Republican-led Committee Passes Elizabeth Warren’s Amendment to Rename Military Bases

The Republican-led Senate Armed Services Committee voted Wednesday evening to pass an amendment offered by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) to rename several U.S. military bases named after Confederate generals.

CBS News reported:

A source familiar with the proceedings confirmed to CBS News that the GOP-led panel on Wednesday approved the amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) offered by Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts via voice vote. According to a summary of the NDAA released by the committee Thursday, the measure requires the Defense Department to rename posts and assets — streets, aircraft, ships, and other equipment — either named for Confederate officers or that honor the confederacy within three years.

Warren described the names of the military bases as a “tribute to white supremacy.” However, the U.S. Army under President Barack Obama described the use of Confederate names as a gesture of “reconciliation, not division.”

As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I filed an amendment to the annual defense bill last week to rename all bases named for Confederate generals. It's long past time to end the tribute to white supremacy on our military installations. https://t.co/eP6ktRWK8C

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) June 9, 2020

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) announced in the Senate Thursday that he would offer an amendment to the final bill that would reverse Warren’s amendment.

The current push for renaming the bases predated the killing of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Memorial Day. Two days before, the New York Times editorial board called for renaming the bases in an editorial accusing the military of “celebrating[ing] white supremacy,” accompanied by a bullet in the shape of a Ku Klux Klan hood.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, is available for pre-order. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.