After a long period of negotiations, the U.S. Senate passed a vital defense bill that boosts overall military spending to $895 billion dollars. The bill, called the National Defense Authorization Act, passed 85-14.
Among its provisions the bill includes a large pay raise, 14.5%, for junior enlisted service members, but what is getting noticed is the provisions that were cut from the bill before passage.
Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center of Military Readiness, says the final bill is good overall.
“They didn't get everything – you never do – but they dumped the 'Draft our Daughters,' which was really important,” she tells AFN.
A military draft would come from the Selective Service System, which maintains a registry of male U.S. citizens for mobilization during war. A provision inserted by Democrats required registration by all citizens, which includes women, but it was stripped out thanks to a push by Senate Republicans.
Getting rid of that provision was a “big deal,” says Donnelly, whose organization has studied the issue of women and military service, and how it affects military readiness, for years.
Donnelly says she was also pleased that the defense bill stripped coverage of transgender manipulation procedures for the children of military members.
“Although there was another couple of measures that would have dealt with transgender treatments for adults, those two did not get in,” she advises. “But the one about the children did, and the LGBT left is pretty upset about it. It just shows you where their values are.”
According to a related Fox News story, 21 Democrat senators joined together to demand the NDAA keep the “transgender care” provision. Their amendment was not included because it would have sent the entire bill back to the House after months of negotiations, the story said.
“They want the right for DOD to subsidize kids having some reversible surgeries, body parts removed, and the whole thing,” Donnelly said of that demand. “It's just reprehensible what they are standing for.”
During negotiations, Republicans lost their pro-life provision that would have stopped the Pentagon from reimbursing service members who travel to get an abortion, according to the Fox story.
The bill also extends a hiring freeze on DEI-related jobs until an investigation of the Pentagon’s DEI programs can be completed, the Fox story said.
When the final vote came, 16 Republicans voted “no” and 124 Democrats voted “no.”
Overall, in the now-passed version, Donnelly says, the NDAA represented a “big victory” for conservatives.
