Congress’s decades-long streak of bipartisan support for its annual defense policy and spending plan collapsed Friday, after House Republicans rammed through the most conservative National Defense Authorization Act in decades — restricting military personnel’s access to reproductive care and diversity protections, and imperiling lawmakers’ broader effort to set major national security priorities.
The House’s version of the bill, totaling $886 billion, passed on a vote of 219-210, carrying a razor-thin Republican majority. Four Democrats voted in favor of the legislation. The outcome sets up a showdown with the Senate, where lawmakers are expected to vote next week on its version of the legislation which lacks the divisive components pushed by House GOP’s hard-right wing.
Democrats and moderate Republicans predict that the defense bill, in its current form, will die in the Senate, raising uncertainty for the fate of major items that leaders from both political parties had identified as national defense imperatives.
The NDAA, which sets Pentagon policy and spending limits for the year ahead, includes increased investment in precision missiles, warships and newer technologies like artificial intelligence and hypersonics — necessities, leading lawmakers and the Biden administration say, as the United States directs greater attention toward China. It also authorizes a 5.2 percent base pay increase for military personnel and expanded support for their families through housing improvements, and broader access to child care, health care and education benefits.
“To have [House Speaker, Republican Kevin] McCarthy allow extremists to load up this bill with their wish list of extremist agenda items — so that we can’t in good faith pass this because we know it would harm the lives of servicewomen and service members’ families — is just a horrible place to be in,” Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) told reporters on a conference call Friday alongside Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.), both U.S. military veterans.
“I don’t think, in good conscience, either one of us feel … that we could vote this through because of the damage it does to those who serve,” Sherrill added.
Once the Senate votes on its version of the legislation, the two chambers will need to reconcile the bills’ differences. And while President Biden is highly unlikely to sign into law one containing the House culture-war riders, the path to bipartisan reconciliation is unclear.
Republicans, who maintain a narrow majority in the House, voted late into the night Thursday approving amendments to the NDAA that roll back Pentagon policies that allow servicewomen to travel out of state to obtain an abortion, and that fund diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs operated throughout the Defense Department. They also added prohibitions on specialized health care sought by transgender troops or members of their families.
All were nonstarters for many Democrats who have argued that the Pentagon’s efforts to recognize and attract a diverse workforce are necessary, both to right a history of discrimination, and to bolster the armed forces as they struggle to recruit and retain top talent.
Democrats on Thursday fumed as their Republican colleagues muscled through their amendments. The acrimony was palpable on the House floor, where Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Tex.) denounced the GOP’s gambit on troops’ reproductive care as a “backdoor effort to create a national abortion ban.” Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) said the measures would undermine military recruiting, and jeopardize its readiness and morale.
Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.), top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, which drafted the defense bill, told The Washington Post, “It’s really sad that the Republican Party doesn’t understand that diversity matters. They basically are dismissing the LGBTQ community, and women and people of color.”
McCarthy and other GOP leaders faced pushback from within their party as well, particularly from a vocal bloc of conservatives in Congress who bitterly oppose the tens of billions of dollars in U.S. military aid, training and other support supplied to Ukraine it resists invading Russian forces and seeks to reclaim territory that Moscow has declared its own. Their proposals to halt U.S. assistance for the government in Kyiv failed as most Republicans and Democrats remain aghast at the Russian military’s brutal assault on civilians and the country’s vital infrastructure.
McCarthy managed to secure the bill’s passage Friday because a few of those hard-liners, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), agreed to vote for it despite their stance on Ukraine.
Throughout the process, partisan anger transformed the chamber of America’s democracy into a battleground in the country’s increasingly polarizing culture wars. Republicans accused Democrats of “idiocy” and “weakening” the nation’s armed forces with policies promoting diversity and protection of LGBTQ rights. Democrats called their Republican colleagues “racist” and “bigoted.”
“The military was never intended to be inclusive. Its strength is not its diversity. Its strength is its standards,” said Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.). He likened efforts to promote diversity in the armed forces to “lowering our standards,” arguing in a floor speech for passage of his amendment to prohibit from the Defense Department from requiring diversity training.
“My amendment has nothing to do with whether or not colored people or Black people or anybody can serve,” Crane added. His remarks drew an immediate rebuke from Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, who demanded that the racist, Jim Crow-era term “colored people” be struck from the official record of the day’s proceedings.
Crane subsequently asked to amend his comments to “people of color.”
“What about us scares you?” Rep. Jill N. Tokuda (D-Hawaii) asked from the House floor. “My grandfather, my father-in-law, my brother, they all fought and risked their lives for this country. Yet the sacrifices made by so many who feel marginalized — our communities of color — simply pale in comparison to the hate and fear that drives this obsession with DEI.”
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who has repeatedly spoken against her party’s stance against abortion, had said Thursday that she was “pissed off” about the abortion amendment. But she sided with her party and voted for it anyway.
“This amendment dies in the Senate and does nothing. Except put the NDAA at risk of passing,” she told The Post.
The House’s version of the bill, totaling $886 billion, passed on a vote of 219-210, carrying a razor-thin Republican majority. Four Democrats voted in favor of the legislation. The outcome sets up a showdown with the Senate, where lawmakers are expected to vote next week on its version of the legislation which lacks the divisive components pushed by House GOP’s hard-right wing.
Democrats and moderate Republicans predict that the defense bill, in its current form, will die in the Senate, raising uncertainty for the fate of major items that leaders from both political parties had identified as national defense imperatives.
The NDAA, which sets Pentagon policy and spending limits for the year ahead, includes increased investment in precision missiles, warships and newer technologies like artificial intelligence and hypersonics — necessities, leading lawmakers and the Biden administration say, as the United States directs greater attention toward China. It also authorizes a 5.2 percent base pay increase for military personnel and expanded support for their families through housing improvements, and broader access to child care, health care and education benefits.
“To have [House Speaker, Republican Kevin] McCarthy allow extremists to load up this bill with their wish list of extremist agenda items — so that we can’t in good faith pass this because we know it would harm the lives of servicewomen and service members’ families — is just a horrible place to be in,” Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) told reporters on a conference call Friday alongside Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.), both U.S. military veterans.
“I don’t think, in good conscience, either one of us feel … that we could vote this through because of the damage it does to those who serve,” Sherrill added.
Once the Senate votes on its version of the legislation, the two chambers will need to reconcile the bills’ differences. And while President Biden is highly unlikely to sign into law one containing the House culture-war riders, the path to bipartisan reconciliation is unclear.
Republicans, who maintain a narrow majority in the House, voted late into the night Thursday approving amendments to the NDAA that roll back Pentagon policies that allow servicewomen to travel out of state to obtain an abortion, and that fund diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs operated throughout the Defense Department. They also added prohibitions on specialized health care sought by transgender troops or members of their families.
All were nonstarters for many Democrats who have argued that the Pentagon’s efforts to recognize and attract a diverse workforce are necessary, both to right a history of discrimination, and to bolster the armed forces as they struggle to recruit and retain top talent.
Democrats on Thursday fumed as their Republican colleagues muscled through their amendments. The acrimony was palpable on the House floor, where Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Tex.) denounced the GOP’s gambit on troops’ reproductive care as a “backdoor effort to create a national abortion ban.” Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) said the measures would undermine military recruiting, and jeopardize its readiness and morale.
Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.), top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, which drafted the defense bill, told The Washington Post, “It’s really sad that the Republican Party doesn’t understand that diversity matters. They basically are dismissing the LGBTQ community, and women and people of color.”
McCarthy and other GOP leaders faced pushback from within their party as well, particularly from a vocal bloc of conservatives in Congress who bitterly oppose the tens of billions of dollars in U.S. military aid, training and other support supplied to Ukraine it resists invading Russian forces and seeks to reclaim territory that Moscow has declared its own. Their proposals to halt U.S. assistance for the government in Kyiv failed as most Republicans and Democrats remain aghast at the Russian military’s brutal assault on civilians and the country’s vital infrastructure.
McCarthy managed to secure the bill’s passage Friday because a few of those hard-liners, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), agreed to vote for it despite their stance on Ukraine.
Throughout the process, partisan anger transformed the chamber of America’s democracy into a battleground in the country’s increasingly polarizing culture wars. Republicans accused Democrats of “idiocy” and “weakening” the nation’s armed forces with policies promoting diversity and protection of LGBTQ rights. Democrats called their Republican colleagues “racist” and “bigoted.”
“The military was never intended to be inclusive. Its strength is not its diversity. Its strength is its standards,” said Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.). He likened efforts to promote diversity in the armed forces to “lowering our standards,” arguing in a floor speech for passage of his amendment to prohibit from the Defense Department from requiring diversity training.
“My amendment has nothing to do with whether or not colored people or Black people or anybody can serve,” Crane added. His remarks drew an immediate rebuke from Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, who demanded that the racist, Jim Crow-era term “colored people” be struck from the official record of the day’s proceedings.
Crane subsequently asked to amend his comments to “people of color.”
“What about us scares you?” Rep. Jill N. Tokuda (D-Hawaii) asked from the House floor. “My grandfather, my father-in-law, my brother, they all fought and risked their lives for this country. Yet the sacrifices made by so many who feel marginalized — our communities of color — simply pale in comparison to the hate and fear that drives this obsession with DEI.”
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who has repeatedly spoken against her party’s stance against abortion, had said Thursday that she was “pissed off” about the abortion amendment. But she sided with her party and voted for it anyway.
“This amendment dies in the Senate and does nothing. Except put the NDAA at risk of passing,” she told The Post.
