Bowling Green Today

U.S. Senators Rand Paul (R-KY), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) introduced a bipartisan bill to end the Selective Service on August 2, 2024.

The Selective Service currently operates with an annual budget exceeding $31 million, preparing for a draft that has not been utilized since 1973.

“It has been over 50 years since the draft was last used,” said Dr. Paul. “I’ve long stated that if a war is worth fighting, Congress will vote to declare it and people will volunteer. This outdated government program no longer serves a purpose and should be eliminated permanently.”

“The Selective Service is a long-outdated program that eats up millions of taxpayer dollars and gives us nothing in return,” Wyden said. “Our volunteer military forces are the strongest in the world, and there simply isn’t a need to replicate the same draft that sent two million unwilling young men to war 50 years ago. This is a commonsense bill that brings our military into the twentieth century and keeps money in American wallets.”

The bill has received endorsements from several organizations including the Center on Conscience and War, World Beyond War, RootsAction.org, Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild, Resisters.info, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Antiwar.com, International Peace Research Association, American Friends Service Committee, Mennonite Central Committee U.S., War Resisters League, Fellowship of Reconciliation, and Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft.

The text of the bill can be accessed here.