Some of the most guarded conversations in Washington take place inside spy-proof vaults known as Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities (that’s SCIF for short – pronounced “skiff.”) These hardened boxes are built to demanding specifications that require dedicated electrical, communications and data systems, and rapid response security details. The walls are lined with acoustic attenuation technology to hamper the collection of audio intelligence.

“Very loud sounds within the SCIF, such as loud singing, brass music, or a radio at full volume, can be heard with the human ear faintly or not at all outside of the SCIF.” –SCIF technical specifications

SCIFs range in size from single rooms to entire floors (as is the case on the seventh floor of the State Department). Some of them look like bank vaults and others could pass for an ordinary government office. Top secret security clearances are mandatory for admission, and everybody –lawmakers and generals included- surrender their electronic devices at the door.

There are numerous SCIFs on Capitol Hill for the congressional committees that oversee the military and intelligence community. Before 9/11 many of these meetings took place in an out of the way office on the attic level of the Capitol. The Capitol Visitor Center, completed in 2008, added larger underground SCIFs for both the House and Senate.

Rep. Peter King described one of these spaces as "just like any other room, but it takes a weight lifter to open the front door. It's similar to the Situation Room in the White House.”

"SCIF size has become a measure of status in Top Secret America, or at least in the Washington region of it. 'In D.C., everyone talks SCIF, SCIF, SCIF,' said Bruce Paquin, who moved to Florida from the Washington region several years ago to start a SCIF construction business. 'They've got the penis envy thing going. You can't be a big boy unless you're a three-letter agency and you have a big SCIF.' – The Washington Post’s Top Secret America Investigation