Lawmakers in the House Appropriations Committee recently released a draft of the fiscal 2021 defense spending bill that would set aside $1 million for the Army to fund the renaming of major installations named after Confederate leaders.
Calls for renaming Army posts such as Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Hood, Texas; and Fort Benning, Georgia, have gained momentum after a surge of protests against racism broke out across the country following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died after being taken into custody by Minneapolis police in late May.
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Secretary Ryan McCarthy said in early June that he was open to consider renaming these installations but backed off the effort days later when President Donald Trump said his administration would not consider such a move.
McCarthy told reporters at the Pentagon in late June that Defense Secretary Mark Esper has directed the services to look at Confederate symbols and other challenging issues involving race and "have deliberate conversations so we can make the best recommendations possible."
Lawmakers in both the House and Senate, however, have taken steps to support removing symbols of systematic racism on military bases.
The House Appropriations Committee's version of the fiscal 2021 defense spending bill would provide $1 million to the Army for the "renaming of installations, facilities, roads and streets that bear the name of Confederate leaders and officers since the Army has the preponderance of the entities to change."
The Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2021 includes a provision that would require the secretary of defense to "establish a commission relating to assigning, modifying, or removing of names, symbols, displays, monuments, and paraphernalia to assets of the Department of Defense that commemorate the Confederate States of America."
The eight-member commission would include service members, as well as members of both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.
The provision authorizes $2 million to be appropriated for the effort. If approved, the committee would have until October 2022 to brief Congress on a plan to include "collecting and incorporating local sensitivities associated with naming or renaming of assets of the Department of Defense," according to the language.
-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.
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