Rounds Secures National Defense Victories in Senate Armed Services Committee’s Fiscal Year 2026 NDAA

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, released the following statement on the committee’s passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026. This is the 11th NDAA that Rounds has helped author as a member of SASC. The bill now heads to the full Senate for consideration.

“The NDAA is a critical piece of legislation passed each year which authorizes funding for our national security, as well as our servicemembers and their families,” said Rounds. “We were glad to secure many wins for South Dakota, including $378 million for construction projects at Ellsworth to prepare for the B-21, $28 million for the Watertown Army National Guard vehicle maintenance facility and $3.4 billion for procurement of B-21 aircraft. The NDAA also authorizes funding to support a 3.8 percent raise for military members.

“When I was working as Governor of South Dakota, and subsequently Commander in Chief of our National Guard units, I attended several send-off ceremonies and welcome home celebrations. I also attended 31 funerals for those who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our country. As a result, I made a pledge that I would do everything in my power to make certain our men and women in uniform never enter a fair fight, always having the advantage over their adversaries. This year’s NDAA keeps the U.S. ahead of the curve and takes care of our men and women in uniform who fight every day to protect our freedoms. I look forward to working with Leader Thune and my colleagues in the Senate to get this legislation passed and signed into law.”

In March, Rounds was named as the 6th most effective member of the United States Senate on defense and national security issues for the 118th Congress. Read a full list of his provisions in this year’s NDAA below.

Rounds’ South Dakota Victories:

• Fully authorizes the B-21 Raider program, including over $2.59 billion for procurement and $862 million in advanced procurement.
• Authorizes $378 million in military construction projects to support the B-21 Raider housed at Ellsworth.
  • $63 million for B-21 Flight Simulator 2.
  • $71 million for B-21 Alert Facility.
  • $75 million for B-21 Environmental Protection Shelters.
  • $88 million for B-21 South Environmental Protection Shelters.
  • $81 million for B-21 West Alert Apron & Environmental Protection Shelters.
• Authorizes $28 million for Watertown Army National Guard Vehicle Maintenance Shop.
• Establishes a pilot program within the Department of Defense (DOD) to partner with communities, universities, and industry to establish Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities (SCIF). This has been a major priority for many South Dakota universities and defense companies seeking to establish or deepen their relationship with the DOD.
• Updates the State Partnership Program so that states with only one partner are given priority when a new foreign partner is being considered for the program.  This will directly benefit the South Dakota National Guard.
• Modifies the Defense Community Infrastructure Program in order to make South Dakota schools more competitive in receiving grants.
• Requires the Navy Personnel Command’s Records Analysis Branch to develop a plan to address their delays and backlogs to provide members of Congress and their constituents answers and corrections to casework, record requests, and record adjudication. This will help our South Dakotan veterans dealing with frustrating bureaucracy.

Rounds’ Major National Defense Victories:

• Protect national security spectrum from interference from commercial interests so that critical defense and intelligence capabilities are not degraded. 
• Authorizes $5 million for Wing-level additive manufacturing capability.
• Authorizes $10 million for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing for hypersonic weapons.
• Authorizes $5 million for Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory.
• Authorizes $20 million for University Consortium for Cybersecurity.
• Creates a Cyber Command A.I. industry collaboration roadmap. This requires the Commander of U.S. Cyber Command, in coordination with senior DOD A.I. and research officials, to develop a roadmap for industry and academic collaboration on AI-enabled cyber capabilities for cyberspace operations.
• Creates an Artificial General Intelligence Steering Committee. This establishes an Artificial General Intelligence Steering Committee in the DOD to analyze AI trajectories and develop DOD adoption strategies with Deputy Secretary of Defense and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as co-chairs.
• Protects the dual-hat leadership arrangement between U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency.
• Provides authority to the Department of Defense and military to conduct military operations in defense of critical infrastructure.
• Requires a bomber aircraft force structure and transition roadmap, to include training packages and other measures, to make sure our bomber crews are as well-trained and equipped as possible.
• Process to improve Foreign Military Sales to our partners and allies.
• Modernization of the Department’s cyber and network security policies on full content inspection, to include A.I. capabilities to be included in the program.
• Requires the Department to identify how they will achieve implementation of zero trust cyber and network security by December 2025.
• Requires budget coordination of the Cyber Mission Force to increase mutual support between U.S. Cyber Command and cyber elements of the reserve component.
• Provides a pathway for men and women who may be medically disqualified for serving in the active duty military to serve in the Department of Defense or other military services as a civilian.
• Implements significant DOD cyber personnel related reforms to include establishing a Cyber Excepted Workforce (CEW) Interchange Agreement and increased flexibility regarding the pay and benefits for cyber personnel.
• Strengthens the office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy — a position Senator Rounds created.

Rounds-Supported Victories:

• Authorizes funding to support a 3.8 percent pay raise for military members.
• No restrictions on supporting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with deportations, including the use of military air.
• Prohibits DOD from paying for sex change surgeries for military personnel.
• Includes an additional $6 billion for munitions – in concert with $25 billion in reconciliation, which effectively doubles last year's munitions budget.
• Expands Navy fleet with an additional two destroyers and funds wage improvements for conventional surface shipbuilders (destroyers, amphibious ships, and more).
• Clearly authorizes key portions of President Trump’s Golden Dome, the missile defense program for our country’s national security. 
• Clarifies the timing for operational certification of the B-21 bomber with the AGM-181 Long Range Standoff Weapon, which will make the B-21 more lethal and at longer distances.
• Includes a Comprehensive Cyber Workforce Strategy. This would require the Secretary of Defense to develop a comprehensive cyber workforce strategy.
• Encourages the Department to use multi-modal Large Language Models for foreign language translation.
• Directs the Secretary of Defense, as part of the Defense Cyber Workforce Framework, to design and implement a program for active management of cyber talent transitioning out of active duty and into the reserve force.    
• Includes report language that directs the Secretary of Defense to assess how to better synchronize the Defense Cyber Crimes Center under the Air Force with the Defense Cyber Defense Command (DCDC) to maximize protection of the Defense Industrial Base.
• Directs the Secretary of Defense to facilitate the integration of existing commercially available AI capabilities to assist with logistics in two relevant DOD exercises.
• Directs the Secretary of Defense to evaluate the establishment of a Joint Task Force-Cyber in each of the geographic Combatant Commands to serve as the operational cyber component.
• Includes report language that will direct the Department of Defense to issue a report on the competition, barriers to entry, and market share of cloud service providers, AI providers, and data services providers.
• Directs the Secretary to develop standards and a strategy associated with digital provenance.
• Includes report language that emphasizes the importance of authentication and directs the Secretary of Defense to establish a strategy to establish phishing resistant authentication.
• Prohibits any use on any DOD system of a large language model created by a Chinese or other covered entity, specifically DeepSeek. It also prohibits contractor use of these models.

Click HERE to read an executive summary from the Senate Armed Services Committee. 

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