House seeks to bar Hegseth from restoring Confederate base names in defense bill amendment
The House Armed Services Committee passed an amendment to its annual defense policy bill barring the Pentagon from using any of the funds from next year's defense budget to rename Defense Department installations in honor of Confederate figures.
The amendment, which was proposed by Rep. Marilyn Strickland, a Democrat from Washington, barely eked its way into the bill, with two Republicans, Rep. Derek Schmidt of Kansas and Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, voting with Democrats on July 16 to include it.
"This attack on diversity, equity and inclusion is really an attempt to suppress, erase, and make some people invisible, while elevating others," Strickland said at a July 15 session to mark up the bill.
Hegseth sidestepped past ban on Confederate names
Hegseth has restored part of the original, Confederate names of Fort Bragg and Fort Benning as part of his pledge to eradicate what he calls "wokeness" in the military.
But in his orders to rename the bases, Hegseth skirted the requirements of a Biden-era commission created to change Confederate-inspired names of military installations by renaming the bases after two decorated veterans with the same last names as the Confederate figures for which they were originally named.
More: Not that Benning: Hegseth renames Fort Moore, but not for Confederate general, he says
The Pentagon declined to comment on pending legislation, and it is unclear if Hegseth will also be able to avoid the amendment's requirements.
The vice chair of the base renaming commission, retired Army Brig. Gen. Ty Seidule, praised the amendment.Seidule, who led the history department at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, told USA TODAY he was 'proud' of the committee for respecting 'the will of the American people' as expressed when Congress created the bipartisan naming commission in 2021.
The commission had renamed Fort Benning, in Georgia, to Fort Moore in honor of Vietnam War General Hal Moore and his wife, Julia, and Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, to Fort Liberty in 2023. Both were originally named after Civil War Confederate generals who fought for slavery.
Hegseth signed an order in March restoring the name Benning to Fort Moore by naming it after Cpl. Fred G. Benning, a World War I veteran awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. He renamed Fort Liberty in February after Private First Class Roland Bragg, who was awarded the Silver Star for his service in World War II.
In a June 10 speech to Fort Bragg, President Donald Trump said he would also restore other military base names, including "Fort Pickett, Fort Hood, Fort Gordon, Fort Rucker, Fort Polk, Fort A.P. Hill and Fort Robert E. Lee."
"We won a lot of battles out of those forts – it's no time to change," he added.
Hegseth: a 'generational link'
At a Senate budget hearing in June, Hegseth said restoring the base names was "important for the morale" of the military.
"Ask people that serve at Fort Bragg or Fort Benning if they like the fact that the names have been returned," he said.
Hegseth has said changing the Confederate base names breaks a "generational link," calling it "garbage."
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