Now That They Have Power, You Don't Matter!
House Panel Adds Ban on Restoring Confederate Base Names as It Advances Major Defense Bill
After hours of debate that culminated in a rebuke of the Trump administration's efforts to restore Confederate names to military bases, the House Armed Services Committee voted late Tuesday to advance the annual must-pass defense policy bill that endorses a pay bump for service members.
This year's National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, which supports a 3.8% pay raise for troops starting in January, was approved by the committee in a bipartisan 55-2 vote, sending it to the full House for a vote in the coming weeks. Just Democratic Reps. Ro Khanna and Sara Jacobs, both of California, opposed the bill.
The bipartisan outcome belies nearly 14 hours of partisan debate on amendments that Democrats sought to use as referendums on the Trump administration…
Most of the Democratic amendments, including on those three issues, were voted down along party lines, but the committee debate offered a chance to pin down Republicans on the issues.
And in one major instance, Democrats were successful: Two Republicans, Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska and Derek Schmidt of Kansas, crossed party lines to approve an amendment that would prohibit reversing the work of the commission that renamed Army bases and other Defense Department property that had been named for Confederate military officers.
The bases were renamed after…