The US House of Representatives passed a $1.15tn defense policy bill in a near-party-line vote on Wednesday, after Democrats refused to back the measure amid the war with Iran and Donald Trump’s push to impose new restrictions on voting nationwide.
A key plank of the president’s plan to spend $1.5tn on the military in the 2027 fiscal year, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), passed the Republican-controlled chamber by a 216-212 vote, with all but six Democrats opposing its passage. Seven House Republicans broke ranks to oppose the measure, which now goes to the Senate.
NDAA details and controversy
The NDAA is a mammoth bill with effects across the armed services, and Congress passes it each year with bipartisan margins. This year’s version includes pay raises of 5-7% for the military, as well as the codification of the name “Department of War” for the Pentagon. The bill’s large overall cost is itself a key feature, which top House Republicans say is necessary to make generational investments in the armed forces.
“For the first time in 40 years, we’ve been presented a budget that accounts for the true cost of American deterrence. This topline begins to reverse the damage caused by decades of underinvestment in the US military,” Mike Rogers, the House armed services committee chair, said before the vote.
The NDAA’s path to enactment has been complicated by the president’s decision to join Israel in attacking Iran without first seeking authorization from Congress. Last week, Senate Democrats blocked the advancement of that chamber’s version of the NDAA in protest of the war, which has flared anew after a memorandum of understanding meant to spur peace talks between the US and Iran collapsed.
Democratic opposition and amendments
Democrats also soured on the bill after Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, acceded to the demands of rightwing lawmakers and inserted into the legislation the Save America Act, a Trump-backed proposal to ban mail-in ballots and impose new identification restrictions on voters at the polls and when they register.
The party also objected to the overall prospect of allocating $1.15tn to the military while slashing funding elsewhere in the federal government, just a year after Congress’s Republican majorities approved extending an array of lower tax rates indefinitely.
“The annual NDAA used to be a consistently bipartisan, substantive piece of legislation,” said Rosa DeLauro, the top Democratic appropriator. “I am disappointed that under Republican leadership, it has become just another partisan bill that is written to satisfy the most extreme Republican voices rather than a serious, nonpolitical framework for our national defense.”
Adam Smith, the Democratic ranking member on the House armed services committee, had voted to advance the measure out of panel, but opposed its passage on the House floor, saying it had been “loaded with toxic, partisan amendments that continue the rightwing culture war assault on the LGBTQ+ community and preempt state and local laws under the guise of military readiness”.
“Our country faces threats and [the defense department] has modernization needs, but I will not support making massive cuts to critically important domestic programs and slashing taxes to meet those needs,” Smith said.
Amid a wider backlash within the party over US support for Israel, some Democrats said they opposed the NDAA because of its inclusion of provisions that would deepen cooperation between the two countries’ defense industries.
“This amendment is an existential threat to American sovereignty and democracy,” said the progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was among the no votes.
Other amendments and budget plan
The House’s passage of the bill came after the chamber considered dozens of amendments. While many were agreed to unanimously, others offered barometers for how far the Republican-controlled chamber was willing to go on the most divisive issues before the parties.
A proposal by the Republican Eli Crane to halt all military aid to Ukraine was resoundingly defeated by a 76-350 vote, while an amendment from Republican Lauren Boebert to codify Trump’s executive order banning transgender service members failed by a 212-217 tally.
However, the House agreed to amendments from Nancy Mace barring the military health insurer from offering some gender-related care, and banning transgender athletes from girls’ sports at defense department-run schools.
Beyond the NDAA, House Republicans on Wednesday approved a budget plan that will authorize $73bn for the war with Iran while circumventing the Democratic filibuster in the Senate. But that blueprint falls far short of the $350bn the Pentagon originally proposed to bring overall defense spending to $1.5tn for the upcoming fiscal year.
