The U.S. Capitol in Washington in June 2023. (Carlos Bongioanni/Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — House Republicans narrowly pushed through a defense spending bill on Friday that provides a significant pay raise for troops while also undoing social policies conservatives deemed a distraction from the Pentagon’s warfighting mission.
The 217-198 vote was split along party lines, with Democrats refusing to support provisions in the legislation that roll back travel reimbursement for service members who are stationed in states with abortion restrictions, ban funding for gender-affirming care and gut diversity initiatives.
“This bill contains a laundry list of partisan proposals that divide Americans,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.
Republicans dismissed the cut programs as wasteful spending that took attention and resources away from readying the military for an increasingly aggressive China and other growing threats around the world.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, argued the Defense Department has been turned into a “woke social engineering experiment that is more concerned about transgender surgeries and pushing a radical agenda than ensuring that we have the military that is necessary to defend the United States of America.”
“There is no wonder that recruiting levels are down,” he added.
The bill provides $833 billion for the Pentagon to innovate and modernize and gives all troops a 4.5% pay raise as well as an additional 15% pay raise for junior enlisted service members. It also contains $18 billion in cuts to the White House’s requested defense budget, including $612 million from climate resiliency efforts and $53 million from diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
It also notably excludes money for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, a decade-old training and weapons procurement program that receives funding from Congress every year.
Democrats lined up in opposition to the bill at every step of the legislative process. Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, accused Republicans of pandering to their extreme right base and warned the legislation as written would never become law.
“Enough already. Stop with the culture-war nonsense,” he said. “I don’t know what’s wrong with you people, but all you seem to care about is attacking women’s reproductive freedom and women’s reproductive rights and beating up on the LGBTQ+ community. It is offensive. It is sick.”
House Republicans muscled through a similarly divisive spending bill last year for fiscal 2024 but all partisan social riders were stripped out during negotiations with the Democrat-led Senate.
The Senate has yet to release its fiscal 2025 spending bill for the Defense Department.
The House Rules Committee this week refused to grant a floor vote on several contentious amendments, including a proposal by Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., to defund IVF fertility treatments for troops. Lawmakers also voted down a proposal by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to reduce Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s salary to $1.
The White House warned this week that President Joe Biden would veto the bill over provisions that infringed on abortion access and other rights, arguing they would have “devastating consequences” for the readiness of the military and the wellbeing of military families if passed.
Rep. Ken Calvert of California, the Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee’s defense subpanel, said the bill prioritized supporting service members and equipping them for training and warfare, not culture wars.
He touted investments in major weapons systems and America’s defense industrial base as well as ramped up efforts to combat the flow of fentanyl and other illegal drugs into the country.
The bill also contains a provision that would move Mexico from Northern Command’s area of responsibility to Southern Command for “improved coordination and prioritization.”
“This bill procures where we can, trains where we must, and invests in capabilities that will make our adversaries wake up every day and say, ‘Today is not the day to provoke the United States of America,’” Calvert said.
