Pentagon Presses Congress to Make 'Department of War' Name Law

The Pentagon is pressing Congress to write the Department of War name into federal law, arguing that President Donald Trump’s executive order should not be the last word on what the nation calls its military headquarters.

Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman and a senior adviser to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, made the case in an op-ed published Monday by Fox News Digital. “The president has acted. Now Congress must finish the job,” Parnell wrote, urging lawmakers to keep the name change in the final version of this year’s defense bill and “send it to the president’s desk.”

President Donald J. Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth had the conviction to call us the Department of War and say it plainly: America’s military exists to deter war through strength and, if necessary, fight and win.

The President has acted. Now Congress must finish the job…

— Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellASW) October 26, 2026

Parnell echoed that message in a post on X, writing that Trump and Hegseth “had the conviction to call us the Department of War and say it plainly: America’s military exists to deter war through strength and, if necessary, fight and win.”

Already in both committee drafts

The push lands on friendly ground. According to The Hill, both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees adopted language in their drafts of the National Defense Authorization Act that would codify the name. The Hill reported that the House amendment, offered by Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), passed during the committee’s marathon June markup on a 29-27 vote.

That leaves the final decision to the House and Senate negotiators who will merge the two versions of the annual defense policy bill, which lawmakers typically finish late in the year.

Until then, the change is not yet permanent. Trump signed an executive order last fall authorizing “Department of War” as a title, and Hegseth has used “Secretary of War” since, but national security reporter Dan Lamothe noted in a post on X on Monday that the department is still not legally renamed and that this year’s defense bill could change that.

“A restoration, not an invention”

Parnell framed the move as a return to the country’s founding. “This is a restoration, not an invention,” he wrote in the Fox News op-ed, pointing out that the War Department was established in 1789 under President George Washington and carried the military through the Civil War and both world wars. The Hill noted the name stayed in place until 1949, when the department became the Department of Defense after the post-World War II reorganization.

Critics have called the change symbolic. Parnell argued in the op-ed that they “have it backward,” writing that “words define the mission, and the mission drives everything else.” He added that allies are owed “a clear statement of our core mission: to fight and win wars.”

He also acknowledged the limits of a new nameplate. “Of course, a name alone does not make a military stronger,” Parnell wrote, saying every acquisition decision, training exercise and investment should be judged by whether it makes troops “more capable of defeating any threat.”

What it would cost

The price tag is part of the debate. According to The Hill, the Pentagon told Congress in April that codifying the name would cost nearly $52 million and would not have a “significant impact” on the administration’s $1.5 trillion defense budget request. The Hill also reported that a Congressional Budget Office report in January estimated the change could cost up to $125 million.

Parnell’s bet is that a clear name is worth it. Whether that argument survives the final House-Senate negotiations will decide if “Department of War” becomes law or stays an executive-branch title.

Sources

• Fox News: Sean Parnell op-ed on the Department of War name
• The Hill: Pentagon presses Congress to keep Department of War measure
• Sean Parnell on X
• Dan Lamothe on X

Reporting by Daily Beltway.