WASHINGTON: The US Senate voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday (Dec 17) to advance a US$901 billion invoice setting coverage for the Pentagon, sending the large piece of laws to the White Home, which has stated President Donald Trump will signal it into legislation.
The fiscal 2026 Nationwide Defence Authorisation Act, or NDAA, is a compromise between separate measures handed earlier this yr within the Home of Representatives and Senate. It authorises a file US$901 billion in annual army spending, with a 4 per cent pay increase for the troops, purchases of army tools and efforts to spice up competitiveness with US arch rivals China and Russia.
The Senate backed the invoice by 77 to twenty, with sturdy assist from each events.
The Home handed the invoice final week.
In a break with Trump, whose fellow Republicans maintain majorities in each the Home and Senate, this yr’s NDAA contains a number of provisions to spice up safety in Europe, regardless of Trump early this month releasing a Nationwide Safety Technique seen as pleasant to Russia and a reassessment of the US relationship with Europe.
The fiscal 2026 NDAA supplies US$800 million for Ukraine – US$400 million in every of the subsequent two years – as a part of the Ukraine Safety Help Initiative, which pays US firms for weapons for Ukraine’s army.
It additionally authorises the Baltic Safety Initiative and supplies US$175 million to assist Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia’s defence. And it limits the Division of Defence’s means to drop the variety of US forces in Europe to fewer than 76,000 and bars the US European Commander from giving up the title of NATO Supreme Commander.
Members of Congress take nice delight in having handed the NDAA yearly for greater than six many years.
