Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call
Doerner moves the arms of the Ohio Clock to the correct time before winding the historic timepiece on Thursday. The clock had been stuck at 12:14 during the government shutdown due to lack of staff to wind the clock.
Normalcy returned to the Capitol campus on Thursday — the Ohio Clock began ticking, tour guides circled the Rotunda and gardeners from the Architect of the Capitol trimmed grass that sprouted during the 16 days the federal government was shut down.
“Perfect timing,” said tourist Tania Johnson, who had arrived Wednesday on a flight from southern California for her first visit to Washington, D.C. Johnson and her husband, Joe, arrived on the grounds in time to join the Capitol Visitor Center’s first tour at 8:50 a.m. on Thursday morning.
“We debated for two weeks whether to cancel it or not, but that would have cost us about $1,000,” she said, joking that they were considering buying lottery tickets after the good fortune of having a deal to reopen the government signed by the president mere hours before their planned visit.
The continuing resolution that passed both chambers Wednesday night cleared the way for legislative branch employees and services around Capitol Hill to return to a normal work schedule.
CVC tour guides, normally a visible fixture of the halls of the Capitol in their bright red blazers, disappeared from the campus as part of the reduced operations plan that cut the Capitol workforce to skeletal staff levels. As a result of the furloughs, only member-led tours were allowed.
“We’re very happy to be back at full forces,” said CVC spokesperson Tom Fontana. More than 6,000 tourists had reservations for Thursday, including a group of 150 World War II veterans from Texas who fanned out across Statuary Hall in matching red polo shirts by 9:15 a.m. Some wheelchair-bound veterans cleared a path for the staffers clipping through the marble corridor, but the halls were for the most part quiet after Wednesday’s dramatic, late-night session.
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