US Senate passes bill to raise troop pay, aims to counter China's power

The Senate passed a defence bill on Wednesday that authorises significant pay raises for junior enlisted service members, aims to counter China's growing power and boosts overall military spending to USD 895 billion while also stripping coverage of transgender medical treatments for children of military members.

The annual defence authorisation bill usually gains strong bipartisan support and has not failed to pass Congress in nearly six decades, but the Pentagon policy measure in recent years has become a battleground for cultural issues. Republicans this year sought to tack on to the legislation priorities for social conservatives, contributing to a months-long negotiation over the bill and a falloff in support from Democrats.

 

Still, the bill passed comfortably 85-14, sending it to President Joe Biden. Eleven senators who caucus with Democrats, as well as three Republicans, voted against the legislation.

The bill "isn't perfect, but it still includes some very good things that Democrats fought for", said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, in a floor speech. "It has strong provisions to stand up against the Chinese Communist Party here on a national security basis."  In the House, a majority of Democrats voted against the bill last week after House Speaker Mike Johnson insisted on adding the provision to ban the military health system from providing transgender medical care for children. The legislation easily passed by a vote of 281-140.

Senate Republican leaders argued that its 1 per cent increase for defence spending was not enough, especially at a time of global unrest and challenges to American dominance. Senate Republicans had argued for a generational boost to defence spending this year, but are planning another push for more defence funding once they control the White House and Congress next year.

"We are currently experiencing the most dangerous national security moments since World War II," said Republican Senator Roger Wicker, who will chair the Senate Armed Services Committee next year. He has pushed for larger boosts to defence funding that would break spending caps that were agreed to in the bipartisan deal to suspend the nation's debt ceiling last year.

The annual defence authorisation bill directs key Pentagon policy, but it would still need to be backed up with an appropriations package.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said in a floor speech this week that without the topline increase, "major bill provisions like a pay raise for enlisted service members will come at the expense of investments in the critical weapons systems and munitions that deter conflict and keep them safe".

The legislation provides for a 14.5 per cent pay raise for junior enlisted service members and a 4.5 per cent increase for others. Lawmakers said those were key to improving the quality of life of service members at a time when many military families rely on food banks and other government assistance programmes to make ends meet.

"It includes major quality of life improvements, enhancing things like childcare, housing, medical services, employment support for military spouses and much more," said Senator Jack Reed, D-RI, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The legislation also directs resources towards a more confrontational approach to China, including establishing a fund that could be used to send military resources to Taiwan in much the same way that the US has backed Ukraine. It also invests in new military technologies, including artificial intelligence, and bolsters the US production of ammunition.

The US has also moved in recent years to ban the military from purchasing Chinese products, and the defence bill extended that with prohibitions on Chinese goods from garlic in military commissaries to drone technology.

The Chinese foreign ministry responded to that move last week by calling the bans laughable.

"I do not think it could ever occur to garlic that it would pose a major threat to the US," said Mao Ning, a ministry spokeswoman. "From drones to cranes, from refrigerators to garlic, more and more Chinese-made products have been accused by the US of posing national security risks. But has the US shown any reliable evidence or rationale to back up those accusations?"  But in Congress, Republican and Democratic lawmakers have been mostly united in their stance that China is a rising threat. Instead, it was culture war issues that divided lawmakers on the bill, which took months to negotiate.

The Republican-controlled House had passed a version of the bill in June that would have banned the Defence Department's policy of reimbursing costs for service members who travel to another state for an abortion, ended gender affirming care for transgender troops and weeded out diversity initiatives in the military.

Most of those provisions did not make it into the final package, though Republicans are expecting Donald Trump to make sweeping changes to Pentagon policy when he enters office in January.

The bill also still prohibits funding for teaching critical race theory in the military and prohibits TRICARE health plans from covering gender dysphoria treatment for children under 18 if that treatment could result in "sterilisation".