The Fiscal Year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is inching closer to completion, with final votes anticipated next week, if all goes to plan. If successful, it would mark the 64th consecutive year the NDAA has been completed. The 118th Congress is nearing its conclusion, and the last scheduled legislative day is December 19.

Sources say negotiations across both the House and Senate have concluded and a draft compromise conference report has been drafted. Decision makers hope to file the conference report by the end of the week of December 2, and to vote on it next week in order to send it to President Biden. We expect the House to vote on the package first, followed by the Senate.

Earlier this week Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he is "hopeful that we are close to beginning the process of moving a bipartisan bill through both chambers. The NDAA has been passed without fail for decades with cooperation from both sides, and I hope this year there is no exception. Few priorities matter more than providing for our national defense and taking care of our troops in uniform and their families."

The House of Representatives passed its version of the NDAA (H.R. 8070) on June 14. The bill passed by a vote of 217-199, despite passing out of the House Armed Services Committee by a resounding bipartisan vote of 57-1 weeks earlier. The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) advanced the Senate version (S. 4638) by a vote of 23-3, but the bill was never considered on the full Senate floor. We do not know at this time how the differences between the House and Senate versions have been ironed out.

To view the House version of the bill, click here. To view the executive summary of the SASC-passed version, click here.