Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) should bring the Senate Armed Services Committee’s blueprint for the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act to the Senate floor without delay. Senate Republicans have pushed hard for such a move, but Schumer has refused to act since the committee endorsed the bill on June 13.

The need for the NDAA is clear. The world is growing manifestly more dangerous and the military needs certainty as to what it will or won’t have to work with, especially for contingencies including war with China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea. Military commanders need certainty about their capabilities so they can prepare effectively. So, also, do weapons manufacturers to prepare workforces and facilities to deliver on new military demands effectively. Uncertainty benefits only America’s adversaries.

Fortunately, Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee have produced a plan that would bring certainty. Their blueprint boosts U.S. military capabilities and readiness in numerous ways. It would also strengthen the defense industrial base.

A primary focus is on the Indo-Pacific. The bipartisan Armed Services Committee’s bill would pay for an additional destroyer and bolster the defective submarine industrial base. The shipbuilding behemoth that supports the Chinese military vastly outpaces the United States. in new warship construction. The U.S. Navy needs more destroyers and submarines now. It is increasingly vulnerable to Chinese anti-ship ballistic missile forces, improving anti-submarine warfare proficiency, and excellent warships such as the Type-055 air defense cruiser.

The committee requires “an annual briefing on the missile defense of Guam.” This is welcome because Guam would be the central, forward-operating base for the U.S. in any war defending Taiwan, Japan, or the Philippines. For that reason, Guam would also almost certainly come under saturated Chinese missile attack during any war. Absurdly, the Biden administration’s defense budget failed to appropriate the air defense requests made by Indo-Pacific Command.

While the committee takes insufficient steps to punish defense manufacturers for cost overruns and delays — Lockheed Martin’s mismanagement of the F-35 fighter jet program is a particular disgrace — it does take tentative steps in response to contract delays. It reduces funding for VIP transport planes including the new Air Force One. It also prohibits funding for in-development projects yet to be positively tested.

The committee would also provide new funding and authorities to address backlogs in the defense industrial supply chain. It builds more redundancy and production scale into that supply chain, laying the groundwork for the kind of mass production that would be needed in a war with China. But it’s not just about production. Taking advantage of America’s technological supremacy, the committee puts new investment and allied cooperation authorizations into the development of unmanned systems, artificial intelligence, and big data networking.

It funds both the Pacific and the European deterrence initiatives, necessary to reassure allies in Asia, all of which spend too little on defense, and in Eastern Europe, all of which exceed NATO’s 2%-of-GDP defense spending target.

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The NDAA is imperfect. It fails to cut bases the military doesn’t need and cannot use except as local economic development projects. It also ignores an easy solution to the Navy’s shipbuilding crisis: allowing purchases from foreign manufacturers. “Build-in-America” sounds good but improves China’s chances of victory in a future war. Far greater investments in long-range land and naval attack missiles are also needed.

Nonetheless, this NDAA meets current needs pretty well. Schumer should bring it to a floor vote this week, before the August recess, so the ball gets rolling on this most important legislation. Continued delay benefits only our enemies.