PALM BEACH, Fla. — $738 billion buys a lot of defense.
That’s how much the United States will spend on the military in 2020, according to USA Today – and it’s good news for America’s heroes.
The Pentagon budget bill signed by President Donald Trump includes funding for a 3.1 percent pay raise for the troops. Military Times reports it’s the largest raise American soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines have seen in more than ten years.
But that’s not the only big-ticket item in the new budget. Space Force will officially take flight as the sixth branch of the United States military. American taxpayers will cover the cost of new southern border wall construction. And more than 2,000,000 civilian federal workers are now eligible for 12 weeks of paid parental and family leave.
President Trump signed the spending bill into law before heading to South Florida for the holidays. Reuters reports it passed the Senate with 86 votes – meaning it was truly bipartisan.
What other people are reading right now:
- Police: Florida man handed out marijuana 'because it was Christmas'
- Pasco sheriff: Brothers ran drug trafficking, money laundering operation
- New law would let families put cameras in nursing home rooms
- Severe rain, flash flooding closes Fort Lauderdale-International Airport
- Semi-truck crashes into Florida's historic Desert Inn
- 3-year-old killed in crash
- 12 Christmas light displays to see this year around Tampa Bay
