By Sheeva Azma
Walking onto Capitol Hill for my first time ever — as part of a program sponsored by the Society for Neuroscience –, everything looked like what I’d expect. There were people dressed up and looking important, beautiful architecture reminiscent of my alma mater, MIT, and the feeling that important stuff was getting done.
There was just one thing that I did not expect.
As the organizers of our Hill Day were talking, and we were chowing down on the sandwiches in the provided brown bag lunches, suddenly a weird thing started to happen: the clock in the room started to flash and beep.
It kind of reminded me of something from a futuristic movie. It was definitely something I had never seen before.
Years later, when I returned to intern in the House of Representatives, I got to hear the clocks’ many different rings. More established staffers would get this look of understanding that something is happening, while as someone who was no longer a total novice to the world of Capitol Hill, I realized that something was being communicated.
As POPVOX wrote in 2011, the sounds and lights do indeed have a specific meaning: “Everyone’s schedule is subject to the buzzing of those bells: committee meetings are stopped, constituent meetings delayed. Elevators flash “members only,” and Members scramble through the Capitol Complex tunnels and across Independence and Constitution Avenue like 8-year-olds afraid of getting a tardy slip for class..”
What’s more, it turns out that the House has a different series of rings and bells for its clocks than the Senate. For example, one long ring with no lights means that the Senate is convening. The House does not have an analogous ring for beginning the session. Instead, the House signifies that it is in session by turning on the orange light on their clocks, while the Senate has a red light in their clocks that is on while they are in session.
The House and Senate clocks can ring anywhere from once to six times, and there are up to six lights that can be on at any given time. In both the House and Senate, the maximum number of lights and rings — six — means that there is a recess or pause in the daily business.
For more on the loud and flashy clocks on Capitol Hill, including a table explaining the legislative call systems in both the Senate and the House, check out this article by the Architect of the Capitol, who maintains all of the clocks there, which include not only the flashy, loud clocks but also the older grandfather clocks that need to be reset manually each week. (Yup, one thing Congress relies heavily on is tradition.)
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