The House of Representatives on Thursday approved the National Defense Authorization Act with a vote of 270 to 156, sending the funding bill to the Senate. Lawmakers came to an agreement on the $612 billion bill Tuesday afternoon. It blocks the Air Force’s plans to retire the A-10, sets aircraft minimums for the service, and restricts the retirement of the EC-130H Compass Call, KC-10 tanker, E-8 JSTARS, and E-3 AWACS. The legislation also makes sweeping changes to the acquisition process. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) said the bill “provides the resources our troops need for a strong national defense and does so in a fiscally responsible way.” The White House has said President Barack Obama will veto the bill, which Thornberry said would be “irresponsible … especially while the Taliban is retaking Afghan cities, ISIS is marching across the Middle East, and Russia is on the ground in Ukraine and now in Syria.”
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.