April 16, 2021 3:20 a.m.

This week Senator Ron Wyden, Congressman Peter DeFazio and two Republican counterparts, introduced legislation to end the Selective Service.

Wyden said, “The Selective Service has far outlived its expiration date, wasting millions of taxpayer dollars per year to prepare for a draft that is no longer relevant to our military”. He said Congress has not come close to reinstating a military draft in 50 years, and he can’t imagine a scenario where it would. Wyden said, “With the success of our all-volunteer force, this arcane system, which disproportionately harms disadvantaged young men, should be officially abolished, once and for all”.

DeFazio said that no young person, regardless of gender, should be subject to a military draft or be forced to register for a draft in the United States. He said the military draft registration system is “…an unnecessary, wasteful bureaucracy which unconstitutionally violates Americans’ civil liberties and unfairly subjects individuals who fail to register for the draft to unnecessarily severe, lifelong penalties – penalties which disproportionately affect low-income Americans”.

Republican sponsors are Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and Congressman Rodney Davis of Illinois.

The release said the Selective Service runs an annual budget of more than $25 million per year, preparing for a draft that has not occurred since 1973.