Senate eyes NDAA passage next week amid aviation safety worries

John M. Donnelly, CQ-Roll Call on Dec 12, 2025

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WASHINGTON — Senate leaders plan for the chamber to vote next week to clear the bicameral compromise National Defense Authorization Act for President Donald Trump’s signature.

As the fiscal 2026 bill edges closer to enactment, one of the few last-minute controversies shadowing it concerns whether the measure goes far enough to restrict military aircraft operations in close proximity to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

The Senate on Thursday voted 75-22 to take one procedural step closer to voting on the measure — agreeing to proceed to the legislation — which would authorize $900.6 billion for defense programs, mostly at the Pentagon.

The chamber still plans to cast another procedural vote — set for Monday evening — and is expected to vote to clear the NDAA soon thereafter next week.

The House passed the bill Wednesday by a vote of 312-112.

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, said the Senate will “definitely” vote next week to clear the bill, and he predicted the margin would not be narrow.

“I think we’re going to get, like the House did, strong bipartisan support,” Reed said in a brief interview. “It’s never perfect, but this provides essential resources for the Department of Defense.”

Reagan airport

Before that final vote happens, a bipartisan group of senior senators is doing its utmost to focus the Senate on their concerns about an NDAA provision regarding safety at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

The language at issue is a response to the collision nearly a year ago near Reagan airport between a passenger jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter that resulted in 67 deaths.

The provision would require military training aircraft, but not other military flights, to signal their location to air traffic controllers — unless that requirement is waived.

A service secretary, in coordination with the Transportation Department secretary, could waive the mandate for proximity signaling by training aircraft if those officials determine that the waiver is in the U.S. national security interest and that a particular kind of risk assessment has been conducted.

Jennifer Homendy, head of the National Transportation Safety Board, has said the NDAA language on airport safety is inadequate.

Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. — the chairman and ranking member of the Commerce Committee, respectively — filed an amendment to the bill to strike the Reagan airport provision and to replace it with what they say are the more rigorous requirements found in a bipartisan bill on the issue sponsored by Cruz.

Cruz and Cantwell are joined in their opposition to the NDAA’s airport provision by Sens. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., and Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who are the chair and ranking member of the Commerce subcommittee on aviation, respectively.

All four of those senators voted against the procedural motion on Thursday.

Just after that vote, Moran took to the floor to say the Reagan airport provision “does not adequately address” the airport safety issue and “misses the mark.”

Moran — who is also a member of the Appropriations Committee and its Defense panel — said he would insist on modifying the NDAA accordingly.

But, implicitly acknowledging the unlikelihood of that happening at this late stage in the must-pass bill’s progress, Moran said he might try to attach it to an appropriations measure.

Congress is drawing closer to the Jan. 30 expiration date for a continuing resolution funding most of the federal government at fiscal 2025 levels. Lawmakers will soon have to clear either another CR by then or finish work on the remaining fiscal 2026 funding bills if they want to avoid another partial government shutdown.

Cantwell also spoke out against the NDAA airport provision on the Senate floor Thursday afternoon.

Reed, for his part, said the measure has adequate protections for flights at Reagan airport.

“There’s language in the bill that essentially requires DOD helicopters operating to have their recognition signified, unless there’s an exception, which has to be approved by the Department of Transportation as well as the Department of Defense,” Reed said. “So this bill went a long way to satisfy the concerns of transiting that corridor.”

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CQ-Roll Call reporter Valerie Yurk contributed to this story.

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