Common Questions

What does the Senate Armed Services Committee do?: SASC is the US Senate's permanent oversight body for the Department of Defense. It marks up the annual National Defense Authorisation Act, setting programme authorities and spending ceilings for every defence line item, and holds confirmation hearings for senior military and civilian defence appointments.Source: US Senate
Who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2026?: Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) chairs the committee in the 119th Congress. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) is the ranking minority member.Source: US Senate
How does SASC differ from HASC?: SASC is the Senate committee; HASC is its House counterpart. Both must pass compatible NDAA versions before a conference committee reconciles them for the president's signature. HASC has historically led on tactical unmanned systems; both now share oversight of the FY2027 DAWG request.Source: Congressional Research Service
What is the NDAA markup process?: Each spring the committee holds hearings with Pentagon officials, then meets in a markup session to amend and vote on the draft NDAA. The full Senate then debates and passes its version, which goes to conference with the House version before enactment.Source: Congressional Research Service
Will Congress approve the $54.6 billion DAWG drone request?: SASC and HASC will mark up the request between May and July 2026. Historical base rates put full presidential budget requests reaching enacted appropriations below 60%; a 50% haircut would still leave roughly $27 billion, FAR above the FY2026 baseline of $225.9 million.Source: Congressional Budget Office / historical appropriations data

Background

On 30 April 2026, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared before SASC and formally argued for the first time before a congressional committee that the WPR 60-day clock is 'paused or stopped in a Ceasefire'. Senator Tim Kaine rejected the theory as unsupported by the statute. The hearing placed SASC as the formal record-holder for the administration's clock-pause legal theory — a theory the White House then extended the following day by asserting the US is 'not at war' with Iran.

How the World Sees Them

Allied governments

SASC authorisation language on allied interoperability and Foreign Military Sales conditions directly shapes which autonomous-systems technologies US allies can procure and under what terms.

US defence industry

SASC markup decisions on DAWG, Pegasus Charge and Ironhorse Rebirth will determine whether new entrants like Anduril face full FAR competition or continue under the OTA structure that has favoured them.

United States (executive branch)

The Pentagon submitted the $54.6 billion DAWG request expecting SASC to apply incremental scrutiny; the committee's markup outcome is the primary legislative risk to DoD's autonomous-systems procurement timeline.