💥 Put People Before the Pentagon: Support the Slash the Pentagon Act
Support the Slash the Pentagon Act and demand power to the people—not the war machine. Tell Congress to invest in healthcare, housing, food, and good jobs.
🗽Tell your Member of Congress: Support the Slash the Pentagon Act
Friends,
At a time when families are struggling to afford housing, health care, groceries, utilities, and child care, President Trump is demanding an unprecedented expansion of military spending. Senator Ed Markey’s Slash the Pentagon Act, S. 4799, offers a clear alternative: invest in people instead of pouring another mountain of public money into weapons, military contractors, and endless war.
The bill would cap the amount Congress could authorize for the fiscal year 2027 national defense budget at $750 billion—half of the Trump administration’s proposed $1.5 trillion military budget. Importantly, the legislation would prohibit the Defense Department from meeting the cap by cutting the Defense Health Program or military personnel accounts, protecting service members’ health care, pay, and other personnel funding.
The bill does not automatically transfer the savings into domestic programs or identify every Pentagon program that should be reduced. Instead, it establishes a firm spending ceiling and requires policymakers to make choices about overpriced weapons systems, failed programs, excessive contractor profits, and other wasteful expenditures.
Senator Markey argues that the proposed $750 billion difference could instead support investments that make people genuinely safer—including canceling medical debt, fully funding SNAP for two years, providing a decade of Head Start and Early Head Start, and expanding and electrifying passenger rail. These examples are not spending provisions contained in the bill, but they demonstrate what becomes possible when Congress stops treating the Pentagon as the only agency entitled to unlimited resources.
Where the bill stands
Senator Markey introduced the Slash the Pentagon Act S. 4799 on June 16, 2026. It was read twice and referred to the Senate Armed Services Committee, where it is currently pending. It has not yet received a committee hearing, markup, Senate floor vote, or House vote. Available congressional tracking sources currently list Markey as the bill’s sole sponsor.
That means public pressure matters now. Take Action » Tell your Member of Congress: Support the Slash the Pentagon Act
People can support the Slash the Pentagon Act by contacting both of their U.S. senators and asking them to cosponsor S. 4799, urging members of the Senate Armed Services Committee to hold a hearing and vote on the bill, and demanding that Senate leaders bring it to the floor. Supporters should also ask House members to introduce companion legislation and press lawmakers to include the bill’s $750 billion ceiling in the defense authorization and appropriations process.
Congress repeatedly tells us that programs helping families are too expensive while handing the Pentagon nearly unlimited funds. The Slash the Pentagon Act rejects that upside-down set of priorities.
Our tax dollars should strengthen our communities—not enrich military contractors and bankroll more unnecessary wars.
Thanks for taking action!
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The time has come for the PEOPLE TO TAKE OVER THIS WAR! Trump’s failing miserably and AMERICANS ARE SUFFERING!
Hi, Laurie.
I wanted to flag a story idea about Trump’s expanding control over critical materials, especially rare earths. There’s a strong investigative angle here around how the administration is using federal stakes, price floors, and deal-making to shape ownership and competition in strategically important industries.
A piece on this would help explain whether this is ordinary industrial policy or something closer to a government monopoly over the materials that power semiconductors, defense, batteries, and manufacturing. MP Materials and Vulcan Elements would be strong examples to anchor the story, along with the broader pattern across Intel, lithium, and steel.
Could you please write something about this? Thank you so much!
The Pentagon’s $620 million loan to Vulcan Elements—soon after investment from Donald Trump Jr.’s venture firm—raises questions about transparency, influence, and the rapid push to expand domestic rare earth production.