'SCHUMER Act' To Require Pro-Ukraine Lawmakers to Serve on Front Lines
© PETE MAROVICH
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In October, US President Joe Biden requested $105 billion in supplemental funding to provide aid to Ukraine, Israel and US allies in the Asian Pacific, with $61.4 billion of that earmarked for Ukraine. That bill, including various versions of it, has since stalled in Congress, even as its price tag has ballooned to over $118 billion.
Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R) has introduced a bill that would mandate members of Congress sign up for military service if they push for more aid to Ukraine.
Specifically, the bill as leaked says members of Congress would have to serve in active duty for at least six months.
“If a Member of Congress advocates for providing military support for Ukraine the Member:
1) shall enlist in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force, or Coast Guard; and
2) shall be assigned for not fewer than 6 months to active duty in support of a contingency operation.”
Called the Senators Can Help Underpin Military Engagement and Readiness, or SCHUMER, Act, Luna said she introduced the bill in response to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) ultimatum that if Russia is allowed to take Ukraine, American troops may be used to fight Russia in Eastern Europe.
“If we don’t aid Ukraine, Putin will walk all over Ukraine, we will lose the war and we could be fighting in eastern Europe and a NATO ally in a few years. Americans won’t like that,” Schumer said earlier this month on American television.
The bill was leaked to a UK media outlet before it was meant to be viewed by the public, but Luna said that did not bother her. “I make no apologies,” she said. “My bill, the SCHUMER Act, would require Members of Congress to fight on the front lines in Ukraine if they support Schumer’s calls for American sons & daughters to fight.”
10 February, 18:50 GMT
While Luna is a staunch conservative as indicated by her party membership among other things, the idea that politicians should have to fight in the wars they advance is one rooted in the anti-war movements of the past as well as the sentiments of veterans.
“Politicians who took us to war should have been given the guns and told to settle their differences themselves, instead of organizing nothing better than legalized mass murder,” Harry Patch, the last surviving World War One veteran who served in the trenches wrote in his book The Last Fighting Tommy before his death in 2009.
Luna served in the United States Air Force from 2009 to 2014.
While Schumer did not advocate for sending troops into Ukraine, only warned that war may come if Russia moves past Ukraine, an accusation he provided no proof for and Russia has repeatedly denied, the comment was perceived as a threat to the American people to some. And it was those comments that inspired Luna to draft her bill.
“In honor of Chuck Schumer, I’ll be introducing a bill that will require any politician who advocates for sending American troops to Ukraine to be required to fight on the front lines with them,” Luna said.
The Congresswoman said that other members of the House of Representatives will have until February 12 to sign on if they want to be counted as an original co-sponsor.
