United States General Accounting Office

GAO Report to the Ranking Minority Member,

Subcommittee on Readiness, Committee

on Armed Services, U.S. Senate

June 1998 GENDER ISSUES

Changes Would Be

Needed to Expand

Selective Service

Registration to Women

GAO/NSIAD-98-199

GAO United States

General Accounting Office

Washington, D.C. 20548

National Security and

International Affairs Division

B-280253 

June 30, 1998

The Honorable Charles S. Robb

Ranking Minority Member

Subcommittee on Readiness

Committee on Armed Services

United States Senate

Dear Senator Robb:

In your letter of June 20, 1997, concerning a variety of questions related to

gender equity in the military, you raised the issue of whether men and

women might both need to register with the Selective Service System (SSS)

to provide an adequate pool of potential military personnel in the event the

United States had to deal with a prolonged conflict. As agreed, this report

identifies the legal, staffing, and funding changes that would be needed if

SSS were given the mandate to expand registration to include women. The

question you raised concerning whether the United States’ ability to

engage in a prolonged conflict would be affected by restrictions on women

participating in ground combat will be addressed in a later report.

Results in Brief Selective Service System could register women if its authorizing

legislation, the Military Selective Service Act, were amended to provide for

registering women. Currently, the act only obligates males to register.

Selective Service estimates that it would need 17 to 23 additional staff and

about $4.6 million to $5.2 million in added funding to carry out such a

mandate.

Background Until 1973, the U.S. military relied on a mix of draftees and volunteers to

fill its ranks. In 1973, the draft ended and the military became an

all-volunteer force. Currently, the Military Selective Service Act (MSSA)1

requires that males between the ages of 18 and 26 register under

procedures established by a presidential proclamation2

 and other rules

and regulations.

SSS is an independent agency within the executive branch of the federal

government. Its missions are to (1) provide untrained manpower to the

1

50 U.S.C. app. 451-471a.

2

Proclamation No. 4771, 45 Fed. Reg. 45247 (1980) issued by President Carter following the Soviet

invasion of Afghanistan.

Page 1 GAO/NSIAD-98-199 Gender Issues
B-280253 

Department of Defense (DOD) for military service in the event of a national

emergency declared by the Congress or the President, (2) administer a

program of alternative service for conscientious objectors in the event of a

draft, and (3) maintain the capability to register and forward for induction

health care personnel if so authorized and directed in a future crisis. SSS

carries out its function with an authorized staff of 180 civilians (170 on

board as of May 1998); 15 active military personnel; 745 part-time

reservists; 56 part-time state directors (one in each state, territory, the

District of Columbia, and New York City); and 10,605 uncompensated

civilian volunteer members of local, review, and various appeal boards.

Currently, the boards receive periodic training in classifying registrants in

the event the draft is reinstituted. The fiscal year 1998 budget for SSS is

about $23.4 million. Its registration database of men between the ages of

18 and 26 contained about 13 million names as of March 1998.

Currently, SSS operates as a backup for recruiting shortfalls in the

all-volunteer armed forces or major expansion in military force structure.

DOD does not foresee a military crisis of a magnitude that would require

immediate reinstatement of the draft, but continues to support registration

for all men between the ages of 18 and 26. If the draft were reinstated,

current DOD requirements are for the first inductees to arrive 193 days after

mobilization notification and the first 100,000 inductees by day 210. First

medical personnel (doctors, nurses, and others) inductees are slated to

report on day 222. DOD based these requirements on the expectation that

existing active and reserve forces would be sufficient to respond to

perceived threats, thereby mitigating the need for an immediate infusion of

inductees. According to DOD, the current requirements maintain an

adequate margin of safety and provide time for expanding military training

capabilities to handle a large influx of recruits.

DOD’s view regarding maintaining an all male registration is contained in a

November 16, 1994, memorandum from the Assistant Secretary of

Defense, Force Management, to the SSS Director updating mobilization

requirements. DOD views the exemption of women from registration as

being consistent with its policy of restricting women from direct ground

combat. DOD also cites a 1981 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that

upheld the exemption of women from registration as additional support

for this view. Rostker v. Goldberg, 453 U.S. 57 (1981). Appendix I provides

historical information on the issue of registering women for a draft.

Page 2 GAO/NSIAD-98-199 Gender Issues
B-280253 

Registration of

Women Would

Require Legislative

Action and

Operational and

Budgetary Changes

Under article I, section 8 of the Constitution, the Congress has broad and

sweeping authority to raise and support armies and to make all laws

necessary to that end.3

 Pursuant to this power, the Congress enacted MSSA.

MSSA does not provide for the registration of women. Section 3 of MSSA

(50 U.S.C. app. 453) requires that only male citizens and residents between

the ages of 18 and 26, unless exempted, register with SSS. The Congress’

primary reason for not requiring women to register was DOD’s policy of

excluding women from combat assignments.4

 Requiring the registration of

men but not women was upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court in

1981 in the Rostker case.

Registering women would require the Congress to amend MSSA.

5

 Since

other federal and state laws and regulations currently deny benefits

(including educational assistance and employment eligibility) to males

who fail to register for the draft, amending MSSA may require other

legislative or regulatory changes.

SSS officials estimate that the agency would need 17 to 23 more staff over

its fiscal year 1998 authorized staff level and about $4.6 million to

$5.2 million over its fiscal year 1998 budget if it were required to register

women in addition to men. The funds would be needed to cover costs for

personnel, printing, program contracts, U.S. Postal Service

reimbursement, postage, procurement of state Division of Motor Vehicles

lists of names and addresses, awareness materials, equipment, supplies,

and services. The SSS estimates vary depending on the timeframe available

to register women and to build up the database of names and addresses

and on two scenarios. The two scenarios are (1) a nonemergency

registration and database buildup characterized by lower increases in

resources and at least a full year’s time to complete and (2) an emergency

registration and database buildup characterized by higher increases in

resources and a usable database in only 42 days. Registering women

would add approximately 14.4 million names and addresses to the

estimated 13 million men’s names and addresses in the SSS database.

Table 1 shows the current operations and the estimated effects of

3

U.S. v. O’Brien, 391 U.S. 367 (1968); Selective Draft Law Cases, 245 U.S. 366 (1918).

4

At the time, women were excluded from combat by law and DOD policy, but some changes took place

in 1991 and 1993, respectively. The fiscal year 1992-1993 National Defense Authorization Act, 

P.L. 102-190 (Dec. 5, 1991) lifted the ban on the assignment of women to combat aircraft. The fiscal

year 1994 National Defense Authorization Act, P.L. 103-160 (Nov. 30, 1993) lifted the ban on the

assignment of women to combat ships. Currently, the DOD policy is to exclude women from

assignments below the brigade level whose primary mission is to engage in direct combat on the

ground.

5

At 50 U.S.C. app. 453, 456, 466.

Page 3 GAO/NSIAD-98-199 Gender Issues
B-280253 

registering women under these two scenarios, nonemergency and

emergency registrations.

Table 1: Estimated Effects of a New

Mandate for SSS to Register Women

Effect

Current operations

fiscal year 1998

Nonemergency

registration

Emergency

registration

Legal

Military Selective

Service Act

No change Amended for gender Amended for gender

Operational

Authorized 

civilian personnel

180 197 203

Time to register and

build up lists of

names and addresses

No change 365 or more days 42 days

Total number of

names registered

13 million men 27.4 million men and

women

27.4 million men and

women

Budget

Funding $23.4 million $28.0 million $28.6 million

Note: Some figures rounded to nearest hundred thousand.

Source: SSS estimates.

Agency Comments DOD and the Director, SSS, reviewed a draft of this report and provided

technical comments, which we incorporated as appropriate.

Scope and

Methodology

To identify the legal, staffing, and funding changes that would be needed if

SSS were given the mandate to expand registration to include women, we

reviewed applicable laws, congressional committee reports, and the U.S.

Supreme Court decision in Rostker v. Goldberg, 453 U.S. 57 (1981). We

drew from our previously issued report entitled Selective Service: Cost

and Implications of Two Alternatives to the Present System

(GAO/NSIAD-97-225, Sept. 10, 1997) and obtained additional information from

SSS officials who estimated the additional staffing and funding that would

be needed if SSS were to register women in addition to men. We did not

verify these SSS estimates, but we judged their reasonableness through

discussions with officials and by reviewing previously obtained budget and

staffing information. We reviewed DOD documents to obtain DOD’s position

on registering and drafting women. We also reviewed a November 1992

Presidential Commission report on the Assignment of Women in the

Armed Forces for the commission’s position on registering and drafting

Page 4 GAO/NSIAD-98-199 Gender Issues
B-280253 

women. We did not review the policy implications of registering women

for a possible draft.

We conducted our review from April to June 1998 in accordance with

generally accepted government auditing standards.

We are sending copies of this report to other interested congressional

committees and Members of Congress, the Secretary of Defense, and the

Director of the Selective Service System. We will also make copies of the

report available to others on request.

If you or your staff have any questions concerning this report, please call

me on (202) 512-5140. Major contributors to this report are listed in

appendix II.

Sincerely yours,

Mark E. Gebicke

Director, Military Operations

 and Capabilities Issues

Page 5 GAO/NSIAD-98-199 Gender Issues
Appendix I 

Historical Perspectives on Women and the

Draft

The United States’ change from a military force based on a mix of

volunteers and draftees to an all-volunteer force ended the draft in 1973. In

1975, President Ford terminated registration under the Military Selective

Service Act (MSSA) by revoking several presidential proclamations.1

However, in July 1980 President Carter reactivated the registration process

for men in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Discussions about registering and conscripting women have periodically

taken place. Section 811 of the Department of Defense Authorization Act,

1980 (P.L. 96-107, Nov. 9, 1979) required the President to send to the

Congress a plan for reforming the law providing for the registration and

induction of persons for military service. The President sent to the

Congress his recommendations for Selective Service System reform in a

report dated February 11, 1980. This report included a recommendation

that the act be amended to provide presidential authority to register,

classify, and examine women for service in the armed forces. Although

women would become part of the personnel inventory for the services to

draw from, their use would be based on the needs and missions of the

services. Department of Defense (DOD) policy, which was not to assign

women to positions involving close combat, would continue. In response

to these recommendations, the Congress agreed to reactivate registration,

but declined to amend the act to permit the registration of women.

Specifically, in the legislative history for the Department of Defense

Authorization Act, 1981, the Senate Armed Services Committee report

stated that the primary reason for not expanding registration to include

women was DOD’s policy of not using women in combat. 

(S. Rept. No. 96-342, at 157 (1980)). Additional reasons cited in the report

included agreement by both civilian and military leadership that there was

no military need to draft women and congressional concerns about the

societal impact of the registration and possible induction of women.2

The exclusion of women from the registration process has been

challenged in the courts. In 1980, a lawsuit brought by several men

resulted in a decision by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of

Pennsylvania that the MSSA exclusion of women from registration violated

the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment and the District Court

enjoined registration under the act. On appeal, the Supreme Court

reversed the District Court’s decision and upheld the constitutionality of

the exclusion, ruling that there was no violation of the due process clause

1

Proclamation No. 4360, 40 Fed. Reg. 14567 (1975).

2

The conference report for the Authorization Act endorsed the findings on registration of women

contained in the Senate report. See H.R. CONF. REP. NO. 96-1222, at 104 (1980).

Page 6 GAO/NSIAD-98-199 Gender Issues
Appendix I 

Historical Perspectives on Women and the

Draft

of the Fifth Amendment. (Rostker v. Goldberg, 453 U.S. 57 (1981)). The

court based its decision largely on DOD’s policy of excluding women from

combat. The court reasoned that since the purpose of registration was to

create a pool of potential inductees for combat, males and females could

be treated differently. The court also noted its inclination to defer to the

Congress since draft registration requirements are enacted by the

Congress under its constitutional authority to raise armies and navies and

observed that the Congress had in 1980 considered, but rejected, a

proposal to expand registration to women.

In 1992, a Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the

Armed Forces reexamined the issue of registration and conscription of

women. In its November 1992 report, by a vote of 11 to 3, the Commission

recommended that women not be required to register for or be subject to

conscription. The Commission cited the 1981 Supreme Court decision in

Rostker upholding the exclusion of women from registration as the basis

for its recommendation. The Commission also discussed enacting existing

ground combat specialties exclusion policies into law to provide an

additional barrier to any amendment of MSSA to provide for the

conscription of women. However, an appendix to its report suggests that

public opinion was divided on the issue. This appendix, which included

the results of a random telephone survey of 1,500 adults, showed that in

the event of a draft for a national emergency or threat of war (and

assuming an ample pool of young men exists), 52 percent of respondents

indicated women should be drafted, about 39 percent of respondents

indicated women should not be drafted, and 10 percent responded they

did not know.

Page 7 GAO/NSIAD-98-199 Gender Issues
Appendix II 

Major Contributors to This Report

National Security and

International Affairs

Division, Washington,

D.C.

Carol R. Schuster

William E. Beusse

George M. Delgado

Carole F. Coffey

Office of the General

Counsel, Washington,

D.C.

Maureen A. Murphy

(703249) Page 8 GAO/NSIAD-98-199 Gender Issues
Ordering Information

The first copy of each GAO report and testimony is free.

Additional copies are $2 each. Orders should be sent to the

following address, accompanied by a check or money order

made out to the Superintendent of Documents, when

necessary. VISA and MasterCard credit cards are accepted, also.

Orders for 100 or more copies to be mailed to a single address

are discounted 25 percent.

Orders by mail:

U.S. General Accounting Office

P.O. Box 37050

Washington, DC 20013

or visit:

Room 1100

700 4th St. NW (corner of 4th and G Sts. NW)

U.S. General Accounting Office

Washington, DC

Orders may also be placed by calling (202) 512-6000 

or by using fax number (202) 512-6061, or TDD (202) 512-2537.

Each day, GAO issues a list of newly available reports and

testimony. To receive facsimile copies of the daily list or any

list from the past 30 days, please call (202) 512-6000 using a

touchtone phone. A recorded menu will provide information on

how to obtain these lists.

For information on how to access GAO reports on the INTERNET,

send an e-mail message with "info" in the body to:

info@www.gao.gov

or visit GAO’s World Wide Web Home Page at:

http://www.gao.gov

PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER
United States

General Accounting Office

Washington, D.C. 20548-0001

Official Business

Penalty for Private Use $300

Address Correction Requested

Bulk Rate

Postage & Fees Paid

GAO

Permit No. G100