The House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, July 15, 2025, advanced a $848 billion defense policy bill by a vote of 55-2. The measure now moves to the full House for a vote. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes )
WASHINGTON — The House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday night advanced a defense policy bill authorizing a 3.8% pay raise for service members, a boost in funding for Ukraine’s military and a prohibition on restoring Confederate names to military bases.
The panel voted 55-2 to send the measure to the full House after hours of debate on more than 700 amendments. The vote followed the Senate Armed Services Committee’s approval last week of its version of the legislation.
The two committees are proposing different overall amounts for Pentagon spending, with House lawmakers endorsing the Trump administration’s request of $848 billion and senators calling for an additional $32 billion.
The House and Senate will have to reconcile their differences to pass the National Defense Authorization Act, an annual bill outlining policies and priorities for defense programs. A Senate effort to add $25 billion to defense spending last year was ultimately scrapped from the final bill.
To fund the House committee’s policy legislation, lawmakers will need to pass an accompanying appropriations bill. The House is expected to vote on its version of that measure on Wednesday.
The policy legislation is heavily focused on reforming the Pentagon’s slow acquisition process for buying and fielding new weapons and continuing a slew of quality-of-life improvements begun under last year’s defense policy bill.
Service members would see a 3.8% pay bump as well as an increase to the family separation allowance to $400 per month. The allowance, which helps offset added expenses incurred when a service member’s family cannot live near their duty station, is now $250 per month.
The legislation also excludes the basic housing allowance from the calculation of service members’ household incomes so more troops and military families could become eligible for the basic needs allowance, said Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa.
“These and several other provisions… should very much positively impact service members’ pocketbooks and their ability to put food on the table as well,” she said.
Several provisions seek to improve access to affordable child care, including an extension through 2029 of a pilot program that helps military families cover the cost of full-time child care provided in their homes.
The bill also builds on a banner year for recruiting by expanding recruiter access to secondary schools and institutions of higher learning and extending special pay authorities to attract talent, particularly for the growing Space Force.
Other provisions establish a mental health program for cyber personnel and waive fees and co-pays for Tricare’s dental program for reserve forces, who typically only receive military-issued medical and dental coverage while on active-duty orders for 30 days or more.
The legislation veers away from the Trump administration’s plans for the Pentagon in several policy areas.
It prohibits the reduction of U.S. troops in Europe below 76,000 unless the defense secretary and commander of U.S. European Command send Congress assessments certifying NATO allies had been consulted on such a move and it is in the national interest.
Lawmakers in both parties criticized reports earlier this year that the Trump administration was considering withdrawing as many as half of the 20,000 troops who had been surged to Europe in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The House committee’s legislation also authorizes $400 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative to arm and train Ukrainian troops and funds the program in 2026 and 2027. Lawmakers initially proposed $300 million for the program but overwhelmingly agreed Tuesday to add $100 million.
“We have supported it at the level of $300 million before,” said Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the committee who introduced the amendment for additional funds. “I think the urgency commands that we step up that commitment.”
The committee in a voice vote rejected an amendment from Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., to cut the funding to zero.
A senior defense official declined to tell reporters last month why the Pentagon requested no money for the longstanding Ukraine assistance program but said officials had reviewed foreign assistance initiatives to determine which ones were “no longer aligned with this administration.”
House lawmakers included a caveat in their bill requiring the president to send Congress a determination that the Ukraine funding is in the national interest before it can be spent.
The legislation also authorizes $1 billion for the Taiwan Security Assistance Initiative to bolster the country’s defense capabilities and deter China, which has laid claim to the island nation.
Multiple amendments from Democrats taking aim at recent controversies that have embroiled the Trump administration and leaders of the Defense Department were shot down on Tuesday.
The committee voted down an amendment that would have blocked funding for the conversion of a gifted Qatari jet into Air Force One and narrowly defeated a bipartisan measure that would have condemned the use of an unsecured messaging platform to share sensitive information.
An amendment that would require the defense secretary to give Congress a rationale for firing a general or flag officer was rejected in a 29-28 vote. Republican Don Bacon of Nebraska, a former Air Force brigadier general who is not running for reelection, voted for it alongside Democrats.
Republican Rep. Derek Schmidt of Kansas also sided with Democrats to narrowly approve an amendment blocking the Pentagon from contravening or reversing the recommendations of a commission created to remove Confederate names from military installations.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has renamed multiple Army bases in recent months using soldiers who have the same last names as the Confederate generals for whom the bases once honored. Hegseth defended the renamings to senators last month as “important for the morale of the Army.”
shkolnikova.svetlana@stripes.com
Twitter: @svetashko
