Approval of the sweeping, must-pass legislation came with little time to spare: The 2024 NDAA expires at year’s end, and this is the Senate’s last working week of the year.

The NDAA passed 85-14 in the Democratic Senate.

The Republican House approved the NDAA last week 281-140. It now heads to President Joe Biden’s desk, who is expected to swiftly sign it into law.

“Of course, the NDAA is not perfect,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said. “It doesn’t have everything either side would like. It includes some provisions that we Democrats would not have added and other provisions we would want left out entirely. But, of course, you need bipartisanship to get this through the finish line.”

The 1,800-page bill costs $895 billion, marking a roughly 1% spending increase but with a 14.5% pay raise for junior enlisted members, known as E-4 and below, and a 4.5% raise for all other members.

Healthcare-related issues created the most heartburn among lawmakers who ultimately opposed the legislation.

A culture war provision regarding transgender care drew the most controversy, prompting rebellion from Democrats in both chambers. Under the bill, gender-affirming care for children of service members will be prohibited.

The NDAA was negotiated between Republicans and Democrats in both chambers, but the transgender treatment ban was the result of House GOP leaders, particularly Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). He said the provision, along with restricting critical race theory in military academies and race-based rules known as diversity, equity, and inclusion, will “refocus the Pentagon on military lethality, not radical woke ideology.”

“We banned Tricare from prescribing treatments that would ultimately sterilize our kids, and we gutted the DEI bureaucracy,” Johnson told reporters.

Democrats accused Johnson of using the ban to preserve his speakership in the new Congress that will be seated on Jan. 3, 2025.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), who won a competitive battleground race last month to a third term, voted against the NDAA for the first time. She and a group of Senate Democrats pushed for an amendment to remove the ban.

“I, for one, trust these service members and their families to make their own decisions about healthcare, without politicians butting in,” Baldwin said. “It’s flat-out wrong to put this provision in this bill and take away a service member’s freedom to make that decision for their families.”

The provision even drew some criticism from Republicans over concerns about keeping the NDAA as bipartisan as possible.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) said Johnson did not give him a heads-up about the transgender care ban and argued that it was unnecessary because President-elect Donald Trump will soon be in office.

“I don’t know why this is in the bill when Jan. 20, it’s a moot point,” Rogers told the Hill.

Johnson is also credited for stripping out an expansion of coverage for in vitro fertilization treatment under the military’s healthcare program, known as Tricare. IVF and other fertility treatments are only covered if service members must use such services due to injuries that occurred in the line of duty.

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To no avail, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), an Army National Guard veteran who used IVF, lobbied Trump to pressure Republicans to support the IVF expansion. Trump previously pledged on the campaign trail to support having the government or insurance companies pay for all IVF treatments.

“The speaker remains pro-IVF and has encouraged states to take up the issue responsibly and ethically,” a Johnson spokesperson said.

Cami Mondeaux contributed to this report.