WASHINGTON -- Snake, serpent and vermin are just some of the names that have been thrown around to describe the players on Capitol Hill from time to time. But Friday, there was no mistaking the reptilian scales of an actual python making its way through Congress.

Pandora, a 15-foot Burmese python, was already dead and gutted by the time she arrived as the star attraction of a Congressional hearing. The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security heard testimony from several Floridians, including Miami Representative and Senate hopeful Kendrick Meek (D-17th District), hoping to make it illegal to buy or sell several types of pythons.

"This issue for Florida is huge," Meek said. "We have thousands upon thousands of pythons that have been released in the Florida Everglades."

Experts said pythons remain a large problem throughout Florida's ecosystem when they're kept as pets, then released into the wild when they grow too big. In June, a 2-year old Sumter County girl was strangled to death when an 8-foot pet python crawled into her crib.

"They have no predators," Florida Congressman Tom Rooney (R-16th) told Channel 9 outside the hearing. "So they're out there just reeking havoc. There's nothing but humans that can stop them."

And while Pandora was put back in her box, this is an issue that will remain a hot topic in Florida and Washington, D.C.

"When you have one python that's taken down four Florida alligators, the natural habitat, ecosystem in Florida," Meek explained. "I think it's important to take strong consideration looking at this legislation."