Miller’s other three nominees are Earl Matthews, former acting general counsel for the Army, Ann G. Johnston, assistant secretary of defense for legislative affairs, and Sean McLean, White House officer.
The remaining four members of the eight-member panel are yet to be appointed by the presidents and senior members of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees. Sens. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) And Jack Reed (DR.I.) and Reps. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) And Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) Each will nominate a panelist.
The panel is part of a mandate, set out in the Pentagon’s National Defense Authorization Act, to rename 10 Army bases that honor Confederate leaders and remove other Confederate symbols or honors in three years. The effort reflects an amendment adopted in the Senate, promoted by progressive senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
Despite bipartisan support in the House and Senate to remove racist relics in a year of racial unrest, Trump was opposed to the effort. After months of threats, the president vetoed the defense bill due, among other things, to his opposition to the renaming of the bases, which he compared to rewriting the history of the United States. Lawmakers overturned Trump’s veto.
The legislation mandates the removal of names, symbols, monuments and other honors from military-owned confederates – including bases, buildings, streets, ships, aircraft, weapons and equipment – within three years. The bill exempts Confederate headstones from review.
The commission is charged with developing criteria for identifying Confederate monuments and recommending procedures for renaming the property and collecting information from local communities.
The panel does not have the explicit task of proposing new names for the bases, although it can do so or forward it to the secretary of the Army or Defense.
A final report is due on October 1, 2022, outlining the property that is to be removed or renamed, and the Pentagon will have until the beginning of 2024 to execute the plan.