CNBC News:
President Donald Trump approved a colossal defense policy bill Monday that authorizes a top-line budget of $717 billion to cover a litany of defense spending. Trump traveled to Fort Drum, home of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division, in upstate New York to sign the bill, which was named in honor of former Vietnam prisoner of war Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who is battling brain cancer.
The 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, includes $616.9 billion for the Pentagon’s base budget, $69 billion for overseas contingency operations funding and $21.9 billion for nuclear weapons programs under the Energy Department. The NDAA is only half the process, since Congress must still pass a spending bill to fund specific priorities with the Defense Department.
“The National Defense Authorization Act is the most significant investment in our military and our war fighters in modern history,” Trump said Monday in front of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter. “We are going to strengthen our military like never ever before and that’s what we did.”
