WASHINGTON -The House yesterday rejected a Republican effort to put new limits on the role of military women in combat zones.
In a retreat, the GOP-controlled House voted to let the Pentagon continue deciding what positions women can serve in, as long as defense officials give Congress enough advance notice.
That proposal was among the amendments the House approved on a 428-1 vote and added to a bill that sets defense policy and spending for next year. The earlier provision on women in combat had drawn opposition from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and lawmakers in both parties.
The drive to curb the Pentagon's ability to place women in certain positions without congressional approval was led by Rep. Duncan Hunter, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
Hunter, R-Calif., worried that the Army was not complying with a Pentagon policy that barred women from serving in direct ground combat roles such as infantry, artillery and armor units.
The Army, which started allowing women to serve in combat support units last year, said it was in compliance with the 1994 policy.
Lawmakers from both parties and Pentagon officials said the original GOP idea would have caused confusion among military commanders and soldiers, hurt recruitment and retention of women in the military and hindered the military's ability to make battlefield decisions.
Hunter and other Republicans said it simply would have required the Pentagon to seek congressional approval before opening additional jobs in combat zones to women. It also would have put into law the policy that bans women from working in direct ground combat units that are smaller than brigades.
Republican supporters said it would not have changed any positions in which women currently serve.
Currently, there are 2,823 military occupations open to women, including Army jobs in which women provide medical, maintenance and logistics support to units in combat zones, while 191 positions are closed. Those mostly are infantry, armor, artillery and special forces jobs. Women already are barred from serving in those units.
The policy allows the services to open some positions to women in combat zones as needed as long as they inform Congress of the change 30 days beforehand. The House-approved provision simply requires the Pentagon to study how it assigns women to positions and defense officials to notify Congress 60 days before any changes in the positions women can serve in take affect.
This puts Congress in a position where we have enough time to evaluate a policy change and react to that policy change
Hunter said.
Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., the only female military veteran in Congress, dropped her objection and praised Hunter for compromising.
We were right. This was unnecessary and unhelpful and now it is gone Wilson said. There will be no restrictions in statute for how the Army can assign women in the military.
Rep. Vic Snyder of Arkansas, top Democrat on the House Armed Services subcommittee on military personnel, said the change will eliminate the terrible language that sends such a bad message to women in uniform.
Lawmakers were considering more than two dozen other changes to the overall defense bill. A final vote on the measure was not expected until Thursday.
It authorizes the Bush administration to spend $490.7 billion for defense in the budget year that begins Oct. 1. That includes $49.1 billion to support operations in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as efforts to thwart terrorists worldwide.
The bill does not appropriate any money; that legislation will come later.
The measure would allow the Pentagon to spend billions of dollars on military supplies, including armored vehicles, night vision devices and jammers. It also would permit the Army to increase its ranks by 10,000 and the Marine Corps to grow by 1,000.
The legislation would allow for 3.1 percent pay increases for military personnel.
17
Archives
The Associated Press
