Washington, D.C.- Representative Gregory W. Meeks, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued a statement following the signing of the FY26 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law:

"This NDAA package includes several priorities I have spent years working to enact, including the historic repeal of the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF). I was honored to carry forward the work of former Representative Barbara Lee, whose leadership made this long overdue repeal possible. For too long, presidents of both parties have misused AUMFs to justify unrelated military actions. The repeal of the 2002 AUMF removes a dangerous blank check and helps ensure no president can drag us into reckless foreign wars the American people do not want, and which Congress has not authorized.

"This bill also includes my legislation, the Haiti Criminal Collusion Transparency Act, which targets the flow of illegal arms fueling Haiti's crisis and holds accountable those elites enabling it. It also restores the State Department's Office of Haitian Affairs, a bipartisan rebuke of Secretary Rubio's rushed and illegal reorganization. And the NDAA preserves the Rangel, Payne, Pickering, and Veterans Innovation fellowships, sustaining bipartisan commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion at the State Department.

"While the reauthorization of the Development Finance Corporation was not finalized on a fully bipartisan basis, I was able to secure essential guardrails to protect its core mission and safeguard taxpayer dollars. While I support what good provisions there are in the final package, it is in the interest of the American people for the NDAA to remain a bipartisan process."