Ready or not, Congress is reopening.

Since March 2020 and the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Capitol has been in a version of what we have all been in: shut down, quarantined, socially distanced, masked up, fenced off, closed down.

But with a vaccination rate on Capitol Hill estimated by the Office of the Attending Physician to be around 85 percent, the legislative branch is loosening up, and it shows.

This week, the House and Senate are both in session for the first time since before Memorial Day, and it feels like spring fever — even though we’re about to enter summer. But hey, time was really altered by the pandemic, so here we go.

CQ Roll Call staff writer Jim Saksa has been there for the most moribund times of the pandemic, and now, a kind of great reopening. He gathered sound, wrote a couple of stories and caught up with folks from the before times and discusses it all with host Jason Dick on this edition of Political Theater.

Show Notes:

• Scenes from the Capitol’s busy, noisy, close-talking comeback
• Hill staffers expect infrastructure bill to pass, but little else
• Senate pages to return this fall after pandemic hiatus
• House hearing forced to recess as ‘Galaxy Quest,’ ‘Down Periscope’ play in background
• This wood sat in storage for 100 years. Now it’s being used to fix Capitol riot damage