The Democrat-led House advanced its $733 billion version of the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, the House Armed Services Committee announced in a press release Friday.
The mandatory annual defense policy bill, which is usually a bipartisan legislative measure, passed 220-197 with no Republicans supporting it. In the past, the House NDAA has traditionally earned more than 300 of the lower chamber’s 435 available votes, according to a Roll Call report.
The measure includes a number of progressive provisions Democratic leaders added to gain majority support for its final passage. The bill’s approval sets up likely contentious negotiations with the GOP-led Senate, which last week passed its $750 billion version of the FY 2020 NDAA.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said that though the bill includes bipartisan priorities like a military pay raise and improvements to DOD modernization programs, other attached amendments made the measure too difficult to support, Military Times reported.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) countered that Republicans seemed opposed to any measure Democrats brought to the floor for a vote, according to the report.
The legislation will now go to conference committee negotiations where House and Senate lawmakers will reconcile their versions in hopes of continuing the NDAA’s 58-year streak of passage into law.
DOD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Daniel Hinton, U.S. Navy
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