House approves defense bill, includes major military salary increase

The House passed its annual defense bill on Friday, setting the stage for a policy showdown with the Democratic-led Senate over a number of “poison-pill” amendments pushed by GOP lawmakers that have little chance of becoming law under President Joe Biden.

Lawmakers approved their version of the National Defense Authorization Act, which sets policy for the Pentagon and authorizes $895.2 billion in spending for national defense for the coming fiscal year, roughly $9 billion more than what was approved for fiscal 2024. The bill passed in a 217-199 vote largely along party lines, with only six Democrats joining nearly all Republicans in backing the measure. Three Republicans voted against it.

The NDAA typically passes without much fanfare, although the measure hit some snags this year as GOP lawmakers voted to attach a wish list of hard-right priorities aimed at dismantling Pentagon policies on abortion travel, transgender care, diversity, and climate change.

As a result, House Democratic leaders urged members to vote against the legislation unless those amendments were removed, likely making the proposal dead on arrival in the Senate.

One of the most significant measures included in this year’s NDAA is a double-digit pay raise for junior enlisted members, a policy that has been pushed by lawmakers for several years but has been reduced in previous versions in negotiations between House and Senate leaders.

“Last year, we were in great position until the Senate whacked it basically,” Rep. Mike Garcia (R-CA), a former Navy pilot and member of the House Appropriations Committee, told the Washington Examiner. “And frankly, from the House side, we didn’t do a good enough job of protecting it in the NDAA.”

The fiscal 2025 proposal would implement a 19.5% pay raise for junior enlisted members while also including a 4.5% pay raise for other officers. Those increases would be the largest pay raise in a generation, but it’s already facing pushback from the White House as being too costly.

“The administration is strongly committed to taking care of our service members and their families, and appreciates the [House Armed Services Committee’s] concern for the needs of the most junior enlisted members, but strongly opposes making a significant, permanent change to the basic pay schedule before the completion of the Fourteenth Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation,” the White House said in a statement.

Garcia pushed back on that opposition, calling it “wild” that President Joe Biden would be unwilling to approve the pay raise “during one of the toughest economic periods [and] hyperinflation that frankly, they’ve caused.”

“The problem is the Senate is, you know, Democrat-led. So, when they see the president make that threat, they also now toe the line on that, and it’s irrational behavior. It shouldn’t be a partisan issue. It should be something that both parties are supportive of, but it should be something that the commander in chief should want,” Garcia said. “I don’t understand the rationale. It’s frankly — it’s not just offensive. It’s completely irrational.”

Meanwhile, the Senate Armed Services Committee is expected to finalize its version of the 2025 NDAA, which could be voted on by the full chamber as soon as next month. However, that iteration is likely to include only a 5.5% pay increase for junior military members, setting the stage for a showdown with the lower chamber as they seek to negotiate a compromise.

House passage of the NDAA comes after the GOP unveiled an aggressive schedule to pass its annual spending bills over the summer, hoping to get the budget finalized before the November election and avoid a repeat of the intraparty fallout that marked last year’s appropriations process. The House has so far passed one spending bill, appropriations for Military Construction and Veterans Affairs.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) announced his proposed schedule to GOP lawmakers during a closed-door meeting last month that would complete all 12 appropriations bills in June and July.

The ambitious timeline will also serve as a test for House GOP leadership as it attempts to prove its ability to pass government funding bills despite an inability to do so last year until six months into fiscal 2024. The appropriations bills are likely to reignite intraparty tensions over controversial policy proposals that plagued House Republicans last year.

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The House Appropriations Committee unveiled its proposed funding limits last month, with the overall totals coming in under the top-line agreement that was set during debt ceiling negotiations last year. But that proposal is unlikely to make it far in the Senate, where party leaders on both sides of the aisle have expressed a desire for higher allocations.

Even if the House does manage to pass all 12 of its appropriations bills before its annual August recess, it’s not clear whether the Senate will act with such haste. Senate leaders and the White House could seek to delay the process until after the November election, when it’s clear who will be president in 2025 and which party will be in control of the upper chamber.