US Capitol to Reopen for Public Tours After 2 Years

Vehicles are parked outside the U.S. Capitol building the morning the Senate returned to session on July 31, 2021. (Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo/Reuters)

Next week, the U.S. Capitol building will reopen for limited public tours after being closed to the public for two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a March 23 memo from House Sergeant-at-Arms William J. Walker and Capitol physician Brian P. Monahan.

“We are pleased to announce that on Monday, March 28, 2022, public tours of the Capitol will resume with a limited number of Member-led, staff-led tours and school groups,” they wrote.

“Since March 2020, the U.S. Capitol and the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) has been closed to tours. The decision to reinstate limited tours has been made in coordination with Congressional Leadership, the U.S. Capitol Police Board, the Attending Physician, Capitol Visitor Services, and the U.S. Capitol Police.

“We appreciate your continued patience and cooperation as we work together to resume public tours of the Capitol for the American people in a way that protects the health and safety of visitors and institutional staff alike.”

Monahan and Walker wrote that when the Capitol reopens, access will be granted using a “phased approach.”

During the first phase, “tours to the Capitol will be monitored by Visitor Services so that modifications can be made if recommended by the Attending Physician.”

They said that although the Capitol will reopen, it could be closed again because of “COVID-19 conditions,” and that same-day negative CCP virus tests are “recommended for all visitors.”

The Capitol was originally closed to the public in March 2020. Although initially intended to reopen on April 1, 2020, the public closure has continued for more than two years.

“We are taking this temporary action out of concern for the health and safety of congressional employees as well as the public,” Walker and Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Stenger wrote in a joint memo at the time. “We appreciate the understanding of those with planned visits interrupted by this necessary, but prudent, decision.”

In the past, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has evaded questions about reopening the Capitol, saying she deferred to the Capitol physician on the matter.

Following Walker and Monahan’s announcement, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) issued a statement applauding the move but said the Capitol should have been reopened much earlier.

“I appreciate today’s announcement that the Capitol will reopen to a limited number of tours,” she said. “Capitol tours are particularly useful as educational tools, and prior to the pandemic, schools in D.C. and throughout the country wisely took advantage of them often.

“However, since the Capitol was first closed to the public because of the pandemic, vaccines have proven effective at preventing severe symptoms, hospitalization, and death.

“America’s symbols of democracy should be accessible to the people we serve. Already, the distance between government and the people has grown, with trust in government at historic lows. We should not entrench that distance further or longer by delaying the reopening of the Capitol, especially when the tools exist to prevent serious illness and death from COVID-19.”

In a Twitter post, Norton wrote, “While I’m pleased the Capitol will reopen for a limited number of tours, given the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines and the importance of America’s symbols of democracy being open to the public, the reopening should occur more quickly than currently planned.”

Pelosi’s House mask mandate was lifted only a week before President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, after two years of stiff Republican resistance from staunch opponents of the mask mandate, such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

Still, one key CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus rule on Capitol Hill, the controversial practice of proxy voting, remains in place.

Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), said in a recent statement that Democrats, citing COVID-19 concerns, have “pursued fundamental changes to how the House functions on a party-line basis, setting dangerous precedents along the way while failing to safeguard against many of the concerns we raised from the start.”

McCarthy, joined by lawmakers including Rep. Chip Roy (R-Calif.), has pushed for an end to all COVID-19 restrictions and has said that if the GOP takes back the majority, any remaining restrictions in the House will be reversed.