By FATIMA HUSSEIN and KONSTANTIN TOROPIN
WASHINGTON (AP) — Renaming the Division of Protection the Division of Warfare might price U.S. taxpayers as a lot as $125 million relying on how broadly and rapidly the change is made, based on an evaluation launched Wednesday from the Congressional Price range Workplace.
President Donald Trump signed an government order in September that licensed the Division of Warfare as a secondary title for the Pentagon. On the time, Trump mentioned the swap was supposed to sign to the world that the U.S. was a drive to be reckoned with, and he complained that the Division of Protection’s identify was “woke.”
Certainly, the order got here because the navy started its marketing campaign of lethal airstrikes in opposition to alleged drug-carrying boats in South America. Since then, a shocking navy operation has captured then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the Trump administration has threatened navy motion in locations from Iran to Greenland.
Congress has to formally approve a brand new identify for the division, and it has proven no critical curiosity in doing so. Nonetheless, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth embraced the rebrand and proceeded to make use of it instantly on a number of indicators after Trump’s order.
He had workers take away the big gold letters that spelled “Secretary of Defense” outdoors his workplace and changed the signal on his door to learn “Secretary of War.” The Pentagon’s web site additionally went from “defense.gov” to “war.gov” the identical day the chief order was signed.
Pentagon officers mentioned then that they might not supply a price estimate for the identify change as a result of they anticipated prices to fluctuate. They promised a clearer estimate later.
The brand new report from the Congressional Price range Workplace says prices can be no less than a couple of million {dollars} if the identify change was phased in with minimal implementation, however might attain $125 million if it was applied broadly and quickly all through the division.”
The evaluation mentioned it will price roughly $10 million for a “modest implementation” of the chief order if the identify change occurred throughout the company, and such a price would almost definitely be absorbed throughout the Pentagon’s present budgets.
“A statutory renaming could cost hundreds of millions of dollars,” relying on how Congress and the Protection Division select to to do it, the report says.
The Pentagon has greater than 6.5 million sq. toes of workplace area, and lots of the indicators, logos and seals have remained unchanged. It isn’t clear if the push to change the Protection Division’s identify has been carried out on the quite a few navy services the world over.
Republican lawmakers, together with Sens. Mike Lee, Rick Scott and Marsha Blackburn, launched laws to make the identify change official shortly after Trump signed the chief order however the measure has not progressed.
The order had tasked Hegseth with recommending actions required to alter the identify completely. Pentagon officers didn’t reply questions on what, if any, suggestions have been made.
The brand new evaluation was requested by Senate Democratic chief Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.
Lawmakers established the Congressional Price range Workplace greater than 50 years in the past to offer neutral evaluation to assist the price range course of.
