[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 67 (Tuesday, May 14, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5011-S5014]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SENATE RESOLUTION 254--RELATIVE TO PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE
Mr. GRAMS submitted the following resolution; which was referred to
the Committee on Governmental Affairs:
S. Res. 254
Resolved,
SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
The Senate makes the following findings:
(1) In 1791, President George Washington commissioned
Pierre Charles L'Enfant to draft a blueprint for America's
capital city; they envisioned Pennsylvania Avenue as a bold,
ceremonial boulevard physically linking the U.S. Capitol
building and the White House, and symbolically the
Legislative and Executive branches of government.
(2) An integral element of the District of Columbia,
Pennsylvania Avenue stood for 195 years as a vital, working,
unbroken roadway, elevating it into a place of national
importance as ``America's Main Street''.
(3) 1600 Pennsylvania, the White House, has become
America's most recognized address and a primary destination
of visitors to the Nation's Capital; ``the People's House''
is host to 5,000 tourist daily, and 15,000,000 annually.
(4) As home to the President, and given its prominent
location on Pennsylvania Avenue and its proximity to the
People, the White House has become a powerful symbol of
freedom, openness, and an individual's access to their
government.
(5) On May 20, 1995, citing possible security risks from
vehicles transporting terrorist bombs, President Clinton
ordered the Treasury Department and the Secret Service to
close Pennsylvania Avenue to vehicular traffic for two blocks
in front of the White House.
(6) By impeding access and imposing undue hardships upon
tourists, residents of the District, commuters, and local
business owners and their customers, the closure of
Pennsylvania Avenue, undertaken without the counsel of the
government of the District of Columbia, has replaced the
former openness of the area surrounding the White House with
barricades, additional security checkpoints, and an
atmosphere of fear and distrust.
(7) In the year following the closure of Pennsylvania
Avenue, the taxpayers have borne a tremendous burden for
additional security measures along the Avenue near the White
House.
(8) While the security of the President is of grave concern
and is not to be taken lightly, the need to assure the
President's safety must be balanced with the expectation of
freedom inherent in a democracy; the present situation is
tilted far too heavily toward security at freedom's expense.
SEC. 2 SENSE OF THE SENATE.
It is the sense of the Senate that the President should
order the immediate, permanent reopening to vehicular traffic
of Pennsylvania in front of the White House, restoring the
Avenue to its original state and returning it to the People.
Mr. GRAMS. Mr. President, in just 6 days, the closing of Pennsylvania
Avenue in front of the White House will mark its 1-year anniversary.
I rise today to speak for the 15 million tourists who visit the
Nation's Capital each year, the local businessmen and women whose
livelihoods depend upon open access, the government of the District of
Columbia, the commuters who rely on our roads, and the people who call
Washington, DC, home. On their behalf, I am submitting a resolution
expressing the sense of the Senate that Pennsylvania Avenue be reopened
to traffic and returned to its historic use. The May 20th closing is
one anniversary we should not have to commemorate.
This resolution has the support of many with strong ties to the
Washington community. I am grateful to have the endorsement of District
of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry, and I am also proud that D.C. Council
Chairman David Clarke and Councilmember Frank Smith support this
effort. I ask unanimous consent that statements from Mayor Barry and
Chairman Clarke and Councilmember Smith be included in the Record.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
(See exhibit 1.)
Mr. GRAMS. In addition, my resolution has the strong support of more
than a dozen of the area's residential, business, and historical
organizations representing thousands of job providers and the
District's half million residents. I ask unanimous consent to submit
this list and supporting letters for printing in the Record.
Mr. President, I have come to the floor several times over the past
year to voice my concerns about the closure of Pennsylvania Avenue.
I have talked about the damage it has done to Washington's business
community, and the fear that it is scaring off new jobs and prompting
potential retail and commercial tenants to stay away from the downtown
area. I have talked about the damage it has done to Washington's
business community, and the fear that it's scaring off new jobs and
prompting potential retail and commercial tenants to stay away from the
downtown area. I have discussed the hardships caused by the closing for
anyone whose paycheck depends on access to the avenue, people like cab
drivers and tour bus operators. I have outlined problem after problem
the closing has created for the District itself, which had one of its
major arteries unilaterally severed by the Federal Government without
any consultation. I have discussed the inconvenience of our tourists,
especially the elderly and disabled, many of whom are now being
deprived of a close look at the White House. And I have talked about
the tremendous cost for the taxpayers, a cost which has already reached
into the millions of dollars.
I have raised each of those aspects of the closing because they are
all relevant and pressing concerns. But that is not what I want to
discuss today. There is another side to this issue that is easy to
overlook amid all the other more obvious problems: the question of what
the closing of Pennsylvania Avenue has done to the psyche of this city,
and what we give up when we give in to fear.
The air was thick with fear in the weeks following April 19, 1995,
when terrorists attacked the Federal building in Oklahoma City. How
could something like this happen within our own borders, people
wondered. And fear took hold. That was certainly the atmosphere in
Washington--an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust that prompted the
Treasury Department to close down two blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue a
month after the tragic Oklahoma City bombing.
Now, obviously, protecting the President and those who work and visit
the White House must be a primary concern, a matter never to be taken
lightly. The occupant of the Oval Office deserves every reasonable
measure of security we can provide. So if the Secret Service had
information that the White House was a terrorist target and the
President was in danger, then it was absolutely prudent at the time to
close Pennsylvania Avenue.
But that was an entire year ago, and a decision that may have
appeared prudent then strikes many as regrettable and short-sighted
today. Rather than helping the Nation face down our fear, the
Government's decision to close Pennsylvania Avenue--and keep it
closed--has only perpetuated it.
This is the White House today. Not a pretty sight, is it? The stretch
of Pennsylvania Avenue that stood for 195 years as ``America's Main
Street'' is empty of any traffic--more a vacant lot than a working
street.
[[Page S5012]]
Gone is the thrill for visitors of driving by the White House for the
first time--the concrete barricades, traffic sawhorses, and ever-
present patrol vehicles and armed officers have put an end to that.
Gone, too, is the sense of openness that inspired generations of
visitors to feel close to the Presidency and their Government when they
visited the Executive Mansion.
Today, there is an ominous atmosphere at the White House that you
feel nowhere else in Washington. Visitors seem more to be tolerated
than welcomed, and the fortress-like effect they discover there is
unnerving.
I have no doubt that the place is secure--as secure as a bunker. But
the price we have paid for all this security is immense because it has
come at the expense of freedom.
Was it not Benjamin Franklin who warned against ``giving up essential
liberty to obtain a little temporary safety''? And liberty is precisely
what we have given up by closing off Pennsylvania Avenue.
While we may have obtained some temporary safety, we have surrendered
to fear in order to get it, even though one of the first lessons we
teach our young people in their American history classes is that
freedom cannot coexist with fear.
Mr. President, a visit to the Nation's capital can have a profound
impact on the schoolchildren who visit here every year. It is a place
where history comes alive, and every monument, museum, and historic
site they visit is a page right out of the textbooks.
The feeling they get by being immersed in history can not be
duplicated in a classroom, and I know that a trip to Washington, DC has
inspired many, many young people to seek careers in public service.
But how confused they must be when they visit the White House. Before
travelling here, they have studied the Revolutionary War.
They have read the Declaration of Independence and the U.S.
Constitution. They have been taught that the foundation upon which this
Nation was built was our absolute right to be free from oppression. It
is that freedom, we tell them--a freedom we hold sacred, and treasure
above all else--that makes this Nation so different from any other.
So what do you suppose goes through their minds when they at last
visit the home of their President and find it barricaded behind all
that concrete?
The preamble to the Constitution, with its talk of securing the
blessings of liberty, must ring awfully hollow if this is what liberty
really looks like.
What lesson are we teaching them about the freedom we claim to value
so highly? What kind of message are we sending our children when they
discover that the very center of the free world is not so very free
after all?
I can tell you what they are thinking. I visit the White House two or
three times a month, and I have heard their comments and seen the
disappointment in their faces. They tell me it is shameful, it is
disappointing, and it is wrong.
If there is a compelling reason to keep Pennsylvania Avenue
permanently closed, I hope someone will step forward and make their
case. I have been asking the question for nearly a year now, and have
not yet heard a reasonable answer.
The monetary cost of shutting Pennsylvania Avenue down has been
enormous Mr. President, but the emotional cost of keeping it closed
forever would be devasting.
We may only be talking about two, short blocks, but those two blocks
have represented freedom and access since nearly the birth of this
Nation.
While we must never allow ourselves to become reckless about our
security, it is equally true that we must never allow ourselves to
become reckless about our freedom, either, especially when freedom is
represented by such a visible symbol as the White House.
The way Pennsylvania Avenue looks today, well, that is just not the
America, envisioned by our Founding Fathers. It is certainly not the
America John Kennedy spoke of in his 1961 inaugural address:
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill,
that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any
hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to
assure the survival and success of liberty.
That resolve may have softened on Pennsylvania Avenue, but it is not
too late to rekindle that spirit.
I believe that good sense will prevail and the avenue will reopen.
And someday, Mr. President, when they are old enough to appreciate what
it all means, I will take my grandchildren to the White House.
I will show them the home of the Presidents--great leaders like
Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, who defined liberty for a young
Nation and ensured that this would forever be a place where freedom
could flourish.
And when they realized that the President lives in a house just like
they do, along a street a lot like theirs, my grandchildren will smile.
Castles and kings require moats and crocodiles, but Presidents, well,
they make their homes in houses, set on busy streets, in the hearts of
busy cities. Open and accessible. And that is just the way Presidents
ought to live.
My grandchildren may not understand just what liberty and freedom
really mean, but they will feel its powerful presence and I hope they
will be inspired.
There are a thousand good reasons to reopen Pennsylvania Avenue, Mr.
President, but only one reason I can see for keeping it closed, and
that is fear. We cannot allow fear to claim this victory.
We cannot allow the 1-year anniversary of the closing of Pennsylvania
Avenue to pass without this Senate taking a stand on the side of
freedom.
I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
We Support the Senate Resolution Calling For The Reopening of
Pennsylvania Avenue In Front of the White House
District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry.
D.C. Council Chairman David A. Clarke.
D.C. Councilmember Frank Smith.
AAA Potomac.
American Bus Association.
Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan
Washington, Inc.
Association of Oldest Inhabitants of D.C.
District of Columbia Building Industry Association.
District of Columbia Preservation League.
DuPont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2B.
Federation of Citizens Association.
Frontiers of Freedom.
Greater Washington Board of Trade.
International Downtown Association.
Arthur Cotton Moore Associates.
Washington Cab Association.
Washington D.C. Historical Society.
Washington D.C. Restaurant and Beverage Association.
____
The District of Columbia,
Washington, DC, May 13, 1996.
Hon. Rod Grams,
Dirksen Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC.
Dear Senator Grams: I want to thank you for your continued
interest in the closing of Pennsylvania Avenue and the impact
it has had on the District of Columbia. The effects on
traffic patterns and drivers' convenience, business income,
parking revenue, and most important, public access to the
White House, have all been significant.
I hope that your legislation expressing the sense of the
Senate that Pennsylvania Avenue be reopened in front of the
White House can be approved. I would appreciate your
conveying my support for such legislation to your colleagues.
Please contact me or my staff if you have any questions or
requests that I can help with. Again, thank you for your
understanding and appreciation of the consequences of the
blockades.
Sincerely,
Marion Barry, Jr.,
Mayor.
____
Statement of D.C. Council Chairman David A. Clarke and D.C.
Councilmember Frank Smith
We wholeheartedly support and applaud the effort by Senator
Rod Grams and others to reopen Pennsylvania Avenue in front
of the White House to vehicular traffic--and thereby restore
this most public of public streets to its historic use.
District of Columbia residents, businesses and visitors
have suffered for one year with the constant traffic
gridlock, uncompensated economic costs, and loss of freedom
from this vehicular barricade between the east and west ends
of America's historic main street and our downtown. We call
upon the federal government to pay for the entire cost of
identifying and mitigating every adverse impact which has
resulted from the federal government's vehicular restrictions
in the economic and historic heart of the nation's capital.
In July 1995 the Council of the District of Columbia
unanimously adopted a resolution expressing concerns about
the restriction of vehicular access to streets around the
White House, which now also applies to restrictions
[[Page S5013]]
placed upon other streets around certain Congressional and
other federal buildings in Washington. Appended to this
statement is the full text of the resolution which we co-
authored.
____
The Greater Washington
Board of Trade,
Washington, DC, May 13, 1996.
Hon. Rod Grams,
U.S. Senate, Senate Dirksen Office Building, Washington, DC.
Dear Senator Grams: On behalf of the Greater Washington
Board of Trade's membership, I applaud your efforts to reopen
the 1600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue and offer whatever
assistance this organization might provide. As a
representative of over 1,000 businesses located in the
greater Washington region, we have heard from many of our
members about the impact that the street closing has had on
their businesses. In short, the closing of Pennsylvania
Avenue, paired with the closing of the parallel section of E
Street between 15th and 17th Streets, has resonated
throughout the District of Columbia's road system. The
resulting gridlock is, at best, impeding the mobility of
business people, residents and tourists.
Of even greater concern is the likelihood that this is just
the beginning of an imposing security trend; already we have
heard rumors that additional street closings will occur
Street closings cannot be an appropriate solution to security
concerns; rather, they are nothing more than a ``cure by
amputation.'' Already, the Pennsylvania Avenue experiment has
demonstrated the crippling effect such a policy has on
traffic flow, and additional street closings would further
exacerbate the difficulty of doing business in the District
of Columbia.
In your April 29th letter to President Clinton, you cite
the rich history of Pennsylvania Avenue as ``America's Main
Street'' and its symbolism of freedom, openness and access to
government. But equally important are the more direct
economic impacts that the street closing has imposed on the
operation of the District of Columbia. Traffic on surrounding
streets has reportedly increased far beyond capacity, despite
efforts by the local government and the Federal Highway
Administration to create one way corridors traveling east and
west to improve traffic flow. And while rush hour traffic has
always been difficult, travel times across the downtown
business district have more than doubled even during the
mid-day hours.
Although many people consider Washington, DC to be only the
home of the federal government, the City has a significant
private sector community. A large number of those businesses
are service oriented, requiring them to remain accessible to
clients and customers. Thus, the closing of Pennsylvania
Avenue is creating a hardship on the city's private sector,
and in many cases, forcing them to reconsider whether they
must relocate their operation outside of the District. In a
city that is struggling to cope with dwindling revenues and
the skyrocketing costs of human services, this is just one
more factor contributing to the problems faced by the local
government, the Congressionally appointed financial control
board, and inevitably, the Congress in its role as steward of
the Nation's Capital.
The business community recognizes that the safety of the
President of the United States must be the top priority in
decisions such as these. We believe, however that there may
be more appropriate alternatives that would sufficiently
mitigate potential security risks without shutting down the
Nation's Capital piece by piece.
A decision to reopen Pennsylvania Avenue would go a long
way to toward restoring mobility in the Nation's Capital.
This is important to the people who live and work here every
day, but it is also important to the millions of visitors who
come from all 50 states. Should there be a decision to
revisit the closing of Pennsylvania Avenue, the Greater
Washington Board of Trade would be happy to work with
Congress, the Executive Branch and the local government to
identify more realistic options for improving security in the
Nation's Capital. Thank you for your efforts.
Sincerely,
Joseph T. Boyle,
Chair, KPMG Peat Marwick.
John Milliken,
Chair, Venable, Baetjer and Howard.
____
District of Columbia
Building Industry Association,
Washington, DC, May 6, 1996.
Hon. William J. Clinton,
President of the United States,
The White House, Washington, DC.
Dear President Clinton: I am writing to you in my capacity
as president of the District of Columbia Building Industry
Association. Our Association represents several thousand
business people in the District of Columbia.
It has been almost one year since the executive order of
the Secretary of the Treasury was issued restricting traffic
on Pennsylvania Avenue, State Place and Executive Avenue. We
understand that this was a very difficult directive for you
to sign and that you had resisted several efforts by the
Secret Service to restrict traffic in the vicinity of the
White House in the past. While we in the Washington, D.C.
business community were concerned about the process whereby
this major traffic conduit was closed, the business community
and citizens generally did not object to this action given
the circumstances at that time.
In the past year, we have had time to experience the
results of this action and feel it is time to reexamine this
situation. Of course, your safety and the safety of the First
Family and your staff are of paramount importance to all of
us as citizens of the United States. However, the rerouting
of traffic around the White House has resulted in serious
traffic congestion on a daily basis, and exacerbated traffic
problems during special events which are constant in
Washington, DC, such as the Cherry Blossom Festival.
Moreover, it has divided our city into an East and a West
side causing both commerce and tourism to suffer negative
economic consequences at the same time they are impacted by
the City's debilitating fiscal crisis. These combined
circumstances have had a disastrous effect on business and
trade in DC.
While the emergency temporary restriction of traffic on
these streets was warranted by the unique circumstances at
that time, we do not feel this should be viewed and accepted
as the long term solution to these security issues. Right
now, there is a team of architects employed by the U.S.
Government meeting to discuss alternatives for closing
Pennsylvania Avenue prior to the official, legal closing of
the street itself. We believe that alternative methods to
provide long term improved security to the White House, such
as structural reinforcements, improved fencing, electronic
surveillance, limited traffic on adjacent streets to cars
only, etc. should be reconsidered now. These alternatives may
actually be more economical than the closing of these streets
and certainly will be less costly in terms of diminished
national prestige.
With the end of the Cold War five years ago, our country is
more secure than at any time in this century. Since this time
of relative peace is due in large part to American
leadership, it is truly ironic that symbolically we are
retreating by further limiting access to and around the White
House. One could only imagine the outcry by Parisians if the
French Government closed the Champs-Elysees in front of the
Presidential Palace. Washingtonians have been very patient
and understanding with the temporary closing of Pennsylvania
Avenue, the most important street in the L'Enfant Plan. But
now is the time to search for a better long term solution.
Just as we are sure you would reject suggestions that you
limit your personal interaction with the American people such
as your daily jogging, town meetings and other high-risk
interactions with the public, we urge you to reconsider this
highly visible statement to the American people and
international tourists and reopen Pennsylvania Avenue.
So while we fully support the temporary measures taken by
your administration to restrict traffic around the White
House, we urge you to set up a task force to find alternate
means of providing adequate security for the White House with
the ultimate goal of reopening these streets by Inauguration
Day 1997. Our Association is prepared to participate in this
task force and provide whatever resources are necessary in
order to accomplish this goal.
Sincerely yours.
Thomas W. Wilbur,
President.
____
District of Columbia
Building Industry Association,
Washington, DC, May 9, 1996.
Re Closure of a Section of Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.,
Secretary of the Treasury's Order dated May 19, 1995.
Hon. Robert E. Rubin,
Secretary, Department of the Treasury, Washington, DC.
Dear Secretary Rubin: I am writing to you in my capacity as
Chairman of the Legislative and Governmental Affairs
Committee of the District of Columbia Building Industry
Association (``DCBIA'').
For your information, DCBIA is comprised of over 275 member
organizations and over 1,000 individuals ranging from
lenders, property owners, developers, property managers,
construction companies, contractors, subcontractors,
architects, engineers, lawyers, accountants, and others
involved in the real estate industry. In other words, those
who finance, own, develop, renovate, upgrade, improve and
manage real property in the District, together with all of
the providers of the additional services necessary to the
real estate industry.
May 19, 1996 will mark the first anniversary of your
directive to the Director of the United States Secret Service
to close a portion of Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. and certain
other streets. This emergency, temporary directive was
intended to enhance the perimeter security of the White
House. Under applicable federal law, your authority to
prohibit vehicular traffic on public streets is temporary in
nature, and is predicated on certain findings of fact which
must be applicable at the time of the initial directive and
at all times thereafter while the directive remains in
effect.
DCBIA believes that now is an appropriate time to undertake
a number of endeavors, including but not limited to,
reexamining the factual determinations of one year ago,
confirming that the Department of the Treasury is in
compliance with the requirements of the National
Environmental Policy Act, the Advisory Council on Historic
Preservation, the Department of Transportation's Federal
Highway Administration, the Department of
[[Page S5014]]
the Interior's Comprehensive Design Plan for the White House,
the National Park Service, the National Capital Planning
Commission, and all other applicable local and Federal
requirements.
Now is also an appropriate time to reexamine the economic,
physical and psychological impact of the street closures on
the many thousands of American citizens that have had to bear
the direct and immediate impact of your directive. Some of
these people travel to the Nation's capital daily for their
jobs and businesses, while others are visitors from places
near and far. All of them have shared the serious and
significant delays, detours and related problems of the
street closures. The serious negative impact upon the local
business community has become difficult if not impossible to
accurately assess. The directive has simply divided our city
to the detriment of all, and has fostered a ``bunker
mentality'' among the citizens of the city, many of whom
observe, on a daily basis, the barricades, uniformed Secret
Service personnel and similar indicia of a city under siege
directly in front of the Presidential residence.
DCBIA wishes to be absolutely clear on the issue of the
safety of the President and the First Family. It is not a
question of whether or not any of us doubt the supreme
importance of protecting the President of the United States.
We assert emphatically that the security of the President is
and should be of profound importance to every American
citizen, and every person who loves freedom and democracy.
But at the same time, the directive issued in the name of
safety and security is quite simply killing the city. When
people cannot move freely and easily it impacts productivity
and commerce. But the impact does not stop there. Eventually
there are psychological and spiritual effects that are no
less real or important. The District of Columbia cannot
afford to make it more difficult than it already is to work,
play and live here. The directive issued almost one year ago
is doing just that.
DCBIA urges you and your staff, in conjunction with other
public officials, to reopen the entire issue of the street
closures for full and fair consideration. DCBIA seeks to be
an active participant in this process and is committed to
using its resources to help reopen Pennsylvania Avenue.
We look forward to your response and appreciate having this
opportunity to raise this matter with you.
Sincerely,
Nelson F. Migdal,
Chairman, Legislative/Governmental
Affairs Committee.
____________________