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Trump signs $717bn annual defence policy bill into law
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IANS | 14 Aug, 2018
US President Donald Trump signed into law the $717 billion annual
defence policy bill, the earliest in the year the bill has become law in
more than four decades.
"The National Defense Authorization Act
(NDAA) is the most significant investment in our military and our
warfighters in modern history, and I am very proud to be a big, big part
of it," Trump said before signing the bill on Monday.
"It was
not very hard. You know, I went to Congress, I said let's do it, we got
to do it. We're going to strengthen our military like never, ever
before, and that's what we did," he said.
Trump signed the bill
during a visit to Fort Drum, New York, where he was joined by Vice
President Mike Pence, Deputy Defence Secretary Patrick Shanahan and the
Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford, reports The Hill.
This
year's NDAA authorizes about $639 billion for the base budget of the
Pentagon and defence programmes of the Energy Department.
It also allows for another $69 billion for a war fund known as the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account.
It
fulfils several of the administration's priorities to bulk up the
military, including adding 15,600 troops across the Army, Navy, Air
Force and Marine Corps.
The bill also follows the
administration's request for 77 F-35 fighter jets and goes beyond the
its request for Navy ships, authorizing a total of 13 new vessels.
"We
will replace aging tanks, aging planes and ships with the most advanced
and lethal technology ever developed, and hopefully we'll be so strong
we'll never have to use them," Trump said.
The bill also gives troops a 2.6 per cent pay raise, the highest in nine years, The Hill reported.
On Monday, Trump made no mention of the bill's namesake.
With
the NDAA signed into law, Congress now turns its attention to passing a
defence spending bill to make the dollar amounts authorized by the NDAA
a reality.
The House passed a Pentagon spending bill in June,
while the Senate is expected to start considering its version as soon as
this week.
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