Follow the Defense Bill From Markup to Signing, a Citizen's Guide

Congress cannot agree on much, but it has agreed on one thing every year for more than sixty years: a bill that says what the Defense Department may do and how. Through divided government, shutdown threats and bitter fights over everything else, the National Defense Authorization Act has been enacted year after year. That is a remarkable record, and it makes the bill the single most reliable vehicle for national security policy in the legislative calendar.

It also makes it a place where a citizen can have an effect. The bill is large and technical, and the people who write it are listening to experts, contractors and lobbyists all year. They also have mail from constituents. This guide explains how to follow the bill from the first markup to the president's desk, where public records are, who writes what, and where a citizen's voice reaches the room.

Authorization is not appropriation

Start with the distinction that confuses nearly everyone, including many people who write about Congress. Authorization is permission. It creates or continues programs, sets policy, and recommends funding levels. Appropriation is the money. It is the actual legal authority for the Treasury to pay out funds.

The Constitution draws the line. Article I, Section 9, Clause 7 states: "No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law." And Article I, Section 8, Clauses 12 and 13 give Congress the power "To raise and support Armies" and "To provide and maintain a Navy," with the proviso on armies that no appropriation of money for that use shall be "for a longer Term than two Years."

In practice, the armed services committees of each chamber write the authorization, and the appropriations committees write the money bill. The defense authorization sets policy: how many aircraft the Air Force may buy, what pay raise service members get, what the Pentagon must report to Congress, what restrictions apply to detainees or to the transfer of weapons. The defense appropriations bill funds it. Both have to pass, and the two sets of committees sometimes disagree. A program that is authorized but not funded does not exist, and one that is funded without authorization can be challenged, so a citizen who cares about a particular program needs to watch both bills.

The calendar

The federal fiscal year starts on October 1. The Defense Department's budget request, which the president sends to Congress in the early part of the year, is the starting point. A rough calendar of a typical year follows. It varies, and the dates in any given year are on the committees' websites.

1. Winter and spring: the request and the posture hearings. The administration releases its budget. The armed services committees hold hearings with the service secretaries, the chiefs of staff and the combatant commanders, called posture hearings, where members ask about threats and readiness. These are public and recorded, and you can watch them.
2. Late spring and early summer: the markups. Each armed services committee prepares a draft bill, which the chairman introduces, and holds a markup, a meeting at which members propose and vote on amendments. The House Armed Services Committee's markup is generally open and public. The Senate Armed Services Committee's markup is generally conducted in closed session, with the bill and a report published afterward.
3. Summer: the floor. The House takes up the bill under a rule from the Rules Committee, which decides which amendments will be allowed. The Senate's floor schedule is less predictable, because the Senate's own rules, including cloture, govern how much time and how many amendments are allowed, and the bill sometimes waits for months.
4. Autumn and winter: reconciling the two bills. The House and Senate pass different bills, and the differences have to be resolved. This is usually done in informal negotiations among the leaders of the armed services committees, followed by a single compromise text, and not always in a formal conference committee. The compromise goes to both chambers for a final vote.
5. Signing. The president signs or vetoes. The bill has been enacted every year, even when presidents have vetoed. President Trump vetoed the fiscal 2021 bill in December 2020, and Congress overrode the veto on January 1, 2021, a rare case in which the legislature overturned a veto of the defense bill.

Remember that the fiscal year begins in October and the bill usually becomes law in December, so the Pentagon often begins the year under a stopgap resolution. This is a lesson in how late the process runs, and a reason that a citizen's best leverage is earlier in the calendar.

Where to find everything

All of the bill's documents are free and public, and most are on Congress.gov, the Library of Congress's database of legislation.

Step 1. Find the bill

On Congress.gov, search for "National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year" and the year. The House and Senate each have a bill number, and later the compromise text carries one of those numbers, or a new one. The bill's page has tabs such as Text, Actions, Amendments, Committees, Related Bills and Cosponsors, and the committee reports are listed with the bill as well. The Actions tab is the bill's diary, with every step in order, which is the quickest way to tell where it is.

Step 2. Find the committee schedule and the markup

The House Armed Services Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee each post their hearing and markup schedules on their own websites, usually with live video. Read the chairman's mark, the draft text the committee uses as its starting point, which is posted before the markup. Watching a markup is the best education in how the bill is shaped, because you see which amendments pass, which fail and which members champion which causes.

Step 3. Read the committee report

When a committee reports a bill, it files a written report. The House report is numbered, for example H. Rept. followed by the Congress and a number, and the Senate report is similarly numbered. The report explains what the bill does section by section, and, importantly, it contains the committee's directions to the Pentagon, called report language, which does not have the force of law in the bill's text but which the department ignores at its peril. Most of the interesting detail is in the report. It tells you what the members are worried about.

When you read the report, look at four things. First, the funding tables, which show what the committee recommends for each program compared to the president's request. Second, the legislative provisions of interest, a section that flags the policy changes. Third, the directive report language, which tells the Pentagon what to brief or study. Fourth, any dissenting or additional views, which show where the committee split.

Step 4. Track the amendments

On Congress.gov, the Amendments tab lists amendments offered, with sponsors, and for the House floor it shows which were made in order by the Rules Committee. The Rules Committee's own website lists the amendments submitted and the rule that governs debate. In the Senate, amendments are filed and called up as the floor schedule allows. If a topic you care about, such as pay, procurement rules, military health care or the treatment of detainees, is in play, the amendment text will show exactly what language is being added or struck.

Reading the amendment is where a citizen's work is most valuable, because most press coverage is about the bill's total price and one or two controversial riders, while the amendments contain hundreds of small provisions that shape policy.

Step 5. Know the staff

Members vote, but staff do most of the work. Each armed services committee has a majority staff and a minority staff, led by a staff director, with professional staff members who specialize in subjects: personnel, readiness, seapower, airland, cyber, strategic forces. The committee's website lists its members and the staff contact information. Every member of the committee also has a legislative assistant or a military legislative assistant in his or her own office who handles defense issues.

If you want to be heard, write to or call the military legislative assistant in your own representative's or senator's office, even if the member is not on the committee, because the office may be able to carry your concern to a colleague who is. If your member is on the committee, say so in the first line of the letter, and address the specific provision by section number. The more precise you are, the more weight it carries.

Step 6. Write a message that gets read

A short letter that cites a bill number and section, states a position, and gives one reason is worth more than a form letter. Give the staffer what he needs: the section of the bill, what you want done, and a two-sentence reason, ideally grounded in something you know first-hand, such as your job in the defense industry or your time in service. State your name and address, so the office can confirm you are a constituent. Do not threaten, and do not write in anger, because staffers read a great deal of it.

Timing matters more than length. A message that arrives before the markup, when the text is still a draft, can change the text. A message that arrives after the bill is on the floor is mostly a tally mark. A message that arrives during the compromise negotiations can matter only if the provision is in dispute, and in that case the staff of the committee leaders are the ones who decide.

Step 7. Follow the compromise

When the two chambers have each passed a bill, the final text is negotiated. Watch the Actions tab for a notation that the House has disagreed to the Senate amendment or that a compromise is being prepared. When a final text is released, it is accompanied by an explanatory statement that serves as a guide to what was kept and what was dropped. The text is posted on Congress.gov and on the committees' sites. At this stage, nothing can be added, so the work is to read what came out and tell your representative what you think of it.

Step 8. Watch the signing

After both chambers pass the same text, the bill goes to the president. Article I, Section 7 gives the president ten days, not counting Sundays, to sign or return it with objections, and the signing is recorded in the Actions tab with the public law number. If a president vetoes, Congress may override by a two-thirds vote in each chamber. Look for the bill's final status on Congress.gov, and read the president's signing statement if there is one, because it may say how the administration intends to interpret provisions it dislikes. That is an executive habit worth watching, and a subject for Commander in Chief Means Less Than Presidents Claim and More Than Critics Say.

Why this matters to the taxpayer

I make the following argument to anyone who thinks the defense bill is not their business.

One. The bill is the principal means by which the people's representatives control the military. The Founders gave Congress the power to raise and support armies and to make rules for their government because they did not trust any single person with that power. The annual authorization is the modern form of that control.

Two. The bill carries real money. For an idea of the scale and where the money has gone over the decades, see Defense Spending as a Share of the Economy, From Korea to the 2010s. The Pentagon's own books have never passed a full audit, as The Pentagon Has Never Passed an Audit, and Conservatives Should Mind explains, and an engaged public is the best audit committee that the Pentagon has.

Three. The bill is a vehicle for policy, and it often decides questions that never get their own vote: war powers language, detainee policy, the rules for procurement, the structure of the military, and in some years provisions with nothing to do with defense. If you do not read the bill, someone will use it to carry something you would have opposed.

Four. The process rewards the prepared. Members hear from a handful of constituents on most issues. A citizen who writes a clear letter, at the right time, to the right staffer, is in a small group.

Five. Oversight is not a spectator sport. The Constitution makes the people sovereign, and they exercise that sovereignty through representatives who can be told what to do. See the oversight page for how Congress watches the executive branch, and How Congress Ended a War with the Purse, the Case-Church Story of 1973 for what a determined Congress can do with the power of the purse.

A note on the best objection

Some will say that defense policy is a matter for experts, and that the public should leave it to the professionals. The point deserves a fair answer. Defense is technical, and a citizen will not have the knowledge of a staff member who has worked on a subject for twenty years. But the point proves too much. The professionals work for the public, and the public sets the ends while the experts supply the means. The Founders did not say that war and the military should be left to soldiers. They said, in the Constitution, that civilians control them. A citizen need not know the specifications of a ship. A citizen can ask whether the nation needs more ships, how the money will be spent, and who will check.

The case in brief

1. Authorization sets policy and permits programs, appropriation provides the money, and the Constitution's Article I, Sections 8 and 9, separate and join them.
2. The defense authorization has been enacted every year for more than sixty years, which makes it the most reliable path for defense policy and a good place for a citizen to be heard.
3. The calendar runs from the budget request and hearings, through committee markups, floor votes and the compromise, to the president's signature, and Congress.gov carries the bill, report, amendments and actions.
4. The best moment for a citizen's letter is before the markup, directed to the committee staff or the military legislative assistant, and citing a section number.
5. Civilian oversight of the military is the Constitution's design, and following the bill is how an ordinary citizen takes part in it.

What you can do: Go to Congress.gov, find the current National Defense Authorization Act, read the summary of the committee report, and email the military legislative assistant in your own member's office about one specific section.