National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025 (NDAA 2025) is a proposed United States federal law which will specify the budget, expenditures, and policies of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) for fiscal year 2025.

Background
The National Defense Authorization Act is an annual bill proposed in the United States Congress that redefines the United States military budget for the following fiscal year. Each chamber of Congress introduces a version of the NDAA: for 2025, in the House; on June 14, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved the Senate version of the bill in a 22–3 vote, although the full text of the Senate bill has not yet been publicly released. Committee Chairman Jack Reed (D‑RI) voted against the bill, due to disagreement with the decision to increase defense spending $25 billion over the budget cap established by the Fiscal Responsibility Act; Elizabeth Warren (D‑MA) and Tom Cotton (R‑AR) joined Reed in voting against the bill. The $25 billion spending increase over the cap was due to an amendment introduced by its Ranking Member, Roger Wicker (R‑MS).

History
On May 22, the House Armed Services Committee approved its version of the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, by a 57–1 vote. As passed by the Committee, the bill included the Pentagon's controversial "Legislative Proposal 480", transferring Air National Guard space units to the Space Force; however, the Committee accepted an amendment proposed by Joe Wilson (R‑SC), watering down the Pentagon's proposal by adding a requirement for gubernatorial consent to any such transfers.

Republican amendments
On June 14, the United States House of Representatives passed the US$895 billion defense spending bill in a 217–199 vote, with several added socially conservative amendments made by House Republicans that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson approved in order to prevent any hardline Republicans from blocking the bill. All but six House Democrats opposed the bill, while only three House Republicans opposed the bill. Many Democrats criticized the changes and the House Republicans for using the mandatory defense bill to push forward divisive, partisan agendas.

The amendments would block funding to gender-affirming care for transgender members of the United States Armed Forces, for military diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, climate change efforts, and for any future efforts to help bring Palestinian refugees to the United States. The amendments also planned to block an earlier policy that would reimburse travel for troops needing reproductive care or abortions, and planned to defund the Gaza floating pier.

A White House spokesperson condemned the amendments as prioritizing GOP politics over the safety and needs of US troops, and called it "an unserious effort" that would not pass the Senate without several amendments being removed or altered.

On July 8, the Senate Armed Services Committee publicly released its version of the NDAA text, which was revealed to include a provision restricting gender-affirming care in the military, approved by a vote of the Republican members of the Committee with the support of conservative Democratic Senator Joe Manchin. This provision was not mentioned in the summary of the text the Committee had released earlier, and the presence of gender-affirming care restrictions in both the House and Senate texts was seen as increasing the odds such a provision would be included in the bill as finally passed.