The 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, which sets the National Nuclear Security Administration’s spending cap at $24.9 billion, passed the House 281-140 this week.
The bill now heads to the Senate, which is still controlled by a 51-member majority of Democrats and Democratically aligned Senators in the lame duck session that will end in a matter of weeks.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor Thursday morning that he filed cloture to bring the bill to the Senate floor early next week.
“It has some very good things. It has some things we wouldn’t have put in there, and some things were left out,” Schumer said in his floor speech. “But we’re going to keep working at it,” he said.
President Joe Biden (D) had not said as of deadline for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor whether he planned to sign the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which following closed-door talks over the weekend was amended to include bans on certain treatments for service members’ children who identify as transgender.
The NDAA easily passed the House despite backlash from Democrats over the transgender provisions.
House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters Tuesday that language added to the bill over the weekend would restrict from minor children of servicemembers some forms of medical treatment often prescribed for people who identify as a gender incongruous with their sex.
Sometimes known as gender-affirming care, these treatments broadly include opposite-sex hormones, drugs that halt the onset of puberty and cosmetic surgery, among others. The 2025 NDAA does not mention any of these treatments specifically but instead bans “treatment of gender dysphoria that could result in sterilization” for servicemember children who are younger than 18.
The majority of House Democrats voted against the bill, though 81 voted for it. Opposing the measure were 124 Democrats and 16 Republicans.
