House to Vote on NDAA Without DOD Spectrum Veto; Trump to Sign Order for AI Preemption
The House plans to vote this week on a compromise version of the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, released Sunday night. The compromise bill omits Senate-passed language from its earlier version (S-2296) that would have given the DOD and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman authority to essentially veto commercial use of the 3.1-3.45 and 7.4-8.4 GHz bands (see 2510160057). The House’s NDAA version (HR-3838) didn't include similar language. The compromise NDAA, filed as an amendment to shell bill S-1071, also omits language to preempt states’ AI laws amid GOP divisions on that issue (see 2512030038).
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The lack of the state AI preemption in the NDAA compromise won’t end that debate, as President Donald Trump said Monday on Truth Social that he will sign a “ONE RULE Executive Order this week” on the matter. Lobbyists said they expect the order to largely mirror a draft document that began circulating last month, which would require NTIA to potentially curtail non-deployment BEAD funding for states that, according to the administration, have AI laws that are overly burdensome (see 2511200057).
“There must be only One Rulebook if we are going to continue to lead in AI,” Trump wrote. “We are beating ALL COUNTRIES at this point in the race, but that won’t last long if we are going to have 50 States, many of them bad actors, involved in RULES and the APPROVAL PROCESS. THERE CAN BE NO DOUBT ABOUT THIS! AI WILL BE DESTROYED IN ITS INFANCY!”
NDAA conferees’ decision to omit the DOD spectrum veto provision from the compromise bill represents a victory for Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who led opposition to its inclusion in S-2296 (see 2510070037). CTIA CEO Ajit Pai and other communications industry groups had also lobbied against it (see 2511130054). Senate Armed Services Committee member Mike Rounds, R-S.D., a staunch defender of military spectrum incumbents, acknowledged in a brief interview last week that Cruz was continuing to press for the veto language’s deletion but said he was continuing to fight to retain it.