[House Hearing, 110 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT REVIEW
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON FEDERAL WORKFORCE,
POSTAL SERVICE, AND THE DISTRICT
OF COLUMBIA
of the
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT
AND GOVERNMENT REFORM
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
SEPTEMBER 16, 2008
__________
Serial No. 110-153
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/
index.html
http://www.house.gov/reform
----------
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COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM
HENRY A. WAXMAN, California, Chairman
EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York TOM DAVIS, Virginia
PAUL E. KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania DAN BURTON, Indiana
CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut
ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland JOHN M. McHUGH, New York
DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio JOHN L. MICA, Florida
DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana
JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts TODD RUSSELL PLATTS, Pennsylvania
WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri CHRIS CANNON, Utah
DIANE E. WATSON, California JOHN J. DUNCAN, Jr., Tennessee
STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts MICHAEL R. TURNER, Ohio
BRIAN HIGGINS, New York DARRELL E. ISSA, California
JOHN A. YARMUTH, Kentucky KENNY MARCHANT, Texas
BRUCE L. BRALEY, Iowa LYNN A. WESTMORELAND, Georgia
ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of PATRICK T. McHENRY, North Carolina
Columbia VIRGINIA FOXX, North Carolina
BETTY McCOLLUM, Minnesota BRIAN P. BILBRAY, California
JIM COOPER, Tennessee BILL SALI, Idaho
CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, Maryland JIM JORDAN, Ohio
PAUL W. HODES, New Hampshire
CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut
JOHN P. SARBANES, Maryland
PETER WELCH, Vermont
JACKIE SPEIER, California
Phil Barnett, Staff Director
Earley Green, Chief Clerk
Lawrence Halloran, Minority Staff Director
Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of
Columbia
DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois
ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of KENNY MARCHANT, Texas
Columbia JOHN M. McHUGH, New York
JOHN P. SARBANES, Maryland JOHN L. MICA, Florida
ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland DARRELL E. ISSA, California
DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio, Chairman JIM JORDAN, Ohio
WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri
STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts
Tania Shand, Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hearing held on September 16, 2008............................... 1
Statement of:
Bailey, Teresa, Director, EEO/Conciliation Program, Architect
of the Capitol; Gloria L. Jarmon, Chief Administrative
Officer, U.S. Capitol Police; Ronald Stroman, Managing
Director, Office of Opportunity and Inclusiveness, U.S.
Government Accountability Office; Nadine Elzy, Director,
Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, U.S. Government
Printing Office; Stephanie Ruiz, Director, Human Resources,
Congressional Budget Office; and Jesse James, Jr., Acting
Director, Office of Workforce Diversity, Library of
Congress................................................... 77
Bailey, Teresa........................................... 77
Elzy, Nadine............................................. 107
James, Jesse, Jr......................................... 124
Jarmon, Gloria L......................................... 85
Ruiz, Stephanie.......................................... 113
Stroman, Ronald.......................................... 90
Bates, Carol, Inspector General, Architect of the Capitol;
Carl W. Hoecker, Inspector General, U.S. Capitol Police;
Frances Garcia, Inspector General, U.S. Government
Accountability Office; J. Anthony Ogden, Inspector General,
U.S. Government Printing Office; and Karl W. Schornagel,
Inspector General, Library of Congress..................... 5
Bates, Carol............................................. 5
Garcia, Frances.......................................... 20
Hoecker, Carl W.......................................... 12
Ogden, J. Anthony........................................ 39
Schornagel, Karl W....................................... 53
Chrisler, Tamara E., Executive Director, Office of
Compliance; and Janet Crenshaw Smith, president, Ivy
Planning Group LLC......................................... 137
Chrisler, Tamara E....................................... 137
Smith, Janet Crenshaw.................................... 144
Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by:
Bailey, Teresa, Director, EEO/Conciliation Program, Architect
of the Capitol, prepared statement of...................... 79
Bates, Carol, Inspector General, Architect of the Capitol:
Letter dated October 1, 2008............................. 59
Prepared statement of.................................... 8
Chrisler, Tamara E., Executive Director, Office of
Compliance, prepared statement of.......................... 139
Davis, Hon. Danny K., a Representative in Congress from the
State of Illinois, information concerning breakdown of
workforce.................................................. 3
Elzy, Nadine, Director, Office of Equal Employment
Opportunity, U.S. Government Printing Office, prepared
statement of............................................... 109
Garcia, Frances, Inspector General, U.S. Government
Accountability Office, prepared statement of............... 22
Hoecker, Carl W., Inspector General, U.S. Capitol Police,
prepared statement of...................................... 14
James, Jesse, Jr., Acting Director, Office of Workforce
Diversity, Library of Congress, prepared statement of...... 126
Jarmon, Gloria L., Chief Administrative Officer, U.S. Capitol
Police, prepared statement of.............................. 87
Ogden, J. Anthony, Inspector General, U.S. Government
Printing Office, prepared statement of..................... 42
Ruiz, Stephanie, Director, Human Resources, Congressional
Budget Office, prepared statement of....................... 116
Schornagel, Karl W. Inspector General, Library of Congress:
Overall comments......................................... 67
Prepared statement of.................................... 55
Smith, Janet Crenshaw, president, Ivy Planning Group LLC,
prepared statement of...................................... 146
Stroman, Ronald, Managing Director, Office of Opportunity and
Inclusiveness, U.S. Government Accountability Office,
prepared statement of...................................... 92
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT REVIEW
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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2008
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service,
and the District of Columbia,
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:23 p.m., in
room 2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Danny K. Davis
(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Davis, Cummings, Clay, Norton,
Marchant, and Jordan.
Staff present: Tania Shand, staff director; Lori Hayman,
counsel; William Miles, professional staff member; Marcus A.
Williams, clerk; Alex Cooper, minority professional staff
member; and Howard Denis, minority senior professional staff
member.
Mr. Davis. The subcommittee will come to order.
Welcome, Ranking Member Marchant, members of the
subcommittee, hearing witnesses, and all those in attendance
for the Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, Postal Service,
and District of Columbia's hearing to examine the legislative
branch Office of Inspector General's report on their respective
agencies' diversity programs.
The Chair, ranking member, and subcommittee members will
each have 5 minutes to make opening statements, and all Members
will have 3 days to submit written statements for the record.
Hearing no objection, so is the order. I will begin with an
opening statement.
This afternoon, the subcommittee will hold its second
hearing on diversity in legislative branch agencies. The first
hearing, which was held last November, focused on diversity in
the senior ranks of these agencies. At that hearing, the
subcommittee released a report analyzing the racial and gender
diversity of the senior executive corps of six legislative
branch agencies: the Government Accountability Office [GAO];
the Library of Congress [LOC]; the Congressional Budget Office
[CBO]; the Government Printing Office [GPO]; the Capitol Police
[USCP]; and the Architect of the Capitol [AOC].
The report, which was based on information provided to the
subcommittee by these agencies, found that women and minorities
in the Senior Executive Service [SES], are underrepresented in
most legislative branch agencies. As a followup to the November
hearing, I asked the Inspector Generals [IGs], of the
legislative branch agencies to conduct a review of their
respective diversity offices. With the exception of CBO, which
does not have an IG, last week each of the agencies issued a
report of their findings to the subcommittee.
A summary report compiling the data from all the
legislative branch agencies was also issued to the
subcommittee. The IG reports are the subject of today's
hearing.
The summary IG report paints a slightly more optimistic
picture than is warranted. The congressional support agencies
have a long way to go to improving diversity in the SES and in
the developmental pools. This is particularly true for GPO and
the AOC.
For example, the summary states that the Architect of the
Capitol and the Government Printing Office have been increasing
minority representation since 2002. And while this is true, the
Government Printing Office, the agency with the greatest
percentage of progress, still has the lowest minority
representation percentage points of the five agencies, 18.5
percent. And the actual increase was from 1 minority out of 21
SESs to 3 out of 26 SESs. At the Architect of the Capitol, the
increase was from 2 minorities in the SES out of 15 to 5 out of
27.
At the Government Accountability Office, the IG found that
the agency underreported its complaint and discrimination data.
The Ivy Consultant Group, which recently issued its final
report on the ratings disparities between Caucasian and African
American analysts at the GAO will be testifying today.
The USCP does not have a diversity program or equal
employment opportunity office, and its complaint and
discrimination data is collected by the Office of Compliance,
OOC. The Office of Compliance, who will also be testifying
today, administers the dispute resolution system established to
resolve disputes that arise under the Congressional
Accountability Act.
As I did last year, I would like to caution the legislative
branch agencies in comparing themselves to the executive branch
when it comes to diversity in the SES. The executive branch is
doing poorly in that regard, and legislative branch agencies
are doing only slightly better. I encourage interested parties
that impact each of the legislative branch agencies to obtain a
copy from their respective reports. These reports are the first
of their kind and serve as a wake-up call to Congress that it
needs to do more to ensure that its own agencies are
representative of the people it serves.
This subcommittee will continue to hold hearings on this
subject and will look to agency heads and their diversity
offices to make improvements in this area.
I now ask unanimous consent that the percentage breakdown
of work force, SES, and GS-15 or equivalent table be included
in the record. Hearing no objection, so is the order.
[The information referred to follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Davis. So I thank you now, and will yield to the
ranking member, Mr. Marchant, for any opening remarks that he
might have.
Mr. Marchant. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to
thank you and the witnesses today for their appearance before
this subcommittee.
Today marks our sixth subcommittee hearing in the 110th
Congress on diversity, and I look forward to listening to our
witnesses and hear about the subcommittee's findings regarding
the legislative branch. And I would like to commend you, Mr.
Davis, for your strong and motivated efforts on behalf of work
force diversity.
The topic of today's hearing deals with diversity programs
in several legislative branch agencies, mainly the Architect of
the Capitol, the Government Printing Office, the Government
Accountability Office, the Library of Congress, and the U.S.
Capitol Police.
In many cases, the legislative branch agencies are doing
well and continuing to improve with respect to diversity, but
in some cases there appears to be some slippage. I believe that
this hearing will allow us the opportunity to look at the stats
more closely and make recommendations that will make the
legislative branch a much more diverse agency.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Davis. Thank you very much, Mr. Marchant. And let me
just express appreciation for your steadfastness. I agree when
you said that we have had six hearings on this topic during
this session of Congress. It reflects an indication of what a
serious matter we think it is, and I appreciate your attention
to it.
And we will now call our first group of witnesses for panel
1.
Our witness list consists of Ms. Carol Bates, who is the
Inspector General for the Architect of the Capitol. She joined
the OIG in 2002 as an audit manager, and was named Assistant
Inspector General for Audits in 2004. Ms. Bates also served the
OIG as Acting Inspector General from late 2004 through mid-
2006.
Ms. Bates, thank you very much for joining us.
Our next witness is Mr. Carl W. Hoecker. He is the
Inspector General for the U.S. Capitol Police. Mr. Hoecker's
responsibilities include reporting directly to the U.S. Capitol
Police Board, which is responsible for establishing and
maintaining rates and schedules of basic pay for eligible
employees. The OIG supervises and conducts audits, inspections,
and investigations involving USCP programs, functions, systems,
and operations.
Thank you, Mr. Hoecker, for being with us.
Ms. Frances Garcia is the Inspector General for the U.S.
Government Accountability Office. Prior to being Inspector
General, she was the Director of the Office of Recruitment,
where she was responsible for all of GAO's nationwide
recruitment.
Thank you very much, Ms. Garcia.
Mr. J. Anthony Ogden is the Inspector General for the U.S.
Government Printing Office. Mr. Ogden joined GPO in 2004 as
Assistant Inspector General for Administration and Inspections
and Legislative Counsel.
Thank you very much, Mr. Ogden, for being here.
And our last witness on this panel is Mr. Carl W.
Schornagel. He is the Inspector General for the Library of
Congress. He was most recently a senior auditor in the Office
of the Inspector General in the Department of Commerce and
Project Manager For Evaluations of Information Technology
Resources. He has more than 20 years of experience in
evaluating Federal Government programs.
Mr. Schornagel, thank you for being with us.
And if you will all stand and join in raising your right
hands, it is the custom and tradition of this committee that
all witnesses be sworn in.
[Witnesses sworn.]
Mr. Davis. The record will show that the witnesses answered
in the affirmative.
Again, I thank all of you for being with us.
As all of you have testified before this subcommittee
before, you know the usual drill of summarizing a statement in
5 minutes. The green light indicates that all of the time is
present; the yellow light indicates that we are down to 1
minute; and, of course, the red light means that the time is
up. And if we will follow that, all of the written statements
will be included in the record.
And so we thank you again for being with us. And, Ms.
Bates, we will begin with you.
STATEMENTS OF CAROL BATES, INSPECTOR GENERAL, ARCHITECT OF THE
CAPITOL; CARL W. HOECKER, INSPECTOR GENERAL, U.S. CAPITOL
POLICE; FRANCES GARCIA, INSPECTOR GENERAL, U.S. GOVERNMENT
ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE; J. ANTHONY OGDEN, INSPECTOR GENERAL,
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE; AND KARL W. SCHORNAGEL,
INSPECTOR GENERAL, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
STATEMENT OF CAROL BATES
Ms. Bates. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, Congressman
Marchant, and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the
opportunity to summarize the Architect of the Capitol Inspector
General work force diversity report of July 28, 2008.
The report, prepared at the request of this subcommittee,
includes statistical information about the AOC's senior-rated
[SR], employees and the developmental pool positions, GS-15 or
equivalent. The report also includes the results of the review
of the agency's hiring practices and equal employment
opportunity office.
I am a newcomer to the AOC, having joined the agency as its
inspector general on August 18th, and have spent the past few
weeks familiarizing myself with the organization, viewing the
facilities, and reviewing recently issued AOC inspector general
reports, including this report.
The objectives of the review were to identify and assess
the diversity programs of the agency and determine if it is
creating a more diverse population of women and minorities in
top leadership positions; evaluate the accuracy and
completeness of the complaints and discrimination data being
reported to the Congress; and assess to what degree the
diversity offices are independent of the agency's general
counsel.
For objective two, the report includes a recommendation to
improve data gathering, but concluded that the complaint and
discrimination data is accurate and complete. I do note that
the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 gives the Office
of Compliance the responsibility to handle formal EEO
complaints for the Architect of the Capitol. Although the
Office of Compliance is responsible for formal complaints, the
AOC's EEO conciliation program can handle informal complaints
if the parties agree to use this resource.
The review found that indeed the EEO office operates
independent from the Office of General Counsel.
My remaining comments provide information on the report's
objective to determine if the AOC diversity program is creating
a more diverse work force. The answer is yes, but there is room
for improvement.
The statistics show that women and minority representation
have generally improved between fiscal years 2002 and 2007. At
the end of 2007, the work force was made up of 25 percent
women. The ratio of women to men is less than the civilian
labor force, which is made up of 46 percent women, and is also
less than the executive branch composition.
In terms of minority representation, the Architect of the
Capitol's work force is 50.9 percent women, which--I am sorry,
the minority representation is 50.9 percent, which exceeds the
minority representation in the civilian labor force and the
executive branch.
In the same 5-year period, the composition of the AOC's
senior-rated positions has changed to include more women and
have become more diverse. Women made up 23 percent of this
group in 2007, an increase from 13.3 percent in 2002.
Minorities comprised 18.5 percent of the SR staff in 2007, an
increase over the 2002 minority percentage of 13.2. In the
developmental pool, the number of women increased from 12.5
percent in 2002 to 23 percent by the end of 2007.
The minority representation in terms of percent decreased
from 37.5 in 2002 to 12.8 in 2007. Due to the relatively small
size of the AOC's senior-rated and developmental pools compared
to some of the other legislative branch agencies, shifts of a
few employees significantly impact the ratios.
Mr. Chairman, moving beyond the statistics, I am pleased to
note that the AOC has adopted or is planning to adopt all nine
of GAO's nine best diversity practices. The report also found
that the AOC, while not required to file EEOC Management
Directive 715, has adopted appropriate elements of this
directive.
The report also includes 15 recommendations designed to
improve the hiring process and increase the role of the EEO
conciliation program office. The recommendations include
changes to formalize and manage the hiring process, document
applicant interviews, to formalize and manage the process, and
for the Director of the EEO conciliation program office and the
Architect of the Capitol to meet on a regular basis. It also
includes a recommendation for the agency to set diversity goals
and conduct agency-wide diversity training.
The Acting Architect of the Capitol's response to the
report includes an action plan designed to improve the
diversity of the work force and address the report's
recommendations. Some of the actions are already complete. I
reviewed the plan and believe that it is responsive to the
recommendations, and the timeframes for completion are
reasonable. Furthermore, the action plan should help achieve a
more diverse work force at the Architect of the Capitol.
In addition to the response to the report, the AOC's human
capital plan includes goals for the agency's affirmative
employment program. The Acting Architect of the Capitol is
committed to improving the diversity of the work force.
Again, I want to thank the subcommittee for this
opportunity to communicate the results of the AOC work force
diversity report, and I am available to answer any questions
you may have.
Mr. Davis. Thank you very much, Ms. Bates.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Bates follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Davis. And we will go now to Mr. Hoecker.
STATEMENT OF CARL W. HOECKER
Mr. Hoecker. Mr. Chairman, members of the subcommittee,
good afternoon. My name is Carl Hoecker. I am Inspector General
for the Capitol Police. Thank you for inviting me here today to
discuss the executive level employees at the U.S. Capitol
Police.
At your request, my office conducted an audit of the
Capitol Police's diversity efforts. Our objectives were to
identify and assess diversity programs within the Department,
evaluate the accuracy and completeness of complaints and
discrimination data being reported to Congress, and to assess
to what degree the diversity office is independent of the
Department's general counsel and agency head. Our scope
included diversity programs in effect as of January 1, 2008,
and complaints and discrimination data for fiscal year 2007.
OIG found that the Capitol Police does not have a formal
diversity program or an equal employment office employment
function. However, the Capitol Police has made some progress in
improving diversity in its executive level positions.
Overall, the number of executive positions increased from
18 to 21 between 2002 and 2007. Within that total, the
representation of women increased from 16.7 percent for 2002 to
28.6 percent for 2007, whereas representation of minorities
decreased from 16.7 for 2002 to 14.3 percent for 2007.
The Capitol Police representation of women in the executive
positions was slightly higher than the career SES
governmentwide percentage of 28.2 percent for 2007. The
representation of minorities of Capitol Police executive level
positions was below career SES governmentwide percentage of
16.6 percent. As of May 12, 2008, however, minority
representation in the Capitol Police executive positions had
increased to 22.7 percent.
The Capitol Police has also made progress improving
diversity in the developmental pool for executive level
positions. Overall, the senior level developmental pool has
increased from 28 positions to 56 positions between 2002 and
2007. Within that total, the representation of women increased
from 14.3 percent to 30.3 percent, whereas representation of
minorities increased from zero percent to 22.7 percent.
Although Capitol Police compared favorably with the
governmentwide SES developmental pools for total minorities,
three categories--American Indian, Alaskan Native; Asian
American, Pacific Islanders; and Hispanic--were below
governmentwide percentages.
Additionally, our comparison of the Federal work force and
civilian labor force to Capitol Police's total work force
showed that the overall Capitol Police total minority
representation was greater than the Federal work force and the
civilian labor force; however, women remain underrepresented in
the Capitol Police total work force as compared with the
civilian labor force and the Federal work force.
The Capitol Police has implemented some of Government
Accountability's best practices and Equal Employment
Commission's Management Directive 715 for establishing and
maintaining effective diversity and equal opportunity programs;
however, the Capitol Police could achieve a more diverse work
force if it had a formal diversity program.
The Office of Compliance for legislative branch agencies
administers alternative dispute resolution program established
by the Congressional Accountability Act, and is responsible for
reporting complaints of discrimination data from the Capitol
Police to Congress.
During fiscal year 2007, 18 Capitol Police employees
requested counseling through the OOC process. Capitol Police
employees may also report their complaints through a collective
bargaining agreement, the grievance process, and/or the Capitol
Police process. During 2007, Capitol Police employees did not
make any grievances related to EEO discrimination through the
collective bargaining agreement.
The Office of Professional Responsibility for the Capitol
Police is the element for investigating antidiscrimination
reprisal allegations. They reported four cases for fiscal year
2007.
As stated before, the Capitol Police does not have a
separate diversity or EEO office; however, the OPR is
independent of the general counsel and of human resources. Yet,
the Office of Employment Counsel does handle disciplinary
review, legal sufficiency reviews, and represents the Capitol
Police and the Capitol Police Board in EEO complaints. Best
practices state that legal sufficiency reviews of EEO matters
must be handled by a functional unit that is separate and apart
from the unit which handles agency representation in EEO
complaints.
OIG made four recommendations to the Capitol Police for
more effective and efficient diversity strategies to assist
women and minorities in advancing to executive level positions
within the organization.
Specifically, USCP should finalize its human capital
strategic work force plan, identifying critical executive level
and supervisory positions and the needed skills and abilities
required for its future diverse work force. In addition, we
recommend that the Capitol Police consider outsourcing
investigation of discrimination complaints or obtain formal
training for EEO investigators; and determine whether the
duties of legal sufficiency reviews and agency board
representation in EEO matters are incompatible and impair
independence either in fact or appearance with respect to EEO
complaints.
I will be happy to respond to whatever questions you may
have.
Mr. Davis. Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Hoecker follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Davis. And we will proceed to Ms. Garcia.
STATEMENT OF FRANCES GARCIA
Ms. Garcia. Chairman Davis and members of the subcommittee,
I am pleased to be here today to discuss the work we did on
GAO's diversity programs. This hearing also gave me a great
opportunity to be able to work with the other legislative
inspector generals. I am of Mexican descent, and it is
especially noteworthy for me to be here today talking about
diversity on Mexico's Independence Day.
As you know, in today's multicultural work force, diversity
brings a wide variety of perspectives, approaches to bear on
policy development and implementation, strategic planning, and
decisionmaking. Organizations that promote and achieve a
diverse workplace attract and retain high-quality employees.
GAO, similar to other Federal agencies, faces both
opportunities and challenges in increasing the diversity of its
top leadership. The bottom line is, diversity is good business.
In your request, you asked us to review three areas, the
first area, whether GAO's diversity efforts are achieving
better representation of women and minorities in top
leadership. We found that overall, between 2002 and 2007, GAO
made gains in the representation of women and minorities in its
SES, management ranks, and equivalent positions.
As shown on figure 1 that you had before you and in my
written statement, GAO's leadership is generally more diverse
in comparison with the executive branch and the labor civil
force. At the same time, gaps remain.
Top management has made a commitment to increasing the
diversity of its workplace and has implemented many lead and
diversity management practices. GAO has taken steps to
identify, examine, and address potential barriers to the hiring
and advancement of women and minorities.
Last year, by contract and with the Ivy Planning Group, the
agency began to expand differences in the average ratings
between African Americans and Caucasian analysis, including
those at the manager level. Some of the recommendations of that
study have been implemented and others will be soon.
In June of this year, GAO issued its first mandated work
diversity plan which analyzed the demographic composition of
the agency's entire work force and identified potential
barriers to the advancement in hiring of minorities. As a
result, GAO now has baseline data to assess its future
diversity efforts and an action plan for the next year to
address gaps in minority representation. The acting controller
general intends to annually prepare this plan, which will help
the agency sustain attention on this important matter. We
recommended that a formal policy be established to continue to
annually produce a work force diversity plan. GAO agreed to
this.
Your second request was to evaluate the accuracy and
completeness of GAO's fiscal year 2007 complaint and
discrimination data. We found mistakes such as wrong dates and
numbers were posted on the Web site. These errors have since
been corrected. Also, GAO's report to Congress on fiscal year
2007 complaint and discrimination information contained
mistakes. Our recommendation in this area is that GAO revise
relevant orders, procedures, and internal controls to assist
them to accurately collect and report on complaint data. GAO
agreed to a recommendation.
Your final request was that we assess the independence and
reporting relationship of the head of GAO's diversity office.
We found that GAO voluntarily follows the first two of the
three EEO requirements for executive branch executives
regarding the independence and reporting relationships of EEO
directors. The first requirement is that the director report
directly to the agency head. The second requirement is that
investigations and the legal sufficiency review on legal agency
discriminations decisions not be done by an attorney that
represents or defends the agency in such disputes.
The third requirement states that personnel-related
discrimination complaints functions be separated. GAO does not
follow this, and currently this is under review.
Mr. Chairman, and subcommittee members, this completes my
oral statement. You have before you a copy of my written
statement and my report, which is being released this
afternoon. I would be happy to respond to any questions you
have.
Mr. Davis. Thank you very much, Ms. Garcia.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Garcia follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Davis. And we go to Mr. Ogden.
STATEMENT OF J. ANTHONY OGDEN
Mr. Ogden. Thank you, Chairman Davis and Ranking Member
Marchant, for the opportunity to testify before the
subcommittee on this timely and important issue.
I believe that embracing the unique qualities of each
individual and ensuring the implementation of equal employment
and diversity policies and objectives is essential to enhancing
the quality of our work life and the productivity of our work
force. Everyone in the workplace should be afforded the
opportunity to develop, perform, and advance to their maximum
potential based solely on their merit and without regard to
race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age,
disability, or sexual orientation.
At the request of this subcommittee, my office conducted an
audit of the diversity program at GPO. Along with my other
legislative branch colleagues, we used EEOC Management
Directive 715 and the leading diversity management practices
identified by GAO as the benchmarks to conduct our assessment.
On September 11th, we issued a report entitled Diversity
Management Programs at the Government Printing Office.
Our audit specifically identified that although GPO is not
required to comply with MD 715 or GAO's leading diversity
management practices, GPO has generally adopted three elements
for creating and maintaining a model EEO program, namely,
demonstrated commitment from leadership, efficiency, and
responsiveness in legal compliance. Agency officials have also
demonstrated top leadership commitment, one of the GAO's nine
leading diversity management practices.
Our audit results indicated that GAO has made progress in
developing its pool of senior grade 15s. In 2002, 31 out of 32
Grade 15s were men and included only 6 minorities. However, in
2007 the pool of 15s grew to 79, and included 23 women, a
nearly ninefold increase, and 25 minorities, a nearly 70
percent increase.
Only limited progress has been made in the makeup of the
Senior Level Service employees. In 2002, there were 21 SLS
employees--20 men, 1 woman, 1 minority--and in 2007 there were
26 SLS employees, including 3 women and 3 minorities.
We also found that during 2007, GPO complaints and
discrimination data reported to EEOC and Congress were accurate
and complete.
Finally, we found the EEO director is independent of the
general counsel and, to an appropriate extent, independent of
the public printer in EEO matters.
Based on the results of our audit, we believe that GPO
could improve its diversity management. Accordingly, we
recommended that agency management incorporate the remaining
three elements of MP 715, and all or a combination of the
leading diversity management practices identified by GAO.
Key to the success of any diversity program is top
leadership commitment. The Public Printer has emphasized his
personal commitment to equal opportunity and diversity at GPO,
with a position more comprehensive than that contemplated by MP
715 or contemplated by this review, as it includes persons with
disabilities as well as gays and lesbians. Indeed, a
conversation about diversity is not possible unless all diverse
populations and cultures that enrich our work force are
included in the discussion.
The following is a summary of our significant
recommendations to GPO management.
Because diversity management can help reduce costs by
reducing turnover, increasing employee retention, and improving
morale, we recommended that GPO place additional emphasis on
integrating diversity into the agency's strategic plan to
foster a culture of change that supports and values
differences.
GPO does not have effective methods for evaluating and
measuring success of its diversity management program;
therefore, we recommended GPO implement such methods and
maintain and provide sufficient resources, including work force
data and information technology tools, to allow EEO officials
to track and evaluate the effectiveness of agency diversity
efforts.
Because hiring officials are crucial in diversity
management, we recommended that GPO should emphasize in
performance plans the commitments by managers to create a
diverse work force and address the culture of diversity in
order to nurture talent, create diverse opportunities, and
maximize the potential of GPO's work force.
Given the projected wave of retirements in the next decade,
we recommended that GPO focus on succession planning by
continuing to identify and develop candidates who have the
potential to be future leaders, and selecting individuals from
among a more diverse pool of qualified candidates to include
Asian, Hispanic, and Native Americans. To improve its
recruitment efforts, we also recommended that the hiring
manager should be included in outreach and recruitment efforts.
Although GPO has very active employee involvement through
various employee groups such as the disability program, the
Hispanic Employment Program, and the Federal Women's Program,
we recommended that GPO continue to involve employees in
diversity management and evaluate the existing employee groups
to identify whether employees issues are fully represented
before agency management. And finally, GPO should develop a
diversity and training curriculum for all its employees.
Although GPO management concurred with our recommendations,
management did not provide details regarding what actions the
agency plans to take to implement the recommendations. As a
result, the recommendations are considered unresolved until we
received details concerning the implementation.
My office is committed to working with agency management to
help ensure that GPO's diversity program continues to improve,
and that GPO will be able to meet its future employment
challenges with a more diverse population of qualified women
and minorities in top leadership positions.
Thank you again for the opportunity to testify before this
subcommittee today. Additionally, I wish to express my thanks
to the Supervisory Auditor, Joe Birch, and my assistant
inspector general for audits, Kevin Carson, for their work, as
well as my IG colleagues that are sitting with me today--Anne
Toniashan--for helping us to make this come to fruition today.
This concludes my testimony, and I will be pleased to
address any questions.
Mr. Davis. Thank you very much, Mr. Ogden.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Ogden follows:]
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Mr. Davis. And we will now go to Mr. Schornagel.
STATEMENT OF KARL W. SCHORNAGEL
Mr. Schornagel. Thank you, Chairman Davis.
For our review, we defined senior-level positions as those
in the Library's senior level executive [SL], system, which is
roughly the equivalent to the SCS system. We defined the SL
developmental pool as positions in the GS-13 to -15 range.
For the fiscal year ending September 30, 2007, the Library
reported a total work force of 3,786 staff, of which 55.2 were
women and 45.6 were minorities. These percentages are above
Federal and civilian work force levels. Included in these
numbers are 95 senior level executives, of which 43.2 percent
were women and 21.1 percent were minorities. The representation
of both women and minorities is significantly higher than the
governmentwide average, but slightly lower than the civilian
work force.
Women are similarly represented in the developmental pool.
Minority representation in the developmental pool is lower than
the governmentand civilian work forces, although there has been
progress in the past 5 years.
We determined and the Library agreed that there are several
ways to further improve the Library's diversity program, so I
will summarize our three findings from our July 2008 report.
First, the Libraryis adopting many of the best practices in
diversity management. Our assessment found that the Library is
following most of the best practices recommended by the GAO and
the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. This includes
linking its diversity plan and its strategic plans, and
including diversity as a major element in managers' performance
requirements. The Library's Office of Workforce Diversity is
taking steps to better focus its efforts on identifying
potential systemic barriers, if any, impeding full minority
participation in upper-level positions.
In addition to increasing its focus on barrier analysis and
measuring program effectiveness, the Library also needs to
complete its succession planning efforts. These are a major
element in diversity management. The Library also needs to
ensure that the service units are committing to and
implementing diversification activities. Success of the
Library's affirmative action initiative depends in large part
on the service unit's success in providing equal employment and
affirmative action opportunities.
Second, the Libraryhas made progress in improving the
developmental pool. Despite the favorable comparison of the
Library's senior-level staffing with the executive branch and
the genuine efforts we believe the Library has made and is
making to improve, diversity at senior-level positions has
remained constant since 2002. However, progress has been made
in diversifying the GS-13 to -15 positions. This bodes well for
the future, because GS-15 positions are widely considered to be
the developmental pool for the senior level jobs.
For librarian positions, the Library's efforts to achieve
more diversity in the management ranks are hindered by the lack
of qualified applicants. According to the American Library
Association, the percentage of credentialed minority librarians
lags significantly behind the representation of minorities in
the civilian labor force. This highlights the importance of in-
house grooming of current staff through training and mentoring
programs.
And third, the Library's diversity office is independent,
and its data is accurate and complete. Results of tests we
performed show that the Library's EEO data is accurate and
complete--I am sorry. Likewise, we concluded that the Library's
Office of Workforce Diversity and its component Equal
Opportunity Complaints Office are independent of the Library's
general counsel, human resources director, and, to the extent
practical, the Librarian.
Our conclusion is that, overall, the Libraryis committed to
diversity. Union officials we spoke with believe the Library's
diversity and equal employment policies and procedures, as well
as its merit selection plan, promote diversity in the
workplace. Likewise, the Library has effective diversity
programs if fully implemented. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Schornagel follows:]
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Mr. Davis. Thank you very much, and we want to thank each
one of our witnesses. Let me ask a couple of general questions
and I'd like for each one of you if you would to respond. On
the basis of the experiences of your agency, when I look at the
diversity, as I guess some of us do, I try and look
comprehensively across the board at what we really mean when we
talk about diversity. So I would like to ask what areas of
diversity on the basis of race, sex and disability would you
say had the greatest need of attention to your agency? And
perhaps I would begin with you, Ms. Bates.
Ms. Bates. Mr. Chairman, in light of the--my recent taking
over the position of the Inspector General, I would like to get
back to you on that and submit an answer for the record.
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Mr. Davis. All right. We would appreciate that. Mr.
Hoecker.
Mr. Hoecker. Yes, sir. With disability I just wanted to say
that with officers it would be kind of hard for them because
they are supposed to be physically fit, etc. So I don't know if
they could really do much in that area, sir, in terms of
officers, perhaps in a support role. But since most of the work
force population, 1,600 or so, is officers, it might be
difficult to reach any kind of standards or goals for
disability.
But for race and sex, I think they made progress mostly in
terms of race, we reported, as of 2007 fiscal year. So I think
the Department can answer this and bring you up to date
currently, but I think there have been a number of minorities
that would be a positive there. But I think they are neck and
neck. I think if you look at our developmental pool we have
made great progress in the Capitol Police on that, but I think
race and sex are neck and neck. You have to focus on both of
them.
Mr. Davis. Does the agency have a goal for people with
disabilities?
Mr. Hoecker. If they have a goal for what, sir?
Mr. Davis. For people with disabilities.
Mr. Hoecker. I'm not aware of that, sir. I could get back
to you if you'd like.
Mr. Davis. I know that there are some agencies that are
beginning to establish and recognizing difficulty of a
population group with one or more disabilities that kind of
begin to look at areas of work preference in terms of where
those individuals perhaps could fit in, notwithstanding the
disability that they may have or experience.
Ms. Garcia.
Ms. Garcia. Our biggest need is in African American women,
Asians, Hispanics and people with disabilities.
Mr. Davis. And so you see the need to improve in the
recruitment and movement of African American women as one area
certainly and then the others?
Ms. Garcia. In top management, yes, that's our biggest
need, African American women, Asians, Hispanics and people with
disabilities.
Mr. Davis. Thank you.
Mr. Ogden.
Mr. Ogden. Chairman Davis, with respect to race I think, as
noted in my testimony previously, the greatest need in the
agency is with Asian, Hispanic and Native American to improve
outreach and efforts and to increase predominantly their
outreach to those areas to elicit larger support.
When you look at what's happened within the pool of 15s the
primary senior leadership prior to SLS, and there has been
significant progress that the agency has made with respect to
women and minorities, but again those areas could continue to
see improvement.
With respect to disability, it's my understanding--and we
did not look at this specifically with this report. I believe
Ms. Elzy in her followup testimony in the next panel can
address this more specifically. But I understand GPO is one of
the top five Federal Government employers for persons with
disabilities and has a proud record with respect to its work
force that has physical or mental disabilities.
And so I would just also add a note that was not included
in this review, but the agency has made outreach efforts and is
doing work in the area of employing persons regardless of their
sexual orientation as well.
Mr. Davis. All right. Mr. Schornagel.
Mr. Schornagel. At the Library of Congress I believe
Hispanics is an area that kind of stands out. We lag somewhat
behind the rest of the Federal Government and quite a bit
behind the civil labor force, and to the a lesser extent people
with disabilities.
Mr. Davis. Thank you very much.
Why don't I go to Mr. Marchant.
Mr. Marchant. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think my first
question for each of you would be what impact from a time
standpoint in responding and has the creation of the diversity
management office had on your agency?
Ms. Bates. I would like to note that the Architect of the
Capitol issued a Human Capitol Strategic Plan in 2007, and that
plan is an umbrella for many affirmative plans and equal
employment opportunity plans. As it is in its infancy with
goals and targets for completion in 2009 and 2010.
Mr. Marchant. So it has had little impact because you were
already working on it?
Ms. Bates. Yes, they are working on it, but my colleague on
the next panel can address more of the achievements, but it is
relatively new.
Mr. Marchant. OK.
Mr. Hoecker. Sir, since Capitol Police does not have an EEO
office per se, the timeline is going to be when they request
one. They had requested one in the 2009 budget request. So that
is going to be huge if that position is funded. And also they
have issued a draft strategic, Human Capitol Strategic Plan.
They are working off some of those tenets in that plan right
now, but it just needs to be formalized and approved. That's
kind of the timeline with that.
Mr. Marchant. Thank you.
Ms. Garcia. With the recent work force diversity plan that
was created--or issued in June of this year, it will give the
diversity office a baseline to be able to do more and
accomplish some of the barriers that are now facing minorities
and women and they'll have a road map in which to be able to
determine what efforts and how successful they have been at
them. Since this is going to be done annually, they will be
able to see the progress that is being made.
Mr. Marchant. OK, thank you.
Mr. Ogden. At GPO one of the recommendations we made is
that the agency place more emphasis within the strategic
planning process and develop the diversity plan and process and
develop a diversity plan, as there isn't one that exists
currently.
Again Ms. Elzy can probably address the progress they are
making in that regard. I can say that when the agency recently
had a change and at the time our new Public Printer came on he
demonstrated top leadership commitment, with both the GAO
practices and MD-715 is contemplated as being one of the
primary things and issued a very strong policy for the agency.
And I do know that he did that in concert with the EEO office
and the director of EEO, Ms. Elzy, and has been advancing
efforts around diversity initiatives, because he's certainly
made it a priority.
Mr. Marchant. OK.
Mr. Schornagel. Last year at the request of the Chief
Operating Officer at the Library of Congress my office
conducted a review of the Office of Workforce Diversity, which
resulted in a fairly critical report of the entire
organization. And I'm very optimistic because it is resulting
in the, at least partially, reorganization of that office and
refocusing of its efforts. And I think the Library has done a
good job, even with the Workforce Diversity Office operating
the way it had been for several years, and I'm certainly
optimistic for the future.
Mr. Marchant. OK. The next question will be kind of a
little bit more philosophical. Do you find that when you have
in your agencies specific job skills that would require an
education--a specific education, that the trends in that
specific field, let's say accounting, library science, that the
trends of hiring follow pretty much the trends in those people
that are seeking those degrees, so that if there are fewer
Hispanics seeking library science degrees, then you're going to
have a pretty direct correlation to the number of Hispanics
that you can hire that you have a requirement that it is
library science? Also in accounting and there's probably
several other disciplines that are just a requirement of your
hiring. So are you following--are your studies following those
trends as well and do you see that as a major impediment to
actually realizing the diversity that you're seeking or is that
something that is of no consequence?
Mr. Schornagel. I think it is of a lot of consequence as a
matter of fact. It is something certainly that my office did
not follow as part of the scope of this review. I'm not sure
that the Library does either. Maybe they can comment on that
later. But I think it is a very, very important element.
I think that if you establish criteria on the assumption
that you have a certain number of Hispanics who are graduating
with accounting degrees or some other degree, then you may be
working on criteria that can perhaps never be attained. And so
you need to know exactly what percentage of college graduates
are in a certain minority population and even break it down
further as to the kind of position that you're trying to fill.
So that's important data and that's, I think, the direction
certainly that the Library is going in and all the agencies. I
believe we have made those sorts of recommendations. And these
are the kinds of things that the criteria that we talk about,
GAO's criteria and the EEOC criteria, gets a more focused
analysis of why things are the way they are, and what can be
done to change the situation.
Mr. Marchant. And even further--and I know we have a long
way to go, but a larger rhetorical question is, can government
pay the amount of money that government needs to pay to compete
in society generally for the diversity that corporate America
has already identified that it needs to have, corporate America
has already been fairly actively pursuing, and now maybe at
last government is beginning to catch up with this zeal and
this goal. Does government have the tools, does government have
the jobs, does government have the income to properly compete
after we've identified our goals?
I'll let somebody respond to that, but I guess I know what
your answer will be, but I think that's an important part of
the component and might be the ultimate impediment to reaching
the goals.
So, Mr. Chairman, I think I'll stop at that.
Mr. Davis. Thank you very much, Mr. Marchant.
Mr. Clay.
Mr. Clay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me thank all five
agencies for the preparation of this report. I think it is well
documented. That's why I'm wearing glasses so I can read the
small numbers, too.
Let me make several observations and then I'll have a
couple of questions, but one is that all agencies I think must
do a better job of putting minority workers on track for
promotion. If they are in the agencies, then the culture of the
agency dictates that they stay on track and move up through the
ranks.
Another observation is that agencies should strive to
maintain equivalent levels of work force. That's in the SES,
that's in the GS-15 or equivalent. Otherwise the managerial
chart is lopsided in comparison to the overall work force,
which is part of the first point.
Mr. Ogden at GPO, let me just recommend that--or warn the
IGs that agencies should not pass over employees that have been
waiting in the wings for a fair shake for years for a
promotion. You reference the deficiencies among Asians and the
disabled. I would suggest the IGs remain vigilant in regard to
allowing agencies and--to not allowing agencies to pass up long
serving minority employees for promotion too. I will let you
respond if we have time.
Ms. Bates, on the AOC, I notice that you had a decrease in
minority level in the SES pool. Let me suggest that the new
CVC, visitor center, is coming on-line and it may be that we
may want to start off correctly in that new facility with
minorities in decisionmaking position as far as this new
facility is concerned. This way we don't get behind the
proverbial 8 ball so to say and not having numbers that are
reflective of your work force. You have a 51 percent minority
work force, yet it is not reflected at the SES or the GS-15
level. And that's one recommendation.
Let me ask then is it possible, I'm curious, could we get a
breakdown of the numbers, a racial breakdown of the numbers of
women who are on track for SES? The whole percent of women in
SES and GS-15, could you provide this committee with the
numbers, the racial breakdown of the women in that category
racially; is that possible?
Mr. Schornagel. Isn't that in the report already? I thought
we had a table to address that.
Mr. Clay. I see percent of women and then you've got three
subcategories, the work force, SES and GS-15. Is there a
breakdown of women? I was curious about the percentages of
women, like at AOC you have 25 percent female work force. Then
you have 33 percent in SES and then GS-15 is 23. Can you get a
racial breakdown?
Mr. Schornagel. Is page 8 the consolidated information you
are looking for?
Mr. Clay. Page 8.
Mr. Schornagel. Or page 7?
Mr. Clay. Does it give us total women, too?
Mr. Schornagel. It gives gender breakdown and racial,
ethnic group breakdown by agency.
Mr. Clay. GPO has one female.
Mr. Schornagel. Over 5 years.
Mr. Clay. 23. No, I mean of the total work force, racial
breakdown of the total female work force, can you give us that?
Mr. Schornagel. The racial breakdown?
Mr. Clay. Yes, of the total female work force.
Mr. Schornagel. No, I don't believe we have that.
Mr. Clay. Well, can you provide that to this committee?
Mr. Schornagel. Yes, I think we can do that with the
cooperation of the other agencies, yes.
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Mr. Clay. Go ahead, Mr. Ogden. Did you have a response----
Mr. Ogden. Yes, Mr. Clay. I believe we have provided that
information in one of our attachments to our report. We have a
complete breakdown of the entire work force. Just one of the
distinctions at GPO is we have a fairly significant blue collar
work force as well as a large white collar work force, too.
Those numbers are broken down, and in the back of our report--
I'm looking right now.
Mr. Clay. In this one, right?
Mr. Ogden. Page 26 of our report.
Mr. Clay. Page 26. You did understand what I was asking in
regards to----
Mr. Ogden. I did understand what you were asking
previously, Mr. Clay, as well. Under the circumstances, as you
know, we don't get involved in any complaints to this--with
respect to the issue of whether or not people are being passed
over. That information wouldn't necessarily come to our office.
We didn't look specifically at that particular issue in the
numbers of people that have alleged being passed over. But
certainly it is an important issue for the agency to address,
to ensure that everyone is being given a fair opportunity.
And I think that one of the things you also discuss though,
and also Mr. Marchant, was the importance of expanding the
pool, so to speak, and ensuring that the outreach is there. One
of the recommendations that we did make is that our EEO office
does get to go to universities and do outreach in historically
black universities and Hispanic universities to try to enlist,
you know, interest in the Government Printing Office and in the
work that we have coming up available and such. What we've
recommended is they now develop some tracking mechanisms to
ensure that those methodologies are actually coming to fruition
and proving, you know, fruit.
The other issue is to think much more broadly and to expand
those horizons, and I think those are issues that we are
certain that we have encouraged the agency to look at, and the
EEO office has indicated they are looking to expand those
opportunities as well.
Mr. Clay. And that's the point I would like to stress, that
when they come back to you with their affirmative action plans,
that just don't let them off the hook, so to say, on an entire
group or subsection of that work force that's been there for
years that have played by the rules and done everything right
and have been passed over for promotion. Don't let them off the
hook.
Mr. Ogden. Yes, sir.
One other I guess comment, too, is that diversity, as you
mentioned, Mr. Marchant and also Mr. Clay, is it is a cultural
issue, it is not just a numbers issue. And that's why it's so
important that the breadth of the conversation be enlarged and
that the outreach efforts be made.
Thank you.
Mr. Clay. Thank you so much, Mr. Ogden, and to clarify, Mr.
Chairman, if I may, for all of the other agencies, if they
could breakdown for the subcommittee the racial breakdown of
the total female employment force.
Mr. Davis. If they would do that, we would appreciate it.
Mr. Clay. Thank you.
[Note.--The report entitled, ``Compilation of Legislative
Branch IGs' Reports on their Respective Agencies' Diversity
Programs for FY 2007,'' can be found in subcommittee files.]
Mr. Davis. Thank you very much, Mr. Clay. Mr. Cummings.
Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I want to
go to Mr. Ogden first. I was just thinking about how at the
Government Printing Office--I used to work for the Government
Printing Office as a student at Howard University 35 years ago,
and I was thinking about the work force and looking at these
figures where 59 percent--well, basically 60 percent of the
work force is minority and then when you look at the SES figure
it is 11.5. Are we to draw any conclusions on that?
Mr. Ogden. Um, I think that the----
Mr. Cummings. Maybe I'm leading you down a road that you
don't know where you're going. Let me shine a little light on
it. When the ranking member asked his question about whether
people had the educational requirements to do certain things
and whether they were coming out with the kind of degrees and
whatever. You know, I did a journey back to when I was there at
the Government Printing Office and we were students working
from about--and I don't know whether they still have this
program or not, but we would working from about 10 at night to
6:30 a.m., and the money was good, two nights a week. But there
were a lot of very frustrated people who were permanent
employees there who basically could not see themselves moving
up. Many of them had a good education, a lot of them felt that
they had been passed over--my time can't be up, Mr. Chairman--
oh, oh. I was just getting warmed up. And they were passed
over, they felt that they were passed over. And I guess I just
wonder, you know, when we're looking at all these numbers, and
if you went to any group, any barber shop or you talked to any
group of people working for an agency like this, what you will
hear are some stories that, if assuming they are true and many
instances they are, are very painful, because so many people
feel like they've been invisible.
Let me tell you what you'll hear a lot, the people came in
and then they were under me; I trained them and then they
became my supervisor. I see people in the audience nodding
their heads. I'm just wondering taking that into consideration,
are we pulling on the work force that we have? In other words,
are we passing them by to get to some other folk who, you know,
since you have a pool, you have a big pool there, what happens
to them, do they stay there and then die or retire? Can you
help me with that?
Mr. Ogden. Mr. Cummings, I believe you raise some very
valid points. And unfortunately, in my office we didn't look at
any of those particular issues in this report. And some of the
issues you raise are really imperatives for the agency to
address and for our office to assist in the manner in which it
is appropriate for our office to do so in that regard. I think
that this report is valuable in that we've made recommendations
and the agency has concurred with those recommendations that
will hopefully address some of the long-term systemic issues
and will again help create a much more diverse pool.
Mr. Cummings. Give me three recommendations that would go
to what I just said, off the top of your head.
Mr. Ogden. One is developing a plan of action with respect
to their diversity outreach and the diversity within the
agency; having a solid plan is going to be an imperative.
Incorporating diversity as a basic tenet of the strategic
planning process of the agency. I mean those two are
fundamentally. And three is ensuring that the agency head take
annual and a regular commitment to the responsibility for
diversity in the work force.
Mr. Cummings. You know I remember, I think it was this
subcommittee, maybe it was called something else, but I
remember every year we had one time some folk from these
private corporations that they are entitled the best places to
work. And one of the things that was consistent with them is
they had excellent diversity plans, and another consistency
within those plans was that they promoted people based upon
their supervisors, based upon their ability and outcomes of
having a diversified work force with regard to promotions. Is
that a part of anything that you all are doing, any of you all?
You just talked about the plan, that you've got to have a plan;
is that part of it?
Mr. Ogden. Yes, I believe so. And--yes, it is an
imperative.
Mr. Cummings. You seem confused.
Mr. Ogden. The plan of action is an imperative. And again
it is one of the recommendations not only in MD-715 but in the
GAO best practices. It is the recommendation that we've made to
the agency because we feel, you know, in the IG that it is an
important aspect. And the agency has responded back in the
affirmative, but I will let them address specific----
Mr. Cummings. I understand. The other thing I want to say
is this, is that when people get passed over, it is not just
them that get passed over, their families get passed over too,
because of things they could be doing for their families, the
schools that your children go to, that they would like to send
their kids to, they don't have the resources and when they
should have had the resources. A lot of people don't think
about it like that, but it is real. And I just, you know, I
think these kinds of--whatever you have come up with, I think
it is important that these agencies strive to make sure they
happen.
Yes, on the end.
Mr. Schornagel. I want to mention that one of the things
that we have recommended in our individual report is that the
Library evaluate the success of its programs. I think that's a
very, very important thing for all agencies. How are these
programs working? You can say you have all these programs in
place, but if you can't afford to fund them, if you don't know
whether they are resulting in any difference, then, you know,
you might be just spinning your wheels.
Mr. Cummings. My mother calls it motion, commotion,
emotion, and no results.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Davis. Thank you very much, Mr. Cummings.
Let me just continue for a minute. Has any of your agencies
done any analysis to identify barriers to the advancement of
hiring women, minorities or people with disabilities? Any
agency done any study to look at barriers that would prevent
individuals from moving?
Ms. Bates. I don't know if the agency has done a study of
the barriers; however, I would like to note that when an
applicant applies for a job, whether or not they check their
race is an optional feature. So despite an agency's attempt to
get a diverse applicant pool, the selection officials may or
may not know the true makeup of the pool, and that would be one
barrier to hire more women and minorities.
Mr. Davis. Anything, any of the other agencies?
Mr. Schornagel. The Library has agreed based on
recommendations to conduct those barrier analyses. And one of
the things that we also recommend and that the Library agreed
to is to conduct exit interviews to find out why people are
leaving the Library. It is something that was done quite a
while ago but it was stopped. But I think it could possibly
provide some valuable information.
Mr. Davis. Then I would like to ask if each one of the
agencies would take a look at what barriers may be existing
that would prevent us from making more progress than what it
appears that we have made. It seems to me that we've been
discussing diversity ever since I've been an adult, at least I
have, every place that I've ever been. And we still, while
we've made some progress, it seems to me that the pace is much
slower than what the pace has to be, especially if we put a
real focus on it. And that's certainly what we hope to do and
it is what I hope to do in this subcommittee, not only for
certainly the rest of this year, but I would suspect I'm going
to be chairman of it next session as well. And it's one of the
areas that I just find very difficult to understand, especially
as we've talked about goals, as we've talked about approaches,
as we've talked about ways to do things. It just seems to me
that we are still so contradictory and have not found a way to
do it. And so I would appreciate it if you would take a look at
those barriers.
Ms. Garcia. Mr. Chairman, the GAO has taken two giant steps
regarding that. One element is the new diversity work force
plan which identifies barriers. And the other one is the pay
disparity review that the Ivy Planning Group did for us on
African Americans. While they concentrated on African
Americans, the recommendations will apply to all minorities.
And GAO is in the process of starting conversations with staff
which will be mandatory on race.
So I'm very optimistic that by this time next year there
will be some improvements in GAO's work force diversity plan
because we now have a road map and something to compare
ourselves to.
Mr. Davis. Well, thank you very much.
Mr. Marchant, do you have any additional questions or
comments?
Mr. Marchant. No, sir.
Mr. Davis. Mr. Cummings.
Then thank you very much. We appreciate you being with us.
Ms. Garcia. Thank you, Chairman.
Mr. Davis. As we transition to our next panel, I will
identify them. Our panel 2 witness list consists of Ms. Teresa
Bailey, who is the Director of the Equal Employment Opportunity
and Conciliation Program at the Architect of the Capitol, which
provides internal Architect of the Capitol procedures for
claims of alleged employment discrimination based on race,
color, sex, national origin, age, religion or disability and
for claims of EEO-based retaliation.
We also have Ms. Gloria Jarmon, who is the Chief
Administrator Officer for the U.S. Capitol Police where she is
responsible for financial management, information technology,
human resources management, and facilities management. Prior to
this she was the Managing Director for Congressional Relations
at the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
We have Mr. Ronald Stroman, as the Managing Director for
the Office of Opportunity and Inclusiveness for the Government
Accountability Office. The office manages GAO's Equal
Employment Opportunity [EEO], program counseling and GAO's
former discrimination complaint process. The Office of Economic
Opportunity and Inclusiveness also operates the agency's early
resolution and mediation program by helping managers and
employees resolve workplace disputes and EEO concerns without
resorting to the former process.
We have Ms. Nadine Elzy, as the Director of the Office of
Equal Employment Opportunity for the U.S. Government Printing
Office. Ms. Elzy directs the activities of the affirmative
programs and counseling and complaints processing divisions
within the office. She has 20 years of Federal experience, most
of it within the area of equal employment opportunity. Thank
you.
And Ms. Stephanie Ruiz is the Director of Human Resources
and Equal Opportunity Office at the Congressional Budget
Office. Prior to joining CBO, Ms. Ruiz was the Assistant
Director for the Employee Relations at Georgetown University's
McDonough School of Business and was the Human Resources
Administrator at Sampson. Thank you very much, Ms. Ruiz.
And Mr. Jesse James, Jr. is the Acting Director for the
Office of Workforce Diversity in the Library of Congress, a
position that he has held since February 2008. Prior to his
appointment as the Acting Director of the Office of Workforce
Diversity, Mr. James held a position of Associate General
Counsel in the Library's Office of General Counsel, where he
managed and supervised the Litigation and General Law Sections
of the Office of General Counsel.
Let me thank you all. If you will join with me, I will
extend the oath. It is the procedure of this committee that all
witnesses be sworn in, so if you'd raise your right hands.
[Witnesses sworn.]
Mr. Davis. The record will show that the witnesses answered
in the affirmative. Let me thank all of you for being here with
us this afternoon. Our usual procedure is to take 5 minutes of
summation of your written testimony. The entire written
statement will be included in the record. The green light
indicates the full 5 minutes are available, the yellow lights
indicates we are down to 1 minute, and of course the red light
indicates time is up and we would then proceed to questions.
Thank you very much, and we will begin. Ms. Bailey.
Ms. Bailey. Mr. Chairman, Congressman Marchant, members of
the subcommittee--is it on?
Mr. Davis. I think you may need to hit that button.
STATEMENTS OF TERESA BAILEY, DIRECTOR, EEO/CONCILIATION
PROGRAM, ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL; GLORIA L. JARMON, CHIEF
ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER, U.S. CAPITOL POLICE; RONALD STROMAN,
MANAGING DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF OPPORTUNITY AND INCLUSIVENESS,
U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE; NADINE ELZY, DIRECTOR,
OFFICE OF EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY, U.S. GOVERNMENT
PRINTING OFFICE; STEPHANIE RUIZ, DIRECTOR, HUMAN RESOURCES,
CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE; AND JESSE JAMES, JR., ACTING
DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF WORKFORCE DIVERSITY, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
STATEMENT OF TERESA BAILEY
Ms. Bailey. Thank you for this opportunity to discuss the
AOC's diversity management program and our efforts to identify,
attract, hire, promote and retain a diverse work force. Respect
and diversity are among our agency's core values.
The AOC values our employees' individual differences and
the very backgrounds, talents and skill they bring to their
jobs. Our commitment to Equal Employment Opportunity is strong
and we have marked a number of achievements in the past year.
Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to report that the Architect of
the Capitol recently implemented its first affirmative
employment program. As noted in the AOC's Inspector General
report, this order, ``will form the basis and framework for
success in the resolution and removal of barriers impacting the
diversity management program and the under representation of
women, minorities and persons with disabilities.''
This program assures that job applicants and employees
looking to advance professionally are considered fairly and
equally. Its primary component will be a plan delineating
action-oriented strategies and measurable goals to increase our
work force diversity. The program puts into action our
longstanding commitment to equal opportunity in every area of
employment.
We are also implementing our first reasonable accommodation
policy for persons with disabilities which formalizes
procedures to accommodate the needs of disabled employees and
prospective employees. The AOC also provides mandatory EEO
training for all supervisors and managers, and we are looking
to expand this training to include diversity training for all
AOC employees.
In addition to continuing to development existing talent in
our agency, we are conducting a comprehensive work force
analysis. The information gathered will help us to better focus
our recruiting and hiring efforts. While the representation of
women and minorities in our senior level positions remain the
33 percent and 18.5 percent respectively, these percentages
demonstrate a significant increase over our 2002 levels.
As of August 15th, minority representation in the GS-15
theater pool has increased from 12.8 percent to 18 percent, and
for the number of women has increased from 23.1 percent to 25
percent.
The IG's report also noted the importance of establishing a
diversity network between the AOC and other EEO diversity
directors to share best practices and discuss critical issues
we have in common. I am pleased to note that my peers on this
panel agree and welcome the opportunity to strengthen our ties
and work together toward common goals.
Last, the report highlighted personnel practices in other
areas that merit attention. We have developed an action plan to
address a number of these issues and are working to expand
programs or policies already in place.
As I noted last November, we advertise our career
opportunities nationwide through a wide and diverse number of
Web sites, newspapers and professional networks and
associations. We also continue to actively participate in
recruitment events to increase awareness of job opportunities
with our agency.
In addition, we recently advertised positions in our
Architect's mobility program. This program offers career
opportunities for high potential employees who are currently in
career limiting positions and lack the experience to enter
other AOC career fields. Participants are provided on-the-job
training and formal classroom training. The program will assist
us in increasing diversity in established career fields, while
providing an exciting path for the participants.
We are also participating in Operation Warfighter, the
Defense Department's program for service members convalescing
at military treatment facilities in the Washington area, many
of whom were stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. This program
enables us to benefit from the considerable talents of these
soldiers and to affect their recuperation by providing a
positive work environment. To date five service members have
worked with us in a variety of jobs.
Although we have made great progress, we recognize we still
have work to do. The AOCis deeply committed to our goal of
attracting and retaining a diverse work force, and this
commitment began at the top of our organization. We all benefit
from a workplace that brings together people with different
backgrounds, skills, experiences and perspectives, and we are
diligently working to further increase the diversity in our
work force and in particular among our senior level management.
This concludes my statement. I would be happy to answer any
questions that you may have.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Bailey follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Davis. Thank you very much, Ms. Bailey, and we will
proceed to Ms. Jarmon.
STATEMENT OF GLORIA L. JARMON
Ms. Jarmon. Chairman Davis and members of the subcommittee,
thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to
discuss diversity within the work force and especially within
the senior levels of U.S. Capitol Police. I assure you the
Chief of the U.S. Capitol Police and his executive team are
totally committed to the continued improvement of the
Department's work force diversity, including our requested
funding for a diversity officer in fiscal year 2009. We also
intend to have a formal written diversity policy in fiscal year
2009.
Despite the lack of a formal equal employment office or a
diversity office we believe that the Department's made
significant improvements in recent years and achieve strong
female and minority representation within the Department's work
force and its senior level staff relative to the Federal and
civilian work force.
That said, we also know that we need to improve the
representation of females and specific minority staff
throughout the Department, especially in our sworn and senior
level staff, and we will continue to seek new approaches toward
achieving these goals.
As of the end of August the Department's on board staff
total 2,010, 350 civilian and 1,660 sworn. Of these about 23
percent are women and about 39 percent are minority staff.
Minority representation among our senior level staff has
improved in the past fiscal year from about 14 percent to 22
percent, while our female representation at a senior level has
experienced a slight decline from about 28 percent to 22
percent.
We are encouraged by the increasingly diverse composition
of our senior level developmental pool, which will provide the
Department with a trained and experience cadre of minority and
female inspectors, captains, and civilian managers from which
to draw into our senior level positions going forward. This
developmental pool has increased its representation of
minorities by 5 percent and of women by 2 percent in the
current fiscal year.
Much of our success can be attributed to our aggressive
recruiting plans, which includes universities, colleges and job
fairs throughout the country targeted toward women and specific
minority populations and also targets returning veterans. In
addition, we have used participation in senior level
developmental training programs to improve the representation
of women and minorities in our senior levels.
Our Strategic Capitol Plan draft has been completed and is
being reviewed before final issuance. We intend to update the
strategic plan with fiscal year 2008 data as appropriate and
view this plan as a living document through which we will be
able to set that recruitment, retention, advancement and
succession planning goals, measure our progress in meeting them
and make adjustments as warranted.
Diversity representation is an integral part of this plan,
and we intend to fully implement it early in fiscal year 2009.
Within the U.S. Capitol Police discrimination complaints
are investigated by our Office of Professional Responsibility.
That office in was currently investigating seven cases of
alleged violations of our policy on anti-discrimination, anti-
harassment.
In response to our recent Inspector General report on our
work force diversity we are reconsidering the appropriate
office to perform legal sufficiency reviews in consultation
with the Capitol Police Board for all of the Office of
Professional Responsibility cases involving grievance or
discrimination complaints.
Currently our Office of Employment Counsel conducts these
reviews in addition to representing the Department or the
Capitol Police Board should the case make its way to court. In
conjunction with new directives on discipline, dispute
resolution and grievance procedures, we will determine the best
process to avoid any appearance of conflict going forward. We
expect to make these sound determinations and issue these
directives in the near future.
We appreciate the attention this subcommittee has focused
on this issue within the Department and are working diligently
to address the IG's recommendations related to this issue.
Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, this
concludes my statement. I will be happy to answer any questions
you may have.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Jarmon follows:]
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Mr. Davis. Thank you very much. And we will go to Mr.
Stroman.
STATEMENT OF RONALD STROMAN
Mr. Stroman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Marchant.
First of all, we agree with all of the Inspector General's
recommendation and we have moved quickly to implement them. We
have instituted internal controls for our tracking and case
processing. We are amending our complaint to clarify
responsibilities when we move cases from our office to another
office, and we are making it clear in our order that our
diversity plan will be done on an annual basis.
We appreciate the Inspector General's recognition of the
gains that have been made at the managerial ranks. African
Americans exceed the civilian labor force at the SES level, as
well as the GS-15 equivalent level. Asian Americans exceed the
civilian labor force at the SES. We've had a 53 percent
increase in the percentage of Hispanics in our managerial
ranks, and women have, you know, had tremendous growth within
the agency.
Although, that being said, Mr. Chairman, we have gaps and
we recognize that we have gaps, and we have developed what we
think are plans to address them. We received, as you know, in
April the Ivy report which had over 20 recommendations. The
Acting Comptroller General has clarified that we will implement
all of them and implement them quickly. We have begun that. We
are having--starting with Ivy's recommendation that we begin
with a facilitated conversation on race; that is, given the
impact that race has in terms of performance related dialog and
conversations, we need to raise this issue directly within the
agency. So all of our employees, it is mandatory, will be part
of this facilitated conversations on race that will begin in
October.
We are reassessing our entire performance appraisal system.
To date we have had over 15 interviews at the managerial level.
We have had 30 task forces of GAO employees involved in this
reassessment. Of those, 37 have been specifically targeted on
issues of diversity. We have had African American--looking at
African American issues, Hispanic issues, disability issues,
gay and lesbian issues within the agency.
With regard to reviewing our standards for appraisal
reviews, the Ivy report suggested that we standardize those. We
have done that. We have met and created standard processes for
all of our teams with regard to performance appraisals. Ivy
recommended that we expand the mentoring program to include our
PDP staff. We have expanded the mentoring program in the last
several months.
Ivy suggested that we begin to track the ratings of our PDP
staff at the same level that we are tracking the ratings of our
analysts. We have instituted a tracking process and we have
begun the process of tracking.
Ivy suggested mandatory DPM training; that is, that we
train our analysts who are reviewing and assessing our
analysts. We have instituted mandatory DPM training. We are
having training for the development of self-assessments within
the agency. We have established a task team to review the way
in which we do recruiting, where we go to recruit, who is
involved in the recruiting process, and the establishment of a
diversity recruitment plan. This is ongoing, Mr. Chairman.
We have taken steps to implement what Ivy suggested was to
institute an upward feedback tool, similar to a 360, so that
our staff can assess the performance of managers. We are in the
process of doing that.
We have established a diversity committee, and that is made
up of all of the diversity groups within the agency, African
Americans, Hispanics, Asians, people with disabilities, and
indeed our union, and we are consulting with them as we are
implementing all of these changes.
We have developed, as the IG testified, a work force
diversity plan which is directly consistent with Managing
Directive 715 by the EEOC. And we did a data analysis of our
work force, we did a barrier analysis, and then we had
recommendations. And with regard to those recommendations, we
not only had recommendations, but we had timeframes under which
those recommendations will be implemented so that we can hold
ourselves accountable.
In sum, Mr. Chairman, we understand that we have gaps in
the diversity of our office. We have a plan. We are moving
quickly to implement all of the Ivy recommendations. We are
monitoring our work force diversity plan and we believe we will
be able to show progress as consistent with what--the IG's
testimony.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Stroman follows:]
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Mr. Davis. Thank you very much, Mr. Stroman. And we will
proceed to Ms. Elzy.
STATEMENT OF NADINE ELZY
Ms. Elzy. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the
subcommittee. Thank you for inviting the Government Printing
Office to be here today. I am Nadine Elzy, the GPO's Director
of EEO. My prepared statement has been submitted for the
record, and with your permission I will summarize my remarks.
We have reviewed the Inspector General's report and concur
with the recommendations. I am sure these recommendations will
be submitted to the Public Printer for his review and
consideration. I believe that the recommendations will have a
positive impact to create a more diverse GPO in the future.
I would like to point out that even though GPO was not
required to comply with MD-715 that it is noteworthy that we as
an agency have already adopted many of these elements and feel
that these initiatives have assisted us in our diversity
efforts.
I am also very glad to be here to testify before you today,
because I'm excited to report that since we--I was last here in
November, we have made additional gains. We have in the Senior
Level Service since my appearance here, we have one additional
female and two additional minorities at a senior level. At that
time GPO had three females in SLS positions, we now have four,
which is 15 percent of the SLS population. We also now have
four minorities in SLS positions.
Last fall 29 percent of Grade 15 positions were held by
females. Now 32 percent of positions at the Grade 15 are held
by females. Also minorities comprised 32 percent of the Grade
15 at the end of 2007; minorities have now grown to comprise 34
percent of employees at a Grade 15.
One of the things I would like to point out is in 2002 we
had 1 female in the Grade 15, now we have 24. In 2002 we had 6
minorities in the Grade 15, now we have 26. This demonstrates
small but steady strides that GPO is making to increase its
diversity at the higher grade levels.
We also are continuing with our efforts to place qualified
minorities and females in positions at the Grade 13 to 14,
which will prepare them to become GPO's future leaders. The
Public Printer has personally demonstrated his commitment to
increasing diversity. Commitment comes from the top and flows
down. In a recent Public Printer meeting Mr. Tapella expressed
the importance of diversity and his support. He encouraged our
continued outreach to colleges and universities.
GPO has developed a college recruitment plan for fiscal
year 2009 that again includes colleges and universities that
will strengthen our applicant pool with highly qualified
diverse candidates. These colleges include Florida A&M
University, the University of Texas El Paso, the University of
New Mexico, and Berkeley. We have expanded our recruitment to
include organizations such as the National Association of Black
MBAs. We truly realize the importance of a diverse work force.
We will also again be recruiting at the national
institute--Technical Institute of the Deaf in an effort to
ensure that our organization is representative of this
country's diversity.
EEOC has indicated that the percentage of people with
disabilities in the Federal Government is decreasing, but we
still rank as one of the top Federal Government employers for
people with disabilities. As of September 8, 2008, the U.S.
Government Printing Office had a work force of 2,398 employees.
Of this total almost 7 percent are employees with a reportable
disability and almost 2 percent are individuals with targeted
disabilities. Most Federal agencies have less than 1 percent of
employees with targeted disabilities. These employees work in
various business units throughout our agency.
During this fiscal year we have also become actively
involved with the Coming Home to Work Initiative. Through this
initiative with the Veterans Administration, eligible service
members and veterans are placed in positions at the Government
Printing Office to gain valuable experience. The first
participants reported to work this month.
We have also developed other efforts to ensure that GAO's
supervisors and managers knows the agency's perspective on
diversity and equity in the workplace. During this fiscal year
myself and the Deputy EEO Director have been meeting with each
business union manager to have an in-depth discussion on their
organization's diversity and other EEO-related issues. During
these meetings we discuss their current work force statistics
and possible strategies to address any noted imbalances.
Again we are involved with EEO at GPO and most especially
Public Printer Tapella clearly recognizes the significance of
attaining diversity in GPO's management ranks, and we are
firmly committed to achieving this goal. I am proud to be a
part of an agency that is moving forward with great speed in
the right direction, and again I would like to emphasize my
personal commitment to attain this objective. GPO is an
organization that wants to utilize the skills and abilities of
all of its employees to move us forward in the 21st century.
Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, this
concludes my prepared statement, and I will be pleased to
answer any questions you may have.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Elzy follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Davis. Thank you very much, and we will go to Ms. Ruiz.
STATEMENT OF STEPHANIE RUIZ
Ms. Ruiz. Mr. Chairman, Congressman Marchant and members of
the subcommittee, thank you for the invitation to discuss our
efforts to have a diverse work force at the Congressional
Budget Office. CBO's leadership shares your interest and
diversity and, though we have made significant efforts to
create such a work force, we are not yet satisfied with the
results of those efforts and continue to seek ways to enhance
them.
This afternoon I will address the following key points
summarized from my written statement, the challenge of
recruiting skilled staff in the fields necessary to do the
analysis CBO prepares for the Congress, CBO's effort to recruit
a diverse work force recent addition to those efforts, and
recent progress toward greater diversity in the agency's work
force.
As you know, CBO employs individuals with very specialized
skills to do the complex economic and budgetary analysis the
agency is charged to do for the Congress. More than two-thirds
of our professional staff hold Ph.D.'s or Master's Degrees, and
as a result of these specialized skills the demographics of the
qualified candidates pose a significant challenge in creating a
diverse staff.
According to the most recent survey of earned doctorates,
approximately 1,000 people earned Ph.D.'s in economics in 2006.
Only 30 percent of those new Ph.D.'s in economics were women.
And even more dramatic, of those who came into the labor market
only 6 percent were identified as members of a minority group.
That is 60 people in the entire Nation. Those numbers are even
more disheartening when you note that 14 percent entered
government service in that population.
The demographics of Master's level graduates are somewhat
less of a problem. According to data from the National
Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration,
those completing Master's Degrees in 2007 were 58 percent
female and 31 percent minority.
In the face of the demographic challenges we have, CBO must
be both aggressive and creative in its efforts to reach out to
women and minority candidates.
A few examples of how we target our recruiting are sending
mailings to Historically Black Colleges and Universities,
HBCUs, and Hispanic-serving institutions, HSIs, that have
populations from which we can draw candidates; visiting myriads
of college campuses, including HBCUs, HSIs, and large campuses
with diverse student populations, and contacting the American
Indian Graduate Center to provide Native American candidates
information about CBO opportunities.
CBO also manages a summer internship program with an eye
toward diversity. For example, 63 percent of our interns were
minorities and 38 percent with women. In addition to the
substantive work these students do, the program introduces them
to the challenge and reward of public service. Our goal is for
them to consider CBO employment upon graduation, and
considering 7 percent of our current work force are former
interns, I think we are doing OK there.
Despite our small size, we devote considerable effort to
grass roots recruiting; that is, seeking to enlarge the pool of
female and minority candidates in the populations from which we
recruit. Data indicate that most students who pursue a
doctorate in economics also studied economics as an undergrad,
and so CBO, although we don't hire very many analysts with just
a bachelor's degree, engages in various recruitment activities
to introduce undergrads to the ideas of pursuing a Ph.D. In
economics or a master's in public policy, and to acquaint them
with the types of government careers to which those paths may
lead.
For example, we make special efforts to present to groups
such as Moorhouse Filman's joint economics clubs, and to Howard
economics majors every year. We also participate annually in
two national programs, the Public Policy Institute and
International Affairs Program, and the American Economic
Association's summer program and minority scholarship program.
Both of these are national programs focused on preparing
students of underrepresented groups for advanced degrees in the
areas from which we recruit.
In short, few students from underrepresented groups
complete advanced degrees in economics and public policy. We
have little hope of recruiting CBO staff representative of the
Nation's rich diversity.
Recent additions to our program since the subcommittee's
hearing last November have been many. I will share a few of
them. Dr. Peter Orszag, our director, and deputy director
Robert Sunshine make diversity a principal topic of the CBO
management conference in January, emphasizing CBO's unequivocal
commitment to diversity, highlighting the challenges we face,
and encouraging vigorous and creative efforts toward that goal.
We followed up with CBO's staff to communicate our efforts and
solicit suggestions to improve diversity, and we have
implemented a number of those suggestions.
We implemented a tracking system that identifies candidate
CBO interviews, and in several cases the director and deputy
director have declined to consider making job offers until
there was additional diversity amongst the candidates
interviewed.
Dr. Orszag has developed personal efforts to develop new
recruitment opportunities. Among them, he contacted permanent
economists, who were minorities, to solicit assistance. One of
those contacts resulted in identifying a new program designed
to address the underrepresentation of minorities in public
policy research. We were able to make a presentation to that
program's initial class, and several CBO staff shared one on
one about CBO's work and job opportunities with those students.
He telephoned the deans of top programs offering Ph.D.s in
economics and master's degrees to emphasize CBO's interest in
recruiting their strong minority students.
Though there are many more other recent additions, I will
wrap up with the seminars that we provided to the fellows of
the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and the Congressional
Hispanic Institute this past summer, as we hope to make those
staples of our annual recruiting events.
Most important to these efforts are progress. Like his
predecessors, Dr. Orszag is committed to diversity. In his
short tenure, 52 percent of the staff hired at CBO have been
women and 17 percent have been minorities. Looking forward, if
we include those who are scheduled to start work at CBO in the
next month, that 17 percent minority number goes to 23 percent.
Since last year, we have increased the share of employees who
are women and the share of professional positions filled by
women by about 2 percentage points, to 42 percent. The shared
employees from minorities remains essentially unchanged at
about 13 percent. And as for executive-level positions, the
share filled by women and minorities both increased by nearly 3
percentage points.
This improvement has occurred despite the fact that our
minority staff members are often highly sought after. And with
CBO's small staff size, the gain or loss of a few staff members
can significantly affect our numbers.
In conclusion, CBO's most valuable resource is a strong
staff, and to that end we dedicate a great deal of time,
effort, and resources to the agency's recruitment program. An
important focus of that program has been and will continue to
be the recruitment of a diverse work force. Though we are
pleased with our progress, we take seriously our need to
continue the improvement and diversity of our staff. I will be
happy to take whatever questions you may have.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Ruiz follows:]
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Mr. Davis. Thank you we have. We have four votes.
Fortunately, they are 5-minute votes. So if you can remain, we
would appreciate it, and we should return in about 20 minutes.
[Recess.]
Mr. Davis. Thank you very much. I think we are OK for a
minute, and I really do appreciate the fact that you all are
still here.
And I believe we had gotten down to you, Mr. James.
STATEMENT OF JESSE JAMES, JR.
Mr. James. Yes, sir. Yes, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Davis, members of the subcommittee, my name is
Jesse James, Jr. I am the Acting Director of the Office of
Workforce Diversity at the Library of Congress, a position
which I have held since February 2008. Prior to this
appointment, I had retired from the Library's Office of General
Counsel, where I managed and supervised the litigation and
general law sections of the Library for approximately 8 years.
Thank you for the opportunity to update you on the status of
our efforts to increase staff diversity throughout the Library
of Congress and specifically within the senior level
management.
For the fiscal year ending September 30, 2007, the
Library's total work force of 3,786 consisted of 55.2 percent
women and 45.6 percent minorities. Of the total of 95 senior
level executives, 43.2 percent were women, and 21.1 percent
were minorities.
With respect to the feeder positions of GS-13 through GS-15
pay cluster, who are the Library's future senior leaders, women
represent 50.3 percent, and minorities represent 25.6 percent
of those employees. The number of minorities at this level has
gone from 281 in 2002 to 380 in 2007. While the percentage of
Hispanics in this group remain below that of the general
population, the number of Hispanics at the GS-15 level more
than doubled over the same period of time. The percentage of
women has remained stable.
Since your last review of the diversity within the
legislative branch, the Library has undertaken a number of new
initiatives. First, our chief operating officer created a
Library-wide task force to overhaul the Library's hiring
process for filling senior level vacancies. The Library's
proposed process incorporates best practices of the private
sector.
Second, our Office of Workforce Diversity, which reports
directly to the Office of the Librarian, is undergoing a major
reorganization. We expect this new entity will play a more
effective leadership role in fulfilling our diversity and
fairness goals throughout the Library.
As part of the development of the Library-wide 2008-2013
strategic plan, we link the function of OWD to our overall work
force goals and objectives. We have provided more details about
the reorganization in our written statement. The new
reorganization will address and evaluate the successes of
programs, analyze barriers, and provide data to management as
to how to address any concerns that we come in contact with.
Let me just assure you that under this new plan OWD will be
better positioned to focus on and identify potential systemic
barriers to diversity, measuring programs' effectiveness, and
working proactively to ensure that Library managers continue to
successfully implement strategies to recruit and retain a
diverse work force.
Third, we have expanded our staff development programs for
Library employees at all GS levels.
Finally, we have retained an executive recruitment
consultant to assist us in identifying and seeking highly
qualified diverse candidates for senior level positions. We are
using this consultant presently to assist us in filling the
vacant position of the Law Librarian of Congress.
While we are working diligently on the recruitment front,
we find these efforts are undercut by the fact that we are
falling behind the rest of the Federal Government on senior
level paid compensation. Our senior professionals trail
virtually all executive agency level employees in both pay caps
and aggregate compensation caps. We ask the subcommittee to
consider the impact on the Library of S-1046 currently before
this body, and that you assist us in maintaining our position
as an employer of choice for talented professionals.
This series of hearings and our reorganization of OWD are
taking place at a key juncture for the Library. We are
expanding our internal staff development leadership programs to
enhance the available pool of applicants in order to have a
diverse, talented, and qualified work force that we need to
have everyone in the marketplace participate.
I am happy to answer any questions the subcommittee may
have.
Mr. Davis. Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Mr. James follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Davis. And again, let me just thank all of you for your
patience and your willingness to be here to share with us.
Let me just ask, are we all aware of the fact that the
Office of Compliance offers training and workshops for agency
personnel regarding workplace rights? We all are aware of that?
That being the case, what is your opinion of the training? I
mean, do you think it is helpful or do you have an opinion that
you would venture? Ms. Bailey.
Ms. Bailey. I have had the opportunity to attend one of the
Office Compliance trainings not that long ago. It was a
training on alternative dispute resolution, and it was good
information to have in terms of addressing some information
that we have already known, particularly for those of us who
are in that profession. But I think overall the training was
helpful to us.
Mr. Davis. Anyone else?
Ms. Elzy. I attended that same training. It was very
beneficial. The only difference I have from any of the other
legislative branches is that the Government Printing Office, as
far as complaints, reports to the Equal Opportunity Commission.
But the training itself was very beneficial.
Mr. James. I also had the opportunity to attend, and I
think I have attended at least twice. And I think it was
beneficial and helpful, at least in the instances that I
attended.
Ms. Ruiz. Equally, at the Congressional Budget Office, I
attended and I had one of my colleagues from my office attend.
And the first training they offered on ADR, alternative dispute
resolution, we had a number of our staff members attend. And
one of the things that was most beneficial was the exercises
they did with us at the end and the fact that they bring in a
variety of different consultants and different perspectives
into the training.
Mr. Davis. Did they address EEO diversity issues in any of
the sessions that any of us may have attended?
Mr. James. I don't think so.
Mr. Davis. Do you think it might be helpful if they had a
structured program where a part of the training kind of
centered on EEO and diversity kind of concerns that would help
people to have those issues in mind and recognize them as part
of workplace expectation?
Ms. Ruiz. Sir, yes. I think that would be a very beneficial
thing from a couple standpoints. No. 1, it would provide
uniform information to all the leg branch agencies. And it is
also, from the standpoint of the appropriators, who we all have
some recollection with, the ability for us to capitalize on
working cohesively together and using money in an appropriate
way.
Mr. Davis. Anyone else?
Ms.Bailey. I concur with what Ms. Ruiz has said. But I also
think that we also need to consider the right audience. We have
to target the right audience for those programs. So we need to
include it and expand it to supervisors and managers of our
various agencies.
Mr. Davis. Yes.
Mr. Stroman. Mr. Chairman, there have been a number of
studies recently, some done by Harvard University, that have
shown that some diversity training is not very helpful in terms
of resolving issues, EEO issues.
The key, it seems to me, is to have targeted training. That
is, that you have to have training which is directly targeted
to the concerns in your workplace, or else you are going
through an exercise.
The other thing that their studies have indicated is that
the training has to be part of a larger package of changes
within the institution. And if that is kind of what you are
focusing on, again, you are not going to be successful.
So I would say two things: that it would be helpful to do
the training, but they need to do the training targeted to
specific issues at specific leg branch agencies, and it needs
to be part of a larger package.
Mr. Davis. Let me ask. We have talked about success of
pools, and especially that you have highlighted them, Mr.
James. Let me just ask, why are these successive pools
important? And could any of you think of what the impact might
be, let's just say, if your agency was to promote women and
minorities in direct proportion to their GS-15 successive
pools? That if you had as many people above as you had in the
GS-15 pool, do you see any kind of impact, either negative or
positive, that would have on your agency?
Mr. James. Well, I think that if it were possible in a
world where everything was equal, that you could actually do
that, I think that it would have positive effects for the
agency. But some of the discussion that would take place with
the IGs, I question whether you are going to be able to get
that, unless you have these schools and others where the people
coming out of school are going to be equal to that. And if you
don't have that, then I think that is the thing that affects it
more than anything else. And I know for a fact that the Library
is making those efforts, but it is running up against the
difficulty of finding people to bring into the agencies coming
out of colleges and places like that. It is going to the
Historical Black Colleges and making contacts with those
schools. But as we all know, the numbers coming of minorities
coming out of colleges isn't as large.
So I think that is where the problem is. I don't think the
problem is actually getting them there; the problem is getting
the numbers in sufficient numbers to put them in the feeder
pools so that they can come up through that system.
Mr. Stroman. Mr. Chairman, I think particularly at the SES
level, that is really where the decisionmakers are. And if you
have a proportionate representation, I think what you will have
is two things: One is I think you will have better results as
an agency. Studies have indicated that when you have a diverse
workpool, particularly in the leadership level, that your
solutions are better; that you get more creative, more
innovative, faster solutions as an agency. So I think that they
would be better.
Second, I think that when you are trying to attract people
to the agency, they are really looking at the leadership. They
are looking at the leadership to determine whether or not, you
know, they can get to that point. I mean, one of the things,
you know, regardless of one's political affiliation, is what
Senator Obama has done. When they talk to young African
American kids now, 65 percent said they believe they can be
President of the United States. Forty percent of white children
say they could be President of the United States. And I think
that is a direct correlation between seeing a role model that
you can model your behavior after. So I think it has tremendous
potential within each of the agencies.
Ms. Jarmon. I just wanted to add, at the Capitol Police we
have been focusing on the successive pool. For us, it would be
like inspectors, captains on the sworn side; and on the
civilian side it would be civilian managers. And our numbers
for that feeder pool are actually higher than the SES
equivalent group as we have been focusing on development and
training of that group. And I think it would be helpful in
years to come as those people are promoted to higher levels.
Mr. Davis. As I think about, I think of situations where I
know individuals who are police captains but they never get
high command posts. I have never been able to quite understand
it. Of course, this is outside the Federal Government. This
just happens to be in the Chicago Police Department, which is a
great big agency. It is a big operation. It is no small entity.
We have about 3 million people in our city. But I actually know
people, and we have sort of wondered, I mean, how is this
person a captain but might be a watch commander, and somebody
else is a lieutenant and they are a station commander or they
have some other executive post beyond that. And what kind of
criteria is being used by the upper levels who make these
decisions and determinations.
Well, that is not your problem. It is just something that I
have thought about.
Well, let me just thank you all very much. We have a number
of questions that we would like to submit; and if you would
agree to answer those in writing and get them back to us, we
would really appreciate it. We have some questions that I think
could be very helpful to us, if we could submit those and have
you respond in writing.
Thank you so very much. And, again, you have been a
wonderfully patient group, and we greatly appreciate it.
And we will go to our last panel, panel 3. We have Tamara
Chrisler. She is the Executive Director of the Office of
Compliance. She was appointed to this position in January 2008.
Prior to joining the Office of Compliance, Ms. Chrisler served
as a labor and employment attorney for the Federal Bureau of
Prisons, representing the interests of the government as well
as the administrative agencies in claims brought by employees
before the Federal court.
And we have Ms. Janet Crenshaw Smith who is the president
of Ivy Planning Group LLC, which is a leading consultant and
training firm that specializes in diversity strategy and
leadership.
Ladies, I appreciate your being with us. And if you would
stand and be sworn in, then we could proceed.
[Witnesses sworn.]
Mr. Davis. I certainly want to thank both of you for your
long-enduring patience and the fact that we are still here. And
if you would begin, and we will try to wrap this up.
STATEMENTS OF TAMARA E. CHRISLER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF
COMPLIANCE; AND JANET CRENSHAW SMITH, PRESIDENT, IVY PLANNING
GROUP LLC
STATEMENT OF TAMARA E. CHRISLER
Ms. Chrisler. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good evening. I
would like to thank you for the opportunity to testify at your
oversight hearing on the representation of women and minorities
in executive level positions in the legislative branch. The
Office of Compliance is privileged to be included in your
review of the reports from those agencies that have performed
diversity audits at the direction of this subcommittee.
Briefly, I would like to tell you a little bit about our office
before answering any questions that you may have.
The Office of Compliance is governed by the Congressional
Accountability Act [CAA] of 1995, which requires covered
legislative branch agencies to follow employment and workplace
safety laws applied to the private sector and to the Federal
Government at large.
Of particular relevance to today's hearing is section 201
of the CAA, which requires that all personnel actions involving
covered employees be free from discrimination based on race,
color, religion, sex, or national origin, disability, and age
for those 40 or older.
The Office of Compliance is committed to guaranteeing that
the workplace of legislative branch employees is a fair one and
providing assistance to Congress and its instrumentalities and
agencies in meeting their workplace demands.
Certain of our core statutorily mandated functions are
pertinent to this hearing. Our education mandate requires us to
educate covered employees in employing offices in the
legislative branch about their rights and responsibilities
under the CAA. We meet this mandate by maintaining a
comprehensive Web site and providing written materials and
publications; by participating in a quarterly briefing
sponsored by the Congressional Research Service; and, by
publishing our Annual Report to Congress, providing both
statutorily mandated statistics and narratives detailing
accomplishments tracked to our strategic plan.
The agency has most recently conducted our second major
conference on alternative dispute resolution for managers,
which the prior panel spoke to briefly, and has a similar
conference scheduled for September 23, 2008 for union
officials.
The CAA establishes a confidential and mandatory dispute
resolution process for covered employees that is implemented by
the Office of Compliance as a neutral and independent agency.
The statutorily mandated process requires initial counseling
and mediation. Our mediation program, a proven method of
alternative dispute resolution, has been highly successful in
assisting both employees and employing offices come to
resolution without the cost and burdens of litigation.
Not included among our core functions is the authority to
review and comment on the adequacy of any particular diversity
plan, nor do we develop those plans for our covered community.
However, we do have authority to conduct educational programs
tailored to the specific diversity needs of our covered
community. We seek always to serve as an expert resource and an
educator and trainer on the rights and protections afforded by
the CAA.
I appreciate the question that you asked, Mr. Chairman, on
training that our office can provide. Our office is always
looking to improve our education and outreach program.
The point that I would like to make about our education and
outreach program is that the training that we provide is
provided from our perspective. What we would like to do and
what the office has efforts to provide at this--as we speak is
engage the employing offices and employees in a survey so that
they can tell us what their needs are. They can share with us
their understanding of their rights and responsibilities under
the CAA so that we can target and focus our training efforts to
the needs of our stakeholders.
This survey is being implemented now. It is on our Web
site. It was sent out in our newsletter, so that all employees
of the legislative branch were made aware of the survey. And
hopefully that information will help us to target our efforts
and training.
We are here to serve you and to assist you in ensuring a
fair, safe, and accessible workplace for the thousands of
legislative branch employees and visitors to the Capitol
complex. We are constrained in our aspirations only by
resources to do more and better education and outreach. With
additional resources, our agency could provide enhanced
outreach to our stakeholders and district offices, additional
publications and materials, and more training sessions and
conferences. The Office of Compliance applauds the work of this
subcommittee in seeking to ensure that legislative branch
agencies' personnel policies and practices are both fair and
promote the opportunity for all employees to maximize their
contributions to their agency. The Office of Compliance is
dedicated to those same ends, and we seek to assist the
subcommittee in its efforts.
I am available to answer any questions you may have.
Mr. Davis. Thank you very much. And we appreciate your
testimony.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Chrisler follows:]
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Mr. Davis. Ms. Smith.
STATEMENT OF JANET CRENSHAW SMITH
Ms. Smith. Chairman Davis and members of the subcommittee,
thank you for the invitation to testify regarding the GAO
African American and Caucasian analyst performance assessment
study. In March, I testified before this committee on tasks one
and two. Today I am pleased to return to provide the final
report, and I will highlight just a few points.
As background, the Ivy team performed the tasks, the study
in three tasks. Task one was the statistical analysis; task two
was an assessment and comparison of education, engagement
roles, background, etc., of new hires; and task three was
collecting more qualitative data on the analysts and raters,
the interview focused groups, and also an assessment of best
practices. We completed the study in April 2008 and presented
our findings.
Ivy concluded that the factors that contribute to the
average performance ratings disparities between African
American and Caucasian analysts fell into three categories:
human capital, processes and management practices, GAO's
culture, and the significance of race.
With regard to human capital processes and management
practices, GAO has invested a significant amount of resources,
result in human capital processes including performance
management, that do incorporate industry best practices. There
are opportunities to improve these processes, including
recruiting, the role of the PDP advisor, and training and
development. And also, some of these processes, while best
practices, are executed inconsistently, which may attribute to
the ratings disparity.
With regards to GAO's culture, GAO has a distinct culture.
It is an intense environment where people are committed to
meeting the mission with limited resources and with a focus on
excellence. There is a GAO way, and some of its elements are
both unwritten and subtle.
The benefits of GAO's culture, that it is high energy, high
quality work, with a consistent look and feel and demand for
more from their satisfied clients. However, the same culture
drives supervisors to manage production, not people.
Regarding the significance of race, statistical analysis
show there are differences in ratings between the African
American analysts and Caucasian analysts in general by
competency, pay band, team location, regardless of the race of
the rater, and those differences are statistically significant.
While it is clear that race is a factor in the ratings
disparity, the causes for the ratings disparity are not clear.
The statistical analysis didn't determine the disparity
between the actual performance and the rated performance. It
also didn't address the impact of subjectivity on the
disparity. Beliefs about these causes and disparities vary also
by race. Caucasians were more likely to question the quality of
the recruiting process, while African Americans were more
likely to question the quality, integrity, and execution of the
performance appraisal system itself.
The workplace experience also varied by race. Ivy's final
report, as you have heard, provided more than 20
recommendations to the GAO. Many of those recommendations
require a shift in GAO's culture, and culture change does not
happen quickly. Some of those recommendations included that GAO
take steps to create a more inclusive workplace culture; that
they address the race issue directly; and they provide skills
training, not just awareness training.
We also recommended that GAO encourage more balance between
managing the work and developing people; that there should be a
culture of shared accountability. We recommend that GAO take
steps to make the unwritten rules of the workplace more clear;
that they do it through analysis, communication, mentoring, and
training. We also recommended that GAO reassess how it
evaluates performance.
As the president of an 18-year-old management consulting
firm, I know that success comes by moving beyond strategy and
taking action. We therefore encourage GAO to create performance
metrics to monitor their progress.
Although many of our recommendations require a shift in
GAO's culture, overall GAO's senior leaders and employees at
all levels have been receptive. Ivy will be involved in some
aspects of the implementation of our recommendations. As you
heard earlier in Mr. Stroman's and Ms. Garcia's testimonies,
GAO has also taken steps independently to act positively on our
recommendations.
This study centered on issues that are critical to GAO's
work force, and I also believe that it has more broad
implications to the entire Federal work force. Issues of
fairness, diversity, integrity, inclusion, and transparency
should be considered by all agencies. These issues impact the
performance of our government, and they impact the experiences
and the careers of employees.
Mr. Chairman, that concludes my prepared statement. Thank
you for the opportunity to testify on this critical matter.
Mr. Davis. Thank you very much. And we certainly appreciate
the work that you and your company does and the work that you
have done.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Smith follows:]
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Mr. Davis. Ms. Chrisler, let me ask you, what happens when
there is a complaint; and say if the complaint is found to be
valid or there is validity, what happens as a result of that?
Ms. Chrisler. Mr. Chairman, there are a number of results
that could come about after having a finding that a complaint
is valid. Let me just give a little background about our
program and what it is we offer and the process that we have.
When an employee approaches our office with an inquiry,
with an allegation of a violation of the CAA, we offer the
counseling program, which is strictly confidential; we offer
mediation, which is also confidential. And if the issue is not
resolved in mediation or in counseling, then the employee has
the opportunity to move forward to a complaint, either an
administrative complaint filed with our office that goes before
a hearing officer for an evidentiary hearing, or a civil action
in court that goes through a court proceeding.
In answer to your question, once a determination has been
made that the allegation of the violation of the Congressional
Accountability Act is in fact an act of discrimination, a
hearing officer or a court could award a number of things for
the employee: could award damages, could award reinstatement,
could award selection to the position for which there was a
nonselection.
Going more to the matters at hand before this subcommittee,
perhaps what could happen within the agency is that the agency
take a look at some of the scenarios and circumstances that
gave rise to the allegation where there was a finding of
discrimination. Our office and our agency is not involved in
that process in the aftermath of the finding of discrimination.
What we do is provide the process, the fair and neutral and
impartial proceeding for the employee through our dispute
resolution program. The education and outreach components of
our statutory mandate does provide the agency with the ability
and the authority to reach out to the agencies' employing
offices and employees, and provide training and provide
workshops and provide conferences to help assist them in
addressing any of the issues that were part of the
circumstances that gave rise to the allegation.
Mr. Davis. Does the agency receive any kind of instruction
or recommendation? And, if so, where does it come from.
Ms. Chrisler. Would you explain your question for me, Mr.
Chairman?
Mr. Davis. The question is: Does the agency receive any
kind of instruction? Does anybody say to the agency, you have
been found to not be in compliance with the Accountability Act,
and here's what we think you ought to do. Or, here's what you
should do. Or, here's what you must do.
Ms. Chrisler. Thank you for that clarification.
Once there is a determination that there has been a
violation of the Congressional Accountability Act, if there is
an administrative complaint filed--and I want to be clear in
the distinction between the administrative complaint and the
civil action, because our agency is not involved in the
processing of the claim once it reaches district court. We are
not even privy sometimes to the filing of a complaint in
district court. But once there is a finding of a violation of
the CAA through an administrative proceeding, the hearing
officer will render a decision with an analysis of the facts
and analysis of the law and a determination as to why the
circumstances that brought about--equal to a violation of the
act.
In the hearing officer's decision, there is the remedy that
is provided to the employee. Going beyond that, our agency does
not step into the employing office and say, Now that this
finding has been entered against you, you should do this or you
must do that. Our act is very specific with respect to the
jurisdiction that we have, with respect to dispute resolution
programs, and we don't have that authority. However, our
education and outreach program does allow us to hold these
trainings and workshops in other seminars and other venues and
functions should an employing office request our assistance. If
the employing office receives the finding and says, ``Office of
Compliance, we would like for you to hold some training for
us,'' we would be more than happy to sit down with the
employing office and help them work through some of the
underlying issues.
Mr. Davis. So the employee gets a remedy, but there is
nothing necessarily that will keep the agency from doing the
same thing again to another employee other than the fact that
we got caught this time. And so if individuals don't continue
to--as often happens. I mean, not every person will file a
complaint, not every person will followup and follow through.
And I am just trying to think through. Maybe we want to revisit
a little bit and see if there is some way to help the agency to
not do the same thing over and over and over again, as well as
getting some remedy for the employee.
I really appreciate you taking me through that process.
Ms. Chrisler. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If I may add, we do
hope that our proactive programs are helpful to the agencies
and do act as information providing and educating the agencies
in different methods that they can use to address issues. At a
lower level, our dispute resolution conference we heard from
the testimony was very helpful and very beneficial. Hopefully,
our baseline survey that we have implemented, that we are
hoping to get data back on, will also inform us of other areas
where we can be helpful.
So in addressing the issue that you so eloquently raised,
we hope that our actions and our efforts through our education
and outreach program are helping the agencies be proactive, and
not waiting to get to a point where there is a complaint filed
and there is a hearing and there is a finding against the
agency before they say, OK, well now what do we do? We want our
efforts to help on the front end and not on the back end.
Mr. Davis. I recognize that you have not been with the
agency an extended period of time. But have you had a chance to
look at data and notice any trends that might relate to the
last 5 years as to whether or not there is an increase in
complaints, or are they about remaining the same or a decrease
in any of the areas?
Ms. Chrisler. Thank you for that. And I have not been with
the agency for an extended period of time, but I have looked at
some of the data that we have over the last few years. Let me
preface this by saying we only see the numbers from our
perspective. We only see a portion of the entire circumstances.
So we don't see the agency's recruitment efforts. We don't see
the internal informal programs that they have to address issues
of discrimination and to address other workplace issues. So we
do see the numbers only of what's brought to our office.
But from what it is that we have seen, there is no
significant changes in the numbers over the years to suggest a
trend one way or the other.
Mr. Davis. Thank you very much.
Ms. Smith, let me ask you. You found there to be
significant differences in the ratings of African Americans and
Caucasian or non-African American staff at the GAO. As you
found, or as this was revealed to you through your efforts,
what came to mind in terms of your thinking about all of the
individuals that obviously got hired. I mean, they all had
certain prerequisites in order to merit hiring. They had all
been to school, they have all basically got the same kind of
credentials coming in. What went through your mind?
Ms. Smith. Well, Mr. Chairman, this was what I consider to
be groundbreaking work because the nature of the study allowed
for the opportunity to go about answering the question in a
very structured manner. So the statistical analysis allowed the
opportunity to really isolate all of the factors that may have
contributed to the performance, the average performance ratings
disparity.
So at first what went through my mind was well, let's break
it out to see what might be contributing, and the regression
analysis allowed us to do that. So we could look to see, was it
degree? Was it work background? What might be causing that
difference? We were able to, through the data--and it was
really important to perform the data analysis, because that
allows people to really understand when it is looking at the
data versus only talking to people to get their perspective.
And the data showed that race indeed was a factor.
Now, what caused that? One of the most interesting things
to witness was to be in those focus groups where we had focus
groups with Caucasian analysts and then African American
analysts, with Caucasian raters and then African American
raters. And, again, the difference just in the voices in
answering the question why the difference in performance
ratings again was divided by race, such that Caucasian
analysts, Caucasian raters are more likely to believe that it
was a matter of the talent, the actual performance, while
African American analysts and raters are more likely to believe
that it was something about the system. Although, across the
board, both African Americans and Caucasians said there is a
lot of subjectivity in this system.
The answer is it is probably a ``both and,'' both in terms
of something about the performance--again, we were never able
to determine is the actual performance consistent with the
actual performance rating? So does the performance rating that
says you are a great writer, is it actually consistent with you
being a great writer, for both African American analysts and
Caucasian analysts?
So the answer, we believe, is very much tied to developing
people, understanding what it takes to do well, those unwritten
subtle things that are going on, and learning to look at all
kinds of differences not as less than but indeed as more than.
And in terms of how do you actually address this, you address
this through having a clear plan that is focused on
organizational improvement, and then holding people accountable
for executing that plan.
Mr. Davis. If you were asked to make some recommendations
to GAO in terms of saying here's what I believe or we believe
that you can actually do to strengthen diversification
throughout your agency, what would you say to them?
Ms. Smith. Well, we had the opportunity to make
recommendations and there were more than 20. I think one of the
key pieces is starting with an understanding that we must do
this for our survival, because we are already a diverse agency
and we need to be more inclusive. There is a lot of talent
here. They couldn't have entered the work force unless they
were talented. Let's understand what it really takes to do well
here, and let's do it across the board, because we don't know
that the Caucasian analysts who got high performance ratings
performed better than those who didn't--even inside, even
inside race. So let's understand what it takes to do well here,
and make sure that everybody knows.
The beauty of transparency is if everybody knows the rules,
then those who really perform well will be the ones that are
the highest performers. If everybody knows the rules, then
let's measure true behavior, true performance, and the agency
wins. And when you look at diversity as that mission-critical
enabler, that is when organizations do well, because they
understand that we need the true talent to be leading this
organization.
Mr. Davis. Well, let me just thank both of you, as we thank
all of our witnesses for the evening. We may have some
additional questions that we would like to submit to you and
ask if you could respond to those in writing.
I appreciate greatly the work in which you are engaged, all
of you, because I firmly believe that the greatest of all human
desires is the desire to be treated fairly, equally, with equal
protection under the law, and the notion that you will
experience a sense of equal justice and that man is in absolute
pursuit of that notion. And that as long as there are people
who feel that is not happening to them and for them, then there
will be the divergent notions and attitudes about our country,
about America, and about how far America has actually come.
I think of the athletes who, if you hit 800 home runs,
everybody knows that you are a superstar athlete. But if you
were a minority athlete and you were kind of like a journeyman
utility player, a guy who could make it but wasn't a superstar,
you generally didn't stick around too long. I mean, before you
knew it, you were back on the sand lot playing in pickup games.
You had some skill, but you weren't a superstar and you just
didn't stay long. And I know athletes who just had that kind of
comparative resentment when they think of other players that
they have known that they felt they were just as talented as. I
mean, they were all scoring six points a game, which weren't
that many, but they stayed a little bit longer.
So let me thank you as we struggle with this highly complex
issue. We appreciate all of you coming, we appreciate your
testimony, and we appreciate those whose endurance have kept
you with us into the evening. So thank you very much. And this
hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 5:48 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
[Additional information submitted for the hearing record
follows:]
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