WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), and 10 Republican members of the Armed Services Committee released data from the Department of Defense (DOD) outlining military costs and time spent on key elements of President Joe Biden’s progressive social agenda.

According to General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. service members spent a total of 5,889,082 man-hours on the February 5, 2021, extremism “stand-down,” as well as “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” training, including critical race theory, since President Biden took office.

General Milley provided the data in response to a letter from the senators requesting details about the costs and readiness effects of the administration’s progressive social agenda.

Sen. Blackburn; Sen. Inhofe; Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.); Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.); Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.); Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.); Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa); Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.); Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska); Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.); Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.); Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) responded to this new information:

“We face real threats across the world, yet the Biden administration is more focused on promoting its leftist social agenda in the military instead of countering China, Russia and Iran or creating an effective counterterrorism plan,” the senators said. “Our military is not an extremist organization, and our service members, by and large all good people, are dedicated, faithful patriots. 

“We are alarmed that so much training time and taxpayer money was devoted to a partisan, political agenda instead of recruiting, training and equipping the lethal force we need to defend this country.”

The senators’ response also follows the release of the administration’s Countering Extremism Working Group’s much-delayed, 21-page report on extremism in the military, which found that “fewer than 100” members of the military engaged in “extremist activity.”

“For every documented case of extremism in the military, our military spent a whopping 58,000 hours in training on extremism,” the senators continued. “While any case of extremist behavior is wrong and harmful to military readiness, previous defense authorization bills have already given our military the appropriate tools to address these concerns.

“The Department of Defense’s primary task is to protect Americans from foreign threats. If the Biden administration doesn’t make this a priority moving forward, we will use all tools at our disposal, including the annual defense authorization bill, to ensure that it does.”

To read General Milley’s full response, please click here.