It’s not the “Pequot River bill” anymore.

Not after a state legislative committee voted Friday to pass “An act concerning the name of the Thames River.”

The full House of Representatives will next consider the controversial measure, originally known as “An act renaming the Thames River as the Pequot River,” after the Transportation Committee approved it along part lines, 22-13.

The House and Senate would both have to approve the bill and Gov. Ned Lamont would then have to sign it before it could become law.

As now written, the bill calls for the commissioners of the state Department of Transportation and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to consult with the Eastern Pequot, Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes “with regards to restoring the name of the Thames River to a former name that honors the heritage of such river …"

If the tribes can agree on a former name, the commissioners are directed to apply to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to make the change.

On March 3, the Transportation Committee voted 24-12 to draft a new version of the original bill, with one Republican member of the panel siding with 23 Democrats. On Friday, that member, Rep. Rachel Chaleski, of Danbury, voted with the rest of the Republicans.

One Democratic committee member, Geraldo Reyes, of Waterbury, was absent Friday and did not vote.

The committee took up the bill in the wake of a public hearing at which representatives of the Mashantucket Pequot and Eastern Pequot tribes testified in support of changing the name of the Thames River to the Pequot River, which the tribes regard as the river’s true historical name. English colonists named the river the Thames in the mid-17th century around the same time they gave New London its name.

The Mohegans, who say their ancestral land borders the river, oppose changing the river’s name to the Pequot River.

“It’s not exactly what we were looking for ― we’re looking to restore the river’s name, that’s what we’re trying to accomplish,” Rodney Butler, the Mashantucket chairman, said Monday of the bill drafted and passed by the Transportation Committee.

He said the new version of the legislation reflects the committee’s desire to “strike a balance” among the tribes and recognizes that it’s the federal government that makes the final decision on a geographical name change.

“I think this makes it easier for the full body to pass it,” Butler said of the bill.

But can the tribes agree on what to call the Thames River?

“Look, for one thing this whole process has given the Easterns, a state-recognized tribe, a seat at the table,” Butler said. “That in itself is a beautiful thing. “We’ve educated a lot of people.”

“We know that the river was the Pequot River, there’s no debate about that,” he said. “Now, there are different interpretations about what it was called over time, and we’re willing to have conversations about that.’’

Butler said he has had some initial contact with Mohegan tribal members and that further discussions will take place.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com