Lawmakers Eager To Return To Work

By Melissa B. Robinson

Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) – Connecticut’s federal lawmakers urged a quick return to business as usual in the nation’s capital following Tuesday’s horrific terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

 “This is about as sad a day as America’s seen,” said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. He said he was worried about his wife – due to deliver their first child any day now – because she is scheduled to go to a hospital in Virginia that could be overloaded due to the Pentagon explosion.

“I remember my parents talking about where they were on that Sunday afternoon in December of 1941” when Pearl Harbor was attacked, said Dodd. “I’m sure I’ll be describing to my child where I was hours or days before he or she was born.”

Dodd, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, attended a briefing for lawmakers on Capitol Hill Tuesday evening.

Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, emerged from the briefing and said he would have preferred that Congress go into session later Tuesday night – just to prove that the U.S. government is functioning and to provide reassurance to frightened Americans.

“You keep thinking, maybe this is just some bad dream we had,” said Larson, who said he was worried immediately after news of the attacks for his brother, who is in the Air Force.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.,  a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called Tuesday “another day of infamy” and said the attacks were worse Pearl Harbor, in some ways, because more lives were probably lost, said his spokesman, Dan Gerstein.

US Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn. called the attacks an act of war and said life in America will never be the same.

“Our freedom is our strength,” said Shays. “Terrorists are slaves to their hate. They will be caught. They will be punished.”

US Rep. Robert Simmons, R-Conn., a former CIA agent, said “If we are to rise to meet this challenge, and we must, it will require us to respond with better intelligence, both electronic and human.”