John,
The Senate returns to Washington on Monday for a short pre-election voting session. Before senators leave for their final recess ahead of Election Day, they could look to move the bloated FY27 National Defense Authorization Act.
A floor vote is not locked in yet. But September is one of the last windows to decide whether a rare bipartisan accountability provision survives, or whether Pentagon contractors and their lobbyists get it stripped out. Section 815, authored and introduced by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Josh Hawley, would bar covered defense contractors from making stock buybacks or paying dividends unless they get approval from the Department of Defense.1,2
We oppose the overall NDAA. More than half of Pentagon spending already goes to private military contractors, including companies that have repeatedly been caught overcharging taxpayers. That system needs to change. But as long as Congress keeps sending weapons contractors hundreds of billions of public dollars, those corporations should not have a free hand to prioritize shareholder payouts over workers, productive investment, and the work taxpayers hired them to perform.
Our research found that the federal government spent more than $866 billion on military contracts from 2022 through 2024. Just 25 publicly traded corporations received $610 billion in Pentagon contracts and another $128 billion in other federal contracts. Those same companies spent $131 billion buying back their own stock during those three years.3
Donate now to help us fight the bloated Pentagon spending bill and keep real limits on Pentagon contractors who take taxpayer money and hand it to shareholders.
Lockheed Martin, RTX, and General Dynamics alone received roughly $316 billion in federal contracts while spending nearly $37 billion on stock buybacks. Lockheed Martin alone received nearly $168 billion in Pentagon contracts and spent $17.6 billion buying back its own stock.
Those payouts have consequences. Stock buybacks are linked to wage stagnation, layoffs, slower investment, and reduced innovation. Equity-based compensation makes up more than 80% of CEO pay, giving top executives an enormous incentive to push up share prices while workers are overwhelmingly paid in wages.
Section 815 would not ban every buyback forever. The Defense Department could still approve one when a company can actually make the case. What it would end is the assumption that contractors can collect massive public contracts and treat shareholder payouts as business as usual.
More than 17,000 messages have already gone to Congress demanding lawmakers stop this profiteering. Americans for Tax Fairness led a coalition of 12 organizations representing millions of workers and families, including active-duty service members and veterans, in delivering that demand directly to Capitol Hill.
Please donate today to fund our research, advocacy, and organizing through every stage of this fight including the September window, when the Senate could still move on the NDAA before the election.
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Together, we can put working people and taxpayers ahead of Wall Street payouts.
David Kass
Executive Director
Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund
1 Senate NDAA Would Impose Sweeping New Restrictions on Stock Buybacks and Dividends by Defense Contractors
2 Warren, Lee Publish New Bipartisan Analysis Revealing Progress on Limiting Defense Contractor Stock Buybacks
3 ATF Tell the Senate: Crackdown on Pentagon Contractor Profiteering
