House Appropriations Committee Proposes Flat $832 Billion FY26 Defense Budget Ahead of Pentagon Request
House Appropriations Committee Proposes Flat $832 Billion FY26 Defense Budget Ahead of Pentagon Request
Published:
July 1, 2025
/
Updated:
July 1, 2025
Analysis Pieces
Editorial Team
Photo by: Army Staff Sgt. Rachel Minto
The House Appropriations Committee circulated its full fiscal 2026 defense draft late on 28 June, two days before the Pentagon is expected to send over its own request. The text assigns $832 billion in discretionary authority, matching last year’s enacted figure and staying under the current spending cap. Senior committee aides state the panel relied on the continuing-resolution baseline while it waited for a complete budget package from the administration. Defense officials confirm the bill will serve as the chamber’s opening position when conference talks begin this autumn.
Basic pay for uniformed personnel rises 3.8 percent starting 1 January 2026. Committee spreadsheets show the move costs just under $8 billion when allowances are included. The draft also directs a reduction of roughly 45 000 civilian billets, mostly in headquarters and support shops, and reapplies the projected $6.5 billion saving to operations and maintenance accounts that cover ship availabilities, flight-hour shortfalls, and depot backlogs.
Procurement totals $174 billion. The biggest slices go to airpower and shipbuilding. According to industry sources, the document restores a two-a-year tempo for Virginia-class attack submarines to close a looming undersea gap, while holding the Columbia ballistic-missile boat on schedule. Our analysis shows that decision alone adds about $1.4 billion above last year’s congressionally approved amount for the same hull types.
Ship accounts include:
1 Columbia-class SSBN
2 Virginia-class SSNs
2 DDG-51 Flight III destroyers
1 T-AGOS ocean-surveillance ship
2 T-AO fleet oilers
1 Medium Landing Ship for the Marine Corps
2 Ship-to-Shore Connectors
$3.6 billion spread across supplier grants, workforce training, dry-dock upgrades, and nuclear-yard wage incentives
The aircraft portfolio absorbs $8.5 billion for sixty-nine F-35s split among all three variants. Additional aviation lines include:
4 E-2D Advanced Hawkeye early-warning planes
4 KC-130J tankers and 2 C-130J transports
19 CH-53K heavy-lift helicopters
3 MQ-25 carrier-based tankers
15 KC-46 Pegasus refuellers
3 F-15EX Eagles to keep the production line warm
2 EC-37B Compass Call electronic-attack jets
29 UH/HH-60M Black Hawks and 10 CH-47F Block II Chinooks for the Army
8 MQ-1C Gray Eagle 25Ms and twelve remanufactured AH-64 Apaches
Bombers and tankers remain protected. The draft sets $3.8 billion for B-21 Raider procurement while leaving quantities classified, and another $2.1 billion for continued development. It funds fifteen KC-46s, rejecting service plans to slow the buy. Defense officials note the bill repeats a caution that further delays to electronic-protection upgrades could trigger withholds on future tanker money.
Ground-combat lines backfill programs the Army hoped to curtail. Lawmakers retain 863 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles for the Army and 224 for the Marine Corps, upgrade thirty-five Abrams tanks to the M1A2 SEP v3 standard, and order thirty-six Paladin howitzer sets. They also insert $175 million to keep the Improved Turbine Engine Program alive and add $193 million to move next-generation squad weapons into full-rate production.
Missile defense and space spending totals about $13 billion, with $8.8 billion channeled through the Missile Defense Agency and $4.1 billion through the Space Force to advance the Golden Dome architecture. An additional $3.9 billion covers new low-, medium-, and high-orbit missile-warning constellations. The measure orders eleven National Security Space Launch missions and buys two GPS IIIF satellites, while setting aside $7 billion for classified space programs that committee language says focus on electronic-warfare payloads and resilient networks.
Hypersonic work reaches $2.6 billion. Specific entries read:
$806 million for the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike round
$955 million for the Army’s Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon
$483.5 million for the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile
$412 million for shared test infrastructure
Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation climbs to $148 billion. Notable projects include $4.2 billion for sixth-generation fighters split between the Navy’s F/A-XX and the Air Force’s F-47, $1.8 billion for the Survivable Airborne Operations Center fleet, $602 million for the VC-25B presidential aircraft, and $938 million for the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft. The bill caps Mid-Tier Acquisition timelines at five years and demands quarterly briefs on schedule slips.
Innovation incentives top $1.3 billion across the Defense Innovation Unit, APFIT, and the Office of Strategic Capital. Committee report text calls on each office to link prototypes to specific field commands within one year of award. Aides argue the condition prevents “demo-then-drop” cycles that have previously stranded promising technology.
Industrial-base language remains expansive. The draft directs $1.5 billion toward supplier capacity, $1.6 billion for productivity enhancements at private nuclear shipyards, and $90 million for rare-earth magnet diversification. Tier-two executives tell Defense-Aerospace they expect the cash to ease acute labor shortages but warn that staggered obligation could blunt near-term impact.
Quality-of-life lines allocate:
$1.15 billion for counter-drug programs, boosting National Guard involvement
$70 million for Apex Accelerators and $53 million for Starbase STEM outreach
$50 million for Impact Aid to school districts serving military children
The bill also slows permanent-change-of-station moves to shave $662 million from relocation costs. Personnel advocates see that action as a short-term fix until DoD finishes a wider basing review ordered in last year’s authorization act.
A separate reconciliation vehicle, the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, remains in Senate limbo after a marathon weekend session. That package could add upward of $170 billion to defense accounts, with large tranches marked for munitions. On 28 June the Air Force disclosed that reconciliation alone would push its weapons-buying line to $4.78 billion, up from $2.85 billion in the base request.
Negotiators must still square House toplines with a Senate measure likely to appear in mid-July. Leadership staff project at least one continuing resolution after 1 October. Industry sources caution that a CR would freeze new-start programs such as the Navy’s FA-XX and delay multiyear submarine contracts that suppliers need to raise output.
The defense subcommittee will meet in closed session on 1 July to adopt the draft. Full committee consideration is scheduled for 3 July. Once passed, lawmakers aim to bundle the text with military construction and veterans affairs accounts to form the first minibus of the year. Linking bills improves floor timing but raises the risk of collateral disputes on non-defense riders.
In sum, the committee keeps the fiscal 2026 defense budget flat yet redirects billions toward modernization and industrial resilience. How much of that plan survives negotiations with the Senate and a late-arriving Pentagon request will determine force structure for the rest of the decade.
REFERENCE SOURCES
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/us-congress-seeks-boost-navy-air-force-fleets-2026-bill-2025-06-11/
https://breakingdefense.com/2025/06/house-gop-appropriators-pass-defense-spending-bill-defeating-dem-measures-on-air-force-one-ukraine/
https://ground.news/article/house-gop-appropriators-propose-38-pay-raise-for-troops-in-flat-2026-defense-budget
https://breakingdefense.com/2025/06/house-appropriations-committee-releases-flat-832b-fy26-funding-proposal-ahead-of-the-pentagon/
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2025/06/10/panel-advances-defense-budget-despite-missing-details-from-white-house/
The post House Appropriations Committee Proposes Flat $832 Billion FY26 Defense Budget Ahead of Pentagon Request appeared first on defense-aerospace.
The House Appropriations Committee circulated its full fiscal 2026 defense draft late on 28 June, two days before the Pentagon is expected to send over its own request. The text assigns $832 billion in discretionary authority, matching last year’s enacted figure and staying under the current spending cap. Senior committee aides state the panel relied on the continuing-resolution baseline while it waited for a complete budget package from the administration. Defense officials confirm the bill will serve as the chamber’s opening position when conference talks begin this autumn.
The post House Appropriations Committee Proposes Flat $832 Billion FY26 Defense Budget Ahead of Pentagon Request appeared first on defense-aerospace.
