President Joe Biden on Friday signed into law the U.S. defense policy bill that authorizes arecord $886 billion in annual military spending and policies such as aid for Ukraine and push-back against China in the Indo-Pacific, Reuters reports.
The National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, passed Congress last week. The Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate approved the legislation with a strong bipartisan majority of 87 to 13 while the House of Representatives voted in favor 310 to 118.
The act, nearly 3,100 pages long, called for a 5.2% pay raise for service members and increased the nation's total national security budget by about 3% to $886 billion. It also lists certain Chinese battery companies that it says are ineligible for Defense Department procurement.
That provision faced objections in both the Senate and House, but not enough to derail the bill.
The bill extends one measure to help Ukraine, the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, through the end of 2026, authorizing $300 million for the program in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2024, and the next one.
