’27 bills expected to continue recent year high activity on policies affecting resale and food service programs
The Congress has entered the season for moving on bills to fund the Department of War in what is shaping up as intense and contentious process give the major increases in defense spending proposed by the Trump Administration and issues associated with the War with Iran.
In recent years, these bills have had a major effect of the performance and operation of the Department’s resale agencies.
ALA will be covering the process which should reach a crescendo on June 24, the date of ALA’s Congressional Caucus and Public Policy Forum being held in the Rayburn Building on Capitol Hill.
The opening shot in the months-long process was fired by the House Armed Service Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) on May 26. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL), and Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-WA) released the Chairman’s Mark for Chairman’s Mark of H.R. 8800, the Fiscal Year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act , and announced the committee will mark up the legislation on Thursday, June 4, at 10:00 am ET.
This early House version is nowhere complete as more provisions will be added as amendments to the Chairman’s mark-up both during the June 4 Committee meeting and House floor action that will follow shortly after the Committee finishes its work. The Senate Armed Services Committee has not yet announced its schedule but reports are that committee staff if busily putting together a similar proposal by Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Ranking member Jack Reed (D-R.I.).
Here’s what we know right now that is include in the House Bill:
The Defense Commissary Agency was authorized at the President’s requested amount of about $1.501 billion.
A provision was included on single use shopping bags in commissaries that states: “The Defense Commissary Agency may not prohibit the use of, or chargea fee for, single-use shopping bags in a commissary store.’’. DeCA announced earlier this year that they would have to charge for bags. This policy was reversed by the Secretary of War and patrons no longer have to pay for bags.
The Committee included language on tobacco and vape products: “The committee commends the Marine Corps Exchange (MCX) for conducting a comprehensive compliance review of all electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) products supplied at MCX locations. Pursuant to Federal tobacco regulations, including the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 301), in order to legally market a new tobacco product, a company must receive a written marketing order from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Companies may receive marketing authorization through one of three pathways: a Premarket Tobacco Product Application (PMTA), a determination of substantial equivalence, or an exemption from substantial equivalence requests. The committee is aware that to legally market a new tobacco product through the PMTA pathway, a company must receive a written Marketing Granted Order (MGO) from the FDA. Therefore, the committee directs the Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Secretaries of the military departments, to submit a report to the Senate Committee on Armed Services and the House Committee on Armed Services not later than March 31, 2027. The report should include the process to determine which tobacco products, particularly ENDS products, are sold on military installations, to include any coordination with the FDA; any review process to ensure that tobacco products currently available for sale on military installations comply with federal regulations; and a list of any tobacco products removed from sale due to noncompliance, disaggregated by installation.”
The Committee also included language to encourage the provision of information on food access (including SNAP) and childcare when military personnel and families change duty stations.
The Chairman of the Committee also is recommending language in support of platforms simplifying compliance with rules and laws by contractors of the Department of War. ALA has been working with the Department on its Synthesis platform that simplifies regulatory and legal compliance and reduces costs for contractors and, by extension, for patrons of exchange and commissaries. The Chairmans language said:
“Expanding the Defense Industrial Base through Balanced Compliance. The committee remains concerned that compliance burdens are a significant barrier to entry for potential defense contractors, particularly small- and medium-sized businesses. Companies are increasingly forced to choose between investing in innovation and maintaining compliance, contributing to attrition from the defense industrial base and reduced resilience across defense supply chains. At the same time, the committee emphasizes that the expansion of the defense industrial base must not come at the expense of security, accountability, or oversight.”
The committee further notes that many compliance frameworks rely on episodic audits and point-in-time certifications that do not provide continuous insight into contractor readiness or supply chain risk. The committee encourages the Department to evaluate the use of qualified and trusted third-party commercial solutions to support continuous assessment and monitoring of contractor compliance, improve portfolio-level visibility into supply chain health, and enable more efficient attainment and maintenance of cybersecurity, workforce security, and cloud accreditation requirements.
Accordingly, the committee directs the Principal Director, Defense Pricing, Contracting, and Acquisition Policy, to provide a briefing to the House Committee on Armed Services not later than December 1, 2026, on the Department’s approach to expanding and sustaining the defense industrial base while maintaining strong compliance and accountability standards. The briefing should include an assessment of how current compliance regimes impact innovation, sustainment, and the long-term viability of small- and medium-sized businesses, including an evaluation of the extent to which companies exit the defense ecosystem due to compliance requirements, security requirements, or other administrative burdens unique to participation in the defense industrial base; a description of steps the Department is taking to encourage and sustain affordable compliance across prime contractors, subcontractors, and lower-tier suppliers; and options for improving visibility into contractor and supply chain readiness without creating duplicative administrative burdens.”
Other actions by the Chairman included:
- A GAO review of contracts and awards to small businesses, especially for contracts awarded below the small business threshold.
- An assessment by October 1, 2026, of permanent stationing of U.S. forces in Poland to include the impact of any delays in planned deployments there.
- An assessment of recent force posture adjustments within the United States European Command to include: “whether such realignment will result in the reduction of the total number of American servicemembers within the United States European Command area of responsibility below 76,000; whether such realignment will result in divesting, consolidating, or otherwise returning to a host country any parcel of land or facility located on real property under the jurisdiction of United States European Command as of June 1, 2025; and whether such realignment will result in divesting, redeploying, withdrawing, or otherwise permanently moving out of the area of responsibility of United States European Command any Department of Defense equipment or physical property with an initial purchase value of more than $500,000 and positioned in such area of responsibility as of June 1, 2025.”
