Bills
| 3.23.22

Should Military Bases Named After Members of the Confederacy be Renamed? (H.R. 3658)

Do you support or oppose this bill?

What is H.R. 3658?

(Updated June 24, 2020)

This bill would require the Dept. of Defense (DOD) to change the name of any military installation or other property that’s currently named after an individual who joined the Confederacy and took up arms against the U.S. during the American Civil War within one year. The DOD would provide the armed services committees in Congress with an implementation report within 30 days of the bill’s enactment that includes a list of all installations or property in need of a name change and an estimate of the cost for new signs, maps, documents, and other materials.

Argument in favor

The disgraced names of men who fought against the U.S. to preserve slavery shouldn’t be commemorated as the name of a U.S. military base or other defense-related property. There are plenty of meritorious members of the armed forces who are more deserving of that honor.

Argument opposed

This bill is a superficial attempt to erase history and it will be surprisingly costly to rename military bases. It also ignores the fact that many of the Confederate generals military bases are named after served in the U.S. military prior to the Civil War.

Impact

Military installations and DOD property that would be renamed; the DOD; and Congress.

Cost of H.R. 3658

A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.

Additional Info

In-Depth: Sponsoring Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY) to require that military installations and other DOD property currently named after Confederates who fought against the U.S. in the Civil War are renamed within one year:

“The time has come for the Army to remove from Fort Hamilton and other military installations the disgraced names of men who waged war against the United States to preserve the evil institution of slavery. Monuments to the Confederacy and its leaders have always represented white supremacy and a continuing attempt to deny the basic human rights of African Americans. As recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia, have made perfectly clear, these monuments are nothing more than symbols of white supremacy and a pretext for the violent imposition of an evil ideology that should never have persisted into the Twenty-First Century.”

This legislation has the support of 29 cosponsors in the House, all of whom are Democrats.


Of Note: Among the U.S. military bases named after members of the Confederacy are:

  • Fort Benning, Georgia: Home of the Army’s infantry and armor schools.

  • Fort Bragg, North Carolina: Home of the Army’s airborne school and special operations command.

  • Fort Hood, Texas: The most populous U.S. military installation in the world.

  • Fort Lee, Virginia: Home of the Army’s quartermaster and ordnance schools.

  • Fort Pickett, Virginia: Home of the Army National Guard Maneuver Training Center.

  • Fort Polk, Louisiana: Home to the Joint Readiness Training Center.

  • Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia: An arms training and maneuver center.


Media:

Summary by Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: Chmiel / iStock)