Republicans and Democrats have spent the first seven months of Congress fighting over everything from reconciliation to rescissions to Jeffery Epstein. But there’s another issue they’re more quietly bickering over: room reservations.
Multiple Democratic lawmakers and staffers described to NOTUS a struggle to reserve rooms on Capitol Hill for committee or caucus meetings, shadow hearings and constituent gatherings. As Democrats try to mount a resistance to President Donald Trump and the Republican majority, these Democratic sources described a logistical nightmare that is a real obstacle to carrying out their work and an unfortunate side effect of being in the minority.
Rep. Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, acknowledged “some frustration” with the problem.
“If we were in the majority, I think we’d be working hard to make sure there was deconfliction tools so there wasn’t conflicts,” Morelle told NOTUS. “And sometimes it’s not a conflict. Maybe there’s more to it.”
“Everybody deserves the right to be able to have space to do their job here,” he continued. “And I think we should try to accommodate people to the greatest extent possible.”
There are a few potential culprits behind the lack of room access for Democrats. The pace of life on Capitol Hill the past seven months has been hectic. As Republicans try to advance and message on their agenda, they’ve needed spaces to organize and host. Accommodating Democratic efforts to undermine that work becomes, naturally, a low priority. As several Democratic lawmakers told NOTUS, that’s just how life in the minority goes sometimes.
But, as Morelle hinted at with his cryptic “maybe there’s more to it,” several Democrats speculated to NOTUS there might be something more nefarious afoot with Republicans intentionally hogging the room spaces.
“From gutting resolutions of inquiry seeking answers on Trump’s unlawful actions in office to making it harder for Democrats to reserve rooms to hold spotlight hearings,” a Democratic committee aide told NOTUS, “Republicans are doing everything they can to make sure no one can hold Trump accountable.”
Several congressional institutions are responsible for approving rooms. The chief administrative officer, the speaker’s office and individual committees share some responsibility for approving certain rooms on campus. The Capitol Visitor Center also oversees three spaces — the congressional auditorium and two meeting rooms. Democratic leadership controls a room in the basement where they host their weekly caucus meeting.
“The last time Democrats controlled the Capitol it was locked down from the public for over two years,” a spokesman for Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement, referencing the COVID-19 pandemic. “Under Republican control since 2023, the Capitol complex is fully back open for the public to enjoy and for members and staff to congregate freely again. Under Speaker Johnson, there has been zero change in the procedure or rate of room requests and approvals.”
The CAO declined to comment, directing NOTUS to the House Administration Committee. The House Administration Committee’s chair, Rep. Bryan Steil, told NOTUS that no one had brought the issue to his attention.
But a number of Democrats told NOTUS that they have submitted room requests and been met with no response, leaving them to host virtual events or cram dozens of people into House offices.
“It seems like any Democratic requests are just disregarded, not prioritized,” a senior Democratic aide told NOTUS, “even if they’re not controversial or partisan in nature, which has really inhibited the work that we do, just on an educational level, which is so critical to Congress.”
A House Democratic Caucus aide texted NOTUS, “I think all the caucuses have been struggling with rooms big time!!”
The room reservation debacle is just the latest evidence of the rising partisanship on Capitol Hill. Whether or not Republicans are intentionally blocking the rooms or not, there’s a pervasive sense of suspicion among Democrats. Where Republican and Democratic lawmakers were once famous for sparring in front of the cameras in the morning and laughing it off over a beer in the evening, the room issue is the latest example of the quiet tension in Congress, where bipartisan collegiality is practically extinct.
Rep. Richard Neal, the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, stopped short of accusing his Republican counterpart, Chair Jason Smith, of blocking room access — Neal noted that he had successfully conducted an event with Rep. Steny Hoyer the month prior — but he suggested that courtesies around reservations have changed during his 35-year tenure in the House.
“I guess I’m dating myself, but my attitude always would have been that House offices and committee rooms are shared space,” Neal told NOTUS. “I don’t recall ever turning down a Republican when I was chairman, any space that they asked for.”
One ranking member explained to NOTUS that they haven’t had issues scheduling meetings regarding their panel’s business. But they have run into scheduling problems trying to accommodate constituent visits. This lawmaker described bringing a group of about 40 high school students to Capitol Hill for a 45-minute visit and they couldn’t book “any room at all” until brokering a deal with their committee chair.
“I don’t remember ever having that problem before,” this ranking member said.
Rep. Gregory Meeks, the Foreign Affairs Committee’s ranking member, told NOTUS that booking rooms “is more difficult than ever.”
“Of course, it was easier when I was the chair,” Meeks said, adding that Republicans just say the rooms are “not available.”
As Rep. Emanuel Cleaver — a two-decade veteran of Capitol Hill and a Financial Services subcommittee ranker — summed it up to NOTUS, “It’s an issue. Since I’ve been in Congress, everything is worse.”
But, as for whether Republicans are to blame, he wasn’t quite ready to go that far. “You’d have to have a higher level of paranoia to actually go there,” he said.