House takes key step toward advancing annual defense policy bill

By CNN Newsource

Published December 10, 2025 12:33 PM

By Ellis Kim, CNN

(CNN) — The House on Wednesday cleared a critical procedural hurdle toward advancing the National Defense Authorization Act for the next fiscal year, setting the massive defense policy bill up for a floor vote in the chamber.

The House will vote later this afternoon on passage of the legislation, which sets out the nation’s defense policy agenda and authorizes nearly $900 billion in funding for military programs, including a 3.8% pay raise for service members. The Trump administration has urged passage of the bill.

Though GOP leaders scrambled and worked Wednesday afternoon to persuade their own members to advance the bill, the measure is expected to pass the House. Once it clears the chamber, the Senate must take it up for final passage.

The bill also includes a provision that increases pressure on the Pentagon to provide Congress with videos of its strikes against suspected drug boats in the Caribbean. The inclusion of the provision in the must-pass legislation, which was negotiated by top House and Senate Democrats and Republicans, reflects lawmakers’ continued desire for the Trump administration to disclose more information about the military’s controversial September 2 “double-tap” strike on a suspected Venezuelan drug boat.

The specific provision would withhold a quarter of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget unless the Pentagon complies with various oversight requirements, including providing the House and Senate Armed Services committees “video of strikes conducted against designated terrorist organizations in the area of responsibility of the United States Southern Command.”

It also requires the Pentagon to provide Congress with copies of any “execute orders” it issues.

Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services committee who helped negotiate the behemoth bill, said Tuesday the boat strikes language and other provisions would help Congress reassert itself as a coequal branch of government.

Some on Capitol Hill, however, have signaled a desire to move on from the follow-up strike controversy. House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers, a committee aide told CNN, is prepared to end his panel’s investigation into the September 2 attack in the Caribbean.

“The video and classified briefings from the Pentagon were sufficient to convince him this was a legal action. But he’s also been clear that we need a classified briefing where the rest of HASC’s members can see the video, and we expect that to happen next week,” the committee aide told CNN.

Republicans can claim wins in the bill. Top House Republicans are touting how the NDAA codifies over a dozen Trump executive orders and much of his agenda at the southern border and abroad. They also say the bill eliminates diversity initiatives in the military.

Other provisions of the NDAA would repeal 1991 and 2002 authorizations for the use of military force against Iraq, repeal sanctions on Syria, and seek to limit the Trump administration’s ability to significantly draw down troops from Europe.

Another aims to support efforts to recover Ukrainian children who have been abducted by Russia. The provision, based on bipartisan, bicameral legislation, would restore US support for the work to track and return the stolen children. Earlier this year, the Trump administration cut funding to the leading organization that tracks evidence of Russian war crimes, including the forced relocation of the estimated tens of thousands of Ukrainian children who have been taken by Russia.

Many lawmakers were dismayed by the omission of language to expand coverage of fertility services like in vitro fertilization for service members on TRICARE. Earlier House and Senate versions of the bill contained such language, but it was left out of the final product.

CNN’s Jennifer Hansler, Annie Grayer, Donald Judd contributed to this report.