US Senate passes 901 bln USD defense authorization bill for fiscal 2026

WASHINGTON - The US Senate on Wednesday approved a 901-billion-dollar defense policy bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026, sending it to US President Donald Trump's desk for his signature.

The vote was 77 to 20 with broad bipartisan support.

"This will be the 65th year in a row, the 65th consecutive year that Congress has come together across the aisle and across two chambers to send the president a bill designed to sustain and strengthen the national defense," US Senator Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said ahead of the vote.

House and Senate leaders had already combined their own versions of the bill into one negotiated package before the legislation was passed in the House last week.

The over-3,000-page bill includes a nearly 4 percent military pay raise, an overhaul that will speed up Pentagon arms purchases, as well as measures for developing the US Golden Dome missile defense system and promoting military readiness.

Under the bill, the Trump administration allots 400 million dollars annually for two years to produce weapons for Ukraine and puts limits on reducing US troop levels in Europe and South Korea without allied consultations.

The measure authorizes 26 billion dollars in shipbuilding funding, 38 billion dollars for aircraft and 25 billion dollars to ramp up production of munitions.

The legislation eliminates Pentagon DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) offices, cuts 1.6 billion dollars in climate-related spending, repeals the 1991 and 2002 Iraq War authorizations and permanently lifts US sanctions on Syria.

The bill stipulates that a quarter of US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's travel budget will be withheld until the Pentagon provides Congress with unedited footage of the strikes targeting alleged drug boats near Venezuela.

Hegseth said Tuesday that only House and Senate armed services panels, instead of the public, will view the full, unedited video of the highly controversial Sept. 2 air raid by the US military on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, which killed two survivors in a follow-up strike.

Democrats faulted the bill for removing expanded coverage of in vitro fertilization for active duty troops. Meanwhile, some hardline Republicans were frustrated that the bill did not go further in scaling back US commitments overseas.

Trump is expected to sign the legislation into law in the coming days.