Nearly one year after mysterious drones hovered near a top-secret military base in Virginia for 17 days, Sen. Tim Kaine says he is "very frustrated" with "so many unanswered questions" that remain. 

The Virginia Democrat said his state delegation will get a classified briefing on the situation Thursday. 

For more than two weeks in December 2023, the mystery drones flew into restricted airspace over the installation, home to key national security sites and the F-22 Raptor stealth fighters. 

The Pentagon has said little about the incidents other than to confirm they occurred after a Wall Street Journal report in October. If officials know where the drones came from or what they were doing, they haven’t shared it with Congress. 

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"We're kind of at the year anniversary of these incursions at Langley. And I'm very frustrated with the fact that there's still so many unanswered questions," Kaine told Fox News Digital. 

Lack of a standard protocol for such incursions left Langley officials unsure of what to do, other than allow the 20-foot drones to hover near their classified sites. 

As defense-minded lawmakers sought more answers, Langley officials referred them to the FBI, who referred them to Northern Command, who referred them to local law enforcement, one congressional source said. 

"I'm going to keep pushing the federal agencies to get their act together and have a clear agency that's responsible for answering rather than all pointing their fingers at each other and telling us that you got to go to some other agency to get an answer," said Kaine. 

The drones over Langley "don’t appear to be armed, but they are there for at least surveillance purposes. And they interrupted training exercises at Langley."

And during the recent drone phenomenon in New Jersey, unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have been spotted near Picatinny Arsenal and over President-elect Trump's golf club in Bedminster. Trump said he canceled a trip to his golf club due to the drone sightings. 

Drone incursions at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio prompted the base to close its airspace Friday night, and UAS sightings have occurred at U.S. military bases in the United Kingdom and Germany. 

A spending bill that must pass before the end of the week includes a reauthorization of the government's counter-drone authorities. But it is a simple reauthorization of a program many drone experts say is outdated. National security-minded lawmakers and experts have implored Congress to take up legislation that would grant the government greater detection capabilities and give state and local law enforcement the authority to deal with unauthorized drones. 

U.S. capabilities offer many different ways to take down a drone, including shooting them, zapping them with heat lasers and jamming the frequencies so they stop working and fall out of the sky.

Whether Congress needs to change laws is a point of contention, but one thing that is clear is incursions like the one at Langley prompt confusion over legal authority. 

"This is a little bit of a problem of too many cooks. And it's not clear who is the chef," said Kaine. "The FAA is looking at it. The FBI is looking at it. DOD looking at it.

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"This is a lot clearer if there's a drone incursion over a base in a war zone like Syria, for example, or Iraq at a base where U.S. military personnel are positioned. The authorities to knock these drones down in that setting are much clearer than if there's a drone incursion over a base on domestic soil. OK, not going to drone down over the city of Hampton, where the debris might fall into neighborhoods. The authorities on that aren't so clear." 

When drones encroach near bases overseas, the rules of engagement give service members more leeway to engage with them. 

However, U.S. law does not allow the military to shoot down drones near its bases unless they pose an imminent threat. While Langley has the authority to protect its coastal base, the Coast Guard has the authority to protect the waters and the Federal Aviation Administration has authority over U.S. airspace, some of the most congested with commercial airliners in the world. 

Last week, a Chinese national was charged with flying an unauthorized drone over Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. In October, Chinese national Fengyun Shi was sentenced to six months in prison for capturing drone footage over Huntington Ingalls Industries Shipbuilding in Newport News, Virginia, 10 miles from Langley Air Force Base. 

Two months prior to Langley, in October 2023, five drones flew over the Energy Department’s Nevada National Security Site, which is used for nuclear weapons experiments. U.S. authorities were not sure who was behind those drones either. 

A Chinese surveillance balloon traversed over the U.S. for a week last year before the Air Force shot it down off the coast. 

The U.S. Air Force’s Plant 42 in California, home to highly classified aerospace development, has also seen a slew of unidentified drone incursions in 2024, prompting flight restrictions around the site. 

The Senate voted to pass the $895 billion annual defense policy bill that includes a pay raise for U.S. servicemembers and a provision that restricts transgender care. 

The bill passed 85 to 14, and now heads to President Biden’s desk for his signature. 

The legislation scored a more bipartisan vote in the Senate than it did in the House, where more Democrats voted no on the legislation in protest of the transgender provisions. 

The bill prohibits military health care provider Tricare from paying for transgender care "that could result in sterilization" for children under 18.

The legislation passed the House last week 281-140, with 16 Republicans voting "no." Only 81 Democrats voted yes – 124 voting no – a much larger margin than in years passed when the legislation typically enjoyed bipartisan support. 

The 1,800-page bill details how $895.2 billion allocated toward defense and national security will be spent. It will be voted on more than two months after the start of the fiscal year. 

The $895.2 billion represents a 1% increase over last year’s budget, a smaller number than some defense hawks would have liked. 

Additionally, while the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) outlines policy, a separate spending bill will actually fund the programs it lays out. That spending legislation will be voted on in the next Congress, when Republicans will have a narrow majority in both chambers. 

A significant portion of the legislation focused on quality-of-life improvements for servicemembers amid record recruitment issues, a focus of much bipartisan discussion over the last year. That includes a 14.5% pay increase for junior enlisted servicemembers and increasing access to child care for servicemembers while also providing job support to military spouses.

The measure authorizes a 4.5% across-the-board pay raise for all servicemembers starting Jan. 1 and a 2% increase for civilian personnel within the Department of Defense.

It also puts more restrictions on Chinese-made drones, fearing their use in the U.S. could be for foreign surveillance. It specifically targets China-based DJI and Autel Robotoics. 

The NDAA mandates that a national security agency must determine within one year if drones from DJI or Autel Robotics pose unacceptable national security risks. If no agency completes the study, the companies would automatically be added to the Federal Communications Commission’s "covered lists," preventing them from operating in the U.S. 

DJI is the world’s largest drone manufacturer and sells more than half of all U.S. commercial drones. 

The bill recommends a $20 million increase in counter-unmanned aerial systems (UAS) Advanced Development budget and requires the Defense secretary to establish a "C-UAS task force" within 30 days and provide a report to congressional defense committees on the military’s latest counter-drone training efforts within four months.

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Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., led a group of 21 Democratic senators demanding an amendment to remove the transgender care restrictions from the NDAA. That amendment was not included as it would have forced the bill back to the House. Congressional leaders spent months conferencing to find agreement between the chambers and the parties on the yearly must-pass legislation. 

"Let’s be clear: we’re talking about parents who are in uniform serving our country who have earned the right to make the best decisions for their families," Baldwin said in a statement. "I trust our servicemembers and their doctors to make the best health care decisions for their kids, not politicians."

The amendment will affect care for 7,000 children, according to Baldwin, who said she would support the NDAA if not for the provision.

Other Democrats said they had objections to the provision, but the bill's provisions to strengthen U.S. defenses against China, raise pay for servicemembers, invest in new military technologies and replenish weapons stockpiles. 

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"Of course, the NDAA is not perfect. It doesn’t have everything either side would like … But of course, you need bipartisanship to get this through the finish line," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters Tuesday he shares his colleagues' "frustration" with House Speaker Mike Johnson's "extreme, misguided provision," but he said Democrats during the negotiation process were able to strip out "the vast majority of very far right provisions that had passed in the House bill."

Provisions like a blanket ban on funding for gender transition surgeries for adults did not make their way into the bill. Neither did a ban on requiring masks to prevent the spread of diseases. 

The bill also supports deploying the National Guard to the southern border to help with illegal immigrant apprehensions and drug flow. 

Another provision opens the door to allowing airmen and Space Force personnel to grow facial hair. It directs the secretary of the Air Force to brief lawmakers on "the feasibility and advisability" of establishing a pilot program to test out allowing beards. 

Democrats are also upset the bill did not include a provision expanding access to IVF for servicemembers. Currently, military health care only covers IVF for servicemembers whose infertility is linked to service-related illness or injury.

However, the bill did not include an amendment to walk back a provision allowing the Pentagon to reimburse servicemembers who have to travel out of state to get an abortion.

The bill extends a hiring freeze on DEI-related roles and stops all such recruitment until "an investigation of the Pentagon’s DEI programs" can be completed.

Johnson, meanwhile, touted $31 billion in savings in the legislation that would come from cutting "inefficient programs, obsolete weapons, and bloated Pentagon bureaucracy."

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Wednesday rebuffed the Biden-Harris administration's response to recent drone sightings in New Jersey, decrying how federal authorities have given no clear answers to Congress on their origin. 

In a Fox News appearance, Johnson agreed that the White House, and more broadly the U.S. government, does not seem concerned about the increased sightings in New Jersey and elsewhere in the Northeast. 

"Look, I'm the speaker of the House. I have the exact same frustrations that you do and all of us do. We don't have the answers. The administration is not providing them," Johnson said. 

Johnson said he set up a meeting last week with officials from the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, and "the answers are not forthcoming."

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"They just say 'don't worry about it, it's not foreign entities, there's not a vessel offshore doing this, and they're not collecting any data.' OK, then what is it?" Johnson said. 

"You heard Mayorkas, who no one believes, we impeached him in the House as you know, the DHS secretary, he said in an interview a couple days ago, well because they changed the regulations to allow drones to fly at night, that's why everybody's seeing them now. They've always been there. I mean, look, people are not buying the answers," Johnson said. "We are digging in further to get the answers, and we're demanding that the administration do its job. We gotta protect Americans, protect our intelligence, of course, and our data and everything else. We're going to get down to the bottom of it, but we don't have the answers yet."

Johnson referenced how Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC News on Monday that there are thousands of drones flown every day in the U.S., and that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in September 2023 "changed the rules so that drones could fly at night, and that may be one of the reasons why now people are seeing more drones than they did before, especially from dawn until dusk." 

Mayorkas also said it was "critical" for Congress to expand authorities for state and local agencies to counter drone activity "under federal supervision." 

Johnson reacted to President Biden telling reporters at the White House on Tuesday that there was "nothing nefarious" happening with the drones, and that so far, there has been "no sense of danger."

"This is why we need Donald J. Trump back in the White House to bring steady hands at the wheel and a strong commander-in-chief," Johnson said. "He would have already had the answers, he would have already delivered to the American people and certainly to members of Congress. So leadership matters. That's why he got the mandate. That's why the American people can't wait for the America First agenda to start, and we can't wait either."

Federal authorities said Monday evening that the reported drone sightings have been identified as legal commercial drones, hobbyist drones and law enforcement drones, as well as manned aircraft, helicopters and even stars. Officials said that assessment was based on technical data and tips.

The House Intelligence Committee grilled federal law enforcement and intelligence officials about the drones during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday, Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., told CNN. 

Authorities told the panel there still is no evidence of public safety or national security threats, Himes said.

Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday that drone-detection equipment supplied by the federal government has yielded little new information. He declined to describe the equipment, except to say it was powerful and could even disable the drones, though he said that is not legal on U.S. soil. Murphy urged Congress to give states more authority to deal with the drones.

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Meanwhile, the FBI and New Jersey state police warned against pointing lasers at suspected drones, because aircraft pilots are being hit in the eyes more often. Authorities also said they are concerned people might fire weapons at manned aircraft that they have mistaken for drones.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Monday that the federal government has yet to identify any public safety or national security risks from any of the reported drone sightings in the northeast, saying officials believe they were lawfully flown drones, planes or stars.

"There are more than 1 million drones that are lawfully registered with the Federal Aviation Administration here in the United States," Kirby said. "And there are thousands of commercial, hobbyist and law enforcement drones that are lawfully in the sky on any given day. That is the ecosystem that we are dealing with."

The federal government has deployed personnel and advanced technology to investigate the reports in New Jersey and other states, and is evaluating each tip reported by citizens, he said.

About 100 of the more than 5,000 drone sightings reported to the FBI in recent weeks were deemed credible enough to warrant more investigation, according to a joint statement by DHS, FBI, FAA and the Department of Defense. 

Speculation has raged online, with some expressing concerns that the drones could be part of a nefarious plot by foreign agents.

Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said it Is unlikely the drones are engaged in intelligence gathering, given how loud and bright they are. He repeated Tuesday that the drones being reported are not being operated by the Department of Defense. When asked whether military contractors might be operating drones in the New Jersey area, Ryder rebuffed the notion, saying there are "no military operations, no military drone or experiment operations in this corridor."

Ryder said additional drone-detecting technology was being moved to some military installations, including the Picatinny Arsenal and at Naval Weapons Station Earle in New Jersey, where drones also have been reported.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s Defense secretary nominee ensnared in sexual assault allegations, plans to release his accuser from the confidentiality agreement he had her sign, according to Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Graham, R-S.C., told NBC’s "Meet the Press" that Hegseth "told me he would release her from that agreement," adding, "I’d want to know if anybody nominated for a high-level job in Washington legitimately assaulted somebody."

Graham has said he will not take allegations from an anonymous source into consideration for Hegseth’s confirmation. 

Allowing Hegseth’s accuser to come forward publicly might lead to a spectacle similar to the confirmation process for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, during which his accuser, Christine Ford, was called to testify in the Senate about her accusations.  

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"The Pete Hegseth I know, this is not a problem I’ve been aware of," Graham said.

"However, if people have an allegation to make, come forward and make it like they did in Kavanaugh," he added, referring to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. "We’ll decide whether or not it’s credible."

A woman alleges that in 2017, she was sexually assaulted by Hegseth in a hotel room in Monterey, California.

Hegseth was not charged in the incident and insists the interaction was consensual, and the charge stemmed from a woman who regretted cheating on her husband.

Police recommended the case report be forwarded to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office for review, but no charges were filed. 

At the time of the alleged assault, Hegseth, 44, was going through a divorce from his second wife, with whom he shares three children. She filed for divorce after he had a child with another woman, according to court records and social media posts.

A payment was made to the woman, according to Hegseth’s attorney, as part of a confidentiality agreement because Hegseth feared the woman was preparing to file a lawsuit that could have cost him his job as a co-host on "Fox & Friends." 

Earlier this month, Hegseth’s attorney, Tim Parlatore, told CNN they had considered suing the woman for civil extortion before settling with a confidentiality agreement. 

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It is not yet clear whether the allegations may stand in the way of Hegseth’s confirmation. Republicans will have a 53-47 majority in the next Senate, and there is only room for Trump nominees to lose a few GOP votes, assuming no Democrats choose to back them. 

Hegseth does not appear to have lost any Republicans in the upper chamber at this point, including more moderate lawmakers such as Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. 

Hegseth met with both of them last week on Capitol Hill. According to Collins, "I had a good, substantive discussion that lasted more than an hour."

"We covered a wide range of topics ranging from defense procurement reforms to the role of women in the military, sexual assault in the military. Ukraine, NATO, a wide range of issues. I obviously always wait until we have an FBI background check and one is underway in the case of Mr. Hegseth, and I wait to see the committee hearing before reaching a final decision."

Trump's Defense secretary choice has also met twice with Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa. After their first meeting earlier this month, Ernst admitted on Fox News that she was not sold on Hegseth yet. However, after their second meeting this week, she released a statement, saying, "As I support Pete through this process, I look forward to a fair hearing based on truth, not anonymous sources."

Fox News' Julia Johnson and Tyler Olson contributed to this report. 

FIRST ON FOX: A Republican congressman is disputing Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s insistence that the State Department did not block citizens from leaving Mazar-i-Sharif Airbase in Afghanistan during the frenzied withdrawal. 

Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, wrote a letter, obtained by Fox News Digital, demanding to know how many planes the State Department blocked from leaving the airbase, who made the call on whether to clear flights for takeoff, what the criteria for blocking delaying flights was and whether there had been communication with the Taliban.

Following the withdrawal, reports emerged that 1,000 people, including Americans, were stuck at Mazar-i-Sharif Airport awaiting clearance for their charter flights to leave. 

Many had made the 400-mile trek from Kabul to be able to get out more quickly at the airport in northern Afghanistan. 

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One flight organizer told Reuters the State Department had failed to tell the Taliban of its approval for flight departures in Mazar-i-Sharif or validate a landing site. 

Davidson said in the letter that when he was in talks with the State Department, an official asked him "which tail number" he was referring to, insinuating more than one flight had not received authorization to take off and been delayed. 

Col. Francis Hoang, who worked on Afghanistan evacuations with his group Allied Airlift 21, told the Foreign Affairs Committee, "We spent three weeks hiding these nearly 400 people from the Taliban, keeping them alive and fed using funds from American donors."

During a hearing last week, Davidson asked Blinken, "Did the State Department block American citizens from departing from the airfield in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan?" 

"Absolutely not," said Blinken. 

"You know they were blocked!" said Davidson. 

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"I'd be happy to look at any information you have on that. I'm not aware of any American citizens who were blocked."

"I have the emails. I have the photographs of American, blue passport-holding American citizens who were on the airfield awaiting departure that got clearance for safe third countries to depart to, and the order came down from the United States government. Was it the State Department?" Davidson asked. 

Blinken's testimony came three months after the committee voted along party lines to recommend he be held in contempt of Congress, when he refused to appear to testify again about the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal. 

Republicans released a lengthy report in September highlighting how State Department officials had no plan for getting Americans and allies out while there were still troops there to protect them. 

The report claimed that Ross Wilson, U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan at the time, grew the embassy's footprint instead of sending personnel home despite warnings from military officials that a Taliban takeover was imminent. 

"You ignored warnings of collapse from your own personnel," Foreign Affairs Chair Michael McCaul told Blinken. 

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Blinken defended the Biden administration's handling of the withdrawal, saying every American who wanted to leave had been given the opportunity to do so and thousands of Afghans have been resettled internationally. 

President-elect Donald Trump has promised to ask for the resignation of every senior official "who touched the Afghanistan calamity."

Democrats, meanwhile, insist the blame for the 20-year war's acrimonious end lies with a deal Trump negotiated with the Taliban for U.S. withdrawal.

The Senatevoted to advance its annual $895 billion defense policy bill, a signal that the legislation is on track to pass despite Democratic grumblings over a transgender care provision.

A vote to invoke cloture, or pass an agreement to limit debate, on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed the Senate 63 to 7 on Monday evening. The bill now heads to a final vote later this week.

The legislation passed the House last week 281-140, with 16 Republicans voting no. Only 81 Democrats voted yes – 124 voting no – a much larger margin than in years passed when the legislation typically enjoyed bipartisan support. 

The 1,800-page bill details how $895.2 billion allocated toward defense and national security will be spent. It will be voted on more than two months after the start of the fiscal year. 

The $895.2 billion represents a 1% increase over last year’s budget, a smaller number than some defense hawks would have liked. 

A significant portion of the legislation focused on quality-of-life improvements for service members amid record recruitment issues, a focus of much bipartisan discussion over the last year. That includes a 14.5% pay increase for junior enlisted troops and increasing access to child care for service members while also providing job support to military spouses.

The measure authorizes a 4.5% across-the-board pay raise for all service members starting Jan. 1. 

The NDAA typically enjoys wide bipartisan support, but this year’s focus on eliminating "woke" policies was hard for some Democrats to stomach. 

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The policy proposal to prohibit Tricare, the military's health care provider, from covering transgender services for the minor dependents of service members has raised concerns, prompting the leading Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, to reconsider his support for the bill.

"Blanketly denying health care to people who clearly need it, just because of a biased notion against transgender people, is wrong," he said in a statement. "This provision injected a level of partisanship not traditionally seen in defense bills."

The goal of that provision is to prevent any "medical interventions that could result in sterilization" of minors.

Other provisions, like a blanket ban on funding for gender transition surgeries for adults, did not make their way into the bill, neither did a ban on requiring masks to prevent the spread of diseases. 

The bill also supports deploying the National Guard to the southern border to help with illegal immigrant apprehensions and drug flow. 

Another provision opens the door to allowing airmen and Space Force personnel to grow facial hair; it directs the secretary of the Air Force to brief lawmakers on "the feasibility and advisability" of establishing a pilot program to test out allowing beards. 

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Democrats are also upset the bill did not include a provision expanding access to IVF for service members. Currently, military health care only covers IVF for troops whose infertility is linked to service-related illness or injury.

But the bill did not include an amendment to walk back a provision allowing the Pentagon to reimburse service members who have to travel out of state to get an abortion.

The bill extends a hiring freeze on DEI-related roles and stops all such recruitment until "an investigation of the Pentagon’s DEI programs" can be completed.

It also bans the Defense Department from contracting with advertising companies "that blacklist conservative news sources," according to an internal GOP memo.

The memo said the NDAA also guts funding for the Biden administration’s "Countering Extremist Activity Working Group" dedicated to rooting out extremism in the military’s ranks. The annual defense policy bill also does not authorize "any climate change programs" and prohibits the Pentagon from issuing climate impact-based guidance on weapons systems.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., touted $31 billion in savings in the legislation that would come from cutting "inefficient programs, obsolete weapons, and bloated Pentagon bureaucracy."

The compromise NDAA bill, negotiated between Republican and Democrat leadership, sets policy for the nation's largest government agency, but a separate defense spending bill must be passed to allocate funds for such programs.

The mysterious drone phenomenon centered in New Jersey has prompted government officials to issue fresh calls for expanded power as their counter-drone authorization is set to expire this week. 

The current drone-countering authorities — authorized as part of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 — grant both the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) authority to use advanced detection technologies to identify, track and intercept drones that aren’t complying with the law.

The 2018 measure exempts the agencies from other laws that prevent interference with aircraft and wiretapping without a warrant. It expires on Dec. 20, and lawmakers must attach a last-minute extension to a stopgap spending bill to fund the government this week in order to prevent a lapse. 

But government officials say the 11th hour, piecemeal approach harms their ability to counter drone threats.

"We cannot appropriately budget, we can’t strategically plan for the future," Steven Willoughby, deputy director of the Department of Homeland Security’s counter-drone office, said during a security forum last week. 

"The administration has been seeking, for several years now, additional authorities to expand the counter-UAS authorities, both of the federal government, which are themselves very limited, and also to give state and local authorities the authority to use certain C-UAS technologies with federal oversight," a senior Biden administration official told reporters on a call over the weekend. "That legislation has been pending."

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A DHS official said that while there is "no known malicious activity in New Jersey," the sightings there "highlight a gap in our current authorities, and so we would also urge Congress to pass our important counter-UAS legislation." 

The White House-backed Counter-UAS Authority, Security and Reauthorization Act of 2024 would expand the government’s drone authorities and renew them until 2028 — and add new state and local drone authorities. 

But a separate, bipartisan House plan would scale back the proposed state and local authorities in favor of authorizing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to take down drones, instead of just regulating their use in airspace. 

But lawmakers don’t have time to hash out their disputes over which agency should get what authority before agencies lose their powers entirely — so the narrow extension of authority attached to the stopgap measure is only expected to last a matter of months.

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For nearly a month, New Jersey residents have alerted authorities to sightings of mysterious drones, some as wide as six feet, hovering in the sky at night. Sightings have ranged from 4 to 180, and some of them seem to be operating in a coordinated manner, and some unmanned aerial systems have been spotted near the Army's Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle.

Law enforcement has been able to offer little explanation for the phenomenon — but steered the public away from the assumption that the drones originate with a foreign adversary. 

"To date, we have no intelligence or observations that would indicate that they were aligned with a foreign actor or that they had malicious intent," a Defense Department official told reporters over the weekend. "But I just got to simply tell you we don’t know."

"We have not been able to locate or identify the operators or the points of origin. We have very limited authorities when it comes to moving off base," the official added. 

"We’re also significantly restricted, and rightfully so — in fact, prohibited — from intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance here in the homeland." 

Additional unauthorized drone sightings have been recorded near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, where officials closed the airspace for four hours due to the sighting, and Ramstein U.S. Air Force Base in Germany in recent days. 

The GOP-controlled House of Representatives passed its annual defense spending bill Wednesday, including a key culture-war caveat: a ban on transgender medical treatments for minor children of U.S. service members.

The provision in the 1,800-page bill states that "medical interventions for the treatment of gender dysphoria that could result in sterilization may not be provided to a child under the age of 18," referring to the transgender children of military personnel. 

Republicans argued that taxpayer dollars should not fund potentially experimental and harmful procedures for minors.

House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., praised the passage of the defense measure, though it now heads to the Senate for approval in the Democrat-run chamber.

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"Our men and women in uniform should know their first obligation is protecting our nation, not woke ideology," Johnson said in a statement after the measure passed.

While the provision was a win for Republicans that could further push President-Elect Donald Trump's policy agenda, the measure did not incorporate several other Republican-backed provisions related to social issues. Notably absent were efforts to ban TRICARE, the military's health program, from covering transgender treatments for adults and a proposal to overturn the Pentagon's hotly-debated policy of reimbursing travel expenses for service members seeking abortions stationed in states where the procedure is restricted.

Democrats were largely outraged by the provision to strip TRICARE from service members' transgender children, with the House Armed Services Committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Adam Smith, vowing to vote against the bill on Tuesday despite helping on other portions of the package. Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., did not advise his party members to vote for or against it.

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The measure also drew the ire of the United Nations' Human Rights Council (HRC), which called it an "attack" on military families.

"This cruel and hateful bill suddenly strips away access to medical care for families that members of our armed forces are counting on, and it could force service members to choose between staying in the military or providing health care for their children," HRC President Kelley Robinson said in a statement.

The Senate's response to the transgender treatment provision will be pivotal in determining the final content of the defense policy for the upcoming fiscal year. If it passes, it would align with Trump's criticisms of the military's "woke" policies. 

The Supreme Court also heard oral arguments last week for a first-of-its-kind case involving Tennessee's ban on transgender medical procedures for minors, which could place further restrictions on the procedures.

RED STATE AG SLAMS BIDEN ADMIN'S ATTEMPT TO 'REWRITE' IMMIGRATION LAW: 'ALICE IN WONDERLAND STUFF'

The $884 billion National Defense Authorization Act, which sets policies for the Defense Department, was passed in a 281-140 vote, with 124 Democrats and 16 Republicans voting against it. 

Other provisions also place limits on diversity, equity and inclusion-based recruitment and the teaching of critical race theory in military-run schools. Other policies include a 14.5% pay boost for junior enlisted troops, expanded child care access and enhanced job assistance for military spouses, reflecting a year of bipartisan focus on addressing record recruitment struggles.

Fox News Digital's Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: The U.S. Military Academy at West Point is apologizing after an employee mistakenly said Pete Hegseth was not accepted by the historic military college, and now a lawmaker is seeking accountability.

Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., accused West Point administrators of trying to "sabotage" Hegseth's nomination to be President-elect Trump's secretary of defense.

Banks is now demanding information on how the error was allowed to occur.

"As you know, ProPublica reporter Jesse Eisinger had been preparing to publish a story falsely claiming that nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, was lying when he said that he was admitted into West Point but decided not to attend," Banks wrote.

"To preempt the publication of a blatantly false story, Hegseth published his West Point acceptance letter, proving the veracity of his claim and leading ProPublica to kill the story. Eisinger defended his reporting, claiming that West Point OPA told him ‘twice on the record’ that Hegseth had not even applied to West Point."

AFTER SECOND MEETING WITH HEGSETH, ERNST HINTS AT WHETHER SHE WILL OR WON'T SUPPORT CONFIRMATION

"It is outrageous that West Point officials would so grossly interfere in a political process and make false claims regarding a presidential nominee," he continued.

"Even in the unlikely scenario of OPA mistakenly making false claims not once but twice, it is an unforgivable act of incompetence that OPA did not make absolutely sure their information was accurate before sharing it with a reporter."

Banks asked the school to hand Congress "all communication and documentation regarding how West Point OPA falsely accused Hegseth of lying about his application."

When reached for comment, West Point apologized for the error and said the academy's records indicate Hegseth was accepted in 1999 but did not attend.

PETE HEGSETH SAYS HE WILL BE 'STANDING RIGHT HERE IN THIS FIGHT' AFTER MEETING WITH SENATORS

"An incorrect statement involving Hegseth’s admission to the U.S. Military Academy was released by an employee on Dec. 10, 2024. Upon further review of an archived database, employees realized this statement was in error. Hegseth was offered acceptance to West Point as a prospective member of the Class of 2003. The academy takes this situation seriously and apologizes for this administrative error," the West Point directorate of communications said.

Hegseth is a veteran of the Army National Guard who served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It comes as he has continued meeting with senators as part of the confirmation process to join the next Trump administration.

CONSERVATIVE GROUP COMPILES LIST OF 'WOKE' SENIOR OFFICERS THEY WANT PETE HEGSETH TO FIRE

Banks, an Army veteran, has been a staunch ally of Hegseth's. His support will be critical next year, having won a landslide victory in November to be Indiana's next senator.

Eisinger, an editor at ProPublica, defended the outlet's handling of the situation in a lengthy series of posts on X.

"No, we are not publishing a story. This is how journalism is supposed to work. Hear something. Check something. Repeat steps 1 and 2 as many times as needed. The end," he said.

Banks told Fox News Digital, "Pete Hegseth will shake up the DOD and eliminate wokeness from our military and military academies. This upsets the bureaucrats at West Point, who now seem to be trying to sabotage his nomination." 

With the fall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad over the weekend and a new White House on the horizon, Iranian resistance leaders and U.S. lawmakers alike have begun expressing hope that Iran will topple its own leadership in a similar fashion, with U.S. help. 

"There’s a real chance for regime change right now, that’s the only way you’re going to stop a nuclear weapon," Sam Brownback, former U.S. ambassador for International Religious Freedom, told Fox News Digital at a Senate panel on Iran on Wednesday. 

"It’s not just now or never, it's now or nuclear," he said, as Iran enriches uranium to near-nuclear-capable levels. 

A bipartisan group of senators spoke in support of toppling the Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khameini – both through a return to former President Trump’s "maximum pressure" campaign through sanctions and supporting the Iranian resistance movement – a piece that was missing during the first Trump administration. 

Khameini has ruled Iran for 35 years. 

THE RISE AND FALL OF BASHAR AND ASMA ASSAD

"We have an obligation to stand together with allies in making sure this regime’s suppression will come to an end," said Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., at the event, which was hosted by the Organization for Iranian American Communities. 

"Iran is projecting only weakness," said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. "Now is the time to think about how we invest more in the core values that we all share: democracy, human rights, justice for everyone."

"I have, for a long time, been willing to call quite unequivocally for regime change in Iran," said Sen. Ted Cruz, R–Texas. 

It was a stronger message than has often recently been heard in Washington, D.C. circles, where there has been little appetite for getting further involved in the Middle East.

"The ayatollah will fall, the mullahs will fall, and we will see free and democratic elections in Iran. Change is coming and it’s coming very soon," the Texas Republican predicted.  

"We will return to a maximum pressure policy," he added, "cut the cruel regime from resources from every direction possible – we are going to shut down nuclear research facilities, we are going to cut off their oil." 

ISRAEL'S UN AMBASSADOR INSISTS NATION IS 'NOT GETTING INVOLVED' IN SYRIAN REGIME CHANGE

"There is a cottage industry in Washington to promote the goals and objectives of this regime," said Marc Ginsberg, former U.S. ambassador to Morocco. "You saw here there were Democratic senators to say to you, ‘We don’t buy this. We can make this a bipartisan effort.'"

The Biden administration has issued Iran sanctions waivers in hopes of future nuclear negotiations, and has expressed no interest in helping to topple the ayatollah. On Wednesday, Biden renewed a sanctions waiver granting Iran access to $10 billion in payments for energy from Iraq. 

And asked if he would like to see Iran change its ruling system, Trump told Iranian American producer Patrick Bet David in October: "We can't get totally involved in all that. We can't run ourselves, let's face it."

"I would like to see Iran be very successful. The only thing is, they can't have a nuclear weapon," he also said. 

But Brownback, a Trump appointee, insisted the U.S. must involve itself in regime change through supporting Iran’s opposition.

"I think we need to support politically the opposition inside of Iran," he said. "Provide them equipment, provide them information… the regime is not just going to walk away. You’ve got to force them out." 

And Iran watchers believe the fall of Assad, who was heavily backed by Iran and its proxy force Hezbollah, is the perfect moment to do that. 

"The tectonic shift in the Syrian government… should mean to the people of Iran that change is in fact possible in the Middle East," said Gen. James Jones, former White House national security adviser and supreme allied commander of Europe. 

"The change in administration has already caused tectonic shifts in geographic alignments," he went on. "Appeasement does not work. Iranian regime does not do nuance."

Maryam Rajavi is president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the main resistance group in Iran.

"The people, who are deeply discontented and angry, along with the resistance units, who are part of the Army of Freedom and the main force of change in Iran, they are preparing an organized uprising," she told the panel. 

Rajavi and her political group have a 10-point plan for regime change that calls for rebuilding an Iranian government based on separation of religion and state, gender equality, abolition of the death penalty and denuclearization. 

"Our goal is not to seize power but to restore it to its rightful owners, the people of Iran and their vote."  

Unlike the first Trump administration, Iran is now facing military attacks on other fronts through its proxies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. It's unclear whether this weakened position would prompt them to bow to U.S. pressure or lash out even further. But one thing is clear: U.S. support for regime change would be a massive escalation in tensions between Washington and Tehran with unknown consequences. 

The House voted Wednesday to pass its yearly defense bill that would give junior enlisted troops a significant pay bump and work to eliminate DEI programs at the Pentagon.

It passed 281-140, with 16 Republicans voting no. Only 81 Democrats voted yes – 124 voting no – a much larger margin than in years passed when the legislation typically enjoyed bipartisan support. 

Many Democrats opposed a provision of the bill that restricts coverage of transgender treatments for minors. 

The legislation now heads to the Senate for passage before heading to President Joe Biden’s desk for signature. 

The 1,800-page bill known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), details how $895.2 billion allocated toward defense and national security will be spent. It will be voted on more than two months after the start of the fiscal year. 

The $895.2 billion represents a 1% increase over last year’s budget, a smaller number than some defense hawks would have liked. 

A significant portion of the legislation focused on quality-of-life improvements for service members amid record recruitment issues, a focus of much bipartisan discussion over the last year. That includes a 14.5% pay increase for junior enlisted troops and increasing access to child care for service members while also providing job support to military spouses.

The measure authorizes a 4.5% across-the-board pay raise for all service members starting Jan. 1. 

The NDAA typically enjoys wide bipartisan support, but this year’s focus on eliminating "woke" policies could be hard for Democrats to stomach.

PENTAGON ANNOUNCES NEW COUNTER-DRONE STRATEGY AS UNMANNED ATTACKS ON US INTERESTS SKYROCKET

The policy proposal to prohibit Tricare, the military's health care provider, from covering transgender services for the minor dependents of service members has raised concerns, prompting the leading Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, to reconsider his support for the bill.

"Blanketly denying health care to people who clearly need it, just because of a biased notion against transgender people, is wrong," he said in a statement. "This provision injected a level of partisanship not traditionally seen in defense bills."

The goal of that provision is to prevent any "medical interventions that could result in sterilization" of minors.

Other provisions, like a blanket ban on funding for gender transition surgeries for adults, did not make their way into the bill, neither did a ban on requiring masks to prevent the spread of diseases. 

The bill also supports deploying the National Guard to the southern border to help with illegal immigrant apprehensions and drug flow. 

Another provision opens the door to allowing airmen and Space Force personnel to grow facial hair; it directs the secretary of the Air Force to brief lawmakers on "the feasibility and advisability" of establishing a pilot program to test out allowing beards. 

HERE IS WHO IS VYING FOR POWER IN SYRIA AFTER THE FALL OF BASHAR AL-ASSAD

Democrats are also upset the bill did not include a provision expanding access to IVF for service members. Currently, military health care only covers IVF for troops whose infertility is linked to service-related illness or injury.

But the bill did not include an amendment to walk back a provision allowing the Pentagon to reimburse service members who have to travel out of state to get an abortion.

The bill extends a hiring freeze on DEI-related roles and stops all such recruitment until "an investigation of the Pentagon’s DEI programs" can be completed.

It also bans the Defense Department from contracting with advertising companies "that blacklist conservative news sources," according to an internal GOP memo.

The memo said the NDAA also guts funding for the Biden administration’s "Countering Extremist Activity Working Group" dedicated to rooting out extremism in the military’s ranks. The annual defense policy bill also does not authorize "any climate change programs" and prohibits the Pentagon from issuing climate impact-based guidance on weapons systems.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., touted $31 billion in savings in the legislation that would come from cutting "inefficient programs, obsolete weapons, and bloated Pentagon bureaucracy."

The compromise NDAA bill, negotiated between Republican and Democrat leadership, sets policy for the nation's largest government agency, but a separate defense spending bill must be passed to allocate funds for such programs.

After a number of key legislative priorities related to cracking down on China failed to make it into the yearly defense bill, Republicans are working on ways to get them signed into law before the end of the year. 

On Wednesday, the House will vote on the sprawling 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which sets policy plans for the Pentagon’s $895 billion budget. That legislation was negotiated between Republican and Democratic leadership in both the House and Senate and typically enjoys wide bipartisan support. 

And while the package will not advance legislation aimed at cracking down on U.S. dollars flowing toward Chinese Communist Party-affiliated companies, Republicans will push to include those provisions, which are a key priority for House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., in other must-pass legislation.

With a government funding deadline in 10 days, those measures could be included in a continuing resolution (CR), which would punt the funding deadline down the road and keep budgets at FY 2024 levels, multiple sources familiar with negotiations confirmed to Fox News Digital. 

"During the course of negotiations on the annual defense bill, significant progress was made towards achieving consensus on provisions to counter China and strengthen our economic security. That momentum remains and more time is needed to get that important work done with the goal of passage before the end of the year," Johnson said in a statement. 

One provision that was left out would prevent the U.S. from investing in the development of military technologies, a way to codify a rule put forward by President Biden’s Treasury Department.

The rule prohibits U.S. financing of some China-based ventures and requires Americans to notify the government of their involvement in others. 

BIDEN FINALIZES CRACKDOWN ON US MILITARY TECH INVESTMENTS IN CHINA WITH ONE WEEK TO LAME DUCK SESSION

It restricts and monitors U.S. investments in artificial intelligence, computer chips and quantum computing, all of which have a dual use in the defense and commercial sectors. 

The rule seeks to limit the access "countries of concern," like China, including Hong Kong and Macao, have to U.S. dollars to fund the development of high-level technologies like next-generation missile systems and fighter jets they could then utilize for their own military. It's set to take effect Jan. 2.  

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., demanded that outbound investments piece not be included in the negotiated NDAA, three sources familiar with the negotiations confirmed. 

Some mused that Democrats put up a fight over China provisions because they were frustrated with another provision Republicans insisted on including: a ban on military health care providers from paying for transgender operations like sex changes for dependent minors if it would leave them sterile.

Politico was first to report about the back-and-forth. 

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, said he would not vote for the legislation – which includes big pay raises for junior troops – over the transgender provision. 

And in a relief for Chinese biotechnology companies, the Biosecure Act, which prohibits the U.S. government from contracting with companies that do business with a "biotechnology company of concern," has been left out of the NDAA. 

Three sources familiar with the negotiations told Fox News Digital that Reps. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., and Jamie Raskin, D-Md., stood in the way of the legislation’s inclusion in the negotiated defense bill.

Raskin could not be reached for comment on his opposition. 

McGovern opposed the bill when it came up for a stand-alone vote in the House. 

"The Biosecure Act, is a weak bill, and as written, it could actually make the problem even worse," he said in a statement. 

"First, naming specific companies will create a ‘whack-a-mole’ situation where entities can change their name and reincorporate to evade sanctions," he went on. "Second, it’s totally wrong to call out specific companies without any formal investigation or interagency process – that might be how they do things in the [People's Republic of China], but this is the United States of America where we ought to have a thorough, independent investigation."

CHINESE MILITARY COMPANY'S MACHINERY IN USE AT NATION'S TOP SECRET RESEARCH LAB, OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE SAYS

In September, Fox News Digital reported that lawmakers were aware of a machine operated by a Chinese military company in use at the nation’s most secretive government laboratories. 

The machine operated by Chinese biotech company BGI is in use at the Los Alamos lab in New Mexico. 

BGI, among other companies, is included in a ban in the Biosecure Act. 

Also among them is WuXi Biologics, a company that planned to build a $300 million biomedical plant in McGovern’s district. 

Attaching the China outbound investment provision and the Biosecure Act to must-pass legislation would ensure it doesn’t die in the Democratic-led Senate the way House GOP-led bills often do. 

The House is set to vote Wednesday on its must-pass yearly defense bill that would give junior enlisted troops a significant pay bump and work to eliminate DEI programs at the Pentagon.

The 1,800-page bill known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), details how $895.2 billion allocated toward defense and national security will be spent. It will be voted on more than two months after the start of the fiscal year. 

The $895.2 billion represents a 1% increase over last year’s budget, a smaller number than some defense hawks would have liked. 

A significant portion of the legislation focused on quality-of-life improvements for service members amid record recruitment issues, a focus of much bipartisan discussion over the last year. That includes a 14.5% pay increase for junior enlisted troops and increasing access to child care for service members while also providing job support to military spouses.

The measure authorizes a 4.5% across-the-board pay raise for all service members starting Jan. 1. 

The NDAA typically enjoys wide bipartisan support, but this year’s focus on eliminating "woke" policies could be hard for Democrats to stomach.

PENTAGON ANNOUNCES NEW COUNTER-DRONE STRATEGY AS UNMANNED ATTACKS ON US INTERESTS SKYROCKET

The policy proposal to prohibit Tricare, the military's health care provider, from covering transgender services for the minor dependents of service members has raised concerns, prompting the leading Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, to reconsider his support for the bill.

"Blanketly denying health care to people who clearly need it, just because of a biased notion against transgender people, is wrong," he said in a statement. "This provision injected a level of partisanship not traditionally seen in defense bills."

The goal of that provision is to prevent any "medical interventions that could result in sterilization" of minors.

Other provisions, like a blanket ban on funding for gender transition surgeries for adults, did not make their way into the bill, neither did a ban on requiring masks to prevent the spread of diseases. 

The bill also supports deploying the National Guard to the southern border to help with illegal immigrant apprehensions and drug flow. 

Another provision opens the door to allowing airmen and Space Force personnel to grow facial hair; it directs the secretary of the Air Force to brief lawmakers on "the feasibility and advisability" of establishing a pilot program to test out allowing beards. 

US SCRAMBLES AS DRONES SHAPE THE LANDSCAPE OF WAR: 'THE FUTURE IS HERE'

Democrats are also upset the bill did not include a provision expanding access to IVF for service members. Currently, military health care only covers IVF for troops whose infertility is linked to service-related illness or injury.

But the bill did not include an amendment to walk back a provision allowing the Pentagon to reimburse service members who have to travel out of state to get an abortion.

The bill extends a hiring freeze on DEI-related roles and stops all such recruitment until "an investigation of the Pentagon’s DEI programs" can be completed.

It also bans the Defense Department from contracting with advertising companies "that blacklist conservative news sources," according to an internal GOP memo.

The memo said the NDAA also guts funding for the Biden administration’s "Countering Extremist Activity Working Group" dedicated to rooting out extremism in the military’s ranks. The annual defense policy bill also does not authorize "any climate change programs" and prohibits the Pentagon from issuing climate impact-based guidance on weapons systems.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., touted $31 billion in savings in the legislation that would come from cutting "inefficient programs, obsolete weapons, and bloated Pentagon bureaucracy."

The compromise NDAA bill, negotiated between Republican and Democrat leadership, sets policy for the nation's largest government agency, but a separate defense spending bill must be passed to allocate funds for such programs.

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, praised women in the military as some of the "greatest warriors" after critics took issue with comments he made about women not being fit to serve in combat roles. 

"I also want an opportunity here to clarify comments that have been misconstrued, that I somehow don't support women in the military, some of our greatest warriors, our best warriors out there are women," he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Monday. 

Female service members "love our nation, want to defend that flag, and they do it every single day around the globe. I'm not presuming anything," he added. 

"But after President Trump asked me to be his Secretary of Defense, should I get the opportunity to do that, I look forward to being a secretary for all our warriors, men and women, for the amazing contributions they make in our military."

Hegseth will spend this week meeting with senators on Capitol Hill to court the 50 votes he needs to secure the Cabinet level position. 

AFTER SECOND MEETING WITH HEGSETH, ERNST HINTS AT WHETHER SHE WILL OR WON'T SUPPORT CONFIRMATION

In a November 7 episode of the Shawn Ryan podcast, which aired mere days before Hegseth, a former Fox News employee, was tapped to serve as Defense Secretary, the nominee said: "I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles."

Hegseth asserted that women serving in combat roles "hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal" and "has made fighting more complicated."

Hegseth noted that he was not necessarily advocating for making the change right now, commenting; "Imagine the demagoguery in Washington, D.C., if you were actually making the case for, you know, ‘We should scale back women in combat.’"

"As the disclaimer for everybody out there," he added, "we’ve all served with women and they’re great, it’s just our institutions don’t have to incentivize that in places where … over human history, men are more capable."

TRUMP RALLIES BEHIND HEGSETH BUT INVITES DESANTIS TO ARMY-NAVY GAME

He said, "I love women service members who contribute amazingly," but asserted that "everything about women serving together makes the situation more complicated and complication in combat means casualties are worse."

He also criticized the upper echelons of military leadership for changing standards and prioritizing filling diversity quotas above combat effectiveness. He pointed to a 2015 study by the Marine Corps that found that integrated male-female units did "drastically worse" in terms of combat effectiveness than all-male units.

"Between bone density and lung capacity and muscle strength, men and women are just different," he said. "So, I’m ok with if you maintain the standards just where they are for everybody, and if there’s some, you know, hard-charging female that meets that standard, great, cool, join the infantry battalion. But that is not what’s happened. What has happened is the standards have lowered."

President-elect Donald Trump's pick for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, celebrated that he had a "great meeting" with Sen. Joni Ernst after the Iowa Republican slow-walked an endorsement of the Cabinet nominee. 

"It was a great meeting. People don't really know this. I've known Sen. Ernst for over 10 years. I knew her when she was a state senator running to be the first female combat veteran," Hegseth told Fox News' Sean Hannity in an exclusive interview Monday evening. "And we supported her in that effort, and have continued to."

"You get into these meetings and you to listen to senators –  it's an amazing advise and consent process -- and you hear how thoughtful, serious, substantive they are on these key issues that pertain to our Defense Department," he continued. "And Joni Ernst is front and center on that. So to able to have phone calls and meetings time and time again to talk over the issues is really, really important. The fact that she's willing to support me through this process means a lot."

AFTER SECOND MEETING WITH HEGSETH, ERNST HINTS AT WHETHER SHE WILL OR WON'T SUPPORT CONFIRMATION

Hegseth has been spending his days on Capitol Hill meeting with Republican senators to rally support as he battles allegations of sexual misconduct, excessive drinking and mismanaging a veterans nonprofit organization. Hegseth has denied the allegations and vowed that he won't drink "a drop of alcohol" if confirmed to Trump's cabinet.

PETE HEGSETH SAYS HE WILL BE 'STANDING RIGHT HERE IN THIS FIGHT' AFTER MEETING WITH SENATORS

Among Hegseth's meetings on Monday, he again met with Ernst, who sits on the ​​Senate Armed Services Committee, after meeting with her last week. 

Last week, Ernst withheld committing to voting in favor of Hegseth, but hinted Monday that she is beginning to support the Trump nominee. 

Ernst wrote in a statement Monday that "as I support Pete through this process, I look forward to a fair hearing based on truth, not anonymous sources."

She added in her statement that "following our encouraging conversations, Pete committed to completing a full audit of the Pentagon and selecting a senior official who will uphold the roles and value of our servicemen and women – based on quality and standards, not quotas – and who will prioritize and strengthen my work to prevent sexual assault within the ranks."

​​Trump nominated Hegseth, a former National Guard officer, as secretary of defense last month, saying "with Pete at the helm, America's enemies are on notice — Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down." Hegseth was a host on "Fox & Friends Weekend" before Trump's nomination. 

Fox News Digital reported Sunday, following Ernst's initial hesitation to support Hegseth, that Trump’s allies were expected to ramp up criticisms against her as she stalls on offering support to Trump’s secretary of defense pick.

CONSERVATIVE GROUP COMPILES LIST OF 'WOKE' SENIOR OFFICERS THEY WANT PETE HEGSETH TO FIRE

"It's really this simple: If you oppose President Trump's nominees, you oppose the Trump agenda and there will be a political price to pay for that. We are well aware that there are certain establishment Senators trying to tank the President's nominees to make him look weak and damage him politically, and we're just not going to allow that to happen," a top Trump ally told Fox News Digital. 

Hegseth continued in his interview with Hannity that he will also meet with Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, who Hannity identified as a pair of more liberal Republican senators compared to their colleagues. 

"We will be meeting with Sen. Collins on Wednesday and Sen. Murkowski on Tuesday. And let me tell you, Sean, the founders got this right. This is not a trivial process. This is a real thing: advise and consent of a nominee who the president has chosen. And I'm so grateful that President Trump would have the faith in me to lead the Defense Department, to choose me to do that. But this advise and consent process, meeting with all the members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and they all have great questions, and my answers are for them," Hegseth said. 

The SecDef nominee also pushed back on claims of impropriety during the interview, arguing "the left is trying to turn this into a trial in the media –  show trial –  and we're not going to let that happen."

"I'm going to walk into the door of every one of these senators with just, as an open book, willing to answer their questions, because they deserve answers. … I've heard great things about all of these senators and the questions they want to ask, and we look forward to earning these votes. That's what it's about, ultimately earning the votes through the committee and through the entire U.S. Senate," he said. 

DOZENS OF PROMINENT VETERANS SIGN ONTO LETTER SUPPORTING 'OUTSTANDING' HEGSETH NOMINATION AMID CONTROVERSIES

Reports surfaced last week alleging Trump had lost faith in his nominee as Democrats slammed the choice and some Republicans, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham, remarked the allegations against Hegseth were "disturbing." Trump bucked the claims when he doubled down on his support of Hegseth in a Truth Social post on Friday, while Vice President-elect JD Vance also said the Trump team is "​​not abandoning this nomination."

​​"Pete Hegseth is doing very well. His support is strong and deep," Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday. "He will be a fantastic, high ​​energy, Secretary of Defense, one who leads with charisma and skill. Pete is a WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!!!"

Fox News Digital's Cameron Cawthorne and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report. 

The fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, the culmination of years of civil war, has given way to a power vacuum with different factions protecting their own interests – and vying for power in the Middle Eastern nation. 

The U.S., worried about the resurgence of an ISIS stronghold, has struck targets associated with the Islamic State in central Syria. 

Turkey, which controls a zone of Syria on its northern border, has continued to attack U.S.-backed Kurdish forces. 

Both work with different proxy groups. 

Here’s a look at the different forces vying for control in the region:

HTS was the key faction behind the fall of Damascus and the fleeing of Assad, and now controls the capital city. But the Islamist militant group is far from a U.S. ally – its leader, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, has a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head and has been designated a terrorist since 2013. The group governed just a sliver of northwest Syria in Idlib. 

ISRAEL DEPLOYS PARATROOPERS TO SYRIA IN 'DEFENSE ACTIVITIES' AFTER FALL OF ASSAD

The group, founded as an al Qaeda affiliate, still remains largely aligned with al Qaeda but focuses on establishing fundamentalist Islamic rule in Syria rather than a global caliphate. 

The U.N., U.S. and Turkey all designate HTS as a terrorist organization. The group, in recent years, has worked to soften its image and lobbied to be delisted as a terrorist group, highlighting its government services in Idlib and promising to protect religious and cultural sites, even churches, in Aleppo. 

Experts believe Turkey, which has long looked to topple Assad, may have been at play in HTS’ offensive. 

Syria’s forces loyal to Assad have staved off coup attempts since 2011, often through violent crackdowns on protests and rebellion. 

By 2020, government troops backed by Iran, Russia and Lebanese Hezbollah had pushed rebel forces back to the northwest corner of Syria. 

In the waning days of November, rebel factions swiftly overpowered government troops, seizing control of Aleppo – a city previously reclaimed by Assad's forces in 2016. Eight days later, the insurgents successfully captured not only Aleppo, but also Hama, Homs and Damascus.

On Monday, HTS granted Assad’s forces "a general amnesty for all military personnel conscripted under compulsory service."

"Their lives are safe and no one may assault them," the group said in a statement.

The SNA is a loosely bound coalition of Turkish-backed forces primarily intent on fighting Kurdish forces. But the coalition, which carries out Turkish President Recep Erdogan’s anti-Assad efforts, was also involved in the fall of Damascus. The groups have – in the past – also battled HTS and other Islamic State terrorists. 

The SNA coalition believes U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in Syria to be linked to Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a militant group that has launched Kurdish nationalist attacks in Turkey.

SDF is a coalition of U.S.-backed Kurdish forces, centered in northeastern Syria. They have long worked alongside the U.S. in battling Islamic State forces in Syria.

In addition to fighting the Islamic State, they’ve been fending off attacks from Turkish-backed fighters. 

US STRIKES DOZENS OF ISIS CAMPS AND OPERATIVES IN SYRIA AMID ASSAD'S DOWNFALL

Kurdish forces were not involved in the offensive that toppled Assad, but they hailed the offensive campaign. 

"In Syria, we are living through historic moments as we witness the fall of the authoritarian regime in Damascus. This change presents an opportunity to build a new Syria based on democracy and justice that guarantees the rights of all Syrians," said Mazlum Abdi, the commander of the SDF, on Sunday morning. 

After relatively friendly relations with Syria throughout the early 2000s, Turkey condemned Assad over the violent 2011 crackdown on protesters. 

While Turkey and the U.S. are allies – bound to protect each other through NATO – they are on opposing sides in Syria, even as both celebrated Assad's downfall. The Turkish military fired on U.S.-backed forces in Syria over the weekend, where fighting erupted between rebel groups in Manbij, a Kurdish-controlled city near Syria's border with Turkey. Turkey has long had a goal of pushing the Kurds away from its border, and is looking to use the current turmoil to capture control along the border and decimate the Kurdish population there.  

Kurdish separatists have fought Turkey for years, looking to carve out their own autonomous nation. 

Russia has long propped up the Assad regime, and days ago granted the ousted leader asylum.

Since 2015, Russia has effectively acted as Assad’s air force, but its capacity to intervene on the dictator’s behalf has diminished since resources were needed for the war with Ukraine. 

Iran was Assad’s biggest supporter, providing arms and military advice and directing its proxy Lebanese Hezbollah to fight the insurgents. But Hezbollah had to direct its troops back to Lebanon to fight Israel, leaving Assad’s forces in a weakened position. 

HTS leader al-Golani lamented in a speech on Sunday that Syria had become "a playground for Iranian ambitions."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu credited his forces’ weakening of Hezbollah for playing a key role in the fall of Assad. Israel has consistently launched strikes against Syria with the strategic aim of disrupting the channels Iran uses to supply arms to Hezbollah.

After Assad’s fall, Israel, on Sunday, struck Assad’s chemical weapons facilities within Syria, for fear of what hands they may fall into in his absence. 

Israel also captured control of a buffer zone within the Golan Heights, the first time they’ve captured territory in Syria since the war in 1973. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) moved in on Sunday and told residents to remain in their homes until further notice. They said they needed to capture the territory to ensure border security. 

They also captured Mount Hermon – the highest point on the border between the two countries and a blind spot in their defenses that Iran had been exploiting to send low-flying drones. 

Some 900 U.S. troops remain in Syria, where they are partnered with the SDF to fight ISIS. 

On Sunday, President Biden said U.S. troops would remain there to "ensure stability." 

The U.S. carried out dozens of precision strikes on more than 75 ISIS targets in central Syria over the weekend to prevent the terrorist group from exploiting the unrest to rebuild. 

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"We're clear-eyed about the fact that ISIS will try to take advantage of any vacuum to re-establish its capability to create a safe haven," Biden said. "We will not let that happen."

Biden said the U.S. would support Syria's neighbors – Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Israel – "should any threat arise from Syria during this transition."

The president added that the fall of Assad created a "historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria."

The Pentagon unveiled a new counter-drone strategy after a spate of incursions near U.S. bases prompted concerns over a lack of an action plan for the increasing threat of unmanned aerial vehicles. 

Though much of the strategy remains classified, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will implement a new counter-drone office within the Pentagon – Joint Counter-Small UAS Office – and a new Warfighter Senior Integration Group, according to a new memo. 

The Pentagon will also begin work on a second Replicator initiative, but it will be up to the incoming Trump administration to decide whether to fund this plan. The first Replicator initiative worked to field inexpensive, dispensable drones to thwart drone attacks by adversarial groups across the Middle East and elsewhere.  

The memo warned that the increased use of unmanned systems must reshape U.S. tactics, as they make it easier for adversaries to "surveil, disrupt and attack our forces … potentially without attribution." 

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The plan outlines a five-pronged approach: deepening understanding of enemy drones, launching offensive campaigns to thwart their ability to build such systems, improving "active and passive" defenses to such attacks, rapid increase of production of counter-drone systems and making counter-drone focus a top priority for future force development. 

For the past year, Iran-backed Houthi rebels have been using small, one-way unmanned aerial systems to strike western shipping routes in the Red Sea. 

That has led to perilous waters along a trade route that typically sees some $1 trillion in goods pass through it, as well as shipments of aid to war-torn Sudan and the Yemeni people. 

Some experts have deemed the U.S. response inadequate in deterring the Houthis from inflicting billions of dollars worth of damage to the global economy. 

Additionally, the cost of U.S. response to such attacks is disproportionate. While the Houthi drones are estimated to cost around $2,000 each, the naval missiles the U.S. fires back can run around $2 million a shot. 

In September, Houthis took out two U.S. Reaper drones in a week, machinery that costs around $30 million a piece. 

Deadly drone strikes have also been launched by both sides in Russia's war on Ukraine. 

"Unmanned systems pose both an urgent and enduring threat to U.S. personnel, facilities, and assets overseas," the Pentagon said in a statement on Thursday announcing the strategy. 

"By producing a singular Strategy for Countering Unmanned Systems, the Secretary and the Department are orienting around a common understanding of the challenge and a shared approach to addressing it."

Three U.S. service members were killed in a drone strike in January in Jordan. Experts warned the U.S. lacks a clear counter-drone procedure after 17 unmanned vehicles traipsed into restricted airspace over Langley Air Force Base in Virginia last December. 

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The mystery drones swarmed for more than two weeks. Lack of a standard protocol for such incursions left Langley officials unsure of what to do – other than allow the 20-foot-long drones to hover near their classified facilities. 

Langley is home to some of the nation’s most vital top secret facilities and the F-22 Raptor stealth fighters. 

Two months prior to Langley, in October 2023, five drones flew over the Energy Department’s Nevada National Security Site, used for nuclear weapons experiments. U.S. authorities were not sure who was behind those drones either. 

A Chinese surveillance balloon traversed over the U.S. for a week last year before the Air Force shot it down off the coast.

The Air Force’s Plant 42 in California, home to highly classified aerospace development, has also seen a slew of unidentified drone incursions in 2024, prompting flight restrictions around the facility.

Congressional leaders have agreed to terms for this year’s defense policy bill, with nearly $900 billion in spending, new limits on transgender-related medical care and a significant raise for young U.S. service members.

Roughly 1,800 pages detailing the new National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), legislation that outlines U.S. defense and national security priorities each fiscal year, were released Saturday evening.

The bill details policy for $895.2 billion in federal spending.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said the bill "refocuses our military on its core mission of defending America and its interests around the globe by supporting law enforcement operations and the deployment of the National Guard to the southwest border, expediting innovation and reducing the acquisition timeline for new weaponry, supporting our allies and strengthening our nuclear posture and missile defense programs."

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It includes a 14.5% pay raise for junior enlisted troops, according to the Republican leader’s office.

Another provision says "medical interventions for the treatment of gender dysphoria that could result in sterilization may not be provided to a child under the age of 18," referring to the transgender children of U.S. service members.

The measure sparked backlash from the Human Rights Council, which called it an "attack" on military families.

"This cruel and hateful bill suddenly strips away access to medical care for families that members of our armed forces are counting on, and it could force service members to choose between staying in the military or providing health care for their children," HRC President Kelley Robinson said in a statement.

TRUMP FLOATS DESANTIS AS POTENTIAL DEFENSE SECRETARY REPLACEMENT IF HEGSETH FALTERS

The bill also includes border security elements Republicans had previously pushed for, including a bipartisan initiative to create a Northern Border Mission Center under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

According to Johnson’s office, it would also "fully support the deployment of National Guard at the southwest border to intercept illegal aliens and drugs."

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., touted the significant pay raise for junior troops. He also said the NDAA "puts our service members first by boosting compensation, improving housing, supporting the spouses of service members, increasing access to child care and ensuring access to medical care." 

Other provisions also place limits on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)-based recruitment and the teaching of critical race theory in military-run schools.

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The House is expected to vote on the NDAA next week.

The policy bill traditionally has passed with wide bipartisan support, save for some progressives and conservatives who are normally critical of the U.S. defense industrial complex.

However, it’s not immediately clear how many Democrats will be put off enough by its anti-DEI and anti-transgender medical care provisions to vote against the must-pass legislation.

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Trump's nominee for secretary of defense, is ramping up his pitch to lead the Pentagon with back-to-back meetings on Capitol Hill.

Since his nomination, Hegseth has been meeting privately with senators in Washington, D.C., in an effort to earn their support ahead of his confirmation hearing next year.

Hegseth was back on the Hill for a second day on Wednesday, meeting first with incoming Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who is set to be the Armed Services Committee chair, ahead of a crucial meeting with incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. 

Following his private meeting with Thune, Hegseth told reporters that "the meeting was great." 

The nominee has faced a series of drinking and sexual misconduct allegations, all of which he has denied, since being tapped for the top administration role.

TRUMP FLOATS DESANTIS AS POTENTIAL DEFENSE SECRETARY REPLACEMENT IF HEGSETH FALTERS

An email was recently leaked from Penelope Hegseth, Pete Hegseth's mother, where she was critical of his past relationships with women. However, she joined "Fox and Friends" Wednesday morning to set the record straight and "tell the truth to the senators on the hill, especially our female senators."

Penelope Hegseth said she wrote the email in an impassioned moment after her son's divorce, but apologized hours after sending it. Hegseth's mother also said she did not believe any of the accusations against him.

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Multiple sources confirmed to Fox News that Trump is reportedly considering nominating Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as Defense Secretary in place of Hegseth amid the allegations against him.

But Hegseth brushed off the potential replacement, telling reporters that he spoke with Trump on Wednesday morning, who reportedly told him to "keep going, keep fighting."

"Why would I back down?" Hegseth said. "I have always been a fighter. I am here for the war fighters."

Hegseth added that he would be "meeting all day with senators."

In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, published Wednesday afternoon, Hegseth outlined his military service and his time working with veterans after leaving the Army.

"I’ve been through a lot: combat tours, job changes, divorces and family challenges," Hegseth wrote, before bashing the press for using "anonymous sources to try to discredit" him.

"Talk to those who served with me in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, Afghanistan or the National Guard. They support me, and I’m honored by that," Hegseth wrote. "I have never backed down from a fight and won’t back down from this one. I am grateful President-elect Trump chose me to lead the Defense Department, and I look forward to an honest confirmation hearing with our distinguished senators—not a show trial in the press.  

Fox News' Bret Baier, Paul Steinhauser and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.

Former national security advisor John Bolton described raising the U.S. defense budget as the top foreign affairs priority.

"The single most important priority in foreign affairs today is to increase the American defense budget. I think Congress would support a major increase if Trump proposed it. I hope that's what he does," Bolton declared in a post on X.

Bolton said last month during an appearance on CNN that he hopes Pete Hegseth, who Trump nominated to serve as Defense Secretary, secures "a massive increase in the Defense Department budget," noting that if domestic spending could be slashed so the deficit does not increase, "that would be important too." 

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Bolton has asserted that the Senate should oppose Trump's pick of Kash Patel to serve as FBI director.

"John Bolton has been wrong about everything so I guess Kash must be pretty awesome," Vice President-elect J.D. Vance said in a post on X.

Bolton previously suggested that the Senate should reject Trump's nomination of former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for the role of director of national intelligence, and of Matt Gaetz for attorney general.

JOHN BOLTON COMPARES KASH PATEL TO STALIN'S RIGHT-HAND MAN AFTER TRUMP'S FBI NOMINATION

After former Rep. Gaetz withdrew himself from consideration for the role last month, Bolton tweeted, "One down, more to follow."

Business magnate Elon Musk called Bolton "a staggeringly dumb warmonger" in a tweet last month. 

In a July post, Musk called Bolton "a belligerent idiot."

ELON MUSK BLASTS JOHN BOLTON AS ‘STAGGERINGLY DUMB WARMONGER’ AFTER CRITICISM OF TRUMP AG PICK MATT GAETZ

Bolton, who served as national security advisor during a portion of Trump's first term, previously served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during a portion of President George W. Bush's White House tenure.