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national defense authorization act
While Ripping Trump Authoritarianism, Over Half of Senate Dems Help GOP Pass $925 Billion Pentagon Bill
"Congress continues to expand military spending while denying investments in the programs that will truly build a safer, healthier future for working- and middle-class families," said Sen. Ed Markey, who voted no.
Oct 10, 2025
Senate Democrats are blasting President Donald Trump's increasingly authoritarian behavior and congressional Republicans for shutting down the US government to preserve devastating healthcare cuts, but over half of them voted with the GOP late Thursday to give nearly $1 trillion to the Pentagon, which has never passed an audit.
The final vote on the Senate's $925 billion version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 was 77-20, with Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Thom Tillis (R-NC) not voting. The passage tees up talks with leaders in the House of Representatives, where nearly all Republicans and 17 Democrats approved an NDAA last month.
Democratic Sens. Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Cory Booker (NJ), Maria Cantwell (Wash.) Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Andy Kim (NJ), Ed Markey (Mass.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Chris Murphy (Conn.), Patty Murray (Wash.), Alex Padilla (Calif.), Brian Schatz (Hawaii), Adam Schiff (Calif.), Tina Smith (Minn.) Chris Van Hollen (Md.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Peter Welch (Vt.), and Ron Wyden (Ore.) opposed the bill alongside Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who caucuses with Democrats, and Rand Paul (R-Ky).
"Yesterday, the Senate voted to give the Pentagon a trillion-dollar spending package while the Trump administration and MAGA Republicans play politics with troop pay and nuclear security and refuse to reopen the federal government," Markey said in a Friday statement. "All the while, they are stealing healthcare from American families to fund tax breaks for CEO billionaires. This isn't a budget that funds America's real security needs."
"The Senate voted to give the Pentagon a trillion-dollar spending package while the Trump administration and MAGA Republicans play politics with troop pay and nuclear security and refuse to reopen the federal government."
"Republicans rail that we need to cut government spending—for food assistance, for healthcare, for environmental protection—yet they are showering their defense contractor cronies with hundreds of billions for wasteful and destabilizing programs like Trump's Golden Dome space-based missile system," Markey continued. "Yet they decry that funding will soon dry up for paying military salaries and for essential nuclear security operations at the National Nuclear Security Administration."
"In their desperation to score cheap political points, Republicans are undermining vital national security missions," he added. "Year after year, Congress continues to expand military spending while denying investments in the programs that will truly build a safer, healthier future for working- and middle-class families. The cost of passing this bill in the form of denied rights and wasteful spending is simply too great."
In posts on Bluesky, journalist Erin Reed called out the Senate Democrats who helped pass the bill, given its attacks on LGBTQ+ Americans and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)—common targets of congressional Republicans and the Trump administration.
"In 2024, the NDAA became the vehicle for one of the most consequential betrayals of transgender Americans by national Democrats in recent memory, after Democrats allowed provisions targeting trans military family members and dependents to stand when they had control of the Senate and White House," Reed noted.
"This year, history is repeating itself," she said. "Senate Democrats dropped key objections and allowed a vote to proceed on the bill—ultimately passing the Senate version of the bill, complete with anti-trans culture-war riders, an anti-DEI clause, and no limits on the domestic deployment of US troops."
Early Thursday afternoon, Duckworth, a veteran herself, said that she was blocking the NDAA until she secured a hearing to investigate the president's "gross abuse of our military" by sending soldiers into American cities. A few hours later—shortly before a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump's National Guard deployment in her state, Illinois—Duckworth announced that a hearing is planned.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), one of the Democrats who voted for the NDAA, secured sufficient bipartisan support for his amendment to end the authorizations for use of military force related to the 1991 Gulf War and 2003 invasion of Iraq. The Washington Post reported that "the House bill also includes a similar measure, bringing Congress to the precipice of repealing the laws."
Some other Democrat-proposed amendments weren't successful. According to The Hill:
Amendments that failed to pass included one from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) who had hoped to block money for President Trump to retrofit a luxury Qatari jet he accepted as an intended replacement for Air Force One.
"Retrofitting this foreign-owned luxury jet to make it fully operational will cost hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. That's money that shouldn't be wasted," Schumer said.
Still, Schumer ultimately voted for the NDAA—unlike Van Hollen, who proposed blocking Trump and governors from sending National Guard troops to another state if its governor or local leaders don't agree.
"Presidents and governors shouldn't be able to deploy National Guard troops from one state to another if that state's governor objects," the senator said on social media. "That is common sense, and yet Republicans just blocked my amendment to stop this blatant abuse of power. Another shameful abdication of duty."
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Schumer to Force Vote on Releasing Epstein Files
"Enough smoke and mirrors: The American people deserve clarity and the only way to get it is by releasing the files and stopping the government's stonewalling," said one advocate of the move.
Sep 10, 2025
US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday moved to force a vote on releasing documents concerning Jeffrey Epstein amid efforts by President Donald Trump to quash public scrutiny of his longtime close friendship with the deceased sex offender.
The Hill reported that Schumer (D-N.Y.) "ambushed" Senate Republicans by filing an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) directing US Attorney General Pam Bondi to publicly release all non-classified materials in the so-called Epstein files.
"Just a few minutes ago, I filed an amendment that would require the attorney general to release all the Epstein files and Republicans are going to have to vote on it," Schumer said in a social media post. "We're going to keep fighting until these files are fully released."
BREAKING NEWS: I just filed an amendment on the Senate Floor to REQUIRE the Attorney General to release the Epstein files.Republicans will HAVE TO vote on it. We’re going to keep fighting until these files are released.
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— Chuck Schumer (@schumer.senate.gov) September 10, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Schumer's amendment mirrors legislation proposed in July by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who want the House of Representatives to compel the Department of Justice to release all the Epstein materials in its possession.
"We can't avoid justice just to avoid embarrassment for some very powerful men," Massie told ABC News' "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos on Sunday.
Khanna told Stephanopoulos that "we have the 218 votes, 216 already support it. There are two vacancies that haven't been reported as much, but two Democrats are going to be joining and they are both committed to signing it. That's going to happen by the end of September."
Bondi said in February that a list of Epstein's clients was "sitting on my desk right now to review"—but she has since gone mum on the matter amid Trump's apparent consternation over the issue. She then attempted to walk back her claim.
Republicans have repeatedly stymied efforts to vote on releasing the Epstein files, even at the cost of enraging much of their base.
Trump's efforts to deflect and distract from the Epstein scandal have outraged even many of his hardcore supporters and resulted in calls for transparency from both sides of the political aisle. The president denies any wrongdoing related to Epstein, calling the controversy over the files a "hoax" while denouncing Republicans demanding transparency as "weaklings."
The president also sued The Wall Street Journal over reporting that he created a "bawdy" letter and drawing for Epstein's 50th birthday in 2003. The birthday message was published this week; Trump denies that the signature on the message—which appears to exactly match his own—is his.
Cavan Kharrazian, senior policy adviser at the pro-democracy group Demand Progress, welcomed Schumer's move in a statement noting that "a quarter million Americans have asked their members of Congress to release the Epstein files."
"Senators should heed that groundswell of support and immediately vote to release them," Kharrazian added. "Enough smoke and mirrors: The American people deserve clarity and the only way to get it is by releasing the files and stopping the government's stonewalling."
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After Passage of GOP Medicaid Cuts, Congress Debates Nearly $1 Trillion Military Budget
In a closed-door session last week, senators advanced legislation that would authorize $925 billion in military spending for the coming fiscal year.
Jul 14, 2025
Fresh off the passage of a Republican budget measure that includes more than $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid over the next decade, Congress this week is set to consider legislation that would authorize close to that same amount for the U.S. military for the coming fiscal year.
The House Armed Services Committee, controlled by Republicans, will mark up its version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on Tuesday. In a closed-door session late last week, the Senate Armed Services Committee advanced its military spending authorization package, which has a topline of roughly $925 billion for Fiscal Year 2026—an increase of around $30 billion compared to the current fiscal year.
Unlike the GOP reconciliation package that President Donald Trump signed into law earlier this month, the NDAA is likely to clear Congress with bipartisan support. Just one Democrat on the Senate armed services panel—Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—voted against advancing the legislation out of committee last week.
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the NDAA "a critical, bipartisan measure that ensures our military remains prepared to meet the growing and complex challenges of a dangerous world."
The $925 billion Senate NDAA topline does not include the more than $150 billion Pentagon boost that Republicans inserted in their partisan reconciliation package for fiscal year 2025, pushing the nation's approved military spending above $1 trillion for the year. Trump has openly bragged about his push for a $1 trillion military budget.
"This militarized MAGA agenda harms working families and our communities," Lindsay Koshgarian and Hanna Homestead of the National Priorities Project said following passage of the GOP reconciliation bill. "It will be paid for with cuts to programs that help people meet their basic needs and will disproportionately benefit private contractors, further enrich billionaires, and exacerbate waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars."
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) asked Monday, "How do we always find money for war but never enough money for the children, the poor, and the hungry?"
Breaking Defense noted that the Senate NDAA proposes "an increase of Air Force F-35 procurement from 24 to 34 jets—a sum that, if enacted, would take the [Pentagon's] annual total to 57 jets." Watchdogs have long described the F-35 program as a ridiculous boondoggle.
Lawmakers are set to consider another increase in annual military spending following the release of a report estimating that more than half of the Pentagon's discretionary spending between 2020 and 2024 went to private contractors.
The report, released by the Costs of War Project and the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, notes that "the arms industry has used an array of tools of influence to create an atmosphere where a Pentagon budget that is $1 trillion per year is deemed 'not enough' by some members of Congress." Such tools include lobbying and sizable campaign contributions.
"The vast bulk of the arms industry's campaign contributions go to candidates for Congress," the report observes. "The industry favors incumbents, and concentrates much of its giving to members of the armed services committees and defense appropriations subcommittees in the House and Senate—the members with the strongest role in shaping the Pentagon budget."
This story has been updated to include comment from Rep. Ilhan Omar.
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