Pentagon leader can sign contracts with states and cities for defense offices.
H.R. 10646 — To amend title 10, United States Code, to authorize the Secretary of Defense to enter into intergovernmental support agreements on behalf of Defense Agencies, and for other purposes. · Filed by Joyce Beatty (D-OH) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Oct 1, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
The bill lets the Secretary of Defense sign contracts with state and local governments. Right now, only the heads of each military branch can do this. The bill changes the rules so the Secretary of Defense can do it for all defense offices. This could make buying work faster and cheaper across the whole defense system.
Who it affects
Defense offices will be affected. State and local governments that sell work to military bases will be affected. Companies that provide work to military bases will be affected.
One thing to notice
The bill does not say what counts as work to help bases run. The bill does not say how the public or states can check what the Secretary of Defense does.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Oct 1, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Oct 1, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Armed Services · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Armed Services”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- Secretary of Defense — The top official who runs the U.S. military and defense offices.
- defense offices — Federal offices that help the military but are not military branches.
- contracts — Deals between the federal government and state or local governments for work.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (296 characters) on Oct 6, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Pentagon leader can sign contracts with states and cities for defense offices.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr10646/simple Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.