Must-pass defense bill ensnared in culture wars
The House of Representatives passed its version of the National Defense Authorization Act on Friday, authorizing $886 billion for the Department of Defense. House members voted pretty much along party lines for the must-pass bill, which explains the partisan morass national defense is about to fall into.
The NDAA is always a big bill with hundreds of amendments and some tough negotiations over top-line numbers, balancing defense and nondefense spending.
“And then there are controversies over different weapons systems, over what which members, districts are going to get contracts or not,” said Matthew Kroenig, who runs the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. “But this year is a little bit unusual.”
Sure, there are things in the bill like a 5.2% raise for service members and Pentagon employees.
But also, “there is more debating over these controversial social issues and whether Congress will allocate funding to the Pentagon for things like diversity and diversity training, travel for abortion, and things like that,” Kroenig said.
These amendments focused on hot-button cultural issues are likely a poison pill that will tank the bill in the Senate.
“It’s going to open up a long series of deliberations and negotiations that have the potential to really delay this process,” said Kyleanne Hunter, a senior political scientist at the Rand Corp.
Ideally, this is supposed to be done by October.
But if it’s not, “there won’t be any new innovation, there won’t be any new advancement. We are in a holding pattern for acquiring new gear and technologies that could be essential to our national security,” Hunter said.
And, Hunter said, this messy process sends a bad message to our allies and people who might be considering serving in the military.
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