The Senate was still working as the government remains shut down, passing a massive annual defense spending bill late last week -- primarily led by Senate Republicans.
According to The Hill, the Republican-led Senate approved the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) with a 70-20 vote, easily passing it after GOP senators struck a deal earlier in the day that unlocked the bill from being held up.
The bill, primarily aimed at funding the U.S. military, will provide the armed services $924.7 billion in fiscal 2026, according to the bill's language.
The legislation still has a long way to go before becoming law, as the approving of the bill by Senate Republicans means it will now move to the conference stage with the House and Senate armed services committees, where both sides can argue and negotiate.
Notably, the House version of the NDAA is slightly less top-line money, coming in at $893 billion.
The bill has been held up in the upper chamber, as it takes all 100 U.S. senators to agree to move forward on it. Some were holding out for certain additions.
The Hill noted:
The NDAA had come to the Senate floor in early September but saw little movement until Thursday morning. Action on the bill was stalled, as all 100 senators must agree to hold votes on amendments, with several sticking points causing a handful of lawmakers to halt the process.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-MS) was the Republican senator who secured a deal with the other side to unlock the stalled process, securing "an agreement to vote on 17 stand-alone amendments and a package of nearly 50 less controversial amendments."
"We simply cannot delay this process any longer,” Wicker said on the Senate floor Thursday.
He added, "Let me make it clear: If we do not bring this to the floor today, this matter will not have time for deliberation on the Senate floor, and we’ll have to basically pretend that we’re having a conference between House and Senate members, and a very small group of senators will have to write this bill and bring it to the floor for final passage. That’s not the way this ought to be done."
There was some level of bipartisanship as both sides came together to give the Pentagon additional authorities to counter drone threats.
"Hundreds of drones have been spotted in the vicinity of military installations over the past few years, including military-sensitive sites like Langley Air Force Base," Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) said.
She added, "But current laws give the Department of Defense quite limited authority to mitigate these threats, and the patchwork of interagency coordination required to address them leaves gaps that endanger our military bases and the men and women who serve there."
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) worked with Gillibrand on inserting that particular amendment.
