Despite warnings from the architect of the Capitol about a dire need to renovate the Rayburn House Office Building, lawmakers say they still aren’t fully sold on the project, which could last until 2045 and cost $9 billion. 

Even as AOC Thomas Austin argues that delays would only come with more dangers and heftier costs, it’s a tough case to make to lawmakers. How do you get enough people to sign off on spending so much money, when most won’t even be around to see it completed?

“If you talk to most members, I don’t think they have any real sense of what the challenge is,” said Rep. Joseph D. Morelle, D-N.Y., ranking member of the House Administration Committee and an appropriator.

In April, Morelle sent a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson calling for the first steps toward a Rayburn renovation to be fully funded, among other requests for the fiscal 2027 Legislative Branch appropriations bill. 

“Congress cannot afford to be penny wise and pound foolish on a priority so fundamental to its ability to function,” Morelle wrote. 

Convincing Congress to invest in itself has long been challenging. There are few political incentives for lawmakers to devote money to the infrastructure that makes it work — even as it physically crumbles around them. 

“It’s important to people here. It’s not important to very many people outside of here. So actually, I’m much more interested in what’s happening with the defense bill, with what’s happening to Labor-H. This one’s just going to have to resolve itself — and it’s not likely to resolve itself in this legislative environment between now and the end of the year,” said House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla. 

Since fiscal 1976, the legislative branch as a proportion of total budget authority has averaged 0.15 percent, maxing out at 0.23 percent in fiscal 1977, according to the Congressional Research Service. Looking at just the last two decades, that number has shrunk to an average of 0.12 percent. 

Cole said while he had “great respect” for the architect of the Capitol, he wants more outreach from the AOC to members. 

At a budget hearing earlier this year, Austin said the Rayburn building is at risk of “catastrophic system failure.” 

Last week, Austin pleaded his case again at a House Administration hearing, where members wondered how to avoid repeating mistakes made during the nearby Cannon building renewal, which lasted more than a decade and came in more than $200 million over budget. 

The initial step in the Rayburn project is finding a “swing space” to accommodate displaced offices, a challenge given that it needs to be relatively close to the Capitol building. While Morelle endorses the idea of constructing a brand-new space for the purpose, others are wary and want to see further options. House appropriators also want the AOC to start a working group that would report monthly to their panel, the House Administration panel and House leadership.

Virginia Republican Rep. Morgan Griffith, a House Administration member who also has an office in Rayburn, said he still wants to see more from the AOC before he’s fully convinced. “They’ve got to be able to do this faster,” he said. 

But he also acknowledged both the risks and inconveniences of the aging building, which dates back to 1965. When a part in his office sink broke, for example, he was told the entire unit might need to be replaced if the correct part couldn’t be found due to its age. 

In the last year alone, 16 major leaks have affected member suites, hallways, committee rooms and storage areas, requiring “millions” of dollars in remediation and repairs, Austin testified last week. 

Minnesota Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum, a member of the House Appropriations panel whose office is in Rayburn, said she doesn’t think enough members understand the severity of the situation, but it’s easy to see why. 

“It’s nothing that comes up necessarily in our leadership meeting because we’re talking about the votes we’re doing on the floor, the important work of the people of the United States,” McCollum said. 

According to McCollum, her predecessor in Congress, former Rep. Bruce Vento, arrived at his Rayburn office one morning to find the ceiling had collapsed, leaving it scattered with dust. Vento died from mesothelioma in 2000, and while his illness was linked to asbestos exposure decades prior, McCollum said more thought needs to be given to the health and safety of everyone who works in the Capitol complex. 

“We put everybody at risk,” she said. 

But turnover is a constant feature in the House, with elections every two years. In the 119th Congress, 14 percent of House members were newcomers. And each day, they hear pleas on supposedly urgent problems and have to pick and choose.

“When you’re an appropriator, most of your days are filled with meetings of people who are saying, ‘If we don’t spend this much money on this thing right now, it’s gonna be a disaster in a few years,’ and we have to make choices,” said Utah Republican Rep. Celeste Maloy, who sits on the House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee.  

Funding for the legislative branch may not be a flashy topic, Morelle acknowledged. But without investment in itself over time, he’s concerned that Congress won’t be able to keep up. 

“If we’re going to be an equal branch of government, we have to be able to be prepared to have resources. We can’t continue to do more with less, and that’s what’s being asked,” he said.