Rushmore State News

U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, announced the Senate's passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026. This marks the 11th NDAA that Rounds has contributed to as a committee member and continues a 65-year tradition of annual passage by the Senate.

“The NDAA is a critical piece of legislation passed each year which authorizes funding for our national security, as well as our servicemembers and their families,” said Rounds. “Just like our committee version of the bill, we secured many wins for South Dakota, including $378 million for construction projects at Ellsworth to prepare for the B-21, $28 million for the Watertown Army National Guard vehicle maintenance facility and $3.4 billion for procurement of B-21 aircraft. The NDAA also authorizes funding to support a 3.8 percent raise for military members. This NDAA keeps the U.S. ahead of the curve and takes care of our men and women in uniform who fight every day to protect our freedoms. I’m hopeful that these provisions will remain as we conference this bill with the House of Representatives."

Rounds highlighted that the Senate version includes his proposal to prohibit individuals and entities from China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea from acquiring agricultural land or businesses near sensitive U.S. military sites. “The full Senate’s version of the NDAA also includes my legislation to ban individuals and entities controlled by China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from purchasing agricultural land and businesses located near sensitive military sites. Our near-peer adversaries are looking for any possible opportunity to surveil our nation’s capabilities and resources. This is a preventative measure to keep these nations out of our business and away from our most critical resources.”

He also addressed bipartisanship in the legislative process: “Despite what my Democrat colleagues want the American people to think, we can still do bipartisan work in the Senate. Leader Thune has worked hard this year to get the Senate back to regular order, in which we pass appropriations bills on a bipartisan basis every year. The NDAA is a great example of that. As we remain in a government shutdown, I hope my Democrat colleagues decide to work with us to open the government up. After that happens, we can continue to work through the pressing issues that are facing the American people.”

In March, Rounds was recognized as one of the most effective senators on defense and national security issues in the 118th Congress.

Provisions secured for South Dakota include full authorization for the B-21 Raider program, significant investments in military construction at Ellsworth Air Force Base, funding for flight simulators, alert facilities, environmental protection shelters, and improvements at the Watertown Army National Guard Vehicle Maintenance Shop. The NDAA also supports pilot programs in partnership with South Dakota universities and defense companies, updates programs benefiting the South Dakota National Guard, modifies grant eligibility for local schools, addresses veterans’ records backlogs, and contains measures aimed at improving housing access in rural areas.

Nationally, the bill includes bans on foreign adversaries purchasing agricultural assets near military sites, protects defense spectrum use, funds advanced manufacturing capabilities, establishes cybersecurity initiatives such as an Artificial General Intelligence Steering Committee within the Department of Defense, maintains dual leadership between U.S. Cyber Command and NSA, modernizes cyber policies including AI integration, and reforms personnel policies related to cyber workforce management.

Other supported measures include a pay raise for military members, additional funding for munitions, expansion of the Navy fleet, authorization for missile defense programs, cyber workforce strategies, use of large language models for translation purposes (with restrictions on those developed by certain foreign entities), management programs for transitioning cyber talent into reserve forces, assessments of cloud service providers in defense contracting, digital provenance standards development, phishing-resistant authentication strategies, and prohibitions on using certain foreign-developed language models in Department of Defense systems.