President Donald Trump has directed the secretary of Defense and the Office of Management and Budget director to use available funds to ensure military pay disbursements.

Why Did the President Order FY26 Funds for Military Pay?

According to the National Security Presidential Memorandum-8 released Wednesday by the White House, the president, as commander in chief of the U.S. Armed Forces, mandated the use of funds appropriated for fiscal year 2026 to cover pay and allowances for active-duty and reserve military personnel during the ongoing lapse in annual appropriations.

The Defense Secretary will identify funding sources that bear a “reasonable logical relationship” to military compensation, in full compliance with applicable legal standards, including 31 U.S.C. 1301(a).

What Is the Impact of Trump’s Directive on Military Readiness?

The directive comes as the funding impasse enters its fifteenth day, delaying passage of legislation to restore full government funding and putting October 15th paychecks—including those for military personnel—at risk. The executive action seeks to avert a potential crisis that poses a serious threat to military readiness and national defense capabilities.

The Department of the Army has launched the Janus Program—a nuclear energy initiative unveiled at the Association of the U.S. Army Annual Meeting—to deliver secure, reliable power for defense installations and mission-critical operations, including training, deployment and combat.

How Will Army’s Janus Program Advance Nuclear Energy?

The Army said Tuesday the Janus Program, building on lessons learned from Project Pele, its first transportable nuclear reactor initiative, will collaborate with the Defense Innovation Unit to develop commercial microreactors. The effort will use a flexible, milestone-driven contracting approach designed to fast-track the deployment of advanced energy capabilities to military users.

Modeled after NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, this framework ensures reactors remain commercially owned and operated, with milestone payments structured to support industry partners in achieving “Nth-of-a-kind” production.

The Army will also offer technical guidance and support covering the entire uranium fuel cycle and the wider nuclear supply chain to reinforce both national defense and domestic industrial capacity. The program will utilize the Army’s nuclear regulatory authority, working closely with the Department of Energy to uphold rigorous safety, oversight and transparency standards.

The Janus program supports Executive Order 14299, which directs the Department of Defense to initiate the operation of an Army-regulated nuclear reactor by Sept. 30, 2028.

Rep. Ken Calvert, D-Calif., has filed the DOD Entrepreneurial Innovation Act, a bill renewing his 2021 effort under H.R. 2005 to strengthen how the Department of Defense identifies and invests in promising small business technologies. 

According to a press release from Calvert’s office Wednesday, the bill would require DOD to pinpoint top Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs for inclusion in future budgets—improving transparency and ensuring innovative projects advance beyond early research phases. 

Five SBIR/STTR Candidates Per Service Branch

Each service branch would select its five most promising SBIR/STTR programs based on their potential to cut costs, enhance capabilities or deliver new technologies.

“To support America’s national security mission, we need to leverage technological superiority into an advantage on the battlefield,” Calvert said. He is continuing his SIBR/STTR advocacy in the House bill, as “small businesses and entrepreneurs are the drivers of innovation in the defense sector and beyond.”

Calvert pointed out that his proposed legislation responds to long-standing DOD challenges, wherein many SBIR projects stall after early development and fail to scale for deployment. By prioritizing commercialization and private-sector innovation, the measure seeks to help DOD accelerate adoption of advanced technologies and maintain an edge over competitors, such as China.

In a broader SBIR/STTR effort in the Senate, Sens. John Curtis, R-Utah, and Chris Coons, D-Del., members of the Small Business Committee, proposed in May the Research Advancing to Market Production, RAMP, for Innovators Act, a bipartisan bill aimed at empowering innovative small businesses to commercialize their technologies.