Consider a layered defense or a third interceptor site on the East Coast

What has happened

1. Dec 18, 2025 Partially done

   The FY2026 NDAA sec. 219 puts the "command and control and data integration architecture for layered integrated missile defense of the homeland" under Director of Operational Test and Evaluation reporting - Congress treating layered homeland defense as a program with an architecture to be tested, not a proposal to be considered. The Act funds Ballistic Missile Defense Midcourse Defense Segment at $825,919,000 and the Long Range Discrimination Radar at $60,443,000; nothing addresses a third interceptor site.

   • National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 (P.L. 119-60), sec. 219 - congressionally directed programs for test and evaluation oversight

     Primary Congress Dec 18, 2025

2. Jul 4, 2025 Partially done

   Congress enacted a layered homeland defense, which is the first of the Quote's two alternatives. Subsection (b) of section 20003 of the reconciliation act (P.L. 119-21) is headed "Layered Homeland Defense" and appropriates $2,200,000,000 for acceleration of hypersonic defense systems, $800,000,000 for next-generation ICBM defense, $1,975,000,000 for improved ground-based missile defense radars, $408,000,000 for Army space and strategic missile test range infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific and $530,000,000 for a Missile Defense Agency instrumentation range safety ship. No third Ground-based Midcourse Defense interceptor site on the East Coast is funded or directed.

   • P.L. 119-21 sec. 20003(b) - Layered Homeland Defense appropriations

     Primary Congress Jul 4, 2025