The Selective Service System is poised to start automatic registration for the military draft in December. The last time the United States held a draft, it sent nearly 650,000 men to Vietnam, including David Blow, who is pictured monitoring a radio while on a mission in Vietnam in 1971. Photo by Staff Sgt. Mark Miranda/5th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment/Courtesy photo/U.S. Army
April 9 (UPI) — The Selective Service System is set to automatically register men in the United States between the ages of 18 years and 26 years for the draft starting in December.
The agency submitted the rule on March 30 on a fast-track change, which would allow it to start automatic registration in December, based on the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, Military.com reported.
There have been no reports of plans to reinstate a military draft amid the current U.S.-Israeli war in Iran.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said last month that President Trump likes to “keep his options on the table,” but holding a draft would also require an act of Congress, after it were to issue a formal declaration of war.
A military draft has not been held since toward the end of the Vietnam War in 1973.
President Jimmy Carter in 1980, however, signed the Registration Under the Military Selective Service Act requiring men to register within 30 days of their 18th birthday.
Failure to register is punishable by up to five years in jail or a fine of up to $250,000, but has rarely been enforced — although that could change with the new rule.
In 2024, 81% of eligible men registered with SSS, which CNBC reported was a three-percentage-point decrease from the year before.
That year, a bipartisan bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate by Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., to abolish the SSS and the draft, with both Senators called it “outdated” and unnecessary.
A proposal to make SSS registration automatic did not make the 2024 NDAA, and Wyden and Paul’s bill did not make it out of committee.
But Democrat U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Penn., said that the language in the House version of the 2025 NDAA had broad bipartisan support and told CNN that the new rule was a net benefit for both the government and young men required by law to register.
“Making registration automatic not only saves taxpayer dollars by eliminating the need to advertise but finally ensures that young men are not unknowingly penalized,” she said.
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