House Prepares for Vote on National Defense Authorization Bill Amid Renewed Fighting With Iran

The House is likely to pass the annual National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday to formalize policy changes and approve a framework for this year’s Pentagon funding even as lawmakers have been wringing their hands over renewed fighting with Iran. The Senate appears unlikely to approve its own version of the bill before the summer recess begins, given Senate Democrats’ concerns over the Iran war. As of Tuesday night, just one Republican, Congressman Thomas Massie, says he is opposed to the NDAA as written, likely meaning that the GOP majority has the votes to pass the bill. The House has already cleared the procedural motion to call up the bill. A significant number of Democrats are expected to back the legislation after the House Armed Services Committee voted by a wide, bipartisan margin to send the NDAA to the floor. The Senate is expected to take up its own version of the bill this week, though Democratic lawmakers are expected to block the procedural motion to begin consideration of the bill. What is usually a bipartisan process has broken down over the course of the last four months as President Trump continues strikes on Iran with little information being provided to Congress and zero authorization being offered by the legislative branch. Last week, the Senate rejected a motion to begin consideration of Republican senators’ version of the NDAA. All Democrats who were present voted against proceeding, citing the Iran war. The vote to proceed required 60 senators, though only 51 — all of whom were Republicans — supported moving forward. The official roll call vote lists 50 senators being in favor of proceeding to the bill and 46 senators being opposed, though the majority leader, Senator John Thune, only voted no for procedural reasons so that he could call up the bill at a later date, meaning the real vote on the motion would have been 51 to 45. The minority leader, Senator Chuck Schumer, said in a floor speech before the vote that his caucus could not in good conscience move forward, given the resumption of hostilities between the United States and Iran. “Now, the White House has formally notified Congress that hostilities have resumed, that American strikes are under way again and our forces remain positioned for more. Yet Republicans want the Senate to take up the NDAA, the defense bill, as though none of this is happening,” Mr. Schumer said last Monday.Mr. Thune said on Tuesday that he will try to call up the NDAA again this week, though Democrats seemed thoroughly unsatisfied with administration officials’ answers about the future of the conflict with Iran. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, appeared on Tuesday before the subcommittee that funds the Pentagon every year. Democrats made clear that they have no faith in Mr. Hegseth. Mr. Hegseth was on the Hill not to lobby for the NDAA, but to lay out the rationale behind his push for a $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget this year, plus a nearly $68 billion supplemental funding package to make up for the costs of the Iran war. During the hearing, Democrats and Republicans alike grilled Mr. Hegseth and General Caine about the future of the war. “Secretary Hegseth — despite your failure to win this war, you are back now before Congress asking for almost $70 billion in additional funding,” Senator Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat, told the secretary. “You’re asking the American people for a blank check, because once again, the Trump administration’s efforts have been an utter and complete failure to win this war to this point.”“You, sir, are a failure,” Mr. Peters said.A Republican member of the subcommittee, Senator John Kennedy, raised concerns about Iran’s military capabilities in continuing to exert influence over the transit of goods through the Strait of Hormuz. “Will they put tolls on the Strait?” Mr. Kennedy asked General Caine, demanding that the Joint Chiefs chairman “look me in the eye.” When General Caine declined to answer what he called a “hypothetical,” Mr. Kennedy turned to Mr. Hegseth. “What’ll happen, Pete?” Mr. Kennedy asked the secretary, to which Mr. Hegseth responded to say that Iran may, in fact, try to extract some kind of value from any ship trying to traverse the Strait. “Guys, we need straight answers,” Mr. Kennedy said sternly. “We need straight answers.”

House Prepares for Vote on National Defense Authorization Bill Amid Renewed Fighting With Iran

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