The US Senate voted overwhelmingly on Monday to pass an $895 billion bill setting policy for the Pentagon by Tuesday, which will send it to the White House for President Joe Biden to sign into law.
The vote was 83 to 12 in favor of advancing the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, for final passage, more than the 60 needed in the 100-member Senate. The bill moved forward despite including a controversial provision aimed at banning some gender-affirming care for transgender children of service members.
This year’s NDAA authorizes a record $895 billion in annual military spending, including provisions on purchasing military equipment and boosting competitiveness with rival countries including China and Russia.
The 1,800-page bill also focuses on improving the quality of life for the US military.
It authorizes a pay increase of 14.5% for the lowest-ranking soldiers and 4.5% for the rest of the force, which is higher than normal. It also authorized the construction of military housing, schools, and child care centers.
The bill prohibits the military health program, TRICARE, from covering gender-affirming care for transgender children of service members if it would risk sterilization.
The inclusion of the provision in the bill setting policy for the Defense Department underlined how transgender issues have become a focus in American politics.
President-elect Donald Trump and several other Republicans criticized Democrats for supporting transgender rights during the 2024 election campaign, which comes with Republicans taking control of the House and the Senate and the White House starting next month. Ended.
The Fiscal Year 2025 NDAA is an agreement between Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate, reached during several weeks of negotiations behind closed doors.
It did not include some other Republican proposals on social issues, including an effort to ban Tricare from covering gender-affirming care for transgender adults and a measure that would limit travel for abortions for troops stationed in those states. This would have reversed Pentagon policy on funding where this process would have occurred. Is banned.
This massive bill is one of the few major pieces of legislation that Congress passes every year, and lawmakers are proud to have passed it every year for more than six decades.
The NDAA authorizes Pentagon programs, but does not fund them. Congress must pass funding separately in a spending bill for the fiscal year ending in September 2025. That bill is unlikely to be enacted before March.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)