The Senate Armed Services Committee voted 18-9 Wednesday to advance its version of the fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, with language formally renaming the Department of Defense to the Department of War.
The provision was revealed publicly Thursday by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) in a statement explaining his “no” vote on the bill.
“Rather than taking steps to end this deeply unpopular war, this bill rebrands the Department of Defense as the Department of War, a juvenile move that sadly describes the reality of a President who has abandoned meaningful diplomacy in favor of starting doubtful wars in multiple locations and threatening even more,” Kaine said.
President Trump signed an executive order in early September directing the name change. Since then, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been operating under the title of “Secretary of War.” But executive orders do not permanently alter an agency’s legal name. That requires an act of Congress.
The Senate committee vote follows action last week by the House Armed Services Committee, which adopted an amendment from Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX) in a party-line vote to include the same renaming provision in its version of the NDAA.
“Now that you can see firsthand how beautiful it actually is, you will have no choice to vote for this amendment,” Jackson said as Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) held up the Pentagon’s logo bearing the new name.
Ranking Member Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) called it “one of the dumbest things that has been done by this administration.”
Both chambers’ armed services committees have now passed their NDAA versions with the name change included. The full Senate and House must still vote on the bills before a conference committee reconciles differences and sends a final version to the president for signature.
The Department of War is not a new name. The agency overseeing the U.S. military was originally established under that title by President George Washington in 1789. The Truman administration changed it to the Department of Defense in 1947 when it merged the Army, Air Force, and Navy into a single unified department.
A Congressional Budget Office report from January estimated that fully transitioning the name across federal systems, buildings, contracts, and official documents could cost as much as $125 million.
Democrats on both committees voted against the provision. Republicans advanced it without a single dissenting vote on the House side, and by a decisive margin in the Senate committee’s 18-9 tally.
