Posted on 04/25/2014 8:09:29 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Lawmakers are rallying around the 150-year-old U.S. Capitol Dome, weather-whipped and torn open by acid rain, worried that if an 11th-hour restoration isn’t fully funded, its most important traits could be lost forever.
“If this work isn't done,” warned Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., “we're going to lose the dome, we're going to lose it as it truly, historically is.”
A big fix, added Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., is needed, “so that we don't lose these treasures forever.”
The two Senate appropriators are joining to help Architect of the Capitol Stephen T. Ayers secure the money needed to complete the $60 million restoration projection, set to go into final stages next month with the erection of scaffolding to surround the whole dome, just like that done recently at the Washington Monument.
The interior is also in need of restoration, and the Capitol Rotunda is temporarily closed as interior safety netting is installed to begin that $21 million project.
Pockmarked with about 300 cracks and broken stone about a dozen years ago, there are now 1,300 cracks in the dome’s exterior covered with a dozen layers of lead-based paint that allow water to seep in and stain the interior. Some stone carvings are so damaged that it’s hard to make them out...
Congress is expected to fund the project, one of over 20 emergency fixes on the Capitol campus, and Ayers said it should be done in time for the next presidential Inauguration in January 2017.
The House has moved forward with funding, and the Senate is expected to follow in May. One insider suggested that members would rather spend less on it, but realize that restoring a piece of American history can’t be skimped on.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Start fixin’ from the inside out.
DADBURNIT! BEAT ME TO IT!
twould be a shame if Barry....managed to be UNDER the Dowm when it fell.
Maybe they could have used some of that mosque building in foreign lands money or perhaps the penis washing money but it’s too late....we’re broke and it’s not worth saving. Let it resign itself to the fate of another DemonRat controlled city....Detroit.
Oh that they would treasure what really matters. Keep promoting abortion and forcing all Americans to pay for it.
If the Constitution is lost, who gives a crap about a building?
Crumbling like their failed schemes.
“$60 million is chump change - take it out of the IRS and BLM SWAT team budget”
Thanks, GeronL .... you beat me to the punchline.
Just WHY do all these agencies need SWAT teams? Dept. of re-edukation, BLM, et al????
Waste, fraud and abuse - tell Mooch and Zippy to skip just ONE more vacation this year and we can have millions to fix up the precious Kapital.
60 million dollars! Just send up some brave workers with backpack sprayers full of Polyimide and seal it all up.
Idiots, all of them.
Our Republic is so damaged we’ve lost it.
Lee Iacocca led a very successful PRIVATE fundraising drive to restore the Statue of Liberty in the 1980’s.
I am sure that more than enough Americans would be willing to contribute to help restore the Capitol Dome.
No need for spending even MORE tax dollars on this.
I would encourage Pelosi to hold her press conferences underneath the Dome.
If it were not for the fact that the Capital Building is a monument owned by the American people I wouldn’t mind seeing that dome fall on that criminal Harry Reid.
Encase it in amber to quarantine the damaging spatial rifts.
Gee, I guess then the Senators are just going to have to telecommute.
The House should make these repairs by recovering funding from one or more of hussein’s “Wreck America” project. They could do it, but won’t. They’re evidently in cahoots with him.
No one knows Washington secrets like Paul Bedard. This longtime D.C. reporter joined the Washington Examiner in early 2012 after penning U.S. News & World Report's premiere political column, "Washington Whispers," for more than a decade.
The Baby Statue?? ..it’s for the children
The Grand Canyon was formed with a little runoff H2O
Perhaps it would be a gray day in DC were the dome to collapse,, especially during Obama’s last SOTU..
or perhaps, a parade would be in order.
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