U.S. House passes bill boosting Biden’s record defense budget
By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Home of Representatives handed a invoice on Thursday paving the best way for the protection funds to exceed $800 billion subsequent 12 months, authorizing $37 billion in spending on prime of the document $773 billion proposed by President Joe Biden.
The Home handed its model of the Nationwide Protection Authorization Act, or NDAA, which units coverage for the Pentagon, by a vote of 329-101. The Senate has but to go its model, however the Senate Armed Companies Committee has already backed a good bigger enhance, $45 billion, over Biden’s proposal.
The 2 chambers will determine the last word degree after they meet in convention at a future date. Their compromise invoice would come up for a vote in each chambers later within the 12 months.
The NDAA, one of many solely main items of laws Congress passes yearly, is intently watched by a broad swath of trade and different pursuits as a result of it determines every little thing from purchases of ships and plane to pay will increase for troopers and find out how to handle geopolitical threats.
For instance, this 12 months’s Home invoice rebuked Biden’s coverage on Turkey. Lawmakers accepted an modification that might prohibit Biden’s means to promote F-16 fighter jets to the NATO ally.
Lawmakers additionally accepted provisions to repeal the 2002 Iraq Battle authorization and lift the troops’ pay by 4.6%. It will additionally put into regulation Biden’s govt order elevating the minimal wage for federal contractors to $15 per hour.
The invoice confronted opposition from lawmakers who objected to rising Pentagon spending.
“On the entire, the Nationwide Protection Authorization Act exemplifies the fundamental incontrovertible fact that we spend far an excessive amount of on military-first options and much too little on diplomacy and on human wants at dwelling and across the globe,” stated Democratic Consultant Andy Levin, a pacesetter of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who voted no.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Enhancing by Leslie Adler)
