NE Mississippi News

Representative Trent Kelly (D-MS 1) has been named to the House and Senate conference committee that will craft the 2024 National Defense Reauthorization Act (NDAA), the bill that funds America's military. However, the House has been without a speaker, and conflict has broken out in Israel after a brutal terrorist attack by Hamas sparked a war between Israel and the terrorist group.

Now that a new speaker has been elected, Kelly and the other members of the committee will have to decide whether to adopt the House version of the bill, which is focused on key defense spending, or the Senate version, which includes controversial social spending. This social spending includes reimbursing abortion travel, paying for gender reassignment surgeries, drag shows at military bases, and so-called racial equity training.

According to CNN, the death toll from Hamas' attack on Israel has risen to more than 1,400 people, including at least 30 Americans. Hamas is currently still holding at least 155 hostages. Israeli soldiers have reported seeing the bodies of beheaded infants at the Kfar Aza kibbutz, and the Israeli Defense Forces have discovered the aftermath of horrific violence, releasing images of blood-spattered rooms and the burned and mutilated bodies of Hamas' victims. At least 29 Americans have been killed in Israel, with some remaining missing or captured, according to ABC News.

Rep. Trent Kelly has a long history of military service, having served in the Mississippi Army National Guard for the past 37 years. He deployed as part of Desert Storm in 1990 and to Iraq in 2005 and again from 2009 to 2010, where he commanded 670 troops as a Battalion Commander. Kelly is currently serving as a Major General.

In a radio interview about “wokeness” in the military, Kelly stated “we’ve got more important things to do than focus on woke agendas, we’re focusing on defending this great nation.”

The House version included several provisions that would eliminate all Pentagon Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs and personnel, block military school libraries from purchasing or possessing “pornographic and radical gender ideology books,” and bar the DOD and DOD health programs from covering gender reassignment procedures.

The House version also includes the Jackson-Roy amendment, which prevents the DOD from reimbursing service members for abortion-related expenses, including travel. The amendment argues that the DOD's policy violates the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal funds for abortions, according to the Texas Tribune.

Also included and passed in the House bill were several amendments from Congressman Jim Banks whose office referred to the Banks amendments as “anti-woke amendments.” The Banks amendments included a provision to suspend the Navy’s Digital Ambassador Program, which had been using drag queen videos as part of their recruitment efforts.

According to the NY Post, Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, who performs drag under the name Harpy Daniels, was chosen by the Navy as one of its first “Digital Ambassadors.” The “Digital Ambassador” program included 5 active duty personnel and was designed to help boost recruitment efforts.

The so-called “anti-woke” Banks amendments also took on racial quotas in admissions to service academies as well as DOD policies related to promotions and assignments. According to a release on Banks’ website, the Banks amendments would eliminate racial discrimination and quotas in admissions for Military academies, like West Point, and would further require the DOD to issue policy that all military accessions, assignments, selections, or promotions must be decided based on merit and also prohibits any quotas being assigned to applicant pools.

A lawsuit challenging West Point's race-based admissions policies was recently filed by Students for Fair Admissions, the same group that won an affirmative action case against Harvard and UNC-Chapel Hill earlier this year, according to CNN.

A Magnolia Tribune report from February of 2022 found that US Service members had spent 5,889,082 man-hours on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion trainings and seminars since President Biden took office the previous year. The report also included a letter from General Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time, stating that during that same period the DOD had spent $476,874 on DEI trainings and a further $535,000 on a training program called “Extremism Stand Down.”

A survey conducted by the Heritage Foundation found that 68% of active service members had witnessed some level of politicization in the military, and 65% expressed concern about this development.

After three weeks without a speaker of the house, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) was officially elected speaker. Now that Johnson has been elected, the House and Senate have until November 17th to pass a series of spending bills, including the NDAA, according to CBS News.