House panel modifies restrictions on women in combat

The House Armed Services Committee passed a measure Wednesday night that would lessen restrictions placed on female soldiers' combat roles during a subcommittee markup last week.

Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., and Personnel Subcommittee Chairman John McHugh, R-N.Y., last week pushed forward the original provision, which would have barred all women soldiers in forward-deployed support units from moving to the front lines during combat operations.

The new language, in the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill, would prohibit the assignment of women to units below the brigade level whose primary mission is to engage in direct ground combat, defined in the provision as using individual or crew-served weapons to engage an enemy while being exposed to hostile fire.

In his amendment, McHugh leaves the door open for other restrictions - particularly if the mission involves long-range reconnaissance or Special Operations Forces, the service secretary prohibits it because of privacy and quartering concerns, the physical requirements of the mission exceed the majority of female members' abilities, or the unit is required to travel and operate extensively with a "direct ground combat unit," according to a copy of the amendment.

The amendment codifies a 1994 Defense Department policy prohibiting female service members from being assigned to combat units. The measure also requires the Pentagon to notify Congress when opening new positions to women.

The amendment survived several attempts by Democrats to weaken the language. Democrats had also opposed last week's provision, as had senior Army leaders and two associations representing active and retired Army and National Guard members.

According to Lt. Gen. James L. Campbell, Army staff director, the amendment passed by the subcommittee would have closed 21,925 positions that are available to female service members in heavy and infantry brigade combat teams and in the Army's new fast-moving 3,500-soldier Stryker Brigades.

Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey opposed the subcommittee's action, along with Gen. Richard A. Cody, the service's vice chief of staff. In a letter to Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., the committee's ranking member, the senior leaders wrote that the Army complies with the Pentagon's current policy on women in combat and that changing it at this time would not be helpful.

Harvey said the issue is complex because battlefields are no longer linear and the proposed amendment would "cause confusion in the ranks." Harvey said a new law would be premature because the Army currently is conducting a study on the role of women in the military.

The Association of the United States Army and the National Guard Association of the United States, representing about 145,000 current and former Army and National Guard members, also opposed last week's measure in letters to Snyder, stating that it would be detrimental to units that have trained together.

"This is the wrong time to attempt to codify the role of women in combat," wrote retired Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan, a former Army chief of staff and current president of the Association of the U.S. Army.