[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 15]
[House]
[Pages 21849-21850]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                 REINSTATEMENT OF MILITARY CONSCRIPTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Smith) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, the service in the Armed Forces 
for all American men has been an experience that has I think unified us 
in this country. It has been a common experience of getting up early in 
the morning, eating mediocre food, but mostly understanding how the 
military works and understanding the importance of patriotism in this 
country.
  I ask my colleagues, Mr. Speaker, to realize that within a few years 
there will be nobody in this Chamber that has served in the military. 
In a few years, there will be nobody in State legislatures that has 
served in the military except, possibly, for maybe a few heroes that 
have come back and had the name ID that allows them to run for 
political office.
  I think that is a great danger in terms of the understanding of 
legislative bodies here in the U.S. House of Representatives, over in 
the U.S. Senate and certainly in all our legislative bodies, the State 
legislatures, as well as municipal jurisdictions. That experience of 
serving in the military has unified us.
  I have been working on legislation for the past 5 years that would 
reinstate military conscription in a process that is both voluntary and 
mandatory. It would direct the Secretary of the Army and the President 
to reinstate a conscription between 6 months and 1 year where those 
individuals would go through a kind of orientation of boot camp, but 
also the learning of international relations, the learning of terrorism 
and how terrorists work and where they come from, a better 
understanding of the different goals of the countries around the world, 
and then after, but also the military discipline of that kind of basic 
boot camp orientation.
  After that there would be a discretion. If they do not want to 
continue to serve in that kind of military combat training role for the 
rest of that 6-month period or for the rest of that year period 
discretionarily, they would have the option of working in community 
service or going into AmeriCorps

[[Page 21850]]

or going into some other service for the government. They would receive 
modest pay but exceptional training to bring back that kind of unity of 
experience that is so important, I think, as we conduct business that 
involves, more and more, the rest of the world.
  An understanding of international relations has been so obvious since 
the September 11 attack on this country. I would encourage my 
colleagues to call me or my office to get a copy of this draft 
legislation, to look into the possibility of renewing military 
conscription in both a mandatory and a voluntary way that they could 
earn credits with the GI Bill of Rights provisions for the time that 
they serve their country.
  It would give those individuals the kind of experience, but more than 
that, it would be a binding force of common experience that would hold 
this country together.

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