US lawmakers are working to block the army's new hairstyle standards from being enforced, following criticism that the rules are racially biased.
The House armed services committee on Wednesday added language to the annual defense authorization bill that would require a review of the new rules and prohibit the army from imposing the regulations.
The updated version of the army's uniform guide, army regulation 670-1, bars multiple braids larger than a quarter of an inch in diameter, and twists and dreadlocks of any style.
Defense secretary Chuck Hagel ordered a review of the rules last week, after the 16 women of the Congressional Black Caucus asked him to overturn the rules, which they consider to be discriminatory and written in an offensive way.
'Though we understand the intent of the updated regulation is to ensure uniformity in our military, it is seen as discriminatory rules targeting soldiers who are women of color with little regard to what is needed to maintain their natural hair,' the caucus said in a 10 April letter to Hagel.
The group specifically took issue with the army's use of the words 'unkempt' and 'matted' to refer to hairstyles frequently used by black women. Hagel said the review would include the removal of any language in the regulation deemed offensive.
Black women make up a third of the army's active-duty female forces, with more than 26,700 on active duty. The new standards bar such women from employing easy to maintain and inexpensive hairstyle options available to black women.
According to the House committee's proposed change, the defense department must deliver the results of the review to Congress and will include 'the opinions of those who may have religious accommodation requirements and minorities serving in the armed forces'.
The army said the regulation promotes uniformity and that the determinations were made with the assistance of a focus group that included black women.
The committee's move to block the rules must be agreed on by the senate before it could be adopted into law. The Senate armed services committee is set to deliver their draft of the authorization bill later this month.
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