U.S. House Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) are seeking to remove a provision from the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would significantly expand defense technology cooperation between the United States and Israel, setting up a potential fight on the House floor over the scope of military ties between the two countries. The lawmakers are backing an amendment that would strike Section 219 of the Fiscal Year 2027 NDAA. The provision, previously designated as Section 224 before the legislation was renumbered, was submitted as an amendment to the House Rules Committee after an earlier effort to remove the language failed when the House Armed Services Committee considered the bill. Section 219 would establish a “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative” and direct the Defense Department to expand cooperation with Israel in areas including missile defense, counter-drone systems, cyber capabilities, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, autonomous systems, directed-energy weapons, biotechnology, defense manufacturing and other emerging military technologies. “If the provision in the NDAA to integrate/synchronize the U.S. and Israeli militaries (section 224) makes it out of committee, I’ll offer an amendment to strip it from the bill on the floor,” Massie wrote on X, arguing that it would move beyond traditional cooperation between allies. “We are a sovereign country.”