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CNN Live Saturday

Anthrax Detected in House's Ford Office Building

Aired October 20, 2001 - 16:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: First to Washington and the latest anthrax threat with CNN's Kate Snow, who is watching that this on the House side again. Hey, Kate.

KATE SNOW, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi Bill. Well, the latest news is that there are two additional sites that have shown positive for anthrax that we didn't know about before.

One of them is the Ford House office building. That is just a few blocks away, about a half mile that way from the United States Capitol. It's an area where they house office buildings. It also houses a post office that is specifically for members of the United States House.

Now inside that building, which I don't believe in the video you're looking at right now as a matter of fact, inside the Ford Building, in the mailroom, they found the presence of anthrax spores, and because of that they're telling us today that they would like to test anyone who was specifically in that mailroom.

Now this comes in addition to what we previously knew, which was that there was anthrax detected on the Senate side of the United States Capitol Complex. We have a map to better outline this for you.

On the Senate side you'll recall on Monday, in the office of Senator Tom Daschle on the left side of your screen, there was a letter that was opened and that contaminated that area. There was also anthrax found in a mailroom in the building right adjacent to that one, the Dirksen Building.

Now, on the right side of your screen, you see the House office building. What we're learning today is that the Ford Building, down on the bottom right of your screen, has been found, one machine in that Ford Building has been found contaminated, and that machine was sorting mail and then packing mail to be sent to the Longworth Building, also on the right of your screen there.

It is a bit confusing and to add to the confusion, one other site that has been found positive for anthrax presence, is a site about fifteen blocks south of the United States Capitol. That's where the mail originally from the U.S. Post Office comes to the United States Capitol.

It is sorted there and then sent up the chain to here, to the Capitol campus, and that is where yesterday we saw these folks, these people doing environmental work, we were told were doing environmental sweeps of that building, that off-site mail facility intake facility which again is about fifteen blocks south of the U.S. Capitol.

So to review, there are four sites at the United States Capitol that have been found to be contaminated with anthrax, two on the Senate side of the campus, one House office building, and that off- site mail facility there.

Bill, we don't want to raise undue alarm. We need to note that at this point the only people who have tested positive for anthrax exposure were those who were either in or around Senator Tom Daschle's office on Monday.

HEMMER: We'll try and keep those alarms at a minimum. In the meantime though, is it too early to know Kate, whether this will have any impact on Congress coming back to work next week?

SNOW: We're told it won't have any impact, at least not on the House of Representatives. The U.S. House due to be back in session on Tuesday. Spokespeople for both the House Speaker Dennis Hastert and for the minority leader Dick Gephardt, tell us that is fully their intention to be back here on Tuesday and back in business.

Now, whether or not they'll be right here in this actual building, that's a little bit unclear. We expect so, but Bill we should note that there have been some people looking at contingency plans. What if they can't get in this building, places they might be able to meet if they can't get into the United States Capitol -- Bill.

HEMMER: Another fascinating turn, Kate. Thanks. Kate Snow on Capitol Hill. Once again, beyond Capitol Hill, anthrax has been detected in Florida, New Jersey and the State of New York.

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