The Latest: McConnell slows push to name building for McCain

WASHINGTON – The Latest on a proposal to rename the Senate’s oldest office building for John McCain (all times local):

11 a.m.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is hitting the brakes on a push to rename the Senate’s oldest office building for the late Sen. John McCain.

McConnell, a Republican, said Tuesday that he will form a bipartisan committee to determine a fitting tribute for the Arizona Republican.

He says “there’s no shortage of good ideas,” including naming the hearing room for the Senate Armed Service Committee after him. Another idea is to add a portrait of McCain to a reception room right off the Senate floor.

But McConnell was careful not to make a specific recommendation.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has proposed renaming the Russell Senate Office building in McCain’s honour, but some Republicans are wary of that idea.

The building is named after Sen. Richard Russell, a Georgia Democrat who led opposition to civil rights legislation.

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12:30 a.m.

A proposal to rename the Russell Senate Office building after Sen. John McCain appears to be gaining bipartisan support, but success is far from assured.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer proposed renaming the Senate’s oldest office building in McCain’s honour after the Arizona Republican died Saturday from brain cancer.

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who served with McCain for 31 years, says he’s in favour of “naming almost any building” for McCain, but adds, “I’m not sure that I would make a decision on a specific building at this point.”

The building is named after Sen. Richard Russell, a Georgia Democrat who, like McCain, chaired the Armed Services Committee.

Russell was a segregationist and led Southern opposition to anti-lynching bills and other civil rights legislation. He died in 1971.