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He also highlighted a major change long demanded by privacy-focused conservatives: the bill forces the FBI to notify Congress when it opens investigations involving presidential contenders or candidates for federal office. Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) cheered that section as a breakthrough after years of battles with the intelligence community.
But despite those wins, the revolt inside the GOP conference was significant. Eighteen Republicans ultimately voted against the bill, while 115 Democrats voted in favor — a split that instantly raised alarms among conservative activists who argue that any legislation cheered by Democrats should be treated with suspicion.
Rep. Tim Burchett made his frustrations public in a blistering video posted to X, where he slammed what he called the permanent war lobby for stuffing unnecessary and unrelated spending into the package.
Here is Burchett’s statement in full:
“Big vote tonight was the NDAA, National Defense Authorization Act, and it was $900.6 billion. There’s money in there for, of course, Ukraine, $800 million total, and some other things, money in there for recognizing an Indian tribe out of North Carolina— has nothing to do with national security— Syria, money, Iraq. But we just got to quit this stuff. Somebody’s, America’s got to start paying attention.
And the Ukraine stuff’s not even, Trump didn’t even ask for that. You’ve got the war pimps that push for this stuff. And they always will tell you, Oh, it’s, “Burchett, man, they’re gonna spend all that money here buying those missiles.” You know, is that what we’re basing our votes on is they’re going to buy implements to kill other people on? I’m all for getting rid of our enemies, but this is just too much, way too much, and things are just not what they appear. We need to wake up. I voted no. Over 100 Democrats voted to pass this. That ought to tell you right there what this is about. Got some liberal stuff tucked in there, and it’s over 3000 pages. We get it on Sunday, and we’re voting on it today. There’s no way, no way, we will ever know what was in there, and just— anyway, frustrated, we’ll keep fighting. Thank y’all for sending me here.”
Burchett’s fiery message quickly ricocheted across conservative social media, with many calling his comments proof that the GOP establishment caved yet again to Washington’s spending machine.
Rep. Lauren Boebert echoed those concerns, issuing her own warning on X. She blasted the negotiated package as a Trojan horse filled with left-wing policy priorities.
According to Boebert:
“funds DEI madness, is weak on border security, and is a gift to foreign countries that hate us.”
She didn’t hold back on her criticism of the bill’s treatment of U.S. troops, either. In a follow-up post, she wrote:
“This bill keeps sending YOUR money to Ukraine’s endless war while our own troops live in moldy barracks. This NDAA still forces women in our military to compete against (and shower with) biological men pretending to be women.”
The NDAA now heads to the Senate, but the backlash across the conservative movement is already building — and lawmakers who supported the compromise are bracing for the political storm that’s sure to follow.
