WASHINGTON — The Senate has passed the fiscal 2026 defense authorization bill, setting the stage for sweeping changes to the nation’s defense acquisition to be encoded into law.
Senators voted 77-20 on a bipartisan basis to send this year’s National Defense Authorization Act to the desk of President Donald Trump, who has indicated he will sign the bill. The NDAA, which was passed by the House on Dec. 10, authorizes $900.6 billion in defense funds, or about $8 billion more than the White House’s request.
“We’re about to pass, and the President will enthusiastically sign, the most sweeping upgrades to these business practices in 60 years,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said in a speech ahead of the vote. “This is a monumental achievement. The 21st Century poses threats that will require the most creative and innovative defenses. Americans are already building the technology to meet those threats, and these reforms will help the Pentagon tap into that energetic innovation ecosystem.”
In a statement of administration policy issued last week, the White House stated the NDAA will enable the Defense Department to make investments into key areas of the defense industrial base, such as critical mineral and refining projects.
“Section 804 authorizes the Secretary of War to enter into multiyear procurement contracts for critical munitions, providing the certainty needed to expand industrial capacity and delivering cost savings for the taxpayer,” the statement reads. “Further, the defense procurement system will now emphasize speed of delivery, production capacity, and innovation, revolutionizing the culture of the Department’s acquisition activities.”
Acquisition reform was the cornerstone of the NDAA this year, with both committees coming up with plans centered around speeding up the process and making it easier for new entrants to do business with the Defense Department.
In the end, the final language combined elements from both proposals, including the Senate’s bid to centralize management of weapons programs under broader “portfolio acquisition executives” instead of the current program executive officer model, as well as the House’s push to reform the requirements process.
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To entice new entrants and commercial companies to work with the Pentagon, the bill includes new requirements to look at off-the-shelf solutions and removes compliance requirements on small commercial firms. It also starts a new Defense Innovation Unit effort called the Bridging Operational Objectives & Support for Transition (BOOST) Program, which is aimed at helping companies with operationally viable tech to transition into production.
However, “right to repair” provisions put forward in both the House and Senate bills were ultimately stripped from the final version. During a roundtable with reporters today, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said the elimination of those provisions is “one of the things … I’m unhappy about” but added that he didn’t know what led to the removal of that language.
According to a fact sheet released by the HASC majority, the NDAA procurement plan includes $26 billion for shipbuilding, $38 billion for aircraft and $4 billion for ground vehicles and $25 billion for munitions. It also authorizes $400 million for Ukraine, as well as $175 million for the new Baltic Security Initiative.
Those amounts, however, are merely recommendations, as it will be up to congressional appropriators to determine the final FY26 defense topline and how money is spent.
In the realm of policy changes — which are backed by the force of law — the NDAA contains several key provisions outside of the major acquisition reform effort.
It fences 25 percent of the funds in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget until the Pentagon provides unedited video of the boat strikes in US Southern Command to the congressional armed services committees.
It also softly pushes against changes to the US relationship with Europe as spelled out in the National Security Strategy, prohibiting the department from reducing US force structure in the region below 76,000 servicemembers until it has provided an assessment on the potential security impacts.