National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027

Sets 2027 Pentagon policy — a 3.6% troop pay raise, renaming Defense as the Department of War, and a ban on war betting.

The details

The annual defense bill sets Pentagon policy and spending limits for fiscal year 2027. Procurement accounts for about $256 billion and research and development about $219 billion. Military personnel costs run roughly $205 billion, with another $42.5 billion for the military health program. Construction, family housing, and base closures add about $29 billion. Nuclear weapons work at the Energy Department gets $41.4 billion. Service members would see a 3.6 percent basic pay raise on January 1, 2027. Troops at remote bases without affordable housing nearby could be reimbursed for long commutes. That covers anyone living more than 30 miles or an hour from their post. Authorized active-duty strength is set at 469,000 for the Army and 356,600 for the Navy. The Marine Corps gets 173,700, the Air Force 330,400, and the Space Force 13,200. Health coverage expands in several places, including hearing aids for children of retirees on TRICARE Select. Military firefighters would get medical testing tied to their job exposures. The bill would also rename the Department of Defense as the Department of War. That rewrites titles 10, 32, and 37 of the U.S. Code wherever the old name appears. Betting on the outcome of military operations would be banned outright. Pentagon personnel could not use prediction markets at all. Military activity at the southwest border becomes a formally named operation with its own budget line and reporting. Defense support to Homeland Security would be frozen until DHS repays what it already owes. Artificial intelligence draws a full subtitle of its own. The Pentagon would have to write rules keeping the use of force under a human chain of command. No weapon system, autonomous or otherwise, could remove human responsibility for firing it. The bill orders a revision of open-air burn pit policy after a 2024 inspector general report. Dozens of new reports and briefings to Congress are required, while some older reporting requirements are repealed.