On December 18, 2025, President Trump signed into law the annual military policy bill (the National Defense Authorization Act or “NDAA”) for fiscal year 2026.
The bill included a key FCNL priority that our D.C. lobbyists and grassroots advocates have spent years working for: repeal of the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq, the law that authorized the Iraq War.
While we applaud this important step to end this long-abused law that helped enable decades of endless war, many other provisions in NDAA move our country further from the peaceful, just future that our faith calls us to seek.
As Quakers, we believe that the United States must invest in policies that lay the groundwork for a more peaceful world: meeting human needs, strengthening diplomacy, and reducing the risk of catastrophic war. Instead, this NDAA authorizes an astonishing $1.05 trillion for the Pentagon—the largest military budget in U.S. history.
This spending entrenches a militarized vision of security that has repeatedly failed to keep people safe, at home or abroad. At a time when housing instability, hunger, climate crises, and the high cost of living are harming families across the country, the NDAA commits resources toward weapons and war instead of crucial human needs.
While the NDAA leaves in place the prohibition on aboveground nuclear testing, it leaves the U.S. open to underground nuclear weapons tests if other countries conduct similar tests. Returning to nuclear weapons testing would undermine decades of U.S leadership and restraint. It ultimately gives other countries a way to incite a tit-for-tat dynamic that can quickly escalate. The U.S. already maintains confidence in its nuclear arsenal through non-explosive, science-based programs. Returning to explosive testing is unnecessary, and it would introduce environmental, health, and geopolitical risks.
Returning to nuclear weapons testing would undermine decades of U.S leadership and restraint. It ultimately gives other countries a way to incite a tit-for-tat dynamic that can quickly escalate.
The NDAA also makes a significant change to the Selective Service, a government agency that keeps track of men eligible for military conscription. The legislation changed Selective Service registration from a voluntary process to an automatic registration of all men aged between 18 and 26, using information gathered from other federal databases.
FCNL strongly opposes the automatic registration of young men as it would make it more difficult for conscientious objectors to exercise their right to resist registration for forced military enlistment on the basis of sincerely held religious or moral objections.
As we begin a new year, Congress has the opportunity—and the responsibility—to shape a different path. Repealing outdated AUMFs is a meaningful act of courage. We urge lawmakers to reject further bloated and harmful military authorizations and demand a security framework rooted in diplomacy, accountability, and investment in human needs.
