The U.S. Senate has passed a defense budget bill that calls on the U.S. government to maintain troops in South Korea at the current level.

The 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, a 768-billion-dollar package to fund national defense programs, passed the Senate on Wednesday.

The legislation mentions the need to maintain the presence of approximately 28-thousand-500 members of the U.S. Armed Forces deployed in the region, in support of the shared objective of a peaceful and stable Korean Peninsula. 

However, the bill did not include a clause that restricts the U.S. government from reducing U.S. Forces Korea. The restriction was included in previous versions, but removed in the deliberation process.