House Passes Massive Defense Bill, Senate Next. The House passed the National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday, sending the yearly Pentagon spending bill to the Senate.
The House passed the National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday, sending the yearly Pentagon spending bill to the Senate. The vote was 312 to 112, with 18 Republicans and 94 Democrats voting “no” on the measure that authorizes $901 billion in War Department spending.
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An earlier procedural vote barely passed 215 to 211 at the last moment after four Republicans, Reps. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, changed their votes from no to yes, Fox News reported.
All Democrats voted no on the procedural rule vote.
House and Senate leaders already merged their own versions of the measure into a negotiated package, meaning it is expected to move smoothly through the Senate to President Donald Trump’s desk.
Hardline conservatives opposed the bill over the inclusion of Ukraine funding at $400 million per year for two years and the omission of a provision that would ban the Federal Reserve from creating a central bank digital currency.
Conservatives advanced the CBDC prohibition as a privacy and civil liberties measure, arguing that a government-issued digital dollar could allow federal agencies to monitor or restrict individual transactions.
Other provisions in the bill restrict Trump from reducing troop levels in Europe and South Korea or from pausing weapons deliveries to Ukraine.
The legislation would also withhold one quarter of War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget until the Pentagon produces raw footage of the strikes on alleged narco-trafficking boats near Venezuela.
Speaker Mike Johnson highlighted provisions that increase enlisted troop pay by 4 percent, eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, crack down on antisemitism, eliminate $20 billion in obsolete programs and Pentagon bureaucracy, and implement measures targeting China.
The bill includes a non defense provision championed by conservative privacy advocates, including House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, that requires FBI disclosure when the bureau is investigating presidential candidates or other federal candidates.
Coverage of in vitro fertilization for military families, which had become a point of contention in recent days, is not included in the final NDAA.
Nor is there a provision that would preempt states from regulating artificial intelligence.
One major section of the bill creates an outbound investment screening system that requires U.S. companies and investors to notify the Treasury Department when backing certain high-risk technologies in China or in other countries of concern.
The Treasury Department would have the power to block those deals or require annual reporting to Congress.
Another section bans the Pentagon from contracting with Chinese genetic sequencing and biotechnology companies and from buying advanced batteries, photovoltaic components, computer displays, and critical minerals originating from foreign entities of concern, such as China.
The bill directs the State Department to deploy Regional China Officers to U.S. diplomatic posts worldwide to monitor Chinese commercial, technological, and infrastructure activities, including Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.
It also requires biennial reports comparing China’s global diplomatic presence with that of the United States.
The bill repeals two inactive war authorizations from 1992 and 2002 relating to earlier phases of U.S. military involvement in Iraq while leaving the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force in place.
House Passes Bill to Ban Gender Transition Treatments for Minors
Legislation that would criminalize gender transition treatments for minors, such as surgery and hormone supply, and punish providers with up to ten years in federal prison was approved by a divided House on Wednesday.
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On a vote of 216 to 211, the bill—which civil rights organizations claimed was among the most extreme anti-trans legislation ever considered by Congress—was approved nearly entirely along party lines.
It is unlikely to be taken up by the Senate, where it would require a bipartisan alliance to move forward. However, the ultraconservative Republican majority and President Trump’s priorities were reflected in its discussion and passage in the House.
Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia pushed it through the House after she demanded earlier this month that Speaker Mike Johnson bring her bill to the floor in exchange for her backing of the defense policy measure she was otherwise threatening to sabotage.
According to Greene, the legislation fulfilled one of Trump’s major campaign pledges, and Congress must take action to formalize his executive order banning gender-affirming medical procedures.
“Most Americans agree that kids just need to grow up before they do anything radical, like a mastectomy on a 15-year-old girl,” she said on Wednesday on the House floor, pointing at a poster board of a child who had undergone such a surgery.
Greene has recently gained odd new respect from some Democrats for disagreeing with the president on a number of issues. She abruptly announced last month that she was leaving Congress one year before the end of her term.
“If a child believes they’re a unicorn, do adults take their word for it as well?” Greene said, adding that in electing Trump in 2024, the American people voted to end gender transition treatments.
Republican Representative Barry Moore of Alabama claimed that Democrats were indoctrinating children by falsely framing gender-affirming procedures as necessary.
“It is not lifesaving care,” he said. “It is child abuse.”
In response, Democrats claimed that proponents of the bill were attempting to replace medicine with ideology by focusing on a small and vulnerable group of trans youth. They claimed that by threatening parents with jail time, the law violated their rights and gave politicians the authority to make extremely private decisions for families.
“Does anyone believe that the Freedom Caucus and President Trump love America’s children more than their parents do?” said Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland.
California Democratic Rep. Mark Takano said the surgeries on minors that Greene described were extremely rare.
What the bill would really do, he said, is ban “safe and effective medications for an entire group of people.”
Takano said that the bill would not make children safe and that it would “interfere with parental choice and open private medical data up to investigation.”
A second anti-trans bill, also supported by Greene, that would prohibit Medicaid coverage of gender-affirming care for trans youth is scheduled to be voted on by the House later this week.
The first openly transgender lawmaker to serve in Congress, Rep. Sarah McBride, a Democrat from Delaware, claimed before Wednesday’s vote that Republicans were “obsessed” with transgender people and were concentrating on a “misunderstood and vulnerable 1 percent of the population” rather than taking any action to safeguard Americans’ health care.
“They think more about trans people than trans people think about trans people,” McBride said, speaking to reporters on the steps of the Capitol. “They are consumed with this and they are extreme on it.”
Three Democrats and four Republicans voted across party lines. Democrats Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, both from Texas, and Don Davis of North Carolina voted for the measure.
Republicans Gabe Evans of Colorado, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Mike Lawler of New York, and Mike Kennedy of Utah voted against it.
Representative Ilhan Omar
MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has dramatically escalated her opposition to the Trump administration’s domestic immigration strategy, labeling the city of Minneapolis as being "under occupation" by federal forces. In a series of defiant remarks to constituents and national media, Omar called for the immediate resignation or impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
The "Occupation" NarrativeOmar’s critique centers on Operation Metro Surge, a federal initiative aimed at apprehending illegal immigrants with criminal convictions. However, Omar argues the operation has devolved into a "paramilitary" occupation that has paralyzed daily life.
School Impact: Omar claimed that in some local schools, two-thirds of students are too afraid to attend due to the presence of federal agents.Hospital Safety: She further alleged that residents are avoiding medical care because "occupying paramilitary forces" have been spotted at local hospitals."We do not exaggerate when we say our city is currently under occupation," Omar told a crowd in Minneapolis on Monday.
She specifically targeted Stephen Miller, a senior White House adviser, calling him the "architect of the terror" and comparing his policies to those of historical fascist regimes.Fatalities and Body CamerasThe tension follows two high-profile deaths during federal operations: Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Both individuals were reportedly killed while interfering with ICE enforcement actions.Pretti Incident: Occurred on January 24. While some CBP officers were equipped with body cameras, the full footage has yet to be released.Good Incident: Details remain scarce on whether ICE officers were wearing cameras at the time of the fatal encounter.In response to the mounting political pressure from leaders like Omar and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Secretary Noem announced an immediate mandate for all federal immigration officers in Minneapolis to wear body-worn cameras.
Governor Tim Walz welcomed the move but noted it came "too late" for those already lost.[Image: Map of Minneapolis showing "Operation Metro Surge" activity zones and protest flashpoints]A Widening Political GapThe conflict in Minneapolis has become a focal point in the broader battle over Department of Homeland Security funding.
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has signaled that Democrats will demand additional conditions on immigration enforcement before approving long-term DHS appropriations. As the Saturday morning shutdown looms, the rhetoric from Minneapolis suggests that the gap between the White House and Congressional Democrats is widening into a chasm.
