The Senate Armed Services Committee approved its version of the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act Thursday after adding more than $44 billion to the Biden administration’s request, sending the annual defense policy bill to the full Senate for consideration.
The bill would authorize $817.3 billion for the Defense Department. It also would authorize $29.7 billion for defense-related programs at other agencies and endorse another $10.6 billion in other congressional committees’ national security authorizations. The tally for the Pentagon is 5.7 percent more than the amount requested by President Joe Biden, and 5.4 percent more than Biden said he wanted for national security programs overall.
The proposed increases, which congressional appropriators would have to back before they become law, would amount to a roughly 10 percent boost for the Defense Department and other national security programs over the fiscal 2022 enacted level, not counting supplemental aid for the Ukraine war effort.
