Capitol tunnel workers feel slighted

Members of the Capitol Power Plant tunnel crew will not testify at a public hearing of the House Appropriations Committee’s legislative branch panel Tuesday, tunnel workers told The Hill.

The hearing was rescheduled from April 20, but the tunnel workers said they were not notified of the change until yesterday afternoon. In order to be heard, testimony must have been received by Thursday, the subcommittee clerk said.

{mosads}“Nobody ever notified us. Nobody ever notified us when it was cancelled in the first place,” Jillian Aldebron, an attorney for the tunnel workers, said. “After it was postponed I called and e-mailed … and I haven’t heard anything. Now they say it’s too late.”

All parties that submitted testimony for the first hearing were notified of the postponement, according to Jonathan Beeton, communications director for Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.). There will be a separate hearing before June 11 that will be devoted solely to the working conditions in the tunnels, Beeton said.

“Our intention was never to exclude them, but rather to be able to hear their testimony at an upcoming hearing devoted entirely to the issues surrounding the tunnels,” he said. “Our assumption was that the tunnel workers were waiting to provide their testimony at the upcoming tunnel hearing.”

The tunnel crew had planned to attend the hearing to discuss how $27 million appropriated for tunnel repairs last year was “completely misused,” the head of the tunnel crew, John Thayer, said. He questioned the Architect of the Capitol’s ability to use the $50 million in the emergency supplemental correctly. Members of the tunnel crew will be attending the hearing regardless, Thayer said.