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Despite 100% Pentagon Audit Failure Rate, House Passes $883.7 Billion NDAA
"Instead of fighting the rising cost of healthcare, gas, or groceries, this Congress prioritized rewarding the wealthy and well-connected military-industrial complex," said Defense Spending Reduction Caucus co-chairs.
Dec 11, 2024
Despite the Pentagon's repeated failures to pass audits and various alarming policies, 81 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives voted with 200 Republicans on Wednesday to advance a $883.7 billion annual defense package.
The Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2025, unveiled by congressional negotiators this past Saturday, still needs approval from the Senate, which is expected to vote next week. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Wednesday that he plans to vote no and spoke out against the military-industrial complex.
The push to pass the NDAA comes as this congressional session winds down and after the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) announced last month that it had failed yet another audit—which several lawmakers highlighted after the Wednesday vote.
Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), co-chairs and co-founders of the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus, said in a joint statement, "Time and time again, Congress seems to be able to find the funds necessary to line the pockets of defense contractors while neglecting the problems everyday Americans face here at home."
"Instead of fighting the rising cost of healthcare, gas, or groceries, this Congress prioritized rewarding the wealthy and well-connected military-industrial complex with even more unaccountable funds," they continued. "After a seventh failed audit in a row, it's disappointing that our amendment to hold the Pentagon accountable by penalizing the DOD's budget by 0.5% for each failed audit was stripped out of the final bill. It's time Congress demanded accountability from the Pentagon."
"While we're glad many of the poison pill riders that were included in the House-passed version were ultimately removed from the final bill, the bill does include a ban on access to medically necessary healthcare for transgender children of service members, which will force service members to choose between serving their country and getting their children the care they need," the pair noted. "The final bill also failed to expand coverage for fertility treatments, including in vitro fertilization (IVF), for service members regardless of whether their infertility is service-connected."
Several of the 124 House Democrats who voted against the NDAA cited those "culture war" policies, in addition to concerns about how the Pentagon spends massive amounts of money that could go toward improving lives across the country.
"Once again, Congress has passed a massive military authorization bill that prioritizes endless military spending over the critical needs of American families. This year's NDAA designates $900 billion for military spending," said Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), noting the audit failures. "While I recognize the long-overdue 14.5% raise for our lowest-ranking enlisted personnel is important, this bill remains flawed. The bloated military budget continues to take away crucial funding from programs that could help millions of Americans struggling to make ends meet."
Taking aim at the GOP's push to deny gender-affirming care through TRICARE, the congresswoman said that "I cannot support a bill that continues unnecessary military spending while also attacking the rights and healthcare of transgender youth, and for that reason, I voted NO."
As Omar, a leading critic of the U.S.-backed Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, also pointed out: "The NDAA includes a provision that blocks the Pentagon from using data on casualties and deaths from the Gaza Ministry of Health or any sources relying on those statistics. This is an alarming erasure of the suffering of the Palestinian people, ignoring the human toll of ongoing violence."
Israel—which receives billions of dollars in annual armed aid from the United States—faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court last month issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The NDAA includes over $627 million in provisions for Israel.
Congresswoman Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), who voted against the NDAA, directed attention to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), set to be run by billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
"How do we know that DOGE is not a good-faith effort to address wasted funding and unaccountable government? The NDAA passed today," Ramirez said. "Republicans overwhelmingly supported the $883.7 billion authorization bill even though the Pentagon just failed its seventh audit in a row."
"Billions of dollars go to make defense corporations and their investors, including Members of Congress, rich while Americans go hungry, families are crushed by debt, and bombs we fund kill children in Gaza," she added. "No one who voted for this bill can credibly suggest that they care about government waste."
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who also opposed the NDAA, wrote in a Tuesday opinion piece for MSNBC that he looks forward to working with DOGE "to reduce waste and fraud at the Pentagon, while strongly opposing any cuts to programs likeSocial Security, Medicare, the Department of Veterans Affairs, or the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau."
"We should make defense contracting more competitive, helping small and medium-sized businesses to compete for Defense Department projects," Khanna argued. "The Defense Department also needs better acquisition oversight. Defense contractors have gotten away with overcharging the Pentagon and ripping off taxpayers for too long."
"Another area where we can work with DOGE is reducing the billions being spent to maintain excess military property and facilities domestically and abroad," he suggested. "Finally, DOGE can also cut the Nuclear-Armed Sea-Launched Cruise Missile program."
The congressman, who is expected to run for president in 2028, concluded that "American taxpayers want and deserve the best return on their investment. Let's put politics aside and work with DOGE to reduce wasteful defense spending. And let's invest instead in domestic manufacturing, good-paying jobs, and a modern national security strategy."
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With Defeat of Megamerger, Sanders Thanks Khan for Taking On 'Corporate Greed'
"The proposed Kroger-Albertsons merger would have led to higher prices at the grocery store and harmed workers," said the Vermont senator.
Dec 11, 2024
Praise for Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan continued to pour in on Wednesday after a pair of judges blocked the merger of grocery chains Kroger and Albertsons following challenges by the FTC and state attorneys general.
"The proposed Kroger-Albertsons merger would have led to higher prices at the grocery store and harmed workers," said U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders. "Let me thank FTC Chair Lina Khan for successfully fighting this merger and standing up to corporate greed."
Congressman Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) also welcomed the rulings and sent "a big thank you to Lina Khan and her team at the FTC."
Their comments on Wednesday followed similar applause from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal as well as groups including the American Economic Liberties Project (AELP) and Groundwork Collaborative.
Khan addressed the win during a Tuesday stream with political commentator Hasan Piker, noting that "this is the first time that the FTC has ever sought to block a merger not just because it's gonna be bad for consumers, but also because it's gonna be bad for workers."
Khan, an appointee of outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden, has won praise from progressives for taking on not only grocery giants and other companies trying to build monopolies but also Big Pharma and Big Tech.
Sanders recently called her "the best FTC chair in modern history" and AELP earlier this year published a document detailing how, under Khan's leadership, the agency "has entered a new era of more effective, modern, and democratic enforcement to better protect consumers, workers, and independent businesses."
Examples included in the AELP roundup include Khan's "crackdown on deceptive 'junk fees,'" a ban on noncompete clauses that's being challenged in court, a historic lawsuit against Amazon.com, and a "click-to-cancel" rule that requires sellers to "make it as easy for consumers to cancel their enrollment as it was to sign up."
However, the new era of the FTC is set to soon come to an end. Since President-elect Donald Trump's victory last month, speculation has been building that he would replace Khan with someone who would do the bidding of big business. Amid celebrations of the rulings against the Kroger-Albertsons merger on Tuesday, the Republican announced Andrew Ferguson as his pick for chair.
As Common Dreamsreported earlier Wednesday, Basel Musharbash, principal attorney at Antimonopoly Counsel, said that elevating Ferguson, who already sits on the FTC, to chair, "is an affront to the antitrust laws and a gift to the oligarchs and monopolies bleeding this country dry."
Although the agency is expected to be friendlier to mergers under the next Trump administration, Albertsons responded to the Tuesday rulings by bailing on the $24.6 billion deal and suing Kroger for billions of dollars on Wednesday, rather than appealing or moving to in-house FTC hearings.
That move could reflect industry fears of U.S. courts that are willing to block major mergers, as The American Prospect executive editor David Dayen pointed out after the federal court decision on Tuesday.
"The important thing here is not that Biden's enforcers blocked a merger... it's that courts are increasingly comfortable with merger enforcement," he said. "States can sue under the Sherman Act, and they will. The real change to track is in the judiciary. Wall Street, take note."
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Citing Glut of Stock Buybacks, US Lawmakers Demand Stellantis Uphold Contract With UAW
"We believe that if Stellantis can afford to spend over $8 billion this year on stock buybacks and dividends, it can live up to the contractual commitments it made to the UAW."
Oct 24, 2024
In what the United Auto Workers hailed as "a powerful show of solidarity," scores of U.S. lawmakers on Thursday sent letters to "Big Three" automaker Stellantis and its CEO, Carlos Tavares, urging them to honor their contractual obligation to their employees, protect American jobs, and stop making excuses amid record profits and multibillion-dollar stock buybacks and dividends.
"We are writing to express our growing concerns about the failure of Stellantis, under your leadership, to honor the commitments it made to the United Auto Workers (UAW) in last year's collective bargaining agreement," says one letter led by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and signed by 18 of their Democratic colleagues.
"We urge Stellantis not to renege on the promises it made to American autoworkers and to provide details on the timelines for these investments," the senators wrote.
Meanwhile, 56 members of the Congressional Labor Caucus led by Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), and Donald Norcross (D-N.J.) sent a separate letter, this one to Stellantis' board of directors, calling on Chrysler's parent company to "follow through on promises to workers to invest in its domestic workforce."
"Given the significant governmental financial support for Stellantis over the years, we have become alarmed by a steady stream of reports indicating your plans to lay off auto workers and move production out of the United States, and that you are failing to honor contractual commitments that Stellantis made as part of the 2023 national collective bargaining agreement," the letter states.
Last November, UAW workers at the Big Three—GM, Ford, and Stellantis—ended a six-week "stand-up strike" and signed new contracts with better pay, benefits, and working conditions. Stellantis committed to making nearly $19 billion in new domestic investments, reopening its "indefinitely idled" Belvidere, Illinois plant, continue manufacturing the Dodge Durango SUV in Detroit through 2025, and build the next-generation Durango in the city starting in 2026, among other promises.
However, according to the senators' letter:
Stellantis is now delaying planned investments to reopen and expand the Belvidere assembly plant, leaving behind thousands of American workers who built the company into the auto giant it is today. We are also concerned with reporting that Stellantis is planning to move production of the next-generation Dodge Durango out of the United States, after previously announcing layoffs that threaten the economic security and well-being of thousands of autoworkers.
Moreover, Stellantis has stated publicly that it plans to source 80% of supply from "low-cost countries" like Mexico. By your own admission, Stellantis' growth plan hinges on shifting "industrial production into cost-competitive countries" like Mexico, where workers are making substandard wages. These actions violate the obligations Stellantis made to the UAW.
"Taxpayers are currently funding consumer incentives for several Stellantis vehicles and Stellantis is slated to receive $585 million under the Domestic Manufacturing Conversion Grant Program," the House lawmakers noted in their letter. "Under this program, Stellantis is on track to pocket $335 million to reopen the Belvidere Assembly plant in Belvidere, Illinois. As stewards of taxpayer funding, we have a responsibility to ensure these investments benefit the public interest."
"We hope it is clear to you that the American people will not tolerate taxpayer subsidies for a company that is cutting production and slashing jobs—all the while it increases executive compensation, dividends to shareholders, and stock buybacks," the letter adds.
The senators noted that "this year, Stellantis has spent over $8 billion on stock buybacks and dividends to benefit its wealthy executives and stockholders, and that "last year, while blue-collar auto workers in Belvidere were being laid off indefinitely, you were able to receive a 56% pay raise boosting your total compensation to $39.5 million, which made you the highest paid executive among traditional auto companies."
"During the first six months of this year, Stellantis has generated over $6 billion in profits, making it one of the most profitable auto companies in the world," the letter adds. "We believe that if Stellantis can afford to spend over $8 billion this year on stock buybacks and dividends, it can live up to the contractual commitments it made to the UAW."
Last week, the UAW published a powerful video in which union president Shawn Fain makes some of the same demands that are in the lawmakers' letters.
"For years, this company has picked us off, plant by plant, and our leadership lacked the will and the means to fight back," Fain said in the video. "Those days are over."
Fain continued:
Stellantis management has launched a campaign of intimidation and harassment against our members, our local unions, and the International UAW to try to get us to back down from the fight to save our jobs.
I have bad news for Stellantis: We're not going anywhere.
Their corporate lawyers are claiming that our fight to keep jobs in Belvedere, Detroit, and America is based on what they call "sham grievances."
But here's the real sham: Over the past nine weeks, Stellantis has spent over a billion dollars on stock buybacks, all while saying they can't afford to keep their commitments to their own employees. In fact, Stellantis has spent $3 billion on stock buybacks this year alone.
The real sham is this campaign of intimidation and interference in our union's business. Stellantis managers are calling members, threatening their jobs. They're emailing our local presidents threatening lawsuits. This is what happens when a CEO is cornered and isolated. His dealers in America and Europe are turning against him. His suppliers and shareholders are suing him, and he's pushing our customers away.
And the sham is that he will walk away with a golden parachute of millions and millions of dollars, while American autoworkers are left holding the bag.
"The sham took place this week when he was asked about stepping down or being replaced, Carlos Tavares said, and I quote, 'I signed a contract,'" Fain said. "Well, Carlos, the workers at Stellantis signed a contract too, and it's time for you to honor it."
Calling on UAW members to sign a strike authorization pledge over Stellantis' broken promises, Fain vowed that "we will once again save this company from mismanagement, from corporate greed, and from killing tens of thousands of good jobs."
"But only if we stick together," he stressed. "So, are you in? If you are, sign your strike authorization pledge today. And you can do that by going to shitcancarlos.com."
"Let the company know where you stand," Fain added. "And together, let's tell Stellantis: The days of plant closures are over, and Carlos Tavares needs to go."
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