Annual Defense Bill in Jeopardy as Republicans Load it with Conservative Social Policy Restrictions
On Friday, the fate of the annual defense bill became uncertain as Republicans added a series of conservative social policy restrictions that limited access to abortions, gender transition procedures, and diversity training for military personnel. These additions alienated Democrats whose votes were crucial for passing the legislation.
Democrats vowed to oppose the bill, accusing GOP leaders of turning the bipartisan bill into a hyper-politicized attack in a wider culture war to appease a small, right-wing faction of their party. Representatives Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine M. Clark, and Pete Aguilar, the top three Democratic leaders, released a statement late Thursday promising to vote against the bill.
However, Republican leaders expressed cautious optimism that they could still pass the bill by uniting their own party. They believed that they had added enough hard-line changes demanded by the far right to satisfy their members and compensate for Democrats’ opposition. Representative Tom Cole, Republican of Oklahoma, stated, “I think we have enough votes to be the majority. It’ll be close, but I think we’ll win.”
The bill in question is worth $886 billion and includes a 5.2 percent raise for military personnel. It also contains programs to counter China and Russia’s aggressive actions and establishes a special inspector general to oversee U.S. aid to Ukraine.
Among the conservative amendments added by the Republican-led House are provisions to undo a Pentagon policy that provides time off and travel reimbursement for service members who need to travel out of state for an abortion. The measures also prohibit the military from offering coverage for gender transition surgeries and hormone therapies, eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion offices at the Pentagon, and bar the Pentagon’s educational arm from purchasing books containing pornographic material or promoting “radical gender ideology.” Additionally, the bill includes an amendment prohibiting Defense Department schools from teaching that the United States or its founding documents are racist.
While these measures are not likely to pass in the Democratic-led Senate, even if Republicans manage to push them through the House, the vast division between the two chambers is expected to spark a prolonged fight that could compromise Congress’s ability to pass defense policy bills annually for the past six decades.
Representative Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, criticized the Republican approach to the legislation, stating that it had ruined a bill that previously garnered near-unanimous support. He declared that he would not vote for a bill that “has become an ode to bigotry and ignorance.”
The success of these conservative measures in the House gives momentum to far-right Republicans in future budget debates, as they seek similar changes throughout the government.
The House floor debate surrounding these measures was heated, with Republicans and Democrats engaging in feuds over race, sex, and gender. Representative Eli Crane, Republican of Arizona, made a racially insensitive comment while defending his amendment opposing diversity training as a condition for Defense Department jobs, leading to demands from Representative Joyce Beatty to have his comments stricken from the record.
Despite these disputes, there was bipartisan consensus opposing Republican efforts to reduce or eliminate military assistance and weapons shipments to Ukraine. The House rejected a proposal to ban the Biden administration from sending cluster munitions to Ukraine, and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene failed in her attempts to strip a $300 million program to train and equip Ukrainian soldiers. Both proposals were defeated.