[Senate Hearing 108-168]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2004
----------
THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2003
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met at 1:23 p.m., in room SD-124, Dirksen
Senate Office Building, Hon. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (chairman)
presiding.
Present: Senator Campbell.
U.S. SENATE
Office of the Secretary
STATEMENT OF EMILY J. REYNOLDS, SECRETARY OF THE SENATE
ACCOMPANIED BY:
MARY JONES, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE SENATE
DIANE SKVARLA, SENATE CURATOR
TIMOTHY S. WINEMAN, FINANCIAL CLERK OF THE SENATE
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR BEN NIGHTHORSE CAMPBELL
Senator Campbell. The subcommittee will be in session.
We have had a vote rescheduled two or three times. It was
supposed to be at 1:15. I understand it is postponed again now,
and I am not quite sure when we are going to have to go. But we
are going to get started a little bit early and hopefully
finish as much as we can. Senator Durbin was not sure if he was
going to get here or not. So we will go as far as we can.
We will first hear from Ms. Reynolds who is requesting
roughly $20 million for her operations. Then we will also hear
from the Architect of the Capitol a little bit later.
Ms. Reynolds' request for the Secretary of the Senate is a
decrease from the current year, something we obviously rarely
see, due to the one-time appropriation last year for the
Senate's financial management information system.
Ms. Reynolds, your operation has responsibility for
everything from Senate security to the Parliamentarian. We
welcome you. This is your first hearing before this
subcommittee. You certainly have a large deal on your plate not
the least of which is helping to oversee the Capitol Visitor
Center. We wish you well in your new task.
Following you, we will take testimony from Mr. Alan Hantman
on the Architect's fiscal year 2004 budget. The budget request
totals $513.9 million, with three major projects leading to the
increase: the purchase of the alternate computing facility; a
project to replace high-voltage switchgear in a number of
buildings; and the Capitol Building master plan design. Funding
is also requested to complete the West Refrigeration Plant
expansion.
There are a number of items in this budget we will have
some questions about, but I think what I am going to do is just
put the rest of my opening statement in for the record so we
can at least get started before we are called over there to
vote.
So, Emily, if you would like to go ahead. I appreciate your
being here.
[The statement follows:]
Prepared Statement of Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell
The Subcommittee will come to order. We meet this afternoon
to take testimony from the Secretary of the Senate, Emily
Reynolds, and the Architect of the Capitol, on the fiscal year
2004 budget requests. We welcome everyone here today.
We will hear first from Ms. Reynolds, who is requesting
roughly $20 million for her operations. This is actually a
decrease below the current year--something we rarely see around
here due to a one-time appropriation last year for the Senate's
Financial Management Information System.
Ms. Reynolds, your operation has responsibility for
everything from Senate Security to the Parliamentarian. We
welcome you to your first hearing before this Subcommittee. You
have a great deal on your plate--not the least of which is
helping to oversee the Capitol Visitor Center project for the
Majority Leader and the Capitol Preservation Commission, and we
wish you the best in your new role.
Following Ms. Reynolds, we will take testimony from Alan
Hantman on the Architect's fiscal year 2004 budget. The budget
request totals $513.9 million with 3 major projects leading to
the increase--the purchase of the alternate computing facility,
a project to replace high-voltage switchgear in a number of
buildings, and the Capitol Building Master Plan design. Funding
is also requested to complete the West Refrigeration Plant
expansion.
There are a number of items in your budget we have
questions with--such as whether we need to proceed with a
Capitol Building Master Plan at this time, whether there has
been sufficient plans for purchasing the alternate computing
facility, and whether there are projects we can put off pending
completion of the Capitol Visitor Center project and other
major ongoing projects around this campus.
Clearly we are interested in the status of the CVC, and
your efforts to improve the management of your agency and
follow-up on recommendations made by the General Accounting
Office in the last year.
I will turn to my ranking member, Senator Durbin, and then
Ms. Reynolds will proceed with her opening statement.
Ms. Reynolds. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is a pleasure to
be with you this afternoon.
As you know, we have a lengthy full statement prepared for
the record as well.
Senator Campbell. That will be included in the record.
Ms. Reynolds. Thank you.
But I would like to just give a brief overview this
afternoon. With me is Mary Jones, our very able Assistant
Secretary; Tim Wineman, who of course is a longtime fixture
here in the Senate, our Financial Clerk; and a number of our
very able department heads.
I would be remiss also, Mr. Chairman, if I did not thank my
predecessors in this job. As you know, I have been on the job
about 4 months now as the 31st Secretary of the Senate, and it
is a huge honor for me to serve in this capacity. Several of my
predecessors have been a huge help to me in navigating these
waters for the last few months, and I am very grateful for
their counsel.
BUDGET OVERVIEW
As you pointed out, our budget request this year is roughly
$20 million, and thanks to the very generous appropriation last
year on FMIS, that does take us to about a $4 million-plus
decrease in this year's budget.
The committee last year also appropriated $500,000 to us in
some nonrecurring costs that will enable us to make this year
some very badly needed, much needed technology upgrades. So
overall, out of that roughly $20 million, $18 million is our
salary cost. That will enable us to continue to attract and
retain the very best individuals possible for our myriad of
functions from the legislative to financial and our many
administrative services.
In addition, our operating budget will be about $1.7
million. That will not only enable us to meet the bottom line
needs of the Senate, the job that we perform every day, but
also will help us to provide for some new initiatives,
primarily for the curator and to continue to enhance our Senate
Web site, both for our Senate community and the general public.
MANDATED SYSTEMS
The two mandated systems that we have--and again, we have
mentioned FMIS, the $5 million that you all provided us last
year. On the financial management information side, our goal
ultimately is to move to a paperless voucher system and also
provide the Senate with the ability to prepare an auditable
consolidated financial statement. At all times, one of the
primary things we keep in mind for all of our offices here in
the Senate is to increase efficiency and accountability and
ease of use. So with those goals in mind, this year, with the
$5 million in multi-year funds, we will roll out approximately
seven either new releases or pilot projects within the FMIS
activity. So we are making substantial progress.
On the legislative information side, our second mandated
system that this committee, once again, has been very generous
in funding--and that was a $7 million no-year fund
appropriation some 2 years ago--the LIS augmentation project
will give us the ability, our entire Senate community over
time, to implement Extensible Markup Language, or XML, as the
data standard with which we will author and exchange all
documents among the Senate, House, the Government Printing
Office, and other legislative agencies. To date we are working
with what we call the pioneer group, a group within the Senate
Legislative Counsel's Office and our own enrolling clerks, in
implementing this transition to the LIS project. Ultimately we
will have documents that can be more easily shared, reused, and
repurposed. So this is a huge plus for our Senate community
overall over time.
We will begin to work, hopefully, even this summer with the
Appropriations Committee. We are coming to you all first to
work with you all on the LIS augmentation project in
determining what your requirements are going forward. As I
said, there will be more conversation about that here in the
coming weeks.
HIGHLIGHTS OF OFFICE OF SECRETARY
I certainly this afternoon, given our brief time together,
will not run through all 25 departments within the Office of
the Secretary, and there are many accomplishments over the
course of the last year. But I did want to just point out a few
highlights, and the other details are obviously in our
department reports.
CURATOR PROJECTS
The curator. For example, we have work underway on the
portraits of Senators Dole and Mitchell for our leadership
collection. In addition, we have underway and hope to install
and unveil next year the portraits of Senator Vandenberg and
Senator Robert Wagner in our Senate Reception Room.
One item that is coming this summer that we are
particularly excited about is a catalog of our U.S. Senate fine
arts collection, featuring the 160 items in our fine art
collection in the Senate. This will be a new resource for all
of us and something that is eagerly anticipated over the
summer.
The restoration of the Senate desks. That project continues
with 61 restored to date.
HISTORIAN'S OFFICE
In addition, from our historian's office, they have been
involved in a tremendous project that was released this week by
the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Our Historical
Office had the opportunity to help edit and annotate the 3,800
pages of the McCarthy executive hearings from 1953-54. So we
are particularly proud of that accomplishment. And in addition,
they will be working with our colleagues on the House side,
hopefully next year, for the first time since 1989, to reprint
and update the biographical directory of the U.S. Congress.
SENATE LIBRARY
Our Senate library, another outstanding resource for us
here in the Senate community. It is interesting to note, since
the library was moved to the Russell Building, unlike other
information centers across the country that are actually seeing
a downward trend in usage, our Senate library is seeing an
upward tick in usage. That includes about 10,000 walk-in visits
last year alone and a total of about 40,000 users over the
course of the last year. So it is a wonderful resource.
EDUCATION OF PAGES
I also just want to briefly mention, because this is one of
the joys of the Secretary's operation, and that is the
opportunity to educate our Senate pages. I had the chance
yesterday to go over yesterday morning, as the pages were
packing these wonderful care packages they have been putting
together for our troops. This is the third class that has taken
on this project, and watching them work for an hour yesterday
morning, putting everything from licorice to eye drops in these
great boxes to go overseas, and to see their enthusiasm for the
project that really our entire Senate community has responded
to was great fun.
CONTINUITY OF OPERATIONS PLANS
On a more serious note, one of the high priorities of our
office, of course, involves the continuity of operations
planning. Here is where we have a very dynamic relationship
with the Senate Sergeant at Arms. Our predecessors, Al Lenhardt
and Jeri Thomson, certainly set the standard for Bill Pickle
and me in terms of that cooperation, the collaboration between
our two offices with the COOP planning. And it is my hope,
obviously, that we will continue to meet that standard.
When it comes to continuity of operations, our staff meets
at least weekly, and in addition, there are numerous informal
conversations and meetings over the course of the weeks as
well. Each of our departments within the Secretary's office has
their own individual COOP plan, and in addition to that, we
will continue to work with the Sergeant at Arms, just like last
year, on a series of tabletop exercises that will culminate
hopefully later in the year in an overall mock session for the
Senate, just as one was staged last year.
We recognize obviously in the Secretary's Office that the
most important role we can play in COOP planning is to ensure
that the Senate can continue to carry out its legislative
responsibilities, its constitutional responsibilities. So that
is our primary goal in our COOP planning, and certainly
continuing the financial operations of the Senate is first and
foremost in our minds as well.
I would like to close just by saying that in the 4 months
that I have been in this job one of the great joys has been
working with a tremendous team of people, 232 employees in the
Secretary's Office, who are devoted to this institution, and
combined, they have a very impressive 2,221 years of service to
the United States Senate. I know they share our ultimate goal
and that is simply to continue to provide the best possible
legislative, financial, and administrative services to the
Senate.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I thank you for your time and I
welcome your questions.
[The statements follow:]
Prepared Statement of Emily J. Reynolds
Mr. Chairman, Senator Durbin and Members of the Subcommittee, thank
you for your invitation to present testimony in support of the budget
request of the Office of the Secretary of the Senate for fiscal year
2004.
Detailed information about the work of the 25 departments of the
Office of the Secretary is provided in the annual reports which follow.
I am pleased to provide this statement to highlight the achievements of
the Office and the outstanding work of our dedicated employees.
My statement includes: Presenting the Fiscal Year 2004 Budget
Request, Implementing Mandated Systems: Financial Management
Information System (FMIS) and Legislative Information System (LIS),
Capitol Visitor Center, Continuity of Operations Planning, and
Maintaining and Improving Current and Historic Legislative, Financial
and Administrative Services.
PRESENTING THE FISCAL YEAR 2004 BUDGET REQUEST
I am requesting a total fiscal year 2004 budget of $19,999,000
which is a $4,157,000 decrease from the fiscal year 2003 total budget
for the Office of the Secretary. Last year's budget included a five
million dollar multi-year appropriation for the Senate's Financial
Management Information System.
The fiscal year 2004 budget request in the amount of $19,999,000 is
comprised of $18,299,000 for salary costs and $1,700,000 for the
operating budget of the Office of the Secretary. The salary budget
represents an increase over the fiscal year 2003 budget request as a
result of (1) the costs associated with the annual Cost of Living
Adjustment in the amount of $687,000; and (2) an additional $533,000
for merit increases and other staffing. The operating budget represents
a decrease of the fiscal year 2003 budget request in the amount of
$377,000.
The net effect of my total budget request for fiscal year 2004 is
an increase of $156,000 plus funding for the annual Cost of Living
Adjustment.
Our request in the operating budget is a sound one, enabling us to
both meet our operating needs, and provide us with the opportunity for
new projects and initiatives. In that regard, we will use a portion of
our operating budget, for example, to professionally photograph all 100
restored Senate Chamber desks, both for historical documentation and
emergency preparedness plans. Estimated cost is approximately $35,000.
In addition, we hope to perform a finishes survey on the architectural
features within the Senate wing of the Capitol for better documentation
and historic interpretation. The first phase of this project, which
would include the public spaces in the Senate wing, is estimated at
$60,000.
In addition, there are several special exhibits and presentations
we would like to add to www.senate.gov in our continuing effort to
improve and enhance the Senate's website. These include an online
exhibit of the Senate's Issac Bassett collection, an online exhibit on
the Senate desks, the expansion of the Virtual Tour of the U.S.
Capitol, and converting exhibits prepared by the Curator (the political
cartoons of Puck, a 19th century satirical magazine and the drawings of
Lily Spandorf illustrating the filming of the motion picture ``Advise
and Consent'') to a format for posting. Approximate costs of these
projects for website enhancement is $76,000.
In reference to the salary budget, first and foremost, this request
will enable us to continue to attract and retain talented and dedicated
individuals to serve the needs of the U.S. Senate through our
legislative, financial and administrative offices. We are in the
process of completing a substantial internal compensation study for the
Office of the Secretary which will further document our ongoing
staffing requirements, appropriate levels of compensation, and
additional staffing needs.
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY APPORTIONMENT SCHEDULE
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AMOUNT BUDGET ESTIMATE
AVAILABLE --------------------------------
ITEM FISCAL YEAR
2003, PUBLIC FISCAL YEAR DIFFERENCE
LAW 108-7 2004
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENTAL OPERATING BUDGET:
EXECUTIVE OFFICE........................................... $397,800 $525,000 +$127,200
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES.................................... 1,422,900 1,100,000 (322,900)
LEGISLATIVE SERVICES....................................... 256,300 75,000 (181,300)
------------------------------------------------
TOTAL OPERATING BUDGET................................... 2,077,000 1,700,000 (377,000)
================================================
SENATE MANDATED PROJECTS: FINANCIAL MGMT. INFO. SYSTEMS MULTI- 5,000,000 .............. (5,000,000)
YEAR..........................................................
------------------------------------------------
TOTALS................................................... 7,077,000 1,700,000 (5,377,000)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IMPLEMENTING MANDATED SYSTEMS
Two systems critical to our operation are mandated by law, and I
would like to spend a few moments on each to highlight recent progress,
and to thank the committee for your ongoing support of both.
Financial Management Information System (FMIS)
The Financial Management Information System, or FMIS, is used by
approximately 100 Senate offices, 20 Committees and 20 Leadership and
support offices. As a result of a five year strategic plan devised by
the Disbursing Office, my predecessor recommended, and the
Appropriations Committee subsequently approved, a $5 million
appropriation for a multi-year program to upgrade and expand FMIS for
the Senate.
With these funds, the Disbursing Office is modernizing processes
and applications to meet the continued demand by our Senate offices for
efficiency, accountability and ease of use. Our goal is to move to a
paperless voucher system, improve the FMIS-Web system, and make payroll
and accounting system improvements. In addition, we are working
cooperatively with the Sergeant at Arms to meet the mandate to prepare
auditable financial statements for the Senate.
In fiscal year 2002, specific progress made on the FMIS project
included:
--Three Web FMIS releases, one of which changed the accounting for
travel and petty cash advances to be obligations of Senate
offices.
--Senate-wide implementation of the Senate Automated Vendor Inquiry
System, or SAVI, which enables Senate staff to check the status
of their reimbursements. In July 2002, Senate employees were
given the opportunity to receive all expense reimbursement
through direct deposit, and were informed of this change in a
Senate-wide mailing.
--For vouchers of $35 or less, a new document approval process was
instituted. The time required to pay such vouchers has been cut
considerably as the vouchers are routed directly to certifying
accounts payable specialists in Disbursing for review and
posting.
--The ability to produce auditable consolidated financial statements
is a primary objective of the Senate's Strategic Plan for
Financial Management. The Disbursing Office took a significant
step toward that objective by initiating a contract to develop
a draft or pro-forma Senate wide financial statement which
includes all supporting schedules and reports for fiscal year
2002. The required deliverables of this initiative were
completed in April 2002, and a number of corrective actions
necessary to meet our objectives were identified. As some of
these corrective actions impact the Sergeant at Arms Finance
Office, the Disbursing Office is working with them to develop
an implementation plan. For example, a Senate-wide
capitalization policy has been drafted and is currently under
review by both offices.
During fiscal year 2003, the following FMIS activities are planned:
--Implement a new Web FMIS release in April 2003 (completed) that
includes the functionality for:
--A pilot of online sanctioning of vouchers by the Rules Committee
staff. During this pilot, vouchers from all standing,
select, special and joint committees will be sanctioned
online;
--Senate-wide implementation of online Travel Expense Summary
Reports (ESR) for all Senate staff. Staff who travel are
now able to complete the required documentation for travel
expense reimbursement via a Web Site; and
--Senate-wide implementation of the Travel ESR-import feature in
Web FMIS. This function enables Office Managers and Chief
Clerks to create a travel voucher by ``importing'' data
from an online Travel ESR, thus eliminating duplicate data
entry.
--As requested by the Rules Committee, implement online sanctioning
of vouchers for all offices that prepare vouchers via Web FMIS
(e.g., Senators, Leadership offices).
--Generate a random sample of vouchers $35 or less for the Rules
Committee post payment audit.
--Implement a new release of online Travel ESR that will incorporate
suggestions made by pilot users.
--Implement a new release of the Senate Automated Vendor Inquiry
(SAVI) system that incorporates suggestions made by users.
--Conduct a pilot of direct deposit payments to vendors, without
online notification. This means that these vendors would be
paid by direct deposit but would not be able to look at deposit
information via the Senate Automated Vendor Inquiry (SAVI)
system, which would remain inside the Senate's firewall.
--Revise requirements for imaging of supporting documentation and
electronic signatures.
During fiscal year 2004 the following FMIS activities are planned:
--Implement new technology for Web FMIS, ``Thin Client,'' which will
provide a substantially streamlined architecture, upgrade the
technology used, provide simpler disaster recovery, and provide
the platform for imaging of supporting documentation and
electronic signatures. In general, we will re-write the Web
FMIS functions implemented in the early releases to eliminate
the use of Cold Fusion and Client/Server technology. When
completed, all components of Web FMIS will use Intranet
technology on a single platform, Web Sphere. This is a
substantial effort, and is planned in two phases:
--Phase I--(Winter 2004).--In this release we will implement a
roles-based security scheme enabling users to access
specific functions based on the activities they perform,
re-write the local list maintenance functions (used by
offices) and system administrative functions (used by DO)
to eliminate Cold Fusion, update the underlying technology
for Web FMIS reports, and archive data for lapsed fiscal
years so that users can still generate reports after the
data is archived from the general ledger.
--Phase II--(Summer 2004).--In this release we will re-write the
budget entry and document entry functions of Web FMIS to
eliminate the Client/Server technology. These are the
functions used most by Office Managers and Chief Clerks, so
this will be most visible to them.
--Begin using laser checks. This significantly simplifies our
disaster recovery activities.
--Implement a new release of the Senate Automated Vendor Inquiry
(SAVI) system that enables e-mail notification of payments to
staff and vendors.
A more detailed report on FMIS is included in the departmental
report of the Disbursing Office which follows.
Legislative Information System (LIS)
Our second mandated system, which this Committee has generously
supported, is the Legislative Information System, or LIS, which
provides Senators and staff with text of Senate and House legislative
documents from their desktop computers. In addition, LIS provides real-
time access to legislative amendments and the current status of new
legislation within 24 hours. LIS originates from the 1997 Legislative
Branch Appropriations Act, which also established a requirement for the
broadest possible exchange of information among legislative branch
agencies. This exchange process is now the focus of the LIS
Augmentation Project, or LISAP.
The overall objective of the LISAP is to implement the extensible
markup language, or XML, as the data standard to author and exchange
legislative documents among the Senate, House of Representatives, the
Government Printing Office and other legislative agencies. Two years
ago, the Appropriations Committee appropriated $7 million to the
Secretary for the LISAP, designed to carry out the Senate portion of
the December, 2000, directive given to both the Secretary and the Clerk
of the House by the Senate Rules Committee and the House Administration
Committee respectively. Thus far, we have spent approximately $3
million of our appropriation, and I am pleased to report that
considerable progress has been made and the project is on budget and
running smoothly.
The project is currently focused on Senate-wide implementation and
transition to a standard system for the authoring and exchange of
legislative documents, including an XML authoring system for the Office
of Senate Legislative Counsel (SLC) and the Enrolling Clerk for bills,
resolutions and amendments. A database of documents in XML format and
an improved exchange program will mean quicker and better access to
legislative information and will provide documents that are more easily
shared, reused and repurposed.
The LISAP project team has demonstrated the Senate's legislative
editing XML application (LEXA) for the Office of Legislative Counsel
where it was greeted with enthusiasm. Over the next several months, the
LISAP project team will continue to refine and enhance this editing
application, release a document management system for the Senate
Legislative Counsel, and complete the data conversion projects. The
team will also develop and deliver a training program for the SLC, and
begin to address the needs of other Senate offices and Committees,
starting with the Appropriations Committee.
A more detailed report on LIS follows the departmental reports.
CAPITOL VISITOR CENTER
While the Architect of the Capitol directly oversees this massive
and impressive project, I would like to briefly mention the ongoing
involvement of the Secretary's office in this endeavor. My colleague,
the Clerk of the House, and I continue to facilitate weekly meetings
with senior staff of the joint leadership of Congress to address and
hopefully quickly resolve issues that might impact the status of the
project or the operations of Congress in general.
In addition, I also facilitate weekly meetings with the Architect's
office for the senior staff of the Senate Sergeant at Arms, Capitol
Police, Rules Committee and Appropriations Committee, to address the
expansion space plans for the Senate and any issues with regard to the
CVC's construction that may directly impact Senate operations.
Although the construction creates numerous temporary inconveniences
to Senators, staff and visitors, completion of the Capitol Visitor
Center will bring substantial improvements in enhanced security and
visitor amenities, and its education benefits will be tremendous.
CONTINUITY OF OPERATIONS PLANNING
The Office of the Secretary maintains a Continuity of Operations
(COOP) program to ensure that the Senate can fulfill its Constitutional
obligations under any circumstances. Plans are in place to support
Senate floor operations both on and off Capitol Hill, and to permit
each of the 25 departments within the Office of the Secretary to
perform its essential functions during and following an emergency.
COOP planning in the Office of the Secretary has been an ongoing
process since late 2000. Working in close cooperation with the Sergeant
at Arms and the General Services Administration, employees in each
department were trained to evaluate COOP requirements and subsequently
write COOP plans specific to their departments. By the summer of 2001,
each department had completed the first draft of a COOP plan, which
included the identification of records, databases, equipment and
supplies necessary to conduct essential functions, and plans to
duplicate and store essential items offsite or to provide for their
timely replacement. Information from all final departmental plans has
been integrated into an overall plan for the Office of the Secretary.
Several departments had completed their plans prior to the
terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the anthrax contamination
in the Hart Senate Office Building in October 2001. As a result, both
the Disbursing Office and the Office of Public Records, as well as
other departments located in Hart, were able to continue operations
throughout the 96 days that Hart was closed. Every payroll was met, all
bills were paid, and every filing deadline was met.
The implementation of COOP plans that fall provided valuable
experience in emergency management. Both the Secretary and the Sergeant
at Arms' operations continued to formulate plans to deal with the
possibility of subsequent emergencies. In the spring and summer of
2002, our offices participated in a series of tabletop drills and live
exercises to test and refine existing emergency preparedness plans.
Alert and notification procedures using emergency communications
systems were tested; Emergency Operations Centers and a Briefing Center
were activated in a trial run; and a mock Senate session was conducted
in an alternate Senate Chamber.
As a vital part of COOP planning, we have identified equipment,
supplies and other items critical to the conduct of essential
functions, and have assembled ``fly-away kits'' for the Senate Chamber,
and for each department of the Office of the Secretary. Multiple copies
of each fly-away kit have been produced with storage in both our
offices and at appropriate off-site locations. This will enable the
Office of the Secretary to resume essential operations within twelve
hours or less.
In the event of an emergency, the Office of the Secretary is
prepared to do the following: activate an Emergency Operations Center
within one hour, support Briefing Center operations within one hour,
support Senate Floor operations in an alternate Senate Chamber (within
twelve hours onsite and within 24 to 72 hours offsite, depending upon
location).
Working with Leadership offices, the Sergeant at Arms, and the
Capitol Police, we continue to refine COOP and emergency management
plans. All COOP plans are reviewed and updated at least annually to
ensure their continued viability. A second series of tabletop drills is
planned for this year to culminate in another mock exercise of the
activation of an alternate Senate Chamber.
The central mission of the Office of the Secretary is to provide
the legislative, financial and administrative support required for the
conduct of Senate business. Our COOP and emergency preparedness
programs are necessary to ensure that the Senate can carry out its
Constitutional duties under any set of circumstances.
MAINTAINING AND IMPROVING CURRENT AND HISTORIC LEGISLATIVE, FINANCIAL
AND ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
LEGISLATIVE OFFICES
The Legislative Department of the Office of the Secretary of the
Senate provides the support essential to Senators in carrying out their
daily chamber activities and, most importantly, to carry out the
Constitutional responsibilities of the Senate. The department consists
of eight offices: Bill Clerk, Captioning Services, Daily Digest,
Enrolling Clerk, Executive Clerk, Journal Clerk, Legislative Clerk, and
the Official Reporters of Debates. The Legislative Clerk is the overall
supervisor, providing a single line of communication to the Assistant
Secretary and Secretary, and is responsible for coordination,
supervision, scheduling and cross-training between the eight offices.
In addition, the Parliamentarian's operation also works in close
coordination with the Legislative Department.
Each of the eight offices within the Legislative Department is
supervised by experienced veterans of the Secretary's office. The
average length of service of legislative supervisors in the Office of
the Secretary of the Senate is nineteen years. The experience of these
senior professional staff is a great asset for the Senate. In order to
ensure continued well-rounded expertise, the legislative team has
cross-trained extensively among their specialities.
1. BILL CLERK
The Office of the Bill Clerk collects and records data on the
legislative activity of the Senate, which becomes the historical record
of official Senate business. The Bill Clerk's Office keeps this
information in its handwritten files and ledgers and also enters it
into the Senate's automated retrieval system so that it is available to
all House and Senate offices via the Legislative Information System
(LIS). The Bill Clerk records actions of the Senate with regard to
bills, reports, amendments, co-sponsors, public law numbers, and
recorded votes. The Bill Clerk is responsible for preparing for print
all measures introduced, received, submitted, and reported in the
Senate. The Bill Clerk also assigns numbers to all Senate bills and
resolutions. All the information received in this office comes directly
from the Senate floor in written form within moments of the action
involved, so the Bill Clerk's Office is a timely and accurate source of
legislative information.
The Bill Clerk's Office continues to provide to Senate offices and
the public information on Senate legislative status with a high degree
of accuracy and speed, both through the Senate LIS system and over the
telephone. The information provided is the most quickly available and
the most accurate information on Senate legislative activity available
to staff.
Here is a final cumulative summary of the 107th and the 106th
Congresses:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
107th 106th
Congress Congress
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Senate Bills.................................. 3,181 3,287
Senate Joint Resolutions...................... 53 56
Senate Concurrent Resolutions................. 160 162
Senate Resolutions............................ 368 393
Amendments Submitted.......................... 4,984 4,367
House Bills................................... 562 697
House Joint Resolutions....................... 29 46
House Concurrent Resolutions.................. 175 151
Measures Reported............................. 653 765
Written Reports............................... 351 513
-------------------------
Total Legislation....................... 10,516 10,437
=========================
Roll Call Votes............................... 633 672
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current Projects
Amendment Tracking System.--In the fall of 2001, Rules Committee
staff approached our office with the task of scanning submitted
amendments onto the Amendment Tracking System on LIS. The Rules
Committee has identified a need for Senate staff to have all amendments
submitted in the Senate made available to them online shortly after
being submitted, especially during cloture. The Rules Committee also
requested that the Secretary, through the Bill Clerk, assess the
feasibility of lifting the page limitation for scanning amendments onto
the ATS Indexer. In response, the Bill Clerk contacted the Technology
Development division of the Sergeant-at-Arms office to outline the
technical requirements needed to implement such a request; a draft has
been completed. Once the final version is delivered, the Secretary,
through the Bill Clerk, and in consultation with the Legislative Clerk,
will ascertain the legislative requirements needed in order for the
staff to implement this request. The system must be designed and
implemented without sacrificing critical services to the functioning of
the Senate Chamber, specifically the amendment process.
Electrical Ledger System.--Shortly after the September 2001 attacks
and the subsequent anthrax attacks in the Capitol complex, the Bill
Clerks identified the need to have a electronic version of the official
Senate ledgers in order to ensure the integrity of the information
recorded in the ledgers. The electronic version will be portable for
use during possible emergency scenarios. The Technology Development
division of the Sergeant at Arms is working to develop two separate
functions of this electronic ledger system. One is an electronic data
entry system which will mimic the layout of the current Senate ledgers
printed by the Government Printing Office; the other is a search
function. Both of these programs will be housed on a separate server to
maintain the integrity of the ledger data. The electronic ledger system
is currently under development.
2. CAPTIONING SERVICES
Since 1991, the Office of Captioning Services has provided real-
time captioning of Senate Floor proceedings for the deaf and hard-of-
hearing along with unofficial electronic transcripts of those
proceedings to Senate offices via the Senate Intranet. The primary
focus of the Office of Captioning Services is caption accuracy.
Selected on-air turns are printed and reviewed to constantly monitor
quality and consistency.
Technology Update
The Senate Recording Studio continues to refine a system that
captures our caption data stream, time stamps the captions and stores
them in a searchable database. This database contains links to the
corresponding audio files which can be listened to over the Senate
Intranet in Senate offices.
During 2002, all available real-time captioning technologies were
evaluated for the purpose of replacing our existing outdated
technology. As a result, all captioning hardware and software will be
replaced in 2003, using monies appropriated in fiscal year 2003 for
this purpose.
Voice writing (voice recognition) technologies are improving and
the Office of Captioning Services is on the cutting edge of testing and
evaluating these products as they evolve.
Current Projects
There are two main objectives for the Office of Captioning Services
in 2003. The first is to replace existing DOS-based steno-captioning
technology with Windows-based steno-captioning technology. Second, we
will continue to work out the details of a proposed pilot project to
caption hearings for the Judiciary Committee.
3. DAILY DIGEST
The Daily Digest section of the Congressional Record provides a
concise accounting of all official actions taken by the Senate on a
particular day. All Senate hearings and business meetings (including
joint meetings and conferences) are scheduled through the Daily Digest
office and published in the Congressional Record.
Chamber Activity
During the second session of the 107th Congress, the Senate was in
session a total of 149 days, for a total of 1,043 hours and 23 minutes.
There were 253 recorded votes. (For additional details, a Comparison of
Senate Legislative Activity follows).
CHART ONE: YEARLY COMPARISON OF THE SENATE LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITIES
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Senate Convened....................... 1/3 1/23 1/3 1/3 1/5 1/25 1/4 1/3 1/3 1/27 1/6 1/24 1/3 1/23
Senate Adjourned...................... 11/21 10/28 1/3/92 10/9 11/26 12/01 1/3/96 10/4 11/13 10/21 11/19 12/15 12/20 11/20
Days in Session....................... 136 138 158 129 153 138 211 132 153 143 162 141 173 149
Hours in Session...................... 1,00319" 1,25014" 1,20044" 1,09109" 1,26941" 1,24333" 1,83910" l,03645" 1,09307" 1,09505" 1,18357" 1,01751" 1,23615" 1,04323"
Average Hours per Day................. 7.4 9.1 7.6 8.5 8.3 9.0 8.7 7.8 7.1 7.7 7.3 7.2 7.1 7.0
Total Measures Passed................. 605 716 626 651 473 465 346 476 386 506 549 696 425 523
Roll Call Votes....................... 312 326 280 270 395 329 613 306 298 314 374 298 380 253
Quorum Calls.......................... 11 3 3 5 2 6 3 2 6 4 7 6 3 2
Public Laws........................... 240 244 243 347 210 255 88 245 153 241 170 410 136 195
Treaties Ratified..................... 9 15 15 32 20 8 10 28 15 53 13 39 3 17
Nominations Confirmed................. 45,585 42,493 45,369 30,619 38,676 37,446 40,535 33,176 25,576 20,302 22,468 22,512 25,091 23,633
Average Voting Attendance............. 98.0 97.47 97.16 95.4 97.6 97.02 98.07 98.22 98.68 97.47 98.02 96.99 98.29 96.36
Sessions Convened Before 12 Noon..... 95 116 126 112 128 120 184 113 115 109 118 107 140 119
Sessions Convened at 12 Noon......... 14 4 9 6 9 2 15 12 31 17 25 10 12 4
Sessions Convened after 12 Noon...... 27 17 23 10 15 17 12 7 7 2 19 24 21 23
Sessions Continued after 6 p.m........ 88 100 102 91 100 100 158 88 96 93 113 94 108 103
Sessions Continued after 12 Midnight.. 9 13 6 4 9 7 3 1 ......... ......... ......... ......... 2 3
Saturday Sessions..................... 1 3 2 2 2 3 5 1 1 1 3 1 3 .........
Sunday Sessions....................... ......... 2 ......... ......... ......... ......... 3 ......... 1 ......... ......... 1 ......... .........
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prepared by the Senate Daily Digest--Office of the Secretary.
Committee Activity
Senate committees held a total of 961 meetings in the first session
of the 107th Congress, and 888 meetings in the second session.
4. ENROLLING CLERK
The Enrolling Clerk prepares, proofreads, corrects, and prints all
Senate passed legislation prior to its transmittal to the House of
Representatives, the National Archives, the Secretary of State, the
United States Claims Court, and the White House.
During 2002, 43 enrolled bills (transmitted to the President) and
10 concurrent resolutions (transmitted to Archives) were prepared,
printed, proofread, corrected, and printed on parchment.
A total of 526 additional pieces of legislation in one form or
another, was passed or agreed to by the Senate, requiring processing
from this office.
Efforts continue on both sides of the Capitol to generate, process,
manage and share data on a more uniform basis. XyWrite is the software
editor currently utilized by House and Senate Enrolling Clerks, House
and Senate Legislative Counsels, and the Government Printing Office.
Ultimately both Chambers will generate data using an Extensible Markup
Language (XML) editor acceptable to all involved.
5. EXECUTIVE CLERK
The Executive Clerk prepares an accurate record of actions taken by
the Senate during executive sessions (proceedings on nominations and
treaties) which is published as the Executive Journal at the end of
each session of Congress. The Executive Clerk also prepares daily the
Executive Calendar as well as all nomination and treaty resolutions for
transmittal to the President. Additionally, the Executive Clerk's
office processes all executive communications, Presidential messages
and petitions and memorials.
Nominations
During the second session of the 107th Congress, there were 1,010
nomination messages sent to the Senate by the President, transmitting
23,045 nominations to positions requiring Senate confirmation and 10
messages withdrawing nominations previously sent to the Senate during
the 107th Congress. Of the total nominations transmitted, 463 were for
civilian positions other than lists in the Foreign Service, Coast
Guard, NOAA, and Public Health Service. In addition, there were 1,565
nominees in the ``civilian list'' categories named above. Military
nominations received this session totaled 21,017 (5,813--Air Force;
6,182--Army; 6,044--Navy; and 2,978--Marine Corps).
In total, the Senate confirmed 23,633 nominations this session.
Pursuant to the provisions of paragraph six of Senate Rule XXXI, 193
nominations were returned to the President during the second session of
the 107th Congress.
Treaties
There were 18 treaties transmitted to the Senate by the President
during the second session of the 107th Congress for its advice and
consent to ratification, which were ordered printed as treaty documents
for the use of the Senate (Treaty Doc. 107-3 through 107-21).
The Senate gave its advice and consent to 17 treaties with various
conditions, declarations, understandings and provisos to the
resolutions of advice and consent to ratification.
Executive Reports and Roll Call Votes
There were 12 executive reports relating to treaties ordered
printed for the use of the Senate during the second session of the
107th Congress (Executive Report 107-4 through 107-15). The Senate
conducted 42 roll call votes in executive session, all on or in
relation to nominations.
Executive Communications
For the second session of the 107th Congress, 4,854 executive
communications, 143 petitions and memorials and 60 Presidential
messages were received and processed.
6. JOURNAL CLERK
The Journal Clerk takes notes of the daily legislative proceedings
of the Senate in the ``Minute Book'' and prepares a history of bills
and resolutions for the printed Senate Journal as required by Article
I, Section V of the Constitution. The Senate Journal is published each
calendar year.
The Journal staff take 90 minute turns at the rostrum in the Senate
Chamber, noting by hand for inclusion in the Minute Book (i) all orders
(entered into by the Senate through unanimous consent agreements), (ii)
legislative messages received from the President, (iii) messages from
the House of Representatives, (iv) legislative actions as taken by the
Senate (including motions made by Senators, points of order raised, and
roll call votes taken), (v) amendments submitted and proposed for
consideration, (vi) bills and joint resolutions introduced, and (vii)
concurrent and Senate resolutions as submitted. These notes of the
proceedings are then compiled in electronic form for eventual
publication of the Journal, usually at the end of each calendar year.
In 2002, the Journal Clerk completed the production of the 1,022-
page 2001 Senate Journal. The 903-page 2002 Journal was sent to the
Government Printing Office for printing on March 19, 2003.
7. LEGISLATIVE CLERK
The Legislative Clerk sits at the Secretary's desk in the Senate
Chamber and reads aloud bills, amendments, the Senate Journal,
Presidential messages, and other such materials when so directed by the
Presiding Officer of the Senate. The Legislative Clerk calls the roll
of members to establish the presence of a quorum and to record and
tally all yea and nay votes. This office prepares the Senate Calendar
of Business, published each day that the Senate is in session, and
prepares additional publications relating to Senate class membership
and committee and subcommittee assignments. The Legislative Clerk
maintains the official copy of all measures pending before the Senate
and must incorporate into those measures any amendments that are agreed
to. This office retains custody of official messages received from the
House of Representatives and conference reports awaiting action by the
Senate. This office is responsible for verifying the accuracy of
information entered into the LIS system by the various offices of the
Secretary.
Additionally the Legislative Clerk acts as supervisor for the
Legislative Department providing a single line of communication to the
Assistant Secretary and Secretary, and is responsible for overall
coordination, supervision, scheduling, and cross training.
Summary of Activity
The second session of the 108th Congress completed its legislative
business and adjourned sine die on Wednesday, November 20, 2002. During
2002, the Senate was in session 149 days, over 1,043 hours and
conducted 253 roll call votes. There were 653 measures reported from
committees, 523 total measures passed, and there were 311 items
remaining on the Calendar at the time of adjournment. In addition,
there were 2,287 amendments processed.
8. OFFICIAL REPORTERS OF DEBATES
The Official Reporters of Debates prepare and edit for publication
in the Congressional Record a substantially verbatim report of the
proceedings of the Senate, and serve as liaison for all Senate
personnel on matters relating to the content of the Record. The
transcript of proceedings, submitted statements and legislation are
transmitted in hard copy and electronically throughout the day to the
Government Printing Office.
9. PARLIAMENTARIAN
The Parliamentarian's Office performs extensive legislative duties.
These include advising the Chair, Senators and staff, as well as
committee staff, House members and staff, administration officials, the
media and members of the general public, on all matters requiring an
interpretation of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the precedents of
the Senate, unanimous consent agreements, as well as provisions of
public law affecting the proceedings of the Senate. The
Parliamentarians work closely with the staff of the Vice President of
the United States and the Vice President himself whenever he performs
his duties as president of the Senate. The Parliamentarians monitor all
proceedings on the floor of the Senate, advise the Presiding Officer on
the competing rights of the Senators on the floor, and advise all
Senators as to what is appropriate in debate. The Parliamentarians keep
track of the amendments offered to the legislation pending on the
Senate floor, and monitor them for points of order. In this respect,
the Parliamentarians reviewed both more than 1,000 amendments during
2002 to determine if they met various procedural requirements and
thousands of pages of conference reports to determine what provisions
could appropriately be included.
The Office of the Parliamentarian is responsible for the referral
to the appropriate committees of all legislation introduced in the
Senate, all legislation received from the House, as well as all
communications received from the executive branch, state and local
governments, and private citizens. In order to perform this
responsibility, the Parliamentarian conducts extensive legal and
legislative research. During 2002, the Parliamentarian and his
assistants referred 1,584 measures and 5,058 communications to the
appropriate Senate committees. The office works extensively with
Senators and their staffs to advise them of the jurisdictional
consequences of particular legislative drafts and evaluates the
jurisdictional effect of proposed modifications in drafting.
FINANCIAL OPERATIONS: DISBURSING OFFICE
DISBURSING OFFICE ORGANIZATION
The mission of the Senate Disbursing Office is to provide efficient
and effective central financial and human resource data management,
information and advice to the distributed, individually managed
offices, and to Members and employees of the United States Senate. To
accomplish this mission, the Senate Disbursing Office manages the
collection of information from the distributed accounting locations in
the Senate to formulate and consolidate the agency level budget,
disburse the payroll, pay the Senate's bills, prepare auditable
financial statements, and provide appropriate counseling and advice.
The Senate Disbursing Office collects information from Members and
employees that is necessary to maintain and administer the retirement,
health insurance, life insurance, and other central human resource
programs to provide responsive, personal attention to Members and
employees on a unbiased and confidential basis. The Senate Disbursing
Office also manages the distribution of central financial and human
resource information to the individual Member Offices, Committees, and
Administrative and Leadership offices in the Senate while maintaining
the appropriate control of information for the protection of individual
Members and Senate employees.
To support the mission of the Senate Disbursing Office, the
organization is structured in a manner that is intended to enhance its
ability to provide quality work, maintain a high level of customer
service, promote good internal controls, efficiency and teamwork, and
provide for the appropriate levels of supervision and management. The
long-term financial needs of the Senate are best served by an
organization staffed with highly trained professionals who possess a
high degree of institutional knowledge, sound judgement, and
interpersonal skills that reflect the unique nature of the United
States Senate.
DEPUTY FOR BENEFITS AND FINANCIAL SERVICES
The responsibility of this position is to serve as the Senate's
expert on Federal retirement and benefits, payroll and front office
processes. Coordination of the interaction between the Financial
Services, Employee Benefits and Payroll sections is a major
responsibility of the position. Planning and project management of new
computer systems and programs is also a primary responsibility.
Ensuring that job processes are efficient and up to date, modifying
computer support systems, implementing regulatory and legislated
changes, designing and producing up to date forms for use in all three
sections are additional areas of responsibility.
The first order of 2002 was to reestablish operations in the Hart
Building after being displaced for three months following the anthrax
incident.
Various work during the year included working with the Computer
Center to expand and change payroll programs, edits, and screens to
administer: New Offset-CSRS deductions (as well as extensive payroll
program modification), LWOP for Military Personnel, the Long Term Care
Program, new FEGLI age bands, and major changes in TSP processing for
new hires as well as new open TSP seasons.
In February, the office managed a project to renovate the Senate's
Personnel Folder Filing System. New automated, vertical storage filing
cabinets were installed. This project included electrical work, file
storage, cabinet removal, installation, archival and refiling,
transportation of cabinets and archived files to an offsite storage
facility, rebuilding of storage cabinets and reorganization of files.
In September, work on the scanning of the Senate's Official
Personnel & Office Folders began as part of our disaster planning. The
plans include scanning all payroll related documents for offsite
retrieval in the event of an emergency.
New mainframe operating system upgrades for O/S 390 were
implemented in December and a full set of payroll system tests were run
to ensure that they functioned properly.
Planning for new programs, which are due to be implemented this
calendar year, began for flexible spending accounts for child care and
medical expenses, as well as catch-up TSP payments for staff over age
50.
Also under the Deputy for Benefits and Financial Services is the
Student Loan Repayment Program, which was included in the fiscal year
2002 Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill. Implementation of the
Senate Program began April 1, 2002, with 25 Senate employees and 10
Senate offices participating. As of March 31, 2002, 816 Senate
employees and 113 Senate offices are participating.
The legislation establishing the Student Loan Repayment Program
gives each Senate employing office the authority to implement the
Program. In the educational sessions provided on the Program, the
twofold purposes of the law--retention and recruitment--are stressed.
FRONT COUNTER--ADMINISTRATIVE AND FINANCIAL SERVICES
The Front Counter is the main service area of all general Senate
business and financial activity. The Front Counter maintains the
Senate's internal accountability of funds used in daily operations.
Reconciliation of such funds is executed on a daily basis. The Front
Counter provides training to newly authorized payroll contacts along
with continuing guidance to all contacts in the execution of business
operations. It is the receiving point for most incoming expense
vouchers, payroll actions, and employee benefits related forms, and is
the initial verification point to ensure that paperwork received in the
Disbursing Office conforms to all applicable Senate rules, regulations,
and statutes. The Front Counter is the first line of service provided
to Members, Officers, and employees. All new Senate employees
(permanent and temporary) who will work in the Capitol Hill Senate
offices are administered the required oath of office and personnel
affidavit and provided verbal and written detailed information
regarding their pay and benefits. Authorization is certified to new and
state employees for issuance of their Senate I.D. card. Advances are
issued to Senate staff authorized for an advance for official Senate
travel. Cash and check advances are entered and reconciled in the Funds
Advance Tracking System (FATS). Repayment of travel advances is
executed after processing of certified expenses is complete. Travelers'
checks are available on a non-profit basis to assist the traveler.
Numerous inquiries are handled daily, ranging from pay, benefits,
taxes, voucher processing, reporting, laws, and Senate regulations, and
must always be answered accurately and fully to provide the highest
degree of customer service. Cash and checks received from Senate
entities as part of their daily business are handled through the front
counter and become part of the Senate's accountability of federally
appropriated funds and are then processed through the Senate's general
ledger system.
In sum, for 2002:
--The Front Counter issued approximately 2,700 cash advances for
official Senate travel.
--Received more than 19,200 checks from Senate entities.
--Administered oath and personnel affidavits to more than 3,200 new
Senate staff.
--Maintained brochures for 11 Federal health carriers and distributed
approximately 6,000 brochures to staff during the annual FEHB
open season and to new employees.
--Provided 38 training sessions to new Office Managers.
After a smooth transition back into the Hart Building, Front Office
operations continued to provide the Senate community with prompt,
courteous and informative advice regarding Front Office functions. A
reconstruction and audit of the Funds Advance Tracking System were
successfully completed. This was necessitated by the separate locations
of operations used during the Hart closing. The ramification of the
changes to the Thrift Saving Plan's (TSP) open season to employees was
emphasized this year. Results of the November elections prompted eleven
new offices that needed training in both Senator-elect regulations and
assistance in the transition into member status in 108th Congress.
PAYROLL SECTION
The Payroll Section maintains the Human Resources Management System
and is responsible for the following: processing, verifying, and
warehousing all payroll information submitted to the Disbursing Office
by Senators for their personal staff, by Chairmen for their committee
staff, and by other elected officials for their staff; issuing salary
payments to the above employees; maintaining the Automated Clearing
House (ACH) FEDLINE facilities for the normal transmittal of payroll
deposits to the Federal Reserve; distributing the appropriate payroll
expenditure and allowance reports to the individual offices; issuing
the proper withholding and agency contributions reports to the
Accounting Department; and transmitting the proper (TSP) information to
the National Finance Center (NFC), while maintaining earnings records
for distribution to the Social Security Administration, and maintaining
employees' taxable earnings records for W2 statements, prepared by this
section. The Payroll Section is also responsible for the payroll
expenditure data portion of the Report of the Secretary of the Senate.
Calendar Year 2002 started with the usual processing of TSP forms,
effective January 1, 2002. With the implementation of new TSP
regulations, the May 15-July 31, 2002 Open Season reflected a 60
percent increase in the number of TSP 1 forms submitted for processing.
The events of September 11, 2001 lingered on as the Payroll Section
reversed the Offsite operational process by moving all the paperwork
processed at the alternative location back to the Hart building
location. The work flow of completed transactions had to be sorted,
while storage and filing requirements were reviewed for necessary
changes. Systems like the ACH Fedline program had to be switched back
to Hart Building IT equipment. Alternative methods of receiving
correspondence from employees and other agencies had to be expanded in
order to receive printed data in a timely manner.
The onset of the Student Loan Program created new objectives for
the Section. It was first believed that all of the Financial
Institutions issuing student loans would be able to process the loan
payment via the ACH Fedline System. To the contrary, we found out that
only 20 percent of the loans could adequately be processed through the
Federal Reserve, and most of those payments also required a separate
listing to be faxed to the processing unit. The remaining 800+ payments
must be processed by individual checks and composite listings.
The NFC modified its regulations by allowing payroll deductions for
employees who have just begun Federal Service. New categories of
deductions were programed into the Payroll/Personnel System for the TSP
deduction classes not receiving agency contributions. As each form is
processed, the Payroll Specialist must further analyze the employee's
service history and determine if the employee is eligible for agency
contributions. The TSP also changed the open season periods by moving
them up one month.
Members of the Payroll Section worked with members of the Accounts
Payable Section to establish in-house procedures for processing voucher
payments directly to vendor and employee bank accounts. Procedures were
set up for transmitting payments, processing rejections and returns and
balancing accounts with the Accounting Section.
The final project of the year was the processing of both incoming
and outgoing offices under the jurisdiction of S. Res. 344 and 458.
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS SECTION
The primary responsibilities of the Employee Benefits Section (EBS)
are administration of health insurance, life insurance and all
retirement programs for Members and employees of the Senate. This
includes counseling, processing of paperwork, research, dissemination
of information and interpretation of benefits laws and regulations. In
addition, the sectional work includes research and verification of all
prior federal service and prior Senate service for new and returning
appointees. EBS provides this information for payroll input and once
Official Personnel Folders and Transcripts of Service are received,
verifies the accuracy of the information provided and reconciles as
necessary. Transcripts of Service including all official retirement and
benefits documentation are provided to other federal agencies when
Senate Members and staffers are hired elsewhere in the government. EBS
processes employment verifications for loans, the Bar Exam, the FBI,
OPM, and the Department of Defense, among others. Unemployment claim
forms are completed, and employees are counseled on their eligibility.
Department of Labor billings for unemployment compensation paid to
Senate employees are reviewed in EBS and submitted by voucher to the
Accounting Section for payment. Designations of Beneficiary for FEGLI,
CSRS, FERS, and unpaid compensation are filed and checked by EBS.
The year began with EBS still located in our temporary quarters at
Postal Square (PSQ) due to the continued closure of the Hart Building.
Upon our return to the Hart Building in late January, our initial
priorities were to locate and respond to anything that had remained
undone in the Hart Building and to perform those functions that could
not be completed from our displaced location. It was necessary to pack
up and move all the files, reports and documents from our stay in PSQ
and combine and coordinate them with our regular information in a
seamless fashion.
Based on the continued call to active duty of military reservists
and the passage late in 2001 of a Leave Without Pay (LWOP) status for
Senate employees, EBS worked to construct and develop LWOP procedures,
informational sheets and notices, tracking devices and computer
modifications to accommodate this new employment status. These
procedures were monitored and modified as needed throughout the year.
During 2002 the new Federal Long Term Care Insurance (LTCI) Program
was introduced and implemented government wide. EBS worked diligently
to become educated in all aspects of the program. This required
constant interaction with LTC Partners and OPM to establish and
implement procedures and coordination with the Senate Computer Center
to apply modifications and establish parameters for the implementation
of the program. Effective introduction of LTCI required extensive
notification to employees, which included several mail-outs, electronic
notifications and use of streaming video on Webster. In addition, we
hosted two seminars on the LTCI program.
Government-wide implementation of the Centralized Enrollment
Clearinghouse System (CLER) program for health insurance enrollment
reconciliation occurred in 2002. The program is still a work in process
and has required diligent efforts at detecting and eliminating errors.
In 2002, we began an upgrade to our file room. We had our outdated
file cabinets replaced by a new automated rotary filing system. The
installation required the removal and return of all employee personnel
folders, as well as the retirement to our offsite filing facility, of a
portion of the older files.
Based on the lessons learned during our displacement about what
could and could not be recovered and used offsite, we began to
aggressively investigate the development and implementation of a
document imaging system for use in electronically reproducing employee
personnel folders. Development with the Senate Computer Center is well
under way and the purchase of the hardware has been made with
implementation of the process scheduled this year.
While retirement case processing was about average for the year,
retirement planning and counseling were very heavy in the second half
of 2002 due to the impending retirement of 10 Senators and the death of
Senator Wellstone, and the dissolution of their staffs and the
potential changes to committee staffs. This resulted in the counseling
of hundreds of employees including extensive research and calculation
of Statements of Tentative Retirement Computations. Approximately 100
retirement cases were processed (including 9 death cases).
Seminars were held for outgoing Members' staffs, as well as
committees facing potential reorganization. Information disseminated
spanned retirement, TSP, health and life insurance, and unemployment
compensation. Full support was also provided to Senator Wellstone's
staff and his next of kin following his tragic death. Due to the large
post-election turnover, EBS also hosted a seminar with the D.C. Office
of Employment Services for outgoing staff who wished to apply for
unemployment compensation. This opportunity for staff was well
received.
During the annual FEHB Open Season, approximately 700 employees
changed plans. These changes were processed and reported in record
time. Once again, we hosted a FEHB Open Season Health Fair, attended by
about 650 employees. As an additional service, it was open to all other
federal employees on the Hill, including House, Capitol Police,
Architect of the Capitol and Senate Restaurant employees.
There were two TSP Open Seasons in 2002 during which employees
could change their rate of contribution. The number of changes was
higher during the end of year Open Season, as the allowable rates of
contribution increased. In addition, a change to the effective dates of
the TSP Open Seasons was implemented.
Much additional information and many downloadable forms were added
to the Disbursing Office Webster site, as well as the use of newer
video technologies and links.
In addition, EBS has been developing many computer-based forms and
calculators for use in providing benefits information and estimates.
Two detailed Power Point retirement seminars on CSRS and FERS were
developed and conducted for interested Senate staff. The seminars were
well attended and well received. Additionally, EBS staff regularly
provided a panel participant for the monthly New Staff Orientation
seminars and quarterly Senate Services Fairs held by the Office of
Education and Training.
Interagency meetings were attended on the implementation of the
Federal LTCI Program, CLER program, and continuing TSP program
enhancements.
There was a great deal of turnover and rehire in 2002, as employees
left staff to work on campaigns and then returned to the Senate after
the elections. This caused an increase in appointments to be researched
and processed, retirement records to be closed-out, termination
packages of benefits information to be compiled and mailed out, and
health insurance registrations to be processed. Transcripts of service
for employees going to other federal agencies, and other tasks
associated with employees changing jobs remained constant this year.
These required prior employment research and verification, new FEHB,
FEGLI, CSRS, FERS and TSP enrollments, and the associated requests for
backup verification.
Mortgage rates kept employment verifications coming in at a rapid
pace, averaging over 100 per month. Unemployment verifications remained
constant throughout the year with a notable spike in December.
Telephone inquiries, though not specifically tracked, continued at
record levels.
DISBURSING OFFICE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
Headed by the Deputy for Financial Management, the mission of the
Disbursing Office Financial Management (DOFM) is to coordinate all
central financial policies, procedures, and activities to produce an
auditable consolidated financial statement for the Senate and to
provide professional customer service, training and confidential
financial guidance to all Senate accounting locations. In addition, the
Financial Management group is responsible for the compilation of the
annual operating budget of the United States Senate for presentation to
the Committee on Appropriations as well as for the formulation,
presentation and execution of the budget for the Senate. The DOFM is
segmented into three functional departments: Accounting, Accounts
Payable, and Budget. The Deputy coordinates the activities of the three
functional departments, establishes central financial policies and
procedures, acts as the primary liaison to the HR Administrator, and
carries out the directives of the Financial Clerk of the Senate.
ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT
During fiscal year 2002, the Accounting Department approved nearly
129,000 expense reimbursement vouchers, processed 1,055 deposits for
items ranging from receipts received by the Senate operations, such as
the Stationery Room and the Senate Gift Shop, to canceled subscription
refunds from Member offices. General ledger maintenance also prompted
the entry of thousands of adjustment entries that include the entry of
all appropriation and allowance funding limitation transactions, all
accounting cycle closing entries, and all non-voucher reimbursement
transactions such as payroll adjustments, stop payment requests, travel
advances and repayments, and limited payability reimbursements.
In March of 2002, the Accounting Department completed the testing
of the student loans payroll interface and the set-up in FAMIS needed
for the tracking of the student loan balances. During January 2002, the
Accounting Department with assistance from our contractor, Bearing
Point, completed the 2001 year end process to close and reset revenue,
expense and budgetary general ledger accounts to zero and during July
2002, a rollover was performed to update in FAMIS' tables and create
the index codes needed to accommodate data for fiscal year 2003. During
the summer, the Deputy for Financial Management worked on the task
force headed by the Senate Gift Shop Director and the Assistant
Secretary of the Senate to procure and select a contractor to replace
the Gift Shop point-of-sale retail, inventory and accounting control
system. Solicitations and written proposals were reviewed and discussed
and a contractor was selected by the end of October.
The Accounting and Accounts Payable Department also assisted the IT
Department in the testing and implementation of the new travel advance
reporting. The new travel advance reporting became effective in
September 2002, and with this new process, started accounting for
travel advances as obligations.
The Accounting Department was able to test and implement the first
document purge process in Federal FAMIS. The testing was performed
during December and the production purge was done successfully last
month.
Financial Reporting Requirements--External
Monthly financial reporting requirements to the Department of the
Treasury include a Statement of Accountability that details all
increases and decreases to the accountability of the Secretary of the
Senate, such as checks issued during the month and deposits received,
as well as a detailed listing of cash on hand. Also reported to the
Department of the Treasury is the Statement of Transactions According
to Appropriations, Fund and Receipt Accounts that summarizes all
activity at the appropriation level of every penny disbursed by the
Secretary of the Senate through the Financial Clerk of the Senate. All
activity by appropriation account is reconciled with the Department of
the Treasury on a monthly and annual basis. The annual reconciliation
of the Treasury Combined Statement is also used in the reporting to the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as part of the submission of the
annual operating budget of the Senate.
Annually, the Accounting Department transmits all Federal tax
payments for Federal, Social Security, and Medicare taxes withheld from
payroll expenditures, as well as the Senate's matching contribution for
Social Security and Medicare to the Federal Reserve Bank. The
Department also performs quarterly reporting to the Internal Revenue
Service (IRS) and annual reporting and reconciliation to the IRS and
the Social Security Administration. Payments for employee withholdings
for state income taxes are reported and paid on a quarterly basis to
each state with applicable state income taxes withheld. Monthly
reconciliations are performed with the National Finance Center
regarding the employee withholdings and agency matching contributions
for the TSP. Monthly, all employee withholdings and agency
contributions for life and health insurance, and federal retirement
programs are transmitted to the Office of Personnel Management. Any
adjustment to employee contributions for any of the health, life, and
retirement plans from previous accounting periods are also processed by
the Accounting Department.
On a semiannual basis, the Accounting Department prepares necessary
reports and information to be included in the Report of the Secretary
of the Senate. All organizations and appropriation accounts reported
are validated 100 percent to the financial system. During 2002, no
major changes were incorporated to the Secretary's Report. The
Accounting Department is also working with our contractor, Bearing
Point, on several new reports that are expected to be completed before
the end of the fiscal year.
Financial Reporting Requirements--Internal
Monthly, the Accounting Department prepares and reviews ledger
statements to all Member offices and all other offices with payroll and
non-payroll expenditures. These ledger statements detail all of the
financial activity for the appropriate accounting period with regard to
official expenditures in detail and summary form. The reformatting of
the monthly ledgers was completed during April 2002 to comply with the
requirements of the Senate Offices.
In addition, to better assist Senate offices and to facilitate the
research of voucher payments within Disbursing Office, the Accounting
Department reviewed and completed requirements to implement four new
WEB inquiries. The new inquiries (payment number, document number,
service date and vendor payment) were tested and moved to production in
September 2002. The following month, the Disbursing Office financial
management staff was trained on how to use the new inquiries.
Pro-forma Financial Statements and Auditability Assessment
During 2001, the Disbursing Office initiated a contract with the
outside firm (KPMG Consulting) to develop the first U.S. Senate wide
pro-forma consolidating financial statements. This initiative was based
on the desire to adopt to the extent possible the financial reporting
requirements of the Government Management Reform Act of 1996 (GMRA),
the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act of 1990, and comply with the
Statements of Federal Financial Accounting Standards (SFFAS)
promulgated by the Federal Accounting Standard Advisory Board (FASAB).
The main objective of this contract is to develop the first pro-forma
financial statements of the United States Senate as required by OMB
Bulletin No. 01-09, ``Form and Content of Agency Financial
Statements.'' This project was kicked off in November 2001. The final
report and all required deliverables of the Senate wide financial
statements for fiscal year 2000 were completed in April 2002. Based on
the results of this exercise, suggestions for corrective actions were
given and the Disbursing Office is working in conjunction and with full
cooperation from the SAA Finance Division to establish a corrective
action plan and schedule, including a Senate-wide capitalization
policy. Another corrective action was the need to have written
accounting procedures for the Secretary's Revolving Funds. With the
assistance of the Deputy for Financial Management, all the Secretary's
revolving funds completed their written procedures by December 2002.
ACCOUNTS PAYABLE
Audit Department
One of the two sections under the Accounts Payable Department is
the Audit Section. The Accounts Payable Audit Department is responsible
for auditing vouchers and answering questions regarding voucher
preparation and the permissibility of the expense, providing advice and
recommendations on the discretionary use of funds by the various
accounting locations, identifying duplicate payments vouchered by
offices, monitoring payments related to contracts, training new Office
Managers and Chief Clerks about Senate financial practices, training
Office Managers in the use of the Senate's Financial Management
Information System, and assisting in the production of the Report of
the Secretary of the Senate. The Section also monitors the Fund Advance
Tracking System (FATS) to ensure that advances are charged correctly,
vouchers repaying such advances are entered, and balances adjusted for
reuse of the advance funds. An ``aging'' process is also performed to
ensure that advances are repaid in the time specified by the advance
travel regulations.
The Accounts Payable Audit Department, currently a group of eleven,
has the responsibility for the daily processing of expense claims
submitted by the 160 accounting locations of the Senate. During the
first months of the year, the Accounts Payable Audit Department had
some turnover and some new auditors were hired. The new audit staff has
been fully trained and during fiscal year 2002, the Department has
processed approximately 129,000 expense vouchers. The voucher
processing ranges in scope from providing interpretation of Senate
rules, regulations and statute, applying the same to expense claims,
monitoring of contracts and direct involvement with the Senate's
central vendor file. After relocating back to the Senate Hart Building
and once again being fully staffed, the Department was able to audit
vouchers within two days of receipt. On average, and as long as the
voucher did not have any issues or questions, vouchers were received,
audited, sanctioned by Rules and paid within the required directive of
10 business days.
During December 2002, the Chairman of the Committee on Rules and
Administration delegated the sanctioning authority of vouchers $35.00
or less to the Financial Clerk of the Senate. These vouchers are
sanctioned by the Certifying Accounts Payable Specialists and are
received, audited, and paid within 5 business days of receipt.
The Accounts Payable Audit Department provided training sessions in
the use of new systems, the process for generation of expense claims,
the permissibility of an expense, and participated with seminars
sponsored by Secretary of the Senate, Sergeant at Arms, and the Library
of Congress. The Section was trained 12 new Office Managers and Chief
Clerks and conducted 4 informational sessions for Senate staff through
seminars sponsored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
The Accounts Payable Department also assisted the IT Department in
the testing and implementation of the new travel advance reporting. The
new travel advance reporting became effective in September 2002 and
with this new process, travel advances are accounted for as
obligations. The Accounts Payable Audit Department has been fully
trained in the new travel advance system and in the use of the four new
WEB inquiries. Disbursing staff participated in the SAVI (Senate
Automated Vendor Information) system training to assist Senate staff
with any questions related to their reimbursements paid either by ACH
(Automated Clearing House) or by check.
Disbursements Department
The second department under the Accounts Payable Department is the
Disbursements Department. The Accounts Payable Disbursements Department
consists of four individuals whose primary responsibility is the
receipt of more than 129,000 individual expense vouchers and the
writing and delivery of the resulting 53,000 checks in payment thereof.
During the month of April, the Disbursing Office started making
payments to Senate staff via ACH (Automated Clearing House). From April
through December, the Department issued approximately 9,500 wire
transfers for expense reimbursements. The Department also took over and
currently maintains the Senate's central vendor file that includes the
addition of approximately 2,000 to 3,000 new vendors per year to an
existing vendor file of more than 30,000.
The Disbursement Department is responsible for researching returned
checks as vendors request additional information relating to payment
allocation. The department also prepares the forms required by the
Department of Treasury for stop payments. These stop payments result
from employees not receiving salary or expense reimbursements, and
vendors claiming non-receipt of expense checks.
This year, the group processed approximately 330 stop pays. During
the summer, a stop pay tracking table was created in Excel to better
track their status. The process of reissuing checks and/or subsequent
collection of erroneously issued checks also falls within the scope of
this department. On a semiannual basis, the staff here is also
responsible for filing, rotating and archiving all expense vouchers
processed and paid by the Disbursing Office.
Monthly, the Accounts Payable Disbursement Department assists the
Accounting Department in the preparation and distribution of the
monthly ledger statements for delivery to the 160 accounting locations
throughout the Senate. This includes the maintenance of a central file
of office contacts and the maintenance of a list of special
instructions for handling the distribution of the statements. The
ledger statements are produced, sorted, and ultimately delivered or
picked up according to the list of special instructions.
The Disbursements Department has been tasked to prepare the
quarterly State tax returns. The amounts are provided in spreadsheet
form and payment coupons are prepared for the 43 State jurisdictions.
The payment coupons are obtained from each jurisdiction either in
hardcopy format or on-line via the Internet. Vouchers are prepared from
the payment coupons and checks are generated from the vouchers. Once
the checks are written, letters of transmittal are prepared and mailed
to the appropriate State jurisdictions and the District of Columbia.
The Accounts Payable Disbursements Department also assisted the IT
Department in the testing and implementation of the new travel advance
reporting which became effective in September 2002. This Department
also has been fully trained in the new travel advance system and in the
use of the four new WEB inquiries. They also participated in the SAVI
(Senate Automated Vendor Information) system training to assist Senate
staff with any questions related to their reimbursements paid either by
ACH (Automated Clearing House) or by check.
Currently, the Accounts Payable Disbursements Supervisor is in the
process of training one newly hired staff person and implementing the
Department of Treasury--Financial Management Service (FMS) on-line stop
pay process called PACER. This PACER system provides on-line access to
digital images of negotiated checks for viewing and printing.
BUDGET DEPARTMENT
The third component of the Disbursing Office financial management
group is the Budget Department. The primary responsibility of the
Budget Department is to compile the annual operating budget of the
United States Senate for presentation to the Committee on
Appropriations. The Budget Department is responsible for the
preparation, issuance and distribution of the budget justification
worksheets (BJW). This year the budget justification worksheets were
mailed to the Senate accounting locations during January and responses
were received in the first week of February. This department is also
responsible for the formulation, presentation and execution of the
budget for the Senate and provides a wide range of analytical,
technical and advisory functions related to the budget process. The
Budget Department acts as budget officer for the Office of the
Secretary, assisting in the preparation of testimony for the hearings
before the Committee on Appropriations and the Committee on Rules and
Administration. The group is also responsible for reporting to the
Office of Management and Budget, via the MAX database, the budget
baseline estimates that were developed for fiscal year 2004.
DISBURSING OFFICE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM
The Disbursing Office Information Technology (IT) Department,
currently operating with a staff of four, provides both functional and
technical assistance for all Senate Financial Management activities.
Activities revolve around support of the Senate's Financial Management
Information System (FMIS) which is used by approximately 140 Senate
accounting locations (i.e., 100 Senator's offices, 20 Committees, 20
Leadership & Support offices, and the Disbursing Office).
Responsibilities include:
--Supporting current systems;
--Testing infrastructure changes;
--Managing and testing new system development;
--Planning;
--Administering the Disbursing Office's Local Area Network (LAN); and
--Coordinating the Disbursing Office's Disaster Recovery activities
and Continuation of Operations Plan (COOP).
The activities associated with each of these responsibilities are
described in more detail in the sections that follow. Work during 2002,
was supported by the Sergeant at Arms (SAA) Technology Services staff,
the Secretary's Information Technology staff, and contracts with
Bearing Point (formerly known as KPMG).
The SAA Technology Services staff is responsible for providing the
technical infrastructure, including hardware (mainframe and servers),
operating system software (mainframe and servers), database software,
and telecommunications; technical assistance for these components,
including migration management, and database administration; and
regular batch processing. Bearing Point is responsible, under the
contract with the SAA, for operational support, and under contract with
the Secretary, for application development. The DO is the ``business
owner'' of FMIS and is responsible for making the functional decisions
about FMIS. The three organizations work cooperatively.
Highlights of the year include:
--Implementation of three Web FMIS releases, one of these made Travel
and Petty Cash advances obligations of the office which
required substantial revisions to the accounting for advances
(March, July and September 2002);
--Articulation of a five year Disbursing Office Strategic Initiatives
plan, which formed the base for Secretary of the Senate's
request for $5 million in multi-year funds for further work on
the FMIS project (April 2002);
--Pilot and Senate-wide implementation of the Senate Automated Vendor
Inquiry system (SAVI), a Web site on which all Senate staff can
lookup the status of reimbursements (Pilot--Spring 2002;
Senate-wide availability--July 2002);
--Pilot of Web-ESR, a sub-system of SAVI that enables Senate staff to
create a travel expense summary form on-line and submit it
electronically to their office manager (Fall 2002);
--Implementation of a revised Office Information Authorization form
and scanning of this form. The new form combines three old
forms, which significantly simplifies the paperwork required by
the DO. Scanning the forms make them immediately available to
all DO staff which has improved our efficiency (October 2002);
--Implementation of a new document approval process for vouchers of
$35 or less. Under this, vouchers of $35 or less do not go to
the Committee on Rules and Administration for sanctioning, but
instead are routed to certifying Accounts Payable specialist
for review and posting to FAMIS. This has reduced the amount of
time required to pay a voucher (December 2002); and
--Implementation of Outlook as the DO's e-mail system (December
2002).
In the past four years many subsystems providing additional
functionality have been added. These subsystems are outlined in the
table on the following page.
SENATE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM
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Subsystem Functionality Source Primary Users Implementation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FAMIS (Mainframe)........... Financial general ledger................ Off the shelf federal system Disbursing Office............. October 1999
Vendor file purchased from Bearing Point.
Administrative functions
Security functions
ADPICS (Mainframe).......... Preparation of requisition, purchase Off the shelf federal system Sergeant at Arms.............. October 1999
order, voucher from purchase order, and purchased from Bearing Point. Disbursing Office
direct voucher documents. Secretary of the Senate
Electronic document review functions
Administrative functions
Checkwriter (Client-server). Prints checks and check registers....... Off the shelf state government Disbursing Office............. October 1999
system purchased from and
adapted to Senate's
requirements by Bearing Point.
Web FMIS (Client-server and Preparation of vouchers, travel Custom software developed All Senators offices.......... October 2000
intranet). advances, vouchers from advance under Senate contract by All Committee offices
documents, credit documents and simple Bearing Point. All Leadership & Support
commitment and obligation documents. offices
Entry of detailed budget Secretary of the Senate
Reporting functions (described below) Sergeant at Arms Disbursing
Electronic document submission and Office
review functions
Administrative functions
FATS (PC-based)............. Tracks travel advances and petty cash Developed by SAA Technology Disbursing Office............. Spring 1983
advances (available to Committees only). Services.
Tracks election cycle information
SAVI (Intranet)............. As currently implemented, provides self- Off the shelf system purchased Senate employees.............. Pilot--Spring
service access (via the Senate's from Bearing Point. 2002
intranet) to payment information for Senate-wide--
employees receiving reimbursements via July 2002
direct deposit.
Administrative functions
Web ESR (Intranet).......... A component of SAVI through which Senate Custom software developed Senate employees.............. April 2003
employees can create on-line Travel under contract by Bearing
Expense Summary Reports and submit them Point.
electronically to their Office Manager/
Chief Clerk for processing.
Secretary's Report Produces the Report of the Secretary of Custom software developed Disbursing Office............. Spring 2000
(Mainframe extracts, the Senate. under contract by Bearing
crystal reports, and client- Point.
server ``tool box'').
Ledger Statements (Mainframe Produces monthly reports from FAMIS that Developed by SAA Technology Disbursing Office Senate Winter 2000
database extracts, and are sent to all Senate ``accounting Services. Accounting Locations.
crystal reports). locations''.
Web FMIS Reports (mainframe Produces a large number of reports from Custom software developed Senate Accounting Locations... October 2000
database extracts, crystal Web FMIS, FAMIS and ADPICS data at under contract by Bearing
reports, client server, and summary and detailed levels. Data is Point.
Intranet). updated as an overnight process and can
be updated through an on-line process
by accounting locations.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Supporting Current Systems
The IT section supports FMIS users in all 140 accounting locations,
and the Disbursing Office Accounts Payable, Accounting, Disbursements
and Front Office Sections. The activities associated with this
responsibility include:
--User support--provide functional and technical support to all
Senate FMIS users; staffs the FMIS ``help desk''; answer
hundreds of phone calls a year; and meet with Office Managers
and Chief Clerks as requested;
--Technical problem resolution--ensure that technical problems are
resolved;
--Monitor system performance--check system availability and
statistics to identify system problems and coordinate
performance tuning activities for parallel load and database
access optimization;
--Training--provide functional training to all Senate FMIS users.
During 2002, the IT Department conducted 37 classes, seminars,
and demonstrations on Web FMIS. The class schedule is issued
quarterly and the classes offered were:
Introduction to Web FMIS--conducted eight times. This hands-on
class covers the basics of preparing, printing, and submitting
vouchers and travel vouchers, and managing your inbox. Also
covered are adding items to an office's lookup tables (e.g.,
vendor and expense category), using search to find records, and
what information goes in the Unique Invoice Number and Account
Number fields.
Web FMIS Budget & Reports Seminar--conducted eight times. This
demo-style seminar covers how to enter and change an office's
budget, and how different budgets show on an office's Summary
of Financial Status Report. Several budgets, from simple to
complex are discussed, based on the interests of the attendees.
Also discussed are the on-line reporting functions including
refreshing report data and exporting report data into another
application (e.g., Excel). In addition, we look in detail at
the Analysis by Vendor, Analysis by Expense Category, and
Analysis by Office Control Number Reports, at the Changed
Document Report, and other reports based on the interests of
the attendees.
Web FMIS Reconciliation Class--conducted five times. This hands-
on class covers how to reconcile an office's Web FMIS balance
with the DO's balance on a monthly basis.
Web FMIS Special Topics--conducted three times. Occasionally a
``special topics'' seminar covering different subjects is held.
Twice, in May and November, the seminar topic was how to use
commitments and obligations. This seminar is offered at the
points in the year when offices are most likely trying to
estimate expenses through the end of the fiscal year.
User Demos--In advance of each Web FMIS release, we demonstrate
at a Joint Office Manager Chief Clerks meeting, the new
functionality included in the release. In addition, we repeat
this demo for those unable to attend the meeting and conduct a
``hands-on'' class covering the same material for those who
prefer to ``do it'' rather than ``see it''. For Web FMIS
release 5, we presented this material four times; for release 6
we presented this material three times; and for release 7 only
a demo was offered. The release 7 demo also included a demo of
SAVI functionality.
DO Staff Training--During 2002 the DO staff received the same
training as Office Managers and Chief Clerks. For the DO staff,
the DO IT section conducted a Web FMIS release 5 class twice;
the Budgets & Reports seminar twice; and the Reconciliation
class once.
--Security--30 ADPICS, FAMIS and 80 Web FMIS users and other users as
requested by Senators and Chairmen, added, deleted, and changed
user rights for, as well as, maintaining the document approval
paths and creating new approved paths for vouchers less than
$35. One of the most important functions the DO IT staff
perform is maintaining user rights for all ADPICS, FAMIS, and
Web FMIS users.
--System Administration--design, test and make entries to tables that
are intrinsic to the system (i.e., preparation for change in
fiscal year, change in Senate organization tables or new
office, new accounting transaction codes, new approval path for
vouchers of $35 or less, 108th Congress); and
--Support of Accounting Activities--provide assistance in the cyclic
accounting system activities. During 2002, the following
activities were performed--Upload of files into FAMIS, Year End
rollover, SAVI Information Letter, and Ad hoc queries.
Infrastructure changes
The SAA provides the infrastructure on which FMIS operates,
including the mainframe, the database, security hardware and software,
the telecommunications network, and a hardware and software
installation crew and help-desk provider. During 2002, the following
components of this infrastructure were changed:
--Mainframe hardware and software--upgrade of the mainframe security
software (ACF/2), database (DB/2v7), and operating system
(OS390/2.10 [including CICS and CA/7 upgrades], OS Upgrade for
mainframe upgrade, and Mainframe Upgrade) required that the
Disbursing Office extensively test all FMIS subsystems both in
a testing environment and in the production environment which
in turn enabled installation of a new mainframe in December
2002;
--Printing online via ``Reveal''--installation of the ``Reveal''
software enables the DO staff to examine mainframe reports
online and eliminated daily printing of large reports; and
--Senate ``Helpdesk'' support vendor--the SAA contracted with a new
company, Signal/Veridian, to provide hardware and software
installation services for offices and to provide a
``helpdesk''. Met with representatives of the company to
demonstrate the Web FMIS application and answer questions about
system implementation.
Managing and testing new system development
During 2002, we supervised development, performed extensive
integration system testing and implemented changes to the following
FMIS subsystems: Web FMIS; Senate Vendor Information (SAVI); Web ESR;
and Checkwriter.
Web FMIS.--Three major releases of Web FMIS were done in 2002, and
one mini release was completed in 2002 but not implemented until the
beginning of January 2003, detailed requirements for a fourth were
completed, and general requirements for a fifth were begun. These are:
--Web FMIS r5--Implemented in March 2002.--This release included a
number of ease-of-use features in the document entry function
(e.g., automatic population of end date from start date) and in
the inbox functions, the ability to refresh report data on user
demand (i.e., instead of having to wait for the nightly batch
report cycle to run), the ability to unsubmit a document, and
the ability to void a document;
--Web FMIS r6--Implemented in July 2002.--This release included nine
new or revised reports, the most important of which are two
cross-FY summary reports that enable easy comparison of data
from up to four funding periods; a FY-independent research
function; and improvements in the status and history
information shown on each document;
--Web FMIS r7a--Implemented in September 2002.--This release included
six new or revised reports, the most important of which is the
Summary of Financial Status by Month; submitting travel advance
requests and treating advances as obligations of the office,
which required substantial changes to the accounting underlying
the travel advance and voucher from advance transactions;
introduction of a credit document to accompany repayments;
addition of equipment certification language which eliminates
stamping the invoice that the equipment is Senate-owned or
leased; and addition of disbursement type information (i.e.,
check or direct deposit) in the payment information field on
each document and in the vendor file;
--Web FMIS r7a for Windows XP--Implemented in January 2003.--This was
a technical release that made changes necessary for Web FMIS to
run on Windows XP PCs, which is the operating system that new
Senators' offices received. No new functionality was involved
in this release, but Bearing Point made technical changes to
the software which we tested;
--Web FMIS r7b--Implemented April 2003.--This release enables the
Rules Committee to review documents and perform sanctioning on-
line. During 2002, we met with Rules Committee Audit staff and
Bearing Point to complete requirements and detail design
discussions for this new functionality. Bearing Point completed
the programming for this functionality as well. Implementation
of this release was originally scheduled for December 2002, but
was postponed to April 2003, due to installation of a new
mainframe computer in November 2002, during the time that this
release was scheduled for testing. Due to the timing of this
release, it will also include technical changes to the
underlying mainframe software, WebSphere, from ``compliance
mode'' to ``compatibility mode,'' which is required before the
software can be upgraded to WebSphere release 4, currently
scheduled for June 2003, and will apply the changes required
for the Windows XP PC operating system to all supported PC
operating systems;
--Web FMIS r8--Release not currently scheduled.--During 2002, we
began requirements discussions on changing the underlying
security paradigm of Web FMIS. This would allow us to more
exactly control the user rights to different kinds of Web FMIS
users. Implementation was originally scheduled for April 2003,
but has been postponed due to the revised release 7b
implementation date;
--Senate Automated Vendor Inquiry (SAVI).--One of the Senate's goals
in implementing FMIS was reimbursing employee expenses and
paying vendors via direct deposit. We have been prepared to pay
via direct deposit for some time, however the benefit of doing
so was limited if a notice acknowledging payment still had to
be sent to the employee. In other words, if we have to send a
check stub-like notice via mail, why not just send the check
with check stub via mail? With the Spring 2002 pilot and then
the Senate-wide implementation of SAVI in July 2002, the Senate
resolved this issue and took a major step towards meeting the
direct deposit payment goal. SAVI, an intra-net enabled system,
allows Senate employees to inquire on the status of payments,
and provides the deposit information that would be on a check
stub.
Since this system is inside the Senate's firewall, it is
available only to Senate staff. As of July 2, 2002, all Senate
employees who receive their paycheck via direct deposit were
given an option to receive any expense reimbursements via
direct deposit. Implementing direct deposit reimbursements
required coordination with the Federal Reserve and the Senate
Credit Union. All Senate staff were notified of this change in
a Senate-wide mailing, and new staff are notified in a new
employee mailing. Provisions were made for Senate staff who
preferred to continue to receive check reimbursements and for
staff who wanted reimbursements to be deposited to an account
different from the account for their paychecks. Thus, staff
``opt-out'' if they don't want to receive reimbursements via
direct deposit. On the other hand, Senators have to ``opt-in''
if they want to receive reimbursements via direct deposit.
Two releases of SAVI were implemented in 2002. The first was used
by the pilot and for the July Senate-wide implementation. Based
on comments from the pilot, we also defined requirements for a
second release of SAVI that substantially improved the display
of payment information and provided more useful search
criteria. This was released in September 2002;
--Web ESR.--This system, a subsystem of SAVI, enables Senate staff to
complete an on-line Travel Expense Summary Report (ESR) and
submit it so that their office manager can ``import'' the data
and create a voucher, without retyping the ESR data. As of the
end of December 2002, it was in use by employees in 10 pilot
offices and was to be implemented in new Senators offices and
in offices with new office managers. Currently, this
application is Intra-net based, but its first implementation,
to a pilot group in the Spring of 2002, was as a client-server
application. The original application was well received, but
the pilot users requested enhancements that were difficult to
provide in a client-server application. We decided to re-write
the application and tie it to SAVI so that Senate staff could
use one system to create ESRs and to check the status of
reimbursements. In the Fall of 2002, the pilot offices gave us
additional feedback on Web ESR, and during 2002 we began
defining requirements for the next release of Web ESR.
Implemented with Web FMIS r7b in April 2003; and
--Checkwriter.--During 2002, we defined requirements for, tested and
implemented several new versions of the checkwriter software,
which enables printing U.S. Treasury Checks, and compiling the
direct deposit file transmitted to the Federal Reserve. We also
defined requirements for additional checkwriter releases that
will be implemented in 2003. In addition, we began
investigating alternatives for the checkwriter printer to find
one that provides more flexibility in the event of a disaster.
Planning
There are two main planning activities: schedule coordination--
planning and coordinating a rolling 12 month schedule; and strategic
planning--setting the priorities for further system enhancements.
Schedule Coordination.--While we were evacuated from the Hart
Building due to anthrax contamination, the DO staff worked at Postal
Square in the same space as the SAA and Bearing Point staff. This
enabled ad-hoc meetings and easy communication. When the DO staff
returned to the Hart Building in January 2002, we wanted to continue
the effectiveness of our co-location. Meetings with the DO, SAA and
Bearing Point staff have evolved into three types of meetings:
--Project specific meetings--a useful set of project specific working
meetings, each of which has a weekly set meeting time and meets
for the duration of the project (e.g., Document Purge meetings
and Web FMIS requirements meetings);
--Technical meeting--a weekly meeting among the DO staff (IT and
functional), SAA Technical Services staff, and Bearing Point to
discuss co-ordination among the active projects, including
scheduling activities and resolving issues; and
--``Project Office''--a monthly meeting among senior Senate staff
(e.g.,the Financial Clerk, Rules Committee staff), the Bearing
Point engagement partner, SAA technical and functional staff,
DO IT and functional staff, and Bearing Point staff to discuss
progress on each project.
Strategic Planning.--The FMIS strategic plan has a longer time
horizon than the rolling 12-month time frame of the technical meeting
schedule. It is designed to set the direction and priorities for
further enhancements. In 2002, a five year strategic plan was written
by the IT and Accounting staff for Disbursing Office Strategic
Initiatives. This detailed description of five strategic initiatives
formed the base for Secretary of the Senate Jeri Thomson's request for
$5 million in multi-year funds for further work on the FMIS project.
The five strategic initiatives are:
--Paperless Vouchers--Imaging of Supporting Documentation and
Electronic Signatures.--Beginning with a feasibility study and
a pilot, implement new technology, including imaging and
electronic signatures, that will reduce the Senate's dependence
on paper vouchers. This will enable continuation of voucher
processing operations from any location, should an emergency
again occur;
--Web FMIS--Requests from Accounting Locations.--Respond to requests
from the Senate's Accounting Locations for additional
functionality in Web FMIS;
--Payroll System--Requests from Accounting Locations.--Respond to
requests from the Senate's Accounting Locations for on-line
real time access to payroll data;
--Accounting Sub-system Integration.--Integrate Senate-specific
accounting systems, improve internal controls, and eliminate
errors caused by re-keying of data; and
--CFO Financial Statement Development.--Provide the Senate with the
capacity to produce auditable financial statements that will
obtain an unqualified opinion.
Administering the Disbursing Office's Local Area Network (LAN)
The DO administers its own Local Area Network (LAN), which is
separate from the LAN for the rest of the Secretary's Office. We
facilitated two major upgrades to our LAN during 2002, installation of
new PCs and migration of our e-mail to Outlook, completed several
projects for the Payroll and Employee Benefits sections, and installed
new software for the DO staff working on the Report of the Secretary of
the Senate.
--New PCs and Laptops.--In August 2002, the 50 DO staff received new
PCs with the Windows 2000 professional operating system. In
order for all PCs to be identical, it is our practice to create
a DO-specific PC template, which is used when the new PCs are
set up by the vendor. This enables testing of all applications
that the DO uses, including mainframe applications that are
used solely by the DO. Thus conflicts between the new operating
system and the applications we use can be identified and
resolved prior to installation of 50 PCs. The creation and
testing of the DO Windows 2000 professional workstations was
completed before the August 2002 installation date. Following
this, we co-ordinated the purchase, installation and testing
for replacement of the DO's ten laptops with laptops using the
Windows 2000 professional operating system;
--Outlook.--In December 2002, we migrated our e-mail system from
cc:Mail to Outlook. This upgrade required installation of a new
server, training for all the DO staff, and extensive work to
recreate office mailing lists;
--Projects for Payroll and Employee Benefits Sections.--We supported
activities of the Payroll and Employee Benefits sections with
four specific projects:
--Coordinated the development of a Payroll Imaging system to
electronically capture payroll documents turned in at the
DO front counter, including ordering all required system
components. This system is still being implemented;
--Installed the required software and worked with the SAA to
establish proper communication protocols to provide the
Employee Benefits section the ability to transmit employee
health plan information electronically to the National
Finance Center in order to participate in a new program
called Centralized Enrollment Clearinghouse System (CLER);
--Posted Overtime Schedules for different work weeks along with a
generic time sheet on the DO website. This eliminated
maintaining hard copies of the various work weeks at our
front counter;
--In October 2002, we implemented a revised permissions form, the
Office Information Authorization form, which combined three
old forms. This significantly simplified the paperwork that
offices are required to submit in order to add, delete or
change user rights for Web FMIS users. Additionally, these
forms are now scanned and therefore available to all DO
staff the same day that the document is received. This has
eliminated the need for a database of users and improved
efficiency; and
--Migrated the DO Fedline system from a DOT matrix printer to a
laser printer.
--Software for the Report of the Secretary of the Senate.--Several DO
staff review and edit data for the Report of the Secretary of
the Senate. This requires special software and dictionaries. We
performed the following on this software: Coordinated the
update and installation of the ``Toolbox'' software (provided
by Bearing Point) on the new PCs; reviewed existing spell check
dictionaries, and worked with Bearing Point to make the
required updates; and established procedures to ensure that
dictionaries are maintained after each reporting cycle.
Coordinating the Disbursing Office's Disaster Recovery Activities
The DO's disaster recovery activities include two related
activities:
--Disaster Recovery Testing--participating in the computer system
disaster recovery tests conducted by the SAA; and
--Coordinating the Continuation of Operations Plan (COOP)--the COOP
is the broader focused activity and addresses all aspects of DO
operations, not just computer operations.
Disaster Recovery Testing.--Since 1995, the SAA has contracted with
an offsite contractor for backup services in case of a disaster
affecting the Senate's main data center. The Senate's Payroll system
and FMIS are included in this recovery process. Since the contract's
inception, the Senate has tested its ability to restore systems and
perform normal activities at least once, and often twice a year.
Disbursing Office staff and SAA Procurement staff are active
participants in the planning and execution of these tests. For 2002 two
tests were planned: one in late February and one in the late fall. Only
one test, the February test, was actually held. In this test, the
mainframe subsystems of FMIS (i.e., ADPICS and FAMIS) were tested
successfully, but two critical subsystems, checkwriter and Web FMIS,
were not tested successfully. The checkwriter testing failed for the
second disaster recovery test in a row, and Web FMIS was not tested at
all. Both were scheduled to be included in the fall 2002 test, but that
test was cancelled because the contractor's computer was not running
the same version of the mainframe operating system, OS390 v2.10, which
the Senate implemented in August 2002. The tests were subsequently
rescheduled for February of 2003 and subsequently conducted with
favorable results.
Disaster Recovery Background.--Every night, data and software from
the Senate's mainframe computer systems are backed up to a magnetic
cartridge and taken to First Federal Corporation, which provides a
secure off-site facility. In the event of a disaster in the SAA
computing facilities at Postal Square, SAA technical staff would
immediately arrange to have the data, software, and appropriate
operating instructions forwarded from the off-site facility to one of
the contractor's data centers. Senate staff would travel to this
facility to oversee the restoration of all software and data on the
contractor's computer. By contract, restoration would be complete
within 24 hours and systems would then be available to users. Sungard's
facilities can currently support up to 48 concurrent Senate users.
Disaster Recovery of the Payroll System.--Several key components
are necessary for access to the payroll system after the restoration of
data at the contractor's facility is complete. At least one terminal
identification (term-ID) must be coded in the payroll system to allow
CICS access because the payroll application has an internal security
module that ties a user to a specific term-ID that controls user
access. Another key component is FTP software that allows the movement
of files from point to point.
Most payroll payments are made via Direct Deposit to the Federal
Reserve Bank using the Automated Clearing House (ACH). After the
payroll system is closed-out for the payroll period, the SAA
programmers provide an ACH data set which is transmitted to the Federal
Reserve Bank in Atlanta, Georgia, via a specially configured PC
containing an encryption board and a specialized modem. During our
evacuation from the Hart Building, the DO did not have access to the
Fedline PC. The DO entered into an open-ended agreement with the Senate
Federal Credit Union that allows the DO to transmit from their facility
in Alexandria, VA. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta must be notified
prior to any transmission changes, but this agreement gives us the
flexibility to transmit from an alternate access point in the event we
encounter transmission problems in the future.
Disaster Recovery for FMIS.--The DO has participated in disaster
recovery testing of mainframe FMIS facilities since the system was
implemented in October 1998. For the February 2002 test, DO and SAA
Procurement staff tested the various modules of the mainframe
application to ensure they were functioning correctly at the back-up
site. Using workstations connected to the Senate's fiber network as
well as laptop computers dialing into the offsite location, users have
tested various types of document preparation and posting to FAMIS. In
addition, batch report testing, and system inquiries into both the
procurement and financial modules were tested. Finally, various batch
processing tasks were tested to ensure that they perform as expected.
In the February 2002 testing, these tests were completed
satisfactorily.
Three components of FMIS, checkwriter, Web FMIS, and printing of
ADPICS purchase orders and vouchers, have not been tested
satisfactorily. Testing of the ``checkwriter'' process, which generates
checks in payment to vendors, failed in the February 2002 test because
communications between the check writing facilities in the Hart
Building and the contractor's data center could not be completed in the
testing time frame allowed under the Senate's contract. This was a
repeat of the problem experienced in the spring 2001, despite a longer
testing time frame for the February 2002 test.
No disaster recovery testing of Web FMIS was accomplished during
2002. Such testing required installation of additional hardware and
software at the contractor's facility. Testing of Web FMIS was
scheduled for the fall 2002 recovery testing, but did not happen due to
the cancellation of the fall 2002 disaster recovery test described
above.
Printing of ADPICS purchase orders and vouchers is not possible
with the current disaster recovery communications infrastructure of
``dial-up'' lines. Workaround facilities or a revised infrastructure
have not been finalized for this functionality. As a result, entities
that prepare ADPICS purchase orders and vouchers, primarily the
Secretary of the Senate and the SAA, would not be able to print these
documents in the event of a disaster. The proposed Alternate Computer
Facility would have more advanced infrastructure and thus such
documents would be able to be printed.
Coordinating COOP.--During the summer of 2001, the DO staff wrote a
Continuation of Operations Plan (COOP). This document addresses issues
beyond the scope of disaster recovery. The plan was activated on
October 21, 2001, when the DO staff were evacuated from the Hart
Building due to anthrax contamination, and deactivated in January 21,
2002, when we returned. Prior to our reoccupation of our Hart office
space, we tested all DO office systems to ensure that they were
operational and facilitated a review of our office space by a disaster
restoration specialist from an outside contractor. Additionally, we
participated in the planning and execution of the June 22, 2002 COOP
exercise.
ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES
1. CONSERVATION AND PRESERVATION
The Office of Conservation and Preservation develops and
coordinates programs directly related to the conservation and
preservation of Senate records and materials for which the Secretary of
the Senate has statutory authority. Initiatives include:
deacidification of paper and prints, phased conservation for books and
documents, collection surveys, exhibits, and matting and framing for
the Senate Leadership.
As part of several Senate traditions, for more than 22 years, this
office has bound a copy of Washington's Farewell Address for the annual
Washington's Farewell Address ceremony. In 2002, a volume was bound and
read by Senator Jon S. Corzine, and this year, Senator Saxby Chambliss
read the Address and received a copy of the bound edition.
In addition, the office continued its work for the Leader's Lecture
Series with the fabrication of two speech holder boxes and leather
notebooks. The office also fabricated for the Office of
Interparliamentary Services, seven marbled paper slipcases for the
book, The United States Capitol: Photographs by Fred J. Maroon.
At the direction of the Secretary of the Senate, and the Senate
Gift Shop, marbled paper liners were fabricated for twelve mahogany
boxes to house a ceremonial gavel presented at the Commemorative Joint
Meeting of the Congress of the United States in New York City. A Bible
was gold embossed for the occasion on September 6, 2002.
The Office of Conservation and Preservation also completed the
following: gold-embossed 148 mats for the Senators' group picture of
the 107th Congress, embossed 140 books for the Senate Leadership, and
matted and framed 406 items for the Senate Leadership.
As mandated in the 1990 Senate Library Collection Condition Survey,
the office continued to conduct an annual treatment of books identified
by the survey as needing conservation or repair. In 2002, conservation
treatments were completed for 95 volumes of a 7,000 volume collection
of House hearings. Specifically, treatment involved recasing each
volume as required, using alkaline end sheets, replacing acidic tab
sheets with alkaline paper, cleaning the cloth cases, and replacing
black spine title labels of each volume as necessary. In 2003, the
Office of Conservation and Preservation will continue preservation of
the remaining 4,277 volumes.
In addition, this office sent 481 books from the Senate Library to
the Library section of Government Printing Office for binding, and
assisted the Senate Library with four exhibits located in the Senate
Russell building basement corridor. For the Curator's office,
Conservation and Preservation assisted with the Brumidi exhibit located
on the first floor of the Capitol.
On an ongoing basis, this office assists Senate offices with
conservation and preservation of documents, books, and various other
items.
2. CURATOR
The Office of Senate Curator, under the direction of the Secretary
of the Senate, who is the Executive Secretary of the Senate Commission
on Art, administers the museum programs of the Senate for the Capitol
and Senate office buildings. The curator and staff suggest
acquisitions, provide appropriate exhibits, engage in research, and
write and edit publications. In addition, the office studies,
identifies, arranges, protects, preserves, and records the historical
collections of the Senate, including paintings, sculpture, and
furnishings; and exercises supervisory responsibility for the chambers
in the Capitol under the jurisdiction of the Senate Commission on Art.
All records of research and documentation related to these areas of
responsibility are available for use by Senators' offices, the media,
scholars, and the public. With the establishment of the United States
Capitol Preservation Commission, the Senate Commission on Art has
become the designated recipient of objects with Senate association
received by the Preservation Commission, and is tasked to ``provide to
the Capitol Preservation Commission such staff support and assistance
as the Preservation Commission may request.''
Collections: Commissions, Acquisitions, and Management
The Senate Commission on Art unveiled new portraits of Senators
Blanche Kelso Bruce and James Eastland last year. Other commissions
currently in progress include paintings of Senators Bob Dole and George
Mitchell for the Senate Leadership Portrait Collection; Senators Arthur
Vandenberg and Robert Wagner for the Senate Reception Room; and
Margaret Chase Smith.
Thirty-one objects were accessioned into the Senate collection this
year. These included three notable items associated with 19th century
Assistant Doorkeeper Isaac Bassett: a snuff box; walking stick; and
scrapbook of news clippings, letters, and various mementos related to
Bassett's Senate years. The majority of the newly accessioned objects
were historic prints.
Twenty-six new foreign gifts were reported to the Select Committee
on Ethics and deposited with the Curator's Office. These have been
catalogued and are maintained by the office in accordance with the
Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act. Many of these gifts reflect the
historic, unprecedented visit of senators to countries such as
Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.
The Senate collection and Foreign Gifts collection were inventoried
in 2002. A cyclical schedule to complete a wall-to-wall inventory of
all collections every three years was established by the Registrar.
Every year all objects on display in the Capitol and all Senate Office
Buildings are inventoried in order to verify that no changes in
location or condition have occurred. In addition, an inventory was
completed of all fine and decorative arts, memorabilia, publications,
and manuscripts located in a 4th floor storage room in the Capitol and
the offsite warehouse. In 2003, all prints, drawings, and advertising
images in storage will be inventoried.
The Sergeant at Arms also approved the Secretary's request to
obtain a lease through General Services Administration (GSA) for museum
quality off-site storage, as the Senate Curator was asked to vacate its
existing space. Fifty-one items, primarily historic furniture, which
had been stored at the warehouse were temporarily relocated in October
2002, to an off-site until such time as a GSA lease is negotiated. The
final result will be an environmentally controlled storage space
suitable for the storage and preservation of historic objects.
The Associate Registrar and Curatorial Assistant initiated a
project to professionally photograph the more than 1,000 historic
prints in the Senate's collection. For emergency purposes, a pair of
4'' 5'' color transparencies will be created for each print, allowing
for one complete set to be stored off-site. The in-office working copy
will be used for image requests, future publications, and new web site
postings. This year, the transparencies will be transferred to CD's,
along with adding the images and associated database information to the
Senate web site, and compiling an updated checklist publication of the
Senate's entire historic print collection. 861 prints have been
photographed to date.
Conservation and Restoration
A total of 25 objects received conservation treatment in 2002.
These included three historic clocks, one gilded window valance,
fifteen Senate Chamber desks, and six Russell Senate Office Building
chairs.
This year the major project of conserving all one hundred Senate
Chamber desks passed the halfway point. Twice a year, during Senate
recess periods, desks are removed from the Senate Chamber and sent out
for restoration. Treatment is extensive, and follows a detailed
protocol developed in 1997 to address the wear and degradation of these
historic desks due to continued heavy use. Sixty-one desks have been
restored to date, and the project is on schedule for completion in
August 2005. The program also involves thorough documentation of the
condition, construction details, wood type, and measurements.
Additional initiatives will include: professional photography; posting
desk information on the Senate web site; developing a maintenance
program to continue to preserve the desks; and treating the inkwells
and sand blotters located in each desk. As part of its preventive
maintenance program, the Curator's office continues to work with the
Senate Sergeant at Arms Cabinet Shop to install rubber bumpers on the
end of the Senate Chamber chairs to further eliminate damage to the
desks.
Six historic chairs, originally purchased for the Russell Senate
Office Building in 1909, were studied and restored. The chairs were
examined by professional conservators in order to determine the
original finish and upholstery methods, and to serve as prototypes. A
detailed protocol treatment to restore all 1909 Russell chairs to their
historic appearance was established.
A comprehensive Collection and Historic Structures Care manual has
been developed. The manual will provide basic, practical information
needed to enable non-curatorial staff within the Capitol complex to
plan and implement sound collections care and building maintenance
programs. The primary purpose of the manual is to teach specialized
handling practices, identify acceptable repair, maintenance, and care
treatments, and establish necessary monitoring and maintenance
schedules. In addition, the Associate Curator and Registrar conducted
training sessions for the Capitol Police on the care and protection of
art in the Capitol. The staff also continues to work with housekeeping
personnel on maintenance issues related to the fine and decorative arts
collection.
Historic Preservation
One of the office's directives is to work with the Architect of the
Capitol to ensure the preservation of the architectural and decorative
elements within the Senate wing of the Capitol, with emphasis on those
spaces of primary historic and architectural significance. After making
substantial progress in 2001, on the development of the Senate
Preservation Program by defining a policy and procedures, the office
spent much of the year focusing on the functionality of the program and
how it could effectively interact with the Office of the Architect of
the Capitol and congressional offices. Based on such considerations,
the office identified infrastructure systems and effective procedures
that will allow the staff to conduct and collect research, document
current projects, respond to and approve upcoming project scopes in a
timely manner, and develop and direct preservation projects. The
results of those efforts include: an historic structures report
program; a detailed index to Bill Allen's History of the U.S. Capitol;
a draft historic context and period of significance statement for the
Capitol; paint analysis guidelines; and office attendance at the
Architect of the Capitol's project update meetings.
In an effort to significantly advance the preservation program by
putting policies and procedures into practice (in order to test and
refine them), the office outlined two Senate-controlled preservation
projects as test cases: the Senate Reception Room preservation project
and the Historic American Building Survey (HABS) documentation project.
The first phase of the Reception Room project, the development of an
Historic Structures Report, is currently underway and will continue
through 2003. Regarding the HABS project, the office has developed a
plan and first phase proposal for review.
Along with the important work of developing and implementing a
Senate Preservation Program, the Curator's office, working in
partnership with the Architect of the Capitol, continued to serve as
project coordinator for the Democratic leadership suite rehabilitation
project. Over the past year, the following tasks were completed:
application of tinted varnish on the S-223 and S-224 enframements;
painting the walls and enframements in S-222; painting the enframements
in S-221; application of gold leaf in S-222, S-223, and S-224;
restoration of the ceiling murals in S-222 and S-223; consolidation of
the ceiling plaster in S-221; conservation of the crystal chandeliers
in S-222, S-223, and S-224; restoration of three 1909 Russell Senate
Office Building chairs for S-223; installation of gilded window cornice
replicas in S-221 and S-223; and installation of new curtains in S-222
and new rugs in S-222 and S-224.
Serving as the Senate's authority on preservation, the office has
extended professional advice, guidance, and services to the Architect
of the Capitol and various congressional offices on numerous upgrade,
renovation, preservation, and repair projects in the Senate wing of the
Capitol. These projects include testing and stabilization planning for
the President's Room ceiling plaster; preservation of the second floor
corridor; mural conservation and restoration of the Brumidi Corridors;
handicap access for the Old Supreme Court Chamber; and renovation of S-
312.
Historic Chambers
The Curator's staff maintains the Old Senate and Old Supreme Court
Chambers, and coordinates periodic use of both rooms for special
occasions. By order of the U.S. Capitol Police, the Old Senate Chamber
has been closed to visitors since September 11, 2001. Twenty-nine
requests were received from current Members of Congress for after-hours
access to the chamber. Four special events were held in the room. Of
significance was former Vice President Walter Mondale's lecture
delivered in the chamber as part of the Leader's Lecture Series. In
addition, the Chamber was used for an educational interview with former
Majority Leader Bob Dole conducted by the National Constitution Center
in Philadelphia regarding the history of debate in the Senate. Senate
Historian Richard Baker also presented a lecture to the newly-elected
Senators of the 108th Congress. The Chamber was also used for the re-
enactment swearing-in ceremony for Senator Dean Barkley of Minnesota,
and again on January 7, 2003, for the opening of the 108th Congress. In
addition, B-roll footage of the room was taken by NBC to illustrate the
historic significance of the 19th century Senate Disbursing Office
ledgers recently found.
On April 1, 2002, the Old Supreme Court Chamber was opened to the
public for the first time since September 11, 2001. Nineteen requests
were received by current Members of Congress for admittance to the Old
Supreme Court Chamber after-hours. New carpeting was installed in the
public area of the Old Court, and two exhibits were de-installed to
allow easier access to the room for visitors.
Loans To and From the Collection
A total of 63 historic objects and paintings are currently on loan
to the Curator's office on behalf of Senate leadership in the Capitol.
The Curator's staff returned eleven paintings to the South Dakota Art
Museum at the expiration of their loan period, and requested nine new
paintings from the museum for display in the Democratic leadership
suite. One outgoing loan from the Senate collection was approved for
the Octagon Museum; two objects from the collection and two replicas
were loaned for display as part of the exhibition, Inside the Temple of
Liberty.
The Curator's office began work to assemble information on Senate
objects under consideration for loan to the exhibition space in the
main gallery of the Capitol Visitor Center. Approximately 50 objects
have been identified at this time. In addition, the office facilitated
a loan request to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of
American History on behalf of the Senate Commission on Art. The
Curator's office has identified two large, historic vases for display
in the public area of the Capitol Visitor Center, and tentative
approval was received from the Smithsonian pending final confirmation
of conditions in the display location.
The Secretary's china was distributed and returned three times in
2002. It was used for events such as a dinner for the retiring
Republican Senators of the 107th Congress and a Senate leadership
dinner. The official Senate chinaware was inventoried and used at 31
receptions for distinguished guests, both foreign and domestic.
Publications and Exhibitions
Much of the office's focus in 2002, was devoted to producing the
five-hundred page catalogue entitled U.S. Senate Fine Art Collection,
which will provide previously unpublished information on the 160
paintings and sculptures in the U.S. Senate. Each work of art is
illustrated with a full-page color photograph, accompanied by an essay
and secondary images that place the object in historical and aesthetic
context. The publication features an introductory essay by art
historian and principal author William Kloss to provide a comparative
perspective on the collection. The book is the definitive new resource
on the fine art in the United States Senate. Staff worked with the
Government Printing Office on all aspects of the design and proofing of
the publication. A printer has been selected and delivery of the
publication is expected in the summer of 2003.
Several brochures were reprinted, including: The United States
Congress & Capitol: A Walking Tour Handbook, volumes I and II; The
Senate Vestibule; and The President's Room. In addition, the office
published a new brochure, The Republican Leadership Suite.
The office deinstalled I Do Solemnly Swear, an exhibition of
presidential inauguration images and a photographic diary of
Inauguration Day 2001, and reinstalled the exhibition The United States
Capitol: Photographs by Fred J. Maroon. The first phase of the
exhibition Constantino Brumidi: Artist of the Capitol was installed
under the west stairwell of the Brumidi Corridors, on the first floor
of the Senate wing. The second phase of the exhibit will be completed
in 2003.
Policies and Procedures
The office undertook a major initiative to create a strategic plan,
and started by reorganizing and prioritizing office objectives and
developing a mission statement.
Progress continued on preparation of a Collections Management
Policy to be approved by the Commission on Art. The introductory
section of the policy was reorganized to create a clear statement of
the principles and goals that guide the Office of Senate Curator in the
development and care of the Senate collections.
Collaborations, Educational Programs, And Events
As part of the seminar series conducted under the auspices of the
Secretary of the Senate and the Sergeant at Arms, the Curator's staff
continued to deliver periodic addresses on various aspects of the
Senate's art and history. Staff conducted or assisted with several
sessions, including ``Congress & the Capitol: Tour Guide Series'' and
``The Vice Presidential Bust Collection.''
Curator staff participated as team members for the redesign of the
Senate web site, which was launched in the fall of 2002. For the first
time, visitors to the Senate web site can view images and catalogue
information for all fine art in the Senate collection. Results of this
increased visibility have already been seen, as the number of requests
from the public for images of art in the Senate collection has nearly
doubled.
Objectives for 2003
Conservation and preservation concerns remain a priority. Projects
in 2003, will include the restoration of 15 Senate Chamber desks during
the August and fall recess periods, conservation of the frame for
Pocahontas; and the restoration of two historic overmantel mirrors.
Policy initiatives and strategic planning are a major endeavor.
Additionally, the Collections Management Policy will be completed and
submitted for peer review by museum professionals.
A comprehensive restructuring of the Senate collection database
will be completed. Once an outside contractor has organized the files
and reports to the specifications of the office, collections staff will
complete the work of cleaning up data contained in fields and create
all additional reports and layouts needed for current collections
related projects. An additional goal is to evaluate the options for
display of object images in the layouts used to view the Senate
collection database and to establish image field standards.
Regarding the Senate Preservation Program, the Curator's office
will begin to establish the systems necessary for the office to meet
its preservation responsibilities and to function as the Senate's
authority on preservation issues. The office will complete the first
phase of the Senate Reception Room preservation project. In addition,
the office will present to the Senate Commission on Art a proposal for
the HABS documentation project, with emphasis on the establishment of
CAD-related databases and documentation procedures. In the area of
physical preservation, the office will continue to serve as the project
coordinator for the Democratic leadership suite renovation and provide
assistance with preservation issues related to Architect of the
Capitol's Senate projects. In conjunction with the Architect of the
Capitol, the office will develop a system that will assure the
involvement of the Curator's staff in all Senate wing project planning.
Such a plan will require the Curator's office to review all Senate wing
projects for their effect on historic resources.
Publications scheduled for 2003, include a brochure on the history
of the Senate Democratic leadership suite; the Senate Appropriations
Committee, Room S-219; and on 19th century Senate employee Isaac
Bassett. The office will install informational panels for important
Senate art work as part of its educational mandate with the paintings
of George Washington at Princeton and The Recall of Columbus the first
to be highlighted.
Internet exhibits scheduled include web sites on the political
cartoons of Puck, a 19th century satirical magazine, the drawings of
Lily Spandorf illustrating the filming of the motion picture Advise and
Consent, the Senate Chamber desks, and information on current
conservation/preservation projects.
As part of its emergency preparedness plan, the office will
microfilm several important record series. Collections and history
files, and the Isaac Bassett Papers, will be reproduced in microfilm or
fiche, as well as digitized for both research and web publication.
3. JOINT OFFICE OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
The Joint Office of Education and Training, a shared responsibility
between the Secretary of the Senate and the Sergeant at Arms, provides
employee training and development opportunities for 7,000 Senate staff
both in Washington D.C. and in the states. There are four branches
within the department:
--The technical training branch is responsible for providing
technical training support for approved software packages used
in either Washington or the state offices.
--The computer training staff provides instructor-led classes; one-
on-one coaching sessions; specialized vendor provided training,
computer based training; and informal training and support
services.
--The professional training branch provides courses for all Senate
staff in areas including: management and leadership
development, human resources issues and staff benefits,
legislative and staff information, new staff and intern
information.
--The health promotion branch provides seminars, classes and
screenings on health related and wellness issues. This branch
also coordinates an annual Health Fair for all Senate employees
and four blood drives each year.
In 2002, The Joint Office of Education and Training offered 565
classes with 5,566 Senate employees participating. The registration
desk handled 13,248 requests for training and documentation.
Of the above total, in the technical training area 321 classes were
held with a total attendance of 1,883 students. An additional 1,686
staff received coaching on various software packages and other computer
related issues.
In the professional development area, 244 classes were held with a
total attendance of 3,683 students. Individual managers and supervisors
were also encouraged to request customized training for their offices
in areas of need.
The Office of Education and Training made itself available to work
with teams on issues related to team performance, communication or
conflict resolution. During 2002, 50 requests for special training or
team building were met. Professional development staff also traveled to
State offices to conduct specialized training/team building during the
year.
In health promotion, 896 Senate staff participated in Health
Promotion activities throughout the year. These activities included:
cancer screening, bone density screening and seminars on health related
topics. Additionally 1,163 staff participated in the Annual Health Fair
held in September.
The Office of Education and Training continues to coordinate with
the Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness to provide security
training for Senate staff. In 2002, the Office of Education and
Training coordinated 87 sessions of Escape Hood Training for 3,514
Senate staff.
Since most of the classes offered are practical only for D.C. based
staff, the Office of Education and Training continues to offer the
``State Training Fair,'' now three years old. In 2002, three sessions
of this program were offered to state staff. We also implemented the
``Virtual Classroom,'' an internet based training library of 300+
courses. To date, 134 state office staff representing 49 Senators are
using the training option.
4. CHIEF COUNSEL FOR EMPLOYMENT
The Office of the Senate Chief Counsel for Employment (``SCCE'') is
a non-partisan office established at the direction of the Joint
Leadership in 1993 after enactment of the Government Employee Rights
Act (``GERA''), which allowed Senate employees to file claims of
employment discrimination against Senate offices. With the enactment of
the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 (``CAA''), Senate offices
became subject to the requirements, responsibilities and obligations of
11 employment laws. The SCCE is charged with the legal representation
of Senate offices in all employment law cases at both the
administrative and court levels. Also, on a day-to-day basis, the
office provides legal advice to Senate offices about their obligations
under employment laws. Accordingly, each of the 180 offices of the
Senate is an individual client of the SCCE, and each office maintains
an attorney-client relationship with the SCCE.
Background
Each of the SCCE attorneys came to the office after having
practiced as employment law litigators in major, national law firms
representing Fortune 100 corporations. All services the office provides
are the same legal services the attorneys provided to their clients
while in private practice. The areas of responsibilities of the SCCE
can be divided into the following categories: Litigation (Defending
Senate Offices in Federal Court); Mediations to Resolve Lawsuits;
Court-Ordered Alternative Dispute Resolutions; Preventive Legal Advice;
Union Drives, Negotiations and Unfair Labor Practice Charges; OSHA/
Americans With Disability Act (``ADA'') Compliance; Layoffs and Office
Closings In Compliance With the Law; and Management Training Regarding
Legal Responsibilities.
Litigation, Mediations, Alternative Dispute Resolutions
The SCCE represents each of the 180 employing offices of the Senate
in all court actions (including both trial and appellate courts),
hearings, proceedings, investigations, and negotiations relating to
labor and employment laws. The SCCE handles cases filed in the District
of Columbia and cases filed in any of the 50 states. The SCCE
represents a defendant Senate office from the inception of a case
through U.S. Supreme Court review. The office handles all work
internally without the assistance of outside law firms or the
Department of Justice.
During 2002, the SCCE defended Senate offices against 33 lawsuits,
which required approximately 11,000 attorney work hours \1\. No case
was lost.
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\1\ Attorney hours spent on each case include, but are not limited
to, time for conducting the initial investigation of allegations;
mediation with employee; negotiating settlements; reviewing employing
office files; interviewing witnesses; investigating and responding to
the complaint; preparing for pretrial and trial proceedings, including
taking witness depositions, conducting extensive discovery with
opposing counsel (propounding and responding to interrogatories,
requests for production of documents, etc.), interviewing expert
witnesses, preparing, researching and filing any necessary motions with
the court, preparing witnesses for trial, preparing exhibits for trial;
trying the case; preparing post-trial briefs; preparing appellate
briefs; arguing before the appellate courts.
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Preventive Legal Advice
At times, a Senate office will become aware that an employee is
contemplating suing, and the office will request the SCCE's legal
advice and/or that the SCCE negotiate with the employee's attorney
before the employee files a lawsuit. The successful resolution of such
matters substantially reduces an office's liability.
Also, the SCCE advises and meets with Members, chiefs of staff,
office managers, staff directors, chief clerks and general counsels at
their request. The purposes of the advice and meetings are to educate
and inform Members, officers and employees and to prevent litigation
and to minimize liability in the event of litigation. For example, on a
daily basis, the SCCE advises Senate offices on matters such as
disciplining/terminating employees in compliance with the law, handling
and investigating sexual harassment complaints, accommodating the
disabled, determining wage law requirements, meeting the requirements
of the Family and Medical Leave Act, and management's rights and
obligations under union laws and OSHA.
Union Drives, Negotiations, and Unfair Labor Practice Charges
The Office provides the following with respect to a union drive:
conducts training sessions for managers and supervisors regarding their
legal obligations during a union campaign, negotiates an election
agreement with the union, advises the client in selecting its
representatives for the election, conducts training sessions for the
employer representatives regarding improper conduct at elections, and
conducts an investigation to determine whether ground rules exist to
challenge the election results.
OSHA/ADA Compliance
The SCCE provides advice and assistance to Senate offices by
assisting them with complying with the applicable OSHA and ADA
regulations; representing them during Office of Compliance inspections;
advising State offices on the preparation of the Office of Compliance's
Home State OSHA/ADA Inspection Questionnaires; assisting offices in the
preparation of Emergency Action Plans; and advising and representing
Senate offices when a complaint of an OSHA violation has been filed
with the Office of Compliance or when a citation has been issued. In
2002, the SCCE handled 8 OSHA complaint procedures.
Layoffs and Office Closings in Compliance with the Law
The SCCE provides legal advice and strategy to individual Senate
offices regarding how to minimize legal liability in compliance with
the law when offices reduced their forces.
In addition, pursuant to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining
Notification Act (``WARN''), offices that are closing must follow
certain procedures for notifying their employees of the closing and for
transitioning them out of the office. The SCCE tracks office closings
and notifies those offices of their legal obligations under the WARN.
In 2002, the SCCE advised 10 Senate offices of their legal obligations
under this law.
Management Training Regarding Legal Responsibilities
The SCCE conducts legal seminars for the managers of Senate offices
to assist them in complying with employment laws, thereby reducing
their liability. In 2002, the SCCE gave 59 legal seminars to Senate
offices. Among the topics covered were: Preventing and Addressing
Sexual Harassment in the Workplace; The Congressional Accountability
Act of 1995: What Managers Need to Know About Their Legal Obligations;
Managers' Obligations Under the Family and Medical Leave Act; The Legal
Pitfalls of Hiring the Right Employee: Advertising, Interviewing, Drug
Testing and Background Checks; Disciplining, Evaluating and Terminating
an Employee Without Violating Employment Laws; Management's Obligations
Under the Americans With Disabilities Act; and Equal Pay for Equal
Work: Management's Obligations Under the Equal Pay Act.
Administrative/Miscellaneous Matters
The SCCE provides legal assistance to employing offices in
preparing and updating employee handbooks, office policies,
supervisors' manuals, sample job descriptions, interviewing guidelines,
and job evaluation forms to ensure that they are legally compliant.
Technological Advances
The SCCE is continuing its implementation of two electronic systems
that put the office at the forefront of electronic offices. First, the
SCCE has installed and implemented a comprehensive document management
system. The system profiles and indexes every document in the office,
regardless of whether the document was created internally or received
from an outside source. Thus, the office maintains all-electronic
files. The system saves hours of time by eliminating electronic
directory/folder-type searches, and filing cabinet searches. It also is
instrumental in preserving institutional knowledge.
Second, the SCCE continues its conversion to a ``paperless''
office. It has completed Phases I and II and most of Phase III of the
3-phase process, which involves scanning and OCRing every document the
office receives from an outside source. This means that all paper in
the office, whether created on our computers or received from outside
the office, is electronically accessible. This paperless system saves
time and office space. In addition, it allows staff members to access
electronically every office document from remote locations, such as a
courtroom, and it allows the office to remain fully operational in the
event of an unanticipated closing of the Hart building.
5. GIFT SHOP
With each successive year since its establishment, the Senate Gift
Shop has continued to provide outstanding products and services that
maintain the integrity of the Senate as well as increase the public's
awareness of the mission and history of the U.S. Senate. The Gift Shop
provides services to Members, Officers and employees of the Senate, as
well as constituents and visitors. Products include a wide variety of
souvenirs, collectibles, and fine gift items created exclusively for
the Senate. Services include special ordering of personalized products
and hard-to-find items, custom framing, gold embossing, engraving, and
shipping.
Facilities
For several years, the services offered by the Senate Gift Shop
were over-the-counter sales to walk-in customers at a single location.
Today, after 10 years in operation, and as a result of extended
services and continued growth, the Gift Shop now provides service from
three different locations. Services from these locations include walk-
in sales, telephone orders, fax orders, mail orders, and a variety of
special order and catalog sales.
Sales Activity
The Gift Shop's gross sales for fiscal year 2002 are recorded at
$1,418,065.88. The cost for goods sold during this same period was
$1,102,433.12. This accounts for a gross profit of $315,632.76. Records
show total gross sales in fiscal year 2001 were $1,585,062.49. This
represents a decrease in sales of $166,996.61 from fiscal year 2001 to
fiscal year 2002, largely due to the impact of September 11, 2001, and
the anthrax incident.
In addition to tracking profit from gross sales, the Senate Gift
Shop maintains a revolving fund and a record of on-hand inventory. As
of October 1, 2002, the balance in the revolving fund was $880,022.88
with on-hand inventory valued at $1,997,419.86.
At the request of the Secretary, the General Accounting Office will
conduct an audit of the fiscal year 2002 transactions of the Senate
Gift Shop's Revolving Fund.
Technology Upgrades
One of the most important objectives for 2003, is replacing our
outdated software application, Basic Four, which is more than 20 years
old and no longer meets the increasingly unique needs of the Gift Shop.
During the first three quarters of 2002, the Secretary of the Senate,
through the Senate Gift Shop, and with the assistance of staff from the
Senate Offices of Disbursing, and the Customer Support Division of the
Sergeant at Arms, studied proposals in search of an outside vendor who
would provide and install the most suitable retail and financial
management software package. The necessary funds for this upgrade were
included in the Secretary's budget request for fiscal year 2003 and
have been appropriated. The selected vendor will provide required
technical assistance during implementation, training of Gift Shop
staff, and continued technical support of the new system.
Accomplishments and New Products in 2002
Official Congressional Holiday Ornaments
The year 2002 marked the beginning of the Gift Shop's third
consecutive ``four-year ornament series.'' Each ornament in the 2002-
2005 series of unique collectibles will feature an architectural
milestone of the United States Capitol with each image of the Capitol
and corresponding historical text taken from the book, History of the
United States Capitol: A Chronicle of Design, Construction, and
Politics by William C. Allen, architectural historian in the office of
the Architect of the Capitol.
The 2002 ornament, our 10th annual ornament, pictures the original
architectural design of the Capitol by William Thornton. In keeping
with tradition, the authentic colors of the original drawing were
reproduced onto white porcelain stone and set with a brass frame
finished in 24kt gold.
Holiday sales of this ornament in 2002 were strong and additional
sales are expected throughout 2003. Revenue from the sale of more than
35,000 of these ornaments has generated more than $40,000 in
scholarship funding for the Senate Child Care Center.
Pickard China Porcelain ``Liberty'' Box
The ``Liberty'' box is the first in a series of four porcelain
boxes that will display different images from the Constantino Brumidi
fresco painted on the ceiling of the President's Room located in the
Senate Wing of the United States Capitol. ``Liberty'' is one of four
allegorical figures that represents the foundations of the government--
the other three are Executive, Religion, and Legislation. These boxes
will be released on an annual basis.
Temple of Liberty Greeting Cards
Peter Waddell, a local artist, created the ``Temple of Liberty''
collection. His oils on canvas depict the interiors of the Capitol
Building, and the visitors to it, as they might have appeared in the
19th century when the Capitol was still in its early years of
construction. The Senate Gift Shop secured exclusive rights to
reproduce these images onto greeting cards which are now sold as boxed
sets. The beautiful tones and colors of Mr. Waddell's works have been
faithfully reproduced on the face of the cards. On the reverse of each
of these cards is the artist's written interpretation of that
particular painting. The Gift Shop reviewed the written interpretation
to confirm both clarity and factuality.
Capitol Visitor Center Coins
When the U.S. Mint terminated its promotion and sale of the Capitol
Visitor Center (CVC) coin in June 2002, the Gift Shop, with the
assistance and guidance of Senate Legal Counsel, arranged to purchase
the balance of the more than 22,000 already minted CVC coins. In order
to better promote the CVC and to better showcase the CVC coins, the
Gift Shop has successfully incorporated the coin into a variety of
appropriate gift items:
--CVC coins encased in Lucite paperweights have sold well since their
development last year.
--During the latter half of 2002, the Gift Shop worked with a vendor/
manufacturer to create ladies' and men's wristwatches and
pocket watches with CVC coins serving as the face.
--Other items incorporating the use of the coins are in various
stages of development and will be introduced later in 2003.
Products Created for the Commemorative Joint Session of
Congress
The Secretary of the Senate worked with the Senate Gift Shop to
create and develop an official gavel and a variety of presentation and
gift items suitable for the Commemorative Joint Session of Congress
held in New York City on September 6, 2002.
In an attempt to create a unique gavel that appropriately defined
this moment in history, the Gift Shop first consulted with the masonry
team under the Architect of the Capitol to determine if marble that was
once part of the Capitol could be used. Next, the Gift Shop selected a
contractor to produce a replica of the original ivory gavel used to
preside over Senate proceedings. Upon completion of the prototype of
the gavel, the Senate Gift Shop enlisted the assistance of the Senate
Office of Conservation and Preservation to modify a wooden box,
provided by the Gift Shop, to showcase the commemorative gavel. In the
meantime, the Senate Gift Shop researched appropriate historical text
and composed custom insert cards that were reproduced with the
assistance of the Senate Service Department. A dozen marble gavels were
presented at the Commemorative Joint Session.
Projects and New Ideas for 2003
United States Senate Fine Art Guide
The Gift Shop is working with the Senate Curator in order to secure
copies of the forthcoming publication, United States Senate Fine Art
Guide. The book will be sold in both the Dirksen and Capitol Gift
Shops.
Capitol Trees
During the early construction stages of the CVC, the Senate Gift
Shop contracted with a company to recover felled trees from the Capitol
grounds. The recovered trees have been milled and kiln dried. The
resultant 12,000 board feet of cut lumber is stored in a warehouse in
West Virginia. The Gift Shop is in the process of developing products
from the recovered trees. Items will include presentation pieces for
official use and a variety of commemorative collectors' items available
for sale to the general public.
108th Congressional Plate
The series of Official Congressional Plates will continue this year
with the design, development, and manufacture of the 108th
Congressional Plate. The first stage of choosing a design for the 108th
Congressional Plate will begin soon. After reviewing proofs and working
through the many design changes, the goal is to have a finished product
arrive in mid-November, in time for holiday sales.
6. HISTORICAL OFFICE
Serving as the Senate's institutional memory, the Historical Office
collects and provides information on important events, precedents,
dates, statistics, and historical comparisons of current and past
Senate activities for use by Members and staff, the media, scholars,
and the general public. The Office advises Senators, officers, and
committees on cost-effective disposition of their non-current office
files and assists researchers in identifying Senate-related source
materials. The Office keeps extensive biographical, bibliographical,
photographic, and archival information on the 1,775 former Senators. It
edits for publication historically significant transcripts and minutes
of selected Senate committees and party organizations, and conducts
oral history interviews with key Senate staff. The photo historian
maintains a collection of approximately 40,000 still pictures, slides,
and negatives that includes photographs and illustrations of most
former Senators, as well as news photographs, editorial cartoons,
photographs of committees in session, and other images documenting
Senate history. The Office develops and maintains all historical
material on the Senate website.
Fiscal Year 2002 and Continuing Editorial Projects
The Senate Leader's Lecture Series.--This series brings
distinguished speakers to the Senate to present insights about the
Senate's recent history and long-term practices. From 1998 through
2002, lectures featuring former Senate presidents and party floor
leaders on the topic of Senate leadership were held in the Capitol's
historic Old Senate Chamber before an audience of current Senators and
invited guests. The Historical Office has provided editorial and
production support for the series, including the September 4, 2002,
lecture by former Vice President Walter Mondale. Text and video of all
nine lectures are available on the Senate's website, and the Historical
Office is preparing a book edition for publication in 2003.
Executive Session Transcripts of the Permanent Subcommittee on
Investigations, 1953-1954.--The Historical Office completed editing and
annotating 3,800 pages of previously unpublished executive-session
hearing transcripts produced by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on
Investigations (PSI) under the chairmanship of Senator Joseph R.
McCarthy (1953-1954). The Government Printing Office has recently
delivered all five volumes to the PSI for a public announcement and
press conference within the next few weeks. This publication will allow
researchers nationwide to have equal access to these highly sought
after and richly revealing historical documents.
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.--Since the
most recent printed edition of the Biographical Directory of the United
States Congress appeared in 1989, the assistant historian has added
dozens of new biographical sketches and has revised and updated most of
the database's 1,875 Senate entries. A current version of the database
is available online at http://bioguide.congress.gov. The assistant
historian has recently completed necessary revisions and additions of
data to allow for expanded online search capabilities. Work is
proceeding on the next print edition, tentatively planned for
publication in 2004.
Administrative History of the Senate.--During 2002, the assistant
historian revised an earlier chapter structure and focused on the years
1789 to 1861 in this historical account of the Senate's administrative
evolution. This study traces the development of the offices of the
Secretary of the Senate and Sergeant at Arms, considers nineteenth and
twentieth-century reform efforts that resulted in reorganization and
professionalization of Senate staff, and looks at how the Senate's
administrative structure has grown and diversified over the past two
centuries.
Documentary History of the Senate.--The Historical Office is
conducting an ongoing documentary publication program to bring together
fundamental source materials that will help explain the development of
the Senate's constitutional powers and institutional prerogatives.
Currently in production are volumes on Senate impeachment trials, the
Senate's consideration of controversial treaties, and the evolution of
the Senate's standing rules. For the impeachment trial volume, working
drafts have been prepared to summarize each case, with selection of key
documents and writing of textual notes underway. For the controversial
treaties volume, much of the research has been completed and major
chapters have been drafted. Work on the rules volume has proceeded to
provide coverage from 1789 through the 1850s.
``The Senate of the United States''.--Between 1988 and 1994, the
Government Printing Office published The Senate, 1789-1989, a four-
volume reference work by Senator Robert C. Byrd. During 2002, the
Historical Office began work on a consolidated, updated, and
illustrated one-volume edition of ``Byrd's History.'' This work will be
available for distribution in 2005 through the Senate Gift Shop.
Senate web site redesign.--Historical Office staff played a key
role on history content in the redesign of the Senate web site. The
history content amounts to about 60 percent of the static content on
the site, or more than 5,000 pages. The office has continuing
responsibility for expanding and updating the history content and for
adding history-based features to illuminate ongoing Senate news events,
as well as coordinating efforts among the various content teams.
``Idea of the Senate''.--This narrative book will be based on the
memoirs of Senators, providing eyewitness accounts of the Senate from
its early years to the modern era. Each chapter in the book will focus
on the writings of one Senator. Additional primary and secondary
sources will be examined for contextual information. The Historical
Office's researcher-writer has completed preliminary project research
and has begun drafting the first chapter on John Quincy Adams.
Capitol Visitor Center Exhibition Content Development.--The Senate
historian assisted in preparing detailed plans for the 20,000 square-
foot exhibition gallery of the Capitol Visitor Center. Three staff
historians prepared scripts for major exhibitions on the historical
role of Congress in helping to realize the nation's basic aspirations
and on the chronological history of the Senate.
Member Services.--At the request of the Senate Democratic Leader,
the Senate historian prepared and delivered a ``Senate Historical
Minute'' at each of thirty-five Senate Democratic Conference weekly
meetings during the year. These four-hundred-word Minutes are designed
to enlighten members about significant events and personalities
associated with the Senate's institutional development, and with
familiar objects and places within the Capitol. The nearly 200 Minutes
prepared since 1997, are available as a feature on the Senate website.
Members' Office Records Management and Disposition Assistance.--The
Senate archivist continued to assist Members' offices with planning for
the preservation of their permanently valuable records, with special
emphasis on archiving electronic information from computer systems and
transferring valuable records to a home state repository. Forming a
team with customer support service staff from the Office of the
Sergeant at Arms, the archivist worked with all Senators' offices that
closed at the end of the 107th Congress, including the office of
Senator Paul Wellstone, to prepare the collections for donation. The
handbook entitled ``Closing a Senate Office'' was updated, and
assistance was given in the compilation of ``Opening a Senate Office.''
The latter was published and also broadcast on the transition office
intranet site. As a follow-up to the Congressional Papers Forum that
was held in August 2001, the archivist edited The Congressional Papers
Forum: The Third Report of the Advisory Committee on the Records of
Congress. The archivist began a comprehensive revision of Records
Management Handbook for United States Senators and Their Archival
Repositories which will be published in 2003.
Committee Records Management and Disposition Assistance.--The
Senate archivist provided each committee with staff briefings, record
surveys, guidance on preservation of information in electronic systems,
and instructions for the transfer of permanently valuable records to
the National Archives' Center for Legislative Archives. Over 3,000 feet
of records were transferred to the Archives. The Office's archival
staff continued to provide processing assistance to committees and
administrative offices in need of basic help with noncurrent files. The
archivist worked with the House of Representatives' archivist to
inventory the records of the anthrax contamination cleanup and is
working with Secretary of the Senate and Clerk of the House counsels to
develop protocols for the transfer of these records to the Center for
Legislative Archives. In 2003, a records disposition guidelines for the
offices under the Secretary's jurisdiction will be published.
Oral History Program During Fiscal Year 2002.--The Historical
Office concluded its series of twenty-three debriefing interviews with
staff involved with the dislocation following the attacks of September
11, 2001, and the October 2001 delivery of letters containing anthrax
to the Hart Senate Office Building. This adds to the already extensive
collection of oral history interviews that provide personal
recollections of Senate careers dating from 1910 to the present. Oral
history interviews were also conducted with Tom C. Korologos, former
administrative assistant to Senator Wallace Bennett and White House
Senate liaison; Jade West, former staff director of the Republican
Policy Committee; and J. Stanley Kimmitt, former Secretary for the
Majority and Secretary of the Senate.
Photographic Collections.--The photo historian continued to expand
the Office's 40,000-item photographic collection by obtaining images of
former Senators not previously represented in the collection, and
documenting Senate life by photographing historically significant
Senate events, including hearings of Senate committees. Digital images
of frequently used photographs were created in order to promote their
use and safeguard the originals. Images can now be transmitted to
patrons via e-mail or CD, or can be printed onto photographic paper in
the Historical Office. The photo historian also continued to catalog
photographic negatives into an image database in order to increase
intellectual control over the Office's image collection.
Conference of Congressional Research Center Directors.--The Senate
Historical Office, the Center for Legislative Archives at the National
Archives, and the Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies just
completed a conference at the Byrd Center in Shepherdstown, West
Virginia. This first-of-its kind meeting brought together the directors
of 20 university-based congressional research centers. Among those who
attended were the directors of center associated with the public
service careers of the following U.S. Senators: Howard Baker, Bob Dole,
Everett Dirksen, Margaret Chase Smith, Strom Thurmond, George Aiken,
Thomas Dodd, Wendell Ford, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Russell, John
Stennis, John Glenn and Robert C. Byrd.
Historic Senate Salary and Mileage Ledger, 1790: 1880.--The Library
of Congress has scanned all 400 pages in an electronic version of this
major resource, which documents the administrative operations of the
Senate during its first 90 years. It will be available to researchers
on senate.gov within the next few weeks.
7. HUMAN RESOURCES
The Office of Human Resources (HR) was established in June 1995, as
a result of the Congressional Accountability Act. The Office focuses on
the development and implementation of human resources policies,
procedures, and programs for the Office of the Secretary of the Senate,
both to fulfill the legal requirements of the workplace and to
complement the organization's strategic goals and values.
This includes recruiting and staffing; providing guidance and
advice to managers and staff; training; performance management; job
analysis; compensation planning, design, and administration; leave
administration; records management; employee handbooks and manuals;
internal grievance procedures; employee relations and services; and
organizational planning and development.
HR also administers the Secretary's Public Transportation Subsidy
program and the Summer Intern Program that offers college students the
opportunity to gain valuable skills and experience in a variety of
Senate support offices.
Classification and Compensation Review
The Secretary of the Senate is conducting a complete classification
and compensation study which entails a thorough review of the entire
system. This classification study will include a comprehensive
collection of current job classifications and specifications for every
position in the Office and the pay plan and bands will reflect the
accurate and equitable layout of all staff within the organization. HR
staff has conducted job audits/interviews with each incumbent to ensure
all roles and responsibilities are accurately factored into the study.
Policies and Procedures
HR will annually update and revise the Employee Handbook of the
Office of the Secretary.
Assisting the Secretary and Department Heads
HR continues to work with the Executive Office and department heads
to establish objectives that reflect the mission of the Senate and the
Secretary's Office. HR has met with each department head and discussed
their departmental and personal objectives, challenges and results of
the past year, and to assist each department head in establishing new
objectives for this calendar year and beyond.
Attraction and Retention of Staff
HR is responsible for the advertisement of new vacancies or
positions, screening applicants, interviewing candidates and assisting
with all phases of the hiring process. HR works closely with the
applicable department to ensure the process moves smoothly and
expeditiously. HR acts as the liaison to the Secretary before any
payroll actions are presented, so that the Secretary has ample
knowledge of all hiring decisions or recommendations. As new staff
joins the office, HR is in charge of the orientation to the office's
policies.
HR is also responsible for the management of performance-related
issues. In addition, the HR staff finds ways to solicit suggestions and
feedback from the Secretary's department heads and staff in an ongoing
effort to continually improve processes and procedures.
New Programs
HR has initiated development of an Elder Care Fair that will be
available for all Senate staff interested in learning more about local
and nationwide services available to assist the elderly and those
responsible for their care. HR is working closely with the Senate
Office of Education and Training and the Employee Assistance Program to
identify and contact agencies that may be of assistance to Senate
staff.
Training
In conjunction with the Senate Chief Counsel for Employment, HR has
worked to prepare training for department heads and staff. Some of the
topics include Sexual Harassment, Interviewing Skills, Conducting
Background Checks, Providing Feedback to Employees and Goal Setting.
These skills will further enhance the ability of our staff to comply
with office policies and advance in their professional development.
8. INFORMATION SYSTEMS
The staff of the Department of Information Systems provide
technical hardware and software support for the Office of the Secretary
of the Senate. Information Systems staff also interface closely with
the application and network development groups within the Sergeant at
Arms (SAA), the Government Printing Office (GPO), and outside vendors
on technical issues and joint projects. The Department provides
computer related support for the all LAN-based servers within the
Office of the Secretary of the Senate. Information Systems staff
provide direct application support for all software installed
workstations, evaluate new computer technologies, and implement next
generation hardware and software solutions.
The primary mission of Information Systems Department is to
continue to provide the highest level of customer satisfaction and
computer support for all departments within the office of Secretary of
the Senate. Emphasis is placed on the creation and transfer of
legislation to outside departments and agencies.
The Senate chose Windows NT as the standard network operating
system in 1997. The continuing support strategy is to enhance existing
hardware and software support provided by the Information Systems
Department, and augment that support with assistance from the Sergeant
at Arms whenever required. The Secretary's Network supports
approximately 300 user accounts and patron accounts in the Capitol,
Hart, Russell and Dirksen, along with the Page School.
For information security reasons, Secretary departments implement
isolated computer systems, unique applications, and isolated local area
networks. The Secretary of the Senate network is a closed local area
network to all offices within the Senate. Information Systems staff
continue to provide a common level of hardware and software integration
for these networks, and for the shared resources of inter-departmental
networking. Information System staff continue to actively participate
in all new project design and implementation within the Secretary of
the Senate operations.
In addition, the staff of Information Systems has continued to
expand its responsibilities. Information System staff has helped to
backfill the retirement of Senate Library technical personnel. Improved
diagnostic practices were adopted to stretch support across all
Secretary departments. Several departments, namely Disbursing, Office
of Public Records, Chief Counsel for Employment, Office of Public
Records, Page School, Senate Security, and Stationery/Gift Shop have
dedicated information technology staff within those offices.
Information Systems personnel continue to provide first level escalated
hardware and software support for these office staff members.
Summary
Senate Mail Infrastructure Project (SMI)
The original plan involved replacing all CC:MAIL servers and
gateways with a de-centralized Microsoft Outlook solution. The
Secretary's office previously had six post offices in six different
server domains. There was no central Public Address Book for all
Secretary employees. Additionally, Secretary mail requirements needed
to be refined to insure the implemented solution was both cost-
effective and reliable for the Office of the Secretary.
The Microsoft Outlook Client implementation began in August within
the Disbursing Office. The SAA scheduled implementation for the
remainder of the office staff occurred in December 2002. The initial
plan, which outlined all staff employees be enrolled in one central
server, was modified to implement three independent Mail servers; the
first for Disbursing, the second for Chief Counsel, and all other
office staff enrolled in the third post office. Support for each
Exchange server is provided by that appropriate office. Five of the six
cc:mail post offices were completed in 2002. The Office of Employment
Counsel is pending further review by the SAA Design Team.
Disbursing Office Hardware/Software Upgrade
Desktop systems in the Disbursing Office were over 4 years old and
required replacement. New hardware and web-based applications, along
with several legacy applications were installed in 2002. All
workstations, monitors, and printers were replaced for Disbursing
office staff.
Office of Public Records Upgrades
FileNet servers were retired in fiscal year 2002. This was based on
the SAA Application Development Branch rewriting the existing OPR
software. Three Microsoft SQL servers were consolidated into one server
configuration, and then replicated at the Postal Square location. For
archival purposes, a Volkswagen-size optical jukebox was retired and
replaced with Quantum snap server Updated scanners. Software was
purchased to upgrade existing office equipment. In the event of a
possible office relocation, arrangements have been made for the OPR
staff to operate and continue their scanning operation.
Digital Sender Project
A Secretary wide-initiative was developed to provide all staff with
the ability to scan, save, and electronically capture paper documents
in pdf format for archival purposes. In 2002, six additional HP Digital
sender scanners were purchased for the following departments: Chief
Counsel, Stationery, Gift Shop, Page School, Webmaster, and Bill Clerk.
Hardware and Software Upgrades
Approximately 88 percent of all department computer workstations
were upgraded and all legacy applications migrated to the Microsoft
Windows 2000 operating system in 2002. These departments include:
Disbursing, Human Resources, Public Records, Historian, Chief Counsel,
Interparliamentary Services, Bill Clerk, Legislative Clerk, Enrolling
Clerk, Parliamentarian, Daily Digest, Executive Clerk, Senate Library,
Stationery, Gift Shop, and Webster Hall.
9. INTERPARLIAMENTARY SERVICES
The Office of Interparliamentary Services (IPS) has completed its
21st year of operation. IPS is responsible for administrative,
financial, and protocol functions for all interparliamentary
conferences in which the Senate participates by statute, for
interparliamentary conferences in which the Senate participates on an
ad hoc basis, and for special delegations authorized by the Majority
and/or Minority Leaders.
The statutory interparliamentary conferences are: 1. NATO
Parliamentary Assembly; 2. Mexico-United States Interparliamentary
Group; 3. Canada-United States Interparliamentary Group; and 4.
British-American Parliamentary Group.
In May 2002, the 43th Annual Meeting of the Canada-U.S.
Interparliamentary Group was held in Rhode Island. Arrangements for
this successful event were handled by the IPS staff.
Planning is now underway for the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Mexico-
U.S. Interparliamentary Group and the British-American Parliamentary
Group meetings to be held in the United States in 2003. Advance work,
including site inspection, will be undertaken for the 45th annual
Canada-U.S. Interparliamentary Group meeting to be held in the United
States in 2004. Preparations are also underway for the spring and fall
sessions of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
All foreign travel authorized by the Leadership is arranged by the
IPS staff. In addition to delegation trips, IPS provided assistance to
individual Senators and staff traveling overseas. Senators and staff
authorized by committees for foreign travel continue to call upon this
office for assistance with passports, visas, travel arrangements, and
reporting requirements.
IPS receives and prepares for printing the quarterly financial
reports for foreign travel from all committees in the Senate. In
addition to preparing the quarterly reports for the Majority Leader,
the Minority Leader, and the President Pro Tempore, IPS staff also
assist staff members of Senators and committees in filling out the
required reports.
Interparliamentary Services maintains regular contact with the
Office of the Chief of Protocol, Department of State, and with foreign
embassy officials. Official foreign visitors are frequently received in
this office and assistance is given to individuals as well as to groups
by the IPS staff. The staff continues to work closely with other
offices of the Secretary of the Senate and the Sergeant at Arms in
arranging programs for foreign visitors. In addition, IPS is frequently
consulted by individual Senators' offices on a broad range of protocol
questions. Occasional questions come from state officials or the
general public regarding Congressional protocol.
On behalf of the Leadership, the staff arranges receptions in the
Senate for Heads of State, Heads of Government, Heads of Parliaments,
and parliamentary delegations. Required records of expenditures on
behalf of foreign visitors under authority of Public Law 100-71 are
maintained in the Office of Interparliamentary Services.
10. LIBRARY
The Senate Library provides legislative, legal, business, and
general reference services to the United States Senate. The Library's
comprehensive legislative collection consists of congressional
documents dating from the Continental Congress. In addition, the
Library maintains executive and judicial branch materials and an
extensive book collection on politics, history, and biography. These
sources, plus a wide array of online systems, assist the Library staff
in providing nonpartisan, confidential, timely, and accurate
information services.
Information Services
Patron Services
Information Services responded to 40,359 requests during 2002, a
4.6 percent increase above the 2001 total. This total included 24,205
phone, fax, and e-mail requests and 10,145 walk-in visits by Senate
staff who used resources in the Library. Tabulated for the first time
are the 6,009 times Hill staff accessed the Hot Bills List on LIS.
Patrons borrowed 1,952 books and documents and 4,467 information
packages were delivered to Senate offices.
The Library's request totals have increased at an annual rate of
four percent over the past two years. The Senate's information needs
are dramatically changing with desktop access to major online services
and research products. The Library has responded to these changing
information needs by offering new services and products and by
continuing an aggressive outreach program to the Senate community. New
services include the LIS training sessions, regularly scheduled, two-
hour sessions which utilize the librarians' extensive online skills and
considerable legislative experience. The Library's LIS telephone help
line provides continuing assistance. The Library has also made many key
sources available through the Senate Intranet, such as Information
Resources in the Senate Library, a 55-page annotated bibliography that
is tailored to the needs of Hill offices; and Presidential Vetoes, a
two-volume set that traces the legislative history of every veto since
1789. The provision of this effective database training and valuable
access to resources quickens the transition for new Senate staff in
particular.
Additional indicators that reflect the continued strong activity
are the 3,847 faxes sent and the 132,903 photocopies produced by the
Library. In addition, the Micrographics Center produced 4,421 printed
pages from the extensive collection of newspapers, magazines, and
executive branch and congressional materials.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phone, Fax, E-mail......................................... 24,205
Walk-in Visitors........................................... 10,145
Hot Bills List on LIS...................................... 6,009
------------
TOTAL REQUESTS....................................... 40,359
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Client Relations
Public relations has always been an integral part of the Library's
activities. The constant arrival of new staff underscore the importance
of successful outreach programs. Senate staff were introduced to the
many Library services during the 44 tours and seminars conducted during
2002. The schedule includes the quarterly ``Services of the Senate
Library Seminars,'' two ``State Fairs,'' five ``District-State
Seminars,'' and eight ``New Staff Seminars.'' In addition, the Library
conducted two special seminars for the Senate Page School. The success
of these efforts can be seen in the 364 new Library accounts that were
established for Senate staff during 2002.
The Library regularly assists researchers, authors, and academics,
and gives special tours to professional groups and students. During
2002, scholars from Tokyo University and the University of Cairo
conducted research in the Library. Researchers from England included
Paul Lennon, a House of Commons staff member, and author Dr. Michael
Dunne from Cambridge University. Special tours were given to staff from
the State Department, Government Printing Office, Congressional
Research Service, Justice Department, and Trinity College, and to
Parliament librarians from India and representatives from Tokyo's Far
Eastern Booksellers.
For the fifth year, the Library hosted activities in honor of
National Library Week. The events for 2002, included an open house,
dessert reception, and a book discussion. The guest speaker for the
book discussion was Senator Bill Frist, who discussed his book When
Every Moment Counts: What You Need to Know about Bioterrorism from the
Senate's Only Doctor. Forty-seven staff attended the book discussion
and 125 attended the afternoon dessert reception. These annual events
are an excellent public relations tool that appeal to frequent users
and also introduce new Senate staff to the wide array of Library
services.
The Russell Building corridor displays continue to be popular,
informative, and educational. The displays provide staff and visitors
an excellent opportunity to enjoy rare and unique books from the
Senate's rich collection. During 2002, the displays included The Nine
Capitals of the United States; Montgomery C. Meigs, Capitol Builder;
and one honoring African-American History Month.
A major goal is to provide the Library's online catalog through
Webster, the Senate's Intranet site, to the entire Senate community.
The catalog has more than 150,000 items providing access to the books,
legislative documents, periodicals, newspapers, and legal materials.
With funds appropriated for fiscal year 2003, new Oracle-based software
will be purchased, as soon as it is available, to move this project
along. Patron access to library catalogs is a standard service and the
Library will continue to work to make the catalog available to every
Senate office. In other outreach activity, the Library received a new
Webster address that makes it easier for Senate staff to access the
valuable information posted on the site (webster.senate.gov/library).
LIS
A major Library objective is to increase and improve access to the
wealth of data and information on the Legislative Information System
(LIS). Two key sources were added to the LIS homepage: the Hot Bills
List and the Fiscal Year 1988 to Fiscal Year 2003 Appropriations
Tables. These two sources list legislation and key documents associated
with the legislation, along with links to the full text of documents.
The availability of LIS to every Capitol Hill office ensures that all
congressional staff will be able to access these resources.
The Library's role in LIS development continues to expand as staff
work closely with the Congressional Research Service, Senate Computer
Center, and Senate staff. The Library teamed with CRS on major
redesigns of the bill summary and status pages; provided definitions
and documentation for the Amendment Tracking System; and initiated a
numbering system for issues of the Senate Executive Calendar. Other
ongoing projects include improvements in the Congressional Record
search requirements, LIS Alert Service training, and a proposed
database tracking congressional committee hearings. In all of these
efforts, the Library's 28 years of experience in legislative systems
(starting with Aquarius 1975) is invaluable to the success of LIS.
Senate.gov
The 2002 redesign of senate.gov involved extensive participation by
Library staff. The Library has developed and maintains more than 200
site pages that provide informative text and hundreds of information
links to additional source material. The staff's extensive knowledge of
the legislative process was critical to the success of Active
Legislation, a selective listing of key legislation with electronic
links to the full text of all related documents through Thomas and GPO
Access. The Virtual Reference Desk is an online vertical file that
traces 200 years of American history, congressional activity, and
legislative initiatives. Other contributions include annotated
bibliographies on a variety of subjects including books by current
Senators, Capitol art and architecture, and key sources on Congress and
politics. Informative How To guides have been expertly developed to
assist researchers identify and locate government documents online and
through local libraries.
Technical Services
Acquisitions
The Library acquired 9,797 new items in 2002, which includes books,
congressional and executive branch documents, and microforms. This
represents a 4 percent increase over the previous year. Included in the
new items were 628 books and reference volumes (an 80 percent increase
from last year), 5,799 congressional documents, and 3,370 executive
branch publications. The 80 percent increase in new book arrivals was
due to the fourth quarter 2001 mail delivery embargo and the resulting
large number of arrivals during the first quarter of 2002.
Two major acquisitions were the Unpublished U.S. Senate Committee
Hearings, 1977-1980 and Presidential Executive Orders and
Proclamations, 1921-1983. The 1,040 unpublished Senate hearings were
previously only available at the National Archives, and the executive
orders completes a collection that totals more than 58,000 presidential
documents. These titles, which provide the full text of the documents
with excellent indexes, are important additions to the permanent
collection.
The Acquisitions Librarian selected several titles for the
Library's collection throughout 2002. Works on the early republic,
constitutional history, biographies of the founders, and American
expedition were very prominent. Representative titles include Journals
of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 1795-1820; Latrobe's View of America, 1795-
1820; John Marshall and the Heroic Age of the Supreme Court; Aaron
Burr: Conspiracy to Treason; Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark
Expedition, 1804-1806; John Adams and the Founding of the Republic;
Martin Van Buren and the Emergence of American Popular Politics; and
John Hancock: Merchant King and American Patriot. New acquisitions are
announced in the monthly New Books List. The list is available through
the Library's Intranet site and distributed to Senate offices.
In other acquisitions activity, the Congressional Documents Clerk
captured 2,000 pages from committee Web sites. Congressional sites are
carefully monitored for those elusive materials that are only available
online and often only available for a limited time. The Senate Finance
Committee made a significant addition to the permanent collection by
donating materials dating from the 1930s, and the Clerk prepared five
volumes of hearings and 11 volumes of committee prints from these
previously unavailable materials. The Library received 100 committee
print volumes from the House Appropriations Committee following the
loss of their storage area due to the Capitol Visitor Center
construction. These volumes were reviewed, prepared and added to the
Senate's collection.
Cataloging
The cataloging team added a total 4,558 new titles to the Library's
catalog, which included 3,451 congressional publications. Efforts
focused on rare Senate treaties, executive reports, and older committee
hearings. The Senate Library is often the only depository for these
rare items and the cataloging requires great skill and considerable
experience with legislative materials. This original cataloging is
extremely time consuming and demands great care to meet the Library's
quality standard. As the important retrospective cataloging project
continues, the overall cataloging totals will decline, which occurred
during 2002 with a 22 percent decline.
Government Publications Collection
Although the total number of government documents received during
2002 was virtually unchanged from the previous year's level, a dramatic
change did take place: there is a one-third decline in paper documents
in favor of electronic dissemination. The Cataloguing Technician and
the Reference Librarians are reviewing the list of electronic titles
provided through GPO. Once selections are finalized, URL links to the
documents will be added to the Library's online catalog.
This is the second year of the Library's ongoing review of
executive branch publications received through the Federal Depository
Library Program. In this two-phase project, librarians review every
title received and then evaluate the existing holdings. The review team
is headed by the Cataloging Technician, who is joined by the Government
Documents Clerk and the Head of Information Services. In 2002, 6,730
outdated, superseded, or surplus items were withdrawn from the
collection, and 4,385 of these items were offered to other federal
depository libraries. It was gratifying that 2,587 items (59 percent)
were claimed and delivered to requesting libraries. During the second
phase, 185 item numbers were deselected from the Library's depository
selection list. Retention or removal decisions are determined by patron
use and alternative access, primarily online availability.
Warehouse
A detailed review of the Library's offsite storage requirements was
submitted to the Sergeant at Arms in September 2002. The proposal
considered growth for both ten and twenty years, utilized fixed
shelving, and provided for industry standard environmental controls and
security. Current storage facilities are less than optimum, creating
some potential risk to our rare collections. However, the Library
continues to work with the Sergeant at Arms to address this issue.
Library.Solution, the Library's Integrated Online Catalog
The Library's computerized catalog, Library.Solution, provided by
The Library Corporation (TLC), was installed in January, 2000. The
system houses 152,149 items containing bibliographic records to
legislative and legal materials, books, periodicals, serials, and
microforms. Through the watchful oversight and perseverance of the Head
of Technical Services, the system's performance has dramatically
improved. In 2002, there were several new software upgrades for
circulation and serials that improved module flexibility and
functionality. The increased functionality reduced daily maintenance
and improved search capabilities (regular catalog maintenance is
necessary for efficient and accurate retrieval). During 2002, 25,495
maintenance transactions were recorded, which included creating and
editing authority headings, editing existing records, barcoding new
volumes, editing PURLS from electronic resources, and withdrawing
records for discarded materials.
Collection Maintenance, Preservation, Binding, and Equipment
Maintenance and preservation projects have resulted in a better-
organized and environmentally protected collection. The Library's
historic collection of more than 125,000 volumes requires constant
monitoring of environmental conditions. The prevention of mold is
accomplished by maintaining temperatures below 70 degrees and humidity
levels below 50 percent. However, these levels can be very difficult to
achieve in the Russell Building location. Dehumidifiers operate 24
hours a day and satisfactorily control the humidity, but the
ventilation system is not always capable of maintaining acceptable air
quality and temperature levels. Another major concern is the
crisscrossing maze of century-old water pipes hovering just a few feet
above the historic collection. To mitigate this concern, constant
monitoring is necessary and historic volumes have been moved to safer
areas.
The Library has begun to develop in-house expertise in regard to
bookbinding and paper conservation. The Congressional Documents Clerk
works closely with the Secretary's Department of Conservation and
Preservation to learn basic skills.
In response to the Senate's transition to electronic access to
information, the Library acquired a book scanner and a second microform
reader printer. It is now possible to scan documents from text sources
and microform and electronically transmit those images to any
workstation anywhere. The versatility of this technology cannot be
overstated since images can be stored, edited, or reproduced to meet
the individual needs of the user.
Staff Development
During 2002, Library staff participated in 58 training sessions,
workshops, and professional development seminars. New Library staff
have a particularly active training schedule and veteran staff are
required to maintain and upgrade skill levels. Database training
sessions included Lexis-Nexis, Westlaw, OCLC, Excel, CQ Online,
PhotoShop, and Web publishing. Technical Services staff attended
several skill enhancement classes including copy cataloging, Library of
Congress subject headings, serial holdings, and cataloging concepts.
Reference Librarians completed the CRS Advanced Legislative Process
Institute in November, and other staff completed Documentum Web
Publishing Training in October. Other activities included seminars on
the legislative process, bookbinding techniques, legal research,
disaster recovery, effective writing, and several seminars focused on
Capitol history.
UNUM, Newsletter of the Office of the Secretary of the Senate
UNUM, Newsletter of the Office of the Secretary of the Senate, was
published four times during 2002. The Chief Editor continues to lead a
team of talented volunteers and cope with constant deadlines and
revised text. Joined by two experienced co-editors, along with other
contributors from the Library staff, the newsletter includes detailed
profiles of offices and individuals within the Secretary's Office,
institutional histories and book reviews, in addition to other current
and pertinent topics of interest to the Senate community.
Other Projects
The Library continued to support the Friends of Tyler School, a
tutoring program for Capitol Hill's Tyler Elementary School, by making
weekly donations of unneeded magazines. These are basic educational
resources that would be unavailable to most of the children. Other
surplus magazines were sent to the Senate Page School for inclusion in
the packages sent to soldiers stationed overseas.
The Senior Reference Librarian proofread and copyedited the soon-
to-be published catalog of the Office of Senate Curator.
Budget
The sixth year of aggressive budget reviews delivered reductions
totaling $12,511.52. The targeted expenditure categories were
subscriptions and standing orders ($5,011.52) and online service
contracts ($7,500.00). The reductions for the past six years total
$59,205.34, and these efforts have been critical in offsetting cost
increases for core materials. The Senate's ever-changing information
needs require comprehensive annual reviews of collection expenditures.
These evaluations can be difficult, but they ensure that the Senate
will receive the highest level of service using the latest technologies
and the best available resources. These considerable goals will be
accomplished within budget and without compromising service.
Major Library Goals for 2003
Major 2003 goals are the continuation of the active client
relations program and personalized service that have been key to the
Library's success. Our long-term goal of 40,000 annual requests was
reached in 2002. The goal now is to build on this success with an
additional 3 percent increase in 2003.
The aggressive budget review program will continue in 2003, with
the target for another three percent reduction. During the six years of
budget reviews, most of the major reductions have been implemented, so
future reductions will be less substantial. The key to all reductions
is that they not comprise information services to the Senate.
Document preservation is a critical issue, and the Library will
continue working with the two major recovery firms, BMS Catastrophe and
Munters. These firms can restore critical working papers and historic
documents that have suffered from fire or water damage.
The senate.gov design team will continue to maintain existing pages
and expand the offerings made available to the public. The site will
provide many new products, including several that will provide a
greater understanding of Congress, the legislative process, and
representative democracy.
Teams from Technical Services and Information Services will
continue the review of executive branch materials and significant
portions of that collection will be deaccessioned. The titles will be
discontinued from Library's depository selections list and deleted from
the online catalog. All deaccessioned holdings will be offered to other
libraries and information centers.
SENATE LIBRARY STATISTICS FOR CALENDAR YEAR 2002--ACQUISITIONS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Books Government Documents Congressional Publications
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reports/ Total
Ordered Received Paper Fiche Hearings Prints Bylaw Docs
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January..................................... 20 37 194 53 300 12 23 114 733
February.................................... 27 35 179 108 154 15 21 61 573
March....................................... 30 25 201 23 223 10 25 62 569
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st Quarter........................... 77 97 574 184 677 37 69 237 1,875
===========================================================================================================
April....................................... 20 44 301 43 294 18 65 166 931
May......................................... 16 45 183 230 267 11 72 119 927
June........................................ 25 51 175 80 235 18 76 169 804
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2nd Quarter........................... 61 140 659 353 796 47 213 454 2,662
===========================================================================================================
July........................................ 28 60 296 138 244 10 79 107 934
August...................................... 5 65 134 86 284 13 29 196 807
September................................... 30 67 144 41 364 9 36 287 948
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3rd Quarter........................... 63 192 574 265 892 32 144 590 2,689
===========================================================================================================
October..................................... 30 81 167 135 237 13 99 421 1,153
November.................................... 15 73 151 43 241 10 25 120 663
December.................................... 17 45 162 103 251 13 26 155 755
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4th Quarter........................... 62 199 480 281 729 36 150 696 2,571
===========================================================================================================
2002 Total............................ 263 628 2,287 1,083 3,094 152 576 1,977 9,797
2001 Total............................ 321 347 3,431 724 3,054 293 391 1,225 9,465
===========================================================================================================
Percent Change.............................. -18.07 80.98 -33.34 49.59 1.31 -48.12 47.31 61.39 3.51
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SENATE LIBRARY STATISTICS FOR CALENDAR YEAR 2002--CATALOGING
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OCLC Records Produced
Hearing #s ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Total
Added to Government Documents Congressional Publications Records
LEGIS Books ----------------------------------------------------------------- Produced
Paper Fiche Hearings Prints Docs./Pubs.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January......................................... 0 53 10 85 130 14 41 333
February........................................ 15 35 51 1 437 3 69 596
March........................................... 1 33 17 13 249 7 50 369
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st Quarter............................... 16 121 78 99 816 24 160 1,298
=======================================================================================================
April........................................... 23 29 13 1 207 16 30 296
May............................................. 10 24 29 43 388 3 33 520
June............................................ 9 33 8 2 255 17 55 370
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2nd Quarter............................... 42 86 50 46 850 36 118 1,186
=======================================================================================================
July............................................ 0 39 30 10 384 6 55 524
August.......................................... 0 11 35 0 134 6 26 212
September....................................... 5 35 203 7 205 13 59 522
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3rd Quarter............................... 5 85 268 17 723 25 140 1,258
=======================================================================================================
October......................................... 0 60 20 0 144 17 12 253
November........................................ 36 48 18 0 215 14 21 316
December........................................ 0 30 54 21 125 7 10 247
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4th Quarter............................... 36 138 92 21 484 38 43 816
=======================================================================================================
2002 Total................................ 99 430 488 183 2,873 123 461 4,558
2001 Total................................ 103 772 411 531 3,668 236 207 5,825
=======================================================================================================
Percent Change.................................. -3.88 -44.30 18.73 -65.54 -21.67 -47.88 122.71 -21.75
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SENATE LIBRARY STATISTICS FOR CALENDAR YEAR 2002--DOCUMENT DELIVERY
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Micrographics Photocopiers
Volumes Materials Facsimiles Center Pages Pages
Loaned Delivered Printed Printed
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January........................................ 219 384 743 651 10,436
February....................................... 155 386 631 356 8,230
March.......................................... 200 406 650 966 10,125
----------------------------------------------------------------
1st Quarter.............................. 574 1,176 2,024 1,973 28,791
================================================================
April.......................................... 203 511 389 195 14,912
May............................................ 142 366 640 139 11,026
June........................................... 203 402 648 733 14,524
----------------------------------------------------------------
2nd Quarter.............................. 548 1,279 1,677 1,067 40,462
================================================================
July........................................... 284 410 732 160 9,220
August......................................... 97 322 482 252 10,647
September...................................... 127 310 625 208 15,976
----------------------------------------------------------------
3rd Quarter.............................. 508 1,042 1,839 620 35,843
================================================================
October........................................ 154 429 622 275 9,626
November....................................... 96 261 486 342 9,295
December....................................... 72 280 500 144 8,886
----------------------------------------------------------------
4th Quarter.............................. 322 970 1,608 761 27,807
================================================================
2002 Total............................... 1,952 4,467 7,148 4,421 132,903
2001 Total............................... 2,148 4,791 4,551 7,810 168,769
================================================================
Percent Change................................. -9.12 -6.76 57.06 -43.39 -21.25
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11. SENATE PAGE SCHOOL
The United States Senate Page School provides a smooth transition
from and to the students' home schools. The pages are given as sound a
program, both academically and experientially, as possible during their
stay in the nation's capital, balancing a unique work situation with
the Senate's demanding schedule.
Summary of Accomplishments
Accreditation for the page school continues until December 31,
2008. The Middle States Commission on Secondary Schools reviewed the
progress report filed by the U.S. Senate Page School and determined no
further reports are required.
In the last school year, two page classes successfully completed
their semester curriculum. Closing ceremonies were conducted on June 7,
2002, and January 24, 2003, the last day of school for each semester.
Extended educational experiences were provided to pages. Nineteen
field trips, seven guest speakers, opportunities to compete in writing
contests, to play musical instruments, and to continue foreign language
study with the aid of tutors were all afforded pages. Twelve field
trips to educational sites were provided for summer pages as an
extension of the page experience. National tests were administered for
qualification in scholarship programs as well.
Given the uniqueness of the pages' roles, greater coordination of
communication among all responsible parties--the Secretary's Office,
the Sergeant at Arms, Page Program, Page School, and Cloakrooms--has
been established. In addition, an evacuation plan and COOP have been
completed. Pages and staff have practiced evacuations to primary and
secondary sites. Escape hood training is provided to all pages, staff,
and tutors and staff have been retrained in CPR.
Faculty have also pursued professional development opportunities
with additional courses.
A community service project has been embraced by pages and staff,
now for three classes. Items for gift packages were collected,
assembled, and shipped to military personnel in Afghanistan, Kuwait,
Oman, Germany, Japan and the U.S.S. Essex. Pages included letters of
support to the troops participating in Operation Enduring Freedom. In
gratitude, letters, a certificate of appreciation and flags were sent
to the Page School by the 145th and the 774th Expeditionary Airlift
Squadrons.
Summary of Goals
For the coming year, the goals of the administration and staff of
the Senate page school include:
--Tutoring by teachers on an as-needed basis, and individualized
small group instruction will be offered.
--Foreign language tutors will provide instruction in French,
Spanish, and German.
--The focus of field trips will be sites of historic, political, and
scientific importance.
--Staff development options will include additional computer
training, seminars conducted by Education and Training, subject
matter conferences conducted by national organizations, and
formal graduate work.
--Creation of curriculum to support a summer academic session will be
completed for consideration.
12. PRINTING AND DOCUMENT SERVICES
The Office of Printing and Document Services is responsible for
managing the printing and/or distribution of the Senate's official
Title 44, U.S. Code printing requirements. The office manages Senate
Printing expenses, and functions as the Government Printing Office
(GPO) liaison to schedule and/or distribute Senate bills and reports to
the Senate Chamber, staff, and the public. The department provides page
counts of Senate hearings to commercial reporting companies and Senate
committees; orders and tracks all paper and envelopes provided to the
Senate; provides general printing services for Senate offices; and
assures that all Senate printing is in compliance with Title 44, U.S.
Code, as it relates to Senate documents, hearings, committee prints,
and other official publications.
During 2002, OPDS staff maintained all services and fulfilled all
daily requirements of the office. Additionally, the office has
continued to implement efforts to consolidate duties and cross-train
personnel, thereby ensuring office continuity. Under this ``cross-
working'' program newly learned skills are continually honed and
customer service is upgraded. Printing department staff and document
specialists work hand-in-hand to provide quick response to changes
within the department and provide better human resource management.
During 2002, OPDS provided commercial reporting companies and
corresponding Senate committees a total of 952 billing verifications of
Senate hearings and business meetings. This is an average of 50
hearings/meetings per committee, a 4.1 percent increase over 2001.
Billing verifications are how the reporting committees request payment
from a Senate committee for transcription services. Although some
hearings are cancelled or postponed, they still require payment to the
reporting company.
The OPDS utilizes a program developed in conjunction with the
Sergeant at Arms Computer Division that provides more billing accuracy
and greater information gathering capacity, while adhering to the
guidelines established by the Senate Committee on Rules and
Administration for commercial reporting companies to bill the Senate
for transcription services.
HEARING TRANSCRIPT AND BILLING VERIFICATIONS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PERCENT
2000 2001 2002 CHANGE 2002/
2001
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Billing Verifications....................................... 910 1,004 952 -5.4
Average per Committee....................................... 43 48 50 4.1
Total Transcribed Pages..................................... 61,898 72,799 71,558 -1.7
Average Pages/Committee..................................... 2,814 3,467 3,766 8.6
Transcribed Pages Cost...................................... $401,231 $479,921 $471,807 -0.2
Average Cost/Committee...................................... $18,238 $22,853 $24,832 8.6
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
During fiscal year 2002, the OPDS prepared 5,794 printing and
binding requisitions authorizing the GPO to print and bind the Senate's
work, exclusive of legislation and the Congressional Record. This is an
increase of 8.2 percent over the number of requisitions processed
during fiscal year 2001. Because the requisitioning done by the OPDS is
central to the Senate's printing, the office is uniquely suited to
perform invoice and bid reviewing responsibilities for Senate Printing.
Within the OPDS cost accounting duties lies its ability to review and
assure accurate GPO invoicing as well as play an active role in helping
to provide the best possible bidding scenario for Senate publications.
In addition to processing requisitions, the Printing Services
Section coordinates job scheduling, proof handling and job tracking for
stationery products, Senate hearings, Senate publications and other
miscellaneous printed products, as well as monitoring blank paper and
stationery quotas for each Senate office and committee. The OPDS also
coordinates a number of publications for other Senate offices,
including the Curator, the Historian, Disbursing, and Legislative
Clerk, along with the U.S. Botanic Garden, U.S. Capitol Police and the
Architect of the Capitol. Last year's major printing projects included
the Report of the Secretary of the Senate, the New Senator's Guide, the
Senate Manual, Leader's Lecture Series brochure, the U.S. Senate
Catalogue of Fine Art, as well as a 500 page four-color case bound
book, History of the United States Capitol.
The Service Center within the OPDS is staffed by experienced GPO
detailees that provide Senate committees and the Secretary of the
Senate's Office with complete publishing services for hearings,
committee prints, and the preparation of the Congressional Record.
These services include keyboarding, proofreading, scanning, and
composition. The Service Center provides the best management of funds
available through the Congressional Printing and Binding Appropriation
as committees have been able to decrease or eliminate additional
overtime costs associated with the preparation of hearings.
The DocuTech Service Center within the OPDS is also staffed by
experienced GPO detailees that provide Member offices and Senate
committees with on-demand printing and binding of bills and reports, as
well as supplementing depleted legislation. In 2002, the DocuTech
Center produced 656 jobs for a total of 801,888 printed pages.
The Document Services Section coordinates requests for printed
legislation and miscellaneous publications with other departments
within the Secretary's Office, Senate committees, and the GPO. This
section ensures that the most current version of all material is
available, and that sufficient quantities are available to meet
projected demands.
DOCUMENT SERVICES--CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2000 2001 2002
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Pages Printed............................................. 28,232 25,051 29,690
For the Senate.............................................. 12,469 14,084 14,489
For the House............................................... 15,763 10,967 15,201
Total Copies Printed & Distributed.............................. 1,300,000 1,300,000 1,268,603
To the Senate............................................... 450,842 318,572 439,953
To the House................................................ 308,842 459,477 301,383
To the Executive Branch and the Public...................... 540,316 492,915 532,813
Total Production Costs.......................................... $14,966.755 $15,428,530 $13,488,381
Senate Costs................................................ $6,364,265 $7,452,933 $6,339,539
House Costs................................................. $7,920,490 $7,333,134 $6,609,307
Other Costs................................................. $682,000 $642,462 $539,535
Per Copy Cost................................................... $11.51 $12.14 $10.63
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In 2002, a total of 29,690 pages were printed in the Congressional
Record. Of this total, 14,489 were printed for the Senate, and 15,201
pages were printed for the House of Representatives. These page counts
are comprised of the Proceedings of the Senate and the House of
Representatives, Extension of Remarks, Daily Digest and miscellaneous
pages. This is 4,639 more pages than were produced in 2001, an increase
of 18.5 percent. A total of approximately 1.3 million copies of the
Congressional Record were printed and distributed in 2002. The Senate
received 439,953 copies, the House 301,383, with the remaining 532,813
delivered to the Executive Branch agencies and the general public.
The OPDS continually tracks demand for all classifications of
Congressional legislation. Twice a year the office adjusts the number
of documents ordered by classification. The goal is to adjust numbers
ordered in each classification to closely match demand and thereby
reduce waste. In recent years, the OPDS has taken a more aggressive
approach to reducing waste of less requested legislation. The office
supplements depleted legislation where needed by producing additional
copies in the DocuTech Service Center as previously mentioned. While
OPDS curtails waste, at the same time, the office pledges never to run
out of copies of legislation.
The primary responsibility of the Documents Services Section is to
provide services to the Senate. However, the responsibility to the
general public, the press, and other government agencies is virtually
indistinguishable from these services provided to the Senate. Requests
for material are received at the walk-in counter, through the mail, by
fax, phone, and e-mail. Recorded messages, fax, and e-mail operate
around the clock and are processed as they are received, as are mail
requests.
SUMMARY OF ANNUAL STATISTICS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONGRESS/ CALLS PUBLIC FAX COUNTER
CALENDAR YEAR SESSION RECEIVED MAIL REQUEST E-MAIL REQUEST
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1999.......................................... 106/1st 27,570 6,872 5,162 N/A 156,454
2000.......................................... 106/2nd 17,356 4,066 3,129 112 95,186
2001 \1\...................................... 107/1st 16,186 3,449 2,093 621 88,769
2002 \1\...................................... 107/2nd 15,732 3,637 1,866 662 55,930
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ NOTE: From October 17, 2001 until January 22, 2002, the Document Room was displaced to the Capitol and
operated with one telephone and one computer.
Online Ordering
The OPDS is continuing to seek new ways to use technology to assist
Members and staff with added services and enhancements to current
methods. Beginning in late 2000, Senate offices, by way of a link to
the Secretary of the Senate's home Web page, could order legislative
documents online. Via the same link, a Legislative Hot List Link was
launched where Members and staff can confirm arrival of printed copies
of the most sought after legislative documents. The site is updated
several times daily, and each time new documents arrive from GPO in the
Document Room. Efforts are also under way to provide the capability of
online ordering of blank paper for Member offices and Senate
committees.
13. PUBLIC RECORDS
The Office of Public Records receives, processes, and maintains
records, reports, and other documents filed with the Secretary of the
Senate involving the Federal Election Campaign Act, as amended; the
Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995; the Senate Code of Official Conduct:
Rule 34, Public Financial Disclosure; Rule 35, Senate Gift Rule
filings; Rule 40, Registration of Mass Mailing; Rule 41, Political Fund
Designees; and Rule 41(6), Supervisor's Reports on Individuals
Performing Senate Services; and Foreign Travel Reports.
The office provides for the inspection, review, and reproduction of
these documents. From October, 2001, through September, 2002, the
Public Records office staff assisted more than 2,000 individuals
seeking information from reports filed with the office. This figure
does not include assistance provided by telephone, nor help given to
lobbyists attempting to comply with the provisions of the Lobbying
Disclosure Act of 1995. A total of 95,630 photocopies were sold in the
period. In addition, the office works closely with the Federal Election
Commission, the Senate Select Committee on Ethics and the Clerk of the
U.S. House of Representatives concerning the filing requirements of the
aforementioned Acts and Senate rules.
Fiscal Year 2002 Accomplishments
The office deployed its disaster recovery plan prepared in fiscal
year 2001 with the closure of the Hart Senate Office Building. Based
upon the review of that plan and a ``look backward'' to see how the
plan worked, the office made changes to the plan in order to be even
better prepared. An off-site scanning facility was established in
coordination with the Sergeant at Arms. Additionally, the identical
hardware and software are nearly in place in the Public Records office
to allow for reciprocity for Public Records and SAA scanning functions.
The office staff was also involved as participants on the content teams
for senate.gov.
Automation Activities
During fiscal year 2002, the Senate Office of Public Records
transferred its public financial disclosure and FECA records from WORM
disk storage to digital storage on a server by rewriting these two
applications. The value to the Senate is that in the event of a COOP
activation, these records become easily accessible off site.
Federal Election Campaign Act, as amended
The Act required Senate candidates to file quarterly reports in an
election year. Filings totaled 3,320 documents containing 213,968
pages. The page count represents a greater than 100 percent increase
over last year. This was due to changes in the FECA forms that reduced
the amount of information that could be disclosed on a page.
Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995
The Act requires semi-annual financial and lobbying activity
reports. As of September 30, 2002, 5,536 registrants represented 17,575
clients and employed 21,089 individuals who met the statutory
definition of ``lobbyist.'' The total number of lobbying registrations
and reports were 36,587.
Public Financial Disclosure
The filing date for Public Financial Disclosure Reports was May 15,
2002. The reports were available to the public and press by Friday,
June 14th. Copies were provided to the Select Committee on Ethics and
the appropriate State officials. A total of 2,457 reports and
amendments were filed containing 14,084 pages. There were 359 requests
to review or receive copies of the documents.
Senate Rule 35 (Gift Rule)
The Senate Office of Public Records received over 1,320 reports
during fiscal year 2002.
Registration of Mass Mailing
Senators are required to file mass mailings on a quarterly basis.
The number of pages was 655.
Plans for Fiscal Year 2003
The Public Records office plans to enhance its lobbying web site by
offering an on-line tutorial video that provides e-filers with
information that makes the program easier to use. The office is also in
the process of developing a manual detailing the policies and
procedures of the Public Records Revolving Fund. In addition, at the
request of the Secretary, the General Accounting Office will conduct an
audit of the fiscal year 2002 transactions of Public Records' Revolving
Fund. At the request of the Secretary, the General Accounting Office
will conduct an audit of the fiscal year 2002 transactions of the
Public Records' revolving fund.
14. SENATE SECURITY
The Office of Senate Security is responsible for the administration
of classified information programs in Senate offices and committees. In
addition, OSS serves as the Senate's liaison to the Executive Branch in
matters relating to the security of classified information in the
Senate.
Personnel Security
In 2002, OSS processed 1,833 personnel security actions. Seventy-
two investigations for new security clearances were initiated last
year, and eighty security clearances were transferred from other
agencies. Senate regulations, as well as some Executive Branch
regulations, require that individuals granted Top Secret security
clearances be reinvestigated at least every five years. Staff holding
Secret security clearances are reinvestigated every ten years. During
the past 12 months, reinvestigations were initiated on 59 Senate
employees. OSS processed 140 routine terminations of security
clearances during the reporting period and transmitted 288 outgoing
visit requests.
The remainder of the personnel security actions consisted of
updating access authorizations and compartments. In addition, 206
records checks were conducted at the request of investigative agencies
supporting the personnel security program.
Security Awareness
OSS conducted or hosted 78 security briefings for Senate staff.
Topics included: information security, counterintelligence, foreign
travel, security managers' responsibilities, office security
management, and introductory security briefings.
Document Control
OSS received or generated 2,419 classified documents consisting of
69,670 pages during calendar year 2002. Additionally, 114,712 pages
from 3,244 classified documents which were no longer required for the
conduct of official Senate business were destroyed. OSS transferred 674
documents consisting of 27,275 pages to Senate offices or external
agencies. Overall, Senate Security completed 6,337 document
transactions and handled over 211,657 pages of classified material in
2002, an increase of 17.2 percent.
In addition to the classified documents destroyed by OSS,
approximately 866 linear feet of sensitive but unclassified material
was destroyed for various committees.
Secure storage of classified material in the OSS vault was provided
for 106 Senators, committees, and support offices. This arrangement
minimizes the number of multiple storage areas throughout the Capitol
and Senate office buildings, thereby affording greater security for
classified material.
15. STATIONERY ROOM
The Senate Stationery Room's principal functions are: (1) to sell
stationery items for use by Senate offices and other authorized
legislative organizations, (2) to select a variety of stationery items
to meet the needs of the Senate environment on a day-to-day basis and
maintain a sufficient inventory of these items, (3) to purchase
supplies utilizing open market procurement, competitive bid and/or GSA
Federal Supply Schedules, (4) to maintain individual official
stationery expense accounts for Senators, Committees, and Officers of
the Senate, (5) to render monthly expense statements, (6) to insure
receipt of all reimbursements for all purchases by the client base via
direct payments or through the certification process, (7) to make
payments to all vendors of record for supplies and services in a timely
manner and certify receipt of all supplies and services, and (8) to
provide delivery of all purchased supplies to the requesting offices.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fiscal Year Fiscal Year
2002 2001
Statistical Statistical
Operations Operations
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gross Sales............................ $4,628,342 $3,610,804
Sales Transactions..................... 61,479 62,970
Purchase Orders Issued................. 6,218 6,770
Vouchers Processed..................... 7,376 7,951
Metro Fare Media Sold.................. 41,558 19,621
$20.00 Media....................... (36,943) ..............
$10.00 Media....................... (1,978) ..............
$5.00 Media........................ (2,637) ..............
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Stationery Room continues to work on the final phase of the
voucher upload process. Fiscal year 2002 was the first full year in
which voucher information was submitted using a customized spreadsheet
interface with the Disbursing Office to pay vendors. This process has
eliminated the duplicate efforts previously required in the voucher
payment process between the Stationery Room and the Disbursing Office.
The final phase to be completed in fiscal year 2003 will incorporate an
automated voucher payment reconciliation.
During fiscal year 2002, the Stationery Room completed the
formation, development and deployment of its automated physical
inventory process. This process utilizes radio frequency technology
which is transmitted from the inventory data collectors back to the
application software residing on the servers. This new process has
eliminated the download time which was previously required to transfer
data.
The Accounts Receivable interface with the Disbursing Office was
finalized after development and testing. Initially started in the
middle of fiscal year 2000, this process involves importing expenditure
information from each customer account that is certified for
reimbursement in a Disbursing Office system format. It is then
transmitted via e-mail and uploaded to the Disbursing Office system for
reimbursement to the Stationery Room Revolving Fund. This process has
eliminated the need for issuance of paper checks which required
considerable staff time for both organizations in the past.
Implementation of the Web FMIS access for the Stationery Room was
installed for testing during March 2002, and additional programming was
needed to address issues to accommodate Revolving Fund accounts. This
project will eventually allow for key Stationery Room staff to access
the Disbursing Office via the Web to perform a number of operations,
which were previously time consuming and staff intensive. This project
has been three years in the making due to the shear volume of
transactions generated by the Stationery Room. Time-out errors also
occurred because of this volume and were recently resolved by the FMIS
project team.
The Stationery Room will draft a requirements report during fiscal
year 2003, that will outline upgrading to new application software for
the operation, using appropriated monies for fiscal year 2003. It is
envisioned that this document will be all inclusive and will take into
account the latest technologies in the industry and the unique needs of
the Senate.
In addition, at the request of the Secretary, the General
Accounting Office will conduct an audit of the fiscal year 2002
transactions of the Stationery Room's Revolving Fund.
16. WEBMASTER
The Webmaster is responsible for the three web sites that fall
under the purview of the Secretary of the Senate: the public Senate Web
site, www.senate.gov (except individual Senator and Committee pages);
the Secretary web site on the Senate intranet, Webster; and an intranet
site currently under construction that is intended for use by Secretary
staff only. The focus of the past year was a redesign of the Senate Web
site.
The Senate Web Site: http://www.senate.gov
Background
The senate.gov Web site was created in 1995. A 1998 redesign for
the 106th Congress included a database for Senator/Committee
information; daily updates on legislative activities; roll call vote
tallies; and an expanded section, Learning About the Senate section. A
project to redesign www.senate.gov and implement a Web Content
Management System (WCMS) began in the fall of 2001 and continued
through 2002. The new web site was launched October 30, 2002, and work
continued through the rest of the year on further enhancements. Plans
are underway to launch special presentations and micro-sites in phased
launches in 2003 and 2004.
Implementation of a Web Content Management System provided many
advantages to the Senate including: allowing content to be published by
content owners without web formatting skills; completing a content
analysis and restructuring using XML tags allowing for repurposing of
content; a new design and navigation structure based on the content
analysis, best practices and customer usability studies; and the
creation of seven content teams to identify new content and maintain
current content on the site. Over thirty Senate staff worked on the
project.
Training and Support Requirements
Documentation and how-to manuals for working with the WCMS were
provided by a contractor. Senate staff are continually training and are
constantly working to support the WCMS and the Web site.
Future www.senate.gov Projects
Possible further enhancements to the web site over the next two to
three years include increasing content, improving content presentation,
and creating special multimedia presentations such as using XML to
structure and present the Isaac Bassett collection; converting to a web
format two animated features developed by the Curator for the Capitol
kiosk; developing a special feature on Senate desks; and producing a
retrospective on inaugurals. These special presentations are small
projects that may be priced and contracted separately.
Webster
Webster, the Senate Intranet, is available only to Senate staff
within the Senate complex and in state office locations. The Webster
intranet navigation is currently divided by organization. Senate staff
must know which organization provides a service in order to locate
information about that service on the web site. The Secretary and the
Sergeant at Arms are currently evaluating the feasibility of initiating
a project to redesign Webster to include a comprehensive list of
services across all service organizations and a common navigation and
user interface that would be agreed on by the major contributors.
The Secretary's presence on Webster would be redesigned
accordingly. A requirements analysis would be necessary to determine
which of the Secretary's many services Senate staff want to access
online and how best to deliver them. The Disbursing Office and the
Office of Public Records already offer fillable forms online and staff
can order documents from the Document Room via an online ordering form.
Any redesign plan will likely include development of an online ordering
system for Stationery supplies. The Documentum 4i Content Management
System used for senate.gov could also be used for Webster.
LEGISLATIVE INFORMATION SYSTEM (LIS) PROJECT
The Legislative Information System (LIS) is a mandated system
(Section 8 of the 1997 Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2 U.S.C.
123e) that provides desktop access to the content and status of
legislative information and supporting documents. The 1997 Legislative
Branch Appropriations Act (2 U.S.C. 181) also established a program for
providing the widest possible exchange of information among legislative
branch agencies. The long-range goal of the LIS Project is to provide a
``comprehensive Senate Legislative Information System'' to capture,
store, manage, and distribute Senate documents. Several components of
the LIS have been implemented, and the project is currently focused on
a Senate-wide implementation and transition to a standard system for
the authoring and exchange of legislative documents that will greatly
enhance the availability and re-use of legislative documents within the
Senate and with other legislative branch agencies. The LIS Project
Office manages the project and oversees the Senate's outside
contractors.
Background: LIS
An April 1997 joint Senate and House report recommended
establishment of a data standards program and recommended the Standard
Generalized Markup Language (SGML) as ``an appropriate technology on
which to base the preparation of legislative information and document
management systems.'' Since that time, as anticipated, a subset of SGML
known as the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) became an industry
standard, and in December 2000, the Senate Committee on Rules and
Administration and the Committee on House Administration jointly
accepted XML as the primary data standard to be used for the exchange
of legislative documents and information.
Following the implementation of the Legislative Information System
(LIS) in January 2000, and the transfer of operations and maintenance
of the LIS to the Office of the Sergeant at Arms (SAA) in March 2000,
the LIS Project Office shifted its focus to procuring system
development services in support of an LIS Augmentation Project (LISAP).
The LISAP is focused on the data standard component to provide a
Senate-wide implementation and transition to XML for the authoring and
exchange of legislative documents. This component of the LISAP also
includes the review and update of existing document type definitions
(DTD), development of new DTDs, the conversion of legacy documents to
XML formats, and conversion of documents in other formats to XML.
A database of documents in XML format and an improved exchange
process will result in quicker and better access to legislative
information and will provide documents that can be more easily shared,
reused, and re-purposed. Parts of one XML document can be reused in
another XML document because the document structure is similar and the
format of the data (XML) is standard. As more and more documents are
created in the XML format, the necessity for re-keying or converting
from one format to another (HTML to WordPerfect or XyWrite locator to
Word or Word to WordPerfect, etc.) will disappear.
The LISAP incremental development approach has helped the LIS
Project Office build user acceptance, manage costs and adjust quickly
when needed. The initial focus for the LISAP is to develop an XML
authoring system for the Office of the Senate Legislative Counsel (SLC)
and the Office of the Enrolling Clerk for bills, resolutions and
amendments. Collaboration of Secretary of the Senate and Sergeant at
Arms staff, augmented with strong contractor support, provides a great
team effort and much progress has been achieved in the past year.
LISAP: 2002
In October 2001, the LIS Project Office added a software engineer
and provided oversight for two consultants to conduct an eight week
evaluation of an XML authoring application being built by the Office of
the Clerk for the House Office of the Legislative Counsel and the House
Enrolling Clerk. The application, built in XMetaL, was in limited use
for House simple resolutions, and the Senate contract looked at its
applicability for Senate simple resolutions, as well as its potential
for use for larger, more complex documents. Although the House
application proved to be a very ambitious, well-conceived effort that
provided most of the high priority requirements identified by the SLC,
it did not support their general editing activities in an easy,
straight-forward manner. Following a briefing for the Clerk and House
developers, the Senate chose to move forward with XMetaL as the XML
editor on which the Senate authoring application would be built.
Two Senate staff were added to the LIS Project Office in 2002. A
systems analyst was hired by the Office of the Sergeant of Arms in
February and a systems analyst was hired by the Office of the Secretary
in June. Two consultants returned in March to assist in the design and
development of several functions with the editor to address the general
editing requirements of the SLC. By the end of the contract, the
project team had determined that it was possible to solve the SLC's
general editing issues, and the Senate staff began building the
authoring application in June. The first release of the Senate's
Legislative Editing in XML Application (LEXA) was completed in
September, followed by a release of additional functionality in
December. In January 2003, eight attorneys and one staff assistant from
the SLC began testing LEXA and providing feedback to the developers.
LEXA was greeted with praise and enthusiasm from the SLC, and the
testing/feedback cycle has yielded valuable information for the Senate
development team. The development team will continue to refine and
enhance LEXA over the next few months, adding the ability to create
amendments, reported bills, and documents with tables.
While LEXA was being developed by Senate staff, a contractor was
engaged in June 2002 to begin addressing the requirements and design of
a Document Management System (DMS) for the SLC. The first phase of
development will be completed in February, and a second phase of
development and implementation is planned to begin in March. The DMS,
which will be integrated with LEXA, will provide the ability for the
SLC to track and manage all work requests, legislative drafts, and
internal office documents in a variety of formats including XML,
XyWrite, Word, WordPerfect, e-mail, and PDF. The DMS will also provide
search and retrieval and a means to exchange documents with the Senate
Enrolling Clerk, the GPO, the House Office of the Legislative Counsel,
and the Senate Appropriations Committee. The expansion of a DMS
approach into other Senate offices will facilitate greater
accessibility to legislative documents.
Prior to roll-out of LEXA and the DMS, the contractor will develop
a training program that will provide transition training for the entire
office of the SLC and the Senate Enrolling Clerk, a printed and online
reference manual, and computer-based training for new hires. The
Contractor completed a short contract in January 2003, to gather the
training requirements and prototype the products. Training will begin
late this year, most likely immediately following adjournment.
Another important element of the LISAP involves data conversion. In
June 2002, the Senate contracted to convert Senate bills and
resolutions and the SLC's drafts from the 106th and 107th Congresses
from their current ``locator-coded'' format to XML. This conversion
effort is to be completed by the end of March, and the documents will
be loaded into the SLC's DMS for use in subsequent legislative
documents authored in XML. The conversion software will be integrated
into LEXA/DMS in order to provide the ability to convert a single
document or batch of documents from earlier Congresses as needed. The
Senate has also contracted on a project to convert the XML data back to
locator codes for printing through GPO's Microcomp composition software
and for exchange with offices that are still working in Xywrite and not
yet ready to work with XML documents. Concurrent work on the bi-
directional conversions has greatly benefitted both conversion
projects.
Another project undertaken in 2002 was a move toward creating the
Congressional Record in XML. The Congressional Record is an important
research tool and historical document, and having the electronic data
available in XML format will one day provide the ability to produce a
much more useful and powerful searchable database than is possible
today. One of the first steps in that direction is to create a document
type definition (DTD) that describes the structure and contents of the
Record. The Senate contracted to create a DTD for the Senate portions
of the Record. The contractor also developed a high level strategy for
a phased transition to an XML Congressional Record including time and
resources required, hardware and software requirements, and change
management considerations.
To support the applications and interfaces for the authoring and
exchange of legislative documents, LISAP deliverables include project
plans; requirements and design documents; implementation, deployment
and training plans; documentation; training materials; and training
classes.
LISAP: 2003
Plans for 2003, include the completion and deployment of LEXA and
the DMS for the SLC and the Enrolling Clerk. Deployment to those
offices must include the development and delivery of the training
program and conversion of documents already created for the 108th
Congress. One other set of documents that needs to be converted is the
compilation documents of existing law that are created and maintained
by the House and Senate Legislative Counsels.
Completion of LEXA for the SLC for bills, resolutions and
amendments will establish a framework on which to build applications
for other offices and other legislative documents. Elements in bills
are common to other legislative document types including conference
reports, compilations, committee reports, the U.S. Code and the
Congressional Record. Authoring applications for additional document
types produced in other offices can be constructed by reusing certain
functions built for the bill's application where common elements and
requirements exist.
The LISAP will also begin to address the needs of other Senate
offices, starting with the Appropriations Committee. A contract project
to determine unique requirements for drafting appropriations bills and
to assess the feasibility and requirements for a document management
system for the Committee is under development.
The legislative process yields other types of documents such as the
Senate and Executive Journals and the Legislative and Executive
Calendars. Much of the data and information included in these documents
is already captured in and distributed through the LIS/DMS database
used by the clerks in the Office of the Secretary. The LIS/DMS captures
data that relates to legislation including bill and resolution numbers,
amendment numbers, sponsors, co-sponsors, and committees of referral.
This information is currently entered into the database and verified by
the clerks and then keyed into the respective documents and reverified
at GPO before printing. An interface between this database and the
electronic documents could mutually exchange data. For example, the
LIS/DMS database could insert the bill number, additional co-sponsors,
and committee of referral into an introduced bill while the bill draft
document could supply the official and short titles of the bill to the
database.
The Congressional Record, like the Journals and Calendars, includes
data that is contained in and reported by the LIS/DMS database.
Preliminary DTDs have been designed for these documents, and
applications could be built to construct XML document components by
extracting and tagging the LIS/DMS data. These applications would
provide a faster, more consistent assembly of these documents and would
enhance the ability to index and search their contents. The LIS Project
Office will coordinate with the Systems Development Services Branch of
the Office of the Sergeant at Arms to begin design and development of
XML applications and interfaces for the LIS/DMS and legislative
documents. As more and more legislative data and documents are provided
in XML formats that use common elements across all document types, the
Library of Congress will be able to expand the LIS Retrieval System to
provide more useful searches.
______
Prepared Statement of Timothy S. Wineman
Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the opportunity to present to your
Committee, the Budget of the United States Senate for fiscal year 2004.
Mr. Chairman, the fiscal year 2004 budget estimates for the Senate
have been included in the Budget of the United States Government for
fiscal year 2004. This Budget has been developed in accordance with
requests and proposals submitted by the various offices and functions
of the Senate. The total budget estimates for the Senate are
$753,747,000 which reflect an increase of $79,416,000 or 11.78 percent
over the amount appropriated for fiscal year 2003 and does not reflect
any adjustments to these estimates which may be presented to your
Committee during these hearings. The total appropriations for the
Senate for fiscal year 2003 are $674,331,000. An individual analysis of
the budget estimates for all functions and offices has been included in
the Senate Budget Book, previously provided to your Committee.
The budget estimates for fiscal year 2004 are divided into three
major categories as follows:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Senate Items............................................ $133,968,500
Senate Contingent Expense Items......................... 612,279,500
Senate Joint Items...................................... 7,499,000
---------------
TOTAL............................................. 753,747,000
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Specifically, Mr. Chairman, the fiscal year 2004 budget estimates
reflect increases over the fiscal year 2003 enacted levels as a result
of: (1) the anticipated 3.9 percent cost-of-living adjustment for
fiscal year 2004, and the annualization costs of the fiscal year 2003
4.27 percent cost-of-living adjustment; (2) the cumulative under
funding of previous fiscal years in the Senators' Official Personnel
and Office Expense Account due mainly to increases in population
categories of various states and increases in the Administrative and
Clerical Assistance Allowance authorized by the Legislative Branch
Appropriations Acts, 1999, 2000, 2002, and 2003; (3) personnel
adjustments, other than the cost-of-living; (4) increases in agency
contributions applicable to the cost-of-living adjustments and other
personnel increase requests; and (5) other miscellaneous and
administrative expense increases.
Mr. Chairman, I submit for the consideration of your Committee, the
Budget of the United States Senate for fiscal year 2004.
Senator Campbell. Thank you. Some of the questions require
an extensive answer, so I will submit them in writing since we
have a very short time. That is unless you want to wait until
we get done voting twice, which will be 45 minutes or more with
you sitting around.
Ms. Reynolds. Your preference. So whichever you would like.
SELECTION OF ARTISTS FOR PORTRAITS
Senator Campbell. Let me ask you a couple of easy ones
first because I am particularly interested in the arts, having
made my living in it for years and years before I ever got in
public office. How are the portraits you mentioned of Senator
Dole and one other.
Ms. Reynolds. Mitchell?
Senator Campbell. Yes. Are those done by bid or how do you
pick who does those?
Ms. Reynolds. I am going to defer, if I might, to our
curator on that. She is here to come up and educate us on that.
Senator Campbell. Please, your name for the record.
Ms. Skvarla. Diane Skvarla.
Senator Campbell. Why don't you come up here, Diane.
Ms. Skvarla. Diane Skvarla, Senate curator.
We select an advisory group of curators and historians to
help us in the selection process of the artists. In the case of
Mitchell and Dole, there are such curators as the curator of
the National Portrait Gallery, the director of the National
Gallery of Art, and a variety of other curators from the home
State.
Senator Campbell. So that becomes a committee and they
decide? If an artist is out there and wants to have his name in
the hopper, what do they do? Write a letter saying I----
Ms. Skvarla. That is it exactly. They send their portfolio
to our office and we consider them. Absolutely. And we keep
them on file.
Senator Campbell. And is there a standard fee that you pay
them?
Ms. Skvarla. The Senate Commission on Art has established a
standard fee for the leadership work.
Senator Campbell. How much is it for a painting?
Ms. Skvarla. $40,000.
CURTIS CHAIR
Senator Campbell. Thank you. Another thing that I want to
become one of the joys of the Secretary's Office is retrieving
some things for the new visitor center. I talked to you about
it before. One was a chair. That sounds kind of crazy, thinking
of a chair as an art piece. But it was hand-carved years ago
for Charles Curtis who was the Vice President of the United
States. It was a chair he used on the podium. Somebody called
me about it 15 or 18 years ago. I may have mentioned this. It
was a private antique store I think, and they wanted to sell it
to me. And I was not in the market to buy a chair for the price
they wanted. I could have bought a car cheaper than that chair.
So I passed on it, but I know that Senator Dodd and several
others now are really trying to get some interest going to
reacquire some of the things that historically were in the
Senate and now are somewhere else.
I have gotten a couple of partial pictures of that chair,
and I do not know where it is, but I understand it is in
private hands somewhere now. I would hope maybe you would help
us try to find the owner of that and see if they would like to
sell it to the Senate or donate it and get a tax write-off or
do something where we could reacquire that with some of the
other things we are looking for.
Ms. Reynolds. With the help of the curator's office, I can
tell you we are very much in the hunt for that chair.
Senator Campbell. A good chair.
Ms. Reynolds. Your chair.
Senator Campbell. No, it is not mine. It was a good chair.
Ms. Reynolds. Senator Curtis' chair I should say. That is
right. The chair.
As of close of business yesterday, we had talked with the
just-previous owner and we are in hopes of----
Senator Campbell. Was it an antique store or a private
owner?
Ms. Skvarla. It was the antique store that we actually had
spoken to, the owner of the antique store, but it now is in
private hands and she is trying to locate it. She sold it about
2 years ago.
Senator Campbell. Well, hopefully when we do find that,
maybe we can convince them of the importance to not only the
Senate but to the country to try to preserve some of the things
where all Americans will be able to see things like that in the
new visitor center.
CAPITOL VISITOR CENTER
Speaking of the visitor center, I know you have only been
here 4 months. What is your assessment on how it is coming
along? I know they have had to make some changes after 9/11 and
that is going to add to the cost of it. When I look out there,
not being an engineer, it just looks like a big hole so far,
but I know there is definite progress being made and you are
much more tuned in to it than I am.
Ms. Reynolds. Thank you for asking. Obviously, I know we
will all look forward to hearing Mr. Hantman's comments this
afternoon on the visitor center.
I will tell you that in my time here the work on the
visitor center in terms of the time that it occupies on my own
schedule and our staff, as we facilitate weekly meetings, both
a joint meeting with our colleagues on the House side and then
again here on the Senate side, both on Mondays and Thursdays,
the time that it takes is extraordinary, but certainly
worthwhile. The project is one of such complexity and
magnitude. I share your thoughts. As someone who is obviously
not an engineer, not a construction manager, it is mind-
boggling in many respects.
Again, I know Mr. Hantman will address this. Clearly the
awarding of the sequence 2 contract was a major goal that we
got through just before the recess.
They are making tremendous progress. You may notice as you
come in, even in the mornings--and I have noticed this. I walk
to work sometimes and come up the Hill. As early now as 6:30 in
the morning, those big dumptrucks are loaded up to move that
dirt out of here every day. So they are making progress. But
again, it is a project of enormous complexity and magnitude and
one that each day, there is a different moving piece to the
puzzle, if you will. But it is an exciting project.
And it is for all of us to remember that at the end of the
day, we moved in this direction for security concerns when we
lost our officers here in that tragic shooting, but clearly
since 9/11, since October 15th with our anthrax incident, the
world has changed for us once again. So the security
enhancement, both for our whole community here, in addition to
our visitors--you know, the short-term pain and long-term gain
will be well worth this.
And in addition, the educational component for our visitors
will be so greatly enhanced.
So I think we will end up in 2005 with a project of which
we can all be very proud and one that will serve this
institution very well in the years to come.
Senator Campbell. Well, I am excited about that too. Before
9/11, the halls were just full of children. You almost could
not get through to get to vote because there were so many. I
really miss the little buggers now.
I did not realize how I could miss those crowds of kids,
but I do. When that visitor center is opened, I am sure that is
going to one of the main places they go before they come into
the Capitol.
ADDITIONAL COMMITTEE QUESTIONS
Well, thank you, and I will submit some questions for you
dealing with employment retention and two or three other
things, if you could get back to us on those. Thank you.
Ms. Reynolds. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.
[The following questions were not asked at the hearing, but
were submitted to the Office for response subsequent to the
hearing:]
Questions Submitted by Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell
Question. Secretary Reynolds, your office has numerous
initiatives underway to improve the operations of the Senate.
What are your highest priorities for the year ahead?
Answer. Our single highest priority is to continue to
provide the best possible legislative, financial and
administrative services to the U.S. Senate. To that end, in the
year ahead, I would cite five specific areas of concentration:
1. We will continue to make significant progress on our two
mandated projects, the Financial Management Information System
and the Legislative Information System Augmentation Project,
for which we have received substantial appropriations.
2. Our ongoing work with the Sergeant at Arms in Continuity
of Operations and Continuity of Government planning will enable
us to support carrying out the Senate's constitutional
functions in the event of an emergency or some unforeseen
circumstance.
3. We will continue to strengthen our bench in each of our
25 departments to ensure that our personnel continue the
tradition of outstanding talent and skill in serving the
Senate. Succession planning and cross-training, especially
among our legislative specialities, remain a critical component
of this focus and our overall operation.
4. We take very seriously our curatorial role in protecting
and preserving the Senate wing of the Capitol, and through the
Historical Office, providing the Senate's institutional memory.
With the approval of the Senate Commission on Art, we hope to
approve a preservation policy this year and develop initiatives
that will allow us to further enhance the Senate's collection
with historic furnishings and fine art acquisitions.
5. Using our appropriated dollars from fiscal year 2003, we
will make much needed technology upgrades, particularly in
Captioning Services and the Gift Shop. In addition, we hope to
enhance www.senate.gov, for the further benefit of the general
public.
Question. The fiscal year 2002 legislative branch bill
provided authority for repayment of student loans to Senate
employees. It is my understanding that 109 of the roughly 900
employees participating in the first year of the program were
terminated from the program. Termination occurs if one fails to
meet the one-year service requirement. This is an
extraordinarily high termination rate. What is your sense as to
the effectiveness of the student loan program as a recruitment
and retention tool for the Senate? Could your office proceed
with a study of the program, through a survey of offices, to
determine how it is operating?
Answer. Since the program is so new, it has yet to reach
the maturation point where one could point definitively to its
impact. In addition, while my office has responsibility for
establishing the sample student loan agreement and addressing
payment issues, each Senate office oversees the program in
regard to its own employees.
Although the rate of those breaking the student loan
repayment contract appears substantial, continued favorable
responses from Senate offices give us an overall impression
that the program has been well-received. Moreover, we know that
the number of offices using the program and consequently, the
number of employees participating, has grown steadily during
each month of this past year. Anecdotal evidence from
participating offices also seems to indicate that the program
has been used, at least through the first year, almost
exclusively for retention purposes.
In the next few days, I will meet with Senate office
managers and administrators, and plan to discuss this subject.
My goal is to create a small working group from several Senate
offices to devise a means, perhaps through an informal,
confidential survey, to give us both additional anecdotal
evidence and statistical evidence of the program's use and
effectiveness as a retention and recruitment tool. I look
forward to reporting back to the Committee on our progress and
results.
ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL
STATEMENT OF ALAN M. HANTMAN, FAIA, ARCHITECT OF THE
CAPITOL
Senator Campbell. We will now hear from Mr. Hantman. If you
will come up and just grab a chair and pull it up there.
As we did with Ms. Reynolds, if you want to submit your
complete written testimony, that will be fine because we are
going to simply run out of time unless you want to wait around
for an hour. That does not appeal to me either.
Mr. Hantman. No. I appreciate that, Mr. Chairman. I would
appreciate doing that.
Mr. Chairman, I welcome this opportunity to testify today
and I thank this committee for its support over the years. It
has allowed us to complete many critical projects and assure
continuously improving service at the Capitol, the Senate
office buildings, and throughout the Capitol complex.
My budget request for fiscal year 2004 meets my
responsibilities for facilities management, for project
delivery, and the stewardship at the Capitol complex.
But just as importantly, it responds to the demands of our
customers, the requirements for fire and life safety, as well
as new security requirements. It has been a challenge, Mr.
Chairman, to build this budget request in this fiscally
constrained environment and balance these requirements against
our current workload.
We are requesting $513.9 million for fiscal year 2004,
which is $57 million, or 12.5 percent, above the enacted fiscal
year 2003 budget, including the fiscal year 2003 supplemental.
The most significant factor in this increase is the request for
funds to purchase the shared alternate computer facility at
some $61 million.
Other significant projects in this request include $40.8
million to continue with the West Refrigeration Plant expansion
project, $26.5 million for phase two of the design of the U.S.
Capitol Building master plan, and $18.7 million to replace the
high-voltage switchgear in nine buildings on the campus. Some
other key items include $6.5 million to improve Capitol power
plant operations, and $4.7 million for steam humidifiers in the
Hart Senate Office Building. Details of each project, of
course, are included in the formal statement so I will not go
into them.
These projects are in addition to more than 200 projects
now underway. Among them are substantial projects necessary to
meet the demand for heightened security as a result of our
ongoing war on terrorism. In this environment, the AOC is
carrying out its mission to provide Congress and the public
with a wide range of professional expertise and services to
preserve and enhance the Capitol complex and related facilities
by completing many important projects.
We have also undertaken significant efforts to improve the
agency and take on what I like to call the magnificent
challenges associated with maintaining and preserving our
Capitol. One of our greatest challenges, Mr. Chairman, is to
sensitively incorporate modern systems for health, safety,
security, and accessibility into these historic buildings.
Although our workload is immense, I am proud to say in the
first quarter of 2003, 98 percent of our projects were
completed within budget.
Not only are we working to complete projects on time and
within budget, we are doing our work much more safely, and with
the generous support of Congress, we have increased our safety
and our professional staff. We have modified our work practices
and procedures and reduced our total injury and illness rate by
some 53 percent and our lost time injury/illness rate by 36
percent in just the last 2 years.
There is an awful lot of good story over there, Mr.
Chairman, and most of it is in the written record. So I will
end my public testimony at this point in time and welcome any
questions you might have.
[The statement follows:]
Prepared Statement of Alan M. Hantman, FAIA
Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee, I welcome this opportunity
to testify before you today. The Office of the Architect of the Capitol
(AOC) has always worked closely with the Sub-Committee for the
Legislative Branch on Appropriations in a successful and collaborative
relationship. I thank the Committee for its generous support which has
allowed us to complete many critical projects, provide exemplary
service, and assure continuity of operations at the Capitol, the Senate
Office Buildings and throughout the Capitol complex. My budget request
for fiscal year 2004 meets my responsibilities for facilities
management, project delivery, and the stewardship of the Capitol
complex. But just as importantly this budget responds to the demands of
our customers, the requirements for fire and life safety, as well as
new security requirements. It has been a challenge to build this budget
request in this fiscally constrained environment and balance these
requirements against our current workload. I have personally reviewed
the budget request with each of my Superintendents to ensure we fulfill
our responsibilities as effectively and efficiently as possible
reviewing the base amounts and looking for areas of savings.
We are requesting $513.9 million for fiscal year 2004, ($447.1
million excluding the items for the House of Representatives)--$57.1
million or 12.5 percent above the enacted fiscal year 2003 budget
including the fiscal year 2003 supplemental. This does not include the
authority to use $4.4 million reimbursement of utilities provided to
non-legislative branch agencies. The most significant factor in this
increase is the request for funds to purchase the shared Alternate
Computer Facility at $61 million. Other significant projects in this
request are: $40.8 million to continue with the West Refrigeration
Plant Expansion project; $26.5 million for Phase II of the design of
the U.S. Capitol Building Master Plan; $18.7 million to replace the
high-voltage switchgear in nine buildings; and $12.6 million for the
design of new Library of Congress facilities and a condition assessment
for the Library of Congress Buildings and Grounds. Other key items in
my budget request include $6.5 million to improve Capitol Power Plant
operations; $4.7 million to replace steam humidifiers in the Hart
Senate Office Building; $4.3 million to refurbish Bartholdi Park; $4.2
million to prepare a Capitol Complex Master Plan; $4.2 million to build
an underground fuel storage tank for the Capitol Power Plant, and $4.1
million to install a fire protection water tank at Ft. Meade.
PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS
Alternate Computer Facility--$61,000,000
This request will fund the purchase of the land and buildings for
the Alternate Computer Facility (ACF). Per Public Law 107-206, Section
905(a), the AOC is authorized, subject to the availability of
appropriations, to acquire buildings and facilities for use as computer
backup facilities for offices in the legislative branch. The AOC
entered into a 10-year lease in November 2002, with a single option of
an additional ten years, for such a facility in Manassas, Virginia. The
facility selected was one of two adjoining buildings, with the
legislative branch occupying one building and the other occupied by
commercial tenants. Included in the lease, is an option for the AOC to
buy both buildings and the surrounding land within the first five
years. Due to the design and interdependencies between the two
buildings (e.g., common utility systems and mechanical rooms) it is not
feasible to buy only one of the two buildings. Based on preliminary
analysis in June of 2002, it is more advantageous to the government to
procure both buildings than to continue a full 20-year lease for one
building based on comparing the present value of the cost of ten years
worth of lease payments to the cost of purchasing the entire building.
We will undertake full due diligence in support of this purchase this
summer. Continued leasing of the ACF will result in fiscal year 2005
acquisition costs rising to $63,000,000 as priced in the lease
agreement.
West Refrigeration Plant Expansion--$40,800,000
This project provides funding for the final increment for the West
Refrigeration Plant Expansion Project. The total project cost is $81.8
million. The existing West Refrigeration Plant operates at its maximum
capacity during peak summer load conditions and if the project is not
funded, the Capitol Power Plant will be unable to meet the cooling
needs of the Capitol complex. The Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) will
also impose additional loads when it becomes operational in 2005. These
demands make it critical that this project be completed before the CVC
is completed. Construction of the West Refrigeration Plant Extension
will accommodate new chillers and include all necessary auxiliary
equipment, such as cooling towers, pumps, heat exchangers, piping and
controls. It is imperative that this project be completed in time to
meet future demands.
U.S. Capitol Master Plan Phase II--$26,500,000
This project will provide initial design funding to implement the
U.S. Capitol Master Plan which addresses upgrades to the
infrastructure/support systems of HVAC; fire protection and life
safety; security; electrical; lighting; vertical transportation;
telecommunications; system integration; and plumbing systems throughout
the Capitol Building. The scope is fundamentally an infrastructure
upgrade coupled with limited architectural changes designed to meet
fire and life safety codes for the interior of the U.S. Capitol. The
proposed work includes upgrades to the Senate and House Chambers; a
building-wide sprinkler system; an upgrade of the HVAC system to
include smoke evacuation features; an essentially new electrical system
to include new distribution wiring and panels and new or refurbished
lighting and special electronic systems; additional vertical
circulation; and upgraded public toilet facilities. The new special
electronic systems include security, fire alarm, information
technologies fiber optic backbone and legislative call systems. The
Master Plan will not affect existing architectural design except in
those areas where upgrades necessitate architectural modifications. We
are currently in the process of engaging a consultant to conduct a
feasibility and constructability analysis for construction phasing with
emphasis on accelerating the life safety, fire protection, and other
Master Plan recommendations and initiatives that can be accomplished
with minimum disruption to building occupants and business operations.
The analysis will also include the feasibility of accelerating life
safety and fire protection recommendations on the House and Senate
Chambers. If this phase of the Master Plan is not funded, the
correction of basic fire and life safety deficiencies will be deferred,
potentially resulting in harm to human life in the event of a fire or
emergency evacuation.
Replace High Voltage Switchgear in Nine Buildings--$18,672,000
This project will provide funds to replace High Voltage Switchgear
in nine Capitol complex buildings. High Voltage Switchgear ensures
adequate reliable electric power supply through power distribution
interfaces with the PEPCO incoming feeders. It works at 13,800 volts
and contains high voltage power breakers and system protective metering
devices and constitutes the backbone of the electric power distribution
system. The replacement switchgear will ensure maximum technical
uniformity between switchgear in different buildings and simplify
maintenance. The switchgear in all buildings are very old (in most
cases 42 to 50 years old) and are either at the end of their life
expectancy or are no longer logistically supported by the manufacturer.
Currently, a single failure of high voltage equipment will not, in most
cases, interrupt normal power supply. However, two consecutive failures
(if the first one cannot be promptly fixed) would result in a major
power supply breakdown to a building, possibly for days entailing
significant costs to repair.
Design, Study and Condition Assessment for Library of Congress--
$12,602,000
This line item provides flexibility to meet the needs of the
Library of Congress by performing studies, designs and condition
assessments to improve project planning and programming. Specific
initiatives under this category are:
--Replace Drinking Water System.--Design revisions to the drinking
water system to ensure long-term safety and reliability of
water supply.
--Logistics Warehouse Facility, Ft. Meade.--New warehouse facility at
Ft. Meade enabling the LOC to consolidate, increase service and
eliminate current leased facilities.
--Offsite Storage Facility.--Design of new off-site facility to house
platinum level collections for the LOC.
--Book Storage Module 5, Ft. Meade.--Design new Book Storage Module 5
at Ft. Meade to house general collections to alleviate safety
and overcrowding issues.
--Master Plan, Ft. Meade.--Continuation of conceptual level master
plan study at Ft. Meade to plan and resolve utility issues.
--Replace Bathroom Exhaust Systems, Jefferson Building.--Design
upgrades to mechanical exhaust system to alleviate building
code violations.
--Upgrade Book Conveyor System.--Design upgrades to the book conveyor
system fire wall penetration resulting from a Citation from the
Office of Compliance.
--Study, Damper Smoke Control.--Design a comprehensive smoke
management system to ensure safe egress of building occupants
and respond to a Citation from the Office of Compliance.
--Upgrade Emergency Lighting.--Design upgrades to all emergency
lighting systems to ensure code compliance and the safety of
building occupants.
--Steam-to-Steam Humidification.--Design upgrades to all building
humidification systems to improve operations, indoor air
quality and collections preservation.
--Repair/Replace Copper Roof, Adams Building.--Design repairs to
deteriorated copper roof currently leaking and at the end of
its expected life cycle.
--ADA Bathroom Renovations, Adams Building.--Design upgrades to
bathrooms in fire stairs resulting from a Citation from the
Office of Compliance.
--Repair Clean Convector Units.--Study methods to clean existing
convector units to increase indoor air quality.
--Provide Electrical Upgrade, Madison Building.--Study alternatives
to increasing available power throughout the Madison Building.
--Conservation of Murals.--Ongoing study and conservation of historic
artwork in LOC facilities.
--Design, Replace Windows.--Design and install prototype windows for
evaluation in accordance with the Capitol Police Blast-Cad
Study.
--Condition Assessment.--Comprehensive condition assessment of all
facilities and equipment to facilitate a capitol improvement
plan & preventative maintenance plans.
Installation of Distributed Control System--$6,500,000
This project will replace the existing pneumatic controls in the
Capitol Power Plant Boiler Plant with digital controls. Existing
obsolete controls utilize mercury, which is an environmental hazard. A
``fieldbus'' protocol will be used in the new control system, which
will allow accurate and remote monitoring of the plant. The controls to
a boiler must be fully functional and accurate to ensure safe plant
operation and compliance with environmental restrictions. Due to the
age, inaccuracy, and unavailability of replacement parts, the system
must be replaced. If not funded, the Capitol Power Plant will continue
to use unreliable controls. The plant will not operate as safely or as
efficiently as it should. Also, this installation will support future
potentially more restrictive permit limits for environmental
compliance.
Replace Steam Humidifiers, Hart Building--$4,715,000
This project will fund the removal of the existing humidification
systems in 25 major air handling units and retrofit them with new
``Clean Steam'' chemical-free humidification equipment in the Hart
Building. To enhance steam quality and reduce maintenance by in-house
personnel, a water softening system will be incorporated to work in
conjunction with the steam generators. The remaining air handlers will
be supplied with cabinet-style humidifiers (located adjacent to air
handlers) that will enable ``clean steam'' humidification. If not
funded, a ``clean steam'' chemical-free humidification system, intended
to improve indoor air quality, will not be installed.
Bartholdi Park Fountain Restoration and Park Renovations--$4,280,000
This project will provide funding to restore the Bartholdi fountain
which was purchased from the 1876 International Centennial Exhibition
in Philadelphia, and was moved to Washington, DC in 1877. The
restoration of the fountain to its cast iron metal base in 1986, was
expected to last approximately 10 years. The four top coatings have
disintegrated and the cast iron is exposed in areas. Although the
fountain is functional, both the top and lower basins leak and many of
the water sprays function sporadically. This project will renovate and
restore the existing fountain and basin. This includes providing and
applying a coating treatment to the deteriorating metal finish;
upgrading and replacing all plumbing; upgrading the electrical
components; installing a new utility vault, basin, light fixtures, and
19th century replicas of the original light fixtures and basin
standards. All irrigation to the fountain and Bartholdi Park will be
replaced. Most of the park does not have an irrigation system and
requires high maintenance and manpower during the summer months.
Additionally, the deteriorating sidewalk will be removed and replaced.
If not funded, the Bartholdi sculpture will continue to deteriorate and
the fountain will become inoperable.
Capitol Complex Master Plan--$4,200,000
This project provides funding to prepare a Capitol Complex Master
Plan. The existing master plan is 22 years old and does not address
facility requirements brought about by the Congressional Accountability
Act, nor does it relate to the present need for a heightened security
environment. A comprehensive Facilities Conditions Assessment (FCA) has
not yet been performed, and there is insufficient global input to fully
address all necessary decision factors. Therefore, a new master plan
for the Capitol complex needs to be developed to:
--Assess the present physical condition of the buildings;
--Assess the buildings' capacities and functionalities to accommodate
current and future Congressional occupant requirements;
--Identify and document current and future Congressional programmatic
needs;
--Address code, environmental, and security requirements;
--Address visitor and traffic circulation (including parking) and;
--Address new technology opportunities.
The resulting master plan will serve as a blue print to aid the AOC
and Congress in determining capital expenditure requirements and
priorities. Funding for the Facilities Conditions Assessment is being
provided in fiscal year 2003 for the Capitol, Senate, and House
facilities. In addition, a workshop was convened by the National
Academy of Sciences to assist in identifying key issues and factors
that need to be addressed by a master plan for the Capitol complex.
Based on the results of the workshop, a Request for Proposal will be
developed to solicit proposals from firms with demonstrated expertise
in campus-type master planning. The scope will include identifying and
documenting all of the critical factors that will affect the planning,
funding, and implementation of future capital projects on the campus.
The scope will also call for recommendations on a means of prioritizing
the factors. Without this comprehensive master plan for the Capitol
complex, capital projects will not be planned, developed, or
prioritized within an appropriate comprehensive framework.
Install Oil Storage Tanks--$4,200,000
This project will provide funding to install a 400,000-gallon
underground fuel oil storage tank in the Capitol Power Plant auxiliary
coal yard. The fuel oil tank will supply oil to the Capitol Power Plant
boilers through a utility tunnel being installed as part of the Interim
Coal Handling Project. The current fuel oil storage on the site does
not provide sufficient capacity in the event of a gas curtailment. This
additional 400,000 gallons of storage along with the existing 200,000
gallons of storage will give a total of seven days storage at full load
operation. Environmental restrictions have effectively limited the
flexibility of burning coal, thus making the plant more dependent on
fuel oil to stay within limits. If not funded, the Capitol Power Plant
will be forced to continue to pay higher costs for natural gas. The
plant would continue to operate on limited fuel storage capacity.
Water Tank, Ft. Meade--$4,103,000
To meet fire code requirements of the Book Storage Module 2 Project
at Fort Meade, a water tank is necessary as a second reliable water
source for this and future projects. This project will include a
500,000 gallon on-grade water tank, pumps and an associated
distribution network. This is a code-required installation and Book
Storage Module 2 cannot be occupied until the water tank and associated
pumps and distribution network are provided.
EMPLOYEE SAFETY
Not only are we working to complete our projects on time and within
budget, we also want to complete them safely. I am pleased to report
that, according to the most recent figures from the Occupational Safety
and Health Administration, we have cut our total injury/illness rate by
53 percent and our lost time injury/illness rate by 36 percent in the
last two years. Our lost time rate for fiscal year 2002 was only
slightly higher than the Federal agency average--a substantial
achievement for a predominantly shop-oriented, blue collar work force.
These significant injury reductions are a result of the priority I have
placed on safety, the attention and commitment of the AOC management
team, the hard work and dedication of AOC employees, and the ongoing
support of this Committee.
With the generous support of Congress, since 2000 we have increased
our safety professional staff, modified work practices and procedures,
and provided protective equipment and safety training to our employees.
We also have greatly improved our ability to anticipate and prevent
injuries and illnesses from occurring. While this is a substantial
achievement, I believe our total injury rate remains high. I am
committed to continue reducing this rate and achieving my ultimate goal
of eliminating all injuries and work-related illnesses.
Another achievement of note: There were no citations issued by the
Office of Compliance (OOC) to the AOC in 2002. In fact, in its 2002
Biannual Report, the OOC noted the ``improved workplace safety'' it
witnessed during its inspections.
SENATE OFFICE BUILDINGS IMPROVEMENTS
Over the past two years, we have made significant improvements to
the three Senate Office Buildings. We have been systematically
modernizing the passenger and freight elevators to improve their
performance and reliability. As part of the overall security plan, we
expeditiously installed blast resistant film on all the office windows.
The Dirksen Building has undergone a major renovation to modernize the
building systems in the areas of fire protection, life safety,
electrical power, telecommunications, heating, ventilation, and air
conditioning. Major improvements include new telecommunications systems
infrastructure to support the upgrade of equipment and technologies;
expansion of the existing sprinkler system to provide 100-percent
building sprinkler protection for increased life safety and property
protection; and energy-efficient lighting. Many of the restrooms in the
Dirksen and Hart buildings are now fully ADA compliant, and the modular
furniture replacement program was recently rolled out in the Hart
Building.
The AOC has made significant improvements to the Senate Office
recycling program by implementing a combined paper program recommended
as a best practice by an industry consultant. The combined paper
program allows mixing of different types of paper which simplifies
separation and collection, thereby increasing participation and
reducing contamination. As a result, contaminated waste has been
reduced from a high of 75 percent in fiscal year 2000 to nine percent
in the first half of fiscal year 2003. There has been a 21 percent
increase in the amount of combined paper products collected; a 200
percent increase in the number of bottles and cans recycled; a 1,300
percent increase in newspapers recycled; and a 66 percent increase in
the amount of scrap metal recycled.
In June 2002, we asked our Legislative customers to provide us with
feedback regarding their satisfaction with the level of building
services we provide. This will be an on-going process with the second
survey scheduled for June 2003. In response to the feedback we
received, we have modified and improved our cleaning procedures.
Specific inspection procedures have been implemented to identify
consistency and quality of cleaning operations, specific cleaning goals
are set, and we are recognizing outstanding employee performance. As a
result of the process changes, from July 2002 to January 2003, the
Senate Office Buildings night cleaning division reached a performance
score of 96.8 percent. (The performance score is the percentage of
satisfactorily cleaned items over total inspected items based on stated
objective criteria.)
CAPITOL AND CAPITOL GROUNDS IMPROVEMENTS
In the Capitol Building, we have orchestrated hundreds of projects
from painting rooms, to the first phase of the Dome rehabilitation, and
the preparation of construction documents for the major work yet
remaining. One of the larger projects we have undertaken is the
modernization of all elevators. Work has been completed on nine
elevators, three are currently under construction, and the remaining
one is scheduled for modernization in fiscal year 2004. In addition, we
will complete the stairwell extension from the third floor to the
fourth floor on the Senate side on time and within budget.
We have achieved full compliance with ADA requirements at all the
main building entrances and in the public restrooms. Smoke detectors,
strobe signaling devices, emergency lighting, and other fire safety
devices are continually being installed throughout the building. We are
busily cleaning, restoring, and preserving the artwork, statues, and
architectural features inside the Capitol Building. Outside the
building, we have been tending to the grounds to assure that pathways
were cleared of ice and snow during the many snow storms we endured
this winter and planting bulbs so that we would be graced with a
beautiful array of flowers now that spring has finally arrived.
This is only a short list of our many accomplishments. I expect an
even more significant list of successes through the implementation of
our Strategic Plan which will help unify the Agency's priorities and
provide the business management tools needed to accomplish our
organizational goals.
STRATEGIC PLANNING
When I testified before this Committee last year, I discussed the
AOC's continuing improvements in planning and managing its projects and
resources more effectively. Over the past year, the AOC has undergone a
management review by the General Accounting Office (GAO). In January
2003, GAO issued its final report that validates the initiatives that
we had underway, such as structuring and implementing a Strategic Plan
and a Performance Management Plan, and makes additional recommendations
that we are incorporating into our operations. These plans will assure
that the Agency better achieves its mission; improves its performance;
reaches its goals; and employs best practices to achieve results. We
are in the process of obtaining stakeholder feedback on drafts of both
plans and we will finalize them shortly. In unifying the Agency's
priorities, the Strategic Plan will concentrate the AOC's efforts on
planning and excellence in the most critical areas of our work: state-
of-the-art facilities management and project management; business
processes; and human capital planning and allocation.
The foundation of our Strategic Plan is a commitment to our
stakeholders to provide exceptional client service and to preserve and
protect the national treasures entrusted to our care. It is our pledge
to respond quickly to requests; to find the most efficient way to solve
problems; to provide the services necessary for Members of Congress and
their staffs to perform their jobs; and to appropriately accommodate
the many visitors to the Capitol complex each year.
HUMAN CAPITAL
We employ a diverse workforce consisting of individuals with a
variety of skills and institutional knowledge. Because we are a
service-based organization, these individuals comprise AOC's most
valuable assets and are most critical to its success. AOC's focus on
the strategic management of human capital covers all aspects of our
staff assets, from recruitment to skill development to job motivation
and satisfaction. We believe this strategic focus on human capital will
ensure AOC's ability to deliver on our promises now and in the future.
As part of our strategic planning initiatives, we have published a
number of new or revised human capital policies and will continue to
review and identify others that may need to be updated or developed. We
are also focusing on further improvement in areas of recruitment and
employee development, and on significantly increasing the quantity and
quality of data collection to enable us to develop better projections
of our workforce needs--in terms of succession planning, recruitment,
and development--based on our strategic goals.
Fiscal year 2003 marked the beginning of the third annual cycle of
our individual performance management program for employees. The
Performance Communication Evaluation System (PCES) has enabled AOC to
complete non-executive employee performance plans and evaluations
regularly and systematically.
We developed and implemented a Performance Review Process that
provides for performance plans and evaluations for our executives. We
now plan to align our executive performance plans with our Strategic
Plan to enable a top-down approach to cascading strategic goals
throughout AOC.
Establishing formal processes to gather and respond to employee
feedback is extremely important. As we implement new programs and
processes as part of our transition to a performance-based
organization, there will likely be many changes. An established
feedback process will ensure that AOC leaders and employees both
understand and respond to each other's concerns. This form of
communication will assist the AOC in achieving its mission in the
fairest and most efficient way. We have formed a team to develop a
comprehensive employee feedback program that will utilize focus groups,
surveys, and other feedback mechanisms.
In addition to these communications efforts, we continue to provide
outreach and support to employees through the omsbudsperson, and our
EEO/CP and Human Resources Offices.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
We are committed to adopting an agency-wide approach to managing
Information Technology (IT) to provide the consistent direction needed
to enhance mission performance across the agency. As such, we are
implementing a portfolio-based approach to IT investment decision
making; developing an Enterprise Architecture (EA) that will help drive
the agency-wide approach to IT management while aligning business
processes with IT; revising our structured system life cycle to include
processes for IT system acquisition and development with quality
standards built in during each phase of the process; monitoring the
performance of AOC's information technology programs and activities;
and building a comprehensive information security program.
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
One key IT investment has been the implementation of the Financial
Management System (FMS). The GAO noted in its management review report
that the financial team has made great strides in improving the flow of
financial data. The fiscal year 2004 budget continues to support this
effort with funds to build policies and procedures and move us toward
auditable financial statements. Our budget reflects the structure
implemented under FMS with program groups and provides the recommended
budget schedules and analysis of change formats from the Legislative
Branch Financial Managers Council that details the individual
appropriation budget requests.
FACILITY MANAGEMENT
The ability to measure performance related to strategic goals will
be improved by the continuing implementation of the Computer-Assisted
Facilities Management (CAFM) system. In 2004, the application will be
upgraded to a web-enabled environment, preventative maintenance will be
rolled out for electrical and plumbing systems, handheld scanners will
help employees in the field maintain more up-to-date work order
information, and we are planning to interface the facility management
system to the financial management system to help insure accurate
material, labor, and asset costs associated with maintenance work.
CAPITOL VISITOR CENTER
The most significant and most challenging project that began
construction since I last appeared before this Committee is the Capitol
Visitor Center (CVC). This is a much-needed project of momentous and
historic importance. As the ninth increment of growth of the ``People's
House,'' it will offer free and open access to all people in a safe and
secure atmosphere so that they may witness the workings of democracy
and the legislative process.
This is a brief status report on the very significant progress we
have made. The work is proceeding in several overlapping phases. In the
winter of 2001-02, project bids were sought and the first major
construction contract was awarded in spring 2002. This contract, called
``Sequence 1--Foundation/Structure'' and worth $99 million, was awarded
to a Northern Virginia contractor. The contract involves site
demolition, slurry wall construction, excavation, installation of site
utilities, construction of the concrete and steel structure,
waterproofing, and construction of a new truck service tunnel.
The contractor has nearly completed the installation of the
perimeter foundation walls and has begun major excavation activities
that will continue through the summer of 2003. The outer perimeter wall
is essentially complete and full excavation of the site is beginning as
some 300-400 truckloads of soil are being removed daily in a manner
least invasive to our Capitol Hill neighbors. Excavation will continue
into the summer and the contractor will begin erecting steel columns
and begin pouring portions of the roof slab later this summer.
With Sequence 1 moving at full throttle, we have just recently
awarded the contract for Sequence 2, which includes installation of
electrical, mechanical, and plumbing services, and all stone and
architectural build-out and finishes of the CVC. A Source Selection
Evaluation Board, headed by the General Services Administration (GSA),
evaluated the bid proposals for this contract and I made the award with
the approval of an obligation plan for Sequence II.
While the contract award is approximately 10 percent above the
government estimate, a range that is considered to be within an
acceptable and reasonable range per GSA and Department of Defense
governmental standards, I am currently reviewing the entire project
scope and the total cost-to-complete with the assistance of an outside
independent contractor and oversight by the General Accounting Office.
CVC Budget
With regard to the overall budget, the original CVC project budget
of $265 million was established in 1999. At that time, the budget
provided for the core CVC facilities, including the Great Hall,
orientation theaters, exhibition gallery, cafeteria, gift shops,
mechanical rooms, unfinished shell space for the future needs of the
House and Senate, and the truck service tunnel. After September 11,
2001, new security requirements, pedestrian tunnels, et cetera,
prompted the appropriation of $38.5 million in additional funds, which
were provided in the Emergency Supplemental Appropriation. In November
2001, the CVC team was then tasked to design and build-out the House
and Senate shell space, requiring an additional $70 million, which was
provided in the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill. These
additional requirements to the original scope bring the total amount of
the project to date to $373.5 million. I would like to emphasize this
point--despite how these figures may have been reported in the papers--
additional new requirements to the original scope have resulted in the
appropriation of additional funds.
Project Complexities
As I mentioned, this project is arguably our most challenging. For
example, many utility lines crisscrossing beneath the East Front Plaza
had to be rerouted out of the project footprint before excavation could
begin. During the past 100-plus years, water, sewer, electrical, and
communication lines have been installed, and many of these lines were
poorly or inaccurately documented on the existing building drawings--
some of them dating back to the early 1900s. As a result, we
encountered many unforeseen site conditions related to this effort,
including an incorrect elevation for the top of the Amtrak tunnel as it
crosses beneath First Street, N.E. This necessitated a costly rerouting
of a 30-inch water main that needed to cross above it. As it became
increasingly apparent that existing drawings were unreliable, much of
the utility work was completed at night or on weekends. To some extent,
we also worked around the legislative calendar in an effort to minimize
disruption to the business being conducted in the Capitol.
There were many other tasks that we needed to accomplish before we
put the first shovel in the ground. We are committed to preserving and
protecting the trees on the East Capitol Grounds, and therefore hired a
full-time tree preservation contractor; erected fencing and installed
canopy misting systems to keep the trees free from dust; installed a
new irrigation system; and relocated many significant, affected trees
to safe locations. We removed and stored all of the original Frederick
Law Olmsted features, including the fountains, lanterns and retaining
walls. All of these historic features will be restored and reinstalled
in their original locations on the Plaza. New visitor screening
facilities were constructed on both the north and south sides of the
Capitol and ramps were installed along the West Front to provide a
respectful and ADA accessible visitor path into the building.
To assure as little disruption as possible to the day-to-day
activities in and around the Capitol, we continued to work closely with
the Leadership, the Sergeants-at-Arms, the Capitol Police, and other
key offices to address the following:
--Alternate parking and pedestrian zones for the Senate and House.--
The CVC team successfully offset every parking space that has
been impacted by construction activities.
--Noise reduction.--Noise reduction window units were installed over
every window on the East Front. These windows have cut the
construction noise down significantly to the extent that
Senate-side occupants have not voiced a single noise complaint
since construction began.
--Relocated staff.--A number of offices located in the East Front
Extension have been temporarily closed or relocated due to the
construction, with staff moves coordinated to assure smooth
transitions into alternate space.
--Media Sites.--New media sites off the Plaza were established to
allow press operations to continue.
--Security.--All of our pre-construction activities were accomplished
in an atmosphere of extremely tight security following the
terrorist events of September 11, 2001. Increased screening
requirements and more secure site logistics procedures
presented additional challenges. However, the Capitol Police
have been very accommodating in assisting us in maintaining a
secure site without impacting the work schedule.
Schedule
Despite these many challenges--including the fact this was one of
the wettest winters on record--with the timely award of Sequence 2, we
are on schedule to complete the project in 2005 and to support the
Inaugural in January 2005. We are in meetings now with the Rules
Committee to determine what level of support is required. We will
partner with the Sequence 2 contractor to examine what is needed for
the Inaugural and determine the associated costs, if any.
Regarding the schedule for substantial completion of the CVC in the
fourth quarter of 2005, the Sequence 2 contract documents clearly
stipulate that the facility will be--and I quote--``substantially
complete and capable of being occupied and used by the Government for
the intended purpose.''
MASTER PLAN
In recent years the number and magnitude of our projects has
greatly increased. Therefore, we are improving our ability to
coordinate and efficiently complete our many projects by taking steps
to implement a series of project management plans. These initiatives
will help the AOC to baseline and compare building conditions; plan and
evaluate funding requirements; set goals; and track progress. To
formulate the shorter term plan for project prioritization and
implementation, a five-year Capital Improvements Plan is under
development. This effort began with the development of a process for
project prioritization and will ultimately incorporate the findings of
the facility condition assessments which will begin later this year.
To provide consistent management and oversight of these efforts, a
new Director of Planning and Programming has recently been hired. He
has direct responsibility for both the Capitol Complex Master Plan and
the Capital Improvements Plan as well as coordination of all planning
and programming efforts.
Additionally, a new Project Management Director has been hired to
support and manage a myriad of on-going projects. For example,
following an expansive ``best practices'' analysis of AOC project
delivery processes, we have published several manuals to improve the
consistency of design and project delivery processes including: the AOC
Design Standards Handbook to assure consistency in our project designs;
an A/E Design Manual to assist our architects and engineers with
project design and delivery processes; and an AOC Project Manager's
Manual to help institutionalize the project management process. We are
also conducting ``lessons learned'' studies on several of our projects
and are incorporating the results into these manuals to assure they
remain current and practicable.
U.S. CAPITOL POLICE MASTER PLAN
In 1999, the AOC and the United States Capitol Police (USCP)
published the United States Capitol Police Master Plan. Since that
time, other events have necessitated a comprehensive update of that
plan as well as a clear implementation strategy that reflected the new
demands on the Capitol Police.
This implementation strategy focuses on two issues: changes to the
USCP operational scenario and the need for a new Police Headquarters
facility that responds to those changes. A specific site for this new
structure has been identified and approved by the Capitol Police Board.
Other ongoing Police projects include the construction of new
chemical explosives handling and K-9 structures at D.C. Village; a new
vehicle maintenance facility at 67 K Street, S.W.; reconfiguration of
existing areas within the Capitol, Senate and House Office buildings
and existing Police Headquarters; and the site selection for an Off-
Site Delivery Screening Center to replace the current P Street
Warehouse.
We have contracted with the Naval Facilities Engineering Command to
assist us in project management and delivery for these projects to
assure that this additional workload is addressed in a responsive and
timely manner.
SENATE RESTAURANTS
The Senate Restaurants have made strides in reducing economic
dependency over the last five years through cost reductions and the
marketing of its services. The effects of September 11, 2001, on the
number of visitors to the Capitol complex have delayed our ability to
reach the objective of a self-sufficient operation. The Senate
Restaurants are committed to continuing its efforts to improve the
quality of service, reduce costs, and market services.
In the past year, the cash register stations in the Dirksen
cafeteria have been redesigned to allow greater customer flow. We began
offering new services designed to provide Senate offices with new menu
options when planning small, in-office functions that are less
expensive than fully catered events. We have also introduced a ``heart
healthy'' menu in the Senate Dining Room. Senate staffers can log on to
our expanded web site and check out the daily specials in each
restaurant and look for special events. The site is registering more
than 5,000 hits per month. We've also made available to the public our
famous Senate Bean Soup mug. They have sold well and have appeared in
stories in the Wall Street Journal and on NBC's ``Today'' show.
In addition, we have installed the Food Trak inventory and cost
control software package to enhance our operating systems. This
program, together with the upgraded point-of-sale system, gives us the
capability of interfacing our various systems to match items sold with
up-to-date cost data and provides nutritional content information from
the U.S. Department of Agriculture's data base.
Finally, I am especially pleased to inform you that for the fifth
straight year, independent auditors have found no reportable conditions
or material weaknesses in financial controls.
CONCLUSION
Mr. Chairman, the AOC has undertaken significant new projects and
responsibilities, while at the same time improving the safety and
efficiency of our employees. Our request for funds are in direct
response to customer requests and the level of cleanliness,
preservation, safety and security expected on the Capitol Complex. We
have met challenges, developed a Strategic Plan, and hired skilled
managers and employees to help us achieve our immediate and future
goals. We have completed thousands of work orders, become more
responsive to our clients, and are adjusting to the heightened security
demands of a post-September 11th world.
I am dedicated to providing a safe, secure, and productive
environment for all who work in the Capitol complex and for all those
who visit each year. We would not have made the progress we have
without the dedication of all of our AOC employees. I am very
privileged to lead a hard-working and professional team committed to
exceeding the expectations of Congress and the American people.
The Committee's support in helping us achieve these goals is
greatly appreciated. Once again, thank you for this opportunity to
testify today. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.
Senator Campbell. Thanks. I will also submit some questions
in writing for you too. But we will go as far as we can before
the bell rings.
GAO MANAGEMENT REVIEW
Senator Campbell. The GAO issued a general management
review of your operation in January and they made a number of
recommendations to improve management. I believe one of them
had to do with hiring a chief operating officer. Are you making
progress on that?
Mr. Hantman. We absolutely are, Mr. Chairman. I have gone
through many dozens of resumes. In fact, we are starting the
interview process next week. We have some good candidates from
a variety of backgrounds in Government and in the private
sector as well.
Senator Campbell. They also found some problems with
facilities management, day-to-day activities such as cleaning,
moving offices, maintenance and preservation of buildings,
things of that nature. What do you consider the biggest
challenges in facilities management, and have you started a
plan for improving those areas that they noted?
Mr. Hantman. We basically accepted all of GAO's
recommendations, Mr. Chairman, and our plan is to complete the
vast majority of them by the end of this year. Some of them are
going to go into the following year's annual performance plan,
and the most major of them, of course, is the completion of a
strategic plan. We are currently reviewing our draft with
stakeholders on both the Senate and the House side, and we
clearly plan to incorporate the changes and the input from
those stakeholders into the strategic plan before we finalize
it.
Also, as we select the COO, we plan to review this
strategic plan with the COO and look at what potential
organizational changes need to flow from that, so that person
can buy into it and play a key role in the agency as we go
forward.
CAPITOL VISITOR CENTER
Senator Campbell. Looking through my notes, it says that
you have over 200 projects underway at this time, the biggest
one, obviously, being the visitor center. One of them proposes
$26 million for the initial design of overhauling the Capitol
Building to address life-safety and other deficiencies. Some of
these large items like this--do we need to move them at the
same time as the visitor center?
Mr. Hantman. If we never did a visitor center, Mr.
Chairman, we would still need to make these changes. It is
really a question of the fact that over 200 years our Capitol
has grown in eight different increments of growth, and we
actually need additional stairways, additional means of egress,
things to make the building safe on a primary level, including
sprinkler systems in that building. So whether or not, again,
we did the CVC, this work would have to be done.
Our problem, of course--and we have talked to stakeholders
on both the Senate and the House side--is how much discomfort,
how much dislocation can the Members take while we are still
completing the visitor center and doing the perimeter security
and other things on the Capitol grounds. So what we have done
is we have redirected the plan to take a look at the low-
hanging fruit, if you will, that really would not require major
dislocations to how the Capitol Building works so that the
business of the Capitol can be done on a day-to-day basis. So
that is what we are looking at.
Senator Campbell. Was the last kind of major overhaul of
the rotunda a few years ago?
Mr. Hantman. There certainly was scaffolding going from the
floor of the rotunda up to the Apotheosis of Washington at the
top and that was cleaned, conserved and repainted.
In fact, we had a project, Mr. Chairman, several years ago
where we did the first phase of restoration of the Capitol
dome. The second phase actually would require doing major
patches of existing cracks and things of that nature,
repainting the exterior of the Capitol dome once we stripped it
down to its base metal, all those kind of things. That major
piece of work we put on hold also just because of the level of
dislocation we have currently with the CVC.
What we are really concerned with in the Capitol Building
itself is safety, and we plan to look at some projects with the
funding we are requesting in 2004 to be able to make it safer,
again without dislocating the Senate and the House and allowing
them to continue their business.
CAPITOL POLICE HEADQUARTERS
Senator Campbell. You have also been working with the
Capitol Police to develop a master facilities plan, including a
new headquarters building. The Capitol Police testified last
week about it. We have already appropriated roughly $60 million
for that project. What is the status? Have you found a place
yet that you expect to build on?
Mr. Hantman. The Capitol Police Board has accepted a
recommendation from the Capitol Police for square 695 at the
corner of New Jersey Avenue and I Street, Southeast. We believe
it meets the best requirements for the new headquarters
facility.
There was a potential conflict, Mr. Chairman, with the use
of square 695, though. There was a Department of Energy study
that recommended that same site for construction of a new
replacement power plant. Now, in separate----
Senator Campbell. What is there now? Is it just bare
ground?
Mr. Hantman. Basically it is low-use industrial works, some
vacant land, truck storage area, things like that. It is a
privately owned lot at this point in time, a couple of lots
adjacent to our coal storage yard for the Capitol power plant.
We agree that this is the right location for the Capitol Police
headquarters.
The recommendations coming out of this DOE study had talked
about putting a replacement power plant potentially and a
cogeneration plant on that site. We believe that the hundreds
of millions of dollars that would be required by this project
is really not necessary, that we continue to use our tri-fuel
approach to running our power plant for using coal as a primary
fuel, also oil and gas so that we can meet the EPA criteria for
the site. But we think we can retrofit our existing buildings,
use the existing site we have our Capitol power plant on, and
release the site for the use of the Capitol Police
headquarters.
Senator Campbell. Well, when you are working with them,
safety and security have got to be paramount in your plans and
theirs too, and also some of the things that they are talking
about but have not implemented but probably will be at a later
time. They are expanding, as you know, very quickly. When
taking their testimony the other day, it looks to me like
anything we put in place now is going to be too small 5 years
from now at the rate they are growing. So we will consider that
too.
Mr. Hantman. One of the things we do have to do, Mr.
Chairman, is take a look at the program size of that building
itself. The House has indicated that they prefer that the
Capitol Police move out of the Capitol area and the House
office buildings, and if we need to take those components of
the police into the headquarters, the police are currently
looking at that criteria right now so we can take a look at the
magnitude of the size, just in response to what you are saying.
ADDITIONAL COMMITTEE QUESTIONS
Senator Campbell. Thank you.
The rest of the questions I will submit. If you could
answer them in writing at your earliest convenience, I would
appreciate that.
[The following questions were not asked at the hearing, but
were submitted to the Architect for response subsequent to the
hearing:]
Questions Submitted by Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell
STATUS OF GAO RECOMMENDATIONS
Question. Mr. Hantman, GAO issued a general management review of
your operation in January and made a number of recommendations to
improve management. Can you provide an update on the implementation of
GAO's recommendations and the progress you have made in the last year?
How will you ensure that there is accountability for implementing the
strategic plan you are developing?
Answer. Our work with the GAO on the Management Review resulted in
a number of recommendations which we have integrated into our Strategic
Plan and Annual Performance Plan. We accepted all of GAO's
recommendations. Our plan is to complete the vast majority of the
recommendations by the end of this year; some carry over into the
following year's Annual performance plan. The GAO recommendations
include:
--Completion of an AOC Strategic Plan;
--Continuing to strengthen Human Capital policies and procedures;
--Continuing to improve Financial Management processes and systems;
--Developing and implementing a strategic approach to IT management;
--Continuing initiatives to achieve a safer workplace;
--Institutionalization of best practices in Project Management;
--Continue to improve the Recycling Program.
We are in the final phase of implementing a performance management
approach that includes strategic planning, annual planning and
reporting, and assessment of our performance based on meeting specific
milestones and measures. The Strategic Plan serves as the cornerstone
of this process.
We are currently soliciting stakeholder feedback on drafts of our
first Strategic Plan and Annual Performance Plan. Our goal is to
finalize the Strategic Plan and Performance Management Plan shortly.
The Strategic Plan and Annual Performance Plan will concentrate the
Agency's focus to continue to improve productivity and service
excellence. To ensure accountability and results we are: establishing
specific goals and milestones for each of the strategic objectives;
linking our senior managers' performance standards to the milestones of
the performance plan; identifying and developing specific business
process improvements based on client feedback (i.e. office cleanliness,
timeliness of response to requests, and quality of work); identifying
and developing new workplace programs/policies based on employee
feedback; integrating best practices into our operational strategies
(i.e. facilities management, project management; and IT systems
development and implementation).
A significant challenge, once we reach agreement with our
stakeholders on our Strategic and Annual Performance Plans, will be to
address the unexpected construction, renovation, or other mission
impacting requests from our customers. In order to be responsive to the
high priority needs of our customers and to be able to initiate and
complete projects on time, we will need to use the strategic and
performance plan as a basis to shift already agreed to projects to meet
new or unexpected demands.
FACILITIES MANAGEMENT
Question. GAO found problems with facilities management. What are
your biggest challenges in facilities management and what is your plan
for improvement?
Answer. The Architect of the Capitol (AOC) is entrusted with
preserving, maintaining, and enhancing the national treasures that make
up the Capitol complex. The Capitol complex is comprised of more than
two dozen buildings, nearly 14 million square feet of space, and more
than 270 acres of grounds. AOC is responsible for the maintenance,
renovation, and new construction in and around the Capitol Building,
the House and Senate office buildings, the Library of Congress, and the
Supreme Court. The historic nature and high-profile use of these
buildings creates a complex environment in which to carry out AOC's
work. AOC must also perform its duties in an environment that requires
balancing the needs of multiple stakeholders, including congressional
leadership, committees, individual members of Congress, congressional
staff, other clients, and the visiting public.
Facilities Management is one of four focus areas that embody our
Mission and Vision. Aligned with the facilities management area is a
strategic goal that emphasizes core services and critical processes to
deliver effective and efficient support and services.
There are several focus areas in facilities management that were
identified as areas of concern. Three major objectives were identified
to facilitate improvements in facilities management: (1) Develop a
comprehensive understanding of the condition of facilities under AOC's
jurisdiction; (2) Address maintenance and care needs proactively; and
(3) Preserve significant and historic heritage assets.
In our effort to develop a comprehensive understanding of the
condition of these facilities we are developing a scope of work and
requirements document to procure consultant services to conduct a full
conditions analysis and document current conditions of the facilities
in the Capitol Complex. The assessment will be conducted in two phases.
The first phase will include the Capitol Building, House Office
Buildings, and Senate Office Buildings. The second phase will
incorporate the remaining buildings in the AOC's jurisdiction.
To address maintenance and care needs proactively, we have resolved
several of the issues raised through procedural controls. Instituting
these controls established a more consistent process for generating
work schedules and providing feedback to the client as to when work
will be accomplished. We also follow up with the client upon completion
of work to ensure their requirements have been met and we ask them to
complete a customer survey form to evaluate the work performed.
To address general maintenance concerns, we are instituting a
preventive maintenance tracking and scheduling program. The Architect
of the Capitol's Office of Facilities Management is working with the
Office of the Superintendent to begin loading assets into the
preventive maintenance system program. The first phase for loading
assets is scheduled for completion in fiscal year 2003. Full
implementation of this system will be directly dependent upon funding
availability. The program implementation will provide a systematic and
consistent approach for performing routine recurring maintenance. The
system will enable maintenance work to be effectively and efficiently
planned and performed. In addition, the system will provide information
for performance measures that can be used as a management tool to
evaluate and effectively manage work performance.
In addition, the following are the areas and the actions taken to
address other concerns:
Cleanliness.--Quality inspections are being performed regularly and
the results of the inspections are forwarded to the Quality Manager for
analysis and recommended actions. Also, monthly management meetings
have been established to review inspection results and to discuss
actions instituted to correct any noted patterns of concern.
Wayfinding Signs.--A project is scheduled for award in fiscal year
2003 to address the wayfinding signage concerns. The project will
include the installation of interior and exterior signage for building
directions, building exits, elevator locations, ADA access, etc.
Completion of this effort is scheduled for fiscal year 2005.
Elevators.--A project to modernize all the elevators in the Capitol
is underway. The effort commenced in fiscal year 2002, and to date, 19
of 27 elevators have been modernized and 3 are currently under
construction. The remaining 5 will be completely modernized by fiscal
year 2004.
Heating, Cooling, Air Quality.--Air quality studies have been
performed and continue to be performed on a case-by-case basis whenever
there is a concern raised regarding air quality. Air monitoring/
sampling is performed and actions are recommended and implemented to
address any negative air quality results.
Preserve significant and historic heritage assets.--This effort is
underway and will include defining the standards, verifying assets,
establishing and facilitating a Congressional Working Group to define
responsibilities for subcollections in question, and developing a
memorandum of understanding. This effort was begun in January 2003 and
is scheduled for completion in the third quarter of fiscal year 2004.
Senate Office Buildings.--For the Senate Office Buildings there are
many challenges in the daily management of these facilities. Cleaning
and policing of public areas is challenging due to the heavy
intermittent loading of our buildings. As waves of visitors move
through the Senate Office Buildings, at various times of the day the
need for immediate cleaning and policing becomes necessary, often after
area cleaning cycles have been completed and at the expense of normal
operations. Other challenges that face our cleaning operations include
intensive contractor oversight and contractual administrative
requirements to facilitate and manage contractor performance.
Additionally, this type of work has a high personnel turnover rate
resulting in reduced productivity and/or quality. To help resolve these
conditions, additional staffing has been added to the day policing
contract to increase the level and frequency of cleaning of public
areas such as restroom facilities, entry ways and stairwells. The
Senate Superintendent's Office has also increased its inspection
efforts of public spaces in and around the Senate Office Buildings and
implemented processes to facilitate quick remedies to identified
deficiencies as part of a comprehensive Quality & Assurance Program.
MAJOR PROJECTS--MASTER PLAN CAPITOL BUILDING
Question. The Architect's office has over 200 major projects under
way at this time--the most visible one being the Capitol Visitor
Center. Your budget proposes $26 million for the initial design for
overhauling the Capitol building to address various deficiencies. Why
do we need to proceed with this very large undertaking at this time?
Can you give me an idea of the magnitude of this proposed project, what
would be involved, and a rough estimate of the cost to implement the
master plan for the Capitol after you complete the design?
Answer. The U.S. Capitol Building Master Plan Study proposes to
coordinate five projects into one that would consist of (1) Capitol
Infrastructure Master Plan, (2) Sprinkler System installation
throughout the building, (3) House Chamber Study, (4) Senate Chamber
Study, and (5) Security Work. As a once-in-a-lifetime project,
coordination of these five projects ensures that the disruption of
these spaces occurs only once.
Public Law 104-1 passed on January 23, 1995, established the
``Congressional Accountability Act (CAA) of 1995.'' Since Congress
enacted this Act, the Office of Compliance (OOC) has conducted periodic
inspections of the facilities under the AOC's jurisdiction. Those
inspections identified a series of fire and life safety code
deficiencies requiring corrective action. Most of these deficiencies
have been corrected, but there are some that would require in-depth
analysis and study to determine how best to integrate the solutions
with the Capitol's unique architectural configuration and historical
features. Since it is the AOC's responsibility to take necessary
corrective actions to abate violations identified by the OOC and/or
those identified through self-inspection and analysis, it became
necessary to undertake a study to review the existing building
conditions against the applicable building, life safety, and fire
codes.
The main purpose of this study (Capitol Building Master Plan) is to
review code deficiencies and develop a series of recommendations on the
corrective actions necessary to comply with the codes in a prescriptive
manner or through alternate means called ``equivalencies,'' while
upgrading the Capitol Building's support systems and infrastructure.
The Capitol Building Master Plan Study is significantly complete
pending identification of final security requirements and funding. The
Master Plan addresses the provision of: adequate means of egress to
safely evacuate building occupants during emergency situations; a
building-wide sprinkler system; smoke control at vertical openings such
as the Grand Stairs; security controls at all outside fresh air intakes
entering the building's ventilation systems; ducted air return; and
infrastructure improvements such as: electrical power and lighting
upgrades, emergency power needs, elevator upgrades, smoke detectors,
evacuation alarms, telecommunications & cable TV upgrades, plumbing
renovations, and modernization to the heating, ventilation, and air
conditioning systems to meet energy standards and security related
requirements.
The Capitol Building Master Plan Study, as proposed conceptually
will take at least seven years to implement based on a phased approach
and will require emptying sections of the building for periods of time
to allow for full implementation of the recommended upgrades. This
approach will require that swing space outside the Capitol Building be
provided to house persons and functions displaced during a given phase
of the project. The Master Plan Study's conceptual schedule recommends
six construction phases.
To achieve the proposed construction phasing suggested by the
Capitol Building Master Plan Study, design development and the
preparation of construction documents need to commence in fiscal year
2004 and continue through fiscal year 2006 in the order reflected by
the construction phases. Prior to beginning the design development and
preparation of construction documents, extensive graphic documentation
of the existing systems of the building's infrastructure and
development of schematic designs are necessary to form the basis of the
construction documents. Currently, the fiscal year 2003 budget includes
funding necessary to begin the graphic documentation of existing
building systems. The fiscal year 2004 budget submission included a
request for $26.5 million to initiate design development and
construction documents preparation for a phased approach.
Prior to and during a March 21, 2003, briefing to House and Senate
leadership staff, we sought feedback on the Capitol Building Master
Plan Study recommendations and the proposed construction phases. The
main concern of leadership staff is the physical impact of this project
in addition to disruptions as a result of CVC construction. They noted
the need to accomplish those recommendations while having a minimum
impact on the building's occupants and operations. With these concerns
in mind, the AOC was asked to explore options for the incremental
implementation of Capitol Building Master Plan Study recommendations.
Based on the recommendations from leadership staff, and upon
approval to utilize available fiscal year 2003 funding we will initiate
a Constructability and Phasing Analysis that emphasizes those life-
safety, fire protection, and security recommendations and initiatives
that could be accomplished with minimum disruptions to the building
occupants and business operations. Emphasis also will be placed on
accelerating similar work for the House and Senate Chambers.
MAJOR PROJECTS--POSSIBLE DEFERRALS
Question. Are there any areas in your budget request that could be
deferred in order to allow you to complete the CVC and other major
projects currently underway?
Answer. There are several projects which could be deferred or
phased in to reduce the workload during fiscal year 2004 and subsequent
years. The projects listed below, by appropriation, could be eligible
for deferral or phased approaches, if agreed to in consultation with
our clients:
General Administration
Conduct Energy Survey of Capitol Complex, $1,600,000
The Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, Public Law 105-275,
Section 310 requires the Architect to perform an energy survey of the
Capitol complex. A total of $1.6 million is requested to perform the
energy survey.
The survey could be phased by jurisdiction, if so directed. The
Architect could develop a phasing plan to accomplish the energy survey
over a two or three year period based on the Committee's direction.
Replace High Voltage Switchgear in Nine Buildings,
$18,672,000
Replacement of the high voltage switchgear is a critical project
due to its advanced age. Failure of any of the switchgear units would
result in power failure in the building. Additionally, the poor
condition of the equipment creates a hazard to the employees who must
perform routine maintenance. However, the funding stream could be
phased over three years. The project ideally would be bid as a base
option for the first year, with two succeeding option years. This would
allow for a single procurement for construction to occur. A single
contract will streamline the procurement process, project management,
construction management, and contract administration functions. It will
also increase the likelihood that equipment manufacturers remain
consistent throughout the AOC, saving future training costs and
replacement parts.
Due to the age of the switchgear, and in some cases, its
dilapidated condition, the period of phasing should not exceed three
years. A potential funding stream is fiscal year 2004--$7.5 million,
fiscal year 2005--$6.8 million, and fiscal year 2006--$4.3 million. The
work would be based on a prioritization of age and condition of the
buildings.
Alternate Computer Facility, $61,000,000
The request to purchase was presented because the initial lease
purchase analysis indicates that purchasing the facility sooner rather
than continuing to lease it will save the government money. Also
because of the critical and sensitive nature of the facility and the
operations it houses, the security of the building, and the grounds
surrounding it would be further enhanced if it is for legislative
branch or government use only. As such, the $61 million could be
executed in fiscal year 2004. However, deferring the purchase will
allow time to resolve due diligence issues which will take about six
months. We also need to work the landlord/tenant authority legislation
and better understand the costs of being the landlord.
Senate Office Buildings--Replace Steam Humidifiers, HSOB, $4,717,000
While all projects this office requests are important and
necessary, our project request Replace Steam Humidifiers, in the Hart
SOB, could be deferred with moderate impact. We plan to install local
steam generators to provide necessary capacity for building
humidification following industry best practices. Currently, the Hart
Building is humidified via plant steam which is not an industry best
practice. This current system is capable of humidifying to acceptable
guidelines, however it does not have the capacity to humidify to
desired levels which can cause indoor air quality complaints during
colder days of the winter.
Capitol Building--Capitol Building's Master Plan, $26,500,000
A phased approach to this project could be taken based on feedback
from key leadership staff. Based on this approach, the original fiscal
year 2004 request of $26.5 million would be reduced to $10.7 million.
This will provide for the design of short-term incremental work;
perform a space utilization study for the House and Senate sides of the
Capitol; construct the means of egress by the West Brumidi corridor;
develop to 100 percent completion construction documents for the House
and Senate Chamber restorations; perform additional plaster
assessments; and construct a back-up fire pump.
MAJOR PROJECTS--PERFORMANCE BY NON AOC ENTITIES
Question. What percent of your major projects are not being handled
``in-house'', through the Corps of Engineers or other outside entities?
Answer. There are currently 24 projects of which a major portion of
the project management or construction management efforts are being
performed by those other than AOC permanent staff. They include: the
Capitol Visitor Center; the West Refrigeration Plant Expansion; the
various Perimeter Security projects; several projects for the Library
of Congress at Fort Meade; several projects for the USCP located at
D.C. Village and elsewhere; and security-related projects at the
Library of Congress. While these projects represent approximately 11
percent of the current AOC projects, they represent the majority of the
project funding and include over $700 million of total project costs.
They are being managed, partially or fully, by temporary employees
assigned to the specific project, construction management firms hired
for the specific project, firms which are providing project and
construction management to the AOC on an IDIQ basis, the Army Corp of
Engineers, NAVFAC and other external entities. The AOC continues to
evaluate the services which can be provided by these entities and will
utilize them where we believe they can provide the best project
delivery support.
CAPITOL VISITOR CENTER
Question. You have indicated that the CVC will cost more than has
been appropriated to date. Can you explain why this is?
Answer. Before discussing the need for additional funds, it is
important to understand that the original project budget of $265
million, which included the core CVC facilities, the service tunnel,
and only the shell space for the House and Senate, was established four
years ago. That estimate was made based on the best information
available at that time, but I must stress that the estimate was made
before the construction drawings were finished, before the first shovel
was put in the ground, and before we had the chance to really look long
and hard at what it would take to keep the Capitol fully operational
while the CVC was constructed. No one could have anticipated or
predicted the myriad of challenges we faced, in particular,
encountering unforeseen site conditions, adapting to changes in scope,
mitigating project impacts, maintaining Capitol operations, and
accommodating increased security requirements following the events of
9/11.
The first challenge we encountered during pre-construction
activities, neither my team, nor our construction manager, Gilbane
Building Co., nor two independent estimators, could have anticipated.
The level of work that was required went above and beyond our original
pre-construction expectations. We've had additional requirements
related to our tree preservation effort, our historic preservation
effort, our visitor screening, parking accommodations for Members and
staff, noise reduction, and requirements related to alternate House and
Senate media sites. But by far, our greatest challenge has been in the
area of utility relocation.
Utility lines within the project footprint needed to be relocated
prior to excavation of the project site. Many of these lines have been
installed at various times during the last 100 years as technology
changed and new utility systems were installed. Relocation of these
lines, while keeping the Capitol itself fully functional, has proved to
be a delicate and, complex pre-construction task. Part of the
difficulty is due to the fact that many of the utility lines were
poorly or inaccurately documented on the building drawings that were
available to us, some of which date to the early 1900s. As it became
increasingly apparent that existing drawings were unreliable, we
attempted to do much of the utility work at nights or on weekends, and
to some extent, we worked around the legislative calendar, all in an
effort to minimize disruption to the Capitol and its occupants. Those
restrictions, however, do have a cost associated with them. Yet,
despite all these challenges, it is a credit to our team that we were
able to avoid any significant disruption to the Capitol building
operations during this process. Last summer, the project footprint was
successfully cleared of utilities.
--A specific example: on First Street NE, we had intended on
rerouting a large water line across the road at a location we
believed suitable to accommodate the necessary excavation. City
drawings showed an existing Amtrak tunnel to be approximately
18 feet below ground at this location, more than enough
clearance to reroute our water line. Upon excavation, we found
the Amtrak tunnel wall to begin, in fact, less than 2 feet
below the surface. We were forced to back away, reroute the
line again, adding a few hundred feet to the overall length to
the utility line and a few extra weeks of work, and nearly
$400,000 in extra costs. Though not as dramatic as this, we
have had many other occurrences of utility lines not being
where they were expected, or being where they weren't expected
at all. But I must emphasize, all the costs associated with
this work were valid and reasonable, they just weren't
predictable.
There also were challenges as a result of 9/11. First, the tragic
events of that day prompted a reassessment of the projects' security
elements. As a credit to the original design by our architectural firm,
RTKL, the team recommended no significant changes to the overall
design. However, additional requirements, which necessitated more
robust mechanical systems, were imposed. Structural changes were needed
to accommodate these new systems and these changes came at a very late
stage in the design process. In fact, Sequence 1 design documents were
already complete and Sequence 2 documents were about one month from
completion. Despite these changes, our completion milestones did not
change.
There has also been an increase in site logistics security. New
security screening measures imposed on all vehicles coming to the
construction site, while necessary, add time to every trip made. When
we reach the peak of excavation, we will have approximately 50 dump
trucks working at the same time, each attempting to make six to eight
trips a day to and from the site each day. Additional time to make
these trips translates to an extension of the excavation period.
Further, we were required to build a new screening station. That meant
adding telecommunications conduits, additional paving, additional
fencing and installation of security elements. Design and construction
of the new screening facility required significant planning and
coordination with the Capitol Police, but again, our completion
milestone did not change.
Finally, we are all aware that we had one of the wettest winters on
record. Rain and snow have the potential to wreak havoc on a
construction site, especially one involving excavation and very large
equipment, which tends to get bogged down in the mud. Nevertheless, our
construction crews have tried to offset any time lost due to weather by
working, at times, 24 hours a day, 7 days week, the Sequence 1 project
has been impacted by approximately 48 days due to unforeseen challenges
and other conditions I noted. However, to date, our major completion
schedule milestones still have not changed. One thing to note,
subsequent to the 48-day delay impact, last month, we hit a 200-year
old stone well situated directly in the path of our perimeter wall and
just a few feet away from the Capitol. The demolition of the stone and
attempts to reestablish a solid foundation for the perimeter wall has
proved extremely difficult. In short, what was scheduled to last four
days, for the routine construction of three wall panels, required weeks
instead. Our construction manager is currently gathering facts and is
in the process of assessing the impact to the project's milestones, if
any. We will report the results to Leadership after we have completed
this assessment.
If four years ago we knew, what we know today, we would have had
the information necessary to budget for the project more accurately.
However, the project has received two clean audit opinions from the
General Accounting Office, and we have put additional controls in place
on the budgeting process for the project.
Question. As you know, we are looking to mark up the fiscal year
2004 appropriations bill shortly and we need your best estimate for
completing the project as soon as possible. When will you have the
cost-to-complete? When will you need the additional funds?
Answer. We have been working with the General Accounting Office
(GAO) and an independent consultant to thoroughly analyze the CVC
project's budget, expenditures, future requirements, and contingencies
to provide a firm cost-to-complete analysis. The GAO is planning to
have the results in early June 2003.
The funding timeline for the project is being updated to reflect
the obligation plan authority we received for Sequence 2. The project
team, including our construction manager who maintains our overall
project schedule, has identified the next immediate need for additional
funding in June 2003. This request includes funding for the East Front
interface portion of the CVC project and to keep Sequence 1 moving
forward. The East Front work includes a number of tasks and is not
currently part of the Sequence 1 or 2 contracts. With the award of the
Sequence 2 contract we are proceeding with maintaining our milestone
schedule. However, we still have a critical portion of the project,
within the East Front interface, that needs to be funded, or funds
reprogrammed, to allow us to keep on schedule. The East Front portion
of the CVC project is work that was always part of the base project,
and includes complex structural and mechanical/electrical elements to
support the vertical transportation (elevators and stairways) and air
shafts that connect the CVC to the Capitol building. This work was not
included in the contracts for Sequences 1 or 2 since the requirement to
extend the existing east front elevators was given to the CVC at the
time the Sequence 1 design was being finalized, thus it was too late to
include in the Sequence 1 bid documents. During design development of
the East Front (which was originally planned to be part of Sequence 2)
the engineers realized how extremely complex the structural work was to
extend the existing elevators. An acceptable engineering solution could
not be found which would mitigate the risk to the existing Capitol
building, thus I made a decision to reduce the depth of these elevators
and the new air shafts. The engineers revised their design which
reduced the risk. We have finalized the design and have obtained three
independent estimates for this work. We plan to negotiate this work
with one of the contractors on-site and will incorporate it into their
contract.
The next need for funds is anticipated to be in October/November
2003 to meet the other elements of the project. We are currently
reviewing the updated schedule, which includes the Sequence 2
contractor, to obtain a more precise spending plan for October 2003 and
beyond. We plan to have this completed by the end of the month also.
Question. What major challenges might you encounter as you continue
the project, and the biggest risk areas that could lead to budget
pressures?
Answer. Unforeseen site conditions remain our biggest risk.
Whenever you dig a 50-foot hole over an area covering five acres
immediately adjacent to our nation's most historic building, it is
difficult to predict exactly what we will find. As an example is the
underground well I mentioned in a prior response.
Additional security requirements also present another risk to
budget and schedule. Increased security requirements or work stoppages
prompted by external events can certainly have a significant impact on
the project.
Other potential risks are those associated with additional changes
in scope and requirements. We can only change so much while executing
day-to-day management of the project before changes have real impacts
to budget and schedule. Providing additional funds for additional work
doesn't necessarily mean we can maintain our original schedule. So many
elements of this project are tied together where a new requirement, for
example, could have a ripple effect on several other elements.
Also, based on our recent experience with the demolition of the
well, we are concerned that work along and within the East Front can be
disruptive to the point that we must perform much of the work during
off hours. Obviously, such restrictions reduce the opportunity to keep
on schedule.
Question. What procedures have you put in place to ensure that you
keep a tight reign on the budget?
Answer. The biggest areas of budget pressures are directly related
to the challenges I previously enumerated. However, there is also a
risk to the schedule if additional funds are not made available or
reprogrammed to start the East Front construction this summer. If
additional unforeseen conditions arise during construction that require
contingency funds, that too can prevent the project from moving
forward. We will work with the Committees to provide detailed budget
information. We also will work closely with House and Senate Leadership
to reconcile the budget based on the conditions I discussed in a cost-
to-complete estimate with an independent consultant. We meet every
Monday with the Capitol Preservation Commission (CPC) to provide a
current update on the project, discuss issues of concern, and resolve
problems. Let me take this opportunity to thank them for their
steadfast support and consistent leadership as we have moved from
design and into construction.
We are currently working on revising the monthly financial report
to follow the format and funding of the approved obligation plans to
clearly show where the funds have been used. Also, I have put in place
budget monitoring procedures that include reviewing potential
construction change orders (PCOs) on a daily basis within my CVC
project office. Our CVC project team reviews these changes daily, to
determine if they are within the scope of the project and to code them
by funding source and to be noted as client requested, unforeseen
condition, or design change due to existing conditions (or other
categories as yet to be defined). Then with support from my AOC budget
office, who will ensure that the changes are in line with the
obligation plans, the CVC team will assess the impact to the future
budget and determine if there is a cause for concern. I will review
this with the CVC project team on a weekly basis (or sooner if the need
is great) and will brief the CPC leadership staff on the potential
changes and their impact to the project.
Through the monthly reports and controls, cost-to-complete estimate
and GAO oversight, our construction management staff has placed the
highest priority to ensure the successful completion of the project in
a fiscally responsible and timely manner.
Question. What is being done to prepare for the operations of the
CVC when it opens in 2005?
Answer. A consultant is developing options and suggestions for a
CVC operations plan which will provide the following information:
--Three-year estimate of operating expenses;
--Facility management plan;
--Food service plan;
--Visitor experience plan, including wayfinding, visitor flow and
Guide Service recommendations;
--Space allocation recommendations;
--Recommendations for in-house staffing vs. contracting out for
certain services; and
--Training schedules and pre-opening recommendations.
The operations plan is scheduled to be completed this summer and
will be referred to the CPC for review.
CAPITOL POLICE FACILITY NEEDS
Question. You have been working with the Capitol Police for some
time to develop a master facilities plan, including a new headquarters
facility. As I understand it, a site has been identified. This
Committee has already appropriated roughly $60 million for the project.
What is the status of the project and how much in additional funding
will be needed? Will that be part of your fiscal year 2005 request?
When can we expect the facility will be complete? What is the status of
the off-site delivery facility which has been fully funded ($22
million)?
Answer. The Capitol Police Board has recommended a specific site,
to best meet the needs of a new Capitol Police headquarters facility,
based on current requirements identified in the facilities master plan.
Our plan is to use existing funds to pursue due diligence and purchase
real property, with appropriate oversight committee approvals, and
design the facility. We will then program the remaining funds in our
normal budget cycle. We anticipate the earliest request for funds to
complete the project will be in fiscal year 2006. The total funding
will construct and fit-out the new headquarters facility and the
command center. We will initially need to hire two temporary full-time
equivalents (FTE) exceeding our FTE ceiling to assist with this
project. The conference report accompanying Public Law 108-11 directs
us to use the Naval Facilities Command to execute this project.
It is important to bring to your attention two issues that could
affect the remaining cost of the new Capitol Police headquarters,
currently estimated at $113 million, as well as the identification of
the preferred site. The current estimate is based on the Capitol Police
operational model used for the recently completed facilities master
plan. This operational model recommended retaining a significant
portion of existing police spaces in the Capitol, House and Senate
Office Buildings. The Capitol Police are currently assessing the
operational impacts of reducing their footprint within existing
facilities, as well as substantially reducing their surface parking
requirements within the jurisdictions. Once this assessment is
complete, we will then analyze the impact to the overall facilities
master plan. If relocating functions to the new Police headquarters
requires additional space and ancillary facilities, the cost of the
project will increase accordingly. Offsetting costs for release of
existing space are minor in comparison. The second issue that could
affect the new headquarters' cost is the recently completed Capitol
Police Comprehensive Staffing Analysis for Sworn and Civilian
Personnel. This analysis recommends significant increases in the number
of sworn and civilian personnel and, if approved, some of these people
would be located in the new Police headquarters building along with
their additional parking requirements. We will work with the Capitol
Police and our oversight committees to resolve these issues.
Given the early stages of this project, it is too early to
establish an estimated completion date. Once requirements are finalized
and property acquired, we will work with the Navy to establish a
realistic completion date.
The Offsite Delivery/Screening Facility is now fully funded.
Unfortunately however, the Capitol Police Board recommended site was
sold by the owner to another entity before we received approval to make
an offer. We are working with the Capitol Police to identify and
evaluate options for an alternative location. Once our evaluation is
complete, we will work with our oversight committees to move forward.
ALTERNATE COMPUTER FACILITY
Question. The single largest project request in your budget is $61
million to purchase the alternate computer facility, currently being
leased. Could you explain why it makes sense to buy this facility
rather than continue to lease it? If a decision is made to buy the
building, we will have double the space at that location than is
currently available (2 connected buildings rather than one). What is
the status of plans for using the additional space? Who is leading the
effort to develop those plans?
Answer. Project background: Following the attacks of September 11,
2001, for continuity of operations, the Architect of the Capitol
received authorization and funding to acquire an alternate computer
facility in case primary data centers became inoperative. The AOC
entered into a ten-year lease agreement for a facility within a 50 mile
radius of the Capitol in November 2002. We also have a single option
for a second ten years within the lease. The building under lease is
one-half of a twin building complex with the other building available
for lease to other tenants by the owner. The AOC has the right to a
security suitability review of any potential tenants in the other
building. The primary tenants within the Alternate Computer Facility
are the House of Representatives, Senate, Library of Congress, and
Architect of the Capitol. The building owner was given five months from
November 2002 to design and construct modifications to the facility to
meet tenant requirements for individual data centers. The target
completion date for these modifications was April 19, 2003.
Why should we purchase the facility? In short, the need is
permanent. The building is sound and very desirable as determined by
the ACF task force. Security is enhanced and, by purchasing it, we save
the federal government money.
There are several advantages to buying the building:
First, the need for a backup data center is perpetual.
Second, the very same reasons the building is attractive to
purchase are the same reasons the particular building was attractive to
lease.
--Remote, but convenient location (within 50 miles of the Capitol);
--Strength and redundancies in infrastructure and utilities;
--On-site land around the building and excellent setback from public
roads;
--Building in overall good condition;
--Building contained millions of dollars of prior-tenant build-out
that we re-used without much additional expense;
--Secure facility type of building layout, i.e., no room has an
exterior wall;
--Excellent Aesthetics;
--Available for quick occupancy;
--Floor load capacity of the building (1st floor) is 300 psf (which
is very high);
--Electrical feeders from 2 separate power substations, for
redundancy;
--30 Mega Volt-Amperes (MVA) of electrical capacity per transformer;
building electrical capacity of 50 watts psf; and
--Diversity of fiber optic providers available.
Third, purchase would increase security by allowing the legislative
branch to control both halves of the building, and the land around it.
It would also prevent the landlord from developing the large tract of
land around the building (which if we do not exercise the purchase
option he can develop intensely up to 200 feet from our leased space).
Purchase would allow us to control the common heating, ventilation and
air conditioning, power, and water utility systems of the building,
which are located in the side of the building that we do not lease.
Fourth, based on a simple cost/benefit analysis, ten years of rent,
taxes and security premium equates to about $55 million. This, coupled
with our more than $10 million investment in fitting out the facility
to accommodate our specific requirements means that we will have
invested approximately $65 million in the facility over the 10 year
lease and not own anything. If we purchase the facility at the maximum
price of $61 million, we double our building space and gain control of
91 acres of undeveloped land around the facility. We also save the
second ten-year lease costs, which will exceed $58 million over the
term of the lease. To leverage our purchase, it would be ideal to use
the other half for other legislative branch requirements, for the
Senate, House, Library, AOC, GPO or GAO for data center expansion,
backup data centers, or other legislative branch requirements, such as
continuity of operations. Of course, if other legislative branch
requirements are not sufficient to fill the other building, then we
could lease the remaining space to other government agencies, or
commercial tenants. If the other half of the building is leased to
other tenants, we would desire a statutory provision allowing us,
rather than Treasury, to retain the rent to offset operating costs.
Based on market rental rates, we could conservatively expect to lease
the other building for approximately $20-$30 per square foot per year.
For 167,831 square feet, this equates to over $3 million per year in
revenue. There is no lead agency for developing plans for the other
half of the building as no firm decision has been made to acquire it.
Should that decision be finalized, the AOC will be happy to take the
lead in developing plans for its use if so directed. We are, however,
working with another legislative branch agency to determine the
feasibility of developing part of the surrounding 91 acres, or an
adjacent 25-acre parcel under the same owner.
Another issue centers around existing and future development of the
other building. The building owner has the right, and intends to
exercise it, for leasing available space within the facility. While we
have the right, and pay a premium for that right, to review potential
tenants for security suitability, we do not have authority to prevent
the landlord from leasing available space. As the landlord acquires new
tenants, purchase of the facility becomes more complicated and
potentially more costly as lease terminations may be required, with
appropriate compensation. This potentially increases our financial
liability as new leases are granted and space is encumbered.
WEST REFRIGERATION PLANT
Question. Your budget includes $40.8 million for the final
increment for the West Refrigeration Plant Expansion. Is this project
on time and on budget? When will it be completed? What are your plans
for the East Refrigeration Plant, which will be decommissioned, and
what cost requirements can we expect?
Answer. The coal handling relocation project, which was phase I of
the West Refrigeration Plant Expansion project is approximately 90
percent complete, within budget and on schedule for a June 15th
completion date.
Phase II of this critical project, construction of the actual
refrigeration plant expansion, was competitively bid and subsequently
awarded to HITT Construction who is subcontracting the mechanical work
out to Poole & Kent Inc, mechanical contractor who has worked with HITT
on other projects. Notice to proceed (NTP) with construction was issued
on March 26, 2003. Subsequent to contract award and prior to NTP, two
of the unsuccessful offerors, Bell Construction and Fru-Con
construction filed bid protests with the General Accounting Office
(GAO). GAO declined to hear the cases on an expedited basis and Bell
Construction filed in Federal Claims Court to stop construction and
revisit the procurement and bid selection process. On May 9th, the
court declined to issue a restraining order against the project and
commented in the order that, ``It is clear from the arguments this
morning (court, 5/9), that plaintiff does not have a likelihood of
prevailing on the merits''.
Construction is proceeding with demolition of existing structures
and site civil work. The general contractor has obligated approximately
75 percent of the awarded fiscal year 2003 funding, the project is
within budget and on schedule to be completed in May 2005.
The fiscal year 2004 budget submission has requested appropriated
funds to conduct a comprehensive utilization study for the East
Refrigeration Plant which will generate a report with the best
available options to utilize the building after decommissioning.
Options under consideration include addition of limited on-site power
generation or relocation of existing industrial and repair shops from
the Capitol Hill complex.
PERIMETER SECURITY
Question. What is the status of the second phase of perimeter
security work on the Senate side of the Capitol, funded in the fiscal
year 2002 emergency response fund? When is construction scheduled to
complete? Are funds on-hand sufficient to complete the project as
planned?
Answer. Approval of the conceptual plan for the second phase of the
perimeter security project for the Senate Office Buildings was recently
received and final designs and schedules are currently being developed.
It is anticipated that work will begin this summer and will take 2 to 3
years to complete. Without the final design it is not possible to be
certain that there is adequate funding for this project, however, based
on similar projects, it is anticipated that the current funding will be
adequate. When final designs are developed and cost estimates are
completed, they will be fully coordinated with the Senate.
CONCLUSION OF HEARINGS
Senator Campbell. Since we will be getting our second beep
to vote in just a minute, if there are no further things before
the committee, the subcommittee will be called recessed. Thank
you.
[Whereupon, at 1:50 p.m., Thursday, May 8, the hearings
were concluded, and the subcommittee was recessed, to reconvene
subject to the call of the Chair.]