Washington, DC -- United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), yesterday led 36 of her Senate colleagues on a letter to the Chairs and Ranking Members of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees urging that they reconcile and retain the bicameral, bipartisan measure to require military installations and assets that honor the Confederacy and Confederate officers be renamed within the next three years. Senate and House Armed Services leaders begin the final stage of conference this week on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

In June, the Republican-led Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) passed a bipartisan version of Senator Warren's amendment to remove all names, symbols, displays, monuments, and paraphernalia that honor or commemorate the Confederacy and anyone who voluntarily served it from bases and other property of the U.S. military on a voice vote. The House Armed Services Committee passed a similar measure, both creating a process for identifying all military assets where the Confederacy is honored and implementing the new removal requirement. The House bill requires the process to be complete within one year, while the Senate bill authorizes a three-year period for complete renaming. In their letter, the Senators urge the conference committee to adopt a reconciled version of the measure that would require renaming to be complete within three years. Both committees passed their bills out of committee with overwhelming bipartisan majorities and each chamber followed suit.

"The Senate and House strongly supported the inclusion of this requirement by passing their bills with overwhelming, veto-proof, bipartisan majorities. The requirement also received bipartisan support in committee markups," the Senators wrote in their letter to Armed Services Committees' leadership.

Their latest letter raises concerns with Senate Armed Service Chairman Inhofe's declaration that he intends to strip the bipartisan, veto-proof provision out behind closed doors in conference, saying "We're going to see to it that provision doesn't survive the bill... I'm not going to say how at this point." 

The Senators wrote in their letter: "We strongly oppose removing this provision and respectfully request the conferees to retain in the conference report the provision endorsed by both chambers: a requirement for the Department to rename all military assets named for the Confederacy no later than three years after the date of enactment."

They concluded: "Millions of servicemembers of color have lived on, trained at, and deployed from installations named to honor traitors that killed Americans in defense of chattel slavery. Renaming these bases does not disrespect our military - it honors the sacrifices and contributions of our servicemembers in a way that better reflects our nation's diversity and values. We know who these bases were named for and why they were named. It is long past the time to correct this longstanding, historic injustice. We must not shrink from our solemn duty in his moment."

Senator Warren's bill with similar provisions was co-sponsored by 35 Senate Democrats and after the bipartisan proposal was adopted in committee, Senator Warren, SASC Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) along with a group of SASC Democrats urged President Donald Trump to support it. On June 30, Senator Warren made the case for renaming military assets with a speech on the Senate floor:

"Those who complain that removing the names of traitors from these bases ignores history ought to learn some history themselves. These bases were not named in the years following the Civil War. No. They were named decades and decades later, during the Jim Crow era, to strengthen a movement that tried to glorify the Confederacy and reinforce white supremacy," Senator Warren said in her June 30th floor speech.

In addition to Senator Warren, the letter to Armed Services leadership was signed by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Doug Jones (D-Ala.) - all members of the Senate Armed Services Committee - and Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.),  Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), and Brian Schatz (D-Hawai'i).

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