Schakowsky Among 45 House Democrats To Vote Against Pentagon Spending

EVANSTON, IL — Joining 44 Democrats and 35 Republicans, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky voted against the $858 billion military spending bill that as it passed the House of Representatives Thursday by a 350-80 vote.

Despite supporting for some of its components, the Evanston Democrat she was unable to "in good conscience vote for the bill," which is expected to be approved by the Senate within days.

“Unfortunately, this legislation does not reflect the best interests of our nation at this moment in time. Our greatest security threats have no military solutions, and it is time our budget reflects that," Schakowsky said in a statement.

"Instead of giving the Pentagon $45 billion it did not ask for, we should make the investments in health care, education, housing, public transit, and the environment that Americans deserve," she said. "That is why I ultimately could not support the FY 2023 NDAA’s passage.”

House Resolution 7776, the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, for Fiscal Year 2023, authorizes a 4.6 percent pay raise for servicemembers and civilian Defense Department works, an additional $800 million in funding to aid Ukraine's military efforts and rescinds the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for members of the military.

The vaccine mandate has led to the discharge of more than 8,000 active duty service members, with as many as 16,000 religious exemptions having been filed but only about 190 approved, according to the Associated Press.

And for the second year in a row, the price tag of the annual Pentagon spending bill exceeds the amount requested by the administration of President Joe Biden.

"The FY 2023 NDAA authorizes a historically high $847 billion in new defense spending — an increase of nearly $80 billion over last year’s authorization, $45 billion above what the Administration requested, and far higher than either the House Armed Services Committee or the Senate Armed Services Committee recommended earlier this year," Schakowsky said.

All other members of Illinois' congressional delegation voted in favor of this year's NDAA, except for Reps. Danny Davis, Jesús “Chuy” García and Marie Newman.

Schakowsky also voted against last year's NDAA, noting that the Pentagon takes up more than 50 cents of every dollar of discretionary spending in the federal budget.

“The FY 2023 NDAA also fails to suspend unnecessary and dangerous nuclear programs that the President explicitly rejected. It fails to curb the 1033 program, which provides military equipment to domestic law enforcement agencies at free or discounted rates, and it does not include critical provisions that reassert Congress’s constitutional authority over war and peace. It failed to repeal the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force against Iraq, despite having a majority of support to repeal in both the House and Senate," Schakowsky said.

"Finally, it failed to include my labor neutrality amendment that passed the House earlier this year, which would have given preference to DOD contractors that enter into neutrality agreements with unions," she said. "It is clearer than ever that this is needed as DOD just granted a huge cloud computing contract to Amazon, a company notorious for union-busting."