Congress is weighing automatic registration for wartime draft

Article here. Excerpt:

'American men ages 18 to 25 would be automatically signed up for the draft if a measure making its way through Congress becomes law.

The proposal by Rep. Chrissy Houlahan would mean that men would be automatically registered for the draft when they turn 18. Under current federal law, all American male citizens and green card holders 18 to 25 years old must register with the Selective Service, but the requirement to do so falls on individuals. Those roles would be the basis of a military draft if Congress or the President decided to implement one, which Houlahan’s proposed measure does not address.

Women would continue to be exempt from Selective Service registration under the proposal submitted as an amendment to the national defense policy bill for fiscal year 2025.

During debate on her amendment last week, Houlahan argued that the measure would allow Congress to spend more money on “readiness and towards mobilization” instead of “education and advertising campaigns driven to register people.”

According to the Selective Service’s annual report to Congress for 2022, the national registration rate that year for qualified men was 84%.'