A Defense Bill Should Be About Defense — Not Liberal Social Policies

by Rep. Mike Pence (Ind.)

Throughout my nearly nine years in Congress, I have been downrange with our troops every year in Afghanistan and Iraq. I also supported every defense authorization bill that came before the U.S. House of Representatives.

Therefore, it was with a heavy heart yesterday that I joined 130 of my House Republican colleagues in breaking that personal tradition and opposed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010.

The reason? The Democrat majority cynically included hate crimes provisions in the bill that threaten the very freedoms of speech and religion that draw our soldiers into the uniform of this nation. More.

RELATED:
Boehner: ‘Just Plain Wrong' for Democrats to Attach Hate Crimes Measure to Defense Authorization Bill
(CNSNews.com) – Republican congressmen accuse House Democrats of using an otherwise bipartisan defense-funding bill as a means to ram through a key piece of legislation on the homosexual activist agenda –- expanding the definition of hate crimes to include sexual orientation. Democrats have done a great disservice to the brave men and women of our Armed Forces today by using them as leverage to pass radical social policy,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).