Congress strikes down elevator neutrality
Literal gridlock in the senate as senators-only elevators at the Capitol are being overrun by the unelected:
“I hesitate to say that it’s a big problem,” said Senator Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey, shaking his head gravely. “There is terrific crowding.” Mr. Lautenberg, a Democrat who has served more than two decades in the Senate, said he had never seen the Capitol so packed with unelected interlopers. The crowding extends to the elevators, one of the few sanctuaries available to beleaguered lawmakers as they try to navigate between the Senate chamber, various hearing rooms and offices in the Capitol. “Sometimes you have to shove your way through, push people,” Mr. Lautenberg said.
What the Senators and their staffers don't realize is that the elevator is not something you just dump people into. It's not a truck. It's a series of vertical tubes. And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your Senator in, he gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous numbers of staffers, enormous numbers of staffers. Now we have a separate Senator-Only elevator now, did you know that? Do you know why? Because they have to be delivered immediately. They can't afford getting delayed by other people.
Now I think these Senators are arguing whether they should be able to dump all their staffers into the elevator ought to consider if they should develop an elevator for themselves. Maybe there is a place for a commercial elevator but it's not using what senators use every day. It's not using the messaging service that is essential to smaller senate offices and to their families. The whole concept is that we should not go into this until someone shows that there is something that has been done that really is a violation of elevator neutrality that hits you and me.
There's one company now you can sign up and you can get a movie delivered to your house daily by delivery service. Okay. And currently it comes to your house, it gets put in the mail box when you get home and you change your order but you pay for that, right. But this service is now going to go through the elevator and what you do is you just go to a place on the elevator and you push a button and guess what you can order ten of them delivered to you and the delivery charge is free. Ten of them coming up that elevator and what happens to your own personal elevator?
I just the other day got, a Senate staffer was to my office at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and he just got here yesterday. Why? Because he got tangled up with all these things going on the Senate elevator. So you want to talk about the consumer? Let's talk about you and me. We use this elevator to travel and we aren't using it for commercial purposes. We aren't earning anything by going on that elevator. Now I'm not saying you have to or you want to discrimnate against those people. The regulatory approach is wrong. Your approach is regulatory in the sense that it says "No one can charge anyone for massively invading this world of the elevator". No, I'm not finished. I want people to understand my position, I'm not going to take a lot of time.
“I hesitate to say that it’s a big problem,” said Senator Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey, shaking his head gravely. “There is terrific crowding.” Mr. Lautenberg, a Democrat who has served more than two decades in the Senate, said he had never seen the Capitol so packed with unelected interlopers. The crowding extends to the elevators, one of the few sanctuaries available to beleaguered lawmakers as they try to navigate between the Senate chamber, various hearing rooms and offices in the Capitol. “Sometimes you have to shove your way through, push people,” Mr. Lautenberg said.
What the Senators and their staffers don't realize is that the elevator is not something you just dump people into. It's not a truck. It's a series of vertical tubes. And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your Senator in, he gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous numbers of staffers, enormous numbers of staffers. Now we have a separate Senator-Only elevator now, did you know that? Do you know why? Because they have to be delivered immediately. They can't afford getting delayed by other people.
Now I think these Senators are arguing whether they should be able to dump all their staffers into the elevator ought to consider if they should develop an elevator for themselves. Maybe there is a place for a commercial elevator but it's not using what senators use every day. It's not using the messaging service that is essential to smaller senate offices and to their families. The whole concept is that we should not go into this until someone shows that there is something that has been done that really is a violation of elevator neutrality that hits you and me.
There's one company now you can sign up and you can get a movie delivered to your house daily by delivery service. Okay. And currently it comes to your house, it gets put in the mail box when you get home and you change your order but you pay for that, right. But this service is now going to go through the elevator and what you do is you just go to a place on the elevator and you push a button and guess what you can order ten of them delivered to you and the delivery charge is free. Ten of them coming up that elevator and what happens to your own personal elevator?
I just the other day got, a Senate staffer was to my office at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and he just got here yesterday. Why? Because he got tangled up with all these things going on the Senate elevator. So you want to talk about the consumer? Let's talk about you and me. We use this elevator to travel and we aren't using it for commercial purposes. We aren't earning anything by going on that elevator. Now I'm not saying you have to or you want to discrimnate against those people. The regulatory approach is wrong. Your approach is regulatory in the sense that it says "No one can charge anyone for massively invading this world of the elevator". No, I'm not finished. I want people to understand my position, I'm not going to take a lot of time.