WASHINGTON — The Senate will vote Wednesday on final passage of a sweeping defense bill that will authorize significant pay increases for junior service members and boost total military spending to $895 billion, while also eliminating coverage of transgender medical treatments for children of military members .
The annual defense authorization bill typically receives strong bipartisan support and has not failed to pass Congress in nearly six decades Pentagon policies in recent years has become a battleground for cultural issues. Republicans sought to address priorities for social conservatives in legislation this year, contributing to months of negotiations over the bill and a decline in Democratic support.
Still, all but a handful of Senate Democrats — as well as nearly all Republicans — have supported the process to bring the compromise legislation to a final vote.
“The NDAA is not perfect. It doesn’t have everything either side would want. It contains a number of provisions that we Democrats would not have added and other provisions that we would like to completely disregard,” the Senate Majority Leader said. Chuck SchumerDY “But of course you need two parties to get this through the finish line.”
In the House of Representatives, a majority of Democrats voted against the bill last week after the Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson pushed for the addition of a provision banning the military health care system from providing transgender medical care to children. The legislation easily passed by voice vote from 281-140.
Senate Republican leaders argued that the 1% increase in defense spending was not enough, especially at a time of global unrest and challenges to U.S. dominance. Senate Republicans had called for a generational boost in defense spending this year, but are planning a new push for more defense funding once they control the White House and Congress next year.
The annual defense authorization bill guides key Pentagon policies, but would still need to be backed by an appropriations package.
Republican leader in the Senate Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said in a speech this week that without the revenue increase, “key provisions of the law such as a pay increase for enlisted soldiers will come at the expense of investments in the critical weapons systems and munitions that deter conflict and keep it safe.”
The legislation provides for a 14.5% pay increase for junior military personnel and a 4.5% increase for others. Lawmakers said these are critical to improving the quality of life for service members at a time when many military families rely on food banks and other government assistance programs to make ends meet.
“It includes important quality of life improvements, improving things like child care, housing, medical services, employment support for military spouses and much more,” said Senator. Jack ReedDR.I., Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The legislation also focuses resources on a more confrontational approach Chinaincluding the creation of a fund that could be used to send military resources to Taiwan, in much the same way the US has supported Ukraine. It is also investing in new military technologies, including artificial intelligence, and boosting U.S. munitions production.
The US has also taken steps in recent years to ban the military from buying Chinese products, and the defense bill expanded that to include a ban on Chinese goods, from garlic in military commissaries to drone technology.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry responded to this move last week by calling the bans laughable.
“I don’t think it would ever occur to garlic that it would pose a ‘major threat’ to the US,” said Mao Ning, a ministry spokeswoman. “From drones to faucets, from refrigerators to garlic, more and more Chinese-made products are being accused by the US of ‘posing national security risks’. But has the US shown any credible evidence or reason to support these allegations?
But in Congress, Republican and Democratic lawmakers are largely united in their view that China poses a growing threat. Instead, it was culture war issues that divided lawmakers over the bill, which was negotiated for months.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives had passed a version of the bill in June that would ban the law The policy of the Ministry of Defense from covering the costs of service members traveling to another state for an abortion, ended gender-affirming care for transgender troops and scrapped diversity initiatives in the military.
Most of these provisions did not make it into the final package, although Republicans expect they will Donald Trump to sweep changes in Pentagon policy when he takes office in January.
The bill also still prohibits the financing of education critical race theory in the military and prohibits TRICARE health plans from covering gender dysphoria treatment for children under 18 if that treatment could result in “sterilization.”
For some Democrats, the ban on treatments for transgender children — care they say could be lifesaving — was a red line.
In a floor speech, Sen Tammy BaldwinD-Wis., said she has always voted for the NDAA but would not do so this year. She said the policy change for transgender children would affect between 6,000 and 7,000 families, according to estimates her office has received.
“The NDAA has embodied the idea that there is more that brings us together than divides us, that our service members and national defense should not be politicized. That we give our country a party when the chips are on the table,” she said. “Unfortunately, that was ignored this year – all to undermine the rights of our service members to the health care they need for their children.”
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Associated Press writer Didi Tang contributed to this report.