House passes $1.15 trillion defense spending bill

WASHINGTON - The House passed a more than $1 trillion annual defense bill on Wednesday, moving the unusually contentious measure forward after it earlier stalled in both chambers.

The bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), passed by a 216-212 vote. The House mostly voted along party lines, with Democrats overwhelmingly voting against the measure, citing their objections to President Donald Trump’s war in Iran.

“As we support anything in the defense area, we are de facto supporting this war with no end in sight,” Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said on Wednesday.

The legislation will now need to win approval in the Senate, where it could face a difficult path. Last week, Democrats in the upper chamber blocked the Senate version of the measure for the same reason the majority of their colleagues in the House voted against the bill on Wednesday.

And the House rule that advanced the bill to consideration on the floor of the lower chamber also included language to attach it to a contentious piece of voting legislation before it is sent to the Senate. That measure, the SAVE America Act, would impose stricter ID requirements for voters nationwide, among other provisions.

Trump has aggressively pushed for the passage of the SAVE America Act ahead of the pivotal fall midterms, stating that he will not sign any other legislation until it is sent to his desk.

The NDAA itself would allocate more than $1 trillion to the Department of Defense (DoD), as well as roughly $40 billion to the Department of Energy to oversee the U.S.’s nuclear arsenal and more than $10 billion for other matters related to the military. The package also contains a provision that stipulates that service members will receive a pay raise.

Earlier this year, the President proposed increasing DoD spending to $1.5 trillion—an increase of about $600 billion from last year.

In previous years, Congress has generally approved the annual defense bill with widespread support across the political aisle. But this year, the measure has become snarled in tensions over defense spending levels and the SAVE America Act.

Senate Democrats, meanwhile, expressed their frustrations with the ongoing war in the Middle East by preventing the NDAA from moving forward.

Several Democrats on the House floor on Wednesday also criticized the increase in defense spending at a time when the Trump Administration has made significant cuts to many health care and social programs. But Republicans argued that the increase is necessary.

“For the first time in 40 years, we’ve been presented a budget that accounts for the true cost of American deterrence,” Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said on the House floor. “This top line begins to reverse the damage caused by decades of underinvestment in the U.S. military.”

Also on Wednesday, the House adopted a $95 billion budget proposal focused on a number of Trump’s policy priorities, including the war in Iran—a measure that was supported only by Republicans, while Democrats, and two GOP members breaking from the rest of their party, objected to it. (Source: Time)