By Suzanne Kubota
Senior Internet Editor
FederalNewsRadio.com

House Bill HR 24 and its 400 hundred co-sponsors are proposing a change to the name of the Department of the Navy to the Department of the Navy and Marine Corps.

With just seven votes shy of a 20-year record for the most co-sponsors on any House bill, you might think it’s time to start printing up the new letterhead. But wait.

Jodi Schneider, Senior Editor in the Washington Bureau of the American Banker, told Federal News Radio this is not at all like watching Navy beat Army in yet another lopsided Cadet Bowl.

What’s so interesting is with 400 sponsors, you think “well, okay, how many more do you need? That’s 92 percent of the House of Representatives,” but it doesn’t have much support in the Senate in the companion bill. Just three senators there have sponsored S 504.

Schneider reminded, “getting the Senate to do anything can become a monumental task.”

Also on the Senate’s plate is discretionary spending. “The posturing has begun,” proclaimed Schneider. Usually, by late April, the Senate has had time to have more discussion about appropriations, but with “healthcare going as late as it did,” said Schneider, the Memorial Day recess looms in about a month, “and then they’ve got a month in June before the July 4th recess,” and before you know it, they’re off to campaign.

And as for the financial regulation, said Schneider, “it seems to change everyday. It’s like follow the bouncing ball on financial reg reform, but it looks like there is movement.” Schneider expects a vote “pretty quickly,” then reconciliation. Timing, said Schneider, is an issue, since “the later it gets, the more complicated that gets.”

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