By Thérèse Boudreaux | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – U.S. House members advanced the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, the must-pass annual Pentagon funding bill, in a 312-112 vote Wednesday.
The roughly $901 billion compromise legislation, which now heads to the Senate, is $8 billion more than the White House requested, but $24 billion less than the Senate’s version of the bill.
“This is a strong bipartisan bill that delivers for our warfighters and deters our adversaries,” House Armed Services Committee Chair Mike Rogers, R-Ala., told lawmakers. “It will build the ready, capable, and lethal fighting force we need to deter China and our other adversaries. And it will deliver on President Trump’s Peace Through Strength Agenda.”
Among other provisions, the mammoth NDAA authorizes $38 billion for aircraft, $34 billion for nuclear defense, $26 billion for shipbuilding, $25 billion for munitions and $900 million to combat drug trafficking.
A significant portion, $142 billion, goes toward research and development of new military technologies, including biotechnology, hypersonic weapons and artificial intelligence.
Military members also receive a 3.8% pay raise, and $1.4 billion is set aside for the construction of barracks and family housing. Hundreds of millions are allocated for new childcare centers and schools, and $577 million will go toward renovating military hospitals and building new medical facilities.
Both sides of the aisle made compromises in the bill. Republican leadership allowed for $800 million in assistance to go to Ukraine over the next two years, repealed the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force for Iraq, and agreed to a provision limiting funding to the Secretary of Defense until he releases unedited footage of the strikes on Venezuelan drug boats.
Democratic leadership swallowed a $1.6 billion cut to climate change-related spending, an expansion of the Trump administration’s ability to enforce immigration laws via military force, and a directive to intelligence agencies to review – and if possible, declassify – intelligence about the origins of the COVID-19 virus.
But the bipartisan nature of the bill also meant some lawmakers on both sides opposed the bill
Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, voted no because it failed to include a ban on Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), which he and other Republicans worry will give the federal government too much power over the spending and finances of Americans.
“Conservatives were promised – explicitly – that strong anti-Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) language would be included in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). That promise was broken,” Self posted on X. “Leaving out protections for the financial privacy of Americans is unacceptable.”
Many Democrats also voted against the bill, arguing that it does not include enough checks on the Trump administration.
Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., said she appreciates “my Democratic colleagues’ work over the past few months to strip the original House version of some of its most egregious Republican poison pills,” but said she could not support the bill due to lingering concerns.
“I am certainly not signing off on a blank check to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to continue putting our national security and servicemembers at risk,” she added.