Paul D. Wellstone Building Act of 2022

Floor Speech

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Ms. OMAR. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 5060, to rename the Federal building in my district as the ``Paul D. Wellstone Federal Building''.

I am proud to honor and celebrate the legacy of the late Senator Paul Wellstone as an activist, academic, author, and proud Senator from Minnesota.

Son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, Senator Wellstone was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Northern Virginia. He received his bachelor, masters, and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and in 1969 went on to be hired as a professor in Northfield, Minnesota, where he taught until his election to the Senate in 1990.

While in the U.S. Senate, Wellstone was a proud, progressive in support of environmental protection, public housing, free school meals, labor groups, and healthcare reform.

He served in the Senate from 1991 until 2002, when he was tragically killed in a plane crash with his wife and daughter on board.

Paul Wellstone is a personal hero of mine. He was an organizer to his core. He showed what it meant to fight unapologetically for working people. And he showed that it is possible to stay true to your progressive values and lead a life of public service.

He always said, ``We all do better when we all do better.'' I am honored to have the Federal building in my district, the same building where in May 1970, he was arrested for civil disobedience while protesting the Vietnam war named after the late Senator from Minnesota.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in honoring his life and legacy by passing this bipartisan bill.

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