Congress Passes Military Spending Bill Minus Anti-LGBTQ Measures

Following an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 87-13 in the Senate, the House of Representatives approved the fiscal year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in a 310-118 vote minus anti-LGBTQ provisions House GOPers so desperately wanted. Some of the Republican measures removed during joint committee negotiations include measures to shutter the military’s offices of diversity, equity and inclusion; ban transgender health services; and outlaw drag shows on military bases. https://twitter.com/HRC/status/1735329515377656191 From the Washington Post:

Over the summer, the typically bipartisan NDAA became ground zero in the nation’s increasingly polarized culture wars, as hard-right Republicans leveraged the GOP’s fragile House majority to attach various provisions aimed at dismantling what they called the military’s “woke” policies on abortion, race and gender-affirming health care.

The compromise bill approved Thursday stripped away nearly all of the hard right’s culture-war provisions — including a measure that would have barred the Defense Department from reimbursing travel costs incurred by service members who travel out of state to obtain an abortion.

The approved spending bill also includes a 5.2% pay raise for troops – the largest increase in decades. Of course, members of the far-right Freedom Caucus raged against the final bill, calling it a betrayal of conservative values. The bill now heads to President Biden to sign the legislation into law. https://twitter.com/AP/status/1735298888121135305