Defense Bill For 2023 Amounting To $858 Billion Passes In Senate

The 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, named for retiring Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe, is headed to President Biden for his signature after the massive $858 billion spending blueprint for the military gained overwhelming passage in the Senate Thursday night.

Prior to the vote, Senator Inhofe (R-OK) addressed colleagues on the Senate floor, noting that Congress had passed a defense authorization bill for 61 consecutive years and urging support for a bill that he said has never been more important.

“I’ve said it before, and I’m not the only one saying it, the world is more dangerous than I’ve ever seen it before in my lifetime,” The 88-year-old Tulsan said. “So, I encourage all of my colleagues to support this year‘s national defense authorization bill, and let’s extend our track record of getting this bill done, and let’s show our troops that we love them, and that we support them… I yield the floor.”

The bill passed 83-11.

Although Sen. Inhofe will remain in office until January 3, 2023 and will be back next week to vote on the omnibus spending bill expected to be put before lawmakers, Thursday evening's action on the NDAA, more or less, marked the end of the senator's long career in public service.

He gave a farewell speech on the floor in November, but many more of his colleagues were present Thursday and have him a warm round of applause when the bill was introduced by the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"For more than 20 years I've had the privilege of serving with [Sen. Inhofe] on the committee," said Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI). "In turn, we've been chairman and ranking member, and I'm honored that this year's bill will be named the James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act."

The state's other U.S. Senator, James Lankford, said it's quite an honor that both the House and Senate -- both currently controlled by the Democrats -- agreed to put the Oklahoman's name on this year's defense bill.

"To honor Senator Inhofe for his long years of work in national defense," said Lankford (R-OK), "and that’s a good thing for us as Oklahomans that other people also recognize what he has done for a long time."

In an interview before the bill came to the floor, a humble Inhofe said the naming of the legislation was "a very nice thing to do," but not his idea. What was his idea, he said, was increasing the topline number -- the total amount of money going to the Pentagon -- by $45 billion.

"It had to be done," said Inhofe. "If you remember, our president, President Biden, didn’t want to spend that much on defense."

Inhofe said the additional funding is necessary to keep pace with China, Russia and all the other threats that he said have put us "in the most threatened position as a nation we've ever been in in the history of our country."

But Inhofe said the bill headed to the president’s desk sends a strong signal to potential threats and will go a long way toward protecting our national security.

And the streak of consecutive years of bipartisan passage of the NDAA? It's now up to 62.