Senate Passes $740B Defense Bill, Bucking Trump on Confederate Names

The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed its version of the National Defense Authorization Act, a $740 billion bill setting policy for the Pentagon that President Donald Trump has threatened to veto over a provision removing Confederate names from military bases.

The vote was 86-14 in the Republican-led chamber, paving the way for a fight later this year with the White House if the base name provision remains in the legislation.

Now that the House of Representatives and Senate have both passed versions of the bill, congressional negotiators will spend several weeks negotiating on a final, compromise NDAA.

Statues and base names honoring figures from the slave-holding Confederacy have come under intense fire in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, at the hands of police in Minneapolis over Memorial Day. The issue is part of a larger push for social justice in the United States, one that has prompted the removal of some statues, and the changing of some product names and images because of their connection to racial stereotypes.

The president, for his part, has defended Confederate names and images, like that of the Confederate flag, as matters of free speech. He has also said they are reflective of the nation's history and shouldn't be obliterated.

There are, at present, 10 military bases across the country named after Confederate Civil War generals.