being in D.C. and wanting to go sit in the visitors gallery in either of the chambers... and since I had entered the building on the Senate side and asked about it, they told me I needed to go to my Senator's office to get a free pass to go in there. At the time, Specter was the Senator and I was like um no... 
So walked all the way to the other side of the huge building to the House side and they told me where my Congressman's office was (at the time Bill Gray, who was the (D) Whip back then). Popped over there, got the pass, and got to sit and watch the House. IIRC, of all people who was speaking - Dan Rostenkowski.
Except it was late afternoon and they were apparently doing "Special Orders" speeches where they can go on and on reading their written remarks "into the record" to an empty chamber and the chamber is basically in recess at the end of the "Special Orders" period. So that is basically what was going on.
If they ARE in there like that, CSPAN does have to cover them.
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