The House will vote this afternoon on the FY2025 defense authorization bill — aka the Senate amendment to H.R. 5009, the Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act — setting in motion the final act for this must-pass measure.
But like everything in the 118th Congress, it’s not going to be simple.
The two parties and two chambers have clashed over topline defense spending and culture war provisions, complicating the final talks on the legislation that Congress has approved every year for more than six decades. A last-minute intervention by Speaker Mike Johnson barring gender-affirming care for the children of military families has upset Democrats — as well as some Republicans.
The compromise NDAA package comes in at nearly $884 billion, which is 1% above last year’s total. That’s in line with defense spending projections under the 2023 Fiscal Responsibility Act. There’s another $11 billion in defense funding outside the NDAA, bringing the overall cost to $895 billion.
The centerpiece of this massive 1,800-page-plus package is a 14.5% pay raise for junior enlisted service members and a 4.5% pay raise for all other service members. This is a huge deal. There are other key provisions covering health care, housing, childcare, military spousal support and more.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), who will take over the Senate Armed Services Committee in January, wanted $25 billion more for the Pentagon. So did Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who will take over the Defense subcommittee on the Senate Appropriations panel. But they’ll both end up backing the measure despite their grumbling.
It’s the transgender provision’s inclusion that is upsetting House Democrats. Johnson’s demand for keeping it in the bill has dismayed Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.), ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. The veteran Democrat is going to vote no on the NDAA. Smith, though, predicted the measure will pass the House.
“Members of Congress are denying health care to children based on what seems to me, a culture war, partisan attempt to divide people. A partisan wedge issue, if you will. And I think that’s wrong,” Smith said. “My objection is the policy sucks … You don’t jam partisan issues through on the NDAA as a general principle.”
House Armed Services Committee Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) also said he was unhappy that Johnson did this on the NDAA, although he strongly supports the speaker’s position on this issue. Rogers said that since President-elect Donald Trump will bar such medical coverage soon after he’s sworn in on Jan. 20, there was no reason to do this via the NDAA.
“We’ll win tomorrow, but it will be close,” Rogers told reporters Tuesday night. “[Trump] is going to stop all these social, cultural issues from being embedded as policies. So my point is, I don’t know why this is going to be in the bill when on Jan. 20, it’s a moot point.”
“This stuff does not belong in our bill,” Rogers added. “[Johnson] didn’t talk to me about it. My preference would’ve been we just let [Trump] on Jan. 20 deal with these kinds of policies, which he’s already indicated he’s going to do. But nobody asked me.”
Once the House passes the measure, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will seek a time agreement to move the NDAA quickly in that chamber. If that doesn’t come together, Schumer could file cloture as early as Thursday, setting up a Monday cloture vote. That would mean final passage on the NDAA in the Senate on Wednesday.
We expect the CR to move quickly as well once the House votes on it next week. So possibly the Senate could wrap up for the year by Dec. 19 — a week from tomorrow — if everything goes right.
But as we noted, it’s the 118th Congress, where everything is dumber and takes longer than expected.
The CR. Johnson told us that he’ll have final decisions on the contours of the government funding bill at some point today. To be fair, Johnson has been off on his timeline on the CR for a week now.
But the federal government runs out of spending authority on Dec. 20, so Hill leaders have to get moving.
There are a bunch of add-ons that have been thrown into the negotiations, including a one-year extension of the farm bill. House Agriculture Committee Chair GT Thompson (R-Pa.) said the two sides were still negotiating on that Tuesday night. The issue here is whether Congress simply extends the law by a year or tries to enact a new policy.
Negotiators have also discussed legislative items including extending the Coast Guard’s authority, permitting reform, an overhaul of outbound investment rules and an extension of a number of expiring health-care-related provisions. None of these items seem likely to make the final cut. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is driving a hard bargain. He has told negotiators he is opening to adding items, but for every additional policy, Democrats need a win, as well.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told us Tuesday evening that lawmakers are still trying to add a smattering of other legislative priorities into the legislation.
“There’s complications to anything you add in,” Scalise said.
As we reported in Tuesday’s Midday edition, the disaster aid portion of the CR — aimed at helping rebuild the storm-stricken Southeast — will cost between $90 billion and $100 billion.
Scalise said Republicans have pared down President Joe Biden’s request from $115 billion, but the disaster aid total is “still large.”
