Episode 7: The Truth Behind the NDAA Process

Congress passes exactly one bill every year without fail. The NDAA has cleared for more than six decades straight, and that streak hides one of the most dysfunctional processes in Washington.

In this episode, Doug Truax and Will Thibeau open the hood on how it actually works: a calendar that jams the year's most important defense decisions into a lame-duck window, an authorization that grants permission without money attached, and a must-pass status that turns warfighting priorities into trading stock.

Then they get into what that dysfunction costs — how a provision that clears the Senate can vanish before it ever reaches the President's desk, why the Senate's merit and standards reforms are at risk this fall, and what a member's office can still do about it while the conference is open.