US Congress Approves 2024 Defense Budget, After Months of Delays

Defense News ,U.S :-  The United States Congress recently passed a very important bill about how much money the country will spend on defense in the year 2024. This happened early on a Saturday, and it's especially significant because it's already halfway through the year. The new budget amounts to $825 billion, which is a lot of money. This will help the Pentagon, which is in charge of the country's defense, to carry out its plans for this year.

Before this bill was passed, Congress had been funding the Defense Department at the same levels as the previous year, which was 2023. They did this temporarily to avoid causing any problems, but it made it hard for the Defense Department to do new things or buy new weapons.

The new bill includes money for different things that are important for the country's defense. This includes building eight new ships and buying 86 F-35 fighter jets, 24 F-15EX fighter jets, and 15 KC-46A tankers, which are all types of airplanes. It also provides funds for weapons like the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon and the Conventional Prompt Strike hypersonic weapon system.

There's also money set aside for buying certain types of missiles. The Pentagon is trying something new by making long-term contracts for these missiles. Usually, such contracts are only made for very expensive things like ships and planes. By doing this, they hope to make sure there's always enough demand for these missiles, which will help companies that make them to plan better.

The bill also includes $300 million to help Ukraine. This money will be used to buy equipment to help Ukraine defend itself. This is not as much as some people wanted, though. There was another bill earlier that wanted to give Ukraine $60 billion in support, but it didn't pass because some important people didn't want it to.

There's been some disagreement among politicians about this bill. The Senate and the President both agreed on it, but some members of the House of Representatives weren't happy. They wanted to spend more money on Ukraine and other countries, but they couldn't agree with everyone else.

One person who has caused some trouble in the House of Representatives is Mike Johnson. He is the Speaker of the House, which means he's in charge of organizing things there. Some members of his own party aren't happy with him because they think he's working too closely with the other party, the Democrats. One member even tried to get rid of him from his job, but it's not clear if that will happen.

The situation in the House has been a bit chaotic recently because of disagreements between different members. Some Republicans are angry with their leaders for not doing what they want. This has caused problems in getting things done.

One member of Congress, Marjorie Taylor Greene, has tried to get rid of Mike Johnson from his position. She's not the only one who's upset, but it's not certain if enough people will agree with her to make it happen.

When Congress comes back from their break, they will have to deal with all these issues again. It's likely to be a tense time as they try to figure out what to do next.