[House Hearing, 114 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
HOUSE OFFICER PRIORITIES FOR 2016 AND BEYOND
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON HOUSE
ADMINISTRATION
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
3ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
JUNE 3, 2015
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on House Administration
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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
Kyle Anderson, Minority Staff Director
HOUSE OFFICER PRIORITIES FOR 2016 AND BEYOND
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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015
House of Representatives,
Committee on House Administration,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 1:01 p.m., in Room
1310, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Candice S. Miller
[chairman of the Committee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Miller, Harper, Nugent, Davis,
Comstock, Walker, Brady, and Lofgren.
Staff Present: Sean Moran, Staff Director; John Clocker,
Deputy Staff Director; Bob Sensenbrenner, Deputy General
Counsel; Reynold Schweickhardt, Director of Technology Policy;
John L. Dickhaus, Legislative Clerk; Erin McCracken,
Communications Director; Katie Ryan, Professional Staff; Brad
Walvort, Professional Staff; Kyle Anderson, Minority Staff
Director; Matt Pinkus, Minority Senior Policy Advisor; Khalil
Abboud, Minority Deputy Staff Director/Director of Legislative
Operations; Mike Harrison, Minority Chief Counsel; and Eddie
Flaherty, Minority Chief Clerk.
The Chairman. I now call to order the Committee on House
Administration for today's hearings on the operations and
priorities of the House officers. The hearing record will
remain open for 5 legislative days so that members might submit
any materials that they wish to be included.
When our Founding Fathers drafted our Constitution, the
first institution of government that was created in Article I,
Section 1, was the House of Representatives. Unlike the Senate,
where Members can be appointed to vacancies, the Constitution
requires that no Member shall serve in the House who has not
been elected by the people, and each Member must stand for
reelection every 2 years to make this body the closest to the
people. That is why the House is known as the people's House.
The last clause of Article I, Section 1, gives the House
the power to choose our Speaker and other officers of the
House. We are meeting today to hear from the officers of the
House that were elected at the beginning of the 114th Congress
about current House operations and priorities that each of the
officers set forth to accomplish during this Congress, as well
as in the years to come. The House officers are partners with
us as we work for the American people to implement their agenda
to move this great Nation forward.
While our primary purpose as Members is to legislate and be
the voice of our constituents, we also must, of course, be good
stewards of the institution. The House officers are integral to
meeting the daily and long-term needs of the Congress' work and
the physical makeup of the institution itself. Each officer is
sworn to do their very best to support the vital duties of this
great legislative body.
The House officers our Committee will hear from today are
the Clerk of the House, Karen Haas; the House Sergeant at Arms,
Paul Irving; and the Chief Administrative Officer, Ed Cassidy.
For more than 200 years, since the First United States
Congress met, our House officers have been asked to take on all
kinds of duties to better support and improve the overall
function of our institution. In 1789, Congress' first order of
business was the election of its first Speaker. And its second
order of business was the election of the first Clerk of the
House.
The Clerk of the House performs invaluable and essential
duties that keep the legislative process in the House running
smoothly. Her responsibilities include everything from
processing introduced bills; to operating the electronic voting
system; to transcribing floor and committee proceedings; and
ultimately compiling and making available to the public all of
the legislative proceedings and associated documents in both
hardcopy and electronic formats as well.
The Clerk serves as our official record keeper and
protector of the House's collection of art, archives, and
history. This responsibility requires great coordination,
cooperation, and consultation with individual committees and
certainly Members as well of the Office of the Historian and
National Archives. The office works very diligently to make the
legislative and historical records accessible to the public,
not only now but in formats that will last even as technology
evolves.
Finally, the Clerk's Office is charged with carrying out
the House's public disclosure responsibilities and does so
through the operation and maintenance of the House's Financial
Disclosure Filing System and the Lobbying Disclosure System.
The Clerk's Office plays a vital role in the House's efforts to
provide transparency in every action that we take and to ensure
that both legislative and Member information is being
accessible to the public. Docs.house.gov, which serves as an
online one-stop shop for legislative information, is just one
example of the efforts that the Clerk's Office undertakes.
Our Committee looks forward to hearing from the Clerk on
her priorities and planned improvements for both House
operations and public access to legislative information.
The position of Sergeant at Arms of the House was created 2
weeks after the Clerk's position in 1789. The Sergeant at Arms
is the chief law enforcement and protocol officer in the House
and is charged with securing and keeping order within the
Chamber. Duties of the position include all manner of security
issues ranging from overseeing the House floor; to ensuring
that the proper identification is issued, both to Members and
to staff; to coordinating with other law enforcement and
security agencies to monitor potential threats to Members of
Congress and the complex here in the Capitol.
The Sergeant at Arms manages state visits, including
responsibilities related to security when the President or
other dignitaries visit during joint sessions. The Sergeant at
Arms develops protocols and programs to keep Members, staff,
and visitors safe in any potentially dangerous event, and
ensures that the Congress can accomplish its legislative work
in a safe environment and in full view of the American public.
Mr. Irving serves as a member of the U.S. Capitol Police
Board, responsible for policy oversight over the U.S. Capitol
Police. Just last week, this Committee, as you know, Paul,
heard from the Chief of Police. We certainly look forward to
your perspective as well on current procedures and future
improvements to both our campus and district office security as
well.
The Chief Administrative Officer position, often
abbreviated as CAO, which is what we are going to refer to it
here, was established in 1995 at the beginning of the 104th
Congress. The CAO is responsible for providing administrative,
financial, and technical support of the entire House. This
office is also charged with managing the House's computer
system and technology infrastructure; finances; human
resources; procurement; budgeting; staff training; and is
ultimately responsible with properly outfitting offices, both
here in D.C. as well as in the districts, so that each can run
at its maximum efficiency. And of particular note, the CAO
manages the House finances, making sure that the House pays its
bills on time and keeps good track of the funds and assets
entrusted to us by the taxpayers.
Also, the CAO runs the House cybersecurity program. We are
going to be interested to hear how the House must continue
certainly to evolve our cyber posture to manage emerging
threats.
Additionally, the CAO plays a major role in providing
logistic support for the House offices by running the House
supply store, managing our concessionaire contracts, and
provisioning furniture as well. Because of that broad logistics
role, the CAO is very engaged in the Cannon renovation. I am
sure we will be hearing something about that as well and their
coordinated efforts with the Architect of the Capitol's Office
on that project.
The CAO also provides a number of unique services that are
critical to House operations. The House Recording Studio, a
business unit within the CAO, provides public access to the
House floor and committee proceedings. The office supports the
media galleries, ensuring open and accessible coverage of the
House.
Finally, the CAO also supports the House's Wounded Warrior
Program, which provides Members access to a remarkable group of
veterans who are continuing their service to our country.
Again, each House officer is integral to furthering
effective governance while protecting taxpayers' dollars and we
are very, very interested in hearing from all of them because
good policies provide for effective and accountable government.
Together, the House continues to work on ways that we can all
prioritize our resources and rein in costs; all while we uphold
our commitment to increase the level of transparency,
accountability, and public access to our operations for many
years to come.
So I want to thank all of the witnesses for appearing here
today.
I would now recognize our ranking member.
Mr. Brady. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
I would like to join with my friend Chairman Miller in
welcoming our witnesses today. As you know, the Committee on
House Administration has jurisdiction over the administration
and operation of this institution. And your respective
organizations, along with the House Superintendent, in many
ways form the operational backbone of the House.
You have been entrusted with ensuring the safety and
security of visitors, Members, and staff; maintaining integrity
of our legislative system; and making sure that our bills are
paid. And for that, we are most appreciative.
I would be remiss if I did not specifically mention the
dedication and invaluable service of the people in your
respective organizations. Their contributions often go
unrecognized, but I am sure that you would agree that you could
not succeed without them, nor could this House.
I look forward to hearing your testimony.
But I would like to make one note, Madam Chair, that I am
looking at the Honorable Ed Cassidy sitting up there at the
front of the desk, and for years, he was back in that corner.
And I don't know who the hell he was watching, me or you, but
he was watching somebody. But we got you right now. Now we are
watching you, sir. Thank you.
The Chairman. I thank the gentleman.
Let me give a very quick, more formal introduction of our
three testifiers.
We will start with the Clerk. Karen Haas was sworn in as
the Clerk of the House of Representatives on January 5, 2011.
This is her second occupancy of this position, having
previously served as the House Clerk from 2005 to 2007. She has
a very strong working knowledge of the House, as she served on
Capitol Hill as a legislative staffer, a floor assistant to a
former Speaker, and a staff director for a House committee.
Paul Irving was sworn in as the Sergeant at Arms of the
U.S. House of Representatives on January 17, 2012, during the
second session of the 112th Congress. He is the 36th person to
hold this position since 1789. Previously, he served as an
assistant director of the U.S. Secret Service from 2001 to 2008
and served as a special agent with the Secret Service for 25
years.
Ed Cassidy was elected to the post of CAO in January of
2014. Prior to serving as the CAO, Mr. Cassidy worked for 7
years as a senior leadership aide to Speaker Boehner, most
recently as Director of House Operations. He has served more
than three decades in Federal Government service, largely here
in this House but also in the executive branch.
Again, we welcome you all and look forward to your
testimony.
With that, the chair would recognize the Honorable Karen
Haas.
STATEMENTS OF THE HONORABLE KAREN L. HAAS, CLERK, UNITED STATES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES; THE HONORABLE PAUL D. IRVING,
SERGEANT AT ARMS, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES; AND
THE HONORABLE ED CASSIDY, CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER, UNITED
STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE KAREN L. HAAS
Ms. Haas. Chairman Miller, Ranking Member Brady, Members of
the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before
the committee today regarding the priorities of the Office of
the Clerk for the upcoming year.
As you know, my staff and I routinely meet with your
committee staff, and we appreciate the support and feedback
that we receive. To a large extent, the core responsibilities
of the Clerk's Office remain constant from year to year. Our
office is charged with supporting the legislative operations of
the House and its committees, preserving and protecting the
heritage of the House, and providing numerous public disclosure
services.
While our core responsibilities remain fairly constant, the
manner in which we perform our work requires regular review to
ensure that we are taking advantage of rapidly evolving
technology that can improve the timeliness, accuracy,
transparency, and public accessibility of our work product.
One of the Clerk's most important responsibilities is
recording, tallying, and publicly disclosing our floor votes
cast in the House of Representatives. During the coming year,
we will implement the next phase in a multiyear process of
updating the electronic voting system used by the House. Our
next step is to update the voting stations throughout the
Chamber. We will replace our voting boxes and related wiring
and will upgrade Member voting cards to be compatible with
improved technology. In addition, we will also make plans to
enhance the disclosure of vote results that the Clerk's Office
makes publicly available online.
We will also be working on a number of improvements to the
Clerk's Web site in the coming year. We are focusing our
redesign efforts on making information we provide on House
floor activity more prominent and user-friendly for both
internal users and the public that relies on our office to
provide accurate, timely, and official information on the
legislative activity of the House. We hope to deploy a fully
redesigned site by the end of next year.
The Clerk's Office also provides numerous legislative
support services for our House committees. In the coming year,
we will continue to work with this committee on your project to
streamline and standardize the process for producing committee
hearing reports.
Management of official House records is also an important
responsibility of our office. We will continue to work closely
with the National Archives as they develop a plan to ensure
that there is adequate and sufficient space to preserve House
and Senate records in Washington in the medium and long term.
Our goal is to ensure that congressional records continue to be
archived in a manner that allows committees to access their
records in a timely manner and to make House records publicly
available for research, pursuant to House rules.
We will continue to work closely with the House Historian
as he writes a history of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans
in Congress. This project was commissioned by the House and
builds on the already published works on Black Americans in
Congress, Women in Congress, and Hispanic Americans in
Congress.
We are also in the process of redesigning and enhancing the
``Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress,'' which provides
historical information on every Member who has served. We have
completed the requirements phase on the upgrade to the bioguide
Web site, and we will move into the design and development
phase when resources permit.
Finally, the Clerk's Office is charged with administering a
number of public disclosure requirements. Following passage of
the STOCK Act in 2012, we undertook the design and development
of the electronic filing system for all Financial Disclosure
Statements and Periodic Transaction Reports. In May, we
completed the second cycle in which the electronic filing
system was available. We are pleased to deploy several
improvements to the system, including the ability for filers to
import information from previous electronic filings. In the
upcoming year, we will provide technical assistance to the
Committee on Ethics with its internal review system and
continue to use feedback we receive from users to improve the
system.
Lastly, it is important to note that we depend on the
professionalism, skill, and dedication of our staff as we carry
out the roles in supporting the legislative operation of the
House. In the Clerk's Office, we are fortunate to have many
employees with decades of service, and their institutional
knowledge is invaluable. We recognize the need to continue to
provide professional development and cross-training
opportunities.
Our staff is also well positioned to provide training to
House employees concerning research and record management,
among other topics. We look forward to continuing those efforts
with the CAO through the House Learning Center.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today.
[The statement of Ms. Haas follows:]
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The Chairman. Thank you so very much.
The chair now recognizes Paul Irving. We are going to ask
you to keep to 5 minutes since we are in a vote series here.
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE PAUL D. IRVING
Mr. Irving. I will. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good afternoon, Chairman Miller, Mr. Brady, and members of
the Committee. I deeply appreciate the opportunity to appear to
before you today to discuss the Sergeant at Arms' priorities
for 2016 and beyond. I look forward to continuing to work
closely with you and other members of the Committee throughout
the 114th Congress.
As the Committee is aware, as the chief law enforcement
officer of the House, I am responsible for directing all
security matters which relate to the House of Representatives.
Together with the Senate Sergeant at Arms and the Architect of
the Capitol, I serve as a member of the U.S. Capitol Police
Board, which oversees the Capitol Police as well as establishes
policies and guidelines which safeguard the Capitol complex and
its occupants.
I also work very closely with the other officers of the
House, Karen Haas and Ed Cassidy.
In the security arena, I devote considerable time to a host
of ongoing priorities to ensure the safety of Members, their
staff, and visitors to the House of Representatives. These
priorities include threat and intelligence monitoring and
analysis by reviewing all threats and intelligence directed to
Members of the House of Representatives in Washington, in their
district offices, or wherever they may be. I monitor events on
the Capitol complex, such as demonstration activity, committee
hearings, head of state visits, and major events taking place
on the complex.
Congressional delegations, or codels, are also monitored to
ensure that the military and the Department of State provide
adequate security in country. I monitor and review all security
plans for Member-sponsored events off the Capitol complex,
where Members and leadership may gather. And, of course, we
ensure the security posture is maintained daily during each and
every activity in the House of Representatives.
Although I have submitted a more comprehensive testimony
for the record with regard to our major ongoing initiatives for
fiscal year 2016, I would like to mention a few of them
briefly. One of our top priorities is airspace security. We are
working closely with the Department of Defense, Department of
Transportation, and Department of Homeland Security to ensure
we have the most efficient and robust early detection,
identification, and warning systems.
With regard to garage security, we are working toward 100-
percent screening of all those who enter our House office
buildings. We are also working on an initiative to safeguard
our Chamber Galleries to ensure that all searches are conducted
to prevent any potential disruption to those Galleries.
Another important project that will utilize no additional
manpower is the relocation of our appointments desks to ensure
that all those entering the Capitol are vetted.
Working in conjunction with the Capitol Police Board and
members of the Capitol Police, our camera security initiative
will ensure that all coverage of the exterior of the Capitol is
taken care of by the end of this fiscal year.
To enhance district office security, we are in the process
of offering mail hoods to district offices so that district
staff can open mail safely and securely in the confines of
their own offices, and we are working toward enhancing
literature and tools available through our Law Enforcement
Coordinator Program. To further improve our response to
emergencies on the Capitol complex, we are continuing to
promote the importance of our office Emergency Coordinator
Program and encourage every Member office to partake in that
program.
Aside from long-term initiatives, some of the areas that we
are focusing on this year have been the State of the Union
Address, several Gold Medal ceremonies, eight visits by heads
of state, four joint meetings of Congress in the House Chamber,
and the recent Memorial Day concert.
There are a number of major events this year for which
planning is underway. Primarily, the Speaker has extended an
invitation to the Pope to address a joint meeting of Congress
on September 24. This is the first such address delivered by a
pontiff to Congress.
In my role as a member of the Capitol Police Board, I spend
considerable time attending to duties associated with oversight
of the U.S. Capitol Police. This includes the protection,
security, intelligence and threat assessment, counterterrorism,
and emergency response and preparedness functions of the
Capitol Police. This includes life-safety assessment and
recovery relating to the continuity of Congress and the
protection of individuals in the Capitol complex.
I want to assure the Committee that I work very closely
with the members of the Capitol Police Board, the Chief of
Police, and his staff. And, of course, I report to you,
leadership, and this committee on these critical issues so
vital to the safety and security of all those Members, staff,
and visitors to the House of Representatives.
In closing, I would like to thank the Committee for the
opportunity to appear before you to discuss some of my
priorities for the current year, fiscal year 2016, and beyond.
As always, I want to assure you of my deep commitment and that
of everyone in my office of providing the finest possible
service to the House of Representatives, while maintaining a
safe and security environment for all.
As noted, I have submitted my full testimony for the
record. I will continue to keep the committee informed of my
activities, and I will be happy to answer any questions you may
have.
[The statement of Mr. Irving follows:]
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The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Mr. Cassidy.
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE ED CASSIDY
Mr. Cassidy. Thank you, Chairman Miller, Ranking Member
Brady, Congressman Harper, Ms. Lofgren.
It is a real privilege today to join the Committee for this
discussion of the priorities that we face together in fiscal
year 2016. It is a special privilege to be here representing
the hundreds of dedicated men and women professionals who serve
in the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer.
As the principal manager of House finances, information
technology, physical property and equipment, and a wide range
of other administrative and support services, the men and women
in the Chief Administrative Office continually strive to carry
out efficiently and effectively our wide range of
responsibilities. And that imperative will grow even more
compelling this year as the CAO launches costly but absolutely
critical initiatives in cybersecurity, asset management, and a
number of others that I would be happy to discuss with the
committee.
In the interest of time, however, and recognizing that
votes have been ordered over in the House Chamber, I will
suspend at this point and look forward to discussing those
issues in detail with the committee or in the questions and
answers.
[The statement of Mr. Cassidy follows:]
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The Chairman. Thank you very much.
I really appreciate that.
Before we adjourn here--and we will reconvene right after
votes--let me just say that the purpose of this hearing was to
provide for our due diligence with oversight, but really, in
the most part the driving impetus for me was to be able to
demonstrate how efficiently and effectively this House is being
run and what a great team of House officers the Speaker has
appointed for this Congress.
In the Clerk's Office, the transparency and the different
things that you have done there are just remarkable I think.
Certainly, Mr. Irving, to be able to look at the challenges
that our Nation is facing here on this campus and to be so safe
and secure is, again, just a mark of yourself and your entire
time.
Mr. Cassidy, of course, we just came through a clean audit.
I know there are other things that the media wants to write
about here sometimes, but that is a wonderful, wonderful
achievement that that has happened with your team and working
together with everyone.
So I look forward to really helping to amplify what I think
is an extremely positive team of House officers and the
remarkable work that is happening here.
At this time, I would recess the hearing. The Committee
will reconvene right after the vote series.
[Recess.]
The Chairman. Okay. We will reconvene the Committee on
House Administration and continue the hearing on the House
officers. A quorum is present, so we can proceed.
Clerk Haas, I think I will start right in with you.
Ms. Haas. Okay.
The Chairman. I appreciated very much and was interested in
your testimony about the electronic voting system, which
obviously we all have a huge interest in. Maybe you could just
flesh out for us a bit about the system and some of the
challenges that you are facing. I know that we had a little bit
of a chat about how some of the technology is new, and some of
it is old. What are some of the various problems that you are
looking at there and what do you think you need to do and how
we can be of assistance with that? Obviously, we can't have any
incidents there.
Ms. Haas. I appreciate that. We have been in a multiyear
process of updating the electronic voting system. In 2009 and
2010, the summary boards and the main display boards were
upgraded.
What we have discovered is, you know, one of the last
pieces on the floor to be upgraded are the voting stations
themselves as well as the wiring. So we are undertaking a
project to update both the wiring and the voting stations. We
have started that process. We expect to be able to begin
testing in August of next year.
As part of that, we will also be upgrading the cards, the
voting cards that Members use, the technology. And the current
cards are quite old. So it is an opportunity for us to look at
new technologies and other potential ways that we can use those
cards.
So we are beginning the process now. As I mentioned, we
expect to be able to test in August of next year and then would
deploy at the end of the Congress or the beginning of the new
Congress. But that will be in coordination with this committee
and with leadership.
The Chairman. You know, I guess, just as Members, we have
all gotten used to wherever the voting stations are at. So I
don't know if you have any plans to move those. Every time we
have a series of 2-minute votes, I sometimes think it would be
good to have a voting station in the middle of some of those
rows, but I don't know if that is even possible.
Ms. Haas. So, currently, under our current situation, it is
not possible. We are maxed out. We have 46 stations throughout
the Chamber. With this new upgrade, we will be able to have
that option if leadership decides they would like additional
stations. That is something that has been coordinated over the
years with leadership on both sides of the aisle. So we are
open to providing additional stations if that is what the
decision is.
The Chairman. Okay. Very good.
To the Sergeant at Arms, I would like to ask you a little
bit about a hearing we had a couple of weeks ago with Chief
Dine. One of the things that all the Members were interested in
was the gyrocopter incident. I guess I would just ask you, do
you have any lessons learned that you have been participating
in since that time of how we can better protect the campus
here?
One of the things, I am not sure if I am advocating for
this, but I did ask the Chief about it, and here I think I am
putting my Homeland Security hat on, but if you look along the
southern border and the way that we have been able to utilize,
actually, in some cases surplus DOD goods that have been
particularly effective at border security with the eye in the
sky. As I say, I don't think I am advocating for some of the
blimps or other equipment, the dirigibles that you can see, but
some of the UAVs that they have available now, the VADERs, et
cetera, are incredibly effective. I am not sure, again, whether
that is something that could be utilized here, but perhaps.
What is your thought on equipment like that?
Mr. Irving. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Yes, as a matter of fact, even before the gyro incident,
which obviously generated a fair amount of attention here, we
were looking at the airspace security. It was a pretty
aggressive initiative to improve some of the gaps that we have.
We will have to get into more of a classified session to get
into some of that. But that was a priority for us. We work very
closely with the Department of Defense, Department of
Transportation, and Homeland Security with some continuing
efforts in that endeavor. There will be a couple more things
coming online, again, which I will allude to in a classified
briefing.
I want the Committee to be aware of the fact that the
Capitol Police Board and the Capitol Police are looking at this
and working very closely with Defense and the other executive
branch agencies on this issue.
You raise an excellent point in terms of the southwest
border. There are systems in place down there that we are very
well aware of. It is a different pattern here in a congested
urban environment versus something that is a little less
congested. So there are more challenges to airspace security in
this national capital region. Having said that, we have some
countermeasures in place, and we will have some additional ones
in the not too distant future.
I want to assure you that the couple of themes, here, from
the perspective of airspace security, which is the early
identification and warning, we are working aggressively on
that. In terms of the Capitol Police's ability to conduct
certain countermeasures, their weapons and use-of-force policy,
that is a separate issue which we have also addressed. Again,
we can get into that in more detail in a classified session.
We also have not only the low and slow aircraft but also
the drone issue. That is another facet of this that we are also
working on. We also have some classified systems in place that
we can chat about further.
I want to assure the committee that the Capitol Police
Board, Capitol Police were aggressively working this with our
partners in military and other executive branch agencies.
The Chairman. You know, since you mention the Capitol
Police Board, let me just ask a question. If you don't want to
answer it, you don't have to. Maybe I am just making a comment
here, but I am looking at the construct of the Capitol Police
Board, which has been in place for 150 years; and maybe it made
sense then. I am not sure that it does right now. So you have
yourself, then your Senate counterpart, and then the Architect
of the Capitol on the police board.
I just think from a management wiring diagram, if you will,
organizational chart, I am not sure that serves us as well as
perhaps it should. So I am almost throwing this out to the
other members of the Committee to contemplate that. I don't
know if you have any comment about that, or since you sit on
the police board you would rather not say. I totally
understand, but I personally have a little bit of consternation
about whether or not it is the best system.
Mr. Irving. I certainly feel free to comment on it if you
like, Madam Chair. I speak to Kim Dine on a daily basis on
issues relating to House-wide interests, security and protocol
interests. The Senate Sergeant at Arms does the same relative
to the Senate. But the Senate Sergeant at Arms and I deal with
Kim Dine, again, on a daily basis relative to security for the
entire complex. And I think it is a good dynamic, the
relationship that I have with the Senate Sergeant at Arms to
deal with security campuswide. As you know, we have the Pope
coming, joint visits, State of the Union, inaugurations, events
that require campuswide security protocols. We have a lot of
initiatives that are ongoing now that are campuswide, so I work
very, very closely with the Senate Sergeant at Arms. But I also
filter many, many, many comments, requests, concerns from
Members, House Members, to the Chief so that his phone is not
ringing from every Member. He will come to me. I will speak to
them about it. I will express those concerns to the Chief.
I really want to assure the committee that the Capitol
Police Board does exert robust oversight on the Chief. We are
with him each and every day. I know that there has been a
number of things in the media lately that cause concern. But we
have talked to the Chief before a lot of these issues became
public and certainly afterwards. And aside from, obviously,
both Sergeants at Arms, the Architect of the Capitol is a
critical component because a lot of the security initiatives
that we want to put in place deal with the infrastructure of
the Capitol and the office buildings. And the Architect has,
obviously, jurisdiction over that. I would say it is a pretty
good construct, but again, I am on the Board.
The Chairman. Okay. I appreciate that.
The chair recognizes our ranking member.
Mr. Brady. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
The luxury you have of asking a question behind you is that
I don't have to ask any because great minds think alike. You
would ask the questions that I would ask, and you already
answered them.
But I want to say thank you to the Clerk and to the
Sergeant at Arms and to the Chief Administrative Officer
because I know you have a tough job dealing with our egos, 435
of us, you know. I appreciate the job that you do. I appreciate
the courtesy you show us on the floor every time we are there,
which we are always there every day.
Sergeant at Arms, thank you for being informative. You
know, we don't get that much from the Chief. We have expressed
that. But you always keep us informed of what is going on every
second, every minute. And we do appreciate that. And I know
that will continue. We thank you for that.
And to the Chief Administrative Officer, thank you, you
have been a friend for a lot of years. Thanks for what you do.
And, again, dealing with all the egos that you have to deal
with.
The only question I would have is we are your oversight
committee, so if there is anything you need us to do to make
your job a little easier because when your job becomes easier,
nobody comes and complains to us and causes us any problems. So
is there anything you think that we need to do, whether it be
right here now or anywhere on the floor? I see you always on
the floor. You know where my office is. You just come to us,
and whatever we can make it easier for you because I know it is
tough enough, again, dealing with us, dealing with the egos
that you have to deal with. So thank you, again, for all of you
being here.
Mr. Irving. Thank you. We appreciate very much your
support.
The Chairman. Mr. Harper.
Mr. Harper. Thank you, Madam Chair.
And thanks to each of you for the great work that you do.
Unlike many entities that we might provide some oversight on,
we have firsthand knowledge of what you do. And we appreciate
the hard work. And what you do is not really--it is certainly
not partisan. It is really not bipartisan. It is nonpartisan.
And you make this place function very well. So we thank you for
that. But we all want to do the very best we can, whatever that
role is.
And, you know, as a person who occupies an office in
Cannon, we would obviously wish that we weren't going through
that process.
Mr. Cassidy, that is an incredible undertaking, past due,
as you know, but coming along very nicely, a long process. But
you have so much to deal with, each of you. And it is just one
of the buildings that you have responsibility for.
And but I want to say to, first, you, Mr. Cassidy,
congratulations on the audit. That is not an easy
accomplishment. Can you share a little bit of background on
that for us on how that worked and your comments on that?
Mr. Cassidy. Certainly, Mr. Harper. And thank you very much
for those kind words.
As was mentioned by the chairman in her opening remarks,
the House recently received its 17th consecutive clean audit.
These audits occur every year. They are conducted by an outside
private auditing firm, a CPA firm. That firm is contracted for
not by us but by the Inspector General of the House. And it is
essentially a review of the House's financial managers. I don't
know that it is unprecedented across the government, but
certainly nowhere else in the legislative branch and nowhere in
the executive branch of which I am aware--not even the Senate
gets independent outside audits of its financial statements.
But the House does.
It is a very worthwhile exercise. It raises the confidence,
we hope, of Members and the citizens you represent that the
funds entrusted to the United States House of Representatives
are spent effectively and efficiently and appropriately.
And this audit, if you will, as any of you who have been in
business know how daunting it can be to be audited by anybody.
I had hundreds of auditors working for me in the executive
branch, and I got a nonstop stream of calls from CEOs and other
corporate officials complaining about the enthusiasm of our
auditors.
Our folks are on the other side of that. You know, our
financial managers under the Chief Financial Officer of the
House, Traci Beaubian, who is with me here today, they are on
the receiving end of this annual financial audit. The audit is
a report card, if you will. And Traci and her team welcome the
opportunity to test themselves against the highest generally
accepted accounting principles. And they welcome the fact that
each and every year, those auditors, no surprise to any of you
who have been audited, they find areas that can be improved.
And as the chairman of this committee likes to say, the
biggest room in any house is the room for improvement. Our
financial staff, our accountants, our financial managers relish
the opportunity not only to be tested against those standards
but to have outside independent eyes point out areas where we
can improve. And each and every year, our processes do improve
as a direct result of that audit.
I would be happy to talk later about some examples of that,
the most current of which would be our Asset Management Reform
Project that is underway right now.
But I appreciate the kind words. Our folks live and breathe
that about 9 months out of every year. And it is always a huge
sigh of relief when we get that report. And this year's report
was more encouraging than any in recent memory. So thank you.
Mr. Harper. Congratulations. And to the team,
congratulations.
Mr. Irving, thank you for your hard work, your dedication.
And it is a lot, and a great responsibility that you have to
look at the safety of our Capitol complex and things that are
there. But I would like to talk for just a moment, I only have
just a little bit of time left, about the security needs in our
district offices. I think there are over 800 district offices
across the country and in the Territories. And so those are
things that, you know, we all have concerns about. And I know I
have discussed those with you in the past. I know the mail
hoods have been discussed in the district offices. Can you just
share a little bit about what you see is the things that we can
do to improve our security in the district offices?
Mr. Irving. Thank you very much, Congressman.
I appreciate your kind words again. The district offices
are certainly a challenge because as you indicate, there are
over 800, actually over 900. We need to maintain relationships
with each and every one of them. We can't be everywhere. So we
have a robust program, the Law Enforcement Coordinator Program,
whereby we ask staff in each district office to appoint someone
to work with my office, to work liaison with local law
enforcement.
Any time a Member is going to make an appearance or do
something in their district that could raise a certain profile,
we like to ensure local law enforcement is apprised of that.
District office security is critical. Resident security is
critical. So we would like Law Enforcement Coordinators to
contact our office. And we provide them guidance on a daily
basis. We give them checklists, we give them tools that they
may need to ensure that those district offices and the Members
are as safe as possible.
Mr. Harper. And I know for us and for you, threat
assessment is always an ongoing situation because----
Mr. Irving. Yes.
Mr. Harper. Some are legitimate, some are not. And I know
that is a difficult thing. But I want to say thank you for the
job your office does. It works very well I know with our office
for sure and others that I hear.
And my time is up, so I yield back.
Mr. Irving. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it.
The Chairman. Mr. Nugent.
Mr. Nugent. Thank you, Madam Chair.
And I appreciate you all, your service to this country and
to the House of Representatives in particular. You all have
unique and different responsibilities.
But I really want to talk to our Sergeant at Arms. I
appreciate you coming up in our meeting yesterday. It was very
enlightening in regard to the discussion as it relates to the
Capitol Police. And you know my background in law enforcement.
And I want to make sure that the Capitol Police Board has the
authority and has the ability to do what they need to do, but
more importantly, I want to make sure that the Chief of Police
is accountable to you all and through oversight of this
committee to make sure that we get the best of the best. You
know, I think that and what I worry about in my conversations
with some of the officers is that they feel underappreciated.
You know, they are not security guards; they are Capitol
Police. And it is a huge responsibility to keep this campus and
all the Members safe. And I know we are on the same page when
it comes to that.
But all I can do is encourage the Capitol Police Board to
make sure that they hold the Chief of Police accountable
because we talked about a numerous number of issues yesterday,
everything from, you know, training, experience, the things
that are important to the rank and file because, you know, they
want to do a great job. Most of our police officers across this
country and, more importantly, right here in the Capitol,
really want to do a good job. And they want to be proud of the
job that they do. They want to be proud of the agency they
serve with and those that serve with them.
So we need to do everything, and I think the chairman is on
the right track by holding the meeting that we had with the
Chief last week or the week before, I guess. It all runs
together, Madam Chair. But it is really important to us because
we are the community. The Members are the community that they
are sworn to protect. Obviously, the citizens that come to the
Capitol, but we are the constituency, and we want to make sure
that we have a voice in that.
And I think, by you coming and sitting down and talking
with Members, and I know you have done that in the past, you
have other meetings we have had, but you need to have all the
information at your fingertips. And I know that you have all
had issues from time to time. And I have no doubt that you are
going to rectify that, at least by our conversation yesterday.
And if you want to add anything as it relates to the Capitol
Police.
But I just want to just reiterate that, you know, I have
the utmost respect for those that wear the uniform in law
enforcement to protect us no matter where you are in this great
country. And you talk about the district offices. It is so
important that they have a good liaison with their local law
enforcement agency because you are up here, and I am down in
Florida. And the local law enforcement agency has the primary
responsibility at that point to make sure that things go right.
And they need help from time to time. But go right ahead.
Mr. Irving. Thank you. Again, Congressman, I appreciate all
of your time and attention to this. The committee has been so
supportive. And going back to the chair's comments and Mr.
Brady's comments, this committee has always been so responsive
and supportive. Usually, before we make an attempt to implement
a security measure which has a tendency of affecting the
business processes of the institution, I come to you first
because there is a fair chance your phone will ring if we have
done something to change a certain business process which has a
tendency of coming down on convenience or lack thereof.
Having said that, your door has always been open. I
appreciate all the time that you and have I spent together
talking over these issues. Because of your background, you know
all of these issues. And I appreciate your support of the
Capitol Police Board and the Capitol Police.
I do want to assure you that the Capitol Police Board is
conducting robust oversight of the Chief and of the Capitol
Police. They do a fantastic job each and every day. They have a
tough job. We hear some things every now and then in the press.
But, frankly, there are thousands of contacts with the public,
with Members each and every day, and they do a fantastic job.
And my hat's off to the men and women of the Capitol Police,
but more importantly, I thank you for your leadership, your
oversight, and your support.
And we will certainly continue to keep you posted as we
work all the issues that we addressed yesterday, certainly
things that have been out there. But, again, I want to thank
you for all of your support.
Mr. Nugent. I appreciate that.
And, Madam Chair, I am out of time, but I would hope that
we have a followup meeting with the Capitol Police, with
yourself, or with the Chief to see where they are in regards to
the things that we have talked about. And I know that the
Sergeant at Arms has talked about where are we at in regards
to, are those things getting fixed to our satisfaction? And I
know Mr. Brady feels the same way. I am not going to put words
in his mouth. But we want to know. And I think that is a fair
thing for us to do. And I appreciate your indulgence. Thank
you.
The Chairman. Thank you very much. Mr. Davis.
Mr. Davis. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
And I would like to associate myself with many of the
comments that my colleague Mr. Nugent mentioned about our
concerns. We had a great meeting with Mr. Irving just yesterday
and talked about many of these issues.
Thank you for your service. Thanks for what you are doing
to address some of these issues.
Thank you all for being a part of this great institution.
I come from a different perspective. I spent 16 years as a
district office staffer, so I have a vested interest in
district office issues. And I know many of the issues that each
of you address relate to district offices. And there are some
differences between district offices and what we see here in
D.C. And sometimes I think that the district offices and what
they have access to may be taken for granted because of the
access that we have on this campus to many different issues,
that security being one of them.
So I am glad, Mr. Irving, that there has been a focus on
district office security issues. And I look forward to working
with you with my perspective if there are any issues that you
think I can be helpful on in the future too.
One issue, I will start with you, Mr. Irving, and this
actually, unfortunately, relates back here. It is something you
mentioned in your testimony about the Garage Security
Enhancement Project. Would the completion of that project
require any different procedures for Members and staff in your
opinion?
Mr. Irving. There will be some changes. And I am working
very carefully with the committee and leadership on that. We
will be restricting, or the goal ultimately is to restrict the
number of access points so that everyone can undergo security
screening. So that will certainly require, you know, assistance
from the committee and leadership to get us to that point.
There will be some conveniences that will be dispensed
with. But I will say that we will do everything we can to
ensure that Members have access to the doors that they require.
We will probably be undergoing either a prox card or a
biometric type of entrance system so that Members can utilize
more doors. As you know, Members do not undergo magnetometer
screening whereas staff and visitors do. It will probably be a
very similar protocol. But the goal is for everyone to have
that 100 percent screening.
Mr. Davis. Thank you. You and I would agree that project is
critical.
Mr. Irving. Yes. And I appreciate so much the committee's
support on that project and mail hoods. And I could go on and
on on a lot of the initiatives that I have enumerated in my
testimony. This committee has been so supportive. So thank you.
And I know that we will have to work through some of the
details of that initiative because of the access point closures
and routings and what have you. But we will do our best to make
sure that the business process of the institution is not
affected.
Mr. Davis. Thank you. Thanks very much, Paul.
Mr. Cassidy, back to my district office issues. Obviously,
you know, you and I have talked about many different district
office issues. And I am happy to be someone that can offer a
different perspective on many of the issues. And I know that
one issue that we have worked on has been district office
connectivity. I can tell you firsthand the connectivity issues
at a district office are vastly different than what we can
experience here on this campus.
We have been very active as a committee and been concerned
with these connections. And I know there has been an initiative
that you have been working on and CAO has been working on. Can
you kind of give us an update on how that is going? Anything
the committee can do to be of assistance?
Mr. Cassidy. Certainly, Congressman. The Committee has
already been very helpful on this project.
The issue, in a nutshell, for those who aren't familiar
with it, is, how do we connect the computer systems in 800 or
900 district offices with the House network back here? For many
years now, we have done that by providing between Washington
and a Member's principal district office a high speed data link
called an MPLS circuit. And then, from the district, the main
district office to any other district offices that a Member may
have, they are responsible for providing that connection. But
the House connects the primary office back to here.
The challenge around that is that in the years since that
technical approach was adopted, the demand for data to move
back and forth through this pipeline, if you will, has exploded
as a result of video and social media and all of the things
with which the committee is familiar. With that in mind, what
we have been looking at is an alternative to the MPLS circuits
we use today, which have a maximum flow-through rate of 3
megabytes, if you will. We have been looking at something
called VPN, which is an Internet connectivity.
Mr. Davis. Which some offices use now.
Mr. Cassidy. Which many offices, most offices in fact, use
to connect their primary office to any satellite offices, and a
small number use to connect their D.C. offices to here. That is
a good news/bad news story. The good news in the first instance
is that it is a lot less expensive to use VPN than it is to use
MPLS. And, secondly, the VPN technology has a much higher
ceiling, if you will, on the amount and the speed with which
data can move back and forth.
But it also has a lower floor. So with the classic
traditional MPLS model we have been using, you get 3 megabytes;
you don't any get any more than that, and you don't get any
less.
With VPN, you get a much higher ceiling, but 3 isn't
guaranteed. And depending on the time of day, depending on the
makeup of the network in your district, the number of
customers, the demand and such, you may find slower speeds.
What we have done in the last several months, with the
strong support of this committee, is to begin connecting up
Members' primary district offices. We are up over 70 now. The
majority of those are freshmen, but they are not all freshmen.
Several members of this committee participated in a pilot
project around this. And we now have a fairly robust plan,
which we will share with the committee shortly, to take that
number up around 400. As it happens, there are a handful of
Members in certain parts of the country--the islands are a good
example of that, but there are actually some rural areas in
this country--where the current MPLS approach actually is the
best. So we are not going to mandate a move to VPN, but we are
going to facilitate a move to VPN, and we are going to do it as
quickly as we can possibly get it done.
We learned a lot in the pilot. And the staff of this
committee was an integral part of that process. We hope to put
those lessons learned to use. We may find out--we actually have
an RFP that was on the street recently, just closed, seeking
proposals to provide this service--we may find out we have got
some hybrid approaches that employ both of those technologies
in particular places, and so you get the best of both.
But we are going to work very closely with this committee
going forward, as we have up to this date, and try to make this
transition as expeditious as we can. But it is probably another
year or two before we get this thing rolled out to all of the
offices that want it. But we are moving--in fact, we are ahead
of schedule right now on that rollout.
Mr. Davis. Thank you.
My time has expired.
The Chairman. Mrs. Comstock.
Mrs. Comstock. Madam Chairman, I don't have any questions.
The Chairman. Okay.
Mr. Walker.
Mr. Walker. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
First of all, let me say thank you guys for being here.
Even Sergeant at Arms Mr. Irving coming by yesterday and taking
time to visit with us, I appreciate that. It meant a lot to us.
I want to go back and talk about the partnering agencies
from the Capitol Hill Police's perspective. Talk to me about
the confidence in our response with the other agencies that we
have taken in the aftermath of some of the drone stuff, some of
the gyrocopter stuff. Can you give me a little briefing and get
me caught up to speed as far as how you feel like you guys are
doing there?
Mr. Irving. Thank you, Congressman. We engaged our local,
Federal, State partners in law enforcement on all of these
issues. On the gyro issue in particular that you addressed,
there are a number of working groups, airspace security working
groups specifically, dealing with a number of Department of
Homeland Security agencies as well as military and Department
of Transportation, FAA, Secret Service. MPD is involved, and
Metro Transit. You have got the Park Police, Pentagon Force
Protection Agency. So there are a lot of local national capital
region law enforcement partners that are engaged with the
Capitol Police. The Chief enjoys a very good relationship with
all of those other chiefs.
And the Capitol Police Board, obviously, is attuned to all
of those meetings and monitors those meetings. So I will tell
that you there is considerable respect amongst all of the law
enforcement for each other, not only in the law enforcement,
domestic law enforcement perspective, policing perspective, but
also in the intelligence perspective, intelligence-sharing
perspective.
Mr. Walker. And I love to hear the relational side is good
and even working.
Let me talk specifically about the technical aspect. And I
believe I have got the date, if my memory serves me correctly,
is January 2014, there was a completely new system put in for
communications. We talked a little bit about the
interoperability of it. You can talk about specifically the
gyrocopter that day, but my larger concern is, is that
functional? Do we do tests or drills on that? Are we sure that
we have got an opportunity or really the potential to
communicate across the board going to a frequency, whatever it
is? Is there a plan in place that if there is, God forbid, a
situation that we are able to utilize that to the max?
Mr. Irving. Thank you, Congressman.
On the communication front, the new radio modernization
program has been working well, and is a tremendous success.
There is interoperability. As we have discussed,
interoperability is a combination of pre-event planning not
only, you know, before something happens, but also, you know,
merging that pre-event planning with the technology.
From a technological perspective, the new radio
modernization program can accomplish that. There is
interoperability amongst all of the law enforcement entities in
the national capital region. Training is always an issue in
terms of time and expense. Capitol Police is working toward
training with other law enforcement partners, though not as
much as we would like.
We can tell you, though, there is command level, there is
communication almost daily between the command center, Capitol
Police command center, Metro PD command centers, and the other
multi-agency coordinating centers in the national capital
region.
Mr. Walker. So if something was to happen this afternoon,
there would be a frequency or something that everybody is
instructed to go to. The Capitol Hill Police is talking to
agencies across the board. I mean, do we feel comfortable that
that particular plan is in place?
Mr. Irving. Yes, Congressman, very confident that, at the
command center level, absolutely.
Mr. Walker. Okay.
Before my time expires, I want to bring Mr. Cassidy in this
as well. A lot of times we are talking about the very physical
threats. I want to touch on cybersecurity for just a moment
there. Both of you guys can address this. It is a high priority
for this committee, obviously, as it is for others. And I just
want to talk about what are we taking proactive steps in
regards to cybersecurity, and how do we see that possibly
affecting us from this particular committee's perspective?
Mr. Cassidy. Congressman, as you know, and as all the
members of the committee know, we don't lack for high
priorities in the IT area here in the House. We have a number
of them. But there is no higher priority for us than
cybersecurity. This is a target-rich environment. You have got
10,000 or 11,000 Members and staff deployed in 800 or 900
locations around the country. We have lots of devices, lots of
programs, lots of systems, lots of flexibility that supports a
pretty decentralized working style, if you will, here in the
House.
The danger is that, on any given day, at any given minute,
any one of those people is likely clicking on something they
shouldn't click on. And so that is a big challenge. And so what
we have done to try to mitigate that, in addition to a number
of technical approaches around secure configuration management
and the like--
Mr. Walker. When you say they are clicking on something
they shouldn't be, obviously, we have a certain responsibility,
Members and our staff. Can you be a little more specific when
you say that that may put us a little more at risk?
Mr. Cassidy. Certainly. For example, sir, phishing
campaigns, which are known to all us, are campaigns in which
someone pretending to be someone that you know sends you an
email that looks just like you would expect an email to look
like from that individual or that organization and asks you or
offers to show you something, asks you to click on a link. If
you click on that link, you have immediately put the House at
risk.
And so we have technological approaches to deal with that,
but we also are working much harder in the last year or two on
the education side. As you recall, we stiffened our password
policies recently. We require longer passwords. You have to
change them more frequently. You can't keep flipping back and
forth between the last two or three passwords you have used,
which I have done most of my adult life. We now require you to
come up with truly new passwords.
We produce a publication called ``Connected and Secured''
that goes out every single month. It goes out every single
month trying to give people in the House suggestions around
safe social media practices, email practices, and the like.
Mr. Walker. I appreciate your work on that.
Thank you, panel.
Madam Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank the gentleman very much.
Are there any other questions from any of the members?
Well, I just want to, again, thank all of the House
officers for their participation today, their statements, and
the answering of questions. Obviously, you have a very engaged
Committee here with what is happening with the House officers.
I looked at this as an opportunity to really make sure that the
folks understood what this Speaker has done in appointing these
individuals and how he really is such an institutionalist and
believes in this institution and how we are all so committed in
our common goals to make sure that this House runs effectively,
efficiently, transparently, and safely in every way.
As we look at all of the different challenges that the
House faces, we look to all of you. Obviously, this Committee
wants to ensure that you have the resources that you need and
that we can help you in any way that we can to share our common
goal.
It looks like Mr. Cassidy would like it say one other thing
as well. I certainly recognize you to say something.
Mr. Cassidy. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
I just want to take a moment if I could, a moment of
privilege, if you will. Mention was made earlier about the work
done by all of our staffs. But not enough has been said about
the work done by your staffs. In particular, I want to point
out, as everyone up there knows, but maybe not everyone in the
room knows, our positions are thoroughly nonpartisan; our
organizations are thoroughly nonpartisan. We serve the House
equally. We work with this Committee equally.
There isn't anybody in this room today who has worked
harder or cared more or done more to facilitate our efforts in
the CAO, and I hope I speak for my colleagues, than Kyle
Anderson, the minority staff director of this committee. He has
recently announced his intention to move on. And I just wanted
to say personally how much I appreciate Kyle's contributions,
his advice, his counsel, and the effort he has undertaken to
help us do our jobs because, at the end of the of the day, our
jobs are really about helping all of you do your jobs. And Kyle
has been a terrific partner.
The Chairman. I appreciate you saying that. Kyle is going
to be missed. He is great. He really is. He is wonderful to
work with.
Mr. Brady. Now we need to get the double doors open so he
can get his head out.
The Chairman. All right. Well, we thank you all very, very
much for your appearance today.
I thank the Committee members as well for appearing.
And, with this, the hearing will be adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 3:26 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.]
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