SEEKONK (AP) — The effort to name the post office in Seekonk in honor of a local Marine who died in Iraq is one step closer to reality.

U.S. Rep. James McGovern says the House yesterday unanimously passed a bill to name the facility after Lance Cpl. Eric Valdepenas, a graduate of Bishop Hendricken High School in Warwick. The bill now goes to the Senate.

The 21-year-old Valdepenas was killed in September 2006 when a roadside bomb struck his vehicle in Al Anbar province.

Valdepenas served in the Marine Reserve’s 1st Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, based in Ayer.

He was an honors student and captain of the lacrosse team at Hendricken, and an engineering student at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.