The US Capitol is hard to navigate. Does it have to be?

Nina Heller, CQ-Roll Call on Dec 11, 2025

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WASHINGTON — To the unfamiliar, the U.S. Capitol and its surrounding office buildings are a maze of fluorescent lighting, identical hallways and unmarked tunnels. Even experienced staff and lawmakers sometimes get lost.

But that could start to change next year, if some House members get their way. Wayfinding tools could offer turn-by-turn directions, according to a new proposal from the House Administration Modernization and Innovation Subcommittee.

“It’ll be sort of like a Google Maps, where it will take you through the Capitol, and that’s going to be great for folks that have never been,” said Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., who chairs the subcommittee.

Digital signage would be installed at nine public entrances in the Longworth, Rayburn and Cannon Buildings, complete with daily committee schedules and member office listings. Funding for the project would come from the existing Modernization Initiatives Account, if the House Appropriations Committee approves the request.

Supporters say the project could help a range of people get where they want to go, from constituents visiting their representatives to lobbyists arriving for meetings. And even some members of Congress said they’d welcome any navigation help they could get.

“There’s so many different hallways and buildings,” said Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., who came to the Hill in this year’s freshman class. “I think it takes personal effort, which sometimes can be difficult when you’re immediately kind of thrown into working 14-hour days and learning the ropes of Congress.”

‘Fortress mentality’

Mapping out the Capitol can be a sensitive subject, thanks to a tug-of-war between security fears and accessibility to the public.

While visitors to the Capitol building are limited to tours and official business, the public can roam unescorted in the surrounding office buildings after passing through a security screening. That keeps lawmakers accountable to the people, advocates argue.

The House doesn’t currently offer detailed maps of the office buildings on its public websites, which means turned-around visitors are largely on their own, left to ask for directions or retrace their steps.

Bice said the subcommittee is working with the House sergeant-at-arms to address any security concerns over the wayfinding proposal.

“We plan on having something that’ll be geofenced, so when you leave the building it actually won’t be accessible any longer,” she said.

Elliot Carter has seen first-hand how maps can offer valuable insights while also sparking fear. He created the website Washington Tunnels after spending time giving tours during a Hill internship and becoming interested in history, architecture and infrastructure.

He described a “chilling effect” on wayfinding in the nation’s capital after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. “Now it’s more of a close hold, like, ‘We don’t talk about that kind of thing.’”

His website includes maps of various pipe systems and tunnels in Washington, D.C., including tunnels from the Capitol building, some of which he found by perusing materials held by the Library of Congress.

Days before the Jan. 6 mob assault on the Capitol in 2021, Carter saw an increase in traffic driven by links shared on anonymous message boards and online forums related to militias, firearms or Donald Trump. He emailed the FBI about the spike, and his tip is mentioned in a June 2021 joint report from the Senate Rules and Administration and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees.

The way Carter sees it, balancing security needs and accessibility is never easy but should evolve with the times.

“Since Jan. 6, security really has been the primary overriding consideration a lot of the time. And it may have gone overboard and created a fortress mentality or a bunker mentality,” he said.

He, for one, wants to return to the “feeling that these are buildings that really did belong to the American people — that they were acceptable places to drop in without a purpose and wander and see public architecture that’s being paid for with our tax dollars or witness the gears of government.”

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