Officials weigh phased reopening of Capitol starting in late March

Officials on Capitol Hill are considering a phased reopening of the Capitol starting later this month after two full years of closing it to the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under a phased reopening proposal from the Capitol Police Board, limited staff-led tours and student groups could resume starting March 28.

A source familiar with the proposal said that it hasn’t yet been finalized or agreed upon by the members of the Capitol Police Board, which includes the House and Senate sergeants-at-arms and the Architect of the Capitol. 

Staff-led tours, which are currently prohibited, would be capped at 15 people. And from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday through Friday, a limited number of guided tours for student groups would resume. 

The limit for official business visitors, meanwhile, would increase to 15, up from the current limit of nine.

In addition, the U.S. Botanic Garden, which is administered through the Architect of the Capitol, would reopen. Its conservatory has been closed to the public due to the Capitol campus posture.

The Capitol Police Board’s proposal for a phased reopening comes as the Capitol complex has adopted fewer limits in regard to COVID-19 restrictions as cases in the Washington, D.C. region have dropped in recent weeks. 

The Capitol physician rescinded the mask requirement for the House side of the Capitol complex earlier this month, following new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advising that masks can be optional in areas that meet its updated definition of low community levels of COVID-19.

Yet several lawmakers have tested positive for the coronavirus in recent weeks. 

At least five Democrats tested positive ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union address on March 1, which required all in-person attendees to provide proof of a negative test result for entry.

Multiple House Democrats have also tested for positive for COVID-19 in the past few days, following the party’s annual strategy retreat in Philadelphia on Thursday and Friday.

Pandemic safety hasn’t been the only factor limiting Capitol access over the last two years to lawmakers, staff, journalists and select official business visitors. 

Security concerns stemming from the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol have also played a role. 

The Capitol Police faced a slew of security threats to the complex last year, including an hours-long standoff with a man who threatened to activate a bomb outside the Library of Congress last summer and a man who rammed his car into a Senate-side security barricade and killed a police officer.

But lawmakers have increasingly been clamoring for reopening the Capitol to the public.

“Restrictions due to COVID-19 are disappearing in the District of Columbia and nationwide because vaccines work, and there is no reason to believe visitors in the Capitol would imperil security,” D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) said in a statement last week.

“Given the importance of the Capitol to D.C.’s tourist economy, it is time for the Capitol, like the rest of D.C. is already doing, to reopen to visitors. I urge the Capitol to follow D.C. and safely reopen,” she said.