The newest of the Senate office buildings is named for Michigan senator Philip A. Hart (1912-1976). Over the course of his 18-year Senate career, Hart distinguished himself as a man of deep personal conviction and integrity and a steadfast advocate for the common man. He was an ardent supporter of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and served as the floor manager of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. As the chairman of the Antitrust Subcommittee he took on big business even when it contradicted his own political interests. Senator Hart’s commitment to such causes earned him the moniker, “The Conscience of the Senate.” The Senate paid tribute to Philip Hart by naming the new office building in his honor as he was dying of cancer in 1976. The Hart Senate Office Building opened in 1982, despite the aesthetic objections of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, becoming the only congressional office building named after a sitting (or living) member.
