Wyden, Colleagues Introduce Legislation to Codify Women’s Right to Serve in Combat

Wyden, Colleagues Introduce Legislation to Codify Women's Right to Serve in Combat

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Ron Wyden said today he has joined Senate colleagues to introduce legislation reinforcing the principle that the U.S. military has always relied upon: standards must be based on the demands of the job, not gender.

The Women Add Resourcefulness and Resilience to Improve Operational Readiness (WARRIOR) Act would maintain rigorous, gender-neutral standards, especially in light of the U.S. Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's decision to order a study examining "the effectiveness of women in combat jobs," despite there being no evidence that the presence of women in combat units lowers standards. If passed, the WARRIOR Act would codify the commonsense Defense Department policy that ensures every service member is evaluated on validated and merit-based standards.

"Anyone with the will to serve their country and the ability to do the job shouldn't be shut out of combat units due to their gender," Wyden said. "Pete Hegseth has made no secret of his contempt for women and transgender servicemembers. That's why Congress must pass the WARRIOR Act-to protect the fact that every qualified servicemember should be judged by merit, not by chauvinistic and outdated perceptions of gender roles."

The WARRIOR Act updates outdated provisions of federal law to align with current Defense Department policy that ensures military occupational standards are based on validated job requirements and applied equally to all qualified service members. This bill codifies what more than two decades of experience has already proven: maintaining rigorous, gender-neutral standards strengthens our military readiness.

Despite this long-standing tradition of merit-based promotions and standards, recent reporting revealed that Hegseth blocked the promotions of seven senior Navy officers, five of whom are women or people of color. Hegseth's unprecedented decision to overrule the promotion board means that for the first time in more than a decade, no female active-duty naval officers are likely to be promoted to admiral this year, officials said. These actions underscore the need for statutory protections to ensure that qualified service members are evaluated on merit, rather than gender.

Specifically, the WARRIOR Act would reinforce merit-based standards in the Armed Forces by:

1. Establishing a clear, statutory prohibition on excluding any service member from a military occupational specialty, career field, or assignment based on gender;

2. Removing outdated language limiting protections to roles already "open to both male and female members," ensuring all positions are covered;

3. Mandating that military occupational standards reflect the actual requirements of the job, including technical, tactical, cognitive, physical abilities, and requiring standards to be developed through a scientifically rigorous process;

4. Expanding congressional review of proposed changes, including costs, data, and rationale, and extending the review period to 180 days and requiring the Department of Defense to submit annual reports to Congress including

   1. Changes to occupational standards

   2. Data on involuntary reassignments and separations

   3. Justifications for personnel decisions;

5. Requiring that service members in good standing have at least 18 months to meet any new or revised standard and incorporating input from Defense Department medical and research experts, and;

6. Mandating submission to Congress of the full, unredacted study on combat unit effectiveness ordered by the Secretary of Defense in December and requiring a follow-up review by the Government Accountability Office.

The legislation introduced today was led by U.S. Senators Mazie K. Hirono, D-Hawaii, and Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.. In addition to Wyden, the legislation was cosponsored by U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y and U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Patty Murray, D-Wash., Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., Andy Kim, D-N.J., Cory Booker, D-N.J., John Fetterman, D-Pa., Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Mark Warner, D-Va.

The full text of the bill is here.