Military

Congress takes its first step toward killing the military draft

The military draft may be headed for the scrap heap.

The House Armed Services Committee will include instructions to examine the Selective Service program's viability and possible “alternatives” as part of its review of the annual defense authorization bill next week, staffers confirmed on Friday.

The move comes following months of hand-wringing over whether women will be forced to register for the draft as part of the military's plans to open combat jobs to all troops regardless of gender.

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers — several of whom sit on the committee — has already offered legislation to abolish the Selective Service System, calling it an outdated vestige of military history.

Committee officials said the authorization bill language is not geared toward keeping or eliminating the Selective Service system, but reviewing the cost and operation of a program that hasn’t been used to fill the ranks since 1973.

The agency's activities cost taxpayers roughly $23 million each year, and a 2012 Government Accountability Office report questioned whether the system could even provide a list of draftees to the Defense Department if called upon to do so.