Mike Johnson Directly Given $7M in Contentious Defense Spending Bill

House Speaker Mike Johnson has been earmarked for a $7 million payout in a hotly disputed defense spending bill.

The payment is listed in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), an annual bill key to authorizing funding for the Department of Defense (DOD).

In this year's proposed bill, funding for a "Medical Facility Addition" on Barksdale Air Force Base in Johnson's Louisiana district will be available. The base, reported by journalist Jamie Dupree, is home to a number of the U.S. Air Force's bomber squadrons.

Defense spending remains a major point of contention for a divided Republican Party in the House and could spell trouble for the Johnson speakership.

Key issues are set to be vital for support from the hard right in the GOP. Issues include limitations on the Pentagon's abortion policy.

This week, Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville gave up on his blocking of hundreds of military appointments in an attempt to change the policy, which outlined payments to military staff to cross state lines to have an abortion.

Other issues, cited as part of an ongoing culture war, include care for serving transgender members of the military. Issues like this are vital for the ultra-conservative House members, but curbs to care are likely to concern Democrats in the Senate.

A compromise on the issue may not satisfy a group of Republicans that have already ousted one speaker this year, but a handful of key lawmakers are earmarked in the bill, which may help Johnson maintain support.

The support of the likes of Matt Gaetz could be extremely important. Gaetz, according to the current list, could benefit from an "Advanced Helicopter Training System Hangar" at the U.S. Naval Air Station at Whiting Field in his Florida district. The hangar would cost $50 million.

Gaetz proved to be an important cog in the cut-throat machine that brought down Kevin McCarthy's speakership when he filed a motion to vacate in October. A repeat of this, however, is unlikely despite flak coming Johnson's way over issues like aid to Ukraine.

Newsweek has approached Johnson's office for comment.

The list includes Texas Representative John Carter, who is historically against abortion care. Carter, declared absent during the fateful vote to remove McCarthy, would benefit from a $2.65 million "General Purpose Instruction Building" on the site of an Army National Guard Base in Fort Cavazos and army barracks costing $20 million.

Military inclusivity proposals are known as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Proposals such as this have been branded "woke" by its opponents and Indiana Representative Jim Banks, part of the House negotiations on the bill, said a number of people are unlikely to vote for the NDAA if it keeps DEI programs.

"If the NDAA is watered down or weakened and doesn't address some of these core issues to combat wokeism in the military, then that won't be helpful to any of the Republican leaders who are part of it," he told Politico. "There will be a lot of Republicans who will not vote for it if it maintains the DEI programs.