Exposures Make Some in Congress Jittery

Faced with a growing threat of anthrax exposure, Congress was awash Wednesday with anxiety, mixed messages and conflicting information as House and Senate leaders struggled with how to respond.

At times these leaders seemed to operate at cross purposes: The House announced an unusual five-day shutdown, while the Senate insisted on staying in session. House leaders warned of the risk that anthrax had made its way into the ventilation system; Senate leaders downplayed that risk.

But both sides were worried enough that they planned to empty House and Senate office buildings for at least four days for a massive sweep of the Capitol campus.

The day capped a week in which congressional leaders faced daily decisions about how to handle a threat of unknown proportions after the discovery of anthrax in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.).

Some analysts and lawmakers expressed concern with the level of confusion that has characterized security decision-making in the Capitol and elsewhere since the Sept. 11 attacks.

“What’s the message we’re conveying to the public?” asked Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.). “There’s confusion and hysteria out there already. If we can’t speak with a unified and consistent voice, how are you going to gain the confidence of the public?”

Catherine Rudder, a professor of public policy at George Mason University, said she worried that it was an “overreaction” to shut down the House early.

“At a time like this, you need strong leadership,” Rudder said. “They have a responsibility not to create a stampede.”

The day began with the unsettling news that 31 congressional employees had tested positive for exposure to anthrax. That included 23 members of Daschle’s staff, five law enforcement officers and three members of the staff of Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.), whose office is next to Daschle’s.

Top House and Senate leaders met with President Bush early in the day and laid plans to shut down Congress after Wednesday and to screen all office buildings and the Capitol itself.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) announced that the House would finish its work by mid-afternoon--a day earlier than scheduled--and leave until Tuesday.

“To make sure that we protect people’s safety, we thought it was prudent to do a complete environmental sweep,” Hastert said. He created a stir by indicating that the decision was driven by word that the anthrax had made its way into the Senate office building’s ventilation system, its underground tunnels and the mail room.

Many House members said they did not see that as a panicky retreat, just a prudent, precautionary step. “It’s not a big deal,” said Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). “We’re just losing one day of legislative work.”

But others questioned the wisdom of the early shutdown. “It pains me that terrorists are seeing us react to everything,” said Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.).

Senators, meanwhile, headed into a closed-door briefing on the anthrax crisis largely unaware of Hastert’s announcement. Although Senate leaders had earlier tentatively agreed to a similar plan, their course changed during the all-Senate meeting.

Senators of both parties insisted on convening today to make a statement that they would not be deterred by terrorism.

“Let’s relax a little bit,” said Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.). “There is no reason for us to shut down.”

Before a bank of television cameras, officials labored to calm the public’s jangled nerves. “We will not let this stop the work of the Senate,” Daschle said.

The officials emphasized that no one in Washington who tested positive for anthrax exposure had actually been infected and made ill; that the kind of anthrax involved is readily treatable with antibiotics; that everyone who was exposed was taking the medicine; and that no anthrax spores had been found in the Senate ventilation system.

Still, there were other troubling signs that the bacteria had spread beyond Daschle’s office: Spores were found in the Senate’s mail room in another office building, and the three exposed people from Feingold’s staff had not been in Daschle’s office. Lawmakers and aides said the possibility that spores might eventually turn up in the ventilation system had not been ruled out.

Meanwhile, hundreds of on-edge congressional aides and others who visited Senate offices recently waited in a two-hour line for anthrax tests and antibiotics.

“I think Hastert caused a panic,” said one Senate aide who joined the line Wednesday afternoon. “The fact that people don’t know what’s going on is what scared me.”

Health officials said that as of Wednesday afternoon, there were about five times as many negative results from the nasal swabs--155--as there were positive results--31. But they acknowledged that more positive results could emerge from hundreds of nasal swabs yet to be tested.

Kenneth Moritsugu, U.S. deputy surgeon general, said that test results so far indicated the risk of exposure was “confined to a very specific area of the Hart building.” He pinpointed the southeastern sector of the fifth and sixth floors of the building--where Daschle’s suite and others are located. He recommended that aides and visitors who were there Monday take antibiotics for 60 days. Hundreds of people could fall into that category.

Little information was available about the aides and officers who were exposed. A Daschle spokesman said the senator wanted to protect their privacy.

This much is certain: Many of those who work in congressional offices are quite young. A senior Senate aide estimated that at least a third of the typical staff could be described as twentysomething “kids,” many of them legislative correspondents or assistants.

In other words, some of those exposed might have been like Jared Stubbs, 24, a staff assistant to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He was in line Wednesday to get tested.

Stubbs, who spends a fair amount of time each week in the Hart building and also handles mail frequently, said his family back home in Idaho had been quite worried. “Last night I made a deal with my parents,” he said. “I said, ‘If any other people test positive, I’ll go get tested.’ ”

His parents called Wednesday morning to make sure Stubbs would follow through.

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Times staff writers Greg Miller and Rich Simon contributed to this report.