The House of Representatives passed a wide-ranging $768 billion defense bill on Thursday despite strong opposition from the right-wing members of the Republican party.
The House voted 316-113 in favor of the bill, which authorizes spending levels and sets Pentagon policy. The bill also includes means that women can be drafted into the military, and establishes a 12-member bipartisan commission to review the entirety of the 20-year war in Afghanistan.
The House Freedom Caucus party had called on the GOP to reject the bill for the inclusion of women in the draft.
In the vote, 181 Democrats teamed up with 135 Republicans to pass the bill, which also dealt a blow to President Joe Biden as the reps boosted the Pentagon's budget to $740 billion, $25 billion more than Biden had requested.
'Everybody here will find something that they do not like,' House Armed Services Chair Adam Smith, a Democrat from Washington said on the House floor. 'But it is also the nature of the legislative process, in this case, that we have produced a product that everybody in this House can be proud of.'
House Armed Services Chair Adam Smith, pictured on September 1, led the debate as the House passed a $768 billion defense spending bill on September 24
The bill includes the creation of a bipartisan commission to review the 20-year war in Afghanistan. U.S. Marines are pictured in Kabul on August 21, ten days before withdrawing
The commission will also focus on the US's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and demand details on current evacuation plans. Pictured, one of the evacuation flights on August 23
