Bill Gates Gives $10 Million for Capitol Hill Visitor Center

Bill Gates’ charitable foundation has pledged $10 million for what would be the biggest Capitol Hill construction project since the 19th century, a $265-million underground visitors center.

“We think it’s an incredibly important project, and we’re proud to be a part of it,” said Trevor Neilson, public affairs director for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation--the Seattle-based charity named after the Microsoft chairman and his wife.

Neilson stressed that the proposed donation, reported Thursday in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, “has been in the pipeline for many months” and is not related to the antitrust suit the Justice Department is pursuing against the software giant.

He said the foundation annually gives away about $1 billion. This year it has pledged $1 billion over 20 years for minority scholarships and $750 million over five years for a global vaccine program.

The visitors center, an idea under consideration for the last decade, moved toward becoming a reality in 1998 after a mentally disturbed gunman shot his way into the Capitol, killing two police officers.

After that, consensus grew that the center was needed, both to improve building security and to enhance the visits of the 18,000 people who tour the Capitol every day.

Tourists would have access to historical displays, bathrooms and food as they wait to begin tours of the Capitol.

Plans for the visitors center are being overseen by the Capitol Preservation Commission, which is co-chaired by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.).

The commission has asked the Pew Charitable Trusts of Philadelphia to set up a nonprofit group to raise $100 million in private contributions for the center.

Pew Public Affairs Director David Morse said Pew had developed a visitors center at the Independence Mall in Philadelphia and is ready to contribute $10 million to the Capitol Hill center.

Planners say they hope the center will be completed by 2005.