By Thérèse Boudreaux | The Center Square
(Worthy News) – The U.S. House is set to vote on a compromise version of the National Defense Authorization Act which authorizes nearly $900 billion to support U.S. military service members, infrastructure, and defense capabilities during the 2025 fiscal year.
The 1,813-page document released Saturday by the Senate and House Armed Services Committees outlines U.S. defense policy priorities and their costs for 2025. Most of the proposed funds, $849.9 billion out of the $895.2 billion topline, would go to programs within the Department of Defense.
Though the result of a bipartisan compromise, some provisions remain a point of contention, including a Republican addition that would prohibit the military’s health program from covering any gender dysphoria treatments on minors that could “result in sterilization.”
Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee Adam Smith, D-Wash., has urged House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to “abandon” the provision and allow the House to bring forward a bill that “doesn’t attack the transgender community.”
Johnson has argued that the current NDAA will “restore our focus on military lethality and to end the radical woke ideology being imposed on our military.”
If the legislation passes, junior enlisted service members would receive a historic 14.5% pay raise and all other service members a 4.5% basic pay raise.
The NDAA plan would also address multiple quality of life issues for service members, highlighted in a September report from the Government Accountability Office that revealed unsanitary and rundown living conditions for military personnel.
It authorizes $2.7 billion to improve housing conditions, build more housing, and increase oversight. It also increases healthcare access and childcare services for military members by cutting red tape and approving $176 million for the construction of new childcare centers and $110 million for the construction of new schools.
“Funding our military is one of Congress’ most important responsibilities,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Majority Chairman, Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said on X. “Our brave men and women in uniform and their spouses allow us to enjoy the freedoms we have today. They deserve every benefit in this bill.”
The legislation authorizes hundreds of billions in defense-related infrastructure and technology investments, including approximately $17.5 billion for military base or industrial construction projects; $33.5 billion to build seven battle force ships; and more than $161 billion for innovation and technology research and related programs.
Nearly $16 billion would go to the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, funding new technologies like hypersonic weapons and AI to deter the Chinese Communist Party and mitigate espionage and cybersecurity risks.
Anti-terrorism initiatives in the Middle East and overseas U.S. military construction projects countering North Korea and Russia would also receive funding, as well as a U.S.-Israel missile defense program and the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative.
“We remain determined to confront increasingly hostile threats from Communist China, Russia, and Iran, and this legislation provides our military with the tools they need to deter our enemies,” Johnson said in a statement. “The safety and security of the American people is top priority, and this bill ensures our military has the resources and capabilities needed to remain the most powerful force in the world.”
U.S. border security receives a relatively small portion of funds from the NDAA, with $90 million authorized for the construction of a new command and control facility at the U.S.-Mexico border and a $10 million increase in funding for the DOD’s counternarcotics activities.
The House Rules Committee is set to vote Monday afternoon on advancing the measure to the House floor, where it can pass with a majority vote. The Senate must vote on it by the end of the month for it to take effect.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
A case involving a Mississippi street preacher–arrested for sharing the Gospel outside a concert venue–has now reached the U.S. Supreme Court, setting the stage for a ruling that could reshape how Americans defend their constitutional rights against local restrictions.
President Donald Trump announced last Friday that he is revoking all executive orders and related documents signed using an autopen during the Biden administration, alleging that the signatures were made without the former president’s authorization and are therefore unlawful.
President Donald Trump said on Dec. 2 that the United States will begin conducting military strikes inside Venezuela “very soon,” marking a significant escalation in Washington’s months-long campaign to dismantle narcotics networks that U.S. officials say are operating with the protection of the Maduro regime.
Russian President Vladimir Putin issued one of his starkest threats yet toward Europe on Tuesday, declaring that Moscow is “ready right now” for a war with the continent if attacked–an escalation made just hours before meeting White House special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in the Kremlin.
Shouting “Allahu Akbar” as he opened fire just blocks from the White House, an Afghan national evacuated to the United States in 2021 is accused of killing one West Virginia National Guard soldier and critically injuring another in a broad-daylight attack that federal authorities say was entirely unprovoked.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel is prepared to reach a diplomatic arrangement with Syria’s new regime, but only under conditions that firmly protect Israel’s security and prevent the rise of new threats along its northern border.
The Trump administration’s push to broker an end to the nearly four-year war in Ukraine entered a volatile new phase Tuesday, as White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, arrived in Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.