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Article snippet: The House Armed Services Committee easily passed its $696.5 billion defense policy late Wednesday night. The committee’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed 60-1 and now moves to the full House for a vote after the July 4 recess. Rep. MORE (D-Hawaii) was the lone no vote. The bill would authorize $621.5 billion in the base defense budget and $75 billion in a war fund known as the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account. Of the OCO, $10 billion would be used for base budget items. The bill is $28.5 billion above what President Trump had requested, but $8.5 billion less than what Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) originally planned to put in the bill. Thornberry agreed to lower his bill’s topline to follow an emerging budget deal in the House. The bill’s passage in the committee came after a nearly 14-hour markup that hit on a number of contentious issues. An amendment to require the Pentagon to study the effects of climate change on military installations successfully made it into the bill. Another one to require women to register for the draft failed, as did one to require the Pentagon to report to Congress on Trump’s travel expenses. Other failed amendments include one to scrap plans for a new Space Corps and one to reduce the number of littoral combat ships the bill would authorize. Meanwhile, an amendment to reverse the Pentagon’s transgender policy was withdrawn with the vow to bring it back when the bill comes to... Link to the full article to read more