The House of Representatives has voted on the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 (NDAA). The vote was 329-101.
Members of Congress in both chambers have spent nearly two months working on the legislation and introduced over 1,000 amendments to the package.
The House spent two days this week voting on over 600 individual amendments introduced in their chamber alone.
Illinois Republican Adam Kinzinger introduced an amendment that provides $100 million to “provide training to Ukrainian pilots and ground crews to become familiarized with American aircraft.” A voice vote approved the proposal.
The overall cost of the bill is $839 billion, which is $37 billion more than what the Biden administration had asked Congress to approve.
This bill is a massive omnibus that members realize will pass regardless of what is in it, so they also often work to include measures that are not related to defense spending. As noted by Politico, “other proposals with no connection to defense were wrapped into the bill. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.) won inclusion of his legislation to allow cannabis businesses to access the banking system. A bipartisan proposal from Reps. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.), Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and others were included to eliminate the federal sentencing disparity between drug offenses for powder and crack cocaine.”
In a statement issued earlier this week, the conservative Freedom Caucus urged Republicans to vote against the legislation. Despite their efforts, 149 Republicans joined 180 Democrats in voting for the final bill in the House.
OFFICIAL POSITION: House Freedom Caucus urges all Republicans to stand with our Service Members in the fight to protect our military and its readiness by opposing the FY23 NDAA.
Full statement ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/SGt9iE0Oh0
— House Freedom Caucus (@freedomcaucus) July 13, 2022
Virginia Congressman Bob Good shared what he considered to be several of the most egregious parts of the bill in a series of tweets.
No Republican should vote to give the Biden Admin $850 billion for an NDAA that treats our military as a social experiment, with a focus on gender identity, forcing CRT ideology on our troops, and implementing more radical diversity, equity & inclusion policies.
— Congressman Bob Good (@RepBobGood) July 14, 2022
Texas Congressman Chip Roy was another vocal opponent of the legislative package.
"I refuse to vote to authorize $850 billion — $82 billion more than last year’s NDAA when our country is $30 trillion in debt — for the Pentagon to brainwash our troops with anti-American ideology and pursue fantasy 'green' energy programs.
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— Rep. Chip Roy Press Office (@RepChipRoy) July 14, 2022
This article originally appeared in American Liberty News. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of The Republican Standard. Republished with permission.