To the Editor
Embedded within this year's must-pass National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 8800 and S. 4784) and the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027 (S. 4615) are provisions that warrant urgent public scrutiny. They raise a fundamental question: does the United States still set the terms of its own military and intelligence commitments, or is it, provision by provision, surrendering that discretion to a fused decision-making structure with Israel?
These bills contain provisions that would significantly expand U.S.-Israel cooperation in military research, weapons development, and defense technologies while imposing new restrictions on future presidents' authority to alter that relationship. These restrictions run in only one direction—placing legal limits on U.S. decision-making without imposing comparable statutory constraints on Israel.
For example, Section 622 of the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027 would bar the President from suspending, reducing, or materially limiting intelligence sharing with Israel unless a "specific and identifiable national security concern" justifies it—and any such reduction must be reported to Congress within 15 days. The result is a shift in decision-making authority: future presidents would have considerably less flexibility to modify the relationship, while Israel faces no comparable requirements under these provisions.
This law would permanently give Israel more say over U.S. intelligence-sharing decisions than the U.S. president has. That's not an alliance—it's a surrender of sovereignty, and Congress should reject it.
Call Congress: Reject H.R. 8800, S. 4784, and S. 4615 unless the Israel provisions are stripped. Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
Vickie Fadness
Lewiston