Republicans Ban All Racial Diversity Offices Inside Military

House Republicans voted to eliminate all offices inside the military which relate to racial diversity on Thursday, with a narrow 214 to 213 vote that saw only four GOP lawmakers opposing the amendment.

No Democrats voted in favor of the change eliminating offices of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) within the Pentagon, with 209 voting against it and three not voting. Four Republicans cast their vote against the amendment supported by an overwhelming majority of GOP lawmakers.

The amendment only passed after a second vote on the issue, following a 216 to 216 initial vote. The vote became even more controversial after Arizona Republican Eli Crane defended barring diversity training from being a prerequisite for military jobs and promotions while using the phrase "colored people."

"The military was never intended to be, you know, inclusive. My amendment has nothing to do with whether or not colored people, or Black people, or anybody can serve," Crane said, stating that meeting standards should be the only requirement in the military.

The comment was immediately criticized and condemned on the House floor, with Democrat Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, who is Black, saying it was offensive. The comment was stricken from the congressional record, per Beatty's request. Crane later said he "misspoke."

The vote on diversity was part of a series of decisions taken by the House on Thursday that prompted outrage from Democrats who accused the GOP of giving into the party's hardliners.

On the same day, the House passed a measure to overturn a Pentagon's policy guaranteeing abortion access to service members regardless of where they're stationed, despite Democrats' opposition. It also adopted a measure that bars the military's health plan from covering gender-affirming surgery and health care, including hormone therapy.

The debate around these measures was heated in the House on Thursday, with Democrats accusing Republicans of using the annual defense policy measure—the National Defense Authorization Act—to pass legislation fostering their agenda restricting the rights of the LGTBQ community, women, and people of color. Republicans, on the other hand, alleged Democrats are trying to push their radically progressive agenda on the Pentagon.

"It is this administration that has turned the Department of Defense into a social-engineering experiment wrapped in a uniform," Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy said in a floor speech. "The American people I've talked to back home don't want a weak military; they don't want a woke military; they don't want rainbow propaganda on bases; they don't want to pay for troops' sex changes."

"The MAGA majority is using our defense bill to get one step closer to the only thing they really care about: a nationwide abortion ban," Democratic Rep. Katherine M. Clark of Massachusetts said.

Despite the measures in the House, it's unlikely that the amendments will be signed off by the Senate, which has a Democratic majority.