Sewell voted against 2025 National Defense Authorization Act

On Friday, Congresswoman Terri Sewell (D-Selma) voted against the Fiscal Year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that passed the House of Representatives on Friday.

Sewell voted for the NDAA when it came out of the House Armed Services Committee where she is a member. On Friday she voted against the bill after Republicans added a number of partisan amendments that Democrats opposed to the bill.

"I am beyond disappointed that House Republican leadership has once again abandoned a 62-year long tradition of bipartisanship and used our national defense bill to advance their wish list of extreme partisan demands," said Rep. Sewell. "I cannot vote for a bill that would rip basic health care away from our service members and make bigotry and discrimination a centerpiece of our Armed Forces. It is my hope that these partisan provisions will be stripped during Senate negotiations so that I can vote for a strong bipartisan defense bill. House Republicans need to stop playing games with our national security."

The NDAA has been passed annually by Congress since 1961. It authorizes funding levels for the Department of Defense (DoD) and allows the Armed Forces to pay, train, and equip U.S. service members, support America's allies around the world, and carry out essential national security operations.

In May, with Rep. Sewell's support, the FY25 NDAA passed out of the House Armed Services Committee by an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 57 to 1. The bill focuses on improving the quality of life for our service members and their families, including a 19.5% pay raise for junior enlisted service members.

On the House floor Republicans added a amendments to the bill that would reverse a controversial Biden administration policy that reimbursing servicemembers or their family for travel expenses to get an abortion. They also added an amendment rejecting taxpayer payment for expensive gender transition treatments for service members and their family. There also was an amending ending controversial diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI_ programs in the Defense Department. Republicans also added a controversial amendment allowing service members who were dismissed from the armed services for not getting the COVID vaccine to rejoin the armed forces. There also was an amendment that allowed states to veto the transfer of Air guard units from the Air Force to the newly created Space Force. All fifty states reportedly support this last measure.

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