After Senate Passes NDAA, IFPTE Turns Attention to NDAA Conference to Restore Bargaining Rights for DOD Workers

Late on Thursday night, the Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026. The defense policy and authorization bill legislation reaffirms Congress’s bipartisan support for strengthening America’s defense capabilities and supporting the civilian and uniformed workforce that sustain it.

The Senate NDAA supports our nation’s public shipyards, authorizes additional investments to build out our nation’s Naval strength, continues Congress’s commitment to funding the maritime industrial based. IFPTE also applauds the inclusion of Section 1108 which ensures that Navy shipyard capabilities are not diminished through any reductions in the workforce. The legislation includes key provisions to support federal civilian employees and the Department of Defense workforce. Among them are a one-year extension of the authority to waive annual limitations on premium and aggregate pay for certain federal employees (Section 1102) and a one-year extension of temporary authority to grant allowances, benefits, and gratuities to civilian personnel on official duty in combat zones (Section 1103).

The Senate bill also supports continued development of the E-7 advanced airborne early warning and control aircraft and supports maintaining close air support and other key military aviation capabilities.  

While the Senate-passed NDAA does not have the language that is included in the House-passed NDAA to prevent DOD from implementing the union busting March 27 executive order, IFPTE is working to make sure the upcoming conference committee — which will be convened to negotiate the differences in the House and Senate versions of the NDAA — supports the inclusion of the House language in the final NDAA bill.

For more information on the House NDAA provision supporting collective bargaining rights at DOD, see IFPTE’s news item from September.