On Tuesday, the US House of Representatives approved a $ 740 billion national defense authorization bill that sets the Pentagon’s policy, while President Donald Trump has threatened to veto it for containing the provision to remove the names of Confederate-era leaders from military bases.
The Senate-dominated Senate endorsed the bill by 295 to 125, paving the way for negotiations with the Republican-dominated Senate over a compromise version of the bill.
The White House said earlier that Trump would veto the project if he required the Defense Department to remove the names of Confederate generals from US military bases.
He added that he also objects to provisions in the House of Representatives version of the law that he considers infringing on Trump's authority, including restrictions on the use of funds in the Afghanistan war, and controls for the deployment of the National Guard forces within the United States.
The council’s draft also includes a plan to change the names of bases, such as Fort Bragg and Fort Benning, which were named after men who fought US forces 155 years ago during the Civil War.
Statues of men who owned slaves or fought in the line of supporters of slavery were targeted during protests against police brutality across the United States and the world, sparked by the killing of black American George Floyd by suffocation while police detained him in May.
State governors and local leaders have
protested the recent deployment of National Guard forces to counter anti-racist demonstrations, at a time when Trump has described the protesters as "anarchist and agitators".
The Senate is due to discuss its version of the National Defense Authorization Bill this week.
For his part, a Pentagon spokesman said he expected the Congress and the White House to work to settle their differences. "They are aware of the importance of the national defense authorization bill, and we are confident that the bill will be signed (to become law) and will be implemented in a timely manner so that we have a budget for our forces."
It is noteworthy that the Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Bill for 59 consecutive years. It is one of the few major legislation seen as "obligatory" because it rules everything from salary increases to changing benefits to troops, the number of aircraft to buy and the best way to compete with rivals like Russia and China.