ROA has met with professional staff on both the House and Senate Armed Services committees and is now launching a conferee education and advocacy campaign on the Fiscal Year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act. The effort comes as the conference process got underway, unofficially, in mid-September, with House and Senate negotiators beginning to reconcile H.R. 8800, which the House passed July 22, and S. 4784, as reported by the Senate Armed Services Committee.
To guide that work, ROA has submitted to the Hill its FY 2027 NDAA Conference Position Matrix, a side-by-side comparison of the Reserve Component provisions in each bill, paired with ROA’s recommended outcome for conferees on each issue.
This year’s NDAA includes a substantial set of provisions that strengthen the Reserve Components, a direct result of ROA’s engagement with members and staff throughout the FY 2027 cycle. ROA enters conference well postured but cautiously optimistic, since many of these provisions appear in only one chamber’s bill.
Duty Status Reform
Duty Status Reform remains ROA’s top NDAA priority. Jurisdictional challenges kept it out of bill text this year, though both committees addressed it in report language: the House on cost fidelity and the Senate in support of the Department’s consolidation efforts. ROA is asking conferees to carry the House report direction into the joint explanatory statement while it works toward resolution next cycle. DSR was a hot-button issue in last week’s meeting with Senate Armed Services Committee professional staff, and ROA will meet with staff again before the end of the year to explore it further, including ensuring the personnel and pay infrastructure is in place for seamless implementation once DSR is ready to be codified.
Aeromedical Evacuation
Senate Sec. 742 mirrors much of Sen. Ted Cruz’s RESCUE Act by requiring the Medical Service Corps to maintain a dedicated aeromedical evacuation capability, keeping medical command and control with the Army Medical Department, and barring restructuring into general-purpose aviation without prior notification and a formal risk assessment. ROA asks the House to recede to Sec. 742 and the related casualty estimation report in Sec. 745. Because Sec. 742 does not name the Army Reserve and permits restructuring after notification, ROA also urges conferees to pair it with the House’s Expeditionary Combat Aviation Brigade language to close that component-specific gap.
Travel Reimbursement
Senate Sec. 601 would raise the eligibility threshold for inactive duty training and muster travel reimbursement from 50 to 100 miles, delay the effective date to Jan. 1, 2028, and require a cost estimate. ROA views this as premature rescoping of a benefit that has never been funded or tested. The organization asks the Senate to recede or, alternatively, to replace Sec. 601 with a directed study of the full existing authority, broken out by component.
When Senate Armed Services Committee staff asked ROA for its thoughts on implementation, ROA suggested delaying the existing authority one year to ensure conformity with the reporting requirements in the original statute, and offered the Reserve Forces Travel Fairness Act (H.R. 7593), which would provide rental vehicle reimbursement at a 150-mile threshold, as a cost-conscious compromise in the interim. The suggestion seemed to be well received, but only time will tell the provision’s fate. Longer term, ROA believes the next Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation is the right venue for a broader look at Reserve Component pay and benefits.
Selected Reserve Dental Readiness
House Sec. 701 would create a no-premium, no-copay TRICARE dental plan for Selected Reserve members in pay grades E-1 through E-4, and House Sec. 777 would direct a GAO study of Reserve Component dental readiness, including the $1,500 annual benefit cap. The Senate bill has no counterpart. ROA urges the Senate to recede to Sec. 701 and, at minimum, to retain the GAO study as a floor. A study required by the FY 2023 NDAA estimated that a premium-free dental plan for the entire Selected Reserve would cost about $83 million a year; the House provision covers only junior enlisted members, a fraction of that cost. The House has included premium-free or reduced-cost Selected Reserve dental coverage in each of the last three NDAAs.
At the Sept. 14 joint Advocacy Day, ROA, the U.S. Air Force Reserve and the Air Force Reserve Advisory Council advocated together for the dental readiness study to make it into the final bill. ROA raised it again in last week’s meeting with Senate Armed Services Committee staff.
Expeditionary Combat Aviation Brigades
ROA is asking conferees to accept House Sec. 1071, which limits funding to deactivate or reduce Expeditionary Combat Aviation Brigades, and Sec. 1084, which requires an annual Army Transformation Initiative report through 2032. With the Army’s ECAB deactivation date of Sept. 15 now past and no replacement capability expected before 2030, ROA considers the Sec. 1071(b) requirement to reinstate deactivated units within one year the operative remedy and seeks to keep it in full.
ROA recently shared Rep. Morgan Luttrell’s social media post and Rep. Derek Tran’s statement on the deactivations. In his Sept. 15 statement, Tran called the Army’s decision to follow through with the deactivations deeply disappointing, noting that the medical evacuation unit at Joint Forces Training Base Los Alamitos was a critical asset for emergency and disaster relief across Southern California, and warning that deactivating the brigades without a plan to fill the gap will hurt communities at home and weaken readiness for global conflicts. The deactivation affects 150 soldiers and 34 civilians at Los Alamitos who, according to Tran, were not given meaningful options to continue serving. Luttrell, whose district includes the 158th Aviation Regiment in Conroe, Texas, called the move “an unacceptable gamble with our nation’s readiness” and pledged that Congress will press forward to correct the mistake and restore the lost capabilities. Tran, Luttrell and Rep. Jeff Crank introduced the Prohibit Deactivation of the ECABs Act of 2026, part of which was included in the House-passed NDAA, and on Sept. 10 Tran wrote to House Appropriations leadership seeking protection for ECAB flight hours in the FY 2027 budget.
Reserve Component Chief Grades
ROA supports House Sec. 505, which would set in statute the three-star grade for the Chief of Army Reserve, Chief of Navy Reserve, Commander of Marine Forces Reserve and Chief of Air Force Reserve. Congress first elevated the Reserve chiefs to three-star grade in the FY 2001 NDAA. The FY 2017 NDAA later struck the requirement that the Chief of Army Reserve hold the grade of lieutenant general while serving, leaving the grade to practice rather than law. Sec. 505 would restore that certainty. The Reserve Components make up nearly half of total U.S. military end strength, and their chiefs need grade parity in budgeting, force design and joint planning.
TAMP Enrollment
ROA supports House Sec. 713, which requires that members be able to enroll in transitional health care under the Transitional Assistance Management Program within two business days of the start of the 180-day transition period.
Faster enrollment matters more after the Aug. 10 Under Secretary of War (P&R) memo on TAMP eligibility, which neither bill addresses. The memo confirms that Reserve Component members who volunteer for active duty under 10 U.S.C. 12301(d) qualify for TAMP, and that members need not show their service was connected to a war, contingency operation or national emergency. It also allows members found ineligible on or after April 24, 2020, to seek reimbursement for civilian health coverage and care costs, including premiums and out-of-pocket expenses, by emailing the Defense Health Agency.
ROA welcomed the change and wrote to the Department with a request for information on how it will work in practice, including what happens after a member contacts the DHA inbox, whether any deadlines apply to reimbursement claims, and what recourse exists if a claim is denied. That request remains unanswered, even as ROA continues to field member questions the memo alone cannot resolve.
Military-to-Civilian Transition
ROA has urged congressional oversight of the implementation of its last two transition-focused NDAA successes: the individualized Transition Assistance Program counseling pathway for Reserve Component members enacted in the FY 2025 NDAA, and the FY 2026 NDAA provision allowing Reserve Component members to waive certain TAP requirements. ROA also backs this year’s bicameral provisions designating a senior official for military-to-civilian transition, while maintaining that a Senate-confirmed under secretary for transition is the right long-term structure.
TRICARE Reserve Select and IRR Transfer
ROA supports Senate report language requiring a briefing by March 1, 2027, on TRICARE Reserve Select termination timing for members transferring to the Individual Ready Reserve or separating. Members cannot predict when orders will issue and cannot arrange other coverage in time.
The issue carries more weight after the Department’s March update to its IRR policy, which declares that the IRR is first and foremost a mobilization asset and that deliberative plans will account for its use, especially for full mobilization. Speaking to Task & Purpose, ROA Director of Programs Steve Minyard, a former senior enlisted advisor for the Pentagon office that oversees IRR policy, said the language reflects a new philosophy, noting that the mobilization-asset framing “was not in the other one. So this isn’t just a place for people to ride out their contract.” If the IRR is now a mobilization asset, members moving into it deserve predictable health coverage on the way in.
Weekend Drill Child Care
ROA supports House Sec. 579C, which directs each military department to study Reserve Component weekend drill child care programs, an important piece of family readiness.
Dual Status Technicians
Both bills would sunset the National Guard dual status technician program under 32 U.S.C. 709, with the Senate adding protections for state disaster response and employees near retirement. ROA’s reading of the language is that it affects only the program under 32 U.S.C. 709.
Army Reserve and Army National Guard Facilities
ROA urges caution on Senate report language encouraging an assessment of transferring Army Reserve facility sustainment to the Army National Guard. Any arrangement must rest on an equitable framework so that neither component is subordinated in basing, stationing or facility decisions.
Looking Ahead
ROA will be engaging conferees and their staffs directly in the weeks ahead. Members who want to add their voices can contact their representatives and senators, particularly those serving on the Armed Services committees.
For more information, contact Matthew L. Schwartzman, Director, Legislation and Military Policy, at mschwartzman@roa.org.