The Senate has passed a massive annual defense bill that would deliver a 5.2% pay raise for service members and keep the nation’s military operating, avoiding partisan policy battles with an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote. Senate passage, 86-11, sets up a clash with the House, which passed its own version of the annual defense bill along party lines earlier this month after pointed debates over social issues like abortion access and diversity initiatives. The sharply partisan arguments over the House legislation veered from a bipartisan tradition of finding consensus on national defense policy. The strong bipartisan vote for the legislation in the Senate Thursday evening, just before the Senate left for its August recess, could give it momentum as the two chambers next look to settle their differences in the fall. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said there is a “glaring contrast” between the two chambers’ defense bills. The Senate had no “animus or acrimony,” in contrast to the House’s partisan battles, he said. Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that “I don’t think either party got exactly what they wanted” in the Senate bill. But he said the legislation would help the military improve recruitment and prevent conflict. The two chambers will now have to write a final bill, a test of the deeply divided House, in particular, as the traditionally bipartisan legislation was swept up in the disputes over race, equity and women’s health care that have been political priorities for the Republican party. Wicker said talks with the House will start “very soon” and he feels confident they will be able to pass the legislation, as Congress has annually since 1961. “We always have,” Wicker said. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., a member of the Armed Services panel, predicted the bipartisan Senate approach would mostly prevail. “The fact that we’re going to have a strong bipartisan approach on it says that we’re probably closer to where we’re going to end up than what the House has done on a partisan basis,” said Rounds. The massive Senate defense bill would set defense spending levels at $886 billion for the coming year, similar to President Joe Biden’s budget request. Congress has to pass separate spending legislation to allocate the money, but the defense legislation lays out budget and policy for the Pentagon. The House debate earlier this month was marked by amendments from hardline conservatives that were adopted and pushed the bill to the right — including proposals to roll back diversity and inclusion measures at the Pentagon and to block some medical care for transgender personnel. In the Senate, where most amendments need 60 votes to pass, additions to the bill were bipartisan and more focused on military policy, with many focused on countering potential American adversaries like Russia and China. One bipartisan provision would require two-thirds of the Senate to approve if a U.S. president tries to withdraw from NATO. Former President Donald Trump, who is running again for his old office, has been deeply critical of the military alliance and repeatedly questioned its value to the U.S. Rounds also joined with Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of Montana to successfully push an amendment to the bill that would prevent agents of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from purchasing agricultural […]
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