US senators tee up fight in Congress over Pentagon budget

WASHINGTON – Senators green-lit their version of the annual US defence budget hours ahead of the summer recess on Thursday night – setting up a showdown in the fall with House Republicans, who passed a much more contentious version.

The National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA)

approves US$886 billion (S$1.2 trillion) President Joe Biden requested

for 2024 military programmes, giving troops a 5.2 per cent pay hike and providing US$300 million for Ukraine’s defence.

“This forward-looking defence Bill will go a long way towards keeping the American people safe, deterring conflict and confronting the national security threats we face,” Armed Services Committee chairman Jack Reed said.

The package passed by 86 votes to 11, comfortably crossing the 60-vote threshold as Republicans joined the Democrats who control the upper chamber to back the legislation.

But the vote tees up a clash with the Republican-led House of Representatives, which passed its own version two weeks ago, adding a raft of hardline “culture war” measures to the legislation.

Almost every House Democrat opposed the normally uncontroversial legislation, which would roll back military diversity programmes and end funding for transgender medical care and personnel travelling out of state for abortions.

“What’s happening in the Senate is a stark contrast to a bipartisan race to the bottom we saw in the House where House Republicans are pushing partisan legislation that has zero chance of passing,” Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said ahead of the vote.

The House and the Senate will have to reconcile their very different packages to come to a compromise that can win the approval of both chambers when Congress returns from its summer recess in September.

“Although I would have preferred a topline defence spending number that better reflects the most dangerous threat environment that the United States has faced since World War II, I appreciate the hard work that the Senate has put into this year’s NDAA,” said Mr Roger Wicker, Mr Reed’s Republican counterpart.

“The Bill we have delivered takes care of our troops with a substantial pay raise and reforms that will improve quality of life for our servicemen and women.” AFP