The Senate approved its version of the annual defense policy bill after ending an impasse on amendments, paving the way for the chamber to formally negotiate with the House on a compromise version of the bill.
The 77-20 vote late Thursday to pass the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act came after a marathon voting session on amendments.
Earlier, senators reached an agreement to vote on 17 stand-alone amendments, as well as a manager’s package of 48 less controversial amendments that was approved by voice vote.
The Senate’s NDAA had been stalled since initial procedural votes in early September as senators, jockeying for votes on their amendments, objected to moving forward.
But on Thursday morning, Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., announced that Republicans and Democrats had agreed on an amendments package.
“If we do not bring this to the floor today, this matter will not have time for deliberation on the Senate floor,” Wicker warned in his floor speech announcing the deal.
Still, even after the amendments deal was announced, the bill faced one last hiccup. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., said Thursday afternoon that she would oppose expediting passage of the bill until Wicker agreed to hold a public hearing on the Trump administration’s National Guard deployments to Democratic-led cities over the objections of local leaders.
An hour later, though, Duckworth said she secured a commitment for that hearing, allowing Thursday’s votes to proceed as Wicker hoped.
“While we never should have had to wait this long for a hearing into some of Trump’s most egregious abuses of our nation’s military — and I wish Republicans had been more proactive in taking action to protect Americans’ civil rights — I appreciate Chairman Wicker finally committing to hold a hearing on these deployments in the coming weeks,” Duckworth said in a statement. “I look forward to asking tough questions of the Trump administration about their unconstitutional National Guard deployments to American cities against state and local officials’ objections.”
Amendments
The amendments that received votes Thursday also included several Democratic measures aimed at addressing the domestic military deployments.
An amendment by Duckworth would have limited to 30 days the amount of time troops can be deployed to support U.S. police without congressional authorization. Her amendment was rejected 46-52.
Another, offered by Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, would have mandated that a deployment of troops to support law enforcement units in any state must be approved by that state’s governor (or by the District of Columbia mayor). It was rejected 47-50, with Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., crossing party lines to support it.
A third, by Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, would have mandated that troops or officers involved in crowd control must wear visible identification. The amendment fell short 47-50.
Other Democratic priorities that got a vote included an amendment from Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., that would bar spending to procure or modify foreign aircraft that would carry the president of the United States — an attempt to bar Trump from using a 747 donated to him by the Qatari government. The amendment was rejected 46-50.
The Senate did adopt via voice vote an amendment offered by Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., as a substitute for one introduced by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., that would repeal the 1991 and 2002 authorizations for use of military force against Iraq.
GOP proposals that were voted on as part of the amendment agreement included one from Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas that would limit the kinds of flags that can be flown at Defense Department facilities; another by Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas that would update measures aimed at protecting U.S. assets from drone incursions; and one by Sen. John Cornyn of Texas that would restrict U.S. investments in certain technologies in China. Marshall’s amendment was rejected by voice vote, while Cornyn’s and Cotton’s were approved by voice vote.
With Senate passage of the NDAA, the House and Senate can now move into formal conference negotiations on a final version of the bill to pass into law before the end of the year.
The main difference between the two bills is the topline. The House version sticks with the Trump administration’s requested defense budget of $882.6 billion for the Pentagon and Department of Energy nuclear weapons programs. But in July, the Senate Armed Services Committee voted to add $32 billion to the administration’s request, bringing the value of the Senate’s NDAA to roughly $914 billion, a figure that, like the House version, does not include some national security spending not covered in the bill.
The Senate’s version of the NDAA also contains several provisions aimed at providing more congressional oversight of the Trump administration, including measures that would mandate the Pentagon certify any drawdown of troops in Europe is in the national interest and require congressional notification before a judge advocate general is fired.
John M. Donnelly contributed to this report.
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