America's Talking - U.S. House passes $901 billion annual Defense bill, sends to Senate

Episode Date: December 13, 2025

(The Center Square) – U.S. House members advanced the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, the must-pass annual Pentagon funding bill, in a 312-112 vote Wednesday. The roughly $901 billion compromise legislation, which now heads to the Senate, is $8 billion more than the White House requested, but $24 billion less than the Senate’s version of the bill. Support this podcast: https://secure.anedot.com/franklin-news-foundation/ce052532-b1e4-41c4-945c-d7ce2f52c38a?source_code=xxxxxxRead more: https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_81925340-7ab8-4e3d-961b-f7d04ea8af0d.html Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to America's Talking, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulb, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service. The U.S. House this week passed a $901 billion defense spending bill, while the U.S. Senate failed to pass a measure to extend expanded Obamacare health subsidies that are set to expire December 31st. Joining me to discuss this is the Center Square's congressional reporter, Terrez Boudreau. Teres, let's start with a bill that did pass. Dozens of Democrats joined Republicans to pass the measure that would fund. the Department of War in fiscal 2026, but it now goes to the Senate for a vote. Tell us more about that. Yeah, you're right. I mean, the National Defense Authorization Act, it's the annual Pentagon funding bill, essentially. It generally passes with large bipartisan support every year because

it's a must-pass bill, essentially. So there were, it's a very large one, as you said, almost $901 billion. And both sides definitely made compromises in it, which also led to more than 100 House representatives, including Republicans, to vote against it. There were different provisions that they didn't like or things that weren't included that they wanted to be included. So it provides tens of billions for munitions, Air Force, shipbuilding, you know, I think $900 million to combat drug trafficking.

And then there's $142 billion for research and development. So they're looking into, they're studying everything from AI to hypersonics to, you know, biotechnology and a lot of other things is a giant bill. It's over 3,000 pages. So now it goes to the House or I'm sorry, to the Senate for a vote. And it should pass there too because, again, it is a must pass bill, even though there are things in it that lawmakers, definitely we're not comfortable with. Well, I was going to ask you about the prospects in the Senate because the Senate's already passed its own version of a defense spending bill, and it was 24 billion, according to your

reporting, it was $24 billion more than what the House passed. You do think it's going to pass the Senate, though? Yes, because that bill that the Senate passed, that the Senate after they passed that, and they conference with the House to essentially work out the differences between their two bills. So this National Defense Authorization Act is the final compromise version. And so like you said, the Senate's had more money of the Senate when it comes to these giant bills. Typically, at least in 119th, Congress seems to be more comfortable with spending than the House does.

So that was one of the compromises is, okay, you know, this 901 billion roughly. That's higher than what the White House requested, but it's lower than what the Senate passed. so, you know, that way it could get through the House. But there were some other things as well. I mean, so both Republicans and Democrats gave up some things or made some compromises. So Democrats, they swallowed essentially there was a $1.6 billion cut to climate change-related spending in the military. And there were – there's also Republicans, they, you know, authoritative. I think it was, yeah, it was 800 billion over next two years for Ukraine.

And they did not include, there were other things as well. If you go check out the report and you can read it. But they did not include a ban on centralized digital bank currency, which a few Republicans were very, very adamant about and apparently had received promises about. So they are worried that something like that in the future, if the U.S. rolls out a digital currency, that that could eventually replace cash, could have, you know, the government have much more control over how people spend things or if they could spend things at all. And so they were given promises according to a representative Keith's

self that that would be included in the bill, and it was not. And so they're quite annoyed about that because they want this issue to just, they just want this ban to be in place so that this never becomes an issue. So, yeah, that's where we're at right now. And it should, it should pass the Senate. You know, there might be, there might be more guff. But right now, the Senate's kind of up to its ears in health care policy this past week and did not, do not provide very satisfactory results. Well, let's talk about that one. As we've talked about here before, ObamaCare tax subsidies that were expanded during the COVID-19 health crisis. They are set to expire at the end of this year,

just a couple of weeks, December 31st. There were competing bills from Democrats and Republicans. Senate was set to vote on them, and they did not advance either one of them. Is that correct? That is correct. So, you know, as we all remember probably the 43-day shutdown, the record-long shutdown that we had,

One of the things that Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he would do for Democrats if they finally reopened the government, or, you know, eight of them came over to help reopen the government, rather, is he would guarantee them a vote on extending these subsidies, the enhanced Obamacare premium tax credit. The Obamacare premium tax credit, or PTC, is as generally abbreviated to. It's a subsidy. It was in the Affordable Care Act. It's a subsidy. It goes to insurance companies, and they're supposed to accordingly lower people's premiums. So it was enhanced, expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic. And that expansion, which includes like $0 premium plans and people who are making well above the poverty line, receiving these subsidies, among other things, that expansion says to expire on December 31st. So these subsidies would revert to pre-pandemic levels. And John Thune, he promised to vote on those. exchange for Democrats help opening the government. So that vote happened this past week. And it failed as

expected. It was mostly symbolic and a lot of Democrats used it to, you know, point fingers and say, hey, see, Republicans, you know, they don't care about your health care, et cetera. So Republicans have kind of been scrambling around a health care plan in both the House and the Senate. You know, it's a very, very complicated issue, as many of them say. And a lot of them really do not like Obamacare. But as House Speaker Mike Johnson said, how do you even get rid of it at this point? It's so entrenched. So, you know, they're trying to find some good reforms for it. And nearly all of them think that an expansion of the pandemic era version of the credits is not the right idea. So they kind of threw out a last minute bill. So senators Bill Cassidy and Mike Crapo

sponsored it. And it essentially would have used the funding. that would have gone to extending the pandemic era expansion of the PTC to go to health savings accounts. So more people would be eligible for health savings accounts. And then there are also some other provisions as well that essentially like, oh, this might give people more choice over what plans they can use and how they can pay for those plans rather than just kind of covering over the premium hike that's going to happen regardless, even if the credit tax, passed at the end of the year. And that also failed.

Both Republicans and Democrats' bills failed. So now they're just ending the year, essentially, with no health care plan. House Speaker Mike Johnson is supposed to drop something soon, on the House side. The Republicans have something on the House side, apparently. So we'll see what that includes. That should be coming soon. Teres, thank you for joining us today. Listeners can keep up with this ongoing story at the Center Square.

com.