Wyoming’s lone U.S. House representative was one of seven Republicans who voted against the National Defense Authorization Act for the upcoming year as the $1.15 trillion spending package passed the House.
It heads next to the U.S. Senate.
In a 216-212 vote, six Democrats voted Wednesday in favor of the bill while seven Republicans — including Rep. Harriet Hageman — opposed the Trump-backed measure.
The other Republicans who crossed the aisle were Reps. Thomas Massie (Kentucky), Tim Burchett (Tennessee), Elijah Crane (Arizona), Anna Paulina Luna (Florida), Chip Roy (Texas), and Josh Brecheen (Oklahoma).
Hageman told Cowboy State Daily via a Thursday text from her communications director that her nay vote was about runaway spending.
Two years ago, she offered an amendment to the 2024 version of the recurring military spending package directing the Pentagon to avoid a trillion-dollar budget request, she noted, adding she was concerned the U.S. would hit that mark by the end of the decade.
“The house did not consider my policy, and the result after failing its seventh audit is a more than trillion-dollar budget request,” wrote Hageman.
“The American people want to support our servicemembers, counter the Chinese Communist Party, and secure the southern border — objectives which this bill accomplishes,” she wrote. “But the U.S. taxpayer also expects fiscal responsibility, and authorizing a $1.15 trillion budget for a single agency that has not made any meaningful progress to clean up its budget while we rapidly approach $40 trillion in national debt fails this expectation.”
Hageman said Congress “must stop writing blank checks with zero accountability, and for that reason I could not support this bill.”
‘Win For Trump'
Politico called the bill’s ascension from House to Senate a “win for Trump.”
The Senate version of the package stalled prior.
On the House side, Massie and Democratic U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, of California, tried without success to advance a provision that would have removed a multibillion-dollar provision geared toward defense technology collaboration with Israel.
While she aligned with Massie in her nay vote on the bill altogether, Hageman differed from him Thursday, as Massie and three other Republicans voted with Democrats to direct the president to remove the U.S. Armed Forces from war with Iran.
She has in public statements voiced more support for of the nation’s defense of Israel than Massie, a critic of U.S. involvement.
The bill includes conservative provisions like renaming the U.S. Department of Defense to the Trump-approved moniker “Department of War,” blocking coverage for sex-change treatments and making it easier for military personnel to carry their own guns on military bases.
Republican leaders attached the election reform bill SAVE America Act to the measure as well.
House Armed Services Committee Democrat Rep. Adam Smith of Washington called the bill’s lack of bipartisan support a product of Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “out of control” policies.
The six Democrats who crossed party lines to advance the bill were Reps. Henry Cuellar (Texas), Don Davis (North Carolina), Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), Jared Golden (Maine), Adam Gray (California) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Washington).
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
