National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027

Basic pay for everyone in uniform goes up 3.6 percent on January 1, 2027. The bill also cancels the smaller automatic raise that would otherwise apply.

Troops assigned to a remote or isolated base who cannot find affordable housing nearby can be paid back for the drive. It covers average fuel cost, part of vehicle wear, or the price of public transit.

If an independent inspector fails a privatized housing unit, the family can stop paying its housing allowance until the problem is fixed. The company must also refund housing money and cover moving costs for families forced out.

Hostile fire pay, for troops under fire, can rise from $450 to $600 a month. Imminent danger pay can rise from $275 to $400.

TRICARE Select family coverage would pay for hearing aids for the children of retirees. Until now that help was limited to other TRICARE plans.

Today a reservist can be repaid for drill travel of more than 50 miles. Starting with trips on or after January 1, 2028, the trip must be more than 100 miles one way to a permanent duty assignment.

Money in this bill cannot pay for a hiring freeze, a layoff, or an unexplained hiring delay at a public shipyard or any depot or agency run on a working capital fund.

A new fellowship program would place military spouses in Department jobs for 12 to 24 months at regular federal pay. Components must fund at least 500 full-time slots a year and try to convert fellows to permanent jobs.

For each year from 2026 through 2029, the Department must audit whether its contractors meet the Labor Department's goal that 7 percent of their workforce be people with disabilities. Findings go to Congress.

No one new can be hired into a National Guard dual-status technician job after October 1, 2028, and the job category ends in 2038. Current employees within three years of a full pension are protected, and no one can be moved without written consent.

The Secretary would set pay for blue-collar workers at defense industrial plants, using private-sector pay, local cost of living, and hiring needs. That replaces the standard government wage-setting process for those jobs.

The Department could not use artificial intelligence to monitor, track, profile, or target people reasonably believed to be inside the United States. It also could not use AI to decide to launch or set off a nuclear weapon.

Military punishment articles would no longer reach a retiree's political speech or comments about the actions and character of government officials. The exception does not apply while wearing a uniform.

Recruiters could gather personal data on people 17 and older who consent, with a parent's consent at 17. The list includes browser and cookie data, IP addresses, social media handles, and fitness activity; data is kept up to three years and the power ends in 2031.

Military investigators could issue subpoenas, not just warrants and court orders, for wire and electronic communication records. This applies before charges are formally referred.

Four separate bans on moving Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United States, on building U.S. facilities for them, on transfers to certain countries, and on closing the base all run one more year. They now expire December 31, 2027.

Special Victims' Counsel, the free military lawyers now available in sex offense cases, would also serve domestic violence victims. The change takes effect two years after signing.

Discharge review boards could upgrade a discharge and also correct the stated reason for separation, the separation code, and the reenlistment code. This applies to claims tied to PTSD, brain injury, or military sexual trauma.

It would be unlawful for anyone to place, accept, or help place a bet on a U.S. military operation or war. The Attorney General could sue to stop it, and the ban is folded into federal gambling crime laws 30 days after signing.

Military appeals courts could no longer call a prison term too severe if it falls within a sentencing range set by the President. Today those courts can reduce a sentence they find excessive.

The Office of Strategic Capital could buy ownership stakes in companies working on critical minerals, materials, chemicals, and batteries. It cannot take board seats, hold a majority, or put more than $500 million into one company, and the power ends in 2037.

From June 15, 2027, the Department could not sign a contract unless the company agrees in writing not to buy back its own stock or pay dividends. A company can get a waiver by committing to an approved plan to invest in defense production instead.

Technical data and software delivered under noncommercial defense contracts would come with government purpose rights by default. A contractor wanting tighter limits must prove it paid for the development with clear and convincing evidence.

On noncompetitive cost-plus contracts, a company must tell the contracting officer within 30 days when a price reaches 25 percent above last year's price or 50 percent above the price five years ago. Failures are logged in the federal contractor performance database.

Contract rules would bar a vendor from using government-furnished data to train or improve its own commercial products without written permission. Violations can bring fines and contract termination.

The Department must begin interim cleanup of PFAS, the 'forever chemicals' in old firefighting foam, at no fewer than 50 sites within two years. These are sites where the cleanup study has already slipped behind schedule.

The Department must rewrite its policy on open-air burn pits it does not control, following a July 2024 inspector general report. A separate section pushes trash-burning equipment to sites where burn pits are still in use.

About 4,288 acres of Bureau of Land Management land near Placitas, New Mexico would be closed to new mining claims and to mineral and geothermal leasing. The mineral rights stay with the United States if the surface is ever sold.

The cap on grants that help communities take part in cleanup decisions at a base rises to $1 million in total. In any one year a community can get the lesser of $100,000 or 1 percent of the site's remaining cleanup cost.

The Army must seek renewal of its leases on 19,700 acres at Pohakuloa and 450 acres at Kahuku in Hawaii. Within 30 days it must file a new environmental impact statement answering the state's objections.

Strike videos, investigation files, after-action reports, aircrew debriefs, chat logs, orders, and legal opinions from U.S. sea strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific must all be preserved. They can be sent to the National Archives.

Within 48 hours of a sensitive military operation the Secretary must send Congress the legal authority, location, target, pre-strike read on civilians present, damage assessment, and any civilian casualties. A fuller report follows in seven days.

Each year the Department must report the rules of engagement in force, every group declared a hostile force, and the legal basis for each. The Secretary, the general counsel, and every service's top lawyer must sign that the rules follow the law of armed conflict.

The bill holds back 75 percent of the Secretary's office travel budget until Congress receives unredacted civilian harm investigations for four strikes in Yemen and Iran. Unedited video of strikes in Southern Command is also required.

Stars and Stripes, the military's newspaper, would be kept independent of the chain of command, with a civilian publisher and an outside ombudsman. Holding back news simply because it is unfavorable to the Department is banned.

Three- and four-star officers and senior civilians at the same level could not lobby their old department for two years after leaving. That is on top of existing federal ethics limits.

A landlord could not even ask a tenant, former tenant, or applicant to sign a nondisclosure agreement about a housing unit or its services. The ban covers family housing and barracks alike.

The bill wipes out more than 50 standing reporting requirements spread across title 10 and eleven earlier defense bills. Congress would stop receiving those reports.

A defense bill section on phosphate supplies also directs the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to finish the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail within 10 years, subject to funding. The same section confirms University of Utah land uses in Salt Lake City.

About 5,000 acres at the Milan Army Ammunition Plant in Tennessee would go to the University of Tennessee System at no cost, for education research. The land returns to the government if it is used for anything else.

One year after signing, the Department could buy cut flowers and greens only if they are grown in a state, territory, or on tribal land. Gifted foreign flowers may be displayed only with their origin shown.

Three surplus F-14D Tomcat fighters would be given at no cost to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center Commission in Huntsville, Alabama. The Commission pays all transfer, upkeep, and compliance costs.