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Good news out of the House last week, as we finally passed a reasonable version of the National Defense Authorization Act. If you consume a lot of political news, you may have seen reports about conservative amendments to that legislation, and how I, along with others from the House Freedom Caucus, were fighting hard for those changes.

For a while there, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to support the final version of that legislation. Fortunately, however, many conservative amendments were adopted, which made the House’s version more acceptable. Several of my own amendments made it through as well, including guidance that prohibits the display of unapproved flags at Department of Defense facilities (e.g. rainbow flag flying alongside the American Flag at our military bases).

Both of my amendments for Maj. James Capers made it through; one authorizing his Medal of Honor and the other recommending a naval vessel be named in his honor.

I also had an amendment prohibiting mask mandates on military installations, another amendment eliminating so-called “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” offices within the Department of Defense. And another stopping your taxpayer dollars from funding gender change surgeries through the military’s Exceptional Family Member Program, which was never designed for that purpose. All of those were adopted.

Anyway, some were concerned about conservative amendments on social issues being included in the NDAA. I do not share their concern. Like Kudzu slowly ravaging a forest, the Left has used our military as a social experiment for too long, and I’m tired of it.

The stated mission of our Defense Department is to “provide combat-credible military forces needed to deter war and protect the security of our nation.” Anything that detracts from that needs to be put out to pasture, and House’s version of the NDAA was a good step in right direction. We’ll have to see what happens in the Senate…