Bob Barr: “Mr. Chairman, with all due deference to lawyers and lawyer wannabees, a lease is not quite the same as ownership, no…”

“Mr. Chairman, with all due deference to lawyers and lawyer wannabees, a lease is not quite the same as ownership, no matter what the term of the lease; and I think that we need to recognize that fact. Mr. Chairman, if there are those that simply politically disagree or personally disagree with renaming National Airport for President Reagan, then fine. But let us do away with some of these arguments that are cluttering up what is really going on here. The Federal Government owns National Airport. The fact that they have leased it to a local authority does not change the fact that the Federal Government owns that airport. Some have suggested that President Reagan's name be affixed to Dulles International Airport. It is not quite the same. Mr. Chairman, Washington National Airport, the national airport at Washington, D.C., is the only airport in our country that is a national airport. It is the national airport. It is the only national airport. It is America's airport. And as the airport for all of America, not for any locality, it is not Virginia's airport. It is not Maryland's airport. It is not Pennsylvania's airport. It is not Georgia's airport. It is America's airport. It is the airport that serves our Nation's capital.”