WASHINGTON – The annual defense authorization measure, which has passed Congress every year since the early 1960s, is in danger of hitting rock bottom in December over a move by Democrats to rename military bases, such as Fort Rucker, Ala., and Fort Hood, Texas, that are named after Confederate officers. President Donald Trump opposes renaming those bases and has threatened to veto the defense bill, which was placed into both the House and Senate versions of the defense authorization bill this summer. Republicans are vowing not to send the broader bill to Trump if it includes language requiring those bases being re-named. Trump used the debate this summer to appeal to Southern voters, and is still relevant due to two Senate runoff elections in Georgia that will determine control of the senior chamber during the first two years of President-elect Joe Biden’s tenure. The bill has to pass next month to avoid breaking a 59-year streak of enacting the annual measure, which sets policy across DoD and would awards the military with a 3 percent pay raise starting Jan. 1, among its other provisions. “I am concerned that there is at least the potential that political concerns, especially with the Georgia runoffs, are going to play a bigger role,” said House Armed Services Committee Republican Mac Thornberry (R-Texas). “I have no doubt that we can reach an agreement. The question is whether the politics above us will allow us to.” (Source: Military.com 11/19/20) https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/11/19/military-pay-raise-at-risk-in-dispute-over-confederate-bases/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+navy-times%2Fnews%2Fpentagon-congress+%28Navy+Times+-+Arc+RSS+-+Pentagon+and+Congress%29
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