\u201cI absolutely believe in the value of our work and that it should continue,\u201d Hull said in an interview with Military Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alford\u2019s measure is part of a push by conservatives to target the military\u2019s anti-extremism and diversity, equity and inclusion policies, which they argue are driving out some service members and hampering recruitment. Anti-extremism experts and advocates for diversity initiatives met the effort with ire, and Alford\u2019s measure in particular startled some who saw it as a political attack and an attempt to undo recent progress to improve military culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s thinly veiled bigotry,\u201d said Wendy Via, a co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. \u201cI can\u2019t think of a place more than our armed services where we need to do all we can to create a safe and trusting environment. These people are putting their lives on the line to defend our country, and they have to trust the person next to them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A step \u2018too far\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Alford, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, tried to attach the measure to this year\u2019s National Defense Authorization Act, a legislative package that sets the department\u2019s annual budget and includes a multitude of Pentagon policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The amendment failed to garner enough support June 22 when the committee approved its version of the defense policy bill<\/a> after 14 hours of debate. Two Republicans joined Democrats to block the measure. One of those Republicans, Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said the amendment \u201cwent too far\u201d in stamping out military training regarding diversity, equal opportunity, racism and sexual harassment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bacon, an Air Force veteran, supported another amendment offered by Alford to prohibit federal funds from going toward the Pentagon\u2019s Countering Extremism Work Group, which was stood up in 2021 to root out extremism in the ranks. That amendment remains part of the committee\u2019s defense bill, as do measures prohibiting defense officials from sponsoring drag shows on military bases and banning \u201ccritical race theory\u201d at service academies, among other conservative priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI supported multiple amendments that reduced [diversity, equity and inclusion] and [critical race theory] training in the military. But I thought two measures, to include this one, went too far,\u201d Bacon said of Alford\u2019s measure to eliminate the deputy inspector general position. \u201cWe can\u2019t throw the baby out with the bath water. Let\u2019s get rid of the extreme training, but we must preserve the basic standards of the military.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both the House and Senate armed services committees advanced their versions of the defense policy bill at the end of June, and work on the measures is expected to continue this week. Once the House and Senate have each approved their bills, a conference committee will convene to reconcile the differences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though Alford\u2019s amendment failed to make it into the House bill, his office is still working on next steps for the idea. The congressman is \u201cnot done working to weed out these types of programs and ideologies,\u201d said Austin Higginbotham, Alford\u2019s deputy chief of staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn order to properly defend our country, we must eliminate all woke ideologies from our military,\u201d Alford said. The Associated Press defines \u201cwoke\u201d as \u201ca slang term that originally described enlightenment<\/a> or awakening about issues of racial and other forms of social justice. Some people and groups, especially conservatives, now use it in a derogatory sense implying what they see as overreactions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe should not be wasting man hours and taxpayer dollars on programs that do nothing to benefit our military but rather hamper recruitment and retention efforts,\u201d Alford added. \u201cIt is absolutely essential that we prioritize readiness, innovation, and the welfare of our service members over any divisive, non-military focused ideologies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The military is experiencing a recruiting crisis<\/a>, with the Army missing its fiscal 2022 goal by 15,000 soldiers, a shortfall <\/b>expected to worsen this year<\/a>. Elected officials and military leaders are <\/b>blaming myriad factors, from public health, a booming civilian jobs market and negative perceptions of military service. Recruiters told Military Times they fault the military\u2019s new medical records platform<\/a>, which ended a longstanding practice of applicants glossing over their medical issues when applying to join.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alford is among a group of Republican lawmakers who have repeatedly blamed the recruiting problems on President Joe Biden\u2019s administration<\/a> and the Pentagon\u2019s work under his leadership to ramp up diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. They also point to a military-wide \u201cstand down\u201d against extremism in 2021 as having tarnished the military\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Republican frustrations with the military\u2019s diversity, equity and inclusion policies were on display Tuesday during a Senate confirmation hearing for Gen. Charles \u201cCQ\u201d Brown Jr., Biden\u2019s choice to lead the Joint Chiefs of Staff<\/a>. Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., took issue with diversity goals for recruitment that were described in a 2022 memorandum<\/a> signed by Brown and other Air Force leaders, accusing them of \u201ccultural Marxism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis administration has infused… [diversity, equity and inclusion] politics into our military,\u201d Schmitt said. \u201cIt is a cancer on the best military in the history of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In response, Brown underscored that merit would still determine entry into the Air Force and explained that the recruitment goals were aimed at better reflecting the demographics of the nation. The memo noted that, \u201cthese goals are aspirational \u2026 and will not be used in any manner that undermines our merit-based processes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite assertions that focusing on diversity and extremism prevention harms recruitment, advocates argue those policies actually help. Cutting the deputy inspector general for diversity and inclusion and extremism in the military \u2013 the watchdog for those programs \u2013 would only worsen recruitment, argued Allison Jaslow, CEO for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe idea that we should eliminate a position that\u2019s important to ensuring that our military has the best culture possible for our troops would be ridiculous on any day. But in the midst of a recruiting crisis, it\u2019s senseless,\u201d Jaslow said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General highlights every year the major challenges facing the Pentagon. For fiscal 2023, the IG reported that recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce was one of those obstacles<\/a>, citing the increased competition with the private sector and a shrinking pool of eligible recruits. Given that problem, one of Hull\u2019s plans for her office is to shed light on how the Pentagon could better recruit and retain a diverse force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen potential recruits can\u2019t identify with their military, they\u2019re less likely to join. They need to be able to see that diversity to know that they would feel included and belong,\u201d Hull said. \u201cWithout focused oversight, we\u2019re missing opportunities there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Congress created Hull\u2019s office through the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, which was approved in 2020. At the time, the issue of ideological extremism in the ranks was becoming more visible. The FBI notified the Pentagon that it had opened criminal investigations into 143 current or former service members<\/a> in 2020, 68 of those cases involving domestic extremism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The issue of veterans and service members engaging in extremist violence has been studied more closely in the few years since. Researchers at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism<\/a> analyzed three decades of extremist attacks and reported in June that a military background is the most commonly shared characteristic among extremists who committed or plotted mass casualty attacks<\/a> from 1990 through 2022, more so than criminal histories or mental health problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And since the law creating Hull\u2019s position went into effect in early 2021, the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General stood up an entire component around diversity, equity and extremism that she now leads. Her office has so far launched investigations into the medical waiver process for military recruiting and how the military supports dual-military spouses, among other issues. One continual task for the office is oversight of the Pentagon\u2019s anti-extremism efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When creating Hull\u2019s position, Congress mandated that the office submit an annual report to lawmakers about the effectiveness of the military\u2019s programs to prevent and respond to extremism. The office has so far issued two of those reports, and in both urged the Pentagon to establish standard policies across the services to track and report instances of extremist activities in real time<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hull said that military leaders are working to implement those policies, but it remains uncertain whether they\u2019ll be in place before it\u2019s time to issue the office\u2019s 2023 update this December. It will be difficult to compare the number of extremist activities by year or discern whether the Pentagon\u2019s prevention efforts are working until a standardized reporting system is created, Hull said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBecause there are different services and different offices that retain this information, there wasn\u2019t a central database that was being maintained,\u201d she said. \u201cNot having a centralized system has been an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amy Cooter, a research fellow with the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism<\/a>, is an expert on domestic militia groups and has initiated a study into how those groups recruit veterans and service members. Based on her study so far, Cooter believes the military should increase diversity efforts, rather than do away with them. A more diverse force means more opportunity to challenge the stereotypes some troops may have learned in homogeneous communities and stop them from being radicalized against other races, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cooter described Alford\u2019s attempt to abolish Hull\u2019s position as \u201cpolitically motivated,\u201d adding, \u201cunfortunately it\u2019s the opposite of what we should be doing, both for unit cohesion and long term risks of radicalization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This story was produced in partnership with <\/i>Military Veterans in Journalism<\/i><\/a>. Please send tips to <\/i>MVJ-Tips@militarytimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Republican congressman wants to eliminate a federal watchdog that investigates how the Pentagon handles diversity, equity and extremism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":71511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":65,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[8,23,12,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3410],"class_list":["post-74724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flashpoints","category-home","category-news","category-your-navy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"PQ5BBSEOTVDWTBQODLDFO7NC7Q","arc_canonical_url":"\/flashpoints\/extremism-disinformation\/2023\/07\/12\/republican-effort-to-cut-dod-watchdog-alarms-anti-extremism-advocates\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/7379192.jpg.jpg\")
Tackling a recruiting crisis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Uncovering and reporting extremism<\/h2>\n\n\n\n