Congress has passed the final fiscal year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), sending the $886 billion defense policy bill to the president’s desk for final signature.
The Senate on Wednesday evening first voted 87-13 in favor of the NDAA and the GOP-controlled House then approved the legislation with a 310-118 vote, receiving more support from Democrats than Republicans.
“I am pleased that the Senate has come together to once again pass a strong, bipartisan defense bill. This is a dangerous moment in the world, and the NDAA makes critical progress toward meeting the threats we face. This year’s bill strengthens our military posture and alliances in the Indo-Pacific, helping to secure our interests against China’s expanding ambitions. It supports Ukraine in its heroic fight against Russia, and it enhances our alliance with Israel. The bill will reinvigorate our industrial base and provide our military services with the cutting-edge platforms and technologies they need to keep Americans safe,” Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.
The FY ‘24 NDAA aligns with the $886 billion defense topline set by the debt ceiling agreement passed earlier this year, while Congress has yet to pass FY ‘24 final appropriations bills to fully fund the government.
“Our bill should signal to China, Russia, and others that we will not accept a world where America does not have the best fighting force. While I would have preferred to send the President a substantially larger proposed investment in our industrial base, he now should approve the monumental investments Congress intends to make in our servicemembers, warships, submarines, aircraft, and technology,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), ranking member on SASC, said in a statement.
The 13 votes in the Senate against the NDAA were cast by Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
In the House, many of the Republican ‘No’ votes were from hardline Freedom Caucus members who opposed the inclusion of a short-term extension for the FISA Sec. 702 surveillance authority and that many GOP-led divisive proposals included in the House’s original version of the bill, such as blocking the Pentagon’s abortion travel policy, were ultimately stripped from the final NDAA.
Ultimately, 163 House Democrats voted for the bill and 45 were against, while 148 Republicans supported the bill and 73 voted to oppose.
“Importantly, this bill rejects harmful provisions included in the bill House Republicans pushed forward in July that attacked essential reproductive and LGBTQ+ health care for service members and their families, undermined President Biden’s executive orders on climate change, and would have drastically expanded the Department of Defense program that provides military equipment to local law enforcement agencies,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. “This bill is far from perfect—it reflects hard fought compromise in a time of extreme partisan gridlock, and it provides for a strong national defense that advances U.S. priorities at home and abroad.”
Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) last week highlighted the inclusion of critical measures in the final NDAA required to support the AUKUS trilateral security agreement with the U.K. and Australia, including authorizing the transfer of Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines to Australia and allowing for “Australian financial contributions to the U.S. defense industrial base and the sharing of technology and information between the three nations to safely streamline security cooperation” (Defense Daily, Dec. 7).
Courtney on Thursday noted the final NDAA also includes provisions to streamline export controls required to support AUKUS Pillar Two, which is focused on non-submarine technology cooperation (Defense Daily, Dec. 14).
“It was a major step forward in carving out AUKUS-related exports that are necessary to make sure that the Pillar Two technologies move forward. It was not a complete carve out for Australia and the U.K, but there’s no question that AUKUS-related technologies and capabilities are gonna be given a much more fast track approach,” Courtney told reporters.
The conferenced version of the NDAA also supports a requirement for continued development of a nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N), to include $70 million for the National Nuclear Security Administration to develop the weapon’s warhead, while the Biden administration has sought to fund and argued the U.S. already has capabilities to achieve a similar deterrent effect (Defense Daily, Dec. 7).
The final NDAA also expands the list of munitions eligible for multi-year procurement contracts, to include Tomahawk Cruise Missiles and the Army’s new Precision Strike Missiles, supports billions more for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative and extends the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative and authorizes $300 million for that effort in FY ’24 and FY ’25.