House appropriators pass $831.5 billion fiscal ‘26 defense bill, crickets from White House

The House Appropriations Committee voted 36-27 last week to pass its $831.5 billion defense spending bill, as lawmakers reiterated the uncertainty of advancing appropriations legislation without having received full budget details from the Trump administration. 

According to the bill summary, the bill supports modernization for the nuclear triad, which includes the B-21 Raider, the Columbia-class submarine, and the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile. It includes $1.6 billion for shipbuilder capability at private nuclear shipyards, $521 million for wage enhancements at private nuclear shipyards, and $1.8 billion for satellite communications that would include nuclear command and control.

The original bill, sans amendments from last week’s markup, had $3.8 billion for B-21 bomber procurement and $2.1 billion for continued B-21 development.

House appropriators also allocated $13 billion to support the Golden Dome missile defense project, including over $8.8 billion for Missile Defense Agency programs and $4.1 billion for related Space Force programs. For shipbuilding, House appropriators have allocated $36.9 billion to build 28 ships, including one Columbia-class submarine and two Virginia-class submarines.

HAC-D unveiled its $831.5 billion proposal on June 9, a flat spending level when compared to fiscal ‘25 enacted funding but which aligns with the administration’s plan to factor in reconciliation funds to achieve a $1 trillion total national security topline.

The White House in May rolled out a “skinny” budget outline for fiscal ‘26, touting an “unprecedented” 13% boost in defense spending, while the proposed $1 trillion national defense topline factored in a $113 billion increase that would come from funds in the pending reconciliation bill.

Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), chair of the HAC defense subcommittee, said it was a “challenged process” crafting defense spending bill due to the “continuing lack of a defense budget,” and noted that the committee’s efforts to look at areas for cuts was “hampered by the lack of a full budget proposal and detailed justification material.”

“This lack of information meant the committee was unable to examine up to date program execution data, [making] it more difficult to assess either opportunities for increased investment or for additional reduction and elimination,” Calvert said. 

Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), the HAC-D ranking member, further cited the “unprecedented circumstances” of putting together an appropriations bill without full budget details and noted the uncertainty of funding plans tied in with anticipated spending in the reconciliation bill.

“For example, Golden Dome at this point is merely a concept – we don’t have a plan. None of us have been briefed on how the administration intends to spend $175 billion or deliver it in three years. A portion of Golden Dome is listed in the reconciliation bill. But…what will [DoD] do if that does not pass in reconciliation? They can’t come back to this committee and ask us to fill those gaps. And that’s why defense spending should never have been included in reconciliation,” McCollum said at the markup. 

A budget document the White House submitted to Congress this week lists several major programs where the Pentagon is requesting that large portions of the fiscal ‘26 funding come from the reconciliation bill, to include all of the requested dollars for the Golden Dome project and nearly half of funds for the B-21 bomber, while spending allocations in the reconciliation bill have not yet been finalized.  

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said at the markup that Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, has indicated that the White House won’t deliver full budget documents to Congress until the reconciliation bill is passed.

A version of this story first ran in Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily