December 14, 2023
$886 billion! That’s how much the House and Senate just agreed the United States should spend on our national security in 2024. That’s about $28 billion more than we spent this year.
The House and Senate on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis just passed the annual Defense Authorization bill also known as the NDAA. And no – it did not include any of the restrictions on “woke” policies that the far-right Republicans were demanding. The final vote in the Senate was 87-13. And final vote in the House was 310-118.
So what does the NDAA do? Well – it simply the outlines the policy agenda for the Department of Defense and the US military and authorizes the spending levels for Pentagon priorities. It does not actually authorize the money. But in this case the $886 billion will most likely be approved when congress goes through the budget process.
Just because the NDAA doesn’t authorize money doesn’t mean it’s not critical to our national security. It is. I won’t tell you about all the national security items agreed to in this video because the bill is almost 3100 pages long … but here are a few.
A 5.2% pay raise for service members and civilian employees at the Pentagon.
The NDAA authorizes the purchase of new weapons and missile-defense systems including developing hypersonic weapons and upgrades to the nuclear arsenal.
It expands the military partnerships in the Indo-Pacific and in Europe
It continues the efforts of the United States to counter China and Russia.
It sets up a submarine deal with Britain and Australia that’s been in the works for a while (AUKUS)
It sets up a review board to consider reinstating service members who were discharged for refusing to obey the order to get a Covid19 vaccine.
And it also extends the FISA program through April. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act program allows the government to conduct wiretaps on foreign targets outside the United States but many worry the government has been misusing that power for years.
Lastly – the NDAA extends the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative through 2027 – which is the vehicle that allows the president to support Ukraine’s war efforts against Russia. But the bulk of the money that goes into that initiative so the president can dole it out a little at a time was not approved. That’s because the funding has been tied to a bitter fight between Democrats and Republicans over the US border and it’s unclear if it will be approved any time this year.
It’s worth noting – the far-right Republicans mostly in the House had been demanding for months that the NDAA include restrictions to what they call “woke” policies – including restricting abortion access for military members, and banning transgender care for all active and retired military members, and eliminating racial diversity and inclusion policies at the Pentagon. They lost that fight in both the House and the Senate. None of those provisions were included.
This $886 billion NDAA will now go to President Biden to sign it into law.
