Biden signs $768.2 billion defense spending bill into law
President Joe Biden signed the
National Defense Authorization Act into law, authorizing $768.2 billion in
military spending, including a 2.7% pay raise for service members, for 2022.
The NDAA authorizes a 5% increase in
military spending, and is the product of intense negotiations between Democrats
and Republicans over issues ranging from reforms of the military justice system
to COVID-19 vaccine requirements for soldiers.
“The Act provides
vital benefits and enhances access to justice for military personnel and their
families, and includes critical authorities to support our country’s national
defense,” Biden said
Monday in a statement.
The $768.2 billion price tag marks
$25 billion more than Biden initially requested from Congress, a prior proposal
that was rejected by members of both parties out of concerns it would undermine
U.S. efforts to keep pace militarily with China and Russia.
The new bill passed earlier this
month with bipartisan support, with Democrats and Republicans touting wins in
the final package.
Democrats applauded provisions in
the bill overhauling how the military justice system handles sexual assault and
other related crimes, effectively taking prosecutorial jurisdiction over such
crimes out of the hands of military commanders.
Republicans, meanwhile, touted
success in blocking an effort to add women to the draft, as well as the
inclusion of a provision that bars dishonorable discharges for service members
who refuse the COVID-19 vaccine.
The bill includes $7.1 billion for
the Pacific Deterrence Initiative and a statement of congressional support for
the defense of Taiwan, measures intended to counteract China’s influence
in the region.
It also includes $300 million for
the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, a show of support in the face of
Russian aggression, as well as $4 billion for the European Defense Initiative.
In his statement, the president also
outlined a number of provisions his administration opposes over what he
characterized as “constitutional concerns or questions
of construction.”
Those planks include provisions that
restrict the use of funds to transfer or release individuals detained at the
Guantanamo Bay detention center, which the Biden administration is moving to
close. Biden’s statement saidthe provisions “unduly
impair” the
executive branch’s ability to decide when and where
to prosecute detainees and where to send them when they’re released,
and could constrain U.S. negotiations with foreign countries over the transfer
of detainees in a way that could undermine national security.
The law also has provisions barring
goods produced by forced Uyghur labor in China from entering the U.S., and it
begins to lay out plans for the new Global War on Terror Memorial, which would
be the latest addition to the National Mall.