WASHINGTON — The U.S. House has passed a large bill to fund the Defense Department for fiscal yr 2023, teeing up a final vote within the Senate in the approaching days that will send the $858 billion behemoth to President Joe Biden’s desk, where he is predicted to sign it.
The bill passed the Democratic-controlled House with a robust bipartisan majority, 350 in favor to 80 votes against it.
Among the many greater than 4,000 pages of laws is a requirement that the Pentagon drop its Covid vaccine mandate for lively duty servicemembers inside 30 days of its enactment.
The mandate, originally put in place last yr, recently emerged as a lightning rod for conservative Republicans, who threatened to sink your complete bill if it wasn’t rescinded.
The National Defense Authorization Act (or NDAA) was released Tuesday night, after weeks of backroom negotiations.
Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have each publicly said they oppose the supply ending the vaccine mandate.
However the Democratic chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, said on the House floor Thursday that it was the correct time to finish the vaccine requirement. His comment was seen as a robust signal that the White House will back the ultimate bill.
Biden’s Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wouldn’t confirm or deny Wednesday that Biden would sign the bill, as an alternative telling reporters that Biden is “going to have a look at the NDAA in its entirety, and make his judgment on that.”
The House was initially scheduled to vote on the bill Wednesday afternoon. But its procedural path through the Rules Committee was stalled after members of the Congressional Black Caucus sought to force the inclusion of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act within the bill.
The NDAA is an annual tradition in Congress, where it is taken into account a “must-pass” bill because its enactment is required to ensure that military service members to receive their pay and advantages on time after Jan. 1, 2023.
