    [Senate Hearing 110-742]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                                                            S. Hrg. 110-742

             LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2009

    =======================================================================

                                    HEARING

                                    before a

                              SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE

                COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE

                           ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS

                                SECOND SESSION

                                       on

                               H.R. 2771/S. 1686

    AN ACT MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH FOR THE FISCAL
          YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2008, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES deg.

                                   __________

                 Architect of the Capitol (except House items)
                        Government Accountability Office
                           Government Printing Office
                              Library of Congress
                              Office of Compliance
                          United States Capitol Police
                                  U.S. Senate

                                   __________

             Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations

      Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/
                                   index.html

                                   __________

                             U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

    41-263 PDF                       WASHINGTON : 2009

    For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing
    Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800;
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    Washington, DC 20402-0001

                          COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

                    ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia, Chairman
    DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii             THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi
    PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont            TED STEVENS, Alaska
    TOM HARKIN, Iowa                     ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania
    BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland        PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico
    HERB KOHL, Wisconsin                 CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri
    PATTY MURRAY, Washington             MITCH McCONNELL, Kentucky
    BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota        RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama
    DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California         JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire
    RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois          ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah
    TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota            LARRY CRAIG, Idaho
    MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana          KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas
    JACK REED, Rhode Island              SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas
    FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey      WAYNE ALLARD, Colorado
    BEN NELSON, Nebraska                 LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee

                        Charles Kieffer, Staff Director
                      Bruce Evans, Minority Staff Director
                                     ------

                     Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch

                     MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana, Chairman
    RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois          LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee
    BEN NELSON, Nebraska                 WAYNE ALLARD, Colorado
    ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia        THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi
      (ex officio)                         (ex officio)
                               Professional Staff
                                 Nancy Olkewicz
                        Carolyn E. Apostolou (Minority)
                            Sarah Wilson (Minority)

                             Administrative Support

                                  Teri Curtin

                                C O N T E N T S

                                  ----------
                                                                       Page

                           Wednesday, April 30, 2008

    Architect of the Capitol.........................................     1
    United States Capitol Police.....................................    15
    Library of Congress..............................................    25

                  Material Submitted Subsequent to the Hearing

    U.S. Senate:
        Office of the Secretary......................................    79
        Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper..............................   140
    Government Accountability Office.................................   162
    Government Printing Office.......................................   171
    Office of Compliance.............................................   182

             LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2009

                                  ----------

                           WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 2008

                                           U.S. Senate,
               Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations,
                                                        Washington, DC.
        The subcommittee met at 3:33 p.m., in room SD-138, Dirksen
    Senate Office Building, Hon. Mary L. Landrieu (chairman)
    presiding.
        Present: Senators Landrieu, Alexander, and Allard.

                            ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL

    STATEMENT OF STEPHEN T. AYERS, ACTING ARCHITECT OF THE
                CAPITOL

                 opening statement of senator mary l. landrieu

        Senator Landrieu. Good afternoon. Our subcommittee will
    come to order.
        We meet today to take testimony on the fiscal year 2009
    budget requests for the Architect of the Capitol (AOC), the
    U.S. Capitol Police, and the Library of Congress.
        I want to welcome my good friend, Senator Lamar Alexander,
    now our new ranking member of the subcommittee, along with
    Senator Allard, the former chairman and ranking member of our
    subcommittee, and to thank Senator Allard again for his
    outstanding work in those capacities in the previous years. I
    look forward to working very closely with Senator Alexander as
    we have on several other subcommittees.
        The legislative branch budget request is a total of $4.7
    billion. This is an increase of nearly $700 million, or a 17.4
    percent increase over the current year.
        Last year the subcommittee received an overall increase of
    only 3 percent. So as you can imagine, a 17 percent budget
    request will make it very difficult. Part of the goal of this
    hearing is to establish some potential priorities and to allow
    you to explain the request before us. We will need to look very
    closely at this.
        I want to welcome our witnesses today, our Acting Architect
    of the Capitol, Stephen Ayers; Chief of the Capitol Police,
    Phillip Morse; and Librarian of Congress, James Billington.
        Stephen, I would like to begin by commending you for a job
    well done taking over as Acting Architect of the Capitol nearly
    15 months ago.
        We in the Senate are grateful for your leadership and
    steadfast commitment to the many issues that face us in the
    Capitol complex, especially our Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) as
    it comes on line. I look forward to hearing an update from you
    on this extraordinary facility. Since our last meeting, dozens
    of Senators and House Members have had a chance to tour the
    facility. Their general reactions have been very enthusiastic.

              aoc deg.aoc fiscal year 2009 budget request

        The fiscal year 2009 budget request for your office totals
    $643 million, an increase of $228 million, or 55 percent. You
    explained this to me earlier this week and I am looking forward
    to your explaining it here. This is an enormous increase,
    perhaps justified, and that is part of what this hearing will
    be about because I know there are a number of maintenance
    projects, health and safety violations that need to be
    corrected, but we will have to work very closely see what is
    possible.
        I understand that most of what is pushing this is a $1.4
    billion backlog of deferred maintenance and capital improvement
    projects, including many critical life safety projects in our
    complex. There are a large number of items in your request that
    contribute significantly to this increase, such as $127 million
    for ongoing repair work in the utility tunnels, which are quite
    extensive, that connect and lay under many of the buildings in
    the Capitol complex. This is a project of critical importance
    to our complex and, of course, to the safety of our workers.
    With a commitment to the Office of Compliance to complete this
    project totaling nearly $300 million in the next 5 years, I
    realize that this puts some constrictions on your budget.
        Finally, before I move ahead, I would like to extend my
    personal gratitude to your entire staff for their hard work in
    maintaining our Capitol complex on a daily basis. You have a
    very dedicated workforce and I appreciate it.

     aoc deg.united states capital police fiscal year 2009 budget
                                    request

        Chief Morse, welcome. I want to commend you for a job well
    done over the last 18 months. The pressures on your police
    force have been exceptional during this time of uncertainty,
    and the men and women who put their lives on the line each day
    are to be commended.
        I also want to thank you for sharing the story with me, in
    my office, about your officers showing up on a day they did not
    have to to protect our complex, and I hope to share the details
    of that story so people can really appreciate all that you do.
    I also want to welcome your Assistant Chief, Dan Nichols, and
    your recently hired Chief Administrative Officer, Gloria
    Jarmon.
        Your budget request totals $334 million. This is an 18
    percent increase over current year. I realize the challenges
    your Department will face with the opening of the Capitol
    Visitor Center, the Library's New Visitor Experience, and the
    merging of the Library of Congress police department with
    yours. We will have some questions about that a little later.

      aoc deg.library of congress fiscal year 2009 budget request

        And last, let me welcome our Librarian, Dr. James
    Billington. It is always good to see you. I want to
    congratulate you on the opening of the New Visitor Experience.
    I had family from Louisiana visiting just last week and they
    thoroughly enjoyed seeing the refurbishment of the Thomas
    Jefferson Library. I understand this was done primarily with
    private contributions, but with the great oversight of the
    Library. It truly is a gift to the Nation that the project
    turned out so beautifully, and I cannot wait to see it myself.
        The Library's budget request totals $646 million, 5 percent
    above current year. I commend you and your staff for submitting
    a budget that is in line with what is normally done. It makes
    our jobs a little bit easier.
        I want to acknowledge your continuing commitment to the
    digital talking book project, which is also a priority of mine.
    Many people here in the room today are advocates for the
    extension and expansion of that project, and I want to
    recognize them.

               aoc deg.library partnership appreciation

        I would also like to express my appreciation to you and the
    Library for your partnership with several of our universities
    around the country through Teaching with Primary Sources, and
    in particular, Southeastern University in Louisiana. It has
    been a great opportunity for them, as well as the resource
    established with the Middle Tennessee University and several
    others around the country.
        Finally, I would like to acknowledge your position as
    chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Open World Leadership
    Center, an independent international exchange program in the
    legislative branch. The subcommittee accepts for the record
    that written testimony of the Center's executive director who
    is here with us, Ambassador John O'Keefe, on the Center's 2009
    budget request of $13.9 million.
        Open World does a wonderful job in representing Congress
    and hosting young political and civic leaders from the
    countries of the former Soviet Union in communities in all 50
    States and building lasting partnerships between United States
    citizens and Open World delegates. I fully support this mission
    and its inclusion in our legislative branch.
        I would now like to turn to my ranking member and friend,
    Senator Alexander, for his opening remarks, and then we will
    proceed with your testimony and a series of questions from our
    panel. Thank you very much.

                      statement of senator lamar alexander

        Senator Alexander. Thank you, Madam Chairman. I look
    forward to working with you. This is my first meeting as
    ranking member of the subcommittee, although Chairman Landrieu
    and I have worked together on a lot of other things over the
    last several years. I look forward to continuing this.
        I also want to say to Senator Allard that I respect very
    much the amount of time and interest he has given to this
    subcommittee, especially to the Capitol Visitor Center. As time
    has gone on, he has dedicated an unusual amount of time to it,
    and I think it has had a very good result for the people of
    this country. It is not the kind of time that makes a lot of
    headlines at home, but it is the kind that does a lot of good
    for all of us. So I thank him very much for that.
        I think the chairman has done a nice job of going through
    the issues.
        Dr. Billington, Chief Morse, Mr. Ayers, welcome. I can
    remember when I was on your side of the table a few years ago,
    I was the Education Secretary and I came to my first hearing,
    and I noticed that I was seated in an uncomfortable chair that
    was very low, and all the Senators were way up here making it
    look like you were looking up at us. I remember being briefed
    for what was supposed to be called a hearing, and I went to it
    and barely got to say a thing. I came home and told my staff I
    think it should be called a talking because the Senators did
    all the talking, and I did not get to say a thing.
        So I am going to say I agree with the survey of issues that
    Chairman Landrieu has talked about. I am looking forward, as
    she is and Senator Allard, to the opening of the Capitol
    Visitor Center.

             aoc deg.utility tunnels--structural problems

        I would like to hear more about the structural problems in
    the utility tunnels in the Capitol complex and the large
    backlog of deferred maintenance and capital improvement
    projects. I have asked the Government Accountability Office
    (GAO) to study the way projects are being prioritized in the
    budget. Just because the Office of Compliance says something
    needs to be done does not necessarily mean, in my opinion, that
    it should go to the top of the list, and I would like to hear
    how you prioritize these things, given the urgency of a great
    many issues.
        The Capitol Police have a lot of new responsibilities and
    will have more, and I am looking forward to hearing how you are
    handling those. I am concerned about the overtime in the
    budget. I hope sometime during this discussion you can help me
    understand a little bit more why we have the large amount of
    overtime.

               loc deg.library of congress new exhibits

        Dr. Billington, the new exhibits in the Library of Congress
    are very exciting, and your imagination and that of your staff
    and your accommodation to all who visit there is really to be
    commended. I know how important your work with computers is,
    bringing what is inside that magnificent place to teachers and
    students all over the country. As we discussed, Middle
    Tennessee State University, which graduates about 80 percent of
    Tennessee teachers, is now going to have a chance to do that.
    We look forward to that.
        I thank you for coming. I look forward to this hearing. I
    will have some questions, and I look forward to working with
    you.
        Thank you very much, Madam Chairman.
        [The statement follows:]
                 Prepared Statement of Senator Lamar Alexander
        Chairman Landrieu, this is my first hearing as ranking member of
    the Legislative Branch Subcommittee and I look forward to working with
    you to meet the most important needs of the Legislative Branch. Clearly
    the budget request of $4.7 billion for fiscal year 2009--a 17 percent
    increase--will be very difficult to accommodate, so I'd like to get a
    clear picture of the highest priorities in each of the agencies.
        I would like to welcome Acting Architect of the Capitol Stephen
    Ayers. Mr. Ayers, I understand you have been ``acting'' as the head of
    the agency for over a year and have done a fine job.
        There is quite a lot on your plate: finishing the Capitol Visitor
    Center and finalizing operations plans so when the facility opens later
    this year, visitors can expect a first-rate experience. While
    construction is 99 percent complete, I understand that fire alarm
    testing has been very challenging and will take several more months.
        I note that in the last year you hired a new director for the
    Visitor Center, Terrie Rouse, who has been working hard on operations
    plans and has hired a number of key staff.
        Another major project underway is fixing the structural problems
    and asbestos in the utility tunnels that underlie the Capitol complex.
    I understand it will take many years and hundreds of millions of
    dollars to complete.
        Also, you have been working on plans to address the large backlog
    of deferred maintenance and capital improvement projects campuswide. At
    the same time these high-priority projects are taking place, your staff
    must ensure that day-to-day operations of your agency are carried out
    effectively.
        That said, your budget request of $642 million--a 55 percent
    increase--will be a tough sell in view of budget constraints. This is
    why I've asked GAO to study the way projects are prioritized in your
    budget--to be sure the dollars we appropriate are going to those
    projects which can yield the biggest improvements in safety and
    reductions to deferred maintenance.
        After hearing from the AOC, I look forward to hearing from Capitol
    Police Chief Phil Morse. Chief Morse, along with his Assistant Chief
    Dan Nichols, has been doing an excellent job managing the U.S. Capitol
    Police in the last year, while attempting to address many critical
    operational and management challenges.
        The budget request for the Capitol Police is almost $334 million,
    $52 million or 18 percent above this year's budget. There are a number
    of new responsibilities the Capitol Police will be required to take on
    next year, including screening thousands of visitors each day to the
    Capitol Visitor Center, and absorbing the Library of Congress police
    force.
        We want to be sure you are managing your resources appropriately,
    according to a thorough analysis of the threats we face. You've taken a
    step in the right direction in the recent hiring of Gloria Jarmon as
    Chief Administrative Officer, and I expect she will help bring about
    improvements in financial management over the next year.
        I'm concerned about the amount in your budget for overtime
    spending, and want to be sure we look at this requirement very closely.
        Last, we will hear from Dr. James Billington, Librarian of
    Congress, accompanied by the Library's Chief Operating Officer JoAnn
    Jenkins. The Library's budget request of $646 million is 5 percent over
    the current year.
        Dr. Billington, you and your staff deserve accolades for the
    exciting new exhibits the Library has opened in the last couple of
    months, funded through the generous contributions of private donors.
    These exhibits are a great opportunity for visitors to learn about
    American history and the creation of our democratic form of Government.
        I also want to thank you for the initiative you will be starting at
    Middle Tennessee State University to train teachers on using the
    Library of Congress' web site in their teaching curricula. This
    program, called Teaching with Primary Sources, has been tremendously
    successful in a number of States and we're delighted that it is coming
    to Tennessee.
        Finally, I appreciate that in this tight budget you were able to
    include $12.5 million for the Digital Talking Books for the blind
    program. It is imperative that you make the switch from cassette tapes
    to a digital format so that the blind community can continue to benefit
    from the Library's resources.
        Thank you, Madam Chair.

        Senator Landrieu. Senator Allard, do you have any opening
    comments?
        Senator Allard. Madam Chairman, I do not have any comments.
    I am anxious to hear from the witnesses that we have here. I
    just want to thank both you and Senator Alexander for your
    gracious remarks. Thank you very much.
        Senator Landrieu. Thank you.
        Mr. Ayers, if you would begin. Thank you.

                       SUMMARY STATEMENT OF STEPHEN AYERS

        Mr. Ayers. Thank you, Madam Chairman, Senator Alexander,
    and Senator Allard, for the opportunity to testify today
    regarding the Architect of the Capitol's fiscal year 2009
    budget request. It was nearly 15 months ago, as you noted, that
    I began serving as Acting Architect and a little more than 1
    year ago that I first testified before this subcommittee on our
    budget, operations, and accomplishments.
        This budget represents change for the AOC. It represents a
    change in leadership and a change in direction. It represents
    change from a reactive organization to one that looks forward,
    plans, and takes action to anticipate problems.
        It has also been a year of growth for us. Specifically, we
    have seen our scope of responsibility grow from 15 million
    square feet of buildings to 16.5 million square feet and from
    370 acres of land to over 450 acres. With that additional
    responsibility comes added cost for maintenance, staff,
    utilities, and physical security.
        At the same time, the historic buildings and other physical
    infrastructure in our care continue to age.
        In addition, as fire and life safety standards have become
    more stringent since the buildings were constructed, we face
    significant requirements from the Office of Compliance to
    improve fire safety conditions throughout the complex. We are
    committed to ensuring that deficiencies are corrected and
    significant resources are devoted to protecting the people who
    work in and visit the Capitol complex each day.

                 AOC deg.DEFERRED MAINTENANCE BACKLOG

        As the chairman noted, we have a backlog of more than $600
    million in deferred maintenance and $800 million in capital
    renewal projects. As the AOC continues to be unable to fund
    these projects, this bow wave of unfunded requirements
    continues to grow. We have developed this budget through a
    deliberate planning process and it reflects only the highest
    priority initiatives and funding for our core activities. We
    made some difficult choices, and we have not requested funding
    for a long list of projects, additional staffing, and several
    operational initiatives and resources.
        While we obviously recognize this is a significant request
    at a time when fiscal restraint is necessary, we believe that
    without this important investment, these facilities will
    continue to deteriorate. It is fiscally responsible to request
    the budget needed now instead of waiting until facilities are
    in a crisis or beyond repair, thereby costing millions more to
    restore, renovate, or renew. If not addressed, facility
    requirements will only grow more serious and expensive over
    time. Therefore, we are requesting $643 million in our fiscal
    year 2009 budget.

                   AOC deg.OPERATING BUDGET REQUEST

        Our annual operating budget request of $385 million
    provides for funding for operating and maintaining the
    infrastructure that supports the Congress, as well as the AOC's
    internal infrastructure needs.
        The second component of our 2009 budget request is $258
    million for capital projects. Chief among our responsibilities
    is maintaining, preserving, and upgrading the national
    treasures entrusted to our care. Determining which work is done
    first and where our limited resources are used involves a
    deliberate approach and multi-year planning. Our primary focus
    is on ensuring that fire and life safety deficiencies are
    corrected as quickly as possible.
        Madam Chairman, I noted earlier that the past year has been
    one of significant achievement for the AOC, in addition to
    seeing the substantial completion of the Capitol Visitor
    Center. Some of our other accomplishments include adding the
    Library of Congress' new Audio Visual Conservation Center to
    our inventory; signing into effect our first collective
    bargaining agreement with AFSCME Local 626; completing office
    moves for the 110th Congress, including 21 Senate offices and
    840 Senate staffer moves; and closing 68 of 98 open items from
    the Office of Compliance.
        In addition, we closed 48 of 65 GAO's general management
    recommendations aimed at improving our organization, and we
    received our fifth clean audit opinion on our financial
    statements.
        Internally, we continue to foster a results-oriented
    workplace and encourage communication throughout our team. I am
    pleased to report that a direct result of our efforts is a
    decrease in our injury and illness rate; it has reduced for the
    eighth year in a row.
        Madam Chairman, we greatly appreciate this subcommittee's
    support and the investment the Congress has made in our
    facilities and infrastructure over the past several years.
    However, as these buildings age, they will require significant
    repairs, renovations, and upgrades to continue to be safe and
    healthy working environments. This will require a significant
    investment.

                 AOC deg.ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL TEAM

        AOC has accomplished much and experienced numerous
    successes. These achievements can be directly attributed to the
    dedicated professional individuals making up our team. Because
    of their efforts and commitment to excellence, we continue to
    provide exceptional service to the Congress and visiting
    public.

                               PREPARED STATEMENT

        Once again, thank you for the opportunity to testify today,
    and I am happy to answer any questions you may have.
        Senator Landrieu. Thank you. We are going to hold our
    questions until the end of the panel.
        [The statement follows:]
                     Prepared Statement of Stephen T. Ayers
        Madam Chairman, Senator Alexander, and members of the subcommittee,
    thank you for the opportunity to testify today regarding the Office of
    the Architect of the Capitol's (AOC's) fiscal year 2009 budget request.
    It was nearly 15 months ago that I began serving as Acting Architect of
    the Capitol, and a little more than a year ago that I first testified
    before this subcommittee about the AOC, our budget, our operations, and
    our accomplishments.
        We have seen much change and growth in our Agency, and we have
    experienced many accomplishments and achievements. Specifically, we
    have seen our scope of responsibility grow from 15 million square feet
    of buildings to 16.5 million square feet of facilities, and from 370
    acres of land to more than 450 acres. With that additional
    responsibility comes added cost for maintenance, staff, utilities, and
    physical security.
        At the same time, the historic buildings and other physical
    infrastructure in our care continue to age. They require extensive
    maintenance in order to preserve them, as well as ensure that they
    continue to serve as functioning, professional working environments for
    years to come. Our buildings range in age from 27 years old for the
    Library's Madison Building, to more than 200 years old for parts of the
    Capitol Building. This year we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of
    the Cannon House Office Building, and next year will be the 100th
    anniversary of the Russell Senate Office Building.
        As fire and life-safety requirements and standards have become more
    stringent since the buildings were constructed, we face significant
    requirements to abate Office of Compliance citations, and improve fire
    safety conditions throughout the complex. We are committed to ensuring
    that deficiencies are corrected and significant resources are devoted
    to protecting the people who work and visit here. Life-safety projects,
    such as the utility tunnel repair program, are very high priorities.
        Based on Facility Condition Assessments (FCAs) that have been
    conducted throughout the Capitol complex since 2004, we have been
    prioritizing projects based on a set of objective criteria. The FCAs
    indicate a backlog of more than $600 million in Deferred Maintenance
    and $800 million in Capital Renewal projects, with $900 million of the
    total $1.4 billion being urgent or high priority. As the AOC continues
    to be unable to fund Deferred Maintenance, Capital Renewal, and new
    projects and initiatives, the ``bow wave'' of unfunded requirements
    continues to grow, as demonstrated in the following table.

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        We have developed this budget through a deliberate planning
    process, and it reflects only the highest priority initiatives and
    funding for our core activities. We made some difficult choices in our
    efforts to be good stewards of the Capitol complex. We have not
    requested funding for a long list of projects, additional staffing, and
    several operational initiatives and resources.
        While we recognize this is a significant request at a time when
    fiscal restraint is necessary, we believe that without this important
    investment Capitol complex facilities will continue to deteriorate. It
    is fiscally responsible to request the funding needed now instead of
    waiting until facilities are in crisis and beyond repair, thereby
    costing millions more to restore, renovate, and renew.
        If not addressed, facility requirements will only grow more serious
    and expensive over time. Thus, we are requesting $642.7 million for
    fiscal year 2009. This is more than $228 million greater than what was
    appropriated to our Agency in fiscal year 2008, or a 55 percent
    increase.
        A large portion of that increase, however, is for our Utility
    Tunnel Improvement Program. In order to meet the 5-year schedule as per
    the agreement with the Office of Compliance signed last spring, we have
    requested $126.6 million for the Utility Tunnel Improvement Program in
    fiscal year 2009. Without the Tunnel Improvement Program request, our
    budget request would be 24.5 percent over what was appropriated in
    fiscal year 2008.
        Madam Chairman, we look forward to working with this subcommittee,
    the House Subcommittee on Legislative Branch, and our Oversight
    Committees to address the backlog of maintenance and repair projects,
    as well as find ways to improve and modernize Capitol complex
    facilities, so that a crisis situation is averted.
                        annual operating budget request
        Our fiscal year 2009 annual operating budget request for $384.4
    million provides funding for continuing the routine activities of
    operating and maintaining the infrastructure that supports the
    Congress, other Legislative Branch Agencies, and the public, as well as
    AOC internal infrastructure needs in information management systems and
    operations. The increase of $48.1 million is driven primarily by the
    upfront investment requirement to meet legislated energy usage
    decreases; as well as fund the initial full-year operations of the
    Capitol Visitor Center (CVC).
        To date, the appropriation for the CVC has provided funding for the
    construction of the CVC and minimal operational start-up costs and
    facility maintenance. Beginning in fiscal year 2009, this appropriation
    will need to fund full-time, annual CVC operations and administration,
    as well as potential construction claims. In addition to salaries,
    equipment, and supplies, our fiscal year 2009 request will provide
    funding for the printing of informational brochures, educational public
    programs, exhibits, training, and other programs associated with the
    opening of the new facility.
        We are also looking to increase our investment in information
    technology (IT) in fiscal year 2009 to ensure a sustainable life-cycle
    replacement and upgrade program. Over the past 4 years, the AOC has not
    been able to replace or upgrade aging network, storage, server, and
    desktop systems at a rate required to sustain a secure and reliable IT
    infrastructure.
        Many of these systems were last upgraded or replaced in 2002
    following the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, and are now nearing
    or past their expected life span. They have not been replaced due to
    budget shortfalls and restrictions under the continuing resolutions of
    the last few years. Those same shortfalls have also impacted our
    ability to perform the overdue certification and accreditation of our
    IT systems and to implement industry and Government-standard IT
    security capabilities, such as secure remote access and encryption. In
    fiscal year 2009, we will also complete the modernization of our
    computing infrastructure to take advantage of new ``green''
    virtualization technologies and move to a Microsoft Exchange e-mail
    system, which is the de facto standard throughout the Government.
        In addition, new energy reduction and management initiatives, the
    utility tunnel upgrade projects, and the digitization of our curatorial
    photo archives are significantly increasing costs related to the
    management and storage of our electronic data. We are also working to
    migrate to a Web-based time and attendance system that will integrate
    with our facilities management system to enable more effective cost
    accounting for projects and integrate with the time clocks required
    under our union agreement.
        Finally, we are also continuing to develop and expand the
    capabilities of our automated human resources and financial management
    systems to keep pace with evolving technological and process changes
    and improve efficiency and usability of those systems.
                         capital project budget request
        The second component of our fiscal year 2009 budget request is
    $258.2 million for capital projects. As I discussed earlier, chief
    among our responsibilities is maintaining, preserving, and upgrading
    the national treasures entrusted to our care by Congress. This includes
    the facilities, grounds, art work, and other assets. Determining which
    work is done first and where our limited resources are best used
    involves a deliberate approach and multi-year project planning.
        A vital tool that we rely on during this process is our Facility
    Condition Assessments (FCAs). The AOC has been conducting FCAs
    throughout the Capitol complex since 2004, to help us catalog and
    prioritize projects based on a set of objective criteria that allow us
    to evaluate the merits of each project. FCAs also provide us with a
    method for measuring the current condition of all facilities in a
    uniform way to assess how much work is necessary to maintain or upgrade
    their conditions to acceptable levels to support organizational
    missions, prevent further deterioration, and help to determine when
    this work should occur.
        Once an FCA is completed on each facility, the information is
    rolled into a 5-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). The CIP is used to
    evaluate projects based on a set of pre-established criteria. These
    criteria include whether the work addresses fire and life-safety
    issues; code compliance; preservation of historic or legacy elements;
    economics and life cycle cost considerations, physical security and
    other considerations, such as environmental and energy efficiency. The
    projects are further evaluated based on the conditions of the
    facilities and their components, and the urgency in correcting the
    deficiencies.
        We are also developing the Capitol Complex Master Plan (CCMP) which
    requires executing necessary deferred maintenance and renewal work to
    keep existing facilities functioning while planning for major renewal
    projects. The CCMP and individual Jurisdiction Plans seek to address
    these growing problems through a flexible investment strategy
    incorporating reinvestment and new construction. Each Jurisdiction Plan
    is being evaluated to ensure sequencing of short- and long-term
    priority work is properly expedited and aligned to ensure successful
    execution and avoid duplication of efforts. Ultimately, the CCMP will
    establish a framework that will help the Congress to prioritize the
    maintenance, renovation, and construction of facilities over the next
    5, 10, and 20 years while allowing for prudent budgeting of the costs
    for necessary upkeep and construction.
        Using the CIP process, we are able to comparatively vet the
    projects to ensure that the most urgent get addressed most quickly.
    Setting these priorities and setting limits resulted in some projects
    not rising to the top of the list based on the objective criteria used
    as part of the CIP process. It is not that these projects are not
    important. They are all needed and are mission critical, but the
    fiscally responsible thing to do is address the most urgent needs
    first. This multi-step methodology was used to produce the project
    priority list included in our fiscal year 2009 budget request submitted
    for the subcommittee's consideration.
        As in previous budgets, our primary focus is on ensuring that fire
    and life-safety deficiencies are corrected and that significant
    resources are devoted to protecting the people who work and visit the
    Capitol complex. An example of a major life-safety project is the
    Utility Tunnel Improvement Program.
        In May 2007, the AOC and OOC signed a comprehensive settlement of a
    complaint and three citations involving safety in the utility tunnels.
    The AOC will permanently abate safety and health hazards within 5 years
    unless extended by mutual agreement of the parties or necessitated by
    funding shortfalls. Receipt of the $126.6 million requested in fiscal
    year 2009 assures that the AOC remains on schedule to meeting its
    obligations under the settlement agreement with the OOC.
        Other key capital projects included in the AOC's fiscal year 2009
    budget request are: U.S. Capitol Grand Stairs Smoke Control System;
    Smoke Control System--Adams Building; Refurbishment of FOB-8; and
    Various Energy Conservation Studies.
        In addition to these new capital projects, we have nearly completed
    construction of the Capitol Visitor Center project and are preparing to
    open the facility later this year.
            capitol visitor center budget request and project update
        Our fiscal year 2009 budget request for the CVC includes $31
    million to finish the construction phase of the project. Specifically,
    this money will be used to fund delay costs associated with increased
    scope, fire alarm changes, and the final acceptance testing. Last year,
    I testified before this subcommittee that CVC construction was 91
    percent complete. Today, we are 99 percent complete with construction
    and are well underway with the final acceptance testing of the complex
    fire and life-safety systems in the facility.
        In the past year, we made much progress on the project. We worked
    with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and reached agreement
    on an estimated cost-to-complete figure of $621 million and an opening
    date of November 2008. We also established and met the November 15,
    2007, substantial completion date, effectively stemming project delays
    and associated delay costs, which assured that the complex fire and
    life-safety pre-testing began on schedule on November 16.
        With regard to our progress in completing construction, we are
    working to complete punchlist items such as millwork, wall stone, floor
    stone, ceiling panels, plaster work, carpeting, doors, and other
    finishes. Professional crews have been thoroughly cleaning all of the
    CVC's major public spaces.
        A further indication that we are successfully transitioning from a
    construction project to a visitor services operation is that the 11-
    foot model of the Capitol Dome was installed in March, and it is an
    impressive sight to see at the center of Exhibition Hall. Historic
    drawings and sophisticated technology were used to create this unique
    3-D model, and AOC staff ensured that every detail of the model is
    accurate. It is an important part of the CVC experience because it will
    allow children to have a very ``hands-on'' experience at their Nation's
    Capitol.
        Video screens in the Senate and House Virtual Theaters have been
    installed and are being tested. Workers are now installing the 10-foot
    wooden doors on the east side of the Rotunda. The Capitol
    Superintendent's Office has initiated relocation coordination meetings
    with future occupants, and has begun to identify its equipment and
    inventory needs to fully support maintenance operations.
        Outside, the East Front is taking on a much greener appearance with
    the warmer weather and the ongoing landscape restoration work being
    done. All of the construction trailers have been removed and crews have
    been preparing the grounds for sod placement and plantings.
        The sidewalk along First Street, NE., across from the Supreme Court
    Building, has been restored. The CVC truck entrance which had been
    located there since 2002 has been completely dismantled and the area
    has been restored.
        We are pleased with the overall progress, and we believe that we're
    on schedule to receive the temporary Certificate of Occupancy by July
    31, 2008, as planned, and that the CVC will be available to open in
    November 2008.
        Madam Chairman, as you know, the CVC has been designed to greatly
    enhance the visitor experience by providing greater educational
    opportunities and much-needed amenities to the millions of people who
    visit their Capitol Building each year. It is designed to match the
    Capitol in quality and endurance, and generations of Americans will
    greatly benefit from all it has to offer.
        In that regard, I am pleased to note that the CVC was recently
    recognized by the Washington Building Congress. Specifically, the
    project was singled out for 11 Craftsmanship Awards for the high-
    quality, professional workmanship demonstrated throughout the facility
    by individuals who are ``creative, precise, and possess the special
    skills associated with quality craftsmanship.''
        The features that were recognized with Craftsmanship Awards include
    the six skylights which allow natural light into the CVC; the custom
    light fixtures located throughout the CVC and Expansion Spaces that
    complement the existing fixtures in the Capitol Building; the
    installation of major hard scape features such as stairs and seat
    walls, as well as the re-installation of historic elements such as
    fountains and lanterns on the East Front; and the installation of
    monumental interior wall stone and marble, and ornamental staircases,
    doors, and other hardware. Technical skills of the teams responsible
    for electrical and fire alarm systems installation, and plaster work
    were also honored.
        In addition to the 11 Craftsmanship Awards, several of the winners
    were extended additional honors with the receipt of the ``Star Award''
    for projects deserving of special recognition for demonstrating the
    highest level of quality. The CVC project was recognized for visual
    excellence and technical excellence, and the project also received the
    Hall of Fame award for the masonry work done throughout the facility.
    For the Washington Building Congress to recognize the CVC for its
    superb craftsmanship and quality is a true honor. The fine team that
    has worked on this project can take great pride in their role in
    helping to complete the largest single expansion of the Capitol
    Building.
        On the operations front, we hired a Chief Executive Officer for
    Visitor Services in September 2007 to join the AOC/CVC team, Ms. Terrie
    Rouse. She, in turn, has begun hiring staff to prepare for the CVC's
    opening to the public. In addition, she has been developing a
    communications plan which focuses on executing an effective and
    valuable public education campaign about the CVC and all it has to
    offer. We have also been working on a transportation plan, as well as
    on the exhibits and other informational materials in anticipation of
    the opening later this year.
                         a year of aoc accomplishments
        Madam Chairman, as I discussed earlier, the past year has been one
    of significant achievement for the AOC in addition to seeing
    substantial completion of the CVC. I would like to sum up my testimony
    by listing a few of our many accomplishments.
      --Added the Library of Congress' new 415,000 square-foot National
            Audio Visual Conservation Center located on the Packard Campus
            in Culpeper, Virginia, to our facilities inventory.
      --Signed into effect a Collective Bargaining Agreement with the
            American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees
            (AFSCME) Local 626, representing approximately 500 laborers,
            custodians, gardeners, and other workers in the House and
            Senate Office Buildings, U.S. Capitol, and the U.S. Botanic
            Garden.
      --Completed office moves for the 110th Congress, including 21 Senate
            Offices and 840 Senate staffer moves with a 96 percent
            satisfaction rating, and 181 House Offices and 20 House
            Committees with a customer satisfaction level of 96 percent.
      --Completed the purchase of the Senate Mail Facility.
      --Completed the start-up, personnel training, and initial operation
            of the Capitol Power Plant's West Refrigeration Plant
            Expansion.
      --Closed 68 of 98 items from the 39 Office of Compliance citations,
            as of April 2008, and we have submitted a request to close six
            additional items.

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        In addition, after working with the Government Accountability
    Office to regroup and consolidate some recommendations, we closed 48
    out of 65, or 74 percent, of the GAO's general management
    recommendations that we are tracking. Many of the remaining actions are
    larger, long-term efforts, and we continue to focus on moving them
    forward.
        In October 2006, we implemented our new fiscal year 2007-fiscal
    year 2011 Strategic and Performance Plan which emphasizes our mission
    areas and enabling services and focuses on results. In order to comply
    with the spirit and intent of the Government Performance and Results
    Act (GPRA), the AOC submits to Congress a Strategic Plan for program
    activities in accordance with the guidelines under Section 306
    (Strategic plans) of the GPRA. The AOC consults with its employees and
    the Congress, and solicits and considers the views and suggestions of
    those entities potentially affected by or interested in such a plan.
        AOC employees also prepared an annual performance plan in
    accordance with the GPRA. The annual performance plan establishes
    objective, quantifiable, and measurable performance goals for each
    activity. In addition, we submit an annual report on performance for
    the previous fiscal year in the performance section of the AOC
    Performance and Accountability Report, in accordance with the GPRA.
    Using these important tools, we have continued to improve our cost
    accounting procedures and internal controls. The results have been
    significant. We have just received our fifth consecutive clean audit
    opinion on our financial statements.
        Over the past year we have also been working to create a healthy
    and productive work environment where environmental awareness and
    conservation are the normal ways of doing business in the Capitol
    complex. There are a number of initiatives that the AOC has been
    engaged in for several years, and we continue to see results in our
    efforts to improve energy efficiency.
        Some of our energy-saving initiatives include:
      --Installing an E-85 fueling station.
      --Replacing conventional incandescent light bulbs with compact
            fluorescent lamps (CFLs) across the Capitol complex.
      --Incorporating standards from the Leadership in Energy and
            Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System into
            our design standards to start new construction from a ``green''
            baseline. The Capitol Visitor Center is a prime example of this
            practice.
      --Replacing old, inefficient windows with airtight, insulated ones in
            buildings across the Capitol complex, including the Supreme
            Court and the Ford House Office Building.
      --Purchasing and leasing only Energy Star appliances and equipment.
      --Using Energy Savings Performance Contracting to increase building
            energy efficiencies and upgrade infrastructure.
      --Installing modern heating/cooling systems and adjusting and
            controlling HVAC schedules.
      --Upgrading elevators and escalators with energy-efficient solid
            state equipment, including high-efficiency motors.
      --Installing restroom fixture motion sensors and additional low-flow
            devices for water conservation.
      --Implementing a pilot program to upgrade controls on heating,
            ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) terminal units in
            Senate offices and committee rooms to reduce energy usage while
            increasing comfort levels.
      --Implemented a pilot program to install dimmable lighting ballast
            systems with daylight and occupancy sensors in overhead
            lighting to maintain consistent lighting levels in Senate
            offices. A similar pilot is ongoing in the Capitol Building.
      --Installing occupancy sensor light switches for offices, conference
            rooms, and committee rooms upon request.
        Internally, we continue to foster a results-oriented workplace and
    encourage communication and teamwork throughout the Agency. This
    involves holding regular staff or shop meetings, conducting biannual
    town hall meetings with all AOC employees, and providing a variety of
    training opportunities.
        I am pleased to report that a direct result of our efforts is a
    decrease in our Injury and Illness Rate for the eighth year in a row.
    We dropped to 4.41 cases per 100 employees in fiscal year 2007, down
    from 4.88 in fiscal year 2006, and significantly lower from a high of
    17.9 in fiscal year 2000.

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        In addition, we are institutionalizing best practices throughout
    the organization. We have joined the Construction Users Roundtable
    (CURT), Construction Industry Institute (CII), Construction Managers
    Association of America (CMAA), and Building Owners and Management
    Association (BOMA), and several other professional associations, to
    learn about industry best practices and find ways to incorporate and
    engage those practices into our Agency. We have developed extensive
    core competencies in our procurement, financial management, and project
    management organizations and have seen our efforts pay off over the
    past year.
        Most importantly, we have improved our delivery of services to our
    clients as demonstrated by our annual Building Services Customer
    Satisfaction Surveys. In fiscal year 2007, we received high marks from
    our clients--more than 95 percent satisfaction--on areas such as
    maintenance and cleaning standards, services provided by AOC shops, and
    responsiveness.
                                   conclusion
        Madam Chairman, we greatly appreciate this subcommittee's support
    and the investment Congress has made in our facilities and
    infrastructure over the past several years. However, as these buildings
    age, they will require significant repairs, renovations, and upgrades
    to continue to be safe and healthy working environments for Senators
    and their staffs. This will require a significant investment.
        My goal is to begin reducing the backlog of Deferred Maintenance
    and Capital Renewal work that has been identified over the past several
    years through Facility Condition Assessments, and address the ``bow
    wave'' of unfunded requirements that has continued to grow for our
    Agency.
        We are committed to working with Congress to address the backlog of
    maintenance and repair projects, as well as improve and modernize
    Capitol complex facilities, so that a crisis situation is averted. The
    longer we wait to address these issues, the greater the cost will be to
    fix the problems over time.
        The AOC is committed to being good stewards of the Capitol complex,
    and in that regard, over the past year; we have accomplished much and
    experienced numerous successes. These achievements can be directly
    attributed to the dedicated, professional individuals that make up the
    AOC team; including a strong senior leadership team. In my role as
    Acting Architect, I am honored and privileged to work along side them.
    Because of their efforts and commitment to excellence, we continue to
    provide exceptional service to Congress and the visiting public.
        Once again, thank you for this opportunity to testify today. I'd be
    happy to answer any questions you might have.

                          UNITED STATES CAPITOL POLICE

    STATEMENT OF PHILLIP D. MORSE, SR., CHIEF OF POLICE
    ACCOMPANIED BY:
            DAN NICHOLS, ASSISTANT CHIEF OF POLICE
            GLORIA JARMON, CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER

        Senator Landrieu. Chief Morse, if you could limit your
    remarks to 5 minutes, please.
        Mr. Morse. Good afternoon, Madam Chairman and Senator
    Alexander, Senator Allard. I would like to thank you for the
    opportunity to discuss with you today the United States Capitol
    Police's fiscal year 2009 budget request, as well as provide an
    update on our progress to improve management and controls over
    our programs.
        I am pleased to be joined here today with my Assistant
    Chief of Police, Dan Nichols, and my new Chief Administrative
    Officer (CAO), Gloria Jarmon. The addition of Ms. Jarmon's
    background and expertise provides the department with a well-
    rounded leadership team necessary to complete our efforts to
    become a premier organization, both operationally and
    administratively.

                     CPB deg.SUBCOMMITTEE SUPPORT

        I would also like to thank the subcommittee for its
    continued support of the men and women of the United States
    Capitol Police. Your support, as well as the support from other
    oversight committees, is crucial to our successful execution of
    our mission.

                       CPB deg.PROCESS OF CHANGE

        During my time as Chief of Police, we have begun an
    important process of change, one which will require inspection,
    investigation, intelligence, enforcement, threat assessment,
    and personal protection capabilities to be able to meet the
    security requirements. I recognize that our requested increase
    is significant, but I believe it is an appropriate reflection
    of sound judgment on the part of those responsible for
    executing the mission of the United States Capitol Police.
        We realize that our request must be put into a broader
    context within the final allocation decisions that must be
    made. Whatever those decisions are, we remain committed to
    continuing the highest possible level of security and services
    provided to the Congress and the visitors to the Capitol
    complex.

                    CPB deg.RECENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS

        I would like to report that we have been very busy this
    last year. Among the highlights--we conducted a broad scope of
    law enforcement and security operations which resulted in the
    arrests of over 1,100 people for various violations of the law.
    We handled multiple major special events, to include the State
    of the Union, Capitol concert series, large scale
    demonstrations, and congressional events. We adopted a concept
    similar to community policing which provides direct outreach by
    our officers and officials to committees and Members' offices
    within the congressional community. We implemented new security
    screening guidelines throughout the Capitol complex. We
    planned, coordinated, and evaluated a number of exercises
    within the Capitol related to air evacuations, lockdowns, and
    active shooter response. We finalized our continuity of
    operations plan and implemented a process for review and
    enhancement of that plan to meet evolving threats and
    requirements. We conducted multiple training exercises across
    the Capitol complex to improve readiness for our sworn
    personnel in the field.
        In the administrative arena, we brought on board a new
    Chief Administrative Officer, and I am looking to her to
    implement significant improvements in our administrative and
    internal control processes.
        In addition to filling our CAO position, we have made some
    additional progress in this area as well, and I would also like
    to welcome with us today our new Director of Financial
    Management, Mr. Steve Houghton, who is sitting in the audience.

       CPB deg.GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE RECOMMENDATIONS

        In last year's report, the subcommittee expressed concerns
    related to the department's efforts to address GAO
    recommendations. Today, I am happy to report that since October
    2007, we have closed 33 percent of the GAO recommendations and
    are actively working to address the rest of them. We have
    developed a full set of financial statements for 2007 and are
    actively working on statements for 2008. We have completed a
    full inventory of our capital assets and assigned values to
    these assets. We redesigned our budget planning and execution
    process to include formalizing the department's Investment
    Review Board, and at the direction of the committees of
    jurisdiction, we completed an operational and administrative
    requirements analysis related to the merger of the Library of
    Congress police, and this resulted in the passage of
    legislation. We have revised the uniform and equipment policy
    of the Capitol Police that will result in uniformity of
    appearance and overall cost savings. And while we recognize
    that we have made progress over the year, we also realize we
    have a long way to go to meet the challenges that lie ahead.

               CPB deg.EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT AND HOMEWORK

        In closing, I would like to say that I am looking forward
    to continuing my efforts as the Chief of Police to make the
    Capitol Police a best practices organization. The progress that
    we have made in the last year demonstrates the commitment and
    hard work of our employees. We will continue to see gradual
    results and a constant evolution into the premier organization
    I believe we should be. And I am committed to continuing to
    keep you and other stakeholders informed and will insist on
    continued transparency and openness both internally and with
    our external customers and stakeholders.

                               PREPARED STATEMENT

        I would like to submit my full written testimony for the
    record, and my colleagues and I are prepared to answer any
    questions that you may have. Thank you.
        Senator Landrieu. Thank you very much, Chief.
        [The statement follows:]
                  Prepared Statement of Phillip D. Morse, Sr.
        Madam Chair and members of the committee, thank you for the
    opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the United States
    Capitol Police fiscal year 2009 budget request, as well as provide an
    update on our progress to improve management and controls over our
    programs. I am pleased to be joined here by my Assistant Chief of
    Police, Daniel Nichols, and my Chief Administrative Officer, Gloria
    Jarmon. As you know, Ms. Jarmon recently joined the Capitol Police from
    the Government Accountability Office. Her background and expertise
    provides the Department with the well-rounded leadership team necessary
    to complete our efforts to become a premiere organization, both
    operationally and administratively.
        I would also like to thank the committee for its continued support
    for the men and women of the United States Capitol Police. Your
    support, as well as the support from our other oversight committees, is
    crucial to the successful execution of our mission.
        It has been a little over a year since I was selected to be the
    Chief of the United States Capitol Police. During this time the
    Department has undergone many cultural, operational, and management
    changes. These changes are part of a larger process to modernize the
    Department for mission capability and efficiency, while enhancing our
    ability to protect the Congress. I welcome this opportunity to provide
    you with an overview of the Department's fiscal year 2009 budget
    request, as well as an update on our successes to improve our
    management practices and internal controls thus far.
        As in any organization, teamwork, and leadership are essential
    qualities of a well-managed security and law enforcement operation. It
    is through this teamwork and leadership that the USCP has been able to
    achieve many successes over the last year. I would like to recognize
    the hard work of all of the sworn and civilian personnel of the United
    States Capitol Police who exhibit their leadership and dedication to
    teamwork in meeting our mission every day. Each day of the year without
    exception, these dedicated individuals, with the support of the Capitol
    Police Board and the Congress, ensure the safety of the Members, staff,
    and millions of visitors from across the globe who come to see
    democracy at work.
        The Department accomplishes its mission through a variety of
    functions to provide round-the-clock protection to the Congress and the
    legislative process. In an effort to leverage and maximize technology
    as well as maintain efficiency and effectiveness in security
    operations, the Department has made significant investment in our human
    capital and infrastructure. We also provide high-quality training to
    our recruits, officers, and staff. To manage our infrastructure
    requirements, we have augmented our physical security as well as
    countersurveillance capabilities, automated antiquated security and
    administrative support systems, enhanced our detection and response
    capabilities for explosive and hazardous materials, maintained a state-
    of-the-art command center and sustained continued, uninterrupted
    operations of our incident command and emergency notification and
    response systems.
        The complexity of these operations and infrastructure requires the
    USCP to take a realistic approach towards identifying risks, and
    resource requirements to meet them, while eliminating lower priority
    operations and investment proposals for new departmental initiatives to
    insure the prudent use of critical resources.
        In our fiscal year 2009 budget submission, the Department is
    requesting your consideration of its request for personnel costs of
    $269.2 million and general expense costs of $64.4 million. This budget
    request of $333.6 million represents an increase of $51.8 million,
    which is nearly 18 percent over the amounts for fiscal year 2008 at the
    enacted level of funding. As stewards of public resources and a
    Department benchmarking itself against rising standards of success, we
    are keenly aware of our increasingly lean resource environment. In
    developing the fiscal year 2009 budget submission, our main priority
    was to address the most critical threats, risks, and vulnerabilities to
    congressional security and several initiatives directed by the
    Congress, as well as addressing the administrative areas that pose a
    risk of fraud, waste and abuse. The Department's fiscal year 2009
    budget request focuses 81 percent of requested resources on Assessment,
    Prevention and Response, while 19 percent is focused on support
    activities for the overall mission.
        It is important to note the reasons for the increase in the
    Department's fiscal year 2009 budget request, as many of the items
    included in this increase are not within the control of the Department.
    Within these items is an increase of 6.1 percent of the nearly 18
    percent increase related to the opening of the Capitol Visitor Center,
    the implementation of the Library of Congress Police Merger, security
    for the Architect of the Capitol's Tunnel Project and security for the
    Library of Congress New Visitor Experience. Also included in the
    overall increase is an increase of 1.1 percent related to security for
    the upcoming Presidential Inauguration, as well as a nearly 1 percent
    increase in the USCP Office of the Inspector General. In addition, 3.4
    percent of the budget increase is related to the annualization of
    fiscal year 2008 costs and the Department's annual cost of living
    allowance.
        The remaining 6.4 percent of the nearly 18 percent increase are
    items, which reflect the Department's priorities and initiatives. Of
    these items, is a $1.6 million request for reconsideration of several
    new civilian positions, which were requested in the fiscal year 2008
    budget request, but for which funding was not available within the
    fiscal year appropriation to support new FTE. The remaining items are
    salaries, to include overtime, and general expenses related to the
    initiatives developed under our new Force Development Process, as well
    as a select few of my priorities for the Department.
        The Department is requesting an increase in sworn and civilian
    personnel in fiscal year 2009, to include:
      --121 sworn FTE, which include sworn personnel in the following
            areas:
        --87 related to the Library of Congress Police Merger;
        --10 related to the Capitol Visitor Center, to include utilization
                of the tunnels for staff-led tours, as well as funding for
                the 21 sworn FTE authorized in fiscal year 2008;
        --11 related to the Library of Congress New Visitor Experience; and
        --13 related to the Protective Services Bureau's Intelligence
                Capabilities Business Case.
      --38 civilian FTE, which are intended to support the following areas:
        --4 related to the Office of Financial Management to support budget
                and accounting activities;
        --4 related to the Library of Congress civilian support personnel
                for police operations;
        --3 related to the Protective Services Bureau's Intelligence
                Capabilities Business Case;
        --8 related to the Office of Information Systems to support the new
                Radio project, and the closure of GAO and Inspector General
                recommendations and findings;
        --9 related to the Security Services Bureau to support security and
                technical program execution and related technology
                upgrades;
        --5 related to the Training Services Bureau to support training
                coordination department-wide;
        --2 related to the Office of Human Resources to support a diversity
                program and the closure of GAO and Inspector General
                recommendations and findings related to workforce planning;
        --1 related to the Office of Facilities and Logistics to support
                workplace safety programs;
        --1 related to the Office of General Counsel to support evolving
                legal coordination and mission support; and
        --1 related to the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer to
                support administrative oversight and management.
      --Additionally, our Inspector General is requesting an increase of 6
            civilian FTE including a dedicated legal counsel and additional
            auditors and investigators.
        The increases referenced will raise the Department's authorized and
    funded sworn personnel level from 1,702 to 1,823 FTE and civilian
    personnel from 414 to 458 FTE. This is an overall increase in personnel
    from 2,116 to 2,281 FTE for the Department.
        The Department is also requesting an increase of $15.6 million in
    general expenses over its fiscal year 2008 appropriated funding levels.
    This increase includes:
      --$4.1 million for the Office of Information Systems to support
            lifecycle replacement costs for existing systems and to support
            increases in ongoing contracts.
      --$5.4 million for the Security Services Bureau to support lifecycle
            replacement costs for existing systems and to support increases
            in ongoing contracts.
      --$1.2 million for the Office of Facilities and Logistics to support
            the LOC Police merger and other new sworn positions, to support
            the Presidential Inauguration, and to support increases in
            ongoing contracts.
      --$1.9 million for the Training Services Bureau to support the
            training requirements for the LOC Police merger and other new
            sworn personnel, as well as the operation of the Practical
            Application Center.
      --$200,000 for the Protective Services Bureau to support the
            Intelligence Capabilities Business Case from our Force
            Development Process.
      --$900,000 for the Office of Plans, Operations and Homeland Security
            to support a study of our Command Center requirements,
            increases to the Security Camera Operators contract, and
            various costs associated with the Presidential Inauguration.
      --$1.1 million for the Office of Human Resources to support increased
            costs related to sworn applicant testing and background
            investigations; and
      --$800,000 for the Uniformed Services Bureau, the Operational
            Services Bureau and other organizational elements in support of
            training activities, the Presidential Inauguration, and
            increased fuel costs.
        I recognize that our requested increase is significant, but I
    believe that it is an appropriate reflection of sound judgment on the
    part of those responsible for executing the mission of the Department.
    We expect to refine our budget process further in upcoming years and
    hope that this will help us realize efficiencies, which we can
    incorporate into future budget estimates. However, we felt it was
    important to present to the Congress the resources that in our best
    judgment are needed to optimally execute our mission in fiscal year
    2009.
        We realize that our request must be put into a broader context
    within which final allocation decisions must be made. Whatever, those
    decisions are, we remain committed to continuing the highest possible
    level of security and service provided to the Congress and the visitors
    to the Capitol complex.
        The Department considers maintaining our onboard workforce and the
    completion of the Library of Congress Police Merger to be within the
    top 5 percent of our priorities. Among the remaining top 10 percent of
    our priorities are the CVC security, security operations for the
    Presidential Inauguration, and the lifecycle replacement of our
    critical systems, as well as the increased cost of current security
    contracts, sworn post scheduling, critical training programs, and
    funding for sworn applicant testing and backgrounds to meet attrition
    and new mission requirements.
        Of primary concern to achieving our operational and administrative
    goals are the potential impacts resulting from a lengthy continuing
    resolution in fiscal year 2009. With the upcoming opening of the
    Capitol Visitor Center, the Presidential Inauguration, the State of the
    Union, the Library of Congress (LOC) Police merger, the LOC New Visitor
    Experience and the security requirements for the AoC Tunnel Project, as
    well as maintaining normal post requirements, the Department's salaries
    and general expense resource requirements under a continuing resolution
    (CR) will exceed our expected CR allocation. Therefore, the Department
    is preparing a Continuing Resolution Impact Statement to provide the
    committees with information on the potential impacts, as we know them
    today. In addition, we will continue to work closely with your staff to
    clearly define our resource needs in the event of a CR.
        In an effort to improve overall effectiveness, we have focused on a
    number of areas, beginning with overtime management. In fiscal year
    2007, the Department concentrated heavily on the efficient utilization
    of our overtime allocation within our salary appropriation, as well as
    ways to effectively control the Department's utilization of this
    resource. Based on current mission requirements, the current number of
    on-board sworn personnel is not sufficient to meet all of the
    identified mission needs. Therefore, USCP sworn personnel must be
    utilized to work overtime to meet these resource requirements. Last
    year, through a process of load leveling sworn personnel across the
    Department, constant analysis, and the reduction of low risk posts, we
    were able to reduce our projected overtime requirements of $24.7
    million by close to $3 million. Yet, we still had to utilize over $22
    million in order to meet our basic mission requirement. With the
    upcoming openings of new areas of the Library of Congress, the Capitol
    Visitor Center, the implementation of the Library of Congress Police
    merger and the anticipated presence of special events and protests in
    and around the Capitol, we know that we must continue the use of
    overtime to meet the Department's mission. However, we believe that by
    continuing to utilize our established overtime allocation and tracking
    process, we will be able to ensure that we are utilizing overtime in an
    efficient and effective manner, balanced against the Department's need
    to request additional sworn personnel to fill identified mission
    activities related to normal post requirements.
        As such, the Department is requesting consideration for overtime
    funding in fiscal year 2009 at $30.5 million, which is an increase of
    $4.1 million over the enacted fiscal year 2008 funding level of $26.4
    million for overtime within our salary appropriation. Included in this
    request is $21.7 million in overtime to address normal post
    requirements; $900,000 to support the security requirements for the AOC
    Tunnel Project; $1.1 million related to supporting additional posts
    requirements for the Library of Congress New Visitor Experience until
    sworn personnel are authorized, recruited, hired, trained, and
    deployed; $4.9 million to support security operations for the Capitol
    Visitor Center, to include backfill for additional sworn personnel
    until the positions are recruited, hired, trained, and deployed; and
    $1.9 million to cover the 2009 Presidential Inauguration post
    requirements.
        Another area of focus is in the area of human capital resource
    requirements. In the last few months, the Department received the final
    report from its contractor, Enlightened Leadership Solutions, which
    provides a detailed analysis of operational processes and the required
    manpower necessary to carry out each component of these processes. This
    Manpower Study, along with the Department's Strategic Plan, the Force
    Development Process, the annual Environmental Assessment Process, and
    our soon to be published Strategic Human Capital Plan, will be utilized
    by the Department in future years to develop and enhance a single,
    long-term vision and related resource requirements. Our wish is for
    this vision to be a guide for us in everything we do from this point
    forward, as well as provide an indicator to you of our plan, process
    and progress. The goal of this entire effort is to create a set of
    clear targets to define our plan, budget and performance measurements
    for the next 10 years.
        Previously, the USCP Concept of Operations (ConOps) dealt mostly
    with security at the entrances of congressional buildings and the
    Capitol grounds. The current situation in the world posed by terrorism
    and other threats has required us to develop a ConOps that stretches
    our capabilities beyond stopping a threat before it can get through the
    door. We utilize intelligence provided by our partners throughout the
    Federal Government to remain constantly vigilant of threats, so we can
    stop them long before they come within striking distance of the Capitol
    Complex and Members of Congress. Through the Manpower Study analysis,
    we have determined an immediate need to further develop this capability
    in fiscal year 2008 through some staffing realignments and in fiscal
    year 2009-2010 through a request for an increase in authorized sworn
    and civilian personnel to support this counter-intelligence effort.
        With an aging infrastructure, the limitation of current facilities
    and the quickly changing technology surrounding law enforcement, the
    Department is faced with a communications challenge. This challenge
    will require us to invest in a new radio system. We are grateful for
    the resources and support we have been given by Congress in this area
    to date. We recently received a cost analysis from our contractor based
    on a comprehensive requirements survey for our new radio system. We
    plan to provide this analysis to the committees following our internal
    validation of the data.
        Regardless of the approach we take in the future, our facilities
    are not designed and built to handle a modern operation, and may not be
    capable of handling the necessary infrastructure for this purpose. To
    that end, we are working with the Architect of the Capitol to develop a
    comprehensive facilities requirement, which will accompany our radio
    system resource requirements request to the Congress.
        In order to ensure that the Department had credible and supportable
    costing data before requesting additional support from the Congress, we
    did not include a request for funding for the new radio system in our
    fiscal year 2009 budget submission, as this supportable data was not
    available at the time of the submission deadline. Now that this data is
    available, the Department would like to initiate discussions with the
    Congress regarding the most appropriate venue to pursue this critical
    funding.
        During fiscal year 2007, the Department affected over 1,100
    arrests, which range from robbery to driving while intoxicated to
    disorderly conduct to traffic offenses. In the first 5 months of fiscal
    year 2008, the Department affected over 340 arrests ranging from
    larceny to driving while intoxicated to traffic offenses. In addition,
    the Department conducted over 65,000 K-9 sweeps during the same 5-month
    period.
        In an effort to better engage our stakeholders in the mission of
    the Department, we have adopted a concept similar to ``Community
    Policing'', which provides direct outreach by USCP officers and
    officials to committees and Member offices within the congressional
    community. Over the last year, the Department has focused on this
    effort with positive response from our stakeholders by visiting every
    congressional office as a part of this outreach. Through this proactive
    communication process, the Department is better able to keep the
    congressional community abreast of security and safety issues of
    importance. Last month, we began our theft protection outreach efforts
    with Member offices and will continue this effort throughout the summer
    months.
        Additionally, to better plan and execute security for special
    events and demonstrations, the Department has focused its efforts to
    ensure a holistic event plan is developed, to include staffing and
    resource requirements, as well as roles and responsibilities. Further,
    the Department has implemented an after action reporting process to
    capture issues and achievements from each event to be used for
    corrective actions, future planning and training purposes.
        During the high-volume months when visits to the Capitol complex
    are at their height, the Uniformed Services Bureau is making specific
    efforts to expedite visitors through security screening checkpoints. A
    contributor to our success in this area is the Department's new
    security screening guidelines. So far, we have trained over 600
    officers, officials and security aides, to include all sergeants and
    lieutenants. These new security-screening guidelines standardize this
    process, so that officers are more consistent with their screening
    applications and more proficient in the detection of prohibited and
    unlawful items. Since the training was implemented, there have been
    some significant weapon seizures, to include the detection of a cane
    with a sword concealed inside and a switchblade knife in a backpack.
    Both of these detections resulted in arrests.
        Further, we have planned, coordinated and evaluated 15 exercises
    within the Capitol related to air evacuations, lockdowns, and active
    shooter, which simulates a person with a weapon within Capitol Complex
    structures. We have also conducted 60 training exercises across the
    Capitol Complex to improve readiness for sworn personnel in the field.
        In addition, the Department has recently finalized its initial plan
    on continuity of operations to ensure its readiness to support the
    Congress in the event that the legislative process must be relocated.
    This will serve as a living document for the Department, upon which we
    will continue to enhance our preparedness and readiness efforts.
    Further, the Department has focused efforts to ensure the readiness of
    our personnel to address short-term limited evacuations from buildings
    or the interruption of activities, so the Department has the ability to
    perform its mission.
        These are just a few of the operational activities that the
    Department has undertaken in an effort to enhance its management
    infrastructure. But, just as critical are the mission support functions
    in our administrative area.
        As we develop these synchronized systems and improve the overall
    planning and mission capability of the Department, we are also working
    toward developing and implementing best financial management and
    internal controls practices within our organizational elements. We have
    taken on several positive steps in this area, and most recently have
    worked towards the ability to produce a full set of auditable Federal
    financial statements.
        I am pleased to report that we have shown some progress in meeting
    this goal. The Department completed a full inventory of our capital
    assets, and assigned values to these assets. This effort led to the
    completion of a full set of Federal financial statements for the fiscal
    year that ended on September 30, 2007. We know that our financial
    statements require further refinement and improvement. We are committed
    to continuing these efforts over the next several years under the
    guidance of our CAO, with a goal to achieve a clean opinion on the
    financial statements for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010. We
    also know that even with a clean opinion, we will have to continue to
    address audit findings in this area until we achieve a best practices
    financial management operation.
        We have also taken steps to identify and address critical staffing
    requirements within our Office of Financial Management, to include the
    areas of management, budget, procurement, and accounting. Without
    filling these key positions, I am concerned that we will not be able
    meet our goals to correct the recommendations and findings in this
    area. I am pleased to report that over the last 8 weeks, the Department
    has advertised all current vacancies within OFM, and we have selected a
    Director for the Office of Financial Management, a Procurement Officer,
    a Budget Officer, and a Procurement Analyst, as well as finalized the
    hiring of an accountant and a contracting officer, who have both
    already started working for us. We hope to have selections made and the
    requests for appointment forwarded to the Capitol Police Board and
    authorizing committees soon for the Deputy Director for the Office of
    Financial Management and the Budget Analyst.
        I am also pleased with our efforts to redesign our budget planning
    and execution process, with the approval and assistance of the
    Appropriation Committees, as a part of our new Force Development
    Process. We have provided for the first time a budget submission, which
    we believe demonstrates the resource requirements of the Department,
    defines our methodology for making these resource requests and
    demonstrates how the Department is utilizing the resources provided to
    it by the Congress.
        During my tenure, the Department has focused on instutionalizing my
    vision of ``Rising to the Challenge,'' and we have set the bar very
    high for our officials and staff in an effort to make the USCP better
    able to meet our mission and enable every sworn and civilian employee
    to take more pride in the organization.
        We began instituting the ``Rising to the Challenge'' vision by
    tackling goals that are as simple as officers' consistently looking
    professional and alert on post; or as complex as developing a standard
    and repeatable planning process for the Department that utilizes a
    comprehensive series of assessments and investment decisions. We have
    also worked to instill the common values of consistent practices, goal
    setting and commitment to the overall mission throughout every level of
    the Department.
        To ensure our success, we have worked to enhance communication and
    transparency, in order to keep all employees better informed on the
    workings of the Department, and the expectations of leaders and
    stakeholders. We have increased accountability down through all levels
    of management, so that the senior leaders can count on the front line
    supervisors to run the day-to-day operations, while we make a concerted
    effort at the statutory and Executive Management Team levels to map out
    the long-term strategic initiatives for the Department.
        Some key outcomes of my vision in 2007 were the successful
    completion of the Department's Force Development Process for the fiscal
    year 2009 budget development and submission, as well as the development
    of a formal process to track and address recommendations from the OIG
    and GAO.
        Force Development incorporates the principles of threat based
    planning into our Concept of Operations (ConOps), investment decisions
    and resource requests and allocations. This standardized business
    approach is based on the concepts of consistent planning, budget
    formulation, execution and performance evaluation, in the spirit of the
    Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA.) Force Development sets
    timetables and accountability for planning resource requirements, based
    on security risks and threats, as well as a higher level of
    accountability.
        Many of the components of the Force Development Process were
    already in place at the Department. We have simply designed a process
    flow that sets a consistent time table, integrates risk and other
    assessments into the formal process, links activities into one
    consistent and unified process, and adds a new level of performance
    tracking and reporting.
        I am also pleased with the intensive analysis that we have
    conducted in order to develop a small number of specific investment
    proposals for the fiscal year 2009 budget submission using a five-step
    process. Lead Agents, which were members of our Senior Management Team
    and program managers, developed detailed business cases for specific
    investment proposals that where designed to meet the most critical
    needs identified by the Department's annual environmental assessment.
    We utilized an internal costing group made up of representatives from
    the operational bureaus and administrative support areas of the
    Department, to define accurate resource requirements for each
    investment. We incorporated analysis panels of Senior Management Team
    members to meet with the Lead Agents to challenge their business cases
    and more clearly define the needs of the Department and develop
    recommendations for our Investment Review Board (IRB), which is
    comprised of members of the Department's Executive Management Team.
        Finally, the IRB met to discuss each business case proposal and ask
    questions of the Lead Agents to further validate and refine the
    requirement. Following the IRB meetings, we conducted an online rating
    and ranking process which delivered to me a comprehensive analysis of
    the IRB rating, ranking, and comments for each investment proposal.
    This analysis allowed me to make my final decision for the proposals
    considered for inclusion in our budget.
        The second outcome from my vision is the Department's efforts to
    address its management challenges. As you know, the Department
    struggled for several years to address the recommendations of the
    Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Department's independent
    auditors. One of my first directives to the Executive Management Team
    was to embrace and implement the recommendations provided by the GAO
    and the USCP's Office of the Inspector General, which included the
    recommendations of our auditors.
        My goal was to use these recommendations as a roadmap for the
    Department's overall organizational improvement. The recommendations
    have provided the Department with an opportunity to implement a myriad
    of administrative and operational changes to create a well-managed
    organization, prevent the risk of waste, fraud, and abuse, and ensure
    the successful execution of our mission.
        As a first step toward meeting this goal, we established an Audit
    Liaison to coordinate the tracking and reporting of all open
    recommendations with the Executive Management Team. We implemented a
    directive, which establishes a formal audit resolution process, and is
    based on the examples provided through policies and best practices
    followed in other Government agencies. In addition, the Directive
    established a process of developing action plans to deal with each open
    recommendation and ensure accountability from all levels of USCP
    employees responsible for their resolution and closure.
        Today, I am pleased to report that the Department has made
    significant progress in addressing these recommendations and findings
    since October 2007. Since the beginning of the fiscal year, we have
    closed over 30 of the 118 remaining recommendations and findings,
    leaving open a total of 80 recommendations and findings to resolve. Of
    those closed, 8 recommendations were in the financial management area.
    The remaining closed items were in the human capital, asset management,
    information systems, strategic management, operations, and overall
    management and internal controls areas.
        Over the last year, we have:
      --Developed and submitted for audit a full set of financial
            statements.
      --Developed and implemented a standardized and repeatable process to
            ensure compliance with reprogramming requirements concerning
            appropriated funds.
      --Implemented actions to monitor our purchase, travel, and fleet card
            programs and the expenditures made under these programs.
      --Implemented a standardized process for addressing procurement
            workloads to avoid backlogs.
      --Formalized the Department's Investment Review Board process and
            provided training for its members.
      --Established a formalized process for responding to and resolving
            recommendations and audit findings.
      --Institutionalized our semi-annual reporting to the Capitol Police
            Board and our oversight committees.
      --Finalized our Continuity of Operations Plan and implemented a
            process for review and enhancement of the plan to meet evolving
            threats and requirements.
      --Finalized, submitted, and received approval for the USCP's
            organizational chart.
      --Revised and implemented the processes and protocols for the use of
            blocking vehicles.
      --Revised and implemented protocols for the usage of radio
            frequencies during operational activities.
      --Developed and implemented a formalized process for the review and
            approval of information technology procurements.
        Additionally, we have developed and are initiating the
    implementation of a strategic human capital plan, to include linkages
    to the Department's strategic plan and vision. This plan will assist
    the Department in addressing the gaps in the number, deployment, and
    alignment of human capital approaches to enable and sustain the
    contributions of critical skills and competencies within our workforce.
    We believe this plan is critical to our ability to hire and retain a
    professional workforce necessary to support the mission of the
    Department.
        Further, we have taken steps to suspend, review, and overhaul
    certain programs to validate that they are operating within the intent
    of Congress and under effective internal controls.
        Some examples of these are:
      --Suspension of the Student Loan Repayment Program in order to revise
            the overarching directive and procedures governing the program
            to ensure that the program is being utilized as a recruiting
            and retention tool, as intended.
      --Suspension of the Specialty Assignment Pay, Fitness Proficiency
            Pay, and Firearms Proficiency Pay in order to review these
            discretionary programs for prudent management and oversight.
      --Enhancement of our internal controls program. These efforts have
            provided a framework for organizational elements to address and
            resolve audit findings and recommendations.
      --Review of our uniform and weapon inventories. This review resulted
            in my decision to implement changes to our uniform policy, to
            include the number and types of uniforms utilized by the
            Department. My intent is to streamline the uniforms used by the
            Department and reduce our inventory and long-term uniform
            expenditures.
      --Review of other support areas such as training, procurement, travel
            processes, and fleet management to continue progress in
            addressing management and controls issues.
        In addition to our focus on these operational and administrative
    management activities, we have also been focused on the planning for
    and implementation of several large-scale initiatives, which will be
    impacting the Department within the upcoming year.
        The Department is making plans to provide security to the upcoming
    Democratic and Republican Conventions in August and September 2008,
    respectively. We are currently engaged in various planning efforts and
    site visits leading up to the events.
        As the completion of the Capitol Visitor Center nears, we are
    gearing up for the opening of this facility and to welcome the American
    public with courteous, efficient, and safe security. We are grateful
    for the authorization of an additional 21 sworn FTE in fiscal year 2008
    to support the USCP's CVC operational plan. As you know, we are
    requesting an additional 10 sworn FTE in order to support staff-led
    tours in the congressional office building tunnels. With these
    resources, we will have the tools to implement our operational plan
    consistent with current operating assumptions for the facility.
        In addition, with the recent legislation enacted in January 2008,
    Congress has expressed a timeline for the complete merger of the
    Library of Congress Police into the USCP. We have developed a very
    successful relationship with the Library of Congress (LOC) Police over
    the past few years and have integrated our sworn employees into their
    operations. In fiscal year 2009, we will be integrating the remaining
    LOC sworn personnel into the Department and will be training,
    equipping, and employing them as members of the USCP. Likewise, we will
    be welcoming their civilian employees into our ranks.
        While these are just a few examples of the serious efforts we have
    undertaken to enhance the management and internal controls of the
    United States Capitol Police, as well as implement long-term planning,
    I believe they represent our commitment to meet the challenges raised
    by the Congress and the successful execution of our mission to protect
    and defend the legislative process. Although much work remains to be
    done at the Department in the areas of management, we believe that
    significant progress has been made in implementing systems and
    processes that improve the administrative functions and our ability to
    perform our mission.
        In closing, I would like to say that I am looking forward to
    continuing my efforts as Chief of Police to make the Capitol Police a
    best practices organization. The progress we have made in the last year
    demonstrates the commitment and hard work of the employees of the
    Department. I want to recognize the fact that in many ways we are
    addressing and correcting processes, programs, and a culture that has
    been present for a long time. Everything will not be made perfect all
    at once. However, we will continue to see gradual results and a
    constant evolution into the premier organization I believe we should
    be. I am committed to continuing to keep you and our other stakeholders
    informed, and will insist on continued transparency and openness, both
    internally and with our external customers and stakeholders.
        We at the Capitol Police look forward to working collaboratively
    with the Congress to continue to safeguard the legislative process,
    Members, staff, and visitors to the Capitol Complex. Through this
    collaborative partnership, I believe we will realize our collective
    goal of transforming the United States Capitol Police into a premiere
    law enforcement organization.
        Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today and the
    committee's continued support of the men and women of the United States
    Capitol Police.
        My colleagues and I are ready to address any questions you may
    have.

                              LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

    STATEMENT OF DR. JAMES BILLINGTON, LIBRARIAN OF
                CONGRESS
    ACCOMPANIED BY JO ANN JENKINS, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

        Senator Landrieu. Dr. Billington.
        Dr. Billington. Madam Chair, Senator Alexander, Senator
    Allard, it is really an honor to be here to present the Library
    of Congress' fiscal year 2009 budget request and to be here
    along with our Chief Operating Officer, Ms. Jo Ann Jenkins, and
    other members of the Executive Committee who are seated behind
    me.
        I thank the Chair for your continuing interest in the
    vision and goals of the Library, for your efforts to focus
    attention on the Veterans History Program, and for the
    opportunity to work with you to bring Southeastern Louisiana
    University into our educational network which helps K through
    12 teachers to make broader use of the Library of Congress'
    collections of digitized primary sources.
        Senator Alexander, we look forward to working with you as
    well on a similar program with Middle Tennessee State
    University, and I thank you for being such a strong and
    thoughtful proponent of American history and civics education,
    which we are trying to advance with our educational programs
    and with the new library experience. So I look forward to
    continuing to work with you both and with all members of the
    subcommittee.
        Senator Allard, we have enjoyed hosting your capital
    conference at the Library these past several years. You will be
    missed. We thank you for your great interest in the Library and
    your support over the years, and when you retire at the end of
    the 110th Congress, we will miss you and wish you the very
    best.
        Madam Chair, we have submitted a very modest budget request
    for fiscal year 2009, based on fiscal year 2008 operating
    levels--levels that were achieved with some painful cuts in the
    Library's budget. We have limited ourselves to request funding
    only to meet mandatory pay raises and unavoidable price level
    increases, to sustain basic current services, and to rescue
    from the brink of collapse the unique program that the Congress
    mandated and funded in 2001 for preserving the growing volume
    of important information and knowledge that is produced only in
    highly impermanent digital form.

           LOC deg.COLLECTING AND PRESERVING DIGITAL CONTENT

        The fiscal year 2007 rescission of $47 million from the
    National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation
    Program resulted in a total loss to the program of $84 million
    when you add in the matching amount that the partners would
    have provided. We have requested $6 million in fiscal year 2009
    and have provided a 5-year plan for keeping this program alive.
    I will submit the plan with my testimony. Collecting and
    preserving ephemeral digital content is increasingly important
    for serving the information needs of the Congress--and for
    validating our new way of doing business, by sharing ongoing
    costs and expertise with a trusted network of vetted partners--
    in Louisiana, Tennessee, Illinois, Nebraska, and other States.
        We have had to accept that our long planned roll-out of the
    transition to a digital format for talking books and playback
    machines will be prolonged from 4 to 6 years.
        Madam Chair, the Congress of the United States has been the
    greatest patron of a library in the history of the world. The
    Congress can be proud of the record of acquiring and
    preserving, even in difficult financial periods, the largest
    and most varied collection anywhere of the world's knowledge
    and of this Nation's creativity.

               LOC deg.AUSTERITY AFFECTS LIBRARY MISSION

        We respect the Congress' understandable desire for
    austerity in this year's budget request, and its authority to
    limit and redirect funds within the Library's appropriations.
    But I feel obligated to say that if we are stretched much
    further, we may soon reach a breaking point from which it will
    be difficult to return, particularly if we have to cut deeper
    into basic Library programs as we have had to do recently. For
    instance, we had to absorb roughly $16 million in mandated
    cost-of-living increases in fiscal years 2007 and 2008.
        We now have about 1,000 fewer staff to do far more work
    than was done 20 years ago when I became Librarian and before
    we began the Herculean task of superimposing a digital library
    and services on top of a traditional analog library. About
    three-quarters of the staff reductions have been in library
    services, endangering vital core missions. We are stretching
    out the useful life of the technological infrastructure of the
    Library. But we are reaching a dangerous point and we cannot
    and should not put in jeopardy the important role that the
    Library plays in the information infrastructure of America in
    this information age.

                    LOC deg.NEW VISITORS EXPERIENCE

        Despite these challenges, this is a time of great promise
    for the Library--as we continue using digital technology to
    transform the way we do our work and deliver our services to
    the Congress and the Nation in all areas of the Library.
        Relying largely on private philanthropy and in-kind
    donations, our outstanding, dedicated staff has already begun
    transforming the public spaces of the Jefferson Building into
    an interactive learning center for the greatly increased number
    of visitors who will be coming to the Library when the Capitol
    Visitor Center opens. David McCullough said at the opening of
    our new digitally enhanced exhibit of the priceless original
    documents involved in the creation of the United States--and I
    am quoting David McCullough--``I saw yesterday an exhibition
    which every American ought to see: `Creating the U.S.'. If
    visitors to this, our capital city, whether they're from our
    own country or from abroad, were to see only one exhibition,
    one building, one place during their visit, seeing `Creating
    the U.S.' would be the one to see.''
        We are also bringing into full operation the magnificent
    new National Audio Visual Conservation Center created with the
    support and funding of the Congress and the unprecedented gift
    of more than $150 million plus expert guidance from David
    Woodley Packard and the Packard Humanities Institute. And we
    will begin putting on line, with the support of UNESCO and
    other national libraries, an educational World Digital Library
    of primary documents of other cultures that will be accessible
    in seven languages.

                 LOC deg.STRATEGIC INFORMATION RESERVE

        Madam Chair, we recognize that difficult choices will
    continue to have to be made during this time of extraordinary
    budget constraints. But this Library is an essential part of
    our knowledge-based democracy. The Library collects, preserves,
    and makes accessible free of charge both here on Capitol Hill
    and everywhere else on the Internet important materials in
    languages and in formats that no one else does. We are in many
    ways a key part of our Nation's strategic information reserve.
    The small 2 percent increase for programs in our budget request
    directly affects that strategic reserve. This Library has never
    been more important for the economic, security, and civic
    health of America than now in this information age and in the
    midst of the digital revolution, the most profound change in
    recent history in the mode of communication, as well as the
    generation of human knowledge.

                              PREPARED STATEMENTS

        I ask for your support for our modest funding request for
    fiscal year 2009, and we look forward to working with the
    subcommittee to craft a budget for fiscal year 2010 that can
    ensure for the future the Library's historic mission of serving
    the Congress and the Nation in these challenging and changing
    but, at the same time, promising times. Thank you very much. I
    will be very pleased to answer any questions.
        Senator Landrieu. Thank you, Dr. Billington.
        [The statements follow:]
                   Prepared Statement of Dr. James Billington
        Madam Chair, Senator Alexander, and other members of the
    subcommittee: It is an honor to be here to present the Library of
    Congress fiscal 2009 budget request. Madam Chair, I thank you for your
    continuing interest in the vision and goals of the Library. Senator
    Alexander, I want to welcome you to the subcommittee and look forward
    to working with you and all the members of the subcommittee.
        We have submitted a very modest budget request for fiscal 2009,
    based on fiscal 2008 operating levels--levels that were achieved with
    deep and painful cuts to the Library's budget. The Library has
    requested a total fiscal 2009 budget of $645.8 million, representing an
    increase of 5.3 percent over fiscal 2008. With this request, we have
    limited ourselves mainly to asking for funding to meet mandatory pay
    raises and unavoidable price-level increases, and a much smaller amount
    mainly to rescue from the brink of collapse the unique National Digital
    Information and Infrastructure Preservation Program (NDIIPP) that the
    Congress mandated and funded in 2001 for preserving the growing volume
    of valuable information and knowledge produced only in highly
    impermanent digital form.
        The Congress of the United States has been the greatest patron of
    the library in the history of the world. We respect the understandable
    desire of the Congress for austerity in this year's budget request. And
    we respect the Congress's authority to limit and redirect funds within
    the Library's appropriations. But I feel obligated to say that if we
    are stretched much farther, we may soon reach a breaking point. We are
    extending the useful life of the technical infrastructure of the
    Library, but we cannot and should not put in jeopardy this important
    part of the information infrastructure of America in this information
    age.
        This is a time of great promise for the Library. In all areas,
    digital technology is being used to transform the way we do our work
    and deliver services to Congress. Copyright's re-engineering program,
    Library Services' digital acquisitions program, the Office of Strategic
    Initiatives' NDIIPP initiative, the National Library Service for the
    Blind and Physically Handicapped Digital Talking Book program, and the
    Law Library's Global Legal Information Network are but a few examples
    of a broader institutional goal: to add digital content and services on
    top of traditional Library programs. The relatively modest increases we
    are requesting are almost all designed to sustain the progress we have
    been making in the digital transformation of our collections, services,
    and internal procedures. Our digital initiatives are not miscellaneous,
    unrelated activities; they are related pieces in transforming all
    Library functions for the future. The digital transformation will occur
    over several years and will require continuity of congressional
    support. Beginning with our fiscal 2010 request, we will provide
    detailed advanced projections of what we will propose both to add and
    to reduce over the next few years in order to sustain our historic
    mission for the Congress and the Nation at a time of revolutionary
    change in the generation and communication of knowledge.
        The fiscal 2008 appropriation, including the across-the-board
    rescission, resulted in a 0.83 percent increase for the Library of
    Congress over the fiscal 2007 funding level. While total funding for
    fiscal 2008 included a $12.5 million increase to support the Digital
    Talking Book program, the Congress reduced funding levels in several of
    the Library's other accounts, including a $10 million reduction to the
    Copyright Office's no-year funding balance, a $4 million general pay
    reduction, and more than $5 million in targeted reductions to our
    Library Services program. In addition to these direct cuts, the Library
    has had to absorb roughly $16 million in cost-of-living increases in
    fiscal 2007 and 2008.
        We now have more than 1,000 fewer staff to do far more work than
    was done 20 years ago when I became Librarian and before we assumed the
    Herculean task--and national leadership we have achieved--of
    superimposing digital library collections and services on top of our
    continuing role as the world's largest and most diversified repository
    of analog materials (books, maps, movies, music, etc.). We already are
    having to begin cutting back on one of our most vital core missions:
    the comprehensive acquisition of information and knowledge that we
    alone collect and preserve for the Nation's strategic information
    reserve. With difficulty and a focus on fiscal restraint, the Library's
    Executive Committee and I eliminated more than $52 million in critical
    funding needs from this fiscal 2009 budget request, committing either
    to forgo or seek to fund internally those items or activities in fiscal
    2009.
        All service units within the Library have been affected by the
    austere budgets of fiscal 2007 and 2008, but two programs were affected
    severely:
      books for the blind and physically handicapped digital talking book
                                    program
        The Digital Talking Book Program (DTB) was funded at $12.5 million,
    rather than our original request for a $19.1 million increase, which
    means that our long- planned roll-out of the transition to a digital
    format for talking books and playback machines will be prolonged from 4
    to 6 years. During the appropriations cycle, the Library made an appeal
    for $15 million for the DTB program, but this appeal was rejected in
    light of budget austerity across the broader Legislative Branch.
        Recognizing the very difficult budget environment that the Congress
    and the entire Federal Government face, Library leadership accepted the
    necessity of managing the Digital Talking Book program at the current
    (fiscal 2008) funding level and over the extended (6-year) transition
    period. Production of the playback machines is well underway, and
    digital books are being created, but the current funding level will,
    during this transition period, reduce the number of books on the shelf
    for blind readers, for whom we are the sole source of free reading
    material. The blind community continues to express its displeasure with
    the consequences of the lower funding level.
     national digital information and infrastructure preservation program
                                    (ndiipp)
        NDIIPP was founded and funded by the Congress in 2001 on the
    principle of shared stewardship and costs. The fiscal 2007 rescission
    of $47 million from NDIIPP resulted in a total loss to the
    collaborative national digital preservation effort of $84 million. We
    are living in an unprecedented period of unbounded creativity where
    important knowledge creation, legislative proceedings, and political
    discourse are increasingly documented only in ephemeral digital
    formats. We cannot as a national cultural institution of the United
    States afford to walk away from our mission responsibility to save
    these valuable records for future generations. The rescission to NDIIPP
    forced us to reduce by 75 percent the commitments we had already made
    to our partners in fiscal 2007. The rescission to NDIIPP has taken away
    the means by which we can save more content, expand the joint
    stewardship network, and build out the necessary underlying technical
    infrastructure.
        We have requested an increase of $6 million in fiscal 2009 and have
    provided a 5-year plan for keeping this program alive. Without these
    program funds, we will be forced to begin shutting down the joint
    stewardship program and walk away from shared stewardship and costs
    with our sustaining network partners. Absent this funding, we will be
    left only to voice our alarm at the risks of loss and remain on the
    sideline in hopes that others will have the means to save our digital
    cultural heritage records.
        Collecting and preserving ephemeral digital content is essential if
    we are to continue serving the information needs of the Congress. This
    program is also important for validating our new way of doing business,
    by sharing ongoing costs and expertise with the network of NDIIPP
    partners we have built up in Florida, Iowa, California, and Minnesota.
        The Library has developed specific goals it will achieve during the
    next 5 years. The program has acquired 66 terabytes of at-risk digital
    content collected and preserved by its partners within a network of
    repositories. This is equivalent to the content in approximately 66
    million books. It has developed a network of more than 130 partners in
    the content, technology, research, Government, and business sectors
    across 25 States; 10 of these partners are Federal agencies.
        The NDIIPP partners have created, for free download, publicly
    available tools for preserving digital content. These tools make the
    life cycle management of at-risk content easier. Together with our
    partners, we have created, standardized, and shared the means to
    harvest content from the web, prepare content metadata, prepare content
    for long-term storage, and allow sharing and exchanging content across
    digital libraries.
        During the next 5 years NDIIPP will increase by tenfold (to 650
    terabytes) the digital content under national stewardship. It will
    create a National Alliance for Content Stewardship that reaches all 50
    States. This alliance will establish a formal presence in every State
    to champion and catalyze digital preservation efforts and investments
    from the public and private sectors, and also construct the technical
    architecture necessary for storage of the 650 terabytes of content
    distributed across the partnerships.
        Other than funding for mandatory pay and price-level increases and
    a $6 million increase for the NDIIPP program, the Library has limited
    its fiscal 2009 program funding requests to $5.8 million in order to
    maintain the services of our most critical programs. We have requested
    $3 million to cover the increased assessment for the State Department
    Capital Security Cost-Sharing program to keep alive our all-important
    overseas offices; $0.9 million for the final increment of a 5-year
    adjustment for inflationary cost increases in the Library's
    Acquisitions Program; $1.8 million to restore salary funding for staff
    operating the Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation in Culpeper,
    Virginia; and $156,000 for an additional staff member in the Library's
    Office of the Inspector General.
                                library services
        Beginning in fiscal 2006, Library Services (LS) began realigning
    its base funding in order to meet new requirements and support needed
    innovation without requesting new funding from the Congress for such
    programs and activities as upgrading of its preservation research and
    testing lab; acquiring historically important special collections that
    should rightly be included in the national library; and refurbishing
    many of the Library's most heavily used public spaces.
        With the reductions to the LS budget in fiscal 2007 and fiscal
    2008, current funding levels no longer support many important programs
    and activities. For example, the Packard Campus preservation
    laboratories are not yet operational. Even though staff and collections
    have been moved to Culpeper, fully half of the capacity to preserve at-
    risk collections at the New Packard Campus for Audio-Visual
    Conservation cannot be realized.
        LS has absorbed part of the fiscal 2008 cuts by delaying hiring.
    This has resulted in gaps in critical language and subject-matter
    expertise. It has also meant that important supervisory and managerial
    vacancies in LS remain open at a time when anticipated retirements are
    at an all-time high. The long-term effects of the budget reductions are
    significant. Salaries and benefits of critical new hires will be
    annualized in fiscal 2009. As a result, major preservation contracts
    for mass deacidification and binding, and collections management
    contracts that provide care and service of collections items, must be
    reduced. This directly affects the stewardship of the collections built
    over the past 200 years and their availability for future generations.
    Finally, the Library will be unable to acquire many special collections
    that are appropriate for the Library's collections.
                                   copyright
        The Library's fiscal 2009 budget justification includes a net
    appropriation request of $12.9 million to support the Copyright
    Office's core operations. Of this amount, $10 million represents a
    request to restore funding the Congress temporarily reduced in the
    fiscal 2008 budget. The Congress directed the Copyright Office to use a
    no-year balance to fund normal operating expenses in fiscal 2008. As
    the balance of the no-year account will be depleted in fiscal 2008, the
    Copyright Office must have appropriated funding restored in order to
    maintain operations.
        The total increase in net appropriations requested for the
    Copyright Office also includes $1 million to support the implementation
    of the Copyright Records Preservation Project. This funding will remain
    in place for 6 years for digital imaging of pre-1978 public records,
    supporting at a very basic level the Copyright Office's preservation
    and access goals.
                      congressional research service (crs)
        The CRS Director's testimony identifies four ways in which the
    Library's Congressional Research Service fulfills a unique niche for
    the Congress. First, CRS has experts in the worlds that Members and
    committees inhabit. They understand Congress as an institution, its
    work processes, Members' responsibilities, and legal and constitutional
    contexts. Second, the Service is in a unique position to analyze issues
    that arise from and are often dominated by the operations of executive
    agencies and their missions. Third, CRS is uniquely equipped to offer
    multi-disciplinary, analytic approaches to identifying relevant public-
    policy issues and to offer solutions to address them. The fourth is the
    Service's ability to rally and immediately offer support when the
    Congress is faced with an emergency or other unexpected major event.
        Funding cuts and shortfalls in mandatory pay increases were
    mitigated by reducing the CRS staffing plan, deferring equipment
    purchases, and placing additional constraints on the acquisition of
    research materials. The plan for reducing FTE from 705 to 675 in the
    fiscal 2008 Operating Plan targets support functions to avoid any loss
    of direct research capacity. CRS has reduced equipment expenses by
    deferring or eliminating upgrades or replacement of IT and office
    equipment. Research material costs were lowered by reducing user access
    to electronic resources; canceling selective print titles; not
    purchasing new resources; and continuing to partner with Library
    Services to acquire public policy research materials.
                                  law library
        The Law Library of Congress has placed special emphasis on the
    content of the U.S. legal material in the Global Legal Information
    Network (GLIN) and THOMAS to incorporate all laws published in the
    United States Statutes-at-Large and all congressional hearings. This
    will be expanded to include summaries and associated metadata for 100
    U.S. treaties and other international agreements. The Law Library's
    highest priority remains the need to re-classify books formerly
    categorized as ``Law'' into the K class in order to ensure a complete,
    current, and accessible law collection and provide timely responses to
    congressional requests for foreign legal law information. The Law
    Library has completed a comprehensive redesign of its public website
    and launched four RSS feeds thus far in fiscal 2008 that allow users to
    easily stay up-to-date with areas of interest by delivering news, such
    as the latest Research Report or issue of the Global Legal Monitor, to
    a desktop computer or other Internet device.
        In response to fiscal 2008 funding shortfalls related to the
    rescission and unfunded mandatory pay increases, the Law Library has
    realigned base funding from contractual services and equipment accounts
    in order to absorb payroll costs and to support key staff who provide
    important services to the Congress. The impacts of these include the
    shortening of performance periods for contractual services necessary to
    perform core law collections maintenance services, elimination of
    contracts providing GLIN data development and program support, and
    scaling back technological enhancements to the Law Library Multi-Media
    Center.
                       future projects and resource needs
        The Library's budget formulation process highlighted other highly
    critical activities that support the Library's customers, to increase
    the use of the Library's digital resources to promote knowledge and
    better world understanding and increase use of Library resources to
    inform scholarly, educational, and public-policy discourse. However, we
    chose not to bring forward a number of these important activities as
    requests for funding in this budget.
        The New Library of Congress Experience will give a greatly expanded
    number of visitors the opportunity to experience expanded exhibits and
    learn interactively from the breadth of our collections and knowledge
    of our curators and staff, all at the end of the passageway from the
    United States Capitol through the New Capitol Visitors Center. The
    journey will begin with a new orientation experience and travel though
    the Great Hall, as various new gallery spaces and educational content
    are delivered through state-of-the-art technology that will greatly
    enhance the in-person experience. To fulfill this journey, the Library
    will need to hire new specialized staff and create new systems,
    applications and interactive components to integrate and deliver
    complex technological services. In fiscal 2009, the Library will do
    what is possible with available resources and the significant private
    funds we have raised to implement these plans. However, given the scope
    of this effort, the Library will need to seek congressional support for
    the New Library of Congress Experience in fiscal 2010.
        Demand for online services, increased pressure on web services
    operations to enhance THOMAS, the World Digital Library (WDL), and the
    Legal Information Services (LIS) databases, and the need to develop new
    configurations and applications have severely strained technical
    assistance and infrastructure support provided by the Office of
    Strategic Initiatives (OSI) and Information Technology Services (ITS).
    Since 1995, THOMAS has provided free legislative information on the
    web. Our congressional and public constituencies have for several years
    been requesting upgrades to both THOMAS and LIS to enhance content and
    searchability. Again, the Library will attempt to use the prioritizing
    tools of the Strategic Plan to address these demands with existing
    resources. However, the IT and digital demands on the Library will need
    support from the Congress in fiscal 2010 to sustain the Library's
    ability to provide services to the Congress and its constituents.
                                   conclusion
        2008 will be an exciting year in which our outstanding, dedicated
    staff will be working to build a new constituency for the Congress's
    Library. We will transform with mostly private funding the public
    spaces of the Jefferson Building into a learning center for the large
    number of visitors who will be coming when the Capitol Visitors Center
    opens; we will begin operations in the magnificent new National Audio-
    Visual Conservation Center made possible by the unprecedented gift of
    more than $150 million by the Packard Humanities Institute and funding
    from the Congress; and we will begin putting online, with the support
    of UNESCO and a number of other national libraries, a World Digital
    Library of primary cultural documents in seven languages.
        Madam Chair, we recognize that difficult choices will continue to
    have to be made during this time of extraordinary budget constraints.
    But this Library is an essential part of our knowledge-based democracy.
    I ask for your support for our modest funding request for fiscal 2009
    and look forward to working with this committee to craft a budget for
    fiscal 2010 that will sustain the Library's historic mission of serving
    the Congress and the Nation.
                                     ______

    Prepared Statement of Ambassador John O'Keefe, Executive Director, Open
                            World Leadership Center
        Madam Chairwoman, Senator Alexander, and other members of the
    subcommittee, I appreciate the opportunity to submit testimony on the
    Open World Leadership Center's budget request for fiscal year 2009. The
    Open World Leadership Center, of which I am the Executive Director,
    conducts the only exchange program in the U.S. legislative branch and
    has hosted more than 13,000 emerging leaders from Russia, Ukraine,
    Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Georgia, Moldova, Lithuania,
    Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, our newest country. All of us at Open World
    are very grateful for the continued support in the legislative branch
    and for congressional participation in the program and on our governing
    board. We look forward to working with you on the future of Open World.
        Over the past 8 years, Open World delegates have had the
    opportunity to meaningfully engage and interact with an estimated
    120,000 Americans throughout the United States in professional, theme-
    focused programming that increasingly emphasizes continuing projects
    and partnerships. More than 6,000 American families and individuals in
    all 50 States have hosted the visiting participants. And in 2007 alone,
    the home hosting of Open World participants by dedicated Americans in
    187 different congressional districts saved the Center an estimated
    $1.8 million in per diem accommodation and meal costs. Over the life of
    the program, Open World has awarded more than $32 million in grants to
    hosting organizations located in every region of the country.
        Open World's impact on program participants is captured in the
    following statement by a Russian alumna from Orenburg who studied
    issues related to HIV/AIDS during her visit to Des Moines, Iowa, in
    2006: ``Upon return to Russia, I implemented several HIV preventive and
    treatment approaches. I was aware of these approaches prior to the Open
    World trip but it was only after seeing these efficiencies demonstrated
    in practice in the United States that I was able to actually implement
    them at home. To sum it up, the Open World trip to the U.S. confirmed
    for me the realistic possibility of implementing these very important
    measures in Russia.'' The alumna, who is a doctor specializing in
    infectious diseases, met with various professional counterparts in
    Iowa, including an HIV/AIDS outreach specialist at the Polk County
    Health Department and the executive director of the AIDS Project of
    Central Iowa.
        Open World has a track record of identifying tomorrow's leaders
    today. For example, Open World alumni make up 10 percent of the newly
    elected Russian State Duma. I believe part of Open World's secret for
    identifying leaders on the rise is its strategy of targeting all
    regions in Open World countries, not just the major cities. In Russia,
    the country with the largest and oldest Open World program, 80 percent
    of Open World alumni live outside Moscow and Saint Petersburg. We also
    select relatively young delegates--their average age is 38.
        Program participants come to discuss topical issues of mutual
    interest and benefit, such as ways of treating post-traumatic stress
    disorder among war veterans, preventing the spread of avian flu,
    furthering the rights of women and children, and protecting the
    environment. Mayors and city council members see firsthand how our
    elected officials respond to constituents. All our delegates work with
    American hosts and peers who share their interests and are often eager
    to partner with them on collaborative projects. For example, when Open
    World first partnered with Rotary International in 1999, there were 33
    Rotary clubs in Russia. Today there are 87 clubs and 21 Rotaracts.
        Since August 2007, when we began a concerted effort to track post-
    visit successes, Open World has identified approximately 100
    collaborative projects, partnerships, and other concrete post-visit
    results each month. Some illustrative examples.
                         calendar year 2007 highlights
    Russia
        Open World hosted 1,165 Russian participants in calendar year 2007.
    Delegates came from 77 of Russia's then 85 regions and represented a
    wide range of ethnic groups. Women accounted for 57 percent of the
    delegates. These participants were hosted in 45 U.S. States and the
    District of Columbia. Open World's civic hosting themes were
    accountable governance, rule of law, and social issues.
        Many exchanges focused on issues of importance to both countries.
    For example:
          A group of 16 nonproliferation experts visited the U.S.
            Department of Energy national laboratories in Tennessee and
            Washington State. As a result of the visit, an American
            Material Protection, Control, and Accounting (MPC&A) contract
            with a Russian entity that was due to expire in 2007 was
            renewed for 2008, thereby enhancing control of nuclear
            materials, including weapons-grade uranium and plutonium.
            Another delegate who is a senior instructor in the
            International Relations Department at St. Petersburg State
            University has been selected by the university to teach a
            course on nonproliferation policy, which would be the first-
            ever such course in a Russian university.
          In March 2007, Open World hosted Russian epidemiologists and
            community health planning leaders who worked with their
            counterparts in North Carolina on the preparation of a template
            to assist small to medium-size communities around the developed
            world in planning for, and responding to, outbreaks of
            catastrophic disease.
          A delegate active in anti-human trafficking efforts was offered a
            $48,000 grant by her U.S. hosting organization at the
            completion of her 2007 Open World exchange to Arlington,
            Virginia. The September 2008-September 2009 grant, which is
            likely to be renewed annually, will support the new Center for
            the Study of Organized Crime and Corruption in Stavropol and
            its research on border security issues and irregular migration
            patterns that promote terrorism, human trafficking, and labor
            exploitation. The associate director of trafficking victims'
            assistance programs at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops,
            along with two Montgomery County, Maryland, detectives who met
            with this delegate while she was in the United States, visited
            Russia in April. The delegate helped arrange for the Americans
            to speak at numerous events, including a gathering of top-
            ranking police officers from Russia's Southern Federal
            District, and a colloquy of students and faculty from the
            Stravropol University of the Russian Ministry of Interior.
          Another delegate visited United Cerebral Palsy of Pittsburgh,
            Pennsylvania, and was inspired to organize a daycare program
            for children with cerebral palsy in Volgograd, Russia. She
            subsequently received the Russian Presidential Award and a
            grant of $35,000 for establishing the program.
          Four Russian mental health experts who counseled children and
            families affected by the 2004 Beslan school attack spent the
            evening of December 20, 2007, sharing experiences and
            strategies for healing in a Lancaster County, Pennsylvania,
            home with members of the Amish community who had suffered from
            the Nickel Mines school shootings in October 2006. Grandparents
            of one of the victims were among those who took part in the
            profoundly moving session. Post-traumatic stress disorder
            (PTSD) was the focus of a second Russian team hosted at the
            same time by the University of Massachusetts Medical School in
            Worcester, Massachusetts. Three of the Worcester delegates had
            assisted Beslan survivors and continue to specialize in crisis
            counseling; the fourth treats military veterans of the conflict
            in Chechnya. During their Massachusetts visit, the delegates
            worked with some of America's leading academic and clinical
            experts in PTSD--including several Veterans Administration
            specialists--and shared their own professional experiences in
            the North Caucasus. Potential results of these visits include
            journal articles, reciprocal visits by U.S. mental health
            experts, and curriculum sharing between U.S. and Russian
            institutions.
        The past year also saw impressive achievements produced by
    participants in earlier Open World exchanges. Below are just a few
    examples:
          Thanks to two Open World alumnae, the City of Ulan-Ude declared
            2007 ``The Year of Civic Initiatives'' and allocated 2.8
            million rubles (approximately $106,000) to 32 local NGOs to
            organize 100 different activities and programs throughout the
            year. One of the alumnae, an Ulan-Ude city administrator, was
            inspired to launch this campaign by learning about the work of
            Louisiana Eastern European Adoptive Families and other
            Louisiana nongovernmental community organizations during a 2005
            Open World exchange. She involved a second alumna, the first
            deputy chairperson of her department, to help get the campaign
            off the ground. As part of the initiative, the Ulan-Ude city
            administration established an association called Family whose
            goal is to develop a foster-homes program to help orphans
            integrate into society.
          This winter, cultural program alumnus Arkadiy Babchenko's award-
            winning book ``A Soldier's War in Chechnya,'' an account of his
            experience as a young soldier in Russia's Chechen wars, was
            published in translation in the United States. Critics have
            compared the book to ``All Quiet on the Western Front'' and
            Michael Herr's ``Dispatches''.
          Another Russian alumna-author, Kseniya Golubovich, was one of 30-
            plus foreign writers to take part in the 2007 Fall Residency of
            the University of Iowa's renowned International Writing Program
            (IWP), thanks to a coveted fellowship she won while on a 2006
            Open World cultural exchange hosted by IWP. Golubovich writes
            essays on life in modern Russia for several newspapers and
            journals, and publishes in a variety of genres. During her
            fellowship she finished her second novel; met with a high
            school creative-writing class; gave readings and talks at the
            University of Iowa, Northwestern University in Evanston,
            Illinois, and Harvard University; was invited to serve as a
            presenter for an IWP-sponsored film series; and worked with
            university students and faculty.
          More and more Open World hosts are organizing visits to build
            ongoing ties with their Open World counterparts and other
            contacts. In 2007, 71 American judges and legal professionals
            visited Open World alumni in Ukraine and Russia. In another
            example, the Los Alamos (New Mexico)-Sarov Sister Cities
            Initiative, a regular Open World host organization, coordinated
            the reciprocal visit in June 2007 of four Los Alamos
            firefighters and police officials to Sarov, a city closed to
            most foreigners and Russians. There the Americans consulted
            with counterparts on specialized procedures for fighting forest
            fires in a nuclear city.
    Ukraine
        The new government seeks closer ties to Europe and the United
    States and, with a substantial grant from the Millennium Challenge
    Corporation, has begun a program to reduce corruption in the justice
    system and reform education. Ukraine is a pivotal state in the region,
    faced with pressures from east and west. Open World's program
    supplements Ukraine's efforts to move toward more accountability and
    transparency at all levels of government.
        Open World welcomed 255 current and future Ukrainian leaders in
    calendar year 2007, accomplishing wide geographic representation (25 of
    27 Ukrainian regions), hosting delegations across the United States (24
    States and the District of Columbia), and enrolling a high percentage
    of women delegates (49 percent). The Open World hosting themes for
    Ukraine in 2007 were accountable governance, NGO development, rule of
    law, and elementary and secondary education. Twenty-four Ukrainian Open
    World alumni took part in a major international forum entitled
    ``Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic Future,'' held in Kyiv June 11-13. Forum
    sponsors included the Center for U.S.-Ukrainian Relations, the
    Democratic Initiatives Foundation, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, and
    the NATO Information Center/Ukraine. The alumni were invited to share
    the impact of their U.S. visits during forum sessions. Open World
    alumni in attendance included government officials, judges,
    journalists, human rights and democracy advocates, and NGO leaders. A
    conference organizer said that the Open World alumni ``were the most
    articulate and best organized group at our . . . event.''
    Expansion Countries
        Open World hosted 130 emerging leaders from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
    Moldova, Georgia, and Azerbaijan in 2007. Participants included
    parliamentarians, environmental leaders, health specialists dealing
    with HIV/AIDS, judges, and prosecutors. One group of Tajik leaders
    involved with ecotourism visited Nevada to see how State and local
    officials and private individuals promote both ecotourism and cultural
    tourism to the State's historic mining towns. During their exchange,
    they met with Thomas Tait, a former executive director of the Nevada
    Commission on Tourism. As a result of this meeting, the U.S. State
    Department has invited Mr. Tait to Dushanbe in 2008 to discuss
    ecotourism matters further with Open World alumni and other Tajik
    leaders.
        A Kyrgyz rule of law delegation hosted in Utah had the privilege of
    taking part in a mock session of the Utah Senate with the participation
    of State Senate President John Valentine. The following is an excerpt
    from a blog post by Senator Valentine dated September 13, 2007:
          Yesterday, we had the extraordinary honor of hosting 15 people
            from Kyrgyzstan here at the Utah State Senate.
          The Kyrgyz delegation is in Utah for a week to study America's
            political processes and the Rule of Law. Senators McCoy,
            Bramble, Dmitrich and I, along with Rusty Butler of UVSC [Utah
            Valley State College], Representative Chris Herrod (who speaks
            Russian), and a few gifted staff replicated a legislative
            session and the Kyrgyz leaders played the part of Utah State
            Senators.
          They debated a mock bill, followed parliamentary procedure, tried
            to amend the bill twice, and ultimately killed it. When it was
            time to adjourn, they voted NOT to adjourn. Apparently we were
            doing something right and they wanted to stay.
          We had a great three hours. It was wonderful to spend time with
            good people from a part of the world beginning to find its way
            toward a stable democracy and self rule.
        Senator Valentine subsequently visited Kyrgyzstan with the majority
    leader of the Montana State Senate, Senator Carol Williams, in part to
    be reunited with Open World alumni. In 1999, before her election to the
    Montana Senate, Senator Williams personally hosted Open World
    delegations through Peace Links, an Open World grantee. She had this to
    say upon her return from the State Department-sponsored trip to the
    capital city of Bishkek: ``More than ever, it is important for America
    to maintain and grow our relationships in Central Asia.'' In order to
    encourage the ties that are developing between the U.S. mountain States
    and Central Asia, Senator Valentine hosted Open World's inaugural
    parliamentary delegation from Tajikistan in 2007 and plans to visit
    Dushanbe in 2008.
        The mayor of the Azerbaijani village of Jil visited Texas in 2007.
    He noticed during visits to Bellaire and West University Place that
    ``suggestion boxes'' were prominently placed to gather feedback from
    citizens on how to improve city services. He also learned that city
    administrators make their city's budget publicly available and publish
    a special bulletin for citizens with news on the city's progress. Upon
    his return to Jil, he immediately instituted all three of these ideas
    in order to increase transparency and accessibility of information to
    citizens. What is particularly notable is that Jil is only a 35-minute
    drive from the border of Iran, where there are more Azeri-language
    speakers than in Azerbaijan itself.
        The U.S. State Department Resident Legal Advisor based in
    Tajikistan, who confessed to harboring ``skepticism regarding U.S.
    taxpayer-funded visits of foreigners to the United States,'' had this
    to say after debriefing two defense attorneys who had traveled to
    Gainesville, Florida, in June 2007 on an Open World rule of law
    exchange:
          I personally knew two of [the] defense attorneys before they left
            for the United States, and ``debriefed'' them upon their return
            to Tajikistan. I was anxious to determine if their experience
            went beyond subsidized tourism. To my great pleasure I found
            that [it] had. For several hours they asked me about, and we
            discussed, critical aspects of criminal justice and Rule of Law
            that were prompted directly and exclusively by their
            ``comparative law'' experience in the United States. Their
            questions and expressions clearly indicated to me that they had
            done far more than merely take a tourist's look around. In
            addition to experiencing the general goodness of America, they
            obviously saw and absorbed what I would have wanted of them in
            satisfaction of my strict, developmental approach. This
            educational opportunity will only enhance their professional
            status in influencing change in Tajikistan. Moreover, it is
            something I could vouch for in good faith to the U.S. citizens
            who paid for it. I look forward to my continued involvement
            with Open World, confident that the foregoing experience can be
            replicated as to diverse individuals and fields of endeavor.
        Representative Larry Brown of the North Carolina General Assembly
    arranged for a delegation of newly elected Moldovan mayors to meet with
    the North Carolina Wine and Grape Council in Raleigh during a December
    2007 exchange. The U.S. hosts and delegates agreed that many of North
    Carolina's smaller wineries would benefit from Moldovan expertise in
    wine making. As a result of the meeting, the Continuing Education
    Division of Forsyth Tech Community College, the Moldovans' host
    organization, plans to launch a distance-learning course for small
    North Carolina vintners taught by Moldovan wine experts. As Suzanne
    Stafford of Forsyth Tech observed, ``The Moldovans get recognized and
    reimbursed for their expertise and the North Carolina winemakers
    improve their vintage. Everybody wins.''
    Program Administration
        In September 2007, the Center's first full audit, for the 2006
    fiscal year, was completed. The independent auditor concluded that
    ``the accompanying financial statements . . . present fairly, in all
    material respects, the financial position of the Center as of September
    30, 2006, and its net costs, changes in net position, budgetary
    resources, and financing of operations for the year then ended, in
    conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United
    States of America.'' The report also stated that the auditor's
    ``consideration of internal control over financial reporting disclosed
    no material weaknesses.''
                                     goals
        In August 2006, the Open World Leadership Center Board of Trustees
    approved a strategic plan for fiscal years 2007-2011. The Strategic
    Plan was developed using the principles of the Government Performance
    and Results Act. It incorporates a 5-year outlook for the program and
    includes the following goals:
      --Expanding the geographic scope of the Program to include Eurasia
            \1\ and the Baltic States.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        \1\ Eurasia here means Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia,
    Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan,
    and Kyrgyzstan.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        More than 43 million Muslims reside in countries where Open World
    is now active, and planned expansion into another predominantly Muslim
    country, Turkmenistan, in 2008 would increase this figure to 47.9
    million. As stated earlier, in 2007 Open World hosted 130 leaders from
    five expansion countries: Georgia and Azerbaijan in the strategically
    important Caucasus region; Moldova in Eastern Europe; and Tajikistan
    and Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia. Open World hosted its inaugural
    exchange from Kazakhstan in April 2008. Rule of law was the focus for
    all 12 delegates, including the members of an intellectual property
    rights delegation that met with a staff member of the House Judiciary
    Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property in
    Washington, DC, and then with the Motion Picture Association of America
    at the hosting site of Los Angeles. The Strategic Plan calls for Open
    World eventually to expand into all of Eurasia and the Baltic States.
      --Enhancing productivity and improving efficiencies.
        To offset increasing airfare costs, Open World has distributed
    delegate travel more evenly throughout the year in order to take
    advantage of lower fares during off-peak travel seasons. Distributing
    travel over time in this manner has the added advantage of providing
    staff more time to organize higher-quality programs. Center staff
    comprehensively reviewed all contracts and identified and implemented
    additional cost efficiencies. These cost savings will help the Center
    maintain hosting at planned fiscal year 2008 levels.
      --Continuing to enhance the quality of U.S. programming.
        Open World has streamlined the process for reviewing delegate
    program agendas and coordinating with U.S. hosting entities. The
    monitoring of hosting programs, regular communication with hosts,
    evaluative site visits, and post-visit evaluations contribute to annual
    reviews and evaluations of all program elements.
        Last year, the Center launched its new results-tracking mechanism,
    called the Client Management System (CMS), which systematically gathers
    quantitative results to measure the Open World Program's progress in
    meeting its goals.
      --Establishing a mechanism that facilitates the emergence of a
            network of leaders in the United States and Open World
            countries who have participated in the Program.
        The new Client Management System not only tracks results but
    automatically notifies Americans who have hosted Open World
    participants about results related to these individuals. Through its
    privately funded alumni program, Open World works closely with
    Americans visiting Russia and other Open World countries to facilitate
    meetings and partnerships.
        Open World's multilingual website, which includes a digital
    directory for direct, translated communications between American
    professionals and hosts and Open World delegates, fosters interactive
    communication and facilitates ongoing projects. Open World also
    operates online forums and multiple list serves for Russian alumni, one
    with news of grants, competitions, and other sources of financial
    support, the other with updates on Open World news and announcements
    and opportunities for cooperation and partnership with fellow alumni.
      --Establishing diversified funding sources.
        Open World is formulating a comprehensive development strategy and
    identifying potential funding and cost-share partners within the
    international organization community and the executive branch. The
    Board of Trustees voted in January 2008 to establish a binational
    business advisory board for the Russia program. Membership will consist
    of business leaders from both the United States and Russia who will
    advise the Center on sources of material support. The Center plans to
    partner with Russia's Federal Culture and Cinematography Agency to
    cost-share the travel to the United States of up to 200 Russian
    cultural leaders in 2008. Open World will also work to raise private
    funds to pay for 100 American cultural leaders to make reciprocal
    visits to Russia, with hosting costs to be provided by the same Russian
    agency.
                                open world 2008
        In response to congressional recommendations and directives from
    the Board of Trustees, Open World is maintaining a strong program for
    Russia and continuing its successful Ukraine program and expansion
    programs in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, and Tajikistan,
    while launching a program for Kazakhstan. We will add Turkmenistan in
    fall 2008 if funding is available. Below are just a few highlights of
    this year's activities:
        Building on the successes and results generated by past Open World
    programs on human-trafficking prevention, Open World plans to host a
    number of anti-human trafficking delegations this fall. Many of the
    delegates will come from the Far East and southern regions of Russia,
    where human trafficking is a serious problem. Open World will target
    law enforcement officials, prosecutors, judges, legislators, NGO
    officials, and legal advocates for participation. By meeting with their
    U.S. counterparts, these delegates will learn about U.S. prevention
    initiatives and have opportunities to discuss how Russian laws against
    human trafficking might be strengthened.
        The Center plans to partner with the House Democracy Assistance
    Commission to provide Open World programming to 25 Ukrainian and
    Georgian parliamentarians and parliamentary staff in 2008. We also plan
    to extend our acclaimed judge-to-judge rule of law program to our
    exchanges for expansion countries.
        Overseas, the Russian Government is considering establishing a
    mirror program to Open World. If begun, the program would be housed in
    the Russian legislative branch and would bring American political and
    civic leaders to Russia. And in May of this year, Open World will be
    holding an alumni conference in Ulyanovsk, Russia, for regional judges
    who have participated in Open World's rule of law program. The
    conference will include sessions on the adversarial principle in the
    litigation process, judicial ethics, and norms of international law,
    and on how programs such as Open World can help develop professional
    contacts and sister-court partnerships.
                              measures of success
        The Open World Leadership Center tracks the results of the Open
    World Program using eight categories, including projects, benefits to
    Americans, reciprocal visits, and partnerships. Since launching the
    results database in August 2007, Open World has identified more than
    800 such results (see attached chart).

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                        fiscal year 2009 budget request
        The Center's budget request of $13.9 million for fiscal year 2009
    is a 3.5 percent decrease from the original fiscal year 2008 request
    ($14.4 million), but a slight increase over fiscal year 2007 funding
    ($13.86 million). The funding request will enable the Center to restore
    its programming to pre-fiscal year 2008 levels and fully restore its
    proven mission of hosting young political, civic, and cultural leaders
    from Russia; maintain its important program for Ukraine; and continue
    smaller programs with select countries as approved by the Board of
    Trustees, in consultation with the subcommittee. The Board of Trustees
    believes that maintaining a robust grassroots-based Open World presence
    in Russia is necessary and important for future U.S.-Russia relations
    as Russia changes presidential administrations. Programs in expansion
    countries will account for a larger percentage of hosting than in the
    past, reflecting the growing geopolitical importance of Central Asia
    and the Caucasus. Program hosting capacity in fiscal year 2009 at the
    requested level remains far below the limit of 3,000 set in the
    Center's authorizing legislation.
        The budget request maintains hosting and other programmatic
    activities at a level of approximately 1,400 total participants. Actual
    allocations of participant slots to individual countries will be based
    on Board of Trustees recommendations and consultations with the
    committee and U.S. Embassies. The requested funding support is also
    needed to meet mandatory salary and benefit increases in fiscal year
    2009 and increased program costs due mainly to higher airfares and less
    favorable exchange rates.
        Major categories of requested funding are:
      --Personnel Compensation and Benefits ($1.367 mil)
      --Contracts ($7.691 mil--awarded to U.S.-based entities) that
            include:
        --Coordinating the delegate nomination and vetting process
        --Obtaining visas and other travel documents
        --Arranging and paying for air travel
        --Coordinating with grantees and placing delegates
        --Providing temporary health insurance for participants
      --Grants ($4.7 mil--awarded to U.S. host organizations) that include
            the cost of providing:
        --Professional programming for delegates
        --Meals outside of those provided by home hosts
        --Cultural activities
        --Local transportation
        --Professional interpretation
        --Administrative support
        On March 31, 2008, as required by Public Law 110-161, the
    Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008, the Open World Board of Trustees
    submitted a report entitled ``Potential Options for the Structure and
    Funding of the Open World Leadership Center'' to the Chairmen of the
    Senate and House Appropriations Committees. We look forward to
    discussing with you and the congressional leadership the report
    recommendations and the next steps to assure the Center's future.
                                   conclusion
        Funding the 2009 Open World Program will allow more than 15,000
    Americans to meet and work with legislators, mayors, government
    administrators, judges, environmentalists, experts in human-trafficking
    prevention, and other leaders from across Eurasia. Many of our
    participants will engage in collaborative projects and ongoing
    partnerships with their new American contacts. Program participants
    will come from countries that share more than 1,145 miles of borders
    with Afghanistan and Iran. Americans will, once again, open their doors
    to leaders from Open World countries and give generously by
    contributing an estimated $1.8 million in donated accommodations and
    meals--freeing up appropriated funding that is applied to more grants
    to U.S. organizations to host delegates.
        While these results are measurable and visible, there are
    innumerable ``soft'' benefits that merit mention. In his ``2007 Year-
    End Report on the Federal Judiciary,'' Chief Justice John G. Roberts,
    Jr., of the United States Supreme Court discusses a recent Open World-
    hosted visit to the United States by Russian Supreme Court Justice Yuri
    Sidorenko, who chairs the Council of Judges of the Russian Federation.
    Chief Justice Roberts writes that Justice Sidorenko, while visiting the
    grave of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist at Arlington National
    Cemetery, met with a group of American schoolchildren and recounted his
    friendship with the late Chief Justice, initiated during an earlier
    Open World visit, and their shared interest in the rule of law. These
    powerful ``defining moments'' occur regularly.
        The fiscal year 2009 budget request will enable the Open World
    Leadership Center to fully continue making major contributions to an
    understanding of democracy, civil society, and free enterprise in a
    region of vital importance to the Congress and the Nation. The
    subcommittee's interest and support have been essential ingredients in
    Open World's success.

             AOC deg.UTILITY TUNNELS--NUMBER ONE PRIORITY

        Senator Landrieu. Let us limit our first round of questions
    to 7 minutes each and then we will take a second round of
    questioning if necessary.
        Let me begin, if I could, with Mr. Ayers. Could you please
    explain why the utility tunnels are your number one priority
    and what the consequences would be if we are unable to provide
    the $127 million for the utility tunnel project?
        You might also want to take a second to explain in this
    very, very long and detailed list that you presented
    yesterday--and we will make a copy of this--what is significant
    about the top 10 projects that total $148 million.
        Mr. Ayers. Thank you, Madam Chairman. I am happy to do
    that.
        First, of course, the utility tunnels are our number one
    project for a number of reasons. One, there are some serious
    safety deficiencies there that need to be corrected
    immediately. So that is first and foremost.
        Second, we have a complaint from the Office of Compliance,
    which is essentially an enforcement action requiring us to
    correct those issues.
        Third, we have entered into an agreement with the Office of
    Compliance whereby we abate all of the known hazards in those
    utility tunnels by June 2012, a 5-year time period. In order to
    do that, this is the funding level needed in fiscal year 2009
    for us to meet our obligations of that agreement.

     AOC deg.OFFICE OF COMPLIANCE/OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH
                           ADMINISTRATION OBLIGATIONS

        The repercussions of not funding it at that level is that
    we will not be able to meet our obligations under that
    agreement, and we will have to extend out the term by which we
    ultimately correct the deficiencies there.
        You mentioned the top 10 projects on our priority list. All
    of those projects are fire and life safety projects, and all of
    them have citations from the Office of Compliance. So that
    gives us some indication as well as from the Office of
    Compliance, that they are very important projects and that is
    why they will ultimately flow to the top of our list.
        [The information follows:]

        However, the fact that a project has a citation is not the
    only criteria used to evaluate whether or not the project is a
    priority. The AOC has been conducting Facility Condition
    Assessments throughout the Capitol complex since 2004 to help
    us catalog and prioritize projects based on a set of objective
    criteria that allow us to evaluate the merits of each project.
    In addition, once a Facility Condition Assessment is completed
    on each facility, the information is rolled into a five-year
    Capital Improvement Plan. This is used to evaluate projects
    based on a set of pre-established criteria. These criteria
    include whether the work addresses fire and life-safety issues;
    code compliance; preservation of historic or legacy elements;
    economics and life cycle cost considerations, physical security
    and other considerations, such as environmental and energy
    efficiency.
        The projects are further evaluated based on the conditions
    of the facilities and their components, and the urgency in
    correcting the deficiencies. Projects categorized as deferred
    maintenance are the highest priority followed by capital
    renewal, capital improvement, and capital construction
    projects.

        Senator Landrieu. So, in other words, before we get to any
    of the beautification, expansion, cosmetic, and important
    architectural changes that need to be caught up, we have 10
    projects totaling what is it? $148 million I think.
        Mr. Ayers. That is correct.
        Senator Landrieu. $148 million. That is basically what the
    legislative Occupational Safety and Health Administration
    (OSHA) is saying we have to take care of before we can move on.
    And if we do not, we could be fined or--I am not sure if they
    can fine us. But there will be some actions taken for not
    complying.

               AOC deg.NONCOMPLIANCE ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS

        Mr. Ayers. That is correct. There are a variety of
    enforcement actions they can take on those, not only because
    they are the Office of Compliance. Each of these are important
    projects, ultimately, to do. They do ultimately protect life,
    safety, and provide egress from the buildings to people in the
    Capitol complex. So certainly those projects will ultimately
    show up in our priority list, whether the Office of Compliance
    issues a citation or not. Certainly the citation will help move
    them to the top of the list.

                    AOC deg.GREENING OF THE CAPITOL

        Senator Landrieu. Another question. Another issue that has
    received a lot of coverage and interest is what we call the
    greening of the Capitol--the energy efficiency measures that
    have been initiated. How are these energy efficiency savings
    gained from such initiatives? Will some savings be reflected in
    the out-year budgets? Could you give a brief comment about any
    of the specifics regarding that?
        Mr. Ayers. Our basic requirement is to comply with the
    Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 which requires all
    Federal agencies, including the Architect, to reduce energy
    consumption 3 percent per year over 10 years. That ultimately
    leads to a 30 percent reduction in 10 years.
        We recently completed the second year of that program. The
    first year we reduced energy across the Capitol complex by 6.5
    percent. The last year, we reduced it by 4 percent. We are into
    the third year of that program now, and we are implementing a
    wide variety of initiatives.
        For example, here in the Senate, we are working on a
    dimmable lighting system in many Members' offices. We have
    completed the first 10 of those and they are showing really
    good results, an energy reduction of some of them of over 50
    percent reduction in lighting load in each office. So we are
    rolling that program out and have recently received approval to
    do the next 10 Member offices.
        We are also replacing and enhancing our steam distribution
    system. We are turning off lights. We are replacing lights. We
    are being very careful about our mechanical systems that heat
    and cool office spaces, and we are also looking into public/
    private partnerships through the use of the Department of
    Energy's energy savings performance contracts. That is really
    where we are going to get the most bang for our buck by
    implementing those contracts over the course of the next
    several years.

             AOC deg.CVC SOFT OPENING--TRAFFIC CONGESTION

        Senator Landrieu. One more question to you. I am privy to
    the plans for a soft opening of the CVC. We have all been
    briefed to some extent on the soft opening of the CVC and the
    plans for the visitors to be transported basically to that
    center with some limited access to certain streets surrounding
    the Capitol. And, that there may be another drop-off point,
    perhaps at Union Station.
        Do you share with me a concern that the congestion in front
    of Union Station today might not, under its current
    configuration, be able to absorb the thousands and thousands,
    if not millions, of tourists that might be dropped off at that
    point? I know there are some plans being discussed, but what
    are your views about that, Mr. Ayers?

                     AOC deg.CVC VISITOR APPROACH

        Mr. Ayers. Well, first and foremost, in terms of visitor
    approaches to the Capitol complex to visit the Capitol Visitor
    Center and ultimately the Capitol Building, the basic principle
    is those visitor approaches are not going to change from what
    they are today. People are still going to be dropped off on the
    west front, as well as use the Metro stations that are near the
    Capitol complex. But certainly, buses will have the ability to
    drop off on the west front and then go to Union Station to
    park. They have newly established 85-space parking facilities
    for tour buses there.
        I do share your concern that without any modifications to
    the front of Union Station now, it is very congested, it is
    very confusing, and quite frankly, it is difficult for people
    to cross the street there.
        I do know that the Redevelopment Corporation has studied
    the traffic around Union Station and they have proposed a
    pretty expansive renovation of that space, and it is my
    understanding that they intend to undertake that in the very
    near future.
        Senator Landrieu. Thank you. I will have some further
    questions, but let me turn now to Senator Alexander.

                   AOC deg.PROJECT PRIORITY DEFINED

        Senator Alexander. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
        Mr. Ayers, continuing the chairman's questioning, if the
    citations did not exist, would those 10 projects still be at
    the top of your list of capital projects?
        Mr. Ayers. They would certainly be near the top. I am not
    prepared to say whether all 10 would be the first 10 on the
    list, but they would certainly be near the top. We do consider
    each one of them an important enhancement to life safety
    without a citation.
        Senator Alexander. But do you just automatically put
    something at the top of the list if the Office of Compliance
    gets interested in it?
        Mr. Ayers. I would not say it is automatic, but the
    likelihood of it reaching the top is in the high 90th
    percentile.
        Senator Alexander. The first 10 are all Office of
    Compliance citations. I used to be president of a university,
    and the accreditors would come by, say, for the law school, and
    they would say, well, to have the kind of law school we think
    you ought to have, you ought to spend all the money you have
    got on the law school, or we will do something to you. I would
    say, well, wait a minute. I was elected by the board to make
    decisions. We have an engineering school that needs some money,
    and we have a school over here that needs some money. We have
    this, that, and the other. So we had a discussion back and
    forth about that, and I did not accept everything the
    accreditors told me they thought the law school needed because
    I thought that was a big part of my job as well.
        It looks to me like you have just accepted whatever they
    said.
        Mr. Ayers. Well, that is true.

                    AOC deg.OOC PROJECT ENFORCEMENT

        Senator Alexander. Then why do we not just let them set all
    of the priorities? I mean, why do we need a priority list from
    you?
        Mr. Ayers. Well, there is a list of projects that are below
    those 10.
        Senator Alexander. So you are saying we will just let the
    Office of Compliance tell us how to spend the first--how much
    is it? $148 million.
        Mr. Ayers. Well, I believe by issuing a citation and
    ultimately a complaint, that is an enforcement action against
    my organization.
        Senator Alexander. So you are saying every citation
    requires you to put that in the top priority. You just
    automatically put it there.
        Mr. Ayers. Ultimately those are going to quickly go to the
    top of the list, yes, because it is the law. It is an
    enforcement action, and we are required and compelled to do it.
        [The information follows:]

        As I noted earlier, the fact that a project has a citation
    is not the only criteria used to evaluate whether or not the
    project is a priority. We use our Facility Condition
    Assessments and a set of objective criteria, as well as
    consider fire and life-safety issues, historic elements,
    physical security, energy efficiency, and other important
    factors in our project prioritization process.

        Senator Alexander. But you said you negotiated with them to
    do it over a period of time. Correct?
        Mr. Ayers. We have done that on the utility tunnels, to do
    that over a 5-year period.
        Senator Alexander. What if you only had $100 million this
    year to spend on construction projects? Would these 10
    priorities still be the top 10?
        Mr. Ayers. I would say that is true.

                  CPB deg.OVERTIME FOR CAPITOL POLICE

        Senator Alexander. Chief Morse, your budget includes $30
    million for overtime spending, which amounts to 574,000 hours.
    This is an increase of about one-third over last year's
    overtime budget. Help me understand why the increase is needed,
    and once you are fully staffed, do you think there will be less
    overtime? And what about the roughly 100 vacancies for sworn
    officers you now have? Would filling those make a difference in
    that, and if so, how realistic is it to expect that they might
    be filled soon?
        Mr. Morse. With regard to the increase, we have some
    additional requirements with the ``R'' tunnel. The AOC's
    current tunnel requirement is two posts 24 hours a day, 365
    days a year. So that equates to 11 FTE's or the equivalent
    overtime.
        We also have the New Visitors Experience, the new
    requirements of 385 hours per week beginning in fiscal year
    2009.
        We have preopening and certificate of occupancy and
    inspection October 1 through November 15, 2008, which gives us
    the opportunity to go into the CVC facility and begin training
    our officers, acclimating them to the facility and all the
    operating procedures, both emergency and routine.
        We have requirements based on all our USCP personnel who
    are working 16-hour days for events and rehearsals and security
    walk-throughs for the inauguration itself.
        So those are the additional requirements that are added to
    our base overtime requirements which are the normal post
    requirements, special events, extended sessions, our dignitary
    protection travel, planned special events, and the recruit
    class offsets, which you also mentioned.
        Certainly when you meet your authorized level, the overtime
    does drop. However, to exceed that current authorized level
    also drives other expenditures related to facilities, general
    expenses, training, et cetera.

                      CPB deg.OVERTIME REDUCTION

        Senator Alexander. Well, I guess what I am getting to, are
    we going to expect to live with this amount of overtime for the
    next 5 years? Particularly with the Capitol Visitor Center?
    Once you are fully staffed, can we expect a significant
    reduction in overtime?
        Mr. Morse. Yes. From this particular, you can see a
    decrease because some of these are just new starts that will
    not be in next year's budget. The inauguration is an example,
    as is the CVC, once we are up to speed with that, the New
    Visitors Experience, and then the completion of the tunnel
    projects.
        We also have, obviously, worked very hard to develop
    operating plans to reduce overtime, and this past year we were
    able to reduce overtime by about $3 million by simply taking a
    look at the deployment of our officers in relation to hours of
    operation, the number of pedestrians or vehicles that travel
    through posts, et cetera. So with that good work, we have had a
    significant reduction, and certainly with these additional
    requirements not being there, we should see a decrease in that
    request.
        Senator Alexander. Thank you, Chief Morse.
        Madam Chairman, my time is up.
        Senator Landrieu. Thank you.
        Senator Allard.
        Senator Allard. Thank you, Madam Chairman.

                          AOC deg.OOC HISTORY

        I am thinking back as to when we set up the Office of
    Compliance, about 1994, and at the time it was set up, the
    argument was made that the Members of Congress ought to learn
    to live under the same rules and regulations that everybody
    else has to in the private sector. And here we are. The Office
    of Compliance was to bring the Congress under OSHA, just like
    all the rest. We had issues between the executive branch. We
    did not want an executive agency coming in here and telling us
    what to do. So the Office of Compliance was set up.
        Now I think we are beginning to feel some of those rules
    and regulations that the private sector has to deal with when
    they deal with an OSHA inspection.
        There is no doubt that we have a problem with the tunnel,
    and it does need to be dealt with. And I can understand why it
    is your number one priority.

          AOC deg.OOC ALTERNATIVE PLANS FOR PRIORITY PROJECTS

        Has the Office of Compliance expressed an interest in
    working with you in setting priorities if the Congress does not
    come up with the money to meet your requirements that you need
    to meet? Have they indicated which one is most critical to a
    life-threatening situation, hazard to the workers and whatnot,
    or even the public to those that may have a lesser health
    hazard, if any at all?
        Mr. Ayers. Yes, Senator. We have certainly had those
    discussions with the Office of Compliance and we could
    certainly work collaboratively to develop those priorities if
    we were not funded at those levels. I think that is a clear
    possibility.
        Senator Allard. And do you think what they required is
    necessary?
        Mr. Ayers. Yes, I do. Each one of them are projects that
    have a citation against it. I am familiar with all of them, and
    ultimately all of them need to be done.
        Senator Allard. I think it is good news if they are willing
    to work with you and work with the priorities and work with the
    Members of the Congress. It is too bad all the Members of
    Congress are not here to appreciate how some of these rules and
    regulations can impact somebody who is in business for
    themselves because it is impacting the operation right here,
    and it does upset your priorities. So I just wanted to make
    that point.

                   AOC deg.UTILITY TUNNELS--REBUILD

        The thing that surprised me is you have a $300 million
    price tag on it. That is one-half the cost of the Capitol
    Visitor Center. I am trying to think. Are you building new
    tunnels completely? When we first talked about these tunnels, I
    thought we were going in and just refurbishing and redoing
    them. This sounds like you are building completely new tunnels.
    Is that what we are doing?
        Mr. Ayers. Pretty close to that. On the ``R'' tunnel, as
    you know, from North Carolina all the way over to Constitution,
    that entire Second Street corridor needs to be completely
    excavated, curb to curb, all the way down to the floor level of
    the tunnel, which is some 30 feet deep or more in several
    areas. That is major, major construction work.
        Senator Allard. It is.

             CPB deg.UNITED STATES CAPITOL POLICE OVERTIME

        The other thing I wanted to talk a little bit about was,
    Chief Morse, I share the concern with the other members here on
    the panel about the overtime on the police officers. We have
    had this issue before here before this subcommittee. Are you
    doing an analysis? I think last time you were here we asked for
    an analysis. Would it be less expensive to bring on more
    officers who put in regular time than to carry a few officers
    with so much overtime? You understand the type of analysis. Is
    that being requested? Is anything being done in that regard to
    do that kind of an analysis?
        Mr. Morse. We have completed a manpower study that we were
    directed to do. And as a result of that, we have briefed the
    committees of oversight and we are beginning to implement that.
    But I think that the one issue that concerns me is that if we
    go above the current full-time equivalent (FTE) authorization
    that we have, it drives other cost factors, and facilities is
    one of them. We have really met our limitation of facilities
    with regard to the number of people that we have.

                    CPB deg.OVERTIME ANALYSIS STUDY

        Senator Allard. Now, once you move into the new CVC, you
    are going to have more operating space there.
        Mr. Morse. We will have more operating space, but
    unfortunately, we have already outgrown that before we have
    actually gotten into it. So the mission continues to expand,
    and with that comes people. And we have tried to be very
    resourceful in the way that we deploy our officers and change
    working hours and look at where we are spending overtime and
    how to create a better overtime environment. But the mission
    drives the need for that.
        And also, there is a lot of variables that we cannot
    control, and those are events that occur that drive overtime.
        Senator Allard. Right after 9/11, I mean, that was a
    different environment altogether. You are not anywhere near
    that as far as overtime requirement.
        But I guess the bottom line, you are telling me that your
    analysis has indicated to bring on more officers does not
    create a savings. You are operating as efficiently as you can
    with the overtime that you are paying.
        Mr. Morse. That is correct.
        Senator Allard. Have you shared that study with this
    subcommittee?
        Mr. Morse. I believe we have talked about the ELS study.
        Senator Allard. I think it would be beneficial if we could
    have this subcommittee go over those because I think it is a
    concern of the subcommittee, obviously, and one we have had.
    And I think it would pay to have the subcommittee staff at
    least review and maybe even have the Government Accountability
    Office look at it and see if they come up with the same
    assessment that you have come up with on that.

               LOC deg.LIBRARY OF CONGRESS APPRECIATION

        My time is about out. I want to conclude by thanking Dr.
    Billington for his fine work over at the Library. When I was
    chairman of this subcommittee and having been an avid user of
    the Library, I have gained a great appreciation for the
    facilities that you have there.
        We have the new facility that we built out in Virginia for
    the movies and the storage of the film and everything, and that
    is pretty well completed and everything moving well out there.
    That is the Hewlett Packard Foundation that put that in at
    their own cost.
        Now, I was thinking about the operation and maintenance of
    that. Is that built into this budget or does their trust take
    care of that? I thought we took care of the operation and
    maintenance and everything of that building once it was
    constructed.

          LOC deg.MAINTENANCE AND STAFFING OF PACKARD CAMPUS

        Dr. Billington. Well, I think it is well underway. The keys
    were turned over to us last summer. We are still ramping up the
    operation, but practically everything has been transferred out
    there, more than 6 million items. We recently acquired the
    ``CBS News'' archive, a major addition to it, which we never
    could have even contemplated taking. So it is already an
    asset----

                      LOC deg.FUND LEVEL CONCERNS

        Senator Allard. There is a lot of refrigeration over there
    in that building, and I would think that would be a cost that
    you have to deal with.
        Dr. Billington. There is, indeed.
        Senator Allard. Have you built that in?
        Dr. Billington. Maintenance costs are covered. The main
    problem we have is simply, the funds that were provided to
    fully staff it in 2008 are not there for 2009. So we have a
    request for the funding to get the campus up to the full
    operational level. This is extremely important because this is
    not just a question of entertainment. This is a question of
    information that is available on television, on radio, on
    recorded sound, as well as in films, documentaries, all kinds
    of media. We have been able, thanks to a successful private/
    public relationship, to bring these collections and services
    all together. We are ramping up the various machinery and
    mechanisms. We would love to give you and other Members a tour.
    It was not only more than $150,000 from the Packard Foundation,
    but a great deal of expertise, as David Woodley Packard is
    probably one of the world's experts on this. Of course, we have
    very talented staff.
        The major thing that has not been covered is staffing.
    There was a 5-year plan agreed on, you remember, going back to
    the time that you were in the chair, which has been kept up
    faithfully. Based on this plan we have been able to move things
    out there, including all the 10 employees from the motion
    picture and recorded sound section in Dayton who now are safely
    relocated. We brought in collections from four different States
    where this stuff was stored. So we now have it all together,
    finally fulfilling a mandate that dates back to 1976 to create
    a national archive for radio and television, in addition to the
    movies and recorded sound.
        Our major need is just to get funding for the staffing that
    was part of the plan all along, but which for technical reasons
    is not in the 2009 budget. The cost is about $1.7 million to
    get those staff on board. With that funding for staff, we will
    be all set basically.
        There is an agreement to cover ongoing maintenance, thanks
    to the cooperation of the Architect of the Capitol. And it has
    been a wonderful three-way relationship to transform the
    campus. The Packard people have landscaped it. It has been very
    well accepted in the community. It is going to be a major force
    not just for preserving our audiovisual heritage. It is the
    biggest and most technologically sophisticated facility of its
    kind in the world, and we are actually making the collections
    more available through it for study, to be able to answer
    questions from the Congress about what was on television x,
    what was on radio y.
        All we need in terms of the appropriations process is to
    make sure that we have in the 2009 budget enough to bring on
    the key staff as was intended from the beginning.
        Senator Allard. Thank you.
        Madam Chairman, I know my time is out, but I think he said
    they spent $150,000. It is $150 million.
        Dr. Billington. $150 million.
        Senator Allard. Yes. We will get that inserted in the
    record correctly. I think that is what you said.
        Dr. Billington. I am sorry.
        Senator Allard. Yes, I think that was.
        Dr. Billington. $150 million.
        Senator Allard. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
        Senator Landrieu. Thank you, Dr. Billington.

                 CPB deg.CVC SECURITY--TRANSPORTATION

        Let me begin, Chief Morse, with my second round on the
    question I brought up, just to clarify. We have spent $600
    million-plus on a visitor center. The entrance was designed to
    be on First Street, on East Capitol basically. East Capitol
    comes right into the complex. And now I understand through a
    security analysis that you all have conducted, that dropping
    visitors off on First Street will probably not be able to occur
    because of the potential threat of the cargo space in and
    around many of these vehicles.
        So, again, the Architect spoke to this, but would you
    comment about some ideas that you might have about how to make
    this a pleasant experience for the millions of people that come
    to this Capitol? It is not just for those of us that work here
    and call it our office, but for the millions of people who
    actually own it and would like to get in to see it as
    conveniently as possible, what do you think might work to try
    to help resolve this, if we do decide that First Street cannot
    be reopened?

                  CPB deg.LARGE VEHICLE RESTRICTIONS

        Mr. Morse. I think that there are a lot of other issues
    around buses in the District of Columbia and tourists than just
    the security component. Certainly the assessment was conducted
    and there is a risk there that was presented and the decision
    was to restrict buses, large vehicles, trucks, et cetera, to
    traverse the Capitol grounds. But we still allow public
    conveyance, Metro, Maryland and Virginia transportation,
    commuter transport, circulator system, along with sightseeing
    and taxi cabs and private vehicles.
        But one of the other components of buses into the city was
    that they had no place to park, and they had no place to
    traverse around the city other than the neighborhoods. And they
    had no place to drop passengers off in inclement weather. They
    had no place to spend time when perhaps a sightseeing
    attraction was not available at the time.
        So Union Station was just one option that was looked at as
    a hub for bus parking, as well as the other amenities that it
    provides. And the recommendations that were made were to also
    provide transportation from that location that would drop off
    at the visitor center itself.

                    CPB deg.TRANSPORTATION OPTIONS

        Senator Landrieu. So, in other words, people would get off
    a tour bus and get onto a circulator or another tour vehicle
    and then approach the Capitol through the First Street, East
    Capitol side of the Capitol.
        Mr. Morse. That would be certainly one method, and then you
    have Metro there. And we are also surrounded by two other Metro
    stations. Also, the circulator proposal is also blended in with
    the other major attractions in the city. So there are many
    forms of transportation to the CVC, and as Mr. Ayers described
    it earlier, the current bus drop-off down in the southwest,
    First and Maryland Avenue, and the pick up at First and
    Pennsylvania will still exist, and we think----
        Senator Landrieu. But that is a walk up the hill. Right?
        Mr. Morse. Yes, ma'am.

                  CPB deg.ACCOMMODATING CVC VISITORS

        Senator Landrieu. And we have so many seniors that visit
    this Capitol, and we have many disabled individuals that visit
    and a lot of parents with small children, so I think we have to
    be very careful. And I want to work very closely with all of
    you to come up with the very best way to get the citizens of
    this country, all of them, rich and poor and young and old,
    into this building safely, thus providing them the most
    enjoyable and enlightening and educational experience possible.
    And, then to move them out, and to do it with the good will of
    the neighborhoods. The city has a lot to say, and the local
    neighbors, of course, about how all this works.
        It is going to take effort, and it is going to take some
    money to make these changes because this is a huge investment
    that we have made in the visitor center. We want it to work
    from the beginning through the end of a person's visit. It is
    not just to make their visit to the Capitol better, but
    actually more safe. I will come back to that.
        Let me ask you one more question, and if the Senator will
    allow me, I have two questions to Dr. Billington--actually
    three.

                      CPB deg.COMMUNICATION ISSUE

        The radio proposal you submitted--could you just comment
    about the cost? I understand you just received a report. Could
    you comment about that, please? Your hand-held radios.
        Mr. Morse. Sure. The radio system proposal was a priority I
    made last year. We have a 25-year-old system that is analog and
    is in severe need of repair. Also, we are experiencing either
    hardware or interruptions at least once a week, as well as the
    lack of encryption and interoperability. We feel that in order
    to facilitate the business of the Congress and the safety of
    our officers and the complex, that we need a system that is
    enhanced and that covers all those capabilities.
        Senator Landrieu. How much is this system going to cost,
    and is it interoperable with the police forces in the region,
    specifically the District, Maryland, Virginia, et cetera?
        Mr. Morse. The system is and will be interoperable with
    local and Federal, State, municipalities that would assist us
    in a critical situation here at the campus. It also enables
    us--we are a very unique organization in that we have
    subterranean locations that we have to operate within. The
    actual procurement--from a procurement standpoint, they are
    telling me that it would be procurement sensitive.
        Senator Landrieu. You have not put an RFP out?
        Mr. Morse. Right.
        Senator Landrieu. So it is going to be an expensive system,
    but we are working toward an interoperable system. Obviously, I
    have had firsthand experience with the disasters of Hurricanes
    Katrina and Rita and the communications system collapsing, and
    we most certainly do not want that to happen again under any
    circumstance.
        One question to Dr. Billington. Then I will turn it over to
    Senator Alexander.

              LOC deg.DIGITAL TALKING BOOK IMPLEMENTATION

        Could you just explain the difference in how you will be
    able to conduct this digital talking book project? We have only
    been able to fund this project at $12 million a year for 6
    years, which is $72 million. The request from the advocacy
    group was $20 million over 6 years. So it is going to be $12
    million, which was originally requested. Can you just briefly
    explain the differences in either the level of service or what
    you are going to be able to do at the reduced amount of $12
    million a year?
        Dr. Billington. The difference between a 4- and 6-year
    program.
        Senator Landrieu. Yes.
        Dr. Billington. Well, each year, 120,000 analog players
    must be replaced because of equipment breakdowns. In the course
    of the 6-year transition program, actually we would have, even
    under the 6 years, more than enough digital players produced
    annually to replace the failed analog players.
        The problem is more in titles and so forth. Currently 2,000
    new titles are made available on analog cassettes each year.
    There will be fewer new titles in the digital format,
    particularly initially. By the sixth year of the transition
    program, we will be back at the same level of producing 2,000
    current digital titles per year. This is under the present
    system, which is actually $13.5 million a year including funds
    appropriated in 2005. But during this transition period we will
    closely monitor actual usage of both new and retrospective
    digital talking books and would modify the implementation plan
    to best meet the needs of the blind community.
        What it would require in financial terms to go from a 6 to
    a 4 year implementation would be an increase of $9 million a
    year over the next 3 years, including the one before us, or a
    total increase in the appropriation of $27 million over the
    $13.5 million a year as it now stands.
        Senator Landrieu. Well, I would like to continue to visit
    with you. And I was mistaken. It is whether it is going to be
    over a 4-year or a 6-year period. So it is a $72 million
    project, whether it is done over 6 years or 4 years.
        Let me just ask one more and then I will turn it over to
    Lamar.

         LOC deg.GROWING COLLECTIONS AND STORAGE REQUIREMENTS

        Part of what is driving some of the cost of the Library is
    the collection policy of actually 10,000 new items daily, I
    understand from what I read, coming into the Library. At this
    rate of growth, how soon will your existing storage facilities
    be filled? How much additional storage will be needed, and has
    the Library given any thought to re-examining and narrowing its
    collection policies to be more selective about what it
    collects? And I know that is a long question with several
    parts, but if you could limit your response to 1 or 2 minutes
    and you can follow it up with some written testimony.
        Dr. Billington. The question, Madam Chair, then is should
    we find some way of reducing that number.
        Senator Landrieu. Is it 10,000 items a day?
        Dr. Billington. Well, it is 8,000 to 10,000. It varies, but
    we have had over 2 million a year. We have 240 terabytes of
    stored information in the Library in addition. This is the
    world's most universal collection, and it is very hard to
    predict what future Congresses or even this Congress are going
    to want or what the scholarly world, which is very heavily
    concentrated in America, will most benefit from.
        We could, of course, re-examine that. It would change the
    fundamental mission at a certain point. It does not mean we
    collect everything. Actually we get somewhere between 20,000
    and 22,000 items a year--a day, rather. These are not all
    bought, by the way. Most of these come on exchange or on
    copyright deposit or otherwise are free--so this is an
    enormous, unique collection device of the world's knowledge.

                    LOC deg.STORAGE CAPACITY RATING

        Senator Landrieu. And our storage capacity. How would you
    rate it? Pretty good?
        Dr. Billington. The storage capacity is being expanded,
    thanks to the Fort Meade program. That has been delayed,
    stretched out, as almost everything we have has been stretched
    perhaps longer than we would like.
        We are currently actually examining and evaluating our
    acquisitions policy for both artifactual and for digital
    information. We will probably make a change. In fact, we are
    working with the GAO to study this problem.
        We are also studying current storage usage. But the plan,
    even though it has been delayed--the Architect of the Capitol
    has worked very effectively to expand storage at Fort Meade. We
    have ample storage capacity at the new Culpeper center for the
    audiovisual materials. We are studying this and we will be
    happy to get back to you on it. And I appreciate your asking.
        Senator Landrieu. Thank you.
        Dr. Billington. The one thing about acquisitions--the
    reason that we do it and one of the very few constraints, along
    with this Culpeper staffing, that we have to really worry
    about--is, if you do not acquire the things the first time
    around, you do not have a second chance in most cases.
        Senator Landrieu. It is very complicated, I know.
        Dr. Billington. One other thing I would say is that the
    Library of Congress uniquely collects things that other
    libraries do not, some via our overseas offices which we must
    maintain--that is another one of the areas of programmatic
    necessity--to sustain the overseas offices.
        Senator Landrieu. Well, thank you so much.

              LOC deg.TRANSITION TO DIGITAL TALKING BOOKS

        I think Senator Alexander has one final question.
        Senator Alexander. I have one. I am glad the chairman asked
    about the digital books. I can remember, as my mother lost her
    eyesight, how valuable back then the cassettes were for her. So
    we will watch that carefully and do our best to try to provide
    as much funding as we can to help it move along rapidly.
        Will there be any gap in service as you go from cassettes
    to digital talking books?
        Dr. Billington. There is going to be a reduction in
    numbers, that is, numbers of available books. There will be the
    transition between the old cassettes and the new digital
    machines. There is always some awkwardness of having to use
    both, or having to substitute one for the other without the
    full number of books. There will be some problems.
        But there are a lot of things that have to be determined.
    You may remember last year when the $12.5 million was
    appropriated from both Houses, we did the exceptional thing of
    introducing an appeal to restore it to $15 million, which would
    have shortened the timeframe to about 5 years.
        It is true for many blind people this is their principal
    asset. This is the principal means, really the only means, of
    reading for many of them. It is also true and not widely
    realized that blind people read a lot more than sighted people.
    This is an important area.
        We want to study it very carefully. We want to make sure we
    have plenty of feedback, whatever the Congress determines----
        Senator Alexander. Well, I know you are working hard on it.

                   LOC deg.ABSORBING MANDATED COSTS

        Dr. Billington. The only other thing I would say is that,
    in general, we have been so tight with what we submitted to you
    this year that we have erred on the side of caution, because we
    really cannot transfer unfunded mandates. Mandated pay raises
    are unavoidable. We really do not have much give in the system
    anymore considering how much more we are doing in all respects.
    If it turns out that we receive an increase in one area,
    something over what we have been led to believe is possible
    from the overall budgetary point of view, we really just cannot
    absorb that from elsewhere in the overall budget. I have not
    made such an argument before in 20 years of testifying, but we
    are really reaching a point where, if a requirement is added,
    you cannot assume the Library can absorb it.
        Senator Landrieu. Well, I can assure you this subcommittee
    is going to be very sensitive, when we ask you to add things or
    the Congress, to the underlying mission of the Library, which
    is unique and very special. And we are very sensitive to that.
    Both of us will be.

            AOC deg.CVC TEMPORARY CERTIFICATE OF OCCUPANCY

        I have one more question that I really need to ask about
    the CVC, if I could, to you, Stephen. When do you believe that
    we could have a soft opening of the visitor center? Because I
    know this has been long awaited. We are all anxious to have it
    open as soon as possible. When are you saying that we could at
    least have a soft opening for it?
        Mr. Ayers. We intend to have the temporary certificate of
    occupancy on July 31, and we are very confident in that date.
    It is after that date that Ms. Rouse, our CEO for visitor
    services, will begin moving her staff into the facility and the
    police will begin moving in. She has always anticipated, as the
    entire team has anticipated, that there will be 90 days of sort
    of this ramp-up period from July 31 up through October. So I
    think it is later in that timeframe that we could have a soft
    opening.
        Senator Landrieu. So you will get your certificate July 31,
    and you feel very confident about this.
        Mr. Ayers. Yes.
        Senator Landrieu. And then some time, of course, to have
    the staff move in and have the opportunities for a soft
    opening.
        And the Rules Committee, I think, is working with our
    committee to plan some of this procedure, both the House and
    the Senate. So we will look forward to working with all of you
    on that.

                         ADDITIONAL COMMITTEE QUESTIONS

        I have several other questions, but because of the time and
    Senator Alexander had to leave to go to the floor, I am going
    to go ahead and recess the meeting, submit the rest of my
    questions.
        [The following questions were not asked at the hearing, but
    were submitted to the agencies for response subsequent to the
    hearing:]
                    Questions Submitted to Stephen T. Ayers
                Questions Submitted by Senator Mary L. Landrieu
        Question. The AOC has requested $33,625,000 for CVC operations,
    including activities related to the opening of the facility later this
    year. Are any of the activities you requested funding for not currently
    authorized?
        Answer. The legislation authorizing specific operations within the
    Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) and the transfer of certain functions to
    the AOC is still pending, thus direct authority for such operational,
    organizational, and other certain funding of CVC needs is not in place.
    In the interim, authority is derived, in part, from the AOC's existing
    authority to receive funding to perform its necessary functions.
    Funding the operations of the CVC--as a division of the AOC--is a
    necessary function. Authority is also derived, in part, from the
    legislation authorizing the appointment of the CEO of Visitor Services
    (H.R. 2206, Sec 6701), and the ``Four Leaders Letter'' (March 30, 2007)
    to the AOC from Congressional leadership directing that the AOC perform
    necessary actions to ensure the opening and operation of the CVC in the
    absence of specific legislation.
        Enactment of the pending CVC legislation is necessary to perform
    certain functions such as operating the gift shop with a revolving
    fund, contracting for the operation of the restaurant, providing
    insurance for non-Government exhibit artifacts, and transferring
    management responsibilities and funding for the Capitol Guide Service.
    In addition, the AOC has requested funding in fiscal year 2009 for
    items such as interpreters, graphic design services, and public
    educational programs. The AOC is working with Congressional Oversight
    Committees to gain approval for these efforts.
        Question. The AOC estimates the need for $240,000 for graphic
    design services for books and brochures that cannot be accomplished
    through the GPO. What specifically cannot be accomplished through the
    GPO and what is the basis of this estimate?
        Answer. Recently, the AOC's Office of Visitor Services staff has
    met several times with the GPO to gain a better understanding of the
    services that the GPO offers. Any gift shop design services or
    additional printing services (with the GPO but not funded by the
    Capitol Printing and Binding appropriation) will be paid for out of the
    gift shop ``seed'' funds or the revolving fund. The CVC believed it was
    possible that there may be CVC operational graphic design services that
    the GPO would not be able to provide, or special operations brochures
    that would be disallowed under the Capitol Printing and Binding
    appropriation, and thus would need to be paid for out of the CVC
    operations budget. We will be meeting with Senate staff within the next
    few weeks to discuss what types of operational printing can be paid for
    out of the Capitol Printing and Binding appropriation and then will
    provide detailed briefings to Oversight and Appropriations staff. The
    original estimate was based on knowledge of printing costs for other,
    non-Government museums.
        Question. Please provide details associated with an estimated
    $800,000 for ``extended hours'' of the CVC.
        Answer. At the time of the fiscal year 2009 CVC budget submission,
    it was not yet determined how many days per week and how many hours per
    day the CVC would be open to the public. The $800,000 overtime request
    was based on an assumption that operating hours would be from 8:30 a.m.
    to 4:30 p.m., 7-days-a-week, with 20 ``peak weeks'' per year. Based on
    revisions to CVC operations plans since the budget submittal, the full
    $800,000 will not be required. However, if Members host evening events
    and CVC staff is required at these events, it is estimated that
    beginning as early as January 2009, the CVC may require additional
    payroll funds for overtime costs. Based on hosted evening events
    beginning as early as January, we estimate that approximately $200,000
    in overtime costs may be required, but this is contingent upon the
    number of events, and decisions regarding whether the exhibits, gift
    shops, and central coatrooms will be open during the events.
        Question. If the Congress was able to provide only $100 million for
    your construction budget, would you suggest that all of these funds go
    to meet citations? If the citations did not exist, would the projects
    in your budget still be the highest priorities?
        Answer. The fiscal year 2009 study, design, and construction budget
    requests reflect numerous internal reviews and were subjected to the
    AOC's project prioritization criteria and process. If only $100 million
    was provided in the fiscal year 2009 budget, the first project on the
    list--the Utility Tunnel Improvement Program--would be funded at some
    level. We are examining options to adjust the fiscal year 2009 request
    and still meet the settlement agreement deadline. We are currently
    assessing rephasing options based on additional testing and studies,
    and will brief the staffs in detail when the options are developed.
        The top 10 projects on the AOC prioritized list are citation-
    related projects. Based on our project prioritization criteria, any
    project addressing an existing citation was placed at the top of the
    list of potential fiscal year 2009 projects. Lacking the formal
    citations, all of these life-safety projects would still be required.
    Where they would have fallen within a prioritized listing is not
    certain. It is important to note that at the time the fiscal year 2009
    budget was being prepared, the Office of Compliance had rated each of
    the citation deficiencies at its highest risk code. The AOC also would
    rate these deficiencies with an appropriate degree of urgency since the
    required work for each project impacts an entire building and its
    occupants. The AOC is in the process of reassessing the fiscal year
    2009 executability of each of the top projects based on events that
    have occurred since we submitted our 2009 budget request. We will
    provide detailed briefings to Oversight staff after we complete our
    assessment. At that time, we will be able to address the question as to
    whether all of the remaining $100 million (after Utility Tunnel Project
    rephasing) would go toward citation projects.
        Question. There are no major projects included for the Senate
    Office Buildings in the fiscal year 2009 budget. Why? What are some of
    the major Senate building improvements we can expect in the future?
        Answer. Numerous Senate Office Building projects were initially
    identified for potential inclusion in the AOC's fiscal year 2009 budget
    request. However, only one of these was identified as having an
    ``Immediate Urgency,'' while the remaining projects were determined to
    have a ``High Urgency.'' Our fiscal year 2009 request included only
    those projects with an ``Immediate Urgency.'' Thus, only one Senate
    project fell above the cut-line considered for inclusion in the fiscal
    year 2009 request.
        The project initially identified for potential inclusion in the
    fiscal year 2009 request was Phase II of Infrastructure Improvements in
    the Dirksen Senate Office Building (DSOB). However, this project was
    deferred to a subsequent fiscal year because construction of its
    prerequisite project, Phase I, Infrastructure Improvements is ongoing
    and precludes a fiscal year 2009 construction start for Phase II.
    Therefore, Phase II was deferred despite its ``Immediate Urgency.'' The
    AOC anticipates funding for Phase II of the project will be requested
    in the fiscal year 2010 budget.
        Dependant upon their future placement within a list of AOC
    prioritized needs, Senate projects that may be included in the fiscal
    year 2010 request include: Citation Abatement, Russell Senate Office
    Building (RSOB); Egress Improvements, DSOB and Hart Senate Office
    Building (HSOB); Smoke Detection, HSOB; Infrastructure Upgrades, Senate
    Underground Garages; Infrastructure Modernization, DSOB; Exterior
    Envelope, RSOB; Kitchen Exhaust Upgrades, DSOB and RSOB; Skylight
    Replacement, HSOB and RSOB; South West Steps Waterproofing and
    Vestibule Addition, RSOB; Greening and Energy Reduction Initiatives;
    Air Handling Unit Modernization, HSOB; Steam Humidification
    Replacement, DSOB and HSOB; Roof Replacement, HSOB; and Senate
    Jurisdiction Master Plan Execution.
        Question. For the utility tunnel program, AOC has requested more
    than $126 million. Of this total, about $2 million is requested for
    work on the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) tunnel. Why is this project
    not covered by the CVC project funding for tunnels?
        Answer. The $2 million identified is for construction of a new
    emergency egress for the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) utility tunnel.
    One of the utility tunnel safety citations received in 2006 involved
    providing safe egress from tunnels in the case of emergency. The AOC
    and OOC, after a review of industry practice, agreed that a standard
    travel distance of 300 feet to an emergency egress meets OSHA
    requirements. The AOC adopted this standard for all of its utility
    tunnels, and therefore, the application of this new standard to the CVC
    utility tunnel required the installation of this new emergency egress.
        Funding for this new egress was not included in the original CVC
    project. Since the utility tunnel will be turned over to the Capitol
    Power Plant (CPP) for operations and maintenance, and the Utility
    Tunnel Improvement Program is funding construction of all new egresses,
    the AOC included this project in the Tunnel Improvement Program. This
    will ensure its completion within the Settlement Agreement timeframe,
    its consistency with new, required egress design standards, and
    coordination with other facets of the Program.
        Question. The AOC requests $1 million for the design of the
    relocation of the East Refrigeration Plant Chillers in the fiscal year
    2009 budget estimate. Please describe the factors that make this
    project an immediate priority. If the relocation is not funded this
    year, will the chillers still be capable of supporting Capitol Complex
    operations in the upcoming year? What are the detrimental effects, if
    any, of not moving the chillers this year?
        Answer. This project is an immediate priority because of the
    advanced age of the infrastructure of chillers 2 and 3. The East
    Refrigeration Plant (ERP) is well past its useful life. The reliability
    of all supporting systems including pumps, valves, electrical
    switchgear, and cooling units are increasingly subject to failure. As
    the infrastructure fails, in order to maintain system reliability,
    operations and maintenance costs will continue to increase and become
    potentially cost prohibitive. The two 3,000-ton ERP chillers are
    considerable investments and assets, but are underutilized in the ERP.
    Relocation of the chillers and replacement of their aged infrastructure
    will result in increased capacity, efficiencies (operating in one plant
    vs. two), and energy savings.
        The fiscal year 2009 request is to bring the relocation project to
    full design, including abatement and remediation projects in the East
    Switch Yard. Timing for this relocation project is critical and
    requires the sequential implementation of several key steps within two
    phases. The first required step is to prepare the existing bay in the
    West Refrigeration Plant Expansion (WRPE) for the incoming chillers.
    The design challenge is to accommodate the installation of two 3,000-
    ton chillers, supporting pumps, valves, and controls into an existing
    chilled water system and building structure. If the fiscal year 2009
    design relocation request is not funded, the relocation of the ERP
    chillers will be delayed and increased CPP efficiencies will not be
    realized. Costs to abate and remediate hazards will only increase over
    time if not addressed.
        The capability to continue supporting the Capitol complex without
    moving the chillers is difficult to ascertain given the precarious
    state of their support infrastructure within the ERP. When these
    chillers must be brought into service, the CPP has to operate them, as
    well as the WRPE chillers in an inefficient configuration. This results
    in increased electrical and water utility costs. During the relocation
    of the ERP chillers, the CPP must still provide continuous and reliable
    chilled water to its customers without interruption. It is less risky
    to move the chillers within a known and controlled timeframe, rather
    than be forced to shorten schedules in order to install the chillers
    within a new building with new infrastructure.
        An additional benefit to funding the project in fiscal year 2009 is
    that the eventual demolition of the ERP interior structures and
    decommissioning of switchyard and cooling towers will allow space for
    potential operational and/or energy saving projects such as heat
    recovery steam generators, gas turbines or turbo generators.
        Question. In the fiscal year 2009 Combined Requirements Chart, the
    AOC projects the need to fund the $20 million design of an in-plant
    power generation system, a cogeneration system for the Capitol Power
    Plant (CPP). AOC categorized this design project as ``High Urgency'';
    however, Congress has not officially made the decision to pursue a
    cogeneration system for the CPP. How can AOC project the need for $20
    million for the design of a project that Congress has not yet decided
    to pursue? Is this an isolated instance within AOC's projected future
    needs or are there multiple projected design costs that do not
    currently have congressional review or approval?
        Answer. These are two different issues. The AOC's identifying the
    urgency of this project from a technical standpoint in the Combined
    Requirements Chart was part of a prioritization exercise used to
    formulate its fiscal year 2009 budget request.
        The CPP cogeneration project is identified in this chart as having
    a ``High Urgency.'' This initial determination was based on the
    technical merits of the project alone, as measured against objective
    project prioritization criteria. However, the prioritization rating
    alone is not the final determinant as to whether a request is, or is
    not, included in a budget submission. Prior to a budget submission, the
    AOC's Program Development Process calls for reviews of the prioritized
    project list at numerous levels, to include the Senior Leadership Team
    and the Acting Architect. At these review levels, additional factors
    are considered beyond a project's prioritization. The AOC may add or
    move projects above or below the prioritization cutoff line for valid
    reasons outside the scope of the prioritization criteria.
        Given the current lack of Congressional approval to pursue a
    cogeneration system for the CPP, even if the cited project had been
    classified as having the higher ``Immediate Urgency'' rating, it would
    not have been included in the fiscal year 2009 Budget Submission, and
    funding has not been requested in fiscal year 2009.
        Question. What is AOC's process for scrubbing its backlog of
    capital projects? For example, if a capital improvement project
    addresses several items in the deferred maintenance (DM) and capital
    renewal (CR) backlog, what steps does AOC take to reflect these changes
    in both backlogs as well as its projections for future budget needs?
        Answer. Often, a project addressing Deferred Maintenance will also
    include Capital Improvements, as ``replacement-in-kind'' fails to take
    advantage of new technologies, opportunities to reduce energy
    consumption, or other improvements. When the majority of the project's
    scope addresses Deferred Maintenance, the project is classified as a
    Deferred Maintenance project for prioritization purposes. When the
    portion of the project addressing Deferred Maintenance is limited, and
    the majority of the project is providing for Capital Improvements, the
    project is classified as a Capital Improvement project. In either case,
    upon completion of the project, the extent to which Deferred
    Maintenance is addressed is captured in an AOC database (Facilities
    Management Assistant) and the tracked and reported backlog is reduced
    appropriately.
        The projection of future budget needs, with respect to Deferred
    Maintenance, is always in a state of change. As initiatives addressing
    a Deferred Maintenance item are completed, that item is removed from
    the backlog; however, new Deferred Maintenance items also appear in the
    database as a result of ongoing updates to the Facility Condition
    Assessments.
        Question. The AOC cited bi-annual town hall meetings with employees
    to encourage open dialogue and feedback as one of its fiscal year 2007
    significant accomplishments. However, the AOC originally established
    employee focus groups as its primary method for collecting employee
    feedback and has not conducted focus groups since 2004. The AOC
    recently reported plans to conduct the next round of employee focus
    groups concerning matters such as worker safety, for example, in early
    2008. Have these focus groups been conducted yet? If not, why not? If
    they have been conducted, what are the preliminary findings of the
    focus groups? Are AOC employees indicating that they are satisfied with
    the level of communication from AOC management and other supervisors?
        Answer. Establishing bi-annual town hall meetings was an outcome of
    the 2004 focus groups. Employees expressed a need for a ``10,000-foot
    view'' of the Agency and its operations, and the Town Hall meetings are
    designed to provide employees with the information and the opportunity
    for dialogue they requested. During the Town Hall meetings, each
    Organization Head (i.e.: Jurisdiction Superintendent for operations and
    Director/Officer for GA) gives an overview of the Agency's major
    initiatives, especially those taking place in other AOC organizations
    of which employees would be less aware. Additional information is
    provided, such as updates on new policies issued, projects started or
    completed, and employee benefits.
        The AOC originally planned to conduct another round of focus groups
    in fiscal year 2007, but those plans were put on hold due to funding
    issues under the Continuing Resolution. From April 15-25, 2008, the AOC
    held 24 employee focus group sessions at different times and days to
    accommodate all shifts and work schedules. More than 10 percent of AOC
    employees participated. Preliminary data verifies that the 226
    voluntary participants are highly reflective of the professional
    composition of the total AOC employee base. A report on the focus group
    sessions is now being finalized, and the AOC will brief its oversight
    committees on the findings from the sessions.
        Question. In its list of fiscal year 2007 significant
    accomplishments, AOC reported rolling out Management Operations
    Reporting (cost-accounting) agency-wide. While this is commendable,
    recent GAO reports have indicated that full implementation and use of
    AOC's agency-wide cost-accounting system is years away. Given that this
    effort has been underway for several years now, why is AOC's cost-
    accounting system still not fully implemented within the agency? How
    far away is AOC from fully implementing its cost-accounting system?
    Please describe where the agency is in this process and what steps
    remain to achieve full implementation.
        Answer. The MOR (cost accounting) project is a phased, multi-year
    project. The project is on schedule for full implementation of cost
    accounting by fiscal year 2010, with the use of cost accounting data
    for performance-based budgeting in fiscal year 2011. The milestone
    targets, as described in the AOC's Strategic Plan, are as follows:
    fiscal year 2007: Cost accounting introduced, pilot, and AOC-wide
    rollout (completed); fiscal year 2008: Adjustment and normalization of
    cost data (in process); fiscal year 2009: Baseline data collection (in
    planning); fiscal year 2010: Full implementation; and fiscal year 2011:
    Mature cost accounting system in-place and performance-based budget
    implemented.
        In fiscal year 2007, the AOC rolled out its cost activity taxonomy
    with more than 1,000 codes. After finding duplicative codes and
    determining that the codes did not link well to the Strategic Plan, we
    streamlined and standardized cost activity codes to approximately 300.
    In fiscal year 2008, we are adjusting and normalizing cost data,
    creating new managerial reports, and monitoring compliance. In fiscal
    year 2009, the AOC will pilot future benchmarking efforts to enable the
    organization to measure jurisdictions against one another and against
    other Federal agencies. We will introduce an indirect cost allocation
    methodology, so the full cost of work at the AOC can be measured. We
    will also integrate non-financial data (e.g. square footage) with cost
    data to provide more visibility on the cost of activities or outputs.
        The installation of business intelligence tools will play a major
    role in future reporting and benchmarking efforts. Enhanced reporting
    tools will provide better and timelier information to management. In
    fiscal year 2010 and beyond, as the AOC cost accounting and reporting
    systems continue to mature, we anticipate that managers will use cost
    accounting data to project future resource needs, identify and examine
    workload trends, allocate administrative expenses, determine unit
    costs, track workload output, measure performance, and assist with
    budget formulation and execution.
        Question. What is the status of hiring an Inspector General? When
    do you expect an IG to be on-board?
        Answer. The AOC has contracted with an executive search firm to
    conduct a nationwide search. In addition to posting a vacancy
    announcement on USA Jobs (OPM's Web site), this firm is aggressively
    recruiting passive IG candidates (network, cold call, and data mine).
    To identify potential AOC IG candidates, recruiters have reached out to
    85 contacts at various levels within a wide variety of organizations.
    The outreach efforts have yielded more than 130 potential candidate
    leads to date. The recruiting firm is now reaching out to the leads to
    determine their suitability for the AOC IG position. The AOC
    anticipates receiving a list of the top candidates to be interviewed by
    late May and selecting the new IG in early June. Arrival of the IG
    candidate will depend upon his/her current employment and location, but
    it is hoped to have the new IG on staff by late June.
        Question. AOC has requested new statutory authority regarding
    Senior Executive Service-level employees. Please describe the reasoning
    behind the 29 (now 30) positions AOC has requested? What is the status
    of AOC's development of a senior-level employee performance appraisal
    system?
        Answer. Existing AOC statutory authority at 2 U.S.C. 1849
    establishes three separate AOC executive level pay categories, (e.g.,
    one at the SES pay level; one at 135 percent of the minimum GS-15 pay
    level; and one at 95 percent of the SES pay level.). The legislation
    that the AOC has requested would create a single cadre of AOC SES
    positions paid at the established SES pay rates in accordance with
    subchapter VIII of Chapter 53, Title 5. The 29 positions identified in
    the proposed legislation was the total number of AOC executive level
    positions authorized by statute in the three AOC executive level pay
    categories. Note: That number has increased by 1, from 29 to 30 due to
    the addition of a Deputy CEO for Visitor Services for the CVC. On
    February 1, 2008, the AOC instituted a revised executive appraisal
    system that we believe meets the requirements and criteria of
    subchapter II of Chapter 43, Title 5.
        Question. In recent fiscal years, Congress has appropriated funds
    for the Architect to pursue energy efficiency studies and initiatives.
    How are energy efficiency savings gained from such initiatives
    reflected in AOC's fiscal year 2009 budget request?
        Answer. In fiscal year 2008, $400,000 ($399,000 post-rescission)
    was appropriated for energy audits. Funds were received at
    approximately the same time that the AOC had to submit its fiscal year
    2009 budget request. These energy audits have not yet been finalized;
    however, we anticipate the audits will be completed in time to consider
    a number of energy projects when developing our fiscal year 2010 budget
    request.
        The current fiscal year 2009 request includes the following
    specific energy studies: Daylight Harvesting Study; Constant Volume
    Systems Conversion Study; Existing Motor Premium Study; Retro-
    Commission Building Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning Systems,
    Phase 2 Study; Electrical Sub-Metering Study; Domestic Water Process
    Survey Study; and the Server/Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning
    Study.
        The fiscal year 2009 budget request contains the following Capitol
    Power Plant projects that are projected to generate substantial
    reductions in energy usage: Chiller Replacement, West Refrigeration
    Plant (Design); and Wickes Boiler Modernization and Controls
    Replacement, Capitol Power Plant (Design).
        Question. Has any consideration been given to the addition of a
    gift shop and snack bar/restaurant at the Botanic Garden?
        Answer. The Botanic Garden realizes that a gift shop/food service
    would provide services that are sometimes requested by our visitors,
    and has considered these options. However, the over-riding factor in
    not pursuing them is the very limited amount of available space in the
    Conservatory. The Garden is using the West Orangerie as an exhibit
    space, and at times, as a staging area. The East Orangerie has been
    retrofitted as a classroom and is used for many, varied, public
    education programs. The Garden believes that it achieves more in terms
    of mission fulfillment by providing educational programs and exhibits
    than it would by providing a restaurant.
        If the Garden were able to acquire additional space and resources,
    a gift shop and/or food service operation could be added. Both would
    require additional storage space for merchandise and safe food
    preparation, utility hook-ups, as well as sewer and sanitary
    provisions.
                                     ______

                  Questions Submitted to Dr. James Billington
                Questions Submitted by Senator Mary L. Landrieu
                        fiscal year 2009 budget request
        Question. According to your budget justification, the Library's
    senior leadership was instructed to conduct in-depth reviews of their
    programs, priorities, and current and planned projects in formulating
    the fiscal 2009 budget. This included proposals for funding cuts or
    elimination of programs. Please delineate the program cuts that were
    made in the budget formulation.
        Answer. In formulating the Library of Congress' fiscal 2009 budget,
    the Librarian asked the senior leadership to proactively identify
    projects or programs that could be cut or eliminated. While a majority
    of the offices did not make wholesale cuts of programs or projects, a
    number of offices and programs have been significantly affected by
    funding limitations. $52 million in critical new funding needs were
    identified in the early stages of fiscal 2009 budget formulation, much
    of it to address information technology infrastructure requirements.
    However these needs were eliminated from the fiscal 2009 budget
    submission in recognition of the severely constrained Federal budget
    environment.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
              Program/project/initiative                                Description                        Funding
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Information Technology Infrastructure.........  Infrastructure investment for ACF, NAVCC, Web            $21.177
                                                     Services, New Visitors Experience, and Capitol
                                                     Data Center.
    Digital Talking Books.........................  Restore funding to original 4-year implementation        $13.2
                                                     timeframe.
    Library Services Base Restoration.............  Partial restoration of fiscal 2007-2008 base cuts.        $8.998
    New Visitors Experience.......................  Enhance awareness of LoC programs and collections.        $4.423
    Facility Services.............................  Business Process Reengineering....................        $1.247
    Law Library...................................  GLIN expanded access and Law Materials............         $.540
    Human Resources...............................  Career Development................................         $.161
    Contracting...................................  Contract Specialist Support.......................         $.188
    Security......................................  Reading Room contract guards......................         $.142
    Congressional Research Service................  Enhanced Access...................................        $1.761
                                                                                                       -------------
          Total, Fiscal 2009 Funding Requirements   ..................................................       $51.837
           Eliminated from Request.
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Integrated Support Services (ISS) was unable to request needed
    resources for the Facility Design and Construction office (FD&C). The
    IG has documented inefficiencies in FD&C core business processes, space
    management practices, and resource and staff support capacities that
    could be addressed through business process reengineering and technical
    and developmental training. ISS cannot respond to the IG
    recommendations, such as developing procedural manuals and utilizing
    automated systems to improve space allocation and design, without
    sufficient resources. Additionally, necessary custodial contract
    support for Fort Meade collections Modules 3 and 4 has been unavailable
    due to a lack of resources.
        The combination of non-recurring program costs, insufficient price
    level increases, rescissions, and the need to contribute to unfunded
    mandates has left the Law Library of Congress with more than 81 percent
    of its fiscal 2008 budget dedicated to payroll costs. The Law Library,
    the smallest Service Unit within the Library, will be unable to absorb
    further funding cuts or the elimination of programs in its fiscal 2009
    budget without building significant arrearages or sacrificing key legal
    research and reference services to Congress.
        Fiscal constraints necessitated reductions in staff size and
    infrastructure investments in CRS. With almost 90 percent of the budget
    devoted to staff salaries and benefits, cuts will result in a smaller
    workforce. CRS positions are being reduced by 30 to a level of 675 FTE,
    the lowest level in 33 years. The loss of positions is being confined
    to the supporting offices to protect the analytical capabilities of the
    Service. Meanwhile, the cuts in infrastructure investments will delay
    the modernization of aging equipment and outdated capabilities. The
    hope is that this cost cutting will be transitory and not sustained in
    future years.
        Library Services' cuts were made primarily in funding to acquire
    collections identified by curators as being valuable and useful to the
    Library, and by not requesting the restoration of fiscal 2007-2008 base
    funding cuts of approximately $9 million and $13.2 million for the
    Digital Talking Book Program.
        Question. Also, please delineate all shifts in funding from one
    significant program, project, or activity to another that were made as
    part of the proposed budget.
        Answer. The fiscal 2009 budget did not include shifts in funding
    from one significant program, project, or activity to another. Rather,
    the fiscal 2009 budget request reflected fiscal restraint through
    elimination of critical funding needs, by either forgoing or seeking to
    internally fund those items or activities in fiscal 2009.
                                staffing levels
        Question. What is the actual staffing level you expect to attain
    for fiscal 2008, by Appropriation/PPA, compared to the ``authorized''
    level? What is the real increase in staffing requested for fiscal 2009,
    compared to the actual level in fiscal 2007 and fiscal 2008 (expected)?
        Answer.

                  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS COMPARISON OF FTE LEVELS, FISCAL 2007 ACTUAL--FISCAL 2009 REQUEST
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                             Fiscal 2008                         Fiscal 2009 request
                                                 -----------------------------------           ---------------------
                                         Fiscal                                        Fiscal      vs.        vs.
            Appropriation/PPA             2007    Authorized                            2009      fiscal     fiscal
                                         actual    FTE level   Expected  Difference  requested     2007       2008
                                       FTE level      \1\     FTE level                 FTE       actual    expected
                                                                                                   FTE        FTE
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Library of Congress, S&E:
        National Library:
            Library Services.........      1,534       1,640      1,618         +22      1,618        +84  .........
            Office of Strategic              310         363        343         +20        363        +53        +20
             Initiatives.............
    Law Library......................         92         101        101  ..........        101         +9  .........
        Management Support Services:
            Office of the Librarian..        134         150        147          +3        150        +16         +3
            Human Resources Services.         56          72         69          +3         72        +16         +3
            Integrated Support               138         157        149          +8        157        +19         +8
             Services................
            Security and Emergency           123         131        123          +8         95        -28        -28
             Preparedness............
            Office of the Inspector           14          18         18  ..........         18         +4  .........
             General.................
                                      ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
              Total, Library of            2,401       2,632      2,568         +64      2,574       +173         +6
               Congress S&E..........
                                      ==============================================================================
    Copyright Office, S&E:
        Basic........................        448         439        433          +6        439         -9         +6
        Licensing Division...........         30          30         28          +2         30  .........         +2
        Copyright Royalty judges.....          5           6          6  ..........          6         +1  .........
                                      ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
          Total, Copyright Office,           483         475        467          +8        475         -8         +8
           S&E.......................
                                      ==============================================================================
    Congressional Research Service,          681         675        675  ..........        675         -6  .........
     S&E.............................
    BBPH, S&E........................        114         128        128  ..........        128        +14  .........
                                      ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
          Total Library of Congress        3,679       3,910      3,838         +72      3,852       +173        +14
           appropriations............
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Fiscal 2008 authorized FTE level per approved Operating Plan.

                          performance-based budgeting
        Question. Please describe the efforts you will take in the next
    year to further the Library's use of performance-based budgeting.
        Answer. The Library's strategic plan provides the foundation for
    annual planning and budgeting efforts. The Congressional Budget
    Justification's (CBJ) new format and content represents the Library's
    initial efforts to illustrate how the Library's funding allocations
    align with the five strategic plan goals. The new CBJ format and
    content also includes key organizational performance targets which
    communicate the results the Library plans to achieve with requested
    resources.
        Future Library efforts to implement the ``Spirit of GPRA'' and to
    demonstrate how performance informs budgetary decisions will include
    the following:
      --Improve the program performance assessment program. A team of
            Library-wide planners has been established to improve the
            quality of the fiscal 2010 annual program performance targets
            against the key performance benchmarks of specific, measurable,
            achievable, relevant and time bound (referred to as the SMART)
            criteria. The team is also working to increase the number of
            performance targets that have pre-defined standards for
            achieving results.
      --In detailing prior year (i.e., fiscal 2008) performance
            information, include results achieved against previously
            planned (and reported in fiscal 2009 CBJ) targets.
      --Provide detailed breakout of operating budgets in table format for
            each Subunit overview section. This will further respond to
            committee feedback about needing a clearer (tabular)
            presentation of operating plan budget details.
      --Include in Subunit Overviews narratives specific information about
            how budgeted resources have enabled organizations to achieve
            results in the prior year and how base budget decisions (and
            projected base adjustments) are informed by performance goals.
            This information will speak to the question of how Library is
            ``scrubbing the base'' and how performance is driving resource
            decisions.
      --Finally, the Library will continue to lead the effort across the
            Legislative Branch to define the ``spirit of GPRA,'' improve
            our implementation efforts, and share best business practices.
            The Library's Strategic Planning Officer chairs a subcommittee
            of the Legislative Branch Financial Management Council (LBFMC)
            that is focusing on GPRA. In 2007 this subcommittee developed a
            performance system for the Legislative Branch agencies to use
            to demonstrate measurable results. This performance system
            defines key performance indicators, elements and validation
            criteria derived from the GAO Report, GAO 01-1008G, Internal
            Control Implementation and Evaluation Tool, dated August 2001.
            This system establishes a Legislative Branch-wide definition of
            the ``spirit of GPRA.'' In 2008 the subcommittee has been
            working to develop a baseline against the performance system
            criteria. The subcommittee will soon be performing a gap
            analysis to ensure that the best practices are implemented
            across the Legislative Branch.
                              contracts management
        Question. According to the Inspector General, there are significant
    and long-standing problems in the Contracts Office, which has
    responsibility for over $180 million in annual spending. The
    deficiencies may prevent the Library from obtaining the best value in
    contracts and may expose it to liability. Please provide a complete
    explanation for your plans to overhaul this office.
        Answer. The Chief Operating Officer named an Acting Director of
    Contracts and Grants Management (OCGM) effective April 14, 2008. The
    incumbent formerly served as the Library's Chief of Contracts and
    Logistics and has more than 20 years of experience in directing and/or
    auditing acquisitions and logistics operations in both military and
    civilian agencies. She has directed the day-to-day operations of
    Federal contracting officers, logisticians, and auditors/program
    evaluators who audited high profile, complex, multi-billion dollar
    Department of Defense (DOD) acquisitions.
        The new director was instructed to review and devise an action plan
    within her first 30 days on the job. The following represents her
    approach and plans for transforming the Contracts Office in the
    immediate future.
        New policy and procedures have been implemented around four
    critical goals:
    Goal One: Improve Communications
        OCGM Help Desk Phone and E-mail has been established for tracking
    status.
        New policies/procedures have been implemented for processing
    Requisitions.
        Acquisition Planning implemented for fiscal 2008 and fiscal 2009
    contract actions.
        Contracts Working Group established and first meeting held on May
    7, 2008.
    Goal Two: Increase Productivity
        Tiger Team, made up of the most experienced contract specialists,
    has been formed to handle backlog contract actions.
        Interviews have been completed for the three GS-13 contract
    specialists appropriated, and offers have been extended.
        An Open Continuous Announcement (GS-12; GS-13; GS-14; GS-15) for
    contract specialists has been implemented to expedite hires as
    permanent staff openings occur.
        A contract has been awarded to conduct Workflow Analysis of the
    entire Contracts Operation, and the vendor began work on May 27.
    Specifically, the vendor will:
      --Benchmark current work practices with best practices and develop
            new PALTS.
      --Develop an Acquisition Strategy/protocol for the Agency.
      --Examine two automated systems and recommend an integration
            strategy.
        --IAG w/DCAA Support effective--May 2008;
        --OCGM Website Update--June 2008;
        --Acquisition Alerts Handbook Update--July 2008; and
        --COTR Training and Cert Program--August 2008.
    Goal Three: Improve Timeliness In LC Contracting Process
        The following activities have been implemented to positively affect
    efficiency:
      --OCGM Tiger Team (Backlog)--May 5, 2008;
      --LC-wide Acquisition Planning (Memo to SU's)--May 12, 2008;
      --Personnel Assists--June-Sept 2008;
      --Workflow Analysis (Start Date)--May 19, 2008;
      --Using Various Contract Types--Now;
      --Using Letter Contracts for Urgent and Compelling--Now; and
      --Using Class D&Fs--Now.
    Goal Four: Improve Business Practices and Documentation
        Update Contracts Operating Instructions--April 2008-December 2008.
        Re-establish the Contract Review Board.
      --Established a Group to focus on Contract File Management.
                                     ndiipp
        Question. You have requested an increase of $6 million for the
    National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program
    to, according to your budget justification ``maintain a minimum
    operational funding level.'' How did you determine what the minimum
    operational funding level should be for this program? Please provide
    the 5-year plan for NDIIPP spending.
        Answer. The minimum operational funding level was formulated based
    on several factors. These include:
      --Recognition of agency and legislative branch budgetary constraints.
      --Our annual program operational experience to date.
      --A realistic assessment of needed content, network, and technical
            infrastructure investments to attain our 5-year program
            outcomes.
        The strategy is to approach the selection and preservation of
    content as triage of the most critical needs and risks to preserve
    digital content determined to be most valuable to public policy and
    Congress.
        The 5-year plan that follows outlines the goals and outcomes for
    the program.

       Office of the Associate Librarian for Strategic
                                           Initiatives,
                                       The Library of Congress,
                                                        Washington, DC.
    Date: February 5, 2008.
    From: Laura E. Campbell, Associate Librarian for Strategic Initiatives/
            Chief Information Officer
    Subject: NDIIPP Plan 2008-2013

        The National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation
    Program (NDIIPP) is the Library's strategic direction for collecting
    and preserving critically important content that only exists in digital
    form. It is a transition to a new way of doing business, sharing
    ongoing costs and expertise with a trusted network of vetted partners.
    In order to sustain this collaborative approach to the stewardship of
    digital content ongoing investments are necessary.
        Attached please find the NDIIPP Plan for 2008-2013.
                   Collecting and Preserving Digital Content
      National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program
    PROGRAM AND RESOURCE PLAN, FISCAL YEAR 2008-FISCAL YEAR 2013
                                fiscal year 2008
            ndiipp: making the transition to sustainable stewardship
    Goal
        Align strategic direction of the NDIIPP program with available
    resources while fulfilling pre-2007 agreements with partners.
    Fiscal year 2008 objectives
        Operate existing network.
        Follow through on multi-year partnership agreements made in fiscal
    year 2007, to the extent possible with limited resources (see charts on
    page 5).
        Transition the no-year, term-limited program scenario to an annual
    operating program.
        Prepare NDIIPP Report (2003-2008).
    Program Achievements Fiscal Year 2003-2008
        Content.--66 terabytes \1\ at-risk digital content collected and
    preserved by partners; provide access for Congress to partner content.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        \1\ A terabyte is the equivalent of the digital text of 1 million
    books.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Network.--Network of 130 partners in content, technology, research,
    government and business sectors across 25 States; 10 Federal agencies
    collaborating to develop standards to preserve and sustain at-risk
    content on a national level; report of Section 108 Copyright Working
    Group.
        Technical Infrastructure.--Storage and transfer infrastructure for
    66 terabytes of partner content; 12 shared tools and technology
    services built and customized especially for digital content capture,
    storage and management.

       FISCAL YEAR 2008 PROGRAM OPERATING PLAN--SOURCES AND USES OF FUNDS
           [Original planned vs. current budget, dollars in millions]
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                Fiscal year
              Fund type/Description            2007 original  Current budget
                                                planned \1\
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
              NDIIPP No-year fundsFund source:
        Fiscal year 2008 beginning balance..          $5.513          $5.748
        Fiscal year 2008 restoration request          21.500  ..............
                                             -------------------------------
          Total no-year funds...............          27.013           5.748
                                             ===============================
    Fund use:
        Staff \2\...........................           1.478  ..............
        Program management and network                 1.249           0.412
         administration.....................
        Grants to/contracts with partners:
            States regional demonstration             13.500           2.291
             projects.......................
            Content partnerships............           6.000           1.688
            Repositories and infrastructure            2.000           1,357
             partnerships...................
                                             -------------------------------
              Total no-year funds...........          24.227           5.748
                                             ===============================
    Fiscal year 2008 ending balance                    2.786  ..............
     (projected)............................            NDIIPP Base FundsFund source: Fiscal year 2008 enacted...  ..............           1.478
    Fund use: Staff \2\.....................  ..............           1.478
    Fiscal year 2008 ending balance           ..............  ..............
     (projected)............................
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Original planned amounts developed in February 2007.
    \2\ Request for staff salaries to be supported by base funds in the
      Fiscal Year 2008 Operating Plan.

      [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

    Investments
        From fiscal year 2009-2013, the NDIIPP Program will invest
    resources in three areas;
      --Content will focus on bringing at-risk content under stewardship
            through a network of national partners.
      --Network will focus on expanding digital preservation action by
            establishing the National Alliance for Content Stewardship.
      --Technical Infrastructure will collaborate with partners to enable
            cost-effective storage and management of a variety of types of
            content brought under stewardship.
    Projected Achievements Fiscal Year 2009-2013
        Content.--650 terabytes of at-risk digital content under national
    stewardship, representing nearly a ten-fold increase over current
    levels.
        Network.--The National Alliance for Content Stewardship operational
    in all 50 States.
        Technical Infrastructure.--Cost effective storage and management of
    650 terabytes of at-risk digital content distributed across the
    partnerships.

                                        NDIIPP FUNDING, FISCAL YEAR 2009-2013 \1\
                                                [In millions of dollars]
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                      Fiscal year--
                                                                   -------------------------------------------------
                                                                      2009      2010      2011      2012      2013
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Staff.........................................................     1.478     1.478     1.478     1.478     1.478
    Content.......................................................     3.499     3.499     3.499     3.499     3.499
    Network.......................................................      .724      .724      .724      .724      .724
    Technical infrastructure......................................     1.810     1.810     1.810     1.810     1.810
                                                                   -------------------------------------------------
          Total...................................................     7.511     7.511     7.511     7.511     7.511
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Does not reflect price level or mandatory changes.

                                NDIIPP FUNDING BY OBJECT CLASS FISCAL YEAR 2009-2013 \1\
                                                [In millions of dollars]
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                      Fiscal year--
                             Object class                          -------------------------------------------------
                                                                      2009      2010      2011      2012      2013
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    11xx pay......................................................     1.478     1.478     1.478     1.478     1.478
    21xx travel...................................................      .050      .050      .050      .050      .050
    24xx printing.................................................      .015      .015      .015      .015      .015
    25xx contractual services.....................................     2.968     2.968     2.968     2.968     2.968
    31xx equipment/software.......................................     1.000     1.000     1.000     1.000     1.000
    41xx grants...................................................     2.000     2.000     2.000     2.000     2.000
                                                                   -------------------------------------------------
          Total...................................................     7.511     7.511     7.511     7.511     7.511
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Does not reflect price level or mandatory changes.

                                             CONTENT--ANNUAL INVESTMENT \1\
                                                [In millions of dollars]
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                      Fiscal year--
                            Investment area                        -------------------------------------------------
                                                                      2009      2010      2011      2012      2013
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Cartographic/geospatial.......................................      .475      .502      .479      .460      .444
    Web sites.....................................................     1.519     1.623     1.797     1.885     1.928
    Audio visual..................................................     1.366     1.232     1.084     1.011      .977
    Images and text...............................................      .138      .141      .140      .144      .150
                                                                   -------------------------------------------------
          Total...................................................     3.499     3.499     3.499     3.499     3.499
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Does not reflect price level or mandatory changes.

                                             NETWORK--ANNUAL INVESTMENT \1\
                                                [In millions of dollars]
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                      Fiscal year--
                            Investment area                        -------------------------------------------------
                                                                      2009      2010      2011      2012      2013
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Membership....................................................      .290      .145      .145      .145      .145
    Standards development.........................................      .217      .290      .290      .290      .290
    Professional development......................................      .145      .217      .217      .217      .217
    Outreach......................................................      .072      .072      .072      .072      .072
                                                                   -------------------------------------------------
          Total...................................................      .724      .724      .724      .724      .724
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Does not reflect price level or mandatory changes.

                                     TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE--ANNUAL INVESTMENT \1\
                                                [In millions of dollars]
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                      Fiscal year--
                            Investment area                        -------------------------------------------------
                                                                      2009      2010      2011      2012      2013
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Tools.........................................................      .362      .543      .543      .543      .543
    Services......................................................      .724      .543      .905      .905      .905
    Transfer protocols............................................      .362      .362      .181      .181      .181
    Storage capacity..............................................      .362      .362      .181      .181      .181
                                                                   -------------------------------------------------
          Total...................................................     1.810     1.810     1.810     1.810     1.810
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Does not reflect price level or mandatory changes.

                      fiscal year 2009 to fiscal year 2013
                                    content
    Goal
        By 2013, place over 650 terabytes of high value at-risk digital
    content of particular interest to Congress and its constituents under
    national stewardship.
    Links to Library's Strategic Plan
        Content goal, Outcome 3.--Increased shared content stewardship
    among libraries and other cooperating bodies.
        Content goal, Outcome 4.--Increased creative and intellectual
    output that contributes to the body of knowledge available to the
    Congress and other constituencies.
    Investments
        The following four categories of content (see table below)
    represent high priorities:

                                                   CONTENT CATEGORIES
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 Category                            Description                              Examples
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Cartographic/Geospatial..........  Today's maps are born digital and are   Congressional cartography
                                        rich with data critical to land use    At-risk State, regional and local
                                        management, disaster relief,            government geospatial data (e.g.,
                                        environmental planning and homeland     emergency response assets,
                                        security.                               jurisdictional boundaries,
                                                                                infrastructure maps)
                                                                               Aerial and satellite imagery,
                                                                                including coastal imagery
    Web Sites........................  The Web is an increasingly important    Materials related to critical public
                                        source of information by and about      policy issues (e.g., public health
                                        government, as well as a mirror of      and medical preparedness, water
                                        the political and social events of      quality management, foreign
                                        our time. Much of the documentation     investment and international
                                        of our daily lives, as well as public   outsourcing, personal privacy
                                        discourse and debate, has moved to      protection and data security)
                                        this new digital landscape in which    State and local digital publications
                                        content appears and vanishes at         and agency policy documents
                                        incredible speed.
    Audio Visual.....................  The very nature of broadcast            Foreign news broadcasts
                                        distribution makes television and      U.S. television broadcasts
                                        radio one of the most at-risk forms    Radio broadcasts
                                        of content. Non-commercial
                                        programming from both the United
                                        States and foreign countries is of
                                        particular interest.
    Images and Text..................  These materials represent substantial   State and local agency records (e.g.,
                                        information investments that have       court records, vital records, land
                                        been made by the government, cultural   ownership records)
                                        heritage institutions and other        Databases containing the results of
                                        segments of society.                    research and surveys
                                                                               Previously digitized content
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                                                               [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

    Content Types
        Content under stewardship by NDIIPP partners includes geospatial,
    digital television, web sites, social science datasets, business
    records and digital cultural heritage collections. Adding access
    functionality for search and retrieval and user interfaces, increases
    the cost of stewardship beyond basic maintenance costs of secure,
    monitored storage and data management. There is also a cost multiplier
    effect across complex and diverse content types.
                                    network
    Goal
        By 2013, establish agreements with diverse stakeholders in all 50
    States to sustain a digital preservation network.
    Links to Library's Strategic Plan
        Outreach goal.--Increase awareness of the value and utility of the
    Library.
    Investments
        Network investments are in:
        Membership.--Building on fiscal year 2003-2008 partnerships,
    establish the National Alliance for Content Stewardship.
        Standards Development.--Collaborate with partners from content,
    technology, government and business sectors to develop standards to
    sustain at-risk digital content.
        Professional Development.--Promote awareness and adoption of good
    preservation practices through professional development for digital
    content stewards.
        Outreach.--Promote public awareness through a Web site and various
    media outlets.

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                            technical infrastructure
    Goal
        By 2013, enable cost-effective storage and management of 650
    terabytes of a variety of types of digital content.
    Links to Library's Strategic Plan
        Content Goal, Outcome 2.--Enhanced preservation and accessibility.
        Content Goal, Outcome 3.--Increased shared content stewardship
    among libraries and other cooperating bodies.
        Organization Goal, Outcome 1.--Optimized cultural, physical and
    technology environment maximizing quality, efficiency and creativity.
    Investments
        The partners work collaboratively to develop the NDIIPP technical
    infrastructure by building the information systems, tools and services
    that support the digital programs.

                              PROJECTED OUTCOMES FOR FISCAL YEAR 2009-FISCAL YEAR 2013 \1\
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                     Category                                                 Outcome
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Tools....................................  Systems and utilities that can be used by content collectors and
                                                managers to automate tasks and processing
    Services.................................  Operational services for digital content management offered to
                                                stewardship communities
    Transfer protocols.......................  Robust and scalable digital content delivery mechanisms among
                                                partners and between the Library's preservation and access technical
                                                environments
    Storage capacity.........................  Architecture to store more by reducing cost per byte over time
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ See next page for detailed milestones chart by technical infrastructure components.

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                             overseas field offices
        Question. The budget request includes $5,366,000 for the Department
    of State Capital Security Cost-Sharing Program, an increase of
    $2,966,000 over the fiscal 2008 level. What are the implications if
    this increase isn't funded?
        Answer. If the increase is not funded, the Library will have to
    shift funds within its base to cover the CSCS assessment. The amount
    due to the Department of State was determined during fiscal 2007 and
    cannot be reduced at this point. The shifting of base funds will force
    the Library to consider closing some of its six offices. Because of
    their size and cost, two of the largest offices could be affected--
    Cairo, Egypt and Jakarta, Indonesia. The effect of closing these two
    offices would be grave. Analysts and reference specialists would be
    deprived of current, valuable materials from hotbed areas of the world.
    Lack of access to these materials would impede getting vital
    information pertaining to these areas. Closing these offices would also
    result in the termination of the Cooperative Acquisitions Program for
    regions covered by these two offices. Each overseas office currently
    operates a cooperative acquisitions program with at least forty
    participating libraries and educational and research centers.
        Question. What is the total cost of the overseas field offices, by
    office, compared to fiscal 2008?
        Answer. In addition to the $5,366,000 cited above for the Capital
    Security Cost Sharing program assessment, the projected costs for the
    offices for fiscal 2009 are $8.86 million total. The projected costs
    (salaries and overhead) for each office are:
      --Brazil--$1,338,508;
      --Egypt--$1,169,158;
      --India--$2,299,547;
      --Indonesia--$1,499,494;
      --Kenya--$1,707,071; and
      --Pakistan--$847,246.
        Projected costs may change due to regional rates of inflation and
    the falling value of the U.S. dollar against foreign currencies.
    Additionally, approximately $600,000 will be spent to run the
    Cooperative Acquisitions Programs, all recovered from program
    participants and not included in the amounts cited above or the
    Library's funding request.
        Question. What plans does the Library have to change its methods
    for acquiring materials from the six areas the field offices cover?
        Answer. Because the Library has determined that there are no viable
    means to continue to collect research materials from these areas
    without an actual presence in the regions, the Library does not plan to
    change the methods of acquiring materials from areas currently covered
    by the six offices. The Library still views as sound its ongoing (1)
    acquisitions of materials by its Capitol Hill staff for materials from
    parts of the world that have robust publishing and information
    dissemination infrastructures and (2) its acquisitions of materials by
    staff locally situated in areas of the world where materials are
    difficult to obtain, that is, through its six overseas offices.
    Commercial book vendors remain inadequate for the parts of the world
    covered by the overseas offices and generally do not acquire non-
    commercially produced items. Non-commercial research materials, such as
    government and non-government issued reports, large bank reports, oil
    company reports, etc., would no longer be acquired without the local
    presence of the offices. Additionally, office staff members have
    language and subject expertise used to catalog materials acquired,
    which considerably lowers the overall cost of cataloging the materials.
    Without this expertise of the local staff, the processing of the
    materials that would be acquired would be done by Library staff in
    Washington at far greater expense. There is a growing lack of trained
    professional librarians in the United States with language and area
    studies expertise of the regions where we have overseas offices. The
    Library monitors publishing trends in all parts of the world. When
    problems are identified, we seek low-cost options for securing
    publications. China is a notable example. A single acquisitions office
    would not be adequate for such a large country. We have worked with
    local professors and graduate students to identify and purchase
    materials from remote regions of China.
        Question. What is the Library doing to work with other institutions
    to seek to cover some of the costs of the field offices?
        Answer. The Library works with the participants of the Cooperative
    Acquisitions Programs, whereby participants offset the cost of running
    the acquisitions programs and indirectly keep the cost of acquiring
    materials down by through discounts resulting from the purchase of
    multiple copies.
                            loc contractor employees
        Question. What is the total amount the Library spends on contracts
    each year? How many contract employees does this equate to? What is the
    average price of a contractor employee per hour, and how does that
    compare to the cost of the average LOC employee?
        Answer. The Library spent $2.256 million on personal services
    contracts in fiscal 2007, primarily for expert skills or unique
    services required on a special or occasional basis, which could not be
    provided with any degree of efficiency by current Library staff. Hourly
    costs per contractor ranged widely based on the specific requirements
    of each contract. Where specific data was available on the costs of
    individual contractors (as opposed to the more prevalent breakdown of
    costs by task order or deliverable), hourly rates ranged from $25 to
    $125. The average hourly rate across all contracts was $60, as compared
    to the average cost of salaries and benefits of all Library employees
    over the same time period of $50.
                            cataloging productivity
        Question. Please explain the extent to which the Library has become
    more efficient in its cataloging efforts over the past several years.
        Answer. From fiscal 2003 to 2007, cataloging production increased
    from 525 titles per FTE to 890 titles, an increase of 70 percent in
    only 5 years. At the same time, the cost per title cataloged decreased
    from $115.56 to $81.97, a reduction of more than 29 percent despite
    salary increases and inflation. (These costs include staff and
    supervisory salaries, fringe benefits, and directorate, service unit,
    and agency overheads.) Productivity and efficiency have increased
    through the following measures:
      --Implementation of the Library's first integrated library system (LC
            ILS) in August 1999 laid the foundation for continuous business
            process improvements.
      --The LC ILS allowed the Library to develop automated applications
            that could interface with the LC ILS to facilitate staff
            efficiencies in searching and creation, validation, and quality
            assurance of bibliographic data.
      --Through ``copy cataloging,'' staff increased the use of cataloging
            data created at other institutions to represent items in the
            Library's collections, thereby reducing cataloging costs by
            one-third for this group of items. To optimize use of copy
            cataloging, the Library (1) introduced software that searches
            the LC ILS and the external source of cataloging data with a
            single search and (2) centralized most copy cataloging activity
            in a single work team composed of technician level staff,
            thereby reducing the cost of copy cataloging. To ensure that
            the Library and the Nation's libraries have access to a supply
            of high-quality cataloging copy, the Library provides training
            and administrative infrastructure for the Program for
            Cooperative Cataloging, an international consortium of more
            than 500 institutions.
      --Catalogers now complete call numbers for most originally cataloged
            materials as part of a single workflow process.
      --The Library focused on using the appropriate level of cataloging
            for all materials. In 1997, the Library adopted a new default
            level of cataloging that is sufficient for most of the
            materials it catalogs. Reference and rare materials receive
            fuller cataloging, while materials of low research value may
            receive minimal-level or collection-level cataloging, which
            describes resources at a lower expense.
      --The Library's six overseas offices were upgraded with the Library's
            ILS software and now catalog the materials they acquire at
            lower costs than can be done by Library staff on Capitol Hill.
      --The Library receives records suitable for initial bibliographic
            control from approximately thirty of its book dealers
            throughout the world, generally at no additional charge.
      --The Library obtains, through outsourcing, materials ready to be
            shelved, with complete cataloging, for some Italian, Japanese,
            and Russian materials.
      --The Library has begun using data leased from commercial sources in
            order to avoid keying massive amounts of data, again reducing
            cataloging costs.
      --The Cataloging in Publication (CIP) program, which in fiscal 2007
            provided cataloging in advance of publication for 53,210 books
            judged likely to be widely acquired by the Nation's libraries,
            is now nearly all electronic. Staff prepare catalog records on
            the basis of publisher galleys submitted in electronic form,
            permitting much of the catalog record to be constructed
            automatically. Further, the cost of mailing data via the U.S.
            mail has been practically eliminated.
      --The Library instituted partnerships with other research libraries
            in which the other libraries catalog electronic galleys that
            will be published by their own institutions. More than 3,300
            catalog records were obtained through this Electronic CIP
            Cataloging Partners program in fiscal 2007.

      LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ACQUISITIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC ACCESS DIRECTORATE
            COST AND OUTPUT PER STAFF MEMBER, FISCAL 2003-FISCAL 2007
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                               Bibliographic
                   Fiscal year                  volumes per      Cost per
                                                    FTE           record
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    2003....................................             525         $115.56
    2004....................................             559          124.95
    2005....................................             644          119.66
    2006....................................             840           94.64
    2007....................................             890           81.97
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                 reading rooms
        Question. According to the Inspector General, there is significant
    underutilized reading space owing to the dramatic growth in, and
    improved access to electronic information. Please describe plans to
    consolidate the reading rooms.
        Answer. Following the Inspector General's recommendation in
    September 2007 to gather data on reading room use during the first
    quarter of 2008, Library Services actively engaged in a comprehensive
    usage survey among all the subject- and format-based research centers
    and reading rooms. Library Services is continuing to compile statistics
    in a consistent fashion during the second quarter as well to facilitate
    future decision-making. The recent inauguration of the Library of
    Congress Experience has resulted in greater public visitation and an
    expected increase in new cards issued by the Reader Registration unit.
    Even more visitors and a rise in new readership are anticipated once
    the CVC opens later this year. The recent announcement of the
    relocation--falsely described as a closure--of the European Reading
    Room that was broadcast over the Internet by scholars resulted in
    numerous complaints to Congress by researchers, underscoring the
    sensitivity of reducing the number of points of access to collections
    and staff expertise.
        The Copyright Office consolidated three reading rooms (the
    Copyright Card Catalog, the Records Maintenance Unit retrieval area,
    and the Licensing Division's reading room) during the renovation of
    Copyright Office workspace. This action freed much-needed space for
    critical program activities and allowed the sharing of infrastructure
    and support services while making possible the provision of nearly the
    same level of service with fewer staff and with a smaller investment in
    infrastructure and technology. Also, as a result of consolidation
    visitors are confined to one area, reducing expenses for signage,
    security, etc.
                              collections storage
        Question. Current collections policies result in a daily addition
    of approximately 10,000 items to the library's collections. At this
    rate of growth, how soon will existing storage facilities be filled?
        Answer. The figure of 10,000 items per day includes both special
    format collections (e.g., maps, manuscripts, prints) and books and
    bound periodicals. For the book collections, approximately 1,500 items
    are added to the general, Areas Studies and Law collections daily.
    Special format collections constitute the remainder.
        Existing storage facilities have been, or are in the process of
    being, filled. Significant overcrowding in the facilities housing both
    book collections and special format collections has dictated a space
    utilization plan that requires the most efficient use of existing
    facilities and a construction/rental program for additional storage
    space off-site.
        Question. When will additional storage space be needed?
        Answer. Additional storage space is needed at the present time and
    is currently in the Library's plans. Initiatives currently underway to
    address this are:
      --Upgrades to the third floor fire protection system at the National
            Audio-Visual Conservation Center (NAVCC) at Culpeper, Virginia
            which will permit the Library to complete the relocation of the
            recorded sound and moving image collections to that facility,
            allowing for future collections growth in those media.
      --Completion of Modules 3 and 4 and four cold storage rooms at the
            High Density Storage Facility (HDSF) at Fort Meade, Maryland.
            Scheduled for completion in the late winter or early spring
            2009, this facility will house more than 16 million pieces in
            150,000 containers of special collections material. The content
            of each shelf has been mapped to the shelf to maximize
            capacity, and for both Modules 3 and 4, there is no growth
            space allocated. Waiting lists of special format collections
            have been developed for subsequent construction/rental.
      --Reconfiguration of existing space at the Landover Center Annex
            (LCA), Landover, Maryland, to accommodate collections now on
            Capitol Hill in a Fort Meade-type configuration (storing
            collections by size to maximize capacity). This reconfiguration
            is anticipated to allow for approximately 6 months of growth in
            the book collections.
      --Construction of additional modules at Fort Meade. Design has been
            finalized for Module 5 which, like Modules 1 and 2, will house
            books and bound periodicals. Upon completion, Module 5 will
            have a storage capacity of 2.2 million items, and will allow us
            to remove the increasing number of items stored on the floor in
            the Jefferson and Adams Buildings, and to accommodate the more
            than 300,000 items added to the general, Area Studies, and Law
            Library collections annually.
        Question. How much additional storage will be needed?
        Answer.
    Book and Bound Periodical Collections
        For the book collections, we are currently exceeding 100 percent
    capacity in the Jefferson, Adams and Madison bookstacks.
        Our goal, in the classified collections is to reduce the shelf load
    to an average of 80 percent, which allows for the uneven growth of
    individual classes of material (in a classified/subject) collection. An
    average shelf load of 80 percent has been deemed the maximum average
    beyond which ongoing shifting and significant overcrowding ensue. In
    order to get to this target average, approximately 3.4 million items
    need to be relocated from Capitol Hill to off-site storage. This
    represents approximately 1.5 Fort Meade modules.
        Note: There are a number of safety-related programs mandated by the
    Office of Compliance that will significantly reduce the storage
    capacity in the Jefferson Building stacks (addition of staircases). If
    these come to fruition, it will significantly alter the space
    projections for the book collections. The permanent loss of capacity is
    likely to be approximately 200,000 items, and during construction, more
    than 500,000.
        If we were to obtain two additional book storage modules at Fort
    Meade of the same size as the current modules, with a total capacity of
    4.4 million items, that would allow us to transfer the requisite number
    of volumes (3.4 million plus annual additions to the collections),
    allowing us to achieve our target shelf load. Currently, Modules 5 and
    6 are planned to house the requisite book collections, however the
    construction schedule for both of these remains uncertain. From that
    point on, we would require one additional book storage module every 6
    or 7 years.
    Special Format Collections
        Special collections do not grow at the fairly steady rate the book
    and bound periodical collections do.
        A significant number of the special collections are housed in both
    overcrowded and inappropriate environmental conditions, inconsistent
    with the value and uniqueness of these collections.
        NAVCC has the necessary capacity to accommodate some future growth
    of the recorded sound and moving image collections. However, this
    requires upgrading of the third floor fire protection systems, which is
    currently underway.
        As stated earlier, Modules 3 and 4 at Fort Meade will allow us to
    relocate approximately 150,000 containers from overcrowded storage
    spaces on Capitol Hill. A waiting list has been developed of
    collections that will not fit into these two modules, and options are
    being pursued such as interim rental space until permanent space can be
    constructed at Fort Meade. Module 7 at Fort Meade will be the next
    special format collections module.
        Question. What is the status of moving items to Fort Meade for
    storage?
        Answer. Module 1 is completely filled with approximately 1.6
    million items.
        Module 2 is approximately 65 percent filled. However, there are a
    significant number of categories of ``must send'' items for which space
    must be allocated in Module 2 because the construction schedule for the
    next book storage module (Module 5) is uncertain. Among these
    categories: children's literature and minimal level cataloging. In
    addition, space has been set aside for post-processed material
    scheduled for transfer to Modules 3 and 4. An active program is
    currently underway to box and otherwise prepare special format
    collections for transfer to Modules 3 and 4 when these open next year.
    Since post-processed collections often take up significantly more space
    than is the case pre-processing, we have planned to move some of these
    to Module 2 and relocate them to Modules 3 and 4 when the latter
    modules open. Given this, while Module 2 is not yet completely filled,
    there is very limited space remaining for permanent transfer if we are
    to leave the necessary growth space for the ``must sends'' and for the
    post-processed special collections.
        Modules 3 and 4 have been completely laid out, with every item
    assigned a shelf location. When these modules become available in early
    2009, we will begin the relocation process.
        Question. What is the remaining capacity at the existing storage
    modules, and how does that compare to the original plan?
        Answer. As stated above, there is almost no remaining capacity in
    the two existing modules. Module 1 is filled; Module 2 is approximately
    65 percent filled. However, we will complete as much filling as
    possible by the end of calendar 2008, and must leave some space for the
    ``must sends'' and interim space for post-processed collections moving
    to Modules 3 and 4.
        Question. Has more storage capacity been consumed then had been
    planned at Fort Meade?
        Answer. The availability of modules for both the book and special
    format collections is behind the originally projected schedule.
    According to the original construction and storage needs projections, a
    module should have been constructed and become available for storage
    every 2 years beginning in 1997. Had we been able to follow that
    schedule, we would now be occupying Module 6, with Module 7 coming
    online in calendar 2009.
        The Copyright Office also is experiencing a storage capacity
    problem. The Copyright Office is required to retain works deposited in
    connection with registration of claims to copyright. Copyright deposits
    are housed in two facilities: The Landover Annex (50,000 square feet,
    filled to capacity); and Sterling, Virginia, leased from Iron Mountain,
    Inc. (116,000 square feet).
        The annual cost for Iron Mountain storage is $191,000. Projected
    storage growth at that facility is 7,000 cubic feet per year, which
    increases the storage cost by $11,500 per year.
        The current leased storage space, however, does not adequately
    provide a safe and secure environment for the protection of the deposit
    collections. The facility fails to meet the requirements of 36 211 CFR
    1228, ``Disposition of Federal Records, Subpart K, Facility Standards
    for Records Storage Facilities'' because the space is unconditioned and
    subject to wide temperature and humidity fluctuations. In order to
    properly fulfill the Office's mandate of protecting and preserving
    America's cultural heritage, materials would need to be moved to a
    NARA-certified facility that meets the 36 CFR 1228 requirements.
    Storage at such a facility would increase storage fees by 100 percent
    to $382,000 annually plus an annual growth increase of $23,000.
        In addition to storage costs, deposits and other materials must be
    transferred to and retrieved from storage on a regular basis. These
    transfer costs are $33,000 per year. This is projected to increase at a
    rate of 10 percent per year, based on the growing rate of services
    requiring deposit retrieval.
                                digital content
        Question. With the explosive growth in the creation and
    distribution of digital content, what opportunities and challenges does
    this present the Library in terms of increasing access to and
    preserving the Library's collections in the future?
        Answer.
    Opportunities
        Digitized Content:
      --Technological advances continue to provide opportunities to enhance
            access by increasing both the quantity and quality of our
            digitized content. Scanning equipment is getting better and
            faster.
      --Increasing sophistication in automated image quality review tools
            (device targets and software) allows us to increase efficiency
            of image quality review processes. The more of the production
            workflow we automate, the more we increase throughput through
            the production pipeline, while ensuring image quality.
        Born Digital Content:
      --The evolution of the Web into social networks brings opportunities
            for the Library to engage with public and private sector
            organizations to take advantage of access tools that distribute
            the description and linkage to content across organizations.
            Some very commonly used technologies are web services that
            allow users and researchers to organize and describe content in
            ways that serve multiple communities of users.
      --The Library will have the opportunity to provide access to more
            diverse content by collaborating with a network of collecting
            partners who have experience and expertise in the collection
            and management of diverse data types, e.g. Geospatial, social
            science datasets, web archives.
        Growing recognition of value of cultural heritage materials by
    commercial and non-governmental sectors is providing increasingly
    attractive opportunities to form mutually beneficial partnerships.
    Expectations for secure and trustworthy long-term management of digital
    content provide an opportunity to explore current and in-progress
    industry solutions. Identification of common challenges provides a
    solid basis for working with other Federal agencies and research
    institutions on common technical architecture requirements and
    standards.
        By reengineering Copyright Office business operations and
    transitioning to a web-based processing environment, the Office is
    positioned to acquire, retain, and eventually forward to the Library's
    collections copyright deposits submitted electronically on a large
    scale.
    Challenges
        Technologies associated with digital content creation,
    dissemination, and curation evolve over time, creating large bodies of
    digital works with diverse formats, often built on layers of legacy
    applications that may become obsolete.
        Ongoing re-investments and training are needed to take advantage of
    continuing developments in digital library and information management,
    technical architecture, search and discovery, and web presentation
    tools.
        Anticipated exponential growth in digital content, whether for
    broad open immediate access or long term collection holdings and
    digital preservation, incur a new layer of management responsibility
    and costs for the institution that continue to grow every year as the
    volume of content grows. The receipt, storage and rendering of digital
    content in increasingly complex digital formats require continuous
    investment in staff recruitment and training to maintain currency and
    relevancy of technical skills.
        Growing user expectations for rapid, anytime, anywhere, easy access
    to the Library's collections continue to strain the Library's
    resources. Expectations that the content should be easily findable and
    searchable are difficult to meet with existing access mechanisms and
    tools. Securing databases/repositories against unauthorized access will
    continue to require investments in information security.
        The predicted ten-fold growth of digital data within the next 5
    years presents challenges for the judicious identification, selection
    and acquisition of content for the Library's collections as well as the
    storage and management of large volumes of data for preservation.
        The Library will have the challenge of developing and maintaining
    increasingly complex information architecture, access aids, and
    interfaces to more diverse digital content types as they are brought
    into its collections or linked to at collaborating partner sites.
        Retaining electronic works as originally deposited to satisfy a
    legal requirement while also copying and converting electronic works
    for the purpose of long term preservation and accessibility needs.
        Amending the copyright law and regulations to require deposits of
    certain types of works and to define ``best edition'' requirements to
    include the Library's preferred digital formats.
        Amending the copyright law to allow the Library to harvest online
    material, such as websites, in lieu of or in addition to mandatory
    deposit requirements.
        Question. What practical steps is the Library taking to address
    these opportunities and challenges?
        Answer.
    Digitized Content
        We are actively engaging with other Federal agencies, cultural
    heritage institutions, and commercial partners, allowing us to make
    more content available to increasingly broad constituencies.
    Digitization partnerships allow the Library to increase its
    digitization capacity for public domain collection materials. As long
    as the resulting files can be made freely available to the public,
    either immediately or following a relatively brief embargo period, the
    Library views these partnerships as advantageous. Digitization
    partnerships include:
      --Commercial partnerships to defray and subsidize the cost of
            digitization. In their general desire for copies of digitized
            text materials, these partners are willing to absorb a
            significant portion of the costs of digitization. In these
            situations, the Library has a great deal of latitude in
            choosing the actual materials to be digitized.
      --Commercial partnerships to investigate technical problems of mutual
            interest. A good example of this is the partnership we
            initiated last year with Xerox to investigate performance
            issues related to large databases of JPEG2000 images, which is
            a format under consideration for both master and derivative
            files.
      --Joint Federal agency or cultural heritage institution partnerships
            that share digitization cost burdens. As an example, we've had
            great success in coordinating with GPO and other institutions
            to minimize duplication of effort for scanning of government
            documents. The National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) is
            another example of cost-sharing; in this case, between the
            Library and NEH. We have also received a $2 million grant from
            the Sloan Foundation to digitize book collections, providing
            the Library with the opportunity to digitize items that are
            physically deteriorating, including brittle and difficult-to-
            scan materials. We continue to evaluate projects to digitize
            specific sets of material, including exploring a collaborative
            project with NOAA to digitize 30,000 coastal survey maps.
      --Born Digital Content.--The NDIIPP program model also follows an
            approach of shared costs, risks and expertise with networks of
            partners especially skilled with specific content types to save
            at-risk born digital content. These Partners also have been
            instrumental in developing the technical infrastructure and
            tools necessary for the collection and preservation of digital
            content. Expert communities are forming around specific content
            types such as geospatial. The Library will need to partner with
            these communities for secure and enduring access to valuable
            content.
      --Electronic Deposit.--A goal of the Copyright Office's multi-year
            reengineering project is to increase the acquisition of digital
            materials for the Library's collections. The Copyright Office
            is encouraging remitters to file e-service registrations
            including, where appropriate, submission of deposit copies and
            partnering with other Library service units in an eJournals
            eDeposit project.
      --Digital Content Management Requirements and Standards.--The Library
            has been working with other public sector entities to develop
            common requirements for the management of digital content from
            initial ingest through long-term access and preservation.
        Question. As the Library's digital collections grow, how will the
    Library balance the public's interest in more easily accessing the
    Library's collections through means such as the internet against the
    need to protect the intellectual property of authors?
        Answer. It may be impossible with today's technology to make an
    item from the Library's digital collections available to the general
    public via the Internet and at the same time prevent the making of
    unauthorized copies. It is also important to strike the proper balance
    in regard to public access to the Library's digital acquisitions and
    the copyright owner's incentives to create. To the extent that the
    public's access would interfere or compete with the traditional markets
    of a copyright owner, such access could have a negative effect on the
    goal of copyright--to encourage the creativity of authors. The Library
    will need to do more research on the feasibility of rendering
    information via the Internet both in a format that will not allow
    storing or printing of the information and in a manner that does not
    interfere with a copyright owner's traditional markets. In the
    meantime, the availability of digital works in the Library's
    collections may need to be limited to on-site delivery. Policy will
    also need to be prepared covering inter-library loan of digital works.
        Question. The exceptions to copyright law granted to libraries and
    archives under Section 108 of the Copyright Act may need to be amended
    to address access to digital materials. How can the suggested
    recommendations from the March 2008 Section 108 Study Group Report help
    the Library and others sufficiently deal with challenges arising from
    digital technology?
        Answer. The Copyright Office has commenced a review of the Section
    108 Study Group Report and associated recommendations. As a preliminary
    observation, we note that most of the recommendations address
    preservation activities. As the Office moves forward, it will focus on
    the recommendations but will also study and seek comment on additional
    issues, including the ability of libraries to make copyrighted works
    more accessible.
        Question. As the national Library, how is the Library providing
    leadership in the development of standards regarding digital content
    conventions?
        Answer. Federal Agency Digitization Working Group Leadership.--In
    early 2007 the Library convened several Federal agencies (now numbering
    ten) to formulate a collective set of guidelines for digitization of
    images and, more recently, audio and video. The primary objective of
    the Federal Agency Digitization Working Group is to define the
    landscape in which standards guidelines were needed, and identify and
    prioritize ``gaps'' to be filled over time. These guidelines will be
    objectives based, i.e., they will be based on the purpose of the scan
    and the material involved, as a ``one size fits all'' approach does not
    apply. The group also will be formulating guidelines for metadata to be
    embedded within digitized images. The member agencies of the Federal
    Agency Still Images Digitization Working Group are LC, NARA, GPO, NLM,
    NAL, Smithsonian, National Gallery of Art, NTIS, National Geological
    Survey, and NTA. The Audio/Video subgroup currently comprises LC, DOT,
    GPO, NLM, NARA, NPS, and the Smithsonian.
        Digitization Guidelines.--The Library developed guidelines in the
    1990's for digitization of text, image, microfilm, audio and video.
    Those guidelines continue to be updated, and are available on the
    Library's Web site.
        Metadata Standards Leadership.--For many years Library Services in
    the Library has been a leader in the development of rules and formats
    for describing resources--and for the last 10 years we have focused
    more of these efforts on harnessing retrieval of digital content. The
    cataloging rules are being revamped to be more accommodating to digital
    content; the formats for metadata have been enriched for digital
    content description and for linking to the digital resources described.
    A new Web compatible format for describing digital resources, Metadata
    Object Description Schema (MODS), has been developed under the
    leadership of the Library since 2002 in collaboration with the
    community and is being widely used in digital projects across the
    United States. The Library has also teamed with the community to
    develop standards for ``wrapping'' digital resources so that they can
    be preserved and used in different systems, Metadata Encoding and
    Transmission Standard (METS), and the Library serves as the official
    home for that standard. Several standards for technical metadata (MIX
    and textMD) that are essential in the METS wrapper are also maintained
    by Library Services for and with the community. Library Services played
    and continues to play a leading role in the development of an important
    standard for preservation metadata related to digital resources,
    PREMIS, a major step forward in the struggle to assure the preservation
    of electronic media. The Library has become a center of activity for a
    variety of standards that are helping U.S. institutions collect and
    serve digital material because the Library is considered a stable and
    trusted home for these emerging and essential standards
        Web Archiving Tools.--The Library has supported the development of
    web archiving capture tools that reduce the volume of redundant data
    captured for frequently collected web sites. This is the SmartCrawler
    being developed at Internet Archive in partnership with the British
    Library and the Bibliotheque Nationale de France.
        Tools Development for Automated Evaluation and Validation of Image
    Files.--The Library has been working to develop methods and tools to
    perform automated evaluation and validation of the digital image
    files--verifying against both encoding and metadata guidelines and a
    comprehensive set of image characteristics. One tool (the Configurable
    Image Validator) is in production and the other (the Digital Image
    Conformance Evaluation system) is in beta testing. Both tools are based
    on flexible profiles that can be changed as guidelines evolve and
    expand.
        Question. How will the trend toward digital content affect the
    Library's costs in terms of information technology infrastructure and
    management and human capital requirements?
        Answer. The cost implications are significant. Increased content
    requires increases in servers, storage, software and the maintenance to
    support the additional hardware and software. Additional labor in the
    form of FTEs or contractors will also be required to manage the growing
    repositories. All of the growth will also be subject to technical
    refreshment every 3-5 years and requires continuing migration of the
    content to new or upgraded repositories, access systems, and services.
        To the extent resources allow, the Library is continually evolving
    and enhancing its technical infrastructure to support the increased
    volume and diversity of digital content. The Library employs multiple
    storage strategies to deal with the volume, diversity, and access
    requirements for the content. As the expectations for access to digital
    content rise, the costs for preservation rise. A dark archive with
    curator-only access costs less than a publicly available archive with a
    variety of user services where more expensive storage, servers,
    indexing services, and user interface development are required for
    highly-available public dissemination. Thus, our infrastructure
    strategies will be driven by the type and frequency of access, as well
    as the underlying data needs. For instance, tape-based repositories
    would be employed for content only available via fair use or other
    restrictions. Non-Copyright protected content that would be in high
    public demand would be stored on our fastest disk retrieval
    repositories. In all cases, the Library plans for the requirement to
    ensure the integrity of the underlying content and its accompanying
    metadata for future users.
        Question. What are the implications for the cost of managing the
    paper collections.
        Answer. The cost of managing the paper collections will not be
    affected by growth in the creation and distribution of digital content.
    The legacy collections will always require careful management and
    preservation and publishers are expected to continue to produce needed
    content in book form for years to come, thus adding to the costs of
    preserving the rising numbers of analog materials.
        The Library already acquires much digital content on CDs, DVDs and
    CD-ROMs. The challenge is electronically delivered digital content.
    Such content, in the form of digital files in various formats, includes
    electronic books and journals, audio recordings, audiovisual works,
    photographs, GIS and other data. Presently the Library is experimenting
    with eDeposit for eJournals, as part of a strategic effort to build a
    digital repository for copyright deposits acquired by the Library for
    its collections. The Copyright Office is acquiring many works as
    digital files through its eService; however, where the work is
    published in a physical form, physical copies must be deposited. The
    Library could get works published online through the copyright deposit
    system. However, for preservation and access purposes, the Library
    would like to have the authority to receive digital files that best
    serve its purposes. Pre-publication versions, rather than the published
    versions, appear to be preferable. If the law is amended to permit the
    Library to acquire these pre-publication versions and their relevant
    metadata, then the amount of e-content available to researchers will
    rise dramatically.
        Question. What are the cost implications for preserving and making
    available digital content?
        Answer. Digital content is frequently additive and not a substitute
    for the Library's analog collections. The management, storage and
    preservation of digital content will result in new and different costs
    for the Library. Investments are needed in not only the underlying
    technical infrastructure, but also new life cycle management processes
    and staff expertise to effectively provide stewardship of digital
    content over very long time frames. The Library will need to define how
    digital content is to be stored, normalized, and made available and
    define and implement an infrastructure that protects the content,
    stores it in a cost effective repository infrastructure, and make it
    available through an access management protocol that prevents
    unauthorized copying.
        In contrast to the management of analog materials, the requirements
    and cost factors for digital materials are increasingly leading to a
    multi-layer architecture with modular services as most cost-effective
    for specific purposes. For example, services (including servers,
    storage and software) for public access systems are different from
    those provided for digital content indexing and pre-processing, and
    different from those provided for long-term preservation storage.
        Digitization has been, and largely remains, an access strategy. We
    are committed to making as much material as possible freely available.
    Having said that, though, there is a huge secondary preservation
    benefit to digitizing our materials, especially those that are rare or
    unique. Being able to offer high quality images instead of serving the
    physical materials saves considerable wear and tear on the originals,
    so that we are in effect helping to preserve the originals by serving
    their digital surrogates.
        In some cases, though, digitization itself serves a direct
    preservation purpose. This is easiest to see in the case of brittle
    materials, where the physical items themselves have deteriorated, and
    digitization in effect provides a replacement copy.
        Because we have made such a considerable investment in our
    digitized materials, preservation of those digitized materials is
    itself a concern. By carefully weighing decisions about available
    formats, and working to provide metadata for identifying the content
    and characteristics of those files, we ensure that our digital
    investments will be sustainable over the long term. However, these
    materials do constitute an additional body of digital content for which
    we then become responsible.
        Question. Has the Library considered accepting digital content as a
    substitute for paper content for certain categories of its collections?
        Answer. The Library expects to acquire born digital (digital only)
    content in greater amounts as such content becomes increasingly
    available. Such content includes electronic books and journals, motion
    pictures, audio recordings, photographs, and GIS data. Presently, the
    Library is experimenting with an eDeposit for eJournals project as part
    of a strategic effort to build a robust electronic copyright deposit
    system for the acquisition of electronic content and associated
    metadata. As the Copyright Office implements demand deposits of content
    in digital format, the amount of e-content available to researchers
    will rise dramatically. However, the Library does not at this time
    expect to substitute digital surrogates for published paper copies.
        Question. The Open Content Alliance is a collaborative effort of a
    group of cultural, technology, nonprofit, and governmental
    organizations seeking to build a permanent archive of multilingual
    digitized text and multimedia content. How does this relate to the
    Library's NDIIPP efforts? What is LOC doing to work with the Open
    Content Alliance?
        Answer. The Library received $2 million from the Alfred P. Sloan
    Foundation in support of a ``Digitizing American Imprints'' project, to
    work with the Internet Archive and the Open Content Alliance to
    digitize public domain books from the General Collections.
    Specifically, the Library proposed to concentrate on materials from the
    Genealogy and Local History collections as well as the American History
    collection. Materials scanned as part of that project will be
    incorporated into the digital collections made available by the Open
    Content Alliance.
        The project uses the scanning technology of the Open Content
    Alliance. The Library is currently processing these materials with ten
    scanning stations owned and operated by the Internet Archive. The
    Library also is working with a number of other Open Content Alliance
    institutions (e.g., the Smithsonian Institute, the Missouri Botanical
    Garden, and the Boston Library Consortium) to develop solutions to
    address the challenges of large scale book digitization.
        The Library also has other book digitization agreements.
        NDIIPP focuses on building a network of institutions to collect and
    preserve materials that are born digital or already exist in digital
    form. There is no direct relationship between NDIIPP and the Open
    Content Alliance.

                             CONCLUSION OF HEARING

        Senator Landrieu. Again, thank you all for your service to
    the Capitol and to the country. We appreciate it greatly. Thank
    you.
        Meeting recessed.
        [Whereupon, at 4:50 p.m., Wednesday, April 30, the hearing
    was concluded and the subcommittee was recessed, to reconvene
    subject to the call of the Chair.]

                  MATERIAL SUBMITTED SUBSEQUENT TO THE HEARING

        [Clerk's Note.--The following testimonies were received by
    the Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch for inclusion in the
    record.
        The subcommittee requested that agencies provide written
    testimony because, given the Senate schedule, there was not
    enough time to schedule separate hearings for these agencies.]

                                  U.S. SENATE

                            Office of the Secretary

         Prepared Statement of Nancy Erickson, Secretary of the Senate
        Madam Chairwoman, Senator Alexander, and members of the
    subcommittee, thank you for your invitation to present testimony in
    support of the budget request of the Office of the Secretary of the
    Senate for fiscal year 2009.
        It is a pleasure to have this opportunity to draw attention to the
    accomplishments of the dedicated and outstanding employees of the
    Office of the Secretary. The annual reports which follow provide
    detailed information about the work of the 26 departments of the
    office, their recent achievements, and their plans for the upcoming
    fiscal year.
        My statement includes: Presenting the fiscal year 2008 budget
    request; implementing mandated systems, financial management
    information system (FMIS) and legislative information system (LIS);
    continuity of operations planning; and maintaining and improving
    current and historic legislative, financial and administrative
    services.
                 presenting the fiscal year 2009 budget request
        I am requesting a total fiscal year 2009 budget of $26,020,000. The
    request includes $24,020,000 in salary costs and $2,000,000 for the
    operating budget of the Office of the Secretary. The salary budget
    represents an increase of $1,632,000 over the fiscal year 2008 budget
    as a result of the costs associated with the annual cost of living
    adjustment and targeted merit awards that are associated with our
    Employee Feedback and Development Plans. The operating budget remains
    the same as our request in fiscal year 2008.
        The net effect of my total budget request for 2009 is an increase
    of $1,632,000.
        Our request is consistent with the amounts requested and received
    in recent years through the Legislative Branch Appropriations process.
    This request will enable us to continue to attract and retain talented
    and dedicated individuals to serve the needs of the United States
    Senate.

                                     OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY APPORTIONMENT SCHEDULE
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                          Amount
                                                                         available        Budget
                                  Items                                 fiscal year      estimates      Difference
                                                                       2008, Public     fiscal year
                                                                        Law 110-161        2009
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Departmental operating budget:
        Executive office............................................        $550,000      $1,390,000        +$60,000
        Administrative services.....................................        $550,000      $1,390,000        +$60,000
        Legislative services........................................        $550,000      $1,390,000        +$60,000
                                                                     -----------------------------------------------
          Total operating budget....................................      $2,000,000      $2,000,000  ..............
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                         implementing mandated systems
        Two systems critical to our operation are mandated by law, and I
    would like to spend a few moments on each to highlight recent progress,
    and to thank the committee for your ongoing support of both.
    Financial Management Information System (FMIS)
        The Financial Management Information System, or FMIS, is used by
    approximately 140 Senate offices. Consistent with our strategic plan,
    the Disbursing Office continues to modernize processes and applications
    to meet the continued demand by Senate offices for efficiency,
    accountability and ease of use. Our goals are to move to an integrated,
    paperless voucher system, improve the Web FMIS system, and make payroll
    and accounting system improvements.
        During fiscal year 2007 and the first half of fiscal year 2008,
    specific progress made on the FMIS project included:
      --Web FMIS was upgraded twice, once in August 2007 and again in
            November 2007. This system is used by Office Managers and
            Committee Clerks to create vouchers and manage their office
            funds, by the Disbursing Office to review vouchers and by the
            Committee on Rules and Administration to sanction vouchers. The
            two releases provided both technical and functional changes.
            The August release provided a new look, additional
            functionality, and ease of use features to the application's
            web pages. The budget function within the application was also
            completely re-written to simplify budget entry. The November
            release permitted the start of three pilot programs. The first
            pilot permitted vendors paid by direct deposit to receive e-
            mail messages providing necessary account information to
            properly credit their accounts. The second pilot incorporated
            the functionality of the Senate Automated Vendor Inquiry (SAVI)
            System into Web FMIS, simplifying the systems architecture. The
            third pilot enabled the Disbursing Office to remit, via direct
            deposit, quarterly State tax payments to States.
      --The computing infrastructure for FMIS is provided by the Sergeant
            at Arms (SAA). Each year the SAA staff upgrades the
            infrastructure hardware and software. Three major upgrades were
            accomplished during the last year. The first, upgrading the
            mainframe operating software from Z/OS version 1.4 to version
            1.7. The second, upgrading the FMIS database software, from DB2
            version 8 to version 8.1. The third, upgrading the Web Sphere
            software from v 6.0.2 to v 6.1. For each activity, the
            Disbursing staff tested the changes in the FMIS testing
            environment and then validated the changes in the production
            environment.
      --Disaster operation services for FMIS are provided at the Alternate
            Computer Facility (ACF). In both August 2007 and December 2007,
            the SAA conducted disaster recovery tests of the Senate's
            computing facilities, including FMIS functions. The test
            involved switching the Senate's network from accessing systems
            at the Primary Computer Facility (PCF), to the ACF, and
            powering down the PCF. The August test permitted the Disbursing
            staff a two-hour functional testing window. Within this time,
            Disbursing successfully tested all critical on-line components
            of FMIS, including Payroll, ADPICS, FAMIS, SAVI, Web FMIS, and
            Checkwriter. The December test allotted a longer test window,
            permitting a more complete and thorough testing of all of the
            different components including critical batch processes which
            had not been accomplished in our previous tests.
        During the remainder of fiscal year 2008 the following FMIS
    activities are anticipated:
      --Implementing the release focused on eliminating the partial use of
            employee social security number as part of each employee's
            identification number. A new employee identification number
            will be established within our payroll system and this change
            will be incorporated and passed onto other integrated systems.
      --Implementing an imaging prototype to better assess system,
            application and functional requirements.
      --Completing analysis of the appropriate hardware/software
            acquisition strategy for electronic signatures, and imaging of
            supporting documentation, and beginning acquisition.
      --Implementing on-line distribution of payroll system reports.
      --Implementing e-mail notification to additional vendors of payments
            made via direct deposit after the successful completion of the
            pilot program.
      --Participating in the yearly disaster recovery test.
        During fiscal year 2009 the following FMIS activities are
    anticipated:
      --Conducting a pilot of the technology for paperless payment. This
            assumes identification of satisfactory hardware and software
            for electronic signatures and imaging of supporting
            documentation, and resolution of related policy and process
            issues.
      --Continuing the implementation and the required updates to the
            Hyperion Financial Management application to provide the Senate
            the ability to produce auditable financial statements.
      --Continue the implementation of on-line financial reports.
        A more detailed report on FMIS is included in the departmental
    report of the Disbursing Office.
                             capitol visitor center
        While the Architect of the Capitol directly oversees this massive
    and impressive project, I would like to briefly mention the ongoing
    involvement of the Secretary's office in this endeavor. The Clerk of
    the House and I continue to facilitate periodic meetings with senior
    staff of the joint leadership of Congress to address issues that might
    impact the status of the project or the operation of Congress in
    general.
        Although the construction creates numerous temporary inconveniences
    to Senators, staff and visitors, completion of the Capitol Visitor
    Center will bring substantial improvements in enhanced security and
    visitor amenities, and its educational benefits for our visitors will
    be tremendous.
          continuity of operations and emergency preparedness planning
        The Office of the Secretary continued to support the Senate's
    emergency preparedness program throughout 2007. The Secretary's staff
    participated in the planning and conduct of nine emergency preparedness
    and continuity of operations (COOP) exercises last year. In July, we
    reviewed the requirements and challenges of conducting legislative
    business at an alternate location with the Clerk of the House. Later
    that month, we worked with the Office of the Sergeant at Arms to set up
    a functioning Senate chamber at an offsite location. The offices of the
    Secretary and the Sergeant at Arms continue to work with the House of
    Representatives to refine existing plans for offsite alternate
    chambers.
        In December of 2007, a joint discussion took place on ensuring the
    continuity of the legislative process in the event that both Congress
    and the Presidency must operate from alternate locations. Legislative
    staff of the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House were
    joined by White House staff to work out procedural and logistical
    issues which might arise in such a contingency. This was a productive
    meeting, and it is hoped that it will become an annual event. Other
    joint exercises with the Executive Branch are planned.
        The Secretary's staff worked on a joint effort with the Sergeant at
    Arms to create a software application to automate the production and
    maintenance of COOP plans. That project is expected to be completed in
    June of this year.
                              legislative offices
        The Legislative Department of the Office of the Secretary of the
    Senate provides the support essential to Senators to carry out their
    daily chamber activities and the constitutional responsibilities of the
    Senate. The department consists of eight offices: the Bill Clerk,
    Captioning Services, Daily Digest, Enrolling Clerk, Executive Clerk,
    Journal Clerk, Legislative Clerk, and the Official Reporters of
    Debates, which are supervised by the Secretary through the Director of
    Legislative Services. The Parliamentarian's office is also part of the
    Legislative Department of the Secretary of the Senate.
        Experienced veterans of the Secretary's office supervise each of
    the nine offices within the Legislative Department. The average length
    of service of legislative supervisors in the Office of the Secretary of
    the Senate is 19 years. The experience of these senior professional
    staff is a great asset for the Senate. In order to ensure well-rounded
    expertise, the legislative team cross-trains extensively among their
    specialties.
                                   bill clerk
        The Office of the Bill Clerk collects and records data on the
    legislative activity of the Senate, which becomes the historical record
    of official Senate business. The Bill Clerk keeps this information in
    its handwritten files and ledgers and also enters it into the Senate's
    automated retrieval system so that it is available to all House and
    Senate offices through the Legislative Information System (LIS). The
    Bill Clerk records actions of the Senate with regard to bills,
    resolutions, reports, amendments, cosponsors, public law numbers, and
    recorded votes. In addition, the Bill Clerk is responsible for
    preparing for print all measures introduced, received, submitted, and
    reported in the Senate. The Bill Clerk also assigns numbers to all
    Senate bills and resolutions. All the information received in this
    office comes directly from the Senate floor in written form within
    moments of the action involved, so the Bill Clerk's office is generally
    regarded as the most timely and most accurate source of legislative
    information.
    Legislative Activity
        The Bill Clerk's office processed into the database more than 2,000
    additional legislative items and more than 75 additional roll call
    votes than in the previous congress' first session, for an overall
    percentage increase of slightly more than 32 percent. Only three
    legislative categories (Senate Joint Resolutions introduced, Senate
    Concurrent Resolutions submitted, and House Joint Resolutions received)
    saw no change or a small decline in activity. In contrast, three other
    categories (Amendments submitted, House Bills received, and Measures
    Reported) saw significant increases in activity. For comparative
    purposes, below is a summary of the first sessions of the 109th and
    110th Congresses:

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                        109th         110th
                                      Congress,     Congress,      Percent
                                     1st Session   1st Session     change
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Senate bills..................         2,169         2,524       +16.367
    Senate Joint Resolutions......            27            27  ............
    Senate Concurrent Resolutions.            75            64       -14.667
    Senate Resolutions............           347           418       +20.461
    Amendments submitted..........         2,695         3,892       +44.416
    House bills...................           286           513       +79.371
    House Joint Resolutions.......            11             9       -18.182
    House Concurrent Resolutions..            88            93        +5.682
    Measures reported.............           286           428       +49.650
    Written reports...............           212           254       +19.811
                                   -----------------------------------------
          Total legislation.......         6,196         8,222       +32.699
                                   =========================================
    Roll Call Votes...............           366           442       +20.765
    House Messages \1\............           225           263       +16.889
    Cosponsor Requests \2\........         7,000         8,859       +26.557
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ This number reflects how many messages from the House are typed up
      by the Bill Clerks for inclusion in the Congressional Record. It
      excludes additional activity on these bills.
    \2\ This number reflects how many cosponsors were input and subsequently
      appear in the Congressional Record.

    Assistance from the Government Printing Office
        The Bill Clerk's staff maintains a good working relationship with
    the Government Printing Office (GPO) and seeks to provide the best
    service possible to meet the needs of the Senate. GPO continues to
    respond in a timely manner to the Secretary's requests, through the
    Bill Clerk's office, for the printing of bills and reports, including
    the expedited printing of priority matters for the Senate chamber. To
    date, at the request of the Secretary through the Bill Clerk, GPO
    expedited the printing of 83 measures for floor consideration by the
    Senate during the first session of the 110th Congress.
                         office of captioning services
        The Office of Captioning Services provides realtime captioning of
    Senate floor proceedings for the deaf and hard-of-hearing and
    unofficial electronic transcripts of Senate floor proceedings for
    Senate offices on Webster, the Senate intranet.
    General Overview
        Captioning Services strives to provide the highest quality closed
    captions, and year after year the office demonstrates it is up to the
    challenge. For the 14th year in a row, the office has achieved an
    overall accuracy average above 99 percent. Overall caption quality is
    monitored through daily Translation Data Reports, monitoring of
    captions in realtime, and review of caption files on Webster.
        The real-time searchable Closed Caption Log, available to Senate
    offices on Webster, continues to be an invaluable tool. Legislative
    staff, in particular, have come to depend upon its availability,
    reliability and content to help in the performance of their duties. The
    Senate Recording Studio is in the process of updating the Closed
    Caption Log software, which has not been updated since it was developed
    more than a decade ago.
        Continuity of operations planning (COOP) and preparation continues
    to be a top priority to ensure that the office staff is prepared and
    confident about the ability to relocate and successfully function from
    a remote location in the event of an emergency.
    Capitol Visitor Center Update
        The office continues to prepare and plan for its relocation to the
    Senate expansion space in the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC), where it
    will be housed with the Senate Recording Studio.
                              senate daily digest
        The Senate Daily Digest serves seven principal functions:
      --To render a brief, concise and easy-to-read accounting of all
            official actions taken by the Senate in the Congressional
            Record section known as the Daily Digest;
      --To compile an accounting of all meetings of Senate committees,
            subcommittees, joint committees, and committees of conference;
      --To enter all Senate and Joint committee scheduling data into the
            Senate's web-based scheduling application system. Committee
            scheduling information is also prepared for publication in the
            Daily Digest in three formats: Day-Ahead Schedule;
            Congressional Program for the Week Ahead; and the extended
            schedule which actually appears in the Extensions of Remarks
            section of the Congressional Record.
      --To enter into the Senate's Legislative Information System (LIS) all
            official actions taken by Senate committees on legislation,
            nominations, and treaties;
      --To publish in the Daily Digest a listing of all legislation which
            has become public law;
      --To publish on the first legislative day of each month in the Daily
            Digest a ``Resume of Congressional Activity'' which includes
            all congressional statistical information, including days and
            time in session; measures introduced, reported and passed; and
            roll call votes. (See Chart--Resume of Congressional Activity);
            and
      --To assist the House Daily Digest Editor in the preparation at the
            end of each session of Congress a history of public bills
            enacted into law and a final resume of congressional
            statistical activity.
    Committee Activity
        Senate committees held 1,005 meetings during the first session of
    the 110th Congress, 89 more than were held during the first session of
    the 109th Congress.
        All hearings and business meetings (including joint meetings and
    conferences) are scheduled through the Office of the Senate Daily
    Digest, published in the Congressional Record, and entered in LIS.
    Meeting outcomes are also published by the Daily Digest in the
    Congressional Record each day.
    Chamber Activity
        During the first session of the 110th Congress, the Senate was in
    session 189 days, for a total of 1,375 hours and 54 minutes, and
    conducted 6 live quorum calls and 442 record votes. (See Attachment for
    20-Year Comparison of Senate Legislative Activity)
    Computer Activities
        The Digest replaced its WordPerfect-based system for creating the
    Daily Digest with a new Word-based system that has shortened the time
    it takes to create the Digest and send it to the Government Printing
    Office (GPO). Information Systems staff, working closely with Daily
    Digest staff, developed a Daily Digest Authoring System to provide the
    Daily Digest with structured methods for creating, editing, and
    managing files.
        The Digest continues the practice of sending a disc along with a
    duplicate hard copy to GPO. GPO receives the Digest copy by electronic
    transfer, which promotes the timeliness of publishing the Congressional
    Record. The Digest office continues to feel comfortable with this
    procedure, both to allow the Digest Editor to physically view what is
    being transmitted to GPO, and to allow GPO staff to have a comparable
    final product to cross reference.
        The Digest office continues to work closely with Senate computer
    staff to refine the LIS document management system. The Digest is
    pleased to report that all refinements made to the Senate Committee
    Scheduling application have been successfully implemented.
    Government Printing Office
        The Daily Digest staff continues to work with GPO on issues related
    to the printing of the Digest; with the onset of electronic transfer of
    the Digest copy, occurrences of editing corrections or transcript
    errors are infrequent. Discussions with GPO continue regarding page
    references inserted by GPO.

                              DATA ON LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY--SECOND SESSION, 109TH CONGRESS
                                       [January 4, 2007 through December 31, 2007]
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                          Senate           House           Total
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Days in Session.................................................             190             164  ..............
    Time in Session.................................................    1,375hrs 54"    1,477hrs 52"  ..............
    Congressional Record:
        Pages of proceedings........................................          S16071          H16951  ..............
        Extension of remarks........................................  ..............           E2664  ..............
    Public bills enacted into law...................................              30             108  ..............
    Private bills enacted into law..................................  ..............  ..............  ..............
    Bills in conference.............................................               5               7  ..............
    Measures passed, total \1\......................................             621           1,127           1,748
        Senate bills................................................             102              44  ..............
        House bills.................................................             147             516  ..............
        Senate joint resolutions....................................               5               3  ..............
        House joint resolutions.....................................               6               8  ..............
        Senate concurrent resolutions...............................              28               9  ..............
        House concurrent resolutions................................              32              94  ..............
        Simple resolutions..........................................             301             453  ..............
    Measures reported, total \1\....................................             422             486             908
        Senate bills................................................             257               2  ..............
        House bills.................................................              72             328  ..............
        Senate joint resolutions....................................               5  ..............  ..............
        House joint resolutions.....................................               1  ..............  ..............
        Senate concurrent resolutions...............................               8  ..............  ..............
        House concurrent resolutions................................               6               7  ..............
        Simple resolutions..........................................              73             149  ..............
    Special reports.................................................              22               8  ..............
    Conference reports..............................................               1              12  ..............
    Measures pending on calendar....................................             333              48  ..............
    Measures introduced, total......................................           3,033           6,194           9,227
        Bills.......................................................           2,524           4,930  ..............
        Joint resolutions...........................................              27              75  ..............
        Concurrent resolutions......................................              64             278  ..............
        Simple resolutions..........................................             418             911  ..............
    Quorum calls....................................................               6               9  ..............
    Yea-and-nay votes...............................................             442             648  ..............
    Recorded votes..................................................  ..............             529  ..............
    Bills vetoed....................................................               1               5  ..............
    Vetoes overridden...............................................               1               1  ..............
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ These figures include all measures reported, even if there was no accompanying written report. A total of
      253 written reports have been filed in the Senate, a total of 506 reports have been filed in the House.

                                                                            20-YEAR COMPARISON OF SENATE LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                              1988          1989          1990          1991          1992          1993          1994          1995          1996          1997
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Senate Convened.....................................          1/25           1/3          1/23           1/3           1/3           1/5          1/25           1/4           1/3           1/3
    Senate Adjourned....................................         10/21         11/21         10/28        1/3/92          10/9         11/26         12/01        1/3/96          10/4         11/13
    Days in Session.....................................           137           136           138           158           129           153           138           211           132           153
    Hours in Session....................................      1,12648"      1,00319"      1,25014"      1,20044"      1,09109"      1,26941"      1,24333"      1,83910"      1,03645"      1,09307"
    Average Hours per Day...............................           8.2           7.4           9.1           7.6           8.5           8.3           9.0           8.7           7.8           7.1
    Total Measures Passed...............................           814           605           716           626           651           473           465           346           476           386
    Roll Call Votes.....................................           379           312           326           280           270           395           329           613           306           298
    Quorum Calls........................................            26            11             3             3             5             2             6             3             2             6
    Public Laws.........................................           473           240           244           243           347           210           255            88           245           153
    Treaties Ratified...................................            15             9            15            15            32            20             8            10            28            15
    Nominations Confirmed...............................        42,317        45,585        42,493        45,369        30,619        38,676        37,446        40,535        33,176        25,576
    Average Voting Attendance...........................         91.58          98.0         97.47         97.16          95.4          97.6         97.02         98.07         98.22         98.68
    Sessions Convened Before 12 Noon....................           120            95           116           126           112           128           120           184           113           115
    Sessions Convened at 12 Noon........................            12            14             4             9  ............             6             9             2            15            12
    Sessions Convened after 12 Noon.....................             5            27            17            23            10            15            17            12             7             7
    Sessions Continued after 6 p.m......................            37            88           100           102            91           100           100           158            88            96
    Sessions Continued after 12 Midnight................             7             9            13             6             4             9             7             3             1  ............
    Saturday Sessions...................................  ............             1             3             2             2             2             3             5             1             1
    Sunday Sessions.....................................  ............  ............             2  ............  ............  ............  ............             3  ............             1
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                                                      20-YEAR COMPARISON OF SENATE LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY--Continued
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                              1998          1999          2000          2001          2002          2003          2004          2005          2006          2007
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Senate Convened.....................................          1/27           1/6          1/24           1/3          1/23           1/7          1/20           1/4           1/3           1/4
    Senate Adjourned....................................         10/21         11/19         12/15         12/20         11/20          12/9          12/8         12/22          12/9         12/31
    Days in Session.....................................           143           162           141           173           149           167           133           159           138           189
    Hours in Session....................................      1,09505"      1,18357"      1,01751"      1,23615"      1,04223"      1,45405"      1,03131"      1,22226"      1,02748"      1,37554"
    Average Hours per Day...............................           7.7           7.3           7.2           7.1           7.0           8.7           7.7           7.7           7.4           7.2
    Total Measures Passed...............................           506           549           696           425           523           590           663           624           635           621
    Roll Call Votes.....................................           314           374           298           380           253           459           216           366           279           442
    Quorum Calls........................................             4             7             6             3             2             3             1             3             1             6
    Public Laws.........................................           241           170           410           136           241           198           300           169           248           142
    Treaties Ratified...................................            53            13            39             3            17            11            15             6            14             8
    Nominations Confirmed...............................        20,302        22,468        22,512        25,091        23,633        21,580        24,420        25,942        29,603        22,892
    Average Voting Attendance...........................         97.47         98.02         96.99         98.29         96.36         96.07         95.54         97.41         97.13         94.99
    Sessions Convened Before 12 Noon....................           109           118           107           140           119           133           104           121           110           156
    Sessions Convened at 12 Noon........................            31            17            25            10            12             4             9             1             4             4
    Sessions Convened after 12 Noon.....................             2            19            24            21            23            23            21            36            24            32
    Sessions Continued after 6 p.m......................            93           113            94           108           103           134           129           120           129           144
    Sessions Continued after 12 Midnight................  ............  ............  ............             2             3             8             2             3             3             4
    Saturday Sessions...................................             1             3             1             3  ............             1             2             2             2             1
    Sunday Sessions.....................................  ............  ............             1  ............  ............             1             1             2  ............             1
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Prepared by the Senate Daily Digest--Office of the Secretary.

                  DISPOSITION OF EXECUTIVE NOMINATIONS (110-1)
                        [From: 01/04/2007 to 12/31/2007]
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Civilian Nominations, totaling 490, disposed of as
     follows:
        Confirmed.....................................                   276
        Unconfirmed...................................                   180
        Withdrawn.....................................                    31
        Returned to White House.......................                     3
    Other Civilian Nominations, totaling 3,807,
     disposed of as follows:
        Confirmed.....................................                 3,799
        Unconfirmed...................................                     8
    Air Force Nominations, totaling 6,096, disposed of
     as follows:
        Confirmed.....................................                 6,090
        Unconfirmed...................................                     5
    Returned to White House                                                1
    Army Nominations, totaling 6,721, disposed of as
     follows:
        Confirmed.....................................                 6,698
        Unconfirmed...................................                    19
        Returned to White House.......................                     4
    Navy Nominations, totaling 4,691, disposed of as
     follows:
        Confirmed.....................................                 4,688
        Unconfirmed...................................                     3
    Marine Corps Nominations, totaling 1,342, disposed
     of as follows:
        Confirmed.....................................                 1,341
        Unconfirmed...................................                     1                      SummaryTotal Nominations carried over from the First       ....................
     Session
    Total Nominations Received this Session...........                23,147
    Total Confirmed...................................                22,892
    Total Unconfirmed.................................                   216
    Total Withdrawn...................................                    31
    Total Returned to the White House.................                     8
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                enrolling clerk
        The Enrolling Clerk prepares, proofreads, corrects, and prints all
    Senate passed legislation prior to its transmittal to the House of
    Representatives, the National Archives, the Secretary of State, the
    United States Claims Court, and the White House. The Enrolling Clerk
    physically transmits all Senate messages to the House of
    Representatives.
        During 2007, 43 enrolled bills (transmitted to the President) 3
    enrolled joint resolutions (transmitted to the President) and 8
    concurrent resolutions (transmitted to the Archives) were prepared,
    printed, proofread, corrected, and printed on parchment.
        Overall, a total of 1,041 pieces of legislation in one form or
    another, were passed or agreed to by the Senate, and all were processed
    from this office. The Enrolling Clerk prepared and delivered 205
    messages from the Senate to the House of Representatives.
        Throughout 2007, the Enrolling Clerk's staff continued to train and
    work closely with the Legislative Information System (LIS) Project
    Office in an effort to further implement the use of XML software
    editors in the production of Senate documents.
                                executive clerk
        The Executive Clerk prepares an accurate record of actions taken by
    the Senate during executive sessions (proceedings on nominations and
    treaties) which is published as the Journal of the Executive
    Proceedings of the Senate at the end of each session of Congress. The
    Executive Clerk also prepares daily the Executive Calendar as well as
    all nomination and treaty resolutions for transmittal to the President.
    Additionally, the office processes all executive communications,
    presidential messages and petitions and memorials.
    Nominations
        During the first session of the 110th Congress, there were 1,174
    nomination messages sent to the Senate by the President, transmitting
    23,147 nominations to positions requiring Senate confirmation and 31
    messages withdrawing nominations sent to the Senate during the first
    session of the 110th Congress. Of the total nominations transmitted,
    490 were for civilian positions other than lists in the Foreign
    Service, Coast Guard, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
    and Public Health Service. In addition, there were 3,807 nominees in
    the ``civilian list'' categories named above. Military nominations
    received this session totaled 18,850 (6,096--Air Force; 6,721--Army;
    4,691--Navy; and 1,342--Marine Corps). The Senate confirmed 22,892
    nominations this session. Pursuant to the provisions of paragraph six
    of Senate Rule XXXI, eight nominations were returned to the President
    during the first session of the 110th Congress.
    Treaties
        There were 10 treaties transmitted to the Senate by the President
    during the first session of the 110th Congress for its advice and
    consent to ratification. These were ordered printed as treaty documents
    for the use of the Senate (Treaty Doc. 110-1 through 110-10).
        The Senate gave its advice and consent to eight treaties with
    various conditions, declarations, understandings and provisos to the
    resolutions of advice and consent to ratification.
    Executive Reports and Roll Call Votes
        There were nine executive reports relating to treaties ordered
    printed for the use of the Senate during the first session of the 110th
    Congress (Executive Report 110-1 through 110-9). The Senate conducted
    30 roll call votes in executive session, all on or in relation to
    nominations and treaties.
    Executive Communications
        For the first session of the 110th Congress, 4,531 executive
    communications, 276 petitions and memorials and 33 Presidential
    messages were received and processed.
    Legislative Information System
        The Executive Clerk consulted with the computer staff during the
    year to improve the processing of nominations, treaties, executive
    communications, presidential messages and petitions and memorials.
        Additionally, the Executive Clerk worked closely with the
    Legislative Information System staff of the Sergeant at Arms (SAA) in
    the development of the new program for processing the nomination lists
    through a Web-based application which can be done entirely by the
    Executive Clerk, freeing the SAA programmers from this responsibility.
    It has proved to be a time and cost effective method of managing the
    nomination lists from the Pentagon, and the Departments of State,
    Commerce, and Health and Human Services.
                                 journal clerk
        The Journal Clerk takes notes of the daily legislative proceedings
    of the Senate in the ``Minute Book'' and prepares a history of bills
    and resolutions for the printed Journal of the Proceedings of the
    Senate, or Senate Journal, as required by Article I, Section V of the
    Constitution. The Senate Journal is published each calendar year, and
    in 2007 the Journal Clerk completed the production of the 923 page 2006
    edition.
        The Journal staff take 90-minute turns at the rostrum in the Senate
    chamber, noting the following by hand for inclusion in the Minute Book:
    (i) all orders (entered into by the Senate through unanimous consent
    agreements), (ii) legislative messages received from the President of
    the United States, (iii) messages from the House of Representatives,
    (iv) legislative actions as taken by the Senate (including motions made
    by Senators, points of order raised, and roll call votes taken), (v)
    amendments submitted and proposed for consideration, (vi) bills and
    joint resolutions introduced, and (vii) concurrent and Senate
    resolutions as submitted. These notes of the proceedings are then
    compiled in electronic form for eventual publication at the end of each
    calendar year of the Senate Journal.
        The LIS Senate Journal Authoring System continues to be updated as
    needed to further assist in the efficiency of production. The 2007
    Senate Journal is expected to be sent to GPO for printing at the end of
    May 2008.
                         official reporters of debates
        The Office of the Official Reporters of Debates is responsible for
    the stenographic reporting, transcribing, and editing of the Senate
    floor proceedings for publication in the Congressional Record. The
    Chief Reporter acts as the editor-in-chief, and the Coordinator
    functions as the technical production manager of the Senate portion of
    the Record. The office staff interacts with Senate personnel on
    additional materials to be included in the Record.
        On a continuing basis, all materials to be printed in the next
    day's edition of the Record are transmitted electronically and on paper
    to the Government Printing Office (GPO). Each day roughly 90 percent of
    transcript production for GPO is done electronically, thus
    significantly reducing the time required by GPO to retype materials for
    presentation in the Congressional Record by the next day. There were
    many days during the year that the full Senate portion of the
    Congressional Record was done electronically with no rekeying done by
    the GPO. There was not one occasion in 2007 that the Congressional
    Record was not delivered to the Senate by the following day at noon.
        This year saw further procedural work in a pilot project to provide
    on-line Record corrections. Trial efforts by this office showed that,
    throughout the year, very few of such errors were found in the many
    hundreds of thousands of words produced in the Congressional Record.
                                parliamentarian
        The Parliamentarian's office continues to perform its essential
    institutional responsibilities to act as a neutral arbiter among all
    parties with an interest in the legislative process. These
    responsibilities include advising the Chair, senators, and their staff,
    as well as committee staff, House Members and their staffs,
    administration officials, the media and members of the general public,
    on all matters requiring an interpretation of the Standing Rules of the
    Senate, the precedents of the Senate, unanimous consent agreements, as
    well as provisions of public law affecting the proceedings of the
    Senate.
        The Parliamentarians work in close cooperation with the Senate
    leadership and their floor staffs in coordinating all of the business
    on the Senate floor. The Parliamentarian or one of his assistants is
    always present on the Senate floor when the Senate is in session,
    standing ready to assist the Presiding Officer in his or her official
    duties, as well as to assist any other senator on procedural matters.
    The Parliamentarians work closely with the staff of the Vice President
    of the United States and the Vice President himself whenever he
    performs his duties as President of the Senate.
        The Parliamentarians serve as the agents of the Senate in
    coordinating the flow of legislation with the House of Representatives
    and with the President and ensure that enrolled bills are signed in a
    timely manner by duly authorized officers of the Senate for
    presentation to the President. The Parliamentarians are a critical
    point of contact for emergency planning for representatives of the
    President.
        The Parliamentarians monitor all proceedings on the floor of the
    Senate, advise the Presiding Officer on the competing rights of the
    Senators on the floor, and advise all Senators as to what is
    appropriate in debate. The Parliamentarians keep track of the
    amendments offered to the legislation pending on the Senate floor, and
    monitor them for points of order. In this respect, the Parliamentarians
    reviewed more than 1,000 amendments during 2007 to determine if they
    met various procedural requirements (such as germaneness). The
    Parliamentarians also reviewed thousands of pages of conference reports
    to determine what provisions could appropriately be included therein.
        The Office of the Parliamentarian is responsible for the referral
    to the appropriate committees of all legislation introduced in the
    Senate, all legislation received from the House, as well as all
    communications received from the executive branch, State and local
    governments, and private citizens. In order to perform this
    responsibility, the Parliamentarians do extensive legal and legislative
    research. During 2007, the Parliamentarian and his assistants referred
    3,177 measures and 4,839 communications to the appropriate Senate
    committees. The office worked extensively with Senators and their
    staffs to advise them of the jurisdictional consequences of particular
    drafts of legislation, and evaluated the jurisdictional effect of
    proposed modifications in drafting. As in previous years, the office
    continues to address the jurisdictional questions posed by the creation
    of the Department of Homeland Security, by the adoption of S. Res. 445
    reorganizing intelligence and homeland security jurisdiction of the
    Senate's committees, and by the enactment of the Intelligence Reform
    and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. The Parliamentarians have made
    dozens of decisions concerning the department's responsibilities.
        During all of 2007, the Parliamentarians reviewed a myriad of
    drafts of the ethics reform proposals before they were finally adopted
    into law. The Parliamentarians now have the responsibility for
    potentially reviewing every provision of every bill, joint resolution,
    or conference report considered by the Senate for the presence of
    earmarks, as well as to advise whether the conferees exceeded their
    authority in including any provision in a conference report.
        The Parliamentarian's office hopes to complete a Supplement to the
    Senate Precedents by the end of this Congress. This is an enormous
    undertaking, but will be a valuable resource for Members and their
    legislative staff.
        During 2007, the Parliamentarians again (as they have in the past)
    conducted a comprehensive seminar for Senate staff on Senate procedure,
    under the joint auspices of the Secretary of the Senate and Sergeant-
    at-Arms. This seminar was videotaped for ongoing use by the Senate as
    an institutional teaching tool.
                              financial operations
                               disbursing office
        The mission of the Senate Disbursing Office is to provide efficient
    and effective central financial and human resource data management,
    information, and advice to the offices of the United States Senate and
    to Members and employees of the Senate. The Senate Disbursing Office
    manages the collection of information from the distributed accounting
    locations within the Senate to formulate and consolidate the agency
    level budget, disburse the payroll, pay the Senate's bills, prepare
    auditable financial statements, and provide appropriate counseling and
    advice. The Senate Disbursing Office collects information from Members
    and employees that is necessary to maintain and administer the
    retirement, health insurance, life insurance, and other central human
    resource programs and provides responsive, personal attention to
    Members and employees on an unbiased and confidential basis. The Senate
    Disbursing Office also manages the distribution of central financial
    and human resource information to the individual Member offices,
    committees, administrative and leadership offices in the Senate while
    maintaining the confidentiality of information for Members and Senate
    employees.
        The organization is structured to enhance its ability to provide
    quality work, maintain a high level of customer service, promote good
    internal controls, efficiency and teamwork, and provide for the
    appropriate levels of supervision and management. The long-term
    financial needs of the Senate are best served by an organization
    staffed with highly trained professionals who possess a high degree of
    institutional knowledge, sound judgment, and interpersonal skills that
    reflect the unique nature of the United States Senate.

                                Executive Office

        The primary responsibilities, among others, of the Executive Office
    are to:
      --oversee the day-to-day operations of the Disbursing Office (DO);
      --respond to any inquiries or questions that are presented;
      --maintain fully and properly trained staff;
      --safeguard the staff as well as the assets of the Secretary of the
            Senate;
      --ensure that the office is prepared to respond quickly and
            efficiently to any disaster or unique situation that may arise;
      --provide excellent customer service;
      --assist the Secretary of the Senate in the implementation of new
            legislation affecting any of her departments; and
      --handle all information requests from the Committee on
            Appropriations and Committee on Rules and Administration.
        This year the Executive Office arranged with the Senate Office of
    Orientation and Training to conduct a customer service presentation. We
    also coordinated specialized training in the ADPICS and FAMIS systems
    for the Sergeant at Arms (SAA) Finance Staff. In addition, all staff
    attended the new ethics training and the office participated in all of
    the Senate continuity of operations (COOP) exercises as well as two
    disaster recovery exercises performed last year.
        As a result of the change in majority, the Executive Office issued
    more than 200 letters to staff explaining the requirements of displaced
    staff as authorized by applicable Senate Resolutions. This was the
    first election year cycle where so many offices were affected. At the
    same time, we prepared and arranged for the distribution of retroactive
    cost of living adjustment (COLA) letters and issued budget letters to
    the 140 Senate accounting locations when the full year continuing
    resolution was passed.
        The Executive Office was involved in the coordination of the
    Government Accountability Office cash count of the Financial Services
    office (Front Office) operations and provided all of the requested
    information for the agreed-upon procedural review of the Office of
    Public Records. Both offices received a clean bill of health.
        Staff provided assistance to numerous Senate offices in making
    estimates before the end of the fiscal year, particularly in the
    preparation of payroll assumptions. In addition, the office prepared an
    account analysis of all expenditures and transfers from 1990 to 2007
    for the Senate Collection.

                   Deputy for Benefits and Financial Services

        The principal responsibility of this position is to provide
    expertise and oversight on Federal retirement, benefits, payroll, and
    financial services processes. Coordination of the interaction between
    the Front Office, Employee Benefits, and Payroll sections is also a
    major responsibility of the position, in addition to the planning and
    project management of new computer systems and programs. The deputy for
    Benefits and Financial Services ensures that job processes are
    efficient and up to date, modifies computer support systems as
    necessary, implements regulatory and legislated changes, and designs
    and produces up-to-date forms for use in all three sections.
    General Activities
        Implementation of the new Federal Employees Dental and Vision
    Insurance Program (FEDVIP) took place in January. The implementation
    was successful and proceeded smoothly. Expected follow-up trouble-
    shooting and minimal fine-tuning of technical programming issues was
    completed during January and February.
        Oversight of the many issues resulting from the change in Senate
    Majority was conducted from January through March. Incoming, outgoing
    and transferring staff were processed and counseled and adjustments to
    office allowances were processed. Research on the appropriate
    Resolutions was conducted. Similar actions took place following the
    death of Senator Craig Thomas of Wyoming and the resignation of Senator
    Trent Lott of Mississippi.
        After year-end processing of payroll for calendar year 2006, W-2
    forms were issued promptly and made immediately available on the
    Document Imaging System (DIS). After budget approval, the retroactive
    employee COLA was processed over a 2-month period in March and April to
    allow for make up of the retroactive portion due employees.
        The new server for the DIS became fully operational early in 2007.
    During the year, the deputy worked with SAA Technical Support to
    determine additional DIS requirements to provide greater human
    resources management system functionality and provide off-site access
    to a wider array of payroll documents. The office intends to implement
    these upgrades in 2008 and to complete plans to expand the scope of the
    DIS to bring it into full compliance with COOP guidelines.
        A major initiative is to eliminate the use of employee social
    security numbers wherever possible. During 2007, the ``Social Security
    Migration'' project was begun. The office has worked extensively with
    SAA Technical Support to establish requirements and guidelines and
    develop strategies for the payroll system side of this important
    migration. Meetings and coordination have led to extensive testing,
    programming and feedback. In addition, Disbursing has conducted
    research and coordinated with internal Senate and external users on how
    this migration will affect their end products and provided information
    and test data so transitions will be smooth. Because the payroll system
    ``communicates'' with so many entities receiving and providing data,
    this migration is a major project that requires extensive coordination.
    The migration is anticipated for mid-2008.
        The deputy and Payroll group worked with Disbursing's information
    technology group, several SAA Technical Support groups and contractors
    to establish the guidelines and specific requirements for the provision
    of electronic payroll reports for Senate offices. Testing and
    implementation of this project is scheduled for 2008.
        Due to the increase in popularity and participation in the Student
    Loan Program (SLP), the Financial Clerk and deputy dedicated time and
    resources to establishing an SLP administrator position. In addition,
    Disbursing was involved in extensive research with the Internal Revenue
    Service (IRS) on guidelines affecting the taxability of reimbursements
    to the Senate of SLP payments. Efforts were made to make the program
    guidelines and administration clearer to participants and office
    administrators.
        In response to the passage of S. 1, the Honest Leadership and Open
    Government Act of 2007, Disbursing staff coordinated with the staff of
    the Office of Public Records and other offices of the Secretary as well
    as SAA Technical Support to determine the requirements of the
    legislation and prepare for implementation of those requirements.
    Payroll system programming was established and tested to provide
    compliance with the legislation within a very short timeframe.
    Terminating employee notices were drafted and data for Web site
    availability was provided. In compliance with the legislation, notices
    were sent to terminating employees beginning in November and Web site
    data was delivered before the end of the year.

              Front Office--Administrative and Financial Services

        The Front Office is the main service area of all general Senate
    business and financial activity. The Front Office staff maintains the
    Senate's internal accountability of funds used in daily operations.
    Reconciliation of such funds is executed on a daily basis. The Front
    Office staff also provides training to newly authorized payroll
    contacts along with continuing guidance to all contacts in the
    execution of business operations. It is the receiving point for most
    incoming expense vouchers, payroll actions, and employee benefits
    related forms, and is the initial verification point to ensure that
    paperwork received in the Disbursing Office conforms to all applicable
    Senate rules, regulations, and statutes. The Front Office is the first
    line of service provided to senators, officers, and employees. All new
    Senate employees (permanent and temporary) who will work in the Capitol
    Hill Senate offices are administered the required oath of office and
    personnel affidavit. Staff are also provided verbal and written
    detailed information regarding pay and benefits. Advances are issued to
    Senate staff authorized for official Senate travel. Cash and check
    advances are entered and reconciled in Web FMIS. Repayment of travel
    advances is executed after processing of certified expenses is
    complete. Numerous inquiries are handled daily, ranging from pay,
    benefits, taxes, voucher processing, reporting, laws, and Senate
    regulations, and must always be answered accurately and fully to
    provide the highest degree of customer service. Cash and checks
    received from Senate entities as part of their daily business are
    handled through the Front Office and become part of the Senate's
    accountability of federally appropriated funds and are then processed
    through the Senate's general ledger system.
    General Activities
      --Processed approximately 1,000 cash advances, totaling approximately
            $900,000 and initialized 730 check/direct deposit advances,
            totaling approximately $630,000.
      --Received and processed more than 25,000 checks, totaling over
            $2,200,000.
      --Administered oath and personnel affidavits to more than 2,700 new
            Senate staff and advised them of their benefits.
      --Maintained brochures for 11 Federal health insurance carriers and
            distributed approximately 4,100 brochures to new and existing
            staff during the annual Federal Employees Health Benefits
            (FEHB) Open Season.
      --Provided 30 training sessions to new administrative managers.
        The Front Office continues its daily reconciliation of operations
    and strengthened internal office controls. New locks for cash drawers
    were installed, allowing better central control of the cash
    accountability. Training and guidance to new administrative managers
    and business contacts continued, as did the incorporation of updates of
    the scanning and imaging project into daily operations. A major
    emphasis was placed on assisting employees in maximizing their Thrift
    Savings Plan (TSP) contributions and making them aware of the TSP
    catch-up program. The Front Office continued to provide the Senate
    community with prompt, courteous, and informative advice regarding
    Disbursing Office operations.

                                Payroll Section

        The Payroll Section maintains the human resources management system
    (HRMS) and is responsible for processing, verifying, and warehousing
    all payroll information submitted to the Disbursing Office by senators,
    chairmen and other appointing officials for their staffs, including
    appointments of employees, salary changes, title changes, transfers and
    terminations. It is also responsible for input of all enrollments and
    elections submitted by Members and employees that affect their pay
    (e.g., retirement and benefits elections, tax withholding, TSP
    participation, allotments from pay, address changes, direct deposit
    elections, levies and garnishments) and for the issuance of accurate
    salary payments to Members and employees. The Payroll Section jointly
    maintains the Automated Clearing House (ACH) FedLine facilities with
    the Accounts Payable Section for the normal transmittal of payroll
    deposits to the Federal Reserve. Payroll expenditure, projection and
    allowance reports are distributed to all Senate offices. Issuance of
    the proper withholding and agency contribution reports to the
    Accounting Department is handled by Payroll as is transmission of the
    proper TSP information to the National Finance Center. In addition, the
    Payroll Section maintains earnings records for distribution to the
    Social Security Administration and employees' taxable earnings records
    for W-2 statements. The Payroll Section is also responsible for the
    payroll expenditure data portion of the Report of the Secretary of the
    Senate. The Payroll Section calculates, reconciles and bills the Senate
    Employees Child Care Center (SECCC) for their staff employee
    contributions and forwards payment of those contributions to the
    Accounting Section. The Payroll Section provides guidance and
    counseling to staff and administrative managers on issues of pay,
    salaries, allowances, and projections.
    General Activities
        In March, the Payroll Section processed a retroactive employee Cost
    of Living Adjustment (COLA) of 2.64 percent. Due to a delay in the
    fiscal year funding and the authorization of the COLA, the Payroll
    Section processed the COLA as adjustments in March and April to
    accommodate both the retroactive portion due employees as well as the
    prospective portion. To accomplish this, they worked with the SAA
    Technical Support staff to insure proper application of the COLA. The
    Payroll Section maintained the normal schedule of processing TSP
    election forms. Employees took full advantage of the increase of TSP
    deductions making the most of the new $15,500 maximum. For those
    employees over age 50, the TSP catch-up program provided an opportunity
    to make additional contributions in excess of the standard limitations.
        Payroll allowance, expenditure and projection reports are provided
    to all Senate offices on a monthly basis. A desire to provide these
    reports in an electronic format was previously identified. Payroll
    participated in determining and refining requirements and identifying
    strategies for the project during 2007. The goal is to make these
    reports available electronically in 2008.
        The Payroll Section provides administration of the Student Loan
    Program. Due to the growth of the Program, a dedicated Student Loan
    Administrator was added as a full time position within the Payroll
    Section. The SLP Administrator worked to improve processes for
    administration of the program. In addition, strides were made in
    providing clarification to issues affecting SLP, and additional
    emphasis was placed on recovery of outstanding debts to the SLP. The
    dedicated SLP e-mail address and phone line have proven successful
    additions for users as well as the SLP Administrator.
        The Payroll Section staff worked diligently in 2007 with the SAA
    Technical Support staff and external entities to eliminate use of paper
    and tape-driven correspondence. In July, the Payroll Section began
    transmitting all U.S. Savings Bond payments electronically to the
    Federal Reserve. In September, they began transmitting all TSP payments
    electronically. This transmission of TSP payments was the final phase
    in complete electronic transmission with the TSP. Disbursing is now
    completely paper-free and tape-free in its correspondence and
    transmissions with the TSP and the Federal Reserve for Savings Bonds.
        The Payroll Section was involved in the implementation and follow-
    up of the FEDVIP which took effect January 1, 2007. The office
    continues to refine and improve processes in working with the third-
    party administrators who administer FEDVIP, FSA and Long Term Care
    (LTC) Insurance.
        The 2007 majority change presented the Payroll Section with the
    task of transferring all staff in those affected offices to their new
    offices and making the related budgetary changes to office allowances,
    projections and expenditures. Disbursing Office staff looked into the
    specifics of applicable Senate Resolutions to determine their impact on
    outgoing staff and to ensure that procedures allowed for the proper
    administration of the resolutions. Payroll processed the paperwork and
    payments for approximately 350 employees affected by the change. In
    addition, the Payroll Section administered transfers and payments of
    staff following the death of Senator Craig Thomas of Wyoming and again
    after the resignation of Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi.
        The Payroll Section is also assisting in the testing and trouble-
    shooting of the ``Social Security Migration'' project that will take
    place in 2008. Members of the Payroll staff attended a conference where
    they garnered valuable information on the Senate's Payroll System,
    planned upgrades and updates, as well as networking with other users
    who have dealt with similar migrations.
        The Payroll Section again participated in disaster recovery
    testing. This year two separate tests were conducted. Both entailed
    using the Alternate Computing Facility (ACF) processing equipment to
    operate the payroll system from the Hart Building while SAA programmers
    ran trial payrolls from remote sites. Part of the test was for members
    of SAA Production Services to produce the payroll output from printers
    located at the ACF. The payroll system test proved very successful.
    Employee Benefits Section (EBS)
        The primary responsibilities of the Employee Benefits Section are
    administration of health insurance, life insurance, TSP, and all
    retirement programs for Members and employees of the Senate. This
    includes counseling, processing of paperwork, research, dissemination
    of information, and interpretation of retirement and benefits laws and
    regulations. EBS staff is also expected to have a working knowledge of
    the Federal Flexible Spending Account (FSA) Program, the Federal LTC
    Insurance Program and FEDVIP. In addition, the sectional work includes
    research and verification of all prior Federal service and prior Senate
    service for new and returning appointees. EBS provides this information
    for payroll input. It also verifies the accuracy of the information
    provided and reconciles, as necessary, when official personnel folders
    and transcripts of service from other Federal agencies are received,.
    Senate transcripts of service, including all official retirement and
    benefits documentation, are provided to other Federal agencies when
    Senate Members and staff are hired elsewhere in the Government. EBS is
    responsible for the administration and tracking of employees placed in
    Leave Without Pay (LWOP) to Perform Military Service and the occasional
    civilian appointment to an international organization. EBS also handles
    most of the stationery and forms inventory ordering and maintenance, as
    well as all benefits, TSP, and retirement brochures, for the Disbursing
    Office. EBS processes employment verifications for loans, bar exams,
    the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Office of Personnel Management,
    and Department of Defense, among others. Unemployment claim forms are
    completed, and employees are counseled on their eligibility. Department
    of Labor billings for unemployment compensation paid to Senate
    employees are reviewed in EBS and submitted by voucher to the
    Accounting Section for payment, as are the employee fees associated
    with FSAs. Designations of Beneficiary for Federal Employees' Group
    Life Insurance (FEGLI), retirement, and unpaid compensation are filed
    and checked by EBS.
    General Activities
        The year began with EBS finalizing retirement estimates and
    processing the many retirement cases associated with the outgoing
    senators and their staffs, as well as those staff on committees who
    were affected by the changes. Many regular retirement, death, and
    disability cases were also processed throughout the year.
        There was a great deal of employee turnover in early 2007,
    resulting in a dramatic increase in appointments to be researched and
    processed, retirement records to be closed-out, termination packages of
    benefits information to be compiled and mailed out, and health
    insurance enrollments to be processed. Transcripts of service for
    employees going to other Federal agencies, and other tasks associated
    with employees changing jobs were at a high level this year. These
    required prior employment research and verification, new FEHB, FEGLI,
    FSA, FEDVIP, Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), Federal Employees
    Retirement System (FERS) and TSP enrollments, and the associated
    requests for backup verification.
        With the death of Senator Craig Thomas, EBS assisted with the
    resulting benefits and retirement claims counseling and processing. EBS
    provided counseling and assisted Senator Thomas' staff with transition
    issues. EBS also assisted Senator John Barrasso and his staff with
    their transition to fill the seat of Senator Thomas. EBS also counseled
    Senator Trent Lott's personal and Whip staff with their transition
    issues in light of the senator's resignation.
        EBS conducted agency-wide seminars on CSRS and FERS and attended
    interagency meetings as a result of the many new features of the TSP
    Program. EBS also attended a conference conducted by our payroll
    systems developer, Integral Systems, to broaden our knowledge in system
    applications and upgrades, with an emphasis on security.
        Many employees changed health plans during the annual FEHB Open
    Season. These changes were processed and reported to carriers very
    quickly. This year, the Disbursing Office again offered Senate
    employees access to the online ``Checkbook Guide to Health Plans'' to
    research and compare FEHB plans. This tool will remain available to
    staff throughout the year. The Disbursing Office also hosted a FEHB
    Open Season Health Fair, which was well attended. The Health Fair
    included representatives from most of the local and national FEHB
    plans. Other representatives in attendance included LTC, FSA, FEDVIP
    and The Consumers Checkbook Guide.

                     Disbursing Office Financial Management

        Headed by the deputy for Financial Management, the mission of
    Disbursing Office Financial Management is to coordinate all central
    financial policies, procedures, and activities; to process and pay
    expense vouchers within reasonable time frames; to work toward
    producing an auditable consolidated financial statement for the Senate;
    and to provide professional customer service, training and confidential
    financial guidance to all Senate accounting locations. In addition, the
    Financial Management group is responsible for the compilation of the
    annual operating budget of the United States Senate for presentation to
    the Committee on Appropriations as well as for the formulation,
    presentation and execution of the budget for the Senate. On a
    semiannual basis, this group is also responsible for the compilation,
    validation and completion of the Report of the Secretary of the Senate.
    Disbursing Office Financial Management is segmented into three
    functional departments: Accounting, Accounts Payable, and Budget. The
    Accounts Payable Department is subdivided into three sections: Vendor/
    SAVI, Disbursement and Audit. The deputy coordinates the activities of
    the three functional departments, establishes central financial
    policies and procedures, and carries out the directives of the
    Financial Clerk and the Secretary of the Senate.

                             Accounting Department

        During 2007, the Accounting Department approved 51,950 expense
    reimbursement vouchers and 29,400 certification and vendor uploads,
    processed 1,300 deposits for items ranging from receipts received by
    the Senate operations, such as the Senate's revolving funds, to
    cancelled subscription refunds from Member offices. General ledger
    maintenance also prompted the entry of thousands of adjustment entries
    that include the entry of all appropriation and allowance funding
    limitation transactions, all accounting cycle closing entries, and all
    non-voucher reimbursement transactions such as payroll adjustments,
    COLA budget uploads, stop payment requests, travel advances and
    repayments, and limited payability reimbursements. The department
    continues to scan all documentation for journal vouchers, deposits,
    accounting memos, and letters of certification to facilitate both
    storage concerns and COOP backup.
        This year the Accounting Department assisted in the validation of
    various system upgrades and modifications. During January 2007, the
    Accounting Department completed the 2006 year-end process to close and
    reset revenue, expense, and budgetary general ledger accounts to zero.
    The new certificate of deposit log, developed in 2006, was modified to
    make it more user-friendly for data entry, and some testing was
    required to make fully functional.
        The Department of the Treasury's monthly financial reporting
    requirements includes a ``Statement of Accountability'' that details
    all increases and decreases to the accountability of the Secretary of
    the Senate, such as checks issued during the month and deposits
    received, as well as a detailed listing of cash on hand. Also, reported
    to the Department of the Treasury on a monthly basis is the ``Statement
    of Transactions According to Appropriations, Fund and Receipt
    Accounts,'' a summary all activity of all monies disbursed by the
    Secretary of the Senate through the Financial Clerk of the Senate. All
    activity by appropriation account is reconciled with the Department of
    the Treasury on a monthly and annual basis. The annual reconciliation
    of the Treasury Combined Statement is also used in the reporting to the
    Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as part of the submission of the
    annual operating budget of the Senate.
        This year, the Accounting Department transmitted all Federal tax
    payments for Federal, Social Security, and Medicare taxes withheld from
    payroll expenditures, as well as the Senate's matching contribution for
    Social Security, and Medicare to the Federal Reserve Bank. The
    department also performed quarterly reporting to the IRS and annual
    reporting and reconciliation to the IRS and the Social Security
    Administration. Payments for employee withholdings for State income
    taxes were reported and paid on a quarterly basis to each State with
    applicable State income taxes withheld. System modifications were
    installed to allow electronic (ACH) payment of quarterly State taxes.
    Extensive effort was put forth to gather information for the various
    jurisdictions as to their requirements for ACH transmittal. A pilot
    program for the electronic payment of quarterly State taxes consisting
    of Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC, was
    transmitted in January of 2008. Monthly reconciliations were performed
    with the National Finance Center regarding the employee withholdings
    and agency matching contributions for the TSP.
        There are also internal reporting requirements, such as the monthly
    ledger statements for all Member offices and all other offices with
    payroll and non-payroll expenditures. These ledger statements detail
    all of the financial activity for the appropriate accounting period
    with regard to official expenditures in detail and summary form. It is
    the responsibility of the Accounting Department to review and verify
    the accuracy of the statements before Senate-wide distribution.
        The Accounting Department, in conjunction with the deputy for
    Financial Management and the Assistant Financial Clerk, continues to
    work closely with the SAA Finance Department in completing a new draft
    of the Senate Wide Financial Statements for fiscal year 2006 in
    accordance with OMB Bulletin 01-09, ``Form and Content of Agency
    Financial Statements'' and any updates required by OMB Circular A-136,
    ``Form and Content of the Performance and Accountability Reports''.
    Plans are underway to finalize the implementation of the fixed asset
    system, and financial management software has been upgraded to a new
    release and is expected to be fully operational during the first
    quarter of 2008. These two items are priorities discussed in monthly
    accounting meetings.
        Accounting also has a budget division whose primary responsibility
    is compiling the annual operating budget of the United States Senate
    for presentation to the Committee on Appropriations. The Budget
    division is responsible for the preparation, issuance and distribution
    of the budget justification worksheets. Despite working under a
    continuing resolution in fiscal year 2007, the budget justification
    worksheets were mailed to the Senate accounting locations and processed
    in November. The budget baseline estimates for fiscal year 2008 were
    reported to OMB by mid-January. The budget analyst is also responsible
    for the preparation of 1099's and the prompt submission of forms to the
    IRS before the end of the January.

        Accounts Payable: Vendor/Senate Automated Vendor Inquiry Section

        The Vendor/Senate Automated Vendor Inquiry (SAVI) Section maintains
    the accuracy and integrity of the Senate's central vendor (payee) file
    for the prompt completion of new vendor file requests and service
    requests related to the Disbursing office's Web-based payment tracking
    system known as SAVI. This section also assists the information
    technology (IT) department in performing periodic testing and
    monitoring the performance of the SAVI system. Currently, more than
    15,300 vendor records are stored in the vendor file, in addition to
    approximately 10,000 employee records. Daily requests for new vendor
    addresses or updates to existing vendor information are processed
    within 24 hours of being received. In 2004, the A/P Department began
    paying vendors electronically via the ACH. Besides updating mailing
    addresses, the Vendor/SAVI section facilitates the use of ACH by
    switching the method of payment requested by the vendor from check to
    direct deposit. Whenever a new remittance address is added to the
    vendor file, a standard letter is mailed to vendors requesting tax and
    banking information. If a vendor responds indicating they would like to
    receive ACH payments in the future, the method of payment is changed.
    Currently, more than 2,100 vendors and over half of the home State
    office landlords are being paid via ACH.
        SAVI is a Web-based payment tracking system. Senate employees can
    electronically create, save, and file expense reimbursement forms,
    track their progress, and get detailed information on payments. The
    most common service requests are requests for system user
    identification and passwords and to reactivate accounts. Employees may
    also request an alternative expense payment method. An employee can
    choose to have their payroll set up for direct deposit or paper check,
    but can have their expenses reimbursed by a method different from their
    salary payment method.
        The Vendor/SAVI section works closely with the A/P Disbursements
    group resolving returned ACH payments. ACH payments are returned
    periodically for a variety of reasons, including incorrect account
    numbers, incorrect ABA routing numbers, and, in rare instances, a
    nonparticipating financial institution.
        The Vendor/SAVI section electronically scans and stores all
    supporting documentation of existing vendor records and new vendor file
    requests. Currently electronic records for over 9,000 vendors have been
    verified against paper records and the paper files certified for
    destruction. In the near future, this section will assist the IT
    Department in testing an automatic e-mail notification system which
    will alert vendors when an EFT payment has been made and will provide
    pertinent payment information.
        During 2007, the Vendor/SAVI section processed over 2,450 vendor
    file requests, completed nearly 2,200 SAVI service requests, mailed
    over 1,150 vendor information letters, and converted almost 500 vendors
    from check payment to direct deposit.
        The SAVI web-based system was upgraded in 2006 and further upgrades
    were discussed in 2007. Currently, SAVI exists as a stand alone
    application, but it will be incorporated into Web FMIS in 2008. This
    will enable users to take advantage of SAVI more fully while using a
    single system to handle payment inquiries. Since outside vendors do not
    have access to SAVI, an e-mail notification system was developed to
    alert vendors when payments are made. Testing began in 2007 and was
    completed in January of 2008 under a pilot program. Another major
    upgrade is the conversion of current employees social security numbers
    to an employee identification number so that no part of their Social
    Security number will be used as part of their vendor number.

                   Accounts Payable: Disbursements Department

        A disbursement is the entry and exit point for voucher payments.
    The department received in excess of 152,000 vouchers. All of these
    items were paid by the department either by Treasury check or ACH. As a
    result of the increasing popularity of electronic payment, the
    department wrote 28,659 expense checks and the remainder of the
    payments was via ACH. Approximately 150,000 reimbursements were
    transmitted via ACH. The department has experienced a slight decrease
    in the number of checks written, but a substantial increase in the
    number of ACH payments, thus in keeping with the department goal of
    reducing the use of paper checks.
        A new version of Checkwriter was installed as part of the release
    of Web FMIS version 2007.2. The new version was needed to facilitate
    the payment of quarterly State taxes via ACH.
        After vouchers are paid, they are sorted and filed by document
    number. Vouchers are grouped in 6-month ``clusters'' to accommodate
    their retrieval for the semi-annual Report of the Secretary of the
    Senate. Currently, files are maintained for the current period and two
    prior periods in-house as space is limited. Older documents are stored
    at the Senate Support Facility (SSF). The inventoried items are sorted
    and recorded in a database for easy document retrieval. Several
    document retrieval missions were successfully carried out and the
    department continues to work closely with warehouse personnel.
        A major function of the department is to prepare adjustment
    documents. Adjustments are varied, and include re-issuance of items
    held as accounts receivable collections, re-issuance of payments for
    which non-receipt is claimed, and various supplemental adjustments
    received from the Payroll Department. Such adjustments are usually
    disbursed by check, but an increasing number are now handled
    electronically through ACH. Paper payroll check registers were replaced
    by an electronic version using Reveal software in 2006, and a
    spreadsheet is maintained by Disbursements to track cases of non-
    receipt of salary checks, including stop payment requests and re-
    issuance.
        During 2007, while experiencing an increase in ACH payments,
    Disbursing also experienced an increase, though small, in the number of
    ACH returns. Returns are usually the result of receiving incorrect
    account or routing information and are easily corrected with payee
    contact. Some returns result from account closings or non-participating
    financial institutions and, while a bit more difficult, these items are
    resolved either by receiving updated information or simply converting
    the payment to a check. All rejected items are logged into an ACH
    reports folder. They are classified as either Payroll or Accounts
    Payable, and the actual daily reports are also scanned into the folder.
    Once logged in, the payroll items are forwarded to the Payroll
    Department, and the non-payroll items are forwarded to Vendor/SAVI to
    determine appropriate corrective action. Accounting memos are prepared
    outlining the actions to be taken, and Disbursements prepares the
    adjustments as warranted.
        The Department also prepares the forms required by the Department
    of Treasury for stop payments. Stop payments are requested by employees
    who have not received salary or expense reimbursements, and vendors
    claiming non-receipt of expense checks. During this year, the A/P
    Disbursement supervisor and the Accounts Payable manager continued
    using the Department of Treasury--Financial Management Service (FMS)
    online stop pay and check retrieval process known as PACER. The PACER
    system allows us to electronically submit stop-payment requests and
    provides online access to digital images of negotiated checks for
    viewing and printing. Once a check is viewed, it is printed and may be
    scanned. Scanned images are then forwarded to the appropriate
    accounting locations via e-mail. During 2007, over 500 requests were
    received for check copies. The use of PACER has enabled us to save the
    $7.50 processing fee we paid in the past. PACER is expected to go to a
    Web-based product in 2008, thus enabling us to research using the
    Internet rather than the slower mainframe system currently in use.

                       Accounts Payable: Audit Department

        The Accounts Payable Audit Section is responsible for auditing
    vouchers and answering questions regarding voucher preparation and the
    permissibility of expenses and advances. This section provides advice
    and recommendations on the discretionary use of funds to the various
    accounting locations, identifies duplicate payments submitted by
    offices, monitors payments related to contracts, trains new
    administrative managers and chief clerks about Senate financial
    practices and the Senate's Financial Management Information System, and
    assists in the production of the Report of the Secretary of the Senate.
        A major function of the section is monitoring the fund advances for
    travel and petty cash. The Funds Advance Tracking System (FATS) was
    used to ensure that advances were charged correctly, vouchers repaying
    such advances were entered, and balances were adjusted for reuse of the
    advance funds. An ``aging'' process was also performed to ensure that
    travel advances were repaid in the time specified by the travel advance
    regulations. Travel advances may be repaid via regular voucher
    processing, or may be canceled if the corresponding travel is not taken
    and the funds are returned.
        Late in 2006, a new advance module was placed into service for
    issuing and tracking advances. The module is part of Web FMIS version
    11 and is the first of a two-phase project. The first phase has been
    completed and accommodates issuance, tracking, and repayment of
    advances. The second phase accommodates entry and editing of election
    dates and Senator-elect vouchers and has now been installed. In
    addition to other functionality, an advance type of petty cash was
    created and regular petty cash audits are performed by the department.
    We successfully performed 22 petty cash audits in 2007.
        The Accounts Payable Audit Section processed in excess of 152,000
    expense vouchers in fiscal year 2007, as well as 30,000 uploaded items.
    In addition, the section sanctioned in excess of 87,000 vouchers under
    authority delegated by the Senate Committee on Rules and
    Administration. This translates to roughly 16,600 vouchers processed
    per auditor, and 30,000 vouchers posted per certifier. The voucher
    processing consisted of providing interpretation of Senate rules,
    regulations and statutes and applying the same to expense claims,
    monitoring of contracts, and direct involvement with the Senate's
    central vendor file. On average, vouchers greater than $100.00 that do
    not have any issues or questions are received, audited, sanctioned
    electronically by the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration
    using Web FMIS and paid within 8 to 10 business days.
        Uploaded items are of two varieties: certified expenses and vendor
    payments. Certified expenses have been around since the 1980's and
    included items such as stationery, telecommunications, postage, and
    equipment. Currently, the certifications include mass transit, mass
    mail, franked mail, excess copy charges, Photography Studio, and
    Recording Studio charges. Expenses incurred by the various Senate
    offices are certified to the Disbursing Office on a monthly basis. The
    expenses are detailed on a spreadsheet which is also electronically
    uploaded. The physical voucher is audited and appropriate revisions are
    made. Concentrated effort is put forth to ensure certified items appear
    as paid in the same month they are incurred.
        Vendor uploads are used to pay vendors for the Stationery Room,
    Senate Gift Shop, State office rentals, and refunds of security
    deposits for the Senate Page School. The methodology is roughly the
    same as for certifications, but the payments rendered are for the
    individual vendors. Although these items are generally processed and
    paid quickly, the State office rents are generally paid a few days
    prior to the month of the rental in keeping with a general policy of
    paying rent in advance.
        The Disbursing Office has sanctioning authority for vouchers of
    $100.00 or less. These vouchers comprise approximately 60 percent of
    all vouchers processed. The responsibility for sanctioning rests with
    the certifying accounts payable specialists and are received, audited,
    and paid within 5 business days of receipt. As in the previous year,
    Disbursing continued to pass two post-payment audits performed by the
    Senate Committee on Rules and Administration.
        Additionally, advance documents and non-Contingent Fund vouchers
    are now posted in Audit. Currently, there are three certifying accounts
    payable specialists who handle the bulk of the sanctioning
    responsibilities within the group.
        The Accounts Payable Audit Group provided training sessions in the
    use of new systems, the process for generation of expense claims, and
    the permissibility of an expense; and participated in seminars
    sponsored by the Secretary of the Senate, the SAA, and the Library of
    Congress. The section trained 36 new administrative managers and chief
    clerks and conducted 6 informational sessions for Senate staff through
    seminars sponsored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). The
    Accounts Payable group also routinely assists the IT department and
    other groups as necessary in the testing and implementation of new
    hardware, software, and system applications. Web FMIS version 2007.1
    was in use for most of the year and version 2007.2 was released in
    August. The section participated in testing for the release of Web FMIS
    version 2008.1 late in the year. Testing and discussions continue for
    employee identification number conversion, and implementation is
    expected in 2008.
        The cancellation process for advances was upgraded and streamlined
    in 2006 and continues to work well. This was necessary to ensure
    repayment of advances systematically for canceled or postponed travel
    in accordance with Senate Travel Regulations, as well as to provide
    functionality consistent with the release of Web Advances Phase I. The
    new process eliminates the need to create zero dollar vouchers, allows
    the Disbursing Office to completely handle the cancellations in FAMIS,
    and allows administrative managers to simply void their advance
    documents.

                    Disbursing Office Information Technology

    Financial Management Information System
        The Disbursing Office Information Technology (DO IT) department
    provides both functional and technical assistance for all Senate
    financial management activities. Activities revolve around support of
    the Senate's Financial Management Information System (FMIS) which is
    used by staff in 140 Senate accounting locations (i.e., 100 Senator's
    offices, 20 committees, 20 leadership and support offices, the Office
    of the Secretary of the Senate, the SAA, the Senate Committee on Rules
    and Administration Audit section, and the Disbursing Office).
    Responsibilities of the department include:
      --Supporting current systems;
      --Testing infrastructure changes;
      --Managing and testing new system development;
      --Planning;
      --Managing the FMIS project, including contract management;
      --Administering the Disbursing Office's Local Area Network (LAN); and
      --Coordinating the Disbursing Office's disaster recovery activities.
        The Disbursing Office is the ``business owner'' of FMIS and is
    responsible for making the functional decisions about FMIS. The SAA
    Technology Services staff is responsible for providing the technical
    infrastructure, including hardware (e.g., mainframe and servers),
    operating system software, database software, and telecommunications;
    technical assistance for these components, including migration
    management and database administration; and regular batch processing.
    The office's contract support team along with the SAA, is responsible
    for operational support and is also under contract with the Secretary,
    for application development. The three organizations work
    cooperatively.
        Highlights of the year include:
      --Implementation of two releases of FMIS;
      --Incorporating the functionality of the FATS sub-system into Web
            FMIS, thus enabling Disbursing to retire the FATS system;
      --Preparing for converting employee vendor numbers to a number that
            does not contain any portion of the employee's social security
            number;
      --Preparing for a pilot of remitting quarterly State tax payments via
            direct deposit;
      --Testing infrastructure changes that included upgrades to the
            mainframe operating system (Z/OS), the database (DB2), and Web
            Sphere;
      --Coordinating and participating in the FMIS portion of the yearly
            Senate-wide disaster recovery exercise for the ACF;
      --Coordinating and participating in a first-time FMIS only disaster
            recovery exercise for the ACF;
      --Issuing a spreadsheet by which any Senator's office could estimate
            a potential COLA for their office based on office-defined
            criteria;
      --Supporting the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration's post-
            payment audit of a statistically valid sample of vouchers of
            $100.00 or less;
      --Installing new printers throughout the Disbursing Office; and
      --Conducting monthly classes and seminars on Web FMIS.
                Supporting Current Systems
        The DO IT department supports FMIS users in all 140 accounting
    locations, Disbursing's Accounts Payable (A/P), Accounting,
    Disbursements, Vendor/SAVI and Front Office sections, and the Senate
    Committee on Rules and Administration Audit staff. The activities
    associated with this responsibility include:
      --User support--provide functional and technical support to all
            Senate FMIS users; staff the FMIS (help desk); answer hundreds
            of questions; and meet with chiefs of staff, administrative
            managers, chief clerks, and directors of various Senate offices
            as requested;
      --Technical problem resolution--ensure that technical problems are
            resolved;
      --Monitor system performance--check system availability and
            statistics to identify system problems and coordinate
            performance tuning activities for database access optimization;
      --Security--maintain user rights for all ADPICS, FAMIS, and Web FMIS
            users;
      --System administration--design, test and make entries to tables that
            are at the core of the system;
      --Support of accounting activities--perform functional testing and
            production validation of the cyclic accounting system
            activities. This includes rollover, the process by which tables
            for the new fiscal year are created, and archive/purge, the
            process by which data for the just lapsed fiscal year is
            archived for reporting purposes and removed from the current
            year tables;
      --Support the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration post
            payment voucher audit process--provide the data from which the
            Rules Committee audit staff selects a statistically valid
            sample of vouchers for $100 or less. In this way the Rules
            Committee audit staff review vouchers sanctioned under
            authority delegated to the Financial Clerk;
      --Upload bulk financial transactions directly to FAMIS--upload
            documents, such as certifications and vouchers from the Keeper
            of Stationery, directly into FAMIS. These documents, submitted
            via spreadsheets, are reviewed by the DO A/P and/or Accounting
            sections prior to upload; and
      --Training--provide functional training to all Senate FMIS users.
                Normal Tasks
        As part of our normal tasks to support current systems, Disbursing
    created 110 new Web FMIS user accounts and an additional 112 new
    ADPICS/FAMIS user accounts. Additionally, the office staff created new
    organization, department and location codes for the new senators in the
    110th Congress (nine newly elected Senators, one due to the death of
    Senator Craig Thomas, and one due to the resignation of Senator Trent
    Lott). Through the ``rollover'' process, Disbursing created the tables
    necessary for two new fiscal periods--fiscal year 2008 (for all FMIS
    users), which began 10/1/2007 and Resolution 89B (for Committees),
    which began 3/1/2007. The two queries for the Rules Committee's audit
    identified 24,770 records for the period 10/1/2006 to 3/31/2007 and
    25,195 for the period 4/1/2007 to 9/30/2007. The office uploaded over
    340 files of multiple documents such as certifications, vouchers from
    the Keeper of Stationery, SAA budget entries, and journal entries.
    Finally, since this was a year in which a new Congress began,
    Disbursing staff offered Web FMIS classes twice a month during February
    and March in order to meet the needs of the Senate user community. The
    classes were offered once a month for the remainder of the year.
                Unusual Tasks
        IT completed a number of unusual tasks to support current systems
    this year:
      --Designed and implemented a new office information authorization
            form as well as two new mainframe system forms (security and
            document approval paths updates) to facilitate user
            administration;
      --Implemented procedures to create documents for rarely used funds,
            such as foreign travel, in Web FMIS instead of ADPICS, taking
            advantage of the sophisticated functionality in Web FMIS for
            travel advances and travel advance repayments simplifying
            processing of these documents by the A/P and Accounting staff;
            and
      --Created and distributed a spreadsheet for Senate offices to use to
            calculate a potential January 2008 COLA using office-defined
            criteria.
                Testing Infrastructure Changes
        The SAA provides the infrastructure on which FMIS operates,
    including the mainframe, the database, security hardware and software,
    and the telecommunications network. During 2007, the SAA implemented
    three major upgrades to the FMIS infrastructure: upgrading the
    mainframe operating software, Z/OS from version 1.4 to version 1.7;
    upgrading the FMIS database from DB2 v 8 to DB2 v 8.1; and upgrading
    the Web Sphere software from v 6.0.2 to v6.1. Because the Z/OS upgrade
    was accomplished as a stand-alone activity, IT tested all FMIS
    subsystems in a testing environment and validated all FMIS subsystems
    in the production environment after the implementation. Since the other
    two upgrades were accomplished at the same time as a FMIS release, DB2
    with the 2007-2 release and Web Sphere with the 2008-1 release, all
    were tested as part of the release testing.
                Managing and Testing New System Development
        During 2007, the DO IT department supervised development, performed
    extensive integration system testing, and implemented changes to FMIS
    subsystems. For each, implementation and production verification was
    done over a weekend in order to minimize system down time to users.
    Since 2006, multiple sub-system upgrades were consolidated into two
    releases each year. This reduced the amount of regression testing
    required. In order to accurately reflect the variety of changes in each
    release, the releases are now numbered by fiscal year. During 2007,
    Disbursing implemented two releases, and worked on a third:
      --FMIS r2007-2, implemented in August 2007;
      --FMIS r2008-1, implemented in November 2007; and
      --FMIS r2008-1.5, scheduled to be implemented in January 2008.
        The items selected for development and implementation were based on
    user requests, suggestions from the SAA technical staff, and the IT
    department. The IT department meets regularly with users through
    scheduled user group meetings. For five weeks this spring the
    Disbursing IT department met weekly with the Web FMIS users group in
    order to review the new page designs and functionality that were
    implemented in FMIS r2007-2. Additionally, Disbursing IT met with the
    ADPICS/FAMIS users group (primarily SAA users) on a monthly basis. IT
    also implemented a monthly meeting with the Accounting Section in order
    to address their concerns in a user group format.
                FMIS 2007-2
        For Web FMIS users in senators and committee offices, FMIS 2007-2
    implemented a new look, additional functionality and ease-of-use
    features. The most prominent changes for these users included changes
    to the homepage, which now displays:
      --a budget summary panel with subtotals by payroll and non-payroll
            for amounts budgeted, spent and remaining;
      --a tab with a graphical display of the four top non-payroll
            expenditure categories;
      --a count of documents that have been saved but not submitted; and
      --a document quick access panel that enables searching for a document
            by vendor name, or document number.
        Additionally, this release features a completely re-written budget
    function that simplifies budget entry. The ease-of-use features include
    automatic population of fields when a new vendor or expense category is
    added and when the office has only one location.
        Integration of the election date functionality from the FATS system
    into Web FMIS resulted in automatic notification, at the point that a
    document is submitted, if the per diem expenses on that document
    violate the 60-day election date moratorium period. This release marked
    the retirement of the legacy FATS system, simplifying the FMIS system
    architecture.
        For the Rules Committee Audit users, the new functionality in this
    release enabled them to ``check out'' documents instead of having
    documents assigned to them by a supervisor. The new functionality was
    so well received that it is anticipated it will be used for the imaged
    document pilot.
        For the Accounting Section, enhancements to the CD Log function
    simplified the work required to prepare deposits to be made to the
    Senate's depository bank.
        For SAA users, there were three important enhancements. Two changes
    enabled use of the SAA's work flow system. These were the ability to
    interface on-demand purchase order and voucher information from ADPICS
    and adding an approver field to several ADPICS screens. The other
    enhancement was to add fields in Web FMIS that will enable the SAA
    finance staff to use Web FMIS to create travel advance and voucher from
    advance documents, thereby enabling the SAA to take advantage of the
    sophisticated functionality in Web FMIS for travel advances and travel
    advance repayments.
                FMIS 2008-1
        With this release, Disbursing began three pilot programs. The first
    pilot sends e-mail messages to vendors paid by direct deposit that
    provides the same basic information that would be on a check stub.
    Providing the check stub information directly via e-mail helps the
    vendor credit the payment properly. The second pilot incorporates the
    functionality of SAVI into Web FMIS as ``Staffer Functionality.'' When
    implemented Senate-wide, staffers will use Web FMIS functionality to
    create expense summary reports and view payment information. They will
    be able to access this functionality using three different browsers:
    Internet Explorer 7, Safari, and Firefox. Full implementation will
    eliminate the SAVI subsystem and therefore simplify FMIS system
    architecture. The third pilot enables Disbursing to remit, via direct
    deposit, quarterly State tax payments to States.
        For Web FMIS users in Senators and committee offices, this release
    provided a completely re-written reconciliation function, added budget
    ease-of use features, and enabled users to create a custom user id.
    Additionally, Disbursing began posting documents under the Web FMIS
    Help system in order to provide more assistance on-line. New system
    functionality enabled Disbursing to relate identification of users who
    manage accounts for multiple offices. these ``multi-org'' users.
        The release included functionality for other user groups as well.
    For SAA users, this release provided online inquiries that enabled them
    to easily access payment information. For Disbursing IT system
    administrators, this release provided new functionality for managing
    users and the Web FMIS system functions assigned to them.
                Planning
        The Disbursing IT department performs two main planning activities:
      --Schedule coordination--planning and coordinating a rolling 12-month
            schedule; and
      --Strategic planning--setting the priorities for further system
            enhancements.
                    Schedule Coordination
        In 2007, this department continued to hold two types of meetings
    among Disbursing, SAA and the contractor to coordinate schedules and
    activities. These were:
      --Project specific meetings--a useful set of project-specific working
            meetings, each of which has a weekly set meeting time and meets
            for the duration of the project (e.g., Archive/Purge meetings
            and Web FMIS budget function meetings); and
      --Technical meeting--a weekly meeting to discuss the active projects,
            including scheduling activities and resolving issues.
                    Strategic Planning
        The FMIS strategic plan has a longer time horizon than the rolling
    12-month time frame of the technical meeting schedule. It is designed
    to set the direction and priorities for further enhancements. In 2002,
    a 5-year strategic plan was written by the Disbursing IT and Accounting
    staff for Disbursing Office Strategic Initiatives. This detailed
    description of five strategic initiatives formed the base for the
    Secretary of the Senate's request in 2002 for $5 million in multi-year
    funds for further work on the FMIS project. The five strategic
    initiatives are:
      --Paperless Vouchers--Imaging of Supporting Documentation and
            Electronic Signatures.--Beginning with a feasibility study and
            a pilot, implement new technology, including imaging and
            electronic signatures, in order to reduce the Senate(s
            dependence on paper vouchers. This will enable continuation of
            voucher processing operations from an alternate location should
            an emergency occur;
      --Web FMIS.--Respond to requests from the Senate's accounting
            locations for additional functionality in Web FMIS;
      --Payroll System.--Respond to requests from the Senate's accounting
            locations for online real time access to payroll data;
      --Accounting Subsystem Integration.--Integrate Senate-specific
            accounting systems, improve internal controls, and eliminate
            errors caused by re-keying of data; and
      --CFO Financial Statement Development.--Provide the Senate with the
            capacity to produce auditable financial statements that will
            obtain an unqualified opinion.
                    Managing the FMIS Project
        The responsibility for managing the FMIS project was transferred to
    the Disbursing IT department during the summer of 2003 and includes
    developing the task orders with contractors, overseeing their work and
    reviewing invoices. In 2007, two new task orders were executed:
      --Web FMIS reporting enhancements; and
      --Service year 2008 extended operational support, which covers
            activities from September 2007 to August 2008.
        In addition, work continued under four task orders executed in
    prior years:
      --Imaging and signature design and electronic invoicing enhancement
            continuation;
      --Web FMIS r10;
      --SAA finance system and reporting enhancements; and
      --Service year 2007 extended operational support (which covered
            activities from September 2006 to August 2007).
                    Administering the Disbursing Office's Local Area
                        Network (LAN)
        Disbursing continued to administer its own local area network
    (LAN), which is separate from the network for the rest of the
    Secretary's Office. Upkeep of the LAN infrastructure, including
    performing routine daily tasks, and replacing equipment regularly is
    critical to providing services. During 2007, LAN administration
    activities included:
      --Maintaining and Upgrading the Disbursing Office's LAN;
      --Installing Specialized Software; and
      --Maintaining Projects for the Payroll and Benefits Section.
                    Maintaining and Upgrading the Disbursing Office LAN
        Disbursing maintained the existing workstations with appropriate
    upgrades including:
      --Installing new printers for all staff;
      --Ordering, and beginning to deploy new laptops for selected staff;
            and
      --Implementing Internet Explorer 7 for all staff.
                    Installing Specialized Software
        Disbursing uses a variety of specialized software that is critical
    to workflow processes. In 2007, Disbursing:
      --Updated check scanning software.--This software enables staff to
            scan the front and back of checks deposited by Disbursing in
            its depository bank;
      --Updated ``Reveal'' software.--This software enables staff to view
            reports created by the FMIS batch process on-line;
      --Installed a new version of ``EasyACH''.--This software enables
            Disbursing to resend direct deposit payments, a functionality
            that was eliminated from the new ACH software provided by the
            Federal Reserve; and
      --Tested a replacement for ``Rumba''.--This software emulates a
            mainframe 3270 terminal and is used by all Senate staff who
            access ADPICS and/or FAMIS.
                    Maintaining Projects for Payroll and Employee Benefits
                        Sections
        Disbursing continued to support the Payroll/Benefits Imaging
    system, developed by SAA staff, which electronically captures and
    indexes payroll documents submitted at the front counter. This is a
    critical system for the Payroll and Employee Benefits sections. During
    2007, the Disbursing network administrator worked with SAA staff to
    configure and install two servers for this project: one in the
    Disbursing Office and one at the ACF.
                    Coordinating the Disbursing Office's Disaster Recovery
                        Activities
        In August, the SAA technical staff conducted a Senate-wide disaster
    recovery test of the Senate's computing facilities, including FMIS
    functions. The test involved switching the Senate's network from
    accessing systems at the Primary Computing Facility (PCF) to the ACF
    and powering down the PCF. The SAA's primary purpose was to test the
    technical process of switching to the ACF; thus, only a limited amount
    of time was available for functional testing. In essence, FMIS systems
    and data were ``failed-over'' to the ACF, made available for testing
    for the functional testing window, and then the systems were ``failed
    back'' to the PCF. The data, changed during the test period, was not
    ``failed back''. Thus, changes made while testing at the ACF were not
    reflected in production data.
        The Disbursing staff set minimal goals of accessing all critical
    FMIS subsystems. While the Disbursing IT staff coordinated activities,
    the actual testing was done by Disbursing functional and technical
    staff, the contractor, and SAA technical staff. Disbursing IT staff and
    the contractor tested ADPICS/FAMIS, Web FMIS, SAVI, and Checkwriter.
    Disbursing payroll staff and SAA technical staff tested the payroll
    system.
        Within the limited scope of the test, Disbursing successfully
    tested all the critical components of FMIS, with the exception of (a)
    accessing Checkwriter, (b) accessing some reports used by Disbursing
    (e.g., on the Reveal server and the Disbursing report server), and (c)
    critical batch processes which were not tested.
        At the Disbursing Office's request, the SAA added a FMIS-only
    Disaster Recovery test in December. The longer time allotted to this
    test enabled more complete functional testing, (including for example,
    following single documents from data entry in ADPICS and Web FMIS
    through payment in FAMIS), running more reports than during other
    tests, and testing the critical payroll and FAMIS batch processes.
    While the Disbursing IT staff organized the functional test plan, the
    actual testers included Disbursing IT staff, payroll staff, contractor
    support staff, and, for the first time, SAA Finance staff. No major
    problems were encountered and because of the longer time of this test,
    the problems that were encountered were investigated.
                             administrative offices
                         conservation and preservation
        The Office of Conservation and Preservation develops and
    coordinates programs directly related to the conservation and
    preservation of Senate records and materials for which the Secretary of
    the Senate has statutory authority. Initiatives include:
    deacidification of paper and prints, phased conservation for books and
    documents, collection surveys, exhibits, and matting and framing for
    the Senate Leadership.
        Over the past year, the office has embossed 89 books and matted and
    framed 250 items for Senate leadership. For more than 25 years, the
    office has bound a copy of Washington's Farewell Address for the annual
    ceremonial reading of the address. In 2007, a volume was bound and read
    by Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee.
        As mandated in the 1990 Senate Library Collection Condition Survey,
    the office continued to conduct an annual treatment of books identified
    by the survey as needing conservation or repair. In 2007, conservation
    treatments were completed for 56 volumes of a 7,000 volume collection
    of House hearings. Specifically, treatment involved recasing each
    volume as required, using alkaline end sheets; replacing acidic tab
    sheets with alkaline paper; cleaning the cloth cases; and replacing
    black spine title labels of each volume as necessary. The office will
    continue preservation of the remaining 3,694 volumes.
        The office assisted the Senate Library with books sent to the
    Government Printing Office's Library Binding section. Additionally, the
    office collaborated with the Senate Library to create three exhibits
    located in the Senate Russell building basement corridor.
        The Office of Conservation and Preservation staff continues to
    assist Senate offices with conservation and preservation of documents,
    books, and various other items. For example, the office staff continues
    to monitor the temperature and humidity in the Senate Library storage
    areas, including the Senate Support Facility, for preservation and
    conservation purposes.
                                    curator
        The Office of Senate Curator, on behalf of the Senate Commission on
    Art, develops and implements the museum and preservation programs for
    the United States Senate. The Curator collects, preserves, and
    interprets the Senate's fine and decorative arts, historic objects, and
    specific architectural features; and the Curator exercises supervisory
    responsibility for the historic chambers in the Capitol under the
    jurisdiction of the Commission. Through exhibitions, publications, and
    other programs, the Curator educates the public about the Senate and
    its collections.
    Collections: Commissions, Acquisitions, and Management
        A painting of Senator Robert C. Byrd was unveiled in the Old Senate
    Chamber on September 25, 2007, as part of the Senate Leadership
    Portrait Collection. Additionally, a portrait of Senator Tom Daschle
    was approved and was unveiled on April 22, 2008; a painting of Senator
    Trent Lott will be completed in late 2008.
        One hundred and eight objects were accessioned into the Senate
    collection, including 38 Senate Chamber floor and gallery passes--the
    earliest dating to 1882; 26 invitations and programs to events such as
    portrait unveilings, joint sessions, and the laying in state of
    President Gerald Ford; 6 political cartoons from the weekly humor
    magazines Judge and Puck; 10 stereoviews of the Capitol; a circa 1970s
    electronic speaker (commonly referred to as a ``squawk box'') which
    allowed Senators and staff to listen to Senate floor proceedings from
    their offices; the paint palette used by artist Michael Shane Neal
    while working on the portrait of Senator Byrd; and two revolving desk
    chairs similar to those used in Capitol offices and committee rooms in
    the early 20th century.
        Of particular note was the Senate Commission on Art's acquisition
    of a large and elaborate 1880s Hall's safe which had been auctioned as
    excess Senate property by the General Services Administration in the
    1970s. The safe illustrates the necessary modernization of
    administrative procedures due to rapidly increasing Senate membership
    after the Civil War. This historic object--with its gold leaf, etched
    surfaces, inlaid wood, and hand painting--is also a superior example of
    19th century American industrial arts.
        Forty-one new foreign gifts were reported to the Select Committee
    on Ethics and transferred to the Curator's office. They were catalogued
    and are maintained by the office in accordance with the Foreign Gifts
    and Decorations Act. Appropriate disposition of 28 foreign gifts was
    completed following established procedures.
        Seventy-four collection objects were moved into a new curatorial
    storage space in the Senate Support Facility (SSF), which provides
    state-of-the-art museum storage for the Senate's art and historic
    collections. All objects were given a priority designation and
    identified with color coded object tags. In the event of an emergency,
    the colored tags will assist staff in removing the highest priority
    objects first.
        An integrated pest management (IPM) program administered by the
    Curator's office is now in operation for the SSF curatorial storage
    space. The pest management program monitors for the presence of insect
    pests, which can cause damage to furniture, rugs, and other textiles.
    To date, there has been no evidence of pests that are a threat to
    collections. Other practices, including regular cleaning of the space
    and inspection of all objects prior to placing them in storage, are
    also key components of the program. During the fall, additional support
    for the IPM program was established through the Architect of the
    Capitol's (AOC) overall pest management program for the SSF. The
    program provides supplies and includes expert advice for structural
    repairs, sanitation, and storage procedures to prevent the entrance and
    harboring of pests.
        Also in operation in the SSF curatorial storage space is an
    environmental monitoring system. This is the first phase of an
    extensive electronic environmental monitoring system that tracks
    environmental conditions in significant spaces; information on
    temperature, relative humidity, and the presence of water is sent to a
    computer in the Curator's office. The system also alerts staff when
    readings deviate from established ranges.
        Preparations continued for the two new curatorial storage spaces in
    the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC). Installation of the specialized
    preservation storage equipment for these spaces will occur in late
    2008.
        In 2007, the Curator's office began implementation of a
    comprehensive maintenance program for all collections and historic
    spaces under its care. The purpose of the program is fourfold: to
    monitor the condition of both collections and the spaces in which they
    are displayed and stored; to maintain systematic records of condition
    changes and steps taken to make improvements; to prioritize the
    maintenance and conservation needs of collections; and to develop
    communication and educational resources for other Members of the Senate
    community regarding the care of collections and historic spaces. An
    outline of the program was created and a comprehensive monitoring plan
    is in place. Daily and weekly inspections are conducted, with plans for
    monthly inspections underway.
        Surveys of the condition of related objects in the Senate
    collection are another component of the integrated maintenance program.
    They are an important tool for prioritizing conservation needs so that
    resources are directed to the most unstable objects first, before
    additional damage further diminishes their historic and aesthetic
    value. The conservation undertaken in 2007 for several historic
    overmantel mirrors was in response to an assessment conducted in 2006,
    and planning began this year for an assessment of the Senate's historic
    timepieces. For the time being, treatment for Eliphalet Frazer Andrews'
    portrait of John Adams and for the frame for John Blake White's
    painting, Sergeants Jasper and Newton Rescuing American Prisoners from
    the British, have been postponed until such time as they can be
    addressed within the context of collection conservation priorities.
        To improve artwork lighting in the Senate wing of the Capitol, the
    Curator's office developed a pilot project to address the quality of
    the light and apply museum lighting standards to a segment of the
    second floor corridor. A lighting designer produced a plan for the
    pilot area, provided equipment specifications, and positioned the
    lights, which the AOC purchased and installed. Building on the artwork
    lighting pilot project, recommendations were obtained for lighting
    needs related to new artwork installations in four areas of the Senate
    wing--Room S-109, the east and west Brumidi stairwells, and the Senate
    chamber lobby. The report was forwarded to the AOC for a feasibility
    review.
        In preparation for display in the CVC, the Curator's staff
    developed specifications based on original construction and finish
    techniques for the replication of an original 1819 Senate chamber desk.
    The desk will be built by the Senate Sergeant at Arms (SAA) Cabinet
    Shop, and the Curator's office staff will record all phases of the
    construction and finishing for future reference.
        As part of its ongoing effort to document the Senate chamber desks,
    the staff developed a new database to more accurately record
    information. The database allows the office to document the specific
    dates a Senator occupied a desk, as well as the period in which the
    desk drawer was inscribed. This is a significant improvement from past
    databases, which were unable to determine the exact dates of occupancy
    and the sequence of desks occupied.
        Keeping with scheduled procedures, all Senate collection objects on
    display were inventoried, noting any changes in location. In addition,
    as directed by S. Res. 178 (108th Congress, 1st session), the office
    submitted inventories of the art and historic furnishings in the Senate
    to the Committee on Rules and Administration. The Curator's staff, with
    assistance from the SAA and Senate Superintendent's staffs, compile the
    inventories, which are to be submitted every 6 months.
    Conservation and Restoration
        During 2007 conservation treatment was completed on four paintings
    in the Senate fine art collection, and work began on the recently
    acquired painting Henry Clay in the U.S. Senate, as well as on several
    historic mirrors in the decorative art collection.
        Conservation was completed on the monumental painting, The Battle
    of Lake Erie, by William Henry Powell, which has been displayed in the
    east grand stairway of the Senate since 1873. The canvas had not had
    any major conservation since 1956, and cleaning removed a heavy layer
    of grime and buildup from tobacco smoke. Following cleaning, areas of
    previous repairs and retouching were treated to remove discolored
    repaint and make repairs less noticeable. The entire canvas received a
    new coat of synthetic resin varnish, and final toning and inpainting
    were done where necessary to integrate old damages. At the same time,
    the frame received a surface cleaning and damage on the bottom right
    side was filled and gilded to match the surrounding surface.
        A frame conservator repaired minor damage to the outer gilt frame
    of the painting, George Washington at Princeton, by Charles Willson
    Peale; and emergency conservation was done on the gilt frame of Mike
    Mansfield, by Aaron Shikler, which was damaged while hanging in S-207
    of the Capitol. Additionally, a conservator applied a protective
    coating of varnish to Bradley Stevens' painting, The Connecticut
    Compromise, which is adhered to the wall above the entrance to the
    Senate Chamber Lobby in the Senate Reception Room.
        Conservation treatment began on the Phineas Saunton's monumental
    painting, Henry Clay in the U.S. Senate, donated to the Senate in 2006.
    Due to the extremely fragile and unstable condition of the painting,
    and its size (11 feet by 7 feet), it was necessary to limit the amount
    of shipping it underwent until conservation could begin. A painting
    conservator conducted a condition evaluation on-site, and the
    evaluation was provided to other painting conservators to prepare
    proposals. The painting was then shipped directly from the donor to the
    conservator selected, where it is now undergoing extensive analysis
    prior to conservation. Treatment for the frame was handled separately.
    Conservation is anticipated to be completed by late 2008, and the
    painting will then be installed in the east Brumidi stairway.
        In response to critical conditions identified in the Senate
    historic mirror collection, the Curator's office developed a multi-
    phased conservation project. The first mirror frame (S-115) underwent
    extensive conservation to address existing structural, gesso, ornament,
    and finish problems and was returned to the Capitol earlier this year.
    As part of this initial effort, procedures, and standards were
    instituted that will aid in future planning.
        Conservation treatment was also completed on a gilt frame
    overmantel mirror in conjunction with planned renovations of the
    Veterans' Affairs Committee hearing room (SR-418). Treatment included
    removal of tape, consolidation of small areas of separation, and touch-
    up to minor losses in gilding.
        The Curator's staff participated in training sessions for the U.S.
    Capitol Police regarding the care and protection of art in the Capitol,
    and continued to educate the housekeeping personnel on maintenance
    issues related to the fine and decorative art collections.
    Historic Preservation
        The Curator's office worked with the AOC and SAA to review,
    comment, plan, and document Senate wing construction projects that
    affect historic resources. Construction and conservation efforts that
    required considerable review and assistance included exit sign
    installations; restaurant exhaust system upgrades; directional sign
    installations; Brumidi corridor mural conservation; egress modification
    of the Brumidi west corridor, the Old Senate Chamber, and the Old
    Supreme Court Chamber; the refurbishing of rooms S-115 and S-120; and
    scagliola conservation. The AOC's appointment of an historic
    preservation officer enhanced this effort. The Curator's staff will
    work with the AOC's historic preservation officer to refine project
    review procedures in order to ensure the highest preservation standards
    are applied to all Capitol projects. Finally, the Curator's office's
    initiative to increase their service offerings by facilitating projects
    for Capitol offices has been very successful. In 2007 the staff
    assisted the Committee on Rules and Administration, the Committee on
    Veterans' Affairs, and the Democratic Leader with preservation
    projects.
        An initiative to document the appearance of Capitol leadership
    suites continued in 2007. This program records changes in the
    decorative history of the Senate wing's historic spaces, providing
    important visual documentation on the history of the rooms.
        Research and investigation continued on the ambitious Senate
    Reception Room restoration and rehabilitation project. The office
    conducted surveys and interviews with staff to gain an understanding of
    the current use of the room. Fabric analysis was contracted by the AOC
    and initial samples collected. Appropriate members of the Senate
    Reception Room Advisory Board were assembled in order to advise on the
    testing. The Curator's staff has continued to keep the Senate community
    informed on the progress of this developing project.
    Historic Chambers
        The Curator's staff continued to maintain the Old Senate and Old
    Supreme Court chambers, and coordinated periodic use of both rooms for
    special occasions. New procedures were developed with the U.S. Capitol
    Police to record after-hours access to the historic chambers by current
    Members of Congress.
        By order of the U.S. Capitol Police, the Old Senate Chamber was
    closed to visitors after September 11, 2001. However, the historic room
    was opened to Capitol Guide and staff-led tours during eight Senate
    recesses in 2007. Thirty-six requests were received from current
    Members of Congress for after-hours access to the chamber. A re-
    enactment swearing-in ceremony for the newly elected Senators of the
    110th Congress, and also the re-enactment swearing-in ceremonies for
    Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming and Senator Roger Wicker of
    Mississippi were of special significance.
        The Senate Curator worked closely with the AOC and their contractor
    to oversee the creation of accurate, existing condition drawings of the
    Old Senate and Old Supreme Court chambers. These architectural drawings
    were completed and accepted by the Historic American Building Survey
    for their collection. The drawings provide important historical and
    archival documentation of the Capitol--no such detailed drawings
    existed previously of these historic chambers, or any spaces within the
    Capitol. The drawings will be available on-line and at the Library of
    Congress.
    Loans To and From the Collection
        A total of 54 historic objects and paintings are currently on loan
    to the Curator's office on behalf of Senate leadership and officers in
    the Senate wing of the Capitol. The staff returned 13 loans,
    coordinated 15 new loans, and renewed loan agreements for 25 other
    objects. Over 30 loans are projected to be renewed next year.
        The Senate state chinaware was inventoried and used at 14
    receptions for distinguished guests, both foreign and domestic. It was
    used for events such as a luncheon for the President of Iraq and a tea
    for the Prime Minister of New Zealand. The Secretary of the Senate's
    official china continues to be used for large functions and hosting
    foreign dignitaries, and the Curator purchased additional china pieces
    this year.
    Publications and Exhibitions
        In response to increasing concerns regarding the dissemination of
    inaccurate information about the Capitol and Congress, the Curator's
    office staff, in conjunction with staff from the Senate Library, the
    Senate Historical Office, and the Office of Web Technology, published
    an on-line Guide to Staff-Led Tours, available on the Senate's Webster
    intranet site. This electronic publication provides a brief and easy-
    to-follow outline for all important art works and historic spaces
    within the Capitol. It can be printed from the site in a format
    convenient for staff to carry and refer to while conducting a tour, and
    it provides links to more detailed information as a resource for
    further research.
        As part of an ongoing program to provide more information about the
    Capitol and its spaces, the office developed a brochure for the
    Democratic Leader's suite. To expand on the information provided by
    existing brochures and allow customization, the office created
    templates for either a companion pamphlet or a fact sheet. The
    Assistant Republican Leader's suite was one of the offices to benefit
    from this initiative. Additionally, as part of an ongoing program to
    provide more information about the Capitol and its spaces, all
    Commission on Art brochures were updated and added to the Senate.gov
    Web site.
        The office updated The Senate Chamber Desk Web site for the 110th
    Congress. In addition, four new stories were added to the traditions
    and historical facts section, and a procedural document was created to
    provide technical details and standards for future updates.
        The Senate Curator and staff continued to be a significant
    contributor to Unum, the Secretary of the Senate's newsletter.
    Polices and Procedures
        The Commission on Art in 2007 issued guidelines that govern the use
    of the Old Senate and Old Supreme Court Chambers. These guidelines,
    incorporate the many regulations, policies and precedents of the
    Chambers' use, and ensure that these historic spaces are maintained,
    used, and protected according to the Senate's original intent in
    restoring them in the 1970s. The historic chambers were previously
    governed by rules that were read into the Congressional Record by then-
    Majority Leader and Chairman of the Commission on Art Mike Mansfield in
    1975 and 1976. The new guidelines strengthen the original rules and
    address the wide variety of demands that are now placed upon the rooms.
    The rules are consistent with the Commission's supervisory and
    maintenance responsibilities under 2 USC  2103.
        The 110th Congress Senate Curatorial Advisory Board was empanelled
    in 2007. Four new and eight returning members were welcomed at the
    first meeting held on October 25, 2007. Composed of respected scholars
    and curators, this 12-member board provides expert advice to the
    Commission on Art regarding the Senate's art and historic collections
    and preservation program, and assists in the acquisition and review of
    new objects for the collection.
    Collaborations, Educational Programs, and Events
        The office is coordinating efforts to celebrate the 100th
    anniversary of the Richard B. Russell Senate Office Building, which
    opened its doors in early 1909. Several meetings were held among the
    offices of the Curator, Library, Historian, and Web Technology to
    develop a multi-faceted effort consisting of research, restoration,
    publications, and exhibition projects that will mark the centennial of
    the first Senate office building. In anticipation of the historical
    resources needed to support these initiatives, the Curator's staff
    conducted extensive archival research, identifying over 200 images
    documenting the construction and completion of the building and it
    furnishings and occupants.
        In 2007 the Senate Curator granted permission for the use of Senate
    art images and text published on Senate.gov to a team of scholars based
    at the University of Maryland in College Park. These scholars, in
    collaboration with other experts at various universities, are
    developing an automated image cataloging system for use by college
    professors and researchers. Once complete, the system will permit users
    to search the texts of scholarly journals and books for metadata terms
    which can be applied to specific images of art and architecture, and to
    cross-reference these metadata terms with the appropriate approved
    cataloging thesaurus in the appropriate field. Although the application
    is in the early stages of development, the cooperation of the Curator's
    staff has resulted in important contributions to the project;
    additionally, when the application is launched, it is hoped to benefit
    the office by developing effective metadata for both collections
    management and Senate.gov functions.
        The Curator assisted the AOC Curator and staff of the Joint
    Committee on the Library to develop a plan for the National Statuary
    Hall statues in the CVC, and also guidelines for the Rosa Parks statue.
    Other joint projects with institutions included assistance to the
    Center for Legislative Archives at the National Archives for the
    February 2008 exhibit of the Senate's collection of Clifford Berryman
    cartoons and continued work with the CVC exhibit staff on several
    initiatives for the new facility.
        The Senate Curator and staff gave lectures on the Senate's art and
    historical collections to various historical groups and art museums.
    The staff also assisted the Secretary with the new Senate staff
    lecture/tour series.
    Office Administration and Automation
        During 2007 the office continued work on the major redesign of the
    Senate art Web site, with the goal of providing easier, more intuitive
    access to the Senate's art, historical collections, and on-line
    exhibits and publications. This task was undertaken in coordination
    with the Senate Webmaster and Senate Library staff. This year saw the
    completion of the specifications for information structure and ``wire
    frame'' design layouts for most portions of the site. Working
    extensively with the staff from the Office of Web Technology, Curator
    staff also developed a protocol for instructing the Senate.gov content
    management system to automatically generate new layouts with existing
    metadata used to populate and configure the current site. This task
    also required careful coordination with the Curator's collections
    management team to ensure that data recorded in the process of managing
    the Senate's collections is appropriately configured to be used
    successfully in the new art site environment.
        The Curator's continuity of operations (COOP) plan was tested with
    an extensive in-house tabletop exercise. Over two dozen recommendations
    to improve the office's COOP readiness were identified as a result of
    this exercise, and the proposed modifications are currently being made.
        The office modernized its procedures for public requests to use
    Senate collection images by developing a Web-based system accessible
    through Senate.gov. Staff receive approximately 75 requests each year
    for images, and the new electronic system has greatly improved the
    ordering process.
    Objectives for 2008
        The Curator's staff will oversee installation of the collection
    storage equipment for the two storage spaces in the CVC in the fall of
    2008. Museum-quality storage systems have been ordered to house
    collection objects in these new spaces. Objects in need of archival re-
    housing will be identified and prioritized as part of the preparations
    for the collection move in 2009.
        The office is continuing with the installation of the environmental
    monitoring system. Sensors will be placed in the historic chambers and
    curatorial storage rooms in the Capitol and CVC by the end of the year.
    The Curator's staff is also continuing the integrated pest management
    program established last year. Monthly monitoring is currently done in
    the storage spaces in the Capitol and SSF, and will be instituted in
    the CVC storage spaces when completed.
        Conservation and preservation concerns continue to be a top
    priority. The conservation treatment begun in 2007 to restore the
    historic painting and frame, Henry Clay in the U.S. Senate, will be
    completed in 2008. Efforts are also underway, in collaboration with the
    AOC and with the services of a conservator, to repair graffiti related
    damage and clean Alexander Calder's monumental sculpture, Mountains and
    Clouds. Also related to the conservation will be the development of a
    maintenance plan, installation of new protective measures, and efforts
    to better educate staff and visitors about this important work of art.
    Following completion of an assessment of the Senate's historic
    timepieces, planning will begin for the conservation and maintenance of
    the clocks.
        The Curator's office will continue its effort to locate and recover
    significant historic Senate pieces, with a special emphasis on the
    Russell Building furnishings. Recent efforts have focused on the
    acquisition of a mahogany flat top desk, swivel arm chair, easy chair,
    and davenport. Last year, office staff conducted an initial survey of
    existing pieces which indicated that less than half of the pieces
    originally supplied for Senator's personal offices remain in the
    Senate. The Senate Curator hopes to identify, preserve, and protect
    these unique pieces. The first phase will be to conduct a detailed
    condition survey of the surviving historic Russell furnishings. The
    survey will determine conservation priorities, provide information on
    the age, origin, and importance of the pieces, and furnish necessary
    records for disaster planning.
        With regard to collections documentation and access, the office
    plans several initiatives to improve data standards and electronic
    access to records should a COOP event occur. The first phase will
    involve developing more detailed cataloguing and data entry guidelines
    to ensure electronic object records are consistent. The guidelines will
    combine all current style guides and cataloging procedures into a
    single document for easy and efficient access. In addition, the current
    collection database will be evaluated to assess the stability and
    efficiency of the system, since the amount of information (including
    photographs) for each object continues to grow. This project will most
    likely lead to a phased project to update and/or upgrade the system.
        The office will move towards identifying art handling companies
    that can be of assistance in the event of an emergency. Other emergency
    preparedness activities include identifying alternate locations for
    staging and storage, and developing procedures for the initial response
    steps in an emergency. All current loan agreements will be scanned and
    procedures for maintaining current loan agreements in electronic format
    will be developed. This will assist the office in the event of an
    emergency and provide the information needed to locate loans and
    contact lenders.
        Professional photography is scheduled for numerous objects in the
    Senate collection, including upcoming Senate leadership portraits, CVC
    loan objects, and historic prints.
        The office will continue to administer the current commissioned
    leadership portrait of Senator Trent Lott and advance efforts to
    commission a painting of Senator Bill Frist. The staff coordinated the
    unveiling of the portrait of Senator Tom Daschle.
        With the restoration of the S-115 mirror completed, staff will move
    forward with other critical frame conservation priorities from the
    multi-phased conservation project developed in 2007. This work will
    employ the procedures and standards established in the first
    conservation project, refining them as necessary, and will include on-
    site consolidation of at least two mirrors. The staff will also work
    with the AOC to remedy known installation hardware concerns.
        The staff will continue to focus efforts at coordinating with the
    AOC regarding preservation issues related to Senate restoration and
    remodeling projects, disseminate project information to the Senate,
    develop preservation projects at the request of the Senate, conduct
    condition inspections, and arrange necessary maintenance. The Curator
    staff will enhance outreach to Capitol offices and continue to promote
    its preservation services. The Senate Curator will oversee specific
    projects, including the creation and installation of the occupant's
    State seal in S-210, and the restoration and rehabilitation of the
    Senate Reception Room.
        The office will enlarge its offerings of brochures and information
    sheets on historic rooms by beginning research on the Republican
    Leadership suite.
        In 2008 the Curator's staff will launch the first phase of its
    redesigned art Web site. The new site will organize art works by
    subject, rather than by medium, as it is currently organized. In
    addition to the reorganization, the newly launched site will include
    images from the Senate's graphic art collection.
        Curator's staff will also develop and post two new Web sites in
    2008. The first will address frequently heard myths about Senate art,
    dispelling this misinformation through the use of interactive quizzes
    and evidence-gathering. The second Web site will illustrate the history
    and conservation of Phineas Staunton's monumental painting of Henry
    Clay.
        Most notably, the Curator's staff will continue plans for the
    Russell Senate Office Building Centennial. Among the proposals under
    consideration are informational panels to be placed at appropriate
    locations in the building, a publication, lectures and tours, a Web
    exhibit, restoration of original building furnishings, and an exhibit
    showcasing the original seven furniture pieces supplied in 1909 to
    Senators for their offices. Planning and development will continue
    through 2008, and the results will be unveiled in early 2009.
                     joint office of education and training
        The Joint Office of Education and Training provides employee
    training and development opportunities for all Senate staff in
    Washington, DC, and the States. There are three branches within the
    office. The Technical Training branch is responsible for providing
    technical training support for approved software packages and equipment
    used in either Washington, DC, or the State offices. Staff in this
    branch provides instructor-led classes, one-on-one coaching sessions,
    specialized vendor provided training, computer-based training, and
    informal training and support services. The Professional Training
    branch staff provides courses for all Senate staff in areas which
    include management and leadership development, human resources issues
    and staff benefits, legislative and staff information, and new staff
    and intern information. The Health Promotion branch staff provides
    seminars, classes and screenings on health and wellness issues. Staff
    from this branch also coordinates an annual health fair for all Senate
    employees and plans three blood drives every year.
    Training Classes
        The Joint Office of Education and Training offered 990 classes and
    events in 2007, drawing 10,124 participants. Registration desk staffers
    handled over 32,000 e-mail and phone requests for training and
    documentation.
        Of the above total, 240 Technical Training classes were held with a
    total attendance of 1,024 students. An additional 487 staff received
    coaching in 202 sessions on various software packages and other
    computer related issues. Two hundred seventy-eight Professional
    Development classes were held with a total attendance of 3,270
    students. The staff managed or assisted the staffs of the Employee
    Assistance Program, Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness, the
    Disbursing Office, the Senate Library and the Senate Select Committee
    on Ethics with 163 training classes attended by 2,013 students.
        The Office of Education and Training staff is available to work
    with teams on issues related to team performance, communication, or
    conflict resolution. During 2007, over 142 requests for special
    training and team building were met with 1,389 staff taking part.
        In the Health Promotion area, 2,552 staff participated in 62 Health
    Promotion activities throughout the year. These activities included:
    lung function and kidney screenings, blood drives, the Health and
    Fitness Day, and seminars on health related topics.
        Annually, this office provides a Senate Service Expo for Senate
    office staff. Thirty-five presenters from the offices of the Secretary
    of the Senate, the Sergeant at Arms, the Architect of the Capitol, the
    Capitol Police and the Library of Congress participated in this year's
    program.
    State Training
        Since most of the classes that are offered are only practical for
    Washington, DC-based staff, the Office of Education and Training
    continues to offer the ``State Training Fair'' which began in March
    2000. In 2007, 3 sessions of this program were attended by 164 State
    staff.
        This office also conducted the State Directors Forum, which was
    attended by 49 State administrative managers and directors and a
    Constituent Services Forum attended by 76 State staff. In addition,
    this office has implemented the ``Virtual Classroom'' which is an
    Internet-based training library of 3,000+ courses. To date, 504 State
    office and Washington, DC, staff have registered and accessed a total
    of 1,153 different lessons using this training option. Additionally,
    the Professional Training branch offered 22 video teleconferencing
    classes, which were attended by 355 State staff and Technical Training
    offered 13 video teleconferencing classes for 96 State staff. Three
    Technical Training Trips reached 76 staff in 3 States. Education and
    Training also created 18 Senate-specific self-paced lessons that have
    been accessed by 320 staff.
                      senate chief counsel for employment
        The Office of the Senate Chief Counsel for Employment (SCCE) is a
    non-partisan office established at the direction of the Joint
    Leadership in 1993 after enactment of the Government Employee Rights
    Act (GERA), which allowed Senate employees to file claims of employment
    discrimination against Senate offices. With the enactment of the
    Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 (CAA), Senate offices became
    subject to the requirements, responsibilities and obligations of 11
    employment laws. The SCCE is charged with the legal defense of Senate
    offices in employment law cases at both the administrative and court
    levels, from the inception of the case through appeals and Supreme
    Court review. Also, on a day-to-day basis, the SCCE provides legal
    advice to Senate offices about their obligations under employment laws.
    Accordingly, each Senate office is an individual client of the SCCE,
    and each office maintains an attorney-client relationship with the
    SCCE.
        The areas of responsibilities of the SCCE can be divided into the
    following categories:
      --Litigation (defending Senate offices in courts and administrative
            hearings);
      --Mediations to resolve lawsuits;
      --Court-ordered alternative dispute resolutions;
      --Union drives, negotiations, and unfair labor practice charges;
      --Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)/Americans with Disability
            Act (ADA) compliance;
      --Layoffs and office closings in compliance with the law;
      --Management training regarding legal responsibilities; and
      --Preventive legal advice.
    Litigation, Mediations, and Alternative Dispute Resolutions
        The SCCE defends each of the employing offices of the Senate in all
    court actions, hearings, proceedings, investigations, and negotiations
    relating to labor and employment laws. The SCCE handles cases filed in
    the District of Columbia and cases filed in any of the 50 States.
    OSHA/ADA Compliance
        The SCCE provides advice and assistance to Senate offices by
    assisting them with complying with the applicable OSHA and ADA
    regulations; representing them during Office of Compliance inspections;
    advising State offices on the preparation of the Office of Compliance's
    Home State OSHA/ADA inspection questionnaires; assisting offices in the
    preparation of emergency action plans; and advising and representing
    Senate offices when a complaint of an OSHA violation has been filed
    with the Office of Compliance or when a citation has been issued. The
    SCCE played a significant roll in the inspection process by pre-
    inspecting Senate offices to ensure compliance with the ADA/OSHA and by
    providing counsel to Senate offices during the inspection process.
        In 2007, the SCCE pre-inspected 132 Senate offices to ensure
    compliance with the ADA and OSHA. Inspections included 98 Senate Member
    offices in the Hart, Dirksen, and Russell buildings, 31 Sergeant at
    Arms (SAA) offices also in the Hart, Dirksen, and Russell buildings,
    the Senate Day Care Center, Senate Webster Hall Page Dormitory, and the
    Senate Support Facility. At the conclusion of the inspection process,
    Senate offices had no significant problems, and 97 percent of the
    problems were abated immediately.
    Management Training Regarding Legal Responsibilities
        The SCCE conducts legal seminars for the managers of Senate offices
    to assist them in complying with employment laws, thereby reducing
    their liability.
        In 2007, the SCCE gave 55 legal seminars to Senate offices. The
    topics included:
      --The Congressional Accountability Act of 1995: Management's Rights
            and Obligations;
      --The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA);
      --Avoiding Legal Landmines in Your Office;
      --Understanding Sexual Harassment in the Workplace;
      --A Manager's Guide to Preventing and Addressing Sexual Harassment in
            the Workplace;
      --Hiring the Right Employee: Advertising and Interviewing;
      --Military Service Academies Interview Training;
      --Employers' Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them;
      --The Employment Eligibility Verification Program;
      --Diversity Awareness: The Legal Perspective;
      --Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990;
      --Legal Pitfalls in Evaluating, Disciplining and, Terminating
            Employees;
      --A Manager's Guide to Complying with the Family and Medical Leave
            Act; and
      --Interviewing Candidates for the Page School Program.
    Legal Advice
        The SCCE meets with Members, chiefs of staff, administrative
    directors, office managers, staff directors, chief clerks, and counsels
    at their request to provide legal advice. For example, on a daily
    basis, the SCCE advises Senate staff on matters such as interviewing,
    hiring, counseling, disciplining, and terminating employees in
    compliance with the law; handling and investigating sexual harassment
    complaints; accommodating the disabled; determining wage law
    requirements; meeting the requirements of the Family and Medical Leave
    Act; management's rights and obligations under union laws and OSHA;
    management's obligation to give leave to employees for military service
    and to reinstate them at the conclusion of that service; and
    management's obligation to verify with Department of Homeland Security
    and the Social Security Administration that each new hire is legally
    eligible to work in the United States. In 2007, the SCCE had over 1,998
    such meetings.
        The SCCE provides legal assistance to employing offices to ensure
    that their employee handbooks and office policies, supervisors'
    manuals, job descriptions, interviewing guidelines, and performance
    evaluation forms comply with the law. In 2007, the SCCE prepared 199
    such documents for Senate offices.
    Union Drives, Negotiations and Unfair Labor Practice Charges
        In 2007, the SCCE handled one union drive and assisted in
    negotiations with another union.
    Miscellaneous
        The SCCE, working with the Office of Web Technology, has prepared
    and designed an SCCE website to be launched in 2008. The site will
    inform Senate offices of their legal obligations under the CAA, will
    provide Senate offices access to legal forms and documents, and will
    alert Senate offices of upcoming SCCE seminars.
        Working with the management of Member offices, the SCCE has
    developed a series of 11 legal seminars that the SCCE will present
    monthly to chiefs of staff, administrative directors, office managers
    and the committee counterparts of each. Those completing the series
    will receive a certificate from the Secretary of the Senate.
        Responding to requests by Member offices, the SCCE designed two new
    seminars: ``Military Service Academies Interviewing Training'' and
    ``Interviewing Candidates for the Page School Program.'' The SCCE gives
    these seminars across the country to the individuals who interview on
    behalf of Member offices for the academies and/or the Senate Page
    School. The purpose of the training is to ensure that the interviews
    are conducted in compliance with the law.
        Since 2001, the SCCE has utilized a document management system. In
    this fiscal year, we upgraded the system to stay current with
    technological advances. In addition, the SCCE continues to operate a
    ``paperless'' office by scanning and electronically storing all
    incoming documents.
                                senate gift shop
        Since its establishment in October 1992 (2 U.S.C. 121d), the Senate
    Gift Shop has continued to provide service and products that maintain
    the integrity of the Senate while increasing the public's awareness of
    its history. The Gift Shop serves Senators, their spouses, staffs,
    constituents, and the many visitors to the U.S. Capitol complex.
        The products available include a wide range of fine gift items,
    collectables, and souvenirs created exclusively for the U.S. Senate.
    The services available include special ordering of personalized
    products and hard-to-find items, custom framing, including red-lines
    and shadow boxes, gold embossing on leather, etching on glass and
    crystal, engraving on a variety of materials, and shipping domestically
    and abroad.
    Facilities
        In addition to the three physical locations, the Gift Shop has
    developed a presence on Webster, the Senate's Intranet. The Web site
    currently offers a limited selection of products that can be purchased
    by phone, email, or by printing and faxing the order form provided on
    the site. Plans to further develop the Web site include a greater
    selection of merchandise, eventually adding an e-commerce component to
    facilitate online transactions. The Gift Shop Administrative Office
    staff also provide mail order service by phone or fax, and special
    order and catalogue sales by phone, fax, and face-to-face.
        The Gift Shop maintains two warehouse facilities. The bulk of the
    Gift Shop's stock is held in the Senate Storage Facility (SSF), an
    offsite storage site. While the Sergeant at Arms (SAA) of the Senate is
    in charge of the SSF's overall management, the Director of the Gift
    Shop has responsibility for the operation and oversight of the interior
    spaces assigned for Gift Shop use. Storing inventory in this
    centralized, climate-controlled facility provides protection for the
    Gift Shop's valuable inventory in terms of physical security as well as
    improved shelf life for perishable and non-perishable items alike.
        The second Gift Shop warehouse is maintained in the Hart Building.
    This facility serves as the point of distribution to the Gift Shop
    store and the Capitol Gift Shop counter, both of which have limited
    storage space. Stock from the Hart warehouse is sold directly from the
    Administrative and Special Order Office. The Hart warehouse also
    accommodates the Gift Shop's receiving, shipping, and engraving
    departments. Gift Shop management will continue to look for ways to
    make improvements with the product-handling between the on-site and
    off-site warehouse locations.
    Sales Activities
        Sales recorded for fiscal year 2007 were $1,573,827.93. Cost of
    goods sold during this same period were $1,064,357.47, accounting for a
    gross profit on sales of $509,470.46.
        In addition to tracking gross profit from sales, the Gift Shop
    maintains a revolving fund and a record of inventory purchased for
    resale. As of October 1, 2007, the balance in the revolving fund was
    $2,302,981.87. The inventory purchased for resale was valued at
    $2,750,681.79.
    Additional Activity
        The Gift Shop is currently upgrading both its back office and point
    of sale computer systems. This will create the opportunity for the
    Senate Gift Shop computer hardware and software packages to be upgraded
    sufficiently to fulfill its needs well into the foreseeable future.
        In fiscal year 2007 the Gift Shop initiated a program to address
    issues pertaining to lead content in product and the Consumer Product
    Safety Commission's (CPSC) recommended guidelines concerning lead.
    After several meetings with representatives from the CPSC and
    independent private companies that offer lead testing programs, the
    Senate Gift Shop implemented a program for evaluating and monitoring
    products.
    Selected Accomplishments in Fiscal Year 2007
                Official Congressional Holiday Ornaments
        The year 2007 marked the 14th year of the Congressional Holiday
    ornament. Each ornament in the 2006-2009 series of unique collectables
    depicts an image celebrating the day-to-day activities taking place on
    the Capitol grounds. The four images of the series are based on
    original oil paintings commissioned by the Gift Shop.
        Sales of the 2007 holiday ornament exceeded 30,000 ornaments, of
    which more than 7,000 were personalized with engravings designed,
    proofed, and etched by Senate Gift Shop staff. This highly successful
    effort was made possible by the combined efforts of our administrative,
    engraving, and store staffs. Additional sales of this ornament and
    ornaments from previous years are expected to continue for years to
    come.
                Capitol Bookend
        The Capitol bookend is a remarkably detailed recreation of the
    central portion of the Capitol. Created of resin, metal, and plaster,
    the piece displays fine architectural details. Marble recovered during
    the renovations to the east front of the Capitol was added to the
    building materials, making the piece truly unique.
                Capitol Box
        The Gift Shop worked with the Pickard Corporation, a manufacturer
    of fine china in Illinois, to recreate a round porcelain box originally
    developed by Tiffany and Company more than 12 years ago and
    subsequently taken out of production by Tiffany. The round box contains
    a series of four images on its perimeter depicting the early meeting
    places of Congress. The lid depicts a more recent image of the Capitol
    as it appears today. With Tiffany's permission, the original designs
    and colors were replicated on a Pickard Corporation white porcelain
    box. It was produced in the United States. Early sales indicate that
    this will once again be a most popular item with Gift Shop customers.
                Webster Intranet Site
        The Web site has been expanded with the addition of sections
    dedicated to artwork, jewelry, commemorative plates, and baby goods.
    The overall design of the Web site has been updated and navigation
    through the site has been streamlined.
    Projects and New Initiatives for 2008
                Senate Photo Studio
        In partnership with the Senate Photography Studio, the Gift Shop
    will offer prints of original photos taken by Senate photographers.
    These images will be offered as an exclusive to the Gift Shop and be
    made available in several sizes and formats. Professional matting and
    framing will be available.
                Congressional Plate Series
        The 108th, 109th, and 110th Official Congressional Plates will
    continue to be sold for years to come. The 111th congressional plate,
    the final of the series, has been produced and delivered. This plate
    will be held in inventory and not offered for sale until the convening
    of the 111th Congress.
                Hand Painted Fine China
        The Gift Shop is developing a line of fine china that will be hand-
    painted with Brumidi floral motifs taken from the LBJ Room, the
    President's Room, and the Brumidi northwest corridors in the Capitol.
    The painting will be done by Anna Weatherly, an artist based in
    Arlington, Virginia. The collection will include assorted plates, cups
    and saucers, and cachepots.
                Candlesticks
        The Gift Shop is working with Mottahedeh & Company, a New York-
    based firm specializing in fine art giftware, to design and produce an
    exclusive brass candlestick. This item will replicate a stanchion that
    is part of the rail and banister adorning the marble staircase
    descending to the northwest Brumidi corridor.
                Senate Bronze Door Bookend
        The Gift Shop has begun designing a new bookend, this one depicting
    the Senate bronze doors originally designed by Thomas Crawford in 1855.
    The bookend will depict the fine architectural and artistic details of
    the original doors which are located near the Senators' entrance to the
    chamber floor. As with the Capitol bookend, the materials used to
    create the Senate bronze door bookend will contain marble recovered
    from the Capitol itself.
                Senate Scarves
        The Gift Shop has developed four new scarf designs depicting
    various elements of Constantino Brumidi art. The ceiling of the LBJ
    Room and other Brumidi corridor frescos are the central subject for
    this product. Echo Design Group of New York will be providing the first
    proofs of the scarves in early 2008. We anticipate that this product
    will be available for sale in the spring of this year.
                Webster Intranet Site
        In the coming year the Gift Shop will continue to increase Web site
    usability. The addition of content, as well as the continual refinement
    of page design and navigation features, enhances user satisfaction.
    Using the Web site, staffers in State offices have the opportunity to
    take better advantage of the services the Gift Shop offers.
                Capitol Complex Lumber
        In the autumn of 2001, the construction of the Capitol Visitor
    Center extension required the removal of many trees from the Capitol
    complex. As part of a Gift Shop initiative, the felled trees were
    recovered, milled, kiln dried, and are now being stored as lumber at
    the Senate Support Facility. This stored wood, approximately 12,000
    board feet, has been inventoried and separated by species. Several
    products have been created from this commemorative lumber. Wooden desk
    boxes with a variety of Capitol images on porcelain stone inset into
    the lids are already popular. One style of wooden pen has been produced
    and is offered for sale in the shop. Other designs are to follow
    shortly. Over the course of the next year, additional opportunities for
    using this lumber in the development of new products will be explored.
                            senate historical office
        Serving as the Senate's institutional memory, the Historical Office
    staff collects and provides information on important events,
    precedents, dates, statistics, and historical comparisons of current
    and past Senate activities for use by Members and staff, the media,
    scholars, and the general public. The staff advises senators, officers,
    and committees on cost-effective disposition of their non-current
    office files and assists researchers in identifying Senate-related
    source materials. The historians keep extensive biographical,
    bibliographical, photographic, and archival information on the 1,897
    former and current senators. Historical Office staff edits historically
    significant transcripts and minutes of selected Senate committees and
    party organizations for publication, and conducts oral history
    interviews with key Senate staff. The photo historian maintains a
    collection of approximately 40,000 still pictures that includes
    photographs and illustrations of Senate committees and most former
    senators. The office staff develops and maintains all historical
    material on the Senate Web site, Senate.gov.
    Editorial Projects
                Pro Tem: Presidents Pro Tempore of the United States Senate
                        Since 1789
        To honor the important role played by the Senate's president pro
    tempore (PPT) since 1789, the historians completed a book-length
    history of the office and its occupants. For each of the 87 individuals
    who have served in the office, a biographical profile highlights their
    PPT service along with their non-Senate careers, includes commentary by
    contemporaries, historians, and biographers, and presents a
    photographic likeness of the individual. Divided into four sections
    (The Formative Years, 1789-1860; A Question of Succession, 1861-1890;
    Fathers of the Senate, 1891-1946; The Modern Era, 1947-present), the
    book includes contextual essays that explain the evolution of the
    office, its changing duties and responsibilities, its place in the line
    of presidential succession, and the unique role played by these leaders
    in Senate history. The 120-page book includes a preface by current
    President pro tempore Robert C. Byrd and will be printed in May of this
    year.
                Traditions of the United States Senate
        In support of the 2006 new Members' orientation program, the office
    prepared a 32-page booklet designed as a guide to the Senate(s
    distinguishing customs and rituals. The booklet's popularity inspired
    publication of a revised edition entitled Traditions of the United
    States Senate. In the early months of the 110th Congress, prior to
    publication of the updated Chamber floor seating chart, this booklet
    was distributed to Senate chamber gallery visitors. Sufficient copies
    are available so that it can serve that same purpose at the start of
    the 111th Congress. Copies are available through the Senate Office of
    Printing and Document Services.
                ``States in the Senate''
        In 2007, the Historical Office staff began the development of a new
    feature for Senate.gov, ``States in the Senate.'' In this collaborative
    project, the historians, historical editor, photo historian, and
    historical writer began researching and writing time lines and
    selecting illustrative images for each of the 50 States, highlighting
    persons and events of the State's history that relate to the U.S.
    Senate. When complete, the project will present an interactive time
    line for each State, with links to relevant documentary and visual
    material. It is designed to inform senators, staff, and constituents
    about their State's historical role in the Senate.
                Russell Building Centennial
        In preparation for the centennial of the Russell Senate Office
    Building's 1909 opening, the office prepared text for a 32-page booklet
    that will highlight the facility's design, construction, and subsequent
    evolution. Relevant excerpts from the office's oral history interviews
    have been compiled, and identification of photographs and other images
    to illustrate the building's history is underway. In collaboration with
    the staffs of the Office of Senate Curator, the Architect of the
    Capitol, and the Senate Library, the historians are planning exhibits
    and a feature on Senate.gov.
                Administrative History of the Senate
        Throughout 2007, the assistant historian continued the research and
    writing for the historical account of the Senate's administrative
    evolution. This study traces the development of the offices of the
    Secretary of the Senate and Sergeant at Arms (SAA), considers 19th and
    20th century reform efforts that resulted in reorganization and
    professionalization of Senate staff, and looks at how the Senate's
    administrative structure has grown and diversified. In particular,
    during the past year the assistant historian has taken advantage of
    newly available archival and print sources for the 19th century to
    complete additional research and has continued to write the first four
    chapters covering the period 1789-1877.
                The Idea of the Senate
        For more than two centuries, senators, journalists, scholars, and
    other first-hand observers have attempted to describe the uniqueness of
    the Senate, emphasizing the body's fundamental strengths, as well as
    areas for possible reform. From James Madison in 1787 to Lyndon Johnson
    biographer Robert Caro in 2002, sharp-eyed analysts have left memorable
    accounts that can help modern senators better understand the Senate in
    its historical context. This project identifies 30 major statements by
    knowledgeable observers. Each of the brief chapters includes an
    extended quotation and an essay that places the quotation in historical
    context. This work will be published during 2008.
                Rules of the United States Senate, Since 1789
        In 1980, Senate Parliamentarian Emeritus Floyd M. Riddick, at the
    direction of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, prepared
    a publication containing the eight codes of rules that the Senate
    adopted between 1789 and 1979. In the 1990s, the Senate Historical
    Office staff, in consultation with Dr. Riddick, developed a project to
    incorporate an important feature not contained in the 1980 publication.
    Beyond simply listing the eight codes of rules, the office's goal is to
    show how--and why--the Senate's current rules have evolved from earlier
    versions. This work, to be completed during 2008, will contain eight
    narrative chapters outlining key debates and reasons for significant
    changes. Appendices will include the original text of all standing
    rules and all changes adopted between each codification.
                Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, 1774-2008
        Since publication of the 2005 print edition of The Biographical
    Directory of the United States Congress, the historians have added new
    biographical sketches and bibliographical citations that incorporate
    recent scholarship to the work's online database (http://
    bioguide.congress.gov). The assistant historian and historical writer
    work closely with the staff of the House Office of History and
    Preservation to maintain accuracy and consistency in the joint Senate-
    House database and to promote this valuable resource among historians,
    teachers, students, and the public.
                Oral History Program
        The office's historians conduct a series of oral history
    interviews, which provide personal recollections of various Senate
    careers. Interviews were completed with several members of the Senate's
    telecommunications staff; Deputy Assistant Sergeant at Arms Michael A
    Johnson; John D. Lane, administrative assistant to Senator Brien
    McMahon (D-CT, 1945-1952); G. William Hoagland, former staff director
    of the Senate Budget Committee and advisor to Senate majority leader
    Bill Frist; and James R. Ketchum, the former Senate Curator. Other
    interviews are ongoing with former Senator Charles McC. Mathias (R-MD,
    1969-1987); Tim Profeta, who played a significant role in drafting the
    legislation that created the Office of Senate Legal Counsel during his
    long and diverse Senate staff career that spanned 30 years; and Keith
    Kennedy, former staff director of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
    In addition, the office staff inaugurated a new oral history project,
    conducting interviews with current and former Senate spouses. The
    complete transcripts of 25 interviews conducted since the 1970s have
    been posted on the Senate.gov. Each month, the office features a
    different oral history on the Web site. Unum, the Secretary of the
    Senate's newsletter, now features a series entitled ``Senate Voices,''
    which includes excerpts from the oral histories, beginning with former
    Senator George A. Smathers (D-FL, 1951-1969).
                Member Services: Members' Records Management and
                        Disposition Assistance
        The Senate archivist assisted Members' offices with planning for
    the preservation of their permanently valuable records, emphasizing the
    importance of managing electronic records and transferring valuable
    records to a home-state repository with a digital asset management
    system. The Senate archivist held meetings with staff members from
    offices that will close at the end of the 110th Congress were held to
    plan for the preservation and deposit of Members' collections. This
    included identifying appropriate repositories for those members who had
    not already selected one and working with staff to promote informed
    selection and preservation of historical documentation, including
    electronic records. The archivist revised the Checklist for Closing a
    Senator's Office and the pamphlet, Senators' Papers: Management and
    Preservation Guidelines. To enhance communication within the Senate
    regarding archival preservation, the archivist led brown-bag lunch
    discussions and has developed a Listserv that promotes archival
    training for staff within members' offices, efficient records
    management, and historical records preservation. The Center for
    Legislative Archives sponsored a special staff directors' tour and
    dinner to promote appreciation of records preservation. The Senate
    archivist continued to work with staff from all repositories receiving
    senatorial collections to ensure adequacy of documentation and the
    transfer of appropriate records with adequate finding aids and provided
    advice on access restrictions as well. The archivist conducted a
    seminar on records management for Senate offices and participated in
    the Sergeant at Arms' Senate Services Fair. In addition, in May 2008,
    the archivist will begin offering training in records management for
    State office staff through the use of video teleconferencing. The
    archivist continues to serve in leadership roles for the Society of
    American Archivists' Congressional Papers Roundtable and the
    Association of Centers for the Study of Congress.
                Member Services: Committee Records Management and
                        Disposition Assistance
        The Senate archivist provided each Senate committee with staff
    briefings, record surveys, guidance on preservation of information in
    electronic systems, and instructions for the transfer of permanently
    valuable records to the National Archives' Center for Legislative
    Archives. The archivist oversaw the transfer to the Archives of 642
    accessions of Senate records. The historians provided many training
    sessions to Senate interns tasked with archiving committee records. The
    archivist and assistant archivist responded to approximately 197
    requests for loans of records back to committees, totaling nearly 1,000
    boxes. The archivist worked with the Foreign Relations Committee to
    transfer classified transcripts to the National Archives. The archivist
    worked with the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and the
    Senate Recording Studio to begin the transfer of televised recordings
    of committee hearings to the National Archives. The archival assistant
    continued to provide processing aid to committees and administrative
    offices in need of basic help with noncurrent files. The staff
    initiated a project to scan committee National Archives' transfer
    sheets dating from 1982 through 2004 into the OnBase document
    management system supported by the SAA. To date, records of the Senate
    Committees on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry; Appropriations;
    Armed Services; Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; and Health,
    Education, Labor and Pensions have been processed. This information is
    provided to the Center on electronic media both as a security measure
    and to enhance future researcher access to the records as they become
    open for research.
                Member Services/Educational Outreach: ``Senate Historical
                        Minutes''
        The Senate historian continued a series of ``Senate Historical
    Minutes,'' begun in 1997 at the request of the Senate Democratic
    Leader. In 2007, he prepared and delivered a ``Senate Historical
    Minute'' biweekly at Democratic Conference meetings. These 430-word
    ``Minutes'' enlighten Members about significant events and
    personalities associated with the Senate's institutional development.
    More than 300 of them are available as a regularly expanded feature on
    Senate.gov (``Historical Minute Essays''). An illustrated compilation
    was published in 2006 as 200 Notable Days: Senate Stories, 1787-2002.
                Photographic Collections
        The photo historian enhanced the office's upcoming publications on
    Senate presidents pro tempore and the Russell Building's centennial by
    selecting images to illustrate the respective texts. The photo
    historian continued to provide timely photographic reference service by
    phone and e-mail, while cataloging, digitizing, rehousing, and
    expanding the office's 40,000-item image collection. She also
    maintained the office's continuity of operations (COOP) plan and
    updated backup copies of the office's vital electronic records. The
    photo historian worked closely with the National Archives to arrange
    for the scanning of a large collection of early 20th century historical
    photographs donated to the Office, thus adding hundreds of new images
    to the collection.
                Educational Outreach
        Much of the Historical Office's correspondence with the general
    public takes place through Senate.gov, which has become an
    indispensable source for information about the institution. Office
    staff maintain and frequently update the Web site with timely reference
    and historical information. In 2007, the office staff responded to more
    than 1,300 inquiries from the general public, the press, students,
    family genealogists, congressional staffers, and academics, through the
    public e-mail address provided on the Senate.gov. The diverse nature of
    their questions reflects varying levels of interest in Senate
    operations, institutional history, and former Members. Office staff
    also provided seminars on the general history of the Senate, Senate
    committees, women senators, Senate floor leadership, relations between
    the press and the Senate, and the U.S. Constitution. The historians
    also participated in Senate staff seminars and office retreats, and
    conducted dozens of briefings for specially scheduled groups.
                Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress
        This 11-member permanent committee, established in 1990 by Public
    Law 101-509, meets semiannually to advise the Senate, the House of
    Representatives, and the Archivist of the United States on the
    management and preservation of the records of Congress. Its membership
    representing the Senate includes the Secretary of the Senate, who is
    chairing the panel during the 110th Congress, the Senate historian, and
    appointees of the secretary and the majority and minority leaders. The
    Historical Office staff provides support services for the Committee's
    regular meetings.
                Capitol Visitor Center Exhibition Content Committee
        Staff historians completed their assignments in drafting text for
    displays in the 17,000 square-foot exhibition gallery of the Capitol
    Visitor Center.
                                human resources
        The Office of Human Resources was established in June 1995 as a
    result of the Congressional Accountability Act. The office focuses on
    developing and implementing human resources policies, procedures, and
    programs for the Office of the Secretary of the Senate that not only
    fulfill the legal requirements of the workplace but which complement
    the organization's strategic goals and values.
        These responsibilities include recruiting and staffing; providing
    guidance and advice to managers and staff; training; performance
    management; job analysis; compensation planning, design, and
    administration; leave administration; records management; maintaining
    the employee handbooks and manuals; internal grievance procedures;
    employee relations and services; and organizational planning and
    development.
        The Human Resources staff administers the following programs for
    the Secretary's employees: the Public Transportation Subsidy program,
    Student Loan Repayment Program, parking allocations, and the summer
    intern program that offers college students the opportunity to gain
    valuable skills and experience in a variety of Senate support offices.
    As a 2008 initiative, Human Resources has migrated eligible commuters
    to the Smart Benefits Program, which is operated by the Washington
    Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
    Recruitment and Retention of Staff
        Human Resources has the ongoing task of advertising new vacancies
    or positions, screening applicants, interviewing candidates, and
    assisting with all phases of the hiring process. Human Resources
    coordinates with the Sergeant at Arms (SAA) Human Resources Department
    to post all SAA and Secretary vacancies on the Senate intranet,
    Webster, so that the larger Senate community may access the posting
    from their own offices.
    Training
        In conjunction with the Senate Chief Counsel for Employment, staff
    continues to develop and deliver training for department heads and
    staff. Training topics include sexual harassment, interviewing skills,
    Family Medical Leave Act administration, and an overview of the
    Congressional Accountability Act.
    Interns and Fellows
        Human Resources staff manages the Secretary's internship program
    and the coordination of the Heinz Fellowship program. From advertising,
    conducting needs analyses, communicating, screening, placing and
    following up with all interns, the office keeps a close connection with
    these program participants in an effort to make the internship most
    beneficial to them and the organization.
    Combined Federal Campaign
        The office has taken an active role in the Combined Federal
    Campaign (CFC) for the Senate community at-large. The office serves as
    co-director of the program for the Senate, participating in kick-off
    meetings, identifying key workers in each office, and disseminating and
    collecting necessary information and paperwork.
                              information systems
        The staff of the Department of Information Systems provides
    technical hardware and software support for the Office of the Secretary
    of the Senate. Information Systems staff also interface closely with
    the application and network development groups within the Sergeant at
    Arms (SAA), and the Government Printing Office (GPO) on technical
    issues and joint projects. The department provides computer-related
    support for all local area network (LAN) servers within the Office of
    the Secretary. Information Systems staff provide direct application
    support for all software installed on workstations, initiate and guide
    new technologies, and implement next generation hardware and software
    solutions.
    Mission Evaluation
        The primary mission of the Information Systems Department is to
    continue to provide the highest level of customer satisfaction and
    computer support for the office of Secretary of the Senate. Emphasis is
    placed on the creation and transfer of legislative records to outside
    departments and agencies, meeting Disbursing Office financial
    responsibilities to the Member offices, and office mandated and
    statutory obligations.
    Fiscal Year 2007 Summary of Improvements to the Secretary's Local Area
            Networks
        The Senate Active Directory/Messaging Architecture (ADMA) project
    implementation provided a central point of IT system administration,
    and the opportunity to deploy enterprise-wide solutions which include
    remote access to Outlook Web Access, Webster, Legislative Information
    Systems (LIS), and newswire services. The Secretary's office piloted
    and successfully implemented the ADMA Refresh program, replacing server
    hardware to take advantage of increased performance factors, lower
    power consumption, and improve efficiency by reducing the number of
    servers required to provide new technologies.
        The passage of S. 1, the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act
    of 2007, mandated the replacement of the existing Public Records filing
    solution with an enhanced joint solution with the House of
    Representatives. Four older servers were replaced to accommodate the
    increased amount of lobby registrations. Software development directed
    by the SAA and the Secretary of the Senate in collaboration with the
    Office of the House Clerk's staff insured the new system was available
    in December 2007. A single web portal was introduced for registrants
    who are no longer are required to visit two different Web sites to file
    lobby reports. Additionally, the new architecture provides fail-over
    capability to the Alternate Computing Facility (ACF).
        Upgraded and replaced 30 percent of handheld mobile devices
    (BlackBerry) for essential staff. Coverage is now available in Webster
    Hall.
        New laptops with secure wireless printing functionality were
    provided for the teaching staff of the Senate Page School.
        Initiated Senate Gift Shop and Stationery Room Project requirement
    to update existing point of sale and back office hardware and software
    application. Project is ongoing in 2008.
        Completed additional Senate Wireless network access verification
    testing for staff access in Hart, Russell, Dirksen, and Postal Square
    locations.
        Completed installation of Disbursing backup servers at an offsite
    location.
        Installed and upgraded ADMA servers for Chief Counsel for
    Employment (SCCE) department. Provided SCCE with additional mini-file
    server to transport all critical data to an offsite location.
        In the past, technical staff were required to visit approximately
    75 workstation and laptop locations to install LIS applications. In May
    2007, an improved method was adopted to audit software applications,
    and deployed standard applications and LIS upgrades without visiting
    each workstation location. In 2007, 5 major and 40 minor upgrades were
    required on each legislative workstation/laptop. The time saved
    represents a tremendous support cost reduction, and insures a more
    efficient method of software application deployment with fewer
    interruptions to the end user.
        Installed and deployed a group of eight ``hot-spare'' laptops at
    the ACF. These units are located in a secure data center, and insure
    legislative staff can access LIS applications from any senate location
    or access from outside the Senate with virtual private network (VPN)
    access.
        Upgraded and replaced the senate Library database and Web servers.
        Implemented Curator Environmental application at the Senate Support
    Facility.
        Living Disaster Recovery Planning System (LDRPS) has been a long-
    term project to provide both Secretary and SAA staff with the ability
    to author and distribute COOP documents on-line. Phase 2 is scheduled
    for completion in March 2008, and Office of Security and Emergency
    Preparedness (OSEP) implementation is scheduled for June 2008.
        The Infosystems Desktop Virtualization project began in November
    2006 and expanded in 2007 to include a critical application, Member
    status tracking. Desktop virtualization involves separating the
    physical location where the personal computer desktop lives (such as a
    home or office) from where the user is accessing the computer (such as
    airport or hotel business center). The member status VM (virtual
    machines) environment was successfully tested during the July 2007 COOP
    exercise. VM lower the initial hardware investment cost by 80 percent,
    reduce power consumption requirements, and can simplify and expedite
    disaster recovery efforts. The LIS Project office has adopted the VM
    software application for testing different versions of its LEXA
    software.
        Each year a different staff member from the Information System
    department is assigned to direct the Senate Concurrent Capability
    Exercise. This strategy allows for each department staff person to gain
    experience in the event of a short or long-term COOP event.
        In conjunction with SAA and OSEP, the Secretary has adopted WebEOC
    as the standard application tool to manage localized or widespread coop
    events. Initial staff training for key departments was accomplished in
    the fourth quarter of 2007.
        Installed offsite laptop for Parliamentarian to process an indexed
    search of all precedents off-line when not connected to the Senate
    fiber network.
        Replaced and upgraded Senate Security workstations in preparation
    of the relocation to the CVC.
        Increased IT security with requesting real-time email security
    alert notifications from the SAA/Security Operations center. While
    intrusion detection has been dramatically increased at the network
    perimeter, increased levels of user training are required. SAA training
    personnel provided on-site IT Security training classes for personnel
    located in the offices of the Senate Gift Shop, Senate Library, and
    Office of Reporters of Debate
        Adopted the Microsoft Office Groove application during the July
    2007 COOP exercise as the standard file migration tool to transfer
    legislative documents when GPO, Senate Office of Legislative Counsel,
    or the Secretary's staff is displaced.
        Installed Senate Messaging Alert Client (SMAC) on all BlackBerry
    devices.
        Developed standardized server operating system software images for
    server upgrades in the Disbursing Office and SCCE.
        Implemented Remote Data Replication (RDR) process. Effectively this
    consists of a set of ``sync'd'' servers and provides automatic failover
    of all Secretary data files and Outlook mail account information to the
    ACF.
                          interparliamentary services
        The Office of Interparliamentary Services (IPS) has completed its
    26th year of operation as a department of the Secretary of the Senate.
    IPS is responsible for administrative, financial, and protocol
    functions for all interparliamentary conferences in which the Senate
    participates by statute, for interparliamentary conferences in which
    the Senate participates on an ad hoc basis, and for special delegations
    authorized by the Majority and Minority Leaders. The office also
    provides appropriate assistance as requested by other Senate
    delegations.
        The statutory interparliamentary conferences are as follows: NATO
    Parliamentary Assembly; Mexico-United States Interparliamentary Group;
    Canada-United States Interparliamentary Group; British-American
    Interparliamentary Group; United States-Russia Interparliamentary
    Group; United States-China Interparliamentary Group; and United States-
    Japan Interparliamentary Group.
        In June, the 46th Annual Meeting of the Mexico-U.S.
    Interparliamentary Group was held in Texas and the United States-China
    Interparliamentary Group meeting was held in Washington, DC. In July,
    the British-American Parliamentary Group meeting was held in Vermont.
    IPS staff handled the arrangements for these successful events.
        All foreign travel authorized by the Majority and Minority Leaders
    is arranged by the IPS staff. In addition to delegation trips, the
    office provided assistance to individual senators and staff traveling
    overseas. Senators and staff authorized by committees for foreign
    travel continue to call upon this office for assistance with passports,
    visas, travel arrangements, and reporting requirements.
        IPS receives and prepares for printing the quarterly financial
    reports for foreign travel from all committees in the Senate. In
    addition to preparing the quarterly reports for the Majority Leader and
    the Minority Leader, IPS assists staff members of senators and
    committees in completing the required reports.
        IPS maintains regular contact with the Department of State and
    foreign embassy officials. The office staff frequently organizes visits
    for official foreign visitors and assists them in setting up meetings
    with leadership offices. The staff continues to work closely with other
    offices of the Secretary of the Senate and the Sergeant at Arms in
    arranging programs for foreign visitors. In addition, IPS is frequently
    consulted by individual Senate offices on a broad range of protocol
    questions. Occasional questions come from State officials or the
    general public regarding Congressional protocol.
        On behalf of the Majority and Minority Leaders, the staff arranges
    receptions in the Senate for heads of state, heads of government, heads
    of parliaments, and parliamentary delegations. Required records of
    expenditures on behalf of foreign visitors under authority of Public
    Law 100-71 are maintained in IPS.
        Planning is underway for the 48th Annual Meeting of the Canada-U.S.
    Interparliamentary Group and the first meeting of the United States-
    Japan Interparliamentary Group which will be held in the United States
    in 2008. Advance work, including site inspection, will be undertaken
    for the Mexico-U.S. Interparliamentary Group conference and the United
    States-Russia Interparliamentary Group conference to be held in the
    United States in 2009. Preparations are also underway for the 2008
    United States-China Interparliamentary Group meeting and the spring and
    fall sessions of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
                                    library
        The Senate Library provides legislative, legal, business, and
    general information services to the United States Senate. The library's
    collection encompasses legislative documents that date from the
    Continental Congress in 1774; current and historic executive and
    judicial branch materials; an extensive book collection on American
    politics, history, and biography; and a wide array of online systems.
    The library also authors content for three Web sites--LIS.gov,
    Senate.gov, and Webster.
    Notable Achievements
        Senate-wide taxonomy, indices, and content development projects
    implemented to improve Web information delivery, functionality, and
    stability.
        Knowledge base project implemented to manage Senator biography
    database.
        Installed, tested, and implemented three new servers to support the
    catalog database upgrade and Web-based catalog.
        Processed 5,913 congressional documents received from a university
    library yielding 275 documents not previously in the Senate collection.
        Shelved more than 8,000 volumes of the Congressional Serial Set at
    the Senate Support Facility (SSF) and completed an inventory of the
    Serial Set collection.
        The use of Web technology to meet the Senate's ever-increasing
    demand for information continues. A Web content management system
    (CMS), first installed in 2002 to support Senate.gov publishing,
    significantly improved the library's ability to efficiently deliver
    Senate information, while saving staff time and labor. The increased
    availability of resources on the Web combined with efficient content
    management has dramatically increased library inquiries. Prior to the
    availability of Web-based information, library inquiries totaled
    46,368. Present-day inquiries totaled approximately 1.5 million.

                                                SENATE LIBRARY INQUIRIES
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                             Web                           Increase
                                                                 --------------------------               from prior
                          Year                       Traditional                               Total         year
                                                                   Intranets    Senate.gov                (percent)
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    2007...........................................       26,309       63,186    1,392,947    1,482,442           -9
    2006...........................................       31,032       35,634    1,561,138    1,627,804          +90
    2005...........................................       33,080       40,488      782,588      856,156          +35
    2004...........................................       33,750       20,749      581,487      635,986          +61
    2003...........................................       46,234       18,871      329,327      394,432     \1\ +751
    2002...........................................       40,359        6,009      ( \2\ )       46,368      ( \3\ )
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Web inquiry statistics, first available in 2003, increased the total from the previous year by 751 percent.
    \2\ Not available.
    \3\ Baseline.

        The library continues to invest in training on information
    modeling, meta data management best practices, and using XML publishing
    technology. Understanding the power of current technology and user
    needs enables the library to generate cost-efficient, relevant, and
    educational Web resources. This appreciation of user needs stems from
    the most valuable service the library offers to the Senate--traditional
    face-to-face and telephone research services.
    Webster Modernization
        The library is serving as a major contributor in the first major
    review of Webster, the Senate intranet, since 2002. The Webster
    Modernization project has three primary goals: establish a Webster
    Advisory Group (WAG), redesign the information architecture, and
    develop a taxonomy. As a WAG member, the library will help to determine
    guidelines, policies, and technical and content areas of responsibility
    for the four Webster stakeholders--Secretary of the Senate, Sergeant at
    Arms (SAA), Senate Chaplain, and the Senate Committee on Rules and
    Administration. The new Webster home page is expected to launch in
    2008.
        The library is committed to building and maintaining a service-
    oriented information architecture, encyclopedia-like index pages, and
    the first-ever taxonomy in support of Webster. The information
    architecture will be displayed as five site-navigational index pages
    arranging Senate administrative products and services by service,
    organization, legislative topic, building location, and A-to-Z
    subjects. Index pages will include key subjects such as votes, the
    Congressional Record, and research databases. The taxonomy will produce
    targeted site search results in a timely and efficient manner.
        Incorporating a CMS into the Webster redesign will significantly
    improve both site production and end user workflow. The library is
    working with the Web Technology office to establish processes that will
    repurpose Senate.gov content and CMS functionality. Staff time
    dedicated to both authoring and editing Web publications is
    significantly reduced by repurposing a single data source.
        A redesigned ``New Books List'' on the library's Webster site was
    launched in August. The new list is produced in XML and Web-published
    via the CMS--key components in the success of the entire Webster
    project. These technologies streamline the publishing process and cut
    production time in half. Colorful book jacket images and Government
    documents are featured on the new list. A prototype redesign for the
    library's catalog page was created to incorporate preconfigured
    executable searches for new Senate hearings, new books, books on order,
    and hearings held by committee during a given year.
    Floor Schedule
        The CMS offers added efficiencies by permitting floor schedule
    information for Webster and Senate.gov to be published from a single
    source. In addition to convening and adjournment times, program
    highlights, and links to roll call votes and the Daily Digest, the
    Webster floor schedule will link to Legislative Information System
    (LIS) bill status records for currently active legislation. Librarians
    publish the floor schedule after each Senate meeting adjourns.
    Legislative Records
        Improved procedures to guarantee legislative data accuracy were put
    into place in February when the Senate Validation Clerk position was
    transferred to the library. Each day that the Senate is in session, the
    validation clerk edits the Congressional Record against LIS data.
    Discrepancies are promptly reported to the appropriate office and
    corrected. These changes have greatly improved the workflow between the
    Secretary of the Senate, the SAA, and the LIS Office within the Library
    of Congress.

                          LEGISLATIVE RECORD VALIDATION
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
                          Document type                            Edits
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Bill status.............................................              61
    Daily Digest............................................              53
    Debates.................................................              67
    Executive status........................................              26
    Legislative activity....................................               5
    Morning Business........................................              31
                                                             ---------------
          Total.............................................             243
                                                             ===============
    2007 Days in session....................................             171
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Efficient Web-publishing tools, including the CMS and XML, are used
    to produce the library's three most popular legislative publications--
    Hot Bills List, Appropriations Legislation, and Cloture Motion Activity
    tables. These publications, which are generated from a single data
    source, appear on Webster, LIS.gov, and Senate.gov. Librarians are
    responsible for monitoring floor activity and updating these tables on
    a daily basis.

                                  HOT BILLS, APPROPRIATIONS, AND CLOTURE WEB INQUIRIES
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                             Publication                           Senate.gov      LIS        Webster       Total
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Hot bills (active legislation)..............................      376,512       22,794        2,815      402,121
    Appropriations legislation (fiscal year 1987-present).......       16,528        9,917        9,464       35,909
    Cloture motion activity (1971-present)......................        7,183          865        5,664       13,712
                                                                 ---------------------------------------------------
          Total Web Inquiries...................................      451,742  ...........  ...........  ...........
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Instruction and Professional Outreach
        Two new research classes and an interactive resource page on
    Webster were developed this year. Librarians combine service, research,
    and technical skills to provide practical training for the Senate. In
    conjunction with National Library Week, Technical Services presented
    public catalog training sessions for Senate staff.

                             SENATE LIBRARY CLASSES
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
                        Subject                       Students     Classes
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Insider's Guide to Senate.gov.................           11            2
    LIS Savvy.....................................          297           37
    Research tips and tricks......................           37            2
                                                   -------------------------
          Totals..................................          345           41
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Senator Biography Database
        The library is overseeing efforts to customize a multifunction data
    repository for biographical and institutional information about the
    1,897 individuals who have served as United States senators. The
    knowledge database will enhance the storage, organization, and
    retrieval of Senate Web content through support for the site search
    engine, taxonomy construction, as well as display of an A-to-Z index
    and topical subindexes. The library is testing 50 member record data
    fields with an initial database release scheduled for August 2008.
    Collection Development
        The library provides several digital resources to the Senate. The
    American State Papers and the United States Congressional Serial Set,
    with a comprehensive collection of 325,000 legislative documents and
    56,000 maps, were added this year. These provide staff with desktop
    access to two centuries of the most important legislative documents.
    The New York Times microfilm collection scope expanded significantly to
    include 1851-1961 following the transfer of microfilm reels from two
    executive branch agencies.
        The library received and processed the first installment of 5,913
    congressional documents offered by the University of Wyoming. These
    acquisitions provided the Senate with 275 documents not previously in
    the collection and represent a rare opportunity to improve the
    comprehensiveness of the congressional collection.
        As a participant in the Government Printing Office's (GPO) Federal
    Depository Library Program (FDLP), the library receives selected
    categories of legislative, executive, and judicial branch publications.
    The library received 18,903 Government publications in 2007, 12,050 of
    those through the FDLP. In response to the trend of issuing Government
    documents in electronic format, 702 links were added to the library
    catalog, bringing the total to more than 22,300. The links provide
    Senate staff desktop access to the full-text of each document.

                                  ACQUISITIONS
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
                            Category                               Total
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Congressional Documents.................................          14,736
    Executive Branch Publications...........................           4,167
    Books...................................................             822
                                                             ---------------
          Total Acquisitions................................          19,725
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

        A major ongoing project is the title-by-title evaluation of
    executive branch publications. During the project's sixth year, 1,279
    items were withdrawn from the collection, 651 of which were donated to
    requesting Federal libraries. The project's final phase will improve
    organization and access by integrating Government documents into the
    larger primary collection. Toward this end, 382 documents were merged
    into the collection.
    Cataloging
        The library's productive cataloging staff draws on years of
    experience to produce and maintain a catalog of more than 187,700
    bibliographic items. During 2007, 13,643 items were added to the
    catalog--a 3 percent increase over 2007--including 6,628 new titles,
    and 5,637 withdrawn items. A total of 37,331 maintenance transactions
    contributed to the content, currency, and record integrity of the
    catalog.
        Senate staff searched the library catalog on 5,035 occasions (+6
    percent), viewing 4,819 catalog pages. The catalog is updated nightly
    to ensure that Senate staff will retrieve accurate and current
    information on library holdings. The addition of book jacket images for
    280 new titles enhanced visual appeal and utility.
        A related, ongoing project involves cataloging the Senate
    Historical Office's book collection. Records for 298 titles were added
    to the library catalog, bringing the total number of Historical Office
    titles to 1,665. Library staff assisted the Historical Office with the
    reorganization and shelving of their book collection in LC call number
    order.

                     INFORMATION SERVICE SUPPORT ACTIVITIES
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
                            Category                               Total
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Document Deliveries.....................................           3,319
    Circulation:
        Item Loans..........................................           2,547
        New Accounts........................................             406
        Total Accounts......................................           1,308
    Microform Center:
        Titles Used.........................................              49
        Journals Used.......................................             658
        Pages Printed.......................................           2,926
    Photocopies.............................................         101,533
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Name Authorities Cooperative Program (NACO)
        NACO, an international cataloging authority headquartered at the
    Library of Congress, manages personal name and subject control for the
    library community. As one of 457 participants, the library contributed
    248 personal names and congressional terms. That exceptional number
    underscores the very special nature of the Senate's collections and
    skills of the library's catalogers.
    Library System Upgrade
        The library installed, tested, and deployed two new data servers
    and a Web server to support the catalog upgrade. New capabilities have
    shortened data transfer time, provided needed data redundancy, enhanced
    authority record maintenance, and provided support for dynamic delivery
    of catalog content. That content will be desktop available via
    preconfigured executable searches and RSS feeds. The server and system
    upgrades were accomplished with no service disruption for Senate staff
    searching the library's catalog.
    Senate Support Facility (SSF)
        A networked computer workstation and printer were added to the
    library's SSF site. This provides for communication with the main
    library and facilitates searching the Senate's online resources,
    including Webster and the library catalog.
        Staff shelved more than 8,000 volumes of the United States
    Congressional Serial Set received from Allegheny College, Meadville,
    Pennsylvania. The project replaced volumes that were in poor condition,
    identified volumes in need of conservation, and recovered 40 missing
    volumes.
    Preservation and Binding
        During the year, 393 volumes containing hearings, committee prints,
    bills and resolutions, Congressional Records, and other materials were
    bound by the GPO. In addition, two sets of the Annals of Congress (84
    volumes) were cleaned and bound for preservation. Technical Services
    staff attended several book repair training sessions led by the
    Director of the Office of Conservation and Preservation. In the course
    of these sessions, 36 historic volumes were repaired.
    Budget
        Budget savings in 2007 totaled $1,058; and, after a decade of
    budget monitoring, savings total $76,871.86. This continual review of
    purchases eliminates materials not meeting the Senate's current
    information needs. This oversight is also critical in offsetting cost
    increases for core materials and for acquiring new materials. The goal
    is to provide the highest service level using the latest technologies
    and best resources in the most cost-effective manner.
    Continuity of Operations (COOP) Plan
        Several library initiatives further enabled the Office of the
    Secretary to provide information services to the Senate from off-site.
    Projects include housing core documents at the SSF, training staff to
    remotely access the Senate network from a Senate-issued laptop, and
    training staff to remotely check-in with the Office of Security and
    Emergency Preparedness from a Senate-issued Blackberry. Additionally,
    the library expanded the digital congressional research collection
    containing fully searchable congressional documents dating from the
    First Congress. These databases can be remotely accessed and support
    immediate digital delivery of information.
    Unum, Newsletter of the Office of the Secretary of the Senate
        Unum, the Secretary's quarterly newsletter has been produced by
    Senate Library staff since October 1997. It serves as an historical
    record of accomplishments, events, and personnel in the Office of the
    Secretary of the Senate. The newsletter is distributed throughout the
    Senate, and to former staff and Senators. The four 2007 issues
    highlighted the 10-year anniversaries of LIS and Unum, three committee
    histories, and a National Library Week book talk by former Senator
    Edward Brooke.
    Major Library Goals for 2008
        Establish taxonomy and service-oriented architecture for the
    Webster redesign.
        Use the Senator Biography Database to populate frequently requested
    information lists published on Senate.gov.
        Provide library profiles to disaster recovery agencies.
        Establish a GPO contract for binding special material.

                                                 SENATE LIBRARY STATISTICS FOR CALENDAR YEAR 2007--ACQUISITIONS
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                   Books         Government Documents          Congressional Publications
                                                          ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                         Reports/    Total
                                                            Ordered    Received    Paper      Fiche     Hearings    Prints     Bylaw       Docs
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    January..............................................         13         82        301         31        365         15         95        167      1,056
    February.............................................         11         29        389  .........        300         14         77        201      1,010
    March................................................         41         66        323  .........        369         44        145        226      1,173
                                                          --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
          1st Quarter....................................         65        177      1,013         31      1,034         73        317        594      3,239
                                                          ==================================================================================================
    April................................................         25         49        162        230        282         30         72        221      1,046
    May..................................................         33        125        136        214        358         40         62        282      1,217
    June.................................................         22         76        161  .........        375         21        128        369      1,130
                                                          --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
          2nd Quarter....................................         80        250        459        444      1,015         91        262        872      3,393
                                                          ==================================================================================================
    July.................................................         11         53        168         25        384         13         84        379      1,106
    August...............................................          4         45        165        304        349         22         64        505      1,454
    September............................................         19         54        257        103        234         21         61        254        984
                                                          ==================================================================================================
          3rd Quarter....................................         34        152        590        432        967         56        209      1,138      3,544
                                                          ==================================================================================================
    October..............................................         81        127        216        230      2,331        131         43        480      3,558
    November.............................................         24         65        171        146      2,723        152         71        425      3,753
    December.............................................         22         51        285        150      1,326         73         65        288      2,238
                                                          ==================================================================================================
          4th Quarter....................................        127        243        672        526      6,380        356        179      1,193      9,549
                                                          ==================================================================================================
    2007 Total...........................................        306        822      2,734      1,433      9,396        576        967      3,797     19,725
    2006 Total...........................................        347        889      2,062      1,271      3,350        221        748      3,003     11,544
                                                          ==================================================================================================
    Percent Change.......................................      -11.8       -7.5       32.6       12.8      180.5      160.6       29.3       26.4       70.9
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                                  SENATE LIBRARY STATISTICS FOR CALENDAR YEAR 2007--CATALOGING
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                            Bibliographic Records Cataloged
                                                              S.    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                           Hearing                    Government Documents           Congressional Publications      Total
                                                           Numbers             -------------------------------------------------------------------  Records
                                                           Added to    Books                                                              Docs./   Cataloged
                                                             LIS                  Paper      Fiche    Electronic   Hearings    Prints     Pubs./
                                                                                                                                         Reports
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    January.............................................         12         65          7  .........          10        550          5         12        649
    February............................................         36         15          2          6          14        357  .........         10        404
    March...............................................         29         28          7          2           5        601         19         14        676
                                                         ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
          1st Quarter...................................         77        108         16          8          29      1,508         24         36      1,729
                                                         ===================================================================================================
    April...............................................         26         41          5  .........          29        331          4          8        418
    May.................................................         59         48          5  .........          55        255  .........         11        374
    June................................................         16         41          6          1          23        505         43          8        627
                                                         ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
          2nd Quarter...................................        101        130         16          1         107      1,091         47         27      1,419
                                                         ===================================================================================================
    July................................................        288         15          1          2          59        527          1         17        622
    August..............................................        115         17         14          5           7        510          1          1        555
    September...........................................         44         31          7          2          18        751          1          8        818
                                                         ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
          3rd Quarter...................................        447         63         22          9          84      1,788          3         26      1,995
                                                         ===================================================================================================
    October.............................................         35         83         18          6          22        548  .........          7        684
    November............................................          5         46          5  .........          14        326  .........         25        416
    December............................................         22         21          7         33          11        319  .........         15        406
          4th Quarter...................................         62        150         30         39          47      1,193  .........         47      1,506
                                                         ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    2007 Total..........................................        687        451         84         57         267      5,580         74        136      6,649
    2006 Total..........................................        318      1,499         70         96         171      5,506         98        692      8,132
                                                         ===================================================================================================
    Percent Change......................................      116.0      -69.9       20.0      -40.6        56.1        1.3      -24.5      -80.4      -18.2
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                           SENATE LIBRARY STATISTICS FOR CALENDAR YEAR 2007--DOCUMENT DELIVERY
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                         Micrographics  Photocopiers
                                                       Volumes    Materials  Facsimiles   Center Pages      Pages
                                                       Loaned     Delivered                 Printed        Printed
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    January........................................         275         374          62           153         8,389
    February.......................................         286         289          29           211        11,314
    March..........................................         168         306          31           158         4,886
                                                    ----------------------------------------------------------------
          1st Quarter..............................         729         969         122           522        24,589
                                                    ================================================================
    April..........................................         244         369          66           186         7,674
    May............................................         241         286          24           414         6,083
    June...........................................         204         270          56           253        16,327
                                                    ----------------------------------------------------------------
          2nd Quarter..............................         689         925         146           853        30,084
                                                    ================================================================
    July...........................................         193         237          34           146        12,795
    August.........................................         180         191          31           359         9,074
    September......................................         207         223  ..........           171         7,842
                                                    ----------------------------------------------------------------
          3rd Quarter..............................         580         651          65           676        29,711
                                                    ================================================================
    October........................................         216         318          29           308         7,794
    November.......................................         206         290          29  .............        5,914
    December.......................................         127         166          25           567         3,441
                                                    ----------------------------------------------------------------
          4th Quarter..............................         549         774          83           875        17,149
                                                    ================================================================
    2007 Total.....................................       2,547       3,319         416         2,926       101,533
    2006 Total.....................................       2,941       3,290         878         4,479       101,297
                                                    ================================================================
    Percent Change.................................       -13.4        +0.9       -52.6         -34.7          +0.2
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                               senate page school
        The United States Senate Page School exists to provide a smooth
    transition from and to the students' home schools, providing those
    students with as sound a program, both academically and experientially,
    as possible during their stay in the Nation's capital, within the
    limits of the constraints imposed by their work situation.
    Summary of Accomplishments
        Completed the process to be re-accredited by the Middle States
    Commission on Secondary Schools on December 12, 2007.
        Conducted closing ceremonies for two successful page classes on
    June 8, 2007, and January 18, 2008, the last day of school for each
    semester.
        Successfully completed orientation and course scheduling for the
    Spring 2007 and Fall 2007 pages. Needs of incoming students determined
    the semester schedules.
        Provided extended educational experiences, including 19 field
    trips, a guest speaker, opportunities to play musical instruments and
    vocalize, and foreign language study with the aid of tutors. Summer
    pages participated in eight field trips to educational sites as an
    extension of the page experience. Administered national tests for
    qualification in scholarship programs as well.
        Continued the community service project embraced by pages and staff
    since 2002. The Senate Page School students and staff collected items
    for gift packages and then assembled and shipped the packages, which
    included letters of support, to military personnel in Afghanistan and
    Iraq.
        Purchased updated materials and equipment, including new academic
    support software for use in math, social studies, and English.
    Purchased a few pieces of replacement equipment for the science lab, as
    well as an LCD projector and presentation cart for use in all
    classrooms.
        Reviewed and updated the continuity of operations and evacuation
    plans. Pages and staff continue to practice evacuating to primary and
    secondary sites.
        Participated in escape hood training. Staff was recertified in CPR/
    AED procedures.
        Trained tutors and substitute teachers in evacuation procedures.
        Continued ongoing communication among the Page School, the SAA,
    Party Secretaries, and the Page Program.
    Summary of Plans
        Our goals include:
      --Continuing individualized small group instruction and tutoring by
            teachers on an as-needed basis;
      --Continuing to offer foreign language tutoring assistance to
            students;
      --Complementing the curriculum with field trips focusing on sites of
            historic, political, and scientific importance;
      --Administering English usage pre- and post-tests to students each
            semester to assist faculty in determining needs of students for
            usage instruction;
      --Offering staff development options, including attendance at
            seminars conducted by Education and Training and subject matter
            and/or educational issue conferences conducted by national
            organizations';
      --Continuing the community service project;
      --Conducting a Senate Page School Feedback Survey of all first
            semester pages to assist staff in determining areas of strength
            and areas for improvement in the program; and
      --Providing all necessary responses to the re-accreditation report.
                         printing and document services
        The Office of Printing and Document Services (OPDS) serves as the
    liaison to the Government Printing Office (GPO) for the Senate's
    official printing, ensuring that all Senate printing is in compliance
    with Title 44, Chapter 7 (Congressional Printing and Binding) of the
    U.S. Code as it relates to Senate documents, hearings, committee prints
    and other official publications. The office assists the Senate by
    coordinating, scheduling, delivering and preparing Senate legislation,
    hearings, documents, committee prints and miscellaneous publications
    for printing, and provides printed copies of all legislation and public
    laws to the Senate and the public. In addition, the office assigns
    publication numbers to all hearings, committee prints, documents and
    other publications; orders all blank paper, envelopes and letterhead
    for the Senate; and prepares page counts of all Senate hearings in
    order to compensate commercial reporting companies for the preparation
    of hearings.

                               Printing Services

        During fiscal year 2007, OPDS prepared 4,744 requisitions
    authorizing GPO to print and bind the Senate's work, exclusive of
    legislation and the Congressional Record. This number represents a 10
    percent increase over the previous year. Since the requisitioning done
    by the OPDS is central to the Senate's printing, the office is uniquely
    suited to perform invoice and bid reviewing responsibilities for Senate
    printing. As a result of this office's cost accounting duties, OPDS is
    able to review and assure accurate GPO invoicing as well as play an
    active role in helping to provide the best possible bidding scenario
    for Senate publications.
        In addition to processing requisitions, the Printing Services
    Section coordinates proof handling, job scheduling and tracking for
    stationery products, Senate hearings, Senate publications and other
    miscellaneous printed products, as well as monitoring blank paper and
    stationery quotas for each Senate office and committee. OPDS also
    coordinates a number of publications for other Senate offices such as
    the Curator, Historian, Disbursing Office, Legislative Clerk, and
    Senate Library, as well as the U.S. Botanic Garden, U.S. Capitol Police
    and Architect of the Capitol. These tasks include providing guidance
    for design, paper selection, print specifications, monitoring print
    quality and distribution. Last year's major printing projects included
    ``The Report of the Secretary of the Senate'', ``New Senators Guide'',
    ``The United States Senate 110th Congress, Traditions of the United
    States Senate'', and ``PRO TEM: Presidents Pro Tempore of the United
    States Since 1789''.
    Hearing Billing Verification
        Senate committees often use outside reporting companies to
    transcribe their hearings, both in-house and in the field. OPDS
    processes billing verifications for these transcription services
    ensuring that costs billed to the Senate are accurate. OPDS utilizes a
    program developed in conjunction with the Sergeant at Arms Computer
    Division that provides more billing accuracy and greater information
    gathering capacity and adheres to the guidelines established by the
    Senate Committee on Rules and Administration for commercial reporting
    companies to bill the Senate for transcription services. During 2007,
    OPDS provided commercial reporting companies and corresponding Senate
    committees a total of 935 billing verifications of Senate hearings and
    business meetings. Over 77,000 transcribed pages were processed at a
    total billing cost of over $498,000, a 15 percent increase over the
    previous year.
        The office continued processing all file transfers and billing
    verifications, between committees and reporting companies
    electronically ensuring efficiency and accuracy. Department staff
    continues training to apply today's expanding digital technology to
    improve performance and services.

                                      HEARING TRANSCRIPT AND BILLING VERIFICATIONS
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                           2004            2005            2006            2007
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Billing Verifications...........................             787             949             934             935
    Average per Committee...........................            41.4            49.9            49.2            49.2
    Total Transcribed Pages.........................          56,262          66,597          66,158          77,831
    Average Pages/Committee.........................           2,961           3,505           3,482           4,096
    Transcribed Pages Cost..........................        $366,904        $426,815        $433,742        $498,541
    Average Cost/Committee..........................         $19,311         $22,463         $22,829         $26,239
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Secretary of the Senate Service Center
        The Service Center within OPDS is staffed by experienced GPO
    detailees who provide Senate committees and the Secretary of the
    Senate's Office with complete publishing services for hearings,
    committee prints, and the preparation of the Congressional Record.
    These services include keyboarding, proofreading, scanning, and
    composition. The Service Center provides the best management of funds
    available through the Congressional Printing and Binding Appropriation
    because committees have been able to decrease, or eliminate, additional
    overtime costs associated with the preparation of hearings.
    Additionally, the Service Center provides work for GPO detailees
    assigned to legislative offices during Senate State work periods.

                               Document Services

        The Document Services Section coordinates requests for printed
    legislation and miscellaneous publications with other departments
    within the Secretary's Office, Senate committees, and GPO. This section
    ensures that the most current version of all material is available and
    that sufficient quantities are available to meet projected demands. The
    Congressional Record, a printed record of Senate and House floor
    proceedings, Extension of Remarks, Daily Digest and miscellaneous
    pages, is one of the many printed documents provided by the office on a
    daily basis. In addition to the Congressional Record, the office
    processed and distributed 11,992 distinct legislative items during the
    first Session of the 110th Congress, including Senate and House bills,
    resolutions, committee and conference reports, executive documents, and
    public laws.

                                             CONGRESSIONAL RECORD STATISTICS
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                           2005            2006            2007
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Total Pages Printed.............................................          34,787          24,881          37,699
        For the Senate..............................................          16,393          12,362          16,659
        For the House...............................................          18,394          12,519          21,040
    Total Copies Printed and Distributed............................       1,049,463         780,302       1,001,619
        To the Senate...............................................         295,366         210,084         274,524
        To the House................................................         397,327         326,648         424,944
    To the Executive Branch and the Public..........................         356,770         243,570  ..............
    Total Production Costs..........................................     $16,014,706     $13,115,660  ..............
        Senate Costs................................................      $6,640,823      $5,006,708      $6,483,411
        House Costs.................................................      $8,933,244      $7,784,653     $10,035,868
        Other Costs.................................................        $440,639        $324,299        $374,102
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Data provided by the Government Printing Office.

        The demand for online access to legislative information continues
    to be strong. Before Senate legislation can be posted online, it must
    be received in the Senate through OPDS. Improved database reports allow
    the office to report receipt of all legislative bills and resolutions
    received in the Senate which can then be made available online and
    accessed through other Web sites, such as LIS and Thomas, by
    congressional staff and the public.
    Customer Service
        The primary responsibility of OPDS is to provide services to the
    Senate. However, the office also has a responsibility to the general
    public, the press, and other Government agencies. Requests for
    legislative material are received at the walk-in counter, through the
    mail, by fax, and electronically. Online ordering of legislative
    documents and the Legislative Hot List Link, where Members and staff
    can confirm arrival of printed copies of the most sought-after
    legislative documents, continued to be popular. The Legislative Hot
    List site is updated several times daily each time new documents arrive
    from GPO to the Document Room. In addition, the office handled
    thousands of phone calls pertaining to the Senate's official printing,
    document requests and legislative questions. Recorded messages, fax,
    and e-mail operate around the clock and are processed as they are
    received, as are mail requests. The office stresses prompt, courteous
    customer service while providing accurate answers to Senate and public
    requests.

                                      SUMMARY OF ANNUAL CUSTOMER SERVICE STATISTICS
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                          On-line         Counter
             Calendar year          Congress/session    Public mail     Fax request       request         request
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    2004..........................  108th/2nd.......           1,137           2,229             564          36,780
    2005..........................  109th/1st.......           1,369           2,326           1,464          40,105
    2006..........................  109th/2nd.......           1,048           1,633           1,751          26,640
    2007..........................  110th/1st.......             957           1,346           1,613          24,854
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    On-Demand Publication
        The office supplements depleted legislation where needed by
    producing additional copies in the DocuTech Service Center, staffed by
    experienced GPO detailees, who provide Member offices and Senate
    committees with on-demand printing and binding of bills and reports.
    On-demand publication allows the department to cut the quantities of
    documents printed directly from GPO and reduces waste. The DocuTech is
    networked with GPO, allowing print files to be sent back and forth
    electronically. This allows OPDS to print necessary legislation in the
    event of a GPO COOP situation. During 2007, the DocuTech Center
    produced 378 task orders, for a total of 8,843 unique legislative
    documents and over 595,000 printed pages.
    Accomplishments and Future Goals
        Over the past year, OPDS has striven to provide new services and
    improve existing ones. Of particular note is the office staff's
    commitment to the ``Greening the Capitol'' initiative. Improved quality
    100 percent recycled copier and letterhead paper has been made
    available to all Senate offices. The office staff works diligently to
    track document requirements by monitoring print quantities and reducing
    waste and associated costs. Electronic proofing procedures implemented
    in 2006 continued; over four hundred new and revised print jobs were
    routed electronically for customer approval, improving turnaround time
    and efficiency.
        The office's future goals include working with GPO on their Federal
    Digital and Microcomp Replacement Systems developing online ordering of
    stationery products for Senate offices. The office staff continually
    focuses on COOP and the emergency preparedness. OPDS staff continues to
    seek new ways to use technology to assist Members and staff with added
    services and improved access to information.
                            office of public records
        The Office of Public Records receives, processes, and maintains
    records, reports, and other documents filed with the Secretary of the
    Senate involving the Federal Election Campaign Act, as amended; the
    Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995; the Senate Code of Official Conduct:
    Rule 34, Public Financial Disclosure; Rule 35, Senate Gift Rule
    filings; Rule 40, Registration of Mass Mailing; Rule 41, Political Fund
    Designees; and Rule 41(6), Supervisor's Reports on Individuals
    Performing Senate Services; and Foreign Travel Reports.
        The office provides for the inspection, review, and reproduction of
    these documents. From October, 2006, through September, 2007, the
    Public Records office staff assisted more than 2,400 individuals
    seeking information from reports filed with the office. This figure
    does not include assistance provided by telephone, nor help given to
    lobbyists attempting to comply with the provisions of the Lobbying
    Disclosure Act of 1995. A total of 140,010 photocopies were sold in the
    period. In addition, the office works closely with the Federal Election
    Commission, the Senate Select Committee on Ethics and the Clerk of the
    U.S. House of Representatives concerning the filing requirements of the
    aforementioned Acts and Senate rules.
    Fiscal Year 2007 Accomplishments
        The office staff changed the lobbying e-filing program to conform
    with the modifications to the IBM forms made by the Clerk of the House;
    and began work to implement S. 1, the Honest Leadership and Open
    Government Act, which amended the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995.
    Plans for Fiscal Year 2008
        The Public Records office will complete implementation of S.1.
    Automation Activities
        During fiscal year 2007, the Senate Office of Public Records staff
    began design of a new lobbying data base, new public query programs for
    senate.gov, and a new page design for senate.gov.
    Federal Election Campaign Act, as Amended
        The Act requires Senate candidates to file quarterly reports.
    Filings totaled 4,461 documents containing 283,564 pages.
    Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 (LDA)
        The Act requires semi-annual financial and lobbying activity
    reports. As of September 30, 2007, 6,915 registrants represented 18,068
    clients and employed 41,386 individuals who met the statutory
    definition of ``lobbyist'' since the January 1, 1996 enactment of the
    LDA. The number of registrants increased by almost 350 from the
    previous year, while the number of clients actually decreased by 3,400.
    This reduction is due, in part, to a review of the records to remove
    duplicate entries. The total number of individual lobbyists disclosed
    on 2007 registrations and reports was 16,469. The total number of
    lobbying registrations and reports processed was 43,705.
    Public Financial Disclosure
        The filing date for Public Financial Disclosure Reports was May 15,
    2007. The reports were available to the public and press by Thursday,
    June 14. Copies were provided to the Select Committee on Ethics and the
    appropriate State officials. A total of 3,693 reports and amendments
    were filed containing 22,465 pages. There were 424 requests to review
    or receive copies of the documents.
    Senate Rule 35 (Gift Rule)
        The Senate Office of Public Records has received 365 reports during
    fiscal year 2006.
    Registration of Mass Mailing
        Senators are required to file mass mailings on a quarterly basis.
    The number of pages was 682.
                                senate security
        The Office of Senate Security (OSS) was established, under the
    Secretary of the Senate, by Senate Resolution 243 (100th Congress, 1st
    Session). The office is responsible for the administration of
    classified information programs in Senate offices and committees. In
    addition, OSS serves as the Senate's liaison to the Executive Branch in
    matters relating to the security of classified information in the
    Senate. This report covers the period from January 1, 2007, through
    December 31, 2007.
    Personnel Security
        Five hundred eighty-seven Senate employees held one or more
    security clearances at the end of 2007. This number does not include
    clearances for employees of the Architect of the Capitol, nor does it
    include clearances for congressional fellows assigned to Senate
    offices. OSS also processes these clearances.
        OSS processed 3,315 personnel security actions, a 45.8 percent
    increase from 2006. One hundred-forty investigations for new security
    clearances were initiated last year, and 96 security clearances were
    transferred from other agencies. Senate regulations, as well as some
    Executive Branch regulations, require that individuals granted Top
    Secret security clearances be reinvestigated at least every 5 years.
    Staff holding Secret security clearances are reinvestigated every 10
    years. During the past 12 months, reinvestigations were initiated on 87
    Senate employees. OSS processed 193 routine terminations of security
    clearances during the reporting period and transmitted 431 outgoing
    visit requests. The remainder of the personnel security actions
    consisted of updating access authorizations and compartments.
        Overall, the average time required to process a Senate employee for
    a security clearance has decreased from 309 days to 270 days. The
    average time for investigations has decreased by 12.6 percent relative
    to 2006. The average time for an initial investigation conducted and
    adjudicated by the Department of Defense (DOD) is 241 days from the
    date that OSS requests the investigation until the letter from DOD
    granting the clearance is received in OSS. The average time for DOD
    initial investigations decreased 13.0 percent. The periodic re-
    investigation process averages 304 days, a decrease of 9.4 percent
    relative to 2006. The average time for an initial investigation
    conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and adjudicated
    by DOD is 225 days, while the periodic re-investigation process
    averages 363 days. The FBI investigation with DOD adjudication times
    represents a decrease of 22.1 percent and 6.2 percent respectively.
        Two hundred-one records checks were conducted at the request of the
    FBI and Office of Personal Management (OPM). Four record checks were
    performed on behalf of Customs and Immigration. The remaining checks
    were performed for the FBI. This represents a 1.0 percent increase in
    records checks completed by OSS.
    Security Awareness
        OSS conducted or hosted 64 security briefings for Senate staff.
    Topics included: information security, counterintelligence, foreign
    travel, security managers' responsibilities, office security
    management, and introductory security briefings. This represents a 0.2
    percent increase from 2006.
    Document Control
        OSS received or generated 3,623 classified documents consisting of
    118,070 pages during calendar year 2007. This is a 45.6 percent
    increase in the number of documents received or generated in 2006.
    Additionally, 80,940 pages from 2,910 classified documents no longer
    required for the conduct of official Senate business were destroyed.
    This represents a 30.3 percent increase in destruction from 2006. OSS
    transferred 1,232 documents consisting of 38,525 pages to Senate
    offices or external agencies, up 36.0 percent from 2006. These figures
    do not include classified documents received directly by the
    Appropriations Committee, Armed Services Committee, Foreign Relations
    Committee, and Select Committee on Intelligence, in accordance with
    agreements between OSS and those Committees. Overall, Senate Security
    completed 7,765 document transactions and handled over 237,535 pages of
    classified material in 2007, an increase of 38.0 percent
        Secure storage of classified material in the OSS vault was provided
    for 107 Senators, committees, and support offices. This arrangement
    minimizes the number of storage areas throughout the Capitol and Senate
    office buildings, thereby affording greater security for classified
    material.
    Secure Meeting Facilities
        OSS secure conference facilities were utilized on 1,406 occasions
    by a total of 9,213 people during 2007. Use of OSS conference
    facilities increased 19.9 percent over 2006 levels. Eight hundred
    ninety-six meetings, briefings, or hearings were conducted in OSS'
    three conference rooms. Of those, nine were ``All senators'' briefings,
    and two were hearings. OSS also provided, to senators and staff, secure
    telephones, secure computers, secure facsimile machine, and secure
    areas for reading and production of classified material on 510
    occasions in 2007.
    Projects and Accomplishments
        OSS hosted the second annual Technical Exposition for the Office of
    the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in April 2007. Classified
    and unclassified exhibits representing the technical and scientific
    accomplishments of the U.S. Intelligence Community were shown to
    Members of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, as
    well as cleared staff from throughout the Legislative Branch. OSS
    personnel provided assistance with security, site preparation, and
    escorting during the 4 months leading up to the Expo. The office and
    DNI are planning another Expo in March 2008.
        OSS is preparing to move to the Capitol Visitors Center (CVC) when
    it is ready for occupancy in the summer of 2008. OSS has been
    coordinating with internal offices and other U.S. Government agencies
    to insure the space will be appropriate for the storage, processing and
    discussion of classified material. OSS is developing plans and
    procedures for use of the new space and for moving the Senate's
    classified holdings to the new space in a secure and efficient manner.
    This will involve determining the need for holding each of the
    approximately 10,000 documents currently stored in the office.
                                stationery room
        The mission of the Keeper of the Stationery is to:
      --Sell stationery items for use by Senate offices and other
            authorized legislative organizations;
      --Select a variety of stationery items to meet the needs of the
            Senate environment on a day-to-day basis and maintain a
            sufficient inventory of these items;
      --Purchase supplies utilizing open market procurement, competitive
            bid and/or GSA Federal Supply Schedules;
      --Maintain product supply and order capability during Continuity of
            Operations incidents;
      --Maintain individual official stationery expense accounts for
            Senators, Committees and Officers of the Senate;
      --Render monthly expense statements;
      --Ensure receipt of reimbursements for all purchases by the client
            base through direct payments or through the certification
            process;
      --Make payments to all vendors of record for supplies and services in
            a timely manner and certify receipt of all supplies and
            services; and
      --Provide delivery of all purchased supplies to the requesting
            offices.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                Fiscal Year     Fiscal Year
                                                   2007            2006
                                                Statistics      Statistics
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Gross Sales.............................      $5,456,125      $4,945,381
    Sales Transactions......................          45,608          45,471
    Purchase Orders Issued..................           7,356           6,795
    Vouchers Processed......................           8,078           8,313
    Office Deliveries.......................           7,305           6,085
    Number of Items Delivered...............         153,813         156,172
    Number of Items Sold....................         587,529         608,104
                                             ===============================
    Mass Transit Media Sold.................          91,569          86,483
        $20.00..............................          75,922          72,388
        $10.00..............................           6,955           4,510
        $5.00...............................           8,692           9,585
                                             ===============================
    Public transportation users.............           1,763         ( \1\ )
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Not available.

    Fiscal Year 2007 Highlights and Projects
                Recycling Initiatives
        Through review of products and processes, the Stationery Room began
    examining its recycling commitment to promote the ``Greening of the
    Capitol'' initiative that was launched during this reporting period.
    Our goal is to promote environmentally-friendly and safe products and
    product end-of life cycle disposition.
        In conjunction with the Office of the Senate Superintendent, the
    Stationery Room launched a battery recycling program, placing battery
    recycling containers in the store area for customers to safely dispose
    of batteries for recycling. These containers are collected periodically
    by the Superintendent's Office and shipped to a metals recycling plant
    for environmentally-safe disposition.
        The Stationery Room is also lending its support in promoting the
    Senate Superintendent's recycling program for safe disposition of
    printer, fax and copier cartridges. This effort was initiated to
    eliminate the disposal of these materials in landfills. Users are
    encouraged to drop these materials off at the Superintendent's drop-off
    site in the Dirksen Building. The Stationery Room promotes this effort
    through signage in and around the store, reminding customers of the
    drop-off site and periodic flyers which are enclosed with monthly
    statements.
        The use of copy paper sold in the Stationery Room was also
    investigated. For many years, the Stationery Room has carried copy
    paper with a 30 percent post-consumable content. The Stationery Room
    has added or increased its selections to include 50 percent and 100
    percent post-consumable copy paper.
        Business cards ordered through the Stationery Room were another
    target of opportunity for change. The Stationery Room staff worked with
    vendors to provide a business card stock with a 30 percent-50 percent
    post-consumable content. Additionally, vendors are now using a soy-
    based ink in the printing process.
        Fine writing papers and envelopes were also analyzed for content
    and it was determined the post-consumable content from the paper mills
    could be increased without degradation of the quality. These products
    now contain a post-consumable content of 50 percent.
        Operational requirements are currently under review to ensure
    materials used also meet the same goals to promote an environmentally
    friendly campus. The Stationery Room is currently evaluating use of
    various types of plastic and paper bags, along with reusable bags made
    of 100 percent post-consumer plastic bottles that are now sold in the
    store.
                Senate Support Facility (SSF)
        The facility continues to be a major asset for Stationery Room
    operations. During fiscal year 2007, the Senate Sergeant at Arms
    Central Operations Division transported 31,678 cartons of product from
    the U.S. Capitol Police screening facility to the SSF for processing
    and distribution to the Senate campus. This process has virtually
    eliminated most commercial vehicular traffic coming to the Senate
    campus in support of Stationery Room operations. The Senate Sergeant at
    Arms' (SAA) Central Operations Division is to be commended for the
    support and ``team effort'' they provide to the Stationery Room
    operation in meeting its responsibilities to the Senate community.
                Public Transit Subsidy Program
        During the last quarter of fiscal year 2007, the Washington
    Metropolitan Transit Authority (WMATA) advised the Stationery Room they
    would be discontinuing the Metrochek paper media at the end of 2008 and
    transitioning agencies to the Smart Benefit Smart Trip Card. A WMATA
    analysis showed that 60 percent of participants in the Public
    Transportation Subsidy Program were already using the Smart Trip Card.
    WMATA determined it would be more cost-effective and efficiencies could
    be achieved by moving all participants to the Smart Benefit program.
    Since 1992, the Stationery Room has been administering the Senate's
    Public Subsidy Program and with that responsibility has begun a
    transition process, working with WMATA, the
        Committee on Rules and Administration and the Executive Office of
    the Secretary of the Senate to accomplish this move in fiscal year
    2008.
                Computer Modernization
        The Senate Stationery Room continues to utilize the Microsoft
    Business Dynamics Retail Management System and the Microsoft Business
    Dynamics Great Plains accounting software for its operations, which was
    installed in August 2005. During this reporting period, strategic
    planning began for the applications to be upgraded by the primary
    contractor. This planning resulted in the execution of a contract at
    the end of this reporting period. It is projected the Stationery Room
    system will be upgraded from version 1.2 of the Retail Management
    System (RMS) to version 2.0 and from version 8.0 to 9.0 of the Great
    Plains accounting software during the second/third quarter of fiscal
    year 2008.
        Also during fiscal year 2007, the Stationery Room did some
    preliminary investigations for two system enhancements, which would
    provide value and efficiencies for its customers. Subject to funding
    for fiscal year 2009, the Stationery Room would like to proceed with
    the e-commerce storefront online ordering system and further develop a
    means to move select data to the SAA's TranSAAct system for use by
    Senate offices. The latter would move monthly customer account
    statements along with transactional detail to the TranSAAct system. The
    migration of account/sales data would eliminate the monthly mailings
    and labor associated with the statements while building historical data
    retention for sales transaction information and budget forecasting.
                            office of web technology
        The Department of Web Technology is responsible for the Web sites
    that fall under the purview of the Secretary of the Senate:
      --the Senate Web site (Senate.gov)--available to the world; and
      --the Secretary's Web site on Webster (Webster.senate.gov)--available
            to Senate staff.
                        the senate web site--senate.gov

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        The Senate Web site content is maintained by over 30 contributors
    from seven departments of the Secretary's office and three departments
    of the Sergeant at Arms (SAA). Content team leaders meet regularly to
    share ideas and coordinate the posting of new content.
    Major Additions to the Site in 2007
        A portal for new lobbying disclosure and guidelines established
    through the legislation commonly referred to as S. 1, the Honest
    Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007. This portion of the site
    connects visitors to the various new disclosure and registration
    applications associated with the Office of Public Records. http://
    www.senate.gov/pagelayout/legislative/g_three_sections_with_teasers/
    lobbyingdisc.htm
      --Homepage feature articles were published on the following topics:
      --Art in the Senate: A View of the Senate's Past;
      --What Happens When a New Congress Begins?;
      --New Multimedia Exhibit, Isaac Bassett: A Senate Memoir;
      --Oral History Project: Life in the Senate;
      --The president of the Senate's Role in the Legislative Process; and
      --``We the People'' Celebrating the Constitution.
    Accomplishments of the Office of Web Technology in 2007
        Completed upgrade of Documentum Content Management System (CMS) to
    5.3 from 4.3. Upgrade was done seamlessly to content authors and users
    of Senate.gov, so no down time was experienced.
        Trained content authors in the use of new Documentum CMS and
    produced documentation to assist in authoring.
        Aided Senate Library in collecting requirements and writing a
    statement of work for developing a new knowledge base. The Montague
    taxonomy system will be used to organize data available on Senate.gov
    and Webster.
        Collaborated with other stakeholders (Secretary, SAA, Committee on
    Rules and Administration and Chaplain) on the design of a new Webster.
    A governance board was established with members from each of the
    stakeholders. The information architecture and wireframe layouts of the
    centrally managed intranet pages were established and agreed to. Work
    on the masthead/banner and the graphical presentation of the central
    pages is nearing completion, and development of the site is currently
    underway.
        Audited the Senate.gov pages regularly, updating and correcting
    links; verifying content; and reviewing individual page designs
    throughout Senate.gov.
        Initiated a project to develop a children's Web site on Senate.gov.
    Worked with content team leaders to gather and analyze existing content
    on Senate.gov and publications produced by the Office of the Secretary
    to find topics of interest to children. The content analysis phase of
    this project is ongoing.
        Continued on the Senate.gov content reorganization project. A task
    force was established to study the ``Legislation and Records'' bucket,
    or section, and return recommendations on reorganization of the content
    therein. The task force did a thorough study, including conducting
    usability tests on items that were more difficult to locate, and
    returned a report to the full content team. The report was accepted
    unanimously. The changes in the ``Legislation and Records'' section
    will be implemented when all six buckets have been reviewed. The task
    force will turn their efforts now to the ``Senators'' bucket.
        Reorganized the file structure of the CMS. Began work on the
    ``Congressional Records'' folder, tracking file moves and editing
    existing reference items that will live in this section. This
    restructuring of the file system will make it easier to collect usage
    statistics for the site.
        Worked with the Curator's office to reorganize their content within
    the ``Art and History'' bucket. Facilitated discussions on information
    architecture and page layout of art content, and offered advice on
    usability and best practices.
        Initiated a project to build a library of documentation to
    facilitate the creation and maintenance of web content; updated
    existing instructions on using Documentum to reflect changes in the new
    version of the CMS; documented tasks to be done at the beginning of a
    new Congress; and created procedures and directions manual for updating
    the Senate Chamber Desk Web site.
        Collaborated with the staffs of the Historical Office, Curator, and
    Library to produce the Webster page Guide to Staff-Led Tours. The
    intention of the site is to aid staff while they conduct tours of the
    Capitol. It includes information on art, architecture, and the history
    of the Capitol.
    Senate.gov Usage Statistics
        In 2007, over 8 million visitors a month accessed the Senate Web
    site. Twenty-one percent of them entered through the main Senate
    Homepage while the majority came to the site via a bookmarked page
    (possibly directly to their Senator's site) or to a specific page from
    search results.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                         2006-2007
                            Title of web page                          2006 Visits/    2007 Visits/       Percent
                                                                           month           month         Increase
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Visits--Entire Site.............................................       6,081,000       8,196,662              26
    Senate Homepage.................................................       1,685,000       1,704,675               1
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Reviewing statistics on Web page usage helps the content providers
    better understand what information the public is seeking and how best
    to improve the presentation of that data. Visitors are consistently
    drawn to the following content items, listed in order of popularity.

                                               MOST VISITED PAGES IN 2007
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                       2006 Visits/    2007 Visits/
                                Top pages                                  month           month      Percent Change
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Senators contact info list......................................         216,929         448,301             +52
    Roll Call votes.................................................          63,099          62,879  ..............
    Active legislation..............................................          30,053          36,907             +19
    Senate leadership...............................................          19,278          18,191              -6
    Bills and resolutions...........................................          18,155          17,231              -5
    State information...............................................          15,988          14,774              -8
    Committee hearings scheduled....................................          15,901          18,232             +13
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        The most popular page on the main Senate Web site is the list of
    Senators with links to their Web sites and comment forms by a large
    margin. Visitors also continue to be interested in legislative matters
    in 2007 with Roll Call Vote Tallies, the Active Legislation table, and
    the Bill and Resolutions section being particularly popular.

                       Webster--HTTP://Webster/Secretary

    Webster Usage Statistics
        The most popular page on the Secretary's Web site is the
    ``Financial Services'' page with about 1,600 visitors a month--more
    than the Secretary's main homepage which receives about 1,550 a month.
    The ``Financial Services'' page (which is linked to from the Webster
    homepage) contains information on employee benefits (insurance,
    retirement, payroll, etc.) and provides access to the many forms
    employees need to obtain or modify these benefits. Other popular areas
    of the Secretary's site include the Senate Library Web site, the list
    of departments with descriptions and contact information, jobs
    postings, and the Web page that lists all Secretary of the Senate
    services.
        The Secretary's site on Webster will be redesigned in the coming
    year in keeping with the look of Webster's main page. The redesign will
    incorporate the ability for staff in departments to update their sites
    themselves if they wish.
                  legislative information system (lis) project
        The Legislative Information System (LIS) is a mandated system
    (Section 8 of the 1997 Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2 U.S.C.
    123e) that provides desktop access to the content and status of
    legislative information and supporting documents. The 1997 Legislative
    Branch Appropriations Act (2 U.S.C. 181) also established a program for
    providing the widest possible exchange of information among legislative
    branch agencies. The long-range goal of the LIS Project is to provide a
    ``comprehensive Senate Legislative Information System'' to capture,
    store, manage, and distribute Senate documents. Several components of
    the LIS have been implemented, and the project is currently focused on
    a Senate-wide implementation and transition to a standard system for
    the authoring and exchange of legislative documents that will greatly
    enhance the availability and re-use of legislative documents within the
    Senate and with other legislative branch agencies. The LIS Project
    Office manages the project.
    Background: LISAP
        An April 1997 joint Senate and House report recommended
    establishment of a data standards program, and in December 2000, the
    Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and the Committee on House
    Administration jointly accepted the Extensible Markup Language (XML) as
    the primary data standard to be used for the exchange of legislative
    documents and information.
        Following the implementation of the LIS in January 2000, the LIS
    Project staff shifted its focus to the data standards program and
    established the LIS Augmentation Project (LISAP). The over-arching goal
    of the LISAP is to provide a Senate-wide implementation and transition
    to XML for the authoring and exchange of legislative documents.
        The current focus for the LISAP is the development and
    implementation of an XML authoring system for legislative documents
    produced by the Senate Legislative Counsel (SLC) and the Enrolling
    Clerk. The XML authoring application is called LEXA, an acronym for the
    Legislative Editing in XML Application. LEXA replaces the DOS-based
    XyWrite software used by drafters to embed locator codes into
    legislative documents for printing. The XML codes inserted by LEXA
    provide more information about the document and can be used for
    printing, searching and displaying a document. LEXA features many
    automated functions that provide a more efficient and consistent
    document authoring process. The LIS Project staff has worked very
    closely with the SLC and the Enrolling Clerk to create an application
    that meets the needs for legislative drafting.
    LISAP: 2007
        Throughout 2007 additional features and fixes were added to LEXA,
    enabling the SLC to use the application for more and more of their
    drafting requests. In 2007, 99 percent of introduced and reported bills
    and resolutions produced in the SLC were drafted in XML. Some of the
    new functionality added to LEXA in the last year included the
    following:
      --A utility to list and then print multiple files as one document;
      --An improved tool for creating conference reports in draft and final
            forms;
      --Additional tagging for creating appropriations language in a bill
            or amendment; and
      --Various new or improved features to automate and speed the drafting
            process and creation of almost all types of measures.
        The Senate Enrolling Clerk's staff began doing much of its document
    preparation in LEXA at the beginning of the 110th Congress. The LEXA
    developers worked closely with the office to improve the processes for
    creating engrossed and enrolled documents in XML. The two groups also
    worked closely with the Government Printing Office (GPO) to make
    certain that the engrossed and enrolled documents print in the required
    formats. Although a few of the lesser-used printed versions still
    remain to be worked out, the last major stage to be completed in 2007
    was for Senate engrossed amendments (EAS). With the addition of the EAS
    documents, almost all stages of a measure can be produced in XML.
        Support for LEXA users remains an important concern. The LIS
    Project Office provides support for LEXA through the LEXA HelpLine and
    LEXA Web site (http://legbranch.senate.gov/lis/lexa). The HelpLine is a
    single phone number that rings on all the phones in the office. The Web
    site, which is located on a server accessible by the legislative
    branch, is used to distribute updates of the application to GPO and
    provides access to release notes, the reference manual, and other user
    aids. The 2004 legislative branch appropriations act directed GPO to
    provide support for LEXA, much as they have for XyWrite. GPO continues
    to work toward augmenting the support provided by the LIS Project
    Office.
        GPO maintains the software module that converts a Senate or House
    XML document to locator for printing through Microcomp. They also
    develop and maintain the stylesheet that is used on LIS (http://
    www.congress.gov) and Thomas (http://thomas.loc.gov) to display the XML
    bills. GPO is also nearing completion of a new tool to create and print
    tables. The new table tool will be used by both the House and Senate,
    providing another module that is common to both applications.
        The LIS Project Office, the SLC, and the Systems Development
    Services group of the Sergeant at Arms conducted a pilot installation
    of a document management system (DMS) in the SLC. In 2006, the team had
    identified DMS software that will work with both LEXA and XyWrite
    documents. The 2007 pilot identified a few issues to be resolved, and
    the three groups continue to work together with the SLC systems
    integrator to implement the DMS in a way that will benefit the entire
    office. The DMS will provide a powerful tracking, management, and
    delivery tool for the SLC.
    LISAP: 2008
        The LIS Project staff will continue to work with the House, GPO,
    and the Library of Congress on projects and issues that impact the
    legislative process and data standards for exchange. These groups are
    currently participating in two projects with GPO: one to define
    requirements for replacing the Microcomp composition software and
    another to improve the content submission and exchange processes.
        Senate, House, and GPO software developers will move together to
    upgrade their respective installations of Microsoft.Net. This upgrade
    will allow GPO to vastly improve the time it takes to compose large
    documents for printing. The printing component is common to both the
    Senate and House applications, and all groups must do the upgrade at
    the same time. This is planned for the first quarter of 2008.
        The LIS Project Office will work with the House and GPO in 2008 to
    resolve any HTML display issues so that the XML versions of Senate
    documents will be made available on LIS and Thomas. The HTML version
    produced from the XML data more closely resembles the printed document.
    This improved HTML format will eventually replace the version currently
    available on the Web.
        The Enrolling Clerk will use LEXA to produce engrossed and enrolled
    bills in XML. The LIS Project staff will continue to work with the SLC
    and the Enrolling Clerk to refine and enhance LEXA so that more and
    more of the documents produced by those offices will be done in XML.
    Once all of the documents can be produced in XML using LEXA, those
    offices will be able to stop using XyWrite. Since XyWrite is not
    compatible with other Windows software, moving away from it will allow
    the offices to use more modern technologies for all functions. Other
    Senate offices that do drafting with XyWrite may begin using LEXA,
    including the Committee on Appropriations.
        The LIS Project staff will monitor the use of the tagging
    structures created for appropriations language to determine if it
    provides enough description so that appropriations bills might be
    created as XML documents. XML tags and LEXA functions will be added as
    needed toward the appropriations bills being prepared using LEXA.
        The legislative process yields other types of documents such as the
    Senate and Executive Journals and the Legislative and Executive
    Calendars. Much of the data and information included in these documents
    is already captured in and distributed through the LIS/DMS database
    used by the clerks in the office of the Secretary. The LIS/DMS captures
    data that relates to legislation including bill and resolution numbers,
    amendment numbers, sponsors, co-sponsors, and committees of referral.
    This information is currently entered into the database and verified by
    the clerks and then keyed into the respective documents and re-verified
    at GPO before printing. An interface between this database and the
    electronic documents could mutually exchange data. For example, the
    LIS/DMS database could insert the bill number, additional co-sponsors,
    and committee of referral into an introduced bill while the bill draft
    document could supply the official and short titles of the bill to the
    database.
        The Congressional Record, like the journals and calendars, includes
    data that is contained in and reported by the LIS/DMS database.
    Preliminary document type definitions have been designed for these
    documents, and applications could be built to construct XML document
    components by extracting and tagging the LIS/DMS data. These
    applications would provide a faster, more consistent assembly of these
    documents and would enhance the ability to index and search their
    contents. The LIS Project staff will coordinate with the Systems
    Development Services Branch of the Office of the Sergeant at Arms to
    begin design and development of XML applications and interfaces for the
    LIS/DMS and legislative documents. As more and more legislative data
    and documents are provided in XML formats that use common elements
    across all document types, the Library of Congress will be able to
    expand the LIS Retrieval System to provide more content-specific
    searches.
                                     ______

                        Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper
             Prepared Statement of the Honorable Terrance W. Gainer
                                  introduction
        Madam Chairman and members of the subcommittee, thank you for
    inviting me to testify before you today. I am pleased to report on the
    progress the Office of the Sergeant at Arms (SAA) has made over the
    past year and our plans to enhance our contributions to the Senate in
    the coming year.
        For fiscal year 2009, the Sergeant at Arms respectfully requests a
    total budget of $226,359,000, an increase of $23,370,000 (or 11.5
    percent) over the fiscal year 2008 budget. This request will allow us
    to maintain the improvements and level of service we provide to the
    Senate community. It will also fund the development and maintenance of
    business and network security applications, among other support
    services. Appendix A, accompanying this testimony, elaborates on the
    specific components of our fiscal year 2009 budget request.
        In developing this budget and our operating plans, we are guided by
    three priorities: (1) ensuring the United States Senate is as secure
    and prepared for an emergency as possible; (2) providing the Senate
    outstanding service and support, including the enhanced use of
    technology; and (3) delivering exceptional customer service to the
    Senate.
        This year I am pleased to highlight some of this office's
    activities to include the furtherance of our efforts towards our United
    States Senate Sergeant at Arms Strategic Plan in which we are capturing
    performance measures that will help us assess our work. Our
    accomplishments in the areas of security and preparedness, information
    technology, and operations are also impressive. We are preparing for
    next year by planning for the major events and by ensuring that the
    Office of the Sergeant at Arms is an agile organization that can adjust
    to the unexpected.
        Specifically, planning efforts are under way for the January
    Inauguration and we are all ramping up for the opening of the Capitol
    Visitor Center (CVC) later this year. Our office has been involved with
    the CVC since its inception, and scores of hours have been spent
    preparing for the operations and security of the center. We have worked
    collaboratively on this bicameral project with representatives from
    Leadership, oversight committees and other agencies to ensure the
    design, construction and operational aspects of the facility achieve
    the desired results. Our participation and the challenges presented
    have been vast and varied, including but not limited to security, hours
    of operation, emergency preparedness, information technology,
    furnishings for the Senate side of the CVC, Senate Meeting Rooms
    design, set-up and maintenance, bus routes, Capitol tour routes, coat
    checks, official appointments, accommodating visitors to the Senate
    Gallery, broadcast media infrastructure, ATM service, telephone
    service, and other communication infrastructure.
        Assisting with these and all of the efforts of the Office of the
    Sergeant at Arms is an outstanding senior management team including
    Drew Willison who serves as my Deputy, Administrative Assistant Rick
    Edwards, Republican Liaison Mason Wiggins, General Counsel Joseph
    Haughey, Assistant Sergeant at Arms for Security and Emergency
    Preparedness Chuck Kaylor, Assistant Sergeant at Arms for Police
    Operations Bret Swanson, Acting Assistant Sergeant at Arms and Chief
    Information Officer Kimball Winn, and Assistant Sergeant at Arms for
    Operations Esther Gordon. The many accomplishments set forth in this
    testimony would not have been possible without this team's leadership
    and commitment.
        The Office of the Sergeant at Arms also works with other
    organizations that support the Senate. I would like to take this
    opportunity to mention how important their contributions have been in
    helping us achieve our objectives. In particular, we work regularly
    with the Secretary of the Senate, the Architect of the Capitol, the
    Office of the Attending Physician, and the United States Capitol Police
    (USCP). When appropriate, we coordinate our efforts with the United
    States House of Representatives and the agencies of the Executive
    Branch. I am impressed by the people with whom we work, and pleased
    with the quality of the relationships we have built together.
        During this first year serving as Sergeant at Arms, I have seen
    their great work, and I would be remiss if I did not mention how proud
    I am of all the men and women of the Sergeant at Arms team who help
    keep the Senate running. The employees of the Office of the Sergeant at
    Arms are among the most committed and creative in Government. We are
    continuously building on the success this organization has experienced
    in recent years.
        None of our efforts would be accomplished, though, without the
    guidance of this Committee and the Committee on Rules and
    Administration. Thank you for the support you consistently demonstrate
    as we work to serve the Senate.
                           security and preparedness
    Protecting the Senate and Planning for the Unknown
        In our security and preparedness programs, we work collaboratively
    with organizations across Capitol Hill to secure the Senate. We also
    rely upon Senate Leadership, this Committee, and the Committee on Rules
    and Administration for guidance and support.
        While more than 6 years have passed since 9/11 and the anthrax
    attacks, and although no major attack has occurred against us at home,
    the threat of attack remains. The recent apprehension of an individual
    armed with a shotgun in the Senate park underscore our need for
    vigilance and emergency preparedness. Not all hazards are manmade, and
    our contingency plans can be implemented to respond to natural
    disasters as well. Over the past 2 years, Senate offices in Washington,
    DC, and in the States have been impacted by local disruptions and
    natural disasters. The security and emergency programs that have been
    developed over the past 7 years have enabled the Senate and our
    supporting agencies to respond appropriately in each instance, ensuring
    the safety of staff and visitors and recovering operations as rapidly
    as possible. The ongoing improvement and appropriate expansion of our
    security and emergency plans and programs will continue to be a
    priority for the Sergeant at Arms.
        On September 6, 2000, the Bipartisan Leadership for the 106th
    Congress directed the Capitol Police Board to develop and manage a
    program which would enable the Congress to fulfill its constitutional
    obligations in the event of a disaster-related incident. The Capitol
    Police Board was further directed to coordinate with Officers of the
    Senate and House to develop a comprehensive Legislative Branch
    emergency preparedness program. As a member of the Capitol Police Board
    and Chairman for 2007, the Senate Sergeant at Arms continued to build
    on the accomplishments of previous Boards.
        Our efforts to ensure that we can respond to emergencies and keep
    the Senate functioning under any circumstance have grown over the past
    years. To continue improvements in this area and better manage our
    security and preparedness programs, we have established seven strategic
    priorities to focus our efforts:
      --Emergency Notifications and Communications.--Provide effective
            communications systems, devices, and capabilities to support
            the Senate during any emergency.
      --Accountability.--Ensure accurate and timely accounting of Members,
            Senate staff, and visitors during an emergency.
      --State Office Security and Preparedness.--Support Senate State
            Offices with a full suite of security enhancements and a
            comprehensive preparedness program.
      --Emergency Plans, Operations and Facilities.--Continue emergency
            planning, emphasizing life-safety, continuity of operations,
            and programs to address the needs of individuals after a
            disaster.
      --Training and Education.--Continue a strong emergency preparedness
            training program.
      --Exercises.--Conduct a comprehensive exercise program to validate,
            rehearse and improve Senate readiness to act in the event of an
            emergency.
      --Office Support.--Provide responsive security services and customer
            support to Senate offices, committees, and support
            organizations.
    Emergency Notification and Communications
        Our emergency notification and communications initiatives ensure
    that we have effective communications systems, devices, and
    capabilities in place to support the Senate during an emergency. Last
    year we expanded the coverage of text alerts to include any PDA on any
    cellular or data service provider. This included leveraging the peer-
    to-peer capabilities of BlackBerry devices using PIN messages. This
    year we are upgrading our telephonic alert system to enable the
    integration of text and telephone messaging into a single Web-based
    interface, allowing the Capitol Police to initiate voice and text
    messages to several thousand individuals in a matter of seconds.
        We have also installed a video-based alert system that will allow
    the Capitol Police to display emergency messages on the Senate cable TV
    network that will become operational this year. Over 1,300 wireless
    annunciators are in place across the Senate, and the Capitol Police
    have completed the installation of a public address system that can
    broadcast into public areas throughout the Capitol, Senate Office
    Buildings, and outdoor assembly areas. Further, if the Senate is forced
    to relocate, we have the capability to video teleconference and
    broadcast between an emergency relocation site and other Legislative
    Branch and Executive Branch sites.
        Earlier this year we began to deploy 57 Blue Emergency Phones
    throughout the Senate Office Buildings and Capitol. These phones will
    serve as a two-way communication device between the caller in distress
    and the USCP Command Center. There will be 7 phones installed in public
    eating areas and 50 phones will be installed near the emergency staging
    areas. This significantly enhances life-safety communications at our
    mobility impaired evacuation elevators and in our most trafficked
    public areas. These phones will be operational in early 2008.
        Looking forward we will continue to integrate and improve our
    telephonic and text-based notification capabilities to support offices
    and staff during emergencies. To meet Federal requirements the current
    wireless annunciator system must be narrow band compliant by October 1,
    2008. This summer we will replace all 1,300 devices throughout the
    Senate. This year our CIO organization will begin a multi-year
    telecommunications modernization project. A key component of that is an
    enhanced 9-1-1 capability that will benefit emergency responders and
    staff.
    Accountability
        Accountability of Members and staff remains an area of emphasis in
    all our emergency plans and evacuation drills. One of our major
    initiatives 2 years ago was to improve procedures for offices to report
    accountability information to the Capitol Police and the Sergeant at
    Arms quickly and accurately using proximity enabled laptops and a
    BlackBerry-based application that allows Office Emergency Coordinators
    to account for staff remotely using their BlackBerry. This past year we
    have focused on office training to ensure every office has an account
    that is up to date and that staff know how to remotely check-in. The
    backbone for this capability, termed the Accountability and Emergency
    Roster System (ALERTS), allows each office to manage staff rosters as
    well as to indicate who in the office is to receive email and
    telephonic alerts from the Senate's emergency notification system. A
    total of 287 Senate staff members were trained on how to use ALERTS and
    Remote Check-in during in-office or classroom sessions. Our staff has
    also trained personnel in the Capitol Police Senate Division on the use
    of this system.
        Accountability and internal communications are stressed in the
    Emergency Action Plan template that we have developed for use by all
    Senate offices. This template, offered to all offices, encourages the
    development of internal communications procedures during emergencies
    through a phone tree or emergency contact list. Offices are encouraged
    to establish and periodically practice these internal procedures for
    accounting for staff members, post emergency. To aid in this effort, we
    conduct Emergency Action Plan training classes with a special emphasis
    on staff accountability and stress this initiative during all Office
    Emergency Coordinator training.
        Once a quarter, our office conducts a remote accountability
    exercise with Senate Office Emergency Coordinators. During our most
    recent exercise, over 198 individuals logged on in exercise to provide
    office accountability, and we worked with 20 offices on training and
    configuration issues. We have also conducted follow-up calls to offices
    that did not use our accountability system following drills or actual
    evacuations to provide assistance or training if needed.
    State Office Security and Preparedness
        The Senate's State Office Preparedness Program consists of several
    elements. First is the Physical Security Enhancement Program. This
    program provides a security assessment of each State office, followed
    by physical security enhancements if the office desires to participate
    in the program. We have completed an initial physical security survey
    of all established State offices and the results of these on-site
    reviews were provided to each Member. In addition to the physical
    security enhancements, we have recently implemented a program that
    provides additional emergency preparedness and continuity of operations
    support to State offices.
        Since the program's inception in 2002, we have conducted 615 State
    office security surveys and will conduct another 150 surveys of new and
    relocating offices and those due a resurvey for the 110th Congress over
    the coming months. We have completed security enhancements in 260 State
    offices of which 73 were completed in 2007. In 2006, we finalized an
    agreement with the Federal Protective Service and General Services
    Administration to streamline installation of security enhancements for
    Senate State offices located in Federal buildings. We are currently
    working with 65 State offices in some stage of planning or approval. To
    date, members of our Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness have
    visited approximately 35 State offices where security enhancements have
    been installed or implemented. Staff from each of these offices has
    expressed gratitude for the security enhancements and the personalized
    visit. In short, this is a successful program and we will continue our
    emphasis in this area.
        Our State Office Preparedness Program combines our existing
    physical security enhancement program with additional emergency
    preparedness and continuity of operations planning (COOP) support. This
    level of support includes equipment and training that is similar to
    those programs that are currently offered to Member's Washington, DC,
    offices. We conducted a pilot project to evaluate this program in 11
    State Offices during the fall of 2007 and launched the full program in
    January 2008. This program provides a general risk assessment to each
    office, a set of basic emergency supplies, Web-based training and a
    template to build an office emergency plan. We will meet with D.C.
    office managers, and offer VTC based sessions to State Offices. Office
    response has been very encouraging and we look forward to reporting on
    this next year.
    Emergency Plans, Operations, and Facilities
        Our emergency plans ensure that we attend to the safety of Senate
    Members and staff, as well as to the continuity of the Senate. It is
    the responsibility of each Member office and committee to have the
    requisite plans in place to guide their actions during any emergency
    event. Every Member office had completed and filed an emergency action
    plans with OSEP at the conclusion of the 110th Congress. New Membership
    and office moves have necessitated that many of these be redone. A
    total of 154 offices currently have completed and filed emergency
    action plans with our office of Security and Emergency Preparedness.
    Many Senate offices similarly have institutional or internal continuity
    of operations responsibilities. Every office within the SAA and
    Secretary of the Senate has COOP plan and the SAA continues to support
    offices and committees as their respective plans are developed. Our
    staff provides training guides, templates, and assistance with in-
    office consulters to any office that request it. These offices that
    have updated plans are encouraged to maintain and exercise them.
        Evacuation procedures for mobility-impaired individuals continue to
    be a major effort between Emergency Preparedness and United States
    Capitol Police. Each Senate office building has a primary and secondary
    emergency evacuation elevator. Each of these elevators is designated
    with a sign indicating it is an emergency staging area. Specific
    procedures have been established for the safe and efficient evacuation
    of those who have mobility impairments. In 2007, procedures were
    revised to provide mobility impairment emergency evacuation elevator
    support to the 9th floor meeting area of the Hart Senate Office
    Building.
        To improve mobility impaired evacuation capabilities OSEP is
    working with the AOC to provide emergency power to all emergency
    evacuation elevators. When this project is complete our evacuation
    capabilities will be doubled. The United Sates Capitol Police have
    trained their officers in these procedures and practice these whenever
    we conduct exercises. Supporting impaired staff, our office of Security
    and Emergency Preparedness distributes and provides training for Victim
    Rescue Units that are designed to be used by those with mobility
    impairments in smoke-filled environment. In 2007, 49 staff members were
    trained in mobility impaired evacuation procedures.
        The Senate has an established structure to evaluate Senate
    emergency programs, plans, and requirements. Several years ago, we
    identified the need for post-event care and family assistance. Over the
    past year, we have continued to develop plans that provide critical
    services to affected families following a wide-spread event. In support
    of this, the Senate's Employee Assistance program, has conducted
    training with a core group of employees to establish peer support
    teams. That training will expand this year.
        Over the past year, Avian Flu has been a heightened planning
    activity for Government and other organizations. Last year the Sergeant
    at Arms established plans and capabilities to support continued
    operations of the Senate and our employees in a pandemic environment.
    We have conducted several informational briefings for Senate Chiefs of
    Staff in coordination with the Office of the Attending Physician (OAP).
    The OAP has information posted on their web-site and continues to
    support offices upon request. This will remain an active planning area
    in the coming year.
        This year we asked the RAND Corporation to assist in conducting
    strategic review of emergency preparedness activities provided to
    Senate offices by our Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness.
    During this review, RAND representatives interviewed Senate offices and
    staff in several focus groups and met with the many agencies we partner
    with to support the Senate. RAND also conducted an extensive review of
    Senate emergency outreach and preparedness material, to include
    planning templates, training classes, in-office briefings, brochures,
    and online content. The RAND strategic review culminated in a final
    annotated briefing in the fall of 2007. Chief among the findings of
    this report is the conclusion that OSEP's training and outreach
    programs are comprehensive and structured to adequately prepare Senate
    staff for emergency events. In its final report, RAND also highlights
    the challenges associated with serving the busy and transient Senate
    community. Resulting RAND recommendation on leveraging existing
    communication (i.e., newsletters, informational materials, in-office
    contacts), streamlining training programs, and utilizing post-incident
    materials, in-office contacts), streamlining training programs, and
    utilizing post-incident ``teaching moments'' are currently being
    incorporated into OSEP strategic plans and projects.
        Recognizing the Sergeant at Arms' responsibility to coordinate the
    actions of internal organizations, inform and support Senate offices,
    and effectively manage the resources within our purview during an
    emergency, the SAA has established a consolidated Senate Emergency
    Operations Center (EOC) capability that pulls key functional area
    representatives together into a single operational area during an
    emergency. The Sergeant at Arms and Secretary of Senate exercised this
    capability during 2007. Last year we established a Web-based EOC
    management and information tracking capability using WebEOC. This year
    we have further upgraded the capabilities of this system and continued
    regular staff training for each functional area. WebEOC is a widely
    used application throughout the Government and within the National
    Capitol Region. This allows the Senate EOC to remain in contact with
    supporting agencies and provides situation awareness during an
    emergency.
    Training and Education
        In addition to assisting offices in the creation and maintenance of
    continuity and emergency plans, we provide training to Senate staff on
    emergency plans, procedures, and equipment. Our training program is a
    vital component of overall emergency preparedness at the Senate, and is
    designed to emphasize emergency procedures, equipment, and the critical
    protective actions staff members should take to protect themselves
    during an emergency event. Our formal training program is coordinated
    through the Joint Office of Education and Training, while in-office
    sessions are frequently requested and administered directly through
    OSEP.
        During the past year, we have conducted 425 separate training
    classes, reaching an audience of over 4,000 staff members. Our
    classroom training curriculum includes: escape hood and equipment,
    Senate-specific emergency procedures, emergency action planning,
    personal preparedness planning, and emergency procedures for
    individuals with mobility impairments. Additional personalized in-
    office sessions on emergency action plan development, accountability,
    and remote check-in use are also offered. OSEP also sponsors several
    well-attended seminars yearly, to include ``Evacuating D.C.'' (led by
    representatives from local government transportation and emergency
    management agencies) and CPR and AED Awareness (taught by Office of
    Attending Physician personnel).
        Not everyone is able to attend training classes. To augment our
    training efforts, the SAA creates and distributes topic-specific
    brochures and guidance documents to further enhance Senate
    preparedness. These are distributed throughout the community and
    describe procedures, emergency equipment, and other useful instruction
    for emergencies. We have continued to expand computer and Web-based
    training. Last year we created a Web-based training course on mobility
    impaired evacuation procedures. We have consolidated all our Web-based
    training on our OSEP Web page. This not only includes our classes but
    also contains courses from outside speakers such as the D.C. Emergency
    Management agency who presented a seminar on D.C. shelter-in-place and
    evacuation plans. We also have training that is specifically targeted
    at State office staff on our web site and have used VTC classes to
    reach out for personal training classes. Just this past February, OSEP
    completely revised their web site to make it more useful to Senate
    staff.
        We have also leveraged special recognition activities such as
    National Preparedness Month in September, October's Fire Prevention
    Week, OSEP Open Houses, and the Senate Services Fair to provide
    additional resources and open-door services to the Senate. These also
    provide a valuable forum to inform the Senate Community of additional
    services available to them.
    Exercises
        Exercises ensure the Senate's plans are practiced and validated on
    a regular basis. Our comprehensive exercise program is structured to do
    just that. Every year the Sergeant at Arms and Secretary of the Senate
    develop and publish an exercise calendar and guidance for the year that
    also includes a 6-year exercise plan to guide future test, training,
    and drill activities. This year's exercise plan provides for up to 17
    diverse events over the course of the year. It maintains and
    strengthens existing key capabilities, while developing needed and
    emerging ones. A key area of emphasis is the integration of several
    joint exercises with our congressional partners.
        This year, for the first time, we are conducting a ``no-notice''
    exercise of our capabilities to set up selected functions at different
    locations. During fiscal year 2007, we conducted a series of five (5)
    major exercises in partnership with the U.S. Capitol Police, and other
    Legislative Branch entities to include the Office of the Attending
    Physician, Secretary of the Senate, and Architect of the Capitol, Rules
    Committee and the U.S. House of Representatives. The format for these
    exercises included functional capabilities demonstrations and tabletop
    scenarios and discussions.
        An Emergency Operation Center exercise and a Leadership
    Coordination Center exercise were conducted with the purpose of further
    developing practicing and validating operational concepts. In addition,
    a joint contingency capabilities and Chamber Protective Actions
    rounded-out the exercises that were conducted. In addition, a number of
    smaller exercises were conducted throughout the year including: monthly
    alert systems tests, an exercise of the Senate's emergency
    transportation plan, evacuation drills, tests of the Senate's mobile
    communications and broadcast capabilities, communications tests with
    the Executive Branch, and regular training of office staff related to
    developing emergency plans and procedures.
    Office Support
        A hallmark of our support to the Senate community is our personal
    in-office support that serves as a microcosm of our previously
    discussed strategic priorities. Recognizing the pace and nature of
    Senate office business, we extend our whole suite of services into the
    office. This tailorable, flexible package recognizes that requirements
    for life safety and continuity planning compete for time with other
    activities. Our support activities, which include a variety of
    planning, training and equipment support, are frequently one-on-one
    interactions with Members, office Chiefs of Staff, emergency planners,
    or entire office staffs. In-office support occurs in the areas of
    accountability, developing Emergency Action Plans and Continuity of
    Operations Plans and the previously mentioned State Office Program.
        Training is a significant aspect of our office support. Our entire
    schedule of training activities may be tailored to office-specific
    requirements. Frequently, we are asked to assist offices with staff
    reviews of their emergency plans, provide updates on topics of interest
    or conduct escape hood refresher training, which may include staff
    audiences from 8 to 48. The success of our outreach efforts are evident
    in the over 300 in-office training sessions conducted during the past
    year.
        I previously noted our support to the Senate's mobility-impaired
    population, which usually averages between 25 and 35 staff. This
    individual office support is indicative of our efforts to meet Senate
    needs. This is a valuable service that often goes unnoticed by our
    general population. SAA staff provides in-office training to
    individuals with temporary or permanent disabilities and their
    designated buddies. This training includes a full review of evacuation
    procedures for those with impairments, an actual evacuation route
    rehearsal/walk-through to the different evacuation elevators in their
    building and equipment training. We issue each of our mobility impaired
    individuals a Victim Rescue Unit (smoke hood) and a wireless
    annunciator/pager and provide training on the operation of each.
        We offer each office a suite of emergency equipment and respond to
    service calls/questions on this equipment throughout the year. During
    the last year, we received over 200 requests to repair, replace,
    relocate, or add to your suite of emergency equipment. Our goal is to
    respond to these requests within 24 hours and we have a good track
    record. As referenced earlier in the document, we make annual visits
    into each office to check for completeness and functionality of this
    emergency equipment.
        To facilitate office feedback and requests for support we have
    established and published a general telephone number as well as web-
    based and email feedback mechanisms. These are used by offices--we
    received over 300 calls or electronic feedback forms over the past
    year. To solicit feedback on our internal programs within the Sergeant
    at Arms we recently conducted an emergency preparedness survey of our
    entire staff. We will use this to improve our internal plans and
    training programs. We will meet with Member offices to determine if
    this would be useful to evaluate their emergency preparedness. All of
    these activities help us improve our services to better meet the
    security and emergency preparedness needs of the Senate.
    Office of Police Operations and Liaison
                Security Vulnerabilities
        Efforts continue to address security vulnerabilities throughout the
    Senate complex. These vulnerabilities demand that we constantly assess
    and re-evaluate both the physical plants of the Capitol and Senate
    buildings and screening methodologies for staff and visitors. The
    mandate necessitates expert input and resources in the planning and
    procurement of emerging security technologies in areas such as:
    enhanced individual screening technologies, the podium badging system,
    proximity card readers, cameras, and various blast protection options.
    The SAA actively participates in various working groups aimed at
    studying these vulnerabilities, collating data, making recommendations
    for improvements, and implementation oversight. On March 2, 2007, the
    Board agreed to establish a Capitol Vulnerability Study Working Group
    (CVSWG) comprised of representatives from the House and Senate Sergeant
    at Arms, Architect of the Capitol and the U.S. Capitol Police to
    evaluate the U.S. Secret Service report, 2006 United States Capitol
    Vulnerability Assessment. The report contains many recommendations for
    security improvements in the Capitol and the Capitol Visitor Center.
    The CVSWG was issued instructions regarding priorities of effort,
    methods of coordination and reporting milestones. The group
    accomplished its initial task and provided to the United States Capitol
    Police Board its final report in October 2007. The Board is continuing
    to work with the group as they complete their work, which will lead to
    important security enhancements throughout the Capitol Complex.
                Foreign CODEL Support Program
        The Foreign CODEL support program continues to ensure that the
    unique needs and security requirements of Senators are met while they
    perform official travel outside the contiguous United States. Through a
    coordinated liaison effort between the SAA, USCP, and the Department of
    State, threat assessments and security reviews are conducted for
    Senators' official foreign travel. While our travel costs have been
    reduced due to most of this work being accomplished right here in
    Washington, the SAA still remains prepared to support the USCP for
    CODEL trips that require their travel.
                HSPD12/FRAC Project Participation in Executive Branch
                        Programs
        On August 27, 2004, the President signed Homeland Security
    Presidential Directive (HSPD) 12--Policy for a Common Identification
    Standard for Federal Employees and Contractors. The directive and
    subsequent published guidance established vetting and credentialing
    standards for identification badges issued to Federal employees and
    contractors for use in accessing Federal facilities and information
    systems. While Legislative Branch employees are not bound by HSPD-12,
    Senators' personal staff and support staff occupy space in buildings
    across the country that are implementing required changes to physical
    access procedures via these cards. We continue to work with the Federal
    implementers of HSPD-12 and anticipate issuing compatible, ``Smart
    Card'' ID badges to affected Senate staff this fiscal year.
        Another smart card-based program affecting the Senate is the First
    Responder Authentication Credential (FRAC) system launched under the
    auspices of the Department of Homeland Security. FRAC cards will be
    used to verify the identification of individuals who will need to
    access a controlled area during an emergency situation. We are actively
    participating in exercises and staying abreast of the program's
    development in the National Capital Region and envision limited Senate
    staff receiving these badges during the 111th Congress.
                Technological Developments in Security
        In cooperation with our congressional partners in the USCP and
    House of Representatives, we are monitoring and implementing
    technological advances to maximize the effectiveness of current
    security tools, particularly those which operate in conjunction with
    our ID badges. For example, the Capitol Police's Podium Badging System
    (PBS) will allow officers to use facial recognition through a
    congressional ID badge's proximity card to validate the badge at all
    electronically-monitored access points on campus. This allows the
    Capitol Police to honor only those ID badges which are still active in
    the ID Management System, and helps ensure badges are not misused. To
    ensure advantages realized with the addition of the PBS are preserved,
    we will continue to monitor the transition of the proximity card
    industry from our 125 kHz frequency to contactless 13.56 MHz. The 13.56
    MHz contactless smart cards offer enhanced security through encryption
    and mutual authentication and can support multiple applications such as
    biometrics and computer log-on security. Smart cards are the future of
    access control and will be thoroughly tested with the launch of the
    HSPD-12 and FRAC initiatives.
                Mail Handling
        The anthrax and ricin attacks of past years necessitated new
    security measures and our Office responded. We have worked
    collaboratively with this Committee, the Committee on Rules and
    Administration, our science advisors, the Capitol Police, the United
    States Postal Service (USPS), the White House Office of Science and
    Technology Policy, and the Department of Homeland Security in
    developing safe and secure mail protocols.
        All mail and packages addressed to the Senate are tested and
    delivered by Senate Post Office employees whether they come through the
    U.S. Postal Service or from other delivery services. We have
    outstanding processing protocols in place here at the Senate. The
    organizations that know the most about securing mail cite the Senate
    mail facilities as among the best. We have been asked to demonstrate
    our procedures and showcase our facilities for some of our allies and
    for other Government agencies, including the Departments of Defense and
    Homeland Security. When they look for ways to improve their mail
    security, they visit our facility.
        Last year, the Senate processed, tested, and delivered over
    15,300,000 safe items to Senate offices, including over 9,700,000
    pieces of U.S. Postal Service mail; over 5,300,000 pieces of internal
    mail that were routed within the Senate or to or from other Government
    agencies; over 67,000 packages; and almost 162,000 courier items. This
    total volume of mail represented an 11 percent increase in the mail
    that we delivered compared to 2006 and was the most mail that we have
    processed and delivered since 2003.
        We have been good stewards of taxpayer dollars in the process. We
    continue to seek improvements in mail processing and have worked with
    this Committee to identify avenues to reduce our costs. During the
    spring of 2007, we moved from our leased Alexandria letter mail
    processing facility into a newly constructed facility that we worked
    with this Committee and the Architect of the Capitol to purchase. This
    new facility has enhanced our processing of Senate letters and has
    enabled us to perform the package testing that was previously being
    performed by a vendor. Bringing the processing of packages in-house has
    increased the security of the packages addressed to the Senate's
    Washington offices and is projected to save the Senate over $200,000
    annually. This state-of-the-art facility has provided a safer and more
    secure work environment for our employees and it is designed to serve
    the Senate's mail processing needs for decades.
        We also worked with this Committee and the Committee on Rules and
    Administration to build one of the best facilities within the
    Government to process time-sensitive documents that are delivered to
    the Senate. In August 2006, we opened the Courier Acceptance Site to
    ensure all same day documents are x-rayed, opened, tested, and safe for
    delivery to Senate offices. The number of time-sensitive documents
    addressed to Senate offices is significant. We processed almost 162,000
    courier items during 2007. This was the most courier items that we have
    processed during a year and represented a 19 percent increase in
    courier packages from 2006.
        Since the anthrax attacks of 2001, our Office has worked with the
    Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Postal Service, and our
    science advisors in seeking avenues to improve the safety of the mail
    routed to Senate State offices and to Members' home addresses. USPS has
    installed detection units at mail processing plants throughout the
    United States. Virtually every letter is run through this equipment
    which is designed to detect certain contaminants, thereby providing a
    safety screen that did not exist in the past.
        Our Senate Post Office and our Office of Security and Emergency
    Preparedness worked collaboratively with our science advisors to
    develop and introduce the first device designed to provide Senate staff
    who work in State offices a level of protection when handling mail. We
    worked with eight Senate State offices to test and pilot the Postal
    Sentry Mail Processing Device and the results were favorable. We now
    offer this device to any Senate State office that would like this
    additional level of protection to process their State office mail.
                             information technology
    Enhancing Service, Security, and Stewardship
        We continue to embrace and enhance the role of technology to
    improve upon physical and information security and life safety, to
    prepare for emergencies and to support the entire Senate's information
    technology needs. As in our other areas, we also emphasize
    stewardship--the careful use of all our resources, including the
    funding we are provided, our personnel and the external resources that
    we consume--in all aspects of our information technology operation.
        As we do each year, we have updated and are performing under our 2-
    year Information Technology Strategic Plan. The current revision, under
    which we will be operating in fiscal year 2009, is the first to
    incorporate stewardship as a guiding principle for all of our actions.
    The five strategic information technology goals articulated in the
    current plan and their supporting objectives drive our information
    technology programmatic and budgetary decisions:
      --Secure.--A secure Senate information infrastructure.
      --Customer Service Focused.--A customer service culture top-to-
            bottom.
      --Effective.--Information technology solutions driven by business
            requirements.
      --Accessible, Flexible, and Reliable.--Access to mission-critical
            information anywhere, anytime, under any circumstances.
      --Modern.--A state-of-the-art information infrastructure built on
            modern, proven technologies.
        Following our strategic goal of being customer-service focused, we
    actively engage the people for whom we work to help us determine which
    technologies to implement, which business requirements to automate, and
    which efforts to undertake. We also initiate our own projects to
    improve our ability to perform our core functions. As a result, we have
    more than 50 projects, ranging in size from a few days' work to multi-
    year and multi-million-dollar efforts, underway at any given time, all
    of which support our strategic goals. Our major accomplishments during
    the past year include:
      --Allowing the Senate to comply with the online filing and reporting
            provisions of S. 1, the Honest Government and Open Leadership
            Act of 2007, by working closely with the Secretary of the
            Senate's Office of Public Records to implement new systems for
            reporting and disclosure of lobbying relationships.
      --Satisfying our customers to a greater extent as evidenced by the
            excellent ratings we received on our fifth annual information
            technology customer satisfaction survey.
      --Improving our ability to defend ourselves against external
            computer-based threats by awarding a contract to monitor our
            networks and take protective actions, while respecting the
            privacy of individual offices' data and communications.
      --Making it easier for our customers to obtain cellular telephones
            and BlackBerry devices by implementing an online catalog and
            ordering system.
      --Progressing well toward the implementation of our new telephone
            system, including the creation of a comprehensive lab and the
            completion of the final engineering phase. Pilot testing will
            begin this summer and full implementation will begin this
            winter.
      --Improving the ability of Members, staff, and visitors to
            communicate by extending our infrastructure that supports
            cellular telephone and BlackBerry devices and wireless data
            networks into the Capitol and the Senate expansion space in the
            Capitol Visitor Center.
      --Providing offices with a means to retain more e-mail data online,
            with rapid and flexible search and retrieval capabilities,
            through deployment of a solution for e-mail archiving that
            allows older messages to be moved out of the message data base
            but still remain online. By leveraging lower cost storage and
            high-performance indexing, the solution provides a cost
            effective, long-term electronic mail storage option without a
            negative impact on the Senate's messaging infrastructure.
      --Improving the experience of office staff as they accommodate the
            required physical inventory of Senate assets by implementing
            barcode scanning technologies.
      --Making it easier for office administrative personnel to manage
            their offices by deploying additional phases of TranSAAct, the
            web-based system for managing certain office functions.
            TranSAAct now offers single sign-on access to 13 other
            applications, access to electronic versions of billing
            statements, and online means to grant floor privileges and
            authorization to make charges at the Recording Studio.
      --Freeing our customers to choose a BlackBerry device from the
            carrier of their choice through the implementation of a Senate
            Messaging Alert Client that operates independently of the
            Senate e-mail network and any particular carrier's
            infrastructure, and provides the sender of an alert with
            notification that it was delivered and read by each recipient.
                        enhancing service to the senate
    Customer Service, Satisfaction, and Communications
        Our strategic plan stresses customer service as a top priority, and
    we actively solicit feedback from all levels and for all types of
    services. Our fifth annual CIO customer satisfaction survey showed that
    our overall customer satisfaction rating increased slightly from the 87
    percent mark of the previous year. This comprehensive online survey
    measures our customers' satisfaction with the systems, solutions,
    service and the quality of personnel in our organization. Based on the
    survey results, each year, we develop an action plan based on the
    survey results, which stresses the areas in which improvement is
    indicated. As always, we continue to emphasize strong communications
    and customer relationships, bringing new technologies into the Senate
    as quickly as possible, moving business and information online, and
    offering choices that allow offices to meet their unique business
    requirements.
        In addition to the annual CIO customer satisfaction survey, we
    solicit customer feedback for every help desk ticket opened. In several
    major contracts that affect our customers, we include strict service
    levels that are tied to the contractors' compensation--if they do well,
    they get paid more; if they do poorly, they get paid less. As an
    example of how well the service levels have been working for one
    contract, we have exceeded the service level every month in system
    installation service levels, help desk resolution times, and customer
    satisfaction under the recently recompeted IT Support Contract, which
    was developed, reviewed, and awarded with participation from our
    customers. We also communicate effectively with our customers through a
    well-developed outreach program that includes information technology
    newsletters, quarterly project status reviews, participation in
    information technology working groups, weekly technology and business
    process review meetings with customers, joint monthly project and
    policy meetings with the Committee on Rules and Administration, the
    Senate Systems Administrators Association, and the Administrative
    Managers' Steering Group.
                Keeping Senators and Staff Informed
        The Senate Information Services program continues to deliver
    premium, vital online information services to Senators and staff. These
    services range from the Senate's own near-real-time news tool,
    NewsWatch, to mission-critical external research services providing
    far-reaching current and archived news and general information,
    historical newspapers dating back as far as the 18th century, Federal
    and State statutes and case law, regulatory and judicial updates,
    congressional news and current policy issues analysis, information
    technology policy developments, and daily updated directories of
    personnel in Government, business, media, and professional
    associations. Senate users accessed more than 3.5 million real-time
    news stories and almost 2 million pages of congressional news and
    current policy analyses throughout 2007. During the same period, staff
    conducted more than 15,000 hours of legal research, viewed contact and
    biographical information for 60,000 professionals in wide-ranging
    disciplines, and reviewed newspaper content contained in almost 25,000
    images from more than 400 local daily newspapers from the United States
    and around the world.
                Robust, Reliable, and Modern Communications
        We continue to make good progress toward modernizing the Senate's
    entire telecommunications infrastructure to provide improved
    reliability and redundancy in support of daily operations and
    continuity of operations and Government, as well as to take advantage
    of technological advances to provide a more flexible and robust
    communications infrastructure. We are completing the final engineering
    and design stage of this multi-year project to modernize the systems
    that provide telephone and other telecommunication services to the
    Senate on Capitol Hill. The new system has been engineered to provide
    redundancy for increased reliability and availability resulting in a
    state-of-the-art system of converged voice, data, and video
    communications technologies built upon Internet telephony protocols,
    also referred to as IP telephony or voice over IP. The new
    telecommunications system will replace our 20-plus-year-old telephone
    technology, eliminate single failure points, provide new capability and
    value to the Senate, and benefit from the security of running behind
    our infrastructure's firewalls. Early next year we will begin launching
    the program.
        The entire Senate enjoys the benefits of a modern, robust,
    reliable, and scalable messaging infrastructure that includes built-in
    options for continuity of operations, design choices, and a platform
    for leveraging modern technologies including collaboration, mobility,
    and communications. Offices continue to take advantage of the choices
    offered as we completed six migrations of offices' electronic mail from
    one to another of the flexible design options to meet the offices'
    changing business needs. In the coming fiscal year, we will upgrade the
    messaging system to the latest software edition that will provide
    additional features and benefits for electronic mail users. We are also
    deploying Microsoft's Office Communications Server system to allow
    instant messaging and collaboration within the Senate and messaging to
    external clients without the risks associated with other instant
    messaging clients.
                Web-Based and Customer-Focused Business Applications
        This year, we completed the second phase and began the third phase
    of TranSAAct, which is our platform for moving business online. Based
    on the business requirements of offices and the Committee on Rules and
    Administration, we continue to develop TranSAAct to eliminate paper-
    based manual processes and move them to the Web. Through TranSAAct,
    administrative managers and chief clerks can manage and track invoices
    for SAA services through a modern Web interface, and have single sign-
    on access to 13 Web-based applications including the ALERTS emergency
    notification database, package tracking, the transit fare subsidy
    system, and the garage parking database. The latest additions to
    TranSAAct provide offices the ability to request services online and
    use electronic signatures for approvals, eliminating paper requests and
    significantly streamlining the previous manual processes for granting
    floor privileges and authorizations to request services from the
    Recording Studio. These two are the first of a host of other such
    processes to be moved online. Because it is built on an extensible
    modern database framework, TranSAAct allows indefinite expansion as new
    requirements are fulfilled. We look forward over the coming months and
    years to moving additional business process to the Web, reducing the
    time, paper and errors associated with the current manual processes.
        We also completed development on the next iteration of our highly
    successful Service Academy nominations application, which we have
    renamed the Office Application Manager. The Office Application Manager
    is designed to help offices create, manage, and respond to Web-based
    application submission for service academies, internships, and
    fellowships. Electronic submissions reduce the amount of paper used
    while streamlining the submission process for constituents and offices.
        We are continuing to work with the other major stakeholders (the
    Secretary of the Senate, the Committee on Rules and Administration, and
    the Chaplain's Office) on restructuring Webster. We are currently in
    the process of completing a more functional front page, banner, and
    look and feel for the Senate intranet site. Included in the effort is a
    new method of categorizing information on the site to improve search
    results and content layout for the site, making information easier to
    find and significantly improving the user experience.
        We have also implemented a modern content management system to
    enable Webster content providers the ability to develop and maintain
    the content of their pages more easily without the need to know web
    programming. We also made the same system, CommonSpot, available to
    offices to develop and maintain their websites.
                Showcasing and Promoting Modern Information Technology in
                        the Senate
        This past year we continued to highlight new technologies in the
    Information Technology Demonstration Center through a series of well-
    attended ``Demo Days''. After products are tested and validated in our
    technology assessment laboratory, they are then available for offices
    to try in the demo center. The Demo Days feature live demonstrations of
    new and emerging technologies. Just to name a few of the new products
    and technologies that we have recently brought to the Senate, in the
    past year we introduced Microsoft Groove 2007 for enhanced
    collaboration on documents across organizational boundaries, HP server
    integrated lights-out management board to enable remote monitoring and
    management of servers, personal videoconferencing hub for easier
    configuration of video conference calls with multiple participants,
    Microsoft's Vista operating system, and a reporting application to
    allow individual office system administrators to see quickly how they
    are doing with respect to automatically-downloaded software updates.
        Also, this past year, we hosted two more highly-successful Senate
    emerging technology conferences and exhibitions to expose Senate staff
    to new technologies and concepts. These conferences are designed around
    technology themes of immediate interest Senate-wide. The two
    conferences held this past year featured mobility and staying connected
    anytime and anywhere and ``green'' initiatives in technology, for use
    in the office and at home. Speakers included industry leaders;
    Government agencies; and Member office, Architect of the Capitol, and
    CIO staff.
        In order to perform technology assessments, feasibility analysis,
    and proof of concept studies, to ensure we are considering technologies
    that will directly support the Senate's mission, we continue to improve
    the capabilities in our technology assessment laboratory. Technologies
    and solutions are vetted and tested here prior to being announced for
    pilot, prototype, or mass deployment to the Senate. To ensure that
    relevant technologies and solutions are under consideration, the CIO-
    sponsored technology assessment group, consisting of CIO staff and our
    customers, performs high-level requirements analysis and prioritizes
    new technologies and solutions for consideration for deployment in the
    Senate. Some of the new technologies evaluated and/or recommended for
    support through our lab testing during the current fiscal year include:
      --Server virtualization to reduce the number of physical servers we
            require;
      --Enterprise instant messaging, a critical business communication
            tool that provides all the customary instant messaging
            capabilities without sacrificing enterprise class reliability
            and security;
      --A Microsoft Vista operating system image and security configuration
            customized for the Senate;
      --More than 30 new Hewlett-Packard, Fujitsu, and Apple portable or
            desktop computer offerings;
      --18 new Hewlett-Packard workgroup printers;
      --12 new document imaging scanners;
      --Almost 600 Microsoft critical software security patches; and
      --12 office productivity suite applications.
        We will continue or intensify these efforts in fiscal year 2009 to
    ensure that the Senate is always well-equipped to perform its
    functions. To keep our customers informed of our efforts, we publish
    the results of our studies on the emerging technology page of the CIO's
    portion of Webster.
                Enhancing Security with Accessible, Flexible, and Reliable
                        Systems
        We continue to seek ways to improve the security of our technology
    infrastructure in order to protect data, respect privacy, enable
    continuous Senate operations and support our emergency and continuity
    plans. Our efforts over the past year have enabled us to support
    alternate sites and the replication of information, as well as
    emergency and contingency communications. We are delivering increased
    support for remote access and have completed the in-building wireless
    infrastructure. A significant commitment to information technology
    security is improving our ability to protect the Senate from increasing
    external cyber threats, and the multi-year telecommunications
    modernization project is driving improvements in the reliability of our
    communications infrastructure. We also seek ways to enable individual
    offices to replicate and defend the electronic information that is the
    lifeblood of their existence. Our efforts all center on improving the
    ability of the Senate to accomplish its mission.
                Alternate Sites and Information Replication
        We are continuing the testing of our technology in scenarios in
    which our primary infrastructure and primary work locations have become
    inaccessible. This includes the simulated loss of our primary data and
    network facilities, as well as simulated loss of staff work spaces. All
    mission essential Senate enterprise information systems continue to be
    replicated at our alternate computing facility (ACF), using our
    recently upgraded optical network and storage area network technology.
    In August, the CIO conducted the third comprehensive test of the
    facility: Senate primary computing facilities (including network
    access) were completely shut down and reconstituted at the ACF. For
    most systems full capability and functionality were provided from the
    ACF for a period of 4 hours and then systems were ``failed-back'' to
    the primary computing facility on Capitol Hill. In this test we kept
    several major systems in production mode at the ACF for several days
    before returning them to the primary facility. In December, working
    with staff from the Office of the Secretary of the Senate, we conducted
    a second failover exercise involving the Senate's financial systems. On
    May 29 and 30, 2007, approximately 210 members of the CIO organization,
    including staff from all departments and vendors, participated in our
    first pandemic exercise. The exercise was a proof of concept activity,
    demonstrating the CIO's ability to support mission essential systems
    with a minimum number of on-site personnel, and the ability to support
    substantial numbers of people working from home. All three of these
    exercises were extremely successful and gave us valuable insight into
    how we would provide our support in an emergency.
        This past year our CIO organization also continued helping offices
    protect their data by enabling them to replicate data to State offices
    or the ACF through the remote data replication program. As of January
    2008, there are 54 Member offices and 21 committees taking advantage of
    this program, with 68 percent installed at the ACF and 32 percent
    installed in Members' State offices. Remote data replication provides
    the Senate an unprecedented ability to access institutional data in the
    event of an emergency. Another system that is integral to emergency
    planning, particularly in the event of a mass telecommuting scenario,
    such as a pandemic, is the Senate's video teleconferencing system.
    Through this highly-successful project we have installed more than 600
    units in offices across the Nation with usage rates in excess of 33,000
    minutes per day when the Senate is in session.
        Two--enterprise and hybrid--of the three architectural options we
    offer for electronic messaging provide complete replication of the
    office's electronic mail at the ACF. Eighty-six percent of offices are
    now taking advantage of the continuity of operations capability
    inherent in the enterprise and hybrid options. Also, the recently
    introduced e-mail archiving system provides complete replication to the
    ACF electronic mail that has been archived to ``near-line'' storage
    media for long term storage.
        Finally, we also offer offices a virtual file server system that
    allows them to store data securely on our large, centrally hosted,
    enterprise-class storage area network. The system, as designed,
    provides redundancy for disaster recovery and continuity of operations
    and minimizes the environmental and staff burden of in-office data
    storage. Offices that opt to use the system also enjoy enterprise-level
    data backup and off-site storage of backup tapes while retaining
    control of data recovery. In the event of a disaster that renders our
    primary computing facility unavailable, the data at the ACF will be
    brought online and will provide users consistent access to their data.
    The system has been available since December 2006, and 14 Member
    offices and four committees have taken advantage of this exciting
    technology.
    Securing our Information Infrastructure
        As a result of information security activities we described in last
    year's testimony, we have gained a much better understanding of the
    dynamic nature of global cyber threats. This knowledge, combined with
    the flexible technologies used in our information security operations
    center, allows us to understand the overall IT operational risk present
    in the Senate environment. We have evolved from a defensive,
    reactionary posture of responding to cyber threats and attacks to an
    active detection and prevention posture. We are deploying technologies
    and processes that will detect malware and attempts at exploitation in
    real time as they are attempted and that have the ability to actively
    prevent most of these attempts, including ``zero-day'' attacks, from
    being successful, which spares Senate information technology assets
    from being affected and requiring remediation. Adjusting our controls
    in response to new threats and making security recommendations to
    offices and committees allows us to help ensure continuity of
    Government by increasing availability of the IT infrastructure, even
    under duress.
        The list of electronic threats to our information infrastructure is
    growing in number and sophistication. Over the next year, we will meet
    the challenge of managing a volatile security environment by: (1)
    optimizing our current configuration of security controls, expanding
    the role of our security operation centers; (2) optimizing our current
    configuration of security controls to enhance our incident handling
    capabilities and operational protocols; (3) improving our collaboration
    with other Federal agencies in the areas of incident response and
    situational awareness; (4) evaluating, testing, and deploying new
    security control mechanisms; and (5) enhancing communication with
    office IT staff to give them timely and usable information in order to
    improve the security posture of their own IT infrastructure.
        Similar to security in the physical world, security in the
    information technology world requires constant vigilance and the
    ability to detect and deter attacks. The threats to our information
    infrastructure are increasing in frequency and sophistication, and they
    come from spyware, adware, malware, Trojans, keyloggers, spybots,
    adbots, and trackware, all of which continuously search for
    vulnerabilities in our systems and which we see being generated from
    foreign as well as domestic sources. Countering the evolving threat
    environment means increasing our awareness of the situation, improving
    our processes, and continually researching, testing, and deploying new
    security technologies. Because we have very little advance notice of
    new types of attacks, we must and do have flexible security control
    structures and processes that we frequently revise and adjust. Our
    efforts to cultivate external relationships to improve our overall
    awareness of Internet-based threats have been effective. As the global
    threat environment has shifted, we have modified our processes and our
    technologies to improve our awareness and response to better protect
    the Senate's IT infrastructure.
        This last year, we experienced growth in providing computer
    security assistance to offices. We are increasingly called upon to help
    office system administrators properly configure desktop and server
    security controls and assist them in evaluating our weekly reports on
    anti-virus controls. Also, we implemented an outreach program (with 15
    offices completed and 6 scheduled for training) and work with system
    administrators to ensure staff is regularly informed of threats to
    Senate information and what they can do to help reduce the risk from
    such threats. As a part of the information sharing process, we annually
    produce 35-40 blog entries, articles and user notices targeted at
    administrators and the general Senate population. As the Senate
    continues to employ cutting edge technologies, our IT security group's
    activities will adjust in order to ensure optimal product performance
    and service delivery. We continue to use cutting edge technology, not
    only within our IT security services, but also in our IT security
    infrastructure. For example, we recently upgraded our anti-virus
    infrastructure to allow us greater flexibility, better utilization of
    our computing resources, and enhance our availability and disaster
    recovery capabilities. This infrastructure is very scalable, and we can
    continue to expand capabilities while conserving on costs.
        Protecting the Senate's information is one of our most important
    responsibilities. This year we have continued to make tremendous
    strides in this area with the development and operation of the Senate's
    redundant information security operations centers, one located on
    Capitol Hill and the other at the Alternate Computing Facility. The
    mission of these centers is to identify and understand threats, assess
    vulnerabilities, identify failure points and bottlenecks, determine
    potential impacts, and remedy problems before they adversely affect
    Senate operations. We augment this capability with close liaisons with
    other Federal agencies to ensure we have the most up-to-date
    information and techniques for combating cyber threats. Running within
    our information security operation centers, a state-of-the-art security
    information management system aggregates and reports on data from a
    variety of sources worldwide to help us track potential attackers
    before they can harm us. The combination of the information security
    operations centers, our defense-in-depth capability at all levels of
    our network infrastructure, and our enterprise anti-virus/anti-spyware
    programs, and centralized security update management service has proven
    highly effective.
        We must remain vigilant because the threat environment, as measured
    by detected security incidents, remains very high. For example, every
    day we detect approximately 1,121,000 potential security threats
    targeting the Senate, more than 40 percent of which are characterized
    as medium- to high-risk and our information security watchstander staff
    handles 40-50 security issues each month. Monitoring the Senate's
    information technology environment has been significantly improved over
    the past year from detecting and being able to analyze and categorize
    2.5 to 4 million ``events,'' which are items of Senate network traffic
    that have the potential to cause a security breach, in October 2007, to
    the ability to detect and analyze 7 to 9 million events currently as of
    February 2008. Moving ahead, our information security operations
    centers will be able to detect and analyze on the order of 12 to 19
    million events per day. We will then upgrade our infrastructure to be
    able to handle approximately 30 million events in a 24-hour period,
    which will help prevent our systems from being overwhelmed during a
    widespread malware outbreak or distributed denial of service attack
    directed at the Senate, and will also allow for significant future
    growth of the Senate security monitoring sensor network.
        Our anti-virus controls detected and countered nearly 1,087,000
    viral events in Senate computers during calendar year 2007. All offices
    use our managed anti-virus system and centralized software update
    servers. These systems protect over 11,500 Senate computers, and are a
    main reason why only one major viral outbreak event was handled by our
    incident handling team in 2007. Our security controls contained the
    outbreak to only 2 percent of our systems, and prevented any
    operational impact on an extended Senate session during a holiday
    period. This is quite a contrast to viral outbreaks of just a few years
    ago when several thousand machines were affected and notable
    disruptions in Senate IT operations were experienced multiple times
    throughout the year.
        Of course, we undertake all our information security monitoring
    activities in compliance with our information privacy policy. Although
    the constraints of our policy make defending against threats more
    difficult, we believe they are necessary to retain the trust of those
    whom we serve.
        Our information security watchstander, which is patterned after
    similar security operations center positions in other agencies, is an
    around-the-clock duty of our IT security staff. The position provides
    the Senate community a central point of contact when reporting and
    responding to IT security events. The watchstander also reviews and
    responds to IT security alerts, suspicious activity bulletins, and
    warnings compiled by public and private sources, and coordinates
    efforts to increase Senate-wide IT security awareness. Due to the ever-
    increasing numbers and potential severity of IT security events, the
    number of IT Security staff has been increased to handle the larger
    volume and variety of events. Some examples of watchstander
    responsibilities are responding to complaints from offices of increased
    e-mail spam and phishing attempts, creating user notices in response to
    warnings on vulnerabilities, and responding to reports of suspicious
    network traffic identified by our security operations center.
        IT security is, and will continue to be, a growth area as we work
    to stay ahead of threats and put safeguards in place. We plan to
    increase both our analytical and defensive capabilities. In support of
    that, we are hiring the three new full-time employees in our IT
    Security Branch that were approved in our fiscal year 2008
    appropriation. Further security sensors and other protection
    technologies will be deployed at Senate network perimeters that will
    enhance our ability to protect the Senate from cyber threats, malware,
    and other network-borne threats from outside entity networks that
    directly connect to the Senate. Sophisticated security products and
    technologies will also be integrated into our new telecommunications
    system, thus providing a monitoring, detection and active prevention
    capability that will further protect us from current and future cyber
    threats and better satisfy the Senate's requirements for privacy of
    voice communications.
    Emergency and Contingency Communications
        We provide a comprehensive array of communications systems and
    options with the objective of being able to communicate under any
    circumstance. For instance, we are currently deploying the Senate
    Message Alert Client, which eliminates our dependence on any single
    commercial carrier for emergency communications to BlackBerry devices
    and provides the flexibility of device-to-device communications.
    Through this client, staff can create inter- or intra-office emergency
    notification lists that can be used to send emergency messages directly
    to devices on the list in real time. The Senate Message Alert Client
    and the global e-mail alert system are two of the primary methods for
    the USCP and the SAA to issue mass emergency communications messages.
        This year we continued upgrading and testing our two Senate
    emergency response communications vehicles according to a monthly
    exercise plan. These assets are available for deployment with LAN, WAN,
    telephone, and satellite connectivity and provide the ability to
    relocate significant information infrastructure virtually anywhere. We
    also continue to train and expand our deployment teams, and work to
    revise and refine our operations procedures for deployment of these
    vehicles in support of the Senate.
        During the year we completed the in-building wireless
    infrastructure in the Capitol and the Capitol Visitor Center. This
    infrastructure provides coverage in areas where it was previously poor
    or non-existent and also allows Senate staff to connect back to their
    offices via wireless remote computing. The wireless infrastructure also
    supports every carrier, allowing Members to use the carrier of their
    choice with the device of their choice across the Senate campus. In the
    Capitol Visitor Center, we are providing all services within the Senate
    expansion space. At the request of the Architect of the Capitol we are
    also providing cellular and BlackBerry coverage to the core of the
    Visitor Center.
        As we demonstrated during our pandemic exercise last spring, the
    mobile and remote computing technologies we provide allow Senate staff
    to access and modify their information and communicate from virtually
    anywhere, anytime. We will continue to enhance and expand these
    capabilities in order to support a potentially dispersed workforce with
    the ability to telecommute. These capabilities are crucial to our
    ability to support the Senate in an emergency situation where the
    workforce must be dispersed and also support the Senate's ability to
    provide employees with flexible work options on a daily basis.
        We are dedicated to providing an integrated and highly-reliable
    emergency communications infrastructure through a variety of projects
    including expanding our emergency communications infrastructure,
    integrating and streamlining emergency communications capability,
    liaison with the USCP command center, developing specifications for
    outfitting emergency operations and leadership coordination centers,
    and conducting monthly comprehensive testing of emergency alert
    notification systems.
    Enhancing Stewardship through Fiscal and Environmental Responsibility
        Stewardship of our resources is intertwined in everything we do, as
    well as being a driving force for some of our activities. We are always
    looking for ways to improve our processes or technologies so that we
    save time, money, electricity, paper, or other resources. Our CIO
    organization is a good steward of the fiscal resources of the Senate,
    as they are consistently and continuously improving on the services
    offered to our customers while seeking only modest increases in
    funding. Many of their initiatives save offices hundreds or thousands
    of dollars in costs that would otherwise be borne out of their official
    accounts. As most of these initiatives save money due to a reduction in
    the purchase of some commodity, they also fit in with our efforts
    toward environmental stewardship. Some examples of our efforts to
    enhance fiscal and environmental stewardship are:
      --Implementation of virtual file servers, which allow the Sergeant at
            Arms and other offices to combine multiple file servers onto
            fewer physical devices, reducing the need to manufacture
            devices and therefore dispose of them, reducing power and air
            conditioning requirements, saving funds, and enhancing our
            ability to provide reliable and redundant services.
      --The electronic fax system saves offices hundreds of thousands of
            pages of paper each year by allowing staff to dispose of
            unwanted fax messages electronically before they are printed,
            and reduces the need for fax toner cartridges, which again
            reduces the need for manufacturing and disposal of them, and
            saves offices tens of thousands of dollars a year on their
            purchase.
      --Online billing through our TranSAAct system has eliminated
            approximately 30,000 pages of printed billing statements each
            month. As we add Verizon Wireless and other services into
            TranSAAct we will save even more paper.
      --Scrutiny of our telecommunications bills for overcharges and
            incorrect items has saved us more than $100,000 in the current
            fiscal year.
        We also ensure that the devices we recommend to the Senate meet the
    applicable EnergyStar guidelines, and where feasible, the guidelines
    for the responsible manufacture of information technology equipment.
                             operations and support
    Consistently Delivering Excellent Service
        The commitment to exceptional customer service is a hallmark of the
    Sergeant at Arms organization and the cornerstone of our support
    functions. The groups that make up our support team continue to provide
    exceptional customer service to the Senate community.
                Capitol Facilities
        Capitol Facilities serves the Senate community by providing a clean
    and professional work environment through its Environmental Services
    Division. The Furnishing Division provides creative framing services to
    all Senators and committees, custom cabinets and other high quality
    furniture, carpeting, and draperies.
        During the past year, Capitol Facilities has implemented a new
    quality assurance system to track and monitor the cleaning quality
    performed during the night in the Capitol and the cleaning supplies
    used. It has improved the consistency and level of cleaning by using
    technology to inspect and report on all areas cleaned in the Capitol
    while at the same time resulting in a 50 percent reduction in the time
    required for inspections allowing more time to be devoted to cleaning.
    This system has also allowed us to monitor cleaning supply levels more
    closely and reduce consumption.
        Capitol Facilities has purchased and are using new event chairs for
    special events in the Capitol resulting in improvements in appearance
    and comfort for the Senate community and visitors.
        Improvements made to our Cabinet Shop include installation of a
    ``Brandt'' edgebander which applies both veneer and solid wood to the
    edges of cabinets and other furniture. Since this process was
    originally done by hand which was very labor intensive and slow, we
    have been able to reduce the amount of production time by 10 percent
    for items requiring this application. The addition of a cabinet
    designer to our staff has facilitated the CAD (Computer Aided Design)
    process and given the department better presentation drawings for the
    client to review and working drawings to build from. This designer has
    also been instrumental in the completion of the first set of complete
    drawings for the historic Webster Desk in the Senate Chamber.
        Both Leadership Offices and Senate Security are participating in
    the testing phase of an integrated work management system that features
    an on-line furniture catalog, ordering functions, and work order
    tracking capability.
                Printing Graphics and Direct Mail
        We provide photocopying, print design, and production services to
    the Senate. The Printing, Graphics, and Direct Mail (PGDM) department
    continues to provide high level service and customer support to the
    Senate community. In fiscal year 2007, we responded to an increased
    demand for color publications by using both digital color reproduction
    and traditional full-color offset printing. PGDM produced more than 19
    million full-color pages utilizing offset presses, a 61 percent
    increase over fiscal year 2006, and over 1.7 million digital color
    reproductions on our printers, a 29 percent increase over fiscal year
    2006. In fiscal year 2007 PGDM purchased a digital production press,
    which incorporates multiple print management functions in one system,
    reducing turnaround times and producing higher quality products.
        The department also processed more than 16 million black and white
    copies, a large percentage of which were sent to PGDM in digital
    format. The convenient web-based print ordering service expanded,
    increasing web-based printing request production to more than 6.6
    million documents. PGDM staff expanded the very popular CMS imaging
    service and scanned over 700,000 documents, a 61 percent increase over
    fiscal year 2006. We saved the Senate approximately $662,000, enabled
    quick turnaround times, and provided convenient customer service by
    producing over 7,446 large format charts in-house. Constituent mail saw
    first class postage increased to $0.41 per piece and PGDM saved Senate
    offices over $2.1 million in postage expenses by sorting over 11
    million pieces of mail during fiscal year 2007. We also worked with
    other Senate partners to process 55,000 flag requests.
        The Senate Support Facility has been in full operation for more
    than 2 years. A key initiative for the facility was to provide a secure
    transfer service from the United States Capitol Police Off-Site
    inspection facility to the Senate Support Facility. In fiscal year
    2007, PGDM transferred more than 100,000 items from the inspection
    facility to the Senate Support Facility, greatly reducing the number of
    trucks entering the Capitol complex.
                Parking Office
        The Parking Office is a leader in our ``Green'' initiatives. There
    are 17 flex-fuel vehicles in the Fleet, one hybrid vehicle and one
    electric car.
        The Parking Office also plays a critical role in planning and
    exercising transportation and logistics in emergency operations. The
    Parking Office has worked closely with OSEP in these endeavors and has
    produced the final draft of COOP transportation manuals.
                Photo Studio
        The Photo Studio has developed procedures to replicate the Photo
    Browser database at the Alternate Computing Facility, providing a
    secure backup and recovery plan for customer's photo images.
        Photo Studio staff also designed new web pages to provide a more
    user-friendly and informative interface for customers, and implemented
    an FTP service which allows customers to upload multiple image files at
    one time.
        The Photo Studio is currently evaluating Digital Asset Management
    (DAM) products to replace the Photo Browser image database and order
    fulfillment system. Our fiscal year 2009 budget request plans for
    upgrades to existing server hardware to ensure adequate maintenance and
    secure storage for Senators' and Committees' photo images which
    currently number more than 1.2 million. Our goal is to implement a
    fully supported DAM and ordering system that will function securely
    within the Senate environment.
                Senate Hair Care
        Senate Hair Care increased service prices in fiscal year 2007. This
    resulted in a revenue increase of $50,546 over fiscal year 2006 totals,
    approximately 12.5 percent. Customers are responding enthusiastically
    to new retail products offered in Senate Hair Care. We have responded
    to the needs of customers who travel by offering an expanded range of
    travel size retail products, to keep customers compliant with the TSA
    3-1-1 rule.
                Recording Studio
        Our Recording Studio is responsible for providing gavel to gavel
    coverage of Senate floor proceedings, broadcasting Senate committee
    hearings, and providing radio and television production studios and
    equipment for Senators' use. Last year, we televised all 1,384 hours of
    Senate Floor proceedings, 755 committee hearings, and broadcast 1,348
    radio and television productions.
                Committee Hearing Room Upgrade Project
        Demand for additional committee broadcasts has been ever
    increasing. In 2003, we began working with this Committee and the
    Committee on Rules and Administration to upgrade and install multimedia
    equipment in Senate committee hearing rooms. The project includes
    digital signal processing audio systems and broadcast-quality robotic
    camera systems.
        To date, we have completed 19 hearing rooms, S-207, S-211 and have
    2 more rooms in the design phase. Room enhancements include improved
    speech intelligibility and software-based systems that we can configure
    based on individual committee needs. The system is networked; allowing
    committee staff to easily and automatically route audio from one
    hearing room to another when there are overflow crowds. Additionally,
    the system's backup will take over quickly if the primary electronics
    fail.
        As part of the upgrades included in our move to the CVC, we are
    installing technologies to enhance our ability to provide broadcast
    coverage of more hearings simultaneously without adding staff. For
    example, the Committee Hearing Room Upgrade Project will allow us to
    cover a hearing with one staff member. Before the upgrade, three staff
    members were required to adequately cover a hearing. These technology
    enhancements, coupled with the expansion of the number of control rooms
    for committee broadcasts to 12, will enable us to increase our
    simultaneous broadcast coverage of committee hearings from 5 to as many
    as 12.
                Migration to the Capitol Visitor Center
        The most significant work we anticipate for the Senate Recording
    Studio, over the next 6 months, is its move from the basement of the
    Capitol to the CVC. This move will enable the Recording Studio to
    complete its upgrade to a full High Definition Facility, and to
    implement a number of improvements that have been planned to coincide
    with the opening of the CVC. The Studio anticipates moving all aspects
    of its operation, including the engineering shops, the Senate
    Television operation, Studio production and post-production facilities,
    committee broadcast services, and all administrative and management
    offices to the CVC by September 1, 2008.
        My earlier testimony discussed the impact the CVC will have on the
    Senate Recording Studio. We have other departments that will be
    impacted by the CVC and their operations and processes will change with
    its opening.
                Senate Appointments Desks
        To improve security and the flow of people who visit the Capitol,
    the Senate Appointments Desk will add two desks in the CVC, one located
    near the main entrance and the other located outside of the Senate
    Meeting Rooms on the lower level. Approximately 80 percent of the
    people who have appointments at the Capitol will enter through the CVC,
    reducing congestion within the Capitol and minimizing processing and
    waiting time for our guests. Approximately 95,000 people who previously
    entered through the Capitol's North Door will enter through the CVC
    when it opens. We will maintain scaled versions of the Capitol and the
    Russell Building Appointments Desks for visitors with appointments with
    Leadership and for those who have appointments in both the Senate
    office buildings and the Capitol. Our Appointments Desks staff will
    expand from 6 to 10 and our projected labor efficiencies experienced in
    other departments will enable us to transfer four FTEs to the Senate
    Appointments Desk team.
                Senate Gallery Visitors
        We plan to improve the visitor experience for the estimated 200,000
    people annually who want to witness Senate proceedings from the
    Gallery. We will process these guests through the CVC, rather than the
    Capitol's North Door, improving security and thereby eliminating the
    long lines and congestion that had been commonplace throughout the
    Capitol. Our Senate Doorkeepers team will manage a staging room that
    has been designated on the main floor of the CVC near the elevators
    that will facilitate the collection of Gallery-prohibited items and the
    movement of people in a secure manner. The staging room and the
    surrounding areas offer our guests numerous creature comforts and
    educational opportunities. The staging room will be converted into a
    Senate Meeting Room when the Senate is not in session.
                                   conclusion
        We take our responsibilities to the American people and to their
    elected representatives seriously. The Office of the Sergeant at Arms
    is like dozens of small businesses, each with its own primary mission,
    each with its own measures of success, and each with its own culture.
    It has a fleet of vehicles that serves Senate Leadership, delivers
    goods, and provides emergency transportation. Our Photography Studio
    records historic events, takes official Senate portraits, provides a
    whole range of photography services, and delivers thousands of pictures
    each year. The SAA's printing shop provides layout and design, graphics
    development, and production of everything from newsletters to floor
    charts. The Office of the Sergeant at Arms also operates a Page
    dormitory, a hair salon, and parking lots. It provides many other
    services to support the Senate community, including framing, flag
    packaging and mailing, and intranet services. Each of these businesses
    requires personnel with different skills and different abilities. One
    thing that they all have in common, though, is their commitment to
    making the Senate run smoothly.
        Over the past year, the staff of the SAA has kept the Senate safe,
    secure, and operating efficiently. This Committee and the Committee on
    Rules and Administration have provided active, ongoing support to help
    us achieve our goals. We thank you for your support and for the
    opportunity to present this testimony and respond to any questions you
    may have.
                  appendix a--fiscal year 2009 budget request
               attachment i--financial plan for fiscal year 2009

                         EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: OFFICE OF THE SERGEANT AT ARMS--UNITED STATES SENATE
                                              [Dollar amounts in thousands]
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                              Fiscal year 2009 vs.
                                                                              Fiscal year       fiscal year 2008
                                                                 Fiscal year      2009    --------------------------
                                                                 2008 budget    request                    Percent
                                                                                              Amount      Incr/Decr
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    General Operations and Maintenance:
        Salaries...............................................      $60,600      $69,758       $9,158          15.1
        Expenses...............................................      $78,379      $84,572       $6,193           7.9
                                                                ----------------------------------------------------
          Total, General Operations and Maintenance............     $138,979     $154,330      $15,351          11.0
                                                                ====================================================
    Mandated Allowances and Allotments.........................      $55,616      $52,818      ($2,798)         -5.0
    Capital Investment.........................................       $3,315      $14,515      $11,200         337.9
    Nondiscretionary Items.....................................       $5,079       $4,696        ($383)         -7.5
                                                                ----------------------------------------------------
          TOTAL................................................     $202,989     $226,359      $23,370          11.5
                                                                ====================================================
    Staffing...................................................          949          956            7           0.7
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        To ensure that we provide the highest levels and quality of
    security, support services and equipment, we submit a fiscal year 2009
    budget request of $226,359,000, an increase of $23,370,000 or 11.5
    percent compared to fiscal year 2008. The salary budget request is
    $69,758,000, an increase of $9,158,000 or 15.1 percent, and the expense
    budget request is $156,601,000, an increase of $14,212,000 or 10.0
    percent. The staffing request is 956, an increase of 7 percent.
        We present our budget in four categories: General Operations and
    Maintenance (Salaries and Expenses), Mandated Allowances and
    Allotments, Capital Investment, and Nondiscretionary Items.
        The general operations and maintenance salaries budget request is
    $69,758,000, an increase of $9,158,000 or 15.1 percent compared to
    fiscal year 2008. The salary budget increase is due to the addition of
    seven FTEs, a COLA, and merit funding. The additional staff will
    support increased demand for services, as well as advancing
    technologies.
        The general operations and maintenance expenses budget request for
    existing and new services is $84,572,000, an increase of $6,193,000 or
    7.9 percent compared to fiscal year 2008. Major factors contributing to
    the expense budget increase are cost escalations in the IT support
    contract, $1,661,000; a new cyber security contract, $800,000; purchase
    of furnishings and carpet, $697,000; additional maintenance costs to
    support Internet bandwidth, $600,000; and other IT support agreements,
    $442,000.
        The mandated allowances and allotments budget request is
    $52,818,000, a decrease of $2,798,000 or 5.0 percent compared to fiscal
    year 2008. This variance is primarily due to decreases in telecom
    services costs.
        The capital investment budget request is $14,515,000, an increase
    of $11,200,000 or 337.9 percent compared to fiscal year 2008. The
    fiscal year 2009 budget request includes funds for hearing room audio/
    video upgrades, $5,000,000; data network engineering equipment,
    $2,300,000; network upgrade project, $1,800,000; replacement of
    printing equipment, $1,795,000; upgrade of the Storage Area Network
    (SAN), $1,520,000; and the modular furniture replacement project for
    SAA space, $1,000,000.
        The nondiscretionary items budget request is $4,696,000, a decrease
    of $383,000 or 7.5 percent compared to fiscal year 2008. The request
    funds three projects that support the Secretary of the Senate: contract
    maintenance for the Financial Management Information System,
    $3,656,000; maintenance and necessary enhancements to the Legislative
    Information System, $835,000; and maintenance and enhancements to the
    Senate Payroll System, $205,000.
          attachment ii--fiscal year 2009 budget request by department
        The following is a summary of the SAA fiscal year 2009 budget
    request on an organizational basis.

                                      FISCAL YEAR 2009 BUDGET REQUEST BY DEPARTMENT
                                              [Dollar amounts in thousands]
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                              Fiscal year 2009 vs.
                                                                              Fiscal year       fiscal year 2008
                                                                 Fiscal year      2009    --------------------------
                                                                 2008 budget    request                    Percent
                                                                                              Amount      Incr/Decr
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Capitol Division...........................................      $30,175      $37,621       $7,446          24.7
    Operations.................................................      $40,077      $46,274       $6,197          15.5
    Technology Development.....................................      $44,578      $53,399       $8,821          19.8
    IT Support Services........................................      $72,557      $71,996        ($561)         -0.8
    Staff Offices..............................................      $15,602      $17,069       $1,467           9.4
                                                                ----------------------------------------------------
          TOTAL................................................     $202,989     $226,359      $23,370          11.5
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Each department's budget is presented and discussed in detail on
    the next pages.

                                                    CAPITOL DIVISION
                                                 [Dollars in thousands]
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                              Fiscal year 2009 vs.
                                                                               Fiscal year      fiscal year 2008
                                                                  Fiscal year      2009    -------------------------
                                                                  2008 budget    request                   Percent
                                                                                               Amount     Incr/Decr
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    General Operations and Maintenance:
        Salaries................................................      $15,752      $18,151       $2,399         15.2
        Expenses................................................      $12,423      $12,570         $147          1.2
                                                                 ---------------------------------------------------
          Total, General Operations and Maintenance.............      $28,175      $30,721       $2,546          9.0
                                                                 ===================================================
    Mandated Allowances and Allotments..........................       $1,800       $1,800  ...........  ...........
    Capital Investment..........................................         $200       $5,100       $4,900      2,450.0
    Nondiscretionary Items......................................  ...........  ...........  ...........  ...........
                                                                 ---------------------------------------------------
          TOTAL.................................................      $30,175      $37,621       $7,446         24.7
                                                                 ===================================================
    Staffing....................................................          286          286  ...........  ...........
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        The Capitol Division consists of the Executive Office, the Office
    of Security and Emergency Preparedness, the U.S. Capitol Police
    Operations Liaison, Post Office, Recording Studio and Media Galleries.
        The general operations and maintenance salaries budget request is
    $18,151,000, an increase of $2,399,000 or 15.2 percent. The salary
    budget increase is due an expected COLA and merit increases, and other
    adjustments.
        The general operations and maintenance expenses budget request is
    $12,570,000, an increase of $147,000 or 1.2 percent.
        The mandated allowances and allotments budget request for State
    office security initiatives is $1,800,000.
        The capital investments budget request of $5,100,000 will fund
    hearing room audio and video upgrades, and two new vehicles in the Post
    Office.

                                                       OPERATIONS
                                                 [Dollars in thousands]
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                              Fiscal year 2009 vs.
                                                                               Fiscal year      fiscal year 2008
                                                                  Fiscal year      2009    -------------------------
                                                                  2008 budget    request                   Percent
                                                                                               Amount     Incr/Decr
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    General Operations and Maintenance:
        Salaries................................................      $17,140      $19,161       $2,021         11.8
        Expenses................................................       $5,772       $6,876       $1,104         19.1
                                                                 ---------------------------------------------------
          Total, General Operations and Maintenance.............      $22,912      $26,037       $3,125         13.6
                                                                 ===================================================
    Mandated Allowances and Allotments..........................      $16,665      $16,992         $327          2.0
    Capital Investment..........................................         $500       $3,245       $2,745        549.0
    Nondiscretionary Items......................................  ...........  ...........  ...........  ...........
                                                                 ---------------------------------------------------
          TOTAL.................................................      $40,077      $46,274       $6,197         15.5
                                                                 ===================================================
    Staffing....................................................          305          305  ...........  ...........
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        The Operations Division consists of the Central Operations Group
    (Director/Management, Parking Office, Printing, Graphics and Direct
    Mail, Photo Studio, and Hair Care Services), Facilities, and the Office
    Support Services Group (Director, Customer Support, State Office
    Liaison, and Administrative Services).
        The general operations and maintenance salaries budget request is
    $19,161,000, an increase of $2,021,000 or 11.8 percent. The salary
    budget increase is due to an expected COLA and merit increases.
        The general operations and maintenance expenses budget request is
    $6,876,000, an increase of $1,104,000 or 19.1 percent. This increase is
    primarily due to additional maintenance costs, and purchases of
    furnishings and carpet for Capitol offices whose occupants relocated to
    the CVC and the election cycle.
        The mandated allowances and allotments budget request is
    $16,992,000, an increase of $327,000 or 2.0 percent. This request
    includes funds for the rent expenses of home State offices.
        The capital investment budget request is $3,245,000. This request
    includes funds for modular furniture replacement in SAA office space,
    $1,000,000; and several equipment replacement projects in Central
    Operations, including the purchase of a laser printer, $500,000; photo
    studio server upgrade and printing system, $450,000; plate maker,
    $400,000; and six copy center printers, $275,000.

                                                 TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT
                                                 [Dollars in thousands]
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                              Fiscal year 2009 vs.
                                                                              Fiscal year       fiscal year 2008
                                                                 Fiscal year      2009    --------------------------
                                                                 2008 budget    request                    Percent
                                                                                              Amount      Incr/Decr
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    General Operations and Maintenance:
        Salaries...............................................      $12,060      $14,939       $2,879          23.9
        Expenses...............................................      $25,399      $27,694       $2,295           9.0
                                                                ----------------------------------------------------
          Total, General Operations and Maintenance............      $37,459      $42,633       $5,174          13.8
                                                                ====================================================
    Mandated Allowances and Allotments.........................  ...........  ...........  ............  ...........
    Capital Investment.........................................       $2,040       $6,070       $4,030         197.5
    Nondiscretionary Items.....................................       $5,079       $4,696        ($383)         -7.5
                                                                ----------------------------------------------------
          TOTAL................................................      $44,578      $53,399       $8,821          19.8
                                                                ====================================================
    Staffing...................................................          140          146            6           4.3
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        The Technology Development Services includes the Technology
    Development Director, Network Engineering and Management, Enterprise IT
    Operations, Systems Development Services, Information Systems Security
    and Internet/Intranet Services.
        The general operations and maintenance salaries budget request is
    $14,939,000, an increase of $2,879,000 or 23.9 percent. The salary
    budget increase is due to the addition of six FTEs, an expected COLA
    and merit funding for fiscal year 2009. Technology Development requires
    six FTEs to provide network infrastructure support, support the growing
    demand on IT Security, and for additional enterprise database systems
    support.
        The general operations and maintenance expense budget request is
    $27,694,000, an increase of $2,295,000 or 9.0 percent. This increase is
    due to a new cyber security contract and additional maintenance costs
    to support expanded Internet bandwidth required to meet Senate business
    requirements.
        The capital investment budget request is $6,070,000, an increase of
    $4,030,000 or 197.5 percent. This request includes data network
    engineering costs, $2,300,000; data network upgrade project,
    $1,800,000; and upgrade of the Storage Area Network (SAN), $1,520,000.
        The nondiscretionary items budget request is $4,696,000, a decrease
    of $383,000 or 7.5 percent. The request consists of three projects that
    support the Secretary of the Senate: contract maintenance for the
    Financial Management Information System, maintenance and necessary
    enhancements to the Legislative Information System, and maintenance and
    enhancements to the Senate Payroll System.

                                                   IT SUPPORT SERVICES
                                                 [Dollars in thousands]
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                              Fiscal year 2009 vs.
                                                                              Fiscal year       fiscal year 2008
                                                                 Fiscal year      2009    --------------------------
                                                                 2008 budget    request                    Percent
                                                                                              Amount      Incr/Decr
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    General Operations and Maintenance:
        Salaries...............................................       $6,577       $7,160         $583           8.9
        Expenses...............................................      $28,254      $30,710       $2,456           8.7
                                                                ----------------------------------------------------
          Total, General Operations and Maintenance............      $34,831      $37,870       $3,039           8.7
                                                                ====================================================
    Mandated Allowances and Allotments.........................      $37,151      $34,026      ($3,125)         -8.4
    Capital Investment.........................................         $575         $100        ($475)        -82.6
    Nondiscretionary Items.....................................  ...........  ...........  ............  ...........
                                                                ----------------------------------------------------
          TOTAL................................................      $72,557      $71,996        ($561)         -0.8
                                                                ====================================================
    Staffing...................................................          113          113  ............  ...........
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        The IT Support Services Department consists of the Director, Office
    Equipment Services, Telecom Services, and Desktop/LAN Support branches.
        The general operations and maintenance salaries budget request is
    $7,160,000, an increase of $583,000 or 8.9 percent. The salary budget
    will increase due to an expected COLA and merit funding for fiscal year
    2009.
        The general operations and maintenance expenses budget request is
    $30,710,000, an increase of $2,456,000 or 8.7 percent. This increase is
    primarily due to cost escalations in the IT Support Contract and other
    IT support agreements.
        The mandated allowances and allotments budget request is
    $34,026,000, a decrease of $3,125,000 or 8.4 percent. This budget
    supports voice and data communications for Washington, DC, and State
    offices, $13,290,000; computer equipment, $12,915,000; procurement and
    maintenance of office equipment for Washington, DC, and State offices,
    $4,559,000; maintenance and procurement of Member and Committee mail
    systems, $4,500,000; and the Appropriations Analysis and Reporting
    System, $100,000.
        The capital investment budget request is $100,000, a decrease of
    $475,000 or 82.6 percent. The current budget request includes funds to
    help manage constituent e-mail correspondence.

                                                      STAFF OFFICES
                                                 [Dollars in thousands]
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                              Fiscal year 2009 vs.
                                                                               Fiscal year      fiscal year 2008
                                                                  Fiscal year      2009    -------------------------
                                                                  2008 budget    request                   Percent
                                                                                               Amount     Incr/Decr
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    General Operations and Maintenance:
        Salaries................................................       $9,071      $10,347       $1,276         14.1
        Expenses................................................       $6,531       $6,722         $191          2.9
                                                                 ---------------------------------------------------
          Total, General Operations and Maintenance.............      $15,602      $17,069       $1,467          9.4
                                                                 ===================================================
    Mandated Allowances and Allotments..........................  ...........  ...........  ...........  ...........
    Capital Investment..........................................  ...........  ...........  ...........  ...........
    Nondiscretionary Items......................................  ...........  ...........  ...........  ...........
                                                                 ---------------------------------------------------
          TOTAL.................................................      $15,602      $17,069       $1,467          9.4
                                                                 ===================================================
    Staffing....................................................          105          106            1          1.0
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        The Staff Offices Division consists of Education and Training,
    Financial Management, Human Resources, Employee Assistance Program,
    Process Management & Innovation, and Special Projects.
        The general operations and maintenance salaries budget request is
    $10,347,000, an increase of $1,276,000 or 14.1 percent. The salary
    budget increase is due to the addition of one FTE, an expected COLA,
    and merit funding. Process Management and Innovation will add one
    Senior IT Specialist to replace on-site contract support for SAA-
    developed applications and websites.
        The general operations and maintenance expenses budget request is
    $6,722,000, an increase of $191,000 or 2.9 percent. This increase is
    due to additional costs of system design and development for TranSAAct,
    software purchases and electronic subscriptions.
                                     ______

                        GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE
    Prepared Statement of Gene L. Dodaro, Acting Comptroller General of the
                                 United States
        Madam Chair and members of the subcommittee: I appreciate the
    opportunity to present GAO's budget request for fiscal year 2009. I am
    proud to say that we serve the Congress and the American people well,
    and I want to publicly acknowledge the professionalism, talents, and
    dedication of the GAO workforce in supporting the Congress and
    improving Government. We submit for your consideration a funding
    proposal that would ensure the GAO can continue to help Congress make
    informed oversight, policy, and funding decisions.
        At the outset, I want to thank the subcommittee for its support of
    GAO last year, especially in light of the overall budget pressures that
    the subcommittee faced when considering priorities. We ask for your
    continued support so that GAO can take on the issues of greatest
    interest to the Congress and address an increased demand for our
    services.\1\
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        \1\ An overview of GAO's strategic plan for serving the Congress is
    included as appendix I.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        The budget authority we are requesting for fiscal year 2009--$545.5
    million--represents a prudent request of 7.5 percent to support the
    Congress as it confronts a growing array of difficult challenges. We
    will continue to reward the confidence you place in us by providing a
    strong return on this investment. In fiscal year 2007 for example, in
    addition to delivering hundreds of reports and briefings to aid
    congressional oversight and decisionmaking, our work yielded:
      --financial benefits, such as increased collection of delinquent
            taxes and civil fines, totaling $45.9 billion--a return of $94
            for every dollar invested in GAO;
      --over 1,300 other improvements in Government operations spanning the
            full spectrum of national issues, ranging from helping Congress
            create a center to better locate children after disasters to
            strengthening computer security over sensitive Government
            records and assets to encouraging more transparency over
            nursing home fire safety to strengthening screening procedures
            for VA health care practitioners; and
      --expert testimony at 276 congressional hearings to help Congress
            address a variety of issues of broad national concern, such as
            the conflict in Iraq and efforts to ensure drug and food
            safety.
                 demand for gao services is high and increasing
        Demand for GAO's analysis and advice remains strong across the
    Congress. During the past 3 years, GAO has received requests or
    mandated work from all of the standing committees of the House and the
    Senate and over 80 percent of their subcommittees. In fiscal year 2007,
    GAO received over 1,200 requests for studies. This is a direct result
    of the high quality of GAO's work that the Congress has come to expect
    as well as the difficult challenges facing the Congress where it
    believes having objective information and professional advice from GAO
    is instrumental.
        Not only has demand for our work continued to be strong, but it is
    also steadily increasing. The total number of requests in fiscal year
    2007 was up 14 percent from the preceding year. This trend has
    accelerated in fiscal year 2008 as requests rose 26 percent in the
    first quarter and are up 20 percent at the mid-point of this fiscal
    year from comparable periods in 2007. As a harbinger of future
    congressional demand, potential mandates for GAO work being included in
    proposed legislation as of February 2008 totaled over 600, or an 86
    percent increase from a similar period in the 109th Congress.
        The following examples illustrate this demand:
      --Over 160 new mandates for GAO reviews were imbedded in law,
            including the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008, the
            Defense Appropriations Act of 2008, and 2008 legislation
            implementing the 9/11 Commission recommendations;
      --New recurring responsibilities were given to GAO under the Honest
            Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 to report annually
            on the compliance by lobbyists of registration and reporting
            requirements; and
      --Expanded bid protest provisions applied to GAO that (1) allow
            Federal employees to file protests concerning competitive
            sourcing decisions (A-76), (2) establish exclusive bid protest
            jurisdiction at GAO over issuance of task and delivery orders
            valued at over $10 million, and (3) provide GAO bid protest
            jurisdiction over contracts awarded by the Transportation
            Security Administration.
        Further evidence of GAO's help in providing important advice to the
    Congress is found in the increased numbers of GAO appearances at
    hearings on topics of national significance and keen interest (see
    table 1).
        In fiscal year 2007 GAO testified at 276 hearings, 36 more than
    fiscal year 2006. The fiscal year 2007 figure was an all-time high for
    GAO on a per capita basis and among the top requests for GAO input in
    the last 25 years. This up tempo of GAO appearances at congressional
    hearings has continued, with GAO already appearing at 140 hearings this
    fiscal year, as of April 4th.
      Table 1.--GAO's Selected Testimony Issues by Strategic Goal, Fiscal
                                   Year 2007
    Goal 1: Address challenges to the well-being and financial security of
            the American people
    Federal oversight of food safety
    Capacity and service gaps among homeless veterans programs
    Reauthorizing the State Children's Health Insurance Program
    Claims processing challenges for veterans' disability benefits
    FEMA payments on hurricane-damaged properties
    Nursing home oversight
    Private pension fees
    Small Business Administration's disaster preparedness efforts
    Improved safety for coal miners
    Federal actions to improve child welfare services
    Oil and gas royalties
    Medicare physician payments
    Effects of seller-funded down payments on home loans
    Status of the future air traffic control system
    USPS reform efforts
    Federal real property issues
    Emergency management plans for schools

    Goal 2: Respond to changing security threats and the challenges of
            globalization
    Status of benchmarks for Iraqi Government
    DOD's management of systems and assets
    Improving the military's supply chain
    Linking defense strategy with military personnel requirements
    Navy shipbuilding
    Using best practices for space acquisitions
    Vulnerabilities in U.S. export control systems
    Combating nuclear smuggling
    Securing radiological sources in foreign countries
    Improving the efficiency of U.S. food aid procedures
    National strategy to enforce intellectual property rights
    DHS's major mission and management functions
    Risk-management principles and homeland security
    Secure border initiative
    Bankruptcy reform and credit counseling
    National strategy to improve financial literacy
    VA's information security management

    Goal 3: Help transform the Federal Government's role and how it does
            business
    Contracting and security challenges in Iraq
    Federal acquisitions and contracting challenges
    Acquisition challenges at DHS
    Security vulnerabilities at unmonitored border locations
    Incomplete reporting of improper Federal payments
    Transforming DHS's financial management systems
    Challenges facing the polar satellite program
    Electronic voting
    Balancing individual privacy with homeland security needs
    Health information technology and privacy
    Long-term fiscal challenges
    Tax compliance
    Human capital challenges facing the Federal Government
    Rebuilding the gulf coast
    Preparations for the 2010 Census
    Fiscal stewardship challenges facing the United States
    Tax abuses by Medicare Part B providers

        Source: GAO.
               modest increase in staffing would help meet demand
        Our FTE level in fiscal year 2008 is 3,100--the lowest level ever
    for GAO. We are proud of the results we deliver to the Congress and our
    Nation with this level, but with a slightly less than 5 percent
    increase in our FTEs to 3,251 we can better meet increased
    congressional requests for GAO assistance. While this increase would
    not bring GAO back to the 3,275 FTE level of 10 years ago, it would
    allow us to respond to the increased workload facing the Congress.
        GAO staff are stretched in striving to meet Congress's increasing
    needs. People are operating at a pace that cannot be sustained over the
    long run. I am greatly concerned that if we try to provide more
    services with the existing level of resources, the high quality of our
    work could be diminished in the future. But I will not allow this to
    occur. This is not in the Congress's nor GAO's interest.
        One consequence of our demand vs. supply situation is the growing
    list of congressional requests that we are not able to promptly staff.
    While we continue to work with congressional committees to identify
    their areas of highest priority, we remain unable to staff important
    requests. This limits our ability to provide timely advice to
    congressional committees dealing with certain issues that they have
    slated for oversight, including
      --Safety concerns such as incorporating behavior-based security
            programs into TSA's aviation passenger screening process,
            updating our 2006 study of FDA's post-market drug safety
            system, and reviewing State investigations of nursing home
            complaints.
      --Operational improvements such as the effectiveness of Border
            Security checkpoints to identify illegal aliens, technical and
            programmatic challenges in DOD's space radar programs,
            oversight of federally funded highway and transit projects and
            the impact of the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer
            Protection Act.
      --Opportunities to increase revenues or stop wasteful spending
            including reducing potential overstatements of charitable
            deductions and curbing potential overpayments and contractor
            abuses in food assistance programs.
                     gao's fiscal year 2009 budget request
        Our fiscal year 2009 budget request seeks to better position us to
    maintain our high level of support for the Congress and better meet
    increasing requests for help. This request would help replenish our
    staffing levels at a time when almost 20 percent of all GAO staff will
    be eligible for retirement. Accordingly, our fiscal year 2009 budget
    request seeks funds to ensure that we have the increased staff capacity
    to effectively support the Congress's agenda, cover pay and
    uncontrollable inflationary cost increases, and undertake critical
    investments, such as technology improvement.
        GAO is requesting budget authority of $545.5 million to support a
    staff level of 3,251 FTEs needed to serve the Congress. This is a
    fiscally prudent request of 7.5 percent over our fiscal year 2008
    funding level, as illustrated in table 2. Our request includes about
    $538.1 million in direct appropriations and authority to use about $7.4
    million in offsetting collections. This request also reflects a
    reduction of about $6 million in nonrecurring fiscal year 2008 costs.

                                 TABLE 2.--FISCAL YEAR 2009 SUMMARY OF REQUESTED CHANGES
                                                 [Dollars in thousands]
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                        Percentage
                             Budget category                               FTEs           Amount          change
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Fiscal year 2008 base...........................................           3,100        $507,239  ..............
    Subtotal--requested changes.....................................             151          38,288             7.5
                                                                     --------------------------------
    Fiscal year 2009 budget authority...............................           3,251         545,527  ..............
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Source: GAO.

        Our request includes funds needed to
      --increase our staffing level by less than 5 percent to help us
            provide more timely responses to congressional requests for
            studies;
      --enhance employee recruitment, retention, and development programs,
            which increase our competitiveness for a talented workforce;
      --recognize dedicated contributions of our hardworking staff through
            awards and recognition programs;
      --address critical human capital components, such as knowledge
            capacity building, succession planning, and staff skills and
            competencies;
      --pursue critical structural and infrastructure maintenance and
            improvements;
      --restore program funding levels to regain our lost purchasing power;
            and
      --undertake critical initiatives to increase our productivity.
        Key elements of our proposed budget increase are outlined as
    follows:
    Pay and inflationary cost increases
        We are requesting funds to cover anticipated pay and inflationary
    cost increases resulting primarily from annual across-the-board and
    performance-based increases and annualization of prior fiscal year
    costs. These costs also include uncontrollable, inflationary increases
    imposed by vendors as the cost of doing business.
    Rebuilding capacity
        GAO generally loses about 10 percent of its workforce annually to
    retirements and attrition. This annual loss places GAO under continual
    pressure to replace staff capacity and renew institutional memory. In
    fiscal year 2007, we were able to replace only about half of our staff
    loss. In fiscal year 2008, we plan to replace only staff departures.
    Our proposed fiscal year 2009 staffing level of 3,251 FTEs would
    restore our staff capacity through a modest FTE increase, which would
    allow us to initiate congressional requests in a timelier manner and
    begin reducing the backlog of pending requests.
    Critical technology and infrastructure improvements
        We are requesting funds to undertake critical investments that
    would allow us to implement technology improvements, as well as
    streamline and re-engineer work processes to enhance the productivity
    and effectiveness of our staff, make essential investments that have
    been deferred year after year but cannot continue to be delayed, and
    implement responses to changing Federal conditions.
    Human capital initiatives and additional legislative authorities
        GAO is working with the appropriate authorization and oversight
    committees to make reforms that are designed to benefit our employees
    and to provide a means to continue to attract, retain, and reward a
    top-flight workforce, as well as help us improve our operations and
    increase administrative efficiencies. Among the requested provisions,
    GAO supports the adoption of a ``floor guarantee'' for future annual
    pay adjustments similar to the agreement governing 2008 payment
    adjustments reached with the GAO Employees Organization, IFPTE. The
    floor guarantee reasonably balances our commitment to performance-based
    pay with an appropriate degree of predictability and equity for all GAO
    employees.
        At the invitation of the House Federal workforce subcommittee, we
    also have engaged in fruitful discussions about a reasonable and
    practical approach should the Congress decide to include a legislative
    provision to compensate GAO employees who did not receive the full base
    pay increases of 2.6 percent in 2006 and 2.4 percent in 2007. We
    appreciate their willingness to provide us with the necessary legal
    authorities to address this issue and look forward to working together
    with you and our oversight committee to obtain necessary funding to
    cover these payments. The budget authority to cover the future impact
    of these payments is not reflected in this budget request.
         establishing and maintaining constructive union relationships
        As you know, on September 19, 2007, our Band I and Band II
    Analysts, Auditors, Specialists, and Investigators voted to be
    represented by the GAO Employees Organization, IFPTE, for the purpose
    of bargaining with GAO management on various terms and conditions of
    employment. GAO management is committed to working constructively with
    employee union representatives to forge a positive labor-management
    relationship.
        Since September, GAO management has taken a variety of steps to
    ensure it is following applicable labor relations laws and has the
    resources in place to work effectively and productively in this new
    union environment. Our efforts have involved
      --delivering specialized labor-management relations training to our
            managers;
      --establishing a new Workforce Relations Center to provide employee
            and labor relations advice and services;
      --hiring a Workforce Relations Center director, who also serves as
            our chief negotiator in collective bargaining deliberations;
            and
      --postponing work on several initiatives regarding our current
            performance and pay programs.
        In addition, we routinely notify union representatives of meetings
    that may qualify as formal discussions, so that a representative of the
    IFPTE can attend the meeting. We also regularly provide the IFPTE with
    information about projects involving changes to terms and conditions of
    employment over which the union has the right to bargain.
        We are pleased that GAO and the IFPTE reached a prompt agreement on
    2008 pay adjustments. The agreement was overwhelmingly ratified by
    bargaining unit members on February 14, 2008, and we have applied the
    agreed-upon approach to the 2008 adjustments to all GAO staff, with the
    exception of the SES and Senior Level staff, regardless of whether they
    are represented by the union.
                         fiscal year 2007 achievements
        In fiscal year 2007, we addressed many difficult issues confronting
    the Nation, including the conflict in Iraq, domestic disaster relief
    and recovery, national security, and criteria for assessing lead in
    drinking water. For example, GAO has continued its oversight on issues
    directly related to the Iraq war and reconstruction, issuing 20
    products in fiscal year 2007 alone--including 11 testimonies to
    congressional committees. These products covered timely issues such as
    the status of Iraqi Government actions, the accountability of U.S.-
    funded equipment, and various contracting and security challenges.
    GAO's work spans the security, political, economic, and reconstruction
    prongs of the U.S. national strategy in Iraq.
        Highlights of the outcomes of GAO work are outlined below. See
    appendix II for a detailed summary of GAO's annual measures and
    targets. Additional information on our performance results can be found
    in Performance and Accountability Highlights fiscal year 2007 at
    www.gao.gov.
    Financial benefits
        GAO's work in fiscal year 2007 generated $45.9 billion in financial
    benefits. These financial benefits, which resulted primarily from
    actions agencies and the Congress took in response to our
    recommendations, included about $21.1 billion resulting from changes to
    laws or regulations, $16.3 billion resulting from improvements to core
    business processes, and $8.5 billion resulting from agency actions
    based on our recommendations to improve public services.

      TABLE 3.--GAO'S SELECTED MAJOR FINANCIAL BENEFITS REPORTED IN FISCAL
                                    YEAR 2007
                            [In billions of dollars]
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
                             Description                            Benefit
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Helped to ensure funding for U.S. Postal Service retirement-         5.4
     related health care.........................................
    Improved the Internal Revenue Service's methodology for              4.2
     pursuing delinquent taxes...................................
    Encouraged National Aeronautics and Space Administration             3.7
     decision to terminate the space launch initiative...........
    Helped to reduce food stamp fraud and abuse..................        3.4
    Recommended that the Department of Housing and Urban                 2.2
     Development track and reallocate unspent housing funds......
    Helped to increase collections of civil debt.................        1.7
    Recommended that the Congress reduce the Department of               1.5
     Defense (DOD) fiscal year 2007 operations and maintenance
     budget......................................................
    Identified an opportunity for DOD to reallocate funds to             1.2
     cover new initiatives.......................................
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Source: GAO.

    Other improvements in Government
        Many of the benefits that result from our work cannot be measured
    in dollar terms. During fiscal year 2007, we recorded a total of 1,354
    other improvements in Government resulting from GAO work. For example,
    in 646 instances Federal agencies improved services to the public, in
    634 other cases agencies improved core business processes or
    governmentwide reforms were advanced, and in 74 instances information
    we provided to the Congress resulted in statutory or regulatory
    changes. These actions spanned the full spectrum of national issues,
    from strengthened screening procedures for all VA health care
    practitioners to improved information security at the Securities and
    Exchange Commission. See table 4 for additional examples.

        ----------------------------------------------------------------

     Table 4.--GAO's Selected Other Improvements in Government Reported in
                                Fiscal Year 2007
     . . . that helped to change laws
        Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2007, Pub. L.
    No. 109-295.
      --developing a center to locate children after disasters.
      --improving Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) information on
            the status of hurricane relief and recovery funds.
        Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007,
    Pub. L. No. 110-53.
      --re-examining inspection exemptions for inbound cargo.
      --re-examining inspection exemptions for domestic air cargo.
     . . . that helped enhance services to the public
      --strengthened screening procedures for all VA health care
            practitioners.
      --tightened monitoring criteria in the Environmental Protection
            Agency's rule on lead in drinking water.
      --encouraged reporting of nursing home fire safety deficiencies.
      --improved information security at the Securities and Exchange
            Commission.
     . . . that helped to promote sound agency and governmentwide
            management
      --FEMA establishes control to help limit disaster assistance payments
            to individuals with invalid Social Security numbers.
      --NASA establishes policies for reimbursement by nonofficial
            travelers on passenger aircraft.
      --Army requires credit card vendors to conduct credit checks before
            issuing individually billed travel cards.

        Source: GAO.

        ----------------------------------------------------------------

    High risk series
        In January 2007, we also issued our High-Risk Series: An Update,
    which identifies Federal areas and programs at risk of fraud, waste,
    abuse, and mismanagement and those in need of broad-based
    transformations. Issued to coincide with the start of each new
    Congress, our high-risk list focuses on major Government programs and
    operations that need urgent attention. Overall, this program has served
    to help resolve a range of serious weaknesses that involve substantial
    resources and provide critical services to the public. GAO added the
    2010 Census as a high-risk area in March 2008.

                TABLE 5.--GAO'S HIGH-RISK AREAS AS OF MARCH 2008
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                   Year
                         High-risk area                         designated
                                                                 high risk
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Addressing challenges in broad-based transformations:
        Strategic Human Capital Management \1\..............            2001
        Managing Federal Real Property \1\..................            2003
        Protecting the Federal Government's Information                 1997
         Systems and the Nation's Critical Infrastructures..
        Implementing and Transforming the Department of                 2003
         Homeland Security..................................
        Establishing Appropriate and Effective Information-             2005
         Sharing Mechanisms to Improve Homeland Security....
        DOD Approach to Business Transformation \1\.........            2005
            DOD Business Systems Modernization..............            1995
            DOD Personnel Security Clearance Program........            2005
            DOD Support Infrastructure Management...........            1997
            DOD Financial Management........................            1995
            DOD Supply Chain Management.....................            1990
            DOD Weapon Systems Acquisition..................            1990
        FAA Air Traffic Control Modernization...............            1995
        Financing the Nation's Transportation System \1\....            2007
        Effective Protection of Technologies Critical to                2007
         U.S. National Security Interests \1\...............
        Transforming Federal Oversight of Food Safety \1\...            2007
        The 2010 Census (New)...............................            2008
    Managing Federal contracting more effectively:
        DOD Contract Management.............................            1992
        DOE Contract Management.............................            1990
        NASA Contract Management............................            1990
        Management of Interagency Contracting...............            2005
    Assessing the efficiency and effectiveness of tax law
     administration:
        Enforcement of Tax Laws \1\.........................            1990
        IRS Business Systems Modernization..................            1995
    Modernizing and safeguarding insurance and benefit
     programs:
        Modernizing Federal Disability Programs \1\.........            2003
        Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation Single-Employer            2003
         Insurance Program..................................
        Medicare Program \1\................................            1990
        Medicaid Program \1\................................            2003
    National Flood Insurance Program \1\                                2006
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Legislation is likely to be necessary, as a supplement to actions by
      the executive branch, to effectively address this high-risk area.Source: GAO.

                               concluding remarks
        GAO's achievements are of great service to the Congress and
    American taxpayers. With your support, we will be able to continue to
    provide the high level of performance that has come to be expected of
    GAO.
                   appendix i: gao's strategic plan framework

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

         appendix ii: agencywide summary of annual measures and targets

                                    AGENCYWIDE SUMMARY OF ANNUAL MEASURES AND TARGETS
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                            2004      2005      2006      2007      2008      2009
                     Performance measure                   actual    actual    actual    actual    target    target
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Results:
        Financial benefits (dollars in billions)........     $44.0     $39.6     $51.0     $45.9     $40.0     $40.0
        Nonfinancial benefits...........................     1,197     1,409     1,342     1,354     1,150     1,150
        Past recommendations implemented (in per-  cent)        83        85        82        82        80        80
        New products with recommendations (in per-              63        63        65        66        60        60
         cent)..........................................
    Client:
        Testimonies.....................................       217       179       240       276       220       200
        Timeliness (in percent) \2\.....................        89        90        92        94        95        95
    People:
        New hire rate (in percent)......................        98        94        94        96        95        95
        Acceptance rate (in percent)....................        72        71        70        72        72   ( \3\ )
    Retention rate:
        With retirements (in percent)...................        90        90        90        90        90        90
        Without retirements (in percent)................        95        94        94        94        94        94
        Staff development (in percent)..................        70        72        76        76        76        76
        Staff utilization (in percent) \4\..............        72        75        75        73    \5\ 75        75
        Leadership (in percent).........................        79        80        79        79        80        80
        Organizational climate (in percent).............        74        76        73        74    \6\ 75        75
    Internal operations:
        Help get job done...............................      4.01      4.10      4.10      4.05      4.00       4.0
        Quality of work life............................      3.96      3.98      4.00      3.98      4.00       4.0
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Our fiscal year 2008 target for financial benefits differs from the target we reported for this measure in
      our fiscal year 2008 performance budget in January 2007. Specifically, we decreased our financial benefits
      target by $1.5 billon based on (1) our assessment of our past recommendations that are likely to be
      implemented by Federal agencies and the Congress in the coming fiscal year and (2) the impact that our budget
      could have on the work that leads to financial benefits.
    \2\ Since fiscal year 2004 we have collected data from our client feedback survey on the quality and timeliness
      of our products, and in fiscal year 2006 we began to use the independent feedback from this survey as a basis
      for determining our timeliness.
    \3\ N/A indicates that the data are not available yet or are not applicable because we did not collect the data
      during this period.
    \4\ Our employee feedback survey asks staff how often the following occurred in the last 12 months (1) my job
      made good use of my skills, (2) GAO provided me with opportunities to do challenging work, and (3) in general,
      I was utilized effectively.
    \5\ Our fiscal year 2008 target for staff utilization differs from the target we reported for this measure in
      our fiscal year 2008 performance budget in January 2007. We lowered the staff utilization target by 3
      percentage points because we determined that based on our past performance, the target was unrealistic, and we
      reset it at a level that is still challenging but more likely to be achieved.
    \6\ Our fiscal year 2008 target for organizational climate differs from the target we reported for this measure
      in our fiscal year 2008 performance budget in January 2007. We decreased the organizational climate target by
      a percentage point because we determined that based on our past performance, the target was unrealistic, and
      we reset it at a level that is still challenging but more likely to be achieved.Source: GAO.

                                     ______

                           GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
            Prepared Statement of Robert C. Tapella, Public Printer
        Madam Chair, Senator Alexander, and members of the Subcommittee on
    Legislative Branch Appropriations: It is an honor to be here today to
    present the appropriations request of the Government Printing Office
    (GPO) for fiscal year 2009.
                          results of fiscal year 2007
        For the past 5 years we have worked to transform GPO from a
    traditional printing factory into a state-of-the-art digital business
    that is dedicated to meeting the 21st century information product needs
    of the Government and the public. The record of 2007 shows that with
    the plan we developed, and with the hard work and support of our
    talented employees, GPO was put on the path to increase access by the
    American people to digital and other information products of the
    Federal Government, and to unlock our potential for the future.
        With the print marketplace shifting from analog to digital
    technologies, GPO's customers in Congress, Federal agencies, and among
    the public require dynamic and creative solutions to meet their
    changing needs. In 2007, we achieved major milestones in customer
    service and product development for the Federal marketplace in printing
    and information management.
        We responded to the Nation's explosive demand for the new e-
    passport by more than doubling previous production. We implemented a
    new, flexible program for meeting the document needs of Federal
    agencies through a well recognized national vendor. We developed an
    information rich online guide to House and Senate Members for Congress.
    We readied our new digital platform, GPO's Federal Digital System
    (FDsys), which will be a digital repository for all Federal documents,
    for its first public release in 2008.
        We have carried our innovative performance into fiscal year 2008.
    This year, for the first time in history, the President transmitted his
    Budget of the United States Government to Congress electronically. GPO
    assisted OMB by provided authentication for the Budget via digital
    signature. This authentication verifies to anyone who downloads the e-
    Budget that the content is official and unaltered. GPO's authentication
    capability ushers in a new era for Federal publications, in terms both
    of digital capability as well as a capability to promote environmental
    sustainability in the Government's publishing and information
    dissemination activities.
        These innovative contributions to the Government's information
    toolkit are emblematic of today's GPO: a modern, efficient, and
    effective partner in providing a broad range of products beyond
    printing, the theme of our recently released Annual Report. They and
    other services like them are just some of the examples of how GPO will
    fulfill its mission to Keep America Informed in the digital age.
        Our original objective in transforming GPO was to ensure that it
    survives. We achieved that goal and more, and now GPO is beginning to
    thrive. In 2007 I am pleased to report that we recorded net income for
    the fourth consecutive year, including another positive adjustment to
    long-term workers' compensation liability.
        We increased overall revenues to levels that have not been
    experienced at GPO for more than a decade, principally as the result of
    e-passport work produced through our security and intelligent documents
    business unit as well as other inplant operations. Efforts to economize
    and increase efficiency also contributed measurably to our financial
    results. We are grateful to the support provided to our appropriations
    request for fiscal year 2008 by this subcommittee and its staff.
        Of the total funding increase requested by GPO for fiscal year
    2009, approximately $21.2 million, or 43 percent, is directly related
    to the establishment and operation of FDsys, which is being designed to
    ingest, organize, manage, and output authenticated, official Federal
    information content for any use or purpose. The funding package for
    FDsys that we are proposing for fiscal year 2009 includes $15.5 million
    for GPO's revolving fund to complete the initial release of FDsys and
    continue development of system enhancements; begin replacing GPO's
    aging Microcomp automated composition system with modern technology to
    be used for accepting information to FDsys; and replace GPO's dated
    Production Estimating and Planning (PEPS) system with a modern
    manufacturing workflow system, to be used to track and manage workflow
    through FDsys. It also includes $5.7 million for GPO's Salaries and
    Expenses Appropriation to digitize the legacy FDLP collection and
    acquire expanded Web harvesting services, both of which will provide
    information for ingest to FDsys. When implemented, these systems will
    be coordinated with GPO's Oracle-based financial systems, resulting in
    a seamless digital platform for the provision of GPO products and
    services for years to come.
                    fiscal year 2009 appropriations request
        For fiscal year 2009, we are requesting a total of $174,354,000, to
    enable us to:
      --meet projected requirements for GPO's congressional printing and
            binding and information dissemination operations during fiscal
            year 2009;
      --recover the shortfall in the Congressional Printing and Binding
            Appropriation accumulated in fiscal year 2007 and projected for
            fiscal year 2008;
      --provide investment funds for necessary information dissemination
            projects in the Federal Depository Library Program;
      --complete the initial release of FDsys and continue development of
            system enhancements, and implement other improvements to GPO's
            information technology infrastructure; and
      --perform essential maintenance and repairs to our aging buildings.
        Congressional Printing and Binding Appropriation.--This account
    covers the cost of printing and other information services supporting
    the legislative process in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
    These services include production--in both print and online formats--of
    the daily and permanent Congressional Record, bills, resolutions, and
    amendments, hearings, committee prints and documents, miscellaneous
    printing and binding including stationery and document franks, and
    related products, as authorized by the public printing provisions of
    Title 44, U.S. Code.
        We are requesting $97,928,000 for this account, representing an
    increase of $8,153,000 over the level provided for fiscal year 2008.
    The increase represents the shortfall in this appropriation accumulated
    in fiscal year 2007 and projected for fiscal year 2008, offset in part
    by reductions in various congressional printing workload categories
    that are anticipated based on historical projections for a first
    session year following a Presidential election.
        The Congressional Printing and Binding Appropriation is essentially
    an estimate of the work that Congress will require to support its
    operations in a given fiscal year. A shortfall in this appropriation
    occurs when available funding is insufficient to fully cover the costs
    of congressional work. GPO does not have the authority to refuse to
    perform work that is required by Congress in the absence of funds.
    Instead, GPO will produce the work and temporarily finance it with
    available funds in our revolving fund. GPO then seeks to have Congress
    pay back the shortfall in subsequent appropriations, in order to
    restore funds that are meant to be used for investment in new equipment
    and technology.
        During fiscal year 2008, GPO reduced key congressional rates based
    on redistributing overhead costs, which was made possible by financial
    performance in other business units. The resulting costs reduced the
    shortfall accumulated in fiscal year 2007 and projected for fiscal year
    2008 from $17.2 million to approximately $9.3 million. The remaining
    shortfall will be partially offset by anticipated reductions in a
    number of congressional workload categories, principally the U.S. Code,
    hearings, the Congressional Record, and business and committee
    calendars. The increase we are requesting represents the amount that is
    required to be restored to GPO's revolving fund.
        Under our appropriations bill language, GPO has the authority--with
    the approval of the Committees on Appropriations--to transfer forward
    the unexpended balances of prior year appropriations. We appreciate the
    support you have shown GPO this year by authorizing the transfer of
    approximately $1.1 million in prior year balances from fiscal year 2004
    and 2005 to the revolving fund. These funds could be used to offset
    part of the shortfall.

                       CONGRESSIONAL PRINTING AND BINDING
                            [In millions of dollars]
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                  Amount
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Fiscal year 2008 approved...............................            89.8
    Fiscal year 2009 request................................            97.9
                                                             ---------------
          Change \1\........................................            8.1
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Change includes: Repaying the shortfall sustained in fiscal year
      2007 and projected for fiscal year 2008.

        Salaries and Expenses Appropriation of the Superintendent of
    Documents.--The largest single component of this appropriation is for
    the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), under which publications
    in print and electronic formats are made available to approximately
    1,250 libraries nationwide for the free use of the public. This account
    also provides for the cataloging and indexing of Government
    publications as well as the distribution of Government publications to
    international exchange libraries and other recipients as authorized by
    the documents provisions of Title 44, U.S. Code.
        We are requesting $43,426,000 for this account, representing an
    increase of $8.5 million over the current level of funding. The
    increase is required to cover mandatory pay and price level increases
    as well as overhead distribution, and to continue improving public
    access to Government information in electronic formats. Of the total
    increase, $917,000 is for mandatory pay and price level changes, and
    $1,164,000 is for the level of overhead required to be distributed to
    Salaries and Expenses programs. The balance of $6,432,000 is for
    program investments.
        As GPO continues to perform information dissemination through the
    FDLP on a predominately electronic basis, which was mandated in the
    conference report accompanying the Legislative Branch Appropriations
    Act for FY 1996, we need to invest in technology infrastructure and
    supporting systems. Our requested increase will cover projects for FDLP
    program outreach, additional data storage, modernization of item
    selection systems and other mainframe-based applications, and the
    initial costs for digitizing the FDLP legacy collection, a key
    component of GPO's strategic vision and FDsys.

                              SALARIES AND EXPENSES
                            [In millions of dollars]
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                  Amount
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Fiscal year 2008 approved...............................            34.9
    Fiscal year 2009 requested..............................            43.4
                                                             ---------------
          Change............................................             8.5
                                                             ===============
    Change includes:
        Mandatory requirements..............................             2.1
        Investment requirements.............................             6.4
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Revolving Fund.--We are requesting $33,000,000 for this account, to
    remain available until expended, to fund essential investments in
    information technology infrastructure and systems development, and
    facilities maintenance and repairs.
        The key projects covered by this request include $10,000,000 to
    complete the development of FDsys, which is scheduled to go live later
    this year; $5,500,000 to cover the replacement of GPO's 30-year-old
    automated composition system and upgrade GPO's manufacturing workflow
    tracking system; and $17,500,000 for maintenance and repairs to GPO's
    buildings, including elevator replacement and renovation, window
    replacement, retrofitting our air handling units with more efficient
    equipment, replacing the roof membrane and insulation, and related
    projects. These facilities projects will protect our employees and
    improve the energy efficiency of GPO's buildings. At the same time, we
    are continuing to review options for the future of GPO's buildings,
    including renovation and/or construction of new facilities on GPO-owned
    property.

                                 REVOLVING FUND
                            [In millions of dollars]
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                  Amount
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Fiscal year 2008 approved...............................  ..............
    Fiscal year 2009 requested..............................            33.0
                                                             ---------------
          Change............................................            33.0
                                                             ===============
    Change includes:
        Investments in information technology infrastructure            15.5
         and systems development............................
        Building maintenance and repairs....................            17.5
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Madam Chair, Senator Alexander, and members of the subcommittee, we
    look forward to working with you, and with your support we can continue
    GPO's record of achievement. To assist you in your review of our
    request, I am including with my prepared statement several charts
    illustrating how GPO's use of technology has generated savings in
    congressional printing costs and distribution costs, how a significant
    part of our request this year is to support our FDsys project, and
    showing how the close relationship of GPO to congressional printing in
    the process of how a bill becomes a law.
                       gpo generates savings for congress
        GPO's use of electronic printing and information technologies has
    significantly reduced the cost, in real economic terms, of
    congressional publications. In fiscal year 1975, on the threshold of
    our conversion to electronic photocomposition, the appropriation for
    Congressional Printing and Binding was $74.8 million, the equivalent in
    today's dollars of $290 million. By comparison, GPO's approved funding
    for fiscal year 2008 is $89.8 million, a reduction of more than 70
    percent in real economic terms. This has resulted in taxpayer savings
    of hundreds of millions of dollars. The savings have come from
    productivity improvements and staffing reductions made possible through
    the use of modern information technology.

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Productivity increases resulting from the use of electronic
    printing and information technologies have enabled GPO to make
    substantial reductions in staffing requirements while continuing to
    improve services for Congress. In the mid-1970's, GPO employment was
    approximately 8,200. Today, GPO has approximately 2,300 employees on
    board, fewer than at any time in the past century. In the past 4 years
    alone GPO's staffing has been reduced by 28 percent. Personnel
    reductions at GPO have been accomplished while modernizing and
    improving GPO services.

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

               gpo achieves savings in information dissemination
        GPO once distributed Government documents to Federal depository
    libraries primarily in print and related formats, including microfiche
    and CD-ROM. In fiscal year 1995, the year that GPO Access debuted, this
    activity was funded at an annual cost of $18.7 million, the equivalent
    of $25.8 million in constant 2007 dollars. For fiscal year 2009, the
    same function can be funded at $8.7 million, a reduction of
    approximately two-thirds in real economic terms. GPO used the savings
    from reduced printing distribution to fund the establishment and
    operation of GPO Access, achieving additional savings for the taxpayers
    and vastly expanding public access to Government information. This
    achievement also allowed the Salaries and Expenses Appropriation to
    remain relatively flat for more than a decade. GPO's plan to establish
    and operate a modern, state-of-the-art digital platform in FDsys will
    potentially achieve further savings and even broader public access to
    Government information.

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Of the total funding increase requested by GPO for fiscal year
    2009, approximately $21.2 million, or 43 percent, is directly related
    to the establishment and operation of FDsys, which is being designed to
    accept, organize, manage, and output authenticated, official Federal
    information content for any use or purpose. The funding package for
    FDsys that we are proposing for fiscal year 2009 includes $15.5 million
    for GPO's revolving fund to complete the initial release of FDsys and
    continue development of system enhancements; begin replacing GPO's
    aging Microcomp automated composition system with a modern technology
    to be used for accepting information to FDsys; and replace GPO's dated
    Production Estimating and Planning (PEPS) system with a modern
    manufacturing workflow system, to be used to track and manage workflow
    through FDsys. It also includes $5.7 million for GPO's Salaries and
    Expenses Appropriation to digitize the legacy FDLP collection and
    acquire expanded Web harvesting services, both of which will provide
    information for ingest to Fdsys. When implemented, these systems will
    be coordinated with GPO's Oracle-based financial systems, resulting in
    a seamless digital platform for the provision of GPO products and
    services for years to come.

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                              OFFICE OF COMPLIANCE

          Prepared Statement of Tamara E. Chrisler, Executive Director
        Madam Chair, Ranking Member Alexander, members of the committee, I
    am pleased to appear before you as the Executive Director of the Office
    of Compliance in support of the Office's fiscal year 2009 request for
    appropriations. Joining me today is Board Member Roberta Holzwarth.
    Along with us are General Counsel Peter Ames Eveleth, Deputy Executive
    Directors Barbara Sapin and Sana Shtasel, and Director of Finance and
    Administration Beth Hughes Brown.
        The subcommittee will note that the Office of Compliance submits,
    once again, a zero-based budget to support the agency's mission of
    furthering a safe, healthy, and fair workplace on Capitol Hill. This
    year's budget request is a minimal increase over our request for
    appropriations in fiscal year 2008. In fiscal year 2009, the Office is
    requesting a total of $4,307,500 for its operations, which is only a
    4.9 percent increase over the agency's 2008 budget request. Because of
    the across-the-board recissions and other cuts made to the agency's
    2008 appropriations, this year's request contains items that had been
    requested but not funded in fiscal years 2007 and 2008. It includes
    approximately $345,000 to fully fund the authorized level of FTE
    positions and concommitant salaries; approximately $134,000 for
    mandatory cost-of-living adjustments and employee salary increases; and
    $156,000 for initiatives that were originally requested in fiscal year
    2007 or fiscal year 2008. Setting aside these repeat requests,
    mandatory COLAs, and the cost of fully funding the agency's current
    staff complement of 21, the agency's request for new discretionary
    projects (less than $300,000) is extremely minimal but necessary to
    fulfill our mission.
        In fiscal year 2009, the Office of Compliance is expanding its
    effort to communicate and collaborate with its stakeholders. During the
    past fiscal years, we have achieved much success in our safety and
    health program through increased communication with the Office of the
    Architect of the Capitol in remediating hazards in the utility tunnels.
    We are realizing success in our education and outreach program through
    our publications and much utilized web site, as well as the
    implementation of a comprehensive baseline survey that will inform the
    Office's focus, to ensure that its programs are of maximum benefit to
    employing offices and employees on Capitol Hill and in the District and
    State Offices. In fiscal year 2009, the agency hopes to launch another
    significant initiative to improve its effectiveness and productivity on
    Capitol Hill--prevention and reduction.
                               prevent and reduce
        The Office plans to establish two new ``prevent and reduce''
    initiatives in fiscal year 2009. The first initiative is anticipated to
    reduce the number of incidents giving rise to allegations of violations
    of the Congressional Accountability Act (CAA), which will ultimately
    save taxpayer dollars. As originally discussed in our House fiscal year
    2008 appropriations hearings, similar language to the Notification and
    Federal Employee Anti-discrimination and Retaliation Act was
    contemplated and drafted for the legislative branch. Toward the same
    end of resolving complaints at the lowest possible level and reducing
    the cost to taxpayers in discrimination and retaliation claims, we
    received encouragement from a very interested stakeholder to dedicate
    one or two FTEs toward educating the employing offices of their rights
    and responsibilities. The Office is delighted to request additional
    staffing to assist the agencies in preventing violations of the CAA,
    and encouraging resolution at the lowest possible level. The agency is
    requesting FTE positions for a trainer and an ombuds person for
    conflict prevention for this purpose.
        The agency also requests an additional FTE for a Fire Safety
    Engineer to prevent serious fire hazards and to reduce the number of
    unabated fire safety citations. During fiscal year 2007, the OGC closed
    11 of 38 outstanding citations. While progress has been achieved in
    abating these hazards, several longstanding RAC 1 fire safety citations
    remain unabated. In June 2007, the AOC provided the Office of
    Compliance with a detailed plan to abate these outstanding hazards. The
    AOC also identified specific actions taken to address many additional
    fire safety deficiencies during 2005 and 2006. The Office of
    Compliance's General Counsel expressed concern that under the AOC's
    proposed abatement plans the most serious hazards involving open
    stairwells would not be fully abated for an excessive period of time--
    in one facility, not until 2015, while in other instances, abatement
    dates were as yet undetermined.
        Accordingly, we suggested alternative means for accelerated
    abatement. After extensive discussions between the parties, the AOC has
    recently developed, and the OOC has approved, innovative and more
    efficient abatement plans for the Cannon, Longworth, and Russell Office
    Buildings that resolve the fire safety hazards identified in the 2000
    citations involving these three buildings. It is significant that the
    AOC's abatement plans not only abate the fire safety issues in the
    citations but do so in a manner that preserves the historic
    architectural features within those buildings. The agency is committed
    to working with the AOC and other entities to achieve an acceptable
    level of fire safety within the other legislative branch buildings, and
    this requested FTE would support and over time play a leadership role
    in the Office's ongoing fire safety abatement initiative. This employee
    would be groomed to assist and succeed an existing contract inspector--
    a nationally renowned fire safety expert--to allow for continuity in
    this critical area.
        The second initiative is designed to reduce legislative branch
    agencies' reliance on the OOC's safety and health inspections, and
    instead empower them to find and remediate their own internal
    deficiencies. It would fund contracted services for the agency's Zero
    Accident Initiative, which involves working with employing offices to
    implement preventive maintenance programs, and training supervisors and
    employees to follow safe practices. The Office would work with
    employing offices to analyze accident and injury records to help create
    policies to prevent future accidents. Together, the two initiatives
    amount to about half of the newly requested discretionary funding for
    fiscal year 2009, and both initiatives are designed to save taxpayer
    dollars.
                                   conclusion
        The Office welcomes fiscal year 2009 with enthusiasm for the
    initiatives we hope to implement. Preventing violations of the CAA and
    reducing the number of hazards is the agency's focus for the upcoming
    year. The Office continues to see itself as a resource on Capitol Hill.
    Our appropriations request will enable us to continue the progression
    we have been on over the past several years from a strictly regulatory
    agency, to an enabling and supportive resource for legislative branch
    agencies. We are positioned to assist our stakeholders in meeting the
    requirements of the CAA, be it for safety and health matters, or for
    making the workplace fair for all employees. Thank you for your
    support, past and future, of our mission.
        I remain available to answer any questions that you have.
                                     ______

      Prepared Statement of Roberta Holzwarth, Member, Board of Directors
        Madam Chair and members of the subcommittee, good morning. I am
    Roberta Holzwarth, and I represent the Board of Directors of the Office
    of Compliance. I am honored to be here today to join Executive Director
    Tamara Chrisler in testifying on behalf of the Office's fiscal year
    2009 budget request.
        Thanks to the assistance of this subcommittee, the Office of
    Compliance has had an extraordinary year, culminating not only in the
    recent appointment of Tamara Chrisler as our Executive Director, but
    also in our two statutory Deputy Executive Directors and a Deputy
    General Counsel. Our new Deputy Executive Directors for the Senate and
    House, respectively, are Barbara Sapin and Sana Shtasel, who joined us
    on March 4 and February 11, respectively. Let me take this opportunity
    to thank the subcommittee for the recent administrative amendments to
    the Congressional Accountability Act that permitted us to retain and
    attract this caliber talent. I also want to thank publicly both Ms.
    Chrisler and our General Counsel Peter Eveleth for their graceful
    leadership during a time of challenge and transition.
        Ms. Sapin has recently concluded her term as a member of the Merit
    Systems Protection Board, where she adjudicated appeals of personnel
    actions in personnel cases affecting the Federal workforce. In
    addition, Ms. Sapin held positions at the National Labor Relations
    Board, the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, and the
    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Ms. Shtasel served as Chief of
    Staff to former U.S. Senator Bob Packwood, among her many previous
    accomplishments. She also litigated the constitutional predicate to the
    Congressional Accountability Act (Davis v. Passman, 442 U.S. 228
    (1979)).
        We also have a new Deputy General Counsel, Susan Green, who joined
    us in late November. Ms. Green, who has more than 20 years' experience
    in occupational safety and health, labor standards, and labor-
    management issues, served as Chief Labor Counsel to Senator Edward M.
    Kennedy, and thereafter advised the Secretary of Labor on equal pay,
    pension, and other labor issues.
        The collective extraordinary credentials of our new staff testify
    to the growing stature, accomplishments, and effectiveness of the
    Office of Compliance, signaling only greater things in the year to
    come.
        As a result of this subcommittee's approval of our fiscal year 2008
    request, the Office of Compliance has added 4 new full-time equivalent
    positions to its former complement of 17; resolved long-standing,
    profound health and safety violations in the U.S. Capitol Power Plant;
    achieved enormous improvements in our internal office infrastructure;
    and moved closer to adopting and submitting for congressional
    promulgation regulations with enormous benefit to veterans and
    legislative branch employees who serve in the military.
        The Office has been fulfilling a prodigious mission with minimal
    resources, and we are anxious to be able to make use of the resources
    that we have already been authorized. As Ms. Chrisler has enumerated,
    the budget proposal in front of you is the bare minimum, permitting us
    to make use of the resources that have already been authorized,
    endeavor to fulfill our statutory mandates, and continue the many
    contributions I am convinced the Office of Compliance makes daily to
    the legislative branch.
        Our mission and our vision are vast, but our budget is small. The
    requested increase is extremely modest, in an effort both to respond to
    current fiscal realities and continue our proof positive that we make
    good with very little. Although we have a far longer ``wish list,''
    consistent with our statutory mandates, this budget will permit us only
    to complete those projects and initiatives that rise to the most
    critical level, both from a safety and health perspective and in order
    to save taxpayer dollars.
        I would like to thank you, Madam Chair, as well as the
    subcommittee, for supporting the language in the House report that
    accompanied its version of the fiscal year 2008 Legislative Branch
    Appropriations bill, that directed that the Office of Compliance be
    enabled to use internal email lists to distribute our publications. We
    anticipate this will streamline our distribution processes, as well as
    result in cost savings over time.
        On behalf of the entire Board of Directors of the Office of
    Compliance, I urge your support of the entirety of the budget request.
        Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. The rest
    of the Board and I wholeheartedly support this budget request and hope
    you will respond to it favorably. I am available to address any
    questions.

           LIST OF WITNESSES, COMMUNICATIONS, AND PREPARED STATEMENTS

                                  ----------
                                                                       Page

    Alexander, Senator Lamar, U.S. Senator From Tennessee:
        Prepared Statement of........................................     4
        Statement of.................................................     3
    Ayers, Stephen T., Acting Architect of the Capitol, Architect of
      the Capitol....................................................     1
        Prepared Statement of........................................     7
        Questions Submitted to.......................................    52
        Summary Statement of.........................................     6

    Billington, Dr. James, Librarian of Congress, Library of Congress    25
        Prepared Statement of........................................    27
        Questions Submitted to.......................................    57

    Chrisler, Tamara E., Executive Director, Office of Compliance,
      Prepared Statement of..........................................   182

    Dodaro, Gene L., Acting Comptroller General of the United States,
      Government Accountability Office, Prepared Statement of........   162

    Erickson, Nancy, Secretary of the Senate, Office of the
      Secretary, U.S. Senate, Prepared Statement of..................    79

    Gainer, Honorable Terrance W., Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper,
      U.S. Senate, Prepared Statement of the.........................   140

    Holzwarth, Roberta, Member, Board of Directors, Office of
      Compliance, Prepared Statement of..............................   183

    Jarmon, Gloria, Chief Administrative Officer, United States
      Capitol Police.................................................    15
    Jenkins, Jo Ann, Chief Operating Officer, Library of Congress....    25

    Landrieu, Senator Mary L., U.S. Senator From Louisiana:
        Opening Statement of.........................................     1
        Questions Submitted by.......................................52, 57

    Morse, Phillip D., Sr., Chief of Police, United States Capitol
      Police.........................................................    15
        Prepared Statement of........................................    17

    Nichols, Dan, Assistant Chief of Police, United States Capitol
      Police.........................................................    15

    O'Keefe, Ambassador John, Executive Director, Open World
      Leadership Center, Library of Congress, Prepared Statement of..    31

    Tapella, Robert C., Public Printer, Government Printing Office,
      Prepared Statement of..........................................   171

                                 SUBJECT INDEX

                                  ----------

                            ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL

                                                                       Page

    A Year of AOC Accomplishments....................................    11
    Additional Committee Questions...................................    52
    Annual Operating Budget Request..................................     9
    Architect of the Capitol:
        Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Request..............................     2
        Team.........................................................     7
    Capitol Visitor Center:
        Budget Request and Project Update............................    10
        Soft Opening--Traffic Congestion.............................    41
        Temporary Certificate of Occupancy...........................    52
        Visitor Approach.............................................    41
    Capital Project Budget Request...................................     9
    Deferred Maintenance Backlog.....................................     6
    Greening of the Capitol..........................................    40
    Library Partnership Appreciation.................................     3
    Library of Congress Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Request..............     3
    Noncompliance Enforcement Actions................................    40
    Office of Compliance (OOC):
        Alternative Plans for Priority Projects......................    44
        History......................................................    43
        Occupational Safety and Health Administration Obligations....    39
        Project Enforcement..........................................    42
    Operating Budget Request.........................................     6
    Project Priority Defined.........................................    41
    United States Capital Police Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Request.....     2
    Utility Tunnels:
        Number One Priority..........................................    39
        Rebuild......................................................    44
        Structural Problems..........................................     4

                        GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE

    Demand for GAO Services is High and Increasing...................   163
    Establishing and Maintaining Constructive Union Relationships....   166
    Fiscal Year 2007 Achievements....................................   166
    GAO's Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Request............................   165
    Modest Increase in Staffing Would Help Meet Demand...............   164

                           GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

    Fiscal Year 2009 Appropriations Request..........................   172
    GPO:
        Achieves Savings in Information Dissemination................   176
        Generates Savings for Congress...............................   174
    Results of Fiscal Year 2007......................................   171

                              LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

    Absorbing Mandated Costs.........................................    51
    Additional Committee Questions...................................    52
    Austerity Affects Library Mission................................    26
    Books for the Blind and Physically Handicapped Digital Talking
      Book Program...................................................    28
    Content..........................................................    65
    Calendar Year 2007 Highlights....................................    32
    Cataloging Productivity..........................................    70
    Collecting and Preserving Digital Content........................25, 63
    Collections Storage..............................................    72
    Congressional Research Service (CRS).............................    30
    Contracts Management.............................................    61
    Copyright........................................................    30
    Digital:
        Content......................................................    74
        Talking Book Implementation..................................    49
    Fiscal Year:
        2008.........................................................    63
        2009:
            Budget Request...........................................    37
            To Fiscal Year 2013......................................    65
    Fund Level Concerns..............................................    46
    Future Projects and Resource Needs...............................    31
    Goals............................................................    35
    Growing Collections and Storage Requirements.....................    50
    Law Library......................................................    30
    Library Services.................................................    29
    LOC:
        Appreciation.................................................    45
        Contractor Employees.........................................    70
        New Exhibits.................................................     4
    Maintenance and Staffing of Packard Campus.......................    46
    Measures of Success..............................................    37
    Network..........................................................    67
    National Digital Information and Infrastructure Preservation
      Program (NDIIPP)...........................................28, 62, 63
        Making the Transition to Sustainable Stewardship.............    63
    New Visitors Experience..........................................    26
    Open World 2008..................................................    36
    Overseas Field Offices...........................................    69
    Performance-based Budgeting......................................    61
    Reading Rooms....................................................    71
    Staffing Levels..................................................    59
    Storage Capacity Rating..........................................    50
    Strategic Information Reserve....................................    27
    Technical Infrastructure.........................................    68
    Transition to Digital Talking Books..............................    51
    Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Request..................................    57

                              OFFICE OF COMPLIANCE

    Prevent and Reduce...............................................   182

                          UNITED STATES CAPITOL POLICE

    Accommodating CVC Visitors.......................................    48
    Additional Committee Questions...................................    52
    CVC Security--Transportation.....................................    47
    Communication Issue..............................................    48
    Employee Commitment and Homework.................................    16
    Government Accountability Office Recommendations.................    16
    Large Vehicle Restrictions.......................................    47
    Overtime:
        Analysis Study...............................................    45
        For Capitol Police...........................................    42
        Reduction....................................................    43
    Process of Change................................................    15
    Recent Accomplishments...........................................    15
    Subcommittee Support.............................................    15
    Transportation Options...........................................    48
    United States Capitol Police Overtime............................    44

                                  U.S. SENATE

                            Office of the Secretary

    Administrative Offices...........................................   103
    Bill Clerk.......................................................    81
    Capitol Visitor Center...........................................    81
    Conservation and Preservation....................................   103
    Continuity of Operations and Emergency Preparedness Planning.....    81
    Curator..........................................................   104
    Disbursing Office................................................    90
    Enrolling Clerk..................................................    87
    Executive Clerk..................................................    87
    Human Resources..................................................   118
    Implementing Mandated Systems....................................    80
    Information Systems..............................................   119
    Interparliamentary Services......................................   120
    Joint Office of Education and Training...........................   110
    Journal Clerk....................................................    88
    Legislative Information System (LIS) Project.....................   138
    Legislative Offices..............................................    81
    Library..........................................................   121
    Office of Captioning Services....................................    82
    Office of Public Records.........................................   131
    Office of Web Technology.........................................   135
    Official Reporters of Debates....................................    88
    Parliamentarian..................................................    89
    Presenting the Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Request...................    79
    Printing and Document Services...................................   129
    Senate:
        Chief Counsel for Employment.................................   111
        Daily Digest.................................................    83
        Gift Shop....................................................   112
        Historical Office............................................   115
        Page School..................................................   128
        Security.....................................................   132
    Stationery Room..................................................   133

                        Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper

    Enhancing Service to the Senate..................................   149
    Information Technology...........................................   147
    Operations and Support...........................................   155
    Security and Preparedness........................................   141

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