Final defense policy legislation unveiled Thursday would spur the renaming of Army bases that honor Confederates and place guardrails on President Donald Trump's plans to pull troops from Germany and Afghanistan.
House and Senate Armed Services leaders from both parties clinched a final deal on the National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday. The $741 billion bill H.R. 6395 (116) is slated for votes in the House and Senate in the coming days, but the measure faces an uncertain
fate amid a White House veto threat.
Trump has twice threatened to veto the bill. The first came over the summer over base renaming provisions, and the second came on Tuesday over his insistence that the legislation repeal social media legal protections.
Lawmakers didn't include a repeal of the online shield law, known as Section 230, in the final bill. It's unclear whether Republicans will buck Trump and override a veto; both the House and Senate passed their original bills with veto-proof majorities.
Within the budget topline, the bill authorizes $635.5 billion for the base Pentagon budget and $26.6 billion for nuclear programs under the Energy Department. Another $69 billion goes toward the war-related Overseas Contingency Operations account.
When’s the vote? Aides say they expect the House to go first with a vote Monday or Tuesday and for the Senate to follow.
What's cut: The bill removed a host of energy-related measures the Senate previously included in its version of the bill. Those included bipartisan bills like the USE IT Act, S. 383 (116), which would increase carbon utilization and direct air capture research, and the Nuclear Energy Leadership Act, S. 903 (116), which would fund innovation in the nuclear industry.
No nuke testing: The final bill stripped a provision that was in the Senate version to set aside at least $10 million to prepare for a resumption of live nuclear tests, which the U.S. has not conducted in three decades. But it also left out a House provision that would bar any funds from being used for the purpose.
The whole report should be read and the items not accepted are as interesting as those accepted.
