By Mary Clare Jalonick, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate passed an annual defense authorization bill Thursday that includes provisions championed by Nevada senators funding state-based military infrastructure and creating new benefits for certain veterans. 

In addition to raising pay for service members, the bill incorporates legislation Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) previously introduced to classify the Nevada Test and Training Range as contaminated, require the Air Force to identify everyone who served there after the first nuclear test, and make it easier for them to apply for benefits under the PACT Act. That law expands health care for veterans exposed to toxic substances such as Agent Orange and pollutants from burn pits.

The bill also funds upgrades to Nevada military installations, including $5.4 million for a hangar at the Air National Guard Base in Reno that Rosen says will boost the site’s candidacy for larger aircrafts, and millions of dollars more for further improvements there and at the Nevada Army National Guard Armory in Henderson. It authorizes $47 million for modernization efforts at Fallon Range Training Complex and designates Creech Air Force Base as remote and isolated, making it eligible for additional funding. 

Senators also approved a proposal co-sponsored by Cortez Masto and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) that would prohibit U.S. investment in key Chinese military technologies.

The bill, which would authorize $925 billion in military funding, passed with bipartisan support, 77-20. Rosen voted for it. Cortez Masto missed the vote while attending services following the death of her father-in-law, but said on social media she would have supported it. 

Last month, the House passed its own legislation authorizing a total of $893 billion in funding, primarily backed by Republicans. The two chambers can now work to negotiate a final version of the bill to be signed into law.

At the national level, the legislation passed this week puts Congress on the verge of writing a closing chapter to the war in Iraq.

The Senate voted Thursday to repeal the resolution that authorized the 2003 U.S. invasion, following a House vote last month that would return the basic war power to Congress.

The amendment by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) was approved by voice vote to the bill — a unanimous endorsement for ending the war that many now view as a mistake.

Iraqi deaths were estimated in the hundreds of thousands, and nearly 5,000 U.S. troops were killed in the war after President George W. Bush’s administration falsely claimed that then-President Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.

“That’s the way the war ends, not with a bang but a whimper,” Kaine said after the vote, which lasted only a few seconds with no debate and no objections. Still, he said, “America is forever changed by those wars, and the Middle East is too.”

Supporters in both the House and Senate say the repeal is crucial to prevent future abuses and to reinforce that Iraq is now a strategic partner of the United States. The House added a similar amendment to its version of the defense measure in September, meaning the repeal is likely to end up in the final bill once the two chambers reconcile the two pieces of legislation. Both bills also repeal the 1991 authorization that sanctioned the U.S.-led Gulf War.

While Congress appears poised to pass the repeal, it is unclear whether President Donald Trump will support it. During his first term, his administration cited the 2002 Iraq resolution as part of its legal justification for a 2020 U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani. It has otherwise been rarely used.

The bipartisan vote, added to the larger bipartisan defense measure, came amid a bitter partisan standoff over a weeklong government shutdown. Young said the quick vote was an “extraordinary moment” that he hopes “will help some people see that we can still do consequential things in the U.S. Congress.”