U.S. House Committee approves US$1.15 billion for Taiwan defense

Washington, Jan. 20 (CNA) A U.S. House of Representative committee released its version of the 2026 Consolidated Appropriations Act on Monday that included US$1.15 billion (NT$36.4 billion) to support security cooperation with Taiwan.

The omnibus act, covering a total of US$1.2 trillion in spending, allocates US$1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative (TSCI) and US$150 million for the replacement of defense articles and reimbursement of defense services provided to Taiwan.

Those fund allocations were based on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026 that was passed by Congress in December 2025 and authorized up to US$1 billion to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) in support of the TSCI.

The TSCI is designed to bolster Taiwan's self‑defense capabilities by providing funding for areas such as medical support, training, and joint development of unmanned systems with the United States, consistent with the Taiwan Relations Act.

Whether this funding actually gets released will depend on how the Consolidated Appropriations Act proceeds through Congress.

After partisan wrangling over the government budget forced the longest government shutdown in U.S. history in October and November 2025, lawmakers seem interested in wanting to get funding bills, including the act, passed by Jan. 30 to avoid another shutdown.

They stressed the bipartisan nature of the negotiations on budget legislation, but the bills still need to get through the Senate, which, according to USA Today, is scheduled to be out of town the rest of the week, and the full House, expected be out all of next week, by the Jan. 30 deadline.

(By Chung Yu-cheng and Chris Wang) enditem/ls