July 10, 2025
On July 7, the Chairman’s Mark of the House Armed Services Committee’sStreamlining Procurement for Effective Execution and Delivery and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 (NDAA). The NDAA authorizes spending levels and policies related to the Department of Defense (DOD) and other national security and nuclear energy programs.
The FY 2026 House NDAA would authorize a national defense topline of $882.5 billion, including and $848.2 billion in discretionary funding for DOD. The House NDAA would authorize a total of approximately $142.6 billion for DOD’s Research, Development, Testing and Evaluation (RDT&E) accounts, slightly above what was proposed on the FY 2026 President’s request, and roughly flat with the FY 2025 enacted level. DOD’s Science and Technology (S&T) accounts (basic research (6.1) applied research (6.2), and advanced technology development (6.3)) would be authorized at $18.5 billion in total funding, slightly higher than the FY 2025 enacted amount.
While the House has drafted its version of the FY 2026 NDAA, the Senate held markups for their version of the bill this week, and the bill is expected to be finalized in late July and voted on before recess begins on August 1. More information on the Chairman’s Mark can be found in the Lewis-Burke Report.