Gender Issues: Changes Would be Needed to Expand Selective Service
Registration to Women (Letter Report, 06/30/98, GAO/NSIAD-98-199).
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the legal, staffing,
and funding changes that would be needed if the Selective Service System
(SSS) were given the mandate to expand registration to include women.
GAO noted that: (1) SSS could register women if its authorizing
legislation, the Military Selective Service Act, were amended to provide
for registering women; (2) currently, the act only obligates males to
register; and (3) Selective Service estimates that it would need 17 to
23 additional staff and about $4.6 million to $5.2 million in added
funding to carry out such a mandate.
--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------
REPORTNUM: NSIAD-98-199
TITLE: Gender Issues: Changes Would be Needed to Expand Selective
Service Registration to Women
DATE: 06/30/98
SUBJECT: Women
Defense contingency planning
Military personnel
Military enlistment
Selective service
Cost analysis
Human resources utilization
******************************************************************
** This file contains an ASCII representation of the text of a **
** GAO report. Delineations within the text indicating chapter **
** titles, headings, and bullets are preserved. Major **
** divisions and subdivisions of the text, such as Chapters, **
** Sections, and Appendixes, are identified by double and **
** single lines. The numbers on the right end of these lines **
** indicate the position of each of the subsections in the **
** document outline. These numbers do NOT correspond with the **
** page numbers of the printed product. **
** **
** No attempt has been made to display graphic images, although **
** figure captions are reproduced. Tables are included, but **
** may not resemble those in the printed version. **
** **
** Please see the PDF (Portable Document Format) file, when **
** available, for a complete electronic file of the printed **
** document's contents. **
** **
** A printed copy of this report may be obtained from the GAO **
** Document Distribution Center. For further details, please **
** send an e-mail message to: **
** **
** **
** **
** with the message 'info' in the body. **
******************************************************************
Cover
================================================================ COVER
Report to the Ranking Minority Member, Subcommittee on Readiness,
U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services
June 1998
GENDER ISSUES - CHANGES WOULD BE
NEEDED TO EXPAND SELECTIVE SERVICE
REGISTRATION TO WOMEN
GAO/NSIAD-98-199
Gender Issues
(703249)
Abbreviations
=============================================================== ABBREV
Letter
=============================================================== LETTER
B-280253
June 30, 1998
The Honorable Charles S. Robb
Ranking Minority Member
Subcommittee on Readiness
Committee on Armed Services
United States Senate
Dear Senator Robb:
In your letter of June 20, 1997, concerning a variety of questions
related to gender equity in the military, you raised the issue of
whether men and women might both need to register with the Selective
Service System (SSS) to provide an adequate pool of potential
military personnel in the event the United States had to deal with a
prolonged conflict. As agreed, this report identifies the legal,
staffing, and funding changes that would be needed if SSS were given
the mandate to expand registration to include women. The question
you raised concerning whether the United States' ability to engage in
a prolonged conflict would be affected by restrictions on women
participating in ground combat will be addressed in a later report.
RESULTS IN BRIEF
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :1
Selective Service System could register women if its authorizing
legislation, the Military Selective Service Act, were amended to
provide for registering women. Currently, the act only obligates
males to register. Selective Service estimates that it would need 17
to 23 additional staff and about $4.6 million to $5.2 million in
added funding to carry out such a mandate.
BACKGROUND
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :2
Until 1973, the U.S. military relied on a mix of draftees and
volunteers to fill its ranks. In 1973, the draft ended and the
military became an all-volunteer force. Currently, the Military
Selective Service Act (MSSA)\1 requires that males between the ages
of 18 and 26 register under procedures established by a presidential
proclamation\2 and other rules and regulations.
SSS is an independent agency within the executive branch of the
federal government. Its missions are to (1) provide untrained
manpower to the Department of Defense (DOD) for military service in
the event of a national emergency declared by the Congress or the
President, (2) administer a program of alternative service for
conscientious objectors in the event of a draft, and (3) maintain the
capability to register and forward for induction health care
personnel if so authorized and directed in a future crisis. SSS
carries out its function with an authorized staff of 180 civilians
(170 on board as of May 1998); 15 active military personnel; 745
part-time reservists; 56 part-time state directors (one in each
state, territory, the District of Columbia, and New York City); and
10,605 uncompensated civilian volunteer members of local, review, and
various appeal boards. Currently, the boards receive periodic
training in classifying registrants in the event the draft is
reinstituted. The fiscal year 1998 budget for SSS is about $23.4
million. Its registration database of men between the ages of 18 and
26 contained about 13 million names as of March 1998.
Currently, SSS operates as a backup for recruiting shortfalls in the
all-volunteer armed forces or major expansion in military force
structure. DOD does not foresee a military crisis of a magnitude
that would require immediate reinstatement of the draft, but
continues to support registration for all men between the ages of 18
and 26. If the draft were reinstated, current DOD requirements are
for the first inductees to arrive 193 days after mobilization
notification and the first 100,000 inductees by day 210. First
medical personnel (doctors, nurses, and others) inductees are slated
to report on day 222. DOD based these requirements on the
expectation that existing active and reserve forces would be
sufficient to respond to perceived threats, thereby mitigating the
need for an immediate infusion of inductees. According to DOD, the
current requirements maintain an adequate margin of safety and
provide time for expanding military training capabilities to handle a
large influx of recruits.
DOD's view regarding maintaining an all male registration is
contained in a November 16, 1994 memorandum from the Assistant
Secretary of Defense, Force Management, to the SSS Director updating
mobilization requirements. DOD views the exemption of women from
registration as being consistent with its policy of restricting women
from direct ground combat. DOD also cites a 1981 decision of the
U.S. Supreme Court that upheld the exemption of women from
registration as additional support for this view. Rostker v.
Goldberg, 453 U.S. 57 (1981). Appendix I provides historical
information on the issue of registering women for a draft.
--------------------
\1 50 U.S.C. app. 451-471a.
\2 Proclamation No. 4771, 45 Fed. Reg. 45247 (1980) issued by
President Carter following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
REGISTRATION OF WOMEN WOULD
REQUIRE LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND
OPERATIONAL AND BUDGETARY
CHANGES
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :3
Under article I, section 8 of the Constitution, the Congress has
broad and sweeping authority to raise and support armies and to make
all laws necessary to that end.\3 Pursuant to this power, Congress
enacted MSSA. MSSA does not provide for the registration of women.
Section 3 of MSSA (50 U.S.C. app. 453) requires that only male
citizens and residents between the ages of 18 and 26, unless
exempted, register with SSS. The Congress' primary reason for not
requiring women to register was DOD's policy of excluding women from
combat assignments.\4 Requiring the registration of men but not women
was upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court in 1981 in the
Rostker case.
Registering women would require the Congress to amend MSSA.\5 Since
other federal and state laws and regulations currently deny benefits
(including educational assistance and employment eligibility) to
males who fail to register for the draft, amending MSSA may require
other legislative or regulatory changes.
SSS officials estimate that the agency would need 17 to 23 more staff
over its fiscal year 1998 authorized staff level and about $4.6
million to $5.2 million over its fiscal year 1998 budget if it were
required to register women in addition to men. The funds would be
needed to cover costs for personnel, printing, program contracts,
United States Postal Service reimbursement, postage, procurement of
state Division of Motor Vehicles lists of names and addresses,
awareness materials, equipment, supplies, and services. The SSS
estimates vary depending on the timeframe available to register women
and to build up the database of names and addresses and on two
scenarios. The two scenarios are (1) a nonemergency registration and
database buildup characterized by lower increases in resources and at
least a full year's time to complete and (2) an emergency
registration and database buildup characterized by higher increases
in resources and a usable database in only 42 days. Registering
women would add approximately 14.4 million names and addresses to the
estimated 13 million men's names and addresses in the SSS database.
Table 1 shows the current operations and the estimated effects of
registering women under these two scenarios, nonemergency and
emergency registrations.
Table 1
Estimated Effects of a New Mandate for
SSS to Register Women
Current
operations Nonemergency Emergency
Effect fiscal year 1998 registration registration
---------------- ---------------- ---------------- ----------------
Legal
Military No change Amended for Amended for
Selective gender gender
Service Act
Operational
Authorized 180 197 203
civilian
personnel
Time to register No change 365 or more days 42 days
and build up
lists of names
and addresses
======================================================================
Total number of 13 million men 27.4 million men 27.4 million men
names registered and women and women
Budget
Funding $23.4 million $28.0 million $28.6 million
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: SSS estimates.
Note: Some figures rounded to nearest hundred thousand.
--------------------
\3 U.S. v. O'Brien, 391 U.S. 367 (1968); Selective Draft Law
Cases, 245 U.S. 366 (1918).
\4 At the time, women were excluded from combat by law and DOD
policy, but some changes took place in 1991 and 1993, respectively.
The fiscal year 1992-1993 National Defense Authorization Act, P.L.
102-190 (Dec. 5, 1991) lifted the ban on the assignment of women to
combat aircraft. The fiscal year 1994 National Defense Authorization
Act, P.L. 103-160 (Nov. 30, 1993) lifted the ban on the assignment
of women to combat ships. Currently, the DOD policy is to exclude
women from assignments below the brigade level whose primary mission
is to engage in direct combat on the ground.
\5 At 50 U.S.C. app. 453, 456, 466.
AGENCY COMMENTS
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :4
DOD and the Director, SSS, reviewed a draft of this report and
provided technical comments, which we incorporated as appropriate.
SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :5
To identify the legal, staffing, and funding changes that would be
needed if SSS were given the mandate to expand registration to
include women, we reviewed applicable laws, congressional committee
reports, and the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Rostker v.
Goldberg, 453 U.S. 57 (1981). We drew from our previously issued
report entitled Selective Service: Cost and Implications of Two
Alternatives to the Present System (GAO/NSIAD-97-225, Sept. 10,
1997) and obtained additional information from SSS officials who
estimated the additional staffing and funding that would be needed if
SSS were to register women in addition to men. We did not verify
these SSS estimates, but we judged their reasonableness through
discussions with officials and by reviewing previously obtained
budget and staffing information. We reviewed DOD documents to obtain
DOD's position on registering and drafting women. We also reviewed a
November 1992 Presidential Commission report on the Assignment of
Women in the Armed Forces for the commission's position on
registering and drafting women. We did not review the policy
implications of registering women for a possible draft.
We conducted our review from April to June 1998 in accordance with
generally accepted government auditing standards.
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :5.1
We are sending copies of this report to other interested
congressional committees and Members of Congress, the Secretary of
Defense, and the Director of the Selective Service System. We will
also make copies of the report available to others on request.
If you or your staff have any questions concerning this report,
please call me on (202) 512-5140. Major contributors to this report
are listed in appendix II.
Sincerely yours,
Mark E. Gebicke
Director, Military Operations
and Capabilities Issues
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON WOMEN
AND THE DRAFT
=========================================================== Appendix I
The United States' change from a military force based on a mix of
volunteers and draftees to an all volunteer force ended the draft in
1973. In 1975, President Ford terminated registration under the
Military Selective Service Act (MSSA) by revoking several
presidential proclamations.\1 However, in July 1980 President Carter
reactivated the registration process for men in response to the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Discussions about registering and conscripting women have
periodically taken place. Section 811 of the Department of Defense
Authorization Act, 1980 (P.L. 96-107, Nov. 9, 1979) required the
President to send to the Congress a plan for reforming the law
providing for the registration and induction of persons for military
service. The President sent to the Congress his recommendations for
Selective Service System reform in a report dated February 11, 1980.
This report included a recommendation that the act be amended to
provide presidential authority to register, classify, and examine
women for service in the armed forces. Although women would become
part of the personnel inventory for the services to draw from, their
use would be based on the needs and missions of the services.
Department of Defense (DOD) policy, which was not to assign women to
positions involving close combat, would continue. In response to
these recommendations, the Congress agreed to reactivate
registration, but declined to amend the act to permit the
registration of women. Specifically, in the legislative history for
the Department of Defense Authorization Act, 1981, the Senate Armed
Services Committee report stated that the primary reason for not
expanding registration to include women was DOD's policy of not using
women in combat. S. REP. NO. 96-342, at 157 (1980). Additional
reasons cited in the report included agreement by both civilian and
military leadership that there was no military need to draft women
and congressional concerns about the societal impact of the
registration and possible induction of women.\2
The exclusion of women from the registration process has been
challenged in the courts. In 1980, a lawsuit brought by several men
resulted in a decision by the United States District Court for the
Eastern District of Pennsylvania that the MSSA exclusion of women
from registration violated the due process clause of the Fifth
Amendment and the District Court enjoined registration under the act.
On appeal, the Supreme Court reversed the District Court's decision
and upheld the constitutionality of the exclusion, ruling that there
was no violation of the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment.
Rostker v. Goldberg, 453 U.S. 57 (1981). The court based its
decision largely on DOD's policy of excluding women from combat. The
court reasoned that since the purpose of registration was to create a
pool of potential inductees for combat, males and females could be
treated differently. The court also noted its inclination to defer
to the Congress since draft registration requirements are enacted by
the Congress under its constitutional authority to raise armies and
navies and observed that the Congress had in 1980 considered, but
rejected, a proposal to expand registration to women.
In 1992, a Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the
Armed Forces reexamined the issue of registration and conscription of
women. In its November 1992 report, by a vote of 11 to 3, the
Commission recommended that women not be required to register for or
be subject to conscription. The Commission cited the 1981 Supreme
Court decision in Rostker upholding the exclusion of women from
registration as the basis for its recommendation. The Commission
also discussed enacting existing ground combat specialties exclusion
policies into law to provide an additional barrier to any amendment
of MSSA to provide for the conscription of women. However, an
appendix to its report suggests that public opinion was divided on
the issue. This appendix, which included the results of a random
telephone survey of 1,500 adults, showed that in the event of a draft
for a national emergency or threat of war (and assuming an ample pool
of young men exists), 52 percent of respondents indicated women
should be drafted, about 39 percent of respondents indicated women
should not be drafted, and 10 percent responded they did not know.
--------------------
\1 Proclamation No. 4360, 40 Fed. Reg. 14567 (1975).
\2 The conference report for the Authorization Act endorsed the
findings on registration of women contained in the Senate report.
See H.R. CONF. REP. NO. 96-1222, at 104 (1980).
MAJOR CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS REPORT
========================================================== Appendix II
NATIONAL SECURITY AND
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS DIVISION,
WASHINGTON, D,C.
-------------------------------------------------------- Appendix II:1
Carol R. Schuster
William E. Beusse
George M. Delgado
Carole F. Coffey
OFFICE OF THE GENERAL COUNSEL,
WASHINGTON, D.C.
-------------------------------------------------------- Appendix II:2
Maureen A. Murphy
*** End of document. ***