Time to Restore the Confederate Battle Streamers
A Congressional Duty
Another excellent article by Mr. Don Smith this time at Bacon’s Rebellion - DD
Summertime in Washington, D.C., is NDAA Time. NDAA, as in the National Defense Authorization Act. The federal government dispensed with proper budget procedures a long time ago. Everything it does is now funded by continuing resolutions, omnibus bills, or other confounding mechanisms. The NDAA, though, always passes because it funds the Defense Department. Hence, crafty politicians attach anything and everything to some spot deep in the depths of the NDAA language. They know it’s a sure-fire way to get controversial matters enacted, often without most Americans knowing about it.
Congress created the Naming Commission through the Fiscal Year 2021 NDAA. Earlier this month, Democrat members of the House of Representatives responded to President Trump’s recent re-re-naming of Army bases by inserting an amendment into the FY 2026 NDAA. From Roll Call, on July 17th:
The Trump administration has undone a 2022 congressionally chartered commission’s renaming of military bases and ships that had for years celebrated the Confederacy, but as of this week both the House and Senate are poised to consider at least a partial reversal of President Donald Trump’s moves.
The House fiscal 2026 NDAA contains an amendment by Rep. Marilyn Strickland, D-Wash., that would ensure all the formerly Confederate-linked facilities, assets and streets across the U.S. military are renamed along the lines proposed by the 2022 commission to honor other warriors or certain values.
OK, then. If this is NDAA amendment season, then here’s another amendment Congress can enact: return Confederate battle streamers to Army National Guard unit colors.
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