Draft Registration

Report Outline
Selective Service Regeneration
All-Volunteer Force at Issue
Opposition to Registration
Special Focus

Selective Service Regeneration

Call for Registration; Congressional Action

Two traumatic events late last year changed President Carter's thinking, and apparently much of America's, about the need for peacetime draft registration. The Nov. 4 Iranian takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the Dec. 27 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan caused him to abandon his belief that registration was not needed. While telling the nation in his State of the Union Address on Jan. 23 that “our volunteer forces are adequate for current defense needs” and expressing the hope “it will not be necessary to impose a draft,” he nevertheless said “we must be prepared for that possibility.” For this reason, the president added, “I have determined that the Selective Service System must now be revitalized.”

As part of that revitalization, Carter submitted a plan to Congress Feb. 11 for registering men and women for a future military draft. Existing law gives him authority to order the registration of men, but it cannot be carried out effectively without congressional consent. Congress, with its power of the purse, may provide — or withhold — funds to carry out a registration. Registering women — and the actual drafting of men or women — requires a further specific authorization by Congress. Carter dropped his request to register women when it became obvious that congressional opposition was overwhelming. He did pursue the request for financing the registration of 19- and 20-year-old males, and the House responded on April 22 by voting 218–180 to make $13.3 million available. The Senate on June 10 overcame a filibuster by registration foe Mark O. Hatfield, R-Ore., but parliamentary maneuvering by opponents continued through an all-night session, postponing a final vote and expected passage until later in the week.

The presidential call for a revitalized draft mechanism has engendered a national debate that encompasses not only peacetime draft registration but also the possibility of a new draft and the state of preparedness of the nation's armed forces, which since 1973 have had no draftees. In spite of Carter's assurance that the volunteer forces are adequate, most proponents of draft registration disagree. Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Manpower and Personnel, is in the forefront of congressional sentiment for reinstating the draft.