WASHINGTON — The House Appropriations Committee adopted its $1 trillion defense spending bill for fiscal 2027, after Republicans batted back every single Democrat-offered amendment and passed a measure to rename the Defense Department as the “Department of War.”
The bill passed in a 34-27 vote, on party lines.
In a turn of events that House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole joked was “brutal,” only two amendments were passed during the almost eight hour markup: A bipartisan manager’s package of uncontroversial measures and a GOP-backed collection of culture war amendments that included the name change. Both were offered by Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., who chairs the defense subcommittee.
Democrats argued that renaming the Defense Department would be a needless expense that would send the wrong signal about the United States’ appetite for starting wars.
“[The Congressional Budget Office] did a study of the cost of this name change in January and advised that the cost of changing the name across the department would range up to $125 million,” said Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum, the ranking Democrat on the committee’s defense subpanel. “Now we could be asking ourselves, what programs or activities did the secretary short circuit in order to cover the cost of this name change?”
