The Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act on Thursday night with broad bipartisan support because, unlike their House counterparts, they largely avoided partisan topics.

Eighty-six senators voted in favor of the annual defense policy bill that authorizes $886 billion in spending on national security, which was President Joe Biden's requested amount, while only 11 voted against it. Comparatively, the House's NDAA was a nearly party-line vote.

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With both chambers passing their version of the must-pass bill, negotiators from each chamber will work together to merge them into one, which will ultimately head to the president's desk. But, those involved will have to figure out a way forward on two major culture war issues that were included in the House's version but not the Senate's: abortion access and transgender healthcare.

The House's version included an amendment that ended the Pentagon's current abortion policy — which is to reimburse service members or their dependents the travel expenses incurred if they have to travel out-of-state for medical services such as abortions, but also fertility treatments. DOD implemented the policy in light of the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade, and the subsequent restrictive laws that conservative states put in place following the ruling.

Another amendment the lower chamber's bill included would prevent the department or Tricare, the military’s healthcare program, from providing gender-related surgeries and hormone treatments for transgender service members.

Republicans have long hammered the department's abortion and transgender policies, and the amendments pushed all but four House Democrats to vote against the NDAA a couple of weeks ago.

“What’s happening in the Senate is a stark contrast to the partisan race to the bottom we saw in the House, where House Republicans are pushing partisan legislation that has zero chance of passing,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), ahead of the Senate vote.

Earlier this month, National Security Council coordinator John Kirby said it's "very difficult to see" Biden signing a bill that contains such rollbacks.

"It's very difficult to see the President supporting legislation that would make it harder for Americans to serve in uniform and to not be able to do so with dignity, would not be able to do so with the proper care that they need both medical and mental care," he explained. "It's very difficult to see that the President would ever, ever sign legislation that would put our troops at greater risk or put our readiness at risk."

The NDAA has been passed every year for more than 60 years.

While the president usually signs the defense authorization bill into law in December, the abortion issue will likely come to a head much sooner for another reason.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has held up military nominations for roughly six months due to this policy, which he argues is overreach from the department. Tuberville's hold has blocked more than 300 nominations, while Pentagon officials have said that number could exceed 650 if his hold extends through the remainder of the calendar year.

The Marine Corps is currently led by acting Commandant Gen. Eric Smith because he wasn't confirmed into the position before his predecessor was term-limited out of the position. The heads of the Army and Navy are set to leave in the coming weeks, while the head of the Air Force will be assuming the role of Chairman of the Joint Staff, creating another opening in his wake.

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Tuberville's hold could force the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Joint Staff to have acting leaders if Biden's nominees don't get confirmed, in addition to the Marine Corps that already is operating that way.

The Alabama senator cannot completely prevent the Senate from passing nominations. But his hold, which prevents the Senate from passing them in batches as is normally done, makes it a much more time-consuming process. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said earlier this month it would take roughly 84 days to vote through every promotion if they did exclusively that for eight hours every day.