Congress passed a US defense policy bill on Thursday that authorizes the biggest pay rise for troops in more than two decades, while leaving behind many of the policy priorities that social conservatives were clamoring for.
Lawmakers have been negotiating a final bill for months. Some of the priorities championed by social conservatives were a no-go for Democrats, so negotiators dropped them from the final product to get it over the finish line.
The bill passed the House on Thursday by 310 to 118, with 73 Republicans and 45 Democrats opposing it. It passed the Senate a day earlier, by a vote of 87-13. House opponents were more vocal about their concerns than in the Senate. It now goes to the president, Joe Biden, to be signed into law.
Most notably, the bill does not include language blocking the Pentagon’s abortion travel policy and restricting gender-affirming healthcare for transgender service members and dependents.
Republicans prevailed, however, in winning some concessions on diversity and inclusion training in the military. For example, the bill freezes hiring for such training until a full accounting of the programming and costs is completed and reported to Congress.
The bill sets key Pentagon policy that lawmakers will attempt to fund through a follow-up appropriations bill. Lawmakers were keen to emphasize how the bill calls for a 5.2% boost in service member pay, the biggest increase in more than 20 years.
The bill authorizes $886bn for national defense programs for the current fiscal year that began 1 October, about 3% more than the prior year.
The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said the bill would ensure “America’s military remains state of the art at all times all around the world”.
The bill also includes a short-term extension of a surveillance program aimed at preventing terrorism and catching spies. But the program has detractors on both sides of the political aisle who view it as a threat to the privacy of ordinary Americans.
The extension continues a program that permits the US government to collect without a warrant the communications of non-Americans located outside the country to gather foreign intelligence.
US officials have said the tool, first authorized in 2008 and renewed several times since then, is crucial in disrupting terror attacks, cyber intrusions and other national security threats. It has produced vital intelligence that the US has relied on for specific operations, such as the killing last year of the al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
But the administration’s efforts to secure reauthorization of the program have encountered strong bipartisan pushback. Democrats such as the senator Ron Wyden, who has long championed civil liberties, have aligned with Republican supporters of the former president Donald Trump to demand better privacy protections for Americans and have proposed a slew of competing bills.
The White House called for swift passage of the defense bill, saying it “provides the critical authorities we need to build the military required to deter future conflicts while supporting the servicemembers and their spouses and families who carry out that mission every day”.
On Ukraine, the bill includes the creation of a special inspector general for Ukraine to address concerns about whether taxpayer dollars are being spent in Ukraine as intended. That is on top of oversight work already being conducted by other agency watchdogs.
On China, the bill establishes a new training program with Taiwan, requires a plan to accelerate deliveries of Harpoon anti-ship missiles to Taiwan, and approves an agreement that enables Australia to access nuclear-powered submarines, which are stealthier and more capable than conventionally powered vessels.
Dozens of House Republicans balked because the bill would keep in place a Pentagon rule that allows for travel reimbursement when a service member has to go out of state to get an abortion or other reproductive care. The Biden administration instituted the new rules after the supreme court overturned the nationwide right to an abortion, and some states have limited or banned the procedure.
Tommy Tuberville, a Republican senator, had for months blocked the promotion of more than 400 senior military leaders over his objections to the policy.
