Senate passes Pentagon bill urging Hegseth to disclose boat strike evidence
The sprawling legislation includes a provision seeking video and other materials detailing the Trump administration’s military activities in Latin America.
By Noah Robertson #wp ( ima adding my notes 📝)
The #Senate on Wednesday passed Congress’s #$900 billion defense policy bill, 💵 ✨
advancing a #bipartisan effort to force the #Pentagon to disclose footage of a controversial military strike on an alleged drug smuggling boat near #Venezuela
The legislation advanced by a vote of 77 to 20. It cleared the House last week, and President Donald #Trump is expected to sign it into law.
A measure in the bill withholds #25% percent of Defense Secretary Pete #Hegseth’s travel budget until he provides Congress with video of the Sept. 2 operation
🌟 #FullTransparency mother CLUCKERS
and other materials related to the Trump administration’s unprecedented campaign against Latin American narcotics traffickers. #Eleven people were #killed in that attack, including two men who survived a #U.S. initial strike on their vessel. 🤬
The footage is seen as #essential #evidence as lawmakers seek to determine whether #military officials #violated the #law of armed conflict by targeting the boat’s wreckage with survivors present.
✨ Say it ain’t so 😂
Military law grants special protection to people who are deemed “shipwrecked,” meaning they are in peril and not engaging in hostilities. The commander who oversaw the operation has sought to defend his decision to order the subsequent strike that killed the two survivors.
✨#MastersOfWar #GFY
Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared Tuesday on Capitol Hill, where they briefed the House and Senate on the Sept. 2 attack and the administration’s broader counternarcotics campaign. To date, U.S. forces have targeted #25 boats suspected of ferrying illicit drugs, killing #95 people, according to the Trump administration’s public disclosures.
✨✨✨ so what are the REAL numbers ?
In brief remarks to reporters, Hegseth said he has ruled out releasing the Sept. 2 video, citing a need to protect U.S. military secrets. Members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees viewed the footage Wednesday and spoke virtually with Adm. Frank M. Bradley, who led the operation.
😂🤣😂
The National Defense Authorization Act #NDAA largely focuses on making it easier for the Pentagon to buy weapons, eliminating bureaucracy that Republicans and Democrats agree has become an unacceptable obstacle amid an arms race with Russia and China.
✨✨✨ WHO created the #arms #race in the first damn place? #IdiotsInGreen
But the legislation also represents the GOP-controlled Congress asserting its authority over U.S. defense policy, after some #Republicans have complained that the Pentagon under #Hegseth has withheld critical information all year.
#BOOM 🤙 LIKE 👍
The bill would force the Defense Department to consult with lawmakers before withdrawing troops from South Korea and Europe and before restructuring military commands around the world.
#cool
The legislation includes other areas of bipartisan pushback against the Trump administration, including measures that extend security aid to Ukraine and the Baltic nations that border Russia. The Pentagon had intended to cancel the initiatives.
😂🤣😂
In a win for lawmakers skeptical of open-ended U.S. military commitments, the bill repeals decades old legislation authorizing the use of military force during the Gulf War and the Iraq War.
🌟 remind me: why did we go there in the first place? 🥇
It also includes a nearly 4 percent pay raise for service members.
✨ Auntie Sam’s indentured servants better follow morals.
Still, while many of the most partisan parts of the bill were cut away during negotiations between the House and Senate, some Democrats nonetheless reacted with frustration at parts of the final text. In particular, bipartisan provisions that would have restored the work of a commission tasked with renaming military bases that had once honored the Confederacy were struck from the final bill.
Noah Robertson joined the Washington Post in 2025, where he covers the core national security committees in Congress. He previously covered the Pentagon and American politics from gun control to policing.
And since ima feeling extra spicy
🌶️ #ForTheDolls
