Watson Coleman Votes to Reject Partisan National Defense Authorization Act

Watson Coleman Votes to Reject Partisan National Defense Authorization Act

Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), a member of the House Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement after voting against the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027:

Today I voted against a defense authorization bill that once again puts partisan politics ahead of our national security.

During full committee markup, Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee were able to secure certain provisions to the bill that would improve pay, housing, childcare, and healthcare for our servicemembers and their families. And while those investments are important, they do not come close to outweighing a bill that authorizes more than $1.15 trillion in national security spending for a Department of Defense that has never passed an audit.

Republicans have also decided taxpayers should also foot the $125 million bill for renaming the Department of Defense. Spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a political stunt while claiming we can't afford to meet people's most basic needs tells you everything you need to know about their priorities.

Between the continued waste of taxpayer dollars and tying this bill to the voter-suppressing SAVE Act - our national defense is once again being held hostage by an unrelated political agenda.

If Congressional Republicans actually cared about strengthening our national defense, they would have stood up to Trump, his war of choice in Iran, and his various vanity projects instead of writing another blank check to a department that has yet to account for the taxpayer dollars it already receives.