Pentagon presses Congress to keep measure changing name to ‘Department of War’

The Pentagon is pressing Congress to keep measures in the annual defense policy bill that would formally authorize the name change from Department of Defense to “Department of War.”

“President Donald Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth had the conviction to say so plainly. Many in Washington would have left the name alone. The president chose clarity over convenience when he signed the executive order authorizing the Department of War name,” Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, wrote in an op-ed for Fox News Digital published Monday. 

“This is a restoration, not an invention,” wrote Parnell, who is also Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s senior adviser. 

The Pentagon’s insistence comes as both the House and Senate Armed Services committees adopted measures in their drafts of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would codify the department’s name change to one preferred by the Trump administration. 

The amendment — put forward by Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), a staunch Trump ally — to formally rename the department was adopted during the June marathon NDAA session with a 29-27 vote. 

The push began after Trump signed an executive order last fall to authorize the name change with Hegseth taking on the title of “secretary of War,” and many Republicans on Capitol Hill have referred to the department by the new name. 

The War Department was established in 1789 under former President George Washington, and the name remained until 1949 when it became the Defense Department. 

“The president has acted. Now Congress must finish the job. The House and the Senate Armed Services Committee have both backed restoring the Department of War name in this year’s defense bill,” Parnell wrote in the op-ed. “Lawmakers should keep it in the final version and send it to the president’s desk. The name of the institution that sends Americans to fight belongs in law, not just in an executive order.” 

The effort has received pushback from Democrats in Congress, calling it unnecessary and accusing the administration of engaging in semantics. 

“Critics call the change symbolic, even unnecessary. They have it backward. Words define the mission, and the mission drives everything else. As for our allies, we owe them a clear statement of our core mission: to fight and win wars. Full stop,” Parnell continued. “Clarity strengthens alliances. Ambiguity invites adversaries to test them.” 

When the Pentagon asked Congress to codify the new name in April, the department said it would cost nearly $52 million and argued it would not have a “significant impact” on Trump’s record $1.5 trillion defense budget request. 

The Congressional Budget Office said in a January report the name change could cost up to $125 million.

“Of course, a name alone does not make a military stronger. The name is a commitment, and the department must earn it every day,” Parnell added. “Every acquisition decision, training exercise and strategic investment should answer one question: Does it make our warfighters more capable of defeating any threat?”  

“From superintelligence and autonomous systems to advanced weapons and a revitalized defense industrial base, the United States must keep building the advantages to deter its adversaries and, if necessary, defeat them.”