The proposed 2027 defense authorization bill would direct major sums toward Israel, NATO, Iraq, Syria and overseas Pentagon programs while Washington faces rising costs from conflicts abroad.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
A draft version of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act would authorize nearly $2 billion in U.S. taxpayer-backed defense spending tied to foreign governments, international alliances and overseas security programs, according to the bill text and a report from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The proposed 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, released by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and Ranking Member Adam Smith, D-Wash., still must advance through the committee’s June markup and the broader legislative process before it could become law.
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The Daily Caller News Foundation reported that the draft measure includes funding authorities connected to Israel, NATO, Iraq, Syria and other overseas programs. The Office of Management and Budget, the House Armed Services Committee, House Armed Services Committee Democrats, the Department of War and the Israeli Embassy did not respond to requests for comment, according to the report.
Israel would receive the largest country-specific share identified in the draft, with $670 million in potential defense-related funding. The final enacted 2026 NDAA included roughly $500 million for Israel.
The proposed 2027 items include $20 million for Iron Dome, $300 million for Israeli Cooperative Programs, $150 million for Arrow 3 Upper Tier Systems, $100 million for the Israel Counter UXS Program and $100 million for Israel Subterranean Cooperation. The bill also lists up to $50 million for Emerging Tech Cooperation, though it is unclear whether that item constitutes direct aid to Israel.
The Israel-related provisions come as the United States is working toward a domestic missile defense system. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that a national missile defense system generally consistent with President Donald Trump’s “Iron Dome for America” order would cost about $1.2 trillion.
Israel received an estimated $298 billion in U.S. aid from 1946 through 2024, according to a Congressional Research Service report that cited State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development data as of January 2025.
Public opinion on military aid to Israel remains divided. An April YouGov and The Economist poll found that 40% of U.S. adult citizens surveyed said aid should be decreased, 27% said it should remain unchanged and 11% said it should be increased. The survey included roughly 1,700 U.S. adult citizens and had a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points.
The draft legislation also includes $604 million for the NATO Security Investment Program and nearly $13 million for NATO research and development. Those provisions appear in the measure as the Trump administration continues pressing NATO members to assume a larger share of alliance defense costs.
“32 NATO countries committed to spending 5 percent of their GDP on defense, on actually investing in the NATO alliance [at the request of Trump],” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said during a June 26, 2025, news conference. “What President Trump accomplished in NATO yesterday was game changing and historic, a shift in burden sharing to the — to European responsibility in NATO that most would have said was impossible at the beginning of his term.”
The United States remained NATO’s largest defense spender in 2025, with an estimated $980 billion in defense expenditures, according to estimates from the Atlantic Council. The United Kingdom was estimated at $92.8 billion and France at $68.9 billion, while Montenegro was estimated at $188 million, North Macedonia at $402 million and Albania at $570 million.
NATO has continued supporting Ukraine during the war with Russia. Separately, the United States committed more than $133.9 billion in defense articles and services to Ukraine from fiscal 2022 through the first quarter of 2025 through Presidential Drawdown Authority, the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative and Foreign Military Financing, according to Ukraine Oversight, the U.S. government’s oversight website for the Ukraine response.
Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine began Feb. 24, 2022, though the conflict began earlier with Russia’s annexation of Crimea on Feb. 27, 2014. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy renewed Kyiv’s request for additional U.S. equipment Wednesday, seeking anti-ballistic missiles as Russia increased attacks on Ukraine, The Washington Post reported.
The proposed defense bill also contains $221 million for the Cooperative Threat Reduction Account. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency says the program is aimed in part at reducing threats from weapons of mass destruction, typically through work conducted abroad with foreign partners.
Another provision would authorize $115.3 million for Overseas Humanitarian, Disaster and Civic Aid. The account supports Pentagon activities in foreign countries, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. The Government Accountability Office has said the program permits commanders to buy “positive public relations and goodwill toward DOD,” according to a GAO report.
The draft measure also includes $253 million to train and equip counterterrorism forces in Iraq and Syria.
Syria has undergone a major change in leadership after the fall of Bashar Assad’s government. Current Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharraa previously led Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, a group that split from al-Qaeda in 2017, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
During Trump’s first administration, the U.S. military struck Syrian targets that officials said housed chemical weapons. Critics of such action have warned that U.S. attacks on chemical facilities could deepen American involvement in Syria’s internal conflict.
“Bombing chemical sites would attach U.S. prestige and credibility to the overthrow of Assad,” Brookings reported on Aug. 27, 2013.
Al-Qaeda fought U.S. and coalition forces during the Iraq War and carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Despite al-Sharraa’s prior ties to the group’s former Syrian affiliate, Trump hosted him at the White House on Nov. 11, 2025.
The U.S. spent more than $3 trillion on the Iraq conflict, The Washington Post reported. Department of War casualty figures show 4,493 U.S. service members were killed and 32,291 were wounded in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn.
At least 134,000 Iraqi civilians were killed by war violence after the 2003 U.S. invasion, though the actual figure is likely higher because many deaths were never recorded, according to Brown University’s Costs of War Project.
“The United States supports a Syria that is stable, unified, and at peace with its neighbors, as well as a Syria that denies safe haven to terrorist organizations and ensures the security of all minority groups,” a State Department spokesperson previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The Department is reviewing our remaining terrorist designations related to HTS and Syria, in accordance with the President’s promise to deliver sanctions relief to Syria.”
The foreign spending authorizations are being debated while the United States is engaged in an armed conflict with Iran, with costs now estimated in the billions.
“And so now we think it [spending on the Iran War] is closer to 29 [billion dollars],” Department of War Comptroller and Chief Financial Officer Jules W. Hurst III said during a House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on May 12.
The Iran conflict has also affected regional trade. Syria’s government has benefited as countries seek to move oil over land while Strait of Hormuz traffic has been heavily disrupted, The New York Times reported.
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