Biden's 'woke' agenda costs military 6 million man-hours, Republicans say

FIRST ON FOX: The U.S. Department of Defense spent nearly 6 million man-hours on implementing President Biden’s "leftist social agenda" across the military, Republicans said Monday.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley responded in a Jan. 6 letter to Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, following a request for data on the total number of hours and money the DOD spent on new trainings across the military regarding climate change, extremism and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). 

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Milley’s response, obtained by Fox New Digital, revealed that more than 5.3 million hours and $535,000 was spent on extremism "stand downs," or discussions about extremism in the ranks ordered by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin in February.

"This averages to just over 2 hours per Service member in a total force of 2.46 million members and is comparable to other Joint Force periodic training requirements," Milley wrote.

The letter also revealed that roughly 530,000 hours and $477,000 was spent on new DEI trainings and more than 1,000 hours and $5,000 was spent on coordinating the DOD’s Climate Adaptation Plan.

Inhofe and 11 other Republicans on the Armed Services Committee issued a letter Monday accusing the DOD of targeting military members while relations with Russia and China continue to deteriorate. 

"We face real threats across the world, yet the Biden administration is more focused on promoting its leftist social agenda in the military instead of countering China, Russia and Iran or creating an effective counterterrorism plan," the senators said in the letter provided to Fox News Digital. "Our military is not an extremist organization, and our service members, by and large all good people, are dedicated, faithful patriots."

The lawmakers also pointed to a December report by the DOD that revealed "fewer than 100" military members were found to have engaged in prohibited extremist activity over the past year, meaning that for each instance of extremism found in the military, service members spent roughly 54,000 hours in training on extremism.

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"We are alarmed that so much training time and taxpayer money was devoted to a partisan, political agenda instead of recruiting, training and equipping the lethal force we need to defend this country," they continued. "The Department of Defense’s primary task is to protect Americans from foreign threats. If the Biden administration doesn’t make this a priority moving forward, we will use all tools at our disposal, including the annual defense authorization bill, to ensure that it does."

In addition to Inhofe, the letter is signed by Republican Sens. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Deb Fischer of Nebraska, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Rick Scott of Florida, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.