FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

 

Statement from the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies

 

Washington, DC ‐‐ The 56th Inaugural Swearing‐in Ceremony was the largest event in

Washington, DC history. Months of planning by the staffs of the U.S. Senate, House of

Representatives, the Office of the Architect of the Capitol, the U.S. Capitol Police, and the

United States Secret Service resulted in an extraordinarily successful and peaceful event that

was enjoyed by well more than a million people.

 

The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies deeply regrets that some ticket

holders to the ceremonies were not able to get to their ticketed sections, primarily in the

purple and blue zones. The number of tickets issued for these sections was based on historic

precedent, and calculations of the number of guests that could safely be accommodated in

each area.

 

Many of the problems appear to have been due to the unprecedented crowds, and a huge flow

of unticketed people toward the U.S. Capitol and into the 3rd Street Tunnel from the National

Mall, after it had reached capacity very early that morning and was closed to additional

unticketed entries.

 

The JCCIC, U.S. Capitol Police and our federal and local partners will thoroughly examine every

aspect of our planning including ticketing, screening, pedestrian flows, gate numbers and

placement, to provide a foundation of lessons learned to future inaugural planners, so that they

have the information they need to prevent similar problems.

 

We realize how important this inauguration was to so many people and the difficulties they

endured to get here, so once again we deeply apologize to those guests who were not

admitted.

 

 

Read My Blog

Fund the GAO for more accountability

On Wednesday, January 14, I sat down with two officials from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Gene Dodaro, Acting Comptroller General and Ralph Dawn, Managing Director of Congressional Relations. 

You may be asking, “Why would anyone care about the...(more)


Posted on: 01-15-2009