The House is set to consider the National Defense Authorization Act this week in an attempt to push through one of Congress’s highest priority bills before it expires later this month and lawmakers leave town until Jan. 3.
Bipartisan congressional leadership released legislative text of the NDAA over the weekend, outlining more than 1,800 pages of spending priorities for the Defense Department’s budget and teeing it up for a vote in the House later this week. But first, the bill must make it through the House Rules Committee, where it could face opposition from some of the Republican conference’s most conservative members.
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The compromise legislation hammered out with the Democratic-led Senate has a $895.2 billion topline figure, which will come in under the budget caps imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act despite efforts in the Senate to exceed the limit.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is framing the bill as a win for GOP lawmakers in an attempt to get enough of his party members on board and get the bill across the finish line without needing to rely on Democratic votes.
“We remain determined to confront increasingly hostile threats from Communist China, Russia, and Iran, and this legislation provides our military with the tools they need to deter our enemies,” Johnson said in a statement. “This legislation includes House-passed provisions to restore our focus on military lethality and to end the radical woke ideology being imposed on our military by permanently banning transgender medical treatment for minors and countering antisemitism.”
The Rules Committee will meet at 4 p.m. on Monday to vote on advancing the measure, which would allow House leaders to bring the legislation to the floor and pass it with just a simple majority vote. However, if Johnson can’t convince enough hardliners on the committee to advance it, he’ll need to bring the NDAA up under suspension — meaning it will need a two-thirds majority to pass.
That would be far easier said than done, as it would require a healthy chunk of Democrats to cross party lines to support the measure. However, the latest iteration of the NDAA includes a number of culture war provisions that Democrats are sure to object to.
Tucked into the NDAA is language that would ban the Defense Department from providing transgender medical treatment for minors, prohibit funding from going toward the promotion of critical race theory in the military and service academy schools, and restrict any diversity, equity, and inclusion programs within the military.
Republicans are touting all those proposals as major policy wins that are sure to be rejected by Democrats, putting Johnson in a tough spot as he considers how to move forward.
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The 1,800-page bill has a number of other provisions that Republicans are lauding as significant wins, such as a 19.5% pay raise for junior enlisted service members, a $4 billion funding cut to programs “that do not meet requirements,” and a ban on contracts with advertising firms that blacklist conservative news sources.
“This legislation also reinforces our commitment to America’s brave men and women in uniform, and their families, by making landmark investments in their quality of life,” Johnson said. “The safety and security of the American people is a top priority, and this bill ensures our military has the resources and capabilities needed to remain the most powerful force in the world.”