    [House Hearing, 114 Congress]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                           COMMITTEE BUSINESS MEETING

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

                                    MEETING

                                   before the
                               COMMITTEE ON HOUSE
                                 ADMINISTRATION
                            HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                        ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS

                                 SECOND SESSION

                                   __________

                                 MARCH 16, 2016

                                   __________

          Printed for the use of the Committee on House Administration

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                         Available on the Internet:
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                       COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION

                     CANDICE S. MILLER, Michigan, Chairman
    GREGG HARPER, Mississippi            ROBERT A. BRADY, Pennsylvania
    RICHARD NUGENT, Florida                Ranking Minority Member
    RODNEY DAVIS, Illinois               ZOE LOFGREN, California
    BARBARA COMSTOCK, Virginia           JUAN VARGAS, California
    MARK WALKER, North Carolina

                               Professional Staff

                           Sean Moran, Staff Director
                      Jamie Fleet, Minority Staff Director

                                COMMITTEE MARKUP

                                  ----------

                           Wednesday, March 16, 2016

                              House of Representatives,
                             Committee on House Administration,
                                                        Washington, DC.
        The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:34 a.m., in Room
    1310, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Candice S. Miller
    [chairman of the committee] presiding.
        Present: Representatives Miller, Harper, Davis, Walker,
    Brady, and Vargas.
        Staff Present: Sean Moran, Staff Director; John Clocker,
    Deputy Staff Director; Bob Sensenbrenner, General Counsel; Erin
    McCracken, Communications Director; Max Engling, Professional
    Staff Member; Cole Felder, Legal Counsel; Nick Hawatmeh, Legal
    Counsel; C. Maggie Moore, Legislative Clerk; Tim Sullivan,
    Staff Assistant; Jamie Fleet, Minority Staff Director; Matt
    Pinkus, Minority Senior Policy Advisor; Khalil Abboud, Minority
    Deputy Staff; Mike Harrison, Minority Chief Counsel; Eddie
    Flaherty, Minority Chief Clerk; and Robert Henline, Minority
    Member Services Director.
        The Chairman. I now call to order the Committee on House
    Administration for today's Committee hearing and our meeting. A
    quorum is present, so we can proceed.
        The meeting record will remain open for 5 legislative days
    so that members might submit any materials that they wish to be
    included therein.
        [The information follows:]
        The Chairman. Our Committee is charged with overseeing the
    day-to-day operations and accountability of the House, and that
    is a responsibility I know that each of us take very seriously.
    Back in October, we met to make needed changes to the Members'
    Handbook as a part of a review of the expense reimbursement
    process to explore ways to strengthen the regulations governing
    official expenses.
        This markup is different in that we are doing some forward
    looking in modernizing to help offices run more effectively,
    and it is this Committee's responsibility to provide continued
    accountability.
        We, in conjunction with the House Committee on Ethics,
    House leadership, and other entities, like the CAO, work to
    ensure that hard-earned tax dollars are spent in the most
    transparent manner.
        We regularly review and update the regulations governing
    official resources. We do this by working with House offices to
    determine their needs and how to best educate the offices when
    it comes to complying with the regulations we issue.
        Our Committee also works with the CAO to help ensure
    compliance with our regulations and identify ways to improve
    public transparency of these expenditures.
        We are meeting on a number of housekeeping items that will
    help update our existing regulations to reflect current
    practice, remove outdated terminology, and clarify areas of
    confusion.
        The resolutions being considered by the Committee today
    reflect the continued evaluation of House processes to best
    assist the House community.
        The first Committee Resolution before us updates the Guide
    to Outfitting and Maintaining an Office. This guide, last
    updated in 2005, is a detailed collection of policies and
    regulations applied to the acquisition, transfer, disposal, and
    maintenance of furnishings, equipment, software, and related
    services provided to an office. We want to help offices have a
    very smooth transition so that they can get about the people's
    business as soon as possible.
        This resolution will modernize policies and terminology
    relevant to Member and Committee offices and reflect current
    practices in the House. This will help guide Members when
    setting up their offices and transferring office assets.
        The second Committee Resolution creates a new handbook to
    be used for Eligible Congressional Member Organizations.
    Previously, a large Congressional Member Organization had to
    develop complicated administrative arrangements in regard to
    staffing. At the start of the 114th Congress, the House voted
    to include a reform within House Rules to pave the way for
    specific large organizations and to ease this administrative
    burden.
        For example, the Republican Study Committee and
    Congressional Black Caucus have very onerous rules to operate
    under when staffing their caucus and paying staff. We worked in
    a bipartisan spirit on this resolution to make sure that they
    can staff their caucuses transparently, efficiently, and
    easily.
        This handbook allows for qualifying Congressional Member
    Organizations to establish an account to pay for administration
    expenses, as long as they meet certain parameters, such as the
    membership size, and comply with the regulations developed by
    the committee in the accordance with the House Rules.
        The third Committee Resolution we are considering today
    will provide a number of technical changes and clarifying
    language updates to help offices better understand the Members'
    Congressional Handbook.
        These are good changes that will hopefully help improve
    compliance to the rules, as well as to improve cost savings and
    efficiency. One in particular being a provision allowing
    qualifying Members to share district offices with other Members
    of the House, which will be approved by the Committee on a
    case-by-case basis. This will allow Members who, for example,
    share a town to have one central location to serve the
    constituents of that town. In addition to being more efficient
    and helpful for the constituents, it also has the potential to
    save taxpayers dollars.
        The fourth and final Committee Resolution before us will be
    amending the Committee Handbook. The Committee Handbook was
    last updated over a decade ago, and the vast majority of the
    changes we are proposing today merely reflect this lapse in
    time.
        These changes will provide updates to simply reflect
    current practice by updating the applicable House rules,
    statutes, and removing language which no longer applies.
        The resolution will update regulations pertaining to the
    use of the Frank. It was important that the handbook be updated
    to reflect that many Committees now communicate electronically
    through avenues like Facebook Ads, e-newsletters, and social
    media. Committees can now use their funds to advertise their
    location and contact information, as well as to updates
    applicable use of mass communications.
        I certainly want to thank all the Members of the Committee
    for being here today and for their hard work on these
    resolutions.
        I certainly want to thank our Ranking Member, Mr. Brady.
    These resolutions before us are the combined product of a true
    bipartisan effort, where our staffs have worked very hard to
    achieve and arrive at these changes. I know I speak for the
    Ranking Member when I say that aiding this institution and
    ensuring that we have the right policies in place is our duty,
    one that each of us, and certainly our staff members, take
    seriously.
        With that, I would like to recognize the Ranking Member,
    Mr. Brady, for his opening statement.
        Mr. Brady. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you
    for holding this markup today.
        Rather than speak to each of the resolutions individually,
    I will submit longer comments for the record and just make a
    few comments here.
        I support these four resolutions. The updates to our
    handbooks and committee guides are long overdue. Some of the
    updates we are making here sure should have been made 10 years
    ago, so it is good that we are doing this today.
        I appreciate your working with my staff on these proposals.
    We have bipartisan agreement on all of them, and I will be
    supporting all of them. We approached this process wanting to
    make our House work better, and I think we did that.
    Commonsense updates and some basic reforms will hopefully
    result in less work in the administrating of our offices, and
    some of these proposals could actually save some Members money.
        I also support the ECMO proposal, and I am glad we
    consulted with Employment Counsel on the final draft. I would
    specifically like to thank Gloria Lett and Ann Rogers of the
    Clerk's Office for their help.
        This proposal makes things easier for these Member
    organizations as we implement these new regulations. I hope
    that we continue working together to resolve any unexpected
    issues. I look forward to continuing to work with you, my
    friend from Michigan, and urge my colleagues to support the
    resolutions before us today. Thank you.
        The Chairman. I thank the gentleman very much.
        Are there any other Members that wish to have an opening
    statement?
        The chair recognizes Mr. Harper from Mississippi.
        Mr. Harper. Thank you, Chairman Miller.
        I would like to commend you and Ranking Member Brady on the
    strong show of bipartisanship represented by the handbooks
    which we are considering today. The update of these regulations
    is overdue, and there is a reason for that. Finding consensus
    on a group of regulations that affect the operations of over
    435 Member offices, all of the standing committees, and several
    Member organizations is no easy task.
        I want to thank the staffs on both sides, majority and
    minority, for their commitment and tenacity in seeing this task
    through. I know you spent countless hours on probably countless
    versions of these regulations, and I want each of you to know
    that we appreciate your efforts.
        Most Members will probably never see these regulations and
    would not likely read them if they did perhaps, but their daily
    activities are governed by them, and it was important to get
    them right. So I thank everyone involved in this and the
    staffs.
        And I yield back. Thank you.
        The Chairman. I thank the gentleman for his comments.
        Any other Members wish to make an opening statement?
        The gentleman from Chicago--excuse me, Illinois, not
    Chicago.
        Mr. Davis. Those are fighting words where I come from,
    Madam Chairwoman.
        Less of an opening statement, but more of a comment,
    because I know this process is going to be very quick today. I
    want to thank you, the ranking member, and all the members of
    this committee, and especially the staff, for working so hard
    to do things to address some issues, as the ranking member
    said, should have been addressed, could have been addressed
    even years ago.
        Simple changes, like allowing Members to share district
    offices, can really save taxpayer dollars. This is a great step
    forward. The committee, both sides, the staff worked very, very
    hard to address issues that are very, very important to
    staffers not only here in Washington, but district staffers,
    you know, where I used to work. And the clarifications truly do
    help them do a better job on behalf of their Member and on
    behalf of this institution.
        So thank you all again for your hard work. I truly
    appreciate it.
        The Chairman. I thank the gentleman from Illinois for his
    comments.
        Any other Member have any comment?
        Okay. I will now call before the Committee our first agenda
    item, which is Committee Resolution 114, a Committee Resolution
    updating the Guide to Outfitting and Maintaining an Office of
    the U.S. House of Representatives. Without objection, the first
    reading of the resolution is dispensed with and the resolution
    is considered read and open for amendment at any point.
        [The information follows:]

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        The Chairman. Last updated in 2005, this guide is a
    detailed collection of policies and regulations applicable to
    the acquisition, transfer, disposal, and maintenance of
    furnishings, equipment, software, and related services. The
    guide has been restructured to be more user friendly and
    updated to reflect today's policy.
        Mr. Brady, do you have any statement on the resolution?
        Any other member wish to comment?
        Without that, then I would move that the Committee adopt
    the Committee Resolution. The question is on the motion to
    adopt the resolution.
        All Members who are in favor of the resolution, signify by
    saying aye.
        Any opposed?
        In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it, the ayes
    have it, and the motion is agreed to.
        Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid upon
    the table.
        I now call before the Committee our second agenda item,
    Committee Resolution 114, a Committee Resolution creating the
    Eligible Congressional Member Organization Handbook. Without
    objection, the first reading of the resolution is dispensed
    with and the resolution is considered read and open for
    amendment at any point.
        [The information follows:]

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        The Chairman. Congressional Member Organizations that meet
    the necessary criteria will now be eligible for new spending
    accounts to pay for employees and their administrative
    functions. These new regulations would provide a process for
    the transparent management of needed administrative accounts.
        Mr. Brady, do you have any statement on the resolution?
        Any other Members?
        With that, then I would move the Committee adopt the
    Committee Resolution. The question is on the motion to adopt
    the resolution.
        All Members who are in favor of the resolution, signify by
    saying aye.
        Opposed, say nay.
        In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it, the motion
    is agreed to. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is
    laid upon the table.
        I now call before the Committee our third agenda item,
    Committee Resolution 114. This is a Committee Resolution
    updating the Members' Congressional Handbook. Without
    objection, the first reading of the resolution is dispensed
    with and the resolution is considered read and open for
    amendment at any point.
        [The information follows:]

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        The Chairman. This resolution will insert some clarifying
    language, as well as regulations to mirror the previous
    resolution our committee just adopted. Of particular note, this
    resolution includes a provision allowing qualifying Members to
    share district offices with other Members of the House. This
    will be approved by the Committee on a case-by-case basis.
        For a few Members of the House, their congressional
    districts, again, share the same city or geographic area, so we
    think this is a commonsense addition to allow those Members,
    under very clear and transparent guidelines, the option to
    share a district office.
        Mr. Brady, any statement on the resolution?
        Any other member have a comment?
        I actually have an amendment at the desk, and I will
    recognize myself.
        [The information follows:]

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        The Chairman. This amendment would change the Members'
    Handbook to harmonize it with current practice. The amendment
    changes the fixed maximum mileage reimbursement rates in the
    Members' Handbook and requires the Committee to issue yearly
    updates to the community concerning the maximum mileage
    reimbursement rates.
        Almost every year, the GSA and the IRS change the maximum
    mileage reimbursement rates. If the House varies from these
    rates, it can have income tax consequences. Accordingly, the
    Committee has been issuing a ``Dear Colleague'' every year
    informing offices of the maximum rate. This amendment would
    adopt that practice back into our regulations.
        Does any Member wish to speak on this amendment?
        If not, the question is on the amendment.
        I would ask for all Members who are in favor of this to
    signify by saying aye.
        Opposed, say nay.
        With that, the amendment is agreed to.
        Are there any other amendments?
        Then I move that the Committee adopt the Committee
    Resolution as amended. The question is on the motion to adopt
    the resolution.
        All Members in favor signify by saying aye.
        Opposed say nay.
        In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it, the ayes
    have it, the motion is agreed to.
        Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid upon
    the table.
        I now call before the Committee our fourth agenda item,
    Committee Resolution 114, a Committee Resolution updating the
    Committee Handbook. Without objection, the first reading of the
    resolution is dispensed with and the resolution is considered
    read and open for amendment at any point.
        [The information follows:]

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        The Chairman. Our Committee last updated this handbook more
    than 10 years ago, and therefore this update, we think, is very
    well overdue. Most of the updates are to bring the handbook
    language in line with today's practices.
        Again, this and all of our resolutions offered today are
    part of a commonsense approach and needed updates to ensure our
    regulations best assist offices while also protecting the
    taxpayer dollar.
        Mr. Brady, do you have any comment on this resolution?
        Any other Members?
        Much like the Members' Handbook, this change to the
    Committee Handbook will harmonize it with current practice and,
    again, reflect what the Committee is doing each and every year.
        Any other comments from any of the Members?
        If not, then I move that the Committee adopt the Committee
    Resolution. I have to do the amendment. Excuse me. Where am I
    at here? This is the next amendment. Okay.
        This amendment would change the Committee Handbook to
    harmonize it with current practice. The amendment changes the
    fixed maximum mileage reimbursement rates in the Members'
    Handbook and, again, requires the Committee to issue yearly
    updates to the community concerning the maximum mileage
    reimbursement. This is an amendment that I am offering.
        [The information follows:]

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        The Chairman. Oh, the Committee Handbook. Okay, I have got
    it. Same language, one for the Committee Handbook, one for the
    Members' Handbook.
        Any Member wish to speak to this amendment?
        If not, the question is on the amendment.
        I ask for all the members who are in favor to signify by
    saying aye.
        Opposed, say nay.
        In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it, the ayes
    have it, the amendment is agreed to.
        Any other amendments?
        I would then move that the Committee adopt the Committee
    Resolution as amended, and the question is on the motion to
    adopt the resolution.
        All Members in favor of the motion, signify by saying aye.
        Opposed, say nay.
        In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it, the ayes
    have it.
        Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid upon
    the table.
        Any other questions or comments from any of the Members
    before we adjourn? One of the quickest hearings in history.
        Okay. Without objection, the meeting is adjourned.
        [Whereupon, at 10:49 a.m., the committee was adjourned.]

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