THE NEW YORK TIMES: What to know about the US Government’s move toward automatic registration for military

The government agency that keeps a list of draft-eligible men will begin automatically registering names later this year, abandoning a decades-old requirement that they register themselves.

The Selective Service System, an executive branch agency that is separate from the Defense Department, has required men ages 18 to 25 who are eligible to be drafted to register with the government since 1980.

Failure to do so is a felony, which carries various penalties that include a maximum five years in prison and being unable to receive certain federal benefits, like government loans.

But government officials, bracing for what experts say are potential confrontations with China or Russia while military recruiting has slumped, plan to comb other federal databases to bolster the list.

The change is drawing renewed attention as the US war with Iran unfolds and sows questions about if it might be a prelude to a draft.

Here’s what to know:

What prompted the change?

The Selective Service System had been pushing Congress for several years to revamp how the federal government builds the list of men who are eligible to be drafted.

The agency noted in its 2024 annual report that registration rates had declined in recent years, despite spending on outreach programs telling the public about its obligations.

Military experts and historians said the changes had been in the works during both the Biden and Trump administrations, reflecting the unease of planners about the size of the US military.

Some believe that “the Selective Service System was very outdated,” said Lindsay P. Cohn, a national security affairs professor at the US Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.

“The Selective Service System is about management of manpower, more than simply just generating manpower,” Ms Cohn said, adding that she was not speaking for the military or on behalf of the Naval War College.

In 2024, 81 per cent of men ages 18 to 25 registered with the Selective Service System, which proposed replacing its long-standing model of compiling names with automatic registration.

The alternative method would gather personal information from various federal government databases.

The Selective Service System did not immediately answer questions on Thursday about which databases it had planned to use as part of that process.

Congress tucked the rules change into the National Defense Authorization Act for the 2026 fiscal year, which President Donald Trump signed in December.

Is Trump considering using the draft?

The White House referred questions about the change on Thursday to the Selective Service System.

During a March 8 interview on Fox News, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Trump “does not remove options off of the table” when she was asked what she would tell mothers who were worried about the draft returning.

Ms Leavitt also said then that sending ground troops into Iran was not part of the “current plan.”

The president would be required to get approval from Congress to enact a military draft, which was last used during the Vietnam War in the early 1970s.

Jeremy Kessler, a professor at Columbia Law School who has written extensively on the military draft, said the size of Iran and its army presented substantial obstacles for the United States.

“It’s really not clear that that would be logistically doable without turning back on the draft,” he said of a ground invasion.

What happens next?

The Selective Service System has submitted the rules change for review to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which is part of the Office of Management and Budget.

The rulemaking process is likely to involve other federal agencies that could share personal information of men who are draft eligible, including the Social Security Administration and Census Bureau, according to experts.

On its website, the Selective Service System said the new rules would be enacted by December.

The agency also noted that as of 2024 all but four states offered a Selective Service registration option on applications for driver’s licenses or identification cards. Some states require applicants to opt out if they do not want their information shared with the Selective Service System.

Mr Kessler said the agency might also rely on information from the Department of Homeland Security.

Under the existing rules, lawful permanent residents, immigrants living in the country without authorisation, and people who are both seeking or have been granted asylum are required to register with the Selective Service, said Mr Kessler, who is writing a book, “Conscription and Constitutional Change in Twentieth Century America.”

Going forward, those people will be automatically added to the list, potentially making difficult notification requirements for the federal government, he added.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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