House OKs $778B National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2022

The House on Thursday voted 316-113 to pass a $777.9 billion defense policy bill that would increase service members’ salary by 2.7 percent and fund 13 additional combat ships, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The proposed National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2022 reflects a 5 percent increase, or approximately $37.5 billion, in defense spending over last year’s enacted budget and a rise of about $25 billion from the president’s proposed budget of $752.9 billion for the Pentagon.

The FY 2022 NDAA included an amendment to add $23.9 billion to the defense budget. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., the House Armed Services Committee’s ranking member, proposed the amendment, which was approved by the House panel in early September.

The proposed measure would establish an office of countering extremism responsible for collecting data, training and fighting extremism in the military, form a bipartisan commission to identify lessons learned from the war in Afghanistan and require the secretary of defense to report on counterterrorism initiatives and provide updates on plans to evacuate the remaining U.S. citizens and Afghan allies.

The bill also proposes changes to the military justice system.

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