Senate tees up final vote on annual defense policy bill

The Senate on Tuesday advanced the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) toward a final vote, putting it on a glide path to getting passed Wednesday as lawmakers look to conclude their work before the Christmas break. 

Senators voted 85-15 to end debate on the $886 billion annual defense policy bill that will cover fiscal 2024 and, among other things, includes a 5.2 percent pay raise for troops, $11.5 billion to help deter China and $800 million to support Ukraine. Sixty votes were needed to advance the legislation.

A final Senate vote on the NDAA is expected Wednesday, with the House set to pass it by the end of the week.

“Both sides have done terrific work these past few months getting the NDAA over the finish line,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the floor, specifically touting the provisions aimed at curbing Chinese influence, including by approving the nuclear submarine agreement between the U.S., the United Kingdom and Australia. 

Despite the bill’s traditionally bipartisan nature, there have been multiple problems lawmakers have had to quell. The chamber had to vote last week on the motion to proceed to the NDAA — one that is usually passed unanimously via a voice vote. However, a recorded vote was forced by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) after legislation to reauthorize a compensation program for victims of nuclear contamination was bumped from the final package.

Hawley and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) also forced a pair of procedural votes Tuesday prior to the cloture vote on the NDAA in order to further delay proceedings.  

“Today I will force further procedural votes on the NDAA – which thanks to the McConnell/Johnson backroom deal, shovels billions to defense contractors but cuts off compensation for tens of thousands of Americans poisoned by their own government,” Hawley said in a social media post. “It’s wrong.”

The bill also does not include a number of “culture war” items that conservatives had hoped would be in the final bill, including a GOP-backed item that would have blocked the Pentagon’s policy that allows service members to be reimbursed for travel expenses to receive abortion care. The Department of Defense’s policy pushed Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) to hold up all military promotions until last week. 

Ernst’s push to hold a procedural vote was over Schumer’s decision to block a stand-alone tally on the Pentagon’s abortion policy.

The final NDAA also does not include a ban on gender-affirming health care for transgender service members or on the Pentagon funding drag shows. It also did not include language that would bar funding for the Department of Defense Education Activity — a federal school system — from being used to purchase or keep library books with certain LGBTQ themes.

As Schumer noted, advancing the NDAA was among his three top priorities during the December work period, along with ending Tuberville’s holds and passing President Biden’s $111 billion supplemental spending bill, which is expected to spill into the new year. 

The House is expected to suspend the rules of the chamber in order to pass the Defense policy legislation, requiring two-thirds support of members.