Lawmakers Unveil Defense Bill Without Spectrum Veto Language, AI Moratorium

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8, 2025 – A sweeping annual defense bill does not include a measure that would give the Pentagon veto power over alterations to military spectrum bands, or any preemption of state artificial intelligence laws.

Meanwhile President Donald Trump, who has been pushing for such a preemption, said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social that he would be signing an executive order on AI this week.

“I will be doing a ONE RULE Executive Order this week,” he wrote. “You can’t expect a company to get 50 Approvals every time they want to do something. THAT WILL NEVER WORK!”

Lawmakers unveiled text of the National Defense Authorization Act on Sunday, reflecting a compromise between the versions advanced by the House and Senate, both Republican-controlled, earlier this year. 

The version previously approved by the Senate included a section that would have required the Defense Secretary and top military officials to sign off on any changes to the 3.1-3.45 GigaHertz (GHZ) and 7.4-8.4 GHz bands. 

Those are already protected from auction, but proponents of the Congress’s July mandate to free up 500 megahertz of federal spectrum for the wireless carriers said other federal systems would likely have to be relocated into the protected bands for that pipeline to work. 

Lawmakers like Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., whose amendment added the veto provision, feared any disruption to missile defenses and other military systems in the bands at issue.  

CTIA, the major wireless industry group, had come out against the provision, as had Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., and the White House. 

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., had said publicly last week that the AI moratorium, a goal of the White House and the tech industry, wasn’t likely to end up in the NDAA. Democrats and several Republican lawmakers and governors have strongly opposed preempting state laws on AI companies.

It’s not clear what’s included in the executive order Trump said he would sign this week. Last month a draft executive order circulated that would have directed the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to produce a memo detailing plans to withhold some funds from its $42.45 billion broadband expansions program from states with “onerous” AI laws.

The order was never signed. Under NTIA’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program,  states and territories are expected to have a collective $21 billion left over after funding deployment projects to their eligible homes and businesses.

That money, commonly called non-deployment funds, is what the order would have directed NTIA to withhold. The future of the money is up in the air currently, as the Trump administration rescinded approval for any non-deployment activities when it overhauled BEAD’s rules in June.

NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth said last week that more guidance on the issue would come in early 2026 and that the agency was “operating under the assumption that the states will get to use their BEAD savings. But again, nothing has been finalized.”

“President Trump has made clear the past few decades of investments propping up Communist China’s aggression must come to an end, and this bill includes important guardrails to protect America’s long-term investments, economic interests, and sensitive data,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in a statement.

Lawmakers in both chambers will have to vote on the bill before sending it to Trump's desk.