[Senate Hearing 110-]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2007
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15, 2006
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., in room SD-138, Dirksen
Senate Office Building, Hon. Wayne Allard (chairman) presiding.
Present: Senators Allard and Durbin.
U.S. SENATE
Office of the Secretary
STATEMENT OF EMILY REYNOLDS, SECRETARY OF THE SENATE
ACCOMPANIED BY:
MARY SUIT JONES, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE SENATE
CHRIS DOBY, FINANCIAL CLERK
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR WAYNE ALLARD
Senator Allard. The subcommittee will come to order. Good
morning everybody. We meet today to take testimony on the
fiscal year 2007 budget request for the Secretary of the Senate
and the Architect of the Capitol, and review progress of the
Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) construction. The legislative
branch budget request totals roughly $4.2 billion, an increase
of $460 million or 12 percent over the current year.
While most agencies in the President's budget would be
frozen at current levels, a number of the agencies before this
subcommittee have proposed very substantial increases and we
will need to scrutinize these requests very carefully. We will
have three separate panels today. Secretary Emily Reynolds will
testify first, she's accompanied by Assistant Secretary of the
Senate Mary Suit Jones, and the new Financial Clerk of the
Senate Chris Doby.
Our second panel will be the Architect of the Capitol, Alan
Hantman, and our third panel to discuss progress of the Capitol
Visitor Center construction will include Mr. Hantman, CVC
Project Executive Bob Hixon, and GAO representatives Bernie
Ungar and Terrell Dorn.
I extend a welcome to our witnesses this morning. Ms.
Reynolds, your office is requesting a budget of about $24
million, an increase of roughly $1 million, or just above 5
percent over fiscal year 2006. This budget would support the 26
departments that are part of the Office of the Secretary and
would accommodate cost of living and merit increases. And we'll
now proceed to the first panel. Welcome Ms. Reynolds. You may
proceed with your testimony. It's good to see you.
Ms. Reynolds. Thank you Mr. Chairman, it's an honor to be
with you. We're, of course, very grateful for your leadership
as our subcommittee chairman, and we appreciate this
opportunity to talk about the work of the Secretary's office.
I'd like to ask that my full statement, which, of course,
includes our complete department reports, be submitted for the
record.
Today I would just like to give you a brief overview of the
Secretary's operation and most importantly that budget request
for fiscal year 2007 that you mentioned. As you said, we've
requested about $24 million; $22 million of that is in salary
cost and $1.9 million for operating expenses. That slight
increase as you've referenced is in cost of living allowance
(COLA) and merit increases so that we can continue to attract
and retain the talent that the Senate requires and deserves for
the critical day to day operations that we provide.
And I'd like to take a couple of minutes today and just
highlight some of the work of the past year, since we were all
last together at this hearing. There are three key words that
come to mind in reflecting on the Secretary's operation. And
those are continuity, creativity and collaboration. That's how
our office functions and I want to mention in particular in
terms of continuity, because in so many respects we are the
institutional memory of the Senate. We take very seriously the
responsibility of passing that knowledge along from generation
to generation, incoming class to incoming class, office to
office. Our legislative department, the great folks that you
see on the floor of the Senate each and every day, continue to
cross train among their various specialties, and about half of
that staff is cross trained.
We're also blessed in that a large number of people come to
serve the Senate for an extended period of time, but it makes
it all the more important when you begin to lose that
institutional memory in retirements that we try to anticipate
those changes and work toward an appropriate line of
succession. And at all times, we strive to attract and retain
the best talent possible. Individuals for whom coming to the
Senate to serve this body as their career is a high priority.
And, of course, on a much broader scale, it's our
responsibility to prepare daily so that you and your colleagues
can carry out your constitutional responsibilities under any
circumstance. So for us that continuity has both a daily impact
and a much broader view as well.
I mention creativity as well and I hope that we bring a
certain level of creativity in each of our 26 departments. And
I'd like to just highlight five things today that we're doing.
A perfect example of that creativity is the Senate's
website. And our new home page in particular which we're very
proud to have the chance to show off and talk about a little
bit. All of our lives have been changed dramatically by the
worldwide web, and the Senate is no exception. Senate.gov now
celebrates a decade of service to the Senate community and the
general public and received an astonishing 50 million visits
last year. That's five times as many as just 5 years ago, so
remarkable growth in terms of the public's access to
senate.gov. And with that, thanks to the support of this
subcommittee we unveiled a handsome new home page in January.
There's more content on the front page, the site also provides
site wide searches from every page, and, of course, most
importantly those direct links to the Members' home pages.
I'm really delighted that U.S. News took note of the new
homepage, and described it as a rich new website and one that's
much easier to research. I also mentioned to you when we were
here last year, that our historical office had underway a
project of a pictorial directory, with the images of all
Senators who have served since 1789, by State and by class.
That book ``Faces of the Senate'' was completed in November and
it really is a treasure. It was a monumental effort on the part
of our Senate photo historian. And it was interesting in that
as she reached out to historical societies, museums and other
organizations in trying to locate as many images as possible,
the project attracted the attention of a National Guardsman
from Vermont who was stationed in Iraq. He was working on a
historical project for his unit, and he e-mailed our photo
historian saying I don't have a lot of time to assist, but with
my own project I'm finding resources out there I never knew
existed. And amazingly enough, he helped us locate six images
of former Members for whom we had no previous record.
The gift shop I want to mention, a tremendous presence here
in the Senate. And we've enhanced the gift shop operation by
adding an online presence to our intranet Webster so that our
Senate community can more easily see the vast array of products
that we have available.
I'm also proud that in this bicentennial year of
Constantino Brumidi's birth, the artist of the Capitol, we've
added a product line with Brumidi featured merchandise so that
our merchandise reflects the rich history of the Capitol and
hopefully for people it has some educational value as well.
You may also recall, that 2 years ago we completed the
publication of the Senate's fine arts catalogue. A beautiful
volume, the companion volume, a catalogue of our graphics art
collection will be available later this year. And just like the
fine arts publication, it will be a magnificent presentation of
the 900 historic engravings and lithographs in the Senate
collection.
I had the opportunity to speak last week with a member of
our curatorial advisory board, and she said that she believed
that this publication will be very well received in the arts
community, the academic community, as a first ever glance if
you will at this tremendous collection of the Senate's and it's
an excellent research tool. So we'll have that to you later
this year. I'm excited about it.
In the Senate reception room, thanks to the leadership of
Senator Dodd, we will add an important representation from the
18th century. And that's the addition of a mural that will
commemorate the two authors of the Great or Connecticut
Compromise. That mural will depict the authors of that
compromise, Roger Sherman, and Oliver Ellsworth and will be
unveiled later this year.
And finally in terms of collaboration, so much of what we
do each and every day is dependent on a team approach, among
our departments working with the Architect of the Capitol,
working with members of the Senate community and especially
with our Sergeant at Arms. And once again I'd love to give
three quick examples. I want to publicly thank and commend the
Sergeant at Arms, and this subcommittee without whose support
the project would not have been possible for the completion of
the new Senate support facility. From our gift shop,
stationery, the curator, library, our disbursing operation,
having that state-of-the-art storage space will make a
difference each and every day in terms of the level of support
we provide our Senate community. The facility is a welcome
addition and should serve our needs for years to come.
One of the most important services that you and your
colleagues offer the folks at home is providing flags that are
flown over the Capitol, and we have an exciting pilot project
underway with 26 offices and I believe your office is one, to
streamline that process of the purchase of pre-flown flags.
It's become cumbersome at times, and again thanks to this
pilot, we should have real success and report back to you on
that along the way.
And finally our legislative information system, another
project generously funded by this subcommittee, we've made
tremendous progress again this year. Again a team effort
between our LIS Office and most especially the Senate
Legislative Counsel. Already this year, over 95 percent of the
bills introduced in this session of the 109th Congress have
been written and formatted through the XML authoring
application known as LEXA. So we're very proud of that
milestone.
I often marvel that the first Secretary of the Senate
carried out his responsibilities alone, in the first years of
the Senate's existence. By the time he died in office in 1814,
he had convinced his appropriators to allow him to hire two
clerks. As much as things have changed and as our
responsibilities have grown through the years, the three
fundamental responsibilities of our office, to provide the
legislative, financial, and administrative support to this
institution remain at the heart of what we do, each and every
day. It's our duty and our honor to carry out these functions
for the Senate.
PREPARED STATEMENT
On behalf of our entire team, we thank this subcommittee
Mr. Chairman, for your support and I look forward to questions.
Thank you.
[The statement follows:]
Prepared Statement of Emily J. Reynolds
Mr. Chairman, Senator Durbin, and Members of the Subcommittee,
thank you for your invitation to present testimony in support of the
budget request of the Office of the Secretary of the Senate for fiscal
year 2007.
Detailed information about the work of the 26 departments of the
Office of the Secretary is provided in the annual reports which follow.
I am pleased to provide this statement to highlight the achievements of
the Office and the outstanding work of our dedicated employees.
My statement includes: Presenting the fiscal year 2007 budget
request; implementing mandated systems: financial management
information system (FMIS) and legislative information system (LIS);
Capitol Visitor Center; continuity of operations planning; and
maintaining and improving current and historic legislative, financial
and administrative services.
PRESENTING THE FISCAL YEAR 2007 BUDGET REQUEST
I am requesting a total fiscal year 2007 budget of $24,066,000. The
fiscal year 2007 budget request is comprised of $22,166,000 in salary
costs and $1,900,000 for the operating budget of the Office of the
Secretary. The salary budget represents an increase over the fiscal
year 2006 budget as a result of (1) the costs associated with the
annual Cost of Living Adjustment in the amount of $654,000 and (2) an
additional $646,000 for merit increases and other staffing. The
operating budget represents a decrease of $80,000 from fiscal year
2006. The funding for the study on employment compensation, hiring and
benefits practices, included in last year's funding, is a non-
reoccurring expense.
The net effect of my total budget request for fiscal year 2007 is
an increase of $1,220,000.
Our request in the operating budget is a sound one, enabling us to
meet our operating needs and provide the necessary services to the
United State Senate through our legislative, financial and
administrative offices.
In reference to the salary budget, first and foremost, this request
will enable us to continue to attract and retain talented and dedicated
individuals to serve the needs of the United States Senate.
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY APPORTIONMENT SCHEDULE
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Amount
available Budget
Item fiscal year estimate Difference
2006, Public fiscal year
Law 109-55 2007
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Departmental operating budget:
Executive office............................................ $630,000 $550,000 -80,000
Administrative services..................................... 1,290,000 1,290,000 ..............
Legislative services........................................ 60,000 60,000 ..............
-----------------------------------------------
Total operating budget.................................... 1,980,000 1,900,000 -80,000
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 offices. Consistent with the five year 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. The goal is to move to a
paperless voucher system, improve the Web FMIS system, and make payroll
and accounting system improvements.
Over the last two years work has been underway to update and
simplify the underlying technology of Web FMIS, basically replacing all
Visual Basic Client/Server and Cold Fusion Web technology with
WebSphere web pages thereby creating a ``thin client'' application that
can be accessed via an intranet browser. In August 2004 Web FMIS r9.0
for pilot offices, which was a complete rewriting of the Web FMIS
functionality using all intranet based pages, was implemented. By the
end of April, all Web FMIS users were using the intranet version of Web
FMIS.
During fiscal year 2005 and the first half of fiscal year 2006,
improvements to Web FMIS were as follows:
--In the November 2004 release, additional functionality identified
by the pilot offices was addressed. This new release was
provided to new offices of the 109th Congress. In the February
2005 release, a security certificate was added to the Web FMIS
web site (i.e., adding the ``S'' to https://webfmis.senate.gov)
and changed the extracts for the nightly Web FMIS reporting
cycle to use table-driven parameters rather than hard-coded
ones. In April 2005, report and document printing was provided
via Adobe, standard Senate software, rather than Web FMIS-
specific files. This completed moving Web FMIS to the ``zero-
client'' platform, an important milestone in providing critical
systems in a disaster situation. With this change, the Rules
Committee Audit staff moved from client-server based screens to
intranet-based pages for their functions, Disbursing staff
began to use ``standard notepad text'' in documenting
corrections made to vouchers. In July 2005, the focus was on
additional functionality for Disbursing, including new pages
for the Inbox and Document Review functions, enhancements to
the Advice of Change process and streamlining the document
approval process. Technology was updated and provided more
functionality on the Inbox pages and the travel reimbursement
mileage rate maintenance page. Additional functionality was
added to the Documents/Create page and the Budget page, and
bugs were fixed.
--In May 2005, the SAVI system was upgraded, which enables Senate
staff to check the status of reimbursements, whether via check
or direct deposit, to enable its use by Macintosh computer
users.
--The Disbursing Office makes payments via direct deposit and via
check using the Checkwriter software. In 2006, Checkwriter
release 6, which rewrites the security component, will be
tested with implementation tentatively scheduled for summer
2006.
--On Saturday, December 3, 2005, the Sergeant at Arms technical staff
conducted a disaster recovery test of the Senate's computing
facilities, including the financial management information
system (FMIS) functions. The test involved switching the
Senate's network from accessing systems at the Primary
Computing Facility (PCF) to the backup facility, and powering
down the PCF.
The SAA's primary purpose was to test the technical process of
switching to our backup facility, and only a limited amount of
time was available for functional testing. The SAA staff wanted
to complete the exercise within a 12-hour window, including the
time needed to switch us to the backup facility and back to the
PCF. A two-hour functional testing window was expected. In the
scenario, FMIS systems and data would be ``failed-over'' to the
backup facility, and made available for testing during the
functional testing window. The systems would then be ``failed
back'' to the PCF, but the data would not be ``failed back''.
Consequently, any changes made while testing at the backup
facility would not be made to production data.
Within the limited scope of what we were able to test, most of
the critical components of FMIS were successfully tested. A
request has been made to the SAA that disaster recovery tests
be conducted twice a year and that additional system components
be tested at each successive event.
--The computing infrastructure for FMIS is provided by the Sergeant
at Arms. Each year upgrades are made to the infrastructure
software. The major upgrade this year was the implementation of
a new version of the mainframe operating system software, ``Z/
OS.'' This upgrade required FMIS testing, both before
implementation to identify and resolve any incompatibilities,
and after implementation to verify that all functions are
working properly.
During 2005 work continued with Bearing Point to define the
requirements for additional functionality required for the two Web FMIS
releases planned for 2006:
--Web FMIS r11 B.--Planned for Summer 2006, this release will add the
ability to ``import'' invoice data from an outside vendor in
order to create a voucher with minimal re-typing. (This process
is similar to the ``import'' process by which data from an
online ESR, created via SAVI, is used to create a travel
voucher).
--Web FMIS r12 B.--Planned for late Fall 2006, this release will be a
pilot of paperless voucher processing, which requires adding
electronic signature and documentation imaging functionality.
In addition, during fiscal year 2006 the following FMIS activities
are anticipated:
--Developing requirements for integrating the Funds Advance Tracking
System (FATS) into FMIS. FATS, a stand-alone PC-based system,
tracks election cycle information used in the voucher review
process, and tracks travel advances and petty cash advances
against dollar maximum and total allocation rules.
--Implementing DB2 vs. 8 in compatibility mode.
--Researching the implementation of online distribution of system
reports.
--Completing fiscal year 2004 Financial Statements in Hyperion and
start working on fiscal year 2005.
--Performing some minor enhancements to the FAMIS vendor file.
A more detailed report on FMIS is included in the department report
of the Disbursing Office which follows.
Legislative Information System (LIS)
The LISAP project team continues to enhance the Senate's
legislative editing XML application (LEXA). The Office of the Senate
Legislative Counsel (SLC) used LEXA throughout 2005 and 80 percent of
introduced and reported measures for the first session of the 109th
Congress were created as XML documents. As modifications and features
were developed for LEXA, the SLC's use continues to increase. Thus far
in the second session of the 109th Congress, approximately 96 percent
of the introduced and reported bills have been created as XML
documents. Additional document types, such as conference reports and
engrossed and enrolled bills, were added to LEXA.
The LISAP project team continues to work with the Senate offices,
the Clerk of the House, the Government Printing Office and the Library
of Congress to develop standards and tools to create, print and
exchange legislative documents in XML. The Government Printing Office
(GPO) uses LEXA to update and print Senate XML documents as requested.
GPO also provides support for LEXA, as directed in the 2004 Legislative
Branch Appropriations Act, by maintaining the printing software in LEXA
that converts an XML document to locators for printing through
Microcomp. GPO is also in the process of reworking the software that
creates and prints tables. These tools will be incorporated into both
the Senate and House XML authoring applications.
A joint project to convert the compilations of current law to an
XML format was completed last year. Joint projects for this year
include completion of the new table tool and development of standards
for drafting appropriations amendments in XML. The Document Management
System (DMS) for the SLC will be implemented once the SLC has completed
the transition from XyWrite to LEXA. The SLC's DMS will be integrated
with LEXA and will provide a powerful tracking, management and delivery
tool.
CAPITOL VISITOR CENTER
While the Architect of the Capitol directly oversees this massive
and impressive project, I would like to briefly mention the ongoing
involvement of the Secretary's office in this endeavor. My colleague,
the Clerk of the House, and I continue to facilitate weekly meetings
with senior staff of the joint leadership of Congress to address and
hopefully quickly resolve issues that might impact the status of the
project or the operation of Congress in general.
In addition, I also facilitate weekly meetings with the Architect's
office for the senior staff of the Senate Sergeant at Arms, Capitol
Police, Rules Committee and Appropriations Committee in order to
address the expansion space plans for the Senate and any issues with
regard to the Capitol Visitor Center's (CVC's) construction that may
directly impact Senate operations.
Although the construction creates numerous temporary inconveniences
to Senators, staff and visitors, completion of the CVC 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 maintains a Continuity of Operations
(COOP) program to ensure that the Senate can fulfill its constitutional
obligations under any circumstances. Plans are in place to support
Senate floor operations both on and off Capitol Hill, and to permit
each department within the Office of the Secretary to perform its
essential functions during and after an emergency.
COOP planning in the Office of the Secretary began in late 2000.
Since that time, COOP plans were successfully implemented during the
anthrax and ricin incidents, and more than twenty drills and exercises
to test and refine our plans have been conducted. In conjunction with
the Sergeant at Arms, Capitol Police, the Office of the Attending
Physician and the Architect of the Capitol, Emergency Operations
Centers, Briefing Centers and Alternate Senate Chambers, have been
exercised both on and off campus.
In addition, equipment, supplies and other items critical to the
conduct of essential functions have been identified and assembled as
``fly-away kits'' for the Senate Chamber and for each department of the
Office of the Secretary. Multiple copies of each fly-away kit have been
produced; some are stored in our offices, and back-up kits are stored
nearby but off the main campus, as well as at other sites outside the
District of Columbia. This approach will enable the Office of the
Secretary to resume essential operations within 12 to 24 hours, even if
there is no opportunity to retrieve anything from our offices.
Today, the Office of the Secretary is prepared to do the following
in the event of emergency:
--support Senate Floor operations in an Alternate Senate Chamber
within 12 hours on campus, and within 24 to 72 hours off
campus, depending upon location;
--support an emergency legislative session at a Briefing Center, if
required;
--support Briefing Center Operations at any of three designated
locations within 1 hour;
--activate an Emergency Operations Center at Postal Square or another
near-campus site within 1 hour; and
--activate an Emergency Operations Center at another site within the
National Capital region within 3 hours.
Activities in the Past Year
During the past year, the Office of the Secretary continued to
update, refine and exercise emergency preparedness plans and
operations. Specific activities included the following:
--Updated plans for use of an Alternate Senate Chamber, Briefing
Center and Emergency Operations Center;
--Working with the Capitol Police and the Office of the Sergeant at
Arms, refined response plans for air threat incidents;
--Updated fly-away kits for use at an Alternate Chamber; and
--Conducted and participated in ten emergency preparedness drills and
exercises.
The central mission of the Office of the Secretary is to provide
the legislative, financial and administrative support required for the
conduct of Senate business. Our emergency preparedness programs are
designed to ensure that the Senate can carry out its Constitutional
functions under any circumstances. These programs are critical to our
mission, and they are a permanent, integral part of the Secretary's
ongoing operation.
MAINTAINING AND IMPROVING CURRENT AND HISTORIC LEGISLATIVE, FINANCIAL
AND ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
LEGISLATIVE OFFICES
The Legislative Department of the Office of the Secretary of the
Senate provides the support essential to Senators to carry out their
daily chamber activities as well as 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 Legislative
Clerk. The Parliamentarian's office is also part of the Legislative
Department of the Secretary of the Senate.
Each of the nine offices within the Legislative Department is
supervised by experienced veterans of the Secretary's office. The
average length of service of legislative supervisors in the Office of
the Secretary of the Senate is 20 years. The experience of this 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.
1. BILL CLERK
The Office of the Bill Clerk collects and records data on the
legislative activity of the Senate, which becomes the historical record
of official Senate business. The Bill Clerk's Office keeps this
information in its handwritten files and ledgers and also enters it
into the Senate's automated retrieval system so that it is available to
all House and Senate offices via the Legislative Information System
(LIS). The Bill Clerk records actions of the Senate with regard to
bills, resolutions, reports, amendments, co-sponsors, public law
numbers, and recorded votes. The Bill Clerk is responsible for
preparing for print all measures introduced, received, submitted, and
reported in the Senate. The Bill Clerk also assigns numbers to all
Senate bills and resolutions. All the information received in this
office comes directly from the Senate floor in written form. 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 150 additional roll call votes than
the previous session. For comparative purposes, below is a summary of
the 108th Congress, broken down into 1st and 2nd sessions, as compared
to the first session of the 109th Congress:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
108th 109th 108th 109th
Congress, Congress, Congress, Congress,
1st Session 1st Session 2nd Session 1st Session
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Senate Bills............................................ 2,003 2,169 1,032 2,169
Senate Joint Resolutions................................ 26 27 16 27
Senate Concurrent Resolutions........................... 86 75 66 75
Senate Resolutions...................................... 283 347 204 347
Amendments Submitted.................................... 2,231 2,695 1,857 2,695
House Bills............................................. 282 286 322 286
House Joint Resolutions................................. 20 11 12 11
House Concurrent Resolutions............................ 78 88 87 88
Measures Reported....................................... 352 286 317 286
Written Reports......................................... 220 212 208 212
-------------------------------------------------------
Total Legislation................................. 5,571 6,196 4,121 6,196
=======================================================
Roll Call Votes......................................... 459 366 216 366
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Assistance from the Government Printing Office (GPO)
The Bill Clerk's office maintains a good working relationship with
the Government Printing Office with the common goal of providing the
best service possible to meet the needs of the Senate. Toward this end,
GPO continues to respond in a timely manner to the Secretary's request
through the Bill Clerk's office for the printing of bills and reports,
including the expedited printing of priority matters for the Senate
chamber. For example, the Secretary requested, through the Bill Clerk,
that GPO expedite the printing of roughly 60 measures for consideration
by the Senate.
Projects
Amendment Tracking System (ATS).--In the fall of 2001, the Rules
Committee staff approached the Secretary's office with the task of
scanning submitted amendments onto the Amendment Tracking System on
LIS. The Rules Committee identified a need for Senate staff to have all
amendments submitted in the Senate made available to them online
shortly after being submitted, especially during cloture. Rules
Committee also requested that the Secretary assess the feasibility of
lifting the page limitation for scanning amendments onto the ATS
Indexer.
In September 2005, the Secretary of the Senate, through the Bill
Clerk's office, began scanning submitted amendments to the ATS Indexer.
The Technology Development division of the Sergeant at Arms office has
been quick and responsive, making the ATS Indexer a dynamic, usable
tool available to the Senate community. The Bill Clerks were able to
implement this new requirement seamlessly. With the added function of
the ATS Indexer, the Secretary has made available to the Senate
community all amendments, submitted and proposed, and in doing so,
lifted the page limit from 25 to 50. Initial response from users is
both positive and constructive.
Electronic Ledger System.--Shortly after the September 2001 attacks
and the subsequent anthrax attacks in the Capitol complex, the Bill
Clerk identified the need to have available an electronic version of
the official Senate ledgers in order to ensure the integrity of the
information recorded in the books. It is anticipated that the
electronic version will be available for use during possible emergency
scenarios, either via remote access or portable device. The Technology
Development division of the Sergeant-at-Arms is working to develop two
separate functions of this ledger system. One is an electronic data
entry system, which will mimic the layout of the current Senate ledgers
printed by the Government Printing Office. The other, a search
function, has already been developed and is currently in use in select
clerical offices of the legislative staff and is routinely enhanced and
modified by the excellent ELS project team at Postal Square. Both of
these programs will be housed on a separate server to maintain the
integrity of the ledger data. This search system offers an invaluable
tool capable of utilizing more complex search requirements.
2. 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 to Senate
offices via the Senate intranet.
General Overview
Accuracy continues to be the top priority of this Office. Overall
caption quality is monitored through daily Translation Data Reports,
monitoring of captions in realtime, and review of caption files on the
Senate intranet. Dedication to this process has produced an overall
captioning accuracy average above 99 percent this past year.
A major event of 2005 for the Office of Captioning Services was
realtime captioning the 55th Annual Presidential Inauguration. The
Office's captions of the historic event appeared on six jumbotrons
located on the West Front of the Capitol and the National Mall.
Continuity of operations planning and preparation during 2005
continued to be a priority to ensure staff is prepared and confident
about the Office's ability to relocate and successfully caption from a
remote location in the event of an emergency. Participation in a
Continuity of Operations template review project with the Sergeant at
Arms Continuity of Operations Program Manager provided an excellent
opportunity for an in-depth review of the Office of Captioning
Service's Plan.
Technology Update
The Office received a major upgrade of software and hardware in
2004 and thus continues to work with vendors to provide enhancements
and correct deficiencies in the new realtime captioning software.
2006 Objectives
The Office of Captioning Services constantly strives to maintain
and improve the high level of caption accuracy that has been
established. The Office is committed to this goal and will strive to
find new and innovative ways to accomplish this objective.
Another priority of the Office of Captioning Services will be to
prepare and plan for the procurement and installation of equipment and
relocation of the Office of Captioning Services to the Senate expansion
space in the Capitol Visitor Center.
3. 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 all
official actions taken by Senate committees on legislation,
nominations, and treaties.
--To publish in the Daily Digest a listing of all legislation which
have 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 Resume of Congressional Activity which
follows).
--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 a total of 874 meetings during the first
session of the 109th Congress, as contrasted with 838 meetings during
the first session of the 108th Congress.
All hearings and business meetings (including joint meetings and
conferences) are scheduled through the Office of the Senate Daily
Digest and are published in the Congressional Record and entered in the
Legislative Information System. Meeting outcomes are also published by
the Daily Digest in the Congressional Record each day.
Chamber Activity
The Senate was in session a total of 159 days, for a total of 1,222
hours and 26 minutes. There were 3 live quorum calls and 366 record
votes. (See Chart depicting a 20-Year Comparison of Senate Legislative
Activity which follows).
20-YEAR COMPARISON OF SENATE LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995
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Senate Convened..................................... 1/21 1/6 1/25 1/3 1/23 1/3 1/3 1/5 1/25 1/4
Senate Adjourned.................................... 10/18 12/22 10/21 11/21 10/28 1/3/92 10/9 11/26 12/01 1/3/96
Days in Session..................................... 143 170 137 136 138 158 129 153 138 211
Hours in Session.................................... 1,27815" 1,21452" 1,12648" 1,00319" 1,25014" 1,20044" 1,09109" 1,26941" 1,24333" 1,83910"
Average Hours per Day............................... 8.9 7.1 8.2 7.4 9.1 7.6 8.5 8.3 9.0 8.7
Total Measures Passed............................... 747 616 814 605 716 626 651 473 465 346
Roll Call Votes..................................... 359 420 379 312 326 280 270 395 329 613
Quorum Calls........................................ 16 36 26 11 3 3 5 2 6 3
Public Laws......................................... 424 240 473 240 244 243 347 210 255 88
Treaties Ratified................................... 12 3 15 9 15 15 32 20 8 10
Nominations Confirmed............................... 39,893 46,404 42,317 45,585 42,493 45,369 30,619 38,676 37,446 40,535
Average Voting Attendance........................... 95.72 94.03 91.58 98.0 97.47 97.16 95.4 97.6 97.02 98.07
Sessions Convened Before 12 Noon.................... 117 131 120 95 116 126 112 128 120 184
Sessions Convened at 12 Noon........................ 25 12 12 14 4 9 ............ 6 9 2
Sessions Convened after 12 Noon..................... 1 25 5 27 17 23 10 15 17 12
Sessions Continued after 6 p.m...................... 92 97 37 88 100 102 91 100 100 158
Sessions Continued after 12 Midnight................ 15 6 7 9 13 6 4 9 7 3
Saturday Sessions................................... 2 3 ............ 1 3 2 2 2 3 5
Sunday Sessions..................................... ............ 1 ............ ............ 2 ............ ............ ............ ............ 3
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20-YEAR COMPARISON OF SENATE LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY--Continued
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
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Senate Convened..................................... 1/3 1/3 1/27 1/6 1/24 1/3 1/23 1/7 1/20 1/4
Senate Adjourned.................................... 10/4 11/13 10/21 11/19 12/15 12/20 11/20 12/9 12/8 12/22
Days in Session..................................... 132 153 143 162 141 173 149 167 133 159
Hours in Session.................................... 1,03645" 1,09307" 1,09505" 1,18357" 1,01751" 1,23615" 1,04223" 1,45405" 1,03131" 1,22226"
Average Hours per Day............................... 7.8 7.1 7.7 7.3 7.2 7.1 7.0 8.7 7.7 7.7
Total Measures Passed............................... 476 386 506 549 696 425 523 590 663 624
Roll Call Votes..................................... 306 298 314 374 298 380 253 459 216 366
Quorum Calls........................................ 2 6 4 7 6 3 2 3 1 3
Public Laws......................................... 245 153 241 170 410 136 241 198 300 170
Treaties Ratified................................... 28 15 53 13 39 3 17 11 15 6
Nominations Confirmed............................... 33,176 25,576 20,302 22,468 22,512 25,091 23,633 21,580 24,420 25,942
Average Voting Attendance........................... 98.22 98.68 97.47 98.02 96.99 98.29 96.36 96.07 95.54 97.41
Sessions Convened Before 12 Noon.................... 113 115 109 118 107 140 119 133 104 121
Sessions Convened at 12 Noon........................ 15 12 31 17 25 10 12 4 9 1
Sessions Convened after 12 Noon..................... 7 7 2 19 24 21 23 23 21 36
Sessions Continued after 6 p.m...................... 88 96 93 113 94 108 103 134 129 120
Sessions Continued after 12 Midnight................ 1 ............ ............ ............ ............ 2 3 8 2 3
Saturday Sessions................................... 1 1 1 3 1 3 ............ 1 2 2
Sunday Sessions..................................... ............ 1 ............ ............ 1 ............ ............ 1 1 2
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prepared by the Senate Daily Digest--Office of the Secretary.
Computer Activities
The Daily Digest continues to send the complete publication at the
end of each day to the Government Printing Office electronically. The
Editor, Assistant Editor, and Committee Scheduling Coordinator function
solely within the framework of adaptability to prepare Digest copy on
computers, storing and sharing information, permitting prompt editing,
and the final transfer to floppy disc. The Digest continues the
practice of sending a disc along with a duplicate hard copy to GPO,
even though GPO receives the Digest copy by electronic transfer long
before hand delivery is completed adding to 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/DMS system, including further refinements to
the Senate committee scheduling application which will improve the data
entry process. The committee scheduling application was developed in
1999 as a server-based web-enabled application that is browser
accessible to all Senate offices. It was designed to replace the
committee scheduling functions and reports that were supported by the
mainframe-based Senate Legis System.
Government Printing Office (GPO)
The Daily Digest continues to discuss with the Government Printing
Office problems encountered with the printing of the Digest, and are
pleased to report that with the onset of electronic transfer of the
Digest copy, occurrences of editing corrections, especially the
insertion of page reference numbers, or transcript errors are
infrequent. Discussions with GPO continue regarding the inclusion of
on-line corrections.
Office Summation
The Daily Digest continues to consult on a daily basis with the
Senate Parliamentarians, Legislative, Executive, Journal, and Bill
Clerks, the Official Reporters of Debates, as well as the staffs of the
Policy Committees and other committee staffs, and is grateful for the
continued support from these offices.
4. ENROLLING CLERK
The Enrolling Clerk prepares, proofreads, corrects, and prints all
Senate passed legislation prior to its transmittal to the House of
Representatives, the National Archives, the Secretary of State, the
United States Claims Court, and the White House.
During 2005, 50 enrolled bills (transmitted to the President) and
11 concurrent resolutions (transmitted to Archives) were prepared,
printed, proofread, corrected, and printed on parchment.
A total of 624 additional pieces of legislation in one form or
another, were passed or agreed to by the Senate, requiring processing
from this office.
5. EXECUTIVE CLERK
The Executive Clerk prepares an accurate record of actions taken by
the Senate during executive sessions (proceedings on nominations and
treaties) which is published as the 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 Executive Clerk's office processes all executive
communications, presidential messages and petitions and memorials.
Nominations
During the first session of the 109th Congress, there were 1,201
nomination messages sent to the Senate by the President, transmitting
27,686 nominations to positions requiring Senate confirmation and 18
messages withdrawing nominations sent to the Senate during the first
session of the 109th Congress. Of the total nominations transmitted,
511 were for civilian positions other than lists in the Foreign
Service, Coast Guard, NOAA, and Public Health Service. In addition,
there were 2,740 nominees in the ``civilian list'' categories named
above. Military nominations received this session totaled 24,435
(9,860--Air Force; 8,586--Army; 4,607--Navy and 1,382--Marine Corps).
The Senate confirmed 25,942 nominations this session. Pursuant to the
provisions of paragraph six of Senate Rule XXXI, 67 nominations were
returned to the President during the first session of the 109th
Congress.
Treaties
There were 8 treaties transmitted to the Senate by the President
during the first session of the 109th Congress for its advice and
consent to ratification, which were ordered printed as treaty documents
for the use of the Senate (Treaty Doc. 109-1 through 109-8). The Senate
gave its advice and consent to 6 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 8 executive reports relating to treaties and a
nomination ordered printed for the use of the Senate during the first
session of the 109th Congress (Executive Report 109-1 through 109-8).
The Senate conducted 27 roll call votes in executive session, all on or
in relation to nominations and treaties.
During the year, the Sergeant at Arms' Systems Development Services
Branch worked with the Executive Clerk to make the Executive Calendar
more ``user friendly'' and also to further ongoing improvements to the
Legislative Information System pertaining to the processing of
nominations, treaties, executive communications, presidential messages
and petitions and memorials. Additionally, the SAA worked closely with
the Executive Clerk in the development of the new program for writing
and publishing the Journal of Executive Proceedings of the Senate each
session. The new program, now in use for the second session of the
109th Congress, will greatly improve the pace at which the Journal can
be developed and published each year.
Executive Communications
For the first session of the 109th Congress, 5,119 executive
communications, 253 petitions and memorials and 34 Presidential
messages were received and processed.
6. JOURNAL CLERK
The Journal Clerk takes notes of the daily legislative proceedings
of the Senate in the ``Minute Book'' and prepares a history of bills
and resolutions for the printed 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. In
2005, the Journal Clerk completed the production of the 867 page 2004
Senate Journal.
The Journal staff each take 90 minute turns at the rostrum in the
Senate Chamber, noting by hand for inclusion in the Minute Book (i) all
orders (entered into by the Senate through unanimous consent
agreements), (ii) legislative messages received from the President 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 in the Senate Journal.
The LIS Senate Journal Authoring System, first utilized by the
Journal Clerk to successfully compile the 2004 Journal (from start to
finish), continues to be updated as needed to further assist in the
efficiency of production; the 2005 Journal is expected to be sent to
the Government Printing Office for printing at the end of March.
7. LEGISLATIVE CLERK
The Legislative Clerk sits at the Secretary's desk in the Senate
Chamber and reads aloud bills, amendments, the Senate Journal,
Presidential messages, and other such materials when so directed by the
Presiding Officer of the Senate. The Legislative Clerk calls the roll
of members to establish the presence of a quorum and to record and
tally all yea and nay votes. The office prepares the Senate Calendar of
Business, published each day that the Senate is in session, and
prepares additional publications relating to Senate class membership
and committee and subcommittee assignments. The Legislative Clerk
maintains the official copy of all measures pending before the Senate
and must incorporate into those measures any amendments that are agreed
to. This office retains custody of official messages received from the
House of Representatives and conference reports awaiting action by the
Senate.
The office is responsible for verifying the accuracy of information
entered into the Legislative Information System (LIS) by the various
offices of the Secretary. In an effort to monitor and improve the LIS,
the Legislative Clerk acts as the liaison between legislative clerks
and technical operations staff of the Sergeant at Arms. The Legislative
Clerk reviews, prioritizes, and forwards change requests from the
clerks to the technical operations staff. Over the past year, 30 change
requests submitted by the clerks to improve the system have been
implemented. Feedback from the Senate community regarding LIS continues
to be excellent.
Additionally, the Legislative Clerk is the Director of Legislative
Services, providing a single line of communication to the Assistant
Secretary and Secretary with responsibility for overall coordination,
supervision, scheduling, and cross-training.
Summary of Activity
The first session of the 109th Congress completed its legislative
business and adjourned sine die on December 22, 2005. During 2005, the
Senate was in session 159 days and conducted 366 roll call votes. There
were 286 measures reported from committees and 624 total measures
passed. In addition, there were 2,695 amendments processed.
Cross-Training
Recognizing the importance of planning for the continuity of Senate
business, under both normal and possibly extenuating circumstances,
cross-training is strongly emphasized among the Secretary's legislative
staff. To ensure additional staff is trained to perform the basic floor
responsibilities of the Legislative Clerk, as well as the various other
floor-related responsibilities of the Secretary, approximately 50
percent of the legislative staff is cross-trained.
Amendment Tracking System Expansion
The Senate's web-based application that allows users to access
images of Senate amendments proposed to legislation is called the
Amendment Tracking System (ATS). Developed in 1997 to provide the
Senate with online access to amendments, ATS provides legislative staff
with scanned images of the amendments, and descriptive information
about them, including their purpose, sponsor, cosponsors, submitted
date, proposed date, and status.
During this past year, the Secretary, through the Legislative
Clerk, Bill Clerk and Information Systems, spent many hours working
with the technical development staff of the Sergeant at Arms to give
the ATS a major overhaul. Some of the less visible changes, implemented
in March, included upgrades to the hardware and underlying software
programs.
In September, the scope of information available on ATS expanded to
include submitted amendments, those that have been submitted but have
not been proposed on the Senate floor. ATS also expanded the size of
amendment images from 25 to 50 pages, so users are now able to see up
to 50 pages of a submitted or proposed amendment. The Senate community
welcomed the ATS enhancement enthusiastically and feedback has been
very positive.
8. OFFICIAL REPORTERS OF DEBATES
The official Reporters of Debates prepare and edit for publication
in the Congressional Record a substantially verbatim report of the
proceedings of the Senate, and serve as liaison for all Senate
personnel on matters relating to the content of the Record. The
transcript of proceedings, submitted statements and legislation is
transmitted in hard copy and electronically throughout the day to the
Government Printing Office (GPO).
The office works diligently to assure that the electronic
submissions to GPO are timely and efficient. The Official Reporters
encourage offices to make submissions to the Record by electronic
means, which results in both a tremendous cost saving to the Senate and
minimizes keyboard errors.
To enhance efficiency, the office provides guidelines on format for
the Congressional Record. These provide a helpful tool to assure an
accurate and timely printing of each day's Congressional Record.
9. 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 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. The Parliamentarians reviewed more
than 1,000 amendments during 2005 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 2005, the Parliamentarian and his assistants referred
2,610 measures and 5,406 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. 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, which reorganizes
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 about the committee referrals of nominations for new
positions created in this department, nominations for positions which
existed before this department was created but whose responsibilities
have changed, and hundreds of legislative proposals concerning the
department's responsibilities.
During 2005, as has been the case in the past, the staff of the
Parliamentarian's Office was frequently called on to analyze and advise
Senators on a great number of issues arising under the Congressional
Budget Act of 1974. An additional layer of procedural and budgetary
complexity was added this year, as this office was called upon to
advise on unique issues arising from the need to consider two different
reconciliation bills and several general appropriations bills in the
wake of the emergency brought about by Hurricane Katrina. The Senate
considered two separate budget reconciliation bills in 2005, including
the first spending reduction reconciliation bill in almost a decade.
Such bills present the Parliamentarian's Office with hundreds of
judgment calls in the analysis of complex and disparate legislation.
Additionally, in the last five years, rules relating to legislation
on appropriations bills, and the scope of conference reports on all
bills were reinstated. This has opened up hundreds of Senate amendments
to renewed scrutiny by the Parliamentarians, and has meant that the
Parliamentarians now have the responsibility of potentially reviewing
every provision of every conference report considered by both the House
and the Senate.
FINANCIAL OPERATIONS: DISBURSING OFFICE
DISBURSING OFFICE ORGANIZATION
The mission of the Senate Disbursing Office is to provide efficient
and effective central financial and human resource data management,
information and advice to the distributed, individually managed
offices, and to Members and employees of the United States Senate. To
accomplish this mission, the Senate Disbursing Office manages the
collection of information from the distributed accounting locations in
the Senate to formulate and consolidate the agency level budget,
disburse the payroll, pay the Senate's bills, prepare auditable
financial statements, and provide appropriate counseling and advice.
The Senate Disbursing Office collects information from Members and
employees that is necessary to maintain and administer the retirement,
health insurance, life insurance, and other central human resource
programs to provide responsive, personal attention to Members and
employees on a non-biased and confidential basis. The Senate Disbursing
Office also manages the distribution of central financial and human
resource information to the individual Member Offices, Committees, and
Administrative and Leadership offices in the Senate while maintaining
the appropriate control of information for the protection of individual
Members and Senate employees.
To support the mission of the Senate Disbursing Office, the
organization is structured in a manner that is intended to enhance its
ability to provide quality work, maintain a high level of customer
service, promote good internal controls, efficiency and teamwork, and
provide for the appropriate levels of supervision and management. The
long-term financial needs of the Senate are best served by an
organization staffed with highly trained professionals who possess a
high degree of institutional knowledge, sound judgment, and
interpersonal skills that reflect the unique nature of the United
States Senate.
DEPUTY FOR BENEFITS AND FINANCIAL SERVICES
The principal responsibility of this position is to provide
expertise on Federal retirement and benefits, payroll, and front office
processes. Coordination of the interaction between the Financial
Services, 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, implements
regulatory and legislated changes, and designs and produces forms for
use in all three sections.
After year end processing of payroll for the calendar year 2004, a
few minor alterations to the new version of the payroll system were
made, and enhancements to the COLA process were smoothly completed. W-
2s were issued promptly and were immediately available on the Imaging
system.
Starting in February, enhancements to the Document Imaging System
began and updates to the system, including the ability to e-mail images
to other agencies and to rearrange documents within folders, were
added. Back up and storage processes for document images continue to be
refined. Existing Disaster Recovery efforts continue to be improved to
provide easy access to this important data. All microfilm records from
the Benefits/Payroll side of the Office were imaged and by the end of
the year, there was no longer a need to use microfilm.
During April, the qualified lender certification process, part of
the Student Loan Repayment Program, was modified. The main drawback
encountered was to authorize a Disbursing representative to talk with
the staff member's loan servicer, and the verification of the loan
particulars by a follow up call to the lender. The new process requires
the staff member to get a standard form completed by their lender and
submit it with their paperwork. This removed a tremendous number of
phone calls to and from lenders, the Office, and staff members and has
greatly expedited the process. It also allowed the process to be
handled on a rotating basis by a payroll specialist.
During the year many reports used by the Employee Benefits Section
were examined and updated to reflect new reporting requirements and to
enhance system support. One new form was produced for the Termination
Log, which tracks all employees who left the Senate during the previous
payroll period. Now, all required forms for terminating employees are
produced by our payroll system.
The Senate warehouse project is nearing completion as the process
of transitioning materials is in its final phase. For many years,
Disbursing files were stored in two Senate off-site locations, due to
space limitations. All Disbursing files in both off-site warehouses
were examined, organized, placed on pallets, and numbered in
preparation for the move to the new warehouse. The numbers of pallets
requiring storage room were confirmed, and over 70 file cabinets
holding historical personnel and office records were prepared for the
move in early December 2005. An enclosed, secure and environmentally
controlled area was provided for personnel files and 6 new revolving
vertical storage file cabinets were prepared for the site. The cabinets
will hold all current files and provide ample space for growth.
Additional space for 100 pallets was also provided in the new warehouse
which should fulfill Disbursing's storage needs for many years.
FRONT COUNTER--ADMINISTRATIVE AND FINANCIAL SERVICES
The Front Counter is the main service area of all general Senate
business and financial activity. The Front Counter maintains the
Senate's internal accountability of funds used in daily operations.
Reconciliation of such funds is executed on a daily basis. The Front
Counter provides training to newly authorized payroll contacts along
with continuing guidance to all contacts in the execution of business
operations. It is the receiving point for most incoming expense
vouchers, payroll actions, and employee benefits related forms, and is
the initial verification point to ensure that paperwork received in the
Disbursing Office conforms to all applicable Senate rules, regulations,
and statutes. The Front Counter is the first line of service provided
to Senate Members, Officers, and employees. All new Senate employees
(permanent and temporary) who will work in the Capitol Hill Senate
offices are administered the required oath of office and personnel
affidavit and provided verbal and written detailed information
regarding their pay and benefits. Authorization is certified to new and
state employees for issuance of their Senate I.D. card. Advances are
issued to Senate staff authorized for an advance for official Senate
travel. Cash and check advances are entered and reconciled in the Funds
Advance Tracking System (FATS). Repayment of travel advances is
executed after processing of certified expenses is complete. Travelers
Checks are available on a non-profit basis to assist the traveler.
Numerous inquiries are handled daily, ranging from pay, benefits,
taxes, voucher processing, reporting, laws, and Senate regulations, and
must always be answered accurately and fully to provide the highest
degree of customer service. Cash and checks received from Senate
entities as part of their daily business are handled through the Front
Counter and become part of the Senate's accountability of federally
appropriated funds and are then processed through the Senate's general
ledger system.
General Activities
The Front Counter processed approximately 2,200 cash advances,
totaling approximately $1.1 million and initialized 710 check/direct
deposit advances, totaling approximately $709,000.
Received and processed more than 28,000 checks, totaling over
$3,000,000.
Administered Oath and Personnel Affidavits to more than 3,000 new
Senate staff and advised them of their benefits.
Maintained brochures for 10 Federal health carriers and distributed
approximately 3,500 brochures to new and existing staff during the
annual FEHB Open Season.
Provided 25 training sessions to new Administrative Managers.
The Front Office operations continued the daily reconciliation of
operations and strengthened internal office controls. Training and
guidance to new Administrative Managers and business contacts
continued, as well as 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
contributions and making them aware of the Thrift Savings Plan catch up
program when applicable. Front Office operations continued to provide
the Senate community with prompt, courteous, and informative advice
regarding Disbursing operations.
PAYROLL SECTION
The Payroll Section maintains the Human Resources Management System
(HRMS) and is responsible for the processing, verifying, and
warehousing all payroll information submitted to the Disbursing Office
by Senators for their personal staff, by Chairmen for their committee
staff, and by other elected officials for their staff; issuing salary
payments to the above employees; rectifying returns of student loan
allowance payments, jointly maintaining the Automated Clearing House
(ACH) FEDLINE facilities with the Accounts Payable Section for the
normal transmittal of payroll deposits to the Federal Reserve;
distributing the appropriate payroll expenditure and allowance reports
to the individual offices; issuing the proper withholding and agency
contributions reports to the Accounting Department; and transmitting
the proper Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) information to the National
Finance Center (NFC), while maintaining earnings records for
distribution to the Social Security Administration, and maintaining
employees' taxable earnings records for W-2 statements. The Payroll
Section is also responsible for the payroll expenditure data portion of
the Report of the Secretary of the Senate.
General Activities
The Payroll Section processed a January 1, 2006 cost of living
increase of 3.44 percent. The Payroll Section maintained the normal
schedule of processing TSP open season forms. Employees took full
advantage of the increase of TSP deductions making the most of the new
$15,000 maximum. For those employees over 50 years of age, the TSP
catch-up programs provided them with an opportunity to make additional
contributions in excess of the standard program.
The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina gave members of the Payroll
Section the opportunity to work directly with TSP employees as their
COOP facility was located in the Virginia suburbs. Several visits were
made to the site to ensure the deductions for employees of the Senate
were properly applied, and to receive training on their Web based
processing system.
The Student Loan Program, Flexible Spending Accounts, and Long Term
Care account processing continues. The office continues to refine and
improve processes in working with third party contractors. In addition,
the elections of 2004 presented the section with the task of opening
and closing nine offices plus the monitoring of S. Res. 9 payrolls
during the first 6 months of 2005.
The Payroll Section again participated in the December disaster
recovery testing. This year's test entailed using the ACF processing
equipment to operate the payroll/personnel system from the Hart
Building while SAA programmers ran trial payrolls from dial up sources.
Part of the test was for members of SAA Production Services to produce
the payroll output from printers located at the ACF. During the
holidays, members of the Payroll Section conducted another test of the
payroll personnel system by processing over 400 salary changes through
dial up from a laptop computer. The payroll personnel system test
proved that it could be run from many locations at the same time.
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS SECTION
The primary responsibilities of the Employee Benefits Section (EBS)
are administration of health insurance, life insurance and all
retirement programs for Members and employees of the Senate. This
includes counseling, processing of paperwork, research, dissemination
of information and interpretation of retirement and benefits laws and
regulations. In addition, the sectional work includes research and
verification of all prior federal service and prior Senate service for
new and returning appointees. EBS provides this information for payroll
input, and once Official Personnel Folders and Transcripts of Service
are received, verifies the accuracy of the information provided and
reconciles as necessary. Transcripts of Service, including all official
retirement and benefits documentation, are provided to other federal
agencies when Senate Members and staff are hired elsewhere in the
government. EBS processes employment verifications for loans, the Bar
Exam, the FBI, OPM, and DOD, 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 the Flexible Spending Accounts. Designations of Beneficiary for
FEGLI, CSRS, FERS, 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 committee staff affected by the
changes. Approximately 150 retirement cases were processed throughout
2005.
There was a great deal of employee turnover in early 2005. New
Members appointed numerous employees from the House and Executive
Branch, and many other employees left with their outgoing Members, many
of whom were appointed to positions in the Executive Branch. This
caused 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, CSRS, FERS and TSP enrollments, and the associated requests for
backup verification.
The 2004 OPM FEGLI Open Season (OS) elections took effect September
1, 2005. EBS verified and processed all OS elections and provided
reminder notifications and guidance to those affected. Approximately
350 Senate employee FEGLI changes were processed.
Interagency meetings attended involved time spent on the
development and understanding of the new Vision and Dental (V&D)
programs that will surface in late 2006 and the new Voluntary Benefits
Portal that is in development under the direction of Office of
Personnel Management (OPM) to combine third-party administration of
FSA, LTCI and the new V&D programs. Information was also shared on the
implementation of the FEGLI Open Season enrollments. Interaction and
cooperation were essential in the continuing operations of the New
Orleans-based Thrift Savings Plan and the National Finance Center in
the wake of Hurricane Katrina. EBS did as much as possible to provide
assistance and information to Senate staff that would normally be
provided by TSP.
The annual FEHB Open Season was held and approximately 500
employees changed plans. These changes were processed and reported to
carriers in record time. Once again, the on-line Checkbook Guide to
Health Plans was made available to Senate employees to research and
compare FEHB plans. This tool will remain available to staff throughout
the year. Additional effort was made to increase employee awareness and
understanding of this valuable tool, and feedback is positive. The FEHB
Open Season Health Fair was also attended by about 600 employees and as
an additional service, it was open to all other federal employees on
the Hill, including House, Capitol Police, Architect of the Capitol and
Senate Restaurant employees. In addition to having health plan
representatives available to provide information and answer questions,
representatives from FSA Feds and Long Term Care Insurance were also in
attendance.
Much effort was made in coordination with the Senate Computer
Center to effect computer enhancements and provide additional automated
forms to our database. This has provided greater efficiency and
increased accuracy of information.
EBS continues to work with our File Room personnel to modify our
procedures and the flow of forms to maintain imaged documentation with
COOP preparedness in mind. For COOP readiness with respect to employee
personnel folder access, the goal for 2006 is to explore alternatives
to complete the scanning of all ``prior'' employee personnel folder
documents that are housed in the Disbursing file room.
Educational seminars were held for the Civil Service Retirement
System and the Federal Employees Retirement System. These seminars for
staff were well attended and well received.
Due to the continued boom in the housing market, employment
verifications came in at a rapid pace, averaging over 100 per month.
Unemployment verifications were especially high early in the year and
remained constant throughout the year. Telephone inquiries, though not
specifically tracked, continued at high levels.
DISBURSING OFFICE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
Headed by the Deputy for Financial Management, the mission of
Disbursing Office Financial Management (DOFM) 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.
DOFM is segmented into three functional departments: Accounting,
Accounts Payable, and Budget. The Accounts Payable Department is
subdivided into three sections: the Audit group, the Disbursement group
and the Vendor/SAVI group. The Deputy coordinates the activities of the
three functional departments, establishes central financial policies
and procedures, acts as the primary liaison to Human Resources, and
carries out the directives of the Financial Clerk and the Secretary of
the Senate.
ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT
During fiscal year 2005, the Accounting Department approved nearly
47,800 expense reimbursement vouchers, processed 1,300 deposits for
items ranging from receipts received by the Senate operations, such as
the Senate's Revolving Funds, to canceled subscription refunds from
Member offices. General ledger maintenance also prompted the entry of
thousands of adjustment entries that include the entry of all
appropriation and allowance funding limitation transactions, all
accounting cycle closing entries, and all non-voucher reimbursement
transactions such as payroll adjustments, COLA (cost of living) budget
uploads, stop payment requests, travel advances and repayments, and
limited payability reimbursements.
This year the Accounting Department assisted in the validation of
various system upgrades and modifications, including the testing
required to implement Web Release 10.0, an upgrade to the mainframe
operating system to Z/OS, and the testing of last non-zero balance date
to fix process control. During January 2005, the Accounting Department
with assistance from a contractor, Bearing Point, completed the 2004
year-end process to close and reset revenue, expense and budgetary
general ledger accounts to zero. During June 2005, we successfully
tested and implemented in Federal FAMIS another document purge
including the archiving of Web report data for lapsed years. Further,
toward the end of the fiscal year, the financial file rollover was
performed to update FAMIS' tables and create the new index codes needed
to accommodate data for fiscal year 2006.
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, on a monthly
basis, reported to the Department of the Treasury is the Statement of
Transactions According to Appropriations, Fund and Receipt Accounts
that summarizes all activity at the appropriation level of 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 Internal Revenue
Service (IRS) and annual reporting and reconciliation to the IRS and
the Social Security Administration. Payments for employee withholdings
for state income taxes were reported and paid on a quarterly basis to
each state with applicable state income taxes withheld. Monthly
reconciliations were performed with the National Finance Center
regarding the employee withholdings and agency matching contributions
for the Thrift Savings Plan.
In addition to Treasury's external reporting deadlines, there are
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. Each month, the
Accounting Department reviews and verifies the accuracy of the
statements before distribution is made.
The Accounting Department, in conjunction with the Deputy for
Financial Management, continues to work closely with the Sergeant at
Arms Finance Department in completing the corrective actions that were
identified during our pro-forma financial statements' audit ability
assessment. Based on the results of this exercise, 23 corrective
actions were suggested including an action plan and proposed schedule
to have them corrected. Some of the actions were rather simple to
implement while others will take significantly longer. Of the 23
corrective actions noted, 18 have been completed and 5 are still in
process. As part of this project, the Accounting Group is working with
the SAA in reconciling FAMIS entries to Asset Center. The Accounting
Group also finalized clearing all CASHLINK outstanding items.
As part of the financial statement initiative, the accounting group
has worked on the validation of the Senate's pro-forma financial
statements for fiscal year 2004. The validation of the statements of
financial position, net costs and changes in net position for fiscal
year 2004 is complete. Work is still underway on the last two
statements--budgetary resources and finance--and is expected to be
completed by the end of March. At that time, work on the fiscal year
2005 statements will begin.
Toward the end of the calendar year, in coordination with SAA
staff, the Chief Accountant and the Deputy for Financial Management
participated in successful testing of our disaster recovery facility.
ACCOUNTS PAYABLE
VENDOR/SAVI SECTION
Created in 2003, the Vendor/SAVI section is responsible for
maintaining 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 Office's web-based payment tracking
system known as SAVI. This section also assists the IT Department
performing periodic testing and monitoring of the performance of the
SAVI system.
Currently, there are more than 13,400 vendor records stored in the
vendor file. 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 to pay vendors
electronically via the Automated Clearing House (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 ACH. Whenever a new remittance address is added to the vendor file,
a standard letter is mailed to our vendors requesting tax and banking
information. Currently, more than 1,250 vendors and over half of the
state offices' landlords are being paid by ACH.
As stated earlier, SAVI is Disbursing's web-based payment tracking
system. Senate staff may electronically create, save, and file expense
reimbursement forms, track their progress, and receive detailed
information on payments made. The most common service requests are
those for system user ids, system passwords and to activate deactivated
accounts; less common but more complicated are employee requests for an
alternative expense payment method. An employee can choose to have
their payroll set up for direct deposit but may have their expenses
reimbursed by paper check.
The Vendor/SAVI section works closely with the A/P disbursements
group resolving returned EFT issues. EFT payments are returned
periodically for a variety of reasons. The reasons given have included
incorrect account numbers, incorrect ABA routing numbers, and, in rare
instances, a nonparticipating financial institution. Most EFT return
issues are easy to resolve; however, there are some instances that
result with a vendor being converted back to paper check payments.
Currently, there are no unresolved returned EFT issues.
The Vendor/SAVI section continues to electronically scan and store
supporting documentation of vendor file requests. Currently, with
assistance from the Disbursement Group, over 5,000 vendors have been
electronically scanned 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.
This year, the Vendor/SAVI section processed over 2,700 vendor file
requests, completed nearly 2,200 SAVI service requests and mailed over
1,400 vendor information letters.
ACCOUNTS PAYABLE
DISBURSEMENTS DEPARTMENT
Well over 120,000 expense claims were received and processed by the
department in 2005. More than 32,500 expense checks were written and
approximately 56,500 direct deposit reimbursements were transmitted.
The department has experienced a small decline of roughly 7 percent in
the number of checks written and a slightly larger increase of 13
percent in the number of ACH payments, and it is expected that this
trend will continue. The department suffered no performance loss,
ensuring that all vendors and employees continued to receive timely and
accurate payments.
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. Files are maintained for the current period and two prior
periods in-house as space is limited. Older documents are stored at the
warehouse facility.
A major function of the department is to prepare adjustment
documents. Adjustments are varied and include the following:
preparation of foreign travel advances and vouchers, reimbursements for
expenses incurred by Senate Leadership, 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 via ACH
as more vendors and employees opt for this payment method.
The Disbursements Department is also responsible for researching
returned checks as vendors request additional information relating to
payment allocation. Fortunately, few checks are returned. This is a
result of the use of a centralized vendor file and accurate
certification of payments. There are currently no unresolved returned
check issues.
During 2005, an increasing number of ACH items were returned for
reasons ranging from erroneous account information to non-participation
by depositing banks. Some of the returns were simply notices of change
while others were rejected outright. Procedures were established which
created a liaison with the Vendor/SAVI group, Payroll, and Accounting.
Corrections are forwarded to the Vendor/SAVI group so the corrections
may be made in the vendor file. Corrections involving payroll are
forwarded to that department. Such corrections are downloaded into the
vendor file for nightly processing.
All rejected items are logged into an ACH Reports folder in Excel.
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 for appropriate corrective
action. Corrective actions include correction of erroneous data and
retransmission, or sometimes re-issuance by paper check. Once the
corrective action is determined, an accounting memo is drafted and
given to Disbursements and the appropriate action is taken. The Excel
spreadsheet contains details of the return as well as information
relating to the corrective action taken. Accounting then uses the
information contained in the spreadsheet to assist them in reconciling
CASHLINK with the Treasury.
The Accounts Payable Disbursements Department prepares mailing
labels for the distribution of the monthly ledgers to the 140
accounting locations throughout the Senate. Although the ledgers are
sorted and sent out by Accounting, the Disbursements Group maintains
the file of how and where the statements are to be delivered. This
information is transferred to mailing labels, placed on manila
envelopes, and given to Accounting. Offices expressing no preference
have their statements sent to their respective offices marked
``Personal and Confidential.'' The main objective of this process is to
have each office receive their ledger statements for the month just
ended by the 10th of the following month.
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's 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 on-line 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. This process has been well received by
Senate offices and vendors. This saves time and significantly reduces
reliance on the postal system. Accounts Payable Disbursements staff
have Treasury secure ID cards and are trained in the use of PACER.
Given the time and money savings, as well as the overwhelmingly
positive reception, large growth in the use of PACER for check
retrieval purposes is anticipated.
The Disbursements Department continues the use of laser checks. The
tractor-fed check writer system has been dismantled and a new, improved
system was developed and implemented. The previously ordered folder/
inserter was purchased and has been installed. In addition to the new
folder/inserter, the replacement was comprehensive in scope. New
hardware was introduced and further check writer upgrades are scheduled
for 2006. The result is a user friendly system which has the additional
benefits of greater security and higher degree of accuracy. Only
certain key personnel have access to the signature fonts which are
specific to each individual, and print quality has been significantly
improved.
Work continues on the reconciliation of the replacement check
account. A team was formed consisting of the Deputy for Financial
Management, Accounts Payable Manager, Chief Accountant, Accounts
Payable Disbursements Supervisor and Staff Accountants. Persistent and
determined revenue collection procedures have resulted in the
elimination of all but one unresolved item.
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 Administrative
Managers and Chief Clerks about Senate financial practices, trains
Administrative Managers in the use of 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 to monitor the Fund Advance
Tracking System (FATS) to ensure that advances are charged correctly,
vouchers repaying such advances are entered, and balances are adjusted
for reuse of the advance funds. An ``aging'' process is also performed
to ensure that travel advances are repaid in the time specified by the
advance travel regulations. Travel advances may be repaid via regular
voucher processing, or may be canceled if the corresponding travel is
not taken.
The Accounts Payable Audit Section, currently a group of 13, has
the responsibility for the daily processing of expense claims submitted
by the 140 accounting locations of the Senate. The section processed in
excess of 145,000 expense vouchers in fiscal year 2005, as well as
23,000 uploaded items. The voucher processing ranged in scope from
providing interpretation of Senate rules, regulations and statute,
applying the same to expense claims, monitoring of contracts and direct
involvement with the Senate's central vendor file. On average, vouchers
greater than $100 that do not have any issues or questions are
received, audited, sanctioned by Rules and paid by Disbursing within 10
business days of receipt.
Uploaded items are of two varieties, certified expenses and vendor
payments. Certified expenses include items such as stationery,
telecommunications, postage, and equipment. Charges incurred by the
various Senate offices are certified to Disbursing on a monthly basis.
As an example, the Keeper of Stationery tracks all expenditures for
each office, and sends a voucher certifying the expenses incurred over
the previous month. The expenses are detailed on a spreadsheet which is
also electronically uploaded. The physical voucher is audited and
appropriate revisions are made. The revisions are transferred into the
uploaded spreadsheet which is then used to effect payment to the
Keeper. Concentrated effort is put forth to ensure certified items
appear as paid in the same month they are incurred.
Vendor uploads are fairly new, and are used to pay vendors for the
Stationery Room, Senate Gift Shop, State office rentals, and refunds of
security deposits for the 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.
During fiscal year 2004, the Chairman of the Committee on Rules and
Administration increased the delegated sanctioning authority for
vouchers from $35 or less to $100 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.
Disbursing passed two post-payment audits performed by the Rules
Committee.
The Accounts Payable Audit Group provided training sessions in the
use of new systems, the process for generation of expense claims, the
permissibility of an expense, and participated with seminars sponsored
by the Secretary of the Senate, the Sergeant at Arms, and the Library
of Congress. The Section trained 14 new Administrative Managers and
Chief Clerks and conducted 5 informational sessions for Senate staff
through seminars sponsored by the Congressional Research Service. The
Accounts Payable group also routinely assists the IT department and
other groups as necessary in the testing and implementation of the new
hardware, software, and system applications. Web FMIS version 9 was in
use for most of the year with the electronic, importable expense
summary report (ESR). The electronic ESR has gained widespread
acceptance and Web FMIS version 10 was installed in September.
Extensive testing is anticipated for the release of Web FMIS version
10.3 in fiscal year 2006.
A cancellation process was established for advances in 2004. This
was necessary to ensure repayment of advances systematically for
canceled or postponed travel in accordance with Senate travel
regulations. Advance procedures including cancellation were formally
incorporated into the Policies and Procedures Manual. Although
procedures are in place, enhancement is necessary and is expected in a
later release of Web FMIS. Cancellation of other Web vouchers is also
scheduled for testing during a later system release. The A/P sections
within the Polices and Procedures Manual continue to be updated and
revised as new policies, regulations, and system functionality
enhancements dictate.
BUDGET DEPARTMENT
The third component of the Disbursing Office Financial Management
Group is the Budget Department. The primary responsibility of the
Budget Department is to compile the annual operating budget of the
United States Senate for presentation to the Committee on
Appropriations. The Budget Department is responsible for the
preparation, issuance and distribution of the budget justification
worksheets (BJW). In fiscal year 2005, the budget justification
worksheets were processed in December. The budget baseline estimates
for fiscal year 2006 were reported to the Office of Management and
Budget in January.
This department is also responsible for the formulation,
presentation and execution of the budget for the Senate and provides a
wide range of analytical, technical and advisory functions related to
the budget process. The Budget Department acts as the Budget Officer
for the Office of the Secretary, assisting in the preparation of
testimony for the hearings before the Committee on Appropriations and
the Committee on Rules and Administration.
During January, the Senate Budget Analyst is responsible for the
preparation of 1099's and the prompt submission of forms to the IRS
before the end of the month.
DISBURSING OFFICE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM
The Disbursing Office Information Technology (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 approximately 140 Senate accounting locations (i.e., 100
Senator's offices, 20 Committees, 20 Leadership and Support offices,
the Rules Committee Audit section, and the Disbursing Office).
Responsibilities 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.
Work during 2005 was supported by the Sergeant at Arms Technology
Services staff, the Secretary's Information Technology staff, and
contracts with Bearing Point.
The SAA Technology Services staff provides the technical
infrastructure, including hardware (mainframe and servers), operating
system software (mainframe and servers), database software, and
telecommunications; technical assistance for these components,
including migration management, and database administration; and
regular batch processing. Bearing Point is responsible, under the
contract with the SAA, for operational support, and under contract with
the Secretary, for application development. The Disbursing Office is
the ``business owner'' of FMIS and is responsible for making the
functional decisions about FMIS. The three organizations work
cooperatively.
Highlights of the year include:
--Implementation of six releases of Web FMIS. Combined, these
releases took FMIS to the ``zero-client'' platform, an
important milestone in providing this critical system in a
disaster situation. By the end of April 2005 all Web FMIS users
were using the intranet version of Web FMIS;
--Implementation of a release of SAVI that enables Macintosh computer
users to use this system;
--Support of the Rules Committee's post payment audit for the Rules
Committee Audit to conduct a statistically valid sample of
vouchers of $100 and under for which sanctioning was delegated
to the Financial Clerk;
--Upgrading our e-mail to ``Active Directory'';
--Coordinating and participating in the FMIS portion of a disaster
recovery exercise for the Alternate Computing Facility; and
--Conducting monthly classes and seminars on Web FMIS.
FMIS is not a single computer system. It is composed of many
subsystems that provide Senate-specific functionality. These subsystems
are outlined in the table that begins on the following page.
SENATE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subsystem Functionality Source Primary Users Implementation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FAMIS (Mainframe)............ General ledger.......................... Off the shelf federal system Disbursing Office......... October 1998
Vendor file purchased from Bearing Point.
Administrative functions
Security functions
ADPICS (Mainframe)........... Preparation of requisition, purchase Off the shelf federal system Sergeant at Arms.......... October 1998
order, voucher from purchase order, and purchased from Bearing Point. Disbursing Office
direct voucher documents. Secretary of the Senate
Electronic document review functions
Administrative functions
Checkwriter (Client-server).. Prints checks and check registers as Off the shelf state government Disbursing Office......... October 1998
well as ACH (Automated Clearing House) system purchased from and
direct deposit transmission payments. adapted to Senate's requirements
by Bearing Point.
Web FMIS (Intranet).......... Preparation of vouchers, travel Custom software developed under All Senators' offices..... October 1999
advances, vouchers from advance Senate contract by Bearing Point. All Committee offices Client Server
documents, credit documents and simple All Leadership and Support August 2004
commitment and obligation documents. offices Intranet
Entry of detailed budget Secretary of the Senate
Reporting functions (described below) Sergeant at Arms
Electronic document submission and Disbursing Office
review functions
Administrative functions
FATS (PC-based).............. Tracks travel advances and petty cash Developed by SAA Technology Serv- Disbursing Office......... Spring 1983
advances (available to Committees only). ices.
Tracks election cycle information
Post Payment Voucher Audit Selects a random sample of vouchers for Excel spreadsheet developed by Rules Committee........... Spring 2003
(PC-based). which sanctioning was delegated to the Bearing Point. Disbursing Office
Financial Clerk for the Rules Committee
to use in conducting a post payment
audit.
SAVI (Intranet).............. As currently implemented, provides self- Off the shelf system purchased Senate employees.......... Pilot--Spring
service access (via the Senate's from Bearing Point. 2002
intranet) to payment information for Senate-wide July
employees receiving reimbursements. 2002
Administrative functions
Online ESR (Intranet)........ A component of SAVI through which Senate Custom software developed under Senate employees.......... April 2003
employees can create on-line Travel/Non- contract by Bearing Point.
Travel Expense Summary Reports and
submit them electronically to the
Administrative Manager/Chief Clerk for
processing.
Secretary's Report (Mainframe Produces the Report of the Secretary of Custom software developed under Disbursing Office......... Spring 1999
extracts, crystal reports, the Senate. contract by Bearing Point.
and client-server ``tool
box'').
Ledger Statements (Mainframe Produces monthly reports from FAMIS that Developed by SAA Technology Serv- Disbursing Office......... Winter 1999
database extracts, and are sent to all Senate ``accounting ices. Senate Accounting
crystal reports). locations''. Locations
Web FMIS Reports (mainframe Produces a large number of reports from Custom software developed under Senate Accounting October 1999--
database extracts, crystal Web FMIS, FAMIS and ADPICS data at contract by Bearing Point. Locations. Client Server
reports, and Intranet). summary and detailed levels. Data is April 2005--
updated as an overnight process and can Intranet
be updated through an on-line process
by accounting locations.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Supporting Current Systems
The IT section supports FMIS users in all 140 accounting locations,
the Disbursing Office Accounts Payable, Accounting, Disbursements and
Front Office Sections, and the Rules Committee 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''; and meet with
Chiefs of Staff, Administrative Managers, Chief Clerks, and
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 parallel load and database
access optimization;
--Security--maintains user rights for all ADPICS, FAMIS, SAVI, and
Web FMIS users;
--System administration--design, test and make entries to tables that
are intrinsic to the system;
--Support of Accounting Activities--provide assistance in the cyclic
accounting system activities such as rollover, the process by
which tables for the new fiscal year are created, and archiving
and purging for the current year tables data for lapsed fiscal
years;
--Support the Rules Committee post payment voucher audit process; and
--Training--provide functional training to all Senate FMIS users.
Of these, the post payment voucher audit deserves recognition. In
December of 2002, the Rules Committee delegated to the Financial Clerk
the authority for sanctioning vouchers of $35 and less; effective
January 1, 2004 this threshold increased to $100. The authorization
directed Rules and Disbursing to establish a set of procedures for a
semi-annual audit of these vouchers. The two offices agreed that Rules
would conduct a random sampling inspection of these vouchers based on
industry statistical standards. Under the supervision of the IT Group,
Bearing Point created tools to determine the sample size, to enable
selecting the sample from the universe of vouchers of $100 and less,
and to determine the acceptable number of discrepancies given the
sample size and the desired confidence interval. Both audits conducted
in 2005 resulted in a favorable finding of zero discrepancies. The
audit conducted in April 2005 for the six-month period ending March 31,
2005, covered 24,643 vouchers and the audit conducted in October 2005
for the six-month period ending September 30, 2005, covered 29,013
vouchers, an overall increase of 21 percent in the number of vouchers
of $100 and less that were processed during fiscal year 2005.
Testing Infrastructure Changes
The SAA provides the infrastructure on which FMIS operates,
including the mainframe, the database, security hardware and software,
the telecommunications network, and a hardware and software
installation crew. During 2005 the mainframe operating system was
upgraded to the Z/OS operating system. This required that the
Disbursing Office test all FMIS subsystems in a testing environment and
verify all FMIS subsystems in the production environment after Z/OS was
implemented.
Managing and Testing New System Development
During 2005, we supervised development, performed extensive
integration system testing and implemented changes to the following
FMIS subsystems: Web FMIS; Senate Vendor Information (SAVI) and Online
ESR; and Checkwriter.
Web FMIS
Over the last two years, updates and simplification of the
underlying technology of Web FMIS has occurred, basically replacing all
Visual Basic Client/Server and Cold Fusion Web technology with
WebSphere web pages thereby creating a ``thin client'' application that
can be accessed via an intranet browser. In August 2004, Web FMIS r9.0
for pilot offices was implemented, which is a complete rewriting of the
Web FMIS functionality using all intranet based pages. By the end of
April, all Web FMIS users were using the intranet version of Web FMIS.
During 2005, Web FMIS was improved and augmented in the following
releases:
--Web FMIS r9.1.--Implemented in November 2004, addressed additional
functionality identified by the pilot offices. This was
provided to new offices of the 109th Congress.
--Web FMIS 10.0.--Implemented in February 2005, added a security
certificate to the Web FMIS web site (i.e., adding the ``S'' to
https://webfmis.senate.gov) and changed the extracts for the
nightly Web FMIS reporting cycle to use table-driven parameters
rather than hard-coded ones.
--Web FMIS 10.1.--Implemented in April 2005, provided report and
document printing via Adobe, standard Senate software, rather
than Web FMIS-specific files. This completed moving Web FMIS to
the ``zero-client'' platform, an important milestone in
providing critical systems in a disaster situation. With this
release the Rules Committee Audit staff moved from client-
server based screen to intranet-based pages for their
functions, and Disbursing staff began using ``standard notepad
text'' to document corrections made to vouchers. Additionally,
this release addressed performance issues resulting from r10.0.
--Web FMIS r10.2.--Implemented in July 2005 focused on additional
functionality for the Office, including new pages for the
Disbursing Inbox and Document Review functions, and
enhancements to the Advice of Change process and streamlined
the document approval process.
--Web FMIS r10.2.1.--Implemented in October 2005, fixed bugs in the
Disbursing functions.
--Web FMIS r10.3--Implemented in January 2006 (but included here
because most of the work on the release was done in 2005),
updated the technology for and provided more functionality on
the inbox pages and the travel reimbursement mileage rate
maintenance page. Additional functionality was added to the
Documents/Create page and the Budget page, and bugs were fixed.
During 2005, work continued with Bearing Point to define the
requirements for additional functionality required for the two Web FMIS
releases planned for 2006:
--Web FMIS r11.--Planned for Spring 2006, will add the ability to
``import'' invoice data from an outside vendor in order to
create a voucher with minimal re-typing. (This process is
similar to the ``import'' process by which data from an online
ESR, created via SAVI, is used to create a travel voucher.
--Web FMIS r12.--Planned for late Fall 2006, will be a pilot of
paperless voucher processing, which requires adding electronic
signature and documentation imaging functionality.
Senate Automated Vendor Inquiry (SAVI) and Online ESR
SAVI enables Senate staff to check the status of reimbursements,
whether via check or direct deposit referencing an on-line ESR. The
Online ESR function enables Senate staff to create expense summary
reports, both travel and non-travel. These documents can be imported
into Web FMIS, reducing the data entry tasks for voucher preparation.
The SAVI system was upgraded once in 2005. Release 3.2, implemented in
May 2005, enabled use of SAVI by Macintosh computer users.
Checkwriter
The Disbursing Office makes payments via direct deposit and via
check using the Checkwriter software. No changes were implemented to
the Checkwriter software in 2005, but Checkwriter release 6, which
rewrites the security component, will be tested in early 2006, with
implementation tentatively scheduled for summer 2006.
Planning
The Disbursing Office IT group 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 2005, two types of meetings were held among Disbursing, SAA and
Bearing Point staff to coordinate schedules and activities. These are:
--Project specific meetings--a useful set of project specific working
meetings, each of which has a weekly set meeting time and meets
for the duration of the project (e.g., Document Purge meetings
and Web FMIS requirements meetings); and
--Technical meeting--a weekly meeting among the DO staff (IT and
functional), SAA Technical Services staff, and Bearing Point to
discuss 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
five-year strategic plan was written by the IT and Accounting staff for
Disbursing Office Strategic Initiatives. This detailed description of
five strategic initiatives formed the base for the Secretary of the
Senate's request for $5 million in multi-year funds for further work on
the FMIS project. The five strategic initiatives are:
--Paperless Vouchers--Imaging of Supporting Documentation and
Electronic Signatures.--Beginning with a feasibility study and
a pilot, implement new technology, including imaging and
electronic signatures, that will reduce the Senate's dependence
on paper vouchers. This will enable continuation of voucher
processing operations from any location, should an emergency
occur;
--Web FMIS--Requests from Accounting Locations.--Respond to requests
from the Senate's Accounting Locations for additional
functionality in Web FMIS;
--Payroll System--Requests from Accounting Locations.--Respond to
requests from the Senate's Accounting Locations for on-line
real time access to payroll data;
--Accounting 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 IT group during the summer of 2003 and includes developing the task
orders with contractors, overseeing their work, and reviewing invoices.
In 2005 one new task order, the fiscal year 2006 Extended Operational
Support was executed. In addition, work continued under two task orders
executed in prior years: Web FMIS r10; SAA Finance System and Reporting
Enhancements; and Web FMIS Imaging and Digital Signature Design and
Electronic Invoicing and Remittance Enhancements.
Administering the Disbursing Office's Local Area Network (LAN)
The Disbursing Office administers its own Local Area Network (LAN),
which is separate from the LAN for the rest of the Secretary's office.
Our LAN Administrator's activities included: Office-wide LAN
Maintenance and Upgrade; and Projects for the Payroll and Benefits
Section.
Office-wide LAN Maintenance and Upgrade
Existing workstations were maintained with appropriate upgrades,
including: an e-mail upgrade to ``Active Directory''; the addition of
``SNAP'' servers to backup, nightly, our office data in Disbursing and
directly to the Office's space at the ACF; work with the SAA staff to
upgrade our network speed to 100 mps; and the maintenance of the Office
Information Authorization form log which provides easy access from
Disbursing staff desktops to up-to-date information about the
authorized contacts for each Senate office.
Projects for Payroll and Employee Benefits Sections
The Payroll/Benefits imaging system, developed by SAA staff, and
which captures and indexes payroll documents electronically, continues
to be supported. This is a critical system for Payroll and Employee
Benefits sections.
Coordinating the Disbursing Office's Disaster Recovery Activities
On Saturday, December 3, 2005, the Sergeant at Arms technical staff
conducted a disaster recovery test of the Senate's computing
facilities, including the Financial Management Information System
(FMIS) functions. The test involved switching the Senate's network from
accessing systems at the Primary Computing Facility (PCF) to our backup
facility, and powering down the PCF.
The SAA's primary purpose was to test the technical process of
switching to our backup facility, and only a limited amount of time was
available for functional testing. The SAA staff wanted to complete the
exercise within a 12-hour window, including the time needed to switch
us to the backup facility and back to the PCF. A two-hour functional
testing window was expected. In the scenario, FMIS systems and data
would be ``failed-over'' to the backup facility, and made available for
testing during the functional testing window. The systems would then be
``failed back'' to the PCF, but the data would not be ``failed back''.
Consequently, any changes made while testing at the backup facility
would not be made to production data.
Disbursing staff set minimal goals of accessing all critical FMIS
subsystems. In a two hour functional testing window, the SAA would not
have time to run critical batch processes such as those which would
enable a single document to be taken from data entry in Web FMIS
through payment in FAMIS. Consequently, plans were made to test each
on-line step in the process separately. Additionally, the time
constraint did not allow any overnight batch processes to be run.
Within the limited scope of the test, most of the critical
components of FMIS were tested. A request has been made to the SAA that
disaster recovery tests be conducted twice a year and that additional
system components be tested at each successive event.
ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES
1. CONSERVATION AND PRESERVATION
The Office of Conservation and Preservation develops and
coordinates programs directly related to the conservation and
preservation of Senate records and materials for which the Secretary of
the Senate has statutory authority. This includes: 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 of Conservation and Preservation has
embossed 621 books and matted and framed 532 items for the Senate
Leadership. In addition, this office matted and framed 349 items for
the 55th Inaugural ceremonies. For more than twenty-four years, the
office has bound a copy of Washington's Farewell Address for the annual
Washington's Farewell Address ceremony. In 2005, a volume was bound and
read by Senator Richard Burr.
As mandated in the 1990 Senate Library Collection Condition Survey,
the Office of Conservation and Preservation continues to conduct an
annual treatment of books identified by the survey as needing
conservation or repair. In 2005, conservation treatments were completed
for 139 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 of Conservation and
Preservation will continue preservation of the remaining 3,900 volumes.
This office assisted the Senate Library with 531 books that were
sent to the Library Binding section of the Government Printing Office
(GPO) for binding. Additionally, the office worked with the Library to
facilitate the creation of five exhibits located in the Senate Russell
building basement corridor. The Office of Conservation and Preservation
also assisted the Senate Curator's staff with special matting and
framing required for the World War II exhibit located on the first
floor of the Capitol.
This office continues to assist Senate offices with conservation
and preservation of documents, books, and various other items. For
example, the office is currently monitoring the temperature and
humidity in the Senate Library storage areas, the vault and warehouse
for preservation and conservation purposes.
2. 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 Office collects, preserves, and
interprets the Senate's fine and decorative arts, historic objects, and
specific architectural features; and exercises supervisory
responsibility for the historic chambers in the Capitol under the
jurisdiction of the Commission. Through exhibitions, publications, and
other programs, the Office educates the public about the Senate and its
collections.
Collections: Commissions, Acquisitions, and Management
A painting of Senator George Mitchell was officially unveiled on
May 24, 2005 as part of the Senate Leadership Portrait Collection, and
a painting of Senator Margaret Chase Smith was unveiled on October 18.
Both ceremonies were held in the historic Old Senate Chamber. Other
important commissioned works in progress include a portrait of Senator
Bob Dole and the Great Compromise mural. Both are projected to be
completed in 2006.
Thirty-eight objects were accessioned into the Senate Collection,
including the painting Portrait of a Child with Moth by Constantino
Brumidi; several rare stereoviews of the Senate Chamber from the late
19th century; tickets, passes, and luncheon items related to the 2005
Presidential Inauguration; ephemera from the 200th anniversary
celebration of the birth of Constantino Brumidi; and nine albums with
images of Senators and Senate staff from the late 18th to the early
20th centuries. One of the nine albums contains rare cabinet cards
depicting the 41st Congress made by the Matthew Brady studio, along
with autographs of 73 Senators.
In an ongoing effort to locate and recover historic Senate pieces
associated with the institution, the Office acquired for the Senate
Collection an important painting and a 19th century chair. The
painting, Signing of the First Treaty of Peace with Great Britain by
Constantino Brumidi, is the original sketch for the mural that appears
in the Brumidi Corridors above the entrance to S-118. The chair dates
to about 1819 and was made by Thomas Constantine for the Senate
Chamber. It is a noteworthy addition to the collection, as only 4 of
the original 48 chairs made by Constantine for the Senate are known to
exist.
Fifty 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 objects in the
collection was completed following established procedures.
As construction continues on the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC), the
Office has worked with a conservator specializing in museum facility
planning to develop a collection storage plan for all objects scheduled
to move to the designated curatorial storage rooms in the CVC. The plan
includes detailed equipment layout and design in order to provide
optimal preservation for storing the objects.
The Curator's Office continued with its project to photograph the
102 historic Senate Chamber desks (which includes the 100 on the Senate
floor and two desks currently in storage). One set of transparencies
will be stored off-site for emergency purposes, while a second working
set will be used for the web, image requests, and future publications.
Fifty-five desks were photographed in 2005; the project is ahead of
schedule and is projected to be completed by August 2006.
In keeping with established procedures, all Senate Collection
objects on display were inventoried, noting any changes in location. In
addition, as directed by S. Res. 178, the Office submitted inventories
of the art and historic furnishings in the Senate to the Rules
Committee. The inventories, to be submitted every six months, are
compiled by the Curator's Office with assistance from the Senate
Sergeant at Arms (SAA) and Architect of the Capitol (AOC) Senate
Superintendent.
Conservation and Restoration
A total of 20 objects received conservation treatment in 2005.
These included nine Senate Chamber desks, eight oil on canvas
paintings, two cabinet card albums, and one manuscript collection.
The initiative to conserve all 100 historic Senate Chamber desks,
which began in 1999, was completed. Twice a year, during Senate recess
periods, desks were removed from the Senate Chamber and sent out for
restoration. Treatment was extensive, and followed a detailed protocol
developed to address the wear and degradation of these historic desks
due to continued heavy use. In December, the last of the desks was
restored. During this project, a condition survey was conducted and
completed. The survey emphasized the necessity of installing rubber
bumpers to the arms of the Senate Chamber chairs to minimize the damage
to the front of the desks caused by the chair arms. That work was also
completed this year, and all future chairs will be constructed with
bumpers.
After extensive evaluation and research, a scope of work was
developed for the conservation of the portrait of George Washington by
Gilbert Stuart in the Senate Collection. This project coincided with a
major exhibition on Stuart's work at the National Gallery of Art, which
afforded the opportunity to consult with experts in the field. The
portrait was restored by conservators with extensive knowledge of
Gilbert Stuart's paintings; and the frame was also conserved.
Restoration has revealed the Senate's portrait to be among the finest
of Stuart's paintings of the first president.
Two recently commissioned paintings, Blanche Kelso Bruce and James
O. Eastland, were varnished by conservators to enhance and protect the
surfaces now that the paint has properly cured.
Another conservation project was related to the microfilming and
digitization of the Isaac Bassett Papers, the manuscript collection of
a 19th century Senate employee. Prior to microfilming, a conservator
carried out the treatment and re-housing of the papers necessary for
preservation. The entire effort to microfilm and digitize the
collection was completed by the fall of 2005, and will help preserve
the original papers in case of disaster, as well as provide
reproductions for the use of scholars and other researchers. In
addition, the digitized images provided extensive material for the
Isaac Bassett website exhibit.
The Office completed the detailed condition and identification
survey of the nearly 100 historic mirrors in the Senate wing. The
project has significant benefits. The condition assessments will
determine priorities for conservation and maintenance treatments;
provide information on the age, origin, and importance of the frames;
and furnish documentation for disaster planning.
The Curator's staff participated in training sessions for the
Capitol Police regarding the care and protection of art in the Capitol,
and continued to educate 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 side construction projects that
involve or impact historic resources. In addition to receiving planning
information from those organizations, the office initiated a procedure
for sharing Curator project schedules. This has greatly improved
coordination and project execution. Construction and conservation
efforts that required considerable review and assistance included:
Brumidi Corridor ceiling restoration near S-112; window shutter
refinishing; grand stairwell plaster replacement; marble step repair;
Brumidi west corridor egress installation; Minton tile replacement;
wireless antenna installation; audio alert system; S-324 ceiling
recreation; and S-229 renovation.
As part of the S-229 renovation project, there was a request to
provide an overmantel mirror for the room. The Office has developed a
mirror replication project, to duplicate an historic mirror in the
Capitol. The mirror selected for replication was a good example of a
particular style, complements the majority of mantels and spaces in the
Capitol, and will easily accommodate modifications of size and ornament
in any future replications. The new mirror was created and installed.
Requests from Senate offices for information pertaining to room
histories, architectural features, and historic images continue to
increase. Recent initiatives have greatly improved office response time
and depth of knowledge. In addition, the Office is working in
partnership with the AOC Curator's Office and the Senate Historical
Office to develop a room history program that will produce a definitive
and up-to-date history for significant Senate rooms and suites.
Research projects undertaken this year included: the Assistant
Democratic Leader's suite; the Democratic Leader's suite; and the Strom
Thurmond Room, S-238. Additionally, the Office worked closely with the
AOC in the creation of an historic structures report for the Senate
vestibule, adjacent stairwell, and small Senate rotunda. This report
provides critical documentation regarding the architectural chronology
of these important historic spaces.
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. By order of the U.S. Capitol Police, the Old Senate
Chamber was closed to visitors after September 11, 2001. However,
during Senate recesses the historic room is open to tours. Thirty-six
requests were received from current Members of Congress for after-hours
access to the Chamber. Of special significance was the reenactment
swearing-in ceremony for the newly elected Senators of the 109th
Congress. Twenty-nine requests were received by current Members of
Congress for admittance to the Old Supreme Court Chamber after-hours.
Images of the room were provided to the Supreme Court Historical
Society for use on a bicentennial coin honoring Chief Justice John
Marshall. In addition, C-SPAN used high definition equipment in both
chambers to take footage for an historical documentary on the U.S.
Capitol, and both rooms were photographed for the CVC interactive
exhibitions.
In order to enhance existing documentation and to provide an
important resource for future planning, the Office is working closely
with the AOC to create condition drawings of the Old Senate Chamber
that meet the Historic American Building Survey (HABS) standard.
Currently such detailed drawings do not exist for this chamber, or any
space within the Capitol, yet this is important historical and archival
documentation. When complete, the drawings will be accepted into the
HABS national collection at the Library of Congress.
The Office continued to research the origins of one of the Senate's
most important art works, the Eagle and Shield, in the Old Senate
Chamber. This gilded carving, which dates from the early 19th century,
has long been an important symbol of the institution. Initial research
focused on the style and construction of carved eagles contemporary
with the Senate. In addition, contacts were made with museums that
house such eagles for further research.
Loans To and From the Collection
A total of 68 historic objects and paintings are currently on loan
to the Curator's Office on behalf of Senate leadership and officials in
the Capitol. The staff added loans of six paintings for leadership
suites, returned five paintings at the expiration of their loan periods
to their respective owners, and renewed loan agreements for 29 other
objects.
The Office continued to document, photograph, and prepare various
Senate Collection objects planned for exhibition in the CVC. Several of
the objects (from an oil painting to a silver snuff box) will require
conservation prior to installation in the exhibit hall, and the
Curator's office is assisting in this conservation.
Since 1982 the Senate has loaned a major historical painting, The
Battle of Chapultepec by James Walker, to the Marine Corps Historical
Museum in Washington, D.C. Originally the painting was displayed in the
West Grand Stairway of the Senate wing from 1858 until 1961. The Marine
Corps relocated to a new museum facility in 2005, terminating the
Senate loan. Given the painting's size, the Curator's Office was tasked
to identify another location for the painting. This historic work will
be relocated to the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and
Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in early 2006. The Gilcrease Museum will
provide an excellent venue for continued public display of the painting
within the context of the history of the southwest region of the
country. Development of a plan to safely remove the painting from
display and transport it to its new location was greatly enhanced by
consultation with the conservator on the Senate Curatorial Advisory
Board.
The Secretary's china was distributed and returned four times in
2005. It was used for the Inaugural luncheon, as well as the First
Lady's luncheon. The inventory was increased with the acquisition of 85
cups and saucers. The official Senate china was inventoried and used at
41 receptions for distinguished guests.
Publications and Exhibitions
The Curator's Office finalized the content and design for the
United States Senate Catalogue of Graphic Art. The publication is
scheduled for 2006. The volume features the Senate's collection of more
than 900 historic engravings and lithographs, and includes two full-
length essays and almost 40 short essays discussing selected prints.
The Senate Curator and Associate Senate Historian co-authored the
publication. It is a companion volume to the United States Senate
Catalogue of Fine Art, published in 2003.
As part of an ongoing program to provide information about the
Capitol's art and historic spaces, three new information panels were
installed for the following paintings: The Florida Case before the
Electoral Commission; The Battle of Lake Erie; and First Reading of the
Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln.
In July 2005, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of
artist Constantino Brumidi, the office de-installed the popular
photographic exhibition, World War II: The Senate and the Nation's
Capital and installed To Make Beautiful the Capitol: Birds of the
Brumidi Corridors. This exhibition places in context the myriad of
ornithological species that were painted by Brumidi and his team of
artists. An online version of the exhibit was also developed for the
Senate.gov website.
Several other internet exhibits were posted including, Presidential
Inaugurations: Invitations and Tickets in the U.S. Senate Collection
and Inaugural Luncheons. The Office received delivery of the program
files for two major websites, Isaac Bassett: A Senate Memoir, and The
Senate Chamber Desks. Both were developed in conjunction with the
Secretary's webmaster and a contractor. Isaac Bassett features
selections from the Isaac Bassett manuscript collection, with
illustrations from the Senate's collection of art and historical
objects. It highlights life in the 19th century Senate based on
Bassett's personal observations and recollections. His unique position
as a trusted, long-time employee of the Senate and close confidant of
many Senators make the stories he included in his memoir both engaging
and enlightening. The website features actual images of Bassett's
handwritten notes and an interactive time line.
The Senate Chamber Desks website chronicles the history of these
historic furnishings, many of which date back to 1819. Viewers will see
where each Senator sits and learn specific information about each desk:
biographical information on the Senators who have occupied it;
conservation and restoration information; and traditions and historical
facts. This site will be launched in 2006, and updated at the beginning
of each Congress to provide current information.
Another educational project was the development of an oral history
program related to the Senate's art and historical collections. Artists
were interviewed to gain valuable knowledge regarding recently
commissioned portraits and this information will be posted on the
Senate website in the near future.
Adding to its presence on Senate.gov, the Office published the
essays of the 160 pieces of art in the United States Senate Catalogue
of Fine Art. Several popular brochures were reprinted in 2005, and the
office continued to be a significant contributor to Unum, the Secretary
of the Senate's newsletter.
Policies and Procedures
Meetings were held with the new Senate Curatorial Advisory Board.
Composed of respected scholars and curators, this 12-member board was
established to provide expert advice to the Commission regarding the
Senate's art and historic collections and preservation program, and to
assist in the acquisition and review of new objects for the
collections.
In 2005 the Senate passed legislation codifying the Senate
Leadership Portrait Collection, which honors past majority and minority
leaders and presidents pro tempore of the Senate. These portraits are
to be commissioned after the leaders have completed their service. The
resolution also provides that the portraits may hang in the Senate
Chamber Lobby at the direction of the Senate.
An electronic tracking system was developed to record progress
through the steps of the accessioning process for new additions to the
Senate Collection. The system allows reports to be generated that
identify what types of documentation have been prepared and what
remains to be completed for each new accession.
Collaborations, Educational Programs, and Events
As part of the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of
artist Constantino Brumidi on July 26, 2005, the Curator's Office
promoted various Senate activities honoring Brumidi. As well as
developing the exhibit on the birds of the Brumidi Corridors, the
Office worked in partnership with Senate and AOC offices to generate
articles and information panels about Brumidi's importance and
contributions to the Capitol, and to sponsor special tours highlighting
the artist's work.
The Senate Curator and staff gave lectures on the Senate's art and
historical collections to various historical societies and art museums,
including George Washington University, the Federal Preservation
Institute, and the U.S. Capitol Historical Society.
Office Administration
The project to microfiche and digitize the collection object files
was completed. These files are the primary legal title, research, and
management records for all art and historical objects owned by the
Senate and maintained by the Commission on Art. This project also
serves important disaster recovery and archival preservation functions.
Copies of the microfiche and digital records will be kept off-site for
disaster recovery and archival purposes. Additional copies will be used
on-site for research and public information in order to lessen the wear
and tear on the original paper records.
The Senate Support Facility was completed. The Curator's Office
worked for several years with the Sergeant at Arms to develop a space
within the warehouse that meets the stringent requirements for storing
fine and decorative art. Environmental testing for the museum-quality
storage area is now underway, and relocation of collection objects to
this space is scheduled for the summer of 2006. The office moved its
non-collection items to the new warehouse, including exhibit and art
shipping materials, and publications. These items were re-inventoried
and new tracking numbers assigned.
Automation
The Office continued to improve its electronic collection
management database to provide more efficient and accurate data
recording and searches. The addition of several fields to record
inventory location, date, and reviewer is one such change that improves
the information regarding the current and previous locations for
objects. The registration department also implemented an electronic
tracking system to improve the accuracy and efficiency of loan
renewals.
In addition, the Office researched electronic systems that monitor
temperature and relative humidity, to assure the stability of all
objects on display and in storage. The ideal system will continuously
download data for analysis and provide instant notification via phone,
e-mail and/or blackberry when environmental conditions undergo a sudden
and potentially damaging change. Staff worked with Senate Security on
the initiative. Procurement and installation of the system may occur in
2006.
In an effort to integrate new technologies, improve research
capabilities, and address preservation concerns, the Office is
developing an organization plan and procedures that will affect all
types of files and media collected and maintained. The results will
greatly improve response time to information requests, search
capabilities for researchers, and the condition of significant
reference materials. Related to this effort was the installation of an
image management server. This service allows staff to store the many
large-sized image files that are so vital to the Office's mission,
enables the images to be archived regularly, and prevents the immense
number of items from clogging bandwidth time and storage space on the
Secretary's LAN servers.
Objectives for 2006
A major initiative will be to relocate Senate Collection items to
the new SAA off-site warehouse facility. Work will include: developing
an object tracking system; reviewing the SAA warehouse inventory
system, access procedures, and protocol; ensuring all equipment, HVAC,
and security needs are functioning; coordinating the move with the
assistance of fine art handlers; and developing a procedural document
regarding the storage of collection objects at the SAA warehouse.
The Office also will prepare for moving collection objects in 2007
to the two new CVC storage spaces. Based on the recently completed
Collection Storage Plan, museum-quality storage equipment will be
ordered to house collection objects in these new spaces. Objects in
need of archival re-housing will be identified, prioritized, and re-
housed in preparation for the move.
The Curator's environmental monitoring systems will be assessed in
all locations where collections are displayed or stored. Temporary
systems will be installed for evaluation, and following testing, a
comprehensive program will be recommended and implemented as
appropriate.
An integrated pest management plan will be prepared for all storage
spaces where collection items are located. The plan will include
procedures for preparation of objects for storage, monitoring of
conditions, and developing contacts and resources for disaster
recovery.
Conservation and preservation concerns continue to be a priority.
Projects in 2006 will include the treatment of several historic
paintings and frames, as well as objects for new CVC exhibits. The
Battle of Chapultepec will be relocated to the Gilcrease Museum in
Oklahoma. The Office will build on the information generated by the
recently completed mirror survey and develop a plan for the
conservation and maintenance of the Senate's historic mirror
collection. The restoration of the painting, First Reading of the
Emancipation Proclamation, by F.B. Carpenter, is now projected to be
completed in 2006. Additionally, the Office will focus on the Senate's
recently acquired Cornelius & Baker armorial chandelier. Following a
condition assessment, the office will work with the Senate Curatorial
Advisory Board to review treatment options and recommend a plan for the
chandelier to the Commission on Art.
The Office will advance efforts to commission portraits of Senators
Byrd, Lott, and Daschle. Unveilings are projected for the portrait of
former Senator Bob Dole and the Great Compromise mural.
The Isaac Bassett Papers manuscript collection will be deposited at
the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Initial
meetings have been held with NARA to discuss organization and storage
of the collection along with logistical considerations. As a result of
the recently completed microfilming project, the office will submit the
original collection, microfilm and digital copies of the papers, and
extensive indexes for use by future researchers.
The Curator's staff will undertake a comprehensive and detailed
survey of the Senate Chamber chairs. While the Senate Chamber desks
have been studied extensively, the accompanying chairs, which date from
various eras, have never been fully examined. It is hoped that this
study will enable the identification and preservation of important
chairs that still remain in the Senate.
Collection activities will also include efforts to locate and
recover significant historic Senate pieces. Investigations were
conducted in 2005 to locate partner desks and other furniture made by
George Cobb for the Russell Senate Office building in 1909. A total of
twelve desks were identified outside the Senate, and are either in
private collections or on display in museums.
In the area of education, the United States Senate Catalogue of
Graphic Art will be published. The Office will produce a brochure for
S-238, the Strom Thurmond Room. Also related to room histories, staff
will continue to work with the AOC Curator's Office and Senate
Historical Office to finalize the room history program.
The Office will embark on a reorganization of the Senate art
website to provide easier, more intuitive access to the Senate's art,
historical collections, and online exhibits and publications. This task
will be undertaken in coordination with Senate webmaster and Senate
Library staff, and will be an important early step in creating and
organizing the Senate's web content according to standardized metadata.
The Senate Preservation Board of Trustees will hold its first
meeting, and the Senate Curatorial Advisory Board will continue to meet
biannually. The Office will work with the Senate Curatorial Advisory
Board to review and report on several preservation projects including:
the historic structures report for the Senate vestibule, adjacent
stairwell, and small Senate rotunda; the preservation of the Minton
tile floors; and the current HABS-standard drawing documentation
project.
Work is underway to develop a five-year strategic plan for the
Office of Senate Curator. This will be an important document for the
Office as it moves forward with its many conservation, preservation,
and education initiatives. Additionally, the Senate Curator's
Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) will be reevaluated, tabletop
exercises conducted, and the COOP document updated.
3. JOINT OFFICE OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
The Joint Office of Education and Training provides employee
training and development opportunities for all Senate staff. There are
three branches within the department. The technical training branch is
responsible for providing technical training support for approved
software packages used in either Washington or the state offices. This
branch's computer training staff provides instructor-led classes; one-
on-one coaching sessions; specialized vendor-provided training;
computer-based training; and informal training and support services.
The professional training branch provides courses for all Senate staff
in areas including management and leadership development, human
resources issues and staff benefits, legislative and staff information,
new staff and intern information. The Health Promotion branch provides
seminars, classes and screenings on health related and wellness issues.
This branch also coordinates an annual Health Fair for all Senate
employees and four blood drives each year.
Training Classes
The Joint Office of Education and Training offered 405 classes in
2005; 5,982 Senate employees participated in these classes. This
office's registration desk handled 31,960 requests for training and
documentation.
Of the above total, in the Technical Training area 187 classes were
held with a total attendance of 1,521 students. An additional 770 staff
received coaching on various software packages and other computer
related issues.
In the Professional Development area 218 classes were held with a
total attendance of 4,461 students. Individual managers and supervisors
are also encouraged to request customized training for their offices on
areas of need.
The Office of Education and Training is available to work with
teams on issues related to team performance, communication or conflict
resolution. During 2005, over 50 requests for special training or team
building were met. Professional development staff also traveled to
state offices to conduct specialized training and team building. During
the last quarter of the year, we offered training via video
teleconferencing to two state offices and plan to continue this
practice.
In the Health Promotion area, 1,240 Senate staff participated in
Health Promotion activities throughout the year. These activities
included: cancer screening, bone density screening and seminars on
health related topics. Additionally 1,492 staff participated in the
Annual Health Fair held in September.
The Joint Office of Education and Training has been actively
working with the Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness to
provide security training for Senate staff. In 2005, the Office of
Education and Training coordinated 63 sessions of escape hood and other
security-related training for 1,010 Senate staff.
State Training
Since most of the classes that are offered are only practical for
D.C. based staff, the Office of Education and Training continues to
offer the ``State Training Fair'' which began in March 2000. In 2005,
three sessions of this program were offered to 119 state staff. This
office also conducted our annual State Directors Forum for the second
year and 37 attended. In addition, this office has implemented the
``Virtual Classroom'' which is an internet based training library of
300+ courses. To date, 379 state office and Washington, D.C. staff are
accessing a total of 500 different lessons using this training option.
4. CHIEF COUNSEL FOR EMPLOYMENT
Background
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 legal defense of Senate
offices in employment law cases at both the administrative and court
levels. Also, on a day-to-day basis, the SCCE provides legal advice to
Senate offices about their obligations under employment laws.
Accordingly, each employing office of the Senate 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 Federal
Courts); Mediations to Resolve Lawsuits; Court-Ordered Alternative
Dispute Resolutions; Union Drives, Negotiations, and Unfair Labor
Practice Charges; 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; Alternative Dispute Resolutions
The SCCE represents each of the employing offices of the Senate in
all court actions (including both trial and appellate courts),
hearings, proceedings, investigations, and negotiations relating to
labor and employment laws. The SCCE handles cases filed in the District
of Columbia and cases filed in any of the 50 states.
OSHA/ADA Compliance
The SCCE provides advice and assistance to Senate offices by
assisting them with complying with the applicable OSHA and ADA
regulations; representing them during Office of Compliance inspections;
advising State offices on the preparation of the Office of Compliance's
Home State OSHA/ADA Inspection Questionnaires; assisting offices in the
preparation of Emergency Action Plans; and advising and representing
Senate offices when a complaint of an OSHA violation has been filed
with the Office of Compliance or when a citation has been issued.
In 2005, the SCCE conducted 131 OSHA/ADA inspections of Senate
offices to ensure compliance with the CAA.
Management Training Regarding Legal Responsibilities
The SCCE conducts legal seminars for the managers of Senate offices
to assist them in complying with employment laws.
In 2005, the SCCE gave 56 legal seminars to Senate offices. Among
the topics covered were:
--An Overview of the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995:
Management's Rights and Obligations;
--Preventing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace;
--How to Interview and Hire the Best Employee Without Violating the
Law;
--How to Conduct Background Checks, Reference Checks and Drug Testing
Without Violating the Law;
--Complying with Immigration Laws: I-9 and the Basic Pilot Program
for Employment Eligibility Confirmation;
--Labor-Management Overview: Union Post-Election Procedures;
--Complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990;
--Management's Legal Obligations to Give Military Leave to Employees;
--Legal Pitfalls in Evaluating, Disciplining and Firing Employees;
--How to Comply with the Family and Medical Leave Act.
In addition, in 2005, the SCCE prepared new videos to accompany its
harassment seminar. This involved writing the scripts, recruiting
Senate employees to participate, training the ``actors,'' and working
with the Recording Studio to direct, record, edit and finalize the
vignettes. The purpose of the vignettes is to illustrate points raised
during the harassment seminar with examples that are Senate-specific.
The SCCE has received extremely positive feedback from Members' offices
at which the harassment seminars have been given using these new
videos.
Preventative Legal Advice
The SCCE meets with Members, Chiefs of Staff, Administrative
Directors, Office Managers, Staff Directors, Chief Clerks and General
Counsels at their request. The purposes are to ensure compliance with
the law, prevent litigation and minimize liability in the event of
litigation. For example, on a daily basis, the SCCE advises Senate
offices on matters such as disciplining and/or terminating employees in
compliance with the law, handling and investigating sexual harassment
complaints, accommodating the disabled, determining wage law
requirements, meeting the requirements of the Family and Medical Leave
Act, and management's rights and obligations under union laws and OSHA.
Administrative/Miscellaneous Matters
The SCCE provides legal assistance to employing offices to ensure
that their employee handbooks/office policies, supervisors' manuals,
job descriptions, interviewing guidelines, and performance evaluation
forms comply with the law
Union Drives, Negotiations, and Unfair Labor Practice Charges
In 2005, the SCCE handled one union drive and assisted in
negotiations with another union. With respect to the union drive, the
SCCE trained managers and supervisors regarding their legal obligations
during a union campaign, advised the client in selecting its
representatives for the election and conducted training sessions for
the employer representatives regarding proper conduct at elections.
Layoffs and Office Closings in Compliance with the Law
The SCCE provides advice and strategy to individual Senate offices
regarding how to minimize legal liability in compliance with the law
when offices reduce their forces. In addition, pursuant to the Worker
Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act), offices that are
closing must follow certain procedures for notifying their employees of
the closing and for transitioning them out of the office. The SCCE
tracks office closings and notifies those offices of their legal
obligations under the WARN Act.
5. SENATE GIFT SHOP
The Senate Gift Shop was established under administrative direction
and supervision of the Secretary of the Senate (SOS) in October 1992,
(United States Code, Title 2, Chapter 4). With each successive year
since its establishment the Senate Gift Shop has continued to provide
outstanding products and services that maintain the integrity of the
Senate as well as increase the public's awareness of the mission and
history of the U.S. Senate. The Gift Shop provides products and
services to Senators, their spouses, staffs, constituents, and
visitors. Products include a wide variety of souvenirs, collectibles
and fine gift items created exclusively for the U.S. Senate. Services
include special ordering of personalized products, custom framing, gold
embossing, engraving and shipping. Additional services include the
distribution of educational materials to both tourists and constituents
visiting the Capitol and Senate Office Buildings. New this year is the
Senate Gift Shop's presence on Webster.
Facilities
For several years the Senate Gift Shop offered over-the-counter
sales to walk-in customers at a single location. Today, after more than
a decade of operation, the Gift Shop provides products and services
from three locations.
In addition to the three physical locations, the Gift Shop has
developed an online presence on Webster. The intranet site currently
offers only a limited selection of products that may be ordered either
by phone or by printing and faxing the on-site order form. Long-term
plans are to grow this site to include a greater sample of merchandise
offered in the Gift Shop's physical locations and to eventually migrate
to an e-commerce website with online transactions. Along with offering
over-the-counter, walk-in sales, and limited intranet services, the
Gift Shop Administrative Office provides mail order service, special
order and catalogue sales.
The Gift Shop also maintains two warehouse facilities. While the
bulk of its overstock is currently held in an off-site storage
facility, a portion of the Gift Shop's overstock is maintained in the
Hart Building warehouse facility. This space also accommodates the Gift
Shop's receiving, shipping, and engraving departments.
Operational plans for the off-site facility include having most, if
not all, Gift Shop product delivered, received and stored at this
location until the need for transfer to Gift Shop locations. Although
the overall management of the warehouse is through the Sergeant at Arms
(SAA), 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 a centralized, climate-controlled facility
that is managed by the SAA will provide better protection for the Gift
Shop's valuable inventory in terms of increased and steadfast security
as well as prolonged shelf life for product.
Sales Activity
Sales recorded for fiscal year 2005 were $1,591,244.36. Cost of
goods sold during this same period was $1,006,655.30, accounting for a
gross profit on sales of $584,589.06.
In addition to tracking gross profit from sales, the Senate Gift
Shop maintains a revolving fund and a record of inventory purchased for
resale. As of October 1, 2005, the balance in the revolving fund was
$1,833,614.70 and the inventory purchased for resale was valued at
$2,295,554.07.
Additional Activity
The contractor selected to provide the hardware and system
installation of the new retail and financial management system has
completed its contractual obligations to the Senate Gift Shop with the
final deliverables completed in 2005. The contractor will continue to
provide hardware and software support for the retail system.
Accomplishments and New Products in Fiscal Year 2005
Official Congressional Holiday Ornaments
The year 2005 marked the conclusion of the Gift Shop's third
consecutive ``four-year ornament series.'' Each ornament in the 2002-
2005 series of unique collectibles features an architectural milestone
of the United States Capitol and is packaged with corresponding
historical text taken from the book, History of the United States
Capitol: A Chronicle of Design, Construction, and Politics by William
C. Allen, Architectural Historian for the Architect of the Capitol.
The 2005 ornament pictures the Capitol's West Front with particular
emphasis on the newly landscaped lawn and terraces. Congress authorized
the landscape improvements in 1873, and on June 23, 1874, passed an act
to hire the first landscape architect of the United States Capitol,
Frederick Law Olmsted. Olmsted's idea for redesigning the landscape of
the Capitol grounds is illustrated in a drawing titled ``General Plan
for the Improvement of the Capitol Grounds.'' In keeping with a Gift
Shop tradition, the authentic colors of the original drawing were
reproduced onto a white porcelain stone and set with a brass frame
finished in 24kt gold.
Sales of the 2005 holiday ornament exceeded 32,000 ornaments of
which more than 7,400 were personalized with engravings designed,
proofed and etched by Senate Gift Shop staff. This highly successful
effort was made possible by the combined effort of our administrative,
engraving, and store staffs. Additional sales of this ornament and
ornaments from previous years are expected to continue throughout 2006.
Sales revenue from this year's ornament, as in previous years, helps to
provide scholarship funds for the Senate Child Care Center.
The theme for the Gift Shop's fourth series of ornaments, which
will run from 2006-2009, is currently in development with production of
the 2006 ornament targeted for this summer and sale of the ornament
expected to begin in September 2006.
China Porcelain Boxes
The final porcelain ``Brumidi'' box in a set of four was completed
and released for sale in 2005. Each box displays a different image from
the Constantino Brumidi frescoes taken from the ceiling of the
President's Room in the Senate Wing of the United States Capitol. The
individual boxes of the series include the allegorical figures:
Liberty, Legislation, Executive Authority and Religion. These porcelain
boxes, exclusive to the Senate Gift Shop, will be popular collector
items for many years to come.
Projects and New Initiatives for 2006
History of the Capitol
The Gift Shop will purchase for resale the book, History of the
Capitol, (H. Doc. 108-240) by Glenn Brown. When the GPO publication is
released for sale to distributors and retailers in 2006, the Gift Shop
plans to purchase a substantial quantity to ensure availability to its
customers for an extended period of time.
Congressional Plates
The series of Official Congressional Plates continued in 2005 with
new design features beginning with the 108th Congress plate, which
became available for sale this past year. The balance of the series
includes plates commemorating the 109th, 110th and 111th Congresses.
The design stage for the remaining plates has concluded and prototypes
for the final three are being produced by Tiffany & Co.
Constantino Brumidi Birthday Celebration
The year 2005 marked the 200th Birthday of Constantino Brumidi,
``The Artist of the Capitol.'' In celebration of this special occasion,
the staff of the Gift Shop worked closely with the staff of the
Curator's Office on an initiative to add to our collection of Brumidi-
inspired merchandise. The new products include a designer collection of
note cards depicting images of birds taken from the frescoes gracing
the walls of the Capitol's Brumidi corridors. Other products featuring
Brumidi's artwork that are currently offered for sale in the Senate
Gift Shop include neckties, scarves, round porcelain boxes and the book
Brumidi ``Artist of the Capitol.'' Additional Brumidi pieces are in
production.
Intranet/Webster
The Webster intranet website for the Gift Shop continues to be
enhanced. Primary considerations include website policy, design and
layout, content and products to be included. Meetings concerning the
creation and expansion of the Gift Shop's website are ongoing with
other Secretary departments. The Gift Shop's intends to incorporate
links to the offices of the Historian, Curator and Senate Library so
that visitors to the website will have ready access to additional
educational information.
Capitol Complex Lumber
In the fall of 2001 the construction of the Capitol Visitor Center
(CVC) required the removal of many trees from the Capitol complex.
During this time, Allegany Wood Products (Allegany) of Petersburg, West
Virginia, assisted in determining the best method for the recover and
transport of the felled trees. Arrangements were made for a local West
Virginia trucking company to travel to Washington, D.C., to pick up and
haul the cut trees to one of Allegany's lumber mills, where the trees
could be rough cut and kiln dried, a process which makes possible the
preservation and long-term storage of the lumber. The stored lumber
approximating 12,000 board feet is now being inventoried and segregated
by species. Plans to determine the most appropriate use for the lumber
will be developed this year. Preliminary ideas involve using a quantity
of wood to create ``official products'' such as presentation, gift and
commemorative items.
6. HISTORICAL OFFICE
Serving as the Senate's institutional memory, the Historical Office
collects and provides information on important events, precedents,
dates, statistics, and historical comparisons of current and past
Senate activities for use by members and staff, the media, scholars,
and the general public. The Office advises Senators, officers, and
committees on cost-effective disposition of their non-current office
files and assists researchers in identifying Senate-related source
materials. The Office keeps extensive biographical, bibliographical,
photographic, and archival information on the 1,885 former Senators. It
edits for publication historically significant transcripts and minutes
of selected Senate committees and party organizations, and conducts
oral history interviews with key Senate staff. The photo historian
maintains a collection of approximately 40,000 still pictures that
includes photographs and illustrations of Senate committees and most
former Senators. The Office develops and maintains all historical
material on the Senate website.
Editorial Projects
Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, 1774-2005.--A new
edition of the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress has just
been published. In May 2003, both houses of Congress adopted H. Con.
Res. 138, authorizing printing of an updated and expanded edition of
the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-2005.
The first edition of this indispensable reference source was published
in 1859; the most recent edition appeared in 1989. This latest
publication is the 16th edition. Since 1989, the assistant historian
has added many new biographical sketches, expanded bibliography
entries, and revised and updated most of the database's nearly 2,000
Senate and vice-presidential entries. In preparation for the 2005
edition, the assistant historian and historical editor updated the
Congress-by-Congress listing of members through the 108th Congress and
updated the listing of executive branch officers. The assistant
historian completed the editing and proofing of all Senate-related
information, coordinating with the House Office of History and
Preservation and the Government Printing Office. The assistant
historian also continues to edit and update all existing information
for the online version of the Biographical Directory (http://
bioguide.congress.gov) to allow for expanded search capabilities,
maintain accuracy, and incorporate new information and scholarship.
Administrative History of the Senate.--Throughout 2005, the
assistant historian continued to research and write chapters of this
historical account of the Senate's administrative evolution. This study
traces the development of the offices of the Secretary of the Senate
and Sergeant at Arms, considers 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 over the past two centuries. In particular, during the
past year the assistant historian completed the work's pivotal third
chapter, which explores the Senate's administrative history from 1836
to 1861, when Asbury Dickins was Secretary of the Senate. During this
period, the first major administrative reform effort was launched,
resulting in an expanded and more professional work force.
``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 Robert Caro in 2002, sharp-eyed analysts have left
memorable accounts that may help modern Senators better understand the
Senate in its historical context. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Allen Drury's 1943 comment about the Senate of his day--``There is a
vast area of casual ignorance concerning this lively and appealing
body''--retains a ring of truth for modern times. The ``Idea of the
Senate'' project will identify up to 40 major statements by
knowledgeable observers. Each of the 40 brief chapters in the resulting
publication will include a 500-word quotation and an essay that
identifies the background of the observer and places the quotation in
the context of the times in which it was written.
``Rules of the United States Senate, Since 1789''.--In 1980,
Parliamentarian Emeritus Floyd M. Riddick, at the direction of the
Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, prepared a publication
containing the eight separate codes of rules that the Senate adopted
between 1789 and 1979. In the early 1990s, the Senate Historical
Office, 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, our goal is to show how
the Senate's current rules have evolved from earlier versions,
including rules both added and dropped between codifications. Some
modern Senate rules have their origins in the first code of rules that
the Senate adopted in 1789. Many of those first rules can be traced to
even earlier times--to rules Thomas Jefferson prepared in 1776 for the
Continental Congress. This work, to be completed within the coming
year, will contain the original text of all standing rules, beginning
with those the Senate adopted on April 16, 1789. It will reprint each
of the seven subsequent codifications (1806, 1820, 1828, 1868, 1877,
1884, and 1979) along with changes adopted between each codification.
Appendices will contain related rules of the Continental Congresses,
the Maryland General Assembly (1777), the Senate of the Confederate
States of America, Senate Impeachment Rules from 1798, and the
abandoned joint rules of Congress. Footnotes and sidebars will provide
brief explanations of the reasons for significant changes.
``Senate Stories: 200 Notable Days, 1787-2002''.--This publication
will present 200 brief stories featuring the Senate's best-loved and
most notorious former members, its triumphs and tragedies, and some
lesser-known moments that reflect the Senate's character as the
``World's Greatest Deliberative Body.'' Readers will learn how the
Senate was created, who became the first cabinet member to be confirmed
(and the first rejected), how decorum was not always strictly
maintained on the Senate floor, and how a certain Senator's toupee
signaled a change in the seasons. These 200 historical essays are drawn
from a larger number prepared during an eight-year period for weekly
delivery to an audience of several dozen senators. Those Senators
appeared to appreciate these essays for adding historical context to
their daily responsibilities. Historical Office staff researched and
compiled sources and photographs for each essay to be included in the
publication.
Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies (JCCIC).--In
2005, Historical Office staff assisted with preparations and editing of
printed materials, followed up on questions and reference requests
forwarded to them by the JCCIC, made minor changes to the Web site as
needed, and assisted the Recording Studio with preparing and editing
text for the 2005 Inaugural video. Staff participated in an on-camera
interview, responding to historical questions about presidential
inaugurations, for use in the Inaugural video. Staff continues to
maintain the Inaugural website as stewards until the next JCCIC forms
in 2008.
Oral History Program
The Historical Office conducts a series of oral history interviews
that provide personal recollections of various Senate careers. This
year, interviews were completed with Leonard Weiss, former staff
director of the Governmental Affairs Committee; Timothy Wineman, Senate
Financial Clerk; and Dennis W. Brezina, former staff member of the
Subcommittee on Government Research. Several interviews are in
progress, and the interviews of Chuck Ludlam, former staff member of
the Separation of Powers Subcommittee, have been processed and opened
for research. The complete transcripts of 20 interviews have also been
posted on the Senate's Web site.
Member Services
Members' Records Management and Disposition Assistance.--The Senate
archivist continued the program of assisting 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. The archivist
began revising the Records Management Handbook for United States
Senators and Their Archival Repositories. The 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. The archivist provided briefing
materials to transition offices and met with staff. The archivist
conducted a seminar on records management for Senate offices and
participated in the Senate Services Fair. The archivist participated in
a panel discussion at the annual meeting of the Association of Centers
for the Study of Congress on ``Developing a Collaborative Approach to
Web-Based Content (for congressional papers collections),'' and also in
the second symposium sponsored by the John H. Brademas Center for the
Study of Congress at New York University, which focused on the
development of a policy for the papers of public officials. The
archivist organized and led a session on procedures for handling
classified documents that are discovered in members' collections after
they have been donated to an archival repository. This was presented at
the Society of American Archivists annual meeting.
Committee Records Management and Disposition Assistance.--The
Senate archivist provided each committee with staff briefings, record
surveys, guidance on preservation of information in electronic systems,
and instructions for the transfer of permanently valuable records to
the National Archives' Center for Legislative Archives. 2,966 cubic
feet of Senate records were transferred to the Archives. The archivist
revised and published the Records Management Handbook for United States
Senate Committees. Part of the revision entailed developing, with
assistance from National Archives (NARA) staff, a protocol for transfer
of electronic records to NARA's Center for Legislative Archives. The
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and its
archivist developed and successfully implemented a project using this
protocol to appraise and transfer electronic records to the archives.
The archivist worked with the Budget Committee to find professional
assistance to perform a records survey and to begin comprehensive
archival processing of older transfers for the purpose of assuming
better intellectual control over their historical collection. The
archival assistant continued to provide processing assistance to
committees and administrative offices in need of basic help with
noncurrent files. The archival assistant produced committee archiving
reports in Access database format covering records' transfers for the
past year. The archivist will use these reports in 2006 to provide
committees with suggestions for improvements. The archivist hosted a
tour and briefing for chief clerks at the Center for Legislative
Archives.
``Senate Historical Minutes''.--The Senate historian continued a
nine-year series of ``Senate Historical Minutes,'' begun in 1997 at the
request of the Senate Democratic Leader. In 2005, the historian
prepared and delivered a ``Senate Historical Minute'' at 21 Senate
Democratic Conference weekly meetings. These 400-word Minutes were
designed to enlighten members about significant events and
personalities associated with the Senate's institutional development.
More than 200 Minutes are available as a feature on the Senate website.
Photographic Collections
The photo historian created the first ever published pictorial
directory of Senators, Faces of the Senate: A Pictorial Directory of
United States Senators, 1789-2005. Since the First Congress convened in
1789, 1,885 men and women have served in the United States Senate. This
invaluable reference source contains images of all but 46 of them. The
images in the volume are arranged alphabetically by state, and further
divided within each state by Senate class. This one-of-a-kind
publication offers a unique visual representation of the collective
Senate from its inception to the present. Prompted by the desire to
make the Faces pictorial directory as complete as possible, the photo
historian sought and acquired images of nearly 100 former Senators not
previously represented in the Office's collection. Many of these newly
acquired images were obtained from various universities, historical
societies, and state libraries throughout the nation. More than half of
the images came from a collection of late 19th- and early 20th-century
photo scrapbooks that were donated to the Office at the end of 2004.
These scrapbooks were inventoried and copy negatives were made of many
of the images contained therein.
The photo historian continued to provide timely photographic
reference service, while cataloging, digitizing, re-housing, and
expanding the Office's 40,000-item image collection. The office's
Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) and vital electronic records were
updated. As a contribution to the office's educational outreach
efforts, two online photographic exhibits were created for the Senate
website--Capitol Scenes: 1900-1950 and World War II: The Senate and the
Nation's Capital. A third online exhibit, The Senate Through the Ages,
has been created and will be available on the website shortly. A number
of Senators' offices were inspired by the Faces pictorial directory to
display the images of all the Senators who had served from their state.
The photo historian worked with the offices on these projects,
providing the images and assisting in the design of the displays.
Educational Outreach
Much of the Senate Historical Office's correspondence with the
general public takes place through the Senate's website, which has
become an indispensable source for information about the institution.
The assistant historian and the Historical Office staff maintain and
frequently update the Web site with timely reference and historical
information. In 2005, the Historical Office received an estimated 1,500
inquiries from the general public, the press, students, family
genealogists, congressional staffers, and academics, through the public
e-mail address provided on the Senate website. The diverse nature of
their questions reflects the varied levels of interest in how the
Senate functions, its institutional history, and the individuals who
have served in the body.
In coordination with the Office of Education and Training,
Historical Office staff provided seminars on the general history of the
Senate, Senate committees, women senators, Senate floor leadership, and
the Constitution. Office staff also participated in seminars and
briefings for specially scheduled groups. The Senate historian
addressed a conference in the United Kingdom entitled, ``What Are
Senates For?'' Sponsored by the University of London's Institute for
Historical Research, this symposium was designed to explore further
reform opportunities for the House of Lords by examining the experience
of legislative upper houses in other western nations. The associate
historian delivered the keynote address to the Northern Great Plains
History Conference in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, participated in a workshop
on ``Congress and History'' at Washington University in St. Louis, and
was part of a panel discussion on ``The American Congress'' at the
National Archives and Records Administration.
Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress.--This eleven-member
permanent committee, established in 1990 by Public Law 101-509, meets
twice a year to advise Congress and the Archivist of the United States
on the management and preservation of the records of Congress. Its
Senate-related membership includes appointees of the majority and
minority leaders; the Secretary of the Senate, who serves as committee
vice chair during the 109th Congress; and the Senate historian. The
Historical Office provided support services for the Committee's June
and December meetings.
Capitol Visitor Center Exhibition Content Committee.--Staff
historians completed their assignments in drafting text for displays in
the exhibition gallery of the Capitol Visitor Center. During 2005, the
Office assisted Donna Lawrence Productions and Cortina Productions with
background material for several visitor orientation films and
interactive visual displays.
Association of Centers for the Study of Congress.--In May, the
Historical Office assisted with the third annual meeting of the
Association of Centers for the Study of Congress. Among the centers
involved in this promising new organization are those associated with
the public careers of former Senators Howard Baker, Bob Dole, Everett
Dirksen, Thomas Dodd, Wendell Ford, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Russell,
John Stennis, and John Glenn.
7. 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 fulfill the
legal requirements of the workplace and complement the organization's
strategic goals and values.
This includes recruiting and staffing; providing guidance and
advice to managers and staff; training; performance management; job
analysis; compensation planning, design, and administration; leave
administration; records management; employee handbooks and manuals;
internal grievance procedures; employee relations and services; and
organizational planning and development.
The Human Resources Office also administers the Secretary's Public
Transportation Subsidy program and the Summer Intern Program that
offers college students the opportunity to gain valuable skills and
experience in a variety of Senate support offices.
Classification and Compensation Review Completed
HR conducted a complete classification and compensation study. This
work product is the single largest program to come from this office
since its inception. The classification study includes a comprehensive
collection of current job classifications and specifications for every
position in the Office. Other federal agencies are looking to move from
the GS schedule to this concept of broad banding, which allows greater
flexibility in ``pay for performance'' models rather than simple
graduated steps.
Policies and Procedures
The Secretary, through HR, is updating and revising the Employee
Handbook of the Office of the Secretary. With nuances in employment law
and other advances, the policies are being reviewed, coordinated with
counsel, revised and updated. An entirely new updated Employee Handbook
will be available in 2006.
Employee Self-Service (ESS)
HR has implemented use of the Employee Self-Service system (ESS)
which is a secure system enabling Secretary staff to review and update
personnel information pertaining to addresses, phone numbers and
emergency contact information. Employees are now able to review and
correct information to their electronic personnel records maintained by
HR. Staff and managers can also access leave records and reports
through this system. The ability to review and update this information
is instrumental to maintaining accurate contact lists for emergencies
or other contingencies.
ESS is a useful communication method among a large staff. It is
incumbent upon the department to find ways to solicit the feedback,
suggestions and insight of staff in an effort to continually improve
processes and procedures. One way we have incorporated this effort is
in the ESS system. There is a ``suggestion box'' component to this
service that allows staff to anonymously send a message to HR with a
concern or suggestion, to be considered by HR and/or the Executive
Office.
Recruitment and Retention of Staff
HR has the ongoing task of advertising new vacancies or positions,
screening applicants, interviewing candidates and assisting with all
phases of the hiring process. HR will coordinate with the Sergeant at
Arms HR to post all SAA and Secretary vacancies on the Senate intranet
so that the larger Senate community may access the posting from their
own offices.
HR assists in advising on performance-related issues and meets with
staff and supervisors to develop performance improvement plans. Such
plans help in both the development of a productive staff member and in
making disciplinary recommendations when necessary.
Outreach
HR conducted the first Elder Care Fair that was made available to
all Senate staff on October 24, 2005. The event provided an opportunity
for staff to learn about and access local and nationwide services
available to assist the elderly and those responsible for their care.
Comprehensive resource manuals were created and distributed
throughout the Senate and have been requested by specific offices,
committees, and departments. The goal is to conduct an Elder Care Fair
every other year.
Training
In conjunction with the Senate Chief Counsel for Employment, HR
works to prepare training for department heads and staff. Some of the
training topics include Sexual Harassment, Interviewing Skills,
Conducting Background Checks, Providing Feedback to Employees and Goal
Setting.
Interns and Fellows
HR coordinates both the Secretary's internship program and the
Heinz Fellowship program. From advertising, conducting needs analyses,
communicating, screening, placing and following up with all interns, HR
keeps a close connection with the interns to make the internship most
beneficial to them and the organization.
8. 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), the Government Printing Office (GPO), and outside vendors
on technical issues and joint projects. The Department provides
computer related support for all LAN-based servers within the Office of
the Secretary of the Senate. Information Systems staff provide direct
application support for all software installed workstations, 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 all departments within the Office of the Secretary
of the Senate. Emphasis is placed on the creation and transfer of
legislation to outside departments and agencies, meeting Disbursing
office financial responsibilities to the member offices, and office
mandated and statutory obligations.
Staffing and Functionality
No incremental staffing changes occurred in fiscal year 2005. The
staffing level has remained unchanged since 1998, although functional
responsibilities for support in other departments have expanded.
Information System staff functionality was expanded by moving the IT
structure from a local LAN support structure to an enterprise IT
support process. Improved diagnostic practices were adopted to expand
support across all Secretary Departments. Several departments, namely
Disbursing, Chief Counsel for Employment, Office of Public Records,
Page School, Senate Security, Stationery and Gift Shop previously
employed dedicated information technology staff resident within the
offices. Public Records, Stationery, and Gift Shop remote support was
added in 2005. Information Systems personnel continue to provide a
multi-tiered escalated hardware and software support for these offices.
For information security reasons, departments have implemented
isolated computer systems, unique applications, and isolated local area
networks. The Secretary of the Senate network is a closed local area
network to all offices within the Senate. Information Systems staff
continue to provide a common level of hardware and software integration
for these networks, and for the shared resources of interdepartmental
networking. Information System staff continue to actively participate
in all new project design and implementation within the Secretary of
the Senate operations.
Improvements to the Secretary's LANs
The Senate chose Windows NT as the standard network operating
system in 1997. The continuing support strategy is to enhance existing
hardware and software supports provided by the Information Systems
Department, and augment that support with assistance from the SAA
whenever required. The network supports approximately 300 users'
accounts and patron accounts in the Capitol, the Senate Hart, Russell,
and Dirksen Buildings, and the Page School. The total number of
hardware servers retired in 2005 was 16.
Fiscal Year 2005 Summary Results
The Active Directory and Messaging Architecture (ADMA) marks the
first time that all Secretary IT equipment is operating in a pure
client/server relationship. The IT infrastructure foundation is now
positioned for scaleable and expanded growth in all Secretary offices.
The ADMA project implementation provided a central point of IT
system administration, and the opportunity to implement enterprise wide
solutions, namely Outlook Web Access and remote messaging, offsite
access to Webster, LIS, and newswire services.
Improvements incorporated in the Amendment Tracking Project now
provide submitted as well as proposed amendments scanned for all Member
offices.
Microsoft released 37 critical security updates for each
workstation in 2005. Information System staff incorporated new
techniques to test and deploy these updates to all systems. Coupled
with a secure ``wake-up-on-LAN'' technology, workstations that are
turned off can now securely powered up on the weekend, security updates
installed, turned off, and ready for ``business as usual'' on Monday
morning.
Active Directory and Message Infrastructure Project (ADMA)
The Microsoft Outlook E-Mail client solution is referred to as the
Messaging Architecture and the replacement of the existing Windows NT
server installed base is referred to as the Active Directory project.
The ADMA plan involved all staff employees and was integrated into one
central Active Directory Secretary Enterprise in 2005. Each department
(except the Disbursing Office and Chief Counsel for Employment) is now
structured as an organizational unit within the new enterprise.
In September 2005, phase one was completed, and phase two
(Disbursing) was completed in December 2005.
There are several benefits to the implementation of the ADMA:
--All secure-id and Passface users have remote access to web-mail,
Congress.gov, CRS, and news wire services;
--Access to web based services is available from all public and
private internet locations;
--Centralized system administrative processes;
--Higher level of active file sharing and improved collaboration
between different business functions; and
--Higher levels of messaging functionality during COOP events.
Clearly, the implementation of ADMA for the Secretary involved
numerous resources on the part of both the Sergeant at Arms and the
Secretary's offices. The importance of this single project provides the
``base'' for all future IT related projects in the coming years.
Legislative Operation Upgrades
The technical staff collaborated with the SAA application
development software personnel to complete the transition of the
Amendment Tracking System workflow process to a web-based solution.
This redesign facilitates the scanning of submitted and proposed
amendments for all Senate offices.
Stationery Room Renovation Procurement
The Stationery Room awarded a contract to replace the existing
hardware servers in August 2005. This process had not been updated in
over ten years.
An enhancement to the Stationery Room's services incorporated a
Metro Subsidy system which allows Senate offices to request allotted
subsidies in advance using a web-browser based connection. SAA provided
the web-entry portal at PSQ, and the Secretary's office installed the
necessary SQL database server at PSQ. Hardware servers maintained
jointly by SAA and the Secretary were initiated in 2005 to provide this
advance purchase request.
Curator Project Management Software
In May 2004 a project requirement surfaced to provide the Curator's
office with a method to create, edit, publish, and distribute
information relative to numerous contracts and outside vendor projects.
After evaluating these business requirements, the IT solution
implemented now provides multi-user collaboration software to track and
monitor these numerous projects.
In parallel, working with SAA Research and Development, this
solution was also deemed valuable to other Senate offices.
Implementation of this package allows staff to communicate and share
files regardless of location. A Senate wide rollout is expected in
2005.
9. INTERPARLIAMENTARY SERVICES
The Office of Interparliamentary Services (IPS) has completed its
24th 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/or Minority Leaders. The office also
provides appropriate assistance as requested by other Senate
delegations.
The statutory interparliamentary conferences are: NATO
Parliamentary Assembly; Mexico-United States Interparliamentary Group;
Canada-United States Interparliamentary Group; British-American
Interparliamentary Group; United States-Russia Interparliamentary
Group; and United States-China Interparliamentary Group.
In June, the 44th Annual Meeting of the Mexico-U.S.
Interparliamentary Group was held in Rhode Island. Arrangements for
this successful event were handled by the IPS staff.
As in previous years, all foreign travel authorized by the
Leadership is arranged by the IPS staff. In addition to delegation
trips, IPS provided assistance to individual Senators and staff
traveling overseas. Senators and staff authorized by committees for
foreign travel continue to call upon this office for assistance with
passports, visas, travel arrangements, and reporting requirements.
IPS receives and prepares for printing the quarterly financial
reports for foreign travel from all committees in the Senate. In
addition to preparing the quarterly reports for the Majority Leader,
the Minority Leader, and the President Pro Tempore, IPS staff also
assists staff members of Senators and committees in completing the
required reports.
Interparliamentary Services maintains regular contact with the
Office of the Chief of Protocol, Department of State, and with foreign
embassy officials. Official foreign visitors are frequently received in
this office and assistance is given to individuals as well as to groups
by the IPS staff. The staff continues to work closely with other
offices of the Secretary of the Senate and the Sergeant at Arms in
arranging programs for foreign visitors. In addition, IPS is frequently
consulted by individual Senators' offices on a broad range of protocol
questions. Occasional questions come from state officials or the
general public regarding Congressional protocol.
On behalf of the Leadership, the staff arranges receptions in the
Senate for Heads of State, Heads of Government, Heads of Parliaments,
and parliamentary delegations. Required records of expenditures on
behalf of foreign visitors under authority of Public Law 100-71 are
maintained in the Office of Interparliamentary Services.
Planning is underway for the 46th Annual Meeting of the Canada-U.S.
Interparliamentary Group, which will be held in the United States in
2006. Advance work, including site inspection, will be undertaken for
the Mexico-U.S. Interparliamentary Group and British American
Parliamentary Group meetings to be held in the United States in 2007.
Preparations are also underway for the spring and fall sessions of the
NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
10. 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; and an extensive book collection on American
politics, history, and biography. Other resources include a wide array
of online systems used to provide nonpartisan, confidential, timely,
and accurate information services to the Senate. The library also
authors content for three websites: Legislative Information Service,
Senate.gov, and Webster.
Notable Achievements
Information inquiries increased 26 percent.
LIS nomination records enhanced with links to 1,074 full-text
hearings.
Senate Support Facility opened, providing archival storage for
library collections.
Project undertaken to provide electronic access to the Senate
Historical Office's 3,000-volume book collection.
180 Senate staff were provided LIS instruction.
Information Services
Legal, legislative, business, and general research are the primary
components of the Senate Library's mission. The two categories of
patron requests are traditional requests resulting from walk-ins,
telephone calls, faxes, or e-mails, and requests directed to library-
produced web resources. As content providers to three websites--
Senate.gov, the Legislative Information System (LIS), and Webster--the
library's work flow and procedures, staff skills, and information
products have changed significantly and permanently. XML technology has
significantly and positively impacted web work flow and work product.
As a result, the library can meet the Senate community's ever-
increasing reliance on technology with accurate, pertinent, and current
information in an even more timely and cost-effective manner. The
response to the library's commitment to web initiatives was a 26
percent increase in inquiries from the previous year. This marked the
second consecutive year of double-digit increases.
INFORMATION SERVICES TO THE SENATE
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Traditional Web
Year Inquiries Inquiries Total Increase from Previous Year
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2005........................................... 33,080 823,076 856,156 26 percent
2004........................................... 33,750 602,236 635,986 38 percent
2003........................................... 46,234 348,198 394,432 Baseline
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Most of the activities supporting research also reflected
significant increases, including 4,015 information packages delivered
(+23 percent) and 133,335 photocopies (+13.75 percent). The number of
loaned books and documents increased 27 percent to 2,752 and 330 new
borrowing accounts were established, bringing the total to 2,667. Other
important contributors to the across-the-board increases were the
October 2004 Senate-wide release of the library's online catalog, which
recorded nearly 4,000 user visits, the interactive New Books List, and
the new e-mail book ordering service. In addition, more than 4,400
pages were produced from the library's extensive microform collection
of newspapers, journals, and congressional documents.
Significant Projects
Supreme Court Nominations
A web-available history documenting the 158 Supreme Court
nominations submitted to the Senate since 1789 was compiled and
published. This unique web document features confirmation chronologies
and embedded links to voting records, nominee biographies, and essays
regarding special circumstances. The document has been published on
Senate.gov, the Legislative Information System, and the Senate
Library's Home Page on Webster.
A related Supreme Court project provides web access to the text of
confirmation hearings conducted since 1971 and Senate executive reports
issued since 1993. These two categories of important documents were
provided through collaboration with the Senate Judiciary Committee,
Congressional Research Service (CRS), Government Printing Office (GPO),
and Library of Congress Law Library.
Senate Hearings on LIS
The Legislative Information System nomination reports were enhanced
with the addition of 886 Senate hearing numbers, the key to identifying
a specific transcript in a library or at GPO.
A related LIS project linked the hearing numbers to the full text
of hearing transcripts at GPO Access. The June release of this new
feature on LIS was followed by a November release on THOMAS. To date,
this cooperative project between the Library of Congress and the Senate
Library has established 1,074 full-text links to Senate committee
hearings.
Appropriations Legislation
The library's popular Appropriations Legislation series documents
the history of appropriations measures since fiscal year 1993. The
histories were significantly improved with the addition of links to
full-text transcripts of nearly 200 Senate Appropriations' hearings. An
additional feature that links House hearing information to the web-
based library catalog is available to Senate staff through the
library's Webster site. Simultaneous dynamic publishing to the
histories on Webster, LIS, and Senate.gov was designed by the Web
Technology Office and significantly improved editing procedures.
Educational Services
LIS Savvy classes, a new library outreach program, were introduced
in March. The one-hour classroom sessions provided 180 Senate staff
with expert LIS training from an experienced research librarian. In
addition to the scheduled monthly sessions, six more classes, including
a teleconference training session, were held to meet the demand. LIS
Savvy classes complement the library's responsibility as the Senate's
official Help Desk for commercial and legislative databases.
In addition, 204 Senate staff attended library-sponsored seminars
and events including Services of the Senate Library Seminars, the
Senate Services Fair, Senate Page School tours, state staff
orientations, and the annual National Library Week reception and book
talk.
During 2005, the library hosted 179 visitors from graduate schools,
professional organizations, and federal libraries. The tours included
Catholic University and University of North Carolina graduate students;
library staff from the Supreme Court, Central Intelligence Agency, and
Library of Congress; D.C. Special Library Association members; and
participants in the annual GPO Depository Library Conference.
Technical Services
Acquisitions
The library received 11,988 (+2.5 percent) new acquisitions in
2005. Of this number, 7,520 were congressional documents, 3,588
executive branch publications, and the remaining 880 items were books
related to politics, American history, or biography.
As a participant in the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP),
the library receives selected categories of legislative, executive, and
judicial branch publications from GPO. In 2005, the library acquired
11,108 items through FDLP. The trend to electronically distribute
government publications has significantly reduced the overall number of
paper documents issued; GPO reports that 95 percent of government
documents are now issued electronically. The library responded to this
trend by hosting 16,938 electronic catalog links, the majority of which
are to government documents.
A major project is the ongoing title-by-title evaluation of
executive branch publications. During the fifth year of the project,
1,462 superseded or surplus items were withdrawn from the collection
and 628 of these items were donated to requesting federal libraries.
The project's final phase will improve organization and access by
integrating the retained documents into the book collection. Toward
this end, 379 documents were reclassified and merged into the larger
primary collection.
Cataloging
The library's productive cataloging staff draws on years of
experience to produce and maintain a catalog of more than 166,912
bibliographic items. During the year, 10,385 items were added to the
catalog including 5,179 new titles (+10 percent), and 5,689 items were
withdrawn. A total of 28,928 maintenance transactions contributed to
the catalog's content, currency, and record integrity. The library also
contributed 664 personal names and congressional terms to the Name
Authorities Cooperative program (NACO) at the Library of Congress. That
number is exceptional and underscores cataloging skills and the very
special nature of the Senate's collections. As an international
authority, NACO's institutional participants create shared cataloging
resources for the larger library community.
Staff addressed the longstanding issue of tracking committee
hearings. There is often a three to six-month period between the date a
hearing is held and publication of the official transcript. To date,
383 records have been created for yet-to-be published hearings. Senate
staff and researchers are now able to identify both published and
unpublished Senate hearings by searching the library catalog.
Other cataloging projects included assisting the Senate Historical
Office in providing electronic access to their 3,000 volume book
collection. Once completed, the entire collection will be searchable
through the library's online catalog. Since May, records for the first
638 titles have been completed.
Web-Based Catalog
The library's online catalog, containing 166,912 bibliographic
records, was released Senate-wide on October 25, 2004. During the first
operational year, Senate staff searched the catalog on nearly 4,000
occasions. The public catalog is updated nightly to guarantee that
Senate staff will retrieve accurate and timely information on library
holdings. The holdings for electronic journals and government-issued
serials, including annual reports and recurring documents, were added
to the catalog in 2005.
A four-month beta test of the latest catalog upgrade was followed
by a June installation of the new 3.3 version. The beta testing
provided an opportunity to recommend search and display improvements.
Catalog users will see enhanced full-text search capability with
system-generated equivalent and substitute terms. For more precision,
exact-match searching, which provides more focused results, is also
available. The catalog improvements have significantly integrated the
majority of library resources onto the Secretary's network.
The library utilizes a statistical and analytical tool, to process
raw data from the public catalog web server. This valuable management
tool provides information on aggregate catalog usage and will result in
improved design and service.
Offsite Storage, Collection Maintenance, and Binding
The Senate Support Facility was completed in December 2005 and will
provide long-term, preservation-quality storage for library
collections. The library's designated area in the warehouse provides
storage for 56,000 volumes, and has on-site security, fire suppression,
museum-standard humidity and temperature controls, air filtration, and
telecommunications. A collection of 25,000 historic and rare
congressional documents will be transferred to the SSF in 2006.
Preservation of the library's 18th and 19th century collections
resulted in several initiatives, including a volume-by-volume
collection survey that will identify those titles requiring
conservation, repair, or replacement. To prevent the growth of mold and
mildew, routine monitoring ensures that strict temperature and humidity
levels are maintained. To guarantee future availability and
preservation, GPO bound 550 library volumes for the permanent
collection.
Administrative
Budget
Budget reductions in 2005 totaled $2,544.32. Nine years of budget
monitoring has resulted in reductions totaling $73,484.18. Continual
review of purchases has eliminated 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 Plan (COOP)
The addition of a laptop computer significantly improved the
library's ability to meet COOP-related and special event
responsibilities. With added remote access to the Senate.gov content
management system (CMS), staff can efficiently update the floor
schedule. To meet COOP requirements for an alternate work site, the
library's warehouse location will provide staff areas, a core reference
collection, and access to the Senate network and telecommunications
systems.
Unum, Newsletter of the Office of the Secretary of the
Senate
Unum, the Secretary's quarterly newsletter produced by Senate
Library staff since October 1997, is an historical record of
accomplishments, events, and personnel in the Office of the Secretary
of the Senate. Three issues were published during 2005, including a 16-
page commemorative issue honoring the 200th anniversary of Constantino
Brumidi's birth. In addition, Senate-wide access to each of the thirty-
seven issues was made available through Webster and the library's
catalog.
Major Library Goals for 2006
Relocate 25,000 volumes to the Senate Support Facility.
Redesign the library's Webster site.
Identify a COOP-designated reference collection for the Senate
Support Facility.
Continue the review and reclassification of executive branch
materials.
Add Senate hearing numbers to LIS status reports for the 1987-2000
time period.
Plan for server upgrades in preparation for future catalog
requirements.
SENATE LIBRARY STATISTICS FOR CALENDAR YEAR 2005--ACQUISITIONS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Books Government Documents Congressional Publications
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reports/ Total
Ordered Received Paper Fiche Hearings Prints Bylaw Docs
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January.............................................. 21 65 234 86 206 19 48 342 1,000
February............................................. 22 51 208 44 276 13 81 242 915
March................................................ 20 81 397 142 243 28 74 273 1,238
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st Quarter.................................... 63 197 839 272 725 60 203 857 3,153
==================================================================================================
April................................................ 18 78 161 35 214 35 53 204 780
May.................................................. 34 98 122 42 183 27 80 367 919
June................................................. 27 102 159 396 217 16 72 336 1,298
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2nd Quarter.................................... 79 278 442 473 614 78 205 907 2,997
==================================================================================================
July................................................. 50 61 170 51 249 21 65 292 909
August............................................... 21 75 120 78 276 25 58 324 956
September............................................ 33 58 190 201 235 18 148 268 1,118
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3rd Quarter.................................... 104 194 480 330 760 64 271 884 2,983
==================================================================================================
October.............................................. 32 82 187 76 283 17 68 293 1,006
November............................................. 48 74 215 49 256 13 56 350 1,013
December............................................. 20 55 174 51 288 20 81 167 836
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4th Quarter.................................... 100 211 576 176 827 50 205 810 2,855
==================================================================================================
2005 Total..................................... 346 880 2,337 1,251 2,926 252 884 3,458 11,988
2004 Total..................................... 225 716 2,329 985 3,180 217 1,171 2,955 11,698
==================================================================================================
Percent Change....................................... 53.78 22.91 .34 27.01 -7.99 16.13 -24.51 17.02 2.48
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SENATE LIBRARY STATISTICS FOR CALENDAR YEAR 2005--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............................................. 42 22 6 17 13 353 4 51 466
February............................................ 20 21 2 7 5 258 5 75 373
March............................................... 121 25 16 7 2 315 5 114 484
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st Quarter................................... 183 68 24 31 20 926 14 240 1,323
===================================================================================================
April............................................... ......... 38 11 1 8 133 8 108 307
May................................................. 14 69 5 ......... 7 239 6 88 414
June................................................ 44 121 8 2 5 403 6 67 612
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2nd Quarter................................... 58 228 24 3 20 775 20 263 1,333
===================================================================================================
July................................................ 647 47 2 2 17 197 2 42 309
August.............................................. 81 30 6 7 21 158 ......... 103 325
September........................................... 28 49 8 1 7 246 1 98 410
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3rd Quarter................................... 756 126 16 10 45 601 3 243 1,044
===================================================================================================
October............................................. 19 30 2 8 4 478 ......... 49 571
November............................................ 46 21 5 2 33 337 ......... 64 462
December............................................ 26 27 14 3 9 262 2 129 446
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4th Quarter................................... 91 78 21 13 46 1,077 2 242 1,479
===================================================================================================
2005 Total.................................... 1,088 500 85 57 131 3,379 39 988 5,179
2004 Total.................................... 240 425 51 41 37 3,329 164 662 4,709
===================================================================================================
Percent Change...................................... 353.33 17.65 66.67 39.02 254.05 1.50 -76.22 49.24 9.98
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SENATE LIBRARY STATISTICS FOR CALENDAR YEAR 2005--DOCUMENT DELIVERY
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Micrographics Photocopiers
Volumes Materials Facsimiles Center Pages Pages
Loaned Delivered Printed Printed
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January........................................... 213 333 119 534 5,874
February.......................................... 220 271 79 234 10,258
March............................................. 254 384 143 479 8,567
-------------------------------------------------------------
1st Quarter................................. 687 988 341 1,247 24,699
=============================================================
April............................................. 202 357 75 151 12,082
May............................................... 254 280 36 401 9,886
June.............................................. 225 366 73 413 11,183
-------------------------------------------------------------
2nd Quarter................................. 681 1,003 184 965 33,151
=============================================================
July.............................................. 210 252 112 158 8,617
August............................................ 359 633 111 550 10,268
September......................................... 216 317 70 320 13,095
-------------------------------------------------------------
3rd Quarter................................. 785 1,202 293 1,028 31,980
=============================================================
October........................................... 207 317 76 374 8,986
November.......................................... 225 273 38 414 8,894
December.......................................... 167 232 69 378 5,625
-------------------------------------------------------------
4th Quarter................................. 599 822 183 1,166 23,505
=============================================================
2005 Total.................................. 2,752 4,015 1,001 4,406 113,335
2004 Total.................................. 2,165 3,265 1,904 4,522 99,636
=============================================================
Percent Change.................................... 27.11 22.97 -47.43 -2.57 13.75
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11. 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 the work situation.
Summary of Accomplishments
Accreditation by the Middle States Commission on Secondary Schools
continues until December 31, 2008.
Two page classes successfully completed their semester curriculum.
Closing ceremonies were conducted on June 10, 2005, and January 20,
2006, the last day of school for each semester.
Orientation and course scheduling for the Spring 2005 and Fall 2005
pages were successfully completed. Needs of incoming students
determined the semester schedules.
Extended educational experiences were provided to pages. Twenty-one
field trips, five guest speakers, opportunities to compete in writing
and speaking contests, to play musical instruments and vocalize, and to
continue foreign language study with the aid of tutors of four
languages were all afforded pages. Six field trips to educational sites
and three speakers were provided for summer pages as an extension of
the page experience. National tests were administered for qualification
in scholarship programs as well.
Effective and efficient communication and coordination among the
Sergeant at Arms, Secretary, Party Secretaries, Page Program, and Page
School continues.
The evacuation plan and COOP have been reviewed and updated. Pages
and staff continue to practice evacuating to primary and secondary
sites.
The community service project embraced by pages and staff in 2002
continues. Items for gift packages were collected, assembled, and
shipped to military personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq. The pages
included letters of support to the troops participating in Operation
Enduring Freedom. Several recipients of gift packages wrote letters to
the pages expressing their appreciation.
Staff and pages participated in escape hood training.
Tutors were trained in evacuation procedures.
Updated materials and equipment were purchased. These included five
Titanium calculators, supplemental English textbooks, pre-calculus
textbooks, and political science and American government texts.
Faculty have pursued learning opportunities. One participated in
the Veterans History Project workshop at the Library of Congress;
another attended an AP Physics workshop, a Hazard Communications
seminar, the T3 International conference, and a PASCO workshop; and a
third attended the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
convention as well as the T3 International Conference and completed two
courses in his doctoral program.
All sinks in the science lab have been retrofitted with aspirators.
Summary of Plans
Our goals include:
--Individualized small group instruction and tutoring by teachers on
an as-needed basis will continue to be offered.
--Foreign language tutors will provide instruction in French,
Spanish, German, Latin, and Japanese.
--The focus of field trips will be sites of historic, political, and
scientific importance which complement the curriculum.
--Staff development options will include attendance at a technology
conference, seminars conducted by Education and Training, and
subject matter conferences conducted by national organizations.
--The community service project will continue.
12. 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, 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 2005, the OPDS prepared 4,439 printing and
binding requisitions authorizing the GPO to print and bind the Senate's
work, exclusive of legislation and the Congressional Record. 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. The office's
online blank paper ordering system, implemented in 2003, continues to
be a popular option for Senate staff. The OPDS also coordinates a
number of publications for other Senate offices, such as the Curator,
Historical Office, Disbursing, Legislative Clerk, and Senate Library in
addition to the U.S. Botanic Garden, U.S. Capitol Police and Architect
of the Capitol. These tasks include providing guidance for design,
paper selection, specifications for quotations, monitoring print
quality and distribution. Last year's major printing projects included
the Report of the Secretary of the Senate and the Semiannual Report of
the Architect of the Capitol. Current major projects for the office
include a full color version of the ``History of the U.S. Botanic
Garden 1861-1991'', ``Headlines in Senate History'' a compilation
prepared by the Senate Historical Office, and the ``U.S. Senate
Catalogue of Graphic Art'' a companion volume to the fine art
catalogue.
Hearing Billing Verification
Senate committees often use outside reporting companies to
transcribe their hearings. The OPDS processes billing verifications for
these transcription services ensuring that costs billed to the Senate
are accurate. During 2005, OPDS provided commercial reporting companies
and corresponding Senate committees a total of 949 billing
verifications of Senate hearings and business meetings, a 20 percent
increase over the previous year. Over 66,000 transcribed pages were
processed at a total billing cost of over $426,000.
The OPDS utilizes a program developed in conjunction with the
Sergeant at Arms Computer Division that provides more billing accuracy
and greater information gathering capacity, 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 2005 the office continued processing
all file transfers 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
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Percent change
2003 2004 2005 2005/2004
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Billing Verifications........................... 975 787 949 + 20.6
Average per Committee........................... 51.3 41.4 49.9 + 20.6
Total Transcribed Pages......................... 70,532 56,262 66,597 + 18.4
Average Pages/Committee......................... 3,712 2,961 3,505 + 18.4
Transcribed Pages Cost.......................... $461,807 $366,904 $426,815 + 16.3
Average Cost/Committee.......................... $24,288 $19,311 $22,463 + 16.3
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Additionally, the Service Center within the OPDS is staffed by
experienced GPO detailees that provide Senate committees and the
Secretary of the Senate's office with complete publishing services for
hearings, committee prints, and the preparation of the Congressional
Record. These services include keyboarding, proofreading, scanning, and
composition. The Service Center provides the best management of funds
available through the Congressional Printing and Binding Appropriation
as committees have been able to decrease or eliminate additional
overtime costs associated with the preparation of hearings.
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 the GPO. This
section ensures that the most current version of all material is
available, and that sufficient quantities are available to meet
projected demands. 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 9,984 distinct legislative items
in 2005, including Senate and House bills, resolutions, committee and
conference reports and executive documents.
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD STATISTICS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2003 2004 2005
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pages Printed:
For the Senate.............................................. 16,835 12,642 16,393
For the House............................................... 16,259 14,243 18,394
-----------------------------------------------
Total Pages Printed....................................... 33,094 26,885 34,787
===============================================
Copies Printed and Distributed:
To the Senate............................................... 307,917 227,192 295,366
To the House................................................ 441,735 331,165 397,327
To the Executive Branch and the Public...................... 449,750 323,957 356,770
-----------------------------------------------
Total Copies Printed and Distributed...................... 1,199,402 882,314 1,049,463
===============================================
Production Costs:
Senate Costs................................................ $9,886,805 $7,961,741 $6,640,823
House Costs................................................. $9,563,592 $9,026,893 $8,933,244
Other Costs................................................. $693,141 $555,010 $440,639
-----------------------------------------------
Total Production Costs.................................... $20,143,538 $17,543,644 $16,014,706
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Although accessing legislative documents through the World Wide Web
is popular, there is still a strong need for printed documents. The
OPDS continually tracks demand for all classifications of Congressional
legislation and twice yearly adjusts the number of documents ordered in
each category to closely match demand. As a result, document waste has
decreased significantly over the past several years.
Customer Service
The primary responsibility of the 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. In 2005, ordering of legislative
documents on-line increased by 260 percent. The Legislative Hot List
Link, where Members and staff can confirm arrival of printed copies of
the most sought after legislative documents, is popular. The 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 in addition to
mail requests. The office stresses prompt, courteous and accurate
answers to Senate and public requests.
SUMMARY OF ANNUAL CUSTOMER SERVICE STATISTICS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Congress/ Public FAX On-line Counter
Year session mail request request request
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2003..................................................... 108/1st 1,469 2,596 735 53,040
2004..................................................... 108/2nd 1,137 2,229 564 36,780
2005..................................................... 109/1st 1,369 2,326 1,464 40,105
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On-Demand Publication
The office produces additional copies of legislation as needed in
the DocuTech Service Center which is staffed by experienced GPO
detailees. On-demand printing and binding of bills and reports is
provided to Member offices and Senate committees. In March 2004, the
office coordinated the installation of a new, improved DocuTech high-
speed digital copier and production publisher. This machine decreases
the quantities of documents printed directly from GPO and increases the
ability to reprint documents on-demand on a larger scale. The DocuTech
is networked with GPO allowing print files to be sent back and forth
electronically. It also provides the advantage of quickly printing
necessary legislation for the Senate floor and other offices in the
event of a GPO COOP situation. During 2005, the DocuTech Center
produced 530 tasks for a total of 891,871 printed pages, a 35 percent
increase over the previous year.
Accomplishments and Future Goals
The OPDS experienced an increased volume of business during 2005.
Staff members attended both technical and management continuing
education courses, always working toward the goal of providing
customers, the Senate community and the public, with prompt and
accurate service. Future goals include working with the GPO on
improving job flow procedures. This includes sending customers
electronic proofs for print jobs, as well as developing new database
reports on serial set publications for the Senate Library and inventory
tracking of materials housed in the new Senate Materials Facility. The
Office of Printing and Document Services continues to seek new ways to
use technology to assist Members and staff with added services and
improved access to information.
13. 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 2004, through September 2005, the Public
Records office staff assisted more than 2,200 individuals seeking
information from reports filed with the office. This figure does not
include assistance provided by telephone, nor assistance given to
lobbyists attempting to comply with the provisions of the Lobbying
Disclosure Act of 1995. A total of 102,977 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 2005 Accomplishments
The office developed on-site scanning redundancy with other offices
under the Office of the Secretary. The office also modernized the on-
site public access software.
Automation Activities
During fiscal year 2005, the Senate Office of Public Records
developed the capacity to be able to scan time-sensitive documents in
the event of a breakdown of the principal scanner.
Federal Election Campaign Act, as Amended
The Act requires Senate candidates to file quarterly reports in a
non-election year. Filings totaled 4,447 documents containing 278,264
pages.
Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995
The Act requires semi-annual financial and lobbying activity
reports. As of September 30, 2005, 6,485 registrants represented 20,099
clients and employed 32,890 individuals who met the statutory
definition of ``lobbyist.'' The total number of lobbying registrations
and reports processed was 49,401.
Public Financial Disclosure
The filing date for Public Financial Disclosure Reports was May
16, 2005. The reports were available to the public and press by
Tuesday, June 14th. Copies were provided to the Select Committee on
Ethics and the appropriate State officials. A total of 2,900 reports
and amendments was filed containing 15,878 pages. There were 301
requests to review or receive copies of the documents.
Senate Rule 35 (Gift Rule)
The Senate Office of Public Records has received over 1,691 reports
during fiscal year 2005.
Registration of Mass Mailing
Senators are required to file mass mailings on a quarterly basis.
The number of pages was 558.
14. 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, 2005 through
December 31, 2005.
Personnel Security
Four hundred eighty-five Senate employees held one or more security
clearances at the end of 2005. This number does not include clearances
for employees of the Architect of the Capitol or for Congressional
Fellows assigned to Senate offices. OSS also processes these
clearances.
OSS processed 2,361 personnel security actions in 2005, a 24
percent increase from 2004. One hundred-seven investigations for new
security clearances were initiated last year, and 58 security
clearances were transferred from other agencies. Senate regulations, as
well as some Executive Branch regulations, require that individuals
granted Top Secret security clearances be reinvestigated at least every
five years. Staff holding Secret security clearances are reinvestigated
every ten years. During the past 12 months, reinvestigations were
initiated on 70 Senate employees. OSS processed 218 routine
terminations of security clearances during the reporting period and
transmitted 339 outgoing visit requests. The remainder of the personnel
security actions consisted of updating access authorizations and
compartments.
Overall, the average time required by the Department of Defense
(DOD) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for processing security
clearances (by means of investigation and adjudication) has increased
from 260 days to 332 days. The average time for investigations has
increased by 27.7 percent relative to 2004. Since the previous
increases for 2002 to 2003 was 66.7 percent and 2003 to 2004 was 25.6
percent, this represents a very significant increase in the last two
years. The average time for an initial investigation conducted and
adjudicated by the DOD is 305 days from the date that OSS requests the
investigation until the letter from DOD granting the clearance is
received in Senate Security. The average time for DOD initial
investigations increased 19.1 percent.
The periodic reinvestigation process averages 385 days, an increase
of 42.6 percent relative to 2004. The average time for an initial
investigation conducted by the FBI and adjudicated by DOD is 256 days,
while the periodic reinvestigation process averages 447 days. The FBI
investigation with DOD adjudication times represents an increase of 1.6
percent and 69.3 percent respectively.
Two hundred thirty-nine records checks were conducted at the
request of the FBI, ATF and OPM. One record check each was performed on
behalf of OPM and ATF. The remaining checks were performed for FBI.
This represents a 15.5 percent increase in records checks completed by
OSS.
Security Awareness
OSS conducted or hosted 75 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 2
percent increase from 2004.
Document Control
OSS received or generated 2,792 classified documents consisting of
90,217 pages during calendar year 2005. This is a 0.4 percent decrease
in the number of documents received or generated in 2004. Additionally,
67,899 pages from 4,082 classified documents no longer required for the
conduct of official Senate business were destroyed. This represents a
52.9 percent increase in destruction. OSS transferred 700 documents
consisting of 26,625 pages to Senate offices or external agencies, down
40.9 percent from 2004. 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 7,575 document
transactions and handled over 184,742 pages of classified material in
2005, an increase of 40.9 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 919 occasions
during 2005. Use of OSS conference facilities decreased 19.7 percent
from 2004 levels. Five hundred forty-six meetings, briefings, or
hearings were conducted in OSS' three conference rooms. Of those,
twelve were ``All Senators'' briefings and six 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 373 occasions in 2005.
15. 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.
--To select a variety of stationery items to meet the needs of the
Senate environment on a day-to-day basis and maintain a
sufficient inventory of these items.
--To purchase supplies utilizing open market procurement, competitive
bid and/or GSA Federal Supply Schedules.
--To maintain individual official stationery expense accounts for
Senators, Committees, and Officers of the Senate.
--To render monthly expense statements.
--To insure receipt of reimbursements for all purchases by the client
base via direct payments or through the certification process.
--To make payments to all vendors of record for supplies and services
in a timely manner and certify receipt of all supplies and
services.
--To provide delivery of all purchased supplies to the requesting
offices.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fiscal Year Fiscal Year
2005 2004
Statistics Statistics
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gross Sales............................. $5,247,163 $4,740,221
Sales Transactions...................... 60,247 58,682
Purchase Orders Issued.................. 8,611 6,741
Vouchers Processed...................... 9,206 7,485
Mass Transit Media Sold................. 75,607 67,836
$20.00.............................. 64,527 60,564
$10.00.............................. 3,923 3,923
$5.00............................... 7,157 3,148
===============================
Time Employees (FTE).................... 13 13
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fiscal Year 2005 Highlights and Projects
Flag Purchase Modernization Project.--During fiscal year 2005, with
the assistance of the Architect of the Capitol and the Senate Sergeant
at Arms, the Stationery Room embarked on a program to develop a method
in which Member offices could purchase flags which had been flown over
the Capitol, but were not date or occasion specific. Research revealed
that approximately 37 percent of all flag requests by constituents were
only to obtain a flag flown over the Capitol. It was reasoned that if
flags could be flown in advance, significant wait times could be
reduced. Thus, the Senate Sergeant at Arms PG&DM Division created
artwork for a generic customizable flag certificate, along with a CD
template that could be used in the customization process. All flags
which have been pre-flown come with a Certificate of Authenticity
signed by the Architect, certifying each flag has been flown over the
United States Capitol. Currently this program is in use by a pilot
group of Member offices.
Senate Service Award Project.--At the end of fiscal year 2004,
authorization was granted to proceed in the development of a program to
recognize Senate staff who have completed twenty and thirty years of
Senate service. Working closely with the Committee on Rules and
Administration, the Senate Disbursing Office and Stationery Room
vendors, a new Service Award Certificate was developed. This project
resulted in the presentation of approximately 540 certificates to staff
members who were employed in the Senate as of September 2004.
Mass Transit Subsidy Electronic Submissions.--This project came to
fruition with a fully functional application developed in-house by the
Senate Sergeant at Arms Information and Technology's Research and
Development team. This application allows users to submit their
requests for Mass Transit media via a web-based solution. Once
submitted, the request is filled by Stationery Room staff and
notification is made to the requesting office that their media is
ready. The Senate currently has 120 offices participating in the Mass
Transit Subsidy Program of which 97 offices are submitting requests
electronically.
Senate Support Facility.--A new off-site facility affords the
Stationery Room a 1,800 square foot secure work area along with an
additional pallet storage area which will accommodate 190 pallets of
merchandise. Stationery Room staff is also working on logistical and
additional usage functions in this modern facility as a tenant user,
including the ability to use the assigned space as a distribution
center for product.
Computer Modernization.--For over two years, the Stationery Room
has worked to achieve modernization of its aged computer system. These
efforts culminated in the ``rollout'' on August 4, 2005 of a new, state
of the art sequel-based retail point of sale and accounting system. The
base product installation will allow the Stationery Room to manage its
inventory by location; provide account holders with detailed monthly
transaction information; eliminate paper transaction storage with
information stored for retrieval from the system on demand, and a host
of other features that new technology now provides.
16. WEB TECHNOLOGY
The Office of Web Technology is responsible for web sites that fall
under the purview of the Secretary of the Senate, including: the Senate
website, www.senate.gov (except individual Senator and Committee
pages); the Secretary website on Webster; an intranet site currently
used for file-sharing by Secretary staff only; and a LegBranch web
server housing web sites and project materials which can be accessed by
staff at other Legislative Branch agencies.
The Senate Web site (www.senate.gov)
The United States Senate Web site celebrated its 10 year
anniversary in 2005. The first U.S. Senate home page on the World Wide
Web was announced October 20, 1995 on the Senate floor. From the Senate
homepage members of the public could easily find the homepages for
their own Senators. As the World Wide Web grew, so did the content and
mission of Senate.gov. The pages of information became catalogs and
databases, but the mission to provide the public with accurate and
timely information remained constant.
The second Senate home page, introduced in January 1997, provided a
graphical interface, a virtual tour of the Capitol, access to Senate
committee pages, and improved access to legislative data. Information
about institutional procedures, history, and statistical records were
also new to the site.
Senate floor and committee schedule information was provided when
the 106th Congress convened and the third home page was launched on
January 6, 1999. The site received a Federal Design Award, issued by
the National Endowment for the Arts and the General Services
Administration. The award recognized the site for ``humaniz[ing] the
venerable institution of the Senate by making its everyday activities
and rich history readily accessible to the public.''
The Senate's fourth home page was launched in October 2002 and
included the functionality of a powerful, behind-the-scenes content
management system. The previous web sites were maintained by a small
team of 5 staff who knew HTML and could code content for display in web
browsers. This new system allowed non-technical subject experts to post
information to the Web site, greatly increasing the amount of relevant
information available to the public. Over 30 contributors from eleven
departments in the offices of the Secretary and the Sergeant at Arms
now publish text and images on the Web site.
In 2005 the newest graphical interface was designed for
www.senate.gov, bringing more content to the front page, and providing
access to Senators' websites from every page on the site. To help
visitors find information, links to popular features were added to the
homepage and a new site-wide search, available from every page, was
introduced.
The SAA conducted a feasibility study to evaluate the search
appliance to see if it is compatible with the Senate environment.
Secretary staff did extensive testing during the evaluation period and
determined that the new search would work for senate.gov. This
department also participated in developing the custom tag for use by
Senate offices who want to put a search feature on their own web pages
to search only their own web site content.
There were more than 50 million visitors to the Senate website in
2005--five times more than the estimated 8 million visitors in 2001.
The latest changes and additions to the Senate Web site will greatly
assist these visitors in connecting with their Senators and in finding
the information they seek.
Senate.gov Web Development Projects
Web Technology staff worked with content providers to create
several special features for the Senate website:
The Political Cartoons of Puck Exhibit
Puck, a satirical weekly magazine that parodied the American
political scene was one of the most popular periodicals of the late
19th century. The new Puck Exhibit on senate.gov includes slideshows of
Puck cartoons and ``Take the Puck Challenge,'' an innovative,
interactive series of riddles designed to give readers insight to the
political satire.
Birds of the Brumidi Corridors Exhibit
Constantino Brumidi included designs for more than 350 individual
birds of at least 100 species in his paintings in the Senate corridors.
A new exhibit on senate.gov features these paintings of birds in
several slideshow presentations.
World War II: The Senate and the Nation's Capitol
This slideshow photo exhibit focuses on the Senate and the role it
played in supporting the war effort and its aftermath and honors the
brave men and women of World War II who sacrificed so much to preserve
the ideals of liberty and representative democracy.
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 Legislative Information System
(LIS) in January 2000, the LIS Project Office 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 Office of the Senate Legislative Counsel (SLC) and the
Office of the Enrolling Clerk. The XML authoring application is called
LEXA, an acronym for the Legislative Editing in XML Application. LEXA
features many automated functions that provide a more efficient and
consistent document authoring process. The LIS Project Office has
worked very closely with the SLC to create an application that meets
the needs for legislative drafting.
LISAP: 2005
The SLC began using LEXA to draft legislation in early 2004. The
SLC offered valuable feedback throughout that year on LEXA's continued
development as new features were added and additional document types,
such as amendments and reported bills, were added. Just prior to the
beginning of the 109th Congress, the LIS Project Office provided a one-
day training course on several new and enhanced features of LEXA, and
the SLC began 2005 creating 60 percent of their drafts of introduced
bills and resolutions in XML. By the end of the session, 80 percent of
all introduced and reported bills and resolutions (and countless
amendments) had been created in XML. Several very large drafts were
created in XML, including the energy bill and the highway bill.
Feedback and development continued throughout 2005. Additional features
and document types--conference reports, constitutional amendments, and
engrossed and enrolled bills--were added to LEXA. LEXA's authoring
environment offers many automated document creation functions,
providing a faster, more consistent drafting process.
As LEXA becomes more widely used in the SLC and other offices,
support of the application becomes increasingly important. The 2004
Legislative Branch Appropriations Act directed the Government Printing
Office (GPO) to provide support for LEXA. GPO took over maintenance and
support of the software module that converts a Senate XML document to
locator for printing through Microcomp, and is now updating the
software to print House XML documents. GPO is also working to solve
problems with the software that creates and prints tables, and that
table tool will be replaced with a more robust one sometime in 2006.
The LIS Project Office worked closely with several key House, GPO,
and Library of Congress groups involved in the XML project to ensure
that the House and Senate XML authoring applications produce compatible
electronic and printed documents that may be exchanged among the
organizations processing the documents. The groups held several
meetings in August and agreed to use the same tools to create tables
and print XML documents through Microcomp. The House and Senate
software development groups also reached agreement on several technical
authoring issues and standards, thereby eliminating the need for
additional processing when a document is exchanged between the House
and the Senate.
The project to convert the compilations of current law to an XML
format was completed in early September. Staff in the House and Senate
Legislative Counsel Offices update the compilations, and both groups
participated in the project. The compilations are used as the basis for
many legislative drafts and having the XML data will make it easier for
both offices to use the text of compilations for drafting legislation
in XML.
The LIS Project Office provides support for LEXA via the LEXA
HelpLine and LEXA website. The HelpLine is provided through a single
phone number that rings on all the phones in the office, and the
website is located on a server accessible by the legislative branch.
The website, legbranch.senate.gov/lis/lexa, is used to distribute
updates of the application to GPO and provides access to release notes,
the reference manual, and other user aids. The Office continued to
update the LEXA Reference Manual as new features were added to LEXA.
The manual provides screen shots and step-by-step instructions for all
LEXA features. The Office also trained new SLC staff and the Enrolling
Clerks on LEXA and provided several demonstrations on new LEXA features
throughout the year.
The document management system (DMS) for the SLC will be
implemented once the SLC has completed the transition from XyWrite to
LEXA. The Systems Development Services group of the Office of the
Sergeant at Arms continues to update the DMS to the most recent
releases of Documentum and verifies that all SLC requirements will be
met. The Systems Development Services group provides support and
maintenance for the LIS/DMS, and that group will also support the DMS
for the SLC once it is deployed. The LIS Project Office has been
monitoring the upgrade effort and will contract for transition training
to be developed and delivered prior to implementation. The DMS will be
integrated with LEXA and will provide a powerful tracking, management,
and delivery tool.
LISAP: 2006
The Office of the Enrolling Clerk will begin to use LEXA to produce
engrossed and enrolled bills in XML from the XML versions of introduced
and reported bills. The Legislative Branch XML Technical Committee will
work together to develop the document type definitions for creating
appropriations bills. Once the definitions are completed and validated,
the LIS Project Office will enhance LEXA to add the ability to create
appropriations language, starting first with appropriations amendments
created by the SLC. Following that, we hope to begin discussions with
the Appropriations committee staff that prepare the bills for printing.
The LIS Project Office will continue to work with the SLC and the
Office of 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. For
example, eliminating XyWrite will finally give the SLC the opportunity
to implement a document management system and automate other office
functions. Other Senate offices that do drafting with XyWrite may begin
using LEXA, including the Committee on Appropriations. Thus far in the
second session of the 109th Congress, approximately 96 percent of
introduced bills and resolutions have been created as XML documents.
The legislative process yields other types of documents such as the
Senate and Executive Journals and the Legislative and Executive
Calendars. Much of the data and information included in these documents
is already captured in and distributed through the LIS/DMS database
used by the clerks in the Office of the Secretary. The LIS/DMS captures
data that relates to legislation including bill and resolution numbers,
amendment numbers, sponsors, co-sponsors, and committees of referral.
This information is currently entered into the database and verified by
the clerks and then keyed into the respective documents and reverified
at GPO before printing. An interface between this database and the
electronic documents could mutually exchange data. For example, the
LIS/DMS database could insert the bill number, additional co-sponsors,
and committee of referral into an introduced bill while the bill draft
document could supply the official and short titles of the bill to the
database.
The Congressional Record, like the Journals and Calendars, includes
data that is contained in and reported by the LIS/DMS database.
Preliminary DTDs have been designed for these documents, and
applications could be built to construct XML document components by
extracting and tagging the LIS/DMS data. These applications would
provide a faster, more consistent assembly of these documents and would
enhance the ability to index and search their contents. The LIS Project
Office will coordinate with the Systems Development Services Branch of
the Office of the Sergeant at Arms to begin design and development of
XML applications and interfaces for the LIS/DMS and legislative
documents. As more and more legislative data and documents are provided
in XML formats that use common elements across all document types, the
Library of Congress will be able to expand the LIS Retrieval System to
provide more content-specific searches.
NEW TECHNOLOGY IN THE SENATE
Senator Allard. Thank you for your leadership. Businesses
and agencies have to make constant decisions about the
technology that they use in their offices. You have shared with
us some of the high tech services that you're providing to the
public and to Members of the Senate. How does your office
continue to take advantage of technological developments and
incorporate them into your services provided to the Senate,
when do you determine that the technology has ripened to the
point where you can bring it in and not create a lot of
problems? How do you make those kind of decisions?
Ms. Reynolds. You know that's a great question, and the
Sergeant at Arms is very much a partner with us in any
technological development, as they, as you know better than I,
certainly have the lead in this for the Senate. I think the
pilot projects, I mentioned the flag project in particular, we
have a number of pilots going with disbursing through our
financial management information system. The best way for us to
determine when something is ripe if you will, or ready for a
roll out is because we've been through that pilot phase and
we've worked directly with Senate offices to understand what
works and what doesn't work, so they're invaluable to us in
that feedback.
But you're right, staying ahead of that curve, whether it's
something small, like being able to book the LBJ room online,
or order your paper online for your office through printing and
documents to something as large as our Senate amendment
tracking system, or our FMIS project with disbursing, we're
constantly striving to serve this community better.
And I also want to make one quick mention as well, on the
website of a new addition that hopefully will be rolled out
this year, because as I've said, keeping that website fresh,
especially for the public, is important to us. And there should
be one addition coming there on the Senate desks, which I think
will be of enormous interest to you and your colleagues and
also to the public. Actually going in and looking at each desk,
explaining its history, talking about the conservation of the
desk. So again, from simple things to large, and again
remaining current for the public we're constantly striving to
stay ahead of the curve if you will.
LOBBYING DISCLOSURE REPORTS
Senator Allard. Very good. I'm going to move on to the
Office of Public Records, which is under your jurisdiction as
Office of the Secretary of the Senate. We're looking at
lobbying reform, and it has the potential to increase filings
by a considerable amount as I understand it. Could you give me
an overview of that operation and tell me whether you have
sufficient resources to implement a significant increase in
filings?
Ms. Reynolds. I really appreciate that question and
obviously there's been a great deal of discussion here in these
last few weeks alone. Our public records office has been in the
business of receiving those lobbying disclosure reports now,
for just over a decade, since the passage of the LDA. And as
you well know we currently receive those filings twice a year,
mid-February and again mid-August. I have a couple of
statistics for you that are also in our written report. There
are roughly 6,500 registrants who represent just over 20,000
clients. They employ almost 33,000 individuals, so it's a big
number. All told that means that our Office of Public Records,
reviews about 45,000 documents a year.
I'm also very proud that the lobbying community has been
able to e-file with the Senate since the year 2000. And in fact
since 2001, lobbying reports and registrations as far back as
1998 have been posted on senate.gov for public access. Our role
in public records with regard to the LDA is an administrative
role. We do not have the enforcement authority. That belongs to
the U.S. attorney of the District of Columbia. But since 2003
we have referred approximately 2,100 registrants to the U.S.
Attorney's Office. Virtually all potential nonfiling and a
handful for noncompliance. I'm particularly grateful for the
second part of your question, because obviously no one is
precisely sure at the moment where this journey ultimately
takes us. And while we're staying on top of the situation I may
well be back to this subcommittee at the appropriate time to
make a plea, first of all for time, because if there is
substantial change that we undergo in the receipt of these
documents we will need time to implement, and second of all the
potential for additional resources exists.
But I think with your permission if we could continue to
stay in touch on this as this issue evolves we would be very
grateful.
Senator Allard. Yes. As we get a clearer view of what the
legislation might look like, we do want to stay in touch with
your office in that regard.
Ms. Reynolds. Thank you, that would be very helpful.
STUDY OF SENATE STAFF PAY
Senator Allard. I just have a couple of other brief
questions just for the record. Last year your office received
funds to conduct a pay study of Senate employees, and can you
tell me what the status of this study is?
Ms. Reynolds. The study is in draft form. In fact we were
talking about working groups, we have a working group coming
together this afternoon with office administrators and chiefs
of staff to review our first draft. So it is in process, and
hopefully we'll have the study out to the community here within
the next month.
Senator Allard. Good.
Ms. Reynolds. I appreciate you asking the question too, if
I might make one plea to those watching today. For the study to
be effective and for it to produce the kind of results that the
community is hoping for in terms of looking at hiring
practices, benefits, salaries and so forth, we need as much
participation as possible. So thanks for mentioning it today,
so I can make my plea to our Senate offices to help us with
this survey.
FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION ONLINE FILING
Senator Allard. And finally, if the Senate moves to online
Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing, for campaign
committees, what resources will your office need to make this
conversion? Would you comment on that?
Ms. Reynolds. Yes sir. Like most everything else around
here, we're poised to act when the Senate acts, but I think on
this one, just like with lobbying disclosure if there is
substantial change coming our way, and if the Senate decides to
move to e-filing, we will need time. A minimum of 6 months and
possibly up to 1 year to be able to implement the program and
there will be a need for additional resources. We're still
looking at those numbers and some are dependent on what
hardware, what software needs we'll have at that time. So again
so I may be back hat in hand depending on those decisions made.
Senator Allard. Your main demand would be for basically
hardware to process the electronic filing?
Ms. Reynolds. Right. Hardware----
Senator Allard. But it seems to me you would need fewer
people, because you wouldn't have to have that data entry that
you have.
Ms. Reynolds. Possibly, but we're a pretty lean and mean
operation in public records right now. I think our total staff
there right now, is nine. And for example on lobbying
disclosures there are three people on a daily basis dedicated
to lobbying disclosure but when those reports start to hit in
mid-February, mid-August, everybody helps out. So we'd be happy
to take a look at that, as I said, we run a pretty lean and
mean shop with folks who are capable of multitasking when the
need arises.
Senator Allard. Just asking you to look at it carefully.
Ms. Reynolds. We shall.
Senator Allard. I'm sure you will.
Ms. Reynolds. Thank you.
Senator Allard. Thank you for your testimony. We don't have
any other questions from the subcommittee, and so we won't tie
up your time, I know you're busy and I'll call up the second
panel.
Ms. Reynolds. Thank you sir.
ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL
STATEMENT OF ALAN M. HANTMAN, FAIA, ARCHITECT OF THE
CAPITOL
ACCOMPANIED BY:
STEPHEN AYERS, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
MARK WEISS, DIRECTOR, CAPITOL POWER PLANT
WELCOMING REMARKS
Senator Allard. Okay. Now we turn to the second panel. And
before I make my formal remarks. I just want to recognize Mark
Weiss who's now our new Director of the Capitol Power Plant,
and Mark, welcome. And now, we'll turn to the Architect of the
Capitol, to review the fiscal year 2007 budget request. Again
welcome Mr. Hantman and Chief Operating Officer Stephen Ayers.
Mr. Ayers was named Chief Operating Officer on Monday.
Mr. Ayers. Yes sir.
Senator Allard. You've been in the position on an acting
basis for several months and I think you did a good job then.
Mr. Ayers. Thank you.
FISCAL YEAR 2007 BUDGET CONCERNS
Senator Allard. We congratulate you on this new position
and wish you the best of luck. The AOC budget request totals
$588 million, an increase of $164 million or 38 percent, over
the current budget. This is the largest increase proposed by
any Federal agency for the fiscal year 2007. While I commend
the process your agency has developed, you prioritized major
construction projects, clearly we need to do some paring back.
There are a number of large projects in the budget, including
$54 million for a new Library of Congress warehouse at Fort
Meade, $20.6 million to complete the Capitol Visitor Center,
$19 million for renovations to the infrastructure and the
Dirksen Senate Office Building, and $15.9 million to replace
the fire alarm system in the Hart Senate Office Building. Other
large increases in the budget include $20 million for 91 new
employees for the CVC operation, and a $10 million increase for
information technology projects.
SAFETY HAZARDS IN THE UTILITY TUNNELS
While these projects may be meritorious, and urgently
needed, we will need to scrub each of them carefully and only
fund the very highest priorities. In addition to budget issues,
we'd like to discuss the complaint recently filed by the Office
of Compliance for AOC's failure to comply with the citation
issued almost 6 years ago directing the AOC to correct serious
safety hazards in the utility tunnels by 2002. This is the
first time the Office of Compliance has issued a complaint,
demonstrating the magnitude of this very serious problem. The
hazards include structural deficiencies that could lead to
cave-ins, inadequate communication systems for workers in the
tunnels, and inadequate means of egress.
Finally we look forward to an update on projects that are
currently underway as well as your efforts to address
management challenges identified by the Government
Accountability Office. Before I turn to you for your testimony
Mr. Hantman, I want to ask the ranking member who just arrived
if he has any comments.
Senator Durbin. Mr. Chairman I apologize, we have an
immigration bill markup in Judiciary, one floor above and I've
spent time back and forth, and I'm sorry that I came in late
for this. I want to get into the whole question about the
safety aspects of the workplace at CVC and particularly this
troubling report about the presence of asbestos in the tunnels
and the danger that it creates for the employees that could be
inhaling these lethal time bombs. I was not aware of how
serious this was, or how long it had been pending for a
resolution. I think it should have been taken care of years
ago. I don't know how many workers have been exposed, if any--I
pray to God none. But if they have we've done them a great
disservice. I thank you for your continuing oversight on this
project and I will stay to ask some specific questions as time
allows.
[The statement follows:]
Prepared Statement of Senator Richard J. Durbin
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for scheduling today's second budget
oversight hearing of fiscal year 2007 where we will hear testimony on
the budget requests of the Secretary of the Senate and the Architect of
the Capitol.
I want to join the Chairman in welcoming today's witnesses, Emily
Reynolds, Secretary of the Senate, and Alan Hantman, Architect of the
Capitol.
Thanks to both of you for attending this morning.
Ms. Reynolds, welcome back to the subcommittee for your fourth year
as Secretary of the Senate. I think that you and your staff are doing a
superb job and your budget request looks very straightforward.
My staff and I greatly appreciate your guidance and leadership in
the CVC decision-making progress. I realize that this has been a long,
difficult, and at times frustrating process. Your dedication and
determination are very admirable.
I would appreciate any comments you might wish to include with
regard to the CVC.
Mr. Hantman, first of all I would like to acknowledge the
outstanding day to day work of all of your employees. I think it's easy
to overlook the hard work that goes into the seamless running of this
complex on a daily basis. This is a very well qualified and hard-
working group of men and women and I appreciate their contribution to
this complex. I think we should all extend our gratitude to them for
their service. I would like to especially thank Carlos Elias, Don
White, Barbara Wolanin, and Adrienne Powers, of your staff for their
extra efforts on behalf of my staff in the Assistant Democratic
Leader's office.
I would like to welcome Mr. Stephen Ayers, who has just been named
as Chief Operating Officer at AOC. Mr. Ayers has been serving as Acting
COO for quite some time and I'm glad to see that he will be serving in
this capacity permanently.
Mr. Hantman, I am encouraged by the overall progress your office is
making in the area of worker safety. However I am deeply concerned
about the situation involving the workers in the utility tunnels. The
OSHA complaint recently filed by the Office of Compliance citing
``potentially life threatening working conditions'' in the utility
tunnels that provide steam and chilled water throughout the Capitol
complex presents a situation that must be addressed immediately.
This situation was first brought to your attention in 2000.
However, since then, it appears that very little has been done to
address the very serious problems that exist in these tunnels.
I am particularly troubled by the presence of asbestos in the
tunnels. I have met with so many families who have been affected by
asbestos-related illnesses in my work outside of this subcommittee.
When these workers are inhaling these fibers they are inhaling time
bombs. I doubt the workers in these tunnels realize how serious this
situation is.
I hope you will update the Subcommittee on the steps you are taking
to expedite the repair of these tunnels. Chairman Allard and I recently
granted you the authority to reprogram $1.8 million for a portion of
this work and I think that's a step in the right direction. But this
situation must be completely resolved as soon as possible so that these
workers' lives are not put in jeopardy by merely doing their jobs.
Frankly, it should have been taken care of years ago.
Last month in their report entitled, ``Architect of the Capitol--
Management Challenges Remain,''--GAO noted that you have still not
filled several leadership positions on your staff such as Chief
Financial Officer, Chief Administrative Officer, Director of
Congressional and External Relations, and Director of Planning and
Project Management. I am glad that you recently filled the long-vacant
position of Director of the Capitol Power Plant. However, I hope you
will explain to the subcommittee when you plan to fill these other
crucial positions.
Finally, Mr. Hantman, Chairman Allard has already summarized your
fiscal year 2007 budget request so I won't repeat the details. I do
want to emphasize, however, the importance of prioritizing your
requests. It troubles me to see a $54 million request for a Library of
Congress construction project while very serious repair and maintenance
problems exist around the complex. In a time of tight budget
constraints such as this, new construction projects should have to take
a back seat to important maintenance and repair needs that continue to
lag on around this complex.
Thank you Mr. Chairman.
Senator Allard. Okay, let me now turn to the Architect of
the Capitol, Mr. Hantman, we're looking forward to your
testimony.
SUMMARY STATEMENT OF ALAN M. HANTMAN
Mr. Hantman. Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Senator Durbin,
thank you for the opportunity to testify today, regarding our
fiscal 2007 budget request. My full statement has been
submitted for the record, however I would like to give a brief
overview of this request. Mr. Chairman in our role as stewards,
the AOC is responsible for 15 million square feet of buildings,
and more than 300 acres of land. The Capitol complex is in
reality a small city; however it's a small city with an aging
physical infrastructure, ever stricter codes and safety
criteria to meet, as well as complex security requirements.
Our buildings range from 25 to 200 years old. This means
that there are many projects that require our attention to
assure that these buildings continue to serve as functioning
working environments and that we preserve these national
treasures entrusted to our care for generations to come.
Mr. Chairman we did not prepare this budget in a vacuum,
unaware of the economic issues our country and this Congress
are facing. I can appreciate the tough choices that this
subcommittee must make as you hear from each legislative branch
agency with its budget request. I can appreciate this because
it's difficult for me to rank the relative needs and benefits
of necessary security and fire and life safety projects needed
across the Capitol campus.
How do I weigh the needs of the Library of Congress against
those of the Capitol Police, or the Senate Sergeant at Arms
against those of the Chief Administrative Officer of the House?
The AOC is in the position of being a repository, if you will
Mr. Chairman, for the needs of other agencies. They all have
real needs that the AOC then becomes responsible for, and our
budget request reflects these cumulative needs.
Our projects were prioritized through a progressive
sequence of steps to determine which are most crucial. While
it's my responsibility as steward of these buildings to bring
these needs and issues to Congress' attention, I'm also aware
that cuts will need to be made, as you mentioned Mr. Chairman,
from that prioritized list. And I'm prepared to work with this
subcommittee and other legislative branch agencies to determine
which cuts to make so that we fit within the overall budget
structure that this subcommittee ultimately allows.
Mr. Chairman, we prioritize our projects based on a set of
criteria that allows us to evaluate the merits of those
projects. Facility condition assessments conducted across most
of our jurisdictions measure the current condition of all
facilities to assess how much work is necessary to maintain, or
upgrade their conditions to acceptable levels, and to determine
the timeframe for this work. We hope to initiate this process
at the Library of Congress, contingent on the approval of our
budget request, so that we fully understand their facility
needs as well. We'd then be able to appropriately prioritize
their project needs based on the same criteria used for other
jurisdictions.
In fact Mr. Chairman, the direction to perform condition
assessments was given, and appropriately so, by this
subcommittee back in 2002. And if I may quote from that
language.
``Condition Assessments Master Plan. The Committee has
provided an amount of $500,000 in the Capitol buildings
appropriation and an amount of $1,100,000 in the Senate Office
Building appropriation to initiate a comprehensive condition
assessment of the Capitol complex. The assessment will be
conducted in tandem with the development of a master plan for
the Capitol complex and will include the collection of relevant
information regarding buildings, inspection and equipment
testing of properties and assets. Analysis and identification
of deficiencies, identification of solutions, and costs, a
forecast of future renewal requirements, and the development of
long range comprehensive financial plans.''
Mr. Chairman, we've been working diligently to fulfill the
directives and develop meaningful information which, in fact,
GAO has reviewed. It's important to note that according to the
Government Accountability Office ``While the FCAs--the facility
condition assessments, have enabled AOC to develop a
comprehensive plan for facilities, maintenance, and building
renewal, the assessments have also documented the magnitude of
AOC's deferred maintenance and other projects. $2.6 billion
over 9 years, and the challenge of funding these projects.''
Mr. Chairman, GAO's statement about ``the challenge of
funding these projects'' is right on target. In a no-growth
budget environment it's, of course, particularly challenging.
With all due respect, if these facility infrastructure needs
are not addressed within an appropriate timeframe, our
buildings will continue to age and deteriorate and the cost to
correct these deficiencies will continue to escalate in future
years.
With regard to safety, it's a priority at the AOC,
therefore I'm pleased to report that for the fifth year in a
row, the AOC's injury and illness rate decreased. Last year we
dropped to 5.65 from a high of 17.9 in fiscal year 2000. This
is amazing because we're coming down to the level of many white
collar organizations in the Federal agencies as well as across
the Government.
While I'm proud of these accomplishments, I will not be
satisfied until we achieve our ultimate goal of a workplace
free of injury and illness. This includes the steam tunnels
that were the subject of the Office of Compliance's complaint
you discussed. Over the past several years, in the tunnels, we
have rebuilt approximately 600 feet of tunnel roof under
Constitution Avenue, at a cost of approximately $5 million. I
think you might remember, Mr. Chairman, that for over 1 year
the street on Constitution Avenue was ripped up. We had to
replace the roof of that tunnel, that's one of the first items
identified by our surveys that really needed to be taken care
of up front.
We also contracted for the inspection of 19 tunnel egress
points, developed an egress improvements work plan, replaced
the South Capitol Street steam line, for another $5.5 million
and that included making structural repairs to manholes.
We also implemented the in-house tunnel condition
monitoring program last October which includes monitoring,
recording and reviewing tunnel conditions daily. While this
work was being planned and implemented, we have been working
each year to remove spalls in areas where the concrete ceiling
is damaged. We installed a leaky cable communication system in
the major pathways in the tunnels. We currently have funding to
install cable in the small stub pathways that come off the main
tunnels. We are proceeding with that work and will get it done
within the next months. We also provided our employees with
confined space and asbestos awareness training.
Mr. Chairman, we've requested $1.75 million in the 2007
budget to fund priority projects in the tunnels. We've received
approvals on a $1.8 million reprogramming to continue
additional structural repairs, asbestos abatement, and
emergency egress repairs. Significant additional funding will
be required and we're working to determine the magnitude of
that funding now.
In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, as GAO noted in its February
2006 report, we have made significant progress in our
transformation into a more strategic organization. They state
that the AOC has made progress in developing safety policies
and establishing a safety training curriculum; has implemented
a variety of communication methods to convey information to
employees; has taken important initial steps to address the
management and structure needed to establish a sound IT
investment management process; has created a clearly defined,
well documented and transparent process for evaluating and
prioritizing projects. We're committed to fulfilling our
responsibilities over the long term, although that means we
have to make tough choices, as you indicated Mr. Chairman, with
regard to how we select and prioritize our projects.
Our request for funds in 2007 is directly related to our
responsibility as good stewards to maintain and preserve the
facilities and national treasures in our care. I'm very proud
of our 2,000 dedicated AOC professionals and I'm privileged to
lead this remarkable organization.
PREPARED STATEMENT
I greatly appreciate the subcommittee's support in helping
us achieve our goals, and once again thank you for this
opportunity to testify, and I'd be happy to answer any
questions that you might have.
[The statement follows:]
Prepared Statement of Alan M. Hantman, FAIA
Mr. Chairman, Senator Durbin, members of the Committee, thank you
for the opportunity to testify today regarding our fiscal year 2007
budget request. This request is structured to enable us to continue
supporting the Legislative Branch by ensuring that the Capitol complex
is safe and well maintained, our national treasures are preserved and
protected, and we continue to provide high quality, efficient, and
effective services to our customers.
STEWARDSHIP AND PRIORITIZING PROJECTS
In our role as stewards, the Office of the Architect of the Capitol
(AOC) is responsible for some 15 million square feet of buildings and
more than 300 acres of land. The Capitol complex is, in reality, like a
small city. However, it is a small city with an aging physical
infrastructure. Our buildings range from 25 years old for the Library's
Madison Building, to more than 100 years old for the Russell, Cannon,
and Jefferson buildings, to 200 years old for various parts of the
Capitol Building. This means that there are many potential projects
that call for our attention to ensure that these buildings continue to
serve as functioning working environments for generations to come.
While it is my responsibility to bring these issues to Congress's
attention, it is obvious that for practical considerations of
construction and fiscal restraint, we must spread out the funding and
physical workload over the course of multiple years. Therefore, we have
prioritized these projects to determine which are more critical than
others. In previous budget requests, my focus has been on ensuring that
fire and life-safety deficiencies were corrected. With your support we
have devoted significant resources toward protecting the people who
work and visit Capitol Hill by continually working to improve the
safety and security of our facilities. Protecting people is, and will
continue to be, my top priority as evidenced by the number of fire and
life-safety projects in our current budget request.
While developing this budget, we reviewed many annual operating and
capital project requests. We made difficult choices regarding funding
AOC operations, new programs, and high priority capital projects, while
at the same time balancing the day-to-day needs of those we serve.
As a result, before we submitted our current request, we removed
$44.3 million worth of important projects. The $588.3 million we have
requested for fiscal year 2007 ($509.4 million without items specific
to the House) was submitted in our role as responsible stewards of our
national treasures and in support of the needs of Congress, while
balancing requests for new initiatives.
It is important to note that we prioritize our projects based on a
set of objective criteria that allow us to evaluate the relative merits
of each of these projects. At Congress's direction, starting in 2004,
we conducted a series of Facility Condition Assessments (FCAs) in most
of our jurisdictions. We hope to continue the process with the Library
of Congress, contingent on the approval of our fiscal year 2007 budget
request. Our plan would be to survey the Library Buildings, in phases,
beginning with the Madison Building. By completing FCAs for the Library
of Congress buildings, we would fully understand their existing
facility needs and would then be able to appropriately prioritize LOC
projects with the same criteria used for other jurisdictions. These
FCAs 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 and when this work should occur.
According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in its
February 2006 report to Congress, ``While the FCAs have enabled AOC to
develop a comprehensive plan for facility maintenance and building
renewal, the assessments have also documented the magnitude of AOC's
deferred maintenance and other projects--$2.6 billion over nine years--
and the challenge of funding these projects.'' What this $2.6 billion
breaks down into is a total of $886 million for deferred maintenance
and capital renewal projects as identified in the FCAs (excluding the
Library of Congress and the Supreme Court), with the remaining balance
identified for capital improvements ($1.1 billion) and capital
construction projects ($69 million). Mr. Chairman, GAO's statement
about ``the challenge of funding these projects'' is right on target.
In a no-growth budget environment, it is particularly challenging. If
these facility infrastructure needs are not met in appropriate
timeframes, the conditions of our buildings will continue to
deteriorate and the cost to correct these facility maintenance
deficiencies will continue to rise.
A very recent example of capital renewal is demonstrated by the
issuance of a complaint by the Office of Compliance (OOC) regarding the
utility tunnels which provide steam and chilled water to the Capitol
complex. We are taking a comprehensive approach to addressing the
existing issues in the tunnels and are identifying a logical sequence
to the necessary actions that will be taken. We have presented this
plan to the OOC. Over the past several years we have completed these
and other tasks in the utility tunnels: replaced the top of
approximately 600 feet of the tunnel under Constitution Avenue at a
cost of approximately $5 million; contracted for inspection of 19
tunnel egress points and developed an Egress Improvements Work Plan;
replaced the South Capitol Street steam line and vault for
approximately $5.5 million which includes making structural repairs to
manholes. We have also implemented an in-house Tunnel Condition
Monitoring Program in October 2005 which includes monitoring,
recording, and reviewing tunnel conditions daily; and we have been
continually working to remove incipient spalls in areas where the
concrete ceiling is damaged.
We have requested $1.75 million in the fiscal year 2007 budget to
fund priority projects involving the tunnels. We recently received
approvals from the Senate and House on a $1.8 million reprogramming
request to continue additional structural repairs, asbestos abatement,
and emergency egress repairs in the tunnels. Additional significant
funding will certainly be required and we are working to determine the
magnitude of that funding now.
OVERALL PLANNING PROCESS
In terms of our overall planning process, when all of the Facility
Condition Assessments are completed, they are rolled into a five-year
Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). The CIP, which became fully integrated
in the fiscal year 2006 budget process, is used to evaluate projects
based on an objective set of criteria, including:
--Fire and life safety, code compliance, regulatory compliance, and
statutory compliance.
--Preservation of historic or legacy elements or features of
buildings or entire historic structures as a reflection of the
importance of stewardship responsibilities.
--Impact on our mission, including client urgency.
--Economics, including value, economic payback, life cycle cost
considerations, and cost savings.
--Physical security, including protection of facilities, Members,
staff, and the general public.
The projects are further evaluated based on necessary timeframes
and on an evaluation of the conditions of the components and sub-
materials. These condition ratings are characterized as one of the
following: Adequate, sub-standard, and deficient.
They are then further rated as to the urgency in accomplishing them
as follows:
--Priority 1--Immediate: Safety or code violations, as well as
critical equipment that is either not functioning or close to
failure.
--Priority 2--High: Items need attention in the near term, as failure
would impact the mission. Implemented within two to four years.
--Priority 3--Medium: Implemented within five to seven years.
--Priority 4--Low: Low priority projects related to aesthetics or
minor performance issues. Implemented within 8 to 10 years.
All projects with an ``immediate'' urgency are given priority over
projects for which the urgency is ``high'' and so on. Additionally,
``deferred maintenance'' projects are generally considered a higher
priority than ``capital renewal.'' Using the CIP process, once all of
the FCAs are complete, we will be able to comparatively vet the
projects to ensure that the most urgent get addressed most quickly. It
is this multi-step methodology that has been used to produce the fiscal
year 2007 Capital Improvement Project Priority List that we submitted
for your consideration. Those projects that can be accommodated within
the budget level that is ultimately approved will move forward in
fiscal year 2007.
There will continue to be refinements to our project development
process. However with implementation of the prioritization process,
future program submissions will clearly be based first on the urgency
of accomplishing the project, followed by consideration as to the type
of project and its importance; with emphasis placed on deferred
maintenance projects. These changes will result in an efficient and
effective process and one that seeks to assure accuracy, responsible
management of resources, and efficient development of programs.
Ultimately, the Capitol Complex Master Plan will ensure that we
continue to be good stewards by establishing a framework that helps us
prioritize the maintenance, renovation, and construction of Capitol
Hill facilities over the next 5, 10, and 20 years, while also spreading
out the costs of that upkeep and construction.
In addition to these new processes we have made changes to our
organizational structure to improve how these projects are carried out.
With Congress's approval, we established the Project Management
Division which is charged with consolidating project and construction
management functions to provide ``cradle-to-grave'' oversight of our
projects. We have developed and implemented new processes that are
designed to improve project tracking and reporting as well as to hold
our consultants and contractors accountable for contract compliance. We
recently reinstated our quarterly report to communicate the budget and
schedule status of ongoing projects, the latest of which was delivered
to the Senate and House Appropriations Committees in January and was
well received by staff.
CAPITAL PROJECTS BUDGET
Our fiscal year 2007 budget is comprised of two major components:
$232 million for capital projects and $356.3 million for our annual
operating budget.
The capital projects budget request consists of $193.4 million for
capital projects, $22.7 million for studies, designs, and condition
assessments, and $15.9 million for minor construction. This budget was
developed by prioritizing our project requirements; including those
requested by our customers. Using this set of criteria, we were able to
cut our initial list of 36 projects totaling more than $188 million to
19 projects worth $143.7 million. However, the projects that did not
make this current list have not gone away, nor has the need to fund
them within reasonable timeframes. They will have to be reprioritized
for another fiscal year where they will again compete with other
significant, additional projects for available funding.
The capital projects budget is grouped into the categories listed
below (also shown in Attachment A). Note that these include a number of
U.S Senate projects that have been designed to be completed in phases
that we hope to continue next year. They include public restroom
upgrades, modular furniture replacement, emergency generator
installation, and fire alarm system upgrades.
Deferred Maintenance--$30.4 million
Maintenance or repair work on existing facilities and
infrastructure that is past due and should not be deferred. This work
will return a component or system to an acceptable condition. It will
prevent physical depreciation or loss in the value of a building (this
does not include preventative or routine maintenance).
Projects include:
--$19.43 million--Dirksen Senate Office Building; attic
infrastructure improvements;
--$4 million--Rayburn House Office Building; 480v Switchgear and
Transformer Replacement;
--$2.89 million--Thomas Jefferson Building; air handling unit
replacement; and
--$2.56 million--Thomas Jefferson and James Madison Buildings;
elevator modernization projects.
Capital Renewal--$24.3 million
Correct unacceptable conditions caused by aged building components
that will exceed their useful life within the next 10 years. If
deferred for an inordinate amount of time, physical conditions may
deteriorate and become a deferred maintenance issue. Capital renewal
may be performed by overhaul, reconstruction, or replacement of
constituent parts damaged or deteriorated to the point where they
cannot be maintained.
Projects include:
--$15.95 million--Hart Senate Office Building; fire alarm system
replacement; and
--$8.34 million--Longworth House Office Building; kitchen exhaust
system upgrade.
Capital Improvement--$41.1 million
Work done to a building that improves, enhances, or updates a
building such as an addition, expansion, alteration, or replacement
including work done to bring a building into compliance with current
codes.
Projects include:
--$6.1 million--Russell Senate Office Building; emergency lighting
and power upgrade;
--$4.96 million--Rayburn House Office Building; emergency lighting
upgrade;
--$3 million--Rayburn House Office Building; Phase I public restrooms
upgrade;
--$3.5 million--U.S. Capitol; security improvements in the House
Chamber; and
--$4.37 million--Thomas Jefferson Building; sprinkler system
replacement.
Capital Construction--$63.7 million
Construction of a new building, facility, or other infrastructure
where none previously existed.
Projects include:
--$54.2 million--Library of Congress Logistics Warehouse, Fort Meade;
--$5.35 million--Alternate Computer Facility; vehicle storage
facility; and
--$4.1 million--U.S. Capitol Police; kiosks.
Other Projects--$12.3 million
Projects necessary to sustain and provide for Congressional and
Legislative Branch Agency mission requirements that do not meet CIP
criteria (construction projects greater than $250,000).
Projects include:
--$5 million--Alternate Computer Facility; land purchase; and
--$2.1 million--Energy Survey of Congressional Buildings.
Study, Design, and Condition Assessments--$22.7 million
Activities necessary to plan for future projects.
Projects include:
--$1 million--James Madison Building; Facility Condition Assessment;
--$3 million--FDA; fit out design study;
--$750,000--Longworth House Office Building; fire alarm system
upgrade;
--$700,000--U.S. Capitol; electrical distribution system replacement
design; and
--$300,000--Cannon House Office Building; egress improvements study.
Minor Construction--$15.9 million
Minor construction funding for each jurisdiction that provides the
flexibility for meeting unplanned project requirements generated by
Committees, Members, staffs, and other AOC clients.
Capitol Visitor Center--$21.6 million
The fiscal year 2007 budget request includes $20.6 million for CVC
cost-to-complete. Also included is $1 million for start-up and
operational costs associated with opening the CVC, including one-time
costs such as furniture, equipment, computers and other necessary
items. GAO's ongoing analysis recommends adding $5 million to this
amount to accommodate risk for further time extension and contingency
for a total of $25.6 million for project cost-to-complete.
While recognizing that the cumulative effect of the projects listed
above represent a significant increase over fiscal year 2006 levels,
these projects were considered our highest priorities. Although hard
decisions were made to reduce the amount of our overall request,
further cuts will likely be necessary to accommodate Federal budget
limitations. Once again, this means that the projects that are
eliminated will be deferred to successive years where they will again
compete with other additional, significant projects for available
funding.
ANNUAL OPERATING BUDGET
Our fiscal year 2007 annual operating budget request of $356.3
million reflects the addition of significant mandatory price level
increases as well as new programs.
The key drivers of this increase include:
--Forty percent growth in utility costs over fiscal year 2006 enacted
levels due to the recent deregulation of electric power and the
increased cost of natural fuels following the devastation in
the Gulf Coast caused by Hurricane Katrina last summer.
--Mandatory payroll increases and the addition of 91 FTEs to support
daily operations and maintenance of the Capitol Visitor Center
(CVC).
--One-time CVC operations costs to purchase furniture, equipment,
computers, and other necessary items.
--Re-establishing Information Technology base resources and upgrading
systems.
--Leases and/or maintenance and operations of additional facilities.
Utilities
With regard to utilities, in an effort to offset cost increases, we
have initiated a number of energy conservation measures. The first was
to develop two Energy Savings Performance Contracts to upgrade
equipment and save energy, at no additional cost to the government.
Contractors are paid from proven energy savings. Other efforts involve
developing a five-year plan to conduct energy audit surveys of all
buildings on the Capitol campus, and publishing a brochure about saving
energy throughout the Capitol complex to be distributed to Hill staff.
In addition, the Capitol Power Plant staff has successfully
completed a number of new maintenance projects to improve the
performance, safety, and reliability of the boiler house and chilled
water plants. As part of the West Refrigeration Plant Expansion
Project, three new chillers became operable in November 2005. With the
addition of this new equipment, we will experience greater efficiencies
at the Plant and remove old mechanically and environmentally outdated
machines.
CVC Day-to-Day Operations
In anticipation of the start-up and operational costs associated
with the Capitol Visitor Center, our annual operating budget request
includes funds to cover day-to-day operational and maintenance
requirements as well as anticipated one-time costs such as furniture
and equipment, computers, and other necessary items. Until such time as
the Congress decides the issue of reporting relationships and
governance of the CVC, we have included these costs in the AOC's
budget, including $10.6 million for payroll costs associated with the
hiring of an additional 91 FTEs.
Information Technology
Another factor driving our operating budget request for fiscal year
2007 is an increase in investment in information technology. In our
fiscal year 2006 budget request, we had cut the base resources in an
attempt to constrain growth. Our intention was to fund information
technology program shortfalls with lapses in payroll or other general
and administrative areas, but that strategy has not worked well in the
current fiscal environment due to rising costs of utilities and other
expenses. Therefore, we are requesting $25.7 million to re-establish
these base resources and to protect our IT systems by installing the
latest technology security programs as required, preparing for future
technological needs, and improving internal operations by replacing our
project information system and upgrading the interface of our inventory
control system to our financial system.
The February 2006 GAO Report notes that ``the agency has yet to
establish and implement key information security practices, such as
completing risk assessments on all of its major applications,
documenting the identified risks in system security plans, and
developing and implementing appropriate security controls to mitigate
the risks--including developing contingency plans for all systems and
applications. Until AOC completes and implements plans for improvement
that are consistent with all our recommendations, it will be challenged
in its ability to effectively use IT to optimize mission performance.''
Updating our IT systems is a crucial part of achieving these tasks as
outlined by GAO.
SENATE OFFICE BUILDING IMPROVEMENTS
A number of projects that we have requested funding for in next
year's budget for the Senate Office Buildings focuses on upgrading and
replacing equipment that has exceeded its useful life expectancy or
updating the historic buildings to meet modern requirements. For
example, we are requesting $19.4 million to replace the air handling
units in the Dirksen Building to improve building ventilation and to
ensure the system's reliability since the existing equipment is more
than 40 years old and inefficient. We have also requested $6 million to
upgrade emergency lighting in the Russell Building; $15 million to
upgrade the fire alarm system in the Hart Building; and $5.8 million to
install an emergency generator in the Russell Building to provide
electrical power in an emergency.
CAPITOL VISITOR CENTER BUDGET
While most of our projects are worked on behind the scenes,
underneath the East Front of the U.S. Capitol work is proceeding on the
largest and most complex project in the history of the Capitol--the
Capitol Visitor Center. Our fiscal year 2007 budget request would fund
CVC operations, administration, facility maintenance, and construction
cost-to-complete. The requested funding also would support the required
activities and programs for transitional and start-up costs, exhibits,
gift shops, telecommunications, and information technology
infrastructure support. The Capitol Preservation Commission (CPC)
supports the AOC's request for operational funding as an interim
measure until it is determined how, and by whom, the CVC will be
operated.
At our February hearing before this Subcommittee, we testified that
we are now anticipating the CVC to be completed, including
commissioning of life-safety systems, in March 2007, and available for
a formal opening in April 2007. We reported the two key issues
prompting that time extension are the delays in the delivery and
installation of interior stone due to a court injunction and a longer-
than-expected duration for the fire and life-safety acceptance testing
process.
The project schedule extension has impacted the overall project
cost-to-complete. Last fall, we concurred with GAO's assessment that
potential risks do exist and that additional funds would be necessary
should these risks turn into reality; most notably if completion of the
CVC occurred after December 2006, or if significant additional change
orders were required. After meetings held the past several months with
GAO and our construction manager, Gilbane, we anticipated that the
delay, along with additional change orders and the potential for future
project risks, could increase the project's cost-to-complete by
approximately $20.6 million. This is the amount we requested in the
fiscal year 2007 budget. GAO's ongoing review however, has resulted in
a revised estimate of the cost-to-complete which adds approximately $5
million to this amount for risk, further time extension, and
contingency. Accordingly, Mr. Chairman, if you concur, we will work
with you to effect this adjustment in order to ensure that there are
adequate contingencies as we work to complete the CVC.
Further information on the status of the project and a construction
update is provided in my testimony specifically addressing the Capitol
Visitor Center which will be discussed following this portion of the
hearing (attached).
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Over the past 10 years, the AOC has been undergoing a
transformation into a more strategic organization by implementing new
policies and procedures, while at the same time continuing to meet our
responsibilities as good stewards. I appreciate the efforts of AOC
employees in balancing their heavy workloads with implementing these
important changes to our organization.
At this time, I would like to highlight some of the major AOC
accomplishments of the past year. As GAO has noted in its February 2006
report, we have made significant progress in our transformation
efforts, we continue to make progress, but the ``transformation is a
long-term effort.''
Strategic Plan
A key component in this effort has been the implementation of our
Strategic Plan in 2003. The Plan has provided us with a blueprint for
change by defining our mission, vision, and core values and created a
structure of goals, and objectives through which we focus our efforts.
As we begin the third year of this five-year plan, it continues to
evolve. As part of our Strategic Performance Initiative, we are
developing and implementing meaningful performance measures that will
be linked to our daily activities and resource requirements. In the
spirit of the Government Performance and Results Act, we have developed
an ``AOC dashboard'' document which includes several high-level
indicators to track performance for each of our strategic goals as well
as a target goal for each indicator. Our senior leadership team meets
monthly to monitor these indicators and goals to ensure that we meet
the milestones we have set in our Performance Plan.
Work Orders
In fiscal year 2005, we completed nearly 34,200 work orders in the
Senate Office Buildings. To date, we have completed more than 19,000
work orders in fiscal year 2006. These are tasks that are requested of
the AOC rather than programmed by our Agency and the work ranges from
changing light bulbs, to fixing plumbing, to reconfiguring office space
and painting. A number of other projects were completed during the past
fiscal year. For example, we replaced the Rotunda balcony doors and
installed high voltage switch gear in the Russell Office Building; we
installed new modular walls and furniture in 10 Hart Building offices,
and installed new wall sconces in the Dirksen Building. In addition, we
completed the restoration of three Committee rooms in the Dirksen
Building and one Committee room in the Russell Building as well as
upgraded the audio and visual systems in these four rooms.
Special Events
The U.S. Capitol also was the site of a number of high-profile
events including the Presidential Inaugural ceremony, which the AOC
supported by building the platform, contracting for the audio system,
installing the security fencing and crowd control features, as well as
removing the snow that fell the night before the event. In October, we
prepared the Capitol Building for another historic occasion, the lying
in honor of Ms. Rosa Parks.
National Garden
This fall, we look forward to the grand opening of the National
Garden. This project is solely funded by private donations raised by
the National Fund for the U.S. Botanic Garden. This not-for-profit
corporation raised the private funds pursuant to Public Law 102-229. It
the first public-private partnership project for the AOC. Last summer,
we authorized the third option to be awarded under this contract; the
construction of the First Ladies Water Garden. Construction on the
National Garden began in spring 2004 on the base bid which consisted of
the Rose Garden, Butterfly Garden, Lawn Terrace, and the Hornbeam
Court. Option one, the landscaped garden path that meanders through the
site, and option two, the Regional (Mid-Atlantic) Garden were
subsequently awarded. Construction is scheduled to be completed next
month and then landscaping and planting will occur on the site through
the spring and summer. A public opening is scheduled for October.
Decreased Injury and Illness Rate
For the fifth year in a row, the AOC's Injury and Illness rate
decreased. We dropped to 5.65 cases per 100 employees in fiscal year
2005, from a high of 17.9 cases per 100 employees in fiscal year 2000.
We posted a four percent reduction in our rate while, at the same time,
we faced the challenges of post-election office moves and an
Inauguration, in addition to meeting our daily work demands. While I am
proud of these accomplishments, I will not be satisfied until we
achieve our ultimate goal of a workplace free of injury and illness. To
make that goal a reality, we continue to educate and train our
workforce and assure that our employees have the requisite equipment
they need to do their jobs safely. We also took action and reduced
injury and illness rates on the CVC construction site. The rate
declined from 9.1 in 2003 and 12.2 in 2004, to 5.9 for the first 10
months of 2005--below the 2003 industry average of 6.1.
Financial Statements
We have also made great strides in generating more reliable annual
financial statements. In 2005, we published our first accountability
report and earned an unqualified opinion for the second consecutive
year on the AOC balance sheet. Our Office of the Chief Financial
Officer developed processes and procedures in anticipation of the first
full audit of the full set of financial statements for fiscal year
2005.
Employee Feedback Program and Action Plans
Last year, as part of our strategic planning efforts, we developed
a comprehensive employee feedback program. As part of that initiative,
I invited AOC employees to participate in focus groups where they
identified problems and suggested ways to help us solve them in order
to improve the organization. Over the past year, we created a series of
action plans that addressed the issues raised. Specifically, we:
--Improved internal communication by sharing best practices in
customer service AOC-wide.
--Are establishing basic standards for written communication to make
it easier for all employees to read and understand Agency
documents. Published a Correspondence Manual and Style Guide
for all written documents.
--Are requiring regular staff meetings and providing training on how
to conduct effective staff meetings.
--Have established AOC-wide Town Hall Meetings.
--Are including specific training to enhance communications skills in
our Leadership Development Program (mandatory for all
supervisors).
--Explained and communicated the Agency mission in an easy to retain
slogan: Serving Congress with a Commitment to Excellence.
--Improved transparency by publishing and explaining approved
organization charts and promoting consistency and fairness in
workforce classification.
--Issued AOC policies on Employee Feedback, Performance Evaluation,
and Awards and improved general policy knowledge by instituting
easy to read one-page summaries explaining these policies.
--Improved Internal Service Providers' customer orientation, making
them more accessible.
Performance Metrics
Finally, we continue to regularly collect, track, and manage
operational performance metrics that are linked to our Strategic Plan
goals through a variety of tools and processes. These tools not only
help improve communication among AOC managers and staff, but have also
led to process improvements in several areas. In addition, it has
helped to improve our communication and outreach to Congressional
leadership and our oversight committees regarding our performance. We
continue to work with Congress and GAO to further identify areas for
improvement while balancing our long-term goals and our day-to-day
responsibilities.
I want to thank the Committee for its support without which we
could not have undertaken these efforts and completed many critical
projects, continued to provide exemplary services, and assured
continuity of operations at the Capitol, in the Senate Office
Buildings, and throughout the Capitol complex.
CONCLUSION
The AOC is dedicated to serving Congress with a commitment to
excellence.
In its February 2006 report to Congress, the GAO stated that the
``AOC has been working for several years to transform itself into a
more strategic and accountable organization and to improve worker
safety. This transformation is a long-term effort that involves a
fundamental change in AOC's culture.'' It also noted that ``AOC
operates in a challenging environment: the agency must preserve and
modernize these high-profile, historic buildings while meeting the
needs of Congress--including its leadership, committees, individual
members, and staffs--and the visiting public.''
Since the implementation of our Strategic Plan, GAO writes that:
--``To strengthen human capital management, AOC had, among other
things, linked its employee evaluation system to mission-
critical goals, established monthly management meetings to
share and assess data from employee relations offices, and
identified a number of ways to collect, report, and analyze
workforce data.''
--``To improve worker safety, AOC has made progress in developing
safety policies, implementing a system to track investigations
of incidents and follow up, completing a job hazard analysis
process to report hazards, and establishing a safety-training
curriculum that fully supports the goals of the safety
policies.''
--``To further improve financial management, AOC is developing an
agencywide internal control framework and a cost accounting
system, which are essential to improving accountability across
all AOC operations.''
--``To further improve communication with employees, AOC has
implemented a variety of communication methods to convey
information to employees, including a weekly newsletter on
project updates, policy announcements, management and
communication tips, and other agencywide messages.''
--``The AOC recycling program has undergone significant expansion
over the past five years, while at the same time becoming more
efficient. The program has also been expanded by increasing the
number of locations at which recycling is taking place.''
--``AOC has also taken important initial steps to address the
management and structure needed to establish a sound IT
investment management process, such as assigning roles,
responsibilities, and the authority needed to manage its IT
investment portfolio.''
--``To improve project management, AOC created a clearly defined,
well-documented, and transparent process for evaluating and
prioritizing projects.''
Mr. Chairman, my team and I are committed to fulfilling our
responsibilities over the long-term, although that it means, at times,
we have to make tough choices with regard to how we prioritize our
projects or how we manage our clients' expectations. Our request for
funds for fiscal year 2007 is in direct response to our responsibility
as good stewards to maintain and preserve the facilities and national
treasures under our care. In addition, we continue to strive to achieve
a high level of safety, security, preservation, and cleanliness
expected across the Capitol complex.
I am very proud of the dedicated professionals who make up the AOC
team and I am privileged to lead this remarkable organization. I
greatly appreciate the Committee's support in helping us achieve our
goals.
FISCAL YEAR 2007 BUDGET INCREASE
Senator Allard. If it's all right, Senator Durbin, I'm
going to run the time clock on this, I'll take 5 minutes and
then you can have 5 minutes and I'll do my best to abide by
that.
Mr. Hantman, I guess I've had a couple of shocks this
morning. The first one was somewhat expected, that's the huge
increase in your budget request. How do you justify an increase
of this magnitude?
Mr. Hantman. Mr. Chairman, as I indicated in my statement,
I really didn't prepare this budget in a vacuum. I recognized
the difficult financial conditions that the entire Government
has. When I quoted the direction that I received from this
subcommittee several years ago, to take a look at the condition
assessments, I really had to evaluate what my role was as
steward of these buildings and these treasures here on Capitol
Hill. What we did is we went through a prioritization process
which originally included something like 36 projects or so. We
prioritized them in accordance with the methodology that I
included in my testimony here. The methodology is an overall
planning process that takes into account fire and life safety
codes, preservation of historic and legacy elements, impact on
our mission, including client urgency, economics, and physical
security. All of these issues were evaluated. We then looked
into the issue of rating these projects, whether the condition
of these projects and the areas that they were meant to serve
``adequate'', ``substandard'' or ``deficient''. We then further
rated them as to urgency and accomplishing them in terms of
immediate, high, medium, et cetera. In coming up with the list
of 19 projects that survived that list of 36, Mr. Chairman, we
eliminated some $43 million worth of projects. What we wanted
to do was actually discuss the criteria, the methodology we
went through to select these projects.
I recognize that we have to cut back on the numbers that we
have over here. But in the spirit of the report that this
subcommittee directed us to do years ago, to do the
assessments; I thought it was important to bring forward to the
subcommittee, the nature, the magnitude of the issues that we
have building up here on Capitol Hill.
The more projects we put off, the more projects we have to
plan for in future budgets. And there are more projects that
keep coming up in terms of the age of the infrastructure and
the buildings we have here.
So I don't presume, Mr. Chairman, to ask more than other
Federal agencies. I don't presume to go over whatever budget
cap is realistic in this. I just wanted to make the point that
basically, if we're going to be good stewards, and fulfill, in
fact, the mission that this subcommittee gave us years ago,
that we bring to the attention of the Congress what needs to be
done and work together to find out how best to do this, how to
spread it out over the years, and make sure that these
facilities are good for future generations and that the fire
and life safety standards are in fact met.
UTILITY TUNNEL CONDITIONS
Senator Allard. I appreciate you laying this all out for
us. We're just going to have to do some tough priority setting
as we move forward in this subcommittee.
The other shock I had was the condition of the utility
tunnels. I have some pictures here that were taken, apparently
the inside of the tunnel in some areas, and I'm shocked at the
amount of crumbling of the structure and the rusting that's
going on in some of the old pipes. It seems to me we really
have to get after this. Why isn't this your highest priority?
And can you give us a better idea of what we may be looking at,
are we tearing up streets? I'm concerned about safety
considerations, when we have cement walls that are crumbling,
asbestos is okay, as long as it's not in a state where it's
moving, and it's moving. Walls are crumbling. I'm worried about
the potential of risk to the workers and everyone that happen
to use that tunnel. I wish you'd comment on that please.
Mr. Hantman. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Clearly that is an
issue and there's no doubt that more work is necessary within
the tunnels. When we first started looking at this, and this
was well before the citation back in the year 2000. We
recognized that there were two issues that we needed to deal
with. One of them was the immediate issue of the condition of
the tunnel and the workmen who go down there on a daily basis
to maintain the condition. We recognized that it was a long-
term solution, that we could not rip up all the streets around
the Capitol complex, we have some 12,000 lineal feet of tunnel
here. And, in fact, as I indicated before 600 feet of that was
ripped up on Constitution Avenue as the first priority that was
identified in this project because of not only the needs in the
tunnel itself, but also because of the traffic that goes on top
of that tunnel. Every time we look at the major issues, we
recognize that there's an awful lot of inconvenience that will
occur to the Congress, to the Capitol, to our community as we
rip up streets. Part of the $1.8 million we have in the
reprogramming will be going toward a design for the next
section which was almost in as bad shape as the section under
Constitution Avenue, in front of the Senate Office buildings.
This is on Second Street, to the south of the Madison Library
of Congress office building. We're doing a study on it. We
fully expect that we're going to have disruptions, major
concerns from the community, from ourselves. We don't control
the streets under which our steam lines run over there. And
that would be our next focus as identified in the original
report. But while we recognize that the major ripping up of
streets where we've got so many going on right now, as you
know, East Capitol Street, we have this new steam tunnel going
in for the Capitol Visitor Center, on South Capitol Street, we
ripped it up for other steam and infrastructure utility lines.
We're nearing the completion of that, we're still doing it on E
Street in front of the Power Plant. How much construction
fatigue can the Congress take? How much disruption can the
community take at one time? That's what we have to work out
with respect to the major projects. And we fully expect as we
get through our studies on this next section of the ``R''
tunnel, as it's called, past the Madison Building, will cost us
millions of dollars and we'll have to be talking to the
subcommittee about how that gets funded.
But the immediate priority was the Constitution Avenue
tunnel, while these things were being phased over multiple
years. The plan was never to finish all of this work by the
year 2002. Past budget requests will indicate that we showed
tens of millions of dollars in out-years to solve all of these
problems. Our immediate problem was to make it as safe as we
could for the people who work there on a day-to-day basis.
So as we went through the years, each--we installed a leaky
cable communication system in the tunnels, through the main
tunnel system as I indicated before. By this summer, we should
have the small stub tunnels, leading from those main
communication cables to each building, taken care of as well.
We implemented emergency shoring and repairs to the tunnels and
we've done so every year since the year 2000 when this came
about.
So people have been going into those tunnels, looking out
for spalls, taking care of those spalls, so that it is less
dangerous for the people who go in there. We've also initiated
three person work teams where one person would stay outside of
the manhole and two people using their radio communications,
would go inside the manhole and they would be able to talk
about things. I met with the tunnel crew last week Mr.
Chairman, listened to all of the issues that they had, to the
concerns that they had, and the highest priorities they saw
which basically amounted to the ``Y'' tunnel, which is where a
lot of our focus and studies are going into at this point as
well.
So we have been trying to move forward on the day-to-day
life safety while we're planning the long term projects which
require greater funding and have a greater impact on the
community.
Senator Allard. Let me call on my colleague, Senator
Durbin. I know he is shocked as I am at the condition of those
tunnels and I think he's got some questions he wants to ask in
that regard.
OFFICE OF COMPLIANCE COMPLAINT
Senator Durbin. Thank you very much. Mr. Hantman, this is
unprecedented is it not, that the Office of Compliance would
file a complaint against the Architect's Office?
Mr. Hantman. That's my understanding, sir.
Senator Durbin. And it's been noted now for 6 years or more
that there were problems, hazards and dangers to employees in
these tunnels, is that not true?
Mr. Hantman. That is true, sir.
Senator Durbin. I understand budgets because I've served on
the Appropriations Committee on the House and Senate, and been
on this subcommittee for some time. But I cannot believe that
if you felt that this was a life threatening situation and came
to Congress that we wouldn't have responded. Did you feel this
was a life threatening situation?
Mr. Hantman. We felt that there was certainly conditions
down there that needed to be ameliorated so that it would not
be a life safety situation.
Senator Durbin. I think you said yes, that you felt it was
a life threatening situation.
Mr. Hantman. Certainly with spalling concrete coming off,
that could be certainly a life safety situation, yes.
Senator Durbin. And I have to ask you why you didn't make
this plea to Congress, saying the lives of workman are at stake
here. When I look at this, it's a lengthy survey done by the
Office of Compliance, the conclusions at one part say,
``neither the conditions, nor the protective measures for
either asbestos or heat stress have improved for tunnel shop
employees between the OOC report of August 24, 1999 and the
inspection made for this report.'' And they have cited in here
as I'm sure you've read ample evidence that the workers whether
they knew it or not, were exposed to asbestos hazard during 5
or 6 years while they were working in these conditions. Were
you aware of that exposure?
Mr. Hantman. We have worked in--we have five tunnels sir.
One of them is the ``V'' tunnel for instance. We completed
abating the asbestos in that tunnel last year. We have money in
the project loop right now, in procurement for the ``B'' tunnel
to abate the--we are--one of the comments that the chairman
made before in terms of encapsulating asbestos, we recognize
that we have asbestos in all of our buildings and all of our
tunnels around the campus. As long as it's encapsulated and
safe we will be replacing that as we can, as we go down the
road with various projects.
Most of these tunnels have had encapsulated work
accomplished. The ``B'' tunnel, for instance, had new jacketing
put on it. That jacketing is now wearing out. We have a
$200,000 project to abate the work in that tunnel.
EMPLOYEE SAFETY IN THE TUNNELS
Senator Durbin. Mr. Hantman, did you warn the workers that
they were going to expose themselves to inhalation of asbestos
if they worked in the tunnels that were not protected?
Mr. Hantman. The workers were aware of these asbestos
issues. We worked to repair problems when they saw an asbestos
issue, or we had the construction management division go in to
inspect, we would go in and repair those particular sections
and make sure that they were encapsulated.
Senator Durbin. Did the workers wear any protective
breathing device working around this asbestos?
Mr. Hantman. They are now, sir.
Senator Durbin. When did that start?
Mr. Hantman. This is just starting.
Senator Durbin. Why did we wait so long to protect these
workers?
Mr. Hantman. We were working in those tunnels, we had
constant inspections going on in those tunnels. We recognized
that we needed to do full tunnel work as we did on Constitution
Avenue to make sure that--and as we did on the ``V'' tunnel
that we can take care of it as a total project while we were
encapsulating segments as we went along.
Senator Durbin. Mr. Hantman, I would have to tell you that
perhaps I have a heightened interest in this with the debate we
just went through on the asbestos issue. And having met scores
of widows and widowers of people suffering--who suffered from
mesothelioma and asbestosis. There's not a single one of us in
this room who knows for sure that we haven't been exposed to
asbestos that will kill us. In this circumstance, we knew that
there was asbestos, we knew that it was a hazard to workers,
and literally waited years before we provided safety devices
for these workers to protect them. How could we possibly
explain that to the workers or their families?
Mr. Hantman. We had ongoing inspections but clearly they
were not adequate. Senator Durbin.
Senator Durbin. Well that's cold comfort. I appreciate your
admission, but I think it tells that we have done a great
disservice to these workers and their families. And I hope of
all the priorities which we face on Capitol Hill, that the
first priority will be the safety of the men and women who work
here and visit here. And if that is the case, I want to say to
you point blank. If you do not come forward with requests for
life safety measures and protective devices to protect these
workers then you're not doing your duty.
You need to call on us, and if we fail then it's on our
shoulders but knowing this for 5 or 6 years, and not responding
to it, and exposing workers to these potential life threatening
situations that's entirely unacceptable. And to think that it
would happen on Capitol Hill, the seat of our Government, the
symbol of who we are as a people, makes it even worse. Thank
you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Allard. Well I'd like to agree with Senator Durbin
on his comments. I do think that we have to get moving quickly
on this, we need to get it taken care of. I understand your
concerns about disrupting traffic, part of it's on Constitution
Avenue. But I think that we need to get a plan in place quickly
as to how we can deal with this, and somehow or other find the
resources to begin to get this situation rectified as much as
possible, and get the city to understand that this is a serious
problem and it needs to be dealt with. I know it's going to
create some travel inconveniences, but I just think it has to
be done.
Senator Durbin. Mr. Chairman if I might add to that. Mr.
Hantman said how much construction fatigue can Congress take,
he went onto talk about how much disruption of traffic can the
community take. Well I'm prepared to face both of those
challenges but I'm not prepared to face the families of these
workers and tell them we didn't do everything humanly possible
to protect them in the workplace.
TUNNEL REPAIR PLANS
Mr. Hantman. We have requested $1.75 million in this budget
to do further studies and work on that, in addition to the $1.8
million that we've recently reprogrammed. We will certainly get
back to you in terms of what those studies are showing and the
priorities in terms of those dollars.
Senator Allard. I don't know what kind of time line you
were thinking about, but we need to expedite this. I hope that
you can come back with an expedited plan. Give us a better idea
of what this total thing is going to cost, so we can deal with
it, and begin to plan for it. We've got a lot of things that
are on that list, but in my view this needs to be toward the
top of the list. We need to somehow begin to address it right
away. You now have the feeling of this subcommittee that we
think this is important, and we need to expedite it. I hope
that you would look at the budget request that you've made and
see what we can do now to begin to address these problems. I
agree with Senator Durbin, the traffic and inconvenience to
Members of Congress and our staff, that's a minor issue
relative to the seriousness of what we have here. We need to
deal with it.
TRACKING OFFICE OF COMPLIANCE CITATIONS
Are you keeping a list of possible problems that are
erupting so that we don't get to this problem in some future
time? Where the Office of Compliance has pointed out a problem
or potential problem, is it being catalogued so that we can see
what might be coming down the pike so that we can begin to meet
these challenges as they face the committee?
Mr. Ayers. Yes, Mr. Chairman, we do meet regularly with the
Office of Compliance and they have over the years, since 1999,
issued a variety of citations. We work to abate those and
request funding as necessary to abate those. We meet with them
on a regular basis to update them on the status of the
abatement of those citations.
CAPITAL PROJECTS AND THE LIBRARY LOGISTICS WAREHOUSE PRIORITIZATION
Senator Allard. Let me move onto capital projects. Your
budget includes 19 major capital projects, totaling about
$143.7 million. Could you describe the process, referred to as
the line item construction program, you went through to come
with this list of projects?
The projects are ranked based on their urgency and the type
of project, now how is a library storage facility ranked number
nine on this list?
Mr. Hantman. As I indicated Mr. Chairman, when we
originally started looking at projects, and the importance and
the ranking on the list, we had some 36 projects there. The
library logistics warehouse was number 35 on that list, because
we ranked it as a high need, but not an immediate need. What
happens when you get to all of the fire and life safety, the
preservation, the economics, the physical security issues and
you rank that, and you look at the current condition of various
projects, you'll note that's one of the few projects on our
request which is a new project as opposed to something that
needs to be repaired and maintained. Originally that was not
ranked high on the list, it was number 35 as opposed to where
it is right now, in number 9. The Librarian expressed very
strong need and concern that it was an ``immediate'' priority.
We have not done facility condition assessments for the Library
as of yet. We hope to get that funding in here so we can
actually do the type of analysis we talked about before. So in
terms of the final overview, once you go through all the fire
and life safety, the physical security, the deficiencies, and
things like that, the urgency of the project is the element
that is the last overlay on that. So our priority was
originally ``high'', the Librarian indicated that was an
``immediate'' project, very important. And so it was on that
basis that it was raised to--it's the lowest of the
``immediate'' projects on our list which is number nine. We
have eight ``immediate'' above it, all the rest below it are
``high''.
If it had not been ranked as ``immediate'' at the
Librarian's request it would have been number 35 in the project
list and would not have been requested.
DIRKSEN INFRASTRUCTURE IMPROVEMENT PROJECT
Senator Allard. The Dirksen infrastructure improvements
total somewhere about $19.4 million, can you describe these
improvements and tell us where the project can be broken down
into phases so as to lessen the price tag in fiscal year 2007.
Mr. Hantman. This again Mr. Chairman, is an important
project. Basically what we're looking at over here, is we think
that this project could be phased in multiple years. As far as
the Dirksen project is concerned, the current situation is that
it's calling for the replacement of air handling units in the
Dirksen Office Building. They're an integrated piece of
equipment, they consist of fans, heating units, coils, et
cetera, and we currently have 21 air handling units serving the
building right now. There are 12 of them on the seventh floor
of the Dirksen Senate Office Building that have to be replaced.
These are air handlers that are over 40 years old. They've
exceeded their useful life, and they're very inefficient.
So this project would replace those 12 air handler units
with new units that have replaceable filters, steam preheat
coils, clean steam humidifiers, variable frequency drive
motors, direct digital control systems. The work would include
reconnecting the main units, et cetera. If not funded, the
building ventilation will gradually worsen and the units will
fail in the near future. Just when in the near future, we
wouldn't know exactly but in terms of good process and
procedure, this could happen.
We've taken a look at this project Mr. Chairman, and we
think it could be phased by stack especially. Specifically on
the north stack, there's a center stack, and a south stack in
the Dirksen Building. Phasing would require increased project
coordination, some increased administrative costs, and
contractor overhead, things like this. But we think it could be
phased into three pieces.
Senator Allard. Do you have an idea about how that would
affect the cost of the project?
Mr. Hantman. Yes, in the--we think that for this first
year, we could do the south wing for three air handling units
for $6.5 million, next year we could do the center wing for
$8.4 million, and the north wing in the following year for some
$6 million. This would add about a $1.5 million in additional
costs to the project, but it could be spread out over 3 years.
CONSTRUCTION OVERHEAD COSTS
Senator Allard. Thank you. The Architect of the Capitol's
construction overhead costs include more than 10 percent for
contract administration and construction management. Other
agencies such as the Corps of Engineers and the naval
facilities engineering command include costs in the range of 6
to 8 percent. What do AOC's overhead costs support and why are
your overhead costs higher than these other ones mentioned?
Mr. Hantman. We can certainly respond to the record for
that if we could Mr. Chairman.
Senator Allard. Okay. If you would please.
[The information follows:]
The AOC's overhead costs consists of the following:
Construction Contingency Cost.--This is added to the total
Estimated Construction Contract Cost (ECCC) to allow for change
orders. The percentage typically ranges between 5 percent to 10
percent for new construction and 10 percent to 15 percent for
renovation work. The higher contingency percentage for
renovation work is due to the greater likelihood that during
renovation unknown or unforeseen conditions may be encountered.
Implementation Cost.--These are administrative costs added
to the Estimated Construction Project Cost (the accumulated
ECCC plus Contingency) to support the AOC's costs during
project execution. These include: (1) Construction
Administration, (2.5 percent)--this is usually a contract with
the A/E firm performing the design, or the A/E firm who
performed the design, to account for shop drawing submittal
reviews, answering Requests for Information (RFIs), and any
additional technical services related to interpretation of the
drawings and specifications during construction, and the
percentage applied is an industry-accepted standard; (2) AOC
Construction Management, (8 percent)--this amount is set aside
to pay for Term AOC employees hired as Construction Managers,
who are the COTRs during construction, and Construction
Inspectors, who provide daily quality assurance during
construction execution; (3) Government Testing, Inspection and
Quality Control, (2.5 percent)--this amount is provided to
allow for independent testing, inspections services, or quality
control services that may be required. Such instances include
specialized testing or field verification that specified design
parameters have been met, and independent validation of
information necessary to resolve contractor disputes.
Project Management Cost.--This amount provides for
professional associate (contract) or temporary in-house project
management staff when execution of a specific project or group
of projects cannot be met with internal resources. At the
present time, temporary project management staff are funded by
the LOC Fort Meade projects to provide for overall program
execution at that location. Previously, this allocation was
used to execute portions of the Emergency Response Fund
projects because at that time there was an inadequate dedicated
project management staff to support that program. This
percentage--currently set at 5 percent--was inadvertently
applied to some of the fiscal year 2007 project requests.
Specific estimating guidance has since been issued to clarify
that it is to be applied only under the circumstances noted
above.
The AOC has not analyzed other agency overhead cost
structures. The AOC is undertaking a series of processes to
determine how its overhead costs are spent, and over time will
be in a much better position to support its actual cost
requirements based on financial history matched to project
performance. In addition, the Government Accountability Office
has offered to provide the AOC with technical advice in this
specific area.
WEST REFRIGERATION PLANT PROJECT
Senator Allard. On the west refrigeration plant, this $100
million project is behind schedule by 5 or 6 months, and over
budget. What is the current schedule for completion?
Mr. Hantman. The current schedule is by July of this year,
we should have the units up and running, with a combination of
controls, as well as manual controls so that we could be
producing the chilled water that we need throughout the campus.
By the end of the year all those controls should be in place,
so that the manual operation would no longer be needed.
Senator Allard. Can you assure us that no additional funds
are going to be needed?
Mr. Hantman. We are reprogramming dollars in this year's
budget as you know Mr. Chairman, to the tune of about $4.7
million. The main reason that these funds were needed is that
there were two unforeseen conditions at the Power Plant. One of
them was the extent of the contaminated soil under the existing
coal pile. We needed to remediate that. Another was a gas main
that was on Virginia Avenue in the way of the relocated sewer
line that we had to take care of. With those two projects, that
basically took the full reprogramming value and we would have
been pretty much on budget, without having to reprogram,
without those two elements.
So, yes, we're expecting that this reprogramming should be
able to get us to home base.
WEST REFRIGERATION PLANT PROJECT CHALLENGES
Senator Allard. What are the biggest challenges you've
confronted with a project, and what are some lessons learned?
Mr. Hantman. Well, the two project elements that I
mentioned were the biggest challenges, and that is true Mr.
Chairman, of any project we do here on Capitol Hill. The
documentation is just not very good in terms of existing
drawings and all. That was certainly the case with the gas line
on Virginia Avenue. It wasn't shown in the right place, in
terms of where it really was. Another challenge that we faced
on the Power Plant, was the reason that project was initiated
in the first place. This goes back to the type of issues that
we have with facility conditions throughout the campus. How do
you know something's going to fail? Do you replace a roof
before it fails, or do you do it because its life expectancy
has really been achieved. So when we looked at the east
refrigeration plant, it actually has EPA, noncompliant elements
in it. We wanted to replace it. It was over 40 years old. It
wasn't performing efficiently. We had planned on essentially
using it long enough to be able to take down the existing west
refrigeration plant units, put them online, hook them up and
have the east plant run through the winter so that we could do
that, and the full load would be on that. Unfortunately, we had
two of those units fail. Their life expectancy certainly was
there, we knew that was happening, and the same issue is, when
will something fail?
So we had to essentially, while the west refrigeration
plant was up and running, make those changes. So that was
something that cost us time and it cost us money, Mr. Chairman.
GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE REPORTS ON POWER PLANT STAFFING
Senator Allard. Now, GAO recently reported that the
Architect of the Capitol hasn't made sufficient progress in
planning to staff the modernized Power Plant efficiently and
ensure plant personnel are trained to operate it safely.
According to the GAO, the plant has about twice as many
employees as are needed for efficient operation and has since
at least 1996. What are your plans for right-sizing the Power
Plant while ensuring equity to all employees?
Mr. Hantman. We have a consultant--Ross is doing a detailed
functional analysis, regarding staffing reductions. We think
they are possible. We are at the process, Mr. Chairman, we
don't have the new equipment up and all the controls in place
at this point in time. So we need to take a look at training
the people in--on our staff, for automation of the plant, and
cross train those people to make sure that they can do multiple
jobs efficiently. We believe this can happen, once we have the
new plant online. We are concurrently working on doing training
right now, so that we can essentially right size and cross
train people to bring it more in line with the ultimate
staffing that's necessary. And our new director certainly will
have his eyes and ears on that and make sure that we do it the
right way.
PERFORMANCE-BASED BUDGET
Senator Allard. You've been listening to some of my
concerns in the past hearings on performance-based budgets and
I understand you're taking some action to develop a
performance-based budget to measure outcomes. I'd like to know
how you're coming along on that initiative?
Mr. Ayers. Sure, thank you Mr. Chairman. We do have several
strategic performance initiatives underway, and performance-
based budgeting is one of them. If I could just step back for a
moment though. All of these refer back to our strategic plan
that we developed in 2003. That strategic plan is centered
around four goal areas: facilities management, project
management, human capital, and organizational excellence. And
to implement that plan, it's accompanied by a performance plan
that includes 16 objectives, 175 specific milestones, as well
as over 300 individual activities necessary to achieve those
goals. In addition to simply measuring our progress against
achieving those milestones, we've developed a series of
performance indicators that enable us to track the health of
the organization on an ongoing basis. We call this our
dashboard. We've developed some 25 different performance
metrics, that we review on a monthly basis, myself and Mr.
Hantman, with a team of senior managers.
To take that strategic plan to the next level, we believe
requires the implementation of a cost accounting system as well
as a performance-based budgeting system, those--both of those
processes are underway now. We believe that's a year long
effort, we've recently added staff to our cost accounting
division to begin the full implementation of that program and
we look forward to presenting to you in 2008 our first
performance-based budget.
INTERNAL CONTROLS IMPLEMENTATION
Senator Allard. I'm looking forward to that, and thank you
for your efforts. According to GAO, it's critical the Architect
of the Capitol develop strong internal controls, including a
reliable cost accounting system and sound procurement
practices, can you tell us what you've done in this area, and
identify the resources you've requested in your budget to
address these needs.
Mr. Ayers. Certainly Mr. Chairman, thank you. We have begun
the roll out of a comprehensive internal controls program. This
has been, in fact, in our strategic plan since 2003. The first
phase of that, as we've selected three of the--what we feel
most important functions of our organization. Our procure to
pay, or how we purchase materials, as well as our payroll and
project management systems. As part of this internal controls
program, we'll take each of those systems and break them down
to each of their individual components, review them to
determine what specific financial and managerial controls need
to be in place to be able to achieve the end result. We're well
in process on the first three of those. Once those are
complete, we'll bring in another handful of our business
processes and run them through the same process. Ultimately
we'll have gone through all of our strategic business
processes; run them all through this program to develop a sound
internal controls program. We do have two FTEs requested in our
2007 budget to enable us to continue that, and expand that
internal controls as well as the cost accounting program.
CONTRACT MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENTS
Senator Allard. Your contract management has been subject
to some criticism. What are you doing to try and improve it?
Mr. Ayers. I think one of the most important initiatives
we've undertaken, is the development of a comprehensive core
competency program, both for our project managers as well as
for our procurement employees. That's a terrific program, and
our employees are run through an appropriations law class, a
contract management class, I think that's been our most
important initiative in that area.
ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER SELECTION
Senator Allard. Okay. Let me ask you Mr. Hantman, about the
position of Chief Financial Officer. This seems to me like a
critical position to get filled. How are we doing on filling
this position?
Mr. Hantman. I think we're going well Mr. Chairman, we
empaneled--a panel essentially last week, which includes
Stephen Ayers, it includes the CFOs of the Government
Accountability Office and the Government Printing Office. Some
53 resumes are being reviewed right now. Clearly that's a
critically important position and the process is moving along.
Senator Allard. That's all the questions that the
subcommittee has. I would like to thank you for your
participation.
SUBCOMMITTEE RECESS
The subcommittee on legislative branch will stand in
recess, until Wednesday, April 5, 2006 when it will hear
testimony from the Sergeant at Arms and Capitol Police Board.
Thank you.
[Whereupon at 11:15 a.m., Wednesday, March 15, the
subcommittee was recessed, to reconvene at 10 a.m., Wednesday,
April 5.]