The Republican-controlled House passed its version of the annual defense policy bill, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), on Friday. The $895.3 billion bill includes provisions aimed at rolling back diversity protections and restricting service members and their families from accessing abortion and transgender healthcare. The bill passed by a vote of 217 to 199, primarily along partisan lines.
Introduced by Representative Marjorie Taylor-Greene and others, the bill's far-right amendments faced opposition. Among the amendments were measures to prohibit the Defense Department from covering travel expenses for reproductive healthcare and to bar funding for transgender-related healthcare. Representative Matt Rosendale advocated for stopping gender-related healthcare, while Representative Beth Van Duyne focused on restricting reproductive health travel reimbursement.
Democrats, including Representative Mikie Sherrill and Representative Adam Smith, criticized these amendments. Efforts to send the bill back to the Armed Services Committee for reconsideration were defeated.
Additionally, Representative Robert Garcia used posters, including one of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani in drag, to criticize the Republican effort to bar military funding for drag shows. This illustrated the ongoing cultural clash in the House over LGBTQ and gender-related issues within the military.
The bill's passage sets the stage for a potential clash with the Democratic-controlled Senate, which has proposed a $923.3 billion version of the NDAA. The two chambers will need to reconcile their versions in the months ahead.
Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi successfully argued for an increase in defense spending in the Senate's version of the bill, raising it to $923.3 billion. The Senate's amendment process is expected to be less contentious.
This situation mirrors last year's process, where contentious far-right proposals were ultimately stripped from the final reconciled bill.