A Bipartisan Government Shutdown: Senate Goes Into Containment Mode With Appearance of Bed Bugs

The halls of Congress have been crawling for years with lobbyists and influence peddlers seeking to cash in on government largess. However, one creature proved too much this year in the Senate. The Architect of the Capitol rolled out yellow police tape and sealed off a bathroom in the Dirksen Senate Office Building after a woman was spotted crawling with bed bugs while waiting to attend a Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

According to the article, the woman was a line sitter hired by lobbyists and others to hold a space for a hearing. The female placeholder was spotted by people in line with bed bugs reportedly crawling all over her. They were then also found in the nearby women’s restroom. The restroom was closed off with yellow tape as the Capitol Architect went into full bedbug containment mode.

And I would have thought that there would be some professional courtesy shown to an ancient bloodsucker on Capitol Hill. After all, they have some familiar attributes with other denizens of Capitol Hill moving through the halls from office to office. They “do not fly, but they can move quickly over floors, walls, and ceilings.” Once successful, “After feeding, however, their bodies swell.” They tend to multiply and gradually irritate and even weaken the hosts upon which they are feeding. One leading lobbyist was quoted as saying “My style of lobbying is not to have big formal meetings, but to catch members on the fly as they’re walking between the House and the office buildings.” Sound familiar? Give them an Armani suit and an expense account and one would think that they would fit in quite well.