The Center Square — In two letters to government officials, Virginia Congressman and Chair of House Freedom Caucus Bob Good, R-Lynchburg, demanded “accountability and transparency” from the Naming Commission.
The commission was established in 2021 to recommend renaming military assets showing honor to the Confederacy for the Department of Defense.
In a nationwide effort initially estimated to cost $62.5 million, more than 1,100 assets — streets, military bases, buildings, displays, posts, ships and more — were renamed, removed or eliminated per the commission’s recommendations. Nine military bases across the country were renamed, including three in Virginia—Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Lee and Fort Pickett were redesignated in 2023 as Fort Walker, Fort Gregg-Adams and Fort Barfoot.
In December, a 32-foot-tall bronze monument sculpted by a Confederate veteran was removed from Arlington National Cemetery. Some interpreted the memorial as reconciliatory, while others have said it was glorifying the lost cause of the South.
Good said the removal of the memorial and other actions instigated by the commission are rewriting history and called for a “thorough review” of the commission’s work by Congress.
“Historical sites are meant to preserve moments that are critical to the growth and healing of our nation and should not be subject to the destructive ruse of political wokeness. I am calling for a full accounting of the actions taken by the Naming Commission so the American people can see for themselves how the Biden Administration used their tax dollars, and if they did so to arbitrarily erase our history,” Good said in a statement.
Good requested all documents, meeting records and communications concerning and belonging to the Naming Commission in his letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and urged the Oversight Committee to conduct hearings on the commission in a letter to its chairman, James Comer.
