On July 27, the Senate passed its version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a bill that sets the policy agenda and approves funding for the Department of Defense. Earlier in the month, the Republican-led House narrowly passed a vastly different version of the bill, showing the power of conservative hardliners who pushed for amendments targeting the Defense Department’s abortion policy, transgender health care access and DEI initiatives.

Even if the two sides reach a compromise, Straight Arrow News contributor Newt Gingrich argues the NDAA is insufficient and major reforms are required at the Pentagon.

There’s something deeper where I think the National Defense Authorization Act is totally inadequate. Way back in the Reagan years, when it was obvious that President Reagan and Defense Secretary [Casper] Weinberger were gonna be able to get the money they needed, I helped found the Military Reform Caucus. Our concern was how the money was going to be spent. And ultimately, after a multi-year effort, literally from 1981 to 1986, we created the Goldwater Nichols Reform Act, which was the biggest reform of the Pentagon in modern times.

Well, they need the same thing again. The fact is, the bureaucracy is too slow. It has too much red tape. It’s too influenced by the lobbyists from the giant corporations. And the result is even though we spend far more money than any other country on defense, we don’t really get our dollar’s worth. And the fact is, we cannot keep up with the Chinese with our bureaucracy this incompetent, this divided, and this incapable of innovation.

So you’re gonna hear a lot more about the National Defense Authorization Act, and a lot more about the need to reform the Defense Department.