All three cited sources are reachable and substantiate the outcome for this specific promise. The two primary Senate Appropriations Committee releases identify McConnell as Chair of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and quote him leading the case for the FY2026 Defense bill: source 1 confirms $851.9B in discretionary funding, a 26-3 committee vote, and the verbatim quote "steady, consistent, predictable, increasing investments in the common defense, year after year"; source 2 confirms the enacted $838.7B topline and the verbatim quote "Robust full-year defense appropriations are how we show we're serious about restoring peace through strength." Breaking Defense (secondary) confirms the $838.7B topline is an $8.4B increase over the Pentagon's request and situates McConnell as the top Republican on the defense subcommittee shaping the final bill. This clears the CHAMPIONED leadership bar: as subcommittee chairman he authored/steered the vehicle and publicly championed increased defense funding — genuine leadership, not a lone vote or passive support, which is exactly what the promise ("actively use his position as Chairman ... to pursue increased U.S. defense funding") describes. Confidence is high but not certain: the promise spans the full 119th Congress, and forward-looking risk around the FY2027 cycle (his reported mid-2026 medical absence) remains, but that does not undercut the already-delivered FY2026 cycle. The only minor blemish is that source 3's quote in the rating is a light paraphrase, though the load-bearing figures ($838.7B, $8.4B over request) appear verbatim in the article.