Statement from Congressman Seth Moulton on Key NDAA Wins for FY26

SALEM, MA -Last week, Congressman Moulton voted to pass the bipartisan, bicameral Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. The bill includes over 20 provisions championed by Congressman Moulton, including key provisions to provide robust oversight of the Defense Department, add guardrails to prevent the politicization of the military, overhaul the defense acquisition system to make it more efficient, and reinforce America's commitment to our allies.

"I will continue to use every legislative tool at my disposal to ensure the Department of Defense and the Trump Administration remains accountable to the American people, focused on its mission, and capable of defending the United States and its allies in an increasingly complex global landscape. The Defense Department must modernize, and this administration must answer to Congress on all of the major changes they are proposing. The NDAA is one of the opportunities the minority party in Congress has to constrain this administration's abuses of power, and that is why I voted Yes."

The final bill includes the following wins championed by Congressman Moulton:

• Requires DoD to share the unredacted video and written orders for each strike against a drug boat in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.
• Provides $400 million for Ukraine security assistance for both 2026 and 2027. This money will ensure continued US military support for Ukraine.
• Protects university research by ensuring that DoD cannot stiff universities by lowering the rates at which they will reimburse the fixed costs associated with conducting research paid for with DoD dollars.
• Prohibits the recognition of Russian sovereignty over captured Ukrainian territory-a legal requirement that will prevent the worst of Trump's proposed peace deals.
• Prohibits the US government from contracting with Chinese biotechnology companies known to work with the Chinese military, helping American biotech companies maintain their competitive advantage and preventing the transfer of US citizens' genomic information to the Chinese military.
• Oversight and accountability for firing military lawyers. The Secretary of Defense will be required to notify the Armed Services Committee and provide a written justification for removing any Judge Advocate General, making it harder to conduct politically-motivated removals within the military justice system.
• Also requires clear, written justification for the removal of members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Combatant Commanders. This helps prevent the politicization of the upper echelons of the military, which is a priority of Congressman Moulton's.
• Resisted Republican attempts to rewrite the US's national missile defense policy to emphasize defense- - a recipe for an arms race- - over deterrence. The final bill preserves the emphasis on nuclear deterrence.
• Ensured strong oversight of the Golden Dome program, requiring detailed annual reporting on planning, costs, testing, and timelines until the system reaches full maturity. This ensures Congress can hold the administration accountable for any major changes to homeland missile defense.
• Requires a strategy to strengthen multilateral deterrence in the Pacific, ensuring we continue to work with our allies despite Trump's misguided America First agenda.
• Significantly improves the DoD's legal ability to protect bases and other DoD facilities from drone incursions.
• Reallocated money from a failing, obsolete ship program to modernize the Marine Corps capabilities with additional drones.
• Ensured oversight of the DoD's most expensive and most troubled weapons program in history, the F-35 fighter jet, requiring that Congress receive additional information on the most delayed aspects of the program. Congressman Moulton has kept consistent pressure on the prime contractor and the DoD to improve the program and deliver the capabilities they promised the American taxpayer.
• Improved the efficiency of DoD acquisition by giving program managers direct control over their teams to ensure they can hold their staff accountable for poor performance.
• Prohibited privately-owned space-based missile defense interceptors. In response to real proposals from SpaceX, the law limits billionaires like Elon Musk from owning space-based missile defense systems and selling them to the military as a subscription service.