Patricia Zengler
WASHINGTON, Dec 17 (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to pass a $901 billion bill setting policy for the Pentagon, sending the massive bill to the White House, where it said President Donald Trump would sign it into law.
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026 is a compromise between separate measures passed by the House and Senate earlier this year. It authorizes a record $901 billion in annual military spending and a 4 percent increase in troop pay. It also authorizes reforms to the military equipment procurement system, including efforts to improve competitiveness with major U.S. rivals China and Russia.
The Senate passed the bill 77-20, with strong bipartisan support. Two of the “no” votes came from Republican Sens. Mike Lee and Rand Paul.
“This will be the 65th consecutive year that Congress has worked across party lines and across both chambers to deliver legislation to the president to maintain and strengthen national defense,” said Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The House passed the bill 312-112 last week with broad bipartisan support.
Although Trump earlier this month released a national security strategy seen as friendly to Russia and reassessed U.S. ties with Europe, unlike his fellow Republicans, who hold majorities in both chambers of Congress, this year’s National Defense Authorization Act includes several provisions to strengthen European security.
The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2026 provides Ukraine with $800 million, and $400 million in each of the next two years, as part of a Ukraine security assistance program that pays U.S. companies for weapons for the Ukrainian military.
It also authorizes the Baltic Security Initiative and provides $175 million to support the defense of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. It also limits the Department of Defense’s ability to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Europe below 76,000 and bars the U.S. commander in Europe from giving up his title as NATO’s top commander.
Win-win for both parties
Members of Congress are very proud to have passed the National Defense Authorization Act every year for more than sixty years.
The measure’s record price tag is $8 billion more than Trump requested.
A handful of Republicans and Democrats called for a provision to strengthen military helicopter safety rules this month after a fatal crash involving an Army Black Hawk and an American Airlines jetliner killed 67 people.
The outrage over the issue was not enough to derail the National Defense Authorization Act. Senate leaders have pledged to address the issue in upcoming legislation.
The NDAA also repeals the harsh “Caesar” sanctions imposed on Syria by former leader Bashar al-Assad. The bill also stipulates that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will withhold a large chunk of the travel budget if he does not provide Congress with unedited video of military strikes on ships in the southern Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The Trump administration said the attack targeted Venezuelan drug traffickers.
The Senate vote came a day after Trump ordered a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, his latest move to put pressure on the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
It repealed the 1991 and 2002 authorizations for the use of military force (AUMF) in Iraq and sought to reaffirm Congress’s role in deciding to send troops into the war.
During his first term, Trump said the 2002 AUMF provided the legal basis for the 2020 killing of top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq.
The NDAA does not include funding to rename the Department of Defense to the Department of War, an idea championed by Trump but a change that cannot be formally implemented without congressional approval.
However, it includes some “culture war” efforts popular with right-wing politicians in the United States. A measure would ban transgender women from participating in sports designated for women at U.S. military academies.
Trump also put into law an executive order to end the Pentagon’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengler in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
