Despite warnings from the architect of the Capitol about a dire need to renovate the Rayburn House Office Building, lawmakers say they still aren’t fully sold on the project, which could last until 2045 and cost $9 billion.
Even as AOC Thomas Austin argues that delays would only come with more dangers and heftier costs, it’s a tough case to make to lawmakers. How do you get enough people to sign off on spending so much money, when most won’t even be around to see it completed?
“If you talk to most members, I don’t think they have any real sense of what the challenge is,” said Rep. Joseph D. Morelle, D-N.Y., ranking member of the House Administration Committee and an appropriator.
In April, Morelle sent a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson calling for the first steps toward a Rayburn renovation to be fully funded, among other requests for the fiscal 2027 Legislative Branch appropriations bill.
“Congress cannot afford to be penny wise and pound foolish on a priority so fundamental to its ability to function,” Morelle wrote.
