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WASHINGTON -- Willow Blossom had looked forward to stepping inside the Library of Congress. Kenzie Wendel wanted to see Ford’s Theatre. Another eighth-grader from Fort Recovery Middle School dreamed of walking through the Smithsonian museums. Instead, on a crisp October day this week in the nation’s capital, they found themselves standing outside locked doors, their carefully planned field trip upended by a government shutdown that has closed many of Washington’s most iconic attractions. Tour organizers turned to a congressman for help. Rep. Bob Latta, a Bowling Green Republican whose district includes their small Mercer County town, stepped in to salvage what he could of the trip, providing a tour that most tourists never get to see For the 63 eighth-graders from the small Mercer County school, this wasn’t just any field trip. They had been planning it since they were seventh-graders in January and February. Some had sold laundry detergent door-to-door to grandparents, aunts, uncles and family friends to raise money for the journey. The trip is a four-decade tradition at Fort Recovery Middle School – so established that one of the parent chaperones, Susie McCain, had made the same journey as a student in 1989. With Congress deadlocked over a budget bill, the students found themselves caught in the political crossfire, unable to access the museums and monuments they had worked months to see. “I don’t understand why it is shut down,” Willow said, her disappointment evident even as she tried to stay upbeat about the rest of the trip. While regular Capitol tours had been canceled due to the shutdown, Latta was spending his week shuttling between his congressional duties and leading personal tours for school groups from Ohio’s 5th District who refused to let the political impasse ruin their trips entirely. “I’m so sorry you got locked out of some of those buildings, but I hope you had a good day,” Latta told the Fort Recovery students at the end of their tour. What Latta could offer them was something most tourists never get to see: the actual floor of the House of Representatives. On Tuesday afternoon, he led the group through the Capitol’s marble corridors, into the ornate chamber where laws are debated and history is made. The students sat in the leather chairs where members of Congress sit. They saw Latta’s voting card and watched him demonstrate how representatives cast their votes electronically. “I think about you every time I use this card,” he said, segueing into his concerns about the national debt. He pointed out the chamber’s only two portraits – George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette – explaining their significance to American democracy. For Susie McCain, whose daughter Quinn was on the trip, the personal interaction made all the difference. “This was very special for us,” she said, clearly moved that Latta had taken an hour and a half out of his schedule to provide such detailed attention. Parental chaperone Alexis Gahret, who had accompanied the trip the previous year as well, said Latta’s tour surpassed the Capitol’s regular guided tours. “We are getting more of an inside story,” she said. The congressman escorted the group through the Rotunda, Statuary Hall and the old Senate chamber, weaving together stories of the building’s construction, the War of 1812, and the Civil War. He explained how tobacco leaves adorn the tops of columns throughout the Capitol – a nod to America’s early cash crop – and how the massive dome weighing 8.9 million pounds was completed in 1863 because Abraham Lincoln insisted it would “symbolize our nation coming back together.” Students weren’t allowed to bring phones, hats or any electronic equipment onto the House floor, so they absorbed the experience without the distraction of devices, their attention focused on the history surrounding them. Still, the shutdown’s impact loomed over the week. The Fort Recovery group had arrived Monday and planned to stay through Friday. They’d managed to visit the Flight 93 memorial in Pennsylvania and walk the grounds outside, though they couldn’t go inside. They were still hopeful about getting to Arlington National Cemetery for a wreath-laying ceremony that Quinn McCain said she was especially looking forward to. The Holocaust Museum might open for them as well. But the Smithsonian museums remained closed. Ford’s Theatre was inaccessible. They wouldn’t get to see the Declaration of Independence. So much of what they’d anticipated seeing was off-limits. Teachers Jessica Jutte and Lisa Huelsman, who teach seventh and sixth grade respectively at Fort Recovery Middle School, said the students were adapting. When Jutte first heard about the government shutdown, she felt the same anxiety as the students and parents. “This trip is an experience that students look forward to each year and has been ongoing in our district and many other Mercer County school districts for many years,” she said. “So it’s a big deal.” When public Capitol tours were canceled, she says the school’s tour company reached out to Latta to secure the private tour. “This was an amazing opportunity for our students, and we are greatly appreciative of his time and willingness to step up,” Jutte said. She noted that living in a small town meant community members could network and advocate for the students, helping to “reprieve some of the disappointment of missing out on some other stops in the trip.” “A lot of what we were intending is still going to happen, just in different formats,” Huelsman explained. The shutdown meant more time for outdoor activities and walking tours rather than museum exhibits. The shutdown began when Congress failed to pass legislation funding government operations. Federal employees have been furloughed. TSA agents and air traffic controllers deemed essential must work without pay. SNAP benefits are set to run out Nov. 1. And tourist attractions across the capital have gone dark. Back in Ohio’s 5th District, which stretches across rural northwest Ohio, Latta said constituents are beginning to feel the pinch. He’d visited seven hospitals the previous Friday and Monday, where administrators worried about the fate of $50 billion for rural hospitals that was part of the stopgap funding bill that Congress has failed to pass. In an interview, Latta said the shutdown’s impact varies by location. In areas without many federal workers, people aren’t feeling it yet. But benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children will soon become an issue. While his district doesn’t have any military bases, he said service members who hail from his district may not receive paychecks. “How are they going to feed their family?” Latta asked. “How are they going to put gas in the car, pay the electric bill, pay the gas, pay the food bills?” Latta and other House Republicans approved a spending bill that now is stalled in the Senate. Democrats are blocking the Republican government funding bill primarily because it did not include an extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits set to expire at the end of 2025. Without an extension, an estimated 22 million Americans could face significant health insurance premium increases. “Democrats are ready to pass a bipartisan budget that funds health care and lowers costs for families, but Republicans have refused to even come to the table,” U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown, a Warrensville Heights Democrat, said at a town hall meeting last week. She observed that House Speaker Mike Johnson has canceled votes for more than a month to avoid negotiating. Latta noted that the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union representing 800,000 workers, has called for passing a spending bill to reopen the government. After the tour concluded, students lined up to take individual photos with Latta. He offered to visit their school if they’d like. It’s a tradition he inherited – his father, Delbert L. Latta, represented Ohio’s 5th Congressional District from 1959 to 1989. Bob Latta has served since 2007. As Willow Blossom left the Capitol building, stepping back into the October afternoon, she reflected on what she had seen. The marble halls, the soaring Rotunda, the House floor where democracy unfolds. “It looked nice inside,” she said. “He explained things pretty well.”
