Congress Is Building Screening Facility

Congress is building a facility outside the Capitol to screen tourists, implementing new procedures for opening lawmakers’ mail and considering the use of National Guardsmen to secure the Capitol grounds.

The temporary screening area will be on the east side of the Capitol, where tourists now line up to enter the building. Currently, visitors go through metal detectors and their belongings are X-rayed upon entering the Capitol.

Eventually, tourists will enter the building through an underground visitors’ center that has yet to be built.

At a private session for House members, which was not confidential, lawmakers received briefings from the CIA, the FBI, the Capitol physician and the House sergeant-at-arms.