Presented by the Coalition to Protect America's Regional Airports.

Good morning. I'm Playbook Deputy Editor Zach Stanton. It is Friday, July 14th.

And the conversation in Washington today is shaping up to be dominated by three big stories,

one from the East Coast, one from the West Coast, and then one really from

the middle of the country. Here in Washington, late last night, in a slight surprise, the House

punted on the National Defense Authorization Act, which is, of course, the annual defense

policy bill that traditionally passes with vast bipartisan support. But House Republicans

introduced a number of amendments to the bill on a variety of cultural issues. For instance,

blocking trans service members from receiving gender affirming health care, restricting access to abortion health services

for troops, banning the purchase of so-called gender ideology books by defense-backed educational

institutions, and efforts to defund diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the Defense

Department.

Those are all proposals that Democrats generally view their inclusion in the NDA as total non-starters.

You're going to want to pay attention to this one, both because it has huge policy importance,

but also because it's ripe for 2024 ads and because the vote, which is expected

to come today, is going to be very, very close. Late last night, Congressman Adam Smith of

Washington, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee suggested that all Democrats, except

maybe five to seven of them, are firmly united in opposing the NDAA.

And while Smith believes that the Republican leadership will ultimately wrangle enough votes

to pass the bill, you should really never underestimate the

House's capacity to surprise and vex predictions about how things will turn out. So pay attention

to that. And actually, if you want to hear more with Adam Smith, my colleague Ryan Lissa has an

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