One plan to honor John McCain meets resistance
Proposal to rename a Senate building gets cool reception
WASHINGTON — A proposal to rename the Senate’s oldest office building for John McCain ran into resistance Tuesday from Republican senators reluctant to take away an honor already bestowed on a leader of Southern senators during a tumultuous era in the nation’s history.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he will form a bipartisan panel to solicit ideas on the best way to honor the late Arizona senator.
McCain “meant so much to so many of us — inside this chamber and out,” McConnell said Tuesday in a speech on the Senate floor. “The Senate is eager to work on concrete ways to … provide a lasting tribute to this American hero … .”
Besides the proposal to rename the Russell Senate Office building, lawmakers may consider naming a room used by the Senate Armed Services Committee after McCain, who was the panel’s chairman, McConnell said. Another idea is to add McCain’s portrait to a reception room off the Senate floor, joining such giants as Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and Robert Taft. Only seven senators are honored with portraits there.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer had proposed renaming the Russell building in McCain’s honor after the veteran Republican senator died Saturday from brain cancer.
The 109-year-old building is named after Sen. Richard Russell, a Georgia Democrat who, like McCain, chaired the Armed Services panel. Russell, who died in 1971, led Southern opposition to civil rights legislation, including the 1964 Civil Rights Act.