Congress has just one month to act on a self-imposed deadline to pass an annual bill to outline military spending, even as the incentives have grown since Election Day for both parties to punt into the new year when Republicans will have control of all three branches of government. (Carlos Bongioanni/Stars and Stripes)
Congress has just one month to act on a self-imposed deadline to pass an annual bill to outline military spending, even as the incentives have grown since Election Day for both parties to punt into the new year when Republicans will have control of all three branches of government.
The Fiscal Year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, which outlines defense priorities for spending should have been passed by the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1. Congress has given itself until Dec. 20 to pass the bill or vote on another “continuing resolution” to keep the Pentagon funded at last year’s levels.
Democrats would like to hold a vote while they still control the Senate. Republicans could wait until they have the majority in both the Senate and the House starting in January, said Raphael Cohen, director of the Strategy and Doctrine Program at RAND Project AIR FORCE.
“It’s frankly killing the Pentagon,” Cohen said Tuesday of the delay in approving the NDAA
He said delaying the legislation is “bad for the country for a host of reasons.”
A continuing resolution halts any spending on new programs and keeps existing programs operating at spending levels it may have outgrown.
“In an era where warfare is changing pretty dramatically, seeing the battlefield results of Ukraine or the Middle East, that’s a real problem,” Cohen said. “It also means that money doesn’t get spent as efficiently because the dollars run out. So you have to do surge in the last half of the year.”
The National Governors Association is also watching the authorization bill closely because governors have fought to include a measure they believe will protect states’ control over National Guard troops.
The Department of the Air Force has proposed moving 14 Air National Guard units from six states into the Space Force, which will eventually offer part-time service. The move involves roughly 600 troops, according to the Air Force.
Governors were immediately up in arms about the proposal earlier this year because they fear loss of control but negotiated the move as a one-time transfer.
The temporary fix allows governors to maintains the ability to nix any transfers and makes moving of units optional. The effort received bipartisan support from every state governor and more than 100 members of Congress.
