The House passed President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax, health care, immigration and defense spending law Thursday by a vote of 218-214, securing the first part of the Pentagon’s bank-shot defense budget this year.
Among other provisions in the massive spending package, the bill contains $150 billion for the Defense Department, slated for priorities like shipbuilding, the Golden Dome homeland defense project and refilling America’s stores of precision weapons.
That total includes $113 billion in mandatory funding for the military, which the Pentagon has said pushes its budget close to $1 trillion for the first time. In its long-delayed budget release last week, the Defense Department requested a separate $848 billion in base funding, otherwise a cut when accounting for inflation.
Still, in an unusual arrangement, the Pentagon had been counting on the separate party-line bill passed Thursday for its budget in the coming fiscal year.
Normally, the administration reserves its top priorities for the base defense budget, which, despite frequent delays, is considered must-pass legislation each year. Instead, the Trump administration divided its spending into two bills — accepting the risk that the party-line package might fail and upend the Pentagon’s budget.
Congressional Republicans and Democrats criticized this setup and the lengthy wait to get the Trump administration’s budget request, as Pentagon leaders appeared on Capitol Hill to testify over the last two months.
But by passing the bill Thursday, Congress has inverted the same process it previously urged the administration to maintain.
As the administration approaches fiscal 2026, it will have the $150 billion in extra defense spending already available. But lawmakers and committee staff in Congress widely expect the fiscal year to begin with a continuing resolution, or a temporary funding bill that limits how the government can spend its money.
That would mean the Pentagon has supplemental funding passed without its base budget — like getting a bonus but while on furlough.
In the end, only two House Republicans voted against the measure, after a larger group threatened to tank the bill earlier in the week over concerns about the massive increase to America’s deficit it is forecasted to create.
Noah Robertson is the Pentagon reporter at Defense News. He previously covered national security for the Christian Science Monitor. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English and government from the College of William & Mary in his hometown of Williamsburg, Virginia.
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