The Senate voted on Wednesday afternoon to pass the National Defense Authorization Act, sending it to President Trump’s desk to be signed into law.
The final vote on the Senate floor was 20-77.
As The Gateway Pundit reported, the Senate voted to invoke cloture on the bipartisan Pentagon appropriations bill, sending it to a final vote on the floor.
This comes amid objections from some Republican lawmakers.
The bill will send nearly $1 billion to Ukraine and continue to fund some DEI and transgender policies, said House Republicans who voted against the package.
Additionally, the bill reportedly pushes the Pentagon to release more information and video footage of Venezuelan drug boat strikes. Congress is threatening to withhold some of War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget if he does not release footage of the strikes.
Per the AP:
The Senate gave final passage to an annual military policy bill Wednesday that will authorize $901 billion in defense programs while pressuring Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to provide lawmakers with video of strikes on alleged drug boats in international water near Venezuela.
The annual National Defense Authorization Act, which raises troop pay by 3.8%, gained bipartisan backing as it moved through Congress, and the White House has indicated that it is in line with President Donald Trump’s national security priorities. However, the legislation, which ran over 3,000 pages, revealed some points of friction between Congress and the Pentagon as the Trump administration reorients its focus away from security in Europe and towards Central and South America.
The bill pushes back on recent moves by the Pentagon. It demands more information on boat strikes in the Caribbean, requires that the U.S. keep its troop levels in Europe at current levels and sends some military aid to Ukraine.
But overall, the bill represents a compromise between the parties. It implements many of Trump’s executive orders and proposals on eliminating diversity and inclusion efforts in the military and grants emergency military powers at the U.S. border with Mexico. It also enhances congressional oversight of the Department of Defense, repeals several years-old war authorizations and seeks to overhaul how the Pentagon purchases weapons as the U.S. tries to outpace China in developing the next generation of military technology.
This comes after a November 29 report from the Washington Post attempted to corroborate claims that the strikes were illegal, citing anonymous sources who said that Hegseth ordered troops to “kill everybody” on board the boats and ordered a double strike to kill survivors clinging to the wreckage of a ship in the Caribbean Sea. This led to renewed calls for the prosecution of Hegseth and service members who follow his orders after six Democratic lawmakers demanded that US service members defy President Trump and Secretary Hegseth’s lawful orders.
Hegseth recently slammed the Washington Post and discussed the legality and operational planning of strikes against Venezuelan drug boats at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, on Saturday. He further suggested that after further review, the Pentagon may release the full video of the first strike on September 2, where US forces hit the same boat twice, sparking outrage and claims of illegality from terrorist-sympathizing leftists.
Still, the US has continued strikes against drug boats, announcing on Monday that three Venezuelan drug boats were destroyed in the Eastern Pacific after President Trump signed an Executive Order designating fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.
President Trump further ordered a full blockade on all sanctioned oil tankers going to and from Venezuela on Tuesday.
