With the 20-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaching, a long-simmering debate that began in their aftermath about fencing around the Capitol building is getting new life in the wake of the Jan. 6 siege.
The proposal has never gone into effect largely because lawmakers have insisted on keeping public access to the legislative branch’s seat. But the Capitol siege, in which five people were killed, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer, is forcing a reconsideration of that notion.
Built-up like a military base days before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday, Capitol Hill has an 8-foot nonscalable fence with razor wire encircling the entire complex, supplemented by 25,000 armed members of the National Guard.
Washington, D.C., routinely clamps down on security during presidential inaugurations, but since the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, lawmakers and security officials are beginning to consider keeping the fence in place for protection.
Rep. Ritchie Torres, a first-term New York Democrat, on Friday proposed legislation to do just that.
“My new bill aims to revive the Capitol Gateway Plan, a previously rejected plan to encircle the Capitol grounds w/ a secure barricade. Security at the Capitol has been an afterthought & we need enhanced protection to keep members, staff, & visitors safe,” Torres said in a tweet on Thursday.
Although the Capitol was attacked numerous times in various ways throughout recent history, it was not until 1983 that metal detectors were installed after a bomb exploded outside the Senate Republican cloakroom one evening.
No one was injured, but the lawmakers’ reaction to the attack was the beginning of building more barriers around the Capitol when another major violent incident arose.
Following the Oklahoma City bombing of a federal building in 1995, congressional lawmakers cut off side streets to traffic in the district and created more barriers.
In 1998, after two law enforcement officers, assigned to a capitol entrance to operate the X-ray machine and magnetometer, were fatally shot by a perpetrator who breached the Capitol, some members argued that a perimeter fence around the Capitol should be built.
Washington, D.C., Democratic Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton argued against it, though.
“We must not overreact,” said Holmes Norton. “This is not a breach of security. As far as we can tell, this is some maniac who came blazing in.”
One congressional aide told the L.A. Times at the time, “I’ll bet you, before not too long, we’re going to have a fence around this place,” adding that the barriers would just create a “fortress Washington.”
Ultimately, the perimeter fence never came to be at that time, but then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich added further external barriers, upgraded the metal detectors.
The proposal was revived after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when one of the crashed planes may have been heading for the Capitol. Fencing would have done nothing to stop the carnage from an airplane crash into the building, but lawmakers of both parties sought to enhance Capitol complex security.
Now, security officials are already weighing in and claiming that the attack on the Capitol by supporters of President Trump shows that a security fence is necessary.
For now, the fencing is expected to stay for 30 days following the inauguration.
