Oh, hey, I just realized something. Not everyone is familiar with the layout of the Capitol building, so a few things might be inobvious about what the clowns got to or not.

Very little of the working of congress is actually *in* the Capitol building. Only the grand poobahs actually have office space in there, because most of the building is decorative. Most stuff happens in the congressional office buildings.

There are 6 main office buildings (three on each side, house & senate) as well as several secondary ones. The main office buildings are connected to the Capitol via underground tunnels which have little trains. No joke.

The committee hearing rooms, committee offices and offices for congressfolks are in these buildings. They actually spend very little time on the floor, except for performative reasons.

It was a fairly performative day, so the floors were busy, but to date I have not heard that the office buildings were penetrated. This is a good things, most notably from an IT security perspective.

Which is to say, if you imagined that the clowns had broad access to computers and records and such, the reality is much more constrained than that. Not to say there were no high value targets in the building, but there are many fewer than you might imagine.

It's also important to note that staff (with the exception of pages) are not allowed on the floor of the House or Senate, and they largely stay in the offices, with only a small number accompanying each member when the go to the floor (and waiting outside).

Which is to say, there were probably more barbers, shop clerks and concession workers in the building than congressional staff (Yes, barbers - best barbershop in DC is in the Capitol's basement).

Anyway, this is why we see photos of Pelosi's office (which is just her Capitol office - she has one in an office building too), but not a lot of others.

I do worry a little bit about the pages. These are high school kids who spend a semester acting as the errand runners of Congress, and as I noted before, they're the only staff allowed on the floor, and they *do* work out of the Capitol building.

Caveat: All of my information is at least a decade out of date. I'm sure most of it hasn't changed, but it's entirely possible that things like the page program are different in some way now.

Anyway, the Capitol building itself is still symbolically important, but it's also a lot harder to secure than the office buildings, which all have entrances and exits that are well designed bottlenecks.

DC architecture is very funny that way. There are a handful of very impressive showpiece buildings, but they are the tip of the Iceberg. Everything else happens in unremarkable office buildings,

Well, unremarkable except for all the underground tunnels.

Anyway, bonus content: If you take the tour of this stuff (and you should - the Supreme Court, Library of Congress and Capitol are all on the same block and near the metro), remember to
A) Go down the hill to the Botanical Gardens
B) Go visit @labyrinthdc

Oh, and re: Pelosi's computer being unlocked, a fact that anyone with any security background utterly winced at.

Congressional offices have solid IT folks and pretty good security, but the gaping hole will always be that rule #1 is that the boss may not be inconvenienced.

And most congressfolks are not really super computer savvy. There are exceptions, of course, and I imagine the new generation has better computer hygiene, but for the Pelosi's of the world, it's kind of exactly what you imagine.

BUT!

Congressional IT has *decades* of experience dealign with this specific problem. As such, I am reasonably confident that they're more than ready for. congressperson's machine being compromised.

(Albeit usually under very different circumstances)