House Passes $733 Billion Defense Bill Checking Trump’s War Powers

Mr. Trump vetoed legislation in April that invoked the War Powers Act to cut off American military support to the campaign.

Another amendment, also passed Thursday, would prevent the Trump administration from using emergency authority to transfer munitions to the kingdom.

Progressives who initially wavered on whether they would support the defensive bill were encouraged by those provisions, as well as by an amendment that would reinstate transgender people to military service, reversing Mr. Trump’s ban. Another would phase out the authorization of military force passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, which has been used since then to justify military actions around the world.

Those provisions were enough to provoke the ire of House Republicans. But the main objection of Republicans to the defense bill was that it does not allocate enough money to the Defense Department. The legislation authorizes $733 billion in military spending — and includes a 3 percent pay increase for troops — while the Senate version allocates $750 billion, meeting the figure the White House requested.

A series of bipartisan amendments led by Republicans did pass the House, including a measure from Representative Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin that would require the Commerce Department to keep Huawei, the Chinese telecom company, on its blacklist until it can certify the company does not pose a threat to the United States’ telecommunications and infrastructure. Mr. Trump had recently promised to ease the ban for the company, despite concerns that the company could pose a threat to national security.

Lawmakers also roundly defeated twin amendments from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, that would have prevented the president from deploying troops to the Mexican border to enforce immigration law and would have barred the Defense Department from housing migrants at its centers.

But taken as a whole, there were too many “problematic” provisions in the policy bill for Republicans to support, said Representative Mac Thornberry of Texas, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee.

“It’s shameful. They’re failing fundamentally to uphold our constitutional duty, and they’re failing in the most important thing we do, which is be worthy of the sacrifice of those men and women who put on the uniform and go to protect all of us,” said Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the No. 3 House Republican. “When Congress politicizes the National Defense Authorization Act, we are not worthy of the men and women who are defending us on the front lines today.”