House passes defense bill with pay increase for military personnel

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a nearly $893 billion defense authorization bill for fiscal year 2026, advancing a bill heavy with cultural overtones but including a pay raise for those service personnel.

The bill passed 231-196, with only 17 Democrats supporting the measure. Four Republicans peeled away to oppose it. The bill authorizes spending on a broad range of Pentagon programs, sets military personnel levels, and establishes pay and benefit policies for service members.

The legislation now heads to the Senate, where a competing version costing some $32 billion more is being debated.

The authorization measure raises the pay for service members in 2026 by 3.8 percent and boosts the number of authorized Defense Department troops by about 26,000. 

Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wisconsin), who represents Wisconsin’s fifth congressional district, said the package was a win for both service members and taxpayers. 

“This year’s NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act] delivers on House Republicans and President Trump’s commitment to our men and women in uniform,” Fitzgerald said. “It authorizes a 3.8 percent pay raise and includes key provisions to support military families. By codifying President Trump’s executive orders and eliminating divisive DEI initiatives within the Department of Defense, the bill restores accountability and meritocracy to refocus the military on its core mission: readiness to protect, defend, and fight.”

Fitzgerald said the NDAA also saves taxpayers more than $20 billion by cutting wasteful programs and redirecting resources toward essential defense priorities. 

“It fully funds military modernization efforts, including the Golden Dome missile defense system, and provides funding to revitalize the defense industrial base — a huge win for manufacturing jobs in the United States,” he said. “The bill also strengthens border security by providing full support for active-duty troops and the National Guard assisting Border Patrol, as well as funding counter-narcotics operations to protect our communities.”

The bottom line is, Fitzgerald said, the legislation supports service members and puts national security front and center.

However, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wisconsin) didn’t agree and joined most Democrats in voting against the NDAA.

Pocan, who is co-chairman and co-founder of the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus, said the bill’s top line did not reflect an additional $150 billion added to the Pentagon’s budget through the One Big Beautiful Bill enacted in July, which Pocan said pushed total military spending over $1 trillion for the first time. 

Pocan said he has never voted in favor of an NDAA since being elected to Congress in 2012.

“Congress continues to prioritize lining the pockets of defense contractors while millions of Americans struggle with the cost of housing, healthcare, childcare, groceries, and other basic needs,” Pocan said. “The Pentagon remains the only federal agency that has never passed an audit. Yet Congress keeps giving more and more taxpayer dollars every year to an agency that literally cannot account for where that money is going.”

If the Department of Education or Housing and Urban Development failed even one audit, Republican lawmakers would be calling for heads to roll, Pocan asserted.

“But when it comes to the Pentagon budget, accountability is nonexistent,” he said. “Until Congress puts people over the Pentagon, I will continue to oppose these bloated, unaccountable defense bills.”

In addition to the pay raises and funding for the Golden Dome, the NDAA would fund major modernization initiatives and allocate resources for revitalizing the defense industrial base. In addition, it contains reforms that lawmakers say is intended to streamline the military’s acquisition process, with the aim of reducing delays in fielding new technology and weapons systems. 

Lawmakers backing the changes say faster procurement is critical to maintaining an edge against adversaries such as China, Russia, and Iran.

At the same time, the measure reflects current debates within Congress over social issues. The House version includes provisions restricting abortion services and health care for transgender individuals in the military. It also eliminates diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs at the Department of Defense.

Then, too, some Democrats launched an effort to limit presidential authority over National Guard deployments. Those were killed, as was a proposal by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) to strip nearly all U.S. aid for Ukraine. 

A bipartisan coalition, however, did succeed in repealing two longstanding war powers authorizations dating back to the Iraq War.

For his part, House speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said the NDAA would ensure that the U.S. military remains the most lethal in the world and can deter any adversary.

“This legislation advances President Trump and House Republicans’ Peace Through Strength Agenda by codifying 15 of President Trump’s executive orders, ending woke ideology at the Pentagon, securing the border, revitalizing the defense industrial base, and restoring the warrior ethos,” Johnson said. “The NDAA builds on the landmark investments included in the Working Families Tax Cut, ensuring America has both the economic strength and the military power to deter our enemies and protect our interests worldwide.”

Johnson also said the legislation, in addition to providing resources to improve the livelihoods of America’s service men and women, ensures that warfighters have access to the best and most innovative military technologies.

“Under President Trump, the U.S. is rebuilding strength, restoring deterrence, and proving America will not back down,” he said. “President Trump and House Republicans promised peace through strength. The FY26 NDAA delivers it.”

The four Republicans who voted against the 2026 NDAA in the House were Tim Burchett, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Anna Paulina Luna, and Thomas Massie.

Greene explained her vote by saying that the United States can’t fix the rest of the world, but that we can fix our own country.

“I fully support our great U.S. military, but I do not support funding foreign countries in our own NDAA,” Greene said in a post on X. “We are in over $37 trillion in debt and the annual interest on our national debt is now over $1 trillion, which is more than our own annual military spending. My kid’s generation can’t afford life and the high cost of living should be our focus.”

Greene said the U.S.  must stop paying foreign countries with foreign aid and foreign military funding.

“We are broke and many Americans are being buried by the last five years of rapid inflation,” she wrote. “Republicans need to stop being tone deaf to the real financial woes of Americans. When most Americans are screaming about the cost of insurance, healthcare, groceries, bills, and housing, but Congress refuses to listen and continues to vote to send American’s hard earned tax dollars to foreign countries and foreign wars, there will eventually be a reckoning.”

Northwoods U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany voted for the act.

Richard Moore is the author of “Dark State” and may be reached at richardd3d.substack.com.