IVF, China, and housing: Congress works through final defense bill holdups

Published December 5, 2025 6:00am ET



Eleventh-hour negotiations are delaying the release of Congress’s annual defense bill, a sweeping policy blueprint for the Pentagon that leadership hopes to pass in the next two weeks.

The National Defense Authorization Act was slated for release on Thursday, teeing up a final vote before the end of the year. But that timeline has slipped by a couple of days, with text now expected to be made public this weekend, according to a source familiar with the matter.

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