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The Pentagon’s annual funding bill is set to become the focus of a political showdown after Republicans inserted “anti-wake” social provisions into the legislation.
The bill — known as the National Defense Authorization Act — is usually shielded from the bitterest partisan bickering, and often passes with the support of both political parties.
But on Friday, House Republicans passed their version of the legislation, worth $886 billion, by adding measures designed to limit abortion rights, diversity training and Medicare for transgender patients in the military.
Democrats will likely fight back by seeking to disqualify the rulings.
Recent tensions suggest that Capitol Hill is about to embark on a new period of brinkmanship, just weeks after the US defaulted on its debt over divisions over budget policy and the need to raise the country’s borrowing limit.
House Majority Leader Steve Scales told reporters that the bill was “an important victory for every American in this country who wants to see our military focus on our enemies abroad — not on the irritability and all the indoctrination you see inside the Pentagon.”
At the same press conference, Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the House, declared: “We don’t want Disneyland to train our army.”
Unless the standoff is quickly resolved, it risks becoming a liability for Washington as it moves forward with efforts to support Ukraine against an all-out Russian invasion and attempts to bolster its presence in the Indo-Pacific region.
The Pentagon is already experiencing a domestic political firestorm as Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville blocks Senate confirmation of senior military officers. Tuberville protests new Department of Defense policies that make it easier to access abortion after the Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to the procedure.
Democrats have reacted angrily to Republican attempts to tie military spending to social policy demands.
“They chose culture war over national security,” Elisa Slutkin, a Michigan Democrat and former Pentagon official, said on the House floor. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries released a statement along with other party leaders accusing Republicans of turning “what should be a salutary investment in our men and women in uniform into an extreme and reckless legislative outing.”
The House bill clashed with a bipartisan defense spending bill that will be considered in the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, next week.
Talks to resolve differences could take several more weeks, potentially approaching the Sept. 30 deadline when funding for all federal agencies, including the Pentagon, expires. Other US federal agencies’ funding bills are also at risk and fears of a large-scale government shutdown in October are growing.
Since striking a deal with President Joe Biden to avoid a debt default in early June, McCarthy has faced a backlash from the right wing of his party, leading him to take a harder line in spending battles this summer.
But defense lobbyists still hail the defense spending legislation passed by the House of Representatives as a step forward toward eventual passage.
“The past year and a half — with a land war raging in Europe and growing threats in the Indo-Pacific region — has made it clear that we must strengthen our country’s national security innovation base to meet defense needs, leveraging our technological prowess,” said Eric Fanning, CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association. , which represents the largest US defense companies “accelerating the pace of acquisition.”
