A Defense Bill Should Be About Defense — Not Liberal Social Policies

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Guest blog post by Rep. Mike Pence (Ind.)

Throughout my nearly nine years in Congress, I have been downrange with our troops every year in Afghanistan and Iraq. I also supported every defense authorization bill that came before the U.S. House of Representatives.

Therefore, it was with a heavy heart yesterday that I joined 130 of my House Republican colleagues in breaking that personal tradition and opposed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010.

The reason? The Democrat majority cynically included hate crimes provisions in the bill that threaten the very freedoms of speech and religion that draw our soldiers into the uniform of this nation.

I find it unconscionable that we would erode the freedoms for which our soldiers wear the uniform in a bill that is designed to provide resources those soldiers need to get the job done and come home safe.

It is simply wrong to use a defense bill as a vehicle for divisive liberal social policies that are wholly unrelated to our country’s national security. By doing so, Democrats in the majority, with the assent of this administration, are piling liberal social priorities onto the backs of our soldiers.

And as far as the hate crimes provisions themselves are concerned, they are unnecessary and antithetical to our First Amendment traditions... [snip]

Under this hate crimes legislation, any pastor, preacher, priest, rabbi, or imam who may give a sermon out of their moral traditions about sexual practices could presumably be found to have aided, abetted or induced in the commission of a federal crime, as defined by current federal law.

The provisions added to this legislation threaten religious freedom by criminalizing thought. It is simply wrong to further criminalize thought and chill religious expression of Americans.

Let us remember why they put on the uniform. Let us remember what our soldiers are fighting: they fight to defend freedom. It is [an insult] to America when Democrats pass liberal social policy on the backs of our troops.

A defense authorization bill ought to be about the national defense.

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