A congressman from sunny California is fighting for the right of all Americans to cruise down a Hill in below-freezing temperatures.
Democratic California Rep. Sam Farr has authored a provision that would allow sledding on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol when it snows. Farr’s bill advanced through the House Committee on Appropriations on Thursday. A statement released by Farr’s office said that the bill doesn’t lift the ban, but instead “instructs the Capitol Police when they encounter sledders to ignore enforcement of certain rules governing public use of the Capitol grounds.”
Currently, Capitol Traffic Regulation 16.5.20 states that “no person shall coast or slide a sled within Capitol Grounds.” Whether or not people are allowed to sit immobile on a sled is unclear.
“Sometimes in Washington we get caught up in all the serious discussions that go on in this town that we forget what it’s like to have little fun,” Farr said. “It only snows a handful of days here, so let’s give the community a chance to get together and have some fun sledding at the Capitol.”
Earlier this year, D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton wrote to the chairman of the Capitol Police Board, asking him to overturn the ban on sledding, but to no avail. That didn’t keep D.C.-area residents from staging a “sled-in” on the Capitol grounds when snow fell in March. No one was arrested during that playful act of civil disobedience.
The sledding ban — which has been in place for almost 140 years — was lifted for a weekend in 2010 at the request of then-Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Connecticut.
