Republican-Controlled Senate Removes "White Nationalist" from Screening of People Enlisting in Military

In December of 2019, the Republican-controlled Senate quietly removed the ‘white nationalist’ designation from measures designed to screen military enlistees for any affiliation with hate groups. 

Republicans removed the language added in the House version of the National Defense Authorization act over the objection of Democrats in both the House and Senate. 

The removal of this language came shortly on the heels of a widely-publicized incident in which cadets from the West Point Academy were caught on an ESPN telecast of the Army-Navy football game making the ‘white power’ hand gesture in multiple instances. 

Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), who introduced the amendment to include this screening in the House version of the bill stated his objection to its removal:

"I introduced my amendment because keeping this hateful ideology out of our military is crucial to our national security and to the safety of our service members. We can't address the problem if we won't acknowledge there is one, which is why I was disappointed by the Senate Republicans' decision to strike this language.”

The Trump administration Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, said that he does not believe infiltration of white nationalists to be a critical issue for the military:

"I don't believe it's an issue in the military. There is no room whatsoever for anybody to have — to be a white nationalist or to be a member of any hate group whatsoever or harbor anything like that." 

Investigations from civil rights organizations have revealed ongoing efforts by white supremacist groups to infiltrate the military for training. A study released in 2020 found that over one in three active duty military members surveyed in 2019 said they had encountered white nationalism or racist ideology during their service.