Fiscal Year 2001 Budget Estimate
CAPITOL GROUNDS MISSION STATEMENT
The Architect of the Capitol is charged by law with the care and maintenance of the Capitol Grounds and with any changes and
improvements made to them. The Capitol Grounds, as defined by 40 U.S.C 193a, are comprised of approximately 222 acres on which
the Capitol, Senate and House Office Buildings and the Capitol Power Plant reside. This area includes lawns, parks, trees, landscaping,
horticultural display beds, plazas, terraces, reflecting pools, courtyards, roof gardens, child care center playgrounds, and atria; these areas
are equipped with fountains, drinking fountains, outdoor seating, decorative stone retaining walls, lighting, an irrigation systems, streets,
sidewalks, and parking areas which are all maintained under this appropriation. The Capitol Grounds are maintained collaboratively by
five in-house crews: the Gardening Division, the Plumbing Branch, the Tree Care Branch, the Masonry Branch, and the Trash and
Materials Handling Branch.
The Office of the Landscape Architect also has in its charge two additional crews: the Automotive Branch, which maintains and
repairs all official vehicles, vehicular equipment, and grounds equipment of the Architect of the Capitol; and the Truck and Shuttle
Operators Branch, which operates and maintains certain of the Architect of the Capitol trucks, as well as the shuttle buses that provide
transportation between the legislative buildings for Members and officers of Congress and their staffs. Further, during fiscal year 1998,
as part of the ongoing overall agency re-engineering efforts, the Senior Landscape Architect was given oversight responsibility for the
Library of Congress and Supreme Court grounds crews. This change in management has led to a consolidated approach to grounds design,
management and maintenance. Greater efficiency, crew support and economies are being realized as a result of this consolidation effort.
Led For many years, the Capitol Grounds comprised only the area known as Capitol Square, lying between Independence Avenue and
Constitution Avenue and First Street East and First Street West and totaling 58.8 acres. Additional property was added for the Cannon,
Longworth and Rayburn House Office Buildings, the Russell and Dirksen Senate Office Buildings, and the Capitol Power Plant bringing
the Capitol Grounds to approximately 169 acres as of 1970. Since 1970 an additional 53 acres have been added which include additional
streets, the Hart Senate Office Building and Ford House Office Building sites, the former GSA Coal Yard located at 42 Eye Street, S.E.,
and several other small parcels which have expanded the Capitol Grounds force's responsibilities to maintain a total of approximately 222
In addition to horticultural and arboricultural planting and maintenance procedures, the Capitol Grounds crews routinely sweep