WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday evening passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026, authorizing 901 billion U.S. dollars in War Department spending, 8 billion dollars above President Donald Trump's request.
The 3,000-plus-page bill, passed by a vote of 312 to 112, is now heading to the Senate for approval.
Eighteen Republicans and 94 Democrats voted "no" in the final voting.
The legislation was aimed at "codifying 15 of President (Donald) Trump's executive orders, ending woke ideology at the Pentagon, securing the border, revitalizing the defense industrial base, and restoring the warrior ethos," House Speaker Mike Johnson said before the vote.
Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House armed services panel, lamented that the bill does not do as much as Democrats would like to rein in the Trump administration.
"The biggest concern I have is that the Pentagon, being run by Secretary (Pete) Hegseth and by President Trump, is simply not accountable to Congress or accountable to the law," said Smith.
The bill highlights a nearly 4 percent military pay raise, an overhaul aimed at speeding up Pentagon arms purchases, a plan to develop the Golden Dome missile defense system, and measures to promote military readiness.
Under the bill, the Trump administration allots 400 million dollars annually for two years to produce weapons for Ukraine and puts limits on reducing U.S. troop levels in Europe and South Korea without allied consultations.
The measure eliminates Pentagon DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) offices, cuts 1.6 billion dollars in climate-related spending, repeals the 1991 and 2002 Iraq War authorizations and permanently lifts U.S. sanctions on Syria.
The primary post-9/11 counterterrorism authority, the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, remains untouched.
The bill stipulates that a quarter of Hegseth's travel budget will be withheld until the Pentagon provides Congress with unedited footage of the strikes targeting alleged drug boats near Venezuela.
According to U.S. media reports, during a Sept. 2 operation, the military carried out a follow-up strike on the vessel after spotting two survivors holding on to a partially destroyed boat, killing both.
The bill also includes a non-defense provision that would mandate the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to disclose when the agency is investigating presidential candidates and other politicians running for federal office.
Democrats faulted the bill for removing expanded coverage of in vitro fertilization for active duty troops, while some hardline Republicans said they were frustrated that the bill did not go further in scaling back U.S. commitments overseas. They also lamented the exclusion of a provision to bar the Federal Reserve from creating a central bank digital currency.
The legislation is expected to pass the Senate next week with bipartisan support, as House and Senate leaders have already combined their own versions of the bill into one negotiated package, local media reported.
The White House has voiced strong support for the bill, said the reports. ■
