National Defense Bill Retains Courtney Amendment Boosting Submarine Production in Initial House Passage

WASHINGTON, D.C. ­– Today, Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-02), Ranking Member of the House Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, issued the following statement after House passage of the FY26 National Defense Authorization Act. Despite the derailing of the bipartisan FY26 National Defense Authorization Act that the House Armed Services Committee passed in July, Ranking Member Courtney successfully retained his $1 billion amendment to authorize two additional Virginia-class submarines in 2026 budget in the House-passed FY26 NDAA. To watch Courtney’s floor speech urging support for his amendment, click here.

“Two months ago, the House Armed Services Committee overwhelmingly passed (55-2) the bipartisan FY26 National Defense Authorization Act. Critically, our Committee added my bipartisan amendment to plus-up funding for the Virginia-class submarine programs to maintain a two-per-year production rate, fixing a serious shortfall for the Virginia program in President Trump’s Navy budget that the White House sent to Congress in May. This amendment, which is included in the House-passed NDAA, grows the funding backlog of submarines to a total of 21 Virginia-class submarines, needed to replace aging Los Angeles-class submarines and satisfy our AUKUS commitments to sell three Virginia-class submarines to Australia in the 2030s. 

“Unfortunately, for the third year in a row, during floor consideration, extreme House Republican poison pills were jammed into the Committee bill, upending the bipartisan tradition of the NDAA and disregarding the intent and purpose of the bill – to strengthen our nation security. As amended, the bill would degrade health care services for military families by cutting the scope of TRICARE coverage. How can Congress ask military families to serve our nation while we cut their health care coverage to a lower level of coverage than is available to civilians in their employer sponsored coverage? In addition, Republican leadership blocked a bipartisan amendment to fix a serious backlog of lawsuits by Camp Lejeune victims of water contamination. Assistance for these Marines and their families who have suffered for far too long should have been include in this bill. The Republican-led Rules Committee also blocked good faith bipartisan efforts to rein in the reckless deployment of our military forces to American states and cities who have not requested their presence. This is a serious question which Congress should address in this bill, and Speaker Johnson blocked its consideration. I cannot justify supporting a distorted version of the bipartisan work we did in the Armed Services Committee.”

“As we saw last year and the year before that, the vote today is just one step in a larger process. For the last several years, I have been a part of the House-Senate conference negotiations to craft a final version of the NDAA. Following this vote, as a conferee, I will once again do all I can to craft a bill that reflects the bipartisan FY26 NDAA passed the House Armed Services Committee.” 

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