What to know about the automatic system to register young men for the military draft
Young men in the U.S. will be automatically registered into the military draft pool by this December through a measure signed into law last December, formalizing a practice already conducted in much of the country.
The measure was included in the annual National Defense Authorization Act, the must-pass legislation that sets the Pentagon’s budget and policy agenda, and has no relation to the current war with Iran.
The change follows years of debate on Capitol Hill over how, or whether, to reform draft registration, a system the U.S. hasn’t executed since 1973, when it shifted to an all-volunteer force.
Lawmakers have been split, with some pushing to expand registration to include women, while others have argued the system should be scrapped entirely.
For a century, men between 18 and 25 years old, including most immigrants, have been required to register for the draft manually, typically through a government website or at the local department of motor vehicles, with uneven compliance rates, federal data shows.
The Selective Service System, which governs the draft pool, has an annual budget of $30 million, spending much of that on outreach and other advertising campaigns.
Automatic registration is already conducted, in some form, in 46 states and territories, such as when a man gets a driver’s license, according to data from the Selective Service System.
Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, a Pennsylvania Democrat who introduced the change alongside Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican, said in 2024 that automatic registration “saves taxpayers significant money and makes it easier for these men to follow the law and register with the Selective Service.”
The Selective Service System estimates the new platform will cost roughly $6 million to build the automated system.
