The Senate on Wednesday gave final passage to the annual military policy bill authorizing a $901 billion national defense program, while also pressuring Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to provide lawmakers with footage of an attack on an alleged drug ship in international waters near Venezuela.
The annual National Defense Authorization Act, which increases soldiers’ pay by 3.8 percent, received bipartisan support as it passed Congress. The bill passed the Senate on a 77-20 vote before lawmakers made plans to leave Washington for vacation. Two Republicans, Sens. Rand Paul and Mike Lee, and 18 Democrats voted against the bill.
The White House said this is in line with President Donald Trump’s national security priorities. But the bill, which is more than 3,000 pages long, reveals several points of friction between Congress and the Pentagon as the Trump administration shifts its focus from European security to Latin America.
The bill is a rebuttal to recent moves by the Department of Defense. It demands more information about shipping attacks in the Caribbean and demands that the United States maintain troop levels in Europe at current levels and send some military aid to Ukraine.
But overall, the bill represents a compromise between both parties. Implements many of President Trump’s executive orders and proposals to eliminate diversity and inclusion initiatives in the military and grants emergency military powers at the U.S.-Mexico border. It also seeks to strengthen Congressional oversight of the Pentagon, eliminate years-old authorization to go to war and overhaul how the Pentagon purchases weapons as the United States seeks to surpass China in developing next-generation military technology.
“The most sweeping reforms to the Department of Defense’s business practices in 60 years will soon be passed, and the president will be eager to sign them,” said Sen. Roger Wicker, Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Still, the massive bill faced opposition from both Democratic and Republican leadership on the Senate Commerce Committee. That’s because the bill would give military aircraft an exemption to operate without disclosing their exact location, as military helicopters did before a mid-air collision with a passenger plane in Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people in January.
“This particular carve-out was the cause of the Jan. 29 crash that claimed 67 lives,” Sen. Ted Cruz, the Republican chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said at a press conference this week.
Cruz said he is aiming for a vote next month on a bipartisan bill that would require military aircraft to use precise location-sharing tools and require greater coordination between civilian and military aircraft in downtown areas.
boat strike video
Republicans and Democrats agreed to language in the defense bill that threatens to withhold a quarter of Hegseth’s travel expenses until he submits unedited video of the airstrike and an order authorizing the airstrike to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.
Hegseth was at the Capitol on Tuesday ahead of the bill’s passage to brief lawmakers on U.S. military operations in international waters near Venezuela. The briefing drew contrasting reactions from many lawmakers, with Republicans largely supporting the campaign, while Democrats expressed concerns about the campaign and said it was not well-informed.
The committee is investigating the first attack of the campaign, the September 2 strike, in which two survivors of the first attack on a boat were killed. Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley, the Navy admiral who ordered the “Double Tap” attack, also appeared before the committee just before Wednesday’s vote, attending a confidential briefing that included video of the attack in question.
While several Republican senators from the meeting supported Hegseth and his decision not to publicly release the video, other Republicans remained silent on their opinions on the walkout.
Democrats are calling for portions of the video to be made public and all lawmakers to have access to the entire footage.
“The American people absolutely need to see this video,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut. “I think they’ll be shocked.”
parliamentary oversight
Lawmakers have been caught off guard several times by the Trump administration over the last year, including a move to suspend intelligence sharing with Ukraine and a decision to reduce the U.S. military presence in NATO countries in Eastern Europe. The National Defense Act requires Congress to be kept informed of future decisions, not just when military leaders are dismissed.
The bill also requires the Pentagon to maintain at least 76,000 troops and key equipment in Europe, unless it consults with NATO allies and determines that such a withdrawal is in U.S. interests. Typically, about 80,000 to 100,000 U.S. troops are stationed on European territory. Similar requirements also keep the number of U.S. troops in South Korea at 28,500.
Lawmakers are also reversing some Pentagon decisions, such as authorizing $400 million in each of the next two years to build weapons to send to Ukraine.
Reducing diversity and climate change efforts
Trump and Hegseth have made it a priority to purge the military of materials and programs that address diversity, anti-racism and gender issues, and the defense bill would codify many of those changes. This will eliminate the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and training, including the role of Chief Diversity Officer. These cuts will save the Pentagon about $40 million, according to the Republican-controlled House Armed Services Committee.
The U.S. military has long recognized climate change as a threat to the provision of national security, as weather-related disasters can destroy military bases and military equipment. However, the bill would result in $1.6 billion in cuts by eliminating the Department of Defense’s climate programs.
War recognition and abolition of sanctions on Syria
Congress is writing the final chapter of the Iraq war by revoking the 2003 invasion authorization. Now that Iraq is a strategic partner of the United States, lawmakers who support the provision say its repeal is critical to preventing future human rights abuses. The bill would also repeal the 1991 authorization that sanctioned the U.S.-led Gulf War.
The rare bipartisan move to remove the legal justification for the conflict signaled a potential desire among lawmakers to take back some of Congress’ war powers.
