The House is likely to pass the National Defense Authorization Act this week, after a nearly unanimous committee vote last month.

“I want to thank Chairman Adam Smith [D-Wash.], Ranking Member Mike Rogers [R-Ala.] and members of the Armed Services Committee for their hard work on this legislation, which meets Congress’s responsibility to our troops and to our nation’s defense,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) wrote to his colleagues last week. “Not only would this NDAA support a pay raise for service members and Department of Defense civilian employees; it would also strengthen housing options for military families and support investments in strategic initiatives to confront long-term security challenges in Europe and the Pacific.”

The House Rules Committee will meet Tuesday afternoon to work through a stack of almost 1,200 amendments filed on the bill, according to CQ. The Rules Committee is expected to only consider a few hundred of those to be “in order” for floor debate in the days to follow.

The Senate Armed Services Committee has cleared its version of the bill, authorizing more money than the House version, but it hasn’t made it to the floor yet.

Georgia National Guard photo by Maj. William Carraway