[House Hearing, 111 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
BUSINESS MEETING ON COMMITTEE RESOLUTION RELATING TO ENERGY
DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS
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MEETING
before the
COMMITTEE ON HOUSE
ADMINISTRATION
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
Held in Washington, DC, Wednesday, April 28, 2010
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on House Administration
Available on the Internet:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/house/administration/index.html
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
57-843 WASHINGTON : 2010
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COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION
ROBERT A. BRADY, Pennsylvania, Chairman
ZOE LOFGREN, California, DANIEL E. LUNGREN, California,
Vice-Chairwoman Ranking Minority Member
MICHAEL E. CAPUANO, Massachusetts KEVIN McCARTHY, California
CHARLES A. GONZALEZ, Texas GREGG HARPER, Mississippi
SUSAN A. DAVIS, California
ARTUR DAVIS, Alabama
Jamie Fleet, Staff Director
Victor Arnold-Bik, Minority Staff Director
BUSINESS MEETING ON COMMITTEE RESOLUTION RELATING TO ENERGY
DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010
House of Representatives,
Committee on House Administration,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to call, at 11:08 a.m., in Room
1310, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Robert A. Brady
[chairman of the committee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Brady, Lofgren, Capuano, Davis of
California, Lungren, and Harper.
Staff Present: Tom Hicks, Senior Election Counsel; Matt
Pinkus, Professional Staff/Parliamentarian; Kyle Anderson,
Press Director; Joe Wallace, Legislative Clerk; Greg Abbott,
Professional Staff; Darrell O'Connor, Professional Staff;
Shervan Sebastian, Staff Assistant; Victor Arnold-Bik, Minority
Staff Director; Karin Moore, Minority Legislative Counsel;
Salley Collins, Minority Press Secretary; Katie Ryan, Minority
Professional Staff; and Mary Sue Englund, Minority Professional
Staff.
The Chairman. I would like to call the Committee on House
Administration to order. I am hoping that this will be a nice,
short meeting. Immediately following the conclusion of this
meeting, we will begin the full committee oversight hearing.
Today we will consider a committee resolution to authorize
energy demonstration projects in the House of Representatives.
And I now call up Committee Resolution 8, which is before
the Members. And, without objection, the committee resolution
is considered as read and open for amendment.
[The information follows:]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T7843A.001
The Chairman. Committee Resolution 8 authorizes the Chief
Administrative Officer, CAO, to conduct a series of
demonstration projects that explore ways to reduce energy
consumption, leading to better energy efficiency and cost
savings.
Funds for the project were already approved through Public
Law 11-68, the Fiscal Year 2010 Legislative Branch
Appropriations Act. This act was adopted in a bipartisan
fashion at both the subcommittee level and on the floor.
Our committee, through adoption of the resolution, will
exercise its authority under the rules of the House to initiate
disbursements of the funds. Under the committee resolution, the
CAO will have four requirements that must be met.
First, the CAO will be required to submit project plans
along with justification for the proposal to the Committee on
House Administration before any appropriated funds may be
spent.
Second, the CAO must act in accordance for all procurements
for proposed demonstration projects with the guidelines for
procurement of goods and services for the U.S. House of
Representatives.
Third, the CAO must submit a detailed report to the
committee outlining the progress and cost of each part of the
demonstration project starting on the preceding month of the
start date until project completion.
And, finally, the CAO will be required to submit, upon
completion of each project, an independent, third-party, expert
evaluation detailing, among other things, the project's
utility, efficiency, and economics.
I urge approval of the committee resolution.
And, if there is any additional debate, the 5-minute rule
will be applied.
Ranking Member Lungren.
Mr. Lungren. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
And I appreciate you calling this business meeting. In
adhering to our normal legislative procedures, I do think it is
important that we deliberate over and vote on issues such as
these.
Mr. Chairman, a number of my colleagues and I do have
concerns, however, about this resolution. You know, yesterday,
this committee took the unusual step of going to the floor of
the House and introducing and passing a resolution which froze
Members' salaries--in other words, it did not allow Members to
receive the cost-of-living adjustment.
And there was recognition during the debate that, while
that does not have a significant impact on the budget relative
to all the other expenditures, it was important for us to do
that because it's symbolic and it also shows that we are aware
of the very difficult economic situations that are affecting
our constituents.
And so, while in some other circumstances we may think a
couple of million dollars is not that big a deal, it is a big
deal these days. And I just have some concern about this
program.
It is my understanding that the Architect of the Capitol is
responsible for dealing with the energy needs of the House, as
well as the Senate. As I understand, the Architect of the
Capitol is the one charged with ensuring that there is
consistent, reliable energy for the House.
And more than just providing this energy, the Architect of
the Capitol is the one who has already been working within this
House to improve energy efficiency. They have provided energy
to these historic buildings over a century, all the while doing
so with less energy, lower costs, and improved services over
that period of time.
And I just wonder why it makes sense for us to establish
this within the province of the CAO. We have had some
difficulty in terms of the program of carbon offsets. The waste
composting program has been over-budget. I just don't see where
this is a justification for putting another several millions of
dollars to pay for demonstration projects.
And so I understand--I can count the people who are here; I
can see the way the vote is going to go. But I did want to at
least register my concern and the concern of Members on our
side of aisle about this. And I appreciate the chairman giving
me the time.
The Chairman. I thank the gentleman.
Ms. Lofgren.
Ms. Lofgren. Mr. Chairman, I will be brief. And I would
like to speak in favor of the resolution.
This really follows on the 2007 initiation of the Greening
of the Capitol program, which was assigned to the CAO. And the
CAO established under that program a goal of reducing the
House's energy consumption by 50 percent over 10 years, which
obviously would be a huge cost-saver for the House.
I just want to reflect back on some of our prior efforts on
this. Congressman Zach Wamp and I introduced a bill to
authorize the CAO to carry out a series of demonstration
projects to promote the use of cutting-edge technologies. And
the purpose of the bill was to find innovative ways to reduce
energy consumption, promote energy efficiency, and to save
costs, ultimately, for the House.
Mr. Wamp and I reintroduced the bill this year, and the
bill was marked up and reported out of the House Administration
in June of last year. This authorization really follows along
on that effort. The Leg Branch Appropriations has stepped
forward to act. And, pursuant to their actions, the CAO did
issue a request for proposals. I think 36 proposals were
submitted. There was an outside group that evaluated them; it
wasn't the CAO himself who did.
And so now we want to assert our jurisdiction. And I think
that is fair enough to do. I have talked to Mr. Wamp, who I
think is somewhat frustrated at our pace of innovation, to be
honest. But I think he does understand the need for the House
Administration Committee, as well as Leg Branch, to play their
appropriate role in this.
And so, I really think--I understand and I certainly
respect Mr. Lungren. We work together on many items. But I do
think that this is a smart thing to do. And, you know, we can
have differences of opinion, but I hope that the resolution
will be adopted.
And I yield back and thank the gentleman.
The Chairman. I thank the lady.
Any more debate?
Are there any amendments?
If not, the question is an agreement to the committee
resolution.
All those in favor, signify by saying, ``Aye.''
Any opposed?
In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. So ordered,
that the ayes have it.
Thank you. And we now will adjourn this meeting and go into
our oversight hearing.
[Whereupon, at 11:16 a.m., the committee proceeded to other
business.]