The US House of Representatives has approved a $777.9 billion defense budget bill for the fiscal year 2022, significantly more than President Joe Biden had requested.
Republicans, along with Democrats, backed the bill, which would increase defense spending by $37.5 billion, about 5 percent more than last year’s budget and about 3 percent ahead of inflation.
The document was voted on by 316 lawmakers and 113 against.
The defense budget bill, which usually enjoys broad bipartisan support, is more than 1,300 pages long and contains various policy proposals.
Among the most controversial are changes to the military justice system to curb sexual harassment and a proposal that young women should register for conscription on an equal footing with men.
The conscription system has not been used since the Vietnam War, and there is currently no attempt to change the fully volunteer composition of today’s armed forces.
While the bills being considered in the House and Senate differ significantly, they provide the same budget – $777.9 billion.
Biden had requested $752.9 billion for national security programs.
However, Alabama Congressman Mike Rogers, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, convinced his colleagues to add another $23.9 billion.
His amendment was passed by the committee earlier this month with the support of some Democrats (42 to 17) following the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.
It is also proposed to allocate funds to build 13 additional warships, give the mayor of Washington control of the capital’s National Guard and create a special Office of Counter Extremism tasked with training specialists, gathering data and countering extremism in the armed forces.
The plan to create a space National Guard has drawn displeasure from the White House, which notes “the need to minimize administrative costs”.
A proposal included in the bill by Republican Liz Cheney would create a bipartisan commission to study details of the conflict in Afghanistan.
The House passed a legislative initiative that would ban Americans from buying or selling newly issued Russian sovereign debt not only on the primary market but also on the secondary market.
According to the latest version of the document, congressmen intend to extend the several-year restriction on cooperation between the Pentagon and the Russian Defence Ministry.
Ukraine may receive about $300m in military aid from the US next fiscal year.
The Senate has already passed a slightly different version of the bill, which will now go to the Conciliation Committee to eliminate contradictions.