National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027

Division E, the SAVE America Act, sets nationwide voting rules. The bill's own contents list names only four divisions and never mentions it.

Title XXXVI rewrites federal shipbuilding and merchant marine law. It also creates a Maritime Security Trust Fund that could hold up to $20 billion.

A 2012 law lets the military hold people captured in the fight against al-Qaeda without trial. This adds wording that excludes U.S. citizens from that power.

States could not process a federal voter registration without documents proving citizenship. Someone who has none may sign a sworn statement and give other evidence for an official to weigh.

In-person voters without ID may vote provisionally, but it counts only if they bring ID within three days or sign a religious-objection statement. Mail voters send an ID copy or the last four digits of their Social Security number.

Families of troops who die on active duty would get $165,000 rather than $100,000. It covers deaths on or after the day the bill becomes law, and rises with the cost of living after that.

More than 30 military hospitals and clinics had been slated to drop inpatient, surgery, or emergency services. Staffing and services must go back to the levels of March 3, 2026.

Active-duty members and their dependents could pick up as much as a 365-day supply at once. That applies at a base pharmacy, a retail pharmacy, or by mail.

Shoppers at exchange stores would get a discount at least equal to the federal fuel tax — 18.4 cents a gallon for gasoline, 24.4 for diesel. The program ends September 30, 2029.

Military health care could not cover or provide gender-related medical treatment. Narrow exceptions cover disorders of sex development and treating harm caused by earlier such care.

Troops would earn 3.5 days of leave a month instead of 2.5. The bill also removes the limits on how much unused leave a member can save up.

A member could take bereavement leave when they or their spouse lose a pregnancy or have a stillbirth. Before, that leave covered only the death of a close family member.

A pilot program would pay up to 75 percent of the cost for providers to expand. At least half the new infant and toddler slots go to military children for ten years.

Troops and Defense Department civilians could carry a gun on bases, reserve centers, and recruiting offices with the commander's permission. The commander may say no only for clear, individual reasons. The process is due by December 31, 2027.

Military courts could impose the death penalty for raping a child. The offense already carried a maximum of life in prison.

Registering someone who did not show proof of citizenship becomes a crime, as does a federal employee helping a noncitizen try to register. Homeland Security must also weigh starting deportation proceedings.

Agencies must find their records on unidentified flying objects and send them to the National Archives. The records cannot be destroyed or altered, and a review board would decide what stays secret.

Tenants in privatized base housing are protected when they report problems to the chain of command, an inspector general, or a member of Congress. Landlords also may not ask tenants to sign nondisclosure agreements.

Buildings on bases that are or were used as housing drop out of the National Historic Preservation Act. Places already on the National Register as of January 20, 2025 stay covered.

Shipyards, port terminals, and related factories would move onto the streamlined federal permitting track created by the FAST Act, which shortens the review they get.

A new Maritime Security Trust Fund would back the U.S. merchant marine and the shipbuilding industry. Its balance could not top $20 billion, and Congress still has to appropriate the money.