WASHINGTON -- The United States Senate on December 15 passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 by a vote of 88-11. The House previously passed the bill December 7 by a vote of 363-70. The bill now heads to President Biden's desk to be signed into law.

The authorization process was previously hamstrung by stalled negotiations in the Senate over that chamber's version of the bill. Typically, the House and Senate each pass their own version of the bill, at which point a conference committee is formed to work out the differences. Since the Senate never passed its own version, House and Senate lawmakers established a de facto conference to create a compromise spending bill for each chamber to consider.

The compromise defense authorization bill includes a $25 billion increase for the Pentagon. The legislation supports a total of $777.7 billion in fiscal year 2022 funding for national defense. Within this topline, the legislation authorizes $740.0 billion for the Department of Defense and $27.8 billion for national security programs within the Department of Energy.

However, the Pentagon won't see any of the extra $25 billion unless congressional appropriators are able to pass a final defense spending bill. The authorization bill sets policy, but appropriators determine the final spending levels for the government. The government is still operating under a continuing resolution that expires February 18, 2022. There are fears that Congress might implement a full-year CR if they are unable to reach a budget agreement. A full-year CR would leave the Pentagon without an approximately $25 billion plus-up that lawmakers hope to include in a final defense spending bill.

Back to the policy bill, highlights of that legislation include:

-- Providing funding to support a 2.7 percent pay raise for both military servicemembers and the DOD civilian workforce;

-- Directing historic reform to the Uniform Code of Military Justice and how the military investigates and prosecutes sexual assault and other offenses, including murder, manslaughter, kidnapping, and many other crimes;

-- Authorizing critical investments in submarines and battle force ships, aircraft, vehicles, and other equipment to maintain our combat advantage;

-- Extending and modifying the Pacific Deterrence Initiative (PDI) to improve the posture, capabilities, and activities of U.S. forces and our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region;

-- Reauthorizing the European Deterrence Initiative (EDI) to support deterrence in Europe;

-- Strengthening and securing the national supply chain and supporting the defense industrial base;

-- Modernizing our military technology and capabilities, including hypersonic weapons, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and biotechnologies;

-- Establishing a commission to study U.S. involvement in Afghanistan from 2001-2021;

-- Authorizing more than $3.5 billion of additional military construction projects above the President’s budget request;

-- Maintaining and modernizing our secure, credible nuclear deterrent;

-- Advancing the development of various missile defense programs and systems;

-- Establishing a Commission on Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) Reform to provide an independent review and assessment of the PPBE process of DOD; and

-- Advancing the Department of Defense’s cybersecurity strategy and capabilities.

Source: Forecast International - International Military Markets
Associated URL: https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/press-releases/reed-inhofe-praise-senate-passage-of-national-defense-authorization-act-for-fiscal-year-2022