APPROVING $741 BILLION FOR MILITARY IN 2021:

Voting 86 for and 14 against, the Senate on July 23 approved a $740.5 billion military budget for fiscal 2021 that includes $69 billion to fund combat operations overseas and hundreds of billions for weapons, personnel and research and development. The bill (S 4049) would authorize a 3% pay raise for uniformed personnel; prohibit U.S. troop deployments against Americans exercising their constitutional right to peaceably protest and fund preparations for possibly ending the 1992 moratorium on underground nuclear testing.

In addition, the bill would require the removal over three years of Confederate names from 10 Army bases named after officers who waged war against the United States, and from other U.S. military assets — including naval vessels — named in commemoration of Confederate military figures or battlefield prowess.

James Inhofe, R-Okla., said America needs “a credible military deterrent that tells Russia and China and anyone else who would do us harm: You just can’t win. We are going to win. We will beat you. … That is what this [bill] does.”

Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said, “It has been more than 150 years since the end of the Civil War, but 10 U.S. Army posts around this country currently bear the names of officers of the Confederate States of America … who took up arms against the United States to defend slavery.”

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

ARKANSAS

Voting yes: Tom Cotton, R, John Boozman, R

TEXAS

Voting yes: John Cornyn, R, Ted Cruz, R