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The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is Congress' annual blueprint for setting military priorities, controlling how the U.S. Defense Department's funds are spent, and ensuring accountability in the Armed Forces. It's a critical tool for gutting the woke agenda and onshoring military equipment production to reduce overseas reliance.

As part of our effort to re-warriorize America's Armed Forces, we propose six pillars for the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act that together restore focus on our military's fighting culture.

Legislative Timeline: How the NDAA Works
Jan–Mar
Internal Development: House and Senate Armed Services Committees hold hearings with defense officials, industry leaders, and think tanks. Subcommittees review existing programs and potential legislative needs.
Apr–May
Subcommittee Markup: Subcommittees draft portions of the initial NDAA text covering acquisitions, end strength, readiness, cyber policy, and more, then vote to advance each portion.
May–Jun
Full Committee Markup: The HASC and SASC consolidate and vote on their respective NDAA bills, adding amendments as needed. Once approved, committees report their version to the House and Senate floor.
Jun–Jul
Floor Consideration: The House and Senate consider their respective versions as a body, debate and propose amendments, then vote to pass each respective version.
Aug–Oct
Conference Committee: A bipartisan conference committee reconciles the House and Senate versions into a single, final conference report.
Nov–Dec
Final Passage: The House and Senate each vote on the conference report, which if passed is sent to the President for his signature. The NDAA has passed every year since 1961.

America's military is the most diverse organization in the world, encouraging people of all backgrounds to be the best they can be. The recent emphasis on "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" (DEI) torpedoes that objective by pitting servicemen against one another based on race, sex, and sexuality — destroying unit cohesion, morale, trust, and military effectiveness.

Objective: Clear, uniform, enforceable standards and accountability to ensure integrity and effective leadership across all roles in every service.
Legislative Recommendations
  • "No individual within the Department of Defense shall be evaluated, promoted, funded, or admitted based on race, sex, gender, ethnicity, or any other identity-based criteria."
  • "Any policy, regulation, or personnel action violating Title VI standards shall constitute a punishable offense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice."

Exceedingly low fitness standards mean our soldiers, Marines, sailors, airmen, and guardians aren't being challenged like they should. While China maintains sky-high requirements for its soldiers, the Pentagon has lowered requirements almost across the board — leaving us vulnerable in the next war. Gender-adjusted standards reduce combat readiness and promote divisions within the services.

Those who fail the LD Fitness Standard lose LD status for a year and are reassigned to a non-combat role. Return to all-male frontline units.

Objective: Institutionalize uniform fitness standards for service members to ensure required job obligations can be fulfilled. Restore fitness standards lowered to accommodate women.
Legislative Recommendations
  • "All military branches shall uniformly apply sex-neutral physical fitness standards aligned exclusively with validated operational requirements. The Secretary of Defense shall provide annual certification to Congress confirming all standards remain strictly sex-neutral and operationally validated."
  • "The Department of Defense shall conduct an extensive assessment of the readiness, cohesion, and cultural impacts resulting from integrating women into combat roles, with comprehensive findings submitted to Congress."

Just as there's a clear dividing line between civilians and warfighters, there's a dividing line within the military between true warriors and warrior support. The Armed Forces looks too much like corporate America with different uniforms — that needs to change, and fast.

Those men who score in the top 25% quartile of the revised combat fitness standard deserve a 25% pay raise and special uniform designation. They should look, feel, and act like the elite warriors they are — because America relies on their discipline and devotion on the battlefield. The result will be a force unparalleled in its fighting spirit and an end to failed recruiting drives.

Objective: Encourage and reward a strong warfighting culture across every service that enshrines lethality and morality as our military's chief virtues.
Legislative Recommendations
  • "The Department of Defense shall implement significantly enhanced fitness standards for elite frontline operators, clearly defining and incentivizing an operational warrior class."
  • "Elite combat veterans shall be formally recognized as a protected class, granting them priority access to federal employment, Veterans Affairs benefits, and educational opportunities."

America's elite service academies are not Ivy League schools — and they should stop trying to be. While academic achievement remains rigorous, West Point and the other academies have lost sight of their founding purpose: To forge officers fit for command. Woke priorities have replaced good leadership while an overemphasis on scholarship has left physical fitness standards by the wayside, exacerbated by the glut of civilian educators without military experience.

Objective: Abolish far-left curricula, fire civilian educators, and return focus to producing elite, combat-capable leaders well-versed in military history and affairs.
Legislative Recommendations
  • "The Department of Defense shall implement a pilot postgraduate commissioning program focused exclusively on advanced tactical proficiency, leadership, and superior physical fitness."
  • "Service Academies shall staff instructional positions exclusively with uniformed or retired military personnel, allowing exceptions solely in critical specialized technical disciplines."
  • "The Department of Social Sciences at West Point shall be disbanded, reallocating critical subjects into departments directly overseen by military leadership focused explicitly on strategic studies and leadership."

Read our full Service Academies accountability report

The Joint Staff was organized to support the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in serving as the principal military advisor to the President, Secretary of Defense, and National Security Council. In recent years it has become overly bureaucratic and bloated, compromising its essential function. It should be physically separated from the rest of the Pentagon, smaller, and focused on policy counsel.

Objective: Reduce redundant functions and personnel, relocate the Joint Staff to an independent facility, and expand congressional oversight.
Legislative Recommendations
  • "The Joint Staff shall strictly adhere to statutory duties defined in 10 U.S.C. § 155, eliminating redundant functions overlapping with service branches and OSD."
  • "The Defense Officer Personnel Management Act shall be amended to remove mandatory joint billet requirements for promotion eligibility to general or flag officer ranks."
  • "Personnel performing non-operational roles on the Joint Staff shall be reassigned to OSD, and statutory personnel limits in 10 U.S.C. § 143 shall be adjusted accordingly."
  • "Relocate the Joint Staff to an independent facility, ensuring strategic autonomy and operational effectiveness."
  • "Establish a bipartisan congressional commission to comprehensively review and propose necessary updates to the Goldwater-Nichols Act."

America must be bristling with enough weapons, ammunition, and other equipment to fight two major wars simultaneously. Yet currently we don't have enough to fight just one. Overseas commitments have drained us of crucial supplies — long-range precision missiles, anti-tank missiles, and 155mm artillery shells — without the industrial capability to replace them.

In contrast, China has steadily expanded its wartime manufacturing base in preparation for conflict with the United States. Worse, we are dependent on countless overseas suppliers — many in China — to produce high-tech weapons systems, vehicles, and aircraft. America is also lagging behind our rivals in crucial technologies, such as deadly First Person View (FPV) drones that will dominate near-future battlefields.

Objective: A national Strategic Equipment Reserve stocked with enough supplies to fight two major wars simultaneously for one year. Every component used in any U.S. military weapon, vehicle, or weapons system must be manufactured domestically. No potential enemy must be involved in producing our military equipment whatsoever.
Legislative Recommendations
  • "The Department of Defense shall maintain strategic reserves sufficient for one year of sustained combat in two major simultaneous conflicts, including comprehensive stockpiles of FPV drones, loitering munitions, 155mm artillery shells, rocket artillery systems, cruise missiles, guided bombs, anti-tank missiles, surface-to-air missiles, precision-guided munitions, small arms ammunition, mortar rounds, naval strike missiles, torpedoes, aerial bombs, and additional critical munitions. Utilization from these reserves must be reported immediately to Congress."

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