Mink's Capitol office reopens after anthrax tests

By Susan Roth
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

WASHINGTON — Most members of the Hawai'i congressional delegation remain unable to return to their offices on Capitol Hill more than a week after the office buildings closed for anthrax testing.

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Send letters to local offices Because of security concerns in Washington, Hawai'i's congressional members are urging residents to send correspondence to the delegation's local offices. The following local addresses should be used to write to the Hawai'i delegation: • Sen. Daniel Inouye, 300 Ala Moana, Room 7-212, Honolulu, HI 96850. Phone: 541-2542. • Sen. Daniel Akaka, 300 Ala Moana, Room 3-106, Honolulu, HI 96850. Phone: 522-8970. • Rep. Patsy Mink, P.O. Box 50124, Honolulu, HI 96850. Phone: 541-1986. • Rep. Neil Abercrombie, P.O. Box 50143, Honolulu, HI 96850. Phone: 541-2570.

Both Hawai'i senators, Democrats Dan Inouye and Daniel Akaka, have offices in the Hart building, and the office of Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, is in the Longworth building.

Only Democratic Rep. Patsy Mink is ensconced back in her familiar digs in the Rayburn House building, which reopened Wednesday.

"My staff all took home copies of correspondence and things like that to work on, and with their PCs at home, they cranked out a lot of responses," Mink said yesterday. "The bigger problem is that we've had no mail since Oct. 12. We're sitting here wondering what the deluge is going to look like. It's a great frustration to me. Half of our work is the mail."

Mink, and staff from Abercrombie's office, complained about the equipment provided at an alternate office space set up last week at the General Accounting Office in downtown Washington for House members.

"The situation there was completely inadequate," Abercrombie spokesman Michael Slackman said. Telephones, computers, printers and fax machines were unreliable. "You might have been able to use it as a stopgap for a week, but now that Longworth will be closed for quite some time, something is going to have to be done. It's been very, very difficult to impossible to get our work done. So many of the resources we need are in our office. People are anxious to get back there, as dorky as that sounds."

It's been somewhat easier for the senators, both of whom have small hideaway offices in the Capitol building, which closed for only three days to be swept for anthrax.

"Can I call you back? We're sharing one phone line," said Akaka spokesman Paul Cardus, reached in the senator's two-room hideaway.

It's been seven senior staffers and the senator, and sometimes other staff members, sharing the single telephone line since the Hart building closed Oct. 18. Cell phones don't often work well inside the Capitol, so people have to leave the building to use them. About a dozen others have been working from home, though those who normally answer mail are as restless as the House staffers.

Otherwise, Cardus said, Akaka has been "resolved to move ahead. I haven't seen any frustration. When our group met in the Capitol, he told us, 'We're going to get back to work; resume a normal schedule, find ways to meet with people.' "

A handful of Inouye's senior staffers have also been working with the senator in his hideaway office, while the rest of the staff has been working from home, said spokeswoman Sandi Skousen. Meanwhile, the Honolulu office has been open longer hours and routing telephone calls, e-mail and faxes to and from Washington, Skousen said.

"It's inconvenient, but it's amazing how you can adapt to meet the need," she said. "The senator has been very calm, but he's also been very proud of America and the fact that people on his staff continue to show up for work. At a staff meeting last week, he expressed his appreciation. But I would like to get back to my office."