Top Democrat on House Armed Services Readiness, Rep. Garamendi, Introduces and Secures Several Amendments to National Defense Authorization Act

Washington, DC – This week, Congressman John Garamendi (D-CA-08), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness, introduced a series of amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026. This annual legislation provides the legal authority for all aspects of the U.S. military, including personnel, installations, and equipment essential to our national defense.

“I’m proud of the work this Congress has done to ensure that Americans’ hard-earned taxpayer dollars go toward keeping our country safe—not toward bloated, expensive, and ineffective defense projects,” said Garamendi. “As the top Democrat on the Readiness Subcommittee, I’m pleased the House Armed Services Committee has once again come together to address critical issues like reining in projects with egregious cost overruns, supporting our servicemembers and their families, ensuring American-made defense manufacturing, strengthening the readiness of our bases, and securing critical minerals.”

“In this year’s NDAA, I also built on my longstanding efforts to require the military to prioritize American-made products and manufacturing. I worked on a bipartisan basis to reform the Nunn-McCurdy Act by tightening cost-reporting rules and ensuring that programs that waste taxpayer money without producing results are canceled.”

“No legislation of this scope is perfect, and this year’s NDAA under the House Republican majority is no exception. I am disappointed that the committee didn’t adopt my amendments which would bring some basic, common-sense reforms to provide additional oversight to wasteful nuclear weapons programs. But I’m proud to have worked across the aisle to make sure this legislation addresses critical national security priorities.”

Congressman Garamendi introduced the following provisions in the FY2026 NDAA:

Cracking Down on Wasteful Defense Projects

Rep. Garamendi advanced provisions to eliminate waste at the Department of Defense by:

• Reining in projects with egregious cost overruns.
• Enforcing reporting timelines.
• Ensuring the Pentagon pays what it promised.
• These reforms mirror Garamendi’s Nunn-McCurdy Reform Act of 2025, a bipartisan bill targeting defense programs with repeated cost breaches and delays.
• Garamendi also advanced reforms to ensure our military is providing our servicemembers with equipment that works by promoting investments in sustainment and that we have the information for servicemembers to repair their own equipment.

Keeping America Safe by Responsibly Managing Our Nuclear Weapons

• The Congressman fought to limit Trump’s dangerous, unrealistic “Golden Dome” missile defense program.
• Garamendi attempted to restrict funding for the Sentinel Missile program to create a new land-based, nuclear-armed missile. Expected to cost over $180 billion, he has called the program an “endless money pit.”
• Required the DoD to report on the ability to reuse existing plutonium pits, the “trigger” of nuclear weapons. Current law requires producing new plutonium pits at a cost of billions of dollars per year.
• Garamendi also required answers from the Department of Defense about the use of artificial intelligence in nuclear operations.

Arming the DoD’s Independent Watchdog

After the Trump Administration gutted the nonpartisan Pentagon Inspector General’s office, Congressman Garamendi:

• Fought to reverse $19.1 million in funding cuts and restore staffing.
• Strengthened the watchdog’s ability to identify fraud, enforce accountability, and monitor bloated defense projects.

Ensuring American-Made Defense Manufacturing

Congressman Garamendi:

• Required that shipbuilding and repair projects under federal-private partnerships use American-made designs and materials.
• Fought for America’s maritime industry by amending the Pentagon’s 30-year shipbuilding plan to demand justifications for using foreign designs.
• Mandated a DoD report on the U.S. machine tool industry, which is heavily reliant on foreign companies and essential to supporting American manufacturing and the defense industrial base.

Strengthening Military Readiness

To ensure our military is mission-ready, Congressman Garamendi:

• Required the DoD to report the readiness impacts of airfield infrastructure, to include necessary upgrades at Travis Air Force Base.
• Secured essential funding for mobility aircraft modernization and connectivity.
• Requires briefings on predictive maintenance and other technologies to ensure we’re maintaining equipment in the most cost-efficient and effective ways possible.
• Required the Navy to identify and evaluate better opportunities to strengthen cooperation with shipbuilding and repair facilities, like Mare Island.

Supporting Military Members and their Families

• Promoted investments in quality-of-life infrastructure for our servicemembers including barracks and housing.
• Supported investments in our communities through Impact Aid funding for local schools.
• Required an evaluation of alternative methods for calculating Basic Allowance of Housing to ensure rates reflect reality.

Securing Critical Minerals

Congressman Garamendi demanded answers from the Pentagon on its plans to:

• Build the workforce and capacity to refine and process critical minerals in the United States.
• Ensure these essential materials for economic and national security are sourced and developed responsibly.
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