• Did the Vote Pass? Yes
  • Voted Yea 83
  • Voted Nay 13
  • Didn't Vote 2
  • Voted Present 0
The $740.5 billion NDAA for FY 2021 fails to deliver any meaningful reforms and perpetuates the status quo in some areas. It also includes big government power grabs, places burdens on small businesses, and expands the federal bureaucracy.

The primary reasons FreedomWorks has decided to issue a key vote against the NDAA are because of the price tag, the limitations on proposed troop withdrawals in Germany and Afghanistan, the failure of Congress to reform the existing authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) in Iraq, as well as the failure of Congress to prohibit logistical support in unauthorized military activities in Yemen.

President Trump used his authority as commander-in-chief to order the withdrawal of 12,000 troops from Germany because, as he has said, the United States shouldn’t be responsible for other countries’ failures to make investments in defense. We agree.

He also decided to reduce the American military presence in Afghanistan by 1,500 troops. We have had troops in Afghanistan for 19 years. Critics of this decision — the bipartisan Forever War Caucus — can’t seem to tell us when we’ll finally leave Afghanistan. Only that we can’t do it now. After 19 years. As President Trump said directly to Congress in his 2019 State of the Union address, “Great nations do not fight endless wars.” The decision to reduce the troop level in Afghanistan was the right one. However, this NDAA explicitly seeks to go against this decision and prevent future decisions like it, by explicitly putting a “limitation on the use of funds to reduce deployment to Afghanistan,” depriving the executive of the funds necessary to physically relocate troops.

Furthermore, the conference report leaves out the repeal of the 2002 AUMF in Iraq that was included in the House-passed NDAA. Another provision from the House-passed NDAA that isn’t in the conference report is the prohibition of the use of funds to engage in military activities in Yemen. Our involvement in the ongoing conflict in Yemen has never been authorized by Congress, yet we’ve continued to be involved in that conflict based on a flimsy interpretation of the 2001 AUMF.

Adding to the fiscal irresponsibility of this NDAA is its continued abuse of Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) spending. OCO is intended to expedite direct funding for our combat operations overseas and is, therefore, both outside of the DoD’s base funding level and outside of the discretionary budgetary caps set by Congress. Increasingly, funding that is not remotely related to the direct provision of war-fighting support for our troops has crept into OCO, to the point that even with our presence in Afghanistan and other Middle East nations diminishing, OCO levels in the FY 2021 NDAA stand at $69 billion.

This NDAA prohibits the revival of Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) commissions, in spite of their proving to be one of the few useful fiscal restraints on wasteful defense spending available to Congress — as noted by the Pentagon itself. The military owns or leases thousands of properties and buildings around the world, many of which are no longer particularly useful or functional, the sale of which could provide both immediate cash and long-term reductions of overhead costs.

Unfortunately, amidst widespread dysfunction in the legislative process in Congress, the NDAA’s reputation as one of the few “guaranteed-to-pass” bills each year has made it a prime target for adding on new spending and even brand new laws entirely unrelated to our military and national defense.

Perhaps the most egregious instance in this bill is the inclusion of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), a measure that will place a new federal reporting burden on U.S. small businesses and threaten the privacy rights of millions of Americans. By requiring a confusing new annual report from every small business on all people who qualify as “beneficial owners” — a term which is unclearly defined — the CTA would create yet another paperwork burden on small business, who stand to face criminal fines and penalties if they fail to comply even by mistake.

One of the main drivers of beneficial ownership legislation is the FACT Coalition, which is an organization comprised of many leftist groups, including the AFL-CIO, Citizens for Tax Justice, Fair Share, Friends of the Earth, and Public Citizen. In May 2019, a representative of the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition told the Washington Post: “Every official member of our coalition agrees that this information should ultimately be made public.”

This is the first step in an end-run around Citizens United. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) has pushed for Congress to require the disclosure of beneficial ownership information, making the connection to “dark money” and donor disclosure. Section 4111 of House Democrats’ so-called “For the People Act,” H.R. 1, included language similar to the beneficial ownership language in NDAA.

The FY 2021 NDAA also eliminates arguably the one single position inside of the Pentagon that demonstrably saves taxpayer dollars, the CMO. Congress created the position of chief management officer (CMO) inside the DoD in December 2016. The idea for this position was to have someone with significant private sector management and business experience be given the sole responsibility and authority to identify wasteful spending and inefficient bureaucracy. Essentially, by bringing an outsider with private-sector experience and no ties to the defense industry inside the bureaucracy to streamline processes and make the Pentagon more efficient, opportunities for real reform could be identified and implemented.

Stories of bureaucracy and wasteful spending inside the DoD are legendary. In December 2016, the Washington Post reported that the DOD spiked an internal report documenting $125 billion in waste. The fear, as the Post noted at the time, was that “Congress would use the findings as an excuse to slash the defense budget.” Our friends at OpenTheBooks have also noted the “use-it-or-lose-it” spending habits of all federal agencies, including DOD. Agencies will spend dollars as the fiscal year winds to a close to show that they need more money, not less.

As of July 2020, the CMO’s office had identified $21 billion in savings or inefficiencies. Clearly, defense contractors aren’t happy with the CMO’s work and worked with their rented friends in Congress to get rid of this much-needed position.

Legislator's Votes

Official's Name Party District Voted

Lamar Alexander

Republican

TN

Yea

Tammy Baldwin

Democrat

WI

Yea

John Barrasso

Republican

WY

Yea

Michael Bennet

Democrat

CO

Yea

Marsha Blackburn

Republican

TN

Yea

Dick Blumenthal

Democrat

CT

Yea

Roy Blunt

Republican

MO

Yea

John Boozman

Republican

AR

Yea

Sherrod Brown

Democrat

OH

Yea

Richard Burr

Republican

Yea

Maria Cantwell

Democrat

WA

Yea

Shelley Capito

Republican

WV

Yea

Ben Cardin

Democrat

MD

Yea

Tom Carper

Democrat

DE

Yea

Bob Casey

Democrat

PA

Yea

Bill Cassidy

Republican

LA

Yea

Susan Collins

Republican

ME

Yea

Chris Coons

Democrat

DE

Yea

John Cornyn

Republican

TX

Yea

Catherine Cortez Masto

Democrat

NV

Yea

Kevin Cramer

Republican

ND

Yea

Mike Crapo

Republican

ID

Yea

Steve Daines

Republican

MT

Yea

Tammy Duckworth

Democrat

IL

Yea

Dick Durbin

Democrat

IL

Yea

Mike Enzi

Republican

WY

Yea

Joni Ernst

Republican

IA

Yea

Dianne Feinstein

Democrat

CA

Yea

Deb Fischer

Republican

NE

Yea

Cory Gardner

Republican

CO

Yea

Kirsten Gillibrand

Democrat

NY

Yea

Chuck Grassley

Republican

IA

Yea

Maggie Hassan

Democrat

NH

Yea

Martin Heinrich

Democrat

NM

Yea

Mazie Hirono

Democrat

HI

Yea

John Hoeven

Republican

ND

Yea

Cindy Hyde-Smith

Republican

MS

Yea

Jim Inhofe

Republican

OK

Yea

Ron Johnson

Republican

WI

Yea

Tim Kaine

Democrat

VA

Yea

Mark Kelly

Democrat

AZ

Yea

Angus King

Independent

ME

Yea

Amy Klobuchar

Democrat

MN

Yea

James Lankford

Republican

OK

Yea

Patrick Leahy

Democrat

Yea

Kelly Loeffler

Republican

GA

Yea

Joe Manchin

Democrat

WV

Yea

Mitch McConnell

Republican

KY

Yea

Bob Menendez

Democrat

NJ

Yea

Jerry Moran

Republican

KS

Yea

Lisa Murkowski

Republican

AK

Yea

Chris Murphy

Democrat

CT

Yea

Patty Murray

Democrat

WA

Yea

David Perdue

Republican

GA

Yea

Gary Peters

Democrat

MI

Yea

Rob Portman

Republican

OH

Yea

Jack Reed

Democrat

RI

Yea

Jim Risch

Republican

ID

Yea

Pat Roberts

Republican

KS

Yea

Mitt Romney

Republican

UT

Yea

Jacky Rosen

Democrat

NV

Yea

Marco Rubio

Republican

FL

Yea

Ben Sasse

Republican

NE

Yea

Brian Schatz

Democrat

HI

Yea

Chuck Schumer

Democrat

NY

Yea

Tim Scott

Republican

SC

Yea

Rick Scott

Republican

FL

Yea

Jeanne Shaheen

Democrat

NH

Yea

Richard Shelby

Republican

AL

Yea

Kyrsten Sinema

Independent

AZ

Yea

Tina Smith

Democrat

MN

Yea

Debbie Stabenow

Democrat

MI

Yea

Dan Sullivan

Republican

AK

Yea

Jon Tester

Democrat

MT

Yea

John Thune

Republican

SD

Yea

Thom Tillis

Republican

NC

Yea

Pat Toomey

Republican

PA

Yea

Tom Udall

Democrat

NM

Yea

Chris Van Hollen

Democrat

MD

Yea

Mark Warner

Democrat

VA

Yea

Sheldon Whitehouse

Democrat

RI

Yea

Roger Wicker

Republican

MS

Yea

Todd Young

Republican

IN

Yea

Cory Booker

Democrat

NJ

Nay

Mike Braun

Republican

IN

Nay

Tom Cotton

Republican

AR

Nay

Ted Cruz

Republican

TX

Nay

Josh Hawley

Republican

MO

Nay

John Kennedy

Republican

LA

Nay

Mike Lee

Republican

UT

Nay

Ed Markey

Democrat

MA

Nay

Jeff Merkley

Democrat

OR

Nay

Rand Paul

Republican

KY

Nay

Bernie Sanders

Independent

VT

Nay

Elizabeth Warren

Democrat

MA

Nay

Ron Wyden

Democrat

OR

Nay

Lindsey Graham

Republican

SC

Missed

Mike Rounds

Republican

SD

Missed