extend unemployment benefits or pass immigration ministry -- legislation. he spoke for about five minutes. >> i think the speaker. arguably, mr. speaker, this congress is the least productive one in which i have served over the last 33 years. both from a humanitarian standpoint and an economic one. this congress has earned the disdain of the american people, irrespective of their party affiliation. rise, mr. speaker, specifically to express my and the democratic minorities strong of chechen to adjourning this first session of the 113 congress without extending unemployment insurance eligibility for the 1.3 million including 20,000 military veterans. will lose that support in just 48 hours.

number will increase by 73,000 people, on average, every week that we continue to block extensions. and is both a moral outrage and other congressionally inflicted blow to our economy and it is unprecedented. whenever unemployment levels have been as they are today, the congress has extended benefits. is, sadly, consistent with our failure to pass meaningful jobs legislation proposed by the president. with, sadly, consistent our fill your to pass comprehensive immigration reform , which is broadly supported by business, labor, farmers, farm workers, and in overwhelmingly -- overwhelming number of religious leaders and faith community. it is, sadly, consistent with our failure to pass a farm bill which could get confidence to

those in dire need of helping food on their families table, that this congress will not abandon them. ironically, we do so at the very time that our nation celebrates a message of giving and hope. all of this we leave undone after passing a so-called budget compromise whose only virtue was it was slightly better than the draconian and irrational sequester, condemned on both sides of the aisle as unworkable, unrealistic, and ill-conceived. called compromise that will be tested in just a few short weeks and which failed to ensure america will pay its bills in the months ahead. i thoughtr, if objecting to this motion to

adjourn by unanimous consent would lead to extension of unemployment for the 1.3 million americans who have been unable to find work or to a house leadership ringing to the floor issues i have listed, i would object to this house adjourning with so much of the people's work undone. speaker, such an objection would have no such effect. i and my party deeply regret that reality. in speaker, we will return january of 2014, urging our republican colleagues to address the needs of so many millions of americans who want us to do the work they sent us here to do. sadly, i, mr. speaker, withdraw my objection. >> the john withdraws his

reservation. without objection, the current resolution is agreed to and a motion to reconsider is laid on the table. >> the second session of the 113 atgress against on january 3 noon eastern. lawmakers are not scheduled to until to legislative work tuesday, january 7. watch live coverage as always here on c-span. the u.s. capitol, a view set to change over the coming months. just last month, repairs began on the capitol dome, the first restoration to one of washington ands most iconic landmarks 50 years. scaffolding is set to go up around the building next spring as workers repair more than 1000 cracks and deficiencies to the outer shell of the 150-year-old dome. last week, the architect of the u.s. capitol held a press conference to provide enough data on the project which is slated to cost about $60 million.

>> good morning, thank you all for coming. my name is justinkiefer. today, mr. ayers will comment on the project and answer a few questions. all that documents, photos, and videos are available on our website. let's present mr. ayers, architect of the capitol. >> thank you for it that you all for being here. take you for your interest in the capital dome project. as architect of the capitol, what an awesome responsibility it is to preserve these

beautiful, iconic, and treasured buildings the american people and the congress have entrusted to our care. none of them is more important than this beautiful capital dome. i thought today we would talk a little bit about the restoration of the dome. let me start maybe with a little bit of history to set at in context. this is a photograph of when the capitol building was complete and ever went it was complete in 1924. then, of course, westward expansion happened and more senators and more members of congress and the congress outgrew this wonderful capital building. thomas eustig walther came on board and design the extension to the capital. there have been two domes atop the capital. this first don't by charles beaufinch, architect of the

capitol, was made of wood and copper. reading the history, the congress was so concerned about the number of very significant fires in the capitol building at the time and wanted to get rid of that potential fire hazard. that is one of the reasons that led to this new cast-iron and fireproof dome. this is a photograph by thomas eustig walter that he hung in his office while the wings of the capital were under construction. he was never commissioned to design a new don't but he thought with the capital nearly doubling in length that the old dome was out of scale and also this consensus that we needed to have a much more fireproof capitol building, he designed this new dome and honk this

drawing in his office -- and honk is drawing in his office and members of congress would see it and were enamored with it. that quickly led to the first appropriation for the capital dome. here are some of walter's drawings of that wonderful cast- iron dome that he designed to make it look like masonry but it is fully of cast-iron. it is two domes. there is an inner cast-iron dome and outer cast-iron dome. you can see in the drawing on the right that not only are these working drawings of the time am a are really pieces of artwork today. they are beautifully drawn and water colored as well. he received an initial $100,000 appropriation for the dome. he quickly commenced design and construction work. here is the cast-iron dome being constructed in the midst of the civil war.

i'm sure you know the story that during the civil war, the contractor and the supplier of the cast-iron and the builder was notified that they could no longer be paid for their work and they should stop work. with over one million pounds of cast-iron sitting on the ground in front of the capital, they decided they were going to continue working. president lincoln picked up on that fact and made a great analogy that if the construction would continue, so will our union. as we commence this restoration of the dome, it has not and done in 50 years. this is a photograph of the last restoration of the dome from 1959-1960. you can see the red color of the priming material that was used at the time that -- and the dome was scaffolded at the same time that the east front was

extended. we have been studying the condition of the dome and studying the condition of the various cracks for well over 10 years. i reflect back in 1991, there was a major water leak into the rotunda that led to an intensive study of the condition of the dome that led to a master plan for dome repairs in the mid- 1990s and during that time, there was some three or 400 cracks we were able to identify. we were inspecting it every two or three years and the number of cracks grew and grew. as late as 2012, there were nearly 1300 cracks and broken and missing pieces of the cast- iron shell of the dome. it's important to note that these were water leaks into the

dome and water and cast-iron does not work well together. that process of water incursion and cast-iron continues to rust and rust and make conditions worse. with nearly 1300 cracks and we see the pace of cracking and deterioration accelerating, we thought it was important now after 50 years to intervene and do some preservation work on the dome. here is a few images -- the kinds of things you can see if you hung from the outside of the dome. these things are very difficult if not impossible to see from the ground. you see many of these pieces in front of you and very significant cracking of the cast-iron panels and ornamentation. here is a piece of an acorn, a

decorative piece, that is on the capital dome and some of the decoration around the acorn that has fallen off. we have well over 100 pieces that have fallen or we have taken off the dome to keep it safe. another example of a series of cracks, many of them from previous repairs in 1959 or 1960 and many of them from just the accelerated deterioration from the cast-iron and water process. you can see here some of our inspection work ongoing. we have been doing that for many years now, very carefully watching and monitoring the condition of the dome and taking pieces off before they would fall to ensure the safety and security of our employees as well as visitors to the capital. we have awarded a construction contract.

we did that in october of this year. work is commencing. like any project, as you might do in your home, it is the planning and preparation that probably takes as long as the work itself. our contractor and our team and our team of consultants has been working for a couple of months now, working out the details, awarding subcontracts, making [inaudible] , and making methods of work in that process will continue through the winter months and we would expect to see scaffolding, visible scaffolding going up this spring. i wanted to show you how these repairs might be made. how would you fix the crack on a piece of cast-iron that is 250 feet up in the air? you can see in the video we are using was called a lock and stitch technique. we will actually drill out the crack and tap each of those

drill holes and put in a pin and a series of pins that stitch along the crack and perpendicular to the pins we will put in a series of locks that hold that stitch together. we worked extensively with contractors as well as the national institutes of standards and technology over the course of 10 years to evaluate welding techniques, a wide variety of welding, a wide variety of repair techniques and finally found that this particular technique was the strongest as well as the technique that was most viable when you are working in conditions well over 200 feet in the air. this is what the dome will actually look like when it is scaffolded this spring. there will be a work area on the

north west front of the capital and then a scaffolding built up and bridged over the west front terrace, then network platform built around the base of the dome on the roof of the capital building. then you will see scaffolding going up, rings of scaffolding from the base of the paristol though the [inaudible] these are the sections actual -- actively being worked at the time and they will be taken off 11 or 12 or 13 layers of lead they spain's and that has to be contained -- led-they stood -- led-based paint and that really moved around the dome over the course of two years as we undertake that work. this is what it will look like at night. much of the work will be

happening at night and that's what it will look like. the first thing that you will actually see is this protective piece of fabric going up inside the rotunda. we will build a covered loft way on the floor of the rotunda to protect our visitors and guests and staff as they go about moving back and forth through the rotunda as we install this canopy system. this canopy system will stay in place for the duration of the project. you will still be able to see the apotheosis of washington, the beautiful paintings in the rotunda will be covered for a few weeks as this is installed but then they will be opened back up once it is installed. this is a safety measure, a protective measure, as work is going on on the outer shell of the dome. this ensures that nothing can happen to anyone inside the dome.

that is the first thing you will see in the next month or two after that, we will continue the planning and preparation process and construct the laydown area on the north west front of the capitol and then scaffolding will commence in the spring of 2014. with that, i am happy to try to answer any questions any of you may have. yes? >> how are you going to ensure that the $50 million appropriated for this will be the budget and you will not go over? >> the best way to ensure that a project stays on schedule is ensuring you have a great plan up front. the time you invest in the planning stage equals the success on the ultimate construction project. we have a really good plan in place. we have a great contractor, a

great team of consultants and i think, more importantly, we were able to do a pilot project, the first phase of this, as you may recall, the skirts of the capitol dome was done a year ago. during that pilot and first phase project, we think we learned and mastered how to fix it. we learn the things that could come up that we may not anticipate. we folded all of those lessons learned into our contract today. we are pretty confident that we can get it done in two years and certainly done before the next residential inauguration. >> can you guarantee you will not go over budget? >> guarantee is a big word. we are pretty confident, i will give you that. thank you. >> a lot of the damage seems to be to the ornamental decorations. is the structure itself sound? has any of that actually fallen

off? >> i will address the second question first -- none of the pieces have actually fallen. through our inspections, we have been able to take these pieces off before they actually fall to the ground. none of them have fallen. if they would, they would puncture holes in the upper roof of the capitol building. we have been very deliberate about taking them off before they fall to the ground. the capital is in great structural condition. we have looked at it and had our structural engineering team look at it on several occasions and studied it extensively. it is in great structural condition. it is not in any way unsafe at all. the pieces you see are really ornamental pieces as well as pieces that create water leaks. it is this water leak that is

the real problem. water can get in and it causes continued rust but also water can get in and damage the beautiful frescoes and paintings that are in the rotunda. yes? >> it's one of the most recognizable landmarks we have. what was your concern about how it would look during the renovation project? what additional life do you think you give to the structure by doing this? >> it is one of the most if not the most recognizable symbols across the globe. we were very careful to select a contractor that was going to carefully scaffold the dome. we are not going to do anything that is too artistic. we think it's that or to spend the money more wisely on repairing the specific cracks and making the best use of the money that has been provided to us. if you saw the images, i think the scaffolding does not look

bad. so -- it is certainly not going to be great over the next two years but when we do take the scaffolding back down, the quality of materials that are used in today's construction processes are much better than they were 50 years ago, the epoxies and polyurethanes -- we will get more than 50 years out of this restoration than we did out of the previous one. yes ma'am? >> do you have the name of the contractor? >> that contractor is turner- smoot, a joint venture between two construction companies. >> what is the status of the funding? have all the monies been appropriated? >> yes, the money has been approved and it is in hand. >> can you talk more about the process of repairing the cracks? you talked about drilling out a

damaged area and putting in a pin in the pin would be made out of what material? >> it is steel. i will use a piece of an example. as an example, for a crack like this, there are a series of drill holes. the entire length is drilled out but it is drilled and tapped in a very specific order. you may start here and here and here and here and then you go through a successive series of pin insertions. in the end, the entire length of this crack has a series of pins that create a stitch. these pins are then ground down, smooth but the surface, and then there is a series of locks that go perpendicular to the stitch this way. they are drilled out and

embedded into both sides of the cast iron, ground down, and epoxied and polyurethaned. >> was the contract put out for bid? >> yes, we advertise our contracts on federal business opportunities website and multiple contractors bid on the job. >> number two, what risk are you seed your plan? nothing is perfect but what are you most worried about? >> when you scaffold such a large building, to me, it is the scaffolding system that is probably the riskiest part of this. secondly, a few of the things we learned on the construction of the first phase of this, the skirt phase, is that the

timeliness about which you have to go about this repair technique -- what i mean by that is after you take all of the paint and primer off the dome, the cast iron of this generation flash rusts in eight hours. the timeliness of the application is important. we have to have those processes down very well so that we don't have to double do work. >> what about the scaffolding gives you mild concerns? >> the fact that it is a massive scaffolding project, i think -- getting that scaffolding here, lifting it up to the roof of the dome, and then getting it installed and taken back down is just a massive logistical effort. that is probably one of the biggest risks on the job. >> when they did the reflecting pool in the mall, they used

fairly exotic technology to keep the algae out and later we saw algae forming. is there any exotic techniques that you will try here that are not tested? >> know, there are no exotic techniques we're using. we tested many, many repair techniques over the course of nearly 10 years to help advise us and test a wide variety of repair techniques. some of those were fairly exotic. some of those were fairly benign. we ultimately found this lock and stitches the most reliable way to fix the cracks in the dome in situ. >> getting back to the scaffolding, out of curiosity, you said the scaffolding is a monumental project. at any point, did you consult

with them in terms of the best way? this is in terms of preservation and preserving the visitor experience. >> we aren't certainly great -- we are certainly great partners with the park service and share our plans with them. we did not consult pacific lake on the construction -- we did not consult specifically on the construction of the capitol dome of the park service but we certainly looked at several other partners, companies and local municipalities, that have done similar work. similarly, after we finished the dome skirt, there have been other dome restoration projects that have consulted us on the repair techniques of our dome. it is certainly a collaborative process. can we get one more? >> you mentioned 1200 cracks in there now and it could allow water damage. has there been any water damage inside the capital? does the two-year timeline include the scaffolding until spring 2016?

>> it does include the planning that is underway. we expect two years from beginning to end from contract award to contract completion. it does include that. >> the water damage? >> there certainly is water damage in the capital today. many of those water leaks you see from cracks, we managed those by capturing that water through a series of water pans inside the exterior dome and shoot that water back out or take it to the ground. we have been working to manage it over the years. some of it does continue to come in. you can see that both in the interstitial spaces between the inner dome and the outer dome and the rotunda itself. if you look closely, you can see water damage and water staining. thank you, everybody.

>> thank you all for coming. that concludes this portion of the presentation. please feel free to come and take photos and all the information and videos are available online. thank you.

c-span's year in review, the events that led the president and some in congress to push for changes in the nation's gun laws. we will show you highlights from the senate debate on background checks and congressional arizonay from former representative, gabrielle giffords. that's tonight at 8:00 eastern. and tonight, first lady's influence and image series looks at mimi eisenhower trade limited with her interaction in the media, she gained notoriety for her bangs that made her the best dressed -- major tops on the best dressed list. an article said she is a career woman. .er career is ike

that's tonight on "first ladies" at 9:00 eastern. friday morning on "washington journal" -- a look at president obama's legislative priorities for 2014. we will also look at the transformation of special forces units. we will be joined by linda robinson from the rand corporation. and we discuss america's spending habits and how they have evolved since the recession. washington journal errors at 7 a.m. eastern every morning here 7:00 a.m.-- errors at eastern every morning here on c- span. >> what is the most im