Photo by Phil Roeder.

“If at first you don’t succeed, dust yourself off and try again” is the mantra Missouri senators are living by as they brush the cobwebs off legislation to rename Union Station after 33rd President Harry Truman.

For the third time since 2014, Missouri senators Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt have reintroduced their legislation to christen the transportation hub “Harry S. Truman Union Station,” as flagged by transportation reporter Shaun Courtney. Each time, the introduction of the bill happened on or close to Truman’s May 8 birthday.

The bipartisan delegation is set on showing Truman, a Show-Me State native, some love in the capital. (For what it’s worth, there’s already a Harry S. Truman Federal Building. It was renamed from the War Department in 2000, which is rich in irony considering that, while a senator, he called war profiteers treasonous.)

When the bill was introduced in 2014, then-Mayor Vincent Gray said that any name change shouldn’t occur without input from District residents and the city government.

Mayor Muriel Bowser hasn’t tipped her hat on the issue. “The Mayor’s office is still reviewing this legislation and has not yet taken a position,” says her director of communications, Kevin Harris.

However, our representative on The Hill, D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, has been supportive of the measure in the past. She cosponsored the companion bill in the House in 2014.

“I applaud the bipartisan McCaskill-Blunt bill to name Union Station, a federal building, for Harry Truman, a president much admired in this city,” said Norton in a statement. “From integrating the armed forces and the Marshall Plan to the Fair Deal and the creation of the United Nations, Harry Truman was one of our nation’s greatest presidents and deserves recognition in the nation’s capital.” Her office has not responded to comment about this week’s reintroduction of the legislation.

In the past few years, even as Congress has broken records for gridlock, one thing legislators have been able to accomplish is renaming buildings.

Union Station, which is a U.S. Department of Transportation building, serves as D.C.’s main bus terminal, has four commuter and national rail lines (and one street car!), and more than 100 shops.

But was Truman even the kind of guy who wanted a transportation hub in his name? One quote widely attributed to Truman is, “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” He also said, “Never kick a cow turd on a hot day,” which is both wise and awesome.

So with all that in mind, we’re putting it to the people.

The 2014 Version of the Legislation by Rachel Kurzius on Scribd

Updated with comment from Kevin Harris, director of communications for Mayor Muriel Bowser.