Warren Exposes “Dangerous and Misguided” Effort By Defense Contractor Lobbyists to Undermine Right to Repair Reforms

Text of Letter (PDF)
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:
Anindependent 2023 reportalso 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 Officereview found thatvendor 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 sustainmentreported that even when DoDwants 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 andcreated the specialty automotive aftermarketusing 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:
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