Biden expected to sign $886 billion defense bill

The House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act, also known as NDAA, on Thursday after the Senate overwhelmingly approved it the day before. The defense bill will move to the White House for President Joe Biden’s final approval. The 2024 NDAA is three percent larger than the current year’s package and includes raises of over five percent for military personnel and other defense workers. The bill also allows $300 million in Ukrainian aid to be paid annually for the next two fiscal years. This funding is separate from another active bill providing $110.5 billion for security measures—including aid to Ukraine and Israel. Lawmakers are still negotiating the details of that bill.

What else does the bill cover? NDAA also provides a four-month extension to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, also known as FISA. This act allows authorities to conduct surveillance operations on non-American suspects overseas without warrants and has been extended through April 2024. The bill also authorized the National Archives to house a public collection of government documents about unidentified flying objects and unidentified aerial phenomena.

Dig deeper: Read Leo Briceno’s report on the defense bill in The Stew.