US EditionAutomatic registration for US military draft to begin in December
The change shifts registration from young men to the government and is intended to streamline the process, with automatic enrollment set for 2026.
- By December 2026, the Selective Service System will automatically register eligible males ages 18 to 25 for the military draft database, as mandated by the fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act signed by President Donald Trump on December 18, 2025.
- The agency will integrate data from federal sources including the DMV, SSA, and IRS to replace manual registration, aiming to improve compliance after it fell to 81% in 2024 following removal of the registration option from federal student loan forms in 2022.
- Penalties for failing to register remain a felony, punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and up to five years in prison, while non-compliance results in ineligibility for federal student loans, employment, and U.S. citizenship for immigrants.
- Civil rights advocate Edward Hasbrouck asserts that "sensitive personal data could be pulled from federal databases without consent," warning that automatic registration raises privacy and civil liberty concerns for vulnerable groups including transgender and immigrant youth.
- Since the U.S. has not activated a military draft since 1973, any return to conscription would require specific authorization from both Congress and the president, meaning automatic registration is an administrative change, not a draft reinstatement.
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184 Articles
Automatic U.S. military draft registration takes effect in December. Here’s how it would work
Young, eligible men will be automatically registered for the U.S. military draft pool starting in December as part of a measure tucked into the annual defence policy bill Congress signed into law late last year.
The US is changing its system for compulsory military registration. Young men are to be automatically registered as early as December.
Young and eligible men will be automatically registered in the Selective Service registry starting in December, as part of a measure included in the annual defense policy bill that Congress enacted at the end of last year. Men aged 18 to 26 must already register in the Selective Service in case a recruitment is required. The last time there was recruitment was in February 1973, during the Vietnam War. The automatic registration is already in eff…
Young, eligible men will be automatically enrolled in the Selective Service registry starting in December, as part of a measure included in the annual defense policy bill that Congress enacted at the end of…
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