Opening Statements

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Representative Mike Rogers (R-AL), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, delivered the following remarks on the full committee markup of the FY26 NDAA. 

Chairman Rogers' opening statement as prepared for delivery:

This year’s NDAA focuses on reforming our broken acquisition system.
 
While our adversaries collaborate on the development and deployment of innovative new capabilities, we are facing challenges.
 
Our defense industrial base has atrophied significantly, making it harder for us to sustain prolonged conflicts.
 
The current system is simply not meeting the needs of our warfighters.
 
The bipartisan SPEED Act that the Ranking Member and I introduced will fundamentally reform defense acquisition.
 
It streamlines the process and significantly reduces the time it takes to field new military capabilities.
 
Reforming our acquisition system and investing in enhanced capabilities is critical to deterring our adversaries.
 
This bill is the product of hundreds of hours of oversight done by all members and staff over the past few months.
 
It is a strong bill that will help reform the acquisition system, revitalize the defense industrial base, and build the ready, capable, and lethal fighting force we need to deter China and our other adversaries.
 
I want to commend Ranking Member Smith and the staff for continuing our tradition of putting this bill together in a strong bipartisan manner.
 
I also want to thank all the members for their input and assistance. 
 
There are more than 700 amendments for us to work through today.
 
I urge all members to work together to get us through this process in a timely manner.
 
There will be disagreements.
 
But we all have the same goal - to support the men and women who serve our nation.
 
If we can keep that goal in mind, I am very optimistic that the bill we report today will enjoy strong bipartisan support.