On March 29, 2024, a member of Congress from western Pennsylvania sat down and used his lawmaking power on this:
Renaming an airport.
Guy Reschenthaler introduced H.R. 7845, a bill to change the name of Washington Dulles International Airport to the "Donald J. Trump International Airport." Six other Republicans signed on the same day. Five more joined over the next two weeks.
Then it died in committee without a single hearing.
So they did it again. And the second time around, three of them added their names while the federal government was shut down and the people who keep planes from hitting each other were working for free.
"No better symbol of freedom"
Reschenthaler isn't a backbencher. He's the House Chief Deputy Whip — his actual job is counting votes and making sure his party's bills pass. This is what he chose to spend that influence on.
Here's how he explained it in his own press release:
"In my lifetime, our nation has never been greater than under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump. As millions of domestic and international travelers fly through the airport, there is no better symbol of freedom, prosperity, and strength than hearing 'Welcome to Trump International Airport' as they land on American soil."
The press release didn't stop at the bill. It ran a long list of things it credited Trump with — "the best economy in history," "the world's most robust and advanced border wall," a "40 percent increase in net worth" for the bottom half of American households. A bill about airport signage came packaged with a campaign brochure.
The six Republicans who put their names on it that first day were Chuck Fleischmann of Tennessee, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Barry Moore of Alabama, Troy Nehls of Texas, Andy Ogles of Tennessee, and Mike Waltz of Florida.
Barry Moore explained his reasoning to the Guardian like this:
"In 1998, Congress renamed the National airport in Washington after one of our great presidents, Ronald Reagan."
It was only fitting, he went on, to do the same for "another one of our greatest presidents."
The Guardian ran a one-line correction directly underneath his quote: Reagan National is actually in Virginia. So is Dulles.
Over the following two weeks, five more Republicans signed on: Claudia Tenney of New York, William Timmons of South Carolina, Bob Good of Virginia, Gus Bilirakis of Florida, and Andy Harris of Maryland.
Remember that last name.
Round two
In January 2025, with Trump back in office, a freshman from North Carolina picked the idea back up. Addison McDowell introduced H.R. 691 on January 23 — an identical bill, same airport, same name.
Trump had been sworn in three days earlier. McDowell was a freshman, less than three weeks into the job. He told local outlet FFXnow:
"We have entered the golden age of America largely thanks to President Trump's leadership. It is only right that the two airports servicing our nation's capital are duly honored and respected by two of the best presidents to have the honor of serving our great nation."
Reschenthaler signed on as a cosponsor of his own idea under someone else's name. So did Brandon Gill of Texas, Riley Moore of West Virginia, and Brian Jack of Georgia — all on day one.
The Democrats who actually represent the ground the airport sits on were not impressed. Rep. Suhas Subramanyam — one of the two members whose districts cover the Fairfax and Loudoun county land Dulles occupies — said House Republicans "would rather focus their efforts on renaming airports to honor their dear leader than tackling the real issues facing Americans."
Then the government shut down
On October 1, 2025, the federal government closed. It stayed closed for 43 days — the longest shutdown in American history.
Air traffic controllers are "essential." That means they don't get to stay home. They report to the tower every day and they don't get paid. On October 28, controllers across the country received their first $0 paycheck.
Three days later — October 31 — Andy Harris added his name to the bill to rename Dulles after Donald Trump. So did Andy Ogles. Troy Nehls had signed on ten days before that.
Harris is the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. Two days before the shutdown began, he told the Daily Signal that people were overreacting — that Trump's budget director would keep the essential things running, and that "it is not really a government shutdown."
Essential services did continue. Air traffic control is one of them. What Harris didn't mention is that "essential" is the category that means you show up anyway and the paycheck says zero.
By November 6, it wasn't holding. The FAA announced it would cut flights by up to 10% at 40 major airports, citing "increased reports of strain on the system." The agency's own statement said it plainly: "Since the beginning of the shutdown, controllers have been working without pay."
Washington Dulles International Airport — IAD — was on that list of 40.
So the actual sequence is this. The airport these Republicans wanted to rename in Trump's honor was having its flights cut because of a shutdown Trump's party was running, staffed by workers getting zero-dollar paychecks. And in the middle of it, three members of Congress found the time to put their names on the naming bill.
Jimmy Patronis of Florida signed on November 20 — eight days after the government reopened.
This is a whole genre now
The Dulles bill isn't a one-off. It's part of a pattern we keep running into:
- Claudia Tenney — who cosponsored the Dulles bill in 2024 — also filed a bill to make Trump's birthday a federal holiday. Eighteen months later, not one other member had signed it.
- Anna Paulina Luna introduced legislation to carve Trump's face into Mount Rushmore, eight days into his second term. Geologists say the rock can't support it.
- Greg Steube tried to rename 4.3 million square miles of ocean after Trump, and separately moved to choke off funding for DC's subway until it was renamed the "Trump Train."
- Mike Simpson used his appropriations gavel to name a Kennedy Center theater after Melania Trump — in the same bill that cut arts and humanities funding by 35%.
None of it does anything for anybody. That isn't an accident; it's the point. These bills exist to be noticed by one person.
What the job was supposed to be
While Reschenthaler was writing press releases about airport signage, here's what was happening in Pennsylvania's 14th District.
An estimated 28,256 people in PA-14 are projected to lose health coverage because of the health care cuts he voted for. 60,518 households in his district rely on SNAP to buy groceries — about 18% of every household in the district. And more than 216,000 of his constituents depend on Social Security, the most of any congressional district in Pennsylvania.
There's a sharper version of this. In July 2025, nine of Pennsylvania's ten House Republicans signed a letter asking the Trump administration to exempt cocoa from his tariffs, to protect the state's chocolate manufacturing jobs. Reschenthaler was the only one who didn't sign it.
He'll put his name on a bill to rename an airport in another state after Donald Trump. He wouldn't put it on a letter to protect Pennsylvania jobs.
Where the bills stand
H.R. 7845 never got past a committee referral and died when that Congress ended. H.R. 691 was sent to the Aviation Subcommittee on February 1, 2025, and hasn't moved an inch in the year and a half since. Neither bill ever got a hearing, a markup, or a vote — even with Republicans running the House the whole time.
There's one last thing worth knowing. When Congress renamed National Airport after Ronald Reagan in 1998, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association objected — because Reagan had fired 11,000 striking air traffic controllers in 1981.
Nearly thirty years later, the same party went after the other Washington airport for another president. And they kept signing the bill while controllers worked that airport for free.
Source
Republicans propose renaming Dulles airport after Trump as 'symbol of freedom' — Martin Pengelly, The Guardian, April 2, 2024. Lead photo of Dulles International Airport by Jeff Greenberg/Alamy.
