Warren, Sheehy slam dropped military right to repair provision from defense bill

The final legislation governing Pentagon spending dropped a bipartisan provision that would have guaranteed the military the right to repair its equipment, drawing immediate criticism from its authors, Sen. elizabeth Warren, D-MA, and Tim Sheehy, R-MT, who accused Congress of siding with defense contractors over service members.

Both chambers have passed versions of the reform, and the White House has publicly supported the measure, which would have required contractors to provide the Pentagon with the technical data needed to make repairs in-house — rather than flying in manufacturers’ technicians at additional cost. The final National Defense Authorization Act deletes that authorization, a move that Warren and Sheehy say will leave troops facing the same barriers to repairing equipment whenever contractors assert ownership rights.

“For decades, the Pentagon has relied on a broken acquisition system that is routinely defended by career bureaucrats and corporate interests. Military right to repair repairs “They are supported by the Trump White House, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Army, the Secretary of the Navy, entrepreneurs, small businesses, and our brave service members,” Warren and Sheehy said after releasing the text of the legislation. “The only ones who oppose this common-sense reform are those who exploit the broken status quo at the expense of our warfighters and taxpayers.”

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has repeatedly warned that the Pentagon Inability to access technical data It is one of the biggest drivers of rising sustainment costs, with estimates suggesting that broader repair rights could save the administration “billions” of dollars over the life cycles of major weapons systems.

Lawmakers expressed criticism after the National Defense Authorization Act excluded provisions allowing soldiers to repair their own equipment. (Paul Biersbach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)

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GAO Ratings Of aircraft, ships, and ground vehicles, when contractors retain exclusive control of repair information, the military is forced to make long-term vendor support arrangements that are much more expensive than in-house maintenance. In many cases, GAO concluded that obtaining the necessary data early in the acquisition process would have given the Pentagon greater flexibility, reduced downtime, and reduced costs for everything from software fixes to depot-level repairs.

Sources familiar with the NDAA negotiations claimed that lobbyists, behind closed doors, convinced leaders on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees to abandon the more aggressive right to reform the language.

One source said: “This is a typical case of the prevailing quagmire at the expense of our fighters and the efficiency of the government.” “Does (Secretary of War Pete) Hegseth realize that Boeing just broke the legs of our warfighters?”

A spokesperson for the House Armed Services Committee said: “The committee is committed to addressing the right-to-repair issue in a way that ensures our warfighters have the data they need to implement reforms while preserving private industry intellectual property.”

“The Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act requires the Department to review its contracts to determine where it is missing the data rights it needs and to determine whether any missing data rights are the result of a flawed law or a flawed contract. If the law is flawed, the Department must make recommendations to Congress on how to fix it.”

Watchdogs also questioned the weaker settlement.

“The sentences are not strong enough,” said Greg Williams of the Project on Government Oversight. “They help categorize the problem, but they don’t do anything to solve it.” Williams added that the original proposals “recognized the cost and committed to paying fair and reasonable prices to vendors for that intellectual property,” countering industry arguments that the bill would have expropriated or diminished the value of contractors’ data.

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Industry groups defended their opposition.

“This debate is not about ensuring that equipment and technology can be repaired in contested environments; commanders already have broad authority to keep mission-critical systems running,” said Marta Hernandez, spokeswoman for the Aerospace Industries Association. “What concerns us about the Senate proposal is its blanket mandate of government acquisition of intellectual property — without regard to necessity or cost. ‘One size fits all’ does not suit our forces or the industry that equips them.”

But military officials and oversight agencies say that while commanders can authorize emergency repairs, that authority does not give units the technical data, access to software, or parts needed to actually make the repairs. They say crews remain dependent on contractors even when they have the skills to repair equipment themselves.

Instead of requiring contractors to submit repair data, the Final National Defense Authorization Act directs the Pentagon to create a database that catalogs the technical information it currently has and to “request options” from contractors when data is missing. Critics say the language has no enforcement mechanism and leaves manufacturers free to refuse, maintaining the contractor-controlled repair model that the repair seeks to change.

GAO reviews of aircraft, ships, and ground vehicles have found that when contractors retain exclusive control of repair information, the military is forced to make long-term vendor support arrangements that are much more expensive than in-house maintenance. (Armin Weigel/Image Alliance via Getty Images)

The Trump administration has supported the reform, with administration policy statements supporting the House and Senate versions earlier in the fall. Service secretaries also supported this effort, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth He issued new acquisition guidance in November directing the Army to plan “organic depot-level maintenance and repair” on major systems.

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In May 2025, Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll publicly pledged that the Army would ensure right-to-repair provisions would be included in the future. Army contracts – Aligning the Service with the broader Congressional campaign to increase access to technical data. But advocates said the service-by-service approach was not enough, and pushed for codification and expansion of the right to repair across all branches to prevent contractors from controlling critical maintenance information.

The F-35 program provides one of the clearest examples of how cost-limiting repair rights increase.

The Pentagon still lacks the basic technical data needed to perform many organic repairs to the F-35, forcing the services to rely on Lockheed Martin and its subcontractors for everything from software maintenance to component repair, the GAO found. This reliance has helped raise sustainment costs to the point that the Pentagon warns it cannot afford to operate the planned fleet without major changes.

The GAO reported that greater access to repair data could save the administration billions of dollars over the expected life cycle of an aircraft, reduce delivery times for broken parts, and allow military depots to take over work that is currently outsourced to a contractor.

The F-35 program provides one of the clearest examples of how cost-limiting repair rights increase. (Samuel King Jr./US Air Force)

The consequences of the restrictions on contractors are already evident across the force. A mechanic sent for an exercise in Korea “was prohibited from performing maintenance on a generator because the warranty would be voided,” leaving the unit with the option of voiding the warranty or losing equipment needed for the training, according to a comment made on the site. regulations.gov.

Former Marine logistics officer Elle Ekman wrote that Marines stationed in Japan were forced to “pack and ship (the engines) to contractors in the (United States) for repairs,” leaving the engines offline for months. New York Times.

Even basic systems on board ships were affected. Navy Secretary John Phelan told lawmakers that during a visit to the USS Gerald R. Ford, six of the ship’s eight ovens — responsible for preparing more than 15,000 meals a day — broke. The sailors said they knew how to repair the ovens, but they were not allowed to do so and had to wait for contractors instead, according to War Department data. When the ship’s elevators stopped working, the crew also had to contact the manufacturer.

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Advocates say these examples illustrate why Congress sought to codify the military’s right to repair in the first place — and why they say the issue is far from resolved. Warren and Sheehy have already pledged to push through another legislative overhaul in 2026, while watchdog groups say they will pressure the Pentagon to use its existing authority to demand greater access to data in new contracts.