WASHINGTON. President Biden arrived at the Capitol on Tuesday to deliver an address to Congress that was supposed to mark a return to normalcy, with pandemic restrictions easing as coronavirus cases decline and memories of the January 6 riots fading for more than a moment. season.
But even as the Capitol returned to its old habits, there were hints of the emergency problems that have plagued Mr. Biden’s presidency and the country, with lawmakers sitting far apart and some absent after testing positive for the coronavirus, a security fence and National Guard patrols. which were a reminder of the specter of political violence, and participants dressed in blue and yellow in solidarity with Ukraine as Russian bombs fell on the country as they gathered.
“They all seem to have their own unique set of circumstances — and this one certainly has — and are often defined by things you don’t think will be defined,” Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt said of the state. Union addresses. “In this case, Ukraine.”
Hours before escorting Mr. Biden to the floor, Rep. Victoria Spartz, an Indiana Republican and Ukrainian-American, delivered a tearful and at times angry speech condemning what she called “genocide” in her country of birth and slamming Mr. Biden for his response.
“This is not a war. This is the genocide of the Ukrainian people,” Ms. Spartz said with tears in her eyes. “They bomb civilians non-stop day and night.”
Like many legislators on Capitol Hill, she was dressed in the colors of her native flag. Women wore matching jackets and dresses, while others wore intricate yellow and blue brooches and flag badges. Some men wore patterned ties or tucked yellow and blue pocket squares into their jackets. At least one MP painted the Ukrainian flag on his white surgical mask.
In the weeks leading up to Mr. Biden’s speech, Democratic women in the House of Representatives debated wearing bright colors “symbolizing hope and abundance,” as Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Texas Democrat, put it. But when Russian troops began to invade Ukraine, they favored yellow and blue, she said, as a colleague handed her a yellow sweater to set off her blue dress.
Updated
March 1, 2022 7:57 pm ET
During Mr. Biden’s 2021 speech together, Ms. Escobar turned down a ticket to board the House Gallery, the emotions and trauma of hiding from the crowd in the same seat were still all too fresh at the time. moment. Less than a year later, she said, “It seems like we’ve turned a corner in a lot of ways.”
Days before the speech, Dr. Brian P. Monahan, the Capitol’s attending physician, said masks would no longer be required in the House of Representatives, making them optional regardless of vaccination status for the first time in more than a year. Instead, lawmakers, staff aides and reporters had to provide proof of a negative coronavirus test before they were allowed into the cell.
The five Democrats subsequently announced they would miss the speech due to positive test results, expressing regret and promising to watch remotely. Since the legislators were at a distance across the visitors’ gallery overlooking the floor of the House of Representatives, their guests were present virtually and not in Washington. (Several guests were seated in a box reserved for Jill Biden, the first lady.)
Instead of the usual flash of cameras and lights in the majestic Sculpture Hall located just off the floor of the House, the cameras were positioned further down the complex, in office buildings and overlooking the empty hall, where reporters, legislators and employees struggled to collect their documents. Tickets. And seats have been carefully distributed across the hall, hampering the small body of lawmakers who typically spend hours staking out aisle seats for a TV chance to shake hands with the president.
As columns of trucker protesters headed toward Washington, the black fence once again surrounded the compound and the Capitol, a building still closed to the general public more than a year after a mob attack by supporters of former President Donald Trump. National Guard troops were sent to the area, with officials taking up strategic military vehicle positions and blocking off neighboring streets.
But even with the restrictions, some lawmakers said the speech gave them an insight into Washington traditions they didn’t get to experience during the first year of this Congress, especially freshman lawmakers.
“It’s very different this year — it’s still pretty surreal that I’m in the room,” said Rep. Corey Bush, Democrat of Missouri. She wore a red shirt printed in white with the number 18,000, an estimate of the number of pardons pending and a reference to her drive to get Mr. Biden to start accommodating such requests.
“We have to think and bring forward the problems of our communities, and carry it with us into rooms like this,” Ms. Bush said.
Luke Broadwater contributed reporting.