National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026

It sets policy and authorization levels for hundreds of billions of dollars in defense and national security activity. It also strengthens domestic production, restricts reliance on adversarial countries, and expands congressional oversight across military and civilian agencies.

What the law does ​

• Authorizes military procurement, research, operations, personnel, health care, construction, housing, nuclear security, intelligence, State Department, and Coast Guard programs.
• Accelerates commercial technology, artificial intelligence, cyber, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing, counter-drone, missile-defense, space, and nuclear capabilities while adding testing and security controls.
• Expands domestic and allied defense production, multiyear purchasing, critical-material stockpiles, manufacturing surge capacity, and restrictions on products, investments, and contractors linked to countries of concern.
• Sets force levels, pay and family benefits, child care and school protections, medical access, transition support, Selective Service registration, and safeguards against sexual misconduct.
• Funds military construction and housing while requiring long-term infrastructure, water-security, mold-remediation, resilience, and installation-readiness planning.
• Extends or creates security cooperation, sanctions, foreign military assistance, technology-sharing, and oversight measures involving Europe, the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East, Haiti, and the Western Balkans.
• Strengthens Coast Guard staffing, acquisitions, maritime safety, oil-spill readiness, drug interdiction, workforce support, and misconduct accountability.
• Reorganizes acquisition, technology, intelligence, diplomatic, and nuclear-security functions and requires extensive plans, audits, reports, certifications, and congressional notifications.

Who it affects ​

• Active-duty, reserve, National Guard, Coast Guard, civilian defense, intelligence, diplomatic, and nuclear-security personnel.
• Military families, dependents, cadets, veterans, separating service members, and males ages 18 through 25 covered by automatic Selective Service registration.
• Defense contractors, manufacturers, technology companies, universities, shipyards, maritime workers, foreign suppliers, and investors in sensitive foreign technologies.
• Communities near military and nuclear sites, military housing residents, Tribal governments, the Lumbee Tribe, and households affected by Defense Department PFAS contamination.
• U.S. allies and security partners receiving military assistance, financing, training, intelligence cooperation, or defense technology.

Breakdown ​

DIVISION A, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUTHORIZATIONS (part 1 of 19) ​

This title authorizes fiscal year 2026 defense procurement and sets purchasing, testing, reporting, and oversight rules for major Army, Navy, Air Force, and joint aircraft and ship programs. It permits several multiyear or advance purchases while limiting spending, retirements, deliveries, or construction until specified readiness, safety, planning, or reporting conditions are met.

Key takeaways

• The Army may use multiyear purchasing for UH-60 Blackhawk aircraft, begin early production of future long-range assault aircraft, and must provide Congress with plans before using more than half of certain next-generation command-and-control funds.
• The Navy receives contracting authority for major shipbuilding programs, including Ford-class carriers, Columbia- and Virginia-class submarines, Medium Landing Ships, and support barges, generally subject to future appropriations and limits on federal termination liability.
• The Navy must meet testing and reporting conditions for unmanned surface vessels, waterborne security barriers, Modular Attack Surface Craft, and TAGOS surveillance ships, and must report amphibious ship spare-parts costs in future budgets.
• The title sets or extends minimum inventories and retirement limits for several Air Force fleets, including tanker, F-15E, RQ-4, C-130, B-1, A-10, KC-10, and E-3 aircraft.
• The Air Force must provide Congress with detailed oversight materials and long-term plans for the B-21, bomber force structure, intelligence and surveillance capabilities, the F-47 fighter, and the Airborne Command Post capability.
• Defense-wide provisions protect the E-7A program from fiscal year 2026 termination, condition additional KC-46 deliveries on a deficiency-correction plan, require an open mission systems plan for the F-35, mandate annual F-35 reviews through 2030, and strengthen controls on foreign-linked LiDAR technology.

DIVISION A, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUTHORIZATIONS (part 2 of 19) ​

This title authorizes fiscal year 2026 funding for Department of Defense research, development, testing, and evaluation and updates how defense laboratories, test organizations, and acquisition programs operate. It promotes faster, data-driven testing, digital engineering, artificial intelligence, robotics, hypersonic testing, and biotechnology while conditioning some funding on required plans, reports, and oversight. It also expands partnerships with universities, businesses, and other government entities and requires recurring congressional reporting on major technology and infrastructure efforts.

Key takeaways

• The title authorizes fiscal year 2026 defense research, development, test, and evaluation funding at the amounts listed elsewhere in the law.
• It expands technology prize authority, makes a program for improving defense research and test centers permanent, extends DARPA’s authority to use private-sector experts through September 2030, and permits jointly funded test facilities under written cost-sharing and oversight agreements.
• It creates a more flexible testing pathway for designated acquisition programs, requires a digital testing environment and commercial-software pilot, and directs the military departments to standardize and periodically update digital engineering practices.
• It establishes or supports initiatives involving Army-university collaboration, defense artificial intelligence institutes, robotic munitions manufacturing, hypersonic test corridors, interconnected western test ranges, weapon-system monitoring, and aircraft maintenance technology.
• It strengthens defense biotechnology policy and capacity through a management office, a department-wide strategy, domestic biomanufacturing and supply-chain programs, AI-ready biological data standards, public ethical guidelines, and guidance for evaluating biobased products.
• It protects university and nonprofit indirect cost rates until an alternative model and transition plan are certified, restricts specified funds until reporting and organizational requirements are met, and blocks spending on certain Navy unmanned-vessel software without cost, schedule, testing, market, and operational validation.
• It requires continued reporting on critical technologies, adds waste reduction to energetic-materials planning, and mandates quarterly briefings for two years on underinvestment, modernization needs, funding, and workforce challenges at defense research and testing facilities.

DIVISION A, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUTHORIZATIONS (part 3 of 19) ​

This title authorizes fiscal year 2026 funding for Department of Defense operations and maintenance and sets policies on environmental cleanup, energy, logistics, military maintenance, and munitions readiness. It strengthens PFAS cleanup and drinking-water protections, expands planning and pilot programs for advanced nuclear energy and commercial technology, and tightens oversight of depots, shipyards, aircraft sustainment, household-goods moves, and contested logistics. It also requires more detailed planning and reporting on munitions needed for major or simultaneous conflicts.

Key takeaways

• The title authorizes fiscal year 2026 operation and maintenance funding at the amounts listed elsewhere in the law.
• The Defense Department must improve PFAS cost estimates, publish cleanup progress, develop an accelerated remediation strategy, and provide alternative water to certain households affected by Defense Department contamination.
• The title removes certain electric and hybrid vehicle preferences while directing energy savings toward resilience, fuel efficiency, training, combat capability, and incentives for lower energy costs.
• The Defense Department must organize and plan for advanced nuclear energy, including a department-wide executive agent, a temporary working group, a Navy installation pilot program, and advance notice before placing a permanent reactor in Guam.
• The title strengthens logistics and maintenance through clearer leadership, industrial-base modernization, improved inspections, F-35 sustainment requirements, commercial artificial intelligence pilots, and greater oversight of military household-goods contracts.
• The Defense Department must incorporate broader conflict scenarios, allied demand, and air and missile defense into munitions planning and assess the stocks and production needed for simultaneous conflicts in multiple theaters.

DIVISION A, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUTHORIZATIONS (part 4 of 19) ​

This part sets several Defense Department policies on community assistance, aviation safety, animal transport and care, military museums, waste disposal, installation services, Indo-Pacific readiness, and invasive-hornet control in Guam. It also sets fiscal year 2026 active-duty and reserve personnel levels, authorizes military personnel funding, and consolidates some workforce reports.

Key takeaways

• State and local governments may receive adjustment and economic diversification assistance when Defense Department actions harm covered military depots, and the Department must report expected fiscal year 2026 assistance for each depot.
• The Defense Department may arrange nonprofit evacuation of U.S. citizens’ pets and contract working dogs from foreign countries, but people cannot lose evacuation space, vehicle operators may reject unsafe transport, and the Department is not responsible for veterinary care.
• Military helicopter training in the Washington, DC, special flight-rules area generally must provide collision warnings compatible with commercial aircraft systems, while limited national-security waivers require risk assessment and longer waivers require congressional notice; the Department must also report military-commercial aircraft near misses through 2030.
• The Army, Navy, Air Force, and Space Force must support official museum systems, establish designation and closure standards, preserve collections, notify Congress at least 90 days before closures, and may use partnerships to improve funding and public engagement.
• The title establishes standards and compliance deadlines for military working-dog facilities, permits certain foreign-airline travel with up to three pet cats or dogs when no qualifying U.S. carrier is available, requires restroom access for covered sensitive-cargo drivers, and bars open-air burning of contraband and classified materials.
• The title authorizes specified fiscal year 2026 active-duty and reserve personnel levels, requires an Indo-Pacific mobilization and reserve-skills study, allows a three-year contracted amphibious-aircraft pilot, restricts changes to Army helicopter training at Fort Rucker until testing and review are complete, and folds civilian workforce reporting into the annual defense manpower report.

DIVISION A, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUTHORIZATIONS (part 5 of 19) ​

This title updates military personnel policy across officer management, recruiting, training, education, military justice, career transition, family support, and personnel records. It creates new programs and reporting requirements, including stronger tracking of hazardous exposures, blast-safety positions, expanded chaplain education, automatic Selective Service registration for covered males, and added support for service members leaving the military. It also changes policies for the Space Force, National Guard, service academies, military schools, child care, and military families.

Key takeaways

• The title adjusts general-officer limits between the Air Force and Space Force, establishes separate rules for certain Space Force general officers, and increases congressional notice requirements for specified officer removals.
• It expands National Guard management and disaster-response authority, while requiring reports on equipment shortages, sexual assault prevention training, and reserve activation policies.
• It creates or expands personnel programs involving exposure records, blast safety, women’s initiative teams, chaplain education, medical accession waivers, recruiter access to schools, and alternative employment information for people denied enlistment.
• It automatically registers covered males ages 18 through 25 with the Selective Service System beginning one year after enactment, while excluding lawful nonimmigrants who maintain that status.
• It updates military training and education by expanding Junior ROTC, requiring ethics and deployment-related legal training, testing artificial intelligence-based Navy training, and changing service academy and professional military education policies.
• It strengthens military legal and transition policies by setting licensing standards for judge advocates, requiring sufficient legal advice for commanders, directing reviews of several military offenses, and expanding counseling and information sharing for separating service members and their families.

DIVISION A, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUTHORIZATIONS (part 6 of 19) ​

This part strengthens military family support, child care, dependent education, and special education while adding safeguards for Department of Defense schools and child development centers. It also updates military pay, allowances, leave, relocation support, commissary access, and other personnel benefits; extends several existing authorities; and authorizes specified awards and oversight requirements.

Key takeaways

• Military child development centers must notify a parent or guardian within 24 hours of suspected abuse or neglect unless notification would threaten a law enforcement investigation.
• The title expands access to Defense Department schools, authorizes college-credit programs for their students, restricts major school closures and service cuts, and requires improvements to special education staffing, training, and guidance.
• It extends in-home child care assistance through 2029, permits a five-year pilot for higher infant and toddler child care subsidies in high-cost areas, and funds deployment support and aid for school districts serving military-connected children.
• It updates military compensation by applying pay authorities to the Space Force, extending bonus and separation programs, raising the family separation allowance from $250 to $300, revising enlisted food allowances, and requiring greater transparency and study of housing allowances.
• It allows qualifying service members to use parental leave within two years with senior approval, grants convalescent leave to service academy cadets and midshipmen, and expands relocation and compensation information for military families.
• It permits consideration of the Medal of Honor for E. Royce Williams and a posthumous Distinguished Service Cross for Isaac “Ike” Camacho, while also requiring stronger controls over government travel cards.

DIVISION A, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUTHORIZATIONS (part 7 of 19) ​

This title expands and reorganizes military health care benefits, staffing, emergency preparedness, research, and oversight. It lowers the travel-distance threshold for specialty-care reimbursement, allows certain otherwise ineligible sexual-assault victims to receive free forensic exams, and creates programs involving medical surge capacity, veterans’ access, disease surveillance, and optional cancer-related supplemental insurance. It also requires plans and studies on medical staffing, infectious diseases, provider credentials, chiropractic care, dental accreditation, cancer risks, and mental health effects associated with unmanned aircraft operations.

Key takeaways

• Active-duty members and their dependents may receive specialty-care travel reimbursement when required travel is at least 75 miles rather than 100 miles.
• Military medical facilities may provide sexual-assault forensic examinations without charge to certain individuals who are otherwise ineligible for Department of Defense health care.
• The Department of Defense must establish a military-civilian medical surge program with at least eight partnership locations to strengthen emergency and wartime medical capacity.
• The title strengthens oversight of military medical staffing and facility service reductions, expands medical cooperation with partner countries, and requires a centralized provider-license verification system.
• The Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs must improve resource sharing and veterans’ access at facilities with available capacity, while maintaining complaint, safety, and accountability measures.
• The title prohibits most painful research on domestic cats and dogs and requires pilots or studies addressing wastewater disease surveillance, cancer coverage and risks, dental accreditation, infectious diseases, and the mental health of unmanned-aircraft personnel.

DIVISION A, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUTHORIZATIONS (part 8 of 19) ​

This part changes how the Department of Defense buys major systems, munitions, services, and technical data, while removing or simplifying numerous existing acquisition requirements. It also expands acquisition workforce hiring and training, promotes competition, and strengthens supply chains by encouraging domestic or allied sources and reducing reliance on countries of concern. The title requires new tracking systems, strategies, assessments, reports, and congressional briefings to oversee these changes.

Key takeaways

• The Department of Defense must protect contractors on classified fixed-price product contracts from losses that cannot be commercially insured, except when losses result from misconduct, bad faith, or workmanship errors.
• The title supports longer-term purchasing of major systems and specified munitions, including missiles and lower-cost strike systems, while making future-year payments dependent on available funding.
• The Department must create a digital system to track technical data for major defense systems, identify missing or improperly marked data, address gaps affecting maintenance, and retain relevant records through the systems’ disposal.
• The title streamlines acquisition rules, adjusts contract pricing and competition requirements, expands consideration of contractor cost risks, and removes numerous older acquisition provisions.
• The Department must improve acquisition workforce hiring, training, and performance reviews, including temporary hiring authority for Defense Civilian Training Corps participants and measures that reward innovation, responsible risk-taking, and timely delivery.
• The title strengthens supply-chain security through faster approval of alternative suppliers, temporary waivers for promptly disclosed noncompliant items, public registration of sourcing compliance, and plans to end reliance on specified foreign countries for optical glass and computer displays by 2030.

DIVISION A, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUTHORIZATIONS (part 9 of 19) ​

This title tightens federal and Defense Department purchasing rules to reduce reliance on China, Russia, other covered nations, and foreign entities of concern for military retail operations, batteries, strategic materials, solar equipment, additive manufacturing machines, computers, printers, and biotechnology. It also strengthens the domestic defense industrial base through new investment tools, support for textiles and footwear, cybersecurity standardization, and expanded technical assistance. In addition, it creates or expands programs for rapid military innovation, contested logistics, international industrial cooperation, contract oversight, and secure technology procurement.

Key takeaways

• The Defense Department must review foreign-controlled retailers operating at U.S. military installations and generally terminate or prohibit long-term agreements with them unless an exception or national security waiver applies.
• New phased procurement restrictions cover advanced batteries, molybdenum, gallium, germanium, solar equipment, additive manufacturing machines, and computers and printers linked to covered foreign entities or nations.
• Federal agencies generally may not buy biotechnology equipment or services from designated biotechnology companies of concern or fund their use through grants and loans, subject to delayed implementation, limited exceptions, and temporary waivers.
• The title expands Defense Department authority to invest in critical supply chains and domestic production through grants, incentives, purchase commitments, subsidies, equipment, facilities, stockpiling, and substitute materials, while barring these activities in specified adversary countries.
• The title supports the domestic textile and footwear base, expands procurement technical assistance, requires more consistent cybersecurity rules for defense contractors, and establishes combat-boot quality certification requirements.
• The title advances rapid experimentation and contested-logistics capabilities, creates a five-year Special Operations innovation pilot, studies closer U.S.–Israel defense industrial cooperation, and strengthens reporting and controls for defense contracts and secure wireless procurement.

DIVISION A, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUTHORIZATIONS (part 10 of 19) ​

This title reorganizes parts of the Department of Defense, expands several offices’ powers, and imposes new congressional reporting and review requirements. It prohibits most Defense Department diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs while preserving historically operated equal employment opportunity and disability-access offices. It also strengthens oversight of testing, technology investment, software delivery, counter-drone efforts, and proposed changes to major military commands.

Key takeaways

• The Defense Department may not maintain most diversity, equity, inclusion, or accessibility offices, positions, plans, groups, dashboards, surveys, or training, but may continue historically operated equal employment opportunity and legally required disability-access programs.
• The Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering gains authority to direct relevant Defense Department components, conduct prototype experiments, address joint capability gaps, and speed technologies into operational use.
• The title creates an Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Armaments Cooperation and expands the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation’s access, contracting authority, funding protections, and oversight capabilities.
• The Office of Strategic Capital may support nuclear fission and fusion technologies, collect cost-recovery fees, accept professional services, use outside experts and federal resources, and exercise additional loan and debt-collection powers.
• The Defense Science Board must recommend an organizational structure for department-wide digital and software delivery, with its final report due to the Secretary of Defense by February 1, 2027, and then to Congress within 30 days.
• The title establishes Joint Interagency Task Force 401 to coordinate counter-small-drone policy and approve systems for Defense Department procurement, authorizes Defense Innovation Unit regional outreach centers, and creates a working group to strengthen the small-drone supplier base.
• The President must notify Congress within five days and explain any early removal or transfer of a Joint Chiefs member or combatant commander.
• The title temporarily protects specified test programs and Navy Expeditionary Combat Command Pacific, and it conditions funding for changes to geographic combatant commands or integration of two Army logistics commands on prior analysis and reporting to Congress.

DIVISION A, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUTHORIZATIONS (part 11 of 19) ​

This part gives the Department of Defense limited authority to shift fiscal year 2026 funding, strengthens financial audit planning and reporting, and encourages the use of artificial intelligence in audits. It sets Navy shipbuilding, maintenance, fleet, and maritime industrial base requirements; extends counterterrorism and Guantanamo Bay restrictions; and authorizes or limits several defense activities. It also increases congressional oversight of border and immigration support, autonomous weapons, military transportation and infrastructure, and other defense programs through new reports, briefings, studies, and funding conditions.

Key takeaways

• The Defense Secretary may transfer up to $6 billion among fiscal year 2026 defense authorizations for higher-priority needs, excluding transfers between military personnel accounts from that cap, but may not fund items Congress denied.
• The title expands Defense Department audit remediation requirements, requires additional reporting from the lowest-ranked components, aligns key financial reporting dates, and promotes artificial intelligence and machine learning for audits.
• The Navy must prioritize amphibious ship readiness, protect oceanographic research vessels from retirement without replacements, develop a maritime industrial base strategy, test automated shipbuilding, and pursue a multiyear maintenance contract for DDG-1000 destroyers.
• The title extends through 2026 restrictions involving Guantanamo detainee transfers, detention facilities in the United States, and closure of the naval station, while extending joint counterterrorism task force support authority through 2032.
• The title restricts retirement or deactivation of Gray Eagle drones and Expeditionary Combat Aviation Brigades, bans live animals in live-fire trauma training, and generally protects World War II-era Air Force aircraft from destruction or scrapping.
• The Defense Department must provide expanded congressional reporting on southern border and immigration operations, autonomous weapons waivers, military helicopter collision-avoidance technology, strategic rail cybersecurity, Arctic infrastructure spending, and historical biological warfare research involving ticks.

DIVISION A, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUTHORIZATIONS (part 12 of 19) ​

This part extends and supports several defense commissions, eases certain defense trade and technology-sharing rules with Australia and the United Kingdom, and directs broader reforms to technology transfer policies. It also establishes or authorizes programs for special operations nutrition, counter-drone defenses, infrastructure resilience, irregular warfare training, and review of the national defense strategy. The title further changes Defense Department civilian hiring, pay, retention, workforce management, and shipyard staffing policies.

Key takeaways

• The National Commission on the Future of the Navy receives more time and greater access to classified programs and cleared personnel, while the Afghanistan War Commission may receive federal support and use appropriated funds for contracts.
• Defense trade among the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom is streamlined, with recurring congressional reports and reviews of technologies that remain subject to licensing.
• The Defense Department must create and implement a framework to improve technology transfers and foreign disclosures while protecting classified information and sensitive technology.
• The Air Force and Defense Department must test and accelerate counter-drone systems, including civilian sensor networks and systems using high-powered microwave, laser, or similar technology.
• The title creates an independent commission to assess the national defense strategy and authorizes additional defense initiatives involving special operations nutrition, infrastructure resilience, irregular warfare, military freight complaints, Tower 22 records, and chaplain memorials.
• Civilian personnel provisions protect public shipyard staffing, expand certain Guam allowances and bonuses, modernize Defense Department hiring and cyber workforce authorities, require shipyard apprentice classes, and assign clearer responsibility for managing civilian employees.

DIVISION A, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUTHORIZATIONS (part 13 of 19) ​

This title updates Defense Department programs for training and assisting foreign partners, improves foreign military sales, and expands coordination on international biodefense and defense technology. It extends or creates security initiatives involving the Middle East, Israel, Ukraine, NATO’s eastern flank, and the Indo-Pacific, while placing new limits and reporting requirements on certain funding, intelligence, and force-posture decisions. It also strengthens congressional oversight through recurring reports, briefings, certifications, and notifications.

Key takeaways

• The title broadens and updates foreign training authorities, requires the Navy’s small-craft training school to operate without charging students for fixed operating costs, and directs better coordination of international biodefense work.
• It seeks to make foreign military sales faster and more responsive by improving workforce guidance, incorporating purchaser priorities, reviewing items restricted to government-to-government sales, and creating an office for systems outside formal Defense Department programs.
• It extends assistance related to Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon while prohibiting support for the Badr Organization and Iranian-aligned militias and conditioning part of Iraqi security funding on steps to curb such militias and strengthen government control.
• It expands defense cooperation with Israel on tunnels, unmanned-system threats, munitions replacement, emerging technologies, and joint military exercises.
• It continues major support and oversight measures for Ukraine and European defense, including Ukraine security assistance, intelligence-support notifications, a Baltic Security Initiative, allied logistical contributions, and limits on reducing the United States military posture in Europe without prior assessments and certifications.
• It extends Indo-Pacific deterrence programs and establishes initiatives to strengthen regional defense industries, multilateral military planning, shared access, information sharing, exercises, and cooperation with key allies and partners.

DIVISION A, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUTHORIZATIONS (part 14 of 19) ​

This title authorizes and oversees defense programs focused on Asia, including security cooperation with Taiwan and the Philippines, the U.S. military posture in South Korea, and responses to cooperation among China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. It also authorizes fiscal year 2026 funding for several defense-wide programs, updates management of the National Defense Stockpile, expands critical-mineral recycling, and supports joint Defense Department–Veterans Affairs medical operations and the Armed Forces Retirement Home.

Key takeaways

• The title extends cyber cooperation with Southeast Asian military partners through 2028 and extends authority for funding the Bien Hoa dioxin cleanup through fiscal year 2026.
• It broadens the scope of entities that may be treated as Chinese military companies, requires review of Chinese entities appearing on other U.S. restriction lists, and bars Defense Department support for entertainment projects that materially censor content at the request of Chinese authorities unless a national-interest waiver is granted.
• It expands security cooperation with Taiwan by adding medical capabilities, allowing up to $1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative in fiscal year 2026, and directing efforts to establish a joint program for uncrewed and counter-uncrewed systems.
• It restricts funding for reducing U.S. forces in South Korea below 28,500 or departing from the agreed wartime command transition plan until Congress receives required certifications and risk assessments.
• It requires expanded planning and reporting on defense ties with the Philippines and authorizes up to $500 million annually in Foreign Military Financing grants from fiscal years 2026 through 2030, along with up to $1 billion each in direct-loan and loan-guarantee authority.
• It creates an interagency effort to assess and respond to cooperation among China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, while also authorizing major defense-wide accounts and strengthening oversight, acquisition, disposal, and recycling of strategic and critical materials.

DIVISION A, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUTHORIZATIONS (part 15 of 19) ​

This title strengthens the Department of Defense’s management, security, testing, and oversight of cyber operations, information technology, data, and artificial intelligence. It gives U.S. Cyber Command greater control over Cyber Mission Force resources, requires new cybersecurity and AI governance measures, and directs studies, exercises, workforce initiatives, and congressional reporting. It also restricts certain organizational changes, technology uses, and test-capability reductions unless specified safeguards are met.

Key takeaways

• The Commander of U.S. Cyber Command will directly manage planning and budgets for training, equipping, operating, and sustaining the Cyber Mission Force, except for military pay and military-department facility support.
• The Department must incorporate information technology technical debt into investment and budget decisions beginning with the fiscal year 2027 budget and establish common governance for data definitions and relationships across the Department.
• The title requires future cyber-force exercises, behavioral health support for Cyber Mission Force personnel, a study of reserve-component integration, and analysis of military options to discourage attacks on defense critical infrastructure.
• The Department generally may not reduce certified cyber testing capabilities, certain Army electronic-warfare testing activities, or the authorities of the U.S. Cyber Command commander without meeting reporting, certification, or notification requirements.
• Senior officials’ government mobile phones must receive enhanced cybersecurity protections, and the Department must establish stronger security policies, procurement requirements, workforce training, and oversight for artificial intelligence and machine learning.
• The Department must remove DeepSeek and specified related artificial intelligence from its systems and contract work, subject to limited waivers, and must create common processes for assessing major AI systems, testing AI in secure sandboxes, and planning for advanced AI capabilities.

DIVISION A, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUTHORIZATIONS (part 16 of 19) ​

This title sets policy and oversight requirements for military space, intelligence, nuclear forces, missile defense, unidentified anomalous phenomena, and electromagnetic warfare. It directs major programs and studies, protects or modernizes strategic capabilities, strengthens congressional reporting, funds cooperative threat reduction, and restricts access to Defense Department cloud systems from specified countries.

Key takeaways

• The title strengthens Space Force acquisition staffing and training, expands space-system programs, continues existing military weather satellites, and requires studies and planning for launch capacity, launch noise, rocket cargo testing, and tactical surveillance.
• It increases oversight of clandestine vendor support and sensitive Defense Department activities, formalizes the insider-threat program, provides Air Force weather services to parts of the intelligence community, and reviews remote-sensing requests and inactive security clearances.
• It preserves at least 400 operationally available intercontinental ballistic missiles, supports the transition from Minuteman III to Sentinel, sets milestones for other nuclear systems, and expands oversight and management of nuclear deterrence programs.
• It adopts the Golden Dome missile-defense policy, requires continuing reports and briefings on its development, bars private subscription-based control of missile intercept capabilities, and protects key missile-defense systems and test infrastructure.
• It requires fuller reporting on military intercepts of unidentified anomalous phenomena, consolidates related data and classification guidance, and removes a duplicative reporting requirement.
• It expands electronic-warfare training and program reviews, allocates fiscal year 2026 cooperative threat reduction funds, and bars individuals physically located in covered nations from accessing Defense Department cloud systems and sensitive related information.

DIVISION A, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUTHORIZATIONS (part 17 of 19) ​

This title addresses several defense-related matters, including Wake Island construction labor, strategic ports, Coast Guard aircraft maintenance, Israel’s defense capabilities, and protection against drones. It also gives the Federal Government free use of certain works created by civilian faculty at the Uniformed Services University and makes technical corrections to defense law.

Key takeaways

• Eligible foreign construction workers may receive temporary admission for up to three years to work on military-related projects on Wake Island without counting against the usual visa cap, with this authority available through December 31, 2030.
• The State and Defense Departments must map strategically important ports, examine Chinese control and influence over them, and report within one year on risks, vulnerabilities, and options for securing trusted investment and access.
• Defense Department depots may perform reimbursable rotary-aircraft work for the Coast Guard when the Coast Guard certifies annually that its aviation maintenance center is at capacity and its workforce will not be harmed.
• The Defense Department must assess at least every 180 days how foreign arms restrictions affect Israel’s defense capabilities, identify possible United States responses, and report annually to Congress for five years.
• The Defense Department’s authority to detect and counter drones is expanded and clarified, including the use of trained contractors and protection of additional critical facilities, while adding privacy, safety, claims, coordination, and public reporting requirements through December 31, 2030.
• The Federal Government may freely use covered literary works created by civilian faculty members of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in the course of their employment.

DIVISION A, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUTHORIZATIONS (part 18 of 19) ​

This title restructures the Department of Defense acquisition system to deliver military capabilities faster, respond to changing threats, incorporate user feedback, and balance cost, schedule, performance, quantity, and long-term support. It creates portfolio-level acquisition leadership, strengthens life-cycle sustainment management, reforms how military requirements are set, raises several acquisition and cost-accounting thresholds, and expands ways to buy commercial and experimental solutions. It also creates temporary programs to help smaller contractors meet defense requirements and move commercial technologies into military use.

Key takeaways

• The Defense Department must focus its acquisition system on rapid delivery, direct engagement with military users, iterative testing, digital engineering, commercial solutions, and mission-focused risk-taking.
• New portfolio acquisition executives will oversee groups of programs, budgets, personnel, and life-cycle management, while product support managers will have greater authority and responsibility for readiness, sustainment, and operating costs.
• The Joint Requirements Oversight Council will focus on joint operational problems, capability gaps, emerging threats, interoperability, and force design, while each service chief will control the capability requirements of that military service.
• The title raises multiple dollar thresholds for major systems, major defense acquisition programs, noncompetitive approvals, cost or pricing data, and full cost-accounting compliance.
• The Department must give greater preference to commercial products and services, limit the contract clauses imposed on commercial subcontractors, permit usage-based purchasing, and exempt nontraditional defense contractors from specified acquisition requirements unless an authorized official provides a written justification.
• Project Spectrum will support small and medium defense businesses through online compliance and cybersecurity resources until the end of 2031, while the BOOST program will help integrate commercial technology into military programs and will expire at the end of 2030.

DIVISION A, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUTHORIZATIONS (part 19 of 19) ​

This title directs the Department of Defense to strengthen the domestic defense industrial base through advanced manufacturing, faster production, workforce development, and closer collaboration with industry and academia. It creates a reserve network of commercial manufacturers that can shift rapidly to defense production and requires reviews, plans, guidance, and reports aimed at improving supply-chain resilience and surge capacity.

Key takeaways

• The Defense Department must establish a Civil Reserve Manufacturing Network whose participating manufacturers agree to convert commercial production rapidly to defense production when the network is activated.
• The department must plan the network, seek agreements with at least two manufacturers within 540 days, offer expedited qualification and potential financial support, and prohibit program awards from funding new manufacturing facilities.
• Defense product support managers must identify critical readiness supplies suitable for advanced manufacturing within 24 months and plan transitions that increase availability, reduce time or cost, or allow faster production growth.
• The Defense Department must create an advanced manufacturing workforce group and a broader collaborative forum to address labor shortages, acquisition barriers, supply-chain vulnerabilities, domestic capacity, and private investment.
• Members of the collaborative forum must receive sponsorship for facility clearances, access to classified workspaces and networks, and regular opportunities to discuss classified matters with defense officials.
• The department must update advanced manufacturing policies and qualification methods, improve senior-level coordination, and report on policies that discourage defense contractors from maintaining production surge capacity.

DIVISION B, MILITARY CONSTRUCTION AUTHORIZATIONS (part 1 of 3) ​

This division authorizes fiscal year 2026 military construction, land purchases, family housing, energy resilience projects, NATO infrastructure contributions, and base closure work. It covers the Army, Navy and Marine Corps, Air Force and Space Force, defense agencies, and National Guard and Reserve forces, while also extending or changing selected earlier projects. Most new authorizations expire in late 2028 unless funds have already been committed.

Key takeaways

• The division takes effect on the later of October 1, 2025, or the date the law is enacted.
• It authorizes specified construction and land acquisition projects at military locations in the United States and abroad, subject to the funding amounts provided elsewhere in the law.
• It authorizes Army family housing construction in Belgium and Germany, as well as housing improvements and design work for the Navy and Air Force.
• It authorizes defense agency construction and energy resilience projects, a $531.832 million U.S. contribution to NATO infrastructure, and acceptance of construction funded by South Korea and Poland.
• It authorizes construction for the National Guard and Reserve, along with base realignment and closure activities.
• It extends numerous fiscal year 2017 through 2023 project authorizations and changes selected projects, including increasing the Yap International Airport authorization to $1.495314 billion and expanding or relocating several previously approved projects.

DIVISION B, MILITARY CONSTRUCTION AUTHORIZATIONS (part 2 of 3) ​

This title updates how the Defense Department plans, funds, contracts for, and oversees military construction, infrastructure, utilities, and real property. It requires long-term infrastructure and water-security planning, expands construction and contracting options, and strengthens congressional reporting. It also reforms military housing oversight, mold prevention, inspections, and data management, while addressing selected land transfers and installation-specific restrictions.

Key takeaways

• Each military department must prepare a 20-year infrastructure improvement plan every five years, identify costs and goals, and show whether proposed funding is sufficient.
• The Defense Department must assess water risks at military installations, prioritize the highest-risk locations, and develop mitigation plans involving metering, infrastructure repairs, water reuse, and water-saving landscaping.
• The title expands construction tools by allowing certain nontraditional transactions, accelerated and progressive design-build methods, multiyear contracts, and specialized contracts for major naval shipyard projects, subject to oversight requirements.
• Military housing reforms strengthen reporting, standardize mold remediation, require annual independent inspections of at least five percent of privatized and government-owned housing, and improve tracking of barracks conditions, occupancy, and maintenance.
• The title authorizes or modifies several land transfers and withdrawals, bars a golf course at Greenbury Point, extends the civil-aviation restriction at Homestead Air Reserve Base, and requires radiation-exposure markers at Holloman Air Force Base and White Sands Missile Range.
• Congressional notification thresholds increase for certain smaller military construction and design projects, while the military departments receive broader authority to carry out unspecified minor construction projects.

DIVISION B, MILITARY CONSTRUCTION AUTHORIZATIONS (part 3 of 3) ​

This title extends and expands several military installation programs, requires reviews of joint-base staffing and funding, and improves coordination of defense sites in the Mariana Islands. It also renames a missile test site, designates Creech Air Force Base as remote or isolated, and creates pilot programs for advanced construction technologies and utility contracting. The title requires consideration of modular construction for protected facilities and notice to Congress when the Defense Department establishes an enduring location abroad.

Key takeaways

• The Army’s online real estate inventory pilot program is extended through September 30, 2030, and an exception related to the Marine Corps realignment in the Asia-Pacific region is expanded to cover operations and maintenance for curating archaeological and cultural artifacts.
• The Defense Department must reassess joint-base facility management staffing and brief Congress on maintenance funding allocations and any related risks to mission readiness.
• Joint Region Marianas must designate an official to coordinate management, infrastructure investment, and government communications for defense sites in its area.
• The Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site is renamed the Ronald Reagan Space and Missile Test Range, and Creech Air Force Base must be designated as a remote or isolated installation.
• The Defense Department must conduct time-limited pilot programs on advanced manufacturing construction technologies and on purchasing resilience-related utility services through areawide public utility contracts, with reports to Congress on results and barriers.
• The Defense Department must consider modular construction for projects with blast- or ballistic-protection requirements, report its findings to Congress, and notify Congress within 30 days after agreeing to establish an enduring military location in a foreign country.

DIVISION C, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY NATIONAL SECURITY AUTHORIZATIONS AND OTHER AUTHORIZATIONS (part 1 of 3) ​

This part authorizes fiscal year 2026 Department of Energy funding for nuclear security, defense environmental cleanup, other defense work, and nuclear energy programs, with amounts set in a separate funding table. It also authorizes six new National Nuclear Security Administration facility and technology projects at national laboratories and a naval nuclear laboratory.

Key takeaways

• The National Nuclear Security Administration may receive fiscal year 2026 funding for programs listed in the referenced funding table.
• The Energy Department may receive fiscal year 2026 funding for defense environmental cleanup, other defense activities, and nuclear energy programs.
• Six new projects are authorized at Sandia, Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, and Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory.
• The six new projects have specified authorizations totaling $228,248,000.
• The projects cover photolithography, stockpile modernization infrastructure, accelerator modernization, radiation testing, enhanced fusion yield capability, and a new office building.

DIVISION C, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY NATIONAL SECURITY AUTHORIZATIONS AND OTHER AUTHORIZATIONS (part 2 of 3) ​

This title sets the operating framework for the Department of Energy’s atomic energy defense programs and the National Nuclear Security Administration. It governs management of the nuclear security enterprise, stewardship and production of nuclear weapons, nuclear nonproliferation, cleanup of defense nuclear sites, security and classified information, workforce safety and training, budgeting, contracting, research, and facilities. It also requires extensive planning, cost controls, independent reviews, security measures, and reports to Congress.

Key takeaways

• The National Nuclear Security Administration must maintain a safe, secure, and reliable nuclear weapons stockpile, generally without underground nuclear testing, while preserving the scientific, manufacturing, and workforce capabilities needed for that mission.
• The title sets requirements for warhead modernization, plutonium pit and tritium production, uranium enrichment, nuclear test readiness, acquisition reviews, cost estimates, and regular assessments of the stockpile.
• The Department of Energy may carry out programs to secure or dispose of vulnerable nuclear and radiological materials, reduce proliferation risks worldwide, and improve the ability to identify the source of nuclear materials.
• The Department must plan, fund, and report on environmental cleanup and facility closure at defense nuclear sites, with specific requirements for Hanford, the Savannah River Site, and other major locations.
• The title strengthens physical security, cybersecurity, counterintelligence, protection of classified nuclear information, foreign visitor screening, and defenses against unmanned aircraft at sensitive facilities.
• The title establishes workforce protections and training programs, financial and construction controls, contractor oversight, independent project reviews, and research partnerships with laboratories, universities, industry, and nonprofit organizations.

DIVISION C, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY NATIONAL SECURITY AUTHORIZATIONS AND OTHER AUTHORIZATIONS (part 3 of 3) ​

This title updates and reorganizes laws governing Department of Energy nuclear security programs, while preserving existing orders, contracts, permits, and other actions. It sets requirements for nuclear weapons production and modernization, nuclear facility protection, project oversight, artificial intelligence research, radioactive waste management, and plutonium transfers. It also authorizes fiscal year 2026 funding for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, naval petroleum reserves, and major Maritime Administration programs.

Key takeaways

• The title moves atomic energy defense provisions into title 10, repeals superseded provisions, updates related references, and keeps existing government actions in effect.
• The Energy Department must maintain reliable annual production capacity of at least 30 war-reserve plutonium pits at Los Alamos and at least 50 at the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility.
• The National Nuclear Security Administration must establish a rapid capabilities program aimed at producing new or modified nuclear weapons within five years, while strengthening stockpile testing, project cost reviews, facility protection, and congressional reporting.
• Artificial intelligence funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration is limited to its nuclear security missions, although its resources may support other national security AI work on a full-cost-recovery basis when that support does not interfere with those missions.
• The title requires stronger radioactive waste performance metrics and nationwide disposal planning, bars fiscal year 2026 funds from applying the Energy Department's high-level-waste interpretation to waste in Washington State, and requires consultation and advance notice before most plutonium transfers to private entities.
• The title authorizes $45 million for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, $13 million for naval petroleum reserves, and funding for maritime academies, merchant marine programs, vessels, ports, small shipyards, and other Maritime Administration activities, while restricting port grants for certain automated equipment that would cause a net job loss.

DIVISION D, FUNDING TABLES (part 1 of 2) ​

This part authorizes fiscal year 2026 funding listed in detailed tables for military procurement and for research, development, testing, and evaluation, subject to Congress providing the money through appropriations. It authorizes about $161.7 billion for procurement and about $145.7 billion for research and development, while setting rules for selecting funding recipients and moving funds among programs.

Key takeaways

• The procurement tables authorize about $161.7 billion for aircraft, missiles, ammunition, ships, vehicles, communications systems, space systems, and other defense equipment.
• The research, development, testing, and evaluation tables authorize about $145.7 billion for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, defense-wide programs, and operational testing.
• Funding commitments to specific entities must use merit-based or competitive selection procedures and comply with other applicable laws.
• The listed amounts may be transferred or reprogrammed under other legal authority, and generally do not count against transfer limits unless money moves between appropriation accounts.
• The funding rules also apply to the classified annex, and no oral or written communication may override them.
• All authorized spending remains subject to the availability of appropriations.

DIVISION D, FUNDING TABLES (part 2 of 2) ​

This part of the funding tables sets fiscal year 2026 authorization levels for Defense Department operations, military personnel, other defense programs, military construction and housing, and Department of Energy national security programs. It distributes funding among the military services, defense agencies, specific programs, and construction projects, while accounting for reductions such as unused prior-year balances.

Key takeaways

• It authorizes about $291.5 billion for operation and maintenance across the military services, reserve components, defense-wide programs, environmental restoration, and related activities.
• It authorizes about $193.2 billion for military personnel, including about $12.9 billion for the Medicare-eligible retiree health care fund.
• It authorizes about $43.9 billion for other programs, including the Defense Health Program, counter-drug activities, working capital funds, chemical weapons destruction, and the Defense Department Inspector General.
• It authorizes about $19.7 billion for military construction, family housing, and base closure activities, including projects in the United States and overseas.
• It authorizes about $34.3 billion for Department of Energy national security programs, including nuclear weapons work, nuclear nonproliferation, naval reactors, security, and environmental cleanup.
• The tables increase funding for several priorities, including Indo-Pacific activities, Junior ROTC programs, international security cooperation, National Guard counter-drug efforts, and selected military construction projects.

DIVISION E, DEPARTMENT OF STATE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2026 (part 1 of 2) ​

This part of the Department of State Authorization Act for fiscal year 2026 reorganizes and formally establishes major State Department leadership positions, bureaus, workforce programs, technology functions, public diplomacy responsibilities, and diplomatic security requirements. It also increases congressional reporting and oversight, expands efforts to counter Chinese and Russian influence, and sets new policies for workforce flexibility, language skills, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, commercial spyware, and overseas security.

Key takeaways

• The title formally defines the roles and reporting lines of senior officials and bureaus responsible for management, technology, human resources, consular services, regional diplomacy, international organizations, public diplomacy, and diplomatic security.
• It establishes or continues fellowship, training, language incentive, job-sharing, and part-time employment programs to recruit, develop, and retain State Department personnel.
• It creates regional diplomatic initiatives for the Arctic, Indian Ocean, and Haiti and establishes temporary units and overseas officer programs to monitor and counter Chinese and Russian influence.
• It requires advance notice or regular reports to Congress on bureau jurisdiction changes, diplomatic staffing reductions and departures, intelligence matters, foreign diplomatic presence, major technology projects, and overseas security conditions.
• It authorizes a diplomatic-post data and artificial intelligence pilot, permits secure overseas commercial cloud systems under federal standards, and requires performance and adoption reviews for major technology projects.
• It strengthens policies against foreign information manipulation and commercial spyware misuse, expands counterintelligence training, requires security assessments related to reopening the Damascus mission, and extends protective-services overtime authority through 2027.

DIVISION E, DEPARTMENT OF STATE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2026 (part 2 of 2) ​

This title increases congressional oversight of State Department research, diplomatic pouch restrictions, arms export licensing fees, and staffing needs in China and Australia. It expands eligibility for certain Havana Act payments while limiting payments to specifically appropriated funds, and it extends several existing State Department authorities and programs. It also changes the annual deadline for federal counterterrorism reports from April 30 to October 31.

Key takeaways

• The State Department must provide Congress with federally funded research center and consultant reports, their original proposals, their costs, and an explanation of their value within 30 days after receiving them.
• For three years, the Department must report every 90 days on overseas posts where host governments restrict diplomatic pouch access, the reasons for those restrictions, and efforts to restore access.
• The Department must study whether fees for commercial defense export license applications could help pay licensing costs, including possible tiered fees and discounts for small businesses.
• Havana Act payment eligibility is extended to qualifying injuries dating back to September 11, 2001, but payments may not exceed funds specifically appropriated for them and must be distributed on a first-come, first-served, or proportional basis.
• The Secretary of State may create an Inner Mongolia team within the U.S. Mission in China and must report on related staffing, while a separate report must assess personnel, facilities, resource gaps, and expansion costs for the growing U.S. Mission in Australia.
• The title extends support for sovereign debt contract evaluation, an Inspector General annuitant waiver, and participation in international fairs and expos, and moves the annual counterterrorism reporting deadline to October 31.

DIVISION F, INTELLIGENCE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2026 (part 1 of 2) ​

This part authorizes fiscal year 2026 funding for U.S. intelligence activities, including $678.853 million for the Intelligence Community Management Account and $514 million for the CIA retirement and disability fund, with other amounts set in a classified schedule. It also changes intelligence community organization and oversight, strengthens security and workforce rules, expands congressional reporting, and sets policies for artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and other emerging technologies. It gives the CIA temporary authority to counter threatening drones in designated areas while requiring privacy safeguards, coordination, and congressional oversight.

Key takeaways

• The division authorizes fiscal year 2026 intelligence funding but does not authorize any intelligence activity that is otherwise unlawful.
• It requires new surveys, training, reporting, and policies addressing analytic objectivity, unlawful discrimination, secure intelligence facilities, inactive security clearances, workplace climate, and counterintelligence risks.
• It eliminates the National Counterproliferation and Biosecurity Center and the Office of Engagement, while keeping counterproliferation and biosecurity responsibilities within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
• It requires greater congressional notice and reporting on diplomatic post closures, FBI counterintelligence matters involving federal candidates or officeholders, terrorist and organized-crime watchlists, and FBI case data.
• It authorizes the CIA through December 31, 2027, to detect, disrupt, seize, or disable threatening drones in specially designated areas, subject to privacy protections, retention limits, interagency coordination, and regular reports.
• It establishes intelligence community policies for secure and reusable artificial intelligence, removal of DeepSeek from national security systems with limited exceptions, biotechnology expertise and supply-chain security, and measurement and coordination of emerging-technology adoption.

DIVISION F, INTELLIGENCE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2026 (part 2 of 2) ​

This title directs the intelligence community to strengthen its focus on China, other foreign threats, election security, counternarcotics, and public transparency. It restricts intelligence contracts with certain biotechnology companies tied to China’s military, requires new intelligence assessments and reports, and improves coordination with allies and federal agencies. It also updates or ends older reporting requirements and expands congressional access to intelligence information.

Key takeaways

• The intelligence community must expand reporting on Chinese influence operations, identify entities supporting China’s military, appoint a China intelligence mission manager through 2030, and assess China’s biotechnology advances, leadership wealth, and agricultural investments in Brazil.
• Beginning 60 days after enactment, intelligence agencies generally may not enter into, renew, or extend contracts with specified biotechnology entities linked to China’s military or otherwise found to pose national security risks, subject to limited exceptions and case-by-case waivers; the restriction ends after 10 years.
• The title calls for greater intelligence cooperation with European partners against Chinese influence efforts and requires plans or strategies concerning foreign involvement in Sudan’s conflict and counternarcotics cooperation with Mexico.
• It requires intelligence assessments or monitoring related to Iran’s uranium enrichment and nuclear-weapons decision-making, Russian atrocities in Ukraine, threats and partnerships in the Western Hemisphere, and foreign governments that assist people in leaving the United States while facing criminal proceedings.
• The intelligence community must improve warnings about impending threats to people in the United States, review certain information for public release, declassify and publish appropriate intelligence concerning COVID-19’s origins and related Chinese government actions, and standardize reporting of anomalous health incidents.
• The title streamlines numerous older intelligence reporting duties, expands congressional notice of major NSA collection or intelligence-sharing changes, requires penetration testing for federal certification of voting systems, and provides Congress with additional intelligence budget and counternarcotics resource information.

DIVISION G, COAST GUARD AUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2025 (part 1 of 6) ​

This part authorizes Coast Guard funding, staffing, and training levels for fiscal years 2026 and 2027 and strengthens congressional oversight of major acquisitions and spending. It also requires detailed planning for cutters, aircraft, Arctic facilities, and operations in the Pacific and Caribbean, while standardizing written submissions and automatically updating tables of contents when covered Coast Guard or maritime laws change.

Key takeaways

• The title authorizes about $16.65 billion for Coast Guard operations, procurement, research, and retired pay in fiscal year 2026 and about $18.49 billion in fiscal year 2027.
• It authorizes active-duty strength of 50,000 in fiscal year 2026 and 55,000 in fiscal year 2027, increases training levels, and requires a growth plan if proposed funding does not support those staffing levels.
• The Coast Guard must provide Congress with regular, detailed information on major acquisitions, overdue reports, acquisition spending, homeport projects, and the Polar Security Cutter program.
• The Coast Guard must assess its helicopter needs and generally maintain at least 140 operational rotary-wing aircraft until that assessment is submitted, with a later minimum of 175 aircraft after September 30, 2030, unless fewer can meet mission needs.
• The Coast Guard must prepare recurring operational plans, budget details, and briefings for its activities in the Pacific and Caribbean, including resource needs and any coverage gaps caused by moving assets.
• Required briefings, policies, plans, reports, and strategies must be detailed and written, and slideshow presentations cannot substitute for required submissions to Congress.

DIVISION G, COAST GUARD AUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2025 (part 2 of 6) ​

This title reorganizes Coast Guard law and updates the service’s leadership, legal, acquisition, emergency preparedness, transparency, and personnel authorities. It creates new advisory and legal positions, strengthens congressional and public reporting, changes vessel and equipment procurement rules, and expands workforce, family, behavioral health, and retention programs.

Key takeaways

• The title reorganizes Coast Guard statutes and establishes or clarifies positions for investigations, legal advice, and Tribal and Native Hawaiian affairs.
• It requires expanded public information on drug and person interdictions while protecting classified, confidential, and law-enforcement-sensitive information.
• It authorizes grants to eligible governments and Tribal and Native Hawaiian organizations to address harm to natural and cultural resources caused by Coast Guard activities, and it requires tsunami preparedness plans for Coast Guard properties in inundation zones.
• It revises acquisition policy by considering vessel and aircraft life-cycle costs, exempting service-life extensions from some major acquisition requirements, generally barring vessels with major hull or superstructure components built in foreign shipyards, and authorizing specified options for a U.S.-built floating drydock at the Coast Guard Yard.
• It requires strategies, pilot programs, procurements, and reports concerning Great Lakes icebreaking, heavy-weather craft, patrol boats, and maritime surveillance systems.
• It expands personnel support through specialized officer categories, retention of health professionals to age 68, broader family leave, direct hiring for critical positions, behavioral health services, Alaska travel reimbursement, sea-duty education incentives, firefighter bonuses, and stronger protections and reporting related to sexual assault, hazing, and bullying.

DIVISION G, COAST GUARD AUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2025 (part 3 of 6) ​

This part strengthens safety, health services, accountability, and cadet participation at the Coast Guard Academy, especially in responding to sexual misconduct, retaliation, hazing, and room-security concerns. It also changes Academy oversight, requires new studies and public reporting, and sets policies for opioid-overdose response, maritime drug interdiction, navigation aids, personnel support, training, and records retention.

Key takeaways

• The Academy must assess its misconduct policies every year, conduct surveys every other year, use focus groups in alternate years, and provide detailed reports on misconduct, retaliation, investigations, outcomes, trends, prevention efforts, and planned improvements while protecting victim confidentiality.
• Cadets who report certain sexual offenses may seek expedited transfer to another military academy or an ROTC program, may request review of a denial, and may request a different room if an assignment causes discomfort.
• The title expands Academy oversight through a restructured Board of Visitors, an independent governance study, and a cadet advisory board that addresses health, well-being, sexual misconduct, leadership, and Academy programs.
• The Academy must strengthen protections through electronic locks and access records for cadet rooms, private rooms for behavioral health and medical services, visible reporting and support information, a public anti-hazing policy, and an updated sexual harassment and sexual violence policy with annual training and anti-retaliation measures.
• The Coast Guard must make opioid-overdose reversal medication available across clinics, units, cutters, and other appropriate locations, develop a policy to reduce illicit maritime drug trafficking, and prepare a plan for expanded joint training with Taiwan’s Coast Guard.
• The title requires numerous operational and workforce reviews, including studies or reports on navigation aids, search and rescue facilities, Academy health services and oversight, Coast Guard JROTC expansion, remote-unit quality of life, aviation facilities, ferry-related travel rules, transferable personnel skills, weather and coastal risks, lighthouses, and records retention.

DIVISION G, COAST GUARD AUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2025 (part 4 of 6) ​

This part updates Coast Guard rules for merchant mariner credentials, vessel and port safety, uncrewed systems, shipping operations, and oil-spill response. It broadens eligibility for maritime jobs, modernizes credentialing and examinations, strengthens safety and security requirements, directs studies and pilot programs, and revises oversight of ports, vessels, and offshore operations. It also expands oil-spill preparedness, reporting, response assets, and coordination with Canada.

Key takeaways

• Merchant mariner reforms recognize eligible noncitizen nationals, reduce some required sea-service periods, allow approved education and training to replace sea service, and require electronic credentialing capabilities.
• The Coast Guard must modernize credentialing examinations through a working group, protect competency standards, remove outdated or redundant material, and review new questions before use.
• Vessel safety provisions increase penalties for grossly negligent operation causing serious injury, permit risk-based examinations of qualifying foreign vessels, strengthen harassment reporting and education, and address fishing, amphibious-vessel, and passenger-vessel safety.
• Port and waterway provisions address vessel traffic staffing and technology, cyber and foreign-state threats, pipeline and anchorage risks, Great Lakes and Arctic traffic, Atlantic shipping fairways, and abandoned vessels.
• The title creates temporary programs, training, studies, and planning requirements for Coast Guard and NOAA use and oversight of uncrewed maritime and aircraft systems.
• Oil-pollution provisions strengthen salvage and firefighting readiness, create online incident-reporting plans, expand eligible Arctic response vessels, limit early lawsuits challenging active removal decisions, and require annual joint oil-spill exercises with Canada.

DIVISION G, COAST GUARD AUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2025 (part 5 of 6) ​

This title strengthens the Coast Guard’s prevention of and response to sexual assault, sexual harassment, domestic violence, retaliation, and other covered misconduct. It requires independent review and congressional oversight, long-term preservation of evidence and records, better victim services and access to records, stronger reporting and training, and new accountability rules for leaders and personnel. It also expands protective orders, transfers, temporary separation, confidential reporting, whistleblower protections, special-victim capabilities, and Coast Guard access to Defense Department misconduct databases.

Key takeaways

• The Government Accountability Office must independently assess the Coast Guard’s reforms, and the Commandant must explain how accepted recommendations will be implemented and why any recommendations are rejected.
• The Coast Guard must preserve sexual assault evidence, forms, and investigative files for at least 50 years, establish access rules that protect privacy, and expedite victims’ requests for records after cases are complete.
• The Coast Guard must report detailed annual data to Congress on covered misconduct, retaliation, investigations, case outcomes, trends, prevention efforts, and incidents involving recruits and officer candidates.
• Victims must receive timely care and support, information about protective options, access to expedited transfers and temporary separation where eligible, and review protections when they believe a proposed involuntary separation is retaliatory.
• The Coast Guard must establish annual and role-specific misconduct prevention and response training, a safe-to-report policy for minor misconduct connected to a sexual assault report, and stronger procedures for allegations against senior leaders.
• The title expands confidential reporting, whistleblower oversight, special-victim services, participation in the Catch a Serial Offender program, access to the Defense Sexual Assault Incident Database, and continuous security-clearance vetting for senior Coast Guard officials.

DIVISION G, COAST GUARD AUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2025 (part 6 of 6) ​

This title directs the Comptroller General to conduct studies and report to Congress on major Coast Guard programs, personnel issues, health care, facilities, housing, academy safety, relocations, and investigative operations. It also requires Coast Guard follow-up on certain findings and makes technical corrections to maritime and Coast Guard laws.

Key takeaways

• The Comptroller General must evaluate Coast Guard research and innovation, including project selection, funding, partnerships, and moving new technology from prototypes into production.
• Required workforce reviews cover vessel traffic service center pay and retention, Coast Guard Academy coaching positions, and the training, staffing, resources, and performance of the Coast Guard Investigative Service.
• Health-related reviews examine behavioral health care at Coast Guard training locations and efforts to prevent missing medical records, improve electronic records, and share medical data with the Department of Veterans Affairs.
• Infrastructure studies assess repair, construction, equipment, security, environmental hazards, and other needs at Coast Guard training facilities and stations conducting border security operations.
• Additional studies address housing allowance accuracy and the effectiveness and costs of permanent change of station moves.
• The Coast Guard must respond to certain findings concerning border station infrastructure, housing allowances, and Coast Guard Academy security, while the title also corrects outdated references, numbering, punctuation, and district names in existing law.

DIVISION H, OTHER MATTERS (part 1 of 5) ​

This part extends and updates several national security, securities, judicial security, child-exploitation enforcement, and public-safety benefit programs. It expands financial disclosure requirements for insiders of foreign private issuers, strengthens reviews of sensitive sites near foreign real estate transactions, updates the Internet Crimes Against Children program, and broadens protections and benefits for Supreme Court personnel and public safety officers. It also sets standards for federally funded trauma kits and rescinds $255 million from the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund.

Key takeaways

• The Defense Production Act is extended through September 30, 2026, and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States may maintain and periodically review a list of national security-sensitive government sites for real estate reviews.
• Directors and officers of foreign private issuers must make specified securities disclosures electronically and in English, while the Securities and Exchange Commission may grant exemptions where foreign law imposes substantially similar requirements.
• The Securities and Exchange Commission must study and report to Congress on the transparency and cooperation of certain China-controlled or China-organized brokers, dealers, and investment advisers.
• The Supreme Court Marshal may protect former and retired justices, their immediate families, the families of current justices, and Supreme Court officers when necessary.
• The Internet Crimes Against Children program is updated to emphasize victim identification, investigation prioritization, interagency cooperation, training, technology, and accountability, with $60 million authorized annually for fiscal years 2026 through 2028.
• The title establishes standards for federally funded trauma kits, extends death and disability benefits to certain targeted retired law enforcement officers and public safety officers with qualifying exposure-related cancers, and rescinds $255 million from the Justice Department’s Assets Forfeiture Fund.

DIVISION H, OTHER MATTERS (part 2 of 5) ​

This title directs stronger U.S. support for Taiwan’s participation in international financial institutions, expands efforts against fentanyl trafficking and related money laundering, and requires sanctions tied to gangs and corruption in Haiti. It also establishes sanctions and development initiatives for the Western Balkans and creates a process for identifying countries that support or carry out wrongful detention of U.S. nationals.

Key takeaways

• The United States must support Taiwan’s admission to the International Monetary Fund, greater participation in its activities, access to technical assistance, and employment opportunities for Taiwanese nationals.
• The title expands fentanyl-related sanctions, prioritizes identifying Chinese persons and entities involved in fentanyl supply chains, and requires reports on international fentanyl and methamphetamine trafficking.
• The President must impose travel and financial sanctions on specified Haitian gang leaders and political or economic elites linked to gangs, subject to humanitarian exceptions and limited waiver authority.
• The title requires sanctions on foreign persons who threaten peace, democracy, human rights, or anti-corruption efforts in the Western Balkans, while promoting regional investment, education, youth leadership, cybersecurity, and economic development.
• U.S. policy must oppose ethnic border changes in the Western Balkans, support normalization between Kosovo and Serbia, and monitor Russian and Chinese malign influence in the region.
• The Secretary of State may designate countries as State Sponsors of Unlawful or Wrongful Detention and must review available sanctions and other responses when a designation is made.

DIVISION H, OTHER MATTERS (part 3 of 5) ​

This legislation addresses a wide range of foreign policy, national security, nuclear energy, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration matters. It creates new programs and reporting requirements concerning divided Korean American families, abducted Ukrainian children, criminal organizations in Mexico, overseas Chinese bases, intercepted weapons for the Houthis, Syria, and international civil nuclear cooperation. It also updates NOAA personnel and fleet policies, implements South Pacific tuna treaty rules, and strengthens the North Pacific Research Board.

Key takeaways

• The State Department must create a private registry to support future reunions between Korean American families and relatives in North Korea, protect personal information, and report on reunion efforts.
• The legislation condemns Russia’s forced transfer of Ukrainian children and authorizes United States investigative, technical, rehabilitation, family reunification, and accountability assistance to Ukraine.
• It requires strategies addressing criminal organizations in Mexico and potential Chinese military, intelligence, or security bases abroad, while making clear that the Mexico strategy does not authorize military force.
• It creates a broad international nuclear energy program to expand United States civil nuclear exports and cooperation, support eligible countries developing nuclear programs, improve financing and safety, and reduce reliance on Russia’s nuclear sector.
• It allows intercepted weapons intended for the Houthis to be treated as United States stocks, repeals the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act while requiring continued monitoring of Syria, and repeals the 1991 and 2002 Iraq war authorizations.
• The NOAA provisions revise officer personnel rules, modernize fleet planning and vessel disposal, update South Pacific tuna fishing and enforcement requirements, and add Alaska Native representation and temporary administrative flexibility for the North Pacific Research Board.

DIVISION H, OTHER MATTERS (part 4 of 5) ​

This division creates a national security system to restrict or require reporting of certain U.S. investments involving sensitive technologies and countries of concern, and it authorizes sanctions against certain China-linked defense and surveillance entities. It also expands federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial authority to counter threatening drones, supports drone and counter-drone purchases through grants, and increases penalties for specified drone-related offenses. The division establishes implementation rules, training, oversight, reporting, confidentiality protections, and expiration dates for these authorities.

Key takeaways

• The Treasury Secretary may prohibit or require notification of certain U.S. investments involving sensitive technologies and covered persons linked to China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, or Venezuela under the Maduro regime.
• Covered technologies include semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum technology, high-performance computing, and hypersonic systems, while specified public securities, small investments, ordinary financial services, and pre-enactment transactions are generally excluded.
• The President may bar U.S. persons from making significant equity or debt investments in certain China-linked entities engaged in significant defense or surveillance technology operations, but these sanctions do not apply to imports of goods.
• The law requires recurring reports to Congress, reviews of Chinese entities appearing on other federal restricted-party lists, coordination with allies, and permits a public database of covered foreign persons.
• Trained and certified state, local, Tribal, territorial, and correctional personnel may use approved counter-drone technology against credible threats, subject to federal oversight, incident reporting, compliance audits, and coordination requirements.
• The law increases penalties for repeat violations of national defense airspace, using drones to facilitate felonies or deliver prison contraband, and unauthorized counter-drone actions; the outbound investment title expires seven years after enactment, and the specified counter-drone authorities expire in 2031.

DIVISION H, OTHER MATTERS (part 5 of 5) ​

This division modernizes and extends the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation through December 31, 2031, expands its investment capacity, and strengthens its focus on development, national security, oversight, and transparency. It also addresses several unrelated matters, including airport noise insulation, advanced manufacturing planning, federal recognition of the Lumbee Tribe, drinking-water planning in Chincoteague, health care for veterans in the Freely Associated States, and the removal of specified remains from a national cemetery.

Key takeaways

• The Development Finance Corporation must prioritize less developed countries, may invest in higher-income countries under added strategic and reporting requirements, and generally may not support projects in specified countries of concern or wealthy countries except for limited sectors.
• The title raises the Corporation’s maximum contingent liability to $205 billion, creates a revolving equity investment account authorized for $5 billion through fiscal year 2031, and increases the permitted equity share of a project from 30 percent to 40 percent.
• The Corporation gains a Chief Strategic Officer, new congressional and development advisory structures, a five-year strategic priorities plan, expanded staffing authority, an internship program, and stronger risk, development, and portfolio oversight requirements.
• The title requires stronger public reporting, project-level data, impact measurement, consumer protections for lending through intermediaries, and restrictions on anticompetitive entities and entities controlled by countries of concern.
• The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina receives federal recognition and eligibility for federal tribal services after verification of its roll, while North Carolina initially retains civil and criminal jurisdiction over relevant lands.
• Other provisions create a limited airport sound-insulation repair pilot, align advanced manufacturing planning cycles, authorize drinking-water well replacement planning for Chincoteague, require recurring briefings on veterans’ care in the Freely Associated States, and direct the disinterment of Fernando V. Cota’s remains.