U.S. Senate passes 901 bln USD defense authorization bill for fiscal 2026

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday approved a 901-billion-dollar defense policy bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026, sending it to U.S. President Donald Trump's desk for his signature.

The vote was 77 to 20 with broad bipartisan support.

The over-3,000-page bill includes a nearly 4 percent military pay raise, an overhaul that will speed up Pentagon arms purchases, as well as measures for supporting the deployment of National Guard and active-duty troops at the southwest border to intercept illegal immigrants and drugs, developing the U.S. Golden Dome missile defense system, and promoting military readiness.

Under the bill, the Trump administration allots 400 million dollars annually for two years to produce weapons for Ukraine and puts limits on reducing U.S. troop levels in Europe and South Korea without allied consultations.

The measure authorizes 26 billion dollars in shipbuilding funding, 38 billion dollars for aircraft and 25 billion dollars to ramp up production of munitions.

The legislation eliminates Pentagon DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) offices, cuts 1.6 billion dollars in climate-related spending, repeals the 1991 and 2002 Iraq War authorizations and permanently lifts U.S. sanctions on Syria.

The bill stipulates that a quarter of U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's travel budget will be withheld until the Pentagon provides Congress with unedited footage of the strikes targeting alleged drug boats near Venezuela.

Hegseth said Tuesday that only House and Senate armed services panels, instead of the public, will view the full, unedited video of the highly controversial Sept 2 air raid by the U.S. military on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, which killed two survivors in a follow-up strike.

Democrats faulted the bill for removing expanded coverage of in vitro fertilization for active duty troops. Meanwhile, some hardline Republicans were frustrated that the bill did not go further in scaling back U.S. commitments overseas.

Trump is expected to sign the legislation into law in the coming days.

U.S. Senate passes 901 bln USD defense authorization bill for fiscal 2026

Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Thursday presided over a State Council executive meeting that studied work on building a unified national market and reviewed and approved a plan for the development of a modern emergency response system during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030).

Noting that building a unified national market is essential to advancing high-quality development, the meeting called for deepening institutional frameworks in areas such as property rights protection, market access, fair competition, social credit and market exit mechanisms.

The meeting also urged efforts to advance high-standard connectivity of market infrastructure to facilitate smooth economic circulation and effectively reduce logistics costs across society.

Emergency management is critical to protecting people's lives and property, the meeting said. It called for accelerating the development of a modern emergency response system, deepening reform and innovation in emergency management, and improving coordinated response mechanisms.

Efforts should be made to strengthen risk prevention at the source, enhance monitoring, forecasting and early warning, and accelerate a shift in governance toward proactive prevention, according to the meeting.

A draft revision of the Law on the People's Bank of China was also discussed and approved in principle at the meeting, which decided to submit the draft to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for deliberation.

Chinese premier chairs State Council executive meeting