Two Latino congressmen want pro-Trump members thrown off committee on renaming military bases

Democratic Reps. say appointees were made by president who opposed name changes

Two Latino members of Congress, Reps. Joaquin Castro and Ruben Gallego, want Trump loyalists on a panel charged with renaming US military bases to be removed.

The bases are those with names that honour Confederate leaders, and have come under scrutiny since the country’s reckoning with systemic racism last year.

In a letter addressed to defence secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday, the congressmen argued that four panellists should be dismissed because they were appointed by Donald Trump’s administration.

Mr Trump threatened to veto last year’s annual military spending and policy bill over the proposal to rename military bases, which was contained within the legislation, and went on to do so.

Reps. Castro and Gallego added that the pro-Trump panellists were appointed amid the presidential transition “by non-Senate confirmed Acting Secretary of Defense”, Chris Miller.

The legislation calls for the defence secretary to appoint four members to the panel, and for four others to be appointed by Congressional committee chairs, reported Axios.

The Reps. went on to say that Mr Miller “was installed by a President who vetoed the (National Defense Authorization Act) in part due to opposition to renaming bases” after Confederate leaders, who they labelled as “traitors”.

Statues of several prominent Confederate leaders were pulled down during last summer’s protests over police brutality and systemic racism across the US, which led to the focus on the US military’s associations with the Confederacy. 

The letter by the Democratic Reps. was signed by 18 other members of the Congressional Hispanic Congress, of which there are 38.

Hispanic and Black leaders, as well as civil rights campaigners, have long called for the removal of the names of Confederate leaders from the military bases, which are set to be renamed and have Confederate monuments removed, after recommendations are made by the panel.

the panel must report back by October 2022 with recommendations, that will see Confederate references removed from at least ten bases, as well as streets, signs, buildings, ships, aircraft and weapons, Newsweek reported.