Biden Pentagon officers in command of navy personnel coverage defended pushing Range, Fairness, and Inclusion (DEI) in the US navy throughout a Home listening to on Thursday, arguing that it will make the navy stronger, no more divided. Nonetheless, they have been quick on information to again up their arguments.
Gil Cisneros, the undersecretary of protection for personnel and readiness, argued, “Diversity, equity and inclusion are essential to unit cohesion and trust.”
The Military’s Assistant Secretary for Manpower and Reserve Affairs Agnes Schaefer argued, “A diverse and talented force of trained and cohesive teams is the most important indicator of our readiness.”
The Navy’s Assistant Secretary for Manpower and Reserve Affairs Franklin Parker argued that range would enhance “our military readiness and maritime dominance by accessing the full range of our nation’s talent.”
The Assistant Secretary of the Air Pressure for Manpower and Reserve Affairs Alex Wagner insisted, “Our diversity and inclusion initiatives [are] informed by science and business best practices, congressional mandates, data-focused policy reviews and assessments, and the lived experiences of Airmen and Guardians.”
On this Dec. 18, 2019, file photograph, Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-CA) speaks because the Home of Representatives debate the articles of impeachment in opposition to President Donald Trump on the Capitol in Washington. Cisneros is dealing with a problem from Younger Kim for California’s thirty ninth Congressional District. (Home Tv by way of AP, File)
But, as Home Armed Companies Subcommittee for Army Personnel Chairman Jim Banks (R-IN) famous, the officers didn’t present any information to again up their statements. Banks, who’s a Navy reservist, acknowledged on the finish of the listening to:
The [Department of Defense] expended 5,359,311 man-hours for [Defense Secretary Lloyd] Austin’s extremism stand-down and an extra 529,711 man hours for DEI-specific coaching … None of you in the present day have defended with any empirical proof, any research in any respect that defends a single man hour [or] over 6 million man hours of DEI coaching in the US navy.
“That’s why this hearing matters,” he added. “What’s the justification for that giant investment?”
And whereas every Biden official stated emphatically that DEI was a “positive” factor for navy recruitment, there was a second of awkward silence when Rep. Jack Bergman requested why the navy was fighting recruitment.
.@RepJackBergman requested civilian officers for the DOD and every service whether or not DEI is a optimistic or detrimental for navy recruitment. Every one stated “positive” or “very positive.”
Bergman asks why the navy is underwater with recruiting then.
Awkward silence…
— Kristina Wong (@kristina_wong) March 23, 2023
Bergman then informed them he want to see precise figures to again up their statements to show that it was not simply “posturing.”
Cisneros, who can also be the Division of Protection (DOD)’s chief DEI officer, was additionally quick on solutions to primary questions requested by Republican lawmakers.
Banks requested Cisneros how a lot the DOD was spending on DEI initiatives and what number of DOD workers have been devoted to DEI. Cisneros stated he didn’t have the figures in entrance of him and recommended he didn’t know as a result of he additionally had one other job because the undersecretary of protection for personnel and readiness.
Home GOP Convention Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) slammed the DOD for responding solely three hours earlier than the listening to to her question in regards to the former DEI chief for the DOD colleges, Kelisa Wing, whom the DOD investigated and reassigned to a different place after she was caught denigrating white individuals in a number of tweets.
Cisneros apologized to Stefanik for the overdue response however nonetheless wouldn’t decide to offering her details about what the DOD present in its investigation.
Cisneros additionally stated he had not learn Wing’s books on “white privilege,” defunding the police, and the Black Lives Issues motion, and couldn’t say whether or not or not her books have been out there in DOD college libraries.
“Well they are,” Stefanik fired again. “I’m informing you [that] you should know the answer that they are available.”
“You seem to not know a lot of what’s happening in the department,” she added. “This is absolutely unacceptable.”
Equally, Cisneros couldn’t reply primary questions on Wing from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), regardless of a number of experiences citing a Pentagon spokesperson who stated Cisneros’s workplace would conduct a 30-day investigation into her actions.
Congressman Matt Gaetz attends the first day of CPAC (Conservative Political Motion Convention) Washington, DC, convention at Gaylord Nationwide Harbor Resort & Conference. (Picture by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket by way of Getty Photos)
Cisneros inexplicably informed Gaetz, “I did not do the investigation,” and that it was a “misstatement” that he was conducting the investigation.
Gaetz tore into the DOD for not firing her and slammed the double customary of Wing nonetheless being employed at $160,000 a yr even after racist tweets whereas focusing on white service members who publish in regards to the Second Modification and being on a “white supremacy snipe hunt.”
“If you just fired racist people then maybe you wouldn’t have to go through this,” Gaetz informed Cisneros.
In the meantime, Democrats on the committee defended DEI within the navy.
Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV) claimed that veterans’ participation within the January 6, 2021, Capitol protests, proved that DEI was wanted within the navy — regardless of there not being any clear connection between the protests and racism.
.@RepHorsford cites a College of Maryland examine that stated 17% of these charged in connection to January 6 “appeared to have a connection to the military.”
Provides: “That’s the reason range, fairness, and inclusion is necessary within the navy, within the non-public sector, in non-profits,…
— Kristina Wong (@kristina_wong) March 23, 2023
A number of Democrats additionally complained in regards to the tone of the listening to and several other they have been “embarrassed.”
However Home Armed Companies Subcommittee for Army Readiness Chairman Mike Waltz (R-FL), a Nationwide Guard Inexperienced Beret colonel, stated if it weren’t for troops coming to them with complaints in regards to the DEI coaching, they might not be trying into the matter.
.@michaelgwaltz says Republican lawmakers wouldn’t be speaking about DEI within the navy if troopers, cadets, relations, and their networks weren’t coming to them upset and anxious. “This isn’t coming from us,” he says.
— Kristina Wong (@kristina_wong) March 23, 2023
Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL), one other veteran on the committee, argued the navy was already various, and DEI coaching was not wanted:
I’m a really proud United States Military fight veteran, spent of lots of my time abroad — fortunately spent lots of that in Fort Bragg within the 82nd Airborne Division the place I served with a Cambodian gentleman who was born in Cambodia and lived in Los Angeles. I served with a black gentleman who was born in Brooklyn. I served with a Caucasian gentleman who was born in Lombard, Illinois.
There was fairly a little bit of range. We got here from totally different walks of life. However what introduced us collectively was not DEI and significant race theory-based coaching. It was cohesive coaching and understanding what it was to have elevated lethality and convey us collectively realizing that we’d be there to battle and shield each other.
“Diversity in our military is a good thing, and we can all agreed to that,” he concluded. “Allocating additional training time and starting to identify and ensure that we drive a wedge as opposed to cohesiveness is not a good thing.”
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