Norton Hearing to Bring Early Focus on Capitol Complex (3/31/08)

Washington, DC - The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), chair of the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management, will hold a hearing on "A Growing Capitol Complex and Visitor Center: Needs for Transportation, Security, Greening, Energy, and Maintenance"Tuesday, April 1 at 10:00 AM in room 2167 of the Rayburn House Office Building, to examine and review the master plan and the vital component parts of today's capitol complex, including the Capitol Visitors Center, transportation, security, greening efforts, energy maintenance, and the Capitol Power Plant.

Norton, who visited the Capitol Visitor Center again today in preparation for tomorrow's hearing, anticipates that the Capitol Visitor Center could be ready by the end of the year. The hearing will focus, not only on the Capitol Visitor Center, the newest edition to the capitol, but on the infrastructure and maintenance backlog of the historic Capitol itself and of its constituent building and grounds. The capitol complex consists of the Capitol, the Cannon, Longworth, Rayburn and Ford House Office Buildings, as well as the Hart, Dirksen, and Russell Senate Office Buildings, the U.S. Botanic Garden, the Capitol Grounds, the Library of Congress buildings, the Supreme Court Building, and the Capitol Power Plant.

Norton, a member of the Homeland Security Committee, is particularly interested in whether adequate but not intrusive or cumbersome security will be operational. Because of the addition of the Capitol Visitor Center, the hearing will also focus on whether transportation and security authorities are prepared to receive more visitors than those who visit the Capitol.