The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org. December 18, 2025 Senate Overwhelmingly Approves Record $901 Billion Military Spending Bill ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Senate overwhelmingly passed the $901 billion National Defense Authorization Act Wednesday. It's the largest military spending bill in U.S. history. It pledges $800 million for Ukraine and a 4% pay raise for U.S. troops. A majority of Democratic senators joined most Republicans to pass the spending bill, but 16 Democrats, three Republicans and Vermont's independent Senator Bernie Sanders voted no on the package. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden said, "I cannot support a bill that increases military spending by tens of billions of dollars and fails to include guardrails against Donald Trump and Hegseth's authoritarian abuses." .