UPDATE 11:30 a.m.: A press release from Sen. Lamar Alexander's office confirms that legislation has been introduced to name the new federal courthouse after Sen. Fred Thompson.

"U.S. Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) along with U.S. Representatives Diane Black (R-Tenn.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.), John J. Duncan, Jr. (R-Tenn.), Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.), Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) and Phil Roe (R-Tenn.) today introduced a bill to name the new Nashville federal courthouse in honor of former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson."

The one absence from the list? Nashville's congressman, Rep. Jim Cooper.

Original article: Are Sen. Lamar Alexander and Sen. Bob Corker are pushing for the new federal courthouse in Nashville to be named after deceased Sen. Fred Thompson? It appears so.

A D.C. and a Nashville source both told the Scene that the Tennessee senators will introduce legislation tomorrow to name the new building, now that the project is moving forward. Environmental work will start on Friday, with demolition work soon after as the project targets a 2021 completion date.

An Alexander spokesman would not confirm.

"That’s a matter members of the Tennessee congressional delegation will have to discuss and they haven’t had that discussion yet," Jim Jeffries said on Tuesday.

The current Estes Kefauver Federal Building and Courthouse on Broadway, named for the late Democratic senator, was completed in 1952 and the adjoining annex in 1974. It has been a candidate for replacement for the last two decades, but funding was secured only last year. Both Alexander and Rep. Jim Cooper have pushed for the new courthouse for years.

Cooper, though, seems cool to the idea and instead offers a populist alternative: "Why not have a naming contest? Let the people of Middle Tennessee decide," Cooper tells the Scene.

The move to name the building after Thompson is likely to raise eyebrows in Nashville for a number of reasons. Although Thompson, who died in November of last year, served a variety of prominent public service roles before becoming senator in 1994, including minority counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee in 1973-74, he is better known for his time outside of Capitol Hill.

He balanced a lucrative legal and lobbying career with steady roles as a character actor in movies and on TV, playing a grizzled naval admiral in The Hunt For Red October and a conservative District Attorney on Law & Order franchises. In a 2007 interview, he told the New York Times that he had always felt that the Senate "was never meant to be the place where I would stay for my entire career." He ran for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, but dropped out after finishing third in South Carolina.

Notably, it would be a building named for a Republican in a city that is largely Democratic and served by Cooper, who Thompson beat in his initial Senate run.

A resolution is expected on Thursday.