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FIRST ON FOX: A new 16-page House GOP memo shows Republican lawmakers claiming victory on issues like diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), border security and green energy in Congress. annual defense policy bill.
The 1,800-page bill, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), was released. saturday evening and details how $895.2 billion earmarked for defense and national security will be spent.
“The (FY 2025) NDAA builds on the gains made in the FY 24 NDAA to end the awakened radical ideology being imposed on our servicemen and women and restore our military’s focus on lethality,” a page from the House Armed Services Committee memo. on the bill it said
The document, obtained by Fox News Digital, lays out the key wins GOP negotiators believe they achieved in the bipartisan talks.
Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to hold a vote on the NDAA this week. (Getty Images)
The page blasting the “woke ideology” said the NDAA “destroys the DEI bureaucracy” by extending the Pentagon’s hiring freeze in DEI-related roles and halting all such hiring until “an investigation of the Pentagon’s DEI programs.”
It also prohibits the Defense Department from contracting with advertising companies “that blacklist conservative news sources,” according to the memo.
The memo said the NDAA also eliminates funding for the Biden administration’s “Counter-extremist Activity Task Force” dedicated to eliminating extremism in the ranks of the military.
The annual defense policy bill also does not authorize “any climate change program” and prohibits the Pentagon from issuing guidance based on climate impact on weapons systems.
On border security, a key issue for Republicans, the memo touted the NDAA’s support for the “deployment of National Guard troops” to support the Border Patrol on the Southwest border.
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The House Armed Services Committee, led by Rep. Mike Rogers, has come out with a new memo on talking points about the NDAA. (Getty Images)
A major part of the document emphasized the quality of life improvements for US service members secured in the NDAA, a focus of bipartisan discussion over the past year. This includes a 14.5 percent pay raise for young enlisted troops and increasing access to child care for service members, while providing job support for military spouses.
Meanwhile, the memo stressed that the $895 billion in spending directed by the NDAA represents only a 1 percent increase over fiscal year 2024 levels.
The memo gives a glimpse of Republican national security plans for the new year, when the GOP will control all the major levers of power in Washington, DC, after sweeping victories in the 2024 elections.
The measures highlighted by the memo on fighting China and Iran are likely to receive broad bipartisan support. The NDAA itself typically passes by a healthy margin among both Republicans and Democrats, except for progressives and conservatives traditionally critical of the military industrial base.
But a provision touted by Republicans in the memo, which bans funding for transgender medical treatment for children of service members, has sparked partisan frustrations.
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, cited the measures when he he told Politico that he did not know whether he could support the NDAA.
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“It’s Republicans taking advantage of a partisan wedge issue,” he told the press.
Speaker Mike JohnsonR-La., praised the limitations of progressive policies in the NDAA.
“We remain determined to confront increasingly hostile threats from Communist China, Russia and Iran, and this legislation gives our military the tools they need to deter our enemies,” Johnson said in a statement.
“This legislation includes provisions passed by the House to restore our focus on military lethality and to end the radical woke ideology that is being imposed on our military by permanently banning transgender medical treatment for minors and combating anti-Semitism.”
The bill is expected to be voted on this week.
