US President Joe Biden has signed the country’s largest ever military budget into law. The $886.3 billion bill gives American troops a pay raise, but includes only a fraction of the military aid requested by Ukraine.
Biden signed the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on Friday, after it passed Congress with bipartisan support last week. At $886.3 billion, the bill allocates 3% more money to the Pentagon than last year’s NDAA, which came in at a then-record $858 billion.
Biden said that he signed the bill despite certain “concerns” with its contents. He condemned a section prohibiting the use of US government money to transfer detainees from Guantanamo Bay to prisons in the US or other countries, and criticized provisions that require the White House and Pentagon to hand over “reports and plans” to Congress for oversight.