Eligible men to be automatically registered for U.S. military draft by December

Eligible men will no longer need to sign themselves up for the military draft registry — the federal government is taking over that responsibility, though the change does not mean anyone is being called to serve.

The Selective Service System submitted a proposed rule for automatic registration to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on March 30, setting the stage for a significant shift in how the U.S. maintains its draft-eligible database.

The automatic registration process was mandated by Congress under the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2026, which President Trump signed into law in December 2025. The SSS says it expects to begin implementing the new system by December, though the transition will involve regulatory review and integration with federal data sources before it is fully operational.

The statutory change shifts responsibility for registration from individual men to the SSS, which will pull eligibility data directly from existing federal records.

Almost all male U.S. citizens and immigrants between the ages of 18 and 25 are currently required to self-register within 30 days of their 18th birthday, with late registration available until age 26. Under the current system, men who fail to register face potential penalties including ineligibility for federal programs, fines of up to $250,000 or up to five years in prison — consequences that would become largely irrelevant once the government assumes registration automatically.

Draft registration numbers have declined in recent years, partly due to the removal of the registration option from federal student loan forms in 2022 — a pathway that had previously accounted for nearly a quarter of all registrations.

Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, Pennsylvania Democrat, who sponsored the automatic registration language, said the change would free up agency resources.

“This will also allow us to rededicate resources — basically that means money — towards readiness and towards mobilization … rather than towards education and advertising campaigns driven to register people,” she said.

Being registered with the SSS does not mean a man will be drafted. Reactivating an actual draft would require Congress to separately amend the Military Selective Service Act, and in the event of a draft, the agency would draw from a lottery of birthdays and numbers to determine the order in which individuals would be inducted.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a March 8 Fox News interview that reinstating the draft is “not part of the current plan right now,” though she noted Mr. Trump “keeps his options on the table.”