Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/884685
20 on the double meaning of "leaks" to place the Dome's immediate threat in a political context: "Yikes! The dome of the United States Capitol has sprung a leak. Make that more than 200 leaks. And those are not the kind of leaks that Congress is famous for." The author reported that I had requested an additional $1.5 million "to study the problem and get cracking on the cracks. But he has run into a hitch that has nothing to do with bricks and mortar, and everything to do with politics." 7 As it turned out, the fiscally conservative House Mem- bers who had wanted to freeze the budget couldn't overcome the strong support of Republican House lead- ers such as James T. Walsh (NY), the chairman of the House Appropriations Leg- islative Branch Subcommit- tee, whom Schmitt quoted as saying, "The dome is a pretty important symbol to the country and the world, and we want to make sure we take care of it." When we took Walsh on his own inspection tour of the Dome, he realized "There are liter- ally cracks and water or rust spots along the walls." In advance of his committee's meeting to approve budget levels he affirmed, "We'll resolve this issue. I don't think we'll have a big fight." Senator Bob Bennett (UT), the Senate's Appropriations Legislative Branch Subcom- mittee chairman, also sup- ported funding for the Dome's Phase One lead paint removal, inspection, and remediation master plan, saying "I learned in business that one of the most expensive ways you can save money is to cut down on repairs in the short term." 8 The $1.5 million was approved for this prelimi- nary work. THE DoME InSPECTIon Climbing inside the interstitial space between the inner and outer Capitol domes is a bit of a physical challenge. Many flights of stairs twist and turn, following the curve of the exterior dome's skin. Everyone climbing those stairs needs to duck between and beneath cast- iron trusses at points where the stairs narrow and con- tinue rising sharply upwards, ever closer to their apex directly beneath the base of the Statue of Freedom. As I climbed higher on a Dome inspection tour led by AOC roofers, we passed windows of 1860s hammered glass that diffused the light and reduced heat gain. It was all too easy to verify what the crew had been telling me. The Dome was rusting; old cracks had reopened; cast- iron decorative pieces were falling off and becoming embedded in the roofs below; bolted connections between pieces of the cast iron railing had totally dete- riorated to the point where it was only rust that held them together (fig. 9). The sun was the major culprit, aided and abetted by Washington's signifi- cant freeze-thaw cycles. As the sun rises each morning the eastern segment of the cast-iron Dome begins to heat up, causing the fish- lapped plates to expand as they warm. As the sun arcs southward, new sections of the Dome begin to expand, and the first sections, now out of the direct rays of the sun, begin to cool and shrink back to their original dimensions. This constant heating and cooling process causes the joints between adjacent cast-iron pieces to open and close, rubbing against each other to produce the creaking sound that metal-on-metal friction creates, and at the same time opening pathways for water penetration. After several inspection tours in my first year of office, I needed no further convincing. This constant movement and water penetration was clearly taking its toll on the 150-year-old Dome. The problem was decid- ing how to best present these realities to the Congress as I sought the necessary funding to perform an in-depth survey of the problem areas so that we could begin to determine solutions. I called upon George White's Fig. 9. Cast iron decorative pieces that have fallen off the Dome THE CAPITOL DOME