The Senate has voted to advance the $895 billion annual defense policy bill, putting it on track to pass despite Democratic complaints about transgender care provisions. It shows.
The vote to pass a deal to trigger a shutdown or limit discussion of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed the Senate 63-7 on Monday night. The bill heads for a final vote later this week.
The bill passed the House in a 281-140 vote last week, with 16 Republicans voting against it. Only 81 Democrats voted for the measure, and 124 voted against it, a much larger margin than in past years when the bill had bipartisan support.
The 1,800-page bill details how the $895.2 billion earmarked for defense and national security will be spent. A vote is expected to take place more than two months after the start of the fiscal year.
The $895.2 billion represents a 1% increase over last year’s budget, a smaller number than some defense hawks had hoped.
Aerial view of the Department of Defense in Washington, DC, March 31, 2024. Home to the United States Department of Defense, the Pentagon is one of the largest office buildings in the world. (Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images)
A significant portion of the bill focuses on improving the quality of life for service members amid record draft issues, an issue that has been the focus of bipartisan debate over the past year. This includes a 14.5% pay increase for enlisted soldiers, expanded access to child care for military personnel, and job assistance for military spouses.
Under this measure, all military personnel will be granted a flat 4.5% pay increase starting January 1st.
The NDAA typically enjoys broad bipartisan support, but this year’s focus on eliminating “woke” policies made it difficult for some Democrats to accept.
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A policy proposal to ban military health care provider Tricare from covering transgender services for minor dependents of service members has raised concerns and led to Washington, D.C., the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. Representative Adam Smith urged them to reconsider their support. for the bill.
“It is wrong to simply deny medical care to people who clearly need it just because there is prejudice against transgender people,” he said in a statement. “This provision injected a level of partisanship not seen in previous defense bills.”
The purpose of this provision is to prevent “medical intervention that could lead to sterilization” of minors.
Other provisions, such as a complete ban on funding for adult gender reassignment surgeries, were not included in the bill, nor was a ban on mandatory mask-wearing to prevent the spread of disease.
The bill also supports deploying the National Guard to the southern border to help apprehend illegal immigrants and control drug flows.
Another provision would open the door to allowing Airmen and Space Force members to grow beards. The bill directs the Secretary of the Air Force to brief lawmakers on the “feasibility and appropriateness” of establishing a pilot program that allows facial hair.
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Democrats are also upset that the bill did not include a provision to expand access to IVF for military personnel. Currently, military health insurance only covers IVF for soldiers whose infertility is related to a service-related illness or injury.
But the bill did not include an amendment that would have repealed a provision that would have allowed the Department of Defense to pay compensation to service members who must travel out of state to obtain an abortion.
The bill would extend the hiring freeze for DEI-related roles and halt all such hiring until a “study of the Department of Defense’s DEI program” is completed.
The Pentagon is also prohibited from contracting with advertising companies that “blacklist conservative news sources,” according to an internal Republican memo.
According to the memo, the NDAA will also cut funding to the Biden administration’s Counterextremism Task Force, which focuses on eliminating extremism in the military. The annual defense policy bill also does not authorize “any climate change program” and prohibits the Department of Defense from issuing climate impact-based guidance for weapons systems.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) touted the bill as saving $31 billion by cutting “inefficient programs, outdated weapons, and bloated Department of Defense bureaucracy.”
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The NDAA bill, a compromise negotiated between Republican and Democratic leaders, would set policy for the nation’s largest government agency, but a separate defense spending bill would have to be passed to allocate funding for such a program. There is.
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