Legislation currently being debated behind closed doors in Congress could restore collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of civilian workers in the Department of Defense.
In September, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to restore collective bargaining rights for DoD civilian workers through Section 1110 of the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (HR 3838). That section, called the Norcross Amendment after Rep. Donald Norcross (D-N.J.), would restore collective bargaining rights for nearly all DoD civilian workers and reaffirm Congress’ commitment to protecting the civilian employees whose work is essential to supporting our warfighters and America’s national defense.
There is no similar provision in the Senate version of the NDAA, so it’s critical that the Norcross Amendment be retained during conference negotiations between the House and Senate on the final version of the NDAA.
“We understand that the final bill language will be agreed on in the coming days or weeks, and this is an absolute critical moment for influencing the outcome of this bill,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley told DoD local and council union leaders on a call Nov. 24.
AFGE Defense Conference (DEFCON) Chair Carl Dahms urged all AFGE members to contact their U.S. senators, regardless of party affiliation, and urge them to support the Norcross Amendment.
“We need as much support as we can get for this thing,” Dahms said.
There is a concurrent effort to restore collective bargaining rights for about 1 million federal employees across the federal government through passage of the bipartisan Protect America’s Workforce Act. Just this month, a discharge petition to compel a vote on the bill reached the required 218 signatures – meaning the House likely will vote on the bill this month.
It’s unclear whether there’s enough support in Congress to ensure passage of the Protect America’s Workforce Act, but the chances of restoring collective bargaining rights to DoD workers are greater given the must-pass nature of the National Defense Authorization Act, AFGE Legislative Director Daniel Horowitz said.
“There's been an NDAA every single year for the last 60 years, so if we get it in here, there's a very strong chance of getting it into law within a matter of a few weeks, maybe by the holidays. The discharge petition has a much more difficult path to enactment, so we really need to treat those as two separate things,” Horowitz said.
Restoring collective bargaining rights for DoD employees is just the first step in a larger effort to defeat Trump’s anti-union executive orders, Dahms said.
“This has been an attack on all federal employees. Hopefully, we have a way out of this for DoD employees,” he said.
Take action: Tell your U.S. Senators to restore collective bargaining rights for DoD workers.
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