Congressional leaders struck a deal over the weekend on a fiscal 2025 defense policy bill that eschews the House’s most conservative energy and climate proposals while embracing bipartisan priorities for the Pentagon such as grid resilience, nuclear energy and mineral acquisition.
The “Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act” is a compromise between the House and Senate versions of the NDAA and one of the “must-pass” bills that Congress will work to shepherd across the finish line over the next two weeks.
Lawmakers had been hoping to attach additional bipartisan legislative priorities to the defense legislation, including a permitting reform, a natural resources package and certain reauthorizations.
In the end, none of those proposals made the cut as lawmakers continue negotiations to try to finalize and pass those bills this year.
