Biden signs NDAA

President Biden today signed into law the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.

Staffers said the bill, which passed Congress earlier this month, had been delayed due to technical issues with the how the legislation was worded.

The bill includes $740 billion specifically for the Pentagon, which is $25 billion more than Biden requested earlier this year. The bill also authorizes about $28 billion for the Energy Department's nuclear weapons programs.

The bill does not include an additional $10 billion outside of the legislation's jurisdiction that is set to be appropriated elsewhere, bringing total U. S. defense spending to about $778 billion for FY-22.

However, Congress has yet to agree on a final spending package to appropriate the money.

Until that happens, the Pentagon, along with the rest of the federal government, is operating under a stopgap continuing resolution set to expire Feb. 18 that locks budgets at previous-year levels and blocks spending on new programs.