Knight Ridder Tribune
WASHINGTON - Congressional leaders closed the House of Representatives on Wednesday night for five days, cleared the Senate complex of most employees and searched the entire Capitol for anthrax after 31 people tested positive for exposure.
In another major development, federal scientists said strains of anthrax that contaminated an NBC News office in New York City and killed an employee of a South Florida tabloid publisher were genetically identical. In addition, anthrax-laced envelopes that arrived at NBC and at the Senate bore clear similarities.
Together, the findings suggest that every sample of the disease that has surfaced thus far came from the same source.
The day's extraordinary events also featured a new anthrax scare at the Manhattan office of New York's governor, conflicting statements from top federal lawmakers about the risk, and growing fears that germ warfare had invaded the luminous, domed home of American democracy.
In the end, all 435 members of the House of Representatives and nearly 28,000 employees of the House, Senate and Library of Congress retreated from Capitol Hill until Tuesday. Only the 100 senators and their closest aides were to report to work Thursday.
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The complete shuttering of the House represented what was believed to be the first time a chamber of Congress recessed suddenly in response to any emergency since the War of 1812.
"We haven't seen anything that's really a parallel," said Betty Koed, the assistant Senate historian.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert said safety was his first priority.
"We think this is the prudent thing to do," said Hastert, who also reported, erroneously, that anthrax had been found in ventilation systems and tunnels that link Capitol buildings.
Some colleagues, noting that no anthrax was found in any House building or office, found his statements and actions alarmist.
"This is mass hysteria and we're sending the wrong message," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican. "We're telling Americans to go about their business, go on vacations, and here we're shutting down."
But Hastert also reported that his fourth-floor office in the historic Capitol itself was quarantined Wednesday after an employee remembered noticing a suspicious package. Aides said the FBI took several bags of mail for examination.
The Senate remained open for business - barely - even though an anthrax-tainted letter was opened Monday in Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office in a building a block from the Capitol.
Experts detected spores in that office and a mailroom, Daschle said.
A military biologist who examined the spores called them "common variety anthrax" susceptible to antibiotics, but other experts said the bacteria might have been concentrated and refined for maximum dispersion and thus maximum harm.
"There is no question that this is a very serious attempt at anthrax poisoning," Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said during a Senate hearing.
Nevertheless, Daschle said senators would not leave their posts prematurely.
"We will not let this stop the work of the Senate," he said. "I am absolutely determined to ensure that the Senate continues to do its work."
Federal scientists and law enforcement officials reported some progress toward identifying the people or person - terrorist cell or deranged individual - who would intentionally release lethal biological agents.
"We have substantive leads (from) working with the material," said a senior federal law enforcement official who is assigned to the investigation and requested anonymity.
The Defense Department has the ability to match a particular strain of anthrax to one or more countries of origin, the officials said.
At the White House, spokeswoman Claire Buchan said special security precautions to screen and sort mail have been in place for some time.
Asked if President Bush or others at the White House have received mail with anthrax spores or other bio-chemical agents, she said: "If there were anything to announce, we would certainly do so."
In New York, the bio-terrorism scare reached Gov. George Pataki's Manhattan office, which received a suspicious letter on Sept. 25. Pataki said preliminary tests found evidence of anthrax in the office, but no one who worked there tested positive.
Nevertheless, Pataki said, "the odds are very high" that additional tests will confirm the presence of anthrax. He and nearly 80 staff employees and state troopers began taking precautionary antibiotics.
Officials in New York and Washington repeatedly emphasized that no one in Pataki's office or on Capitol Hill had developed symptoms of anthrax, and a vast difference exists between testing positive for exposure and actually contracting the disease.
"The good news is that everyone will be OK," Daschle said.
Federal health officials said nasal swabs administered to more than 1,400 Capitol employees and visitors found that five Capitol police officers, 23 members of Daschle's staff and three aides of Sen. Russell Feingold of Wisconsin had been exposed to anthrax.
Feingold's office is adjacent to Daschle's in the Hart Senate Office Building.
"There is no evidence - and I want to emphasize this - absolutely no evidence of infection at this point," Daschle said. "All of those who have had this positive nasal swab have been on antibiotics for some time."
Medical experts say anthrax is susceptible to antibiotics - if treatment begins swiftly, especially before symptoms appear.
