Top GOP senator on Armed Services Committee opposes proposed changes to military draft registration and having women drafted
CNN
The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee strongly opposes making changes to the Selective Service System that would allow men to be automatically registered for the draft when they turn 18, casting doubt the proposal could become law even though the Democratic chairman of the panel said the idea has merit and it was approved overwhelmingly by the GOP-led House Armed Services Committee.
The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee strongly opposes making changes to the Selective Service System that would allow men to be automatically registered for the draft when they turn 18, casting doubt the proposal could become law even though the Democratic chairman of the panel said the idea has merit and it was approved overwhelmingly by the GOP-led House Armed Services Committee. “It just seems to me right now we don’t need to cloud the NDAA with something that’s not likely to happen in the next several years. We are not going to need a draft anytime soon,” Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi told CNN, while arguing Washington shouldn’t be distracted right now from its most important responsibility, which is standing up to urgent threats from international foes. At issue is a proposal championed by Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, a Democrat from Pennsylvania and veteran of the Air Force, who pushed to add to the House’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act language requiring men to be automatically registered for the draft based on existing federal records instead of registering themselves when they turn 18. Doing so could increase compliance and save money that is now used for outreach efforts to encourage men to register voluntarily. The House NDAA passed out of committee on a broad 57-1 vote. It passed the full House on a more party line 217-199 vote. Sen. Jack Reed, a Democrat of Rhode Island, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was only “vaguely aware” of the House proposal but said it might be worth doing. “I think that is something we have to look at,” he said. “Presumably, if there is some data to show that it’s more efficient way to do it I don’t see a problem with it.”
A grand jury voted against indicting New York Attorney General Letitia James after being asked to look at the mortgage fraud case against her a second time, according to multiple people familiar with the development Thursday.
National Guard troops deployed to Washington, DC, can remain there for now, after a federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily froze a judge’s ruling that would have soon required them to leave the city’s streets.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s bad week just got worse. That’s after the long-awaited release Thursday of an inspector general’s report on his sharing of highly sensitive military attack plans on the unclassified app Signal earlier this year.
President Donald Trump has hired a new architect for the White House ballroom amid disputes between the president and his architect originally contracted to complete the project, several sources have told CNN.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information that could have endangered US troops through his use of Signal to discuss attack plans, a Pentagon watchdog said in an unclassified report released Thursday. It also details how Hegseth declined to cooperate with the probe.
If nothing else, the controversy over the Trump administration’s second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean has surfaced a long-overdue debate about its already legally dubious first strikes.
Two top House lawmakers emerged divided along party lines after a private briefing with the military official who oversaw September’s attack on an alleged drug vessel that included a so-called double-tap strike that killed surviving crew members, with a top Democrat calling video of the incident that was shared as part of the briefing “one of the most troubling things” he has seen as a lawmaker.
Authorities in Colombia are dealing with increasingly sophisticated criminals, who use advanced tech to produce and conceal the drugs they hope to export around the world. But police and the military are fighting back, using AI to flag suspicious passengers, cargo and mail - alongside more conventional air and sea patrols. CNN’s Isa Soares gets an inside look at Bogotá’s war on drugs.
Young Americans are “a generation under profound strain” with little confidence in institutions and widespread economic concerns, according to a Harvard Institute of Politics survey of adults younger than 30 released Thursday.
As lawmakers demand answers over reports that the US military carried out a follow-up strike that killed survivors during an attacked on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, a career Navy SEAL who has spent most of his 30 years of military experience in special operations will be responsible for providing them.
The murder trial of Brian Walshe, who is accused of killing and dismembering his wife in 2023 continues. Follow for live updates.
The FBI arrested a person Thursday who investigators believe planted pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters the night before the 2021 US Capitol riot.
Lawyers for the New York attorney general’s office are expected to appear in federal court in Albany on Thursday to try to disqualify a US attorney from investigating the state’s civil case against President Donald Trump.