News/Commentary

GOP seeks to cap salaries for Pentagon staffers working on diversity, equity, and inclusion — they won’t be happy

February 2, 2023 | | Print Article

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) are seeking to cap Pentagon staffers’ pay at $31,000 a year if they are working on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, attempting to rein in the military’s “woke” agenda under President Biden.

Cotton and Banks announced the legislation on Wednesday, aiming to limit those staffers working on DEI to more junior pay grades, according to the Daily Mail.

“The DoD is paying anti-American bureaucrats more than patriotic service members,” Banks asserted in a tweet. “That sends a dangerous message to troops about the Pentagon’s priorities and values. @SenTomCotton and my bill would cut off DoD funding for this poisonous ideology.”

“It’s a disgrace that bureaucrats holding DEI seminars at the Pentagon are paid more than American men and women risking their lives for this country. Our bill would cut the salaries of these social justice warriors,” Cotton said in his own tweet.

The Pentagon trotted out a defense advisory committee on diversity and inclusion last year to come up with recommendations on improving “diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunity” within the armed forces. The Department of Defense issued a 37–page brochure on how the plan could be realized.

“DoD needs diverse perspectives, experiences, and skillsets to remain a global leader, to deter war, and to keep our nation secure,” Gilbert R. Cisneros, who is the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, contended in the foreword.

“Leveraging this strategic diversity and expanding access to attract, retain, and advance the best talent our nation has to offer are the only way DoD will be able to outthink, outmaneuver, and outfight any adversary or threat,” he added.

Critics believe the move is yet one more diversion from the issue at hand for the Pentagon which is battle readiness and national security. Especially with China waiting in the wings anticipating war with America.

Cotton told Fox News Digital in an interview that the bill “will make sure the Department of Defense’s budget focuses on strengthening our national security, not paying administrators to solve social justice problems that don’t exist.”

He commented that the legislation would prevent the Pentagon from employing DEI officials above the E-5 rank, which has a salary of $31,000 per year. If a staffer is making more than that, they would have to be reassigned within 180 days of the law being implemented.

“Government bureaucrats promoting divisive ideology should not earn a higher paycheck than the soldiers on the front lines defending our country,” the senator remarked.

According to Fox News, “An aide for Cotton explained the reason for the E-5 classification level cap is because that, although it is not the lowest level of rank that carries command duties, it is the first level that soldiers are called ‘sergeant.’ If the bill became law, DEI specialists at the Pentagon would not make more money than the service members responsible for leading U.S. troops on the front lines.”

With Democrats in control of the Senate, the “DEI Pay Cap Act of 2023” is almost certainly doomed. It simply won’t have the votes to pass.

Cotton and Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) were the authors of a plan to keep “woke ideology” from infecting the US armed forces. They put out a “whistleblower” form for military members to submit if they run across far-left training materials, according to the Daily Mail.

“Enough is enough. We won’t let our military fall to woke ideology. We have just launched a whistleblower webpage where you can submit your story. Your complaint will be legally protected, and go to my office and @SenTomCotton,” Crenshaw tweeted.

“For too long, progressive Pentagon staffers have been calling the shots for our warfighters, and spineless military commanders have let it happen. Now we are going to expose you,” he said in a separate tweet.

That campaign was rolled out two weeks after ex-Space Force Commander, Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier, claimed the Pentagon had sent servicemembers a video proclaiming that “whites are inherently evil.”

(Vidoe Credit: Fox News)

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