The House of Representatives advanced an annual defense spending package on July 21, setting up a clash with Democrats who are expected to oppose it.
The vote on moving forward with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was 214–211.
With the procedural vote, Republicans agreed to attach their election integrity bill, the SAVE America Act, to the defense measure when it passes. As of this month, House Republicans have attached the SAVE America Act to other major bills passed by the lower congressional chamber and sent to the Senate.
On Tuesday night, there will be votes on amendments to the NDAA such as codifying President Donald Trump’s ban of transgender people in the military, blocking military funding for Ukraine, and prohibiting funding for transgender medical procedures through the military’s Tricare health system.
The Senate Armed Services Committee sent the bill to the Senate floor on June 11 in a bipartisan 18–9 vote.
But Republicans and Democrats failed to agree on top-line defense and non-defense spending levels, causing tension between the two sides.
Democrats have said that the resumption of hostilities in Iran was a reason behind their opposition to the procedural vote.
“Now the White House has formally notified Congress that hostilities have resumed, that American strikes are underway again and our forces remain positioned for more,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the floor prior to the vote.
“Yet Republicans want the Senate to take up the NDAA, the defense bill, as though none of this is happening.”
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said the vote was unprecedented.
“It’s unprecedented not to pass the motion to proceed on the NDAA, and it reflects a decision and a mindset on the part of ... Schumer not to cooperate at all because so much of this has been done on a bipartisan basis,” he said.
“It really is a new low.”
The $1.15 trillion legislation would allocate almost $1.1 trillion to the Department of War, more than $41.14 billion to the Energy Department to manage the nation’s nuclear arsenal, and $11 billion to other defense-related activities.
The measure includes a 3.6 percent pay raise for all military members.
It would also give funding to educational agencies affected by the enrollment of military and Department of War civilian dependents.
