Brian Jones: “For 10 years the House of Representatives, under the leadership of Duncan Hunter and Ike Skelton, have brought to the…”

“For 10 years the House of Representatives, under the leadership of Duncan Hunter and Ike Skelton, have brought to the floor of the House in our Armed Services bill language to honor and respect the Marine Corps by changing the name of the Department of Navy to be known as the Department of Navy and Marine Corps. For 10 years we sent this language over to the Senate. For 10 years the Senate rejected the House position. This year, under the leadership of Ike Skelton and Buck McKeon, the Armed Services Committee decided to bring this language to the floor as what's called a stand-alone bill. We had 425 House Members--there are only 435--425 signed this bill to recognize the Navy and Marine Corps as one fighting team. And the bill passed the House, as you know, Madam Speaker, by what's called unanimous consent. Well, at that period of time Senator Pat Roberts from Kansas, a former Marine officer, put the same bill in. It's what is called a companion bill. And by the time we had passed our bill, he had 80 Senators in the U.S. Senate sign his companion bill to rename the Department of Navy to be Navy and Marine Corps. Madam Speaker, I have said many times in the last few weeks that I don't think you could get 80 Senators to agree there is a Santa Claus. But the Senators do recognize the importance of honoring the Marine Corps by letting them share in the name of the family, the family being the Navy and Marine Corps family.”