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HALF OF SENATE DEMS HELP PASS $925 BILLION PENTAGON BILL  
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Jessica Corbett
October 10, 2025
Common Dreams [[link removed]]

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_ “Congress continues to expand military spending while denying
investments in the programs that will truly build a safer, healthier
future for working- and middle-class families,” said Sen. Ed Markey,
who voted no. _

Sen. Ed Markey, Hoang ‘Leon’ Nguyen / The Republican

 

Senate Democrats are blasting President Donald Trump’s increasingly
authoritarian behavior and congressional Republicans for shutting down
the US government to preserve devastating healthcare cuts, but over
half of them voted with the GOP late Thursday to give nearly $1
trillion to the Pentagon, which has never passed an audit.

The final vote on the Senate’s $925 billion version of the National
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026
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77-20, with Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas),
and Thom Tillis (R-NC) not voting. The passage tees up talks with
leaders in the House of Representatives, where nearly all Republicans
and 17 Democrats approved
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Democratic Sens. Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Cory Booker (NJ), Maria
Cantwell (Wash.) Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Andy Kim
(NJ), Ed Markey [[link removed]] (Mass.),
Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Chris Murphy (Conn.), Patty Murray (Wash.), Alex
Padilla (Calif.), Brian Schatz (Hawaii), Adam Schiff (Calif.), Tina
Smith (Minn.) Chris Van Hollen (Md.), Elizabeth Warren
[[link removed]] (Mass.), Peter
Welch (Vt.), and Ron Wyden (Ore.) opposed the bill alongside Bernie
Sanders [[link removed]] (I-Vt.), who
caucuses with Democrats, and Rand Paul (R-Ky).

“Yesterday, the Senate voted to give the Pentagon a trillion-dollar
spending package while the Trump administration and MAGA Republicans
play politics with troop pay and nuclear security and refuse to reopen
the federal government,” Markey said in a Friday statement. “All
the while, they are stealing healthcare from American families to fund
tax breaks for CEO billionaires. This isn’t a budget that funds
America’s real security needs.”

“Republicans rail that we need to cut government spending—for food
assistance, for healthcare, for environmental protection—yet they
are showering their defense contractor cronies with hundreds of
billions for wasteful and destabilizing programs like Trump’s Golden
Dome space-based missile system,” Markey continued. “Yet they
decry that funding will soon dry up for paying military salaries and
for essential nuclear security operations at the National Nuclear
Security Administration.”

“In their desperation to score cheap political points, Republicans
are undermining vital national security missions,” he added. “Year
after year, Congress continues to expand military spending while
denying investments in the programs that will truly build a safer,
healthier future for working- and middle-class families. The cost of
passing this bill in the form of denied rights and wasteful spending
is simply too great.”

In posts on Bluesky, journalist Erin Reed called out
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Senate Democrats who helped pass the bill, given its attacks on LGBTQ+
Americans and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)—common targets
of congressional Republicans and the Trump administration.

“In 2024, the NDAA became the vehicle for one of the most
consequential betrayals of transgender Americans by national Democrats
in recent memory, after Democrats allowed provisions targeting trans
military family members and dependents to stand when they had control
of the Senate and White House,” Reed noted.

“This year, history is repeating itself,” she said. “Senate
Democrats dropped key objections and allowed a vote to proceed on the
bill—ultimately passing the Senate version of the bill, complete
with anti-trans culture-war riders, an anti-DEI clause, and no limits
on the domestic deployment of US troops.”

Early Thursday afternoon, Duckworth, a veteran herself, said
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blocking the NDAA until she secured a hearing to investigate the
president’s “gross abuse of our military” by sending soldiers
into American cities. A few hours later—shortly before a federal
judge temporarily blocked
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Trump’s National Guard deployment in her state, Illinois—Duckworth
announced that a hearing is planned.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), one of the Democrats who voted for the NDAA,
secured sufficient bipartisan support for his amendment to end the
authorizations for use of military force related to the 1991 Gulf War
and 2003 invasion of Iraq. _The Washington Post _reported
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that “the House bill also includes a similar measure, bringing
Congress to the precipice of repealing the laws.”

Some other Democrat-proposed amendments weren’t successful.
According to
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_The Hill_:

Amendments that failed to pass included one from Senate Minority
Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) who had hoped to block money for President
Trump to retrofit a luxury Qatari jet he accepted as an intended
replacement for Air Force One.

"Retrofitting this foreign-owned luxury jet to make it fully
operational will cost hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. That's
money that shouldn't be wasted," Schumer said.

Still, Schumer ultimately voted for the NDAA—unlike Van Hollen, who
proposed blocking Trump and governors from sending National Guard
troops to another state if its governor or local leaders don’t
agree.

“Presidents and governors shouldn’t be able to deploy National
Guard troops from one state to another if that state’s governor
objects,” the senator said
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media. “That is common sense, and yet Republicans just blocked my
amendment to stop this blatant abuse of power. Another shameful
abdication of duty.”

Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.

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