--- title: Public Tours of U.S. Capitol Suspended Due to COVID-19 description: Public tours of the U.S. Capitol will be suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic, a person familiar with the plans said Wednesday. canonical: https://time.com/5801493/tours-capitol-suspended-coronavirus/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-03-11T23:10:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T08:26:01.577Z article:section: Politics og:title: Public Tours of U.S. Capitol Suspended Due to COVID-19 og:description: Leaders of the House and Senate have said they have no plans to alter their congressional schedules og:url: https://time.com/5801493/tours-capitol-suspended-coronavirus/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Public Tours of U.S. Capitol Suspended Due to COVID-19 twitter:description: Leaders of the House and Senate have said they have no plans to alter their congressional schedules twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Public Tours of U.S. Capitol Suspended Due to COVID-19 by [Erik Wasson / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Erik Wasson / Bloomberg Mar 11, 2020 11:10 PM UTC by [Erik Wasson / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Erik Wasson / Bloomberg Mar 11, 2020 11:10 PM UTC Public tours of the U.S. Capitol will be suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic, a person familiar with the plans said Wednesday. The House and Senate sergeants-at-arms are preparing to make the announcement, the person said. Separately, the leaders of the House and Senate have said they have no plans to alter their congressional schedules. Both chambers are scheduled to work Thursday, then leave for a week-long recess. “We are the captains of the ship. We are the last to leave,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told lawmakers Tuesday, according to a person in the room ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5801493/tours-capitol-suspended-coronavirus/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5801493/tours-capitol-suspended-coronavirus/"},"headline":"Public Tours of U.S. Capitol Suspended Due to COVID-19","datePublished":"2020-03-11T23:10:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T08:26:01.577Z","description":"Leaders of the House and Senate have said they have no plans to alter their congressional schedules","url":"https://time.com/5801493/tours-capitol-suspended-coronavirus/","keywords":["Congress","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Erik Wasson / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5801493/tours-capitol-suspended-coronavirus/","name":"Public Tours of U.S. Capitol Suspended Due to COVID-19"}}]}] ```