Leaders in Congress released the text of the final conferenced version of the NDAA for FY 2026 on Sunday. The defense policy bill reflects a compromise between versions of the NDAA passed earlier this year by the Senate and House of Representatives and could be voted on as early as this week.
In a statement on Dec. 7, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said the NDAA will support President Donald Trump’s agenda of Peace through Strength by codifying 15 of Trump’s executive orders while “ending woke ideology at the Pentagon,” and “restoring the warrior ethos,” as well as securing the border and revitalizing the defense industrial base.
“This legislation includes important House-passed provisions to ensure our military forces remain the most lethal in the world and can deter any adversary,” Johnson said in a press release. “It roots out Biden-era wokeism in our military and restores merit-based promotions and admissions to service academies, prohibits contracts with partisan firms, counters antisemitism, and halts harmful, unnecessary programs like CRT, DEI, and climate initiatives.”
According to Johnson, the NDAA will provide enlisted servicemembers with a four percent pay raise, expand counter-drone defenses and new technologies, advance the Golden Dome and enhance America’s nuclear deterrent and nuclear power technologies. The NDAA also supports the deployment of National Guard and active-duty troops at the southwest border to intercept illegal aliens and drugs and strengthens U.S. -Israel military operations and cooperative missile defense programs.
The bill would also enhance U.S. defense initiatives in the Indo-Pacific to bolster Taiwan’s defense and support Indo-Pacific allies, accelerate the development and delivery of space capabilities to counter Chinese and Russian nuclear arsenals and space surveillance, and streamline operations by eliminating $20 billion in obsolete weapons, inefficient programs and Pentagon bureaucracy.
“President Trump has made clear the past few decades of investments propping up Communist China’s aggression must come to an end, and this bill includes important guardrails to protect America’s long-term investments, economic interests, and sensitive data,” Johnson said. “The NDAA builds on the landmark investments included in the Working Families Tax Cut, ensuring America has both the economic strength and the military power to deter our enemies and protect our interests worldwide. The legislation improves the livelihoods of America’s brave men and women in uniform by giving them a well-deserved pay raise, and ensures our warfighters have access to the best and most innovative military technologies.
The NDAA is supported by U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), the House Armed Services Committee Chair.
“The FY26 NDAA delivers on President Trump’s promise of peace through strength and ensures America can deter our adversaries and protect our homeland,” Rogers said. “We’re also reforming the Pentagon’s broken, bureaucratic acquisition process so that our troops can quickly get the tools they need to deter our enemies, instead of waiting up to a decade while our adversary’s field new technologies within months. I’m eager to send this to President Trump’s desk so we can give our military the tools they need to remain the most ready, capable, and lethal force in the world.”