Sam Farr: “it is time for us to confront the double message we have sent the American people in the wake of the tragedy of…”

“it is time for us to confront the double message we have sent the American people in the wake of the tragedy of September 11. On one hand, we exhort Americans to travel, spend money, go out on the town and help revive the sagging economy. On the other hand, when they come to the Nation's Capitol, they find it closed, locked and off limits. What kind of example are we setting for America's museum of democracy? Is ours a government of by and for the people or a government that lives behind heavily guarded, closed doors? When Americans come to Washington, D.C., they get the same dreary refrain at the White House, the FBI and the Supreme Court: Closed to the public. When they come to the House of Representatives they find their Member of Congress can no longer provide a guided tour of the storied corridors, the Capitol dome or the old Senate Chamber. Instead our visitors are sent for 10 minutes to sit by themselves in the gallery. Mr. Speaker, there are those who say we need a Capitol littered with jersey barriers, ugly fences and awful planters so we can feel safe in our fortress, but I say we should not let security concerns rob us of the freedom to participate in and petition the government. If terrorists can wander all the way to the Capitol without being discovered, we really are in desperate straits. Mr. Speaker, when will you give the American people back their Nation's Capitol?”