Warren Exposes “Dangerous and Misguided” Effort By Defense Contractor Lobbyists to Undermine Right to Repair Reforms
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, wrote to the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), the trade association for big DoD contractors, regarding its opposition to the bipartisan right to repair reform in the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
“NDIA’s opposition to these commonsense reforms is a dangerous and misguided attempt to protect an unacceptable status quo of giant contractor profiteering that is expensive for taxpayers and presents a risk to military readiness and national security,” said Senator Warren.
In September, NDIA published a set of “Policy Points” attacking bipartisan reforms with baseless claims, including asserting that they will “hamper innovation and the military’s access to cutting-edge technologies by deterring companies from contracting” with DoD.
Right to repair reforms, which are included in both the House and the Senate versions of the FY26 NDAA, would give DoD the authority to obtain the necessary technical data for service members to repair their equipment in the field, enhance military readiness, and save taxpayers billions of dollars.
The reforms have broad bipartisan support, including:
- The Trump administration, which recently announced support in a Statement of Administrative Policy;
- Military veterans, who know first-hand the dangerous impacts of not being able to repair their equipment in the field;
- Over 300 small businesses which have come out in support of the reforms and urged Congress to pass them in the FY26 NDAA;
- The Special Equipment Market Association (SEMA), which endorsed these reforms saying it would “create more opportunities for (their) members to sell their parts to the U.S. military;”
- The Aeronautical Repair Station Association has also come out in support of the reforms, stating that right to repair legislation would lead to “greater contracting opportunities for small companies, and a broader, more competitive military industrial base;”
- Defense contractors themselves, like Palantir, whose Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Executive Vice President (EVP) Shyam Sankar has noted that “(i)n contested logistics environments, particularly in the heat of battle, service members should be empowered to repair and modify their equipment quickly, efficiently, and, when necessary, independently;” and
- Pentagon leaders, including Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll, who recently announced that the Army will ensure right to repair provisions are included in future Army contracts and will identify and propose contract modifications for right to repair provisions in current contracts.
An independent 2023 report also confirmed that when DoD emphasizes competition, DoD receives more offers per contract it bids.
“Big defense contractors, like some of NDIA’s members, are the ones currently deterring new companies from contracting with DoD (b)y restricting the parts that can be used and the personnel that are allowed to perform a repair,” said Senator Warren.
A recent Government Accountability Office review found that vendor lock for five major weapons programs “can lead to maintenance delays due to (original equipment manufacturer) availability, inability to obtain spare parts, and increased sustainment costs over time.” The office in charge of DoD acquisition and sustainment reported that even when DoD wants to pay for the needed sustainment rights, “companies’ ‘proposed costs for acquiring technical data, software, or the associated license rights were not deemed fair and reasonable.’”
“Enabling service members to train in repair and maintenance skills helps them during their service, but also following their separation from the military,” argued Senator Warren, noting that after World War II, tens of thousands of service members returned home and created the specialty automotive aftermarket using the skills they acquired during their service.
“NDIA’s last-ditch efforts to oppose commonsense and bipartisan legislation that is a Trump administration priority appears to be a desperate attempt to cling to a status quo that makes big defense contractors billions of dollars a year at taxpayer expense,” wrote Senator Warren.
She asked the organization to provide, by November 19, 2025, information about:
- NDIA’s lobbying efforts to defeat the reforms;
- How much its members made on operations and maintenance contracts with the military in the last five years;
- How many small businesses NDIA represents and whether they’ve voiced concerns about the proposed reforms; and
- A breakdown of NDIA’s members’ stances on the proposed right to repair reforms.
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