Senate passes defense policy bill with 5.2% pay raise for troops, the biggest boost in decades

WASHINGTON– The Senate on Wednesday approved a defense policy bill that authorizes the largest pay raise for troops in more than two decades, but also leaves behind many of the policy priorities that social conservatives were clamoring for, generating an unusually divisive debate over what which is traditionally a strong bipartisan effort.

Lawmakers have been negotiating a final bill for months after each chamber approved strikingly different versions in July. Some of the priorities advocated by social conservatives were rejected by Democrats, so negotiators removed them from the final product to get it over the finish line.

The bill was approved in the Senate by 87 votes in favor and 13 against. It now moves to the House of Representatives, where opponents have expressed their concerns more openly.

Notably, the bill does not include language that would block the Pentagon’s abortion travel policy and restrict gender-affirming health care for transgender service members and their dependents. However, Republicans prevailed by winning some concessions on diversity and inclusion in military training. For example, the bill freezes hiring for such training until a full accounting of programming and costs is completed and reported to Congress.

The bill lays out a key Pentagon policy that lawmakers will try to fund through a follow-up appropriations bill. Lawmakers wanted to emphasize how the bill calls for a 5.2% increase in service members’ pay, the largest increase in more than 20 years. The bill authorizes $886 billion for national defense programs for the current fiscal year that began Oct. 1, about 3% more than the previous year.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the bill would ensure that “the United States military remains at the forefront at all times and around the world.”

The bill also includes a short-term extension of a surveillance program aimed at preventing terrorism and capturing spies. But the program has detractors on both sides of the political aisle who see it as a threat to the privacy of ordinary Americans. Some House Republicans were outraged by the extension, which is designed to buy more time to reach a compromise.

The extension continues a program that allows the US government to warrantless collect the communications of non-US Americans located outside the country to gather foreign intelligence.

U.S. officials have said the tool, first authorized in 2008 and renewed several times since, is crucial to thwarting terrorist attacks, cyber intrusions and other national security threats. It has produced vital intelligence that the United States has relied on for specific operations, such as last year’s assassination of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri.

But the administration’s efforts to secure reauthorization of the program have met with strong bipartisan pushback. Democrats like Sen. Ron Wyden, who has long championed civil liberties, have aligned with Republican supporters of former President Donald Trump to demand better privacy protections for Americans and have proposed a series of competing bills.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., tried unsuccessfully to keep the extension out of the defense bill. He maintained that the extension would likely mean that no reforms to the surveillance program will be made over the next year.

“That means that once again intelligence agencies that ignore the limitations of their power will go unanswered and unpunished, and warrantless surveillance of Americans in violation of the Bill of Rights will continue,” Paul said.

Enough opposition has developed within the ranks of the Republican Party that it has forced House Speaker Mike Johnson to prepare the defense policy bill for a vote through a process usually reserved for uncontroversial legislation. Under that process, at least two-thirds of the House will have to vote in favor of the legislation for it to pass, but going that route avoids the prospect of a small number of Republicans blocking it through a procedural vote.

While such a process could make it easier to pass the bill, it could hurt Johnson’s standing with some of the more conservative members of the House. It only takes a few Republicans to paralyze House proceedings or even end a president’s term, as former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy learned when eight Republicans joined Democrats to unseat him.

The White House called for quick passage of the defense bill, saying it “provides the critical authorities we need to build the military needed to deter future conflicts while supporting service members and their spouses and families who lead carry out that mission every day.

Consideration of the bill comes at an especially dangerous time for the world, with wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and as China increasingly flexes its military might in the South China Sea.

As for Ukraine, the bill includes the creation of a special inspector general for Ukraine to address concerns about whether taxpayer money is being spent in Ukraine as intended. This is in addition to the supervision work already carried out by other control bodies.

“We will continue to monitor this, but I want to assure my colleagues that there has been no evidence of diversion of weapons provided to Ukraine or any other type of assistance,” said the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Mike. Rogers of Alabama told lawmakers this week in defending the bill.

As for China, the bill establishes a new training program with Taiwan, calls for a plan to speed up deliveries of Harpoon anti-ship missiles to Taiwan and approves a deal allowing Australia access to stealthier nuclear-powered submarines. and capable than conventional ones. powered vessels.

Dozens of House Republicans oppose it because the bill would keep in place a Pentagon rule that allows travel reimbursement when a service member has to leave the state for an abortion or other reproductive care. The Biden administration instituted the new rules after the Supreme Court struck down the national right to abortion and some states limited or banned the procedure.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, had for months blocked the promotion of more than 400 top military leaders over his objections to that policy. He recently abandoned most of his positions except for four-star generals and admirals, but many House Republicans supported his effort and had included a repeal of the reimbursement policy in the House version of the defense bill.

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Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.