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Senate Democrats on Tuesday defeated a motion to proceed to the $1.15 trillion annual defense authorization bill, legislation that usually enjoys strong bipartisan support but this year has become snarled in a partisan fight over defense spending levels.
The motion to advance the annual defense bill failed by a vote of 50 to 46. It needed 60 votes to succeed.
Senators voted strictly along party lines except for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) who changed his vote from “yes” to “no” to allow him to bring the motion back to the floor at a later time.
Four senators missed the vote: Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Jim Justice (R-W.Va.), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.).
The legislation advanced out of the Senate Armed Services Committee on June 11 with a bipartisan 18-9 vote, but the partisan battle lines have hardened since then as Republican and Democratic negotiators have failed to reach agreement on top-line defense and non-defense spending levels.
Democrats also cited the resumption of the military conflict with Iran and Trump’s failure to ask Congress to authorize the war, which started on Feb. 28, as a big reason behind their opposition to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
“Now the White House has formally notified Congress that hostilities have resumed, that American strikes are under way again and our forces remain positioned for more. Yet Republicans want the Senate to take up the NDAA, the defense bill, as though none of this is happening,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) said on the floor before the vote.
The legislation would provide $1.1 trillion to the Department of Defense, $41 billion to the Department of Energy to manage the nation’s nuclear arsenal and $11 billion to other defense-related activities.
The legislation includes a 3.6 percent pay raise for troops and investments in education, housing health care and childcare for military families.
But the lack of a bipartisan deal on increasing defense and non-defense spending levels in tandem has caused a deadlock in the Senate that has ensnared the regular appropriations bills and now the defense authorization bill, as well.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) called the Democratic vote to block the defense bill from coming up for debate “unprecedented.”
“It’s unprecedented not to pass the motion to proceed on the NDAA and it reflects a decision and a mindset on the part of Sen. Schumer not to cooperate at all because so much of this has been done on a bipartisan basis,” he said. “It really is a new low.”
Schumer on Monday criticized Republicans in a “Dear Colleague” letter for pushing “lopsided” bills that increased defense spending substantially while leaving behind non-defense programs.
“There is nothing normal about putting forward a lopsided proposal that shuts down bipartisan input and jams through one-sided bills that shortchange families, prolong a war, and shield corruption,” he wrote.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Tuesday slammed the defense authorization bill as a bill to support the military conflict with Iran, which most Americans oppose.
“It’s a war-funding authorization bill. This is an authorization for the Iran war, a war that nobody in this country wants,” he said.
Some Democrats were wavering on whether to vote to begin debate on the bill, such as Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee.
“I’m considering it,” Reed said before the vote.
Add as preferred source on Google Tags Alex Padilla Chris Murphy Chuck Schumer Jack Reed Jim Justice John Fetterman John Thune Mitch McConnell Roger WickerCopyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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