House Passes FY2026 NDAA

The House passed the FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act this evening, authorizing funding for the U.S. Space Force and other components of the Department of Defense.  Only a fraction of the amendments offered to the NDAA were allowed to be debated on the floor. One that was not cleared would have overturned a requirement in the reconciliation bill to move a space vehicle — likely the Space Shuttle Discovery — from Virginia to Houston.

The Streamlining Procurement for Effective Execution and Delivery and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 Act, H.R. 3838, combines the FY 2026 NDAA with the bipartisan “Streamlining Procurement for Effective Execution and Delivery” or SPEED Act that intends to “fundamentally reform defense acquisition.”

The bill cleared the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) on July 16 on a 55-2 bipartisan vote, but decisions by the House Rules Committee on which amendments could be considered or not by the House changed the dynamics. The bill passed on a largely partisan split of 231-196, with four Republicans voting no and 17 Democrats voting yes.

HASC Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-WA), who co-sponsored the SPEED part of the bill with chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) and supported the bill during committee markup, said today that “for the third year running, Republican leadership cast aside [the] time honored tradition and strong bipartisan work” that characterized the NDAA in the past. Smith critized Republicans for including “countless partisan amendments that sought to score points in a right-wing culture war” and rejected “meaningful amendments offered by Democrats, silencing debate of critical issues including the Trump Administration’s politicization of our military and executive overreach that threatens our constitutional democracy, which undermines the authority of the Congress.”

HASC Chairman Rogers, conversely, heralded passage of the bill “with a bipartisan vote” that has at its core a “fundamental reform of the Pentagon’s acquisition process.”

Of the final number of 1,170 proposed amendments, 298 were allowed to proceed to the full House for consideration. Not among them was number 314, sponsored by four Virginia Democrats (Subramanyam, Beyer, Scott and Vindman) that would repeal the provision in the reconciliation bill (H.R. 1) to transfer what everyone assumes is the Space Shuttle Discovery (even though NASA won’t confirm it) to Houston. Discovery is currently at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA, in Subramanyam’s district.

Two amendments related to space activities were adopted. One sponsored by Rep. George Whitesides (D-CA) requires a report from the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretary of the Air Force (SecAF), about the upper atmosphere and near-space environment. The other by Neal Dunn (R-FL) requires a report from the SecAF on incorporating federal, commercial, or state-operated spaceports into DOD’s national security launch infrastructure.

The U.S. Space Force is part of the Department of the Air Force.

Others would establish a system of Air Force and Space Force museums and direct U.S. Space Command to coordinate with other federal agencies on tracking fentanyl trafficking using satellite technology.

The NDAA is an authorization bill that recommends funding levels, but does not actually provide any money.  Only the appropriations committees have money to spend.