When Rep. Mike Rogers’ staff arrived at his fourth-floor office in the Rayburn House Office Building one morning in January 2025, they quickly noticed the clear tube leading from the ceiling above the printer to the kitchen sink. It had been placed there to drain a pink “goo” because of an issue with the pipes.
A few days later, Rogers’ chief of staff gathered the Alabama Republican’s team to pass along the message from the Architect of the Capitol that they would temporarily be moving offices so that the pipes could be repaired. Because of asbestos in Rayburn’s walls, they could not stay through the process, said Carrie Cole, Rogers’ communications director.
“It was just a lot of groans,” Cole said of the meeting. “They told us in the middle of approps season, [National Defense Authorization Act] season — the whole thing.”