JUST IN: Senate Passes $740 Billion Defense Bill With Provision To Remove Confederate Names Off Military Bases

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The United States Senate has passed its annual defense bill with $740 billion in funding for the 2021 fiscal year, including a provision to remove the names of confederate soldiers from military bases — a stipulation President Donald Trump has said he opposes.

The bill passed with bipartisan support. Its 86-14 vote is high enough to override a veto from Trump.

It includes a three percent pay raise for troops, $44 million for a potential Covid-19 vaccine with research, and $10 million for nuclear testing. In regards to the removal of confederate soldiers names, the Trump administration accused the provision of “an effort to erase history.”

“Section 2829 is part of a sustained effort to erase from the history of the Nation those who do not meet an ever-shifting standard of conduct,” Trump’s executive office wrote in a statement. “Beyond section 2829, loud voices in America are also demanding the destruction or renaming of monuments and memorials to former Presidents, including the our first President, George Washington; the author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson; and the Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln.”

“President Trump has been clear in his opposition to politically motivated attempts like this to rewrite history and to displace the enduring legacy of the American Revolution with a new left-wing cultural revolution,” it continued.

The House of Representatives also passed a defense bill this week. The two will work together to create a final draft in the coming weeks.