President Biden Signs Huge Defense Spending Legislation Into Law
Michael Cantrell
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The White House has announced on Monday that President Joe Biden has signed S.1605, a piece of legislation designed to fund “Department of Defense programs and military construction, Department of Energy national security programs, and intelligence programs,” along with a few other things.
The legislation, which allocated $25 billion more than the president asked for, ended up passing both chambers earlier in the month, though there were a few bumps in the road.
Republicans, despite being the minority, withheld their support for the bill, which was needed to pass, until they were able to get a handful of concessions from the Democrats.
An amendment that would’ve opened the draft to women was stripped from the bill at the GOP’s behest, as was one that would’ve created the Office of Countering Extremism, among other issues. Republicans had shared concern over the implementation of such a department and the possible conflation of right-wing extremism and conventional conservatism.
The NDAA also provided an additional $27.8 billion for nuclear weapon activities that technically fall under the Department of Energy, according to a summary of the final legislation.
The bill also includes a little more than $7.1 billion to help “support and attempt to improve the current posture, capabilities, and activities of U.S. forces in the Indo-Pacific region.”
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is actually required to provide the congressional defense committees with a yearly briefing concerning the advisability of “enhanced cooperation between the National Guard and Taiwan.”
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