The House is scheduled to pass the annual defense bill on Wednesday, which would give major pay increases to enlisted soldiers and work to eliminate the Department of Defense's DEI program.
The 1,800-page bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), details how the $895.2 billion earmarked for defense and national security will be spent. A vote is expected to take place more than two months after the start of the fiscal year.
The $895.2 billion represents a 1% increase over last year's budget and is a smaller number than some defense hawks had hoped.
A significant portion of the bill focuses on improving the quality of life for service members amid record draft issues, and has been the subject of much bipartisan debate over the past year. This includes a 14.5% pay increase for enlisted soldiers, expanded access to child care for military personnel, and job assistance for military spouses.
The House is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the national defense bill, which must be passed annually. (Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images/File)
Under this measure, all military personnel will be granted a flat 4.5% pay increase starting January 1st.
The NDAA typically enjoys broad bipartisan support, but this year's focus on eliminating “woke” policies may make it hard for Democrats to swallow.
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A policy proposal to ban military health care provider Tricare from covering transgender services for minor dependents of service members has raised concerns and led to Washington, D.C., the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. Representative Adam Smith urged them to reconsider their support. for the bill.
“It is wrong to simply deny medical care to people who clearly need it just because there is prejudice against transgender people,” he said in a statement. “This provision injected a level of partisanship not seen in previous defense bills.”
The purpose of this provision is to prevent “medical intervention that could lead to sterilization” of minors.
President Biden meets with members of the 82nd Airborne Division. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci/File)
Other provisions, such as a complete ban on funding for adult gender reassignment surgeries, were not included in the bill, nor was a ban on mandatory mask-wearing to prevent the spread of disease.
The bill also supports deploying the National Guard to the southern border to help apprehend illegal immigrants and control drug flows.
Another provision would open the door to allowing Airmen and Space Force members to grow beards. The bill directs the Secretary of the Air Force to brief lawmakers on the “feasibility and appropriateness” of establishing a pilot program that allows facial hair.
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Democrats are also upset that the bill did not include a provision to expand access to IVF for military personnel. Currently, military health insurance only covers IVF for soldiers whose infertility is related to a service-related illness or injury.
But the bill did not include an amendment that would have repealed a provision that would have allowed the Department of Defense to reimburse service members who must travel out of state to obtain an abortion.
Enlisted military personnel's pay will increase by 14.5% in the 2025 NDAA. (file)
The bill would extend the hiring freeze for DEI-related roles and halt all such hiring until a “study of the Department of Defense's DEI program” is completed.
The Pentagon is also prohibited from contracting with advertising companies that “blacklist conservative news sources,” according to an internal Republican memo.
According to the memo, the NDAA will also cut funding to the Biden administration's Counterextremism Task Force, which focuses on eliminating extremism in the military. The annual defense policy bill also does not authorize “any climate change program” and prohibits the Department of Defense from issuing climate impact-based guidance for weapons systems.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) touted the bill's savings of $31 billion by cutting “inefficient programs, outdated weapons, and bloated Department of Defense bureaucracy.”
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The NDAA bill, a compromise negotiated between Republican and Democratic leaders, would set policy for the nation's largest government agency, but a separate defense spending bill would have to be passed to allocate funding for such a program. There is.
