Senate officials are holding internal planning exercises this week to prepare for a swine flu outbreak that could hobble congressional offices.The office of the Senate Sergeant at Arms (SAA) has been talking with Senate offices and attending Senate luncheons since the disease first began to spread in the spring. "It is becoming second nature to us right now about how to proceed," said Terry Gainer, the Senate Sergeant at Arms. "And in some respect you kind of want to say, let's get started with it, we've done so much prep work, let's begin to began."
The U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) and the Office of the Attending Physician are planning to attend this week's meeting with the SAA in which they will discuss a variety of different scenarios for how an H1N1 outbreak could affect Congress, including more than 10,000 staffers and nearly 2 million visitors so far this year.
Some have expressed concern for members who have a full workload this fall, saying that if they are infected it may interfere with their ability to attend committee hearings or even vote because doing so could spread the infection.
And while Gainer said senators have been advised to follow the same general guidelines the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has given to the rest of the country -- "if you don't feel well, you shouldn't come to work" -- he said the ultimate decision will be left up to the senators.
| Work from home, like the rest of us with laptops and non-critical jobs. Or choose the assumption that the work will wait until everyone is healthy again. Given it's Congress, I vote we go with the second assumption. |