The Senate Armed Services Committee has advanced a draft annual defense policy bill that reduces proposed pay raises for troops, renames the Department of Defense the Department of War and creates a new combatant command inspired by Ukraine. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — The Senate Armed Services Committee has advanced a draft annual defense policy bill that reduces proposed pay raises for troops, renames the Department of Defense to the Department of War and allows the creation of a new autonomous systems combatant command.
The committee voted 18-9 for the must-pass legislation, known as the National Defense Authorization Act, with Democrats voicing opposition to the Pentagon’s name change and what they said is a lack of pushback on the Iran conflict.
“Rather than taking steps to end this deeply unpopular war, this bill rebrands the Department of Defense as the Department of War, a juvenile move that sadly describes the reality of a president who has abandoned meaningful diplomacy in favor of starting doubtful wars in multiple locations and threatening even more,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.
The name change was approved by the House Armed Services Committee last week. If passed by Congress, it could cost as much as $125 million, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The defense bill authorizes $1.14 trillion in spending for fiscal 2027, a number that aligns with the House committee’s version of the measure. President Donald Trump is calling for a total $1.5 trillion defense budget, but that would require a separate $350 billion partisan bill that faces an uncertain future.
Republican Roger Wicker, of Mississippi, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said his panel’s legislation marks “a seminal breakthrough for the American military.”
“Through a historic level of investment, and bold innovations in organization and procurement, this legislation facilitates the modernization of an American arsenal that will define the next generation of warfare,” he said in a statement.
The measure heavily invests in munitions and includes provisions to strengthen the defense industrial base.
It also notably rejects the tiered pay raises for troops requested by the Trump administration, which had asked for pay increases of 7% for the most junior enlisted ranks, 6% for mid-level enlisted troops and junior officers and 5% for all higher officer ranks.
Instead, the bill proposes a flat 3.6% pay raise across all ranks.
Committee staff, speaking to reporters on the condition of anonymity, said the change reflected concerns about compression of the pay scale, which was raised during last year’s quadrennial review of military compensation.
“Pay compression matters because it can affect performance incentives,” the review stated. “Eliminating pay increases in the lower grades weakens incentives to become a high performer, or to perform above the minimum required to remain in the military.”
The leftover pay raise funds will be integrated into a larger “quality of life package” for service members that includes health care, child care, tuition assistance and other programs, staff said.
The legislation also bucks the administration on Ukraine.
It authorizes $750 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, a long-running program that supplies Ukraine with weapons and equipment, and extends it through 2029.
The measure also takes inspiration from technology advances in the war in Ukraine by authorizing a new Robotic and Autonomous Systems Combatant Command. Committee staff said the command would be led by a four-star officer and modeled after the unmanned systems military branch Ukraine created last year.
The committee is also directing the creation of a U.S.-Ukraine working group focused on drone technology.
Other provisions in the legislation renew limits on reducing troop levels in Europe, require the Pentagon to provide Congress with impact assessments of decreasing permanent or rotational troops in a NATO country and prohibit the U.S. from giving up its role as the top commander of NATO forces in Europe.
Committee members also agreed to a proposal from Kaine to return three military bases in Virginia to their previous names. The House Armed Services Committee is pushing for a similar provision to undo Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s move last year to reinstate base names that had been associated with the Confederacy.
The full text of the bill is expected to be filed next week. Passage of the legislation is expected at the end of the year, after the House and Senate negotiate a final version of the bill.
