Chairman Mast Applauds NDAA Passage with HFAC-led Amendments

WASHINGTON, D.C.- Today, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast applauded the passage of this year’s National Defense Authorization Act, which includes several key HFAC-led provisions. 

“This bill delivers exactly what America has needed — bombs and bullets from America, for America,” said Chairman Mast. “But it also does something very important — it rebuilds American foreign policy.”  

Included within the NDAA are several bipartisan measures advanced by the committee as part of its first full State Department reauthorization in more than two decades. The measures reassert command and control of the State Department and ensure every dollar and every diplomat puts America first. 

This includes explicit authorizations for core State Department and U.S. foreign policy functions: 

Under Secretary for Management:

• Locks in a clear chain of command inside the State Department’s management arm.
• Requires counterintelligence training for personnel serving at high-threat posts.

Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy:

• Modernizes public diplomacy to lead the fight against foreign propaganda and disinformation.
• Aligns exchanges, educational programs, and messaging with real U.S. strategic outcomes.
• Creates a permanent bureau to drive public diplomacy mission and imposes real reporting and safeguards to protect free speech. 

Under Secretary for Political Affairs:

• Puts the State Department’s top regional leadership into statute for the first time.
• Codifies all seven regional assistant secretaries.
• Creates a unit to counter China.

Development Finance Corporation Reauthorization:

• Reauthorizes and expands the DFC’s ability to invest in strategic projects
• Allows carefully limited investments in high-income countries for national security priorities like energy, critical minerals, undersea cables, and telecom
• Caps risk, tightens oversight, and modernizes leadership so the DFC can move faster and smarter against China. 

“Under Joe Biden, less than 15% of the state department has been authorized. This takes that number to about 40% and we're ready to do more work on that front as we move into the next year,” said Chairman Mast. 

Other HFAC-led measures include:

Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security (COINS) Act

• Stops American money from flowing into companies that directly help China’s military.
• Codifies Trump’s outbound investment restrictions and expands them beyond China to Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Cuba.
• Widens the tech covered to include AI, chips, quantum, supercomputing, and now hypersonics.

Countering Wrongful Detention Act

• Gives the Secretary of State the power to formally label countries that take Americans hostage.
• Unlocks sanctions to pressure those designated governments for release.
• Puts real consequences behind the words “wrongful detention.”

International Nuclear Energy Act

• Puts America back in the lead on nuclear innovation and exports.
• Builds financing, training, safety, and partnership tools so U.S. nuclear wins abroad — not Beijing or Moscow.
• Creates a nuclear export working group and launches long-term cooperation programs.
• Establishes a national infrastructure strategy to back projects critical to U.S. security.

BUST (Breakup Suspicious Transactions of) Fentanyl Act

• Requires the State Department to report on China’s actions to control fentanyl chemical precursor flows into Mexico and the United States.
• Directs the President to assess whether senior Chinese officials have facilitated opioid trafficking by allowing the shipment of fentanyl chemical precursors
• Expands mandatory sanctions to include Chinese entities, including banks, determined to be responsible.

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