Politics | Senate Have You Seen Senator Udall's Stapler? Freshman lawmakers get stuck in shabby basement office space By Gabriel Winant Posted Mar 17, 2009 8:34 AM CDT Copied Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, talks to Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, as he returns to his office by the Senate subway, November 19, 2008 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images) The Senate is one of the most august bodies in the world, and it has the facilities to match. But its mahogany desks aren’t too familiar to 13 new senators, whose offices are temporarily in the basement—with the cockroaches. NPR follows freshman Sen. Tom Udall to his office—through a couple of plastic curtains, just past the woodworking shop, night superintendent’s office, and the upholstery and linen cleaning divisions. "This a step up here?" jokes Udall, a former member of the House. "You gotta be kidding me! This is like a hazing!" But the fluorescent-lit, windowless setup, which will end once the former senators move out of the ritzy offices, has its pluses. “It builds esprit de corps,” says Udall. Read These Next Iraq's national game of deception brings out the best bluffers. See the best BBQ cities in the US. A space capsule carrying ashes of 160 people crashed in the ocean. A Texas man's disappearance is fodder for true-crime mania. Report an error