The House and Senate Armed Services Committees released a compromise version of the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on Dec. 7, attempting to reconcile their differing plans for military projects and policies in the new year.
At more than 1,800 pages, the compromise bill authorizes up to $895.2 billion in discretionary spending, with another $26.5 billion in mandatory program spending.
Much of the new NDAA draft covers funding for existing military programs, like developing and procuring new ships, aircraft, and weapons.
Lawmakers are also continuing to gear the military toward a potential future war with China.
The new draft includes $15.6 billion for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, to bolster U.S. force capabilities in the Indo-Pacific region. It also provides funding for seven new warships and fully funds the Columbia-class submarine and B-21 Raider stealth bomber programs.
On the home front, the compromise NDAA calls for a 4.5 percent pay raise for all U.S. military personnel, and a 14.5 percent pay boost for junior enlisted personnel. The bill includes other measures focused on troop quality of life, including cost of living and basic needs allowance increases, an expansion of a spousal employment support program, and increased funding for childcare programs.
As in previous years, this year’s NDAA process has become a battleground for a number of culture war items dividing Americans.
The compromise bill cuts many of the culture war riders attached to the House version of the bill, but does freeze hiring for positions in diversity, equity, and inclusion programs within the military. It also bars the military’s Tricare healthcare program from covering gender-transitioning services for children under 18.
The Republican-led House Armed Services Committee said the culture war riders that made it into the compromise bill build on efforts in last year’s NDAA “to end the radical woke ideology being forced” on U.S. service members.
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, has called on House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), to retract this Tricare provision.
“Blanketly denying health care to people who clearly need it, just because of a biased notion against transgender people, is wrong,” Smith said on Dec. 8.
—Ryan Morgan
BOOKMARKS
26-year-old Luigi Mangione was charged with murder over last week’s killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan.
Sens. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) have introduced a constitutional amendment that would limit terms for incoming U.S. Supreme Court Justices to 18 years. The amendment may be difficult to push through, as it requires a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is seeking a workaround to bypass that city’s sanctuary law, which partially hinders deportation of illegal immigrants. Adams says he seeks to deport criminals, especially of Venezuelan gangs, and “not the overwhelming number of migrants and asylum seekers.”
Representatives from social media platform X met with lawmakers on Dec. 9 to negotiate a revision of the Kids Online Safety Act, adding a clause that it “would not censor, limit, or remove any content from the internet.” The bill passed the Senate in July, but has been stuck in the House over fears that it would be used to censor conservative content on the web.
A North Macedonian political party is calling for a ban on social media outlet TikTok, after at least 17 students were injured by attempting to replicate a “challenge” popularized on the app. The “Superman challenge” had students jump onto the waiting arms of friends to be propelled backwards onto their feet—or miss and land on the floor.
Daniel Penny has been acquitted of the criminally negligent homicide of Jordan Neely, a homeless man Penny placed in a chokehold after he threatened passengers on a NYC subway train. The acquittal comes after Judge Maxwell Wiley on Dec. 6 dismissed a second-degree manslaughter charge against Penny, because jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict on that charge.
—Stacy Robinson
