Washington, D.C. This week military families applaud lawmakers for including pillars of SFI’s Military Family Bill of Rights in the final negotiated version of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Developed collectively by a group of actively-serving family members across different branches, ranks, and backgrounds, the Military Family Bill of Rights in its entirety establishes a baseline standard of safety and dignity for all families, regardless of where their service member is stationed.
“For generations, active-duty military spouses and their children—many of whom are immigrants, Indigenous peoples, or descendants of people who survived enslavement—have carried an invisible weight of service. We moved when we were told to move, rebuilt our lives on command, experienced housing and financial instability, and faced threats to our physical safety–all while holding our families together without the same protections granted to private citizens,” said Brandi Jones, Organizing Director at Secure Families Initiative. “Today, Congress took the necessary step toward changing our laws for the better. Today, history shifted.”
The bipartisan, bicameral NDAA bill text includes the following Bill of Rights provisions:
- A notification process for military families when known sex offenders are working or living on military installations where families live, work, or enroll their children in school. If passed, the Secretary of Defense will have one year to establish this policy. (Sec. 565)
- The requirement that all families permanently changing their duty station (PCSing) receive accessible information and briefing materials from their service branch detailing the various family assistance programs that will be available at their next location at least 45 days before their move. This will include resources related to housing, mental health and wellbeing, school transition and special education, and legal and financial counseling. (Sec. 662)
- Improvements to the staffing of and training for special education teachers and staff in Department of Defense schools. (Sec. 589B)
- Reporting language compelling a Comptroller General review of each branch’s compassionate reassignment policies, in order to determine whether existing processes sufficiently serve families.
In addition to these historic provisions, the defense bill notably includes the long-overdue repeal of the 1991 Gulf War and 2002 Iraq War authorizations (AUMFs). This is language that the post-9/11 generation of military families have advocated for for years. It is impossible to measure the physical and emotional scars that these wars have left on the military families who served through them. For decades, vague and outdated AUMFs have enabled Presidents from both parties to drag our country into new conflicts with little or no oversight from Congress. For us, that has meant living with fear that our loved ones could be sent into harm’s way without transparency or accountability. The proposed repeals are a decisive move toward realigning our country’s war powers with the U.S. Constitution: Article I, Section 8, where Congress alone is granted the authority to declare war.
This defense bill still needs to make a final round through the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate before heading to the President’s desk. The House Rules Committee will meet to discuss the bill on Tuesday, December 9th in the afternoon.
More from Brandi Jones about the Military Family Bill of Rights:
“As someone who has walked this path of service, I am profoundly honored to have created the Campaign behind the Bill of Rights—a movement born from pain, persistence, and the belief that our stories have power. This win belongs to every brave military family who stepped forward, who told the truth to lawmakers, and who insisted that our lives, our children, and our safety matter.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once reminded us: “The time is always right to do what is right.” His words echo through this moment, because what happened today is right. It is overdue. And it is historic.
To every military spouse and child who shared their story—you changed the future. Your courage moved a nation. And today, we stand in gratitude and victory together.”
Press Contacts:
Brandi Jones / brandi.jones@securefamiliesinitiative.org
Sarah Streyder / sarah.streyder@securefamiliesinitiative.org
