House, Senate close due to threat of bioterrorism

  The Associated Press House Minority Leader Dick
Gephardt, D-Mo., and House Speaker Dennis
Hastert of Illinois speak at a news conference outside the
Capitol in Washington, Wednesday.

By David Espo
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON “”mdash; Thirty-one Senate employees tested positive
for anthrax exposure, officials said Wednesday, as the threat of
bioterrorism rattled Capitol Hill. Hundreds more lined up nervously
to be tested and leaders ordered the shutdown of the House and
three Senate office buildings.

“We’re in a battle with terrorism, a new form of
human warfare,” said House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt.
Officials confirmed evidence of exposure in a second Senate office
““ adjacent to majority leader Tom Daschle’s suite where
an anthrax-spiked letter was opened earlier this week ““ as
well as spores in a centralized mail room in a building across the
street.

House leaders shut down operations through the weekend to allow
for extensive testing. “To ensure safety, we thought it best
to do a complete sweep, an environmental sweep,” said Speaker
Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. The Senate announced plans to close all
three of its sprawling office buildings, but in a gesture of
defiance aimed at terrorists made plans to convene on Thursday.

There was cause for bioterrorism concern elsewhere in a nervous
nation, five weeks after terrorist attacks that killed more than
5,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

The midtown Manhattan office of Gov. George Pataki was shut down
after an initial test detected the presence of anthrax. The
governor announced that about 80 employees had been evacuated.
“The odds are very high” that subsequent testing will
confirm the presence of the bacteria, he said, although thus far,
no one had become sick.

At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. David
Fleming announced that preliminary testing indicated the strain of
anthrax found in a letter addressed to NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw in
New York “appears to match the strain in Florida,”
where one man died of anthrax several days ago and a second man is
hospitalized. Fleming said it is not yet clear whether the
Washington anthrax comes from the same strain.

But he also stressed there’s no evidence that the
Washington anthrax is any more virulent ““ any more dangerous
““ than the strains in New York or Florida.

In the shadow of the Capitol, Daschle told reporters that 31
people “had positive nasal swabs,” indicating exposure
to anthrax. The group included 23 members of his own staff, five
law enforcement personnel and three aides to Sen. Russell Feingold,
whose office adjoins Daschle’s on the fifth floor of the Hart
Building across the street from the Capitol.

Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., a physician, said that based on the
number of people tested, “maybe a few more” will have
positive results for exposure.

Feingold, D-Wis., told reporters that none of his aides who had
tested positive for exposure had been in Daschle’s office on
Monday, when the letter was opened.

Congressional officials worked aggressively to ease public
concern. “There is no evidence … absolutely no evidence of
infection at this point,” Daschle said, words that several
other officials echoed throughout the day.

“It is treatable,” Daschle added.