[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16242-16243]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              THOMAS E. BURNETT, JR. POST OFFICE BUILDING

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the consideration of H.R. 5207, just received from the House 
and which is now at the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 5207) to designate the facility of the United 
     States Postal Service located at 6101 West Old Shakopee Road 
     in Bloomington, Minnesota, as the ``Thomas E. Burnett, Jr. 
     Post Office Building''.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Reid). The Senator from Minnesota.
  Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, I join with my colleague, the senior 
Senator from Minnesota, Mr. Wellstone, who has introduced this 
legislation to honor Thomas E. Burnett, Jr., a true hero who gave his 
life on September 11 on the flight that was returning to Washington to 
cause enormous destruction to either this building perhaps or the White 
House. No one will ever know for sure. What we do know is the plane was 
prevented from its intended destructive course by the heroism of Mr. 
Burnett and others who were on that flight. We know that because on 
three or four occasions he called his wife, Deena. He spoke with her on 
a cell phone and communicated his intention and the intention of other 
passengers to intervene and wrest control of the plane from the 
hijackers who had commandeered that plane.
  It was an act of enormous courage. It saved hundreds, perhaps 
thousands of lives, most likely in our Nation's Capitol. Tragically, it 
cost Mr. Burnett and the other passengers on that flight their lives. 
All of us in this body owe a debt of unspeakable gratitude to those 
incredibly courageous men and women.

[[Page 16243]]

  I had occasion to visit Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Burnett, Sr., the parents 
of Mr. Burnett, in Minnesota to express our gratitude and share briefly 
the enormous grief they bear, as well as the grief of Mr. Burnett's 
wife and three children, which they will carry for the rest of their 
lives.
  In a few minutes, we will pass this act to name the post office in 
Mr. Burnett's honor. Again, I thank Senator Wellstone, my senior 
colleague, for his thoughtful initiative in this regard, and I thank 
the Members of the Senate who I anticipate will vote in support of this 
measure. It is such a small measure of our eternal gratitude to this 
brave man. May he rest forever in peace and in the annals of the great 
heroes of this country.
  I yield the floor.
  The bill (H.R. 5207) was read the third time and passed.
  Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and to lay 
that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
  (Mr. DAYTON assumed the Chair.)

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