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National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027

Floor Speech

Date: July 21, 2026
Location: Washington, DC

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Mr. BACON. Mr. Chair, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 8800, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027. I thank Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Smith for their leadership in compiling this bill. By the way, it passed with a huge bipartisan majority in committee.

I also thank my friend and subcommittee ranking member, Mr. Ro Khanna, for his collaboration this year, and I appreciate the great subcommittee staff who do such a fantastic job.

As we have seen across modern battlefields, technology is evolving at a faster rate than ever before. Artificial intelligence, cyber, quantum, biotechnology, and other emerging capabilities are changing the way wars are fought and won.

The United States is the gold standard for scientific innovation, and it is of the utmost importance that we remain committed to equipping our servicemembers with the most up-to-date, state-of-the-art, and mission-relevant tools available.

This year's NDAA delivers on that promise by supporting our defense industrial base, our science and technology communities, and our warfighters. The FY27 NDAA helps lay the foundation for our future technological edge by providing budget certification authority for the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering to enable better oversight of the military services' S&T budgets and priorities.

This bill also requires the Department to review, update, and modernize its policies on leveraging AI for military functions, ensuring more secure and robust development of AI capabilities.

The FY27 NDAA also helps tackle the ``valley of death'' by requiring more formal integration and technology transition between the Defense Innovation Unit and military services.

Finally, this Defense bill importantly restores our defense spending to 4.5 percent of the GDP, which is critical to deter conflict and reinforce America's commitment to ensuring security and stability around the world.

This NDAA is a strong, bipartisan bill that takes care of our servicemembers and promotes U.S. military dominance, and I urge all my colleagues to support H.R. 8800.

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