Several House Republicans are raising alarm over recent negotiations on the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), saying House Republican leadership has capitulated on military abortion-related travel and an extension of a warrantless surveillance program.
In July, House Republicans had passed their own version of the NDAA, with amendments that barred the Department of Defense (DOD) from funding gender transition treatments and surgeries for transgender service members and their families. The earlier House Republican version of the NDAA also reversed a DOD policy that provides travel allowances and extra leave time for service members seeking to obtain abortions. But the latest NDAA conference report lists both of the earlier House NDAA terms among a series of provisions that will not be adopted as the House and Senate work to reconcile their competing bills.
This reversal on the DOD abortion travel policy comes after Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) fought for months, stalling military confirmations in hopes of pressuring a reversal on the policy. The Alabama senator had endured criticism from Democrats that he was undermining national security, and several of his Republican colleagues had advised taking a different approach to reverse the abortion travel policy. The new NDAA terms came a day after Mr. Tuberville relaxed his hold over the military confirmation process, letting go much of his leverage in the abortion policy standoff.
The latest NDAA conference report indicates House and Senate negotiators have also agreed to extend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in its current form until April 19. Section 702 of FISA allows for warrantless surveillance of the communications of non-U.S. citizens outside the country, but U.S. citizens who are often incidentally swept up in the process can be de-anonymized, creating a backdoor means of warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens. House Republicans had recommended expanding oversight over the FISA process and imposing criminal liability when the process is abused.
The latest NDAA terms have frustrated several Republicans, and some have directed their anger at recently selected House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
“Speaker Johnson worked with Chuck Schumer to cut a deal that removes all abortion and trans surgery prohibitions we passed under Speaker McCarthy. It also would pass a CLEAN FISA extension,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said in a post on the X social media platform on Wednesday.
Ms. Greene said much of the latest terms were reached in secret, with little input from her and other conferees assigned to the deliberations.
“This was a total sell-out of conservative principles and a huge win for Democrats,” she added.
Ms. Greene described her vote as “a HELL NO!” on the latest version of the bill.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a member of the staunchly conservative House Freedom Caucus, also signaled opposition to the latest NDAA proposal.
“I will not support an NDAA that doesn’t deliver on key conservative wins included in the House-passed version such as defunding [President Joe] Biden’s radical abortion tourism fund, removing divisive [Critical Race Theory] policies and [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion] offices, stopping transgender surgeries, or ending Biden’s radical climate change executive orders at the Pentagon,” Mr. Roy said in an emailed statement to NTD News on Thursday.
Mr. Roy also directed criticism toward Mr. Johnson in comments to The Messenger, questioning “why we went through the motions” demanding various conservative provisions in the NDAA if the new House speaker “was going to just sell it out at the first possible moment.”
Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.), another designated conferee on NDAA negotiations, also told The Messenger that he wasn’t notified of these latest changes to the defense bill and expressed disappointment that the conference had dropped the restrictions on DOD funding for abortion-related travel and gender transition treatments. Mr. Collins said he was unsure to what degree Mr. Johnson warranted blame for the latest negotiations.
“Everything that I’ve seen Speaker Johnson doing so far, I’m pleased with,” Mr. Collins told The Messenger. “I don’t know how this is going to come out. We’ll just have to see.”
While the new NDAA terms retreat from conservative objectives on abortion-related travel, transgender surgeries, and FISA, the report does preserve a few prior conservative measures from the July House NDAA. The new NDAA terms still bar federal funds authorized under the current NDAA from being used to endorse critical race theory and freeze new hiring for diversity, equity, and inclusion positions within the DOD.
NTD News reached out to Mr. Johnson’s office with questions about the recent NDAA negotiations. His office responded by sharing a copy of a dear colleague letter he sent to his fellow House Republicans on Thursday.
“While no compromise with the Democrat-led Senate and White House would be perfect, the final product includes meaningful changes to return the Department of Defense’s focus back to the business of defending our nation and away from social experiments in woke ideology,” Mr. Johnson’s letter reads. “The conference agreement will provide our warfighters with the tools they need to do their job and the resources required to support their families.”
Mr. Johnson said the House would begin considerations next week on a standalone FISA reform bill, thereby separating the issue from the broader NDAA. He said he had commitments from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell that the Senate side would take up the FISA reform issue and work on it in good faith.
Mr. Johnson’s dear colleague letter did not address the reversal House negotiators made on the DOD abortion-travel policy.
