Rounds Highlights South Dakota Projects in Final Defense Authorization Bill

MITCHELL, SD (Mitchell Now) – U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, released the following statement on the Senate’s passage of the final National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026. This is the 11th NDAA that Rounds has helped author as a member of SASC and the 65th consecutive NDAA passed by the full Senate.

“The NDAA is an important piece of legislation passed annually to authorize funding for national security programs, as well as support for our servicemembers and their families,” said Rounds. “This year’s NDAA authorizes funding for construction projects at Ellsworth Air Force Base and funding for a facility for the Watertown Army National Guard. It also authorizes a 3.8 percent pay raise for troops and has a total topline of $900.6 billion in defense spending. This keeps our military ahead of the curve, making certain they never enter a fair fight and always have the advantage over our adversaries.

“The NDAA is a great example of what we can accomplish when we work together. I’m grateful to have worked on this legislation from beginning to end for the 11th year in a row. I look forward to President Trump signing the NDAA into law.”

In March, Rounds was named as the 6th most effective member of the United States Senate on defense and national security issues for the 118th Congress. Read a list of his provisions in this year’s NDAA below.

Rounds’ South Dakota Victories:

• Fully authorizes the B-21 Raider program, including over $2.59 billion for procurement and $862 million in advanced procurement.
• Authorizes $378 million in military construction projects to support the B-21 Raider housed at Ellsworth.
  • $63 million for B-21 Flight Simulator 2.
  • $71 million for B-21 Alert Facility.
  • $75 million for B-21 Environmental Protection Shelters.
  • $88 million for B-21 South Environmental Protection Shelters.
  • $81 million for B-21 West Alert Apron & Environmental Protection Shelters.
• Authorizes $28 million for Watertown Army National Guard Vehicle Maintenance Shop.
• Requires the Department of Defense (DOD) to find ways to partner with communities, universities, and industry to establish Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities (SCIF). This has been a major priority for many South Dakota universities and defense companies seeking to establish or deepen their relationship with DOD.
• Updates the State Partnership Program so that the number of states a partner has is factored into decision-making for additional, new partners. This will directly benefit the South Dakota National Guard.
• Modifies the Defense Community Infrastructure Program in order to make South Dakota schools more competitive in receiving grants.
• Requires the DOD to give military families clear, timely information about relocation resources when they receive orders to relocate.

Rounds’ Major National Defense Victories:

• Authorizes $10 million for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing for hypersonic weapons.
• Authorizes $5 million for Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory.
• Requires Cyber Command to develop a roadmap and brief Congress on their industry collaboration for developing A.I.-enabled cyber capabilities. The roadmap will include: new collaborative R&D opportunities with industry, strategies for industry engagement, how to implement objectives and milestones, how to transition technology from development to operation, infrastructure requirements and assessment of organizational structures.
• Creates an Artificial Intelligence Futures Steering Committee. This establishes an Artificial General Intelligence Steering Committee in the DOD to analyze AI trajectories and develop DOD adoption strategies with Deputy Secretary of Defense and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as co-chairs.
• Protects the dual-hat leadership arrangement between U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency.
• Provides authority to the Department of Defense and military to conduct military operations in defense of critical infrastructure.
• Requires a bomber aircraft force structure and transition roadmap, to include training packages and other measures, to make sure our bomber crews are as well-trained and equipped as possible.
• As part of the major acquisition reforms, enables the military to acquire technology-supported consumption-based purchases and contracts (e.g. using Uber rather than buying a car; using cloud services, etc.).
• Modifies the reporting requirements of the Senior Military Advisor for Cyber Policy now that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy had been established.
• Establishes a Chaplain Corps and Chief of Chaplains for the Central Intelligence Agency.
• Establishes criminal penalties for “gate-crashing” intelligence community (IC) facilities and establishes criminal penalties for individuals trying to unlawfully enter IC facilities.
• Requires the Department to provide a report and briefing to Congress on cyber and network security policies regarding full content inspection, to include A.I. capabilities to be included in the program.
• Requires budget coordination of the Cyber Mission Force to increase mutual support between U.S. Cyber Command and cyber elements of the reserve component.
• Implements significant DOD cyber personnel related reforms to include establishing a Cyber Excepted Workforce (CEW) Interchange Agreement and increased flexibility regarding the pay and benefits for cyber personnel.

Rounds-Supported Victories:

• Authorizes funding to support a 3.8 percent pay raise for military members
• $1.5 billion for new construction of barracks and family housing
• $50 million in Impact Aid assistance
• $147.7 billion for tech innovation, including hypersonics, AI, quantum computing and new space-based capabilities.
• Prohibits men in women’s sports at all military academies.
• Requires all military promotions to be based entirely on merit and demonstrated performance rather than race, ethnicity or sex.
• Permanently repeals all existing DEI offices, programs, training, activities and authorities in the Department of Defense.
• Provides conservative wins by cutting programs that hamper/don’t increase lethality:
  • $40.5 million from eliminating DEI activities
  • $1.6 billion in cuts to climate change-related spending
  • $6.8 billion from reductions in unnecessary Pentagon bureaucracy
  • $5.5 billion in cuts to consulting and service contracts
• Supports President Trump’s Golden Dome for America initiative by updating our homeland missile defense policy and funding air and missile defense development and testing.
• Authorizes full funding of our modernization of the nuclear triad, which includes the B-21 Raider, and is the foundation of our deterrence.
• Requires the Navy to implement a strategy to address cost and schedule problems with our ship and submarine industrial base, to include the use of A.I. to optimize maintenance and supply chains.
• Requires the DOD to establish an AI Task Force to develop an A.I. sandbox environment to support A.I. experimentation, training and model development for users of all technical levels.