Blizzard 2016: OK to Sled Again on Capitol Hill

PHOTO by Mary Wachter via Twitter @STATCHAT320

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WASHINGTON, DC -- DC schools are closed, grocery store shelves have been ransacked and the snow is coming down Friday, with lots more expected. You can be sure families who live near Capitol Hill will be ready to grab their sleds and head for the slopes on Capitol grounds once the expected blizzard winds stop blowing.

It wasn’t always so -- last year, kids were shooed away from sledding on the Capitol grounds. Families fought back, holding a “sled in” and launching a protest on change.org. to open the hill to sledding.

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Police last year were enforcing a regulation created long ago that reads: “It shall be the duty of the Capitol police on and after April 29, 1876, to prevent any portion of the Capitol Grounds and terraces from being used as playgrounds or otherwise, so far as may be necessary to protect the public property, turf and grass from destruction or injury.”

Officials have typically not enforced this policy until last year, when “a congressional ‘grump’ complained,” the Washington Post reported at the time.

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This year, thanks to Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Capitol Hill is now open for sledding, after she was able to get language into the fiscal year 2016 omnibus bill making sledding on Capitol grounds “legal” again. (Technically, it’s still not legal, but Capitol police are asked not to enforce restrictions.)

“Capitol Hill is this city’s iconic snow sledding hill, and Congress got out of the way, allowing our kids to freely enjoy what promises to be one of the best snowfalls in years,” Norton said Thursday. “Last year, when D.C. families came together with strong community support for non-enforcement of the antiquated sledding ban on Capitol Grounds, they empowered our efforts in the Congress. All families need to worry about now is picking the best time to go sledding.”

Norton said she knows her constituents will take necessary precautions this weekend given the possible blizzard-like conditions on Saturday, but hopes there will be plenty of opportunities to make the trip to Capitol Hill.

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Norton’s provision calls for “non-enforcement” of the 19th-century law that prohibits sledding on Capitol Grounds. The provision, included in the omnibus report language, states: “Given the family-style neighborhood that the Capitol shares with the surrounding community the Committee would instruct the Capitol Police to forebear enforcement of 2 U.S.C. 1963 (‘An act to protect the public property, turf, and grass of the Capitol Grounds from injury’) and the Traffic Regulations for the United States Capitol Grounds when encountering snow sledders on the grounds.”

Tucking the language into the omnibus bill was the fastest way to allow sledding, in lieu of Norton’s bill to overturn the ban, which would require the arduous process of getting a bill through the House and Senate, her office pointed out. Norton said she appreciated the language of the provision, which recognizes the Capitol’s relationship to its community, and the help she got from her good friend, U.S. Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA), who serves on the House Appropriations Committee.