The largest House office building is at risk of “catastrophic system failure,” Architect of the Capitol Thomas Austin is set to warn lawmakers this week in a push to double his office budget in the coming fiscal year.
Austin, scheduled to testify before House appropriators on Wednesday, singled out the Rayburn House Office Building as the “top priority” for building renovations for fiscal 2027, warning the building is “at a serious juncture.”
“Based on my personal observations and evaluation of the facility assessments, I am most concerned with the level of risk of a catastrophic system failure in Rayburn in its current state,” he said in his prepared testimony, while warning that “time is of the essence to address risks to operational reliability, life safety, and the continuity of congressional operations.”
