Danger lurks below U.S. Capitol

Some portions of the tunnels in danger of collapse were shored up and some asbestos was cleaned up. But in February, Eveleth’s office issued the first “complaint” the office has ever filed against the Architect of the Capitol because it had “effectively ignored” the office’s prior warnings about health and safety concerns in the tunnels.

“We were not satisfied that the architect was taking the measures that were necessary in order to address both short-term and long-term repairs,” says Eveleth. “I don’t know why they didn’t make this a priority,” he says.

In March, after the complaint was issued, the architect mandated that tunnel workers wear respirators and protective suits to shield against potential exposure to asbestos. But some of the workers have worked unprotected in these conditions for more than 20 years.

During an interview with NBC News, the Architect of the Capitol, Alan Hantman, said his office was “being overly conservative” in requiring workers to wear protective suits. But those assurances run counter to established federal regulations for dealing with exposed asbestos and the recommendations of safety and health experts. The tunnel workers also complain that they have repeatedly been given hollow assurances regarding their own health and safety or no information at all.

“We ask [questions] about our safety and they refuse to answer them,” says John Thayer, supervisor of the tunnel shop at the Capitol Power Plant who is in charge of the crew of tunnel workers.

The workers don’t just worry about their exposure to asbestos, either.

“My greatest fear is getting hit with a piece of concrete,” says Tommy Baker, who suffered a stroke in July. Others worry about the continuing lack of communications in the tunnels in the event of an accident.

“There's no emergency plan to get us out of there,” says Scotty Smith, another worker. “There's an emergency plan for every federal worker on the planet, except us.”

Thayer: “I do worry every day when I send these guys out on the job that somebody's gonna get either seriously hurt or killed.”

The architect says that the Public Health Service did a survey of asbestos in the tunnels in 2001.

"The results of that survey were good," Hantman says. "It was basically our job to maintain in place the asbestos over that period of time."

But a 2004 memo from the Capitol Police says: "Exposed asbestos has built up on all of the steam lines and floors of the tunnels."

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