On Friday. Congressman Mike Rogers (R-AL03) released a statement urging the Senate to go to conference on the FY24 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Rogers is the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
“For the first time in two years, we have the opportunity to return to regular order and hold a conference to work out the differences between the House and Senate bills,” Chairman Rogers said. “Unfortunately, for over seven weeks, the Senate has refused to agree to a conference and name their conferees. It’s vital that Congress come together to enact an NDAA that will build the ready, capable, and lethal fighting force we need to defend our nation. The House is ready to get to work – I urge the Senate to join us.”
Rogers explained that the NDAA is legislation that authorizes funding for the Department of Defense and ensures that Congress fulfills its constitutional duty to make sure that our warfighters have the training and equipment that they need.
The Senate passed a largely bipartisan NDAA with no controversial political planks. The House Armed Services Committee did the same, and the NDAA passed out of committee with wide bipartisan support. However, once the NDAA got to the floor of the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives, the Republican majority added a number of GOP priorities to the bipartisan version of the NDAA. One of these is a plank overturning President Joe Biden’s military abortion policy.
Congresswoman Terri Sewell (D-AL07) voted against the NDAA due to the Republican changes on the floor.
“I did not take this vote lightly,” Sewell said. “I have proudly voted in favor of the annual defense bill every year since coming to Congress. But I cannot and will not support a bill that would rip basic health care away from our service members and make bigotry and discrimination a centerpiece of our defense policy. Republicans need to stop playing politics with our national security.”
If the NDAA goes to a conference committee, a bipartisan committee of Senators and Representatives will produce a compromise version of the NDAA. The Senate’s Democratic Party leadership does not want to go into conference committee with any of those Republican planks even being a negotiating point and has thus far resisted even going to conference on the differences between the two bills.
Weeks that could have been spent on the NDAA and the budget were instead wasted in a mindless battle for power between squabbling Republican House members over which one of them was allowed to hold the Speaker’s gavel – two weeks were also wasted on this same pettiness back in January.
The annual NDAA should have been passed and signed by the President by September 30.
Mike Rogers represents Alabama’s Third Congressional District.
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