July 28, 2023
The Senate overwhelmingly passed the $886 billion National Defense Authorization Act which governs how money is spent for our national defense and how policies are implemented in our military.
But – there’s one little problem.
The Senate version is wildly different than the version passed in the house a few weeks ago. The House version squeaked by with mostly only Republican support. This sets up a major showdown between the House and the Senate with our national defense and livelihoods of our military members hanging in the balance.
The Senate version of the NDAA passed late last night 86 to 11.
I’m going to tell you what it keeps and what it scraps.
It keeps the 5.2% pay raise for military and other civilian personnel, expands support for their families, it makes investments in missile and drone technology to improve competition with China.
It adds a provision that says no president can withdraw from NATO without the approval of two-thirds of the senate or an act of congress.
But it scraps controversial amendments included in the House version that would block so-called “woke” policies in the military.
It scraps the amendment would roll back pentagon policies allowing servicewomen to travel out of state to get an abortion and prohibit specialized health care sought by transgender troops, veterans or their families.
It also scraps the provision to create an inspector general to scrutinize the aid to Ukraine.
So when lawmakers come back from their august recess the Senate and house will have to hold a conference to try and reconcile the differences between these bills. But far right Republicans have already said they aren’t going to back off their demands to cut these so-called “woke” policies. The NDAA has passed with overwhelming bipartisan support every year for more than six decades.
Check out how your Senator voted on the NDAA here.
