Several House Republicans are sounding the alarm over recent negotiations on the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), saying the chamber’s GOP leadership has capitulated on military abortion-related travel and an extension of a warrantless surveillance program.
The reversal on the Pentagon’s abortion travel policy comes after Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) stalled military confirmations for months in hopes of pressuring a reversal on the policy. The Alabama senator had endured criticism from Democrats that he was undermining national security, and several of his Republican colleagues had advised taking a different approach to reverse the abortion travel policy.
The new NDAA terms came a day after Mr. Tuberville relaxed his hold over the military confirmation process, letting go of much of his leverage in the abortion policy standoff.
The latest NDAA conference report indicates that House and Senate negotiators have also agreed to extend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in its current form until April 19. Section 702 of FISA allows for warrantless surveillance of the communications of non-U.S. citizens outside the country, but U.S. citizens who are often incidentally swept up in the process can be de-anonymized, creating a backdoor means of warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens. House Republicans had recommended expanding oversight of the FISA process and imposing criminal liability when the process is abused.
The latest NDAA terms have frustrated several Republicans, and some have directed their anger at recently selected House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
Ms. Greene said that much of the latest terms were reached in secret, with little input from her and other conferees assigned to the deliberations.
“This was a total sell-out of conservative principles and a huge win for Democrats,” she added.
Ms. Greene described her vote as “a HELL NO!” on the latest version of the bill.
“I will not support an NDAA that doesn’t deliver on key conservative wins included in the House-passed version such as defunding [President Joe] Biden’s radical abortion tourism fund, removing divisive [critical race theory] policies and [diversity, equity, and inclusion] offices, stopping transgender surgeries, or ending Biden’s radical climate change executive orders at the Pentagon,” Mr. Roy said in an emailed statement to NTD News on Dec. 7.
Mr. Roy also criticized Mr. Johnson in comments to The Messenger, questioning why they “went through the motions” of demanding various conservative provisions in the NDAA if the new House speaker “was going to just sell it out at the first possible moment.”Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.), another designated conferee on NDAA negotiations, told The Messenger that he wasn’t notified of these latest changes to the defense bill and expressed disappointment that the conference had dropped the restrictions on DOD funding for abortion-related travel and gender transition treatments. Mr. Collins said he was unsure to what degree Mr. Johnson warranted blame for the latest negotiations.
“Everything that I’ve seen Speaker Johnson doing so far, I’m pleased with,” Mr. Collins told The Messenger. “I don’t know how this is going to come out. We'll just have to see.”
Mr. Johnson’s office didn’t respond by press time to a request by NTD News for comment on the latest NDAA terms.
While the new NDAA terms retreat from conservative objectives on abortion-related travel, transgender surgeries, and FISA, the report does preserve a few prior conservative measures from the July House NDAA. The new NDAA terms still bar federal funds authorized under the current NDAA from being used to endorse critical race theory and freeze new hiring for diversity, equity, and inclusion positions within the DOD.
