[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 1049]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          WASHINGTON, DC, IS OPEN AND SAFE AND WAITING FOR YOU

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Culberson). Pursuant to the order of the 
House of January 23, 2002, the gentlewoman from the District of 
Columbia (Ms. Norton) is recognized during morning hour debates for 5 
minutes.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I have just come from a fair I am 
sponsoring, along with the D.C. Chamber of Congress, called ``Ask Me 
About Washington.'' It is a service we are providing to Members and 
staff, along with a free lunch, that we think may be especially needed 
this year.
  The Galleries are empty, my colleagues. There is a reason. This is an 
election year. They should be full. But our constituents need 
information and need reassurance that the barricades and the ugly 
security do not send a message that we are trying to tell them 
something: stay away; your Member of Congress does not want to see you 
this year.
  I do not think so, but that will be the effect unless we reach out 
and become more proactive. The fact is elected officials never want 
people to stay away. We cannot help it that the security is not as it 
was. It is being fixed. We sympathize with the Architect of the Capitol 
and the police board, but we have to do something in the meantime.
  I have distributed a fact sheet that I hope Members will send to 
their own constituents in their constituent mail simply telling them 
what are absolutely unknown facts for most of them: that Reagan 
National Airport will be 77 percent up by March 1; telling them 
everything is open, and all the rest. I think my colleagues will find 
it informational; and more than that, I think Members will find their 
constituents will find that they are getting word from Washington that 
they have not gotten in a long time, not since September 11.
  The fact is we have been winging it because we have never had 
anything like September 11: ad hoc decisions; this open, this closed, 
this barricade up, this one comes down, a new one comes up. West front 
steps get closed down. Now that is something we need to hear more 
about. That is part of the great wonderful axis of Washington created 
by L'Enfant himself. We need to know more about that, because there 
ought to be ways to open that up if we just think a little harder.
  Do not think I give short shrift to security. I live here 7 days a 
week, my colleagues; and 600,000 of my constituents live here. We want 
this place safe, and in fact we do believe it is the safest city in 
America because this is the Nation's capitol. We know that AWACs and 
those F-16s are up 24-7. Our constituents do not know. My colleagues' 
constituents do not know, that is. They need to be told that their 
Members of Congress want to see them this year, the way we want to see 
them every year.
  Honestly, I do not believe that it is beyond American ingenuity to 
find ways to be safe and secure and open and democratic at the same 
time. We have to try harder. Some of the things we need to do are 
absolutely simple. I have been having conversations with the White 
House and have suggested that if people left their Social Security 
numbers, the way they have to anyway if they want to visit someone in 
the White House, that the White House tours could be open. And I am 
grateful the White House has decided to open tours to student groups.
  So that means we are getting somewhere just because they have begun 
to think harder. The White House, after a great protest from the press 
and others when the Christmas tree lighting ceremony closed down, 
decided to open it up simply by putting the same glass around the 
President they use during the inauguration. Some of this is not rocket 
science, but it does require us to think a little harder than we did 
before September 11.
  I will have a bill that I will ask Members to cosponsor called The 
Open Society With Security bill, because I think we need a Presidential 
commission to step back and look at how we run an open society when 
there is global terrorism all around us. I think such a commission 
would help us get our bearings so that we would not be under the 
pressure we are under today to make decisions as we go along.
  We are doing quite well. We can do much better. The White House is 
doing much better. The capitol tours are open. Washington is open. Only 
the monument, which was closed for renovations, is not open. A tour of 
the Pentagon can be arranged ahead of time. But our constituents do not 
know that.
  I want Members' constituents to come visit Washington because, 
obviously, that helps my economy; but my colleagues want them to come 
for a reason which is equally important to them. We do not want a full 
year in which people think that this is an uninviting place and that 
this is not the year to come to see their Member of Congress. It is not 
only an election year; it is the year after September 11. It is a year 
when we want to make the point that terrorists cannot close us down.
  We set the example in the Nation's capitol by opening ourselves up 
and sending the message that the whole country should be open.

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