Congress passed a $858 billion defense policy bill this week called the National Defense Authorization Act.
Most of that money – $816.7 billion – will go toward Department of Defense programs, according to documents. About $30.3 billion will go toward national security programs, and $378 million is allocated for defense-related activities.
The NDAA will fund new military weapons purchases, increase pay for service members, and add more support for Ukraine and Taiwan.
The bill would also end the Pentagon’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
The bill increases America’s total national security budget by about 10& from the defense bill we saw last year.
To put our defense spending into context, achart by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation shows the U.S. spends more on defense than the next 9 countries combined. It shows the U.S. spending $801 billion, while China, India, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and South Korea spend $777 billion combined.
China had the second highest military spending at $293 billion, according to 2021 stats from Statista.
The bill will now go to President Biden’s desk to be signed.