The House passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2024, 219-210.
Democrats and Republicans crossed party lines.
The biggest parts of the bill would roll back the woke initiatives the Defense Department has instilled since Biden took office:
The clearest signal that Republicans would go their own way came on Thursday when the House narrowly adopted Rep. Ronny Jackson‘s (R-Texas) amendment to block Pentagon policies that reimburse travel costs for troops seeking abortions.Democrats telegraphed that the proposal was a red line. The measure was adopted anyway in a 221-213 vote, with only two Republicans breaking ranks.Republicans didn’t stop there. They muscled through proposals to end coverage of transition surgeries and hormone treatments for transgender troops, gut diversity and inclusion programs and limit the specific flags that can be flown at military installations — a move that would effectively ban flying the pride flag.
The abortion block is huge. The Pentagon’s policy barely gets by the Hyde Amendment, which bans the use of tax money to pay for abortions.
The Armed Services Committee addressed other issues during the legislation’s markup in June.
The markups include a plan to bring back troops who the Pentagon kicked out because they refused the COVID vaccine.
They also included “barring funding for drag shows on military bases and banning the promotion of critical race theory.”
All the spending, though:
In all, the legislation authorizes $886 billion for national defense programs in fiscal 2024, the same amount requested by President Joe Biden and equal to a spending cap set for defense spending in a recent debt limit deal.The price tag includes $842 billion for the Pentagon and another $32 billion for nuclear weapons programs at the Energy Department. The legislation doesn’t actually provide any funding, however, and must be followed by appropriations legislation.
Unfortunately, this likely won’t pass the Senate. The upper chamber is working on its own NDAA, but maybe Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema will knock some common sense into their colleagues.
Biden’s handlers will tell him not to sign it.
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