The House on Thursday began debating its $833.1 billion fiscal year 2025 defense spending bill, voting down measures that would have blocked further aid for Ukraine and removed the requirement for the Pentagon to submit unfunded priorities lists.
Ahead of floor consideration, House Democrats reiterated their opposition to the bill over the Republican majority’s decision to include “extreme policy riders.”
“It is a bill unfortunately detached from reality,” Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), a member of the Rules Committee, said on Wednesday. “And, of course, the elephant in the room, what we all know to be true, it has no chance of becoming law.”
The House’s FY ‘25 defense spending bill, advanced out of the Appropriations Committee along party lines on June 13, adheres to the one percent spending cap set by last year’s Fiscal Responsibility Act (Defense Daily, June 13).
The bill funds $294.3 billion for operations and maintenance, a $2 billion cut to the budget request, $165.3 billion for procurement, $1.4 billion below the request, and $145.9 billion for research and development, an increase of $2.7 billion from the budget submission.
“This bill focuses the department on its warfighting mission. The bill includes multiple general provisions from the House’s fiscal year 2024 [defense appropriations] bill that pivot the Pentagon away from divisive partisan policies and toward military readiness,” Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), chair of the HAC Defense Subcommittee, said on Thursday to open floor debate. “I am proud of this year’s defense appropriations bill which adheres to the Fiscal [Responsibility Act’s] constraints while providing a strong military to defend America, our allies and our partners.”
Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), the HAC-D ranking member, reiterated her “deep concern” with the bill on Thursday, noting her opposition to the inclusion of GOP-proposed measures that restrict access to reproductive health care for service members, block funds for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and the defunding of climate change-related programs at DoD.
“Once again, the [Republican] majority has included riders that they know will not become law. This will only serve to repeat the process that nearly ended in a full-year continuing resolution,” McCollum said on Thursday.
The White House on Monday said President Biden would veto the House Appropriations Committee’s (HAC) defense spending bill over objections to the bill’s divisive GOP-proposed policy provisions and its cut to the shipbuilding request (Defense Daily, June 24).
The House on Thursday voted down an amendment to the defense appropriations bill from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) that would have prohibited further funding for assistance to Ukraine.
“Ukraine is recruiting an untold number of their men in Ukraine to fight in this war that they cannot win. And anyone that says Ukraine can win is being completely dishonest,” Greene said. “How much longer will the United States provoke Russia before we fall into World War III or have American boots on the ground in Ukraine, which the American people do not support.”
Ultimately, lawmakers voted 76 to 335 against the measure, with Republicans casting all votes in favor.
“We’re donating tanks, air defense systems, artillery, vehicles, rockets and infantry fighting vehicles, and the list does go on. Let us not abandon our EU and NATO allies now. Let us not abandon Ukraine,” McCollum said, calling Greene’s amendment “morally wrong.”
Lawmakers also voted 161-251 to block a bipartisan amendment led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) that would have prohibited the use of funds for DoD to carry out its requirement to submit annual unfunded priorities lists.
Jayapal noted the practice has been mandatory since passage of the fiscal year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), with this year’s lists totaling $27.5 billion across the services and combatant commands.
“By definition, anything that’s in an unfunded priorities list has already been determined to be extraneous by the president, the secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Jayapal said. “This practice…does not serve the national security interests of the United States or the interest of our taxpayers. These wish lists are packed with billions of dollars of excessive line items.”
Calvert pushed back on the amendment, which was co-sponsored by Republican Reps. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) and Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), calling the lists an opportunity for military leaders to have a “direct channel with Congress” that allows lawmakers to “make more informed decisions.”
“Unfunded priorities lists are an important tool to provide Congress with unfiltered information on what our military services and combatant commanders need,” Calvert said.
The unsuccessful measure received the support of 161 Democrats and 32 Republicans.
The House did vote 210-201 to adopt a Republican-proposed measure that cuts another $4.91 million from the defense-wide research and development account for DoD climate change research and shifts the funding to Army R&D for work on unmanned ground vehicles.
“We should not be focusing on climate change research at the Department of Defense. Instead, we should be preparing for the next conflict and ensure that our military is lethal and ready for combat,” Rep. Barry Moore (R-Ala.), a sponsor of the amendment, said on Thursday. “To better protect service members from enemy fire, we should upgrade unmanned systems that operate in enemy environments. UGVs have already demonstrated their transformative potential on the battlefield. They can perform a wide range of tasks, from reconnaissance to surveillance to logistics to explosive ordnance disposal without putting human lives at risk.”
Rep. Ed Case (D-Hawaii.) noted the defense spending bill already cuts $621 million in climate-change related efforts included in the administration’s budget request.
“This is not the right approach from the perspective of a reasoned military overall,” Case said in opposition, with one Democrat voting for the amendment and one Republican voting against.
The House is set to continue debating amendments to the defense appropriations bill on Friday before voting on final passage.