Republican Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana is investigating the Air Force over documents that point to the service's “race and gender quotas” in its Reserve Officer Training Course (ROTC) officer applicant program, according to a letter obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

According to internal 2022 documents and slideshows obtained by the DCNF last week, the Air Force has set a “goal” to reduce the number of white males among ROTC cadet candidates, and has also set targets for reaching certain numbers for other racial and gender groups. Pressed Top Air Force officials visited the country's air force on Tuesday to answer questions about the service's recently updated standards and how they will benefit solving the service's recruiting problems that have worsened in recent years. (RELATED: 'Go for it': Biden reportedly asks team to secure Gaza ceasefire deal as term ends)

“Biden-Harris [Department of Defense’s] “The use of quotas based on race and gender is un-American and should be illegal,” Banks told the DCNF in a statement on Tuesday. “Republicans must work to put meritocracy back at the center of our military.”

Exclusive: New documents reveal Air Force 'goal' to reduce 'white male population' joining officer ranks https://t.co/xDMUG80wuu

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 19, 2024

The slideshow, created under the leadership of the Biden-Harris Administration, features a graph showing how the Air Force hopes to “achieve” reducing the percentage of white males in the ROTC officer applicant program from 60% in fiscal year 2019 to about 43% by fiscal year 2029. The document also indicates the Air Force wants to work harder to achieve other race- and gender-based quotas in the applicant pool, suggesting it will need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on diversity promotion campaigns.

The documents also included a 2022 email exchange between U.S. officials regarding a request from Alex Wagner, the Air Force's assistant secretary for manpower and reserves, who wanted to know “what exactly are you doing for each specific demographic — black males, white females — and what is the timeline for achieving your goals.”

Banks had urged Wagner during a 2023 congressional hearing to avoid recruiting based on race and gender criteria, but Wagner responded by saying he would “do everything possible to reach the broadest possible demographic of Americans,” the Republicans' letter Tuesday said. In light of the recent disclosure of internal Air Force documents from 2022, Banks pressed Wagner on how setting race- and gender-based goals for the ROTC officer candidate program would achieve Wagner's goal of “doing everything possible to reach the broadest possible demographic.”[ing] He also questioned the “broadest reach in America” ​​theme and why the chapter, which is already struggling to meet its hiring goals, set such a goal.

“In the midst of the worst recruiting crisis in the history of the all-volunteer military, I struggle to understand why the Air Force would seek to cut recruits to Americans who don't meet the right demographic criteria,” Banks told DCNF in a statement.

Like several branches of the military under Biden's leadership, the Air Force has fallen behind on recruiting and retention metrics. The Air Force, along with the Marines and Army, is on track to meet those goals this year but have missed them in 2022 and 2023. According to The Navy is not expected to meet its recruiting goals this year, according to Military Times.

Only about 57% of military personnel and military families Voted In a 2023 survey conducted by the Military Family Advisory Network, 74% of respondents said they would encourage people to join the military, down from 74% in 2019. Reasons respondents would not encourage people to join the military included the highly politicized nature of the military, disagreements and divisions, and low pay.

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