House Moves National Defense Administration Act Forward

The House of Representatives is considering the FY 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, which is required to fund Pentagon activities. Three amendments of interest to higher education were introduced for consideration by the House Committee on Rules: 

• Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) introduced an amendment to limit the Secretary of Defense’s authority to deny attendance by or educational assistance to service members enrolled at certain universities and eligible institutions of higher education. This amendment is in response to the Department of Defense’s notice that it would cease its academic relationship with Harvard University effective this fall, and that it proposed to end tuition assistance for active-duty servicemembers in graduate programs at more than 30 private, nonprofit universities. 

• Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI) introduced an amendment to prohibit the use of federal research funds to conduct research with individuals or entities appearing on U.S. government restricted lists. The amendment, which mirrors Moolenaar’s standalone legislation the Securing Innovation and Research from Adversaries (SIRA) Act, establishes government-wide implementation guidelines to check foreign adversary involvements in any research-related activities, including joint projects, co-authorship, shared labs, and data sharing. 
  

• Rep. Baumgartner (R-WA) and Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and others introduced a bipartisan amendment to include in the NDAA the DETERRENT Act, which would expand college and university foreign gift reporting under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act. 

The Senate Armed Services Committee has written and filed its version of the NDAA for FY 2027 but has not scheduled a floor vote. These issues of interest to higher education are expected to be negotiated during a House-Senate conference committee later this summer. 

For more information, please contact:
Stephanie Giesecke