Minnesota senators pushing to name Minneapolis federal building after Paul Wellstone

Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith announced bipartisan legislation Tuesday to rename a Federal Building in downtown Minneapolis in honor of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone. The senators say they are pushing for the name to be changed to the Paul D. Wellstone Federal Building.

The announcement comes on the 20th anniversary of the plane crash that killed Sen. Wellstone, his wife Sheila, daughter Marcia and campaign aides Tom Lapic, Will McLaughlin, Mary McEvoy, and two pilots.

The building currently houses offices for Housing and Urban Development, the National Labor Relations Board, and a passport agency. Klobuchar says that makes it a perfect fit for Minnesotans to go for federal services in a building under Wellstone’s name.

“They gather here because they need help with housing,” Klobuchar told reporters gathered in a hallway of the building. “They gather here (for) labor issues which were near and dear to Paul’s heart, and they gather here when they are for some reason embarking on an adventure.”

The neo-classical building at 212 3rd Ave. S. in downtown was initially built in 1913 as a post office. In the 1930’s it was transformed into a federal office building.

It’s currently known as “Federal Building,” so there would be no need to take anyone else’s name off the building.

“I can think of no more fitting name for this place than the Paul David Wellstone federal building,” said Sen. Smith.

The late Sen. Wellstone’s oldest son, David Wellstone, joined Smith and Klobuchar for a news conference and endorsed the idea of a building housing so many important services. “Everything that my dad and my mom and everybody in that (plane) crash stood for,” he said. “Working for people. For regular folks.”

The proposal needs to pass through an often polarized Congress either late this year in a “lame duck” session of the current Congress or next year.

David Wellstone hopes partisanship can be set aside.

“We all do better when we all do better, right?” he said, repeating one of his dad’s famous quotes. “To me, that’s what this building and the naming of this building is about.”