US Capitol Will Halt All Public Tours Amid Growing Coronavirus Fears

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 29: The sun sets over the U.S. Capitol as the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump continues on January 29, 2020 in Washington, DC. The trial entered the phase today where senators will have the opportunity to submit written questions to the House managers and President Trump's defense team. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 29: The sun sets over the U.S. Capitol as the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump continues on January 29, 2020 in Washington, DC. The trial entered the phase today where senat... WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 29: The sun sets over the U.S. Capitol as the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump continues on January 29, 2020 in Washington, DC. The trial entered the phase today where senators will have the opportunity to submit written questions to the House managers and President Trump's defense team. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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The U.S. Capitol will reportedly put a stop to all public tours until the end of the month.

According to a Politico report Wednesday evening, multiple congressional sources said that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) informed members of the planned move during a Wednesday afternoon meeting. However, a change to the legislative schedule has not officially been announced.

Washington Post reporter Seung Min Kim also reported the news in a Wednesday evening tweet.

The reported move by the Capitol to halt public tours comes within hours of the World Health Organization announcing Wednesday that COVID-19, the disease resulting from the novel coronavirus, is now considered a pandemic.

On Monday, Pelosi told Capitol Hill reporters that doesn’t foresee the closure of the Capitol amid an increase in coronavirus cases across the country. She added that “there’s no reason” to change the House’s schedule either.

Earlier Wednesday, Politico reported that Pelosi wasn’t the only congressional lawmaker with that sentiment. Politico noted that in addition to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) agreeing that the Capitol should stay open, Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-SD) said Wednesday: “We got the attending physician and the rules committee obviously we’ll listen to them, they’re the experts, but there are no plans about that at the moment.”

Thune also told Politico that he has not fielded any requests to cancel tours and that he thinks “we want to stay on business as usual here.”

Over the past three days, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) announced that they were self-quarantining after coming in contact with an attendee at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) less than two weeks ago who later tested positive for coronavirus.

The White House confirmed late Monday night that President Trump has yet to be tested for COVID-19 despite recently coming into contact with several Republican lawmakers who are now under self-quarantine.

Read Politico’s report here.

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Notable Replies

  1. The emperor signed off on this? Shocking!

  2. My daughter has a middle school field trip to DC starting on Saturday. We’ll see how that goes.

  3. Better safe than sorry…good decision by Pelosi!

    Meanwhile, PANDUMBDICK Don is full of INACTION in his decision to declare national emergency despite WHO saying Covid-19 is now pandemic! Politico reports that apparently, Kushner, the non-medical non- scientific SIL of PANDUMBDICK Don is holding the decision up…Imagine that!

    :stop_sign: playing Russian Roulette with our lives!

    There’s no deadline for a decision, but one of the people familiar with the talks said the task force will not give Trump its final verdict until Jared Kushner, the president’s senior adviser and son-in-law, finishes his research and comes to a conclusion himself .

  4. My son’s middle school trip to DC (from Oregon) was just cancelled this afternoon.

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