Senate passes defense bill, abandoning far-right policy diktats
The Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed an $886 billion defense bill that would set Pentagon policy and provide a 5.2 percent pay increase for military personnel, defying demands from far-right Republicans who had tried and failed to impose a series of highly partisan restrictions on abortion. , transgender care and diversity initiatives.
The vote was 87-13 to approve the legislation, which would increase the Defense Department’s ability to compete with China and Russia in hypersonic and nuclear weapons, components of a key Indo-Pacific security partnership with Britain and Australia would implement, empowering hundreds of millions of people. of dollars in military aid to Ukraine and Israel. The bill’s authorized programs for Ukraine and Israel are distinct from a $111 billion spending bill to send additional weapons to those countries, among other spending, currently pending in Congress.
The defense bill would also extend through 2025 a program that allows the intelligence community to conduct unauthorized surveillance of foreign individuals outside the United States. This program has come under scrutiny because of how the FBI has handled the communications of Americans in contact with the targeted foreigners.
Republican and Democratic leaders in the Senate have defended the bill as a fair compromise that prioritizes competition with opponents and shows support for allies. Some argued that this was an especially important message to send to the world at a time when global threats are increasing — especially given that Republicans have blocked congressional efforts to appropriate tens of billions of dollars in emergency military aid to Ukraine and Israel and insisted that it be accompanied by a crackdown on migration at the US border with Mexico.
“Implementing the defense authorization law is more important than ever,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and majority leader, after condemning the Republican Party for its refusal to approve the additional war funding. The defense bill, he added, was the product of “exactly the kind of bipartisan cooperation the American people want from Congress.”
The measure, the result of bipartisan negotiations between the two chambers, has sparked a backlash in the House of Representatives, where many Republicans are angry with their leaders for agreeing to drop some provisions that hardliners imposed this summer.
Among the provisions dropped from the final compromise was a measure to repeal a policy that provides paid leave and transportation reimbursement for service members who must travel to obtain an abortion or other forms of reproductive health care. The Pentagon implemented this policy after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, creating a patchwork of abortion laws across the country.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama, spent most of this year blocking military promotions in protest before dropping most of his block last week.
Proposals that Republicans pushed through the House of Representatives to ban transgender health care, diversity training agents and drag shows were also dropped from the final bill.
“If you are pro-life, against racial division, against taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries, against drag shows… oppose this swamp bill,” Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy wrote in a social media post.
The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the legislation Thursday under expedited procedures that give opponents fewer opportunities to kill the legislation but require a two-thirds majority. Leaders expect the proposal to pass with the support of a coalition of Republicans and Democrats.
But Republican senators didn’t assume that. On Wednesday, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee urged conservatives in the House of Representatives to support the bill, arguing that it contained Republican victories.
Among the provisions he highlighted were a salary cap for diversity officers, which would force the Pentagon to remove some senior positions dedicated to such initiatives, and a new special inspector general to oversee how U.S. military aid used in Ukraine. Republicans have accused the Biden administration of failing to provide them with guarantees that weapons sent to Ukraine will not fall into the wrong hands.
“The IG provision should be enough to allay everyone’s concerns that the money is being misspent,” Senator Roger Wicker, Republican of Mississippi, told reporters on Wednesday, adding that he was “glad we are getting some credit from a majority of the base to a few victories.”
Right-wing Republicans are also outraged by the expansion of the warrantless surveillance program. Liberal Democrats have long harbored privacy concerns about the program, which was created under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and many Republicans have turned against it as they have grown hostile to the FBI. and complained about a federal government “weaponized” against conservatives.
Last month there were more than fifty Republicans and Democrats signed a letter indicating their opposition to expanding the program without significant changes. The defense bill would extend the program through April 19, but because of a quirk in the statute, that could allow a secret intelligence court to keep it going until April 2025.
A group of conservative Republican senators tried to remove the expansion of Section 702 from the defense bill on Wednesday evening, but the effort was voted down.
Earlier this week, Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan to have the House of Representatives vote on two competing bills to overhaul the surveillance program fell apart in a fierce Republican infighting, with any resolution on how or whether to implement the program in the new year amended was rejected.