Senate Passes Defense Policy Bill, Clearing It for Trump

The legislation authorizes $900 billion for the Pentagon, provides a pay raise for troops, and has some measures to reassert congressional oversight.

The Senate on Wednesday gave final approval to a $900 billion defense policy bill, clearing legislation that advances the bulk of President Trump’s national security agenda and modernizes the way the U.S. military buys weapons and supplies, while also seeking to reassert congressional oversight of military operations.

The 77-to-20 vote reflected bipartisan support in Congress to continue to spend robustly on defense, including on new submarines, fighter jets and drone technology. The bill also includes a pay raise of 3.8 percent for military personnel.

While the Trump administration has made steep cuts to the federal government over the past year, the price tag on the bill was $8 billion above what the White House had requested for the Pentagon for the next year. Still, Mr. Trump is expected to sign the bill into law in the coming days.

The measure puts bipartisan pressure on the Pentagon to be more transparent with Congress about the boat strikes the Trump administration has carried out in international waters; officials have said, without offering public evidence, they are targeting people trafficking narcotics to the United States. The legislative provision would mandate the release of the specific orders behind the strikes and unedited videos of the attacks to lawmakers, and withhold 25 percent of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget if the administration does not comply.

The bill would also block the Trump administration from withdrawing U.S. troops from Europe, after a recent decision to reduce the Pentagon’s footprint in Germany, Romania and Poland drew ire from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Specifically, the bill prohibits Mr. Hegseth from reducing the number of troops “permanently stationed in or deployed” to Europe below 76,000 for longer than 45 days, unless the Pentagon first consults NATO allies and certifies to Congress that such a drawdown would not put U.S. national security at risk.

The legislation also overcame resistance from hard-right Republicans, who have long criticized funding the defense of foreign allies, and authorizes another $800 million in military aid for Ukraine, as well as millions more for Israel, Taiwan, Iraq and other allies.

The bill does not rename the Department of Defense the Department of War, the preferred moniker of the Trump administration.

Republicans in Congress included several changes, however, aimed at reversing Biden-era policies at the Pentagon, including a ban on diversity, equity and inclusion programs and funding cuts for climate-related programs. An attempt by House Republicans to bar the Defense Department from covering gender-transition surgeries for troops did not ultimately make it into the measure.

Also removed in final negotiations was a provision that would have covered in vitro fertilization treatments for service members struggling with infertility. Democrats had hoped Mr. Trump’s campaign promise to make I.V.F. more accessible would draw Republican backing for the change, but conservatives led by Speaker Mike Johnson killed it for the second year in a row.

Senator Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois and a veteran who relied on I.V.F. to conceive, sponsored the proposal and harshly criticized its omission from the final bill.

“Republicans repeatedly make promises to the public that they support I.V.F., but their extreme actions tell a different story from their lip service during election years,” she said in a statement.

Leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees said the legislation contained the largest overhaul of military acquisition in decades. It aims to streamline the delivery of weapons and supplies to troops, in part by reducing regulations on military purchasing.

Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that the acquisition changes “will help speed the development and fielding of new systems and technology to our forces on the front lines.”

“We’re about to pass, and the president will enthusiastically sign the most sweeping upgrades to D.O.D.’s business practices in 60 years,” Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said on Wednesday. “This is a monumental achievement.”

The bill repeals authorizations for the use of military force that date back to the Iraq and Persian Gulf wars. Democrats and Republicans have called for years to end the 2002 and 1991 authorizations, frustrated by presidents of both parties relying on them to greenlight all manner of military operations since.

It also ends sweeping sanctions on Syria. Since the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad, lawmakers in both parties have supported lifting the sanctions to promote Syria’s economic recovery from more than a decade of civil war.

A much-criticized section of the final measure permits military aircraft to fly in the airspace around Ronald Reagan National Airport outside Washington with their enhanced tracking software turned off during national security missions, or if the Pentagon determines the flight does not pose a risk to commercial planes.

Senators Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, and Maria Cantwell, Democrat of Washington, sought to strike the provision, warning that allowing military aircraft to fly undetected creates dangerous conditions that led to the midair collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and a commercial jet in January.

Robert Jimison and Karoun Demirjian contributed reporting.

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