Democrats to focus on women, minorities in military personnel debates

Rep. Chrissy Houlahan plans to fight for increased access to abortion services for military members and a better emphasis on support programs for women and minority veterans, even if she knows neither is likely to gain traction this year.

“Elections have their consequences, and right now the Republicans have the majority in the House and the Senate and the White House,” said Houlahan, D-N.J., and the senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee’s military personnel panel. “So I won’t be able to determine whether or not that piece of legislation gets to the floor for consideration.

“But it’s really important that people out there hear that there are people in Congress who very much believe in your right as a person, either who is wearing the uniform or a family member, to be able to travel for that care that you need.”

Houlahan, who served as the ranking member of the committee’s special quality of life panel last year, took over the key minority leadership role for personnel issues this year and will be a featured foil for many Republican social issue priorities in military policy.

In a recent interview with Military Times, she expressed frustration over moves already to deemphasize recruiting of women and minorities and undermine the last administration’s family support policies, including travel stipends to help troops access abortion services.

“I do worry that with an elevated conversation about minorities in the military or women in the military, that this will suppress people who are interested in joining,” Houlahan said. “I have specific evidence that people who had intended on either going to the academy or enlisting, who happened to be women, are making different choices than they would have. And that’s a tragedy.”

Houlahan served for 15 years in the Air Force, both active-duty and reserve. Encouraging women to enlist now is “a hard conversation,” she said, but she remains hopeful that the total number of female enlistees will continue to grow because “you can’t make progress if you’re not there, if you don’t have a seat at the table.”

She plans to work with colleagues on highlighting those kinds of challenges and priorities in the committee’s annual defense authorization bill debate later this spring, even if the issues face an uphill political battle.

Houlahan also said she is optimistic there are areas of partisan compromise in improving troops’ quality of life. Both Republicans and Democrats are looking for ways to boost housing stipends for military families and enhance base services, like child care and medical care, she said.

“Last year, I was really surprised at the pushback that we got from some of the senior members of the military on increasing pay for junior enlisted people,” Houlahan said. “I understand that they have to make really tough choices on where to put the resources in dollars. But there is no more important place to them than in the men and women who serve us.”

Hearings on personnel issues for the budget policy bill are expected to begin in coming weeks. Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, the new chairman of the committee’s military personnel panel, has said he hopes to focus heavily on recruiting issues in those hearings.