The House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee (HAC-D) approved along party lines its version of the fiscal year (FY) 2026 defense appropriations bill on June 10. The HAC-D bill would allocate $831 billion in discretionary spending at the Department of Defense (DOD), which is flat with the FY 2025 enacted level and consistent with the FY 2026 President’s budget request (PBR) released earlier this month. While the HAC-D bill proposes flat funding for DOD, Congress and the Trump Administration are relying on a successful reconciliation bill to ultimately boost defense spending by $150 billion. The full House Appropriations Committee (HAC) is currently marking up the bill and plans to vote on it, eventually moving it to the House floor for consideration.
Aligned with calls from Republican leadership to prioritize investments in higher technology readiness levels (TRLs) to advance domestic innovation, the bill would boost funding for technology transition, hypersonics, AI/ML, and other Administration priorities. The bill would provide nearly $147.6 million for Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E) accounts, which is a $6.3 million increase over the FY 2025 enacted level, and essentially flat with FY 2024 funding. Overall basic research (6.1) would see relatively flat funding, while applied (6.2) and advanced (6.3) research, would see small boosts of $1.5 billion and $781.5 million, respectively.
For more information, see the Lewis-Burke report.