The House Armed Services Committee overwhelmingly voted to pass the National Defense Authorization Act days after the United States concluded its longest-ever war by withdrawing its military presence from Afghanistan.
The committee, early Thursday morning, voted 57-2 to pass the Department of Defense’s fiscal year 2022 budget after passing an amendment to provide the department with an additional $23.9 billion.
“For more than sixty years this committee’s focus has been to provide the Department of Defense and the men and women who serve our country with the tools to meet the ever changing national security threats we face,” Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Smith said in a statement. “For the sixty-first consecutive year, the Armed Services Committee has fulfilled its critical responsibility and completed, on a bipartisan basis, a defense bill that will bolster our national security and provide for the common defense.”
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Increasing the military’s 2022 budget by nearly $25 billion more than what President Joe Biden had laid out was the most consequential amendment passed during the more than 16-hour long markup. Fourteen committee Democrats joined with their GOP counterparts to approve the additional funding, though some Democrats, Smith included, were against the provision.
The extra funding ensures growth of 3% above inflation, and it provides more than $15 billion to “fill unfunded procurement, research and readiness priorities,” according to an amendment summary.
“I am pleased that the Armed Services Committee once again passed a National Defense Authorization Act out of the Committee this morning,” ranking member Rep. Mike Rogers, the lawmaker who introduced the measure to increase spending, said in a statement. “We did so in a bipartisan manner, including voting together to address the shortfall in the Biden budget. I thank Chairman Smith and our Republican and Democrat colleagues for their hard work on this year’s NDAA markup. I look forward to this bill moving to the floor and being signed into law.”
The U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, effectively ending the country’s longest war after 20 years, was a dominant theme during the extensive long markup session. The GOP members filed more than 50 amendments related to the withdrawal prior to Wednesday’s hearing.
Other GOP-introduced amendments that have passed include provisions that will require the defense secretary to submit quarterly reports on the threat of terrorist attacks under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the defense secretary to provide updates on the same time frame regarding U.S. military operations in Afghanistan.
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The committee also debated, and ultimately failed to pass, a measure concerning critical race theory and whether military institutions should be teaching the decades-old theory arguing that the country’s institutions are designed to keep white people ahead of minorities, requiring the dismantlement of the system to achieve a more just society.
Conservatives backed the amendment and argued the theory is not aligned with U.S. values, while Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria of Virginia, a Navy veteran, said such amendments “are a waste of time and do not do a d*** thing to improve our national security,” according to CNN.
