The unofficial Senate tally was 77 votes in favor of the bill and 20 votes against just before 12:30 p.m.
“It’s now headed to the White House to be signed into law,” Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, said shortly after the vote.
The measure includes $8 billion more than the total requested by President Trump for this year’s NDAA.
In a conference call Wednesday, Husted said $15 million were also secured to design and restore Wright Patterson’s primary runway.
“This is a very big issue,” he said. “... It’s a big deal, and we got it done.”
The senator said he was informed that during the Biden administration there had been consideration of possibly “mothballing” that runway.
“That sent shivers through a lot of people in the Wright-Patterson community in the Dayton area,” Husted, a former Ohio lieutenant governor, said of the prospect of shutting down the runway. “After that, we made our concerns known at the state level.”
“You can’t have a first-class Air Force base without a first-class runway. That’s exactly what we need to preserve at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base,” he added.
Wright-Patt does have a flying mission, the 445th Airlift Wing, which flies a fleet of nine C-17 Globemaster III aircraft.
The bill also bans cell phones at Department of Defense schools, a step Husted called “very personal” to him.
“We know that they (cell phones) harm the education process and the culture of our institutions,” he said.
The legislation also authorizes $45 million for a new Human Performance Wing Laboratory and provisions to support long-term infrastructure improvements at the Naval Medical Research Unit Dayton, both at Wright-Patterson.
Also slated for Wright-Patterson is $20 million authorized for research and testing on reusable hypersonic aircraft at Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).
Budgeted as well is $2.5 million to fund a project at AFRL to make metals lighter, stronger, and more affordable for military applications.
The bill also sought to ensure Space Force participation among the Air Force Institute of Technology’s cadre of instructors, U.S. Rep. Mike Turner’s office said last week. AFIT is located at Wright-Patterson.
With some 38,000 employees before the Trump administration, the base is widely seen as the largest single-site center of employment in the state of Ohio.
Usually seen as a “must-pass” piece of legislation, The bill includes 3.8% pay increase for all uniformed members of the military. It also increases the military’s Family Separation Allowance, funds for deployed service members, according to Turner’s office.
Language in the 3,086-page bill also threatens to withhold a quarter of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget until he provides unedited video of strikes against what the administration has said are drug-smuggling boats off South America to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. Members also want to see authorizing orders for those strikes.
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