12-19-2024 6:10am

As Most of Government Faces Shut Down Defense Bill Passes

Chris Edwards Editor

National Security is top of mind for congress with the senate passing funding for pentagon spending to $895 billion. The pentagdpending bill passed 85-14, sending it to President Joe Biden. Eleven senators who caucus with Democrats, as well as three Republicans, voted against the legislation.

The legislation provides for a 14.5% pay raise for junior enlisted service members and a 4.5% increase for others. Lawmakers said those were key to improving the quality of life of service members at a time when many military families rely on food banks and other government assistance programs to make ends meet.

“It includes major quality of life improvements, enhancing things like childcare, housing, medical services, employment support for military spouses and much more,” said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The legislation also directs resources towards a more confrontational approach to China, including establishing a fund that could be used to send military resources to Taiwan in much the same way that the U.S. has backed Ukraine. It also invests in new military technologies, including artificial intelligence, and bolsters the U.S. production of ammunition.

Meanwhile the public faces a government shutdown as a continuing funding bill for most federal programs is killed in the house.

The president-elect made an almost unrealistic proposal that combined some continuation of government funds along with a much more controversial provision to raise the nation’s debt limit — something his own party routinely rejects. “Anything else is a betrayal of our country,” they wrote per an AP report.

Already, the massive 1,500-page bill was on the verge of collapse, as hard-right conservatives rejected the increased spending. They were egged on by Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk, who rejected the plan almost as soon as it was released.

Rank-and-file lawmakers complained about the extras, which included their first pay raises in more than a decade — a shock after one of the most unproductive, chaotic sessions in modern times.

The stopgap measure is needed because Congress has failed to pass its annual appropriations bills to fund all the various agencies in the federal government, from the Pentagon to health, welfare, transportation and other routine domestic services.