A wide-ranging bill setting the federal government’s defense and national security policy for the fiscal year survived a key hurdle Tuesday night, but questions over whether it will survive a critical House-wide test vote on Wednesday remain.
The House Rules Committee voted to advance the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) along party lines after hours of debate, setting up the bill for a chamber-wide vote on Wednesday afternoon around 1:30 p.m.
The legislation will dictate how roughly $900 billion of the federal budget will be spent on America’s national defense.
But with several conservatives already voicing concerns, it’s unclear if it can survive a procedural hurdle that will likely need almost all House Republicans to vote in lock step despite support from the majority of the House GOP.
The House Rules Committee is the final gatekeeper before most pieces of legislation get a chamber-wide vote. Lawmakers on the panel are responsible for setting terms of debate on a bill, including deciding which amendments, if any, can be voted on.
The next step is generally a House-wide procedural vote, called a rule vote, where lawmakers decide whether to green-light debating the bill.
Fox News Digital was told earlier this week that House GOP leaders hope to hold the NDAA vote in the early evening Wednesday.
But questions about whether the bill could pass a chamber-wide rule vote earlier in the day began popping up soon after the 3,000-page bill was unveiled Sunday night.
Rule votes generally fall along party lines even if the underlying measure has bipartisan support. And with a razor-thin majority, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., can only afford to lose two GOP votes and still win.
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At least two House Republicans, Eric Burlison, R-Mo., and Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told Fox News Digital Tuesday afternoon they are undecided on the House-wide rule vote.
Some conservatives are concerned with the bill’s exclusion of a ban on central bank digital currency (CBDC). Without it, GOP privacy hawks argue that the federal government could use digital currency for widespread surveillance and control of Americans.
“Conservatives were promised that an anti-central bank digital currency language, authored by Tom Emmer, the whip, would be in the NDAA. Our initial reading of it, we’ve had it for hours now, is that it is not in there. And then there is no anti-abortion language either. So, as we fund our military, there are red lines that we need to put in here,” Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, said on “Mornings with Maria” Monday.
Self told Fox News Digital he was also undecided on the rule vote but would vote “no” on the final legislation.
Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, posted his frustration with the measure’s exclusion on X and told reporters he too was undecided on the rule.
Meanwhile, Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., said he was frustrated with the process of crafting the final NDAA.
“All of this was negotiated behind closed doors,” he told Fox News Digital. “We’re getting shoved, and we just have to eat it, or, you know, vote against increasing pay to our military service members. It’s a very unfortunate situation to be in, that the speaker keeps putting us in.”
And Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said he was likely going to vote “no” on the rule vote Wednesday.
It was a good sign, however, that the House Rules Committee’s three House Freedom Caucus members — Reps. Morgan Griffith, R-Va.; Chip Roy, R-Texas; and Ralph Norman, R-S.C. — all voted to advance it to a chamber-wide vote.
The vast majority of House Republicans are also supportive of the legislation, pointing out it includes multiple measures codifying President Donald Trump’s agenda, ramping up the U.S.’s capabilities against China and other adversaries, as well as providing a pay increase for service members.
House GOP leaders have the option of putting the bill up under suspension of the rules, meaning it bypasses that procedural hurdle in exchange for raising the passage threshold to two-thirds rather than a simple majority.
The NDAA itself is likely to pass along bipartisan lines, but it’s unclear how many Democrats will help.
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said he would vote for the NDAA despite concerns “with how a number of issues were handled by the Speaker and the White House during final negotiations,” he said in a statement.
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