Article: House Leaders Shut Down Operations to Permit Anthrax Screening

17 October 2001

Article: House Leaders Shut Down Operations to Permit Anthrax Screening

Senate, where spores were found, continues in business

By Ralph Dannheisser
Washington File Congressional Correspondent

Washington -- Concerned over the confirmed exposure of dozens of U.S. Senate staffers to anthrax spores, the leaders of the House of Representatives have taken the extraordinary step of shutting down the House side of the Capitol complex for five days, until a thorough sweep for possible anthrax contamination there can be completed.

But even as the House prepared to close up shop late October 17, Senate leaders decided to stay in session, and several senators suggested that the House was overreacting. The Senate, for its part, did plan to clear out all three of its office buildings Thursday and Friday, to permit a thorough screening for any additional traces of anthrax.

Worries over anthrax contamination developed after what some officials described as a potent strain of the spore was found in a letter that arrived October 15 in the office of Senate Majority (Democratic) Leader Thomas Daschle.

By the afternoon of the 17th, at least 34 congressional employees - most of them on Daschle's staff - had tested positive for exposure to anthrax, and had been placed on treatment with antibiotics. Also testing positive were three staffers in the office of Senator Russell Feingold (Democrat, Wisconsin), which adjoins Daschle's, and several members of the Capitol police force who had been called to investigate.

Officials stressed that none of those testing positive for exposure had shown signs of actually becoming infected with the disease. The 34 were among more than 1,000 members of Congress, staffers, members of the media and others who were medically screened and put on antibiotics as a precautionary measure.

"All of those who had this positive nasal swab have been on antibiotics for some time and the good news is that everyone is OK," Daschle said at a news conference. And, he added, "We will not let this stop the work of the Senate.... There will be a vote this afternoon. We will be in session and have a vote or votes tomorrow."

President Bush and members of his administration have said they suspect that Osama bin Laden may be behind the anthrax-laced letters sent to Daschle, NBC newscaster Tom Brokaw in New York, and a tabloid newspaper in Florida. But they acknowledge they have no firm evidence pointing to bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorist network, implicated in the September 11 airliner attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon near Washington, D.C.

Director Tom Ridge of the newly created White House Office of Homeland Security, told reporters October 16, "It's more than coincidence, and we don't have the credible evidence. It's somewhere in between."

Explaining his decision to shut down the House for several days at an October 17 press conference, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (Republican. Illinois) said, "To ensure safety we thought it best to do a complete sweep, an environmental sweep." He was supported in his action by Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (Democrat, Missouri).

Hastert reported that anthrax spores had been found in the Senate ventilation system, but this was quickly denied both by officials at the Department of Health and Human Services and by a number of senators.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden (Democrat, Delaware) said he saw "an initial, significant overreaction to the anthrax contamination, and urged that "everyone should calm down." Biden said, "There is no evidence this stuff was released in ventilation systems. There is no evidence of that at all." However his comments did not address the possibility that spores from Daschle's office could have entered the system without deliberately being released there.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, discussing the latest developments during a previously scheduled hearing on bio-terrorism, told the Senate Government Affairs Committee there is "no question this is a very serious attempt at anthrax poisoning."

With several annual spending bills still not acted upon more than two weeks into the new fiscal year that began October 1 and with existing authority about to expire, House leaders planned, before wrapping up business until next week, to pass a "continuing resolution" that will keep the government running though October 31.

Elsewhere October 17, New York Governor George Pataki announced that a test run in his office in midtown Manhattan disclosed "the probability of anthrax" there. While further validating testing is needed, he said, "the odds are very high" that it would confirm the initial finding.