After the House voted on Dec. 11 to approve the $895 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) by a 281-140 vote, the Senate is teeing up debate and a vote on the legislation early next week.
According to the Senate floor schedule, the chamber began debate on the NDAA for fiscal year (FY) 2025 on Thursday, with a vote to invoke cloture planned for late on Monday – just four days before the looming deadline to pass an overall government funding measure or face a potential government shutdown right before Christmas.
On Dec. 7, the House and Senate unveiled their 1,800-page compromise version of the NDAA for FY25, with a topline of $895.2 billion that comes in just under the congressionally mandated budget caps imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
The compromise bill includes several tech-related provisions from AI to cybersecurity. Among the included amendments are initiatives to educate service members on AI and measures to expedite the technology’s adoption.
For instance, one provision mandates the secretary of defense, working with the Pentagon’s chief data and artificial intelligence officer, to facilitate the swift adoption of large language models. The bill also includes a provision to define, identify, and plan the Defense Department (DoD) AI workforce, as well as modifications to the department’s AI education strategy.
Notably the bill includes an amendment suggesting that the DoD employ AI to achieve a clean audit of its financial statements, a task that has historically been challenging for the DoD. While the department has had some small successes on that front, last month DoD flunked its seventh consecutive departmentwide financial audit.
The mammoth bill also includes a number of bipartisan provisions, including a 14.5 percent pay raise for junior enlisted service members and a 4.5 percent raise for all other military personnel.
