When it was the War Department, it only managed the Army, the Navy had its own cabinet secretary & department, and the Air Force was still part of the Army. When it was all military forces were brought under a single department, it got renamed so it didn’t look like the Navy was being made subservient to the Army.

If enough GOP Representatives are upset about it, they can either band with the Democrats to file a discharge petition to force a vote, the same way they did with the Epstein files. They could also move forward with a motion to unseat Speaker Johnson entirely. If they’re unwilling to do either then, quite frankly, I don’t want to hear about their crocodile tears.