The Senate will hold its next votes on Nov. 14, leadership announced Thursday, meaning the upper chamber won’t consider its version of the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) until at least after the midterm elections.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), however, noted the process to start debate on the next defense policy bill will begin on Oct. 11.
“While we have accomplished a great deal so far, more than any Congress in recent memory and we all should be proud of what we accomplished, we still have much to do and many important bills to consider. Proceeding to the NDAA will save us valuable time, enabling us to get more done. But members should be prepared for an extremely, underline extremely, busy agenda in the last two months of this Congress,” Schumer said on the Senate floor on Thursday afternoon.
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), said earlier this month he was “pushing hard” to get the NDAA on the floor before any recess ahead of November’s midterm elections (Defense Daily, Sept. 7).
SASC advanced its $847 billion version of the NDAA out of committee in mid-June, after adopting a $45 billion topline increase during its closed-door markup of the bill (Defense Daily, June 16).
The House in mid-July voted 329 to 101 to pass its nearly $840 billion version of the NDAA (Defense Daily, July 15).
Both chambers will likely still have to meet in conference to settle differences for a final version of the defense policy legislation.