The Ariel Rios Building housing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now the William Jefferson Clinton Building, thanks to legislation introduced by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D.-Calif.
The Ariel Rios name, which honored a fallen agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), will be resurrected on a reflecting pond with the family's consent. (The EPA Building once housed the ATF.)
Clinton was instrumental in various environmental initiatives during his eight years in the Oval Office, including expansion of Superfund clean-ups, amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the advancement of tougher air-quality standards.
During the ceremony yesterday, Clinton quipped that the renaming easily could have gone instead to his vice president, Al Gore. Gore, inventor of the Internet according to yore, was not present, but Carol Browner, EPA chief for Clinton, was in attendance, as was Sen. Boxer.
The EPA was created during the Richard Nixon administration in 1970.