The National Defense Authorization Act passed the House on Wednesday with a bipartisan amendment to repeal the 1991 and 2002 war authorizations related to Iraq and make it harder for presidents to bypass Congress on military actions.
The defense policy legislation passed 231 to 196, with four Republicans defecting and 17 Democrats joining the rest of the GOP in voting in favor of it. Nearly two dozen amendments were added on in a series of votes, including one related to ending the two Authorizations for Use of Military Force (AUMF) that backers say have been abused by presidents.
Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and Thomas Massie (R-KY) were among the three Republicans who voted against the NDAA.
The defense bill, which has a topline of $892.6 billion, faced over 300 amendments from both Democrats and Republicans. Many were approved by voice vote, but those targeting the United States’s involvement in foreign affairs and social issues relating to transgender people in the military required a roll call vote on the floor.
The most contentious amendment was the repeal of the AUMFs that grant the president authority to use military force without issuing a formal declaration of war. Presidents routinely rely on AUMFs to justify unilateral military action. President Donald Trump relied on the 2002 AUMF, which sanctioned the United States’s invasion of Iraq, to authorize a fatal strike on Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in January 2020.
The amendment passed, 261 to 167, with 49 Republicans joining all Democrats in voting in favor. Its passage is a blow to leadership, which, in the past, has voted against repealing the AUMFs.
This is the chamber’s second attempt to repeal the AUMF after passing a similar bill to rescind the 2002 AUMF in 2021. Legislation from the Senate to repeal the 1991 and 2002 AUMFs stalled in the House in 2024 and never came to the floor of the lower chamber for a vote.
Among the amendments adopted were many falling in line with Republican agenda items, including one prohibiting gender transition procedures under the Exceptional Family Medical Program for service members, another prohibiting the War Department from covering gender-related medical treatment under TRICARE, and an amendment to eliminate the War Department’s preference requirements for electric or hybrid vehicles.
Four of Greene’s amendments, including ones to cut off funding and assistance to Ukraine, Taiwan, and overseas humanitarian aid, failed on the floor.
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In total, six amendments, Greene’s four amendments, one from Rep. Chris Smith (D-NJ), and one from Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), of the 22 up for a vote failed on the floor.
The bill now goes to the Senate, whose version of the NDAA has a higher topline of $925 billion. The upper chamber already advanced its version through a procedural hurdle at the beginning of September, easily clearing the 60-vote filibuster threshold, and teeing up final passage for a future vote.