Archiv: National Defense Authorization Act / Gesetz zur Autorisierung der nationalen Verteidigung (NDAA) / US Militärbudget / Kriegsetat


15.07.2026 - 12:41 [ Antiwar.com ]

Senate Democrats Block Advancement of $1.1 Trillion NDAA Over Iran War

Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked the advancement of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, citing President Trump’s war with Iran, which continues to rage following the collapse of the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding.

The NDAA would provide the Pentagon with over $1.1 trillion in funding as part of the White House’s plan for a $1.5 trillion military budget for 2027, a nearly 50% increase from this year. The bill also includes an amendment, Section 1217, to further merge the US and Israeli militaries under a plan being pushed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A procedural vote of 50-46 fell well short of the 60 votes that it needed to advance the NDAA. Every Democrat, except two who weren’t present for the vote — Senators Jon Fetterman (PA) and Alex Padilla (CA) — voted against advancing the sprawling military spending bill.

15.07.2026 - 12:29 [ Common Dreams ]

How Section 219, the US-Israel Military Merger, Would Thwart American Democracy

(July 13, 2026)

The House provision, which has a Senate version known as Section 1217, would also forbid the president of the United States from limiting intelligence collaboration with Israel over its human rights abuses. If the President ever wants to limit such collaboration, he or she must tell Congress and can only cite American national security as a basis.

In other words, these bills would connect the US and Israeli militaries in unprecedented ways and make it exceedingly difficult for any future president to unwind this partnership with a foreign government.

15.07.2026 - 12:14 [ Human RIghts Watch ]

Congressional Proposal Could Deepen US Complicity

(June 16, 2026)

Buried in the US$1.15 trillion National Defense Authorization Act is a provision that would deepen US military cooperation with Israel while walling that cooperation off from further congressional oversight.

Section 219 (formerly section 224) creates the role of an “executive agent” focused on folding Israeli technology into US weapons programs, and vice versa, including in missile and air defense technologies as well as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, cyberwarfare, and autonomous systems. Once implemented, the provision would speed efforts to embed Israeli technologies into US weapons systems in ways almost never codified into law, even for allies. As the protracted experience with unwinding Turkish participation in the F-35 program shows, practically, integration binds the United States to rely on producers in ways that become next to impossible to walk back later, even if lawmakers want to.

(…)

Section 219 also calls for “data fusion.” In defense doctrine, data fusion means combining feeds from many sensors and intelligence sources into a single targeting picture. The United States would be absorbing Israeli data, which may have been collected under problematic mass surveillance programs. Moreover, section 219 would be reinforced by section 622 of the intelligence appropriations bill, which mandates intelligence sharing and would further promote combining US intelligence streams with Israeli ones that could then be used by the Israeli military for targeting.

10.07.2026 - 00:16 [ theHill.com ]

Renewed war with Iran threatens to derail congressional agenda

Danielle Pletka, a distinguished senior fellow in foreign and defense policy at the American Enterprise Institute, said Trump has a military plan on his desk that U.S. commanders believe could force Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz without making any major concessions to its theocratic regime.

“The president has had on his desk for months now a 10- to 14-day plan that would do what was necessary to finish out the mission of the war on Iran. It would take out the remaining missile sites we saw them work on, the remaining parts of their defense-industrial complex, the remaining nuclear [program] and some of the critical [Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps] emplacements, and do that in a way that Centcom feels would mean we could walk away, not have a deal, and stop worrying about Iran for a little while,” she said.

“Will it take 10 to 14 days? Who knows? Is the president going to follow that plan? Who knows?” she said.

10.07.2026 - 00:00 [ NBC News ]

The Pentagon is running out of money

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department was funded with a budget of nearly a trillion dollars, but it is running out of cash, according to three U.S. officials, a former defense official, outside experts and two congressional staff members.

28.06.2026 - 13:56 [ TheHill.com ]

Democratic socialists eye 2028 White House race

(June 25, 2026)

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are eyeing a 2028 presidential bid in the wake of recent electoral successes across the country.

DSA Co-chair Ashik Siddique told The Hill in a Thursday interview that the organization has more than 100,000 members and 200 chapters across the country. “We want people to be talking proactively about what they would want to see in a presidential campaign,” he said. The organization is looking to see how voters would engage and what would motivate them, he added.

18.06.2026 - 18:59 [ Trita Parsi / Common Dreams ]

Ending the Costly, Unnecessary Iran War Is the Right Thing. Period.

The task now is not to reward Trump politically, nor to excuse the recklessness that produced this war. It is to prevent the war from returning. Democrats can condemn the decision to start it without sabotaging the agreement that ends it. They can hold Trump accountable without helping Netanyahu drag the United States back into conflict. The choice before them is not between opposing Trump and supporting peace. It is between learning from America’s endless wars and repeating them.

19.05.2026 - 00:29 [ New York Times ]

Trump’s Approval Sinks Amid Unpopular War, Darkening G.O.P. Prospects

Just 26 percent of voters said they were satisfied with the Democratic Party.

The discontent includes a significant number of Democrats who expressed reservations about their own party. Forty-four percent of Democrats described themselves as unsatisfied, while just 23 percent of Republicans said the same about their party.

“They’re just not fighting back hard enough in my eyes,” said Matthew Berryhill, 35, a recruiter from Marietta, Ga., a pivotal battleground area in the state’s key Senate race this year, who described himself as a progressive Democrat. “They come out with strong statements and strong words, and no action to back it up.”

08.05.2026 - 07:26 [ Just Security ]

The Court Gutted Congress’s War Power. It’s Time to Give It Back.

The War Powers Resolution of 1973 was designed to restore the constitutional balance in decisions to commit the United States to armed conflict. Its central provision — a legislative veto enabling Congress to direct the withdrawal of American forces by concurrent resolution — was cast into legal doubt by the Supreme Court’s 1983 decision in INS v. Chadha. But Chadha was wrongly decided, its reasoning is exceptionally weak, and the Court’s subsequent embrace of functionalism in separation-of-powers cases has left it incoherent as precedent. As the United States drifts deeply into a congressionally unauthorized war with Iran, the case for overruling Chadha, or at minimum limiting it to its facts, has never been stronger.

01.05.2026 - 22:41 [ Factually.co ]

How Has the Supreme Court Ruled on the Constitutionality of the War Powers Act?

(April 23, 2026)

The Supreme Court has never issued a definitive ruling declaring the 1973 War Powers Resolution (often called the War Powers Act) constitutional or unconstitutional; instead, the Court and lower federal courts have repeatedly avoided resolving the central constitutional clash between Congress and the President over war-making authority by invoking justiciability doctrines such as standing and the political‑question doctrine [1] [2].

26.04.2026 - 17:10 [ Factually.co ]

How Has the Supreme Court Ruled on the Constitutionality of the War Powers Act?

The Supreme Court has never issued a definitive ruling declaring the 1973 War Powers Resolution (often called the War Powers Act) constitutional or unconstitutional; instead, the Court and lower federal courts have repeatedly avoided resolving the central constitutional clash between Congress and the President over war-making authority by invoking justiciability doctrines such as standing and the political‑question doctrine [1] [2].

24.04.2026 - 21:03 [ USA Today ]

Pentagon wants record $1.5 trillion, cost of Iran war not included

„This budget was formulated, honestly, before we went into conflict with Iran,“ Jules Hurst III, the Pentagon‘s acting chief financial officer, told reporters at a briefing April 21.

In addition, the Trump administration separately plans to ask Congress for more than $200 billion in supplemental funding for the Iran war, according to reports.

03.04.2026 - 10:28 [ Antiwar.com ]

Trump Set To Unveil His $1.5 Trillion Military Budget Request Amid Raging Iran War

President Trump is expected to unveil his request for a $1.5 trillion military budget for the 2027 fiscal year on Friday, Reuters has reported, marking a 50% increase from this year’s already massive budget.

The 2026 military budget marked the first to officially exceed $1 trillion, which was achieved by Congress passing a 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) worth about $900 billion and combining it with $150 billion in supplemental military spending that was included in the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, a reconciliation bill that became law last year.

The White House is expected to go with a similar strategy to reach $1.5 trillion. It may request an NDAA worth about $1 trillion or less and seek a supplemental spending bill for $400 to $600 billion.

31.03.2026 - 13:02 [ Middle East Eye ]

Iran says it shot down MQ-9 drone near Isfahan

The report said the drone was intercepted and destroyed earlier Tuesday.

Iranian officials said the downing marked the 146th drone shot down during the conflict.

The MQ-9 Reaper, widely used for surveillance and strike missions, has an estimated cost of about $30 million per unit.

12.03.2026 - 20:05 [ RootsAction.org ]

Tell Democrats in Congress to Insist That Schumer and Jeffries Step Aside

The Democratic leadership in Congress has failed to provide real leadership against a war-crazed Trump administration. Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries have not acted to prevent war on Venezuela or the current war on Iran. They worked to delay a vote on Iran until after the war had started, while failing to clearly oppose it before or after the launch of the war. Schumer and Jeffries have shown that they cannot be trusted to prevent more wars, more threats of wars, or the transfer of another half a trillion dollars a year into the war machine.

It’s time for congressional Democrats to replace Schumer and Jeffries with leaders who are willing and able to challenge the runaway militarism that has dragged our country into launching yet another insanely destructive war.

The form below enables you to quickly send a clear message to the Democrat(s) who represent you in the House and/or Senate.

12.03.2026 - 19:59 [ RootsAction.org ]

Coalition of Antiwar Groups Launches National Campaign Calling for Jeffries and Schumer to Step Aside from Leadership

A coalition of antiwar groups launched a national campaign Wednesday for constituents to urge Democrats in Congress to remove Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Chuck Schumer from their posts as minority leaders.

The coalition includes RootsAction and Peace Action, the nation’s largest grassroots peace network, as well as World BEYOND War and the Progressive Democrats of America – Greater Middle East Alliance.

“Schumer and Jeffries have failed their party and country through wobbly leadership when firmness and clarity are needed in opposing a reckless and costly war,” said Jeff Cohen, cofounder of RootsAction. “The Democratic base sees a weak and confused party leadership as Trump demands billions more to attack Iran. While the party needs strong leaders in Congress, both Schumer and Jeffries have shown that they’re not up to the job.”

03.03.2026 - 15:20 [ Forbes ]

Trump Says Wars Can Be Fought ‘Forever’ With ‘Virtually Unlimited’ Weapons Stockpiles

In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “The United States Munitions Stockpiles have, at the medium and upper medium grade, never been higher or better.”

The president then claimed the U.S. has “a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons,” and added “Wars can be fought ‘forever,’ and very successfully, using just these supplies.”

18.12.2025 - 02:36 [ Shafaq.com ]

Iraq welcomes US vote to repeal war authorizations

The ministry added that the move “sends a clear signal to the international community that Iraq has become a secure and attractive destination for investment.”

On counterterrorism, the ministry stressed that the repeal does not weaken ongoing efforts, noting that the 2001 authorization—enacted after the September 11 attacks to confront al-Qaeda and affiliated terrorist groups—remains in force.

18.12.2025 - 02:32 [ Anadolu ]

Iraq welcomes US Congress vote to repeal war authorizations

Iraq on Wednesday welcomed a US Congress vote to repeal the 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Baghdad, included within the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2026.

The Foreign Ministry said it views “with great pleasure” the vote by the House of Representatives and the Senate, noting that the repeal awaits ratification by President Donald Trump.

18.12.2025 - 02:16 [ NPR.org ]

Senate passes $901 billion defense bill that pushes Hegseth for boat strike video

But overall, the bill represents a compromise between the parties. It implements many of Trump‘s executive orders and proposals on eliminating diversity and inclusion efforts in the military and grants emergency military powers at the U.S. border with Mexico. It also enhances congressional oversight of the Department of Defense, repeals several years-old war authorizations and seeks to overhaul how the Pentagon purchases weapons as the U.S. tries to outpace China in developing the next generation of military technology.

18.12.2025 - 02:13 [ Reuters ]

Sweeping US defense bill passes, with Ukraine, Venezuela provisions defying Trump

And it has a provision to withhold a chunk of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth‘s travel budget if he does not provide Congress with unedited videos of military strikes on boats in the southern Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The Trump administration has said the strikes are directed at Venezuelan drug-traffickers.

The Senate vote came a day after Trump ordered a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, his latest move to increase pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro‘s government.

It repeals the 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMFs) against Iraq, an attempt to reassert Congress‘ role in deciding to send troops into combat.

04.05.2025 - 20:45 [ Bill Astore / Bracing Views / Substack ]

U.S. Elites Learned Much from the Vietnam Defeat

So, what did they learn?

– They learned that wars can indeed last forever, but that Vietnam wasn’t the best “forever war” for the military-industrial complex because it became deeply unpopular and was disrupting cohesion within the military itself. The best forever wars are open-ended “wars” like the global war on terror. And perhaps a “new Cold War” with Russia and/or China. Wars that don’t involve the deployment of over half a million men (unless that “new” Cold War turns hot).

– They learned to control the narrative. No more journalists traveling freely in war zones as in the 1960s in Vietnam. Journalists are now most often embedded in U.S. military units. Embedded reporters, dependent on the military for access and protection, know what they can and can’t say, even as they tend to sympathize with the troops they’re with. ….

08.03.2025 - 08:11 [ Tass.com ]

US seeks dialogue with Russia, China to get rid of nuclear weapons — Trump

After taking office on January 20, Trump sent multiple signals about his willingness to discuss the subject, but has so far put forward no concrete proposals. Among other things, Moscow and Washington need to discuss whether they are ready to forge a deal to replace the New START treaty on the reduction of strategic offensive arms, which expires in 2026.

08.03.2025 - 08:10 [ CiberCuba.com ]

Trump proposes global denuclearization: „The power of these weapons is madness.“

(March 6, 2025)

„It would be fantastic if everyone got rid of their nuclear weapons. I know that Russia and us have by far the most nuclear weapons. China will have a similar amount in four or five years. It would be great if we could all denuclearize, because the power of nuclear weapons is madness,“ Trump said in a video later posted on the social network X.

The comment comes three weeks after a statement made in the Oval Office, where he emphasized the importance of restarting discussions on nuclear arms control, particularly with Russia and China.

15.02.2025 - 05:46 [ Antiwar.com ]

Trump: Military Spending Could Be Cut in Half and There’s No Reason To Build New Nuclear Weapons

“At some point, when things settle down, I’m going to meet with China and I’m going to meet with Russia, in particular those two, and I’m going to say there’s no reason for us to be spending almost $1 trillion on the military … and I’m going to say we can spend this on other things,” Trump said.

“When we straighten it all out, then one of the first meetings I want to have is with President Xi of China and President Putin of Russia, and I want to say let’s cut our military budget in half. And we can do that, and I think we’ll be able to do that,” he added.

10.11.2024 - 14:44 [ Statista.com ]

1.25 Million Have ‚Top Secret‘ Access in the U.S.

(April 14, 2023)

Peo0le with clearance and access to „Top Secret“ U.S.federal government information, by employee type
Government 605.579
Contractor 472.576
Other 173.803
Total 1.251.958

As of Oct.1, 2019
Source: Office of the Director of National Intelligence via Federation of American Scientists

10.11.2024 - 14:30 [ Washington Post ]

TOP SECRET AMERICA: National Security Inc.

(July 20, 2010)

The Post investigation uncovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America created since 9/11 that is hidden from public view, lacking in thorough oversight and so unwieldy that its effectiveness is impossible to determine.

It is also a system in which contractors are playing an ever more important role. The Post estimates that out of 854,000 people with top-secret clearances, 265,000 are contractors. There is no better example of the government‘s dependency on them than at the CIA, the one place in government that exists to do things overseas that no other U.S. agency is allowed to do.

(…)

Contractors kill enemy fighters. They spy on foreign governments and eavesdrop on terrorist networks. They help craft war plans. They gather information on local factions in war zones. They are the historians, the architects, the recruiters in the nation‘s most secretive agencies. They staff watch centers across the Washington area. They are among the most trusted advisers to the four-star generals leading the nation‘s wars.

10.11.2024 - 13:35 [ New York Times ]

When Did Liberals Become So Comfortable With War?

First, history has shown that governments and bureaucracies tend to become addicted to a war footing, with failure sucking them in further — think of America’s war on terror, or Vietnam. War encourages a perverse cycle of escalation in which huge financial and political gains accrue for governments and the military-industrial complex while the costs tend to be borne by weaker parties — before they start to come home in some shape or form.

We’ve called this bipartisan pattern “wreckonomics” and have found it especially present in wars or conflicts with costs that Western politicians can largely outsource — from fighting terrorism, drugs and smugglers to quasi-colonial interventions during the Cold War.

27.04.2024 - 12:00 [ New York Times ]

The Ghost of the 1968 Antiwar Movement Has Returned

Those young demonstrators had come of age seeing continual — and effective — protests during the civil rights movement and national mourning after the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. A year earlier King staked out his opposition to the war, saying that while he wasn’t attempting “to make North Vietnam or the National Liberation Front paragons of virtue,” he wanted to underscore his belief “that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money, like some demonic, destructive suction tube.” He said he was “compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and attack it as such.”

20.04.2024 - 15:34 [ CNN ]

Senate passes surveillance bill despite contentious debate over privacy concerns

Congress had been up against a Friday deadline after authority for Section 702 was extended through that date as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.

20.04.2024 - 15:26 [ Associated Press ]

Senate passes reauthorization of key US surveillance program after midnight deadline

After its midnight deadline, the Senate voted early Saturday to reauthorize a key U.S. surveillance law after divisions over whether the FBI should be restricted from using the program to search for Americans’ data nearly forced the statute to lapse.

The legislation approved 60-34 with bipartisan support would extend for two years the program known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

17.04.2024 - 06:24 [ FederalTimes.com ]

Lawmakers still benefitting from share trading in defense stocks

(02.04.2024)

With the onslaught of new wars, Congress added $70 billion over the last two years to an already bloated Pentagon budget, much of which is funneled directly into the coffers of defense contractors like Palatir, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman. The stock values in these companies have since experienced double-digit growth – a lucrative business opportunity not overlooked by lawmakers calling the shots.

At least 25 members of Congress sitting on national security committees have simultaneously purchased stock in these very same companies. The majority of these members sit on the Senate and House Armed Services committees, the entities responsible for overseeing the Defense Department budget and contracts.

15.02.2024 - 17:43 [ RT.com ]

Kremlin responds to rumors of Russian space nukes

Western media reports claiming that Russia could place nuclear weapons in space are nothing more than a ploy by the White House to convince US lawmakers to approve further military aid to Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

Citing sources, several US media outlets reported this week that American intelligence had obtained information on purported Russian plans to deploy a nuclear anti-satellite system in space, although the idea supposedly remains at the developmental stage.

02.11.2023 - 18:45 [ CodePink / Twitter ]

Biden has requested a whopping $105 billion in supplementary funding to pay for multiple, active and impending wars that Congress was originally voting on. This is on top of the already massive $886 billion war budget.

What‘s everything in Genocide Joe‘s latest request?

First, it‘s important to note the disputes on this. House Republicans want a bill just for Israel, while Democrats say they need it packaged with the other wars (with Russia and China). Both parties agree they want more war.

So, what‘s in Biden‘s request?

To start, $14.3 BILLION for the genocide in Gaza…

15.09.2023 - 22:26 [ ResponsibleStatecraft.org ]

Freedom Caucus won’t support Ukraine ‘blank check.’ What‘s that mean?

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) expressed hesitancy about whether and when it was worth it to pass a funding measure at this point in time. “Why are we talking about Ukraine supplemental when we can’t figure out how to fund our own operation of government to do what it‘s supposed to do?” he asked during a press gaggle on Monday morning.

“I want to see what claim there is for actual success in Ukraine,“ he added. „And I want to know how every dollar that $113 billion is going to be spent. Come present that to me as a member of Congress, and then talk to me about” what future funding should look like.

11.08.2023 - 19:42 [ Washington Post ]

We don’t need nuclear cruise missiles at sea

(August 9, 2023)

This month, as House and Senate conferees begin to iron out differences between the two chambers on a nearly $900 billion Pentagon spending bill for next fiscal year, both the House and Senate armed services committees want to place a new generation of nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missiles (known as SLCM-Ns) back on Navy vessels. That would be a mistake.

15.07.2023 - 08:44 [ Mark Pocan, Abgeordneter im US Repräsentantenhaus ]

Pocan Derides Nearly $1 Trillion NDAA

“It’s time to say ‘enough.’ Year after year, we spend more and more on our national defense – it’s too much with too little accountability. We have troops on food stamps while at the same time, price-gouging defense contractors are getting richer by the day.

15.07.2023 - 08:34 [ New York Times ]

House Narrowly Passes Defense Bill, Setting Up Showdown Over Social Issues

At stake is an $886 billion bill that would grant a 5.2 percent raise to military personnel, include programs to counter aggressive moves by China and Russia, and establish a special inspector general to oversee U.S. aid to Ukraine.