Senate Kicks Off Consideration of Annual Defense Policy Bill

The Senate kicked off consideration of the annual national defense policy package Tuesday as Democrats in the upper chamber look to beat back a House GOP-led effort to include provisions related to abortion and diversity.

The Senate voted 72-25 to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed, the first procedural vote on its version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which authorizes a top-line figure of $886 billion and is expected to include a 5 percent pay raise for troops. The proposal also is unlikely to include many of the hot-button items that House Republicans included in the legislation that passed the lower chamber largely along party lines.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he is pleased with the legislation’s progress and was especially pleased that both sides have kept poison pill provisions out of the bill in a push to win a robust bipartisan vote. He also argued that the NDAA effort should be a “prime example” of how senators on both sides can “work constructively” to help the nation’s defense capabilities.

Read the source article at The Hill