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Last Updated on June 26, 2026.

This year’s Pentagon budget debate is a test of whether Congress will rubber-stamp that agenda or fight for a budget that actually reflects people’s needs.

Trump is demanding that Congress approve an unprecedented Pentagon budget increase, burdening families with drastic cuts to healthcare, food assistance, housing, education, childcare, environmental protection, and other programs that they rely on.

To do it, Trump administration officials and their congressional backers are trying to make a $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget look inevitable. It’s a shell game: a massive “base” defense budget request of $1.15 trillion, an additional $350 billion in military funding through reconciliation, and the possibility of a multi-billion-dollar Iran war supplemental funding request down the line.

What actually makes people safe?

Real security requires more than spending on weapons and war. It means investing in diplomacy to prevent wars before they start, keeping families fed, making sure hospitals stay open, protecting children from pollution, preparing communities for disasters and supporting their recovery in the aftermath, expanding access to housing,  improving education, and more.

Every dollar Congress adds to the Pentagon budget is a dollar that cannot be used to protect Medicaid, SNAP, housing, childcare, public health, disaster resilience, clean air and water, or diplomacy.

Congress should ask a simple question: What actually makes people safe?

Where and when the fight is happening

Pentagon budget debates unfold across several pieces of legislation:

• The National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA
  • Authorizes Pentagon programs and policy
  • Timeline: considered June and July in the House and Senate
• Defense appropriations
  • Provides actual funding to the Pentagon
  • Timeline: considered June and July in the House and Senate
• Budget reconciliation
  • Republicans may try to move hundreds of billions of dollars in additional defense spending through a fast-track and partisan “budget reconciliation” process
  • Timeline: before the midterm elections
• Supplemental appropriations, which can be used to add even more money outside the regular budget process
  • A standalone appropriations bill to direct $67 billion more to Trump’s illegal Iran war
  • Timeline: released June 24, 2026

If past years are any indication, the votes on bicameral versions of these bills may come to a head as the government approaches funding deadlines – September 30th, the end of the fiscal year, being the first, with subsequent deadlines governed by the length of any continuing resolutions.

At every stage, from committee markup to floor consideration to conference negotiations, lawmakers should be pressed to reject Trump’s  $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget plan.

Why these fights matter

Whether it’s the NDAA, the defense appropriations bill, or supplemental war funding. Every vote is a major test of whether members of Congress will prioritize the people: challenge Trump’s astronomical Pentagon budget increase, or concede it as politically inevitable.

By voting for bills and amendments that restrain this Pentagon plus-up, and voting down efforts to maintain this unjustifiable spending trajectory, lawmakers can send their constituents a different message: they will not approve more money for weapons and war at the expense of our basic needs.

Building a coalition capable of challenging the Pentagon budget will require leadership from across the political spectrum.

Longtime progressive voices such as Representatives Mark Pocan and Ilhan Omar and Senators Bernie Sanders, Ed Markey, and Elizabeth Warren are leading the charge. They’re joined by veterans who understand the human and financial costs of war, including Reps. Jason Crow, and Seth Moulton and Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Mark Kelly.

Fiscal conservatives concerned about wasteful government spending, including Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Thomas Massie, have likewise challenged unchecked military spending and demanded greater accountability.

Congressional leadership and key committee leaders will also play a critical role. Ranking members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith and Sen. Jack Reed, as well as House and Senate Democratic appropriations leads Rep. Rosa DeLauro, and Sen. Patty Murray have significant influence over whether Congress accepts the administration’s Pentagon budget request or pushes for a different approach.

Key NDAA amendments to watch

1. Pentagon topline cuts

Congress must support amendments that reduce the Pentagon topline and outright reject the administration’s astronomical base request as the starting point for negotiations.

The Trump administration should not be rewarded for making defense spending harder to track through reconciliation, supplementals, transfers, and other budget maneuvers. Congress should insist on transparency, specificity, and real tradeoffs.

2. Accountability for Trump’s illegal wars

Congress must move to defund Trump’s unconstitutional war on Iran, end his campaign of extrajudicial killings in Latin America, and preempt any military operations against Cuba, Greenland, or other countries.

An uneasy truce with the Iranian government can not become a permission structure for more Pentagon funding. If the Trump administration wants credit for ending a disastrous war, it must also accept the consequences of starting one.

3. Contractor accountability and waste

The Pentagon has never passed a clean audit. Congress must not reward that failure with more money and fewer questions.

If the Pentagon budget is too opaque to oversee, it is too opaque to increase. Lawmakers should support amendments that address contractor overcharging, cost growth, stock buybacks,  revolving-door conflicts, failed audits, and programs that continue receiving funding despite poor performance.

4. Human needs versus Pentagon greed

The Pentagon budget negotiations are not happening in a vacuum. Debates over weapons and war spending are moving alongside efforts to cut or squeeze programs that families rely on every day. Take H.R. 1, Trump’s first reconciliation bill, which was enacted last summer:

•  It cut roughly $1.3 trillion from Medicaid, Affordable Care Act marketplace assistance, and SNAP over the next decade, while adding new Medicare-related restrictions. 
• Medicaid work requirements alone are expected to leave millions more people uninsured— almost 8 million by 2034; the expiration of enhanced ACA premium tax credits is raising costs and pushing people out of marketplace coverage;
•  and SNAP changes are expected to cut or significantly reduce food assistance for roughly 4 million people in a typical month once fully implemented, while lowering average benefits over time across a program that serves 16 million children, 8 million seniors, and 4 million non-elderly adults with disabilities.

Lawmakers should be forced to defend any tradeoffs they make in our names. Why is there always more money for weapons and war, but not enough for healthcare, food assistance, housing, childcare, clean water, climate resilience, or diplomacy?

Take Action

Congress needs to hear from you: not another dime for weapons and war. 

Add your name to the growing chorus of voices. 

 

June 26, 2026