[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6172-6173]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       SAVE TOURS OF THE CAPITOL

  (Mr. KIRK asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KIRK. Jim Moran worked to save tours of the Capitol, and 
Congressman Loebsack and I have now authored a bipartisan letter to the 
Architect of the Capitol urging him to restore the rights of Members 
and staff to offer tours to our constituents.
  The red coats of the CVC do not own the Capitol. Members of Congress 
do not own the Capitol. The American people bought and paid for it, but 
the CVC red coats now block Americans from seeing the Capitol with 
their Congressmen or staff.
  We are headed to a train wreck when CVC red coats turn away thousands 
of American families from the Capitol over spring break. They say, 
sure, we'll handle your constituents, no problem. Actually, they're 
going to block the access of the American people to the Capitol.
  Now, a recent Facebook posting by a CVC red coat reflected a stunning 
arrogance that should not be tolerated towards American citizens.
  I urge Members to sign the bipartisan Loebsack-Kirk letter to ensure 
that your constituents can see the Capitol

[[Page 6173]]

when they want, with their Member of Congress, and not be blocked by 
the CVC red coats.

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