The Cannon House Office Building must be driving the Architect of the Capitol office crazy.

First, all the low-energy light bulbs were replaced with high-energy bright ones. Which soon will be replaced again with brighter low-energy bulbs. Then on Wednesday, a pipe burst in the building, flooding the front part of the House Budget Committee’s office for Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).

“We were getting ready to go to the hearing at about 9:30 [a.m.],” Budget Committee Democratic spokesman Nu Wexler tells HOH. Just then, he says, the staff heard a “whoosh, like an air conditioner turning on, [and] there was just water gushing from the ceiling.”

Pretty soon “the ceiling panels started falling down under the weight of the water,” he says.

Ever the legislative soldiers, committee staffers went off to the hearing, after snapping (and tweeting) pictures of the calamity. Within a few hours, staffers were relocated, and they expect to return to the office Tuesday.