Congress returns November 9 with a brutal lame-duck calendar and the looming threat of a government shutdown. In addition to the basic but always contentious job of funding the government before the December 11 deadline, lawmakers will have to contend with the expired farm bill, the lapsed FISA surveillance authority, and the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The NDAA sets Pentagon policy on everything from drone and counter-drone warfare, ships, planes, and enlisted pay raises to how the Pentagon buys and uses robots, and it is tangled up in a fight over the administration’s request for a record $1.5 trillion for defense, which Senate Democrats reject. With so much packed into so short a calendar, robots won’t get the attention they deserve, even though we can’t build or secure our future without them.
The FY2026 defense bill extended supply-chain restrictions to ground robots from foreign adversaries, and the FY2027 bill, which is still unfinished, would go further. The House version bars the Pentagon from buying adversary-made humanoid robots and requires a report on how it will reduce its reliance on foreign-made robotic systems, while the Senate committee’s version would permit a four-star Robotic and Autonomous Systems Combatant Command. These measures all target machines that walk or roll. None touches the fixed arms that weld and assemble products, or the parts inside them, which are the 21st century’s ultimate power tool.
Why Robots Matter
Unlike the last technological boom, which perfected apps on our phones and gave us ride-shares and food delivery, what comes next requires building a lot of stuff. Big stuff: rockets, satellites, ships, sensors, and power equipment. For national security reasons, much of them must be built in America. That is great news on many fronts, except that over the past four decades we have gutted our manufacturing capacity and don’t have a national strategy to resurrect it.
During an April 21, 2026, hearing of the House Science Committee’s Subcommittee on Research and Technology, Evan Beard, co-founder and CEO of Standard Bots, which describes itself as America’s largest industrial robot manufacturer, testified:
“We find ourselves in a dire position today. The United States is no longer competitive in manufacturing, and we’re falling further behind every day. Any company that builds hardware can tell you that if you source from China instead of making it here, it’s generally 5 to 10 times cheaper. And it’s not just because of lower labor costs — it’s because of its national investment in robotics. In 2024, China installed nearly nine times the number of robots we did. The overwhelming majority of industrial robots in the world operate outside the United States, and the ones we do use were built somewhere else. This is an essential technology for economic resilience, national security, and self-determination — and we’ve handed it to our competitors.”
In his written testimony, Beard made a supply-chain point that stands out: every modern robot depends on motors, precision gears, encoders, and controllers, and he says the overwhelming majority are imported, most from China, where suppliers are rumored to run on margins near 4 percent. Even the strain wave gear inside most robot joints was patented by an American in 1955. The U.S. operation that makes it now belongs to a Japanese company.
The Editors, mtf.news4 min readFive Things America Must Do to Master Its Robotic Future
No matter what does or doesn’t pass by the end of the year, mastering robotics must be an American priority. It comes down to five things:
Make the parts here. Domestic production needs steady, predictable demand, because that is what brings private capital to a thin-margin business.
Put robots to work in small factories. Beard cites a National Association of Manufacturers figure that 74 percent of American manufacturers have fewer than 20 employees. Robots only help if those shops can pay for and use them.
Train the people. Robots need technicians, welders, and machinists.
Have a plan. China, Japan, South Korea, and Germany have had national robotics strategies for decades, Beard told the subcommittee. The U.S. has none.
Bring people along. None of this holds if the public is afraid. Explain what robots will and won’t do, take the privacy and job worries seriously, learn from the data center backlash (a Gallup survey found seven in 10 Americans oppose building one in their area), and start before headlines force the conversation.
The Takeaway
The real work starts in January 2027 when a new session of Congress takes office because the parts, machines, and workers behind an American robotics industry are the foundation for everything else the country plans and needs to build. Without a foundation, structures in all of their shapes, sizes and purposes crumble.
Sources
No Labels, The 2026 Lame-Duck Session: What Congress Still Has to Pass After the Midterms (Oct. 13, 2026): session start, Dec. 11 funding deadline, expired farm bill, lapsed FISA 702, $1.5 trillion request.
House Select Committee on the CCP, Effort to Ban Chinese Robots Moves Forward in House-Passed NDAA.
Punchbowl News, NDAA highlights fears over China’s robots.
Defense One, Senators want a new robot warfare-focused combatant command (June 2026).
sUAS News, Beyond DJI: US Defense Bill Expands Ban to Chinese Ground Drones and “Clones” (Dec. 2025).
Evan Beard, Standard Bots, testimony to the House Science Committee’s Subcommittee on Research and Technology, “Robots Made in America: Advancing U.S. Leadership in Manufacturing and Automation” (April 21, 2026): spoken testimony and written testimony.
Gallup, Americans Oppose AI Data Centers in Their Area (May 13, 2026).
