President Joe Biden on Friday signed into law the National Defence Authorisation Act, or NDAA, which is one of the key pieces of legislation that Congress passes every year and authorises a record $886 billion in annual military spending.
The NDAA also includes policies such as aid for Ukraine and push-back against China in the Indo-Pacific region.
The Democratic-controlled US Senate approved the legislation with a strong bipartisan majority of 87 to 13, while the House of Representatives voted in favour 310 to 118.
The NDAA governs everything from pay raises for service members and purchases of ships and aircraft to policies such as support for foreign partners like Taiwan.
The act, which is nearly 3,100 pages long, calls for a 5.2% pay raise for service members and increases the nation’s total national security budget by about 3% to $886 billion.
It also lists certain Chinese battery companies that it says are ineligible for Defence Department procurement. This bill is expected to have significant impacts on the US military and its operations.
Additionally, the fiscal 2024 NDAA includes a four-month extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which faced opposition in both the Senate and House, allowing lawmakers more time to reform or maintain the program.
The bill extends one measure to help Ukraine, the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, through the end of 2026, authorising $300 million for the program in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2024, and the next one, Reuters reported.
However, that figure is small compared to the $61 billion that Biden had asked Congress to approve to help Kyiv combat a Russian invasion that began in February 2022. Republicans had refused to approve assistance for Ukraine without Democrats agreeing to a significant toughening of immigration law.
