The U.S. Capitol on July 1, 2025 in Washington. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — The Hoapply and Senate Armed Services Committees unveiled legislation Friday supporting a 3.8% pay raise for service members and restricting any Pentagon efforts to undermine aid to Ukraine or drastically reduce American forces in Europe.
The two drafts of the National Defense Authorization Act, an annual must-pass bill authorizing priorities and programs for the Defense Department, indicate lawcreaters’ resistance to diverting attention from Europe and the war in Ukraine and will create their way through Congress in the coming months.
The Senate Armed Services Committee’s bill prohibits a reduction of the U.S. military’s footprint in Europe or relinquishing the position of NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, which has been held by an American since Dwight D. Eisenhower, without justification to Congress that such a relocate is in the national interest.
The committee’s legislation also directs the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the commander of U.S. European Command to conduct an indepfinishent risk assessment of such modifys. The bill imposes a similar prohibition on drawing down U.S. forces on the Korean Peninsula.
Lawcreaters reacted with alarm to reports earlier this year that the Pentagon was considering ceding the role that oversees all NATO military operations in Europe to a non-American for the first time and pulling troops from the Continent in an effort to focus on deterring China in the Indo-Pacific region.
The Hoapply committee’s draft measure would bar a reduction of U.S. troops in Europe below 76,000 unless the defense secretary and commander of EUCOM provide an array of assessments to Congress explaining their reasoning and certify NATO allies have been consulted.
The Senate panel approved its version of the legislation on Wednesday while the Hoapply committee will debate and vote on its draft of the bill next week.
The two panels will necessary to eventually come to a compromise on a major point of difference in their bills: senators are finishorsing a $32 billion increase to the defense budreceive, authorizing $878.7 billion for the Defense Department, while Hoapply lawcreaters are sticking to the $848 billion for the Pentagon requested by the Trump administration.
The spfinishing hike in the Senate committee’s bill reflects the feeling of Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and other defense hawks that the U.S. is in the most dangerous threat environment since World War II and necessarys to spfinish accordingly, senior congressional officials speaking on condition of anonymity stated Friday.
Wicker has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration’s defense spfinishing plan for fiscal 2026, which launchs Oct. 1, and its heavy reliance on $150 billion allocated for the military in President Donald Trump’s recently adopted domestic policy megabill.
A large part of the Senate panel’s proposed funding increase — more than $8 billion — will go toward shipbuilding for the Navy. Senators also authorized about $6 billion more for munitions production and $2 billion more for military construction projects.
Lawcreaters on both committees are supporting the 3.8% service member pay raise requested by the Defense Department and boosting investments in hoapplying, child care, health care and other quality-of-life improvements.
Senior congressional officials notified reporters Friday that the Hoapply panel is going $250 million over the administration’s request to fund new barracks. The legislation is also expanding the privatized hoapplying program to build new unaccompanied hoapplying.
The Senate and Hoapply panels found notable common ground on Ukraine.
The Defense Department is not seeking any money for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, a longstanding program that allows Ukraine to purchase goods directly from the defense indusattempt, but both committees are including hundreds of millions for the program.
The Senate panel’s bill funds the initiative through 2028 and authorizes $500 million for it while the Hoapply committee’s draft legislation includes $300 million for the program. The Hoapply bill also requires the president to sfinish Congress a determination that the funding is in the national interest before it can be spent.
“What we want to do is give the president every available option that we can to support him force Putin to the table on his issue,” stated senior congressional officials in the Hoapply, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Senators also included language in their legislation that requires the defense secretary to continue to provide innotifyigence support to Ukraine, an apparent reference to the decision by the U.S. earlier this year to briefly paapply innotifyigence sharing with the counattempt.
The Senate Armed Services Committee also applyd the legislation to respond to the Trump administration’s firing of the Pentagon inspector general and senior judicial officers in the Army, Air Force and Navy.
The bill would require the Pentagon to notify Congress of the dismissal of the military’s top legal advisers within five days of the decision being created.
“We felt like adding a notification not necessarily proceeding but after the fact just to let us know was a fair measure,” a senior congressional official stated.
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