The Senate Armed Services Committee voted 18-9 on June 12 to advance the fiscal year (FY) 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), sending the annual defense policy bill to the Senate floor after a week of closed-door sessions.
The Senate action follows the House Armed Services Committee’s June 4 vote to advance its version of the legislation by a 44-12 margin. Both chambers must pass their respective bills before lawmakers can negotiate a compromise measure. The final version must then be approved by both the House and Senate before being sent to President Donald Trump for his signature.
Like the House proposal, the Senate NDAA would authorize $1.15 trillion in FY 2027 funding for national defense. The measure largely mirrors the president’s discretionary defense budget request for FY 2027 but does not include the administration’s proposed $350 billion in additional defense spending that would be funded through the budget reconciliation process. In total, the administration is seeking $1.5 trillion for the Defense Department (DOD) in FY 2027.
While the House and Senate bills share many acquisition, technology, and cybersecurity priorities, they diverge on military compensation. The House measure aligns with President Trump’s budget request by providing a 5% to 7% pay raise for service members, while the Senate version authorizes a 3.6% pay increase.
An executive summary released by the Senate Armed Services Committee outlines a series of reforms affecting Pentagon acquisition, emerging technologies, cyber operations, and military compensation.
Among the organizational changes, the Senate bill would eliminate the Space Development Agency and the Space Rapid Capabilities Office, both of which were established by Congress as semi-independent direct reporting units with special acquisition authorities.
The proposal would fold both organizations into a new acquisition framework rather than maintain them as separate statutory entities. A similar measure was included in the House version.
The move would allow the Space Force to “optimize its acquisition structure in support of broader acquisition reform efforts” while giving the Secretary of the Air Force greater flexibility to “unify operations, accelerate innovation, and deploy top talent across the mission,” according to the Senate summary.
The Senate bill also authorizes the DOD to establish a separate combatant command dedicated to autonomous systems. The committee said the new command would “encourage the Department to adopt the future of warfare”
Additionally, the legislation would create a new under secretary of defense for cyber, information, and networks. The position would also serve as the department’s chief information officer and principal cyber adviser to the secretary of defense.
Technology and cyber provisions
The Senate measure also includes several technology-focused provisions.
It directs a briefing on the procurement of low-collateral, non-kinetic solutions for countering small unmanned aerial system swarms, requires the development of a framework for assessing future quantum computing systems, and directs the establishment of a department-wide ecosystem for the deployment and enterprise use of agentic artificial intelligence systems.
Both the House and Senate versions of the NDAA support the creation of a United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative, which would “expand and accelerate bilateral defense technology research, development, testing, evaluation, coordination, and industrial cooperation.”
During House consideration of the bill, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., introduced an amendment to remove the cooperation initiative. The amendment failed, with Republicans and a majority of Democrats voting against it.
On cybersecurity, the bill directs the standardization and modernization of the Risk Management Framework (RMF) process across all military services.
The proposal calls for unified policy guidance, consistent implementation rules, and a modernized platform capable of supporting machine-readable data and real-time monitoring to reduce administrative burdens and accelerate secure software delivery.
The legislation also establishes a grant program to help small businesses and nontraditional defense contractors cover the costs associated with achieving Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Level 2 compliance.
The DOD has been rebranded as the War Department by President Trump.