[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 9164-9165]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     COMMENDING THE U.S. CAPITOL POLICE AND SERGEANT AT ARMS OFFICE

  (Mr. DeLAY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, as we all now know, a short time ago a small 
aircraft invaded the National Capital air space. The command structure 
for both the U.S. Capitol and the White House tracked this plane before 
making a decision to evacuate the Capitol complex at approximately 
12:04 p.m.
  At the time of the evacuation, Mr. Speaker, the House of 
Representatives was in the midst of a roll call vote and the House 
Chamber was ordered cleared in the middle of that vote. In addition to 
the Members of the House, the Capitol was filled with a number of 
foreign dignitaries, tourists, certainly staff and congressional pages. 
The Capitol Police led a rapid, yet orderly, evacuation for all of 
these people, as well as those who were in the House office buildings.
  Mr. Speaker, I just want to commend the Capitol Police and the 
Sergeant at Arms Office for a job well done. We were all part of that 
evacuation. It was orderly. The Capitol and the office buildings were 
evacuated in record time. It went relatively smoothly. I have heard 
little or no complaints about the evacuation.
  I also want to especially commend the employees of this House, those 
in the office buildings as well as in the Capitol. Everybody evacuated 
quickly and calmly, and it was a very good operation.
  It is unfortunate that we have to live in these times where we have 
to evacuate the Capitol complex; but we are very pleased and proud of 
the Capitol Police, of their orderliness under very extreme conditions, 
their politeness and their calmness and reserve in the way they 
evacuated these buildings.
  From a personal note, as I was going out of the Capitol complex, the 
Capitol Police were on station and were deployed in a very professional 
manner. They were acting in a very professional manner and moved people 
along in a very rapid manner. So in the event that we do have a 
catastrophe, many lives would be saved; and we greatly appreciate that.
  I also want to say as a side note, Mr. Speaker, that a lot of times 
we treat these Capitol Police as furniture. Because they are so good at 
their job, we often do not notice them. I would hope that Members of 
the House and employees of the House would congratulate each and every 
officer that they may come across over the next few days and thank them 
for the good job that they have done. They deserve it. We appreciate 
their protection, and we appreciate their professionalism.
  Mr. Speaker, I feel much safer in the hands of the Capitol Police 
today than I did yesterday, and I greatly appreciate them.
  I also have to point out that there are Capitol Police that are 
stationed in this building even in the event of a catastrophe, and they 
showed great courage to stand their posts, knowing that something bad 
may happen to this building or the office buildings. They do not leave 
the building. That is incredible courage that we should honor, and we 
appreciate that courage and that honor. You have to extend that to 
their families, because their families also know that they are standing 
in this building with an eventual catastrophe coming and standing their 
posts like the courageous men and women that they are.
  So we greatly appreciate what they have done, the way they have 
protected the buildings and, most importantly, the people that work in 
these buildings. You just cannot say enough for how the House 
appreciates their service.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. DeLAY. I yield to the gentlewoman from California, the 
distinguished minority leader.

                              {time}  1400

  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I, too, want to sing the praises of our 
Capitol Police and the Sergeant at Arms Mr. Livingood for the 
expeditious manner in which the Capitol was evacuated earlier today. 
Thank heavens it was not necessary; better safe than sorry.
  But I think that the evacuation took place with dignity in record 
time and with respect for all in the Capitol, not only the Members of 
Congress but, very importantly, the tourists who are here, our 
visitors, the press who covers us, our employees who work here in the 
Capitol and the office buildings and, of course, the Capitol Police.
  Thank you to the Capitol Police. Because of you, Americans or people 
visiting from overseas can come to this Capitol because of your courage 
with the confidence that they will be safe. Because of you, this 
evacuation was conducted in a manner of full cooperation from all who 
participated. Because of their confidence in you, when you gave the 
signal, everyone moved exactly the way you wanted them to.
  Mr. Speaker, I would also like to add my appreciation to our national 
security apparatus and all that that involves, for having those 
airplanes in the air immediately to escort that Cessna to another 
place. We do not know the full story about it, or I do not anyway, yet, 
but I do think that they are to be commended for the speed with which 
they made us safe.
  This Capitol is a symbol of freedom throughout the world. And today, 
I think that the balance between freedom and security was well-
demonstrated, and certainly that was because, again, of the 
professionalism, as our colleague said, and the courage of the Capitol 
Police, Mr. Livingood and our national security apparatus.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I know that the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. 
Hastert) shares our views; I do not know if he can even speak from the 
chair, but I have heard the gentleman express his appreciation 
individually and personally to them, too, and I want to add my voice to 
that.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I appreciate the words of 
the Minority Leader, and she is absolutely right on. I just would 
finish by saying, people need to realize, because there are already 
critics on television, it is amazing; but people need to realize that 
very serious decisions have to be made in times like these: A decision 
to scramble the jets, a decision to shoot the flares, a decision to 
shoot the plane down or not and a decision to evacuate the building 
when that plane is only 3 to 4 minutes away from this building. Those 
are very critical decisions that have to be made, and we appreciate the

[[Page 9165]]

people that have made those decisions and made them properly and 
protected the lives and property of the Capitol.

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