From Military.com:
“$900 Billion NDAA: What Is
In, What Was Left Out of Major Defense Spending Bill”
The $900 billion National Defense
Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026 passed the House of
Representatives on Wednesday in bipartisan fashion. The final version includes
and also left out key provisions after months of negotiations by lawmakers on
Capitol Hill. The 3,086-page bill passed the House on a 312-112 vote (115
Democrats, 197 Republicans voted in favor) with Republicans and Democrats
finding enough common ground to forward the legislation to the Senate—where it
is expected to pass the GOP-controlled chamber and then be signed by President
Donald Trump.
This year’s NDAA, passed annually
by Congress, appropriates large amounts of funding that will impact the
departments of Defense and Energy, health care, troops and salaries, research
and development, immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border, collective bargaining,
and diversity initiatives. Not all lawmakers got what they wanted but
high-ranking committee members expressed mostly positive sentiments after the
bill’s passing. “This is a strong bipartisan bill that delivers for our
warfighters and deters our adversaries,” House Armed Services Committee
Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) said on the House floor prior to the bill’s
passing. “It will fundamentally reform the defense acquisition enterprise. It
will continue historic improvements in the quality of life for our
servicemembers and their families. “It will build the ready, capable, and
lethal fighting force we need to deter China and our other adversaries. And it
will deliver on President Trump’s Peace Through Strength agenda. I urge all
members to support it.” Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the ranking Democrat on the
committee, called the bill “the most ambitious swing at acquisition reform that
we’ve taken,” according to the Associated Press. “This NDAA falls short. Trump
and [Defense Secretary Pete] Hegseth are deploying troops to our streets,
carrying out extrajudicial killings, and undermining our military readiness.
Congress must reassert its oversight. We need accountability—not just handouts
to Trump,” said Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA), a senior Armed Services Committee
member, in a post on X.
Big Money The House-passed
bill in part authorizes some military construction projects and extends their
authorization from previous fiscal years; requires the Department of Defense to
develop a national strategy on the security implications of emerging biotechnologies;
requires the Navy to implement certain processes to improve combat readiness of
surface ships maintained and repaired at private shipyards; and extends the
Pacific Deterrence Initiative which designed to enhance U.S. deterrence and
defense posture in the Indo-Pacific region.
A GOP-issued summary of the
legislation says the NDAA authorizes $291 billion for maintenance and
operations; $234 billion for military personnel and health care; $162 billion
for procurement; $146 billion for research and development; $34 billion for nuclear
defense programs; and $20 billion for military construction and family housing.
Lawmakers say the FY 2026 bill overall will save taxpayers nearly $20 billion,
including $40.5 million from eliminating DEI activities; $1.6 billion in cuts
to climate change-related spending; $1.2 billion from retiring obsolete
aircraft and ships; $6.8 billion from reductions in “unnecessary Pentagon
bureaucracy”; $5.5 billion in cuts to consulting and service contracts; and
$3.7 billion in cuts to inefficient defense programs.
Rep. Jennifer Kiggans, R-Va., a member of the
House Armed Services Committee, joins Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La.,
as they speak to reporters following a strategy session with House Republicans,
at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott
Applewhite)
Some of the NDAA’s major
highlights are as follows:
A 3.8% pay raise for all military
servicemembers, in addition to reauthorizing and expanding military bonuses and
special pays; increases family separation allowance for deployed
servicemembers; and requires a study to improve the calculation of Basic Allowance
for Housing to ensure it keeps up with rising rental costs.
$400 million for Ukraine security
assistance.
It extends the Pacific Deterrence
Initiative (PDI) to improve U.S. posture in the Indo-Pacific region, including
funding increases for new technologies needed to deter China such as hypersonic
missiles, AI, autonomous systems, cyber, mobile micronuclear reactors, and high
energy lasers. That includes over $2.7 billion in essential military
construction projects and expands in that region.
Full funding ($1 billion) towards
the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative.
$1.5 billion in new security
assistance for the Philippines.
It formally establishes and
authorizes $175 million for the Baltic Security Initiative to strengthen the
defensive capability and interoperability of the Baltic states.
Full funding for the deployment
of National Guard and active-duty troops in support of border patrol at the
United States’ southwest border, including over $1 billion to fight drug
trafficking ($398 million for Defense Department support of counter-narcotics
operations and $216 million for National Guard counter-drug programs—$100
million over the budget request).
Reforms to military construction
that costs 35% more on average than commercial construction, including
accelerating construction and reducing costs by granting military departments
multiyear contracting authority and authorizing the use of accelerated design-build
and progressive design-build contracting methods to cut costs and speed up
projects.
Oversight of Defense Department
spending by way of fully funding the department’s Inspector General audit
activities and requiring the department to submit quarterly reports to Congress
on the status of balances and activities of funds previously approved within
the One Big Beautiful Bill Act earlier this year.
More than $131 million for the
construction of new military dining facilities and over $1.5 billion for new
construction of barracks and family housing.
More than $335 million to
renovate military hospitals and build new medical facilities, which includes
better access to specialty care by lowering the threshold for travel
reimbursement for medical appointments from 100 to 75 miles.
More than $491 million to design
and build new childcare centers, including annual reviews of childcare costs
and a pilot program to increase childcare financial assistance in high-cost
areas.
More than $206 million to build new schools for children of servicemembers and allows National Guard and reserve members called to active duty to enroll their children in Defense Department schools. It also authorizes $50 million in Impact Aid assistance to public schools with military dependent students, and an additional $20 million in assistance to local schools teaching children with severe disabilities.
It extends military recruitment
bonuses.
It prohibits the retirement of
certain F-15E, A-10, C-130, E-3, RQ-4, and Grey Eagle aircraft, as well as the
closure of the E-7A Wedgetail production line.
$26 billion in shipbuilding
funding for the construction and support of numerous vessels including the
third Columbia-class Ballistic Missile Submarine, one Virginia-class Submarine,
one anti-submarine warfare auxiliary ship, and future procurements.
More than $38 billion for the
development, procurement or modification of aircraft including full funding for
the U.S. Air Force’s F-47 and Navy’s F/A-XX 6th Generation Aircraft programs.
Builds the “Golden Dome” to
update national missile defense policy.
Some of what was excluded in
the final version are as follows:
The final bill ultimately did not
include a provision mandating health care coverage for assisted reproductive
technology, including in vitro fertilization (IVF), for all active-duty service
members. As previously reported by Military.com, some Democrats and numerous
reproductive organizations warned prior to the final version that its removal
would prevent the expansion of IVF access to all servicemembers due to current
insurance plans through TRICARE.
It permanently repeals all
existing Defense Department diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices,
programs, training and activities, as well as future DEI-related endeavors.
It cuts climate change-related
programs at the Defense Department.
It removes Section 1110, the
bipartisan House provision that would have restored collective bargaining
rights for the Defense Department’s civilian workforce and would have prevented
the department from using the bill’s funds to enforce an executive order that
strips collective bargaining rights from hundreds of thousands of DoD
civilians.
Rep. Bob Onder (R-MO), urged GOP
colleagues in November to strip the provision from the final call, saying in an
X post that it was “designed to stop union bosses from slowing down critical
defense operations by pushing ineffective policies that hurt productivity” and
would cause “political interference.”
Hegseth’s Travel Budget Tied
to Caribbean Boat Strikes The House-passed version also includes a
provision to withhold a quarter of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel
budget until the Pentagon provides Congress with unedited videos of Caribbean
airstrikes against alleged drug smuggling boats, according to reports. It
was included on the heels of the ongoing controversy surrounding orders to
allegedly kill two survivors from a Sept. 2 strike, and further investigations
by GOP-led House and Senate committees into whether that second strike was
properly authorized and amounted to war crimes. The investigations remain
ongoing.
Codifying Trump's Executive
Orders
The NDAA also codifies all or parts of 15 executive orders issued by President Trump, including the following:
Restoring America's Fighting
Force (EO 14185)
Ending Radical and Wasteful
Government Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Programs and Preferencing (EO
14151)
Declaring a National Emergency at
the Southern Border (Proclamation 10886)
Securing Our Borders (EO 14165)
Clarifying the Military's Role in
Protecting the Territorial Integrity of the U.S. (EO 14167)
Modernizing Defense Acquisitions
and Spurring Innovation in the Defense Industrial Base (EO 14265)
Building the Golden Dome for
America (EO 14186)
Deploying Advanced Nuclear
Reactor Technologies for National Security (EO 14299)
Restoring American Airspace
Sovereignty (EO 14305)
Unleashing American Drone
Dominance (EO 14307)
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