House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said in a statement Friday that plans to evacuate citizens from Afghanistan were “wholly inadequate.”
Democrats are coming to President Biden's defense as Afghanistan teeters on the brink of collapse weeks before the U.S. military mission there officially ends, arguing more time wouldn't make any difference.
Republicans on Friday blocked the launch of an external investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. But the issue is a long way from disappearing.
The commission created in the most recent National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is tasked with planning how to change “names, symbols, displays, monuments and paraphernalia to assets of the Department of Defense that commemorate the Confederate States of America or any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America” within three years.
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The Army’s 10 bases named after Confederate leaders have received the most public attention, but the legislation requires renaming any “base, installation, street, building, facility, aircraft, ship, plane, weapon, equipment or any other property owned or controlled by the Department of Defense.”
Lawmakers in both parties argued that it was long overdue to remove names honoring traitors who fought to preserve slavery, not least because it affects the morale of Black service members.
Austin needs the waiver because of a law that requires Defense secretaries to be out of uniform for at least seven years in order to preserve the principle of civilian control of the military. Austin retired from the military in mid-2016.
The announcement of Thursday’s vote comes after the House Armed Services Committee announced earlier Tuesday it was canceling its planned public hearing with Austin, with a committee spokesperson citing House rules barring a hearing before the committee is officially organized.
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Instead, panel members will hold a closed-door roundtable with Austin later this week, a committee aide confirmed.