SENATE PASSES DEFENSE SPENDING BILL

SENATE PASSES DEFENSE SPENDING BILL

Written by Peter Boykin on December 16, 2022

SENATE PASSES DEFENSE SPENDING BILL

Shared By Peter Boykin – American Political Commentator / Citizen Journalist

SENATE PASSES DEFENSE SPENDING BILL

The Senate passed an $858 billion defense spending bill which includes authorizations for new weapons purchases, increases pay for servicemembers, and ends the military’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate.

Back up: This is up 10% from last year’s $778 billion defense spending bill, which roughly accounts for the rate of inflation over the past year.

Details: The bill, titled the National Defense Authorization Act, had no trouble reaching the 60 votes needed to pass, with a bipartisan group of 83 Senators voting for it and 11 voting against it.

Here are some of the provisions in the bill:

$160 billion for aircraft, missiles, ammunition, combat vehicles, Navy ships, and other equipment
$139 billion for research and development
$279 billion for operation and maintenance

Authorizes a 4.6% pay raise for military servicemembers

Lifts the requirement that members of the military received the Covid-19 vaccine

$1 billion to buy titanium, semiconductor components, and other critical metals for the National Defense Stockpile

$800 million for security assistance to the Ukrainian armed forces

$10 billion over five years to finance sales of weaponry and military equipment to Taiwan

Overhauls the military justice system by making court-martial juries random and removing commanders’ judicial and prosecutorial powers over offenses like sexual assault.

Authorizes funding for the study of PFAS, or harmful chemicals, in drinking water and in firefighting gear.

Electoral Count Act: Democrats had previously tried and [thankfully] failed to sneak their ‘Electoral Count Act’ into this defense spending bill, which would have amounted to a federal overtaking of state election laws and would have codified a lot of Democrats’ favored vote-by-mail and ballot harvesting rules into federal law.

What happens next?

The House already passed this version of the bill, so now it goes to Joe Biden’s desk where he will sign it into law.

[Source: WSJ, The Hill]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/senate-to-vote-on-858-billion-defense-policy-bill-11671122461