The House Armed Services Committee overwhelmingly passed a fiscal year 2022 defense authorization bill early Thursday after a daylong markup with lawmakers debating hundreds of amendments, including some partisan discussions about extremism, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. The bill passed 57-2. Voting against it were progressive Reps. Ro Khanna and Sara Jacobs, both California Democrats.

Here are some of the actions the committee took:

• HASC followed its Senate counterpart in adding almost $25 billion to the administration’s defense budget request. Several Democrats joined the committee’s Republicans to pass the funding boost, putting them at odds with their chairman, Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), and the progressive wing of the Democratic caucus.
• On voice vote, the committee adopted an amendment from Reps. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) and Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) to require regular reports from DOD about its “over the horizon” strategy and capabilities in Afghanistan. The first would be due to Congress at the end of this year, with annual updates through 2026. The amendment was one of several noncontroversial measures adopted to seek information from the administration about operations in Afghanistan, though there was also predictably partisan discussion about the just-ended war.
• The committee also cleared by voice vote a separate amendment from Cheney that would establish an outside commission to study Afghanistan, starting with the Taliban’s early days of power in the 1990s.
• The committee approved two PFAS-related amendments from Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.). One would require that DOD follow water standards adopted in each state. The other would add more products to DOD’s “do not buy” list of items that contain some level of PFAS.
• The committee adopted an amendment that would disallow a governor to use third-party funds to send the state’s National Guard units on a mission to another state. The amendment was triggered by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s (R) deployment of Guard members to the U.S.-Mexico border, funded by a private donor, as reported by On Base, AP and other news outlets. Several Republicans spoke against the amendment, but it was approved on a voice vote.
• Republicans also spoke against an amendment from Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) to de-politicize Guard deployments but allowed it to pass on voice vote.
• The chairman’s mark of the bill gives authority the Washington, D.C. mayor authority over the D.C. National Guard. Republicans tried to strip that out of the bill but weren’t successful.
• The committee adopted an amendment to require women to register for the Selective Service. The Senate committee’s version of the bill includes similar language.

Read more On Base coverage of the FY 2022 NDAA.

Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Matt Hecht