NDAA advances to House-wide vote as conservatives weigh mutiny

The sweeping bill setting out the federal government’s defense and national security policy for the fiscal year cleared a key hurdle Tuesday night, but questions remain about whether it will reach President Donald Trump’s desk.

After hours of debate, the House Rules Committee voted to advance the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) along party lines, setting the bill up for a Housewide vote on Wednesday afternoon.

The legislation will determine how much of the federal budget’s roughly $900 billion will be spent on America’s national defense.

But with some conservatives already voicing concerns, it’s unclear whether it can survive a procedural hurdle that would require nearly all House Republicans to vote in lockstep, despite the support of the majority of the House GOP.

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The House Rules Committee is the final watchdog before most legislation receives a chamber-wide vote. Lawmakers on the panel are responsible for setting the terms of debate on the bill, including deciding which amendments, if any, can be voted on.

The next step is usually a Housewide procedural vote, called a rules vote, in which lawmakers decide whether to greenlight the bill for debate.

Fox News Digital was told earlier this week that House GOP leaders hope to hold the NDAA vote as early as Wednesday evening.

But questions about whether the bill would make it through a chamber-wide rules vote earlier in the day began to arise immediately after the 3,000-page bill was unveiled Sunday night.

Even if the primary measure has bipartisan support, rules votes often fall along party lines. And with a razor-thin majority, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., can still afford to lose just two GOP votes to win.

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Chair Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., arrives at a House Rules Committee hearing at the Capitol on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

At least two House Republicans, Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., and Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told Fox News Digital on Tuesday afternoon that they were undecided about the Housewide rules vote.

Some conservatives are concerned that the bill excludes a ban on central bank digital currency (CBDC). Without it, GOP privacy hawks argue the federal government could use digital currency for widespread surveillance and control of Americans.

Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, said Monday on “Mornings with Maria”: “Conservatives were promised that anti-central bank digital currency language, written by whip Tom Emmer, would be in the NDAA. Our first read on this in hours is that it’s not there. There’s also no anti-abortion language. So there are red lines we need to put there when funding our military.”

Self told Fox News Digital that he, too, was undecided on the rules vote but would vote “no” on the final legislation.

Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, expressed disappointment that the measure was not included in X and told reporters he, too, was undecided about the rule.

Meanwhile, Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., said he was disappointed with the process of drafting the final NDAA.

“This was all negotiated behind closed doors,” he told Fox News Digital. “We’re being pushed around and we have to eat it, or you know, we’re voting against increasing the pay of our military service members. It’s a very unfortunate situation that the speaker keeps putting us in.”

Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, arrives at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)

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And Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said he would likely vote “no” on Wednesday’s rules vote.

But three House Freedom Caucus members of the House Rules Committee — Reps. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Ralph Norman, R.S.C. – all voted to put this to a parliamentary vote.

A majority of House Republicans also support the legislation, saying it includes numerous measures that streamline Trump’s agenda, increase U.S. capabilities against China and other adversaries, and also provide pay increases for soldiers.

House GOP leaders have the option of suspending the bill from the rules; This means the bill would bypass this procedural hurdle in exchange for raising the passage threshold to two-thirds instead of a simple majority.

The NDAA itself is likely to follow bipartisan lines, but as of now it’s unclear how many Democrats would support it.

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that he would vote for the NDAA despite concerns “about how a number of issues were handled by the Speaker and the White House during recent negotiations.”