Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker, R-Miss., finally advanced the Senate's 2026 National Defense Authorization Act on Thursday after the package was shelved for over a month. (Al Drago/Getty Images)
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker, R-Miss., formally announced the breakthrough on the Senate floor after Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., teased a possible vote Thursday morning. Wicker noted that in a particularly partisan moment in the upper chamber, the NDAA was able to sail through committee earlier this year on a near unanimous vote.
"In this time, when we can't seem to muster up a 60-vote majority to keep us in business as a federal government, we were able to pass the National Defense Authorization Act by a vote of 26-to-1," Wicker said.
Lawmakers were finally able to move on the legislative package after Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., dropped his hold on the measure.
Gallego had called for a vote on his amendment that would have prevented Ashli Babbitt, who was killed during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, from receiving military funeral honors. The Air Force extended an offer for military funeral honors for Babbitt in August.
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Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., threatened to block the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act from a vote on Thursday. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
However, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., had vowed to block the package Thursday afternoon in an effort to "secure a hearing to investigate this gross abuse of our military" in response to Trump sending the National Guard to Chicago and other cities across the country.
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But she backed off her threat after Wicker promised a hearing on the matter "in the coming weeks."
"I look forward to asking tough questions of the Trump administration about their unconstitutional National Guard deployments to American cities against state and local officials' objections," she said in a statement.
Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-advances-2026-defense-bill-after-weeks-delay-shutdown-drags