Private military contractors receive an enormous share of Pentagon spending every year. Taxpayers are told these massive contracts are necessary for national security. But corporations collecting billions from the Pentagon are simultaneously pouring billions into stock buybacks that enrich executives and wealthy shareholders.

Our research found that the federal government spent more than $866 billion on military contracts from 2022 through 2024. Just 25 publicly traded corporations received $610 billion of those Pentagon contracts, along with another $128 billion in other federal contracts. Those same corporations spent $131 billion buying back their own stock during the same three years.

Lockheed Martin, RTX, and General Dynamics alone received roughly $316 billion in federal contracts while spending nearly $37 billion on stock buybacks. These companies are benefiting enormously from public spending while directing tens of billions toward Wall Street.

The Senate FY27 National Defense Authorization Act includes a bipartisan provision that would finally put some guardrails on this behavior. Section 815, authored and introduced by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Josh Hawley, would bar defense contractors from making stock buybacks or paying dividends unless they receive approval from the Department of Defense.

The overall NDAA continues a Pentagon spending system that funnels more than half of its budget to private contractors, including companies that have repeatedly been caught overcharging taxpayers. That needs to change. But as long as Congress keeps sending contractors hundreds of billions of public dollars, corporations should not have a free hand to prioritize shareholder payouts over workers, productive investment, and the work taxpayers hired them to perform.

Section 815 is a bipartisan step toward accountability. Congress should strengthen oversight of Pentagon contractors, not strip away one of the few provisions attempting to rein in corporate profiteering.

Tell your senators to protect Section 815 and ensure it remains in the final FY27 NDAA.