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From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Potomac Watch.

House Pass is a defense bill with a boost for the military, as Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema

announces that she's becoming an independent.

Welcome, I'm Kyle Peterson with the Wall Street Journal.

We are joined today by my colleagues, editorial board member Kate Batchel,

the O'Dell, and columnist Kim Strassel.

Welcome to you both.

On Thursday, the House passed an $858 billion National Defense Authorization Act,

or NDAA by a vote of 350 to 80.

This is a bill that authorizes funds for the Pentagon, and it will also roll back the Biden administration's vaccine mandate for the military.

But before we get into that, Kate, can you just take us through the nuts and bolts of this bill,

and is $858 billion a good number?

Well, Kyle, so the NDAA is a policy bill, right?

And Congress will eventually have to appropriate the underlying money that they authorize.

So I think that's one part of it that tends to get lost, but it is $858 billion as how much Congress authorized.

And it's about $45 billion over what a president Biden asked for.

Over 22 levels from last year, it's about an 8% increase.

That would be great, except for the detail that with inflation burning around 8%,

it really is at best holding the Pentagon harmless.

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