GOP rep moves to restrict naming Navy ships after Congress members

A Republican lawmaker has introduced legislation to keep Congress members’ names off Navy ships if they haven’t served as president or in the military. 

If passed, the proposal would block the naming of two ships — one after civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and one after former Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich).

The proposal, from Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.), was filed as an amendment to the defense appropriations bill the House will start debating Tuesday afternoon. It would block funding to name a ship after a member of Congress, living or dead, unless that member has been president or been in the military.

{mosads}The amendment was first highlighted by The Washington Post on Tuesday afternoon.

The House Rules Committee is set to decide later Tuesday which of the 100-plus amendments that have been filed will make it to the House floor.

In a statement, Palazzo said his amendment is not targeting Lewis. He said he believes ships should only be named after former presidents, war heroes or people who have served in the military.

“We have 76 living recipients of the Medal of Honor,” Palazzo said. “I would suggest that the secretary of the Navy start there. My amendment has nothing — absolutely zero — to do with John Lewis or any other member of Congress. I’ve been honored to serve alongside Congressman Lewis, a civil rights icon, and I believe he deserves to be memorialized in a way that far outlasts the life of a Navy ship.”

Lewis’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Navy announced in January that the first ship in the next generation of fleet replenishment oilers would be named after Lewis.

In announcing the decision, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus highlighted Lewis’s civil rights accomplishments.

“Naming this ship after John Lewis is a fitting tribute to a man who has, from his youth, been at the forefront of progressive social and human rights movements in the U.S., directly shaping both the past and future of our nation,” Mabus said in a January statement.

Levin, meanwhile, is set to become the namesake for the next Arleigh Burke-class destroyer.

“It is a great honor to name this ship in recognition of such a dedicated public servant,” Mabus said in an April statement announcing the name. “I have no doubt that all who serve aboard her will carry on the legacy of service and commitment exemplified by Carl Levin during his storied career.”

Palazzo is not the first congressman to raise objections to how ships are named. In April, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), a longtime adversary of Mabus, questioned the decision to name a ship after Levin.

“It is important that the Navy adhere to its own ship-naming rules and take every effort necessary to avoid politicization of this process,” Hunter wrote in a letter to Mabus in April.

A recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report said the rules for naming ships have evolved over time and that exceptions to the rules are typically made to name ships after living people.

Since 1973, at least 17 ships have been named after living people, with six of those coming after January 2012.

A 2012 Navy report, the CRS says, “argues that exceptions made for the purpose of naming ships for presidents or members of Congress have occurred frequently enough that, rather than being exceptions, they constitute a ‘special cross-type naming convention’ for presidents and members of Congress.”

— Updated at 5:15 p.m.