House approves mammoth annual defense policy bill

The House on Wednesday passed the annual defense policy bill, sending the mammoth measure to the Senate for consideration ahead of Congress’s end-of-month deadline.

The legislation — known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) — cleared the chamber in a bipartisan 281-140 vote, with 200 Republicans and 81 Democrats joining forces to push it over the finish line. Senate GOP Whip John Thune (S.D.) said he expects the package to hit the floor early next week.

Congressional leaders unveiled the sprawling $883.7 billion package over the weekend, which includes a 14.5 percent pay raise for junior enlisted service members and a 4.5 increase for all other members.

The legislation advanced out of the House despite opposition from liberal Democrats, and some apprehension from Republicans, who took issue with a number of culture-war amendments that made it into the traditionally bipartisan bill.

The most contentious provision is a restriction on the use of funds from TRICARE, the health care program for active-duty service members, for gender-affirming care for the children 18 years and younger of service members.

Several Democrats, led by Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.), the ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, blasted the language. The Washington Democrat opposed the legislation.

“As I said a few days ago, blatantly denying health care to people who need it — just because of a biased notion against transgender people — is wrong,” he wrote in a statement.

Smith blamed Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for the inclusion of the provision, telling The Hill that he “was the one who insisted on it being in the final bill.”

Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), a House Armed Services member, said she would also oppose the NDAA for similar reasons, along with the failure to include in vitro fertilization (IVF) expansions for military service members.

“Restricting health care access, whether it’s removing my bipartisan and bicameral provision for IVF or gender-affirming care ban for dependents” hurts military recruitment and retention, she said.

Despite the frustration, Democratic leadership did not whip against the legislation. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said before the vote there were “some troubling provisions” in the NDAA but also some good priorities, and that he was not telling Democrats how to vote.

Even some Republicans criticized the inclusion of the provision. House Armed Services Committee Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) suggested it was unnecessary to include the language in the defense bill since President-elect Trump will be back in the White House soon.

The top Republican said Johnson did not consult him about the provision.

“[Trump] is going to stop all these social, cultural issues from being embedded as policies. So my point is, I don’t know why this is in the bill when Jan. 20, it’s a moot point,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

Other Republicans, including Johnson, have praised the transgender provision for eliminating what they have called a “woke” Pentagon bureaucracy. 

It’s unclear how much resistance there will be to the amendment in the Democratic-controlled Senate when it comes to a vote.

Democrats have struggled with messaging on culture war battles, and some of them, including Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, have expressed concern that cultural issues may have contributed to the Election Day loss of Vice President Harris to Trump.

It’s also not clear how much Republicans are willing to push for the transgender provision, considering the incoming Trump administration has promised to strip the Defense Department of "woke" policies and could end up enacting strict rules on cultural issues.

The NDAA also included other culture war provisions, including a requirement that the Defense Department not create new positions related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts. Republicans have long attacked DEI as distracting the U.S. military with issues related to gender identity, race and sexual orientation instead of focusing on strength.

Johnson, meanwhile, touted measures that would prohibit the Department of Defense from working with vendors that have boycotted Israel and banning the Pentagon from contracting with advertising firms that blacklist conservative news sources.  

“We’re proud of this product,” Johnson said of the NDAA on Tuesday. “The safety and security of the American people is our top priority, and this year’s NDAA ensures our military has the resources and the capabilities needed to remain the most powerful fighting force on the planet.”

The annual NDAA is a must-pass annual bill that outlines the priorities for funding the Defense Department. It comes around each December after Senate and House negotiators reconcile their separate versions.

Separate defense appropriations bills must be passed to fund the Pentagon for fiscal 2025. 

The NDAA has been signed into law every year for the past six decades.

Besides the cultural war amendments, the NDAA had multiple bipartisan measures, including efforts to bolster the U.S. presence in the Indo-Pacific and establish a Taiwan fund similar to a Ukraine initiative that allows the U.S. to send arms to the country by purchasing directly from private industry.

The defense bill also funds key programs and initiatives and outlines steps to procure seven warships and build around 200 aircraft and more than 300 vehicles.