Restoring Lethality Act

This bill would remove many rules in the Department of Defense related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. It repeals the law creating the Department’s chief diversity officer and ends required “diversity and inclusion” plans, senior DEI advisors, and related reporting. It also removes rules about using gender or personal pronouns in official correspondence. Promotion and other selection boards would no longer have special diversity requirements. Required “human relations” training would be narrowed to focus on honor, excellence, courage, and commitment.

In short, the bill aims to strip DEI language and programs from defense law and shift training and leadership policies away from DEI goals. This includes repealing laws on diversity in military leadership and selection boards, and changing the Secretary of Defense’s duties and planning requirements to remove DEI measures.

• Who is affected: Department of Defense employees and service members; military promotion and selection boards.
• What changes: Repeals the chief diversity officer position; ends DEI plans, advisors, and certain reports; removes pronoun identification rules; narrows required training topics; removes diversity rules for selection boards and leadership goals.
• When: Takes effect as the changes to the laws are enacted; no separate timeline is stated in the text.