This Congressman wants to add “Marine Corps” to the Navy Department’s name

North Carolina Representative Walter Jones wants to elevate the Marines to be included in the name of the Navy Department. For the past 15 years, he has introduced legislation into the annual National Defense Authorization Act to create "the Department of the Navy and Marine Corps." Each year the action gets increased support in both houses of Congress but ultimately is shot down in the Senate. Jones believes not including the Marines in the official name of the department is an offense to Marines who've fought and died for the United States.

"When we die, when mama and dada get that letter of condolence, it would be kind of nice if the Marine Corps was mentioned," famous Marine Corps alum R. Lee Ermey told the Marine Corps Times in 2010. "Just change the letterhead. What's the harm in that?"

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the harm would come in the form of a cost of about $500,000 per year over a few years' time. Since the National Security Act of 1947 delineated the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps as separate services, the only change to the Marines' structure was the addition of the Commandant of the Marine Corps to the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1979.

Jones was elected in 1995 to North Carolina's 3rd District, which includes Camp Lejune and Marine Corps Air Station New River. He has been introducing this legislation since 2001.

In 2010, Jones' amendment was introduced to the House as a standalone bill, but even then, with 415 cosponsors (there are only 435 Representatives in the House), the Senate still killed it. Jones' 2010 bill received the most cosponsors of any bill in Congress since the Congressional Record started keeping track. The effort to kill that bill was led by Senator John McCain.

"This isn't about Walter Jones," Jones told The Hill. "This isn't about John McCain. This is about the Marines who serve this country. Haven't they earned the right to be recognized?"