President Trump’s executive order authorizing the Department of Defense to be called the Department of War as a secondary title could cost from $10 million to $125 million, depending on how extensively the new name is used, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.
A limited implementation of the new name to be used primarily by the Office of the Secretary of Defense would run about $10 million, according to the analysis. If the name change were pushed through more broadly and rapidly throughout the Defense Department, the costs could rise as high as $125 million.
Congress has shown no real interest in formally renaming the department, but if it formally approved such a change via legislation, the costs could rise to hundreds of millions of dollars, depending on how the change was implemented, CBO said.
The CBO analysis was requested by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Jeff Merkley, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee.