Talks on Defense Bill Persist Despite House Speaker Controversy

Negotiations on resolving differences between the House and Senate versions of the fiscal 2024 defense authorization bill are moving ahead despite the ouster of Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy, according to congressional aides.

Key issues in the two bills related to bolstering American military forces and alliances in the Pacific in the face of growing threats from China gained bipartisan backing during the talks, according to aides familiar with the conference.

Differences remain, however, in the competing bills approved by the Senate and the House over provisions that seek to curb what critics see as “woke” Pentagon policies related to abortion, sexual identity, and diversity.

Both versions of the bill would authorize $886.3 billion in defense spending for programs at the Pentagon, the Energy Department, and its National Nuclear Security Administration.

The annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is considered one of the few must-pass bills in Congress and traditionally attracts a number of policy riders and pet causes of lawmakers. The Republican control of the House following the 2022 midterm elections has set up a number of policy fights with the Biden White House.

“It’s a strong defense bill and a lot of things made it through,” said one aide who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The Senate bill is pretty conservative, and the House bill is very conservative.”

A joint bill could be voted on by the Thanksgiving holiday. The selection of a new speaker also is expected to be a key element in whether a final defense bill is passed by Congress, the aide said.

House Democratic Minority Leader Hakim Jeffries stated in a “Dear Colleague” letter this week that issues related to abortion in the House defense bill were one reason Democrats voted in favor of ousting Mr. McCarthy as speaker. The New York Democrat said the House Armed Services Committee “worked hard” for a bipartisan bill but the final legislation contained “highly partisan poison pills.”

“The House Republican decision to jam their extreme right-wing ideology down the throats of the American people included radical provisions to rip away reproductive freedom from military women. This type of extreme governance is unacceptable,” he stated.

The House bill seeks to limit travel reimbursement for military service members seeking abortions, ban military sex reassignment surgery for transgenders, and end “diversity, equity and inclusion” — DEI — policies that critics say have undercut merit hiring in the ranks and diluted the Pentagon’s war-fighting mission.

Culture war issues remain major sticking points for Democrats and Republicans in the conference seeking to produce a final NDAA and are likely to be fought again when a compromise bill reaches the floors of both houses.

The Senate and House bills together contain more than 37 provisions relating just the challenge posed by China and the ruling Chinese Communist Party. A key bipartisan element of both bills is increased funding for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative (PDI), a program to bolster U.S. forces and alliances in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Senate would authorize $9.1 billion requested for the PDI and the House bill proposes $9.7 billion. Both authorization bills also would block sales of oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve to China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran.

One measure in the Senate version would modify the Defense Production Act to require U.S. companies to notify the Treasury Department of specific investments in China, including semiconductors, quantum computing, satellite-based communications, and artificial intelligence technologies.

A House provision calls for reports on foreign-owned agricultural land within 50 miles of a U.S. military base. The provision was added based on concerns that China was buying up large amounts of U.S. farmland.

Another House measure calls on the defense secretary to assess China’s role in trafficking fentanyl through Mexican drug cartels. A Senate provision would target precursor chemicals from China and impose sanctions for those trafficking in the goods. The Treasury Department this week announced sanctions on fentanyl producers in China and Canada.

The Senate bill also would add a legislation provision ending China’s current status as a “developing nation,” following a House measure directing the secretary of state to prevent China from being classified as a developing state in international organizations.

Both the House and Senate bills call for a ban on U.S. funding for the New York-based EcoHealth Alliance in China — the group that has been linked to virus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a possible source for the COVID-19 virus that sparked a global pandemic in 2020. The House and Senate also want the Pentagon to study and report on Chinese military spending, which critics say is much higher than official Beijing statistics.

The House wants a Pentagon report on implementing naval blockades on oil shipments to China during a war, and the Senate bill calls for a study on the consequences of a war with China and a ban on Pentagon funding that would support entertainment projects involving the Chinese government.

The Senate bill also would ban funding for the Wuhan Institute of Virology and an audit seeking to identify the diversion of Pentagon funding to China’s research labs. It also would ban former military service members from working for China and other adversaries.

The Senate Armed Services Committee report states that the United States currently faces a dangerous and growing set of national security challenges “most urgently” China and warns that U.S. support for Ukraine still leaves China as “the greatest threat to U.S. interests.”

The committee “is concerned that the United States risks overstretching its capabilities and resources, in addition to the challenges faced by the defense industrial base in replenishing stocks of munitions and equipment,” the report said.