WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has requested that Congress formally change the name of the Defense Department to the Department of War in a new legislative proposal, a move that is likely to rile Democrats as lawmakers begin hashing out the fiscal 2027 defense policy bill.
The Pentagon stated in the proposal that the change would have “no significant impact” on the FY27 budget. However, it later added that the department estimates it will spend about $51.5 million across its entire organization during FY26 to implement the name swap, with the majority of that sum — $44.6 million — used to make changes within defense agencies and DoD field activities.
“Changes were implemented in Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 from existing resources in the most cost effective and non-invasive ways (e.g., using stock until depleted before making changes to letterhead, updating signage by collective purchases),” the proposal states, adding that actual costs incurred as the department transitioned using to the “Department of War” nomenclature “are still being collected.”
“The revision to the designation of the Department serves as a fundamental reminder of the importance and reverence of our core mission, to fight and win wars. It serves as a strategic objective in which to measure and prioritize all activities,” it said.
Inside Defense was first to report on the legislative proposal.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated in January that transitioning the name of the Defense Department to the War Department would cost at least $10 million “but they could be as large as $125 million if the name change was implemented broadly and rapidly throughout the department,” the office stated in a letter to Sen. Jeff Merkley, the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee.
“A statutory renaming could cost hundreds of millions of dollars depending on how Congress and DoD chose to implement the change,” the CBO said in the letter.
