The Senate approved its massive annual defense policy bill late Thursday as the US government remains closed,
The GOP-led chamber approved the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 70-20, which provides $924.7 billion in funding to the US military in fiscal year 2026. The vote came after lawmakers reached an agreement earlier in the day to unlock the stalled legislation.
Passage of the bill allows the House and Senate Armed Services committees to begin the sometimes difficult conference process, during which lawmakers compromise between each house’s version of the legislation. House version of NDAA, last month passedIts revenue is very low at around $893 billion.
The NDAA came to the Senate floor in early September but had seen little movement as of Thursday morning. Action on the bill was halted because all 100 senators had to agree to hold a vote on amendments, with several sticking points causing a handful of lawmakers to stall the process.
But Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) secured a compromise to vote on a package of 17 stand-alone amendments and about 50 less controversial amendments.
“We cannot delay this process any longer,” Wicker said on the Senate floor. “Let me be clear, if we do not bring this to the House today, this matter will not get time for deliberation in the Senate floor, and we will have to basically pretend that we are having a conference between members of the House and the Senate, and a very small group of senators will have to write this bill and bring it to the House for final passage. That should not be done.”
Votes took place throughout Thursday evening, during which senators passed more than a dozen partisan amendments and 50 additional amendments before advancing the bill.
Among those passed was Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), who introduced a resolution to repeal the 2002 authorization for the use of military force against Iraq. It would also repeal a similar resolution passed during the Gulf War in 1991.
And in a display of bipartisanship, an amendment introduced by Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) made it into the bill and would give the Pentagon additional authority to counter drone threats on military installations.
“Hundreds of thousands of drones have been spotted around military installations over the past few years, including military-sensitive sites like Langley Air Force Base,” Gillibrand said. “But existing laws give the Department of Defense too limited authority to mitigate these threats, and the patchwork of interagency coordination needed to address them leaves gaps that put our military bases and the men and women who serve there at risk.”
But amendments that failed to pass included an amendment from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who hoped to block funding for President Trump to retrofit a luxury Qatari jet that he had acknowledged as the intended replacement for Air Force One.
Schumer said, “It will cost millions of taxpayer dollars to bring this foreign-owned luxury jet fully operational. That’s money that should not be wasted.”
And Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) introduced a proposal that was voted down that would block Trump and state governors from allowing National Guard troops to be sent from one state to another if the governor or mayor rejects the move.
Among the issues that had to be resolved before the bill could pass the Senate was a hurdle posed by Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), who ndaa stopped On a bipartisan proposal to investigate US investments in China. She reportedly agreed to allow the bill to move forward after receiving assurances that senators would address concerns raised by Microsoft, one of her state’s largest employers, over the amendment.
Another collapsed effort was Senator Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.)’s insistence that senators vote on his amendment to label Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt — who was shot by police while attempting to enter a restricted area of the Capitol during the January 6, 2021 insurrection — ineligible for military funeral honors, Politico reported.
Updated at 10:55 PM EDT.
