Congress Begins Consideration of Defense Construction Bill

By JOHN CHAMBERS

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Defense Authorization Act of 2027, providing billions in military construction projects, heads to the full chambers for debate and amendment consideration.

On June 5, the House Armed Services Committee passed the National Defense Authorization Act of 2027 (NDAA 2027) out of committee by a vote of 44 to 12. On June 10, 2026, the Senate Armed Services Committee passed the Senate version of the bill by a vote of 18-9.

The NDAA is one of the few bills Congress must pass every year and funds the United States military and Dept. of War construction projects for the upcoming fiscal year.

AGC is engaged in the NDAA process in both the House and Senate and takes any attempt to add harmful construction policy to the bill very seriously. Both versions of the bill include key provisions that benefit the construction industry. These key provisions include:

• Ensuring Best Value in Procurement – Limits the use of Lowest Price Technically Acceptable Source Selection to situations where paying more would provide limited benefits (House Section 801).
• Progress Payment Protections –Restricts the suspension of a progress payment to a contractor without substantial evidence to justify the suspension or payment reduction (House Section 803).
• Amendment to Other Transaction Authorities – Outlines the authorities to enter an OTA and calls for responsible parties to assess demonstrated performance, speed of delivery and the alignment of capabilities on Dept. of War Projects (House Section 813).
• Skills-Based Hiring – Prohibits the Dept. of War from stipulating minimum education requirements for contractor personnel in solicitations. Also requires the Secretary of War to consider encouraging the use of alternatives to educational requirements, such as skills, experience, certifications, apprenticeships and abilities (House Section 1851).
• Application of the Bona Fide Place of Business to Certain Contracts – Permits 8(a) small businesses to satisfy a place-of-business requirement by certifying the companies will establish a staffed physical office within 60 days of the award (Senate Section 864).
• Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Assessment Grants for Small Businesses and New Entrants – Requires the Dept. of War to create a grant program by July 1, 2027 to assist small businesses and nontraditional defense contractors to pay for third-party CMMC assessments (Senate Section 1626).
• Harmonization of Department of Defense Security Boundaries to Enable Reciprocity – Standardizes security boundaries across the Dept. of War to maximize the reduce duplicative security assessments (Senate section 1627).

After the full House and Senate vote on the bills, members of both chambers will enter a Conference Committee to finalize the differences between both bills. After a final version is released, it will go back to the House and Senate for final passage before being sent to the President’s desk.

The AGC of America hopes to see the above measures included within the final version of the bill and AGC will continue to advocate for contractor priorities in future versions of the bill to ensure there are no attempts to add harmful construction policy.