


Two House Republicans voted with their Democratic colleagues to pass an amendment on the annual defense policy bill that prevents the Department of Defense from using any of next year’s budget to rename Army bases.
Reps. Don Bacon (R-NE) and Derek Schmidt (R-KS) were the two Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee to buck party lines and vote with the Democrats in favor of the amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday.
Recommended Stories
- Yemeni military intercepts 'massive' shipment of Iranian weapons meant for Houthis
- Moscow mocks Trump’s ‘theatrical ultimatum,’ while Trump tells Ukraine to pull its punches
- Army extends reach into Pacific with latest transformation initiative move
The committee approved this year’s NDAA in a bipartisan vote after going through hours of voting on proposed amendments. Democrats offered many amendments, but most were voted down in party line votes, but Bacon and Schmidt’s votes allowed for the one related to the base namings to pass.
The Army, under the last administration, renamed nine Army bases which had namesakes that had ties with the Confederacy. President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed to bring back the old names and have followed through on that promise to date but with a loophole.
The service identified unrelated former Army soldiers who shared the same last name as the confederate service members who were the namesakes of the bases.
Many of the bases have already held redesignation ceremonies.
Hegseth ordered Fort Liberty and Fort Moore to have the names reverted to Fort Bragg and Benning earlier this year and then Trump announced last month that the other seven bases would have its names changed back during a speech at Fort Bragg marking the Army’s 250th anniversary.
“That’s the name, and Fort Bragg it shall always remain. That’s never going to be happening again,” the president said. “We are also going to be restoring the names to Fort Pickett, Fort Hood, Fort Gordon, Fort Rucker, Fort Polk, Fort AP Hill, and Fort Robert E. Lee.”
WHY TRUMP’S CLEVER NAME GAME WITH ARMY BASES IS ‘MIDDLE FINGER’ TO CONGRESS
Trump disagreed with the suggestion of renaming bases during his first term as well.
In December 2020, Trump issued a rare veto of the must-pass fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, specifically objecting to its requirement to rename military bases that honored Confederate generals. Despite his opposition, the legislation became law.