Still a Specter on Capitol Hill
It's been over five years since the first anthrax scare on Capitol Hill, but the fallout continues. Not only do letters sent to congressional offices get held up sometimes for weeks for inspection, but several offices ask couriers to open the letters before giving them to receptionists. It happened last week when a U.S. News intern made a delivery to the offices of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and presidential candidates Sens. John McCain, Barack Obama, and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Get this: One even asked him to open the envelope in the hallway. The offices don't like to talk about their mail policies, but one staffer says, "The mail is still slow, and irradiating it [to kill anthrax] often ruins it and makes it smell."
Tags: anthrax
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Reader Comments
Deliveries to Capitol Hill
Hello:
I have owned & operated a messenger courier service on Capitol Hill for over 20 years. The Capitol Hill cops know my face, and the familiar faces of my delivery personnel. The profiling of couriers is ridiculous. A courier did not deliver the anthrax to Capitol Hill; it arrived through the US Mail, by a unanimous source. Anyone who uses a personalized courier service understands that your delivery is in a controlled environment. Your documents are picked up and delivered to, from, and by known sources, completely the opposite of the US Mail.
Most of what we deliver to Congress these days is not enclosed in an envelope, but let’s face it, these are public buildings and business’s must have access to congress. Besides the focus is on the wrong industry, we should keep an eye on everything that goes in, I agree, but clamp down on the mail, and other supplies, which arrive in a more difficult environment to control.
Theo Harding
Capitol Hill Delivery Service, Inc.
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