Washington, D.C. — Oregon Congressman DeFazio released a statement today claiming he would introduce legislation that would abolish the Selective Service System and put it in “deep standby.”
Recently, it has been reported the SSS is prepping for exercises that would test the draft system by 2009. DeFazio’s press release calls the exercise a “mock draft.”
“Our all-volunteer military is the best in the world,” DeFazio said in his press release. “As the Pentagon, the president and the House of Representatives have agreed, there is no military or national security imperative to reinstate the draft. The current selective service infrastructure is obsolete and unnecessary. Taxpayers should not be forced to continue funding it.”
According to DeFazio, tax payers spent $24 million this year, $650 million since 1980, maintaining the draft office.
Representatives from the SSS have made it clear that no plans for a draft are in the works, but that hasn’t stopped editorial writers from around the nation from speculating on the issue.
The following is a statement on the SSS Web site:
NO DRAFT ON HORIZON!Currently there is a flurry of newspaper articles about Selective Service planning to conduct an exercise of its field structure in 2009. However, the public should not be alarmed. No draft for the military is about to be reinstated. Rather, Selective Service is planning to test its policies, plans and procedures as it has done routinely over the years if resources are available. Given the decline in agency funding, this exercise may be postponed again as it has been in the past. As always, Selective Service continues to do its job of being ready to conduct a draft and to manage a program for civilian alternative service for men classified as conscientious objectors when directed by the Nation’s elected officials: the president and Congress.
The following was provided by DeFazio.
Brief History of the SSS:
The SSS was established by Congress and President Franklin Roosevelt in the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, which created the nation’s first peacetime draft.
From 1948 until 1973, both during peacetime and during periods of conflict, men were drafted to fill vacancies in the armed forces which could not be filled through voluntary means.
The draft was ended in 1973 and the U.S. converted to an all-volunteer army.
In 1975, President Ford suspended the SSS and put it in deep standby status.
President Carter decided to reinstate the SSS and the registration requirement after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1980.
The House has twice voted to abolish the SSS. In 1993, the House VA-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee zeroed out funding for the SSS. An effort to restore the funding on the House floor was defeated. In 1999, the House Appropriations Committee again removed funding for the SSS. An effort to restore funding on the House floor was again defeated. However, in both cases, funding for the SSS was restored during the conference committee with the Senate.