The House and Senate Armed Services Committees have completed work on the annual National Defense Authorization Act that sets defense policy.
While the committees are mostly in agreement, President Donald Trump has threatened to veto the billbecause of a provision that would require renaming certain military facilities.
Both versions of the bill would mandate the renaming of military facilities now named for confederate military figures. U.S. Rep. for Maine’s 2nd District, Jared Golden, who serves on the Armed Services Committee, says there is broad support for that change and that a veto would likely be overridden.
“There is such unanimous bipartisan consensus on this issue,” says Golden. “I don’t know why he would bother to pick that fight. But he did. I am confident Democrats and Republicans in Congress would step up and do the right thing on this act.”
Golden says the legislation is also important for providing authorization for a three percent raise in military pay, and for another destroyer to be built at Bath Iron Works.
“We just can’t afford to have things like flags, names of ships, names of bases distracting them from the mission and from taking care of one another.”
