Selective Service: Cost and Implications of Two Alternatives to the Present System
Released: 1997-09-10T00:00:00

Letter

Background

SSS is an independent agency within the executive branch of the federal government. Its missions are to (1) provide untrained manpower to the 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 directed in a future crisis. SSS’ authorizing legislation, the Military Selective Service Act, requires that all males between the ages of 18 and 26 register with SSS under procedures established by a presidential proclamation and other rules and regulations. Men are required to register within 30 days of reaching age 18.

SSS operations have fluctuated since the end of the draft in 1973. In 1975, President Ford terminated registration under the act by revoking several presidential proclamations. In 1976, SSS state and local offices were closed, placing the agency in a deep standby. In 1980, following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, President Carter issued a proclamation to establish the current registration procedures. Under these procedures, SSS has been registering young men between the ages of 18 and 26, but not classifying them for a potential draft.

According to SSS officials, the September 30, 1996, version of the registration database contained about 13 million names of men between the ages of 18 and 26 and represented about 92 percent of the eligible universe of males subject to registration. Men are most vulnerable to being drafted during the calendar year they reach age 20 and become increasingly less vulnerable each year through age 25. SSS officials estimate that registration compliance for men considered “draft eligible,” those aged 20 through 25, is 95 percent. A detailed description of registration methods appears in appendix I.

Currently, SSS operates as a backup for the recruiting efforts of the volunteer armed forces in case an emergency compels a reintroduction of the draft. To carry out its operations, SSS is authorized a staff of 197 civilians (166 on board as of June 1, 1997); 15 active military personnel (2 additional positions are funded by the Air Force); 745 part-time authorized reservists (518 are funded); 56 part-time state directors (one in each state, territory, the District of Columbia, and New York City); and 10,635 uncompensated civilian volunteer members of local, review, and various appeal boards. The state directors would manage state headquarters and oversee their states’ Area and Alternative Service Offices and boards for SSS in the event of a mobilization. The local and district appeal boards would review claims that registrants file for draft deferments, postponements, and exemptions in a mobilization. Under the Alternative Service Program, civilian review boards review claims for job reassignment based on conscientious objector beliefs. SSS’ 1997 budget is $22,930,000, which is divided as follows: $7,810,000 for operational readiness (includes all boards activities), $7,360,000 for registration (includes public awareness activities), and $7,760,000 for administration. (All cost figures provided in this report are in 1997 dollars.)

DOD’s Views on Registration

Although DOD does not currently foresee a military crisis of a magnitude that would require immediate reinstatement of the draft, it continues to support registration for all men between the ages of 18 and 26. The registration process furnishes a ready pool of individuals that could be drafted when needed to meet DOD’s emergency manpower requirements.

Until 1994, DOD required the first inductees to be available 13 days after mobilization notification and 100,000 to be available 30 days after notice. That year, DOD modified its requirements, prescribing accession of the first inductees at 6 months plus 13 days (that is, on day 193) and 100,000 inductees at 6 months plus 30 days (that is, on day 210). For a draft of doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel, the first inductees are presently slated to report on day 222. SSS officials stated that they can provide personnel to DOD in the event of an unforeseen emergency assuming adequate funding and staff. DOD based its time line modifications on the expectation that active and reserve forces would be sufficient to respond to perceived threats, thereby mitigating the need for an immediate infusion of inductees. We did not validate the current DOD requirements for inductees. However, according to DOD, the current requirements maintain an adequate margin of safety and provide time for expanding military training capabilities.

Effects of the Options on Organization and Costs

The portions of the $22.9 million 1997 budget that could be most affected by the alternatives total approximately $15.2 million: $7.4 million for the registration program and $7.8 million for operational readiness. Registration program activities include handling and entering information into the database on new registrants, producing and distributing publicity material about the requirement to register, running subprograms on registration compliance and address updates, deactivating registrants who no longer remain eligible because of age, and verifying the registration of individuals who may be applying for federal or state employment or other benefits. Operational readiness activities include organizational planning; National Guard and reserve training and compensation; tests and exercises; and various boards’ operations, including training, automatic data processing support, and other logistical types of support.

Suspending the current registration requirement, with or without maintaining the boards, would generate cost savings primarily through reduced personnel levels. However, savings derived from implementing either option would be partially offset by the cost of downsizing the agency to accomplish planning and maintenance missions only and by severance costs associated with reducing personnel levels. SSS officials estimate one-time severance costs (including severance pay, unemployment insurance, lump sum leave, and buyouts) of $1.6 million for the suspended registration alternative and of $2.8 million for the deep standby alternative.

Also, under current federal law and a number of state laws, certain benefits may be denied to individuals who fail to register for a draft. SSS officials estimate that the current cost to verify registration to ensure compliance with such provisions totals about $1.6 million annually. Therefore, the amount of savings under either alternative would depend upon whether the agency is required to continue its verification function (for individuals who were subject to registration prior to suspension) or whether the applicability of such provisions is suspended.

According to SSS officials, under the suspended registration alternative, 74 civilian, 4 active duty military, and 241 part-time reserve positions may be eliminated. SSS officials estimated first-year cost savings of $4.1 million and subsequent annual cost savings of $5.7 million under this alternative. SSS would maintain the various boards, their training and operating programs, and the ability to update automated data processing capabilities as technology advances. The agency also informed us that it would continue readiness planning and training plus conduct or participate in mobilization field exercises to test and fine-tune its role in national security strategies.

SSS officials told us that under the deep standby alternative, 120 civilian, 7 active duty military, and 440 part-time reserve positions may be eliminated. Also, 10,395 local and appeal board members and 240 civilian review board members (all unpaid volunteers) would be dismissed. In addition, the 56 state directors would move to an unpaid status. SSS officials estimated first-year cost savings of $8.5 million and subsequent annual cost savings of $11.3 million under this alternative. SSS would be placed at a level at which it could accomplish planning and maintenance missions only, including the ability to update automated data processing capabilities as technology advances.

Time and Costs Required to Reinstitute Full Operations

Under either the suspended registration or the deep standby alternative, reactivation of a draft registration process would be initiated upon receipt of authorization. The President can reinstate registration requirements by issuing a proclamation, but the Military Selective Service Act does not currently allow induction into the armed forces. The Congress would have to pass legislation giving the President induction authority. Two major concerns relating to the implementation of either of the alternatives are whether SSS could meet DOD’s requirements, given the time needed to make the agency fully operational, and how much reconstitution would cost.

SSS officials estimate that recovering from suspended registration or a deep standby and delivering the first draftees to the induction centers would take more time than DOD’s current 193-day requirement. They estimate it would take about 24 more days to deliver the first draftees after recovering from the suspended registration alternative. The officials expect that the recovery costs would total about $17.2 million. SSS officials also estimate that revitalizing the agency from a deep standby posture and delivering the first draftees would take about 181 more days than DOD’s current requirement and would cost about $22.8 million. These costs cover rehiring personnel; obtaining data processing capability; and acquiring equipment, supplies, and other resources needed to conduct a mass registration and return the agency to its present operating capability. These costs also cover acquisition of necessary additional office and data processing space.

SSS officials informed us that if the agency reinstated registration after having operated under either the suspended registration or deep standby option, it would need to conduct a time-limited registration of the 19- and 20-year-old groups and then conduct a continuous registration of all males in the remaining age groups (those between the ages of 21 and 26). The agency’s experience in conducting a 2-week registration of the 19- and 20-year-old age groups was very successful during the peacetime reinstatement of registration in 1980. However, the agency could not project with a high degree of confidence that it would similarly succeed when conducting a time-limited registration during wartime or a national crisis. SSS officials stated that unless the mass registration program can achieve high levels of compliance (at least 90 percent of the targeted population), the fairness and equity of the ensuing draft could be called into question. Additionally, officials said the “lottery,” which would be used to determine the order of call in a draft, could be delayed until high compliance is achieved to preclude men with birthdates that draw low numbers from willfully refusing to register.

In 1980, SSS demonstrated that it could achieve a high percentage of compliance during a time-limited registration. At that time, SSS conducted two time-limited registrations, after recovering from a deep standby posture. During these registrations, 87 percent of the young men born in 1960 and 1961 (19- and 20-year-olds) registered during a 2-week period in July 1980, and 77 percent of the young men born in 1962 (19-year olds) registered during a 1-week registration period in January 1981. SSS officials indicated that these mass registrations occurred after 6 months of publicity and public debate and with no threat of an impending draft. In the view of SSS officials, a return to registration from either alternative described in this report is likely to be in connection with a war or crisis, and they believe early compliance rates cannot be predicted in a crisis environment. SSS officials stated that the agency’s main problem in gearing up in 1980 was in reinstating and activating the local, district appeal, and national boards in preparation for a possible draft. They said the process would be time-consuming because more than 10,000 volunteers forming 2,000 boards would need to be identified, appointed, and trained. SSS officials also stressed that to help ensure fairness, the composition of the boards should racially and ethnically reflect the demographics of the young men in the communities they would serve. Given the agency’s experience in recovering from a deep standby in 1980, SSS officials added extra time to their current estimates of the time required to make the agency fully operational. SSS officials believed that the variables that could affect the timeliness, fairness, and equity of a future draft made it prudent to build additional time into their estimates to conduct a draft, should registration be suspended or the agency placed in deep standby.

Agency Comments

SSS reviewed a draft of this report and stated that the report did an excellent job of analyzing the dollar requirements of peacetime registration and estimating the structure and funding changes that may result if national security policy was changed to abandon the current registration requirement. SSS also commented that our report did not address some aspects of continuing peacetime registration that it characterized as equally important, but less tangible. Those aspects included viewing peacetime registration as (1) low-cost insurance against unforeseen threats, (2) a sign to potential adversaries of U.S. resolve, and (3) a link between the all volunteer military force and society at large. We did not review these implications of continuing peacetime registration as part of our audit scope and clarified the report to reflect this fact. SSS also provided technical comments, which we incorporated as appropriate. SSS comments are presented in appendix II.

Scope and Methodology

In performing our review, we interviewed and obtained documents from SSS officials in Financial Management; Planning, Analysis, and Evaluation; Operations; Public and Congressional Affairs; and Information Management. We identified SSS’ current mission and operating parameters, focusing on the draft registration system. We made preliminary inquiries regarding four alternatives to SSS’ present operations, that is, two passive registration alternatives, a suspended active registration alternative, and a deep standby alternative. Since passive registration alternatives would raise constitutional issues and possibly encourage lawsuits regarding fairness and equity of such systems during mobilization, we did not address these alternatives.

For the two remaining alternatives, we obtained from SSS estimates of costs that could be saved upon implementation of either alternative. Since the cost savings would surface through reductions in personnel, we obtained from SSS the effect of implementing either alternative on its staffing levels. In addition, we obtained from SSS cost estimates associated with revitalizing registration or with moving the agency from a deep standby posture to full operational status. SSS also gave us time estimates for the revitalization of both the registration process and the board structure and its assessment of the alternatives’ effects on meeting DOD’s manpower and mobilization time frame requirements. We did not validate the cost and time estimates but made judgments on their reasonableness by discussing the methods and assumptions SSS used to develop the estimates and by matching baseline information to agency backup documents. We did not review the policy implications of changing or continuing the peacetime registration program.

We conducted our review between December 1996 and July 1997 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.

We are sending copies of this report to the Chairmen and Ranking Minority Members of the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, House and Senate Committees on Appropriations, House Committee on National Security, Senate Committee on Armed Services, and House and Senate Committees on the Budget; and the Director of the Selective Service System; the Secretary of Defense; and the Director, Office of Management and Budget. We will also make copies of the report available to others, on request.

Please contact me on (202) 512-5140 if you have any questions concerning this report. Major contributors to this report are listed in appendix III.

Current Registration Methods

Men between the ages of 18 and 26 can register with SSS in six ways: (1) fill out an SSS form at U.S. Postal Service facilities throughout the nation and at U.S. embassies or consulates overseas; (2) complete and return a registration reminder mail-back postcard or a compliance postcard required as a result of having been identified by SSS from various databases; (3) join the military or Job Corps; (4) complete a registration form provided by volunteer registrars; (5) register when applying for student financial assistance; and (6) initiate registration by computer using the Internet.

Men may register at any one of the more than 34,000 post offices in the United States and U.S. territories by completing SSS Form 1. During fiscal year 1996, about 386,000 individuals used this procedure to register. Registrants should receive a registration acknowledgement and a Selective Service number within 90 days. If the registrant does not receive acknowledgement within this time frame, he is required to contact SSS.

SSS sends reminder postcards to young men about to turn 18, based on driver licenses lists received from states’ departments of motor vehicles and similar lists from other sources. In fiscal year 1996, over 2 million young men were sent reminder mail-back registration postcards, and 792,435 men returned the registration portion. SSS also does list matching to identify eligible males who have not registered as required, using data from each state’s departments of motor vehicles, Department of Defense high school recruiting lists, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service’s files of individuals seeking citizenship or legal residency status, voter registration files, and the Department of Education. Once identified as possible nonregistrants, the individuals are sent a reminder, including a compliance postcard. About 343,300 men registered after receiving at least one communication requiring compliance. The names of those who did not register or respond are referred to the Department of Justice for possible prosecution.

The third registration method is the automatic registration of active duty and reserve military personnel as well as males in the Job Corps who have not reached age 26 at the time of their enlistment. Approximately 55,400 military personnel and about 16,700 Job Corps members were automatically registered through this method in fiscal year 1996. Beginning in fiscal year 1998, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service plans to include on its forms language for automatic registration of all eligible male aliens applying for citizenship or adjustment of status.

SSS also has more than 10,000 volunteer registrars in public and private schools who advise eligible males of their responsibility to register. The volunteers provide registration forms and collect and forward the completed forms to SSS. Additionally, SSS has about 4,300 volunteer registrars in the National Association of Farmworkers program and in various state agencies and state military departments. Approximately 60,500 men were registered by volunteer registrars during fiscal year 1996.

The electronic registration procedure can be used by students applying for student financial assistance and by individuals who initiate registration through the Internet. In 1982, the Congress amended the Military Selective Service Act to provide that any student who is required to register with SSS but has failed to do so is ineligible for student assistance under title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965. Since then, the Department of Education and SSS have implemented a telecommunications datalink that is used for electronic registration and registration verification. A student is automatically registered by marking the box “register me” on the Application for Federal Student Aid. During fiscal year 1996, about 177,600 men registered using this method.

Beginning in March 1997, men who have access to the Internet can initiate the registration process by filling in name, date of birth, address, and social security number on an on-line registration form. This information is downloaded to SSS, which sends the registrant a card requesting that the information be verified. When the verification card is returned and SSS sends the registration acknowledgement to the registrant, registration is completed. All new registrants receive an acknowledgement card from SSS. The card serves as proof of registration and gives each registrant a unique Selective Service number.

Comments From Selective Service System

Major Contributors to This Report

National Security and International Affairs Division, Washington, D.C.

Office of the General Counsel, Washington, D.C.

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