The House Armed Services Committee unveiled its $1.15 trillion fiscal year (FY) 2027 defense policy bill Tuesday, outlining priorities centered on defense industrial base expansion, military modernization, and technology initiatives focused on missile defense, artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, and quantum computing.
The House version of the FY 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) mirrors President Donald Trump’s FY 2027 discretionary defense request. It does not include the administration’s request for $350 billion in additional defense spending, which would be funded through the budget reconciliation process. Altogether, the administration is requesting $1.5 trillion for the Defense Department (DOD) in FY 2027.
The Trump administration has rebranded the DOD as the War Department.
Lawmakers in both parties have questioned the administration’s reliance on reconciliation funding for major defense technology programs, and it remains unclear whether Congress will approve the additional $350 billion request. Defense officials have said the DOD is prepared to adjust its plans if the funding is not approved.
The House Armed Services Committee is scheduled to debate amendments and mark up the annual defense policy bill on June 4.
The Senate is expected to introduce their version of the bill later this summer. Each chamber will have to pass its own legislation and then reconcile the bills into a single piece of legislation and passed into law later this year.
Acquisition and military pay
At the center of the FY 2027 NDAA is a continued focus on acquisition. Specifically the legislation seeks to revitalize the defense industrial base by authorizing multiyear contracting, leveraging private-sector capital for infrastructure, facilitating commercial technology adoption, cutting acquisition red tape, and investing heavily in domestic manufacturing and supply chain resilience.
Similar to the president’s budget request, the legislation also includes a pay raise of between 5% and 7% for all servicemembers.
AI, cybersecurity, and quantum
In the provisions drafted by the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies and Information Systems, the bill directs the creation of an AI incident and vulnerability reporting program to report, track, analyze, and remediate AI-related incidents and vulnerabilities stemming from the development, testing, procurement, fielding, or operation of AI systems across the department.
The legislation also calls for the establishment of an AI model rapid deployment framework designed to accelerate the onboarding, security authorization, deployment, and governance of AI systems on the DOD’s enterprise AI platforms.
Cybersecurity provisions in the bill would expand demonstrations of near-real-time monitoring capabilities by requiring at least three additional weapon platforms to participate in modernization and cyber-hardening efforts. The legislation would extend reporting requirements and authorize the demonstration program through September 2028.
The bill would also direct the defense secretary to evaluate and pilot integration of those monitoring capabilities into command and control, logistics, sustainment, and maintenance systems.
On quantum computing, the legislation would require the defense secretary to establish a policy using the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative to guide the development or acquisition of future DOD quantum computing systems.
Transformation and organization
The bill also includes provisions tied to personnel and agency transformation efforts. The secretary of the Army would be required to provide annual updates to congressional defense committees detailing major initiatives, including continuous transformation, the Army Transformation Initiative, and Transformation in Contact.
In the space domain, the chairman’s mark would eliminate the Space Development Agency and the Space Rapid Capabilities Office, which were established by Congress as semi-independent direct reporting units with special acquisition authorities. The legislation would also create a DOD official reporting to the deputy defense secretary to oversee acquisition and management of positioning, navigation, and timing programs across the military services.
Other programs would also face reductions under the House proposal, including a nearly $137 million cut in research and development funding for the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft drone wingman program.
The House bill includes less than $400 million in funding for the Golden Dome missile defense initiative. In the president’s budget request, the majority of the funding for the program would come through reconciliation, totaling $17.12 billion. Overall, the administration is seeking roughly $17.5 billion for Golden Dome.