Twelve Senators Move to Strip Israel Tech Provisions From Defense Bill

Twelve senators sent a letter on November 10, 2026, asking congressional leaders to remove three provisions from the Fiscal Year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act that would expand defense technology cooperation and intelligence sharing with Israel.

The signatories are eleven Democrats and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders. They include Chris Van Hollen, Elizabeth Warren, and Brian Schatz, a more moderate Democrat. The letter went to Senate Republican Majority Leader John Thune, Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

The senators target Section 1217 in the Senate Armed Services Committee version of the bill and Section 219 in the House-passed version. Both would create a U.S.-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative.

The provisions, they wrote, would give Israel leverage over American weapons systems and military technology, constrain the administration's ability to independently determine how best to protect U.S. national security, and lock Washington into indefinite commitments. They also warned of long-term dependencies from embedding Israeli technology into the U.S. defense industrial base.

The letter is not a vote and does not remove anything. It arrives as Congress prepares to conference the two versions of the bill, where the provisions could be kept, altered, or dropped.

The Senate failed to advance the FY2027 NDAA in July 2026, stalling a defense policy bill that contained a sweeping proposal for U.S.-Israel military technology cooperation. The bill is must-pass, and the letter tests whether congressional leaders can hold it together amid internal dissent.

If the provisions survive conference, they could deepen U.S.-Israel technological ties for years. If they are stripped, it would mark a rare legislative rebuke of that cooperation. The letter does not reject the U.S.-Israel alliance; it contests how far defense integration should go and who decides.