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CAA: Airport News, "'Lautenberg Airport' proposal doesn't fly"
Friday, June 16, 2000
'Lautenberg Airport' proposal doesn't fly
By Robert Cohen
Newark (NJ) Ledger-Star
WASHINGTON -- The Senate yesterday voted to name a new commuter rail
transfer station in Secaucus after retiring Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.),
but the honor was really a consolation prize.
As it turns out, Lautenberg and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), chairman of a
transportation appropriations panel, recently talked about adding language
to a spending bill renaming Newark International Airport the Frank R.
Lautenberg International Airport.
But the idea didn't seem to have much support beyond those two.
When the Alabama senator broached the idea with Gov. Christie Whitman, New
York Gov. George Pataki and Sen. Robert Torricelli (D- N.J.), the response
was a unanimous thumbs down.
Retha Sherrod, a Lautenberg spokeswoman, said the airport idea originated
with Shelby, who wanted to do something to honor the New Jersey lawmaker for
his work on transportation projects during his 18 years in the Senate.
''Sen. Shelby made some phone calls to Govs. Whitman and Pataki about that,"
said Sherrod.
The spokeswoman said Lautenberg was "truly surprised and humbled by Sen.
Shelby's wonderful gesture."
In the end, the transportation funding bill approved yesterday left the
airport's name intact, and renamed NJ Transit's Secaucus Transfer Station
the Frank R. Lautenberg Transfer Station. The House still must concur.
The station, scheduled to open in May 2002, will permit commuters to
transfer from the Main Bergen County, Pascack Valley and Port Jervis lines
to trains traveling on the Northeast Corridor.
Andrea Andrews, a spokeswoman for Shelby, said the senator was "proud to
have played a role" in naming the rail station after Lautenberg. But she
would not talk about the earlier discussions about renaming the airport.
''I won't go into the whole process of how this came about," said Shelby's
spokeswoman.
Peter McDonough, a spokesman for Whitman, declined to comment on the idea of
renaming the airport or the rail station after the Democratic senator.
But others in the Whitman administration, who asked not to be identified,
ridiculed the airport idea, saying Lautenberg does not have the stature for
such an honor and could not be put on the name level with John F. Kennedy,
Ronald Reagan and George Bush, three presidents who have major airports
named after them.
One Whitman aide described the Governor as "less than enthusiastic," while
another state official wondered how anyone in Congress could even consider
the idea of renaming an airport owned and operated by the Port Authority of
New York and New Jersey.
''It's doesn't even belong to the federal government," the aide said.
The aide jokingly added that if Whitman were to agree to anything, it would
be to "name a no-smoking section of the airport after the senator."
Lautenberg is the author of the law banning smoking on airlines.
Lautenberg's staff said the senator did not initiate the airport name
change.
But it is not uncommon for Congress to name courthouses and other government
buildings after retiring lawmakers.
The federal building in Newark is named after former Rep. Peter Rodino and
the waterfront park in Newark has been named after former Rep. Joseph
Minish.
Congress had voted to name the Metropark train station after Harrison
Williams while he was still a senator. But the name was removed after
following his conviction for bribery and conspiracy.
Post your opinion on this story in the CAA Discussion Forum
http://www.californiaaviation.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?conf=DCConfID8
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