First District’s Mann separates from peers by siding with far-right GOP faction
By TIM CARPENTER
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — The Kansas congressional delegation found rare agreement while weighing amendments to the U.S. Department of Defense budget bill by jointly opposing reduction in the number of nuclear armed intercontinental ballistic missiles deployed in the United States.
U.S. Reps. Jake LaTurner, Ron Estes and Tracey Mann, all Republicans, and Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids stood with an overwhelming majority in the House to block insertion of the ICBM amendment into the defense bill.
Votes on a majority of controversial amendments to the Defense Department funding deal fell along party lines, including those diluting attention to challenges of racism in the military and efforts to further restrict rights of women and transgender service members.
Mann, who serves the 1st District stretched from Colorado to Lawrence and featuring the U.S. Army based at Fort Riley, stood alone among Kansas’ representatives in Congress on three amendments tied to Ukraine’s response to an invasion by Russia.
He voted to block future military assistance to Ukraine, to end a lend-lease program with Ukraine and to forbid sale or transfer of cluster munitions to Ukraine. Those amendments, which were soundly rejected by the U.S. House, were offered by U.S. Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, and Andrew Ogles, R-Tennessee.
‘Defend America’s interests’
The House forwarded the package Friday to the U.S. Senate by a margin of 219-210, with Mann, Estes and LaTurner voting “yes” and Davids casting a “no” vote. It stood little chance of passage in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
“As America faces growing threats from our adversaries, it’s vital that we strengthen our military readiness and ensure our servicemen and women have the resources they need to defend America’s interests at home and abroad,” LaTurner said.
LaTurner said the House bill would improve quality of life for troops and their families by raising wages 5.2%, broaden investment in deterring China and bring an end to “woke programs” pushed on military personnel by the administration of President Joe Biden.
Mann, Estes and LaTurner voted for — with Davids against — an amendment to end a Defense Department policy of providing time off and reimbursement to service members traveling out of state for abortion services. The amendment passed 221-213. The policy was implemented after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision granting women a nationwide right to abortion.
The same 3-1 division marked House passage of an amendment preventing the Pentagon from providing health coverage for gender reassignment surgeries or gender hormone treatments for transgender individuals. The state’s delegation split in the same manner as the House passed a measure offered by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colorado, to keep Defense Department schools from buying or holding books espousing a “radical gender ideology.”
Estes, who serves the 4th District around Wichita, said the House bill was a strong message against the Biden administration’s “radical political agenda that does nothing to promote military readiness.”
“In addition to prioritizing military readiness and service members’ needs,” he said, “this bill curbs waste by cutting inefficient programs, obsolete weapons and unnecessary bureaucracy in the Pentagon.”
Denounce DEI policies
The delegation again divided 3-1 while the full House approved culture-war amendments aimed at deleting the Pentagon’s office of diversity, equity and inclusion, preventing the Department of Defense from creating new DEI administrative positions and forbidding use of affirmative action policies on race or ethnicity in determining admissions to military academies.
The three Kansas Republicans also favored an amendment to halt federal funding of DEI training, but that measure fell short of a majority.
In addition, the three Kansas GOP members helped pass a House amendment withdrawing Defense Department funding from efforts promoting the notion of the United States as a racist country or labeling the Declaration of Independence or U.S. Constitution as racists documents.
The LaTurner, Estes and Mann coalition voted for an amendment, which failed, to exempt the Department of Defense from the federal endangered species act. The three Kansas Republicans supported an amendment that passed 217-216 to deny the Defense Department an opportunity to implement climate change executive orders issued by Biden.