presidential power and its limits. before the course, the things the president can do that may not be stated in the constitution. >> it was a sweeping decision. as one ofd the u.s. foreign nations of 195 across and yet it has not settled the issue. wade.ight, row versus it allows states to restrict that right based on the viability of the fetus.

>> each week, we take viewers into historic sites around the country. next, don ritchie takes us t building.har in 1983, it is the newest of the three senate office buildings after the russell building and the dirksen building. >> we are in the hart senate office building, which is connected to the dirksen building. they are two halves of the same building, that they are entirely different. the hart building is the central building. we are in the room known as hart 216. this room was specifically designed for television, and we are in one of the television booths overlooking the hearing

room. this building is large. when they knew that the dirksen building was sufficient, they originally thought they would just replicate the dirksen building and build an identical twin on the other side. it would not be large enough. what happened between when the dirksen building opened and the hart building, was the u.s. staff tripled in size. part of that was watergate. up until then, the executive branch had provided most of the information that congress was given. when they felt they could not trust it, they felt the need for an independent staff. every senator was allowed to have at least one staff person

on each committee to serve. that was a big breakthrough. they created minority staff as well as staff as a whole which became the majority staff. other projects required hiring large numbers of new staff. there just was not room in the russell building or the dirksen building to house them. i came to the senate in 1976, across the street there were hotels that have been taken over, and staff and committee members were working in what had been apartment and hotel rooms. they were not designed for heavy office equipment. you could not have a file cabinet with more than two drawers because the floor could not sustain it. they needed new buildings, so in 1976, congress authorized the construction of a new building. it was named for senator senator

philip hart from michigan. ironically, he was one of the senators who had resisted the naming of the russell and dirksen buildings. he felt it was too soon since they had died. but senator hart was well-liked. he was known as the conscience of the senate. while still living, the senate voted to name this building after senator hart. it was opened in 1983, and it was empty for a while. the newspapers had been terrible about writing stories saying there was extravagance, that

congress should not be spending so much money on themselves. it was going to be a big building and had to house a lot of people. it had to be adjusted for the computer age. it was going to be expensive. there were lots of visitors coming here, lots of constituents, lots of people because of hearing going on. you had to have a large space. and was going to be expensive but that could be used against you when running for office. in 1982, a lot of the political campaigns argued that the hart building was an extravagance. people were reluctant to move into the building. but the leadership prevailed on a couple of senior senators, people whom everybody respected and persuaded them to move into the building. henry jackson. by moving in here, even though he loved his office in the russell building, knew that he

would give cover to a lot of the junior senators. then the sergeant at arms came up with a better plan. he sent eviction notices to those due to move into this one. they were ordered. once they got here, they realized it worked much better for modern senate staff. the floors, for instance, can be taken up quickly, and there are channels that run through that computer wires can be put through. there were no computers when building the russell building or the dirksen building, but by 1983, the computer age had come. they could knocked down the walls and reconfigure them, literally overnight, so if a senator left and another was moving in, they could do a quick turnaround for whatever the

needs were. all of the staff of the senator would be in a two-floor suite. they would not have to go out the hall or down the hall. they would all be in the same area. i have talked to senators who loved the russell building, and liked being there, but admitted that the hart building works better. it creates a more efficient working space. the hart building is the least of the classical buildings. the russell building is very neoclassical. the dirksen building is a mirror image of the neoclassical. but the hart building is very modern. senator moynahan, who lived on capitol hill, disliked a lot of the modern architecture and during the winter when they were working on the building they

covered it with plastic. in the spring, they took the plastic down and senator moynahan got the first look at the hart building, he went to the senate and introduced a resolution asking to put the plastic backup. he also submitted a resolution saying, no more building should be constructed by the federal government for the remainder of the century. quite frankly, people have got used to the building over the years. it is a comfortable building. unlike the russell building that has an open-air courtyard, the hart building has an open-air court building. it was a desperately empty space. we came before, it was a vast, empty space and they knew that they needed something in there to fill that space.

the builder was commissioned to do something specifically for the space in the hart atrium. he created a combination space that he called "mountains and clouds." above it, there is a series of clouds that float. they used to float, eventually they became stationary. they create a nice backdrop for the class pictures. it was constructed in the mid-1980's. nicholas brady raised the money privately. it's one of the largest pieces of public sculpture in the world. it was the very last piece of work that alexander did, because

after he came to the senate, he went home and died that evening. he never did see the finished sculpture. the hart building has 50 united states senators in here, a large number of the staff. not so much in terms of committees, they are mostly in the dirksen building, but it has this central hearing room used for special occasions for large-scale hearings for things of historic nature, where there will be a large audience. this is a room that will be familiar to people who watched many of the supreme court nominations from ruth bader ginsburg, to elena kagan, they have all taken place in this room. five of the current justices have had their hearings in the hart building. >> i am humbled to have been

nominated for this seat now held by justice o'connor. >> many major hearings have taken place here. this is where the 9/11 investigations took place. there have been many celebrities who have testified here. christopher reeves came to testify for medical purposes, for federal government funding of medical research. we have had lots of blockbuster hearings in this room. >> when they can help save thousands of lives, treatment with stem cells have already begun. >> the old-school senators like ted kennedy, and others who have been here a long time, would hold their hearings in the russell building, even though this room was available. they just felt -- because watergate had been held there, and so many other hearings had been held there, that they were

part of that historical trend. this room in the hart building has created a new historical stream of major hearings that lots of prominent witnesses, lots of acrimony often between the senators and witnesses. even though this is the newest building, it has already begun to establish a long history, and it will continue to serve the united states senate for a long time. >> the plan made for operation iraqi freedom was even more innovative and transformational. employing a combination of precision, speed, and flexibility. >> one of the original plans had a gymnasium. at the time, because it with thought to be extravagant, they cut the money for the gymnasium

and the restrooms on the ninth floor. they were services that would be provided. over the years, it became clear that senators have stressful jobs and they need to relax a little. there is a gymnasium on one side. it would probably be good for their health if they could unwind a little bit, so they did make an effort to put that gymnasium in. the architect of the capitol said that they already had the money, and could afford to do it. the senate voted to put the gymnasium in. it created a firestorm on the talk radio circuits, and people thought it was a terrible thing that they were going to waste federal money on a gymnasium for senators, so it was blocked. one of the senators who blocked it, was a senator from wisconsin

who, ironically, was one of the most physically fit members of the senate. he used to run every day from his home to the senate. he kept in terrific shape for years, and here he was blocking the gymnasium for his colleagues. part of it is because he was a fiscally frugal person. he is the man who started the golden fleece award, to look at things with a government was spending money it should not spend. but the senator got in the way of it, and blocked them building that gymnasium. perhaps as retaliation, the senate chose to close down a small shower room which occupy the dirksen building, which happens to be the place where the senator took his shower after he ran into work every day. part of this was the sense that people are here to work and should not be taking time off to exercise. i think it is a shame that the gymnasium was never built.

members of congress and staff could have benefited greatly from that over the years, as they have in the house of representatives. it is also a shame that the restaurant was never constructed on the ninth floor. it created a very nice meeting space where members of congress -- where meetings and have taken place. even though it is not what it was originally designed for, they will find some other use for it. demands will come along that we have not anticipated in the building will have to be converted to meet those demands. the hart building is an unusually shaped building. one of the reasons for the shape is that it was constructed to preserve an historical building that occupies one of its corners. that was at the corner of constitution avenue, maryland avenue, and 2nd street.

where you will find the national women's party house. this is a suffrage organization that operated to try to get the vote for women, and for many years afterward lobbied for the equal rights amendment in the 1970's, they were out parading for equal rights that the house and senate passed and sent to the states that was not ratified by the states. the hart building was built specifically not to demolish the women's party building. the original building had been on the site of the supreme court, and that building had been demolished to make room for the supreme court. once was enough. the women's party felt they had given their all for the government at this point. the women's suffrage movement

came and protested in the capital and the white house, and over the years we have had many lobbying groups come through here. we have had protests of different types. recently we have had code pink protests. >> please clear the room. >> [inaudible] [shouting] >> please clear the room. >> everybody wants to make sure that their cause is is being heard. the fact of the matter is that the real way that causes are heard is through formal hearings. where witnesses who are for and against come to testify. citizens are invited to testify, and they are always open to the public unless dealing with classified information.

everything else is open, the public is invited in. these days you can watch them streaming, or on the internet, and you can come in person to watch the hearings. there is even an occupation that has been developed, called wine line sitting. you will find students and retirees holding a spot on line, and just before the hearing starts, and well-dressed lobbyist will appear and pay them for holding their space. it saves them a few hours of time to get one of these spaces for the hearing rooms. if you go to the russell building, you will see several bronze plaques. warren g. harding, harry truman, lyndon johnson, richard nixon. there are none in the dirksen

building, but there is one in the hart building. there is a plaque indicating that barack obama held that office while he was a senator. the hart building itself became an issue in the news in 2001, less than a month after the events of september 11, a letter was sent to the senator in this building that contained a large amount of deadlynthrax. >> about 10:30 this morning, my office opened a suspicious package. we can't go into the details, because this is an ongoing investigation. just as soon as it became clear that there was a suspicious substance in the envelope, we contacted the capitol police and the capitol physician. i will have more to say about

our own circumstances in the office after dan nichols of the capitol police, and dr. john isel, our capital physician, speak to the contents of the letter itself. >> i am lieutenant dan nichols, a spokesman for the capitol police. as a senator said, this morning a notice was received in his office which contained a powdery substance. there was an exposure when the letter was opened. following the protocol, the staff contacted the police. the officers responsed to the scene, isolated the situation. we conducted field tests. the first field test came back as positive for anthrax. in order to confirm that, we did a second field test, which also came back as positive for anthrax.

>> they hoped that it can be contained in a small area, but after a day they began to be concerned that it could not be contained. so all of the senate staff who work in the building were required to come to this room to have themselves swabbed, to test if there were any chance they might test positive for anthrax. within three days, everybody was assured that they were not. no one in this building became ill the cause of it, although two postal workers died as a result of the incident. because of that, security increased enormously around the capital. the building was actually shut down for three months, very abruptly. half of the u.s. senators operate out of this building. they had to find some place else to go. a lot of them roomed with their colleagues from their states. republicans and democrats alike shared offices.

committees moved in with each other. senators went over to the senate library were nine people went around one desk with one computer and one phone. we operated like that for months. after that we did a series of interviews with people to find out what the experience had been like. we discovered that there was an enormous amount of camaraderie because everybody was operating out of these confined areas. such crowded areas. people brought in cake and cookies during the days. there were lots of office parties. afterward, people felt nostalgic about going back to their offices and losing that sense of community that had existed. sometimes crises bring out the best in people. this was the largest building that was ever decontaminated. a large squad of federal workers, both the military and medical facilities came through here to decide how to clean the building. after three months, we were able

to move back in to it. >> it has been open for a couple of minutes? good. >> it is like a little city. it has its own power plant, its own subway system, its own banks, and beauty parlors. there are several thousand people who work here, both in the senate and the house. the capital building, which was opened in 1800, has grown to meet the demands of the people who work here. it long ago proved too small for all of the things needed here. if you stand on the plaza in front of the capital, and you look at the small sandstone, that little square box was the original capital building. it house the senate, the supreme court, and the library of

congress. if you look around, all of the buildings that you see, the supreme court, the library of congress, the house and senate buildings, they all started out in that small sandstone box. they give a sense of how things have grown. the most recent addition is underground, the capitol visitors center. 3 million people per year visit the capital building. tourists who watch congress at work. they needed to be able to accommodate these large crowds coming in. for all of that, for all the art, and the historical events, this is really a daily working building, with a large staff of people trying to keep up with issues, and trying to enter constituents interests. some come early in the morning because their states are on the east coast, some work late at night because their states are

on the west coast. there always seems to be a light on in the office buildings here. it reflects the enormous growth of the government, the services of the government, and the demand. that is the whole story of why we have three office buildings and three house buildings surrounding the united states capital. >> this is one of a series of programs with senate historian emeritus don ritchie. we also toured the russell and dirksen building's where many of the most notable hearings took place. you can watch all of our "american artifacts" programs in their entirety by visiting our website, c-span.org/history. book tells the story of

the fact that the manuscript, this national treasure is not what we thought, while also chronologically inc. about what was madison encountering at the time. keeping those narratives straight was tricky for a while. marry sarah bilder discusses her book. it takes a look at the notes james madison wrote during and after the constitutional convention of 1787. >> he took the notes on sheets of paper and he folded the notes in half. at some point, he sewed these pieces of paper together into a manuscript. thelast quarter of manuscript, the holes he had sewn did not match with the

early one. it confirms my suspicion the end of the manuscript was written later. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q&a. >> each week, american history americalamerica -- reel provides context to public affairs issues. we were harbor came and in the water 100%. this air force, this navy, and the production estimate, the axis was wrong. the forecast had miscalculated the potential strength of the hidden army, the women of american industry. the atlantic to berlin, the pacific to tokyo, millions

of women who had never lifted a finger outside their homes now resolved to set the world house in order. these were the uniforms of the hidden army. these, their weapons. these were the results they helped achieve. why they were asked joined the ranks of the hidden army, they gave a variety of reasons. i have a daughter. i have a son on the arizona. that is a good enough reason or anyone. have anyone until i took this defense job. now, i have a family to look after. >> i go to college, but i arrange my classes so i can help out. this way i will get my diploma and war bond. so i joined heavy

the defense port. yesterday was a big day. they told me i was worth my weight in gold. my husband had a few more of my shelves, maybe he would still be fighting. whenever i get tired, i think of him on that death march. why did i take a defense job? i never thought of that before. do you have to have a reason? we are in a jam, aren't we? answer damnsy to fool questions like that. >> you can watch the entire

film, the hidden army, unreal america sunday at 4:00 p.m. eastern. this is american history tv only on c-span3. next, historians and authors think usually -- including joseph elvis -- alice talk about this state and the debate over at aa bill of rights. they also discuss how the congress came to decide on 10 amendments, although there were many more proposed. the national archives posted this talk. it is about an hour and a half. >> tonight's program is presented, it is my pleasure to introduce our moderator. directorespie is the of digital programming and managing editor for the woodrow wilson international center for scholars. prevly