1. United States
2. Ohio
3. Letter

I am writing to you with alarm and concern regarding Section 224 of the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027 (NDAA). This section, as drafted, would put critical U.S. military technologies at risk, undermine U.S. defense industry competitiveness, and create new points of leverage for Israel over U.S. national security policymaking. As political opposition to continued military grant assistance to Israel mounts, even voices such as those of Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham have publicly indicated their willingness to “offramp” Israel from U.S. taxpayer funding, currently provided mostly via Foreign Military Financing. However, an effort to shift U.S.-Israel military cooperation from foreign assistance to defense cooperation is a shell game designed to shield Israel from shifting U.S. political directions - and fulsome Congressional oversight. Among the more alarming aspects of Section 224 are that it would: • Create an Executive Agent responsible for U.S.-Israel defense cooperation within the Defense Department whose authorities would trump those of other DoD components, including those responsible for technology security; • Direct the integration of Israeli technology into major U.S. defense acquisition programs; • Direct the expanded sharing of some of our national security ‘crown jewel’ technologies, including in the AI, quantum, cyber, and biological realms. This raises a host of significant policy and technical concerns. At a policy level, this provision would flip the script on the current bilateral relationship, shifting the leverage we currently hold because of our security assistance to Israel over to the Government of Israel who would be able to hold key Department of Defense capabilities hostage through the integration of Israeli technologies into the DoD supply chain. Section 224 also assumes a commonality of national security interests between Israel and the U.S., which, as the current conflict with Iran clearly demonstrates, does not exist. Section 224 also exposes sensitive U.S. technologies to a partner that has a demonstrated track record of failure to protect U.S. technology and intellectual property, placing U.S. industry at risk. In addition, by promoting U.S.-Israel defense cooperation in the biological space, the provision would for the first time create enhanced technology and information sharing in this area with a country that has not ratified the Biological Weapons Convention, creating the possibility of U.S. technology being used to develop illegal - and deeply dangerous - biological weapons. Beyond the specific concerns this section raises, it is worth noting that much of Israel’s defense technology has been developed through testing on human subjects - the Palestinians who are subject to Israel’s continuous electronic surveillance in the West Bank, and its continuous military bombardment in Gaza. Israel is also, of course, a country that stands accused of grievous violations of human rights. Far from deepening defense cooperation with it, the U.S. should be withdrawing the support that enables its atrocities. And far from integrating Israel’s defense sector and technologies into the systems relied on by our own warfighters, we should be drawing a bright line to ensure our security is never exposed to, or premised upon, Israel’s increasingly reckless whims. Therefore, I respectfully ask you to take all possible steps to ensure Section 224 of the House version of the fiscal year 2027 NDAA never makes it into law, including introducing and supporting amendments to strip out this provision or, if necessary, voting against the bill when it comes to the floor.