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US House Passes Controversial Military Recruiting Bill

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The US House of Representatives voted on Tuesday in favour of controversial legislation designed specifically to strengthen the Department of Defense’s ability to violate university non-discrimination policies and squash legal challenges to such actions. 

The ROTC and Military Recruiter Equal Access to Campus Act of 2004 (H.R. 3966) was introduced on March 12 by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) in response to a law suit challenging the Solomon Amendment, a law granting military recruiters access to university students. 

The new legislation strengthens the so-called Solomon Amendment, an existing law which forces universities to violate non-discrimination policies that include sexual orientation.  Under H.R. 3966, universities would be required to grant “equal access” to recruiters, giving the U.S. military the same recruiting advantages as employers that offer equal opportunities to lesbian and gay students.  While many schools already grant recruiters unfettered access, H.R. 3966 places into federal law policies which now exist as Department of Defense regulations.  Universities would be required to certify such access to the Secretary of Defense or risk losing all federal funding for their schools. 

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) opposed the legislation.  “This isn’t about recruiting.  Military recruiters already have access to colleges and universities,” Sharra E. Greer, SLDN’s Director of Law & Policy, said.  “The Department of Defense is simply trying to maintain its form of federally sanctioned discrimination on our nation’s campuses.  This bill is unnecessary and unfair.”

Rep. Marty Meehan (D-MA), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, sharply criticized the bill in remarks made Tuesday on the House floor.  “The bill we are debating today was reported by the Committee under the guise of promoting equal access for military recruiters on America’s college and university campuses,” Meehan said.  “In reality, this bill is designed to force universities to violate their own policies against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and to undermine pending lawsuits that challenge the so-called Solomon Amendment.”

Meehan went on to note that “this bill is a drastic solution to a problem that doesn’t even exist.” 

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) joined Meehan in opposing the bill.  “This legislation is to punish those institutions which have said, as a matter of principle, we do not want them recruiting on their campus unless everybody is eligible,” Rep. Frank said.  “We do not want them restricting on irrelevant grounds people because of their race or their religion or their gender or their sexual orientation.”

In January, SLDN joined a coalition of law schools, professors and legal organizations in asking the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the Solomon Amendment.  The Forum for Academic & Institutional Rights (FAIR) and the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) filed the suit, saying the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual service members is incompatible with university policies prohibiting campus recruiting by employers who discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.   SLDN filed a friend of the court brief supporting those claims.

“Our military should play by the same rules as other campus recruiters,” said Greer.  “Universities have every right to expect that their lesbian, gay and bisexual students will enjoy the same employment opportunities as their heterosexual students.”

For more information on the Solomon Amendment and the Third Circuit suit, FAIR et al v. Rumsfeld, visit www.solomonresponse.org. 

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network web site

31 March, 2004