I’ve heard that if you call your congresscritters’ constituent services offices, you can get VIP tours of various Washington landmarks. I haven’t been up there since 9/11 and I’m sure a lot of things are different. We’re going at the end of this month and I was going to call around and see what they could offer me. Has anybody done that? Any guidelines as to what’s available? Are White House tours right out? (I’d really like to see what they can do me for the Library of Congress.) Are the VIP tours significantly different than what the regular public gets?
In other words, what’s up with this “call your senators before you go” thing?
A couple of years ago, we took a White House tour and a tour of the Capitol. Both have to be arranged in advance through your congressman’s office. These are not “VIP tours,” they are plain vanilla tours. I’m not sure what the lead time is. We live here, but an out-of-town friend invited us to join here after she made arrangements through her Georgia representative.
The White House tour is kind of ho-hum. OK, nice blue room, nice red room, blah, blah, blah. You see a few rooms, some of which might actually be used occasionally. You not see any of the real interesting stuff, God forbid they should let anyone near the Oval Office.
The Capitol tour was *very * interesting; I highly recommend it. Congress was not in session when we went but we were taken into the chamber (can’t remember if it was the House or Senate). Our tour started from the congressman’s office, and was led by one of his interns.
Unfortunately, if you are going at the end of *this * month, you are probably already too late.
I’m not sure exactly what you’re looking for at the Library of Congress, but it is incredibly cool to visit even without any Congressional intervention. I visit D.C. twice a year, and I always try to get to the LOC during at least one of those trips. They have tons of exhibits and events, and you can see Thomas Jefferson’s original library. The new Library of Congress Experience which opened this spring is excellent. The LOC is actually my second favorite place to visit in D.C. (after the National Archives).
With the exception of the Capitol, you are probably too late to arrange any tours for the end of July. Here are the suggested lead times for tour requests, according to my congresscritter:
Well, I didn’t even know until today that you could actually get something from your elected representatives. Guess I’ll call around tomorrow. I can start with one and then see if I can get a better offer from the others. “Clyburn will get me into the White House if I call it the James Clyburn White House Visit. What can you do for me?”
I see that my rep also offers reservations on those tours, but I’m not clear what the benefit is. It seems like all those places have tours normally. Are the constituent tours different?
I saw something on TV about that. IIRC, there’s a little flagpole above some side-porch of the Capitol that isn’t even visibile from the ground, and interns run those babies up the pole and immediately down again every twenty seconds or so.
My mom was a vexologist working for the USG and you are correct that they run flags up and down a pole all day for congresspeople to give out to constituents and that the pole is not visible from the ground.
If anybody’s interested, I gave Clyburn’s office a call and found that the White House is booked six months out but that it’s extremely easy to get a Capitol VIP tour whenever we wanted one. Don’t know if it’s any different from the general public tour I got when I was in middle school, but I guess I’ll find out and let you guys know. At any rate, we’ll see the offices where stuff evidently actually gets done, because that’s where we’re supposed to meet up.
Okay, if anybody is curious, the VIP tour you get from your congressman/woman is AWESOME. You don’t have to stand in line with the common sort (the only line is because the security backs up), and if your person has a Capitol office then you get to go there past the “absolutely no admittance to anybody and this means you!” signs and sit in his chair and look out his window and stuff, if he isn’t using it. (They weren’t in session when we were there.) Our tour was just me, my mom, my aunt, and the tour guide, who was this sweet little intern, and they’ll spend as long as you like wherever you like. Very nice. Also absolutely free.
Plus, anybody can eat in those office building cafeterias, and they’re TONS cheaper than anywhere else there is to eat on the Mall. Pro tip. We spent $26 on two hot dogs, some chips, and two drinks at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History cafe. Don’t do that - go to the Rayburn House Building. Cafeteria is on the bottom floor. Donuts are good.
Guess I’ll call around tomorrow. I can start with one and then see if I can get a better offer from the others. “Clyburn will get me into the White House if I call it the James Clyburn White House Visit. What can you do for me?”