$1.15T by four votes: House passes FY2027 NDAA with multiyear authority for F-35, F-15EX and 31 munitions and component lines

The money

The NDAA authorizes; it does not appropriate. The figures still show where the House wants the money to go. CRS calculates that the committee bill authorizes $1,141.7 billion for national defense (budget function 050), exactly the request, and about $250 billion, or 28 percent, more than the fiscal 2026 NDAA authorized ^[5]. Inside the Pentagon’s own line (subfunction 051), the total is $1,099.7 billion ^[5].

The House shifted money toward hardware at the margins:

Source: CRS ^[5].

The House bill is $1.2 billion over the request in procurement and $0.7 billion over in research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E), and below it in operation and maintenance (O&M) and personnel ^[5]. The Senate committee made a larger move, setting O&M about $24.5 billion below the request and nearly doubling military construction to $50.0 billion ^[5]. That split is a conference issue for anyone selling sustainment services or building on bases.

None of these totals includes the $350 billion in mandatory defense money the budget assumed would come through a separate reconciliation bill ^[5]. The same afternoon, the House adopted 216-214 a budget resolution that lets Armed Services write $60 billion of it (earlier coverage) ^[3]. Committee Democrats object to the base topline itself, arguing the country needs a strategy “that doesn’t require a $1.15 trillion discretionary budget request” alongside the reconciliation and supplemental asks ^[8].

The programs: what multiyear contracts does the House NDAA authorize?

Each multiyear grant still depends on appropriations, and every contract must make out-year payments subject to future funding ^[7].

Aircraft. Section 162 lets the Pentagon sign multiyear F-35 contracts beginning with the fiscal 2027 lot, but only after three gates: a certification that the deal buys the full complement of initial spares and alternate mission equipment, a certification from the acquisition and sustainment under secretary that it saves at least 5 percent over annual buys, and validation of that estimate by the Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation ^[7]. A readiness funding report is also required first ^[7]. Section 161 gives the F-15EX a similar authority, including conformal fuel tanks, with the spares certification but without the 5 percent test ^[7]. The committee bill also authorizes $3.388 billion for 24 F-35As and eight F-35Cs and $4.971 billion for F-47 development, according to committee Democrats ^[8].

Ships. Section 123 authorizes multiyear contracts for up to 15 Arleigh Burke Flight III destroyers, requires a prepriced option if the base quantity falls short of 15, and bars modifications that raise a ship’s target price more than 10 percent ^[7]. John Lewis-class oilers get multiyear authority and E-2D Hawkeyes get it as well ^[7]. The committee Democrats’ summary counts more than $60 billion in shipbuilding, including one Columbia-class and two Virginia-class submarines and $500 million for an additional destroyer ^[8]. Section 131 bars a contract to build the lead battleship until the Navy secretary certifies its planned weapons are technologically mature ^[7].

Munitions. This is the longest list. Section 1839 allows multiyear contracts of up to seven program years, beginning in fiscal 2027, for 13 families: SM-3 Block IB and IIA, the Precision Strike Missile, SM-6, AMRAAM, JASSM, LRASM, Tomahawk and Maritime Strike Tomahawk, THAAD, PAC-3 MSE, low-cost hypersonic strike systems, the Family of Affordable Mass Munitions and related low-cost cruise missiles, and the Joint Advanced Tactical Missile ^[7]. Section 1840 adds 18 more items, from GMLRS, AIM-9X, Javelin, ESSM and RAM to the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor, IBCS and the Coyote Block 2C counter-drone interceptor ^[7]. Under Section 1840 a service can justify the deal on “necessary defense industrial base stability” instead of savings alone ^[7].

Space. Section 1601 repeals the statute creating the Space Development Agency and eliminates the Space Rapid Capabilities Office, and shifts the agency director’s statutory role on missile warning and tracking to a Space Force portfolio acquisition executive ^[3, 7].

Contract terms. Several Title VIII provisions change how primes get paid:

• Section 806 says progress payments may be suspended only after the contracting officer gives the prime written evidence and 10 calendar days to rebut, the head of contracting activity recommends it, and Congress is notified; a suspension is capped at 60 days if the contractor submits and begins a corrective action plan ^[7].
• Section 805 requires an offeror on a noncompetitive contract to report within 30 days when a price reaches 25 percent above its bid or above what the government paid the prior year, or 50 percent above a price paid more than five years earlier; a missed report goes into the federal past-performance integrity system ^[7].
• Section 861 rewrites technical data and software rights, and Section 862 creates an intellectual property ombudsman with voluntary mediation ^[7]. The House bill also includes right-to-repair provisions and reauthorizes the Defense Production Act through 2031 ^[2, 4].

On July 21 the House also adopted amendments requiring a Collaborative Combat Aircraft strategy covering “storage, mobility, maintenance, cost, and deployment requirements” and a report on sensor and electronic warfare variants ^[3]. The House bill bars retiring any E-3 AWACS through 2027 and authorizes four MH-139 helicopters, Air & Space Forces Magazine reported ^[3].

The politics

The margin was four votes. Republicans voted 209-7 for the bill, Democrats 6-205 against, and the one independent voted yes; three members did not vote ^[1]. It took two tries to reach the floor. The first rule failed 198-224 on June 30 ^[6]. The second, H.Res. 1438, adopted July 21, made the committee text the base bill and directed the Clerk to add the House-passed text of S. 1383, the voter eligibility measure, to the end of H.R. 8800 before it goes to the Senate ^[6, 9]. The bill carries other disputed language as well, including a presumption of approval for service members and civilian employees to carry firearms on bases and a bar on TRICARE coverage of certain gender-related care ^[2]. The House rejected an amendment to restrict Ukraine Security Assistance funding by a wide margin ^[2].

The committee vote in June had been 44-12 ^[6]. Democrats on the panel backed the personnel sections, including a 7 percent raise for E-5 and below, while opposing the topline ^[8].

Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) called the bill “just a single step in a long process” and said he would “continue to work in a bipartisan manner” toward “a bill that can pass both chambers and be signed into law” ^[2].

The Senate is the obstacle. The Senate Armed Services Committee approved S. 4784, at about $1.14 trillion, 18-9 on June 10 ^[6, 10]. On July 14 a motion to proceed fell 50-46, short of 60 ^[10]. Ranking member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said a budget deal is the “most practical step,” and Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who voted for the bill in committee, said “the increase in defense is four times the increase on the domestic side” ^[10]. Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) called the blockade a “new low” ^[10].

Next milestone

Fiscal 2027 begins Oct. 1. The Senate needs 60 votes to take up S. 4784, and Majority Leader John Thune gave no timetable at his July 21 press conference ^[3]. If the Senate passes a bill, the two chambers go to conference over gaps such as the $23.6 billion O&M difference and the $50.0 billion Senate construction figure ^[5]. Since fiscal 1977, NDAAs have been enacted on average 45 days after the fiscal year starts, CRS notes ^[6].