Republicans aim to funnel billions of dollars into some of the Air Force’s top-priority programs as part of a divisive bill the GOP may be able to enact without Democratic support.
The sweeping tax and spending package narrowly passed the House, 215-214, in a nearly party-line vote early May 22. The legislation now heads to the Senate, where the Republican-led chamber has vowed to revise it.
Defense provisions tucked into the bill look to fast-track President Donald Trump’s signature “Golden Dome” missile defense initiative, boost military aircraft production and further subsidize military housing, among other projects.
The legislation, which offers the Pentagon almost $150 billion over the next decade, comes as the U.S. warns it is lagging behind Russia and China in designing cutting-edge military technologies like hypersonic missiles.
“After years of chronic underinvestment, our defense industrial base and military capacity have dangerously atrophied to the point where we may no longer be able to sustain a prolonged conflict,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said in a May 22 statement. “The One Big, Beautiful Bill provides long overdue resources to modernize our military, revitalize the defense industrial base, and improve the quality of life for our service members.”
The bill offers $3.2 billion to increase production of the Air Force’s F-15EX fighter, a fleet the service has sought to pare back amid budget constraints, and $4.5 billion to accelerate the new B-21 Raider bomber. It also provides $678 million to speed the effort to field Collaborative Combat Aircraft drones for Air Force fighters and $400 million for the F-47 program, which is expected to create the Air Force’s most advanced fighter yet.
Lawmakers want to put money toward blocking the retirement of some F-22 and F-15E fighters, which the Air Force has argued are growing too old to succeed in future wars, and to build more C-130J cargo planes, EA-37B electronic attack jets, and MH-139 patrol helicopters. The Air Force may also receive $1.5 billion to continue designing Sentinel, a new ground-based nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile, and $2.1 billion for “readiness packages to keep Air Force aircraft mission capable,” the bill said.
Another $4.3 billion would go toward classified military space programs, plus $15.2 billion to develop new missile defenses from space. It’s unclear which pieces of the legislation are part of a $25 billion initial investment the White House has sought for its Golden Dome plan, which heavily relies on sensors and interceptors in space to shield the U.S. from a host of airborne threats.
Other provisions would allow the Pentagon to pay military housing landlords more money to build more homes, and to offer a larger housing stipend to troops living in the barracks or dormitories. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that letting the Defense Department pay for up to 60 percent of a new privatized housing project would lead to one extra construction project per year, at a cost of $500 million for each. The package doesn’t specify how much troops could see their Basic Allowance for Housing rise.
The bill also boosts spending on shipbuilding, efforts to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, cybersecurity, and more.
The 1,118-page bill, formally known as a budget reconciliation package, allows Republicans to pursue key pieces of the party’s agenda without any Democratic votes. Reconciliation bills can skirt a filibuster in the Senate by requiring only a simple majority of 51 votes to pass, rather than 60. Republicans currently hold 53 seats in the Senate.
In a Truth Social post on Thursday, Trump applauded the House for clearing the bill and urged the Senate to approve it as quickly as possible. Multiple Republican senators have pushed back on the package’s cuts to Medicaid and other provisions, as well as the prospect of adding nearly $4 trillion to the U.S. deficit.
The bill would provide almost $2 billion for defense in 2025 before ramping up to $40.3 billion in 2026, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Defense spending under the reconciliation bill would peak in 2027 at $42 billion.
It’s unclear how it might affect the Trump administration’s full 2026 budget request that is still in the works.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) has criticized the administration’s $893 billion topline for defense spending next year, warning the White House not to rely on the reconciliation bill to power its priorities instead of asking for an adequate annual budget. The federal government is operating under a stopgap spending bill in the absence of fresh funding for 2025, and the administration has not yet released details of what it wants in 2026.
“The Big, Beautiful Reconciliation Bill was always meant to change fundamentally the direction of the Pentagon on programs like Golden Dome, border support, and unmanned capabilities—not to paper over [the Office of Management and Budget’s] intent to shred to the bone our military capabilities and our support to service members,” Wicker said in a statement earlier this month.
Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate panel, has aired concerns that the Pentagon will view the money as a “slush fund” without more specific directions on how to spend it.
But those loose rules create “transformational” opportunities for the Pentagon, argued John Ferrari, a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. The bill allows for flexibility in funding ideas rather than particular programs alone, like offering $1.1 billion to expand the industrial base for small drones.
“This is a triumph and should defeat the notorious valley-of-death funding while also getting rid of the traditional ‘mother-may-I’ approach to acquisition, where every time a program moved to a different step in its maturation, a different ‘color of money’ was needed from Congress,” he said in a May 8 blog post.
The bill also allows the military to sidestep asking Congress for permission to launch a new program using that money, Ferrari said. Most of the funding would also remain available even if lawmakers fail to pass an annual budget.
Ferrari also echoed Wicker’s concern that the reconciliation bill may prompt lower defense spending overall.
“While Congress is boldly moving our defense establishment into the future, the administration may have decided to slow down,” he said. “The administration has time to correct this oversight and if it does not, then the Congress can correct it as part of the 2026 appropriation process.”
Senators will now hash out their own version of the package before sending it back to the House for approval or working with the House on further changes. POLITICO reported May 22 that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) wants to move the bill through the chamber by July 4.