Rayburn House Office Building
The Rayburn House Office Building (RHOB) is a congressional office building for the U.S. House of Representatives in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C., between South Capitol Street and First Street.
Rayburn House Office Building
Completed
United States
February 1965
Marble
2,395,914 square feet (222,587.7 m2)
Rayburn is named after former speaker of the House Sam Rayburn. It was completed in 1965 and at 2.375 million square feet (220,644 m2) is the largest congressional office building.
History[edit]
Rayburn was completed in early 1965 and is home to the offices of 169 representatives.
Earlier efforts to provide space for the House of Representatives had included the construction of the Cannon House Office Building and the Longworth House Office Building. In March 1955, House speaker Sam Rayburn introduced an amendment for a third House office building, although no site had been identified, no architectural study had been done, and no plans prepared.
The area west of the Longworth Building on squares 635 and 636 was chosen, with the main entrance on Independence Avenue and garage and pedestrian entrances on South Capitol Street, C Street, and First Street Southwest. The cornerstone was laid in May 1962, and full occupancy began in February 1965.
FBI raid[edit]
On May 20, 2006 FBI agents raided the Rayburn Building office of Democratic Congressman William J. Jefferson in connection to an ongoing bribery investigation, marking the first time the FBI had raided the office of a sitting congressman.[4] The raid led to members of both parties questioning the constitutionality of the action,[5] and a subsequent hearing by the House Judiciary Committee.[6] The legality of the raid was challenged in court, where a federal appeals court ruled that the FBI had violated the Speech or Debate clause of the United States Constitution by allowing the executive branch to review materials that were part of the legislative process.[7]