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Senate Advances NDAA Defense Bill for 2026 Despite Current Government Shutdown

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The Senate advanced its version of a colossal plan to authorize funding for the Pentagon on Thursday, amid the ongoing government shutdown.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2026, which had been gathering dust as lawmakers worked to clear stalls on the bill for more than a month, advanced to the upper chamber on a bipartisan vote. The legislation would authorize about $925 billion in defense spending.

However, the bill’s advancement after a marathon vote on amendments in the Senate came as the government entered the ninth day of the government shutdown with no clear end in sight. Lawmakers in the upper house are not expected to return until Tuesday, virtually guaranteeing that military personnel will not receive their paychecks next week.

SENATE DEMOCRATS AGAIN BLOCK GOP PLAN TO REOPEN GOVERNMENT AS MILITARY PAY DEADLINE LEADS

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker leaves Senate GOP luncheons.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., finally advanced the Senate National Defense Authorization Act of 2026 on Thursday after the package was on hold for more than a month. (Al Drago/Getty Images)

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., formally announced the breakthrough in the Senate after Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., announced a possible vote Thursday morning. Wicker noted that in a particularly partisan moment in the Upper House, the NDAA was able to pass through committee earlier this year thanks to a near-unanimous vote.

“At a time when we couldn’t muster a 60-vote majority to keep us going as a federal government, we were able to pass the National Defense Authorization Act by a vote of 26 to 1,” Wicker said.

Lawmakers were finally able to move forward on the legislative package after Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., relinquished his hold on the measure.

Gallego had called for a vote on his amendment that would have prevented Ashli ​​Babbitt, killed during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, from receiving military funeral honors. The Air Force extended an offer of military funeral honors for Babbitt in August.

SENA REPUBLICS CONFIRM MORE THAN 100 TRUMP NOMINEES AS GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN CONTINUES

Chuck Schumer speaking to members of the press

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks to reporters after the weekly Senate Policy Luncheon on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 7, 2025. (Allison Robbert/AP Photo)

Senators introduced more than a dozen partisan amendments and a massive batch of about 50 additions to the legislative package before moving the bill forward. The House passed its own version last month.

Among the rejected amendments was one from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., that would have blocked money needed to upgrade a Boeing 747 that President Donald Trump agreed to from the Qatari government earlier this year.

Another, from Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, would have blocked Trump and the nation’s governors from approving sending the National Guard from one state to another if a governor or mayor refused the move.

A successful amendment, proposed by Sen. Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, would repeal the 2002 Authorization for the Use of Military Force in Iraq, which at the time authorized President George W. Bush to use the U.S. military as he deemed “necessary and appropriate” in the wake of September 11, 2001.

It would also repeal a similar resolution passed in 1991 during the Gulf War. The House version of the bill also called for repealing both authorizations.

DOZENS OF MUTINATING DEMOCRATS TO PASS DEFENSE BILL OVER GOP PRIORITIES

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., between Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., threatened to block passage of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2026 on Thursday’s vote. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

However, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois, pledged to block the package Thursday afternoon in an effort to “obtain a hearing to investigate these egregious abuses of our military” in response to Trump sending the National Guard to Chicago and other cities across the country.

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But she backed down from her threat after Wicker promised a hearing on the matter “in the coming weeks.”

“I look forward to asking tough questions of the Trump administration about the National Guard’s unconstitutional deployments to American cities over the objections of state and local officials,” she said in a statement.

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