To Congress and President Trump:

The 2026 National Defense Authorization Act quietly rewired how the United States exercises power — at home and abroad — without public debate or meaningful oversight. Buried inside its 1,200 pages are structural changes that expand surveillance authorities, accelerate bio‑research programs, enable retroactive punishment, and create a government‑controlled digital ecosystem. These provisions affect the rights, privacy, and freedoms of ordinary Americans, and they deserve immediate public scrutiny.

We call on Congress to review, amend, or repeal specific sections of the 2026 NDAA — and related provisions in the 2024 NDAA — that expand government authority without adequate transparency, oversight, or constitutional safeguards.

THE ISSUE

The NDAA was enacted into law on December 18, 2025 —  a bill made public only nine days before passage, while the country was focused on the holidays.. While presented as a routine defense bill, it contains provisions that:

• allow retroactive administrative punishment (§2534)
• create permanent behavioral dossiers on service members and maritime workers (§2535, §2538)
• expand counter‑UAS monitoring in ways that may sweep up domestic data (§1707)
• authorize the blacklisting and removal of AI models without transparency (§1512–§1532)
• extend “temporary” emergency authorities indefinitely, increasing drone surveillance (§§8601-8607)
• expand biotechnology and biodefense programs, increasing the volume and speed of military‑linked biological research built on the authority to waive informed consent on human test subjects (2026 NDAA: §§241, 242, 243, 244, 245, 246, 247, 248)

The NDAA also intersects with Title 5 — the statutory firewall protecting the civil service from political, financial, and foreign influence. Several provisions create authorities and investigative powers that operate outside Title 5 safeguards, weakening the protections that ensure impartial hiring, placement, and discipline. Any authority allowed to bypass Title 5 risks eroding the neutrality and independence of the federal workforce (2024 NDAA §213; multiple 2026 NDAA sections).

None of these provisions were publicly debated. None were explained to the American people. Yet all of them reshape the balance of power between citizens and the state.

WHY THIS MATTERS

These authorities do not announce themselves as domestic surveillance or civil‑rights changes. Instead, they create systems that touch Americans indirectly, structurally, and continuously — through the technologies we use, the information we consume, the biological research conducted in our name, and the administrative mechanisms that govern our rights.

A defense bill should not quietly erode due process, expand monitoring authorities, accelerate bio‑research programs, or create digital blacklists without public understanding or consent.

And no federal agency should be empowered to conduct human experimentation without informed consent.

CONGRESSIONAL DUTY 

Congress has a constitutional obligation to protect the rights of the people and to provide oversight over military and executive‑branch activities. That duty cannot be handed off or outsourced. Yet §212 of the 2024 NDAA authorizes the waiver of informed‑consent protections for certain human‑subject research and delegates that authority to the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering — the very office Congress is responsible for overseeing. This is not a routine administrative adjustment. It is Congress stepping back from one of its most fundamental responsibilities: ensuring that no American — service member or civilian — is subjected to medical experimentation without their knowledge or consent. Oversight of human research is not optional. It is a core legislative duty, and Congress must reclaim it.

WHAT WE ARE ASKING CONGRESS TO DO

We respectfully urge Congress to:

1. Hold public oversight hearings on the civil-rights, bio-research, and ethical implications of the 2026 NDAA and related provisions; solicit public input on the ethics of this course; and conduct an emergency, independent review of all federal biological programs and use of consent waivers, with particular attention to programs involving service members, trainees, and others subject to biological testing or data collection under national-security authorities and related human‑readiness testing.
   (2024 NDAA: §§212, 216, 1047, 1312, 7511, 3122; 50 U.S.C. §1528(a); 2025 NDAA: §§236, 238, 241, 242, 1069, 1084, 1621, 6401, 6501–6503; 2026 NDAA: §§241–248).
2. Rescind §212 of the 2024 NDAA, which relinquishes congressional oversight of informed consent and places that power inside the agencies it is meant to regulate. 
3. Enact mandatory transparency requirements for any federal collection or use of biological data.
4. Establish civilian oversight of all human‑subject research conducted under national‑security authorities.
5. Amend or repeal sections that:
   • enable retroactive punishment
   • create permanent behavioral dossiers
   • expand monitoring without clear limits
   • allow AI blacklisting without transparency
   • centralize investigative authority without safeguards
6. Restore sunset clauses to emergency powers extended indefinitely.
7. Establish transparency requirements for any authority that affects U.S. persons, directly or indirectly.
8. Affirm constitutional boundaries around due process, privacy, medical ethics, and civilian oversight.
9. Close the NDAA’s loophole allowing agencies to accept fees from project applicants for expedited environmental reviews.
10. Restore constitutional oversight by requiring public disclosure and congressional review of all new authorities granted under the 2026 NDAA.
11. Reaffirm Title 5 as the statutory firewall protecting the civil service from political, financial, and foreign influence, and require all NDAA‑created authorities to operate within its due‑process safeguards.
12. Amend or repeal NDAA provisions that bypass or weaken Title 5 protections, including any authority that centralizes investigative power or enables personnel actions outside Title 5 procedures.

These are not partisan demands. They are constitutional ones.

CALL TO ACTION

The American people deserve to understand — and have a voice in — the systems that govern their rights. The 2026 NDAA is now law, but it is not beyond correction. Congress must act to restore transparency, oversight, and constitutional balance before these structural changes become permanent.

We, the undersigned, call on Congress to enforce accountability and safeguard civil liberties before national security authorities quietly eclipse democratic rights and human autonomy.