Department of Interior Building in Washington would be named for Tucsonan who headed agency for eight years
WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords today voted with a bipartisan majority in the House to rename the building housing the Department of the Interior in honor of former Interior Secretary Stewart L. Udall.
The building would be named the Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior Building in honor of the former Tucsonan who headed the Department from 1960 through 1968. Udall died in March at his New Mexico home.
“I am deeply honored to co-sponsor this legislation recognizing the most respected and most effective American environmental voice of the past 50 years,” Giffords said today. “What he did beginning five decades ago as secretary of the interior shaped the nation we are today.”
The bill to put Udall’s name on the building passed the House today on a 409-to-1 vote. It now goes to the Senate for consideration.
Together with his younger brother Morris, the Udalls were Arizona icons and part of a political dynasty that stretches back to territorial days. Stewart’s son, Tom, and Morris’ son, Mark, today continue that tradition as members of the U.S. Senate.
When President John F. Kennedy selected Stewart Udall to serve as secretary of the interior, Udall was a member of the House representing a large portion of Southern Arizona. Morris Udall then was elected to replace his brother. The district now represented by Giffords was part of the area represented by the Udalls.
During his eight years as head of the Department of Interior, Stewart Udall was responsible for the creation of four national parks, six national monuments, eight national seashores and lakeshores, nine recreation areas, 20 historic sites and 56 wildlife refuges.
He also was the author of the seminal environmental book, “The Quiet Crisis,” a clarion call for America to clean up its cities and rivers and preserve its special places for all time.
At the time of his death, in March, Giffords called Udall “a man ahead of his time.”
Giffords also was co-sponsor of legislation last year renaming the Morris K. Udall Foundation to honor both brothers, both of whom graduated from the University of Arizona. The bill became law and the foundation, headquartered in Tucson, now is called the Morris K. and Stewart L. Udall Foundation.
In a guest opinion published in October in the Benson News-Sun, Giffords wrote that “the combined contributions of Morris and Stewart Udall are like the rugged and wild lands they dedicated their lives to preserving: They will endure through the ages.”