Medill News Service article - Published: Oct. 18, 2001

U.S. reps: Anthrax hasn't slowed work

By Patrick Cooper
Medill News Service

After anthrax scares forced an early adjournment by the House of Representatives, congressmen and women from the Chicago area defended the action Thursday and said their work had not been impeded at all.

"By no means are we shut down," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D), who has constituent meetings scheduled throughout the long weekend. "We're as accessible as we ever were to constituents."

After tests found that 26 Senate staffers and five police officers had been exposed to anthrax, it was not the Senate but the House on Wednesday that adjourned session in reaction. Some senators and media outlets took aim at House leaders for the move, calling it cowardly.

Before the House resumes session Tuesday, the Capitol building and House office buildings will be thoroughly checked for spores of anthrax, a disease that is typically fatal if inhaled.

Schakowsky and other area representatives said they supported the House leaders' decision. "I think it's prudent for us to do an environmental assessment and to do it when the offices were empty," she said.

A threatening letter containing a highly potent form of anthrax was sent to the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), and 23 of his staffers this week tested positive for exposure to the disease. Three staffers of Sen. Russ Feingold (D.-Wis.), who has an office near Daschle's, and five police officers also tested positive.

The scare has led to anthrax tests for thousands of Congressional employees and a regimen of antibiotics for the staffers found to be exposed. According to officials, however, no one on Capitol Hill has actually acquired the disease so far.

Schakowsky compared the House adjournment to the delays airline passengers are facing at airports, with real work still ongoing. "The fact of the matter is that since Sept. 11 all of us are on a heightened alert and are taking precautions."

For representatives, many of whom return to their home districts on weekends, the early adjournment didn't force a great change of plans. The House was already scheduled to be out of session Friday and Monday.

House leaders took criticism over their decision -- the front page of Thursday's New York Post screamed "WIMPS!" under a photograph of House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.). Chicago-area representatives, however, said they supported the adjournment.

"We can all get really macho about this. But the fact of the matter is, with 20,000 people working in the Capitol complex, for us to ignore a real threat (is a mistake)," Schakowsky said.

"You can't just say we're strong, we're tough," she said. "To take the extra day to (check for anthrax) means we're not going to have to take days later on."

Members' district offices are remaining open, but the anthrax scares in Washington have even affected some changes at home as well.

At Rep. Mark Kirk's district office in Deerfield, the staffer who regularly opens the mail is now wearing rubber gloves, spokeswoman Dodie McCracken said.

Mail delivery on Capitol Hill has been shut down until new screening and decontamination measures are implemented. McCracken said Kirk was encouraging constituents to send e-mail, "certainly the speediest" way of reaching him at the moment.

Kirk returned to the Chicago area last night and has a full schedule this weekend, she said. "Business as usual has not been vastly impacted."

For Rep. Danny Davis (D), business even increased because of the adjournment.

After flying home from Washington last night, Davis stopped to eat at a restaurant in Bellwood. As he sat and chatted at his table, one thing led to another, and "pretty soon the entire restaurant was engaged in a town hall meeting," said his spokesman, Ira Cohen.

Cohen said Davis usually holds about 40 town hall meetings a year, but this discussion was unexpected. People were eager to talk to Davis and to each other about the attacks and the current situation in the United States.

"It started off just with the table next to the congressman," Cohen said. "Gradually the other tables joined in. I expect that to be the pattern wherever he goes over the next couple days."