Senate Continues to Clash on $770 Billion NDAA

In recent years, Congress has passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in the closing weeks of the calendar year. According to experts, there's precedent for the legislation passing in the new year with few consequences if it passes. Among other things, it authorizes activities for the Department of Defense's fiscal year that begins in October, requests reports from the Pentagon, and sets policies like military justice reform and who should register for the draft.

The Senate Democratic leadership also expects to make progress on the NDAA, which must pass each year for defense policy the annual defense policy bill passed the past 60 years. The current status of the bill authorizes $770 billion for the Pentagon. As one of the only major bills to become law every year, the NDAA is utilized to address a range of issues from competition with China to cyber policy.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) met November 18 for the first time since January, after which Senator Schumer agreed to decouple the NDAA from the Innovation and Competition Act (USICA), the NDAA's path forward may be relatively smooth, though laborious.

Despite their demands for consideration of more amendments to the annual Pentagon policy measure, Senate Republicans failed in their effort to end debate on the NDAA by 45-51 on November 29. They complained they had insufficient time for debating the bill and observing the open amendment process, as opposed to rejecting the legislation itself. Senator Leader Schumer argued that the process has been fair and reasonable and committee leaders have agreed to let the full Senate vote on 19 bipartisan amendments.

“We’re not delaying national security. This is the opposite. We are demanding that we show, through open and robust debate, that our men and women in uniform are our priority," stated Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

With this setback, the defense authorization bill could be delayed even further than it has already been, potentially derailing 60 years of traditionally bipartisan legislation. The NDAA has been passed by Congress every year for more than six decades, even over a veto from former President Donald Trump, which Congress overrode by a wide margin. 

Though, the bill doesn't impact how the Defense Department (DOD) functions. As a matter of fact, other parts of government operate without authorization bills. For instance, the State Department has not received one in nearly two decades. The lack of congressional action could, however, weaken Congress' oversight authority, says Bradley Bowman, a Senior Director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

As the House and Senate will need to reconcile their bills, there is a short amount of time left for Congress to send the measure to President Biden for his signature before the expiration date of December 31.