House passes Pentagon funding and limits on stock trades in a last dash before recess
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks at a news conference at the U.S. Capitol Building on Tuesday. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images hide caption
House Republicans passed $1.1 trillion in funding for the military on Wednesday, in a final flurry of activity before leaving Washington for a more than month-long recess.
The funding, an annual military policy bill called the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, passed by a vote of 216 to 212, with six Democrats joining Republicans to support the bill. It now heads to the Senate, where it faces an uncertain path forward.
The bill — typically advanced with broad bipartisan majorities — has become a largely party-line effort this year. Republicans call the bill "a generational investment in America's national defense" that "builds the fighting force of the future by prioritizing innovation, lethality, and readiness."
Democrats, even reliable military advocates, disagree.
"The problem with this year's defense authorization bill is that it comes with the inclusion of $1.15 trillion in discretionary spending," Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state, the top Democrat on the House Armed Service Committee, said in a statement. "I cannot and do not support meeting these needs by making massive cuts to critically important domestic programs and slashing taxes."
Republicans in the Senate will need support for the bill from Democrats in order to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to pass most legislation through the chamber. Last week, Senate Democrats blocked a version of the bill from coming up for a vote, demanding concessions that curb President Trump's war effort in Iran.
The NDAA debate comes at a contentious time for the Pentagon. Any progress toward a resolution to the U.S.-Iran war has crumbled as the two sides continue to trade attacks. Meanwhile, the war has already cost taxpayers $37.5 billion, according to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
In recent days, at least four U.S. service members have been killed, bringing the nation's death toll from the conflict to 18. Nearly 500 service members have been injured. The average price for a gallon of gas is back above four dollars a gallon in the United States, according to AAA.
Separately on Wednesday, House Republicans advanced a $95 billion budget blueprint. The framework, which still needs to pass the Senate, outlines more than $70 billion for the Iran war, $12 billion in assistance for farmers and money to implement provisions of the SAVE America Act, President Trump's signature election overhaul bill.
The vote was 216 to 214. GOP fiscal hardliners were frustrated that none of the spending called for by the bill would be paid for by spending reductions elsewhere. Other lawmakers were concerned about appropriating more funds for a war effort that seems to be rapidly escalating and remains unpopular with the American public.
Ultimately, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., was able to convince enough members to set aside their concerns in order to advance the framework legislation. They used a parliamentary procedure known as reconciliation, which means the package is not subject to the Senate's typical 60-vote margin and could, in theory, be passed on a party line vote.
The timeline for Senate action on the reconciliation framework is an open question.
On Tuesday, Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he wanted to prioritize negotiations to extend funding for the government beyond the midterm elections. Government funding is currently set to lapse at the end of September. Thune said he would try to negotiate a deal with Democrats, but if he can't reach a deal he would consider revamping the budget framework bill to extend government funding on a strictly party-line basis.
The House passed its own bill to extend government funding through December on Tuesday, but Thune said the plan doesn't include several funding requests sought by the White House.
By a vote of 232 to 198, the House also advanced a bill that would ban lawmakers from acquiring new individual stocks while in office. They would still be able to retain stocks they already own, reinvest stock dividend payments and sell stocks with disclosure.
The measure, dubbed the Stop Insider Trading Act, has been roundly opposed by non-partisan good government advocacy groups, who said in a letter to Congress that the bill does not ban members of Congress from owning stock or making decisions that would affect the value of the stocks they hold, prevent members from profiting off stock trades or from profiting off ownership or trades of other asset classes.
All but 13 Democrats opposed the measures, citing what they describe as major loopholes and concerns about an unrelated voter ID provision that was attached to the package.