House panel advances $1.1T defense spending bill with Department of War name change

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The House Appropriations Committee has advanced its $1.1 trillion defense spending bill for fiscal 2027, legislation that includes a provision to rename the Defense Department as the Department of War.

The bill advanced out of committee Wednesday on a 34-27 party-line vote, handing President Trump a third win in his bid to officially rename the department. The House and Senate Armed Services committees also included language in their defense authorization bills to rebrand the building that has held the same title for nearly 80 years.

The House Appropriations Committee adopted the provision while debating its military funding bill, with the Republican-controlled panel knocking down every single amendment offered by Democrats over the nearly eight-hour meeting.

Those that were rejected included amendments meant to limit troop withdrawals from Europe, block Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and force Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to justify his ongoing decisions to withhold certain senior officers’ promotions. Hegseth has reportedly interfered in the promotion of several female and minority officers.

The legislation instead took aim at several issues the Trump administration has attempted to stamp out at the Pentagon, including language that would block funding for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, stop reimbursing troops who travel across state lines to seek abortions, and prevent the department from paying for gender-affirming surgeries and hormone therapies for transgender service members.

Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), who sponsored the provision to rename the Pentagon, echoed the administration’s argument that changing the moniker signals a stronger military.

“The best defense is a good offense. And names communicate priorities,” Clyde said. “The historic title ‘Department of War’ more directly reflects the warrior ethos.”

Democrats, meanwhile, argued that a rebranding is a waste of money and contradicts the public’s appetite to stay out of new wars. The Congressional Budget Office in January completed a study that estimated the cost of the name change would be upward of $125 million.

“What programs or activities did the secretary short circuit in order to cover the cost of this name change?” asked Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), the ranking member on the committee’s defense subpanel.

She added: “The Americans who settled on the Department of Defense in 1947, they knew what they were talking about. They knew we should want to deter war, not advertise we want war.”

The Department of War was established in 1789 by former President George Washington but was renamed in 1947 when the Truman administration split the Air Force and Army and consolidated them with the Navy — then independent — into the Department of Defense.

Trump in early September signed an executive order to greenlight the switch back to the former title, with Hegseth to take on the title of “secretary of War.” Many Republicans on Capitol Hill have since referred to the department by the new name, and the Pentagon has already swapped its website and social media accounts to reflect the changes.

The House appropriator’s bill sets up a tense partisan tussle in the months ahead over Trump’s $1.5 trillion defense budget request, as a final version must be agreed upon by both chambers before being signed into law.

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Andrew Clyde

Betty McCollum

Donald Trump

George Washington

Pete Hegseth

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