James Oberstar: “the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure might also have a subtitle, the Committee on Commendation of Great…”

“the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure might also have a subtitle, the Committee on Commendation of Great Americans. There are few opportunities for us in this body to memorialize Americans who have made great contributions to their country, sacrifice in many ways including, as in this case, sacrifice of their very lives. It is our good fortune to have jurisdiction over Federal buildings to the extent even of naming those Federal buildings; and we have on this committee, on a bipartisan basis, reserved that responsibility for very special cases. We carefully review the many bills introduced to name structures for figures important locally or statewide or nationally; and in the end, our judgment on a bipartisan basis has been to reserve the naming of a building for someone who has truly made an extraordinary contribution. This afternoon we have had at least one example of that with the naming of the George Brown building. Here, with the naming of the William Kenzo Nakamura United States Courthouse in Seattle, we have an opportunity to acknowledge, pay tribute to and memorialize for time everlasting, or at least as long as this structure will last, a true American hero, William Kenzo Nakamura.”