House International Relations Chairman Henry J. Hyde called Tuesday for "an overwhelming response" of military force to the acts of terrorism committed against the United States. 

"The response ought to equal the seriousness of the crime, and it's about as serious a crime against humanity as you can get," said Hyde, a Wood Dale Republican and 27-year congressional veteran. 

Briefed after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon by a deputy secretary of state, Hyde said of Tuesday's tragedy, "This was the worst single act of terrorism in recorded history." His solemn comments were echoed by several members of the suburban congressional delegation, who, like the rest of the nation, spent much of Tuesday trying to make sense of the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. 

Most of them did so away from their congressional offices, as Capitol police asked members of Congress to vacate their offices along with other federal buildings. 

Freshman Congressman Mark Kirk had perhaps the closest contact with the attacks. 

If Kirk of Wilmette had waited for just 10 more minutes to leave the Pentagon Tuesday morning, the Toyota he drives would have been hit by debris from the hijacked airplane that crashed into the nation's defense headquarters. 

Kirk and seven other congressmen had just finished meeting over bagels with Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld to discuss a 15 percent cut in Pentagon staffing when he heard the news. 

"You could see a big plume of smoke" over the Pentagon, said Kirk, who used to work inside the building gathering military intelligence while he was an officer in the Naval Reserves. "You could see the F-16s circling over Andrews Air Force Base in case any other planes were not responding to commands." 

Kirk said Congress needs to quickly act to provide the resources needed to the CIA and FBI to hunt down the terrorists responsible and to bolster intelligence-gathering efforts to avoid another tragedy. 

U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Evanston suggested government officials should investigate whether airplane cockpits need increased security. Schakowsky also said it "was very disturbing to watch pictures of people in Palestine cheering the attacks." 

Other lawmakers compared the attacks to Pearl Harbor, with both of Illinois' senators echoing the enduring quote from that day. 

"September 11, 2001, is another day that will live in infamy," Sen. Dick Durbin, a Springfield Democrat, said in a statement. 

Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, an Inverness Republican said, "This is a time that will demonstrate again the resilience of the American people. We will pray for our dead and our wounded and then we will rally as a country." 

In Springfield, the state Capitol was closed and the 4,000 people who work in the complex were asked to evacuate as a security precaution. Gov. George Ryan said the Capitol would reopen today and condemned the attacks as "cowardly attempts to break the will of the American people." 

"They failed," he said. "The spirit of the American people and of democracy is strong. It cannot break."