As I wrote in my June 26 post, Christian nationalist Rep. Mike Turner introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2024 that would in effect SHUT DOWN the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) by making it ILLEGAL for members of the military to even communicate with MRFF! That amendment was PASSED by the House Armed Services Committee (sneakily inserted into a large package of amendments to dupe all the Democrats into voting for it) and became part of the House version of the NDAA.
THE WHOLE HOUSE HAS NOW PASSED THE BILL WITH TURNER’S DESPICABLE, VINDICTIVE, AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT IN IT!!!
WE NEED YOU TO ACT!!!
We need everybody to take a minute and fill out our easy little form to send MRFF’s letter to your representative and senators. I’ll explain why doing this could still SAVE MRFF below, but before getting bogged down in details …
“It ain’t over until the fat lady sings,” as they say, and in this case the “fat lady” is the Conference Committee.
For those unfamiliar with the process that the NDAA goes through before becoming the final bill that’s signed into law, here’s a brief explanation. The House and the Senate each independently write and pass their own versions of the NDAA. Then, a Conference Committee, made up of members from both the House and the Senate, reconcile the two versions of the bill. In other words, if something is in one bill but not the other, the Conference Committee decides whether it stays in or gets removed. Since Turner’s amendment to SHUT DOWN MRFF is only in the House version of the bill, it is the Conference Committee that will decide its fate, and it is imperative to the survival of MRFF that the Conference Committee’s decision is to remove it!
We do not yet know who the members of the Conference Committee are going to be, which is why we are imploring EVERYONE here to send MRFF’s letter to their representative and senators to ensure that as many members as possible see it. So …
Here is the text of Turner’s amendment, which, if it is not removed by the Conference Committee and remains in the final bill, will obliterate MRFF’s ability to protect and advocate on behalf of our service members facing religious discrimination, harassment, and aggressive proselytizing.
LIMITATION ON USE OF FUNDS RELATED TO MILITARY RELIGIOUS FREEDOM FOUNDATION.
None of the funds authorized to be appropriated by this Act or otherwise made available for fiscal year 2024 for the Department of Defense may be used—
(1) to communicate with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, its leadership, or its founder; or
(2) to take any action or make any decision as a result of any claim, objection, or protest made by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation without the authority of the Secretary of Defense.
Don’t let the Christian nationalists in Congress SHUT MRFF DOWN!!!
