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mark takano
House Passes NDAA to Push Military Spending Approved This Year Beyond $1 Trillion
Highlighting how the Pentagon is "replete with waste and fraud," one critic called it "a disgraceful and unconscionable misuse of taxpayer money."
Sep 10, 2025
Nearly all Republicans and 17 Democrats in the US House of Representatives voted Wednesday evening for a military bill that would push the figure for defense spending approved this year beyond $1 trillion.
The final vote for the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2026 was 231-196, with just four Republicans opposing the bill, which will still need to be reconciled with the Senate's version.
Robert Weissman, co-president of the consumer watchdog group Public Citizen, highlighted after the vote that the House's NDAA authorizes about $883 billion for defense spending—including over $848 billion for the Pentagon, which has never passed an audit—on top of the $150 billion in the GOP budget reconciliation package that President Donald Trump signed in July.
"Throwing a trillion dollars at the Pentagon—an agency replete with waste and fraud—at the same time the Republican Congress and the Trump regime are slashing spending on healthcare, education, housing, food assistance, and foreign aid is a disgraceful and unconscionable misuse of taxpayer money," Weissman said, referring to other provisions in the earlier package.
"On top of the age-old dangerous and wasteful spending, the bill pours billions into new boondoggles like Trump's 'Golden Dome' space interceptor vanity project and supercharges the dangerous development of killer robots for the battlefield," he noted. "Making it still worse is the administration's in-your-face, authoritarian misuse of Pentagon dollars—from the deployment of the National Guard on the streets of Washington, DC, to the illegal and murderous attack on a Venezuelan boat."
Weissman added that "the bill includes some modest, positive requirements to report waste, fraud, and price gouging to Congress and establishes financial penalties if the Pentagon fails its audit. But these small measures do not begin to offset the damage done by the dangerous and wasteful overall package."
House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-Wash.), who voted against the NDAA's final passage, told Politico that "we didn't get any of the amendments and the debates that we wanted; not a single solitary one."
"Meanwhile, all manner of different issues that are pure culture war partisan issues were allowed in," he continued. "I fear that many of those are going to pass."
In a statement after the vote, the Congressional Equality Caucus condemned "six Republican-sponsored anti-LGBTQI+ amendments," including bans on medically necessary healthcare for transgender service members and dependents.
"The National Defense Authorization Act has traditionally received strong bipartisan support, yet for the second Congress in a row House Republicans have tainted a bill aimed at improving the lives of servicemembers with poison-pill riders that threaten our troops' rights, their families' stability, and our efforts to retain top talent," said the caucus chair, Rep. Mark Takano (D-Cailf.).
"Republicans' sacrifice of a strong bipartisan vote for a politicized NDAA to appease the Trump administration and a small slice of their base cannot undo the sacrifice of the transgender service members, cadets, or military dependents that will be hurt by this bill," he added. "Congress should be fighting for those who fight for us—but it's clear the GOP has other priorities. I will keep fighting to prevent the harmful provisions in this bill from becoming law."
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'Outright Betrayal of Veterans': Fury Over Trump-Musk Plan to Fire 83,000 VA Workers
A House Democrat warned the move "will cripple the very system that millions of veterans rely on, denying them access to lifesaving healthcare, claims processing, and education benefits they've earned."
Mar 05, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk's sweeping effort to gut the federal government includes cutting up to 83,000 jobs at the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to a leaked memo that sparked a furious response on Wednesday.
VA Chief of Staff Christopher Syrek's memo to top staff was first reported by Government Executive late Tuesday.
As the outlet detailed: "The forthcoming cuts will be sweeping and spare no part of the department, Syrek said. He set an initial target of VA's staffing level in fiscal 2019, or 399,000 workers. VA currently employs 482,000 staff—and 459,000 full-time workers—meaning VA plans to slash its workforce by upwards of 83,000 individuals." Over a quarter of department employees are veterans.
"Trump and Musk want to take away veterans' healthcare to pay for massive tax breaks for billionaires. It's a morally bankrupt plan that will prevent those who served our country from getting the care they need."
U.S. House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Chair Mike Bost (R-Ill.) said in a statement that "I have questions about the impact these reductions and discussions could have on the delivery of services," and "I have been in contact with" Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins since the memo leaked. The panel's ranking member, Mark Takano (D-Calif.), was far more critical.
"This deliberate dismantling of VA's workforce by firing an additional 80,000 employees isn't just dangerous—it's an outright betrayal of veterans," said Takano. He warned that a return to the staffing level before the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act, 2022 legislation to help those exposed to burn pits, "will cripple the very system that millions of veterans rely on, denying them access to lifesaving healthcare, claims processing, and education benefits they've earned."
Takano called on Bost to "immediately hold a hearing to get answers—because what's happening here isn't just a bureaucratic decision, it's a crisis in the making." He also demanded that Collins "explain how this reckless attack on VA won't have catastrophic consequences for veterans' access to care, benefits, and education."
Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) similarly said that "Congress worked in a bipartisan manner to pass the PACT Act and equip VA with the tools and resources needed to serve more veterans than ever. Since January 20, this administration has launched an all-out assault undermining that progress and attacking the VA workforce and the veterans it serves."
"This memo makes their goal crystal clear: They want to roll back the PACT Act by cutting 80,000 jobs—including 20,000 veterans—while starving VA's ability to meet increased demand in order to justify privatizing VA," Blumenthal continued. "Their plan prioritizes private sector profits over veterans' care, balancing the budget on the backs of those who served. It's a shameful betrayal, and veterans will pay the price for their unforgivable corruption, incompetence, and immorality."
Congressman Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), an Iraq War veteran, declared on the Musk-owned platform X that "they are trying to destroy the VA. Miss me with your flag waving GOP ads wrapping yourself in my fellow veterans. We're up for this fight."
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) hosted a Wednesday press conference about GOP attacks on veterans. He said that "thousands of veterans across the country have been hurt by the extreme reactions of Donald Trump, the Trump administration, Elon Musk, and MAGA Republicans. It's unacceptable. It's unconscionable. It's un-American."
"And there are several veterans here today to tell their stories to the American people about what is happening and the fact that veterans all across this great country are being harmed," Jeffries explained. "Our promise to veterans and this country is that we will always stand with you."
The Associated Press on Wednesday obtained the memo and spoke with Michael Missal, one of several inspectors general suing over Trump's recent dismissal of the watchdogs. He told the AP that the VA is already suffering from a lack of "expertise" at the top of the agency.
"What's going to happen is VA's not going to perform as well for veterans, and veterans are going to get harmed," warned Missal, who was Blumenthal's guest for Trump's Tuesday address to Congress. The ousted inspector general described the VA as "a really complicated, hard to manage organization," like a big corporation, and defended his work there.
Outrage over the VA's plan to work with the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to "resize and tailor the workforce to the mission and revised structure," as Syrek put it, reached far beyond members of government.
"Trump and Musk want to take away veterans' healthcare to pay for massive tax breaks for billionaires. It's a morally bankrupt plan that will prevent those who served our country from getting the care they need," said Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party. "Every House Republican should be point-blank whether they stand by Trump and Musk’s plan to cut healthcare for our veterans."
The watchdog Accountable.US called the reporting on the memo "damning," while American Federation of Government Employees national president Everett Kelley, stressed that the layoffs "will destroy the VA's ability fulfill the PACT Act's promises to veterans who either died or became ill as a result of exposure to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances."
"The VA has been severely understaffed for many years, resulting in longer wait times for veterans in need," the union leader said. "The DOGE plunder of career VA employees, adding to the illegal mass firings of thousands of probationary employees, can only make matters worse. Veterans and their families will suffer unnecessarily, and the will of Congress will be ignored."
On behalf of the 311,000 VA employees his union represents, Kelley urged Congress "to intervene in these un-American tactics and put a stop to Elon Musk's DOGE rampage through America's most cherished agencies in a blatant attempt to justify privatizing government services."
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House Dems Rip Lance Gooden for 'Blatantly Racist' Attack on Rep. Judy Chu
"When we say Republican rhetoric and policies embolden anti-Asian hate and violence, this is what we mean," said Rep. Ayanna Pressley.
Feb 24, 2023
Democratic U.S. lawmakers and Asian-American and Pacific Islander advocates joined Rep. Judy Chu in condemning Congressman Lance Gooden on Friday after the MAGA Republican—who took part in an effort to overturn the last presidential election—cast aspersions upon the California Democrat's loyalty to the United States.
Gooden (Texas) appeared Wednesday on Fox News' "Jesse Watters Primetime" and suggested Chu—who chairs the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus—should be kept from seeing certain classified materials and investigated for defending Dominic Ng, a Chinese-American banker appointed by the Biden administration to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation's Business Advisory Council.
"I question her either loyalty or competence," said Gooden. "If she doesn’t realize what's going on then she's totally out of touch with one of her core constituencies."
"After centuries of being targeted for not being 'American enough' and viewed with suspicion based on looking 'foreign,' this type of insinuation and fear-mongering only further endangers our communities."
Earlier this month, The Daily Caller—a far-right news site known for platforming xenophobes and white supremacists—published an article in which Gooden is quoted urging the FBI to "immediately launch an investigation" into Ng's alleged links to the Chinese Communist Party.
"Rep. Gooden's comments on Fox News questioning my loyalty to the USA is absolutely outrageous," Chu, the first Chinese-American woman elected to Congress, said in a statement reported by NBC News. "It is based on false information spread by an extreme, right-wing website. Furthermore, it is racist. I very much doubt that he would be spreading these lies were I not of Chinese-American descent."
\u201cDear @Lancegooden: I served in the US military (unlike you) to defend your right to say stupid, racist shit. Attacking the loyalty of Asian Americans like @RepJudyChu is a racist trope that has harmed Asian Americans throughout US history. Stop harming Americans of Asian descent.\u201d— Ted Lieu (@Ted Lieu) 1677198785
Chu's Democratic colleagues took to Twitter to condemn Goodman's remarks as "racist."
"Insinuating that Chair Chu is disloyal to the United States because she is Chinese-American is categorically wrong," the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) said in a statement. "This type of racist targeting and profiling of Chinese-Americans by right-wing extremists is not only xenophobic, it is incredibly dangerous."
"After centuries of being targeted for not being 'American enough' and viewed with suspicion based on looking 'foreign,' this type of insinuation and fear-mongering only further endangers our communities," the caucus added.
\u201cWhen we say Republican rhetoric and policies embolden anti-Asian hate and violence, this is what we mean.\n\nI'm proud to stand with @RepJudyChu and I condemn these racist and xenophobic comments by Rep. Gooden.\u201d— Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (@Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley) 1677258002
Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) tweeted that "baseless, xenophobic, and blatantly racist attacks against Rep. Judy Chu by extreme MAGA Republicans are right out of their anti-American playbook."
"Rep. Chu is an exceptional public servant and leader," he added. "House GOP leadership: It's past time to hold your conference accountable."
Taking aim at Fox News for airing Gooden's "xenophobic and racist" attack, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) asserted that "we cannot allow anti-Asian bigotry to go without condemnation."
Some observers noted that Gooden's remarks came just days after the anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's infamous executive order authorizing the concentration camp imprisonment of Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast—largely due to baseless concerns regarding their loyalty.
"More than 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated because of false claims of disloyalty because of their ethnic origin," tweeted Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, an interpretive center at the site of one of the World War II concentration camps. "The U.S. government apologized for it. Now the same kind of false claims are being made again."
\u201cWe will not stand by as racists like this one try to revive one of our ugliest moments in history. \ud83d\ude21 TY @RepJeffries & others for speaking up against ignorant fear mongering. We are American too. \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\u201d— Grace Meng (@Grace Meng) 1677201536
On Friday, Gooden doubled down on his remarks, accusing both Chu and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.)—who published a statement defending the congresswoman—of "playing the race card in a sick display of disloyalty to our nation."
Gooden is a member of the so-called "Sedition Caucus" of nearly 150 Republicans in Congress who attempted to subvert the 2020 U.S. presidential election in service of former President Donald Trump's "Big Lie" that the contest was stolen.
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