On July 22, 2026, the House of Representatives passed the Fiscal Year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act by a vote of 216 to 212. Buried inside the $1.15 trillion bill is Section 219, previously numbered Section 224, which establishes a permanent United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative and orders the Pentagon to appoint an executive agent whose sole job is to synchronize American and Israeli military technology across artificial intelligence, quantum computing, cyber operations, directed energy weapons, and data fusion. The bill allocates $750 million to joint US-Israel military projects.
Representatives Thomas Massie, a Republican, and Ro Khanna, a Democrat, filed a bipartisan amendment to strip the provision from the bill. On July 21, the House Rules Committee voted 214 to 211 to block that amendment from ever reaching the floor. No member of Congress was permitted to vote on whether to remove it. It passed by default, inside a must-pass bill that no one in Washington was going to sink.
Codifying the integration of our military technology and supply chains with those of any other country is dangerous. We are a sovereign country.
Seven Republicans broke ranks to vote against the bill and six Democrats crossed over to vote for it. But that roll call was on the entire $1.15 trillion package, which also carried a Department of War rebrand, the SAVE America Act, and funding tied to the war in Iran. There is no recorded vote on Section 219 itself. Leadership made certain there would never be one. No constituent can look up how their representative stood on integrating the Pentagon with a foreign military, because that question was never put to them.
The Quincy Institute assesses that Section 219 would do more to intertwine the two militaries than the more than $200 billion in military assistance the United States has given Israel since 1948. Its practical effect is to move support for Israel out of visible foreign aid, which Congress debates and votes on in public, and into defense procurement pipelines shielded from annual appropriations scrutiny. Once Israeli technology is embedded in American weapons programs, future Congresses cannot simply vote to stop funding it. That is the point. Senator Bernie Sanders objected that Congress should not grant Israel deeper military integration than a NATO ally.
Follow the money. The provision closely mirrors the FUTURES Act, introduced by Reps. Ronny Jackson and Don Davis with companion legislation from Sens. Ted Budd and Kirsten Gillibrand. All four have received substantial campaign support from AIPAC and allied groups, and the FUTURES Act was publicly backed by AIPAC and FDD Action. Rep. Massie, who led the effort to strip the provision, lost his primary this spring after Trump and AIPAC both backed his opponent. The message to every other member was not subtle.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly campaigned for this framework, describing the shift from aid to partnership as his plan in a June letter to Rep. Marlin Stutzman that Stutzman's own office published. Analysts at the Foundation for Middle East Peace noted the letter's wording aligns closely with Section 224's text. But Netanyahu does not vote in the United States Congress. 216 members of the House did.
This passed while the UN concluded Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, while the ICJ ruled its settlements illegal and obligated all states to end their complicity, and while Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have declared it an apartheid state.
THE SENATE IS THE LAST CHANCE. TAKE ACTION TODAY.
The Senate version of the NDAA contains a parallel provision, Section 1217. The two versions must be reconciled in a Conference Committee. That is the final opportunity to strip this from the bill.
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Find your senators. Use the official Congress.gov lookup or the Senate contact directory linked below to get their names and direct office numbers.
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Call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to your senator's office.
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Say this: I am a constituent. I am calling to ask the Senator to strip Section 219 and Section 1217 from the FY2027 NDAA in conference, and to demand a recorded vote. Americans deserve to know how their representatives stood on integrating our military with a foreign government's.
Calls to congressional offices are logged and counted. Five minutes is the difference.