Mike Levin: “for all these reasons and others, I cannot support this legislation to precipitously strip Washington National Airport…”

“for all these reasons and others, I cannot support this legislation to precipitously strip Washington National Airport of the name it has borne for more than half a century. Exhibit 1 [From the Washington Post, Feb. 1, 1998] Don't Rename Washington National With alarming speed and little serious thought, members of the House and Senate are pushing a bill to strip Washington National Airport of its time-honored name and call it instead Ronald Reagan National Airport. It is a bad proposal on many counts, all of them going well beyond any public wishes to honor the former president. As it happens, this capital city already has honored Mr. Reagan in a most impressive way, naming a major new, heart-of-downtown federal office building after him. As it also happens, the name Washington National honors this country's first president, who lived just down the road a bit from the airport site. In addition, the name Washington National clearly identifies the airport's location and market--an important aid to travelers and shippers all over the world. There is yet another solid reason to drop the proposal. Former Virginia governor Linwood Holton, the first Republican to hold statewide office in the Old Dominion since Reconstruction and former head of the Washington Airports Authority, cites the history, intent and spirit of congressional legislation signed in 1986 by President Reagan.”