Top defense hawks are nearing agreement on the annual defense policy bill, with leading lawmakers hoping to meet next week to hammer out a compromise package.
The beginning of those so-called “Big Four” meetings between the leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services committees indicates the panels are reaching the homestretch for completing work on the FY2026 NDAA. But it’s unclear if the final text of the bill will drop before Thanksgiving, which has become an unofficial deadline for lawmakers each year.
Before that compromise plan comes out, lawmakers will have to find agreement on key areas such as the overall topline of the legislation. House Armed Services Committee Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), in a brief interview Wednesday, downplayed the issue — even as he acknowledged it’s still among the outstanding topics lawmakers have to work through.
“It’s not a big problem,” Rogers told us. “We’re not that far apart.”
While the House NDAA endorsed the Trump administration’s defense budget request, the Senate bill would authorize some $32 billion more for the military.
Rogers said lawmakers are “pretty close” to producing a final version of the NDAA. He wants to see the compromise bill taken up on the House floor on Dec. 7 or Dec. 8. The Senate, Rogers said, would vote on it afterward.
Here’s some news. Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) is leading a bipartisan group of House members in pushing to continue a network of Navy centers that support nearly 50,000 reserve sailors.
In a letter to leaders of the both chambers’ Armed Services panels, lawmakers urged for the removal of language in the Senate version of the NDAA that would get rid of the Navy Reserve Center system.
Instead, the 19 lawmakers who signed the missive argued that any Navy Reserve structuring changes should be flagged to the Hill by military service leaders “along with their plans to fix them.”
