The fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act became law on December 18, 2025, when it was signed as Public Law 119-60, authorizing approximately $900 billion in defense funding, according to the congressional record of the bill's enactment. The House passed the bill on December 11, 2025 after both chambers' armed services committees negotiated a compromise text. For the Navy, the act authorized roughly $26 billion in shipbuilding funding, including procurement of a third Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine in the fiscal year plus advanced procurement for the class, alongside acquisition reform and industrial-base workforce provisions.
What did the act authorize for Navy shipbuilding?
The shipbuilding title carried about $26 billion, with the Columbia-class line as its largest single element: funding for the third boat of the class in the fiscal year and advanced procurement to sustain the two-per-year build cadence at Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding, according to summaries of the enacted text. The remainder spread across surface combatants, amphibious ships, and support vessels, and authorized construction and support for numerous other vessels across the Navy and Naval Vessel Register. The authorization act sets policy and authorizes money; actual outlays follow the separate defense appropriations bill.
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What workforce provisions affect the shipyards?
The act expanded direct-hire authority for domestic defense industrial base facilities, extending it to the U.S. Navy Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion and Repair, according to legal summaries of the enacted law published in December 2025. The provision targets the persistent hiring shortfalls that have slowed submarine and surface ship availabilities at public and private yards. Supervisors of Shipbuilding are the Navy's on-site oversight presence at private yards, and hiring authority for that workforce had been a recurring request in Navy posture testimony. The act's broader industrial-base sections also addressed supply-chain resiliency measures that apply to Navy contractors.
How did the bill move through Congress?
The FY2026 cycle followed the compressed calendar typical of recent years: the Senate and House armed services committees marked up their versions in mid-2025, the House passed its bill in the summer, and the chambers reconciled differences in a conference agreement that reached the House floor on December 11, 2025. Signing on December 18, 2025 came nearly three months into the fiscal year it funds, continuing the pattern of late authorization acts in recent years. The corresponding defense appropriations bill moved on a separate track.
What comes next for the authorized programs
With authorization complete, funding flows depend on the appropriations process, and Navy program offices proceed to contract award under the authorized ceilings. The third Columbia-class boat's construction contract timing remains with the Navy's acquisition office, and the direct-hire authority took effect on enactment, with the Supervisor of Shipbuilding workforce expected to use it during fiscal 2026 hiring cycles.