On this day in 1793...

George Washington laid the cornerstone of the Capitol Building in Washington DC. It was far from complete by the time that Congress moved in 1800. There are some excellent guides to the history and architecture of the Capitol - my favourite (which I keep by my bedside for a little late night or early morning reading) is William C Allen's "History of the United States Capitol: A chronicle of design, construction, and politics"



It is available in the gift shop in the Capitol Visitors Center, Washington DC - but I wouldn't recommend flying with it (unless you want to use up quite a bit of your baggage allowance!).

Online there is some excellent material on the website of the Architect of the Capitol - available here.

The money to run Congress

The House Appropriations sub-committee charged with overseeing the financing of Congress' activities is The Legislative Branch subcommittee whose webpage is here. It is currently (111th Congress) chaired by Debbie Wasserman Schultz. A summary of the proposed appropriation for the current fincial year is available here.

Main items include - the costs of running the House of Representatives $1374m; Library of Congress $645.2m; Government Accountability Office $560.7m; Architect of the Capitol $501.2m; Capitol Police $337.3m; Government Printing Office $147.5m; Congressional Budget Office $47.2m

The Senate Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch is currently chaired by Ben Nelson. It's website can be accessed here. The figures are slightly different (all should be sorted out) and $926m is allocated for the running of the Senate.