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The
National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, passed Congress
last week. The Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate approved the
legislation with a strong bipartisan majority of 87 to 13 while
the House of Representatives voted in favor 310 to 118.
The bill, one of the few major pieces of legislation Congress
passes every year, governs everything from pay raises for
service members and purchases of ships and aircraft to policies
such as support for foreign partners like Taiwan.
The act, nearly 3,100 pages long, called for a 5.2% pay raise
for service members and increased the nation's total national
security budget by about 3% to $886 billion. It also lists
certain Chinese battery companies that it says are ineligible
for Defense Department procurement.
The fiscal 2024 NDAA also includes a four-month extension of a
disputed domestic surveillance authority, giving lawmakers more
time to either reform or keep the program, known as Section 702
of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
That provision faced objections in both the Senate and House,
but not enough to derail the bill.
The bill extends one measure to help Ukraine, the Ukraine
Security Assistance Initiative, through the end of 2026,
authorizing $300 million for the program in the fiscal year
ending Sept. 30, 2024, and the next one.
However, that figure is small compared to the $61 billion that
Biden had asked Congress to approve to help Kyiv combat a
Russian invasion that began in February 2022. Republicans had
refused to approve assistance for Ukraine without Democrats
agreeing to a significant toughening of immigration law.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Leslie
Adler and Cynthia Osterman)
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