The Senate on Tuesday narrowly passed the massive reconciliation bill with $150 billion for defense that the Pentagon has built into its fiscal year 2026 spending plans, sending the measure to the House.
The lower chamber is expected to take up the “One Big Beautiful Bill” this week, to include the changes the Senate made to the legislation after the House initially passed it in May, with President Trump having said he wants it on his desk for final signature by July 4th.
“This historic legislation includes funds to jump-start the Golden Dome system to protect the homeland, increase our supply of munitions, rapidly advance unmanned ships and drones, enhance military readiness, reestablish deterrence and advance shipbuilding to produce a 21st-century naval fleet,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chair of the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.
Following a marathon “vote-a-rama” to consider amendments, the Senate voted 50-50 on the reconciliation bill and required Vice President JD Vance to cast the tie breaking vote to pass the measure 51 to 50.
Three Republicans–Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.)–joined all Democrats in opposing the measure, with much of the debate around the bill focused on the tax-related provisions and cuts to Medicaid.
The reconciliation process allows the Senate to pass the billions of dollars in budget-related Trump administration priorities without requiring the 60-vote threshold needed to break the filibuster, while the House will require a near-unified GOP caucus to support the measure facing likely unanimous Democratic opposition over planned spending cuts in the legislation.
Wicker last week unveiled the updated version of the defense portion of the legislation, which included adding funds for industrial base and critical minerals efforts, a cut to border operations support and removing classified programs.
The House and Senate Armed Services Committees were responsible for crafting the defense portions of the reconciliation bill, which covers $150 billion in defense spending that would be allocated over the next four years and builds in flexibility to be spent over the next decade, to include $25 billion for the Golden Dome missile defense system, tens of billions to boost shipbuilding and production of munitions and drones and increases for a wide swath of defense priorities.
Lawmakers, including Wicker and top Senate defense appropriator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), have pushed back on the Trump administration’s decision to include $113 billion of the total $150 billion in anticipated reconciliation funds to achieve its proposed $1 trillion defense request for fiscal year 2026.
“In the realm of national defense, there is still more to be done. Reconciliation was an opportunity to make an urgent, additive investment on top of a steadily increasing base budget, not an invitation to offload major annual priorities to a one-time injection of funds. Largely missing this opportunity makes the Congress’ work to secure robust topline defense funding even more important, and I will continue to urge my colleagues and the Administration to meet growing and coordinated threats to America’s security with the resources they demand,” McConnell said on Tuesday.
Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily first published this story.
