The 2022 annual defense bill which authorizes and guides expenditures for the Pentagon and other national security programs was passed by the United States Senate on Wednesday and sent to President Joe Biden for signature.
An earlier version of the bill was stalled in the Senate over amendment before this current version was passed by the House of Representatives last week. Lawmakers scrambled to pass the bill while negotiations over Biden’s spending plan, the Build Back Better Act, continued.
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The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) authorizes a topline funding of $768 billion for defense and national security this year, with $740 billion designated for the Department of Defense — which was $25 billion more for the Pentagon than Mr. Biden had requested
The Senate passed the bill 88-11, with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand among those voting no. Gillibrand had championed overhauling how the military handles sexual assault, but she said last week that the House-approved bill did not “reform the military justice system in a way that will truly help survivors get justice” since it did not remove commanders from the chain of command from handling all felonies
