political strength of conservative arguments that even modest amounts of training to equip military personnel to resist extremist recruiting is a distraction from military preparedness.
