The NDAA imposes an automatic authorization for military personnel to carry firearms on military bases

The House voted 215-214 Tuesday night to make authorization automatic when eligible service members and Pentagon employees apply for a permit to carry personal firearms on military deployments.

Three Democrats joined most Republicans to approve the measure, while three Republicans and Rep. Rep. Kevin Kiley of California opposed it.

Amendment by Rep. Rep. Jeff Crank, R-Colo., would not automatically authorize personnel to carry firearms on military premises. It can establish a presumption that installation managers approve applications from qualified service members and civilian employees.

The vote comes less than a year after an Army sergeant allegedly used his rifle to shoot five soldiers at Fort Stewart, Georgia, in August 2025. Other soldiers attacked him and disarmed him, and all five victims survived. Civilian firearms were not allowed on duty at the time, military officials said.

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The National Defense Authorization Act has become law every year for more than six decades and is traditionally one of the biggest bills of Congress, but the gun provisions and the transgender policy adopted on Tuesday threaten to end the support of the Democratic Alliance, which may force the Republican leaders to rely on their narrow majority to pass in the end and create new sticking points in the final negotiations with the Senate.

Lawmakers approved an amendment from Rep. Nancy Mace, RS.C., which prevents TRICARE from covering hormone-related changes, menopause and surgeries for service members and military dependents.

The provision passed 219-208, with five Democrats voting yes and one Republican voting no. It would expand the Trump administration’s existing restrictions and write the ban into federal law.

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The House also voted 221-203 to approve Mace’s second amendment barring transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports at Department of Defense schools serving military families.

But lawmakers rejected a separate amendment by Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., who would have included President Donald Trump’s 2025 executive order barring transgender soldiers from military service and requiring personnel to work according to their natural gender.

The amendment failed 217-212, with four Republicans joining all Democrats in opposition.

Lawmakers also rejected an attempt by Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., to dramatically end funding for the Pentagon’s Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. The amendment would have allowed security funding only for the US Embassy in Kyiv.

Seventy-six Republicans supported the proposal, highlighting ongoing opposition within the GOP caucus over military aid to Ukraine.

The House rejected another proposal that would have barred foreigners from attending U.S. military educational institutions by a vote of 360-61. The amendment would have ended programs that have trained officers from allied and allied nations at institutions including West Point, the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy.

Among other amendments, lawmakers voted to end a proposed screening program that would have used voice-based risk assessment technology to identify service members for drug testing.

Members of the Texas National Guard gathered in Elwood, Illinois, at the Army Reserve Training Center on the southwest side of Chicago, on Oct. 7. 2025. (Getty Images)

The House also partially approved language aimed at ensuring the continued operation of California’s Santa Ynez Pipeline System, which transports crude oil to refineries that supply military equipment. That estimate passed 215-214.

The votes came as lawmakers began work on amending the fiscal year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act. The House made 320 amendments worth considering, eight more than were included in the process package that collapsed last month amid a Republican backlash over the SAVE America Act.

Debate on the amendment is expected to resume on Wednesday, with a final vote on passage after lawmakers finish considering the remaining proposals.

The basic bill would authorize about $1.15 trillion for national defense, about $252 billion more than Congress appropriated for defense programs in fiscal year 2026. He will provide a 5% to 7% pay raise for service members, increase production of weapons and armor and accelerate investment in missile defense, autonomous systems, hypersonics and other emerging technologies.

The NDAA sets defense policy and mandates spending levels, but does not provide funding itself. Congress must separately pass defense appropriations legislation to fund the programs and priorities included in the bill.

The legislation would also formally change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of the Army, taking references to the secretary of defense and the department in federal law to mean the secretary and the Department of the Army.

Consideration of the legislation has been delayed for three weeks by a separate Republican battle over the SAVE America Act, Trump’s election law that requires written proof of citizenship to register to vote and ID to vote in federal elections.

The House approved the SAVE America Act in February by a vote of 218-213, but the measure stalled in the Senate, where Republicans lacked the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.

Republican leaders first sought to renew the election law by ordering the House clerk to combine it with the NDAA after the defense bill was passed but before the combined package was sent to the Senate. That approach would pass the two measures as one bill without making the SAVE America Act part of the NDAA text that is being debated on the floor.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks to the House of Representatives at the US Capitol after winning the speakership on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

But a procedural bill authorizing that plan failed 198-224 on June 30, with 13 Republicans joining Democrats in opposition. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., also voted against the legislation on procedural grounds.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., argued that attaching the election measure to the process would make it easier for the Senate to remove it and demanded that lawmakers include it directly in the NDAA.

Luna later accepted the first approach after Speaker Mike Johnson committed to attaching the SAVE America Act to the appropriations bill and other laws that must be passed.

The House approved a replacement bill on Tuesday that also directed the clerk to combine the election law with the NDAA before sending it to the Senate while expanding the number of defense amendments eligible for consideration from 312 to 320.

The SAVE America Act was still expected to face opposition in the Senate and could be removed when lawmakers reconcile House and Senate versions of the defense bill.

The Senate’s NDAA has faced its own problems. Senate Democrats blocked consideration of their chamber’s defense bill last week in opposition to the Trump administration’s war on Iran, leaving both chambers with work to do before they can negotiate a final package.

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The debate comes as the Pentagon seeks more money to end the war on Iran and replenish its arsenal. The White House has requested an additional $87.6 billion package, including $67.1 billion for defense needs.

House Republicans are also considering a new reconciliation package that would provide $60 billion for the Armed Services Committee and $13 billion for intelligence programs. Reconciliation would allow the package to bypass a Senate filibuster and pass without Democratic support, but the proposal still faces resistance from GOP finance hawks and an uncertain path through Congress.