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NDAA Update Nov 2, 2026: Congress returns: National security and trade provisions to watch in the FY2027 NDAA

Two stories on Nov. 2: Covington & Burling's Michael Lowell, Lizbeth Rodriguez-Johnson, Justin Angotti, Kirsten Lowell, Lee Williams and Erika Yeager on Congress returning from its pre-election recess the week of November 9 with the FY2027 NDAA among its largest pending items, the House having passed H.R. 8800 on July 22, 2026, 216–212 and the Senate having received it on September 14, 2026, a July 14 cloture vote on the motion to proceed to S. 4784 having failed 50–46 with a motion to reconsider still pending, a single text expected to come together in the lame-duck session competing for floor time with government funding that expires December 11, and House bill provisions including referring Section 1260H Chinese Military Companies List entries to the Federal Acquisition Security Council for possible presidential government-wide exclusion orders reaching subsidiaries and affiliates, making certain Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) items eligible for the AUKUS license exemption (Section 1736), barring the Department of War from buying or using technologies tied to China or other foreign adversaries including humanoid robots, blockchain networks, semiconductors made on Chinese silicon carbide wafers, Chinese optical fiber, telecom contracts with entities that could be required to disclose DoW information to a foreign government, and Chinese financial apps on DoW devices, requiring IT vendors that sell in or have operations or personnel in China, Iran, North Korea, or Russia to agree to share security vulnerabilities with DoW first, and directing DoW to track adversarial capital and beneficial ownership in the defense industrial base and review defense-supplier mergers and acquisitions without new authority to block or unwind transactions, and AAU President Barbara R. Snyder and APLU President Waded Cruzado writing to Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker, Ranking Member Jack Reed, House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers and Ranking Member Adam Smith as they reconcile S. 4784 and H.R. 8800, welcoming Senate Section 220's NSPM-33 codification while recommending it be narrowed, opposing inclusion of H.R. 1048 and/or Senate Amendment 6448 (the DETERRENT Act), urging the committees to strike Senate Sections 843 and 849 and House Section 1244, strike House Section 236, and strike the Norman and Scott amendments, and asking them to retain House and Senate report language plus the National Quantum Initiative amendments offered by Sens. Todd Young and Dick Durbin.

Bill status

No change in the bill's status: the House passed H.R. 8800 on July 22, 2026; S. 4784 has not reached the Senate floor; and the Senate is scheduled to return the week of November 9, after the November 3 election, with the NDAA deferred to the lame-duck session. Full timeline: FY2027 NDAA status · Did the NDAA pass? · NDAA 2027 status · What happens next.

The stories

Congress returns: National security and trade provisions to watch in the FY2027 NDAA

Covington & Burling · Nov 2, 2026

Michael Lowell, Lizbeth Rodriguez-Johnson, Justin Angotti, Kirsten Lowell, Lee Williams and Erika Yeager write that Congress is scheduled to return from its pre-election recess the week of November 9, with the FY2027 NDAA among its largest pending items. The House passed H.R. 8800 on July 22, 2026, by a vote of 216–212, and the Senate received it on September 14, 2026. A July 14 cloture vote on the motion to proceed to S. 4784 failed 50–46, and a motion to reconsider remains pending; the Senate has not passed either bill. A single text is expected to come together in the lame-duck session, competing for floor time with government funding that expires December 11. House bill provisions they flag include referring Section 1260H Chinese Military Companies List entries to the Federal Acquisition Security Council for possible presidential government-wide exclusion orders reaching subsidiaries and affiliates; making certain Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) items eligible for the AUKUS license exemption (Section 1736); barring the Department of War from buying or using technologies tied to China or other foreign adversaries, including humanoid robots, blockchain networks, semiconductors made on Chinese silicon carbide wafers, Chinese optical fiber, telecom contracts with entities that could be required to disclose DoW information to a foreign government, and Chinese financial apps on DoW devices; requiring IT vendors that sell in, or have operations or personnel in, China, Iran, North Korea, or Russia to agree to share security vulnerabilities with DoW first to keep DoW contracts; and directing DoW to track adversarial capital and beneficial ownership in the defense industrial base and review defense-supplier mergers and acquisitions, without giving DoW new authority to block or unwind transactions.

Joint AAU-APLU FY27 NDAA Conference Letter

AAU and APLU · Nov 2, 2026

AAU President Barbara R. Snyder and APLU President Waded Cruzado write as presidents of the Association of American Universities and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities to Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker, Ranking Member Jack Reed, House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers and Ranking Member Adam Smith as they reconcile the FY27 NDAA measures S. 4784 and H.R. 8800. The combined membership of AAU and APLU includes more than 280 of the nation's leading research universities. They urge the committees to build on the research-security framework created beginning with the FY20 NDAA and the Securing American Science and Technology Act — which they say has anchored government-wide policies created by National Security Presidential Memorandum-33 (NSPM-33) and the CHIPS and Science Act — rather than layer new conflicting and confusing research security constructs on top of it. They welcome Senate Section 220 provisions that would codify NSPM-33, particularly information sharing, training, and screening procedures, and that designate an academic liaison role at the Department of Defense and chief research security officers at research universities, but say the remainder of the section would have significant unintended consequences: beginning in 2028, Section 220 would bar any university receiving DOD funds from entering into a contract for any purpose — including non-research related activities — with a covered nation or foreign entity of concern unless DOD grants a waiver; co-authorship, scholarly publication, and other ordinary forms of academic exchange would act as triggers for loss of funding; and universities would have to rely on volatile, unverified Commerce Department lists. They recommend amending Senate Section 220 to replace every reference to "countries of concern" with "entities of concern"; define "foreign talent programs" as "malign foreign talent recruitment programs," using the definition in Section 10638 of the Research and Development, Competition, and Innovation Act (42 U.S.C. §18901); define "covered institution" as a research organization or institution of higher education receiving more than $50,000,000 per year in total research funding, including funding from DOD, consistent with NSPM-33; define "fundamental research" consistent with National Security Decision Directive-189; narrow §4146(c)(7) so that co-authorship, publication, and open scholarly exchanges are not used as triggers for loss of funding; narrow the §4147 contracting prohibition to DOD-funded awards and DOD-supported researchers; remove the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Entity List, the Unverified List, and Military End-User List as automatic triggers for cancellation of DOD funds; set clear compliance timeframes, provide adequate wind-down periods when entities of concern are newly listed, and bar retroactive penalties; and direct consequences toward individual researchers who engage in intentional misconduct rather than at an entire university. Recommendation: oppose inclusion of H.R. 1048 and/or Senate Amendment 6448 (the DETERRENT Act) in the final FY27 NDAA conference agreement, arguing it would significantly expand the Department of Education's authority to evaluate and approve research contracts even though the department does not have a research security office or requisite expertise, and that a rewrite of Higher Education Act Section 117 — which the Armed Services Committees have not marked up, was not made in order for House NDAA debate, and which the Senate has never considered — should not be wedged into a conference report on defense policy. Recommendation: strike Senate Sections 843 and 849 and House Section 1244, which they say would significantly broaden the Section 1260H list of Chinese military companies operating in the United States, rendering its targeted application useless — the House provision would expand "formal association" to include "research collaborations" and "assistance" to include grants and sponsored research, along with discounts, employees, real property, or "any other preferential treatment," and the Senate provisions would reach entities that merely have the potential to advantage the Chinese military. Recommendation: strike House Section 236, which would bar DOD funding for a broadly defined category of "gain-of-function" research that they say extends well beyond pathogens of pandemic potential to techniques that protect U.S. troops and American lives, including cancer immunotherapies, improved insulin production, and resilient crops, and that risks coming into conflict with Executive Order 14292 on "Improving the Safety and Security of Biological Research" and the government-wide "U.S. Government Policy for Stopping High-Risk Life Sciences Research." Recommendation: strike the Norman and Scott amendments, adopted by voice vote on the House floor — Norman Amendment #32 would extend the Stevens Amendment's public communications disclosure requirements to DOD, and Scott Amendment #34 would bar foreign nationals from non-public areas of the national laboratories, several of which are managed by AAU and APLU member universities. They urge retention of House report language on analytical tools to improve DOD research security and on protecting defense innovation from adversaries; Senate report language directing a JASON study of co-authorship metrics and university research security, supporting university affiliated research centers, and implementing the Shared Classified Commercial Infrastructure Pilot Program; and the National Quantum Initiative offered as amendments by Senators Todd Young and Dick Durbin. They also support Senate Section 1633, which would direct DOD to establish a pilot program for military cyber units to partner with universities recognized in the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity program, and Senate Section 549B, which establishes standards and restrictions for higher education institutions participating in DOD education programs.

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