The Senate is on track to vote on the country’s massive annual defense spending bill on Wednesday, with signs that it will pass smoothly despite Democratic objections to language involving transgender care for minors and its massive $895.2 billion topline.
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which easily passed the House last week, is scheduled for a floor debate on Wednesday after a vote to invoke cloture planned for late on Monday.
All signs point to a relatively hiccup-free path ahead, which comes just days before a deadline to pass an overall government funding measure, or contend with a potential government shutdown ahead of Christmas.
Still, there are Democrats in the upper chamber displeased with the bill, with at least a dozen senators expected to oppose it.
Among them are Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley, (D-Ore.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.) Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), with the later on Wednesday saying the bloated bill is being placed ahead of bigger priorities such as health care, housing and feeding Americans.
“Mr. President, most Americans would agree that we need a strong military. I certainly do. But we do not need a defense system that is designed to make huge profits for a handful of giant defense contractors while providing less of what the country needs,” Sanders said in remarks on the Senate floor.
“We do not need to spend almost a trillion dollars on the military, while half a million Americans are homeless, children go hungry, and elderly people are unable to afford to heat their homes in the winter.”
The House and Senate earlier this month unveiled their more than 1,800-page compromise version of the NDAA, which includes measures to boost the U.S. presence in the Indo-Pacific, support pay raises for troops, and fund new ships, aircraft and help the defense industrial base.
But the legislation also includes language staunchly rejected by Democrats, including one that restricts coverage of gender-affirming care for transgender children of service members. The most controversial amendment in the NDAA, the provision stops the Pentagon’s TRICARE health care insurance plan from covering the costs of gender dysphoria treatments for people under the age of 18.
The language, inserted late in the bill’s process at the insistence of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), was seen by even some Republicans as unnecessary given that President-elect Trump is soon to enter the White House and could administratively order such a ban.
The addition quickly drew condemnation from the left, with pro-LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign accusing Republicans of playing “politics with the healthcare of children of servicemembers.”
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, said he voted against the NDAA because of the amendment, which he called “pandering to the most extreme elements” of the GOP.
A provision aimed at curtailing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs within the military also made it into the bill and would restrict the Defense Department from creating any new positions related to DEI a year after the NDAA is passed.
Despite opposition from liberal Democrats and some apprehension from Republicans, the NDAA passed out of the House in a bipartisan 281-140 vote, with 81 Democrats voting in favor of it.
More than 40 Democratic and independent senators signed a letter calling to “keep the FY25 appropriations bills free of any new poison pill policy riders,” including those that “severely restrict access to gender-affirming care.”
But it’s unclear if that many will vote against the bill over the provision.
The letter, led by Democrat Sens. Merkley, Tammy Baldwin (Wisc.), and Cory Booker (N.J.), urges Senate Appropriations Committee leaders to “keep the FY25 appropriations bills free of any new poison pill policy riders,” including those that “severely restrict access to gender-affirming care.”
The NDAA lays out defense policy and sets funding goals, but a defense appropriations bill must be passed along with it to actually provide the money.
“Dangerous poison pill provisions like those included in the FY25 House appropriations bills will severely undermine Congress’ ability to push forward must-pass legislation and keep the government open and working for the American people,” the lawmakers write. “As such, we urge you to reject these extremist riders from the final FY25 appropriations bills.”
Seen as must-pass legislation, the NDAA has been signed into law every year for the past six decades.
Besides the culture war amendments, the bill has multiple bipartisan measures, including the establishment of 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, and a 4.5 percent pay raise for all service members.
The defense bill would also allocate funds to build seven new warships, about 200 aircraft and more than 300 vehicles.
