The House has passed its version of the annual military policy bill, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), authorizing $1.15 trillion in Pentagon spending on July 22. But the number of votes for and against tells the real story: this bill scraped by on record-thin margins (216-212). For the first time in decades, a bipartisan bloc of lawmakers has started to question if they should give another blank check to the Pentagon. Our struggle is far from over.
How We Got Here
The Pentagon and the Trump administration unleashed a full-court press on Capitol Hill in an effort to persuade members of Congress to authorize this unprecedented military funding. Pentagon officials argued that the Department of Defense will run out of money by mid-August unless Congress acts immediately. They were pressuring lawmakers to authorize not just $1.15 trillion for the Pentagon in the NDAA, but also to pass a budget resolution with an additional $73 billion in military and intelligence spending.
The fiscal year does not end until September 30. If the Pentagon truly cannot make it two more months with a budget that already exceeds $1 trillion, Congress should be holding hearings to find out why—not rushing more money out the door.
We have seen this play before: start an unpopular and illegal war, sound the alarm about running short of funds, then pillage the social safety net to cover for the failure. What is different this time is the response. Lawmakers who have spent years voting reflexively for Pentagon budget increases are asking hard questions and, in a growing number of cases, saying no.
Debate over the NDAA was temporarily blocked in both the House and Senate earlier in July. Although the bill has narrowly passed the House, it faces stiff opposition from the Senate, and the debate over the total topline Pentagon budget likely won’t be resolved until after the election.
Why It Matters
Every year, the House Armed Services Committee conducts a lengthy meeting to consider amendments to the NDAA that often stretches into the next morning. But it’s worth noticing what does not generate marathon negotiating sessions on Capitol Hill. There are no all-night meetings to feed hungry families, house people without shelter, or make sure sick people can see a doctor. But when military contractors and weapons manufacturers ask for tens of billions of dollars, Congress stays up late to find the money.
Given the recent passage of a war powers resolution directing the president to end the Iran War in the House, we must share one clear message: A war of choice that Congress never authorized should not be funded.
The next several weeks will test whether this growing opposition can hold. Quakers have long insisted that the way we spend our national resources is a moral statement about what we value. Where our treasure is, there our heart is also.
Right now, more members of Congress than at any point in recent memory are willing to say that the country is going in the wrong direction. This moment came because constituents made it uncomfortable to keep voting yes. We need to keep the pressure up.
