Reports of conservative lawmakers on Capitol Hill not wearing a mask or abiding by social distancing guidelines have provoked concerns among local residents.

Tyrone Turner / WAMU

The message from the District to residents in a recent order has been clear: wear a face mask, even outside, during the coronavirus pandemic.

“If you leave home, you should wear a mask,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said in a press conference last week.

But, according to recent reporting, there’s at least one place in D.C. where that guidance isn’t being followed: the Capitol Building and some of the offices of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. And that is worrying people who live and work in the same neighborhood where maskless lawmakers have been in session.

Tatyana Johnson, 24, works as a cashier in the House basement. She lives in Northeast with her three children, her mom and her sister, who works in a hospital. She says she is wary of the lawmakers who have come from across the country, possibly carrying COVID-19.

“I’m kind of nervous about it a little bit because you know, they all travel a lot of places and then come back here,” Johnson told WAMU/DCist, from behind a teal mask. “But I have to come here, it’s my job.”

Nate Wolfson, 32, lives in Navy Yard, and says members of Congress and Hill staff live in his apartment building. He’s been thinking about those particular neighbors ever since the congressional session reconvened in June.

“There is this certain feeling of when they come back, all of them are coming on planes and I don’t trust planes yet,” he said. “So basically, it’s hoping that everyone is following the rules. But then you see the news that they’re not. And so it’s tough.”

Wolfson says he isn’t concerned about his personal safety with the virus, but about what might happen at a nearby elder care facility and the local Marine Corps barracks if his neighbors on the Hill don’t mask up.

“I’m worried about how much of a hot spot this neighborhood could be and will be if the people don’t take it seriously who need to be taking it seriously,” he said.

Whitney Meagher, 40, has lived in Eastern Market for 13 years, and she has been struck by the incongruity between the local and the federal responses.

“It’s just sort of alarming to hear the mayor talk about how important it is and then to be on a walk a few blocks from my house and you have these officials who are at work and they’re not complying with what I’ve been told to do,” she said, reacting to reports of maskless lawmakers.

“I guess it feels like we’re less on the same team, kind of,” she said. “You know, they’re down the street, but they’re following a completely different set of rules that aren’t necessarily in my best interest.”

‘The anti-mask brigade’

Hill political staff and lawmakers told Politico this week that some members are requiring all staff to come in to the office, despite the pandemic. Some reported a culture of ridicule around mask-wearing in some Republican offices, describing “a general fear that saying anything critical of the current office policy — or lack of policy — will lead to retaliation.”

“I think you’d find a lot of offices in the anti-mask brigade are forcing staff to report to work even if they have legitimate concerns about their health,” a Republican aide alleged, according to Politico. “I’m sure you also [could] find some are having staff … travel to districts in high risk areas and then not providing for quarantine afterwards.”

A tech support worker corroborated that partisan divide, suggesting that mask-wearing was universal in Democratic offices, but “50%” in Republican ones, the outlet reported.

The breaches in public health protocol on the Hill came to light after Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Republican from Texas, tested positive for the coronavirus last week after spending time recently on Capitol Hill without a mask. Gohmert was only tested because he was scheduled to travel back to Texas with President Donald Trump, a fact that has renewed calls from legislators and The New York Times’ Editorial Board for Congress to establish a coronavirus testing regimen. Close to a dozen lawmakers have tested positive since the beginning of the pandemic.

Several people who work on Capitol Hill, including members, staff, and press, have quarantined themselves after coming into contact with Gohmert, following the revelation of his test results.

Face coverings are required in House committee hearings, but last Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made mask-wearing a requirement on the chamber floor. Members may remove their masks when recognized to speak and will not be allowed to enter the chamber if they don’t comply, according to the guidelines. On the Senate floor, masks are encouraged but not required. (Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wears one and has encouraged colleagues and the public to follow his example.)

But that doesn’t account for what happens in individual offices — nor does it change the lack of COVID-19 testing on the Hill.

Congress’s Attending Physician updated its social distancing guidelines for congressional offices on July 20 to include more information on the importance of mask-wearing in other spaces on the Hill, like offices. Still, those guidelines are not mandatory.

“Unless required by specific Agency policy, the use of face coverings (approved surgical masks or cloth face covers) completely covering the nose and mouth is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED to be worn when an individual is in an enclosed, Congressional space with at least one other person present for greater than 15 minutes,” the guidelines state.

Signs inside the Capitol recommend but do not require social distancing and mask-wearing.

The District has gone further than “strongly recommending” mask-wearing indoors, requiring residents to wear masks in common spaces in apartment buildings and inside businesses and workplaces or face fines. But the order does not apply to employees of the federal government while they are on duty.

Nationally, masks have become a partisan issue. Trump has frequently refused to wear a mask and publicly questioned the science that indicates they help cut down on the spread of the coronavirus.

The Trump campaign headquarters in Arlington was shut down in July for a deep cleaning after a senior campaign official tested positive for the coronavirus, Politico reported. Campaign staff habitually do not wear masks in the building.

Wolfson, the Navy Yard resident, wonders if that attitude could have percolated into his neighborhood.

“A lot of Trump staffers live in this area. And so there is this very conflicting sense of what’s right or wrong, at least in Navy Yard,” he said. “I know that D.C. writ large has a specific view of Navy Yard. That’s kind of being confirmed throughout this pandemic.”

‘Wear a damn mask’

The lax public health adherence on the Hill has not been lost on some elected officials from the D.C. area.

Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), called on all of his colleagues to wear a mask and maintain social distancing in a statement to DCist/WAMU.

“The fundamental imperative of leadership to set a positive example, and basic respect for the safety and lives of our fellow human beings require this very small sacrifice,” Beyer wrote. “I have been extremely vocal about my concerns about the lack of regard some colleagues have shown for the health of support personnel, congressional staff, Capitol Police officers, and journalists who work on Capitol Hill and it’s just unacceptable given how easy it is to simply wear a mask.”

Nearly all of Beyer’s staff have been working remotely since March. In March, the congressman and his wife voluntarily self-quarantined for 14 days, after a friend they’d been in contact with tested positive for COVID-19.

Virginia Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D) echoed Beyer in her own statement. “Wearing a mask is an easy, common sense step we all need to take to save lives and protect others, and is especially important across our federal agencies and in the halls of Congress where many of my constituents are working at the center of the federal response to COVID-19,” she wrote in an email.

On Thursday, Wexton tweeted “wear a damn mask.”

D.C. Councilmember Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), agreed, noting his constituents on Capitol Hill could be affected. (Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office and D.C. Health did not return a request for comment by publishing time.)

In June, Beyer, Wexton and other members of the Capitol Region congressional delegation urged Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to “issue strong, explicit directives” to members of the House of Representatives to wear masks and take other public health precautions, in part because of the impact not doing so could have on the region.

“Given the toll this pandemic has taken on residents of Washington, D.C. and the surrounding area, we are dismayed by the reluctance of many of our colleagues serving in the House to take necessary precautions to protect those around them,” the letter reads. “We have personally observed Members of the House refusing to engage in social distancing or wear face coverings, and mocking those who do.”

A sign in the U.S. Capitol does not mention masks, though it does promote social distancing. Daniella Cheslow / WAMU

Some staffers are also speaking up for change.

The Senate’s LGBT staff caucus, for instance, “urges all offices in the Senate to protect the health and safety of members and staff by requiring masks, increasing access to testing, and allowing telework when appropriate during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the organization said in a statement.

UNITE HERE Local 23 represents workers in the House cafeteria. In an email, a spokeswoman said workers “are risking their lives to come to work” on Capitol Hill.

“Almost all of our members come from the Black and Brown communities that have dealt with the greatest suffering and death due to the pandemic,” the email reads. “We call on all persons working in the Congressional buildings to follow CDC guidelines and take all necessary safety precautions—namely wearing masks—to keep the workers serving them safe.”

For others working on Capitol Hill, mask-wearing is actually enforced.

Aldiel Segovia, 31, who does construction at the Cannon Office Building, says workers on the site adhere to strict public health rules.

“You don’t have the mask, they don’t let you work,” said Segovia, who was wearing a hard hat and a mask, a bottle of hand sanitizer clipped to his backpack. “They check out everybody. You know the mask – you no have it, they send you home.”

‘It just doesn’t feel very safe’

Some locals wonder if the culture of not wearing a mask in the Capitol is contagious. They say they’re seeing some signs of its spread into their lives and businesses.

Ashley Saunders, the general manager of nearby Union Pub, says the restaurant is now open for socially distanced dining on the patio and inside the restaurant — but, per District guidance, patrons must wear masks until they are seated and being served food.

While most people who come into Union Pub are complying with the masking requirements, there are some who don’t react well when restaurant staff ask them to put a mask on or abide by the rule of no more than six people per table, Saunders said.

“My staff, you know, they’re concerned. They come into work every day. They wear a mask. You know, we don’t enjoy wearing them either. But we do it to protect our staff and our customers,” Saunders said. She couldn’t identify any of the outliers as political staff, but said the clientele tends to skew political.

Meagher, the Eastern Market resident, doesn’t have a car. During the pandemic, she’s been taking walks around the government buildings on Capitol Hill as a way to get out of the house.

She says she has noticed that many of the security guards and Capitol Police on the grounds aren’t wearing masks, and aren’t standing six feet apart from each other, either. Sometimes, she’s had to walk into the street to keep her distance from them.

“In order to get through, either you have to go into the street or walk through these people that are speaking to each other,” she said. “It just doesn’t feel very safe.”

U.S. Capitol Police are expected to wear masks “when social distancing was not possible or practicable to maintain in the performance of their duties,” a spokeswoman for the department said in an email. Police are expected to wear masks at all times while on the grounds of the Capitol, though they may stop wearing them while eating and drinking or speaking with someone who needs to read lips, according to the email.

Wolfson, the Navy Yard resident, gets annoyed when regular neighbors don’t wear masks, but he sees politicians’ failure as a much deeper issue.

“If I see, say, someone with a [Congressional] pin and I see a mask around their neck or hanging off their ear or something like that, I think, ‘These are the people who are making the decisions that will decide whether people live or die,’” he says. “If they don’t care enough to protect the people in their own neighborhood, why are they going to care enough to protect the people across the country?”

Daniella Cheslow contributed reporting.

Filed Under: capitol hill, congress, coronavirus, face masks, federal government, Health Hub, navy yard, politics, public health, social distancing,