[Senate Hearing 114-177]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2016
----------
THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2015
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met at 9:34 a.m., in room SD-124, Dirksen
Senate Office Building, Hon. Shelley Moore Capito (chairman)
presiding.
Present: Senators Capito and Schatz.
U.S. SENATE
Office of the Secretary
STATEMENT OF HON. JULIE E. ADAMS, SECRETARY OF THE
SENATE
ACCOMPANIED BY:
MARY SUIT JONES, ASSISTANT SECRETARY
ILEANA GARCIA, FINANCIAL CLERK
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO
Senator Capito. The subcommittee will come to order.
And I would like to welcome everyone to the second of our
fiscal year 2016 budget hearings for the various agencies under
the jurisdiction of the Legislative Branch Subcommittee of the
Appropriations Committee.
We have before us today the Secretary of the Senate, Julie
E. Adams. We have the Senate Sergeant at Arms, Frank Larkin,
and we have the Chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, Kim Dine.
Welcome to all of you.
I would like to start by welcoming, first of all, Julie
Adams and Frank Larkin, into their new positions in the Senate,
as they were just sworn in when we were sworn in--when I was
sworn in on January 6 of this year. And I hope you are settling
into your critical roles that you play with this historic
institution. I look forward to any initial assessments of your
office that you may be able to share with only 8 weeks on the
job.
And, of course, the subcommittee welcomes back the Chief
who, after a little over 2 years on the job, now has the most
seniority on the table.
Thank you for being here with us today for this important
discussion on how the agencies you represent are planning to
move forward in the next fiscal year.
I would also like to thank you for hosting the ranking
member and I both over at your headquarters, Chief, with the
Sergeant at Arms and then the Secretary of the Senate Office to
really see where you work, how you work, and meet a lot of the
folks that you work with. So I appreciate that. That is very
useful.
The Secretary of the Senate's office is requesting a total
of $34 million, which is $3 million, or 9 percent, above the
fiscal year 2015 enacted level. Of the total requested, $25
million is for salaries and benefits, which would maintain
current services at a full-time equivalent (FTE) of 225. The
request for the expenses is increased by $2.5 million above the
enacted level due to the modernization of the financial
management information system.
The Sergeant at Arms total request is $206 million, an
increase of approximately $8 million, or 4 percent, above the
fiscal year 2015 enacted level. The request includes $72
million for salaries and benefits, which would maintain the
current FTE of 892. The request for the expenses account is an
increase of $5.7 million over the enacted level of 2015. The
requested increases and offsets within the Sergeant at Arms
budget support the need for a major information technology
refresh of hardware and software and increased storage capacity
for members and committees and a constituent mail system
upgrade. There is a consistent theme here and it is called IT.
Finally, the Capitol Police request totals $379 million, an
increase of $31 million, or 9 percent, above the fiscal year
2015 enacted level. Of the funding requested, $307 million is
for salaries and benefits to maintain the current sworn officer
level of 1,775 and the current civilian staff of 370. The
request for the expense account is an increase of $10 million
above the 2015 level. This increase would restore full annual
funding to previous functions and existing needs that have been
put off in recent years due to significant budget constraints
such as lifecycle replacement of information technology
systems, equipment, and training.
I noticed a theme in all three of your budgets, which is
holding personnel flat and prioritizing funding increases for
the IT systems and equipment. I look forward to exploring these
needs with you and the other members of the subcommittee today
and over the next several months as we move through the fiscal
year 2016 process.
So I would like to turn this over to my ranking member,
Senator Schatz, for any opening remarks he would like to make.
STATEMENT OF SENATOR BRIAN SCHATZ
Senator Schatz. Thank you, Chair Capito.
And thank you, all of you, for being here for this hearing.
And I want to thank you, and I think it is fair to speak for
all members to thank all of you personally for making this
institution run so well. You are all institutionalists. You
keep us safe. You keep the place running. You make the Senate
the Senate, and we are all very, very appreciative of the work
that you do even as we conduct our oversight responsibilities.
It has already been a pleasure working with Chair Capito as
her ranking member, and I am looking forward to this
conversation.
Your three agencies work closely to make sure that the
Senate can operate safely, openly, and efficiently. They play a
critical role in assuring the continued operation of an open
and democratic Congress. The funding we provide to the Capitol
Police, the Sergeant at Arms, and the Secretary of the Senate
makes sure that the American people have safe and reliable
access to our buildings, our proceedings, and our records.
I look forward to examining your budgets closely today and
working with you throughout the year as we conduct ongoing
oversight. I would like to discuss how we can combat evolving
threats to our open Capitol campus, like drones that could be
used by criminals or terrorists and cyber attacks. I am also
interested to learn how the agencies testifying today may have
to adapt if the current Budget Control Act spending caps remain
in place.
Thanks very much.
Senator Capito. Thank you.
And now I would like to ask the witnesses, beginning with
Secretary Adams, to give a brief opening statement of
approximately 5 minutes. As you all know, the written testimony
of each witness will be printed in full in the hearing record.
Secretary Adams.
SUMMARY STATEMENT OF HON. JULIE E. ADAMS
Ms. Adams. Thank you, Chairman Capito and Senator Schatz,
for the opportunity to testify on behalf of the Office of the
Secretary and its dedicated employees.
I ask that my full statement, which includes our department
summaries, be submitted for the record.
Senator Capito. Without objection.
Ms. Adams. Thank you.
With me today are Mary Suit Jones, the Assistant Secretary,
and Ileana Garcia, the Financial Clerk, who have worked closely
with your subcommittee over the years. I am also joined by many
of our department heads.
Before turning to my formal remarks, I want to take a
moment to thank my predecessor, Nancy Erickson, Assistant
Secretary Sheila Dwyer, and other members of the executive team
for their assistance during my transition. Their graciousness
is a testament to the strength and traditions of the Office of
the Secretary.
Since taking the oath of office 2 months ago, I have had
the distinct privilege of meeting the staff that comprise the
26 departments of the Secretary's Office. It is a truly
remarkable group of people and one with whom I am honored to be
associated. Their institutional knowledge, devotion to public
service, and expertise serve the Senate well, and they provide
remarkable continuity in times of change.
In the last year, some department heads retired from the
Secretary's Office after dedicating nearly 130 years of
combined service to the Senate. Among them, Chris Doby, the
Financial Clerk, and Kathie Alvarez, the Legislative Clerk. The
Senate is a better place because of their many contributions. I
am proud that our departments continue to be led by seasoned
professionals who also have lengthy Senate service.
I would also like to note our strong and continuing
partnership with the Senate Sergeant at Arms. From continuity
programs to procurement, I am proud of our friendly and
collaborative working relationship.
Our budget request for fiscal year 2016 is $31,327,000. The
request includes $25,077,000 in salary costs and $6,250,000 for
the operating budget of the Office of the Secretary. The salary
budget represents an increase of $305,000 over the fiscal year
2015 budget as a result of the costs associated with the
potential cost-of-living adjustment. The operating budget of
the Office of the Secretary remains flat at $6.25 million, of
which $4.35 million is firewalled for the administration of the
Senate Information Services program. That was assumed by this
office in 2011 and has not changed.
In addition, I am requesting $2.5 million in no-year funds
to begin the modernization of the Senate Disbursing Office's
Financial Management Information System, also known as FMIS.
This is a 6-year phased project that will require additional
no-year funding requests. To promote transparency, I am
requesting that this funding be firewalled.
FMIS is a collection of financial applications used by
Senate offices to submit and pay bills, manage office funds,
and report to both internal and external agencies. It is used
by approximately 140 Senate offices and has over 4,000 users.
The current FMIS, implemented over 15 years ago in preparation
for Y2K, utilizes a complex architecture, increasingly
expensive mainframe technologies, and a variety of software
that may only be enhanced through costly and time-consuming
custom development. The first phase of the project will focus
on budget and reporting modernization. The majority of changes
will happen behind the scenes as improvements are made to the
FMIS infrastructure.
One piece of the budget modernization that Senate offices
will see is an improved module to perform payroll projections,
enabling offices to better forecast and plan their budgets.
This is something that I, as a former Senate administrative
director, would have greatly benefited from. So I hope office
managers will find it useful.
Throughout the process, user input will be important to
ensure that the modernized system fully meets the needs of the
Senate community, and I have stressed the importance of this to
my team. While the modernization project is underway, the
current FMIS platform will be maintained and operational.
FMIS is significant, but just one component of the office's
vast mission. Since 1789, the Office of the Secretary has
provided support to the Senate in three areas: legislative,
administrative, and financial. I would like to highlight some
of our staff's accomplishments in each area.
In December of last year, the Parliamentarian and the
Office of Web Technology debuted the electronic Senate
precedents database on Webster. The system currently contains
approximately 275 precedents from seven of the most frequently
used chapters of ``Riddick's Senate Procedure.'' This will
continue to be a big task as the parliamentarians make updates
and additions for the database.
The Senate Stationery Room continued working with Member
offices to establish accounts for the online flag ordering
system, using pay.gov. This is a convenient service that
Members can provide to their constituents interested in
purchasing American flags. Forty-three offices were using
pay.gov at the end of 2014, up from 13 offices a year ago, and
usage is expected to expand even further this year.
The Disbursing Office continues to move offices away from a
paper voucher submittal process to one where imaging and
electronic signatures are utilized. Forty-four offices were
using the technology at the end of last year, and more offices,
including new Member offices, will be included moving forward.
Implementation of the new technology has also led to a decrease
in the volume of paper and the time it takes for vouchers to be
approved.
The Historical Office commemorated the 50th anniversary of
the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Senate historians
developed an extensive multi-media exhibit on Senate.gov,
authored articles describing the Senate's role in the passage
of the landmark legislation, and presented specialized talks
and tours. The four public talks drew capacity crowds and the
final two discussions were broadcast by C-SPAN.
And finally, before the start of every new Congress, the
Secretary's Office is responsible for reviewing certificates of
election for compliance with Senate rules, and planning and
implementing an orientation for newly elected Members and their
designated staff. Last year's orientation lasted 3 days, and
Senators-elect and their spouses became familiar with the
Senate procedure and history, participated in question and
answer sessions with current Members, and were provided ethics
and security briefings.
I am honored to serve in this position, and I look forward
to working with you and your staff in the coming year. I
appreciate your support for the Office of the Secretary and
welcome any questions you may have. Thank you.
[The statement follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Julie E. Adams
BUDGET REQUEST
I would first like to thank the subcommittee for their ongoing
support of the Office of the Secretary of the Senate's budget and
mandated systems. I am requesting a fiscal year 2016 budget of
$31,327,000. The request includes $25,077,000 in salary costs and
$6,250,000 for the operating budget of the Office of the Secretary. The
salary budget represents an increase of $305,000 over the fiscal year
2015 budget as a result of the costs associated with a cost of living
adjustment. The operating budget of the Office of the Secretary remains
flat at $6,250,000, of which $4,350,000 is for the administration of
the Senate Information Services Program (SIS) that was assumed by this
office in 2011 and has not changed.
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY APPORTIONMENT SCHEDULE
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amount Budget
available estimates
Items fiscal year fiscal year Difference
2015 2016
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Departmental operating budget:
Executive office............................................ $500,000 $500,000 ..............
Administrative services..................................... 1,251,600 1,251,600 ..............
Senate Information Service (SIS)............................ 4,350,000 4,350,000 ..............
Legislative services........................................ 148,400 148,400 ..............
-----------------------------------------------
Total operating budget.................................... 6,250,000 6,250,000 ..............
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In addition, I am requesting $2.5 million in no year funds for the
modernization of one of the critical Senate systems, the Financial
Management Information System (FMIS). This is a 6-year phased project
that will require additional no year funding requests.
PROJECT REQUEST
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fiscal year Fiscal year
Item 2015 2016 Difference
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FMIS Modernization Project...................................... .............. $2,500,000 $2,500,000
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
financial management information system (fmis) modernization project
The Financial Management Information System (FMIS) is used by
approximately 140 Senate offices and has over 4,000 active users. FMIS
is a collection of financial applications used by Senate offices to
submit and pay bills, manage office funds, and report to both internal
offices and external agencies. The current FMIS, implemented over 15
years ago, utilizes a complex architecture, increasingly expensive
mainframe technologies, and a variety of software that may only be
enhanced through costly and time consuming custom development.
During 2014, the Disbursing Office updated FMIS applications to the
extent possible. However, these efforts are quickly being outpaced by
newer versions of operating systems, browsers and other end user
software, which are not compatible with current FMIS applications. The
Disbursing Office has planned an FMIS Modernization Project that will:
--Improve financial system supportability and flexibility;
--Address business requirements not met by the existing system; and
--Continue to bring the Senate closer to realizing its vision of an
integrated, auditable, paperless financial system.
The first phase of the FMIS modernization, scheduled to begin in
fiscal year 2016, includes two major steps:
--Budget Modernization.--This step will replace multiple budget
applications and manual processes with a single Senate-wide
modern budget application used by many Federal agencies. Also,
it includes the replacement of one of the existing payroll
modules, which is used to perform payroll projections and which
is expected to retire in April 2018.
--Reporting Modernization.--This step will streamline and transition
financial reports to a consolidated data warehouse to include
minimizing end user impacts during the FMIS modernization.
The FMIS modernization project is a major endeavor for the Office
of the Secretary of the Senate. For fiscal year 2016, a total of $2.5
million in no year funding is requested to initiate the first two steps
in the FMIS modernization project. The flexibility provided by no year
funding is important to the success of the modernization project due to
its complexity, and the unique Senate technical environment and
business requirements. In addition, no year funding provides greater
flexibility for contracting options. Further, unobligated funds can be
utilized to offset any further funding requests. To promote
transparency in the FMIS Project, the requested funding will be fire-
walled from the office's operating budget.
The Disbursing Office's business case outlines the full scope of
the FMIS Modernization Project. The major phases and timeline of the
proposed modernization effort are outlined in the table that follows:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Modernization Approach
Date Business Area and Rationale
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fiscal year 2016-2017....... Budget......... Replace multiple existing
budget applications and
manual processes with a
commercial software
package widely used by
Federal Agencies to:
--Allow for more
efficient and effective
budget planning and
budget execution
tracking;
--Enable what-if
budget analyses at the
Senate and individual
office levels; and
--Facilitate direct
integration between the
payroll and financial
system.
Fiscal year 2016-2021....... Reporting...... Streamline and modernize
the reporting
infrastructure to
prepare for and minimize
impacts of the financial
system modernization,
and:
--Reduce the volume of
reporting data;
--Eliminate unused and
redundant reports;
--Consolidate
numerous, disparate
report processes;
--Ensure the
consistency and accuracy
of historic data; and
--Provide greater
flexibility for users to
customize the data they
view and receive.
Fiscal year 2017-2018....... Accounting..... Replace the mainframe-
based general ledger
system with a commercial
software package, which
will:
--Allow the Senate to
retire the expensive and
increasingly difficult
to support mainframe
hardware and software;
--Implement a modern
general ledger which is
consistent with all
current Federal
financial standards and
reporting requirements;
and
--Enhance the Senate's
ability to maintain the
core component of the
financial system and the
source of the statutory
semi-annual Report of
the Secretary of the
Senate.
Fiscal year 2018-2019....... Procurement to Replace the highly
Payment. customized procurement
to payment applications
with commercial
software, where
possible, subject to a
thorough alternatives
analysis. This will
allow the Senate to:
--Continue to meet
unique Senate business
needs while also
addressing a number of
business requirements
not currently met by the
existing applications;
--Enhance the Senate's
ability to administer
and support financial
system applications;
--Enable more rapid
deployment of user-
requested changes; and
--Facilitate tighter
integration of all
procurement to payment
applications to enhance
Senate financial
statement production.
Fiscal year 2019............ Data Sharing... Automate interfaces with
outside Agencies, such
as the U.S. Treasury,
to:
--Reduce errors in
Senate reporting; and
--Eliminate the manual
effort required to
support daily and
monthly external
reporting.
Fiscal year 2019-2021....... Asset Replace the existing
Management. Asset Management
application with a
commercial software
module that will:
--Enable direct
integration with
financial system; and
--Eliminate redundant
processes and data,
increasing the
efficiency and accuracy
of the Senate's asset
tracking.
Fiscal year 2019-2021....... Archival Tools. Implement data archival
tools to:
--Reduce the costs and
potential application
performance issues
associated with
maintaining large
volumes of financial
data; and
--Ensure that all
relevant data is
archived together and
may be restored together
as needed to support
Senate financial
operations
------------------------------------------------------------------------
In addition to the $2.5 million funding requested for fiscal year
2016, the table below outlines the additional funding required for
software and implementation services for this project.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Funding 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Total
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Implementation/Acquisition.............................. 2.5M 4M 3.5M 3M 2.5M 2.5M 18M
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Because of the scope and complexity of this project and best
practices for system implementations, an FMIS Project Office within the
Office of the Secretary will be established to oversee and manage the
effort to ensure the project remains on schedule and within the budget
established for the project.
The FMIS Project Office will work in collaboration with Sergeant at
Arms (SAA) functional and technical staff, as well as representatives
from FMIS stakeholder groups, including Member Offices, Committees, the
Committee on Rules and Administration audit staff, and Disbursing
Accounts Payable and Accounting staff, throughout the modernization
effort to ensure financial applications are supportable and
maintainable in both the near and long term. This will ensure that the
modernized system fully meets Senate user requirements throughout the
implementation period, and that end user impacts are minimized.
implementing mandated systems
Two systems critical to our operation are mandated by law, the
Financial Management Information System (FMIS) and the Legislative
Information System (LIS), and I would like to spend a few moments on
each to highlight recent progress.
Update on current status of Financial Management Information System
(FMIS)
During calendar year 2014, Disbursing implemented the following
releases:
--FMIS 13.3, April 2014: Modernized office, SAA, Committee on Rules
and Administration audit staff, and Disbursing document
inboxes, moving functionality from an outdated legacy framework
to a standardized framework, correcting over 85 user reported
defects related to these functions, and implemented imaging
support for additional document types including invoices and
Expense Summary Reports (ESRs); and
--FMIS 13.3.1 through FMIS 13.3.3, May-November 2014: Implemented
performance enhancements, and defect corrections to support
imaging and new versions of Oracle's java client to facilitate
continued Senate-wide rollout of paperless workflow.
In addition, work continued related to document imaging and
electronic signatures in FMIS, in the following phases:
--Phase 1: Imaging-only pilot (completed in 2011);
--Phase 2: Office imaging and signatures pilot (completed in 2012);
full rollout beginning with new offices (completed rollout to
44 offices, Committee on Rules and Administration audit staff,
and Disbursing's accounts payable and accounting staff through
2014); and
--Phase 3: Planning and development to support imaging and signatures
for SAA and staffer users, including:
--Imaging to support invoices and associated vouchers for SAA and
the Secretary (completed development in 2014; pilot planned
for the Fall of 2015); and
--Imaging to support staffers creating ESRs (completed development
in 2014; pilot planned for the Summer of 2015).
In October 2014, we implemented FMIS changes to support in-house
printing of payroll checks to meet Disbursing requirements not met by
Treasury and to standardize Senate payment processing procedures.
During 2014, the Disbursing Office continued to work with the SAA
to extend the life of existing FMIS applications to ensure ongoing
support of Senate business processes. This included upgrades to the
WebSphere application server to support WebFMIS and digital signing
applications and eliminating or repurposing underutilized regions in
the mainframe to streamline support and associated costs.
During the remainder of fiscal year 2015 and beyond, the following
FMIS activities are anticipated:
--Imaging and digital signatures.--Continue with Senate-wide rollout
of imaging and digital signatures for the remaining Member
Offices and Committees;
--Implement two FMIS Releases--
--FMIS 14.1 (planned for the Summer of 2015).--Modernization of
voucher creation and review functions used by Member
Offices, Committees, Leadership, the Office of the
Secretary of the Senate, SAA, Committee on Rules and
Administration, and Disbursing to address user requested
changes, enhance supportability and ensure compatibility
with modern browsers; and
--FMIS 14.2 (planned for the Winter of 2015).--Modernization of
additional document types, such as requisitions, purchase
orders, invoices and receiving reports used by the Office
of the Secretary of the Senate and the SAA to address user
requested changes, enhance supportability and ensure
compatibility with modern browsers;
--Treasury reporting requirement.--Implement required changes to
support Treasury Account Symbol (TAS) and Business Event Type
Code (BETC) reporting;
--Senate Payroll System (SPS).--Continue to work with the SAA
technical staff and SPS Contracting Office Technical
Representative (COTR) on the implementation of a self-service
pilot and upgrade PeopleSoft to version 9.2; and
--Disaster recovery.--Conduct a multi-day test of FMIS failover and
failback.
We continue to prioritize requirements to extend the life of
existing FMIS applications and their platforms to allow time to
implement FMIS modernization in phases.
Update on current status of Legislative Information System (LIS)
Project
The Legislative Information System (LIS) is a mandated system (2
U.S.C. 6577) that provides desktop access to the content and status of
legislative information and supporting documents. In addition, pursuant
to 2 U.S.C. 181, a program was established to provide for the widest
possible exchange of information among legislative branch agencies. The
long-range goal of the LIS Project is to provide a ``comprehensive
Senate Legislative Information System" to capture, store, manage, and
distribute Senate documents. The project is currently focused on a
Senate-wide implementation and transition to a standard system for the
authoring and exchange of legislative documents that will greatly
enhance the availability and re-use of legislative documents within the
Senate and with other legislative branch agencies.
Extensible Markup Language (XML) has been accepted as the primary
data standard to be used for the exchange of legislative documents and
information. Following the implementation of the LIS, the LIS Project
Office shifted its focus to the data standards program and established
the LIS Augmentation Project (LISAP). The overarching goal of the LISAP
is to provide a Senate-wide implementation and transition to XML for
the authoring and exchange of legislative documents.
The LIS Project Office continued to provide support to the Office
of the Senate Legislative Counsel (SLC); the Committee on
Appropriations; the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation;
and the Senate Enrolling Clerk in their use of the XML authoring
application, Legislative Editing in XML Application (LEXA) for
drafting, engrossing, and enrolling. With the addition of the Commerce
Committee drafters, all Senate measures in the 113th Congress were
produced in XML. In addition, the Government Publishing Office (GPO)
uses LEXA to complete measures for printing. Several new features and
fixes were added in LEXA releases to improve the drafting process.
The LIS Project Office has been working with staff from GPO and the
Legislative Computer Systems (LCS) in the Office of the House Clerk to
create and print committee reports in XML. This office released a LEXA
committee report application to the Commerce Committee in 2013, and the
committee drafters were able to create several sections of their
committee reports using the LEXA application. In 2014, additional LEXA
enhancements allowed the committee drafters to create almost all
committee report sections in XML by using direct input, copy/paste from
Word documents, and copy/paste from Lexis/Nexis. The office will next
work with the editorial and printing staff of the Committee on
Appropriations to begin creating committee reports in XML.
Other enhancements to LEXA in the past year included new features
for drafting amendments, improvements in drafting and printing for the
Appropriations Committee, and new templates for the Enrolling Clerk.
Two other group projects with GPO and LCS include participants from
the Law Revision Counsel and the Senate and House Legislative Counsels.
The first project with the Law Revision Counsel will result in
applications to convert and maintain the U.S. Code in an XML format.
The second project with the Legislative Counsels continues work toward
the editing and printing of the compilations of existing law in their
XML format. As of early December 2014, all compilations are now edited
and maintained in XML. Printing of XML compilations continues to
improve.
The LIS Project Office is also monitoring and participating in
GPO's project to replace Microcomp with a new composition system that
can directly ingest XML data without having to convert it to another
format before printing.
The LIS Project Office will continue to support all Senate offices
using LEXA and will continue to work with the House, GPO, and the
Library of Congress on projects and issues that impact the legislative
process and data standards for exchange. The office will continue to
produce enhancements to LEXA and to seek out new technologies to
improve the production of legislative documents.
LEGISLATIVE SERVICES
The Legislative operations of the Office of the Secretary of the
Senate provide support essential to Senators in carrying out their
daily Chamber activities as well as the constitutional responsibilities
of the Senate. Legislative Services consists of the following
departments: Bill Clerk, Captioning Services, Daily Digest, Enrolling
Clerk, Executive Clerk, Journal Clerk, Legislative Clerk, Official
Reporters of Debates and Parliamentarian. The average length of Senate
service among the Secretary's Legislative Department heads is more than
20 years.
The Secretary's Office maintains an exceptionally good working
relationship with the Government Publishing Office (GPO) and seeks to
provide the best service possible to meet the needs of the Senate. GPO
continues to respond in a timely manner to the Secretary's request,
through the Legislative staff, for the printing of bills and reports,
including the expedited printing of priority matters for the Senate
Chamber.
bill clerk
The Office of the Bill Clerk collects and records data on the
legislative activity of the Senate, which becomes the historical record
of official Senate business. The Bill Clerk's Office keeps this
information in its handwritten files and ledgers and also enters it
into the Senate's automated retrieval system so that it is available to
all House and Senate offices via the Legislative Information System
(LIS) and the Amendment Tracking System (ATS). The Bill Clerk records
actions of the Senate with regard to bills, resolutions, reports,
amendments, cosponsors, public law numbers, and recorded votes. The
Bill Clerk is responsible for preparing for print all measures
introduced, received, submitted, and reported in the Senate. The Bill
Clerk also assigns numbers to all Senate bills and resolutions. All the
information received in this office comes directly from the Senate
floor in written form within moments of the action involved, so the
Bill Clerk's Office is generally regarded as the most timely and most
accurate source of legislative information.
captioning services
The Office of Captioning Services provides real-time captioning of
Senate floor proceedings for the deaf and hard-of-hearing and
unofficial electronic transcripts of Senate Floor proceedings to Senate
offices on Webster.
Captioning Services strives to provide the highest quality closed
captions and is comprised of seasoned and respected captioners. The
overall accuracy average rate for the Office is above 99 percent, the
21st year in a row the Office has achieved that level. Overall caption
quality is monitored through daily translation data reports, monitoring
of captions in real-time, and review of caption files on Webster. In an
effort to decrease paper consumption and printing costs, accuracy
reviews and reports were primarily completed in electronic form.
The real-time searchable Closed Caption Log, available to Senate
offices on Webster, continues to be an invaluable tool for the entire
Senate community. Legislative Floor staff, Cloakroom staff, and member
offices in particular continue to depend upon its availability,
reliability, and contents to help them in the performance of their
everyday duties. In conjunction with the Senate Recording Studio, a
complete overhaul of the Caption Log was designed in 2012-2013. Roll-
out of this new digital version occurred in 2014 and is available
through the Senate Recording Studio VideoVault Browser. In addition,
Captioning Services purchased new hardware, which increased the
efficiency of the office.
daily digest
The Office of the Daily Digest is responsible for publication of a
brief, concise and easy-to-read accounting of all official actions
taken by the Senate in the Congressional Record section known as the
Daily Digest. The Office compiles an accounting of all meetings of
Senate committees, subcommittees, joint committees and committees of
conference.
The Office enters all Senate and Joint committee scheduling data
into the Senate's Web-based scheduling application system. Committee
scheduling information is also prepared for publication in the Daily
Digest in three formats: Day-Ahead Schedule; Congressional Program for
the Week Ahead; and the extended schedule which actually appears in the
Extensions of Remarks section of the Congressional Record. The office
also enters all official actions taken by Senate committees on
legislation, nominations, and treaties into LIS.
The Office publishes a listing of all legislation which has become
public law, as well as a ``Resume of Congressional Activity'' which
includes all Congressional statistical information, including days and
time in session; measures introduced, reported and passed; and roll
call votes. The ``Resume'' is published on the first legislative day of
each month in the Daily Digest.
All hearings and business meetings (including joint meetings and
conferences) are scheduled through the Office of the Daily Digest and
are published in the Congressional Record, on the Digest's Web site on
Senate.gov, and in LIS. Meeting outcomes are also published by the
Daily Digest in the Congressional Record each day and continuously
updated on the Web site.
The Office of the Daily Digest publishes a ``20-Year Comparison of
Senate Legislative Activity'' which can be found at: http://
www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/yearlycomparison.pdf.
enrolling clerk
The Office of the Enrolling Clerk prepares, proofreads, corrects,
inputs amendments and prints all legislation passed by the Senate prior
to its transmittal to the House of Representatives, the National
Archives, the White House, the United States Claims Court, and the
Secretary of State. Electronic files of all measures engrossed and
enrolled in the Senate are transmitted daily by the enrolling clerks to
GPO for overnight distribution and public Web access.
The Enrolling Clerk's Office keeps the original official copies of
bills, resolutions, and appointments from the Senate Floor through the
end of each Congress.
executive clerk
The Executive Clerk prepares an accurate record of actions taken by
the Senate during executive sessions (proceedings on nominations and
treaties) which is published as the Journal of the Executive
Proceedings of the Senate at the end of each session of Congress. The
Executive Clerk also prepares the daily Executive Calendar as well as
all nomination and treaty resolutions for transmittal to the President.
Additionally, the Executive Clerk's Office processes all executive
communications, presidential messages, and petitions and memorials.
The online historical archive of Senate Executive Calendars was
completed, with all available issues from 1943 to the present now
digitized and made publicly available on Senate.gov through the
collaborative efforts of the Executive Clerk, the Library, the Office
of Web Technology, and the LIS Project Office.
A nightly report of executive nominations was developed and
automated by Web Technology in conjunction with staff from member
offices and the SAA. This included mapping individual nominations with
their assigned calendar numbers. Previously, this information was
unavailable in a machine readable format. The new report provides a
user friendly and machine readable version in Extensible Markup
Language (XML) that is updated nightly.
journal clerk
The Journal Clerk takes notes of the daily legislative proceedings
of the Senate in the ``Minute Book'' and prepares a history of bills
and resolutions for the printed Journal of the Proceedings of the
Senate, or Senate Journal, as required by Article I, Section V of the
Constitution. The content of the Senate Journal is governed by Senate
rule IV, and is approved by the Senate on a daily basis. The Senate
Journal is published each calendar year.
The Journal staff take 90-minute turns at the rostrum in the Senate
Chamber, noting the following by hand for inclusion in the Minute Book:
(i) all orders entered into by the Senate through unanimous consent
agreements, (ii) legislative messages received from the President of
the United States, (iii) messages from the House of Representatives,
(iv) legislative actions as taken by the Senate including motions made
by Senators, points of order raised, and roll call votes taken, (v)
amendments submitted and proposed for consideration, (vi) bills and
joint resolutions introduced, and (vii) concurrent and Senate
resolutions as submitted. These notes of the proceedings are then
compiled in electronic form for eventual publication of the Senate
Journal. Compilation is efficiently accomplished through utilization of
the LIS Senate Journal Authoring System. The Journal Clerk completed
the production of the 2013 volume of the Senate Journal in 2014. It is
anticipated that work on the 2014 volume will conclude by August 2015.
legislative clerk
The Legislative Clerk sits at the Secretary's desk in the Senate
Chamber and reads aloud bills, amendments, the Senate Journal,
presidential messages, and other such materials when so directed by the
presiding officer of the Senate. The Legislative Clerk calls the roll
of members to establish the presence of a quorum and to record and
tally all yea and nay votes. The office staff prepares the Senate
Calendar of Business, published each day that the Senate is in session,
and prepares additional publications relating to Senate class
membership and committee and subcommittee assignments. The Legislative
Clerk maintains the official copy of all measures pending before the
Senate and must incorporate into those measures any amendments that are
agreed to. This office retains custody of official messages received
from the House of Representatives and conference reports awaiting
action by the Senate. The office staff is responsible for verifying the
accuracy of information entered into LIS by the various offices of the
Secretary.
During the second session, the Legislative Clerk requested GPO to
make available online Senate publications produced by the legislative
staff. The publications include the Committee and Subcommittee
Assignments of Senators and the Class List prepared and printed by the
Legislative Clerk and the Senate Journal prepared and printed by the
Journal Clerk. These publications are also now available on Webster.
official reporters of debates
The Office of the Official Reporters of Debates is responsible for
the stenographic reporting, transcribing, and editing of the Senate
Floor proceedings for publication in the Congressional Record. The
Chief Reporter acts as the editor-in-chief and oversees the production
of the Senate portion of the Congressional Record to ensure its
accuracy and consistency to Senate parliamentary rules and procedures.
When the Senate is in session, the electronic and paper transcripts
of the Floor proceedings of the Senate begin to go to GPO in the early
evening, and the last delivery occurs approximately 3 hours after the
Senate adjourns or recesses for the day. The Congressional Record is
published in paperback form and online, and is available to the public
on the next business day.
In 2014, the Office purchased new software for the official
reporters and expert transcribers and new steno writers for the
reporters in the Office, which has increased the Office's efficiency in
the production of the Congressional Record.
The Morning Business Editor sits in the Chamber, recording daily
Floor activity of the Senate for the Official Reporters of Debates. The
work includes compiling all materials printed in the Morning Business
section of the Congressional Record.
parliamentarian
The Office of the Parliamentarian continues to perform its
essential institutional responsibilities to act as a neutral arbiter
among all parties with an interest in the legislative process. These
responsibilities include advising the Chair and Senators and their
staff, as well as committee staff, House members and their staffs,
administration officials, the media, and members of the general public,
on all matters requiring an interpretation of the Standing Rules of the
Senate, the precedents of the Senate, and unanimous consent agreements,
as well as provisions of public law affecting the proceedings of the
Senate.
The parliamentarians work in close cooperation with the Senate
leadership and their Floor staffs in coordinating all of the business
on the Senate Floor. A parliamentarian is always present on the Senate
Floor when the Senate is in session, ready to assist the Presiding
Officer in their official duties, as well as to assist any other
Senator on procedural matters. The parliamentarians work closely with
the staff of the Vice President of the United States and the Vice
President when performing duties as President of the Senate.
The parliamentarians monitor all proceedings on the Floor of the
Senate, advise the Presiding Officer on the competing rights of the
Senators on the Floor, and advise all Senators as to what is
appropriate in debate. The parliamentarians keep track of time on the
Senate Floor when time is limited or controlled under the provisions of
time agreements, statutes, or standing orders. The parliamentarians
keep track of amendments offered to the legislation pending on the
Senate Floor, assess them for germaneness and other possible points of
order, and review countless other amendments that are never offered in
the same regard.
The Office of the Parliamentarian is responsible for the referral
to the appropriate committees all legislation introduced in the Senate
and all legislation received from the House, as well as all
communications received from the executive branch, State and local
governments, and private citizens. In order to perform this
responsibility, the parliamentarians do extensive legal and legislative
research. The office worked extensively with Senators and their staffs
to advise them of the jurisdictional consequences of countless drafts
of legislation, and evaluated the jurisdictional effect of proposed
modifications in drafting.
Following the Senate elections in 2014, the Parliamentarian's
Office was heavily involved in the review of certificates of election
and appointment for Senators in the class of 2015.
In December of 2014, the parliamentarians debuted the Electronic
Senate Precedents database, which can be found on Webster. This system
currently contains approximately 275 precedents from 7 of the most
frequently used chapters of Riddick's Senate Procedure. Those chapters
are: Amendments Between the Houses, Appropriations, Cloture,
Conferences and Conference Reports, Recommit, Reconsideration and
Suspension. The precedents on the database augment and update the
material found in Riddick's, which was published 23 years ago. The
existing chapters will be added to from time to time to keep the
material current, and new chapters will be added as updates are
completed by the parliamentarians. This new Web site is the result of a
great deal of research, writing, and editing on the part of the
Parliamentarian's Office in conjunction with Office of Web Technology.
FINANCIAL OPERATIONS
disbursing office
The mission of the Senate Disbursing Office is to provide efficient
and effective central financial and human resource data management,
information, and advice to the offices, members, and employees of the
Senate. The Disbursing Office manages the collection of information
from distributed accounting locations within the Senate to formulate
and consolidate the agency level budget, disburse the payroll, pay the
Senate's bills, and provide appropriate counseling and advice. The
Disbursing Office collects information from members and employees that
is necessary to maintain and administer the retirement, health
insurance, life insurance, and other central human resource programs,
and provides responsive, personal attention to members and employees on
an unbiased and confidential basis. The Disbursing Office also manages
the distribution of central financial and human resource information to
the individual member offices, committees, administrative offices, and
leadership offices in the Senate while maintaining the confidentiality
of information for members and Senate employees.
This past year the Disbursing Office continued to work on several
projects that required a significant level of staff resources and
presented challenges. Among these projects were: (1) the testing of
system changes to the Senate Payroll System (SPS) due to the
implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the fixes to the final
pay period of 2013, and a retroactive COLA payment adjustment, (2)
moving the printing of the payroll checks in-house and (3) visiting
several Federal agencies to develop the Senate's FMIS modernization
project. In addition, Disbursing implemented the legislative change of
extending health benefits coverage to certain temporary excluded
employees and we continue to work with Sergeant at Arms (SAA) staff on
the implementation of a self-service pilot and the planning of an
upgrade.
In addition, the Disbursing Office is responsible for the
compilation of the annual operating budget of the United States Senate
for presentation to the Committee on Appropriations and for the
formulation, presentation, and execution of the budget for the Senate.
On a semiannual basis, this group is also responsible for the
compilation, validation, and completion of the Report of the Secretary
of the Senate. The Report continues to be issued electronically,
concurrent with the printed version.
ADMINISTRATIVE AND EXECUTIVE OPERATIONS
senate chief counsel for employment
The Office of the Senate Chief Counsel for Employment (SCCE) is a
non-partisan office established at the direction of the Joint
Leadership in 1993 after enactment of the Government Employee Rights
Act, which allowed Senate employees to file claims of employment
discrimination against Senate offices. With the enactment of the
Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 (CAA), as amended, Senate
offices became subject to the requirements, responsibilities and
obligations of 12 employment laws. The CAA also established the Office
of Compliance (OOC). Among other things, the OOC accepts and processes
legislative employees' complaints that their employer has violated the
CAA.
The SCCE is charged with the legal defense of Senate offices in all
employment law cases at both the administrative and court levels. The
SCCE attorneys also provide legal advice to Senate offices about their
obligations under employment laws. Accordingly, each of the clients of
the Senate is an individual client of the SCCE, and each office
maintains an attorney-client relationship with the SCCE.
The areas of responsibilities of the SCCE can be divided into the
following categories: litigation (defending Senate offices in courts
and at administrative hearings); mediations to resolve potential
lawsuits; court-ordered alternative dispute resolutions; Occupational
Safety and Health Act compliance; union drives, negotiations, and
unfair labor practice charges; Americans with Disabilities Act
compliance; layoffs and office closings in compliance with the law;
management training regarding legal responsibilities and employee
rights; employee and intern training regarding prohibited harassment,
including sexual harassment; and preventative legal advice.
conservation and preservation
The Office of Conservation and Preservation develops and
coordinates programs directly related to the conservation and
preservation of Senate records and materials for which the Secretary of
the Senate has statutory and other authority. Initiatives include
deacidification of paper and prints, phased conservation for books and
documents, replacement of Congressional Serial Set maps (the Serial Set
contains all House and Senate documents and reports), collection
surveys, exhibits, and matting and framing for Senate leadership.
The Office of Conservation and Preservation continues to
participate in book repair training sessions and has made significant
progress in the preservation of the Library's bound book collection.
The training program preserves the bound materials in the Library's
collections and reduces the need for the Library to contract support
for bookbinding and repair.
curator
The Office of the Senate Curator, on behalf of the Senate
Commission on Art, develops and implements the museum and preservation
programs for the Senate.The Curator collects, preserves, and interprets
the Senate's fine and decorative arts, historic objects, and specific
architectural features; and the Curator exercises supervisory
responsibility for the historic chambers in the Capitol under the
jurisdiction of the Commission.Through exhibitions, publications, and
other programs, the Curator educates the public about the Senate and
its collections.
In keeping with scheduled procedures, all Senate collection objects
were inventoried in 2014, noting any changes in location in the
database. As directed by S. Res. 178 (108th Congress, 1st session), the
Curator submitted a list of the art and historic furnishings in the
Senate to the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. The list,
known as the Historic Furnishings Inventory, documents the history of
acquisition, use, and manufacture for each object. Items on the
inventory list are prohibited from removal or purchase. The inventory,
which is submitted every 6 months, is compiled by the Curator with
assistance from the Senate Sergeant at Arms (SAA) and the Architect of
the Capitol's (AOC) Superintendent of Senate Office Buildings.
The office continues to advance the preservation and documentation
of the historic Russell Senate Office Building furnishings by
conducting a yearly inspection of the use and location of the remaining
63 flat-top partner desks, and through educational initiatives aimed at
informing Senate staff about the history of the furnishings.
The Curator continued to maintain and interpret the Old Senate and
Old Supreme Court Chambers and coordinated use of both rooms for
special occasions.The Curator is presently developing a plan for
repairs and restoration in the Old Supreme Court Chamber and is
conducting extensive primary source research into the original
construction, configuration, and decoration of the room.
Sixty objects were accessioned into the Senate Collection this
year. A number of the items catalogued include objects used by the
Senate in the course of conducting its legislative business, such as a
pen set used by the Presiding Officer in the Senate Chamber. The most
significant addition to the collection this year was the gift of an oil
sketch executed by Constantino Brumidi. The oil sketch was created in
ca. 1872 in preparation for a mural in the Senate Reception Room's
south wall lunette. It depicts President George Washington with cabinet
members Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.
In 2014, the Curator published To Make Beautiful the Capitol:
Rediscovering the Art of Constantino Brumidi. The publication features
scholarship made possible by fresh examination of Brumidi's restored
murals and by a closer study of preliminary sketches recently added to
the Senate collection.
The Curator installed a new exhibit outside the Dirksen SDG-50
Hearing Room, in conjunction with the Senate Library and Senate
Historical Office. The exhibit, which highlights the Senate's role in
the Civil Rights Act of 1964, was installed in showcases built into the
walls of the room's vestibule.
The Curator's Office reduced costs this year by having staff pack
items for shipping, when possible, instead of hiring professional art
handlers. This included paintings and small sculptures on loan and
retrofitting crates for reuse. The office was also able to consolidate
several shipments with professional art handlers, for more economical
shipping/transportation rates and lowered the overall transportation
and fuel costs billed to the Office of Senate Curator.
education and training
The Joint Office of Education and Training provides development and
training for Senate members, committees and staff in Washington, DC,
and the State offices via video teleconferencing and Webinars. The
office provides training in areas such as management and leadership
development, human resources management, legislative and staff
information, new staff and intern orientation, and health promotion.
The office also provides much of the training for approved software and
equipment used at the Senate. Technical offerings include System
Administration, MS Office Suite, Photoshop and digital photography, and
Senate specific applications training.
The office partners with other training providers, both inside and
outside of the legislative branch, to ensure Senate staff have the
skills they need to perform their jobs. In 2014, these partnerships
included the Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service,
Senate Library, Government Accountability Office, Capitol.net, the
Office of Protective Services and Continuity, Senate Historian Office,
Office of Attending Physician, Employee Assistant Program, Chief
Counsel on Employment, Office of Congressional Accessibility, SAA Human
Resources, Senate Disbursing Office, Senate Ethics Committee, and
others.
The office also coordinates orientation for the Aides to the
Senators-elect and new office Administrative Directors training after
every election. This post-election orientation consists of multiple
sessions. After swearing-in, there are additional sessions for the
office management.
In 2014, two State training conferences were held: the Constituent
Services Staff Conference and the State Directors Forum.
gift shop
Since its establishment in 1992 (2 U.S.C. 6576), the Gift Shop
serves Senators and their spouses, staff, constituents, and the many
visitors to the U.S. Capitol complex. The products available include a
wide range of fine gift items, collectables, and souvenirs, many
created exclusively for the Senate.
In addition to providing products and services from two physical
locations, the Gift Shop has an online presence on Webster. The Capitol
kiosk temporarily closed at the end of January 2013 to accommodate
continued restoration of the Brumidi Corridors. Along with offering
over-the-counter and walk-in sales, as well as limited intranet
services, the Gift Shop administrative office provides mail order
service as well as special order and catalogue sales.
Consistent with past practice, a transfer of $40,000 to the Senate
Employees Child Care Center was made based on the annual sales of the
Congressional Holiday Ornament (see 2 U.S.C. 6576(c)(3)).
A new shared position, Inventory Control/System Specialist, was
created to assist with IT matters for both the Stationery Room and the
Gift Shop. While inventory and accounting are maintained separately by
the Gift Shop and the Stationery Room, the software architecture is the
same. This position was instrumental for the smooth and successful
installation of upgrades to the inventory and accounting software. The
inventory software is used to transfer merchandise electronically
between store locations, receive merchandise from vendors on purchase
orders, and ring up sales on the cash registers. By minimizing the
outside vendor's involvement in the Gift Shop upgrade, there was a
savings of $6,000 over the initial estimate to complete the upgrade.
Expectations are that this position will continue to benefit the Gift
Shop, in both technical advice and savings, in the coming year.
historical office
Serving as the Senate's institutional memory, the Historical Office
collects and provides information on important events, precedents,
dates, statistics, and historical comparisons of current and past
Senate activities for use by members and staff, the media, scholars,
and the general public. The historians keep extensive biographical,
bibliographical, photographic, and archival information on the nearly
2,000 former and current senators as well as all vice presidents. The
staff edits for publication historically significant transcripts and
minutes of selected Senate committees and party organizations, and
conducts oral history interviews with former Senators and staff. The
historians offer special talks and tours to inform senators and Senate
staff about important historical events, the history of the Capitol,
and the Senate's institutional development. The photo historian
maintains a collection of approximately 40,000 still pictures that
includes photographs and illustrations of Senate committees and nearly
all former Senators. The office staff also develops and maintains all
historical material on the Senate Web site and provides educational
outreach through email and Twitter.
In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the passage of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964, Senate historians developed an extensive
multimedia online exhibit for Senate.gov, presented specialized talks
and tours, and authored articles describing the Senate's role in the
passage of this landmark legislation.
During 2014, the Senate transferred a multitude of records to the
National Archives. The Senate Archivist also met with staff in all of
the closing offices, compiled a closing Senate offices handbook, and
acted as a liaison between members' offices and their designated
archived repositories. In addition, the Archivist has evolved to meet
e-records preservation changes. Principal among them is enhanced
collaboration with the Senate IT and systems administrator community,
pro-active archiving of legislative records and building a solid core
of expertise within the Senate.
The Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress was established
in 1990 by Public Law 101-509, and meets semiannually to advise the
Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Archivist of the United
States on the management and preservation of the records of Congress.
By law, the committee is required to report to Congress every 6 years
on the status of Congress' and members' archival records. The most
recent report was published December 31, 2012. The next report will be
December 31, 2018. The Secretary of the Senate will chair the committee
during the 114th Congress.
human resources
The Office of Human Resources was established in June 1995 by the
Office of the Secretary as a result of the CAA. The office focuses on
developing and implementing human resources policies, procedures, and
programs for the Secretary's employees.
information systems
The Department of Information Systems provides technical hardware
and software support for the Office of the Secretary. Emphasis is
placed on creating and transferring legislative records to outside
departments and agencies, fulfilling Disbursing Office financial
responsibilities to the member offices, and complying with office-
mandated and statutory obligations.
The staff interfaces closely with the application and network
development groups within the SAA, GPO, and outside vendors on
technical issues and joint projects. The department provides computer-
related support for all local area network servers within the Office of
the Secretary. Information Systems staff also provides direct
application support for all software installed workstations, initiate
and guide new technologies, and implement next generation hardware and
software solutions.
interparliamentary services
The Office of Interparliamentary Services (IPS) is responsible for
administrative, financial, and protocol functions for special
delegations authorized by the Majority and/or Minority Leaders, for all
interparliamentary conferences in which the Senate participates by
statute, and for interparliamentary conferences in which the Senate
participates on an ad hoc basis. The office also provides appropriate
assistance as requested by other Senate delegations.
The statutory interparliamentary conferences are: the NATO
Parliamentary Assembly; the Mexico-United States Interparliamentary
Group; the Canada-United States Interparliamentary Group; the British-
American Interparliamentary Group; the United States-Russia
Interparliamentary Group; the United States-China Interparliamentary
Group; and the United States-Japan Interparliamentary Group.
On behalf of the Senate Majority and Minority Leaders, the staff
arranges official receptions for heads of state, heads of government,
heads of parliaments, and parliamentary delegations. Required records
of expenditures on behalf of foreign dignitaries under authority of
Public Law 100-71 are maintained by IPS.
IPS receives and prepares for printing the quarterly consolidated
financial reports for foreign travel from all committees in the Senate.
In addition to preparing the quarterly reports for the Majority Leader
and the Minority Leader, IPS staff also assists staff members of
Senators and committees in filling out the required reports.
legislative information system (lis) project office
Update on current status of Legislative Information System (LIS)
Project
The Legislative Information System (LIS) is a mandated system (2
U.S.C. 6577) that provides desktop access to the content and status of
legislative information and supporting documents. In addition, pursuant
to 2 U.S.C. 181, a program was established to provide for the widest
possible exchange of information among legislative branch agencies. The
long-range goal of the LIS Project is to provide a ``comprehensive
Senate Legislative Information System" to capture, store, manage, and
distribute Senate documents. The project is currently focused on a
Senate-wide implementation and transition to a standard system for the
authoring and exchange of legislative documents that will greatly
enhance the availability and re-use of legislative documents within the
Senate and with other legislative branch agencies.
Extensible Markup Language (XML) has been accepted as the primary
data standard to be used for the exchange of legislative documents and
information. Following the implementation of the LIS, the LIS Project
Office shifted its focus to the data standards program and established
the LIS Augmentation Project (LISAP). The overarching goal of the LISAP
is to provide a Senate-wide implementation and transition to XML for
the authoring and exchange of legislative documents.
The LIS Project Office continued to provide support to the Office
of the Senate Legislative Counsel (SLC); the Committee on
Appropriations; the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation;
and the Senate Enrolling Clerk in their use of the XML authoring
application, Legislative Editing in XML Application (LEXA) for
drafting, engrossing, and enrolling. With the addition of the Commerce
Committee drafters, all Senate measures in the 113th Congress were
produced in XML. In addition, the Government Publishing Office (GPO)
uses LEXA to complete measures for printing. Several new features and
fixes were added in LEXA releases to improve the drafting process.
The LIS Project Office has been working with staff from GPO and the
Legislative Computer Systems (LCS) in the Office of the House Clerk to
create and print committee reports in XML. This office released a LEXA
committee report application to the Commerce Committee in 2013, and the
committee drafters were able to create several sections of their
committee reports using the LEXA application. In 2014, additional LEXA
enhancements allowed the committee drafters to create almost all
committee report sections in XML by using direct input, copy/paste from
Word documents, and copy/paste from Lexis/Nexis. The office will next
work with the editorial and printing staff of the Committee on
Appropriations to begin creating committee reports in XML.
Other enhancements to LEXA in the past year included new features
for drafting amendments, improvements in drafting and printing for the
Appropriations Committee, and new templates for the Enrolling Clerk.
Two other group projects with GPO and LCS include participants from
the Law Revision Counsel and the Senate and House Legislative Counsels.
The first project with the Law Revision Counsel will result in
applications to convert and maintain the U.S. Code in an XML format.
The second project with the Legislative Counsels continues work toward
the editing and printing of the compilations of existing law in their
XML format. As of early December 2014, all compilations are now edited
and maintained in XML. Printing of XML compilations continues to
improve.
The LIS Project Office is also monitoring and participating in
GPO's project to replace Microcomp with a new composition system that
can directly ingest XML data without having to convert it to another
format before printing.
The LIS Project Office will continue to support all Senate offices
using LEXA and will continue to work with the House, GPO, and the
Library of Congress on projects and issues that impact the legislative
process and data standards for exchange. The office will continue to
produce enhancements to LEXA and to seek out new technologies to
improve the production of legislative documents.
library
The Senate Library provides legislative, legal, business, and
general information services to the Senate. The Library's collection
encompasses legislative documents that date from the Continental
Congress in 1774; current and historic executive and judicial branch
materials; an extensive book collection on American politics and
history, including biographies; a popular collection of audiobooks; and
a wide array of online resources. The Library also authors content for
three Web sites--LIS.gov, Senate.gov, and Webster.
Senate Information Services (SIS) program service contracts for
fiscal years 2015 and 2016 were renegotiated with existing program
vendors to continue services for the Senate community. SIS staff worked
with the vendor to complete a major enhancement of site features.
Senate staff may now easily browse and search newspapers.
The Library continues to meet the Senate's increasing demand for
information through the creation of new Web-based content, judicious
selection and investment in online resources, expanded outreach and
training opportunities, and use of technology to support alternative
means for information delivery.
page school
The Senate Page School provides students with a sound program, both
academically and experientially, during their stay in the Nation's
capital.
In 2013 the Middle States Commission on Secondary Schools awarded
accreditation renewal which continues until May 1, 2018. The Page
School is among schools throughout the world that meet the
internationally recognized standards of quality.
Faculty and staff provided extended educational experiences to
pages, including field trips, guest speakers, opportunities to play
musical instruments and vocalize, and world languages study. The
community service project embraced by pages and staff continues. Pages
collected, assembled, and shipped items for gift packages to military
personnel serving in various locations and included letters of support
to the troops.
printing and document services
The Office of Printing and Document Services (OPDS) serves as
liaison to the GPO for the Senate's official printing, ensuring that
all Senate printing is in compliance with Title 44, U.S. Code as it
relates to Senate documents, hearings, committee prints and other
official publications. The office assists the Senate by coordinating,
scheduling, delivering and preparing Senate legislation, hearings,
documents, committee prints and additional publications for printing,
and provides printed copies of all legislation and public laws to the
Senate and the public. In addition, the office assigns publication
numbers to all hearings, committee prints, documents and other
publications; orders all blank paper, envelopes and letterhead for the
Senate; and prepares page counts of all Senate hearings in order to
compensate commercial reporting companies for the preparation of
hearings.
During fiscal year 2014, the OPDS prepared 2,471 requisitions
authorizing GPO to print and bind the Senate's work, exclusive of
legislation and the Congressional Record. In addition to processing
requisitions, the Printing Services Section coordinates proof handling,
job scheduling and tracking for stationery products, Senate hearings,
Senate publications and other additional printed products, as well as
monitoring blank paper and stationery quotas for each Senate office and
committee. Examples of major printing projects are: the Report of the
Secretary of the Senate; the 113th Congress Congressional Directory;
the Authority and Rules of Senate Committees; and the Journal of Senate
Proceedings, 113th Congress 1st Session.
During 2014 over 10,000 requests for legislative material were
received at the walk-in counter, through the mail, by fax, and
electronically. Online ordering of legislative documents and the
Legislative Hot List Link, where members and staff can confirm arrival
of printed copies of the most sought after legislative documents,
continued to be popular. The site is updated several times daily as new
documents arrive from GPO to the Document Room. In addition, the office
handled thousands of phone calls pertaining to the Senate's official
printing, document requests and legislative questions.
public records
The Office of Public Records receives, processes, and maintains
records, reports, and other documents filed with the Secretary of the
Senate that involve the Federal Election Campaign Act, as amended; the
Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) of 1995, as amended; the Senate Code of
Official Conduct; Rule 34, Public Financial Disclosure; Rule 35, Senate
Gift Rule filings; Rule 40, Registration of Mass Mailing; Rule 41,
Political Fund Designees; and Rule 41(6), Supervisor's Reports on
Individuals Performing Senate Services; and Foreign Travel Reports. The
office works closely with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the
Senate Select Committee on Ethics, and the Clerk of the House
concerning the filing requirements of the aforementioned acts and
Senate rules.
From October 2013 through September 2014, Public Records staff
assisted over 10,000 individuals seeking information from or about
reports filed with the office, responding to walk-in inquiries and
inquiries by telephone or e-mail. Further, the office provides
assistance to individuals attempting to comply with the provisions of
the LDA.
Implementation of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act
(STOCK Act) continued into fiscal year 2014. The STOCK Act, as amended,
required the Secretary to collaborate on the development of an
electronic filing system for member and employee financial disclosure
reports. Working in coordination with the SAA and the Ethics Committee,
the Public Records office participated in the planning and development
of the electronic filing system which was successfully launched on
January 1, 2014.
The LDA requires semiannual contribution reports, and quarterly
financial and lobbying activity reports. To continue implementation of
the LDA, the Public Records Office conducted two LDA Guidance reviews
in coordination with the Clerk of the House. As of September 30, 2014,
there were 4,443 registrants representing 16,163 clients. The total
number of individual lobbyists disclosed on fiscal year 2014
registrations and reports was 11,950. The total number of lobbying
registrations and reports processed was 108,414. The office referred
949 cases of potential noncompliance to the U.S. Attorney for the
District of Columbia.
The Federal Election Campaign Act requires Senate candidates to
file quarterly and pre- and post-election reports with the Secretary of
the Senate. Filings for the fiscal year totaled 4,722 documents
containing 439,745 pages, which were scanned, processed, and
transmitted to the FEC, as required by law. During the calendar year
2014, an election year, the office processed 5,921 reports containing
718,827 pages, an all-time record for total number of pages processed.
The filing date for Public Financial Disclosure Reports was May 15,
2014. The reports were made available to the public and press as soon
as they were filed and processed, and in most cases, the same day.
Public Records staff provided copies to the Ethics Committee and the
appropriate State officials.
Senators are required to file mass mailing reports on a quarterly
basis. The number of pages submitted during fiscal year 2014 was 582.
In addition, the Public Records Office received 454 Gift Rule/Travel
reports during fiscal year 2014.
stationery room
Since it was formally established in 1854, the Senate Stationery
Room has evolved into a diversified retail outlet serving the needs of
the Senate community by providing a wide range of office and
administrative supplies, communication and computer accessories, and
special order items for official Government business. Additionally, the
Stationery Room provides U.S. flags flown over the Capitol for
constituent requests.
The Stationery Room fulfills its mission by: utilizing open market,
competitive bid, or General Services Administration schedules for
supply procurement; maintaining sufficient in-stock quantities of
select merchandise to best meet the immediate needs of the Senate
community; developing and maintaining productive business relationships
with a wide variety of vendors to ensure sufficient breadth and
availability of merchandise; maintaining expense accounts for all
authorized customers and preparing monthly activity statements; and
managing all accounts receivable and accounts payable reimbursement.
The Stationery Room, with the assistance of the Office of Web
Technology, maintained an online Web ordering portal through Webster.
The Web site offers an up-to-date Stationery Room catalog with product
description, price, and pictures. Customers can place a stock order
online and request direct delivery to a location of their choice.
During fiscal year 2014, the Stationery Room received and processed
more orders than fiscal year 2013. Use of the Web site helps reduce
order time, increases customer convenience and order accuracy, and
reduces the use of paper through reduced reliance on hard copy orders.
Moving forward, the Stationery Room anticipates increased use of this
Web site as customers discover the benefits of its use.
Utilizing the Pay.gov service offered by the U.S. Department of the
Treasury, the Stationery Room has been accepting online flag requests
and payments from constituents through member Web sites. At the end of
fiscal year 2014, 43 member offices were offering this payment option
and most of the new member offices are in the beginning stages of the
program. The benefits include a reduced wait time for constituents,
elimination of payment inaccuracies, and greatly reduced workload for
office representatives. The Stationery Room will continue to expand the
service.
The Stationery Room prepares activity statements for approximately
300 customer accounts on the last business day of each month. One
upgrade most requested by our customers is for the Stationery Room to
post the account statements directly to TranSAAct, the online business
services portal for Senate offices. The inclusion of Stationery in the
latest TranSAAct release occurred in early fiscal year 2014, enabling
customers to print statements, current and historical, and research
transaction details directly from their desktop. The Stationery Room
expects to save over $500 a year in paper costs and, most importantly,
reduce paper use by 45,000 individual sheets.
The Stationery Room will be replacing older, outdated handheld
scanners with new tablets and scanners to interact more efficiently
with the SAA upgraded wireless infrastructure. The Stationery will save
over $5,250 annually by eliminating all paper receipts using the
signature capture feature on the tablets. The Stationery Room will save
over $5,250 annually by eliminating all paper receipts using the
signature capture feature on tablets. When an office inquires about the
status of their order, the Stationery Room will be able to respond
immediately by accessing the information from the tablet.
web technology
The Office of Web Technology is responsible for: Senate.gov; the
Secretary's Page on Webster; and other portions of Webster--available
to Senate staff, along with the Web-based systems, servers, and
technologies supporting these Web sites that fall under the purview of
the Secretary of the Senate.
Senate.gov content is maintained by over 30 contributors from seven
departments of the Secretary's Office and three departments of SAA. All
content is controlled through the Secretary's Web content management
system, managed by the Office of Web Technology.
Five oral histories, 30 Senate Stories, and five featured
biographies authored by the Senate Historical Office were added to
Senate.gov this year. In addition, a new style for displaying roll call
votes was deployed on Senate.gov. The new modern display makes scanning
and in depth reading of votes easier and utilizes Library of Congress
Handles for linking to legislation.
In preparation for the start of the 114th Congress, the office
built individual member pages for the 13 newly sworn Senators. Web
Technology coordinated with the individual designees to attain
necessary materials, answer questions, and acquire approval so all
members had a presence online when sworn in for the 114th Congress.
Much education was provided to designees for options to replace the
temporary Web page with more permanent solutions, along with
facilitating domain redirects to ensure constituents are always able to
easily find their members' Web sites.
The eDear Colleague site was launched and built to automatically
update daily. In conjunction with the Senate Library the newly
developed system allows for full-text searches of letters and
attachments that were distributed via email starting in 2012 and some
legacy documents provided by the Senate Rules Committee starting in
2011. The site allows for sorting by title, data, Congress, bill
number, and person through leveraging advanced coding techniques and a
customizable enterprise search engine. The automated system makes
previously difficult to find information easily available. The site was
built using existing resources.
In 2014 an average of 28,370 visits occurred per day to the central
site of Senate.gov. The Office responded to approximately 423 emails
from the general public regarding Senate.gov sites. This is a 66
percent decrease from the previous year which is due to advances in
information architecture, search results, and custom error pages to
help users resolve issue on their own.
EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS AND CONTINUITY PLANNING
Throughout 2014, the Office of the Secretary continued to build
upon a comprehensive emergency preparedness and continuity program
initiated in 1997. The program extends from continuity of operations
(COOP) planning within every department of the Office of the Secretary;
to coordination with Leadership and the Sergeant at Arms on Senate-wide
continuity plans; joint planning with the House of Representatives on
bicameral programs; and inter-branch coordination with the executive
and judicial branches. The objective of these programs is to provide
Leadership the tools needed to ensure that the Senate can meet its
constitutional obligations under any circumstances.
Within the Office of the Secretary, the primary objective is the
continuity of the legislative process. The Legislative Staff and
supporting offices maintain and regularly exercise plans to ensure that
the Senate can convene and conduct legislative business under any
conditions in various locations. Departments responsible for the
execution of statutory obligations, such as the Disbursing Office and
the Office of Public Records, maintain plans to carry out those
functions, either locally or elsewhere, depending upon conditions. All
Departments within the Office of the Secretary maintain individual
plans to ensure that each Department can carry out its minimum
essential functions during an emergency, until full operations can be
restored. All Departmental plans are supported by emergency supply kits
stored in multiple locations within and outside the District of
Columbia. Across the Office of the Secretary, monthly drills, annual
exercises, and flyaway kit updates are conducted in order to ensure
that plans and supply kits are current, and that staff understand their
continuity responsibilities. A cross-training program in the
Legislative Departments ensures that staff with the skills required to
support Floor operations will be available during an emergency.
Senator Capito. Mr. Larkin, Sergeant at Arms.
U.S. SENATE
Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper
STATEMENT OF HON. FRANK J. LARKIN, SERGEANT AT ARMS
ACCOMPANIED BY JIM MORHARD, DEPUTY SERGEANT AT ARMS
Mr. Larkin. Chairman Capito and Ranking Member Schatz,
thank you for the honor of testifying before you today in this
subcommittee.
I have a formal record that I ask be submitted for your
further review.
Senator Capito. Without objection, it is submitted. Thank
you.
Mr. Larkin. Thank you.
As the new 40th Sergeant at Arms, 10 weeks on the job, this
has been an active time since we have come into office. We have
hosted the State of the Union, a number of congressional off-
sites, joint sessions of Congress, dealt with challenges from
mother nature and other issues that related to security and
some of the dynamic threats that challenge this Nation today.
The transition into the office has been made with very
little distraction, and I thank my predecessor, Drew Willison,
and the prior Sergeants at Arms, Terry Gainer, and Bill Pickle
for a lot of that assistance, along with my Sergeant at Arms
senior staff seated behind me today. And I particularly point
out my deputy, Jim Morhard, who is a longtime Hill associate,
and very much thankful for his presence on the team and the
knowledge that he brings to the staff, along with the other
exceptional professionals who are truly dedicated to supporting
the Senate and the success of what we do in this legislative
branch.
Additionally, I would like to thank your professional
staff. They have also been of great assistance in this
transition.
In order to maximize time for your questions, I would just
like to cover five main points that I have been focusing on as
the Sergeant at Arms since coming into office.
The first is the safety and security of this institution.
And certainly the attention has been to place the appropriate
security measures in place to be effective against the dynamic
threats, as I alluded to earlier, that challenge this Nation,
and we can talk about that a little bit more in detail as we go
on. This Senate needs to be able to legislate free of
distraction, and again, that is the charge of the Sergeant at
Arms Office, along with my partnership with the U.S. Capitol
Police and the Secretary of the Senate. And again, we will stay
very much focused on that task.
The second point I would like to make is regarding our
cyber health and network defense, again another major effort
underway within my department to validate that our information
systems are as strong as they can be, that in fact we are on
top of our equipment refresh efforts to minimize any failures
within the system from what we have experienced in the past
from our operations forward and also to be able to evaluate
ourselves using both internal resources and external resources
to evaluate network defense, to truly grade ourselves on our
ability to protect our information systems.
The third point of focus is truly customer relations, our
ability to support the Senate and all the member offices
effectively with the wide spectrum of components that make up
the Sergeant at Arms. As you know, the Sergeant at Arms is
responsible for printing services, mail screening, mail
delivery, some maintenance aspects for the U.S. Capitol. We
also handle the support services associated with parking,
transportation, et cetera. So it is not just the safety and
security that very much draws the attention of the Sergeant at
Arms but is a lot of the other working parts, components that
keep the trains running, so to speak, for the Senate.
The fourth area is the continuity preparedness. As the
Secretary of the Senate alluded to, again, a very serious
responsibility that involves significant planning and effort,
that in fact if we have to consider relocation and standing up
the Senate in alternate type scenarios, that we can do that
seamlessly and effectively, minimizing any time shortage.
And the final area that, again, is of particular focus is
in the partnerships and relationships. As we have talked, it is
critical that within the Senate here that not only the
Secretary of the Senate and U.S. Capitol--that we have a
seamless and truly transparent relationship with each other
just because of the way the different issues crosswalk into our
areas of responsibility, but also that effort needs to
transcend over to the House Sergeant at Arms, the
Administrative Officer in the House and the Clerk--especially
for the joint programs where we are looking to gain
efficiencies and increase the level of communications with the
other side. It is very important that we have those
relationships and that they are as tight as possible.
Externally it is the relationships with our law enforcement
partners, the intelligence community, our defense assets and
other agencies that come into play especially as we talk about
continuity operations.
As the Sergeant at Arms, I very much pay attention to how
my various components can increase our efficiency and
effectiveness with the appropriate funding and that I provide a
level of accountability to you that, again, reaches your
expectations and, finally, to be able to justify that with
measurable results, again, that demonstrate that the
appropriations that you have afforded us in fact are being
applied properly and are having the effect that successfully
supports the Senate.
And with that, Madam Chairman, I yield my time.
[The statement follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Frank J. Larkin
introduction
Madam Chairwoman, Ranking Member Schatz, and members of the
subcommittee, thank you for allowing me to testify today. I am pleased
to report on the progress the Office of the Senate Sergeant at Arms
(SAA) and our plans to enhance our service to the Senate.
For fiscal year 2016, the Sergeant at Arms respectfully requests a
total budget of $205,974,000. This request represents a 4.4 percent
increase from the current enacted budget, but is nearly identical to
our budget level from fiscal year 2008. Today, our organization has
approximately 70 fewer employees than we did in 2010.
As someone new to the Sergeant at Arms organization, I am both
fortunate and grateful to have the support of an outstanding senior
management team. It includes my Deputy, Jim Morhard; Chief of Staff,
Mike Stenger; Assistant Sergeants at Arms Dick Attridge (Intelligence
and Protective Services), Vicki Sinnett (Chief Information Officer),
Bret Swanson (Operations), and Kevin Morison (Capitol Operations);
General Counsel Terence Liley; Legislative Liaison Mason Wiggins;
Democratic Liaison Scott Rodman; and Chief Financial Officer Chris Dey.
The many goals and accomplishments set forth in this testimony would
not have been possible without this team's leadership and commitment,
as well as the dedication of the women and men who work for the Senate
Sergeant at Arms office.
protective services and continuity
Emergency Preparedness
Our emergency plans and procedures are designed to ensure the life
safety of Senators, staff, and visitors within our facilities by
equipping them with the necessary tools to respond to emergency
situations. Our plans are also designed to ensure the Senate can
continue its essential functions following an emergency event.
Over the past year, our office worked with Senate offices to update
188 Emergency Action Plans using guidelines set forth by the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration as part of the
Congressional Accountability Act. As part of this process, we look at
the lessons learned from exercises and real world events to improve
life-safety procedures for the Senate community.
We conduct a robust training program to ensure the Senate community
is prepared to respond to a variety of emergency events both at work
and at home. Over 4,000 staff members were trained during 180 classes
covering a variety of emergency preparedness topics. The ``Responding
to an Active Shooter'' class continues to be one of our most popular.
The course is taught in conjunction with the United States Capitol
Police (USCP) and is invaluable for educating staff on what to expect
from law enforcement throughout an active shooter event.
We also work with USCP to execute annual evacuation, shelter in
place, and internal relocation drills to ensure staff understand the
correct life-safety responses to emergency events that may occur on
Capitol Hill. We supported 26 evacuation drills that included Senate
office buildings, the Postal Square building, Senate Page School, and
Employee Child Care Center. We upgraded our accountability tools this
year and provided assistance in gathering accountability information
from offices, which is ultimately shared with USCP to track potentially
missing staff.
To ensure staff have the necessary equipment to respond to
emergency situations, we supply offices with victim rescue units,
supply kits, and annunciators. We have inventoried over 270 offices and
27,000 pieces of emergency equipment to ensure operability and expired
items are replaced.
To improve our alert messaging capability, we initiated a project
with USCP, the House of Representatives, Architect of the Capitol
(AOC), and Library of Congress to acquire a joint emergency mass
notification system. This project aims to reduce the number of alert
notification systems needed to transmit critical life-safety messages
to the Senate and Capitol complex, and eliminate outdated systems that
are difficult to use. The goal is to reduce the time it takes to
broadcast messages over numerous platforms, providing Senators, staff,
and visitors with additional time to respond to emergency situations.
We assist member offices and committees in writing their Continuity
of Operations (COOP) plans, which are critical to the Senate's ability
to perform its essential functions. The SAA office continues to ensure
existing continuity plans and capabilities are regularly maintained,
updated, and exercised. In 2014, a contingency facilities multi-day
exercise was conducted involving four separate facilities and over 300
participants. This was the largest exercise to date and validated plans
that call for the capability to quickly set up and operate contingency
facilities in support of the Senate's constitutional obligations.
Communication among Senate staff responsible for executing plans
during and following emergencies is critical to ensuring a successful
outcome. Staff who have responsibilities during special events and
emergencies were issued USCP digital radios with dedicated talk groups
allowing for rapid communications independent of the cellular network.
The radios were successfully utilized during numerous exercises,
providing a valuable command and control tool.
Contingency Programs
Sergeant at Arms staff collaborated with the Joint Continuity
Office to further develop and refine contingency transportation and
relocation site plans in 2014. Staff detailed to the Joint Continuity
Office supported the planning process from developing policy guidance
to coordinating directives from Senate leadership and finalizing Joint
Congressional Continuity Plans. We are continually refining leadership
evacuation sites, transportation operations, and embarkation point
plans. These Continuity of Government (COG) plans are then coordinated
with our congressional planning partners and supporting agencies, and
all are continuously validated and exercised. A major accomplishment in
2014 was the development and finalization of joint House and Senate
space allocation breakdowns.
To support our COG mission, we continued to refine the Senate
Emergency Relocation Group (ERG), addressing the Senate's unique
staffing requirements during contingency operations. Skilled SAA staff
have been identified and trained to support Senate continuity
operations during an emergency event requiring relocation. This program
provides information, training, supplies, and support to 70 SAA staff
members who will deploy during a contingency event. A functional
exercise utilizing ERG support was conducted in 2014 and will be
repeated this year.
During 2014, we conducted several joint exercises with the
Secretary of the Senate, USCP, Architect of the Capitol, Office of
Attending Physician, party secretaries, and other congressional
stakeholders. We completed over 20 exercises, tabletops, tests, and
guided discussions in 2014 covering all aspects of emergency response
including emergency operations centers, transportation, contingency
staffing, evacuation, shelter in place, and Chamber media operations.
This past year, we conducted the first ever functional exercise of our
leadership evacuation plan and validated our ability to notify,
transport, and safely relocate leadership should the need arise.
Security Planning and Police Operations
The Security Planning and Police Operations (SPPO) program
coordinates security and law enforcement support for the Senate
community. The Senate community includes Senate committees, offices
(including Senate State offices), and support offices on Capitol Hill.
Provided support includes coordinating Senate campus access, working
with the Committee on Rules and Administration to identify and publish
Senate office building door and barricade openings, conducting office
security sweeps, and installing proximity card readers and duress
buttons. In 2014, SPPO received and processed 214 committee security
assistance requests. They also processed 982 special requests for
vehicle clearances, deliveries, and bus access to Capitol Hill.
The SPPO program provides staffing for the USCP Command Center
support program, which ensures SAA representation during all hours the
Senate is in session, and during normal business hours during recesses.
This ensures immediate communication among the USCP, SAA, and Senate
community during special events, emergency incidents, and routine
operations.
The SPPO staff collaborated and provided support to the USCP and
external law enforcement agencies during several special events in
2014, including the State of the Union address, multiple Joint Sessions
of Congress, and the U.S. Capitol summer concert series.
The SPPO also includes the SAA's State Office Readiness program,
which provides security and preparedness resources to State offices
mirroring programs currently available to Capitol Hill Senate offices.
Participating offices receive a variety of security enhancements at no
cost to the Senate office. The program also assists State offices with
completing an Emergency Action Plan to identify unique security and
emergency preparedness procedures and provides emergency life safety
equipment to State offices.
information technology
Senate IT Network Security and Response
The Senate is considered a prime target for cyber security
breaches. Operational IT security activities appear to support this
assertion. In the first few weeks of 2015, the Senate has received an
average of 173,000 e-mail messages per day. Of these daily totals, an
average of 24,000 messages, or 14 percent, are being immediately
flagged as spam or malicious.
Many of our efforts to secure the Senate IT infrastructure are
proactive. The Senate Secure Web Gateway prevents an average of 72,000
connections to 1,200 different potentially malicious Web sites each
week. The vast majority of the Secure Web Gateway prevention activity
occurs in the background, transparent to Senate staff, so that their
computers are automatically protected from common attacks without
requiring them to take any direct action.
IT Security staff continually evaluate our stewardship of Senate
network protection responsibility based on the three-legged table of
security, functionality, and taxpayer value. Near-term initiatives will
allow the SAA to apply even more advanced technologies to mitigate
cyber threats, which will reduce the Senate's overall IT cost of
operation. Investment in new IT security technologies will further
strengthen our malware intrusion prevention capabilities. This will
leverage commercially available systems that have proven effective in
many other organizations at reducing systemic IT operational risk. We
have also begun developing the Senate's first comprehensive
cybersecurity strategy. This 5-year strategy will cover key strategic
focus areas and include identified critical elements of each area. This
strategy will drive our tactical and operational IT security planning.
In 2014, we proved the Senate mobile communication vehicles (ATLAS)
were able to successfully support an Alternate Chamber at an offsite
location. This allows the Senate to continue operations at a location
where a connection to the Senate network is nonexistent.
Network Operations
In 2014, the Network Operations Center received and serviced 2,278
Service Center ``incident'' tickets, and processed almost 1,200 change
requests and more than 900 LAN drop requests. From a security
perspective, as part of the authentication process, wireless clients
will undergo an assessment of their laptops that will verify their
devices are compliant with up-to-date virus software and definitions,
and operating system updates. Laptops will not be allowed onto the
wireless LAN until they have met these criteria, further enhancing the
overall security of the Senate network. Full implementation of
Discovery will be complete in the next few months.
A multi-year project that has progressed in 2014 is the use of
broadband Internet service to support Senate State office locations.
Using broadband Internet service significantly increases the amount of
bandwidth at each of the 460-plus locations, increasing the performance
at each site for both intranet and Internet services. The increased
bandwidth also affords the ability to support emerging technologies
such as increased video conferencing capabilities between DC and a
State office.
Replacing Switches
In January 2015, the Senate experienced a significant network
outage that impacted e-mail, mobility services, the virtual
infrastructure, senate.gov Web sites, and most Enterprise applications.
This was the result of a hardware failure on a major distribution
switch at the Primary Computing Facility (PCF). The hardware module was
replaced and the switch was stabilized. A replacement switch and its
partner at the Alternate Computing Facility (ACF) are now installed at
both locations, and the network is scheduled to be cutover to the new
hardware as soon as a remaining implementation issue is resolved. The
new equipment allows us to improve on the original design, providing
additional redundancy and eliminating the single point of failure.
Senate Payroll System (SPS)
We are working in collaboration with the Secretary of the Senate to
support and enhance the new PeopleSoft Senate Payroll System. This new
system replaced a 20-year-old mainframe system and provides a state-of-
the-art technological platform that should serve the Senate well over
the coming years. During the next quarter, we plan to begin a self-
service pilot that will allow individuals online access to view their
pay advances, W-2s, benefits summaries, and other personal information.
Data Center Management
We are currently modernizing the management of our two data centers
with the addition of a centralized software system, new server rack
smart Power Distribution Units (PDUs), and new environmental sensor
systems. The software will allow for the bridging of information across
organizational domains in order to provide a single holistic view of a
data center's performance so that energy, equipment, and floor space
are used as efficiently as possible. It will include collecting and
monitoring of detailed power usage and environmental statistics from
the new hardware equipment, inventory, capacity planning, workflow, as
well as dashboards, allowing us to improve efficiency and reduce the
risk of failures and outages.
Evaluating New Technologies
One of our core missions is to evaluate new technologies and tools
based on customer needs and their fit in the Senate environment. This
includes numerous laptops, desktops, printers, mobile devices, software
(including security patches and updates), and services.
Office Application Manager
A new version of the Office Application Manager was released in
November 2014. The new application has a significantly improved user
interface and functionality, including direct upload of constituent
checklist items (eliminating the e-mail intermediary step), ability to
have an outside individual submit a recommendation on behalf of an
applicant, and Active Directory authentication. The new functionality
incorporated in this version of the application makes it the most fully
featured and secure release to date. Currently, there have been over
14,000 individual submissions and over 16,000 constituent accounts
created.
Systems Management Service (SMS)
Our Systems Management Service remains state-of-the-art by
completing upgrades to the backend systems that provide for
distribution of software and security patches to Senate Microsoft
Windows and Apple Mac computers.
We are researching the use of a new capability in the main
application that provides the Systems Management Service software
patching solution to Senate offices, which can provide automated
security patches to Apple Macintosh computers as well as Windows-based
computers. Providing Macintosh patches from this one application will
potentially allow us to decommission the second separate system for
Macintosh patching, producing a cost savings.
Microsoft Lync 2013
Our unified communication capability has been enhanced by
completing the platform upgrade to Microsoft Lync 2013. Efforts are
underway to integrate with other legislative branch agencies. More than
6,000 Senate accounts are enabled for Lync, with over 2,000 users
logged in on a daily basis for instant messaging and presence. This
year, we will further extend communication and collaboration
capabilities of the unified client by integrating with our
videoconferencing infrastructure and by making a new shared chat
feature available.
Active Directory--ID System Integration and Photo Display
A process has been developed to synchronize Active Directory
accounts with ID System records. This process positions the Active
Directory to be leveraged for unified identity management and
authentication services. This means that Senate users are now able to
manage a single set of credentials for access to a rapidly increasing
number of resources. With a single password to manage, users are more
likely to frequently change their password and are less likely to write
it down or otherwise store credentials insecurely. This also better
facilitates removal of access to systems as users depart from the
Senate. By disabling departing users' Active Directory accounts, we
automatically disable access to all other systems to which the users
had access. We also used the process to deliver a new optional photo
display service to publish ID photos in e-mail and IM.
Senate Messaging and Authentication Services (SMAS)
We commenced activities to complete major upgrades to the Senate
Messaging and Authentication Services environment. The upgrades to
Microsoft Active Directory and Exchange will assure the system remains
secure, stable, and capable of supporting current operating systems and
applications. Deployment of Exchange Server 2013 will further improve
the reliability of the e-mail messaging environment, reduce overall
costs, and increase mailbox capacity.
TranSAAct--Our Platform for Doing Business Online
Functionality continues to be added to TranSAAct, our platform for
doing business online, eliminating paper-based manual processes and
addressing the requirements of offices and the Committee on Rules and
Administration. Built on an extensible modern database framework,
TranSAAct allows indefinite expansion as new requirements are
identified.
In addition, we worked with the Rules Committee and the SAA parking
office to simplify the parking request forms, improve features based on
customer feedback, update business rules, modernize the technology, and
improve the integration with the parking systems.
We are currently planning a technology refresh, upgrading
infrastructure components, migrating the platform to virtual servers,
simplifying the architecture by eliminating a third party product, and
migrating user and group management into TranSAAct. That effort will
lay the groundwork for providing users the ability to create profiles
to reduce some data entry on request forms and customize communication
preferences. We also have plans to make the home page more useful by
presenting consolidated information on open service requests.
Telecommunications
Our voicemail system has been upgraded to the new software level
10.1 and we now have 16 redundant servers. This helps support our
continuity of operations, and we continue to look at making this
platform more mobile and redundant. With this upgrade, we will be
offering more voicemail features and better integration with Microsoft
software, and we now have an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system
that we are preparing to assist the Capitol Operators during heavy call
periods. We will be offering these new features in fiscal year 2016.
In 2014, we started a multiyear process to upgrade the telephone
system (CS2100) in Washington, DC. Once this project is completed, we
will support session initiated protocol (SIP), which is a standard
unified communication platform allowing us to integrate easily with
multiple vendors including Cisco, Microsoft, and Polycom. This will
provide the backbone to voice, video, chat, and conferencing services.
The upgrade provides more phone features, a higher level of security,
reduction of costs, and reduction of equipment. It also provides us the
capability to use SIP for our phones and trunk lines to Verizon.
Currently, our old trunks to Verizon are costly and we need more of
them compared to the technology of SIP. In addition, we will be able to
offer SIP phones to our customers, which allows for more mobility and
more choices of phone types. We will have this project completed and
begin offering these new features in fiscal year 2016.
We have also started our State office upgrade project for 460-plus
offices, a multiyear project that will modernize the State office
communications systems and bring more features and security to our
State offices at a lower cost. These systems are old and costly, and
maintenance is becoming more difficult. Most offices will be seeing
some of these benefits in fiscal year 2016.
We are currently modernizing both of our telecom switch rooms and
providing more power backup and physical security to both rooms. This
includes relocation of some equipment to a more secured area; more
secured access into these areas; cameras, temperature, and water
monitors; power monitors for safety purposes; and computer monitoring
of activity in these rooms. This project will be completed in fiscal
year 2016.
Constituent Correspondence Services
Over the past decade, Constituent Correspondence Services funding
remained at the same level up until the last 2 years, when funding was
reduced. The fund appropriation is no longer keeping up with the
allotments to member offices and has required a requested increase to
ensure that the fund has appropriations equal to the prescribed
allotments. Because of cost savings throughout the CIO organization,
this increase is achievable while having no impact to the overall SAA
budget request.
operations
Central Operations
The Senate ID Office issues Smart Cards and standard IDs using two
different Card Management Systems (CMS). The ID Office is in the
planning phase of simplifying this process by using one CMS, which can
issue both types of IDs. In addition, the ID Office is planning to
implement an Identity Management System (IDMS) in order to better
manage Senate staff credentials across all systems supported by the
Sergeant at Arms. A consolidated IDMS will help streamline the creation
of user accounts and facilitate access throughout the Senate
Enterprise. During each Congress, the Senate ID Office issues over
35,000 IDs to Senators, staff, liaison personnel, and designated
members of the media.
Parking Operations
Parking Operations is adopting social media as an additional method
of communication to the Senate community. Disseminating information
about area and street closures, especially those due to special events
or emergency situations, continues to be a focus of improvement.
Monitoring renovations of underground garages scheduled for fiscal
year 2016 and the projects' impact to Senate parking areas will be a
primary focus of Parking Operations. The Architect of the Capitol is
planning renovations of the Russell Legislative Garage and the Thurgood
Marshall Judiciary Office Building Garage. The Russell Legislative
Garage renovation will displace our parking permit issuance booth and
over one hundred spaces under the control of the Committee on Rules and
Administration. Parking Operations will work closely with the
Committee's staff and AOC personnel to ensure customer service can be
maintained and displaced garage permit holders are accommodated in
other Senate areas. The renovation of the Judiciary Office Building
Garage will present another set of challenges. Although we will not
lose any spaces due to the renovation, we will be relocating our permit
holders to different and unfamiliar spaces throughout the renovation.
Transportation and Fleet Operations
Transportation and Fleet Operations procures and maintains Senate
vehicles, provides transportation information to offices, and maintains
and operates the Senate Daily Shuttle and Parking Shuttle services. The
SAA fleet includes trucks, vans, buses, SUVs, electric vehicles,
handicapped-accessible vehicles, and Segways.
Photography Studio
The Photography Studio provides photography and photo imaging
services for Senate offices and committees. The studio manages and
maintains the Photo Browser Application, which provides Senate offices
a secure location to upload, organize, download, and place orders for
their photos through a Web interface. All photos in a Senator's
collection are archived in the Photo Browser system and are accessible
during their time in office.
Printing, Graphics, and Direct Mail
The Printing, Graphics, and Direct Mail (PGDM) department provides
support to the Senate community through graphic design, printing,
mailing, document preservation, photocopying, logistics and security--
producing over 59 million items during fiscal year 2014. We continue to
modernize processes and applications to expand our product offerings
and enhance efficiency to meet the evolving demands of Senate offices.
As a good steward of fiscal resources, PGDM garnered notable
savings for the Senate. More than $1.1 million was saved in postage
costs by pre-sorting and discounting 5.4 million pieces of outgoing
Senate franked mail. Another $34,000 in postage was saved by using
software to identify over 69,000 undeliverable addresses before they
were introduced into the United States Postal Service mail stream.
Since fiscal year 2000, the Postal Service increased the cost of a
First Class mail piece from $.33 to $.49, which makes PGDM's mission to
maximize discounts increasingly important. With the recent acquisition
of state-of-the-art sorting equipment, PGDM has trained employees to
perform routine maintenance, which generates an annual savings of
$43,000 and ensures our equipment continues to run at an optimal level
of performance.
For more than a decade, PGDM has been digitizing daily letter mail
for member offices, making it easier to provide a quicker reply to
constituents through traditional letters, social media sites, and
digital e-mail systems. PGDM has kept pace with the latest technology
by implementing high-speed digital scanners, document file management
systems, and devices that convert obsolete media to useable files. The
implementation of PGDM's document management system, OnBase, has
contributed to member offices gaining efficiency by going paperless and
providing them the ability to perform searches for specific dates,
legislative issues, or individual constituent correspondents throughout
their entire document collection.
Since the acquisition of our wide-format digital printing systems
in fiscal year 2009, PGDM has printed 42,000 charts and generated a
cost savings of approximately $3.8 million compared to having these
charts done by an outside entity.
PGDM maintains several high-volume production printers that have a
combined copy count of more than 7.5 million impressions. Soon, PGDM
will be acquiring a new high-volume digital press to replace two
outdated printers. This action will save PGDM $40,000 in annual
maintenance costs, and will also generate cost saving in consumable
supplies.
Senate Post Office
The Senate Post Office's dedicated workforce tests and delivers
mail and packages to over 180 mail stops within the Capitol complex,
while providing a messenger service to multiple locations within the
Washington metropolitan area.
We recently procured a new mail sorter that was engineered to meet
our mail screening specifications and replaced an outdated, less
efficient machine. This sorter has duplex imaging technology to
facilitate easy lookup of captured images in the event of a mail
incident or database queries on specific addressees. This will enhance
the Senate's security by augmenting the investigative capabilities of
the USCP in response to a threatening mail event. The maintenance
contract for the new sorter will net a 50 percent reduction compared to
our current costs.
Capitol Facilities
Capitol Facilities supports the Senate community by providing a
clean and professional work environment in the Capitol. Our
Environmental Services division cleans Capitol spaces, moves Capitol
furniture, and provides special event setups in the Capitol--including
10 event spaces in the Capitol Visitor Center. The Capitol Facilities
Furnishings division provides furniture, carpeting, and window
treatments to Capitol offices, and framing services for offices and
committees throughout the Senate.
Focus continues to be on realizing cost savings while not
sacrificing service. Salary costs in the department were reduced by
nearly 12 percent in fiscal year 2014, resulting in savings of
$443,000. To efficiently meet cyclical customer demands during peak
event setups and furniture moves, Capitol Facilities supplements the
full-time workforce with contracted labor. Using the contract workforce
for addressing ``surge related'' events has allowed us to reduce those
costs by 45 percent. With a reduced workforce, Capitol Facilities has
combined job specialties and engaged in cross-training employees to
ensure that services are maintained at the high level expected. In
addition, we are planning an upgrade to the Capitol Facilities Online
Request System (CapFOR) to give more information online to offices so
that they can identify furniture that more readily meets their needs.
Office Support Services
The State Office Liaison staff serve as the conduit between Senate
offices and commercial or Federal landlords, overseeing approximately
450 State offices. Funding for commercial, Federal, and mobile State
office rents are primarily driven by the members' desire for suitable
office space which best meets the growing needs of their local
constituencies. The State Office Liaison staff negotiated 22 new
commercial leases, 20 commercial amendments, 3 commercial renewals, and
4 new Federal office leases last year. Establishing a State office
includes many activities: coordinating furniture and furnishings,
negotiating the rate per square footage, and coordinating parking and
office alterations. We continue to work closely with members' staff to
ensure they understand the cost implications in relocating an office.
We are committed to assisting members in negotiating the most
comprehensive lease agreements that are both cost effective and
competitive to the commercial market rates.
capitol operations
Ensuring that our customers--both internal and external--can have
access to the Senate and understand its work remains the focus of the
SAA's Capitol Operations team. Over the past year, team members
provided a range of services to Senators and their staffs, visitors to
the Capitol, members of the news media who cover Congress, and the
public. Capitol Operations continues to focus on providing timely,
accurate, and useful information that promotes safety, increases
transparency, and enhances the experience of those who work in and
visit the Senate.
Senate Recording Studio
In a time of instant communication and demands for transparency,
the Senate Recording Studio helps ensure that the work of the Senate
remains accessible to the public. During 2014, the Recording Studio
provided 908 hours of gavel-to-gavel coverage of Senate Floor
proceedings. For individuals who prefer to view Senate proceedings
online, the Recording Studio also provides technical support for live-
streaming and archiving on the Senate's Web site, www.senate.gov. Last
year, this online resource was viewed 1.34 million times by more than
136,000 unique visitors. Another priority of the Recording Studio is to
enable Senators working in DC to communicate with their constituents
back home. During 2014, the Recording Studio produced 787 television
and 901 radio productions for Senators.
Senate Media Galleries
For members of the news media, the Senate remains one of the most
open and accessible institutions of Government. On any given day,
hundreds of reporters, producers, photographers, videographers, and
technical support personnel can be found in hearing rooms, hallways,
and in the Chamber bringing the news of the Senate to people across the
country and around the world. Ensuring that the news media can conduct
their business efficiently, safely, and in a manner consistent with
Senate rules is the responsibility of the staff of the four Senate
Media Galleries. The unique structure of the Media Galleries, dating
back to the earliest days of the Senate, requires them to work closely
and cooperatively with their respective Standing and Executive
Correspondents' Committees, USCP, and press secretaries and
communications staff of Senators and Senate committees. Media Gallery
staff facilitate media credentials and arrangements for the 7,000
members of the news media who can cover the Senate in a given year.
Daily Press Gallery
Daily Press Gallery staff support reporters working for
publications who publish on a daily or more frequent basis. Last year,
the Daily Press Gallery issued credentials to approximately 1,800
journalists. As custodians of the largest press complex on Capitol
Hill, the Gallery staff serve more than 100 reporters who physically
work in the Press Gallery on a regular basis. Gallery staff also help
control access to the Press Gallery inside the Senate Chamber and
ensure Gallery rules are followed.
Periodical Press Gallery
The Periodical Press Gallery staff support the news media working
for non-daily periodicals and their online publications. Last year, the
Periodical Press Gallery approved credentials for more than 1,200
journalists. Gallery staff remain focused on streamlining
communications with Gallery members and Senate staff. For example, the
number of followers on the Gallery's Twitter account (@SenatePPG) grew
by nearly 40 percent, to 3,600, and staff continue to increase the use
of Facebook and Instagram as well. These efforts help drive traffic to
the Gallery's Web site, where information on Floor proceedings, the
credentialing process, and other areas of interest is consolidated. The
Gallery's Web site averages approximately 50,000 hits a year.
Press Photographers Gallery
Press Photographers Gallery staff support photographers
representing news organizations from across the United States and
around the world. Last year, the Gallery credentialed approximately 300
news photographers. Unlike the other three Media Galleries, which have
counterparts in the House of Representatives, Press Photographers
Gallery staff support the media at news events and hearings in both
houses of Congress. During 2014, the Gallery launched a Twitter account
(@USSenatePhoto) to keep photographers and Senate staff apprised of
congressional events; the account has grown to more than 600 followers.
Radio and Television Gallery
The task of ensuring that the broadcast media's needs are met while
the Senate's rules are followed falls largely to the staff of the Radio
and Television Gallery. The Gallery issued credentials to approximately
3,600 television and radio reporters, producers, and technical
personnel. The Gallery also maintains the studio that Senators use for
news conferences. Staff continually look to enhance the appearance and
functionality in the studio. Last year, the Gallery oversaw
installation of a new background element consisting of a bookshelf and
Senate seal, and additional renovations to the audio system and camera
risers are currently under development. Gallery staff also oversee
upgrades to the technical infrastructure supporting committee hearing
rooms and other news event locations. To further enhance
communications, the Radio-TV Gallery initiated a Twitter account
(@SenateRadioTV) during 2014, with approximately 700 followers to date.
Senate Doorkeepers
Senate Doorkeepers play a critical role in supporting the
legislative process of the Senate. Doorkeepers provide access to those
with Senate Floor privileges; enforce the rules of the Senate Floor;
and facilitate the needs of Senators, Senate Floor staff, and Senate
Pages. Doorkeepers also provide support for a number of special events
attended by Senators, their families, and special guests. In addition
to directly supporting Senators, Doorkeepers also ensure that all
Americans can visit the Senate Gallery safely and efficiently. During
2014, approximately 202,000 people visited the Senate, in person, with
the help of Senate Doorkeepers. That corresponded to nearly 950 people
a day, both when the Senate was in session and during scheduled
recesses.
Senate Appointment Desk
The Senate Appointment Desks are responsible for processing, in a
safe and efficient manner, thousands of guests who enter the Capitol
each year for business meetings or other purposes. During 2014,
approximately 184,000 visitors were processed through our network of
Appointment Desks located on the first floor of the Capitol, in the
basements of the Russell and Hart Senate office buildings, and in the
Capitol Visitor Center (CVC). Of these, 116,000 visitors were in the
Capitol for official business or a direct meeting with a member, a
member's office, or a committee. In addition, more than 2,500
international visitors relied on the CVC Appointment Desk for Senate
Gallery Passes and information.
Office of Internal Communications
The Office of Internal Communications (OIC) streamlines
communication within the SAA organization and to the rest of the Senate
community through a combination of online, digital, and traditional
print publications. Last year, the Office sent 468 Notices and 101 Dear
Colleague messages electronically, saving resources and speeding
delivery of important information. In addition, OIC manages two Web
sites--one internal to the SAA and the other accessible to the Senate
community--and maintains the electronic Notice system. During 2014, OIC
staff edited and helped produce 175 publications, including safety
bulletins, newsletters for both Senate and SAA staff, and procedural
manuals. Finally, the OIC manages the SAA's use of social media to
enhance communication with SAA employees, Senators, the Senate
community, and the public. Recently, the SAA Twitter account
(@SenateSAA) exceeded 7,400 followers and our Facebook page surpassed
4,000 ``likes,'' both substantial increases from a year ago.
saa human resources
The primary function of the SAA Office of Human Resources is to
provide personnel services and advice to SAA managers and employees.
The SAA Human Resources department also provides workers' compensation,
ergonomic assessment, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
accommodation requests, and recruitment services to the broader Senate
community.
Senate Placement Office
During fiscal year 2014, Senate offices submitted 513 requests for
recruitment assistance to the Senate Placement Office; 49,401 resumes
were processed by the Placement Office in response to these requests.
Since the start of fiscal year 2015, the Senate Placement Office
provided 2,404 resumes for vacancies on the staffs of Senators-elect
and processed an additional 1,044 resumes for vacancies in other Senate
offices and committees.
senate office of education and training
The Office of Education and Training provides training for all
Senate staff in Washington, DC, and in State offices. We provide
performance skills training on topics such as management and leadership
development, human resources management, legislative and staff
information, and new staff and intern orientation. The office also
provides much of the training for approved software and equipment used
at the Senate. Our technical offerings include system administration,
MS Office Suite, Photoshop, and digital photography, and Senate-
specific applications training. In addition, we coordinate and provide
major training events for State and DC staff.
Training is provided through a variety of methods. These include
instructor-led classes, one-on-one coaching sessions, facilitation,
computer-based training, online lessons, Webinars, videoconferencing,
informal training, documentation, and self-paced training.
The Office of Education and Training partners with other training
providers, both inside and outside of the legislative branch, to ensure
the Senate staff have the training and skills they need to perform
their jobs. In 2014, these partnerships included the Library of
Congress, Congressional Research Service, Senate Library, Government
Accountability Office, Capitol.net, the SAA Office of Protective
Services and Continuity, Senate Historian, Office of Attending
Physician, Employee Assistance Program, Chief Counsel on Employment,
Office of Congressional Accessibility, SAA Human Resources, Senate
Disbursing Office, Senate Ethics Committee, and others.
In 2014, the Office of Education and Training and its partners
provided 735 instructor-led classes with a total attendance of over
3,000 students. Education and Training staff taught over 250 of the 735
instructor-led classes, at which over 1,900 staff attended. Education
and Training provided customized training, facilitation services, and
coaching to more than 150 Senate member, committee, and support
offices, benefitting more than 1,400 staff. Our trainers spent
approximately 600 hours performing training or facilitation in
everything from 1-hour sessions to 2 to 4 day-long retreats. We also
coordinate the Senate's Intern Program. We provide training for intern
coordinators as well as eight orientation and training sessions
throughout the year; approximately 1,500 interns attended in 2014.
After every election, we coordinate the Aides to the Senators-elect
orientation and new office Admin Directors training. This 2-day
orientation consists of 10 different sessions with 20-30 attendees.
After swearing-in, we coordinate another 10-12 sessions for the office
management. Each session is attended by 10-15 staff.
Health Promotion
Our Health Promotion office has been legislatively mandated to
provide Health Promotion activities and events. Our Health Promotion
branch coordinates and runs the 2-day Health and Wellness Fair for
Senate staff. At this fair, Senate staff can meet vendors who promote
healthy living choices and who provide screening and testing for things
such as bone density, hearing, cholesterol, and others. In 2014, over
500 staff participated in health promotion activities, which included
lung function and kidney screenings, blood drives, and seminars on
health-related topics. We also coordinate Weight Watchers, Yoga, and
Pilates sessions using a revolving fund. We plan to increase our
conference offerings to include one for State Schedulers and for member
and committee management. These conferences will provide staff who do
similar jobs a place and time to share what is working and get ideas
from one another.
We will continue to expand our online training options for Capitol
Hill and State staff. We are rolling out an Online Leadership
curriculum for Senate managers and continue to work with our training
partners to provide just-in-time training. Our office also plans to
bring in experts to conduct presentations and training on timely
management and legislative topics to complement the training that is
already offered. Some of these topics will include Appropriations and
Authorizations, and Managing Remote Staff, among others.
employee assistance program
Our Employee Assistance Program (EAP) offers a variety of
emotional, behavioral and work-related support resources and services
to staff, their family members, Senate Pages, and interns. In 2014,
nearly 1 in 20 Senate employees utilized the services of an EAP
counselor; 370 employees took an online mental health screening; 177
managers requested a supervisory consultation; 3,277 employees attended
an EAP training activity; and 1,946 employees accessed resources for
personalized information and referrals addressing childcare, parenting,
adult care, aging, education, legal concerns, and/or financial issues.
conclusion
The Sergeant at Arms is composed of a diverse array of
organizations. All of them exist to serve the Senate so that it can
function as part of the legislative branch of our Government. To
provide the checks and balances on any administration, it must be able
to function efficiently in an effort to create and pass legislation. To
do so, the Senate Sergeant at Arms must and will provide the needed
services that allow it to function.
APPENDIX A
Office of the Sergeant at Arms--United States Senate
FINANCIAL PLAN FOR FISCAL YEAR 2016
[Dollars in thousands]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fiscal Year Fiscal Year
2015 2016
Enacted Request
------------------------------------------------------------------------
General Operations & Maintenance:
Salaries.................................. $69,000 $72,000
Expenses.................................. 73,267 66,262
-------------------------
Total General Operations & Maintenance.. 142,267 138,262
Mandated Allowances & Allotments.............. 47,141 46,858
Capital Investment............................ 1,957 15,051
Nondiscretionary Items........................ 5,935 5,803
-------------------------
Total................................... $197,300 $205,974
=========================
Staffing...................................... 892 892
------------------------------------------------------------------------
To ensure that we provide the highest levels and quality of
security, support services, and equipment, we submit a fiscal year 2016
budget request of $205,974,000, an increase of $8,674,000 or 4.4
percent compared to fiscal year 2015. The salary budget request is
$72,000,000, an increase of $3,000,000 or 4.3 percent, and the expense
budget request is $133,974,000, an increase of $5,574,000 or 4.4
percent. The staffing request remains at 892.
There are four budget categories: General Operations and
Maintenance (Salaries and Expenses), Mandated Allowances and
Allotments, Capital Investment, and Nondiscretionary Items.
The general operations and maintenance salaries budget request is
$72,000,000, an increase of $3,000,000 or 4.3 percent compared to
fiscal year 2015.
The general operations and maintenance expenses budget request for
existing services is $66,262,000, a decrease of $7,005,000 or 9.6
percent compared to fiscal year 2015.
The mandated allowances and allotments budget request is
$46,858,000. This budget supports State office rents, $19,691,000;
purchase of computer and office equipment, $10,318,000; voice and data
communications for Washington, DC, and State offices, $5,609,000;
procurement and maintenance of member office constituent services
systems, $5,500,000; RPC and DPC recording studios, $2,600,000;
wireless services and equipment, $1,473,000; and State office security
enhancements, $1,472,000.
The capital investments budget request is $15,051,000, for DC
network equipment upgrade, $6,290,000; storage area network,
$3,726,000; Chamber audio upgrade, $1,900,000; and Network Management
Equipment Upgrade, $1,840,000.
The nondiscretionary items budget request is $5,803,000. The
request funds projects that support the Secretary of the Senate:
contract maintenance for the Financial Management Information System,
$2,819,000; support for the payroll system, $2,359,000; and maintenance
and necessary enhancements to the Legislative Information System,
$625,000.
Senator Capito. Thank you.
Chief Dine.
UNITED STATES CAPITOL POLICE
STATEMENT OF HON. KIM C. DINE, CHIEF OF POLICE
ACCOMPANIED BY:
DANIEL MALLOY, ASSISTANT CHIEF AND CHIEF OF OPERATIONS
RICHARD BRADDOCK, CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER
FAY F. ROPELLA, INSPECTOR GENERAL
Chief Dine. Thank you and good morning.
I would also ask that my full statement be accepted for the
record.
Chairman Capito, Ranking Member Schatz, and members of the
subcommittee, I am honored to be here today and I appreciate
the opportunity to present the United States Capitol Police
budget request for fiscal year 2016.
I am joined here today by Assistant Chief Daniel Malloy,
our Chief of Operations, and Mr. Richard Braddock, our Chief
Administrative Officer, as well as some members of my executive
management team and our Inspector General.
First, I would like to thank the subcommittee for its
sustained and unwavering support for the United States Capitol
Police. I would specifically like to express our appreciation
to the subcommittee and the Congress for providing the
necessary salaries and general expenses funding for fiscal year
2015 to support our personnel and operations. The women and men
of the Capitol Police work tirelessly to ensure that the
legislative process of our Government functions without
disruption or lapses in security or safety 24 hours a day, 365
days a year. But none of this would be possible without your
support and that of the Capitol Police Board.
My management team and I are very proud of the close
partnership that has evolved between us to make this possible.
Your confidence in us and the support you have provided to the
Capitol Police over the years has, indeed, been a remarkable
contributor to our success in achieving our mission. You and
your staff have taken the time to work closely with the
department's leadership team and have shown a keen awareness of
the complexity of our mission and the challenges we face.
While our mission has not changed, the scope of the threats
that we face is changing, and the ways in which we continue to
adapt to those threats has to change. We will continue to meet
our mission by finding ways to sharpen and adapt our
capabilities while remaining true to our core values. Our
ability to thwart attacks and safeguard the Capitol complex
hinges on our flexibility to adapt operations and
administrative capabilities to the changing environment.
During fiscal year 2014, we were able to provide training
to our officers in areas of active shooter and security
screening, which are key skills that need to be constantly
refreshed for our officers in this environment. In addition,
the department was awarded the Gold Standard in Advanced Law
Enforcement Accreditation, our fifth accreditation, from the
Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. The
Gold Standard is awarded to law enforcement agencies that have
exhibited strong organizational health and an absence of issues
that detract from the professionalism of the agency. Assessors
were on site validating policies and procedures, interviewing
employees, and performing field observations.
At this time, I would like to offer the subcommittee an
overarching summary of our fiscal year 2016 request. I will
follow this summary with a discussion of specific budget items
of particular significance to you and the department.
The department's fiscal year 2016 request totals nearly
$379 million and represents an overall increase of 8.9 percent,
or nearly $31 million over fiscal year 2015 enacted funding
level of $348 million.
As with other law enforcement agencies, personnel salaries
and overtime represent the majority of our budget each year. As
you know, we are a service organization, and we need dedicated
and trained professionals to provide that service.
Our fiscal year 2016 request, again, only includes funding
for 1,775 sworn and 370 civilian positions. These are the
staffing levels funded during fiscal year 2015. While the
staffing levels remain static in the fiscal year 2016 request,
the funding request represents an overall increase of
approximately 7 percent over the fiscal year 2015 enacted
level. This increase is necessary to address the natural salary
increases incurred by the department and increased overtime
costs to meet our needs, especially for the 2016 presidential
conventions.
The second area I want to cover in some detail is our
requested general expenses budget, which includes protective
travel; hiring, outfitting, and training of new sworn
personnel; supplies and equipment; management systems; non-
personnel presidential convention support and other non-
personnel needs. We are requesting $71.4 million for general
expenses, which is an increase of $10 million over the fiscal
year 2015 enacted level. No new initiatives or program
increases are included in this request. The increase results
from normal increases in operating costs, convention costs, and
cost to lifecycle key items and routine equipment and systems,
and the restoration of annual levels reduced in previous fiscal
years to meet regular needs.
With resources provided to the department, our officers
provide a safe environment for the facilities of Capitol Hill.
For the U.S. Capitol Building alone, we provide a secure and
open environment for well over 1.5 million square feet, over
600 rooms, approximately 850 doorways, and miles of corridors,
which speaks to the vast magnitude of our mission and how our
ability to remain agile and prepared to respond is key to the
accomplishment of our mission. In fiscal year 2014, the
department performed over 9.6 million screenings of people
entering congressional buildings, including over 1.4 million
visitors to the Capitol Visitor Center. Outside the buildings,
we kept the Capitol grounds safe by conducting more than
125,000 K-9 vehicle sweeps and nearly 27,000 offsite vehicle
inspections.
Further, we continue to work to close audit recommendations
and to address our material weaknesses from prior audits by
working very closely with our Inspector General and the
Government Accountability Office (GAO) to address identified
issues and by providing evidence necessary to close findings.
In particular, I am pleased to report the department received a
fourth consecutive unqualified clean opinion on our financial
statements. Also in fiscal year 2014, we worked closely with
the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to close 29
recommendations and completed actions that we believe could
lead to closure of another eight recommendations. Also, the
department successfully closed all findings from outstanding
GAO reports and closed four complete OIG audits that have been
open since 2008. Further, we are working on the resolution of a
number of other recommendations in order to achieve efficiency
and effectiveness of our administrative programs. The long-term
resolution of recommendations related to internal controls,
business processes, and material weaknesses remains of the
highest importance to our management team.
I am very grateful for your time today. We will continue to
work closely with you to make sure that we meet the needs of
our mission in a reasonable and responsible manner. I want to
thank the women and men of the United States Capitol Police
(USCP) for their commitment to our mission and for their
support. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you
today and we would be glad to answer any questions you may have
at this time.
[The statement follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Kim C. Dine
Chairman Capito, Ranking Member Schatz and members of the
subcommittee, I am honored to be here today, and I appreciate the
opportunity to present the United States Capitol Police budget request
for fiscal year 2016. I am joined here today by Assistant Chief Daniel
Malloy, our Chief of Operations, and Mr. Richard Braddock, our Chief
Administrative Officer, as well as some of the members of my Executive
Management Team and our Inspector General.
First, I would like to thank the subcommittee for its sustained and
unwavering support of the United States Capitol Police. I would
specifically like to express our appreciation to the subcommittee and
the Congress for providing the necessary salaries and general expenses
funding for fiscal year 2015 to support our personnel and operations.
The women and men of the Capitol Police work tirelessly to ensure that
the legislative process of our Government functions without disruption
or lapses in security or safety 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. But
none of this would be possible without your support and that of the
Capitol Police Board.
My management team and I are very proud of the close partnership
that has evolved between us to make this possible. Your confidence in
us, and the support you have provided to the Capitol Police over the
years, has indeed been a remarkable contributor to our success in
achieving our mission. You and your staff have taken the time to work
closely with the Department's leadership team and have shown a keen
awareness of the complexity of our mission and the challenges we face.
While our mission has not changed, the scope of the threats that we
face is changing--and the ways in which we continue to adapt to those
threats has to change. We will continue to meet our mission by finding
ways to sharpen and adapt our capabilities while remaining true to our
core values. Our ability to thwart attacks and safeguard the Capitol
Complex hinges on our flexibility to adapt operations and
administrative capabilities to the changing environment.
Before I begin the specifics of my fiscal year 2016 budget request
I would like to express again our appreciation to the subcommittee and
the Congress for providing the essential salaries and general expenses
funding for fiscal year 2015 to support our personnel and operations,
which has ensured a high-level of capability and mission readiness.
During fiscal year 2014, we were able to provide training to all of
our officers in the areas of active shooter and security screening,
which are key skills that need to be constantly refreshed for our
officers in this environment. In addition, the Department was awarded
the Gold Standard in Advanced Law Enforcement Accreditation, our fifth
Accreditation, from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement
Agencies. The Gold Standard is awarded to law enforcement agencies that
have exhibited strong organizational health and an absence of issues
that detract from the professionalism of the agency. Assessors were
onsite validating policies and procedures, interviewing employees, and
performing field observations.
Our fiscal year 2016 mission-focused request is grounded in the
framework of our Strategic Plan. To achieve our vision as a nationally
recognized results-oriented law enforcement organization, the
Department continues to reinforce a culture that supports effective
planning, communication, accountability and employee empowerment. We
are developing the internal framework to employ smart policing by
taking a results-oriented, data-driven approach that effectively meets
current and future threats and challenges. We will continue to deliver
safety and security by deploying effective law enforcement services
through collaboration, adaptability and innovation. We will strive for
organizational excellence to maximize efficiency and effectiveness
through best practices, while promoting accountability through employee
engagement and a positive work environment. As we carry out these
programs, employees are engaged through routine communications and are
given an opportunity to provide feedback.
At this time, I would like to offer the subcommittee an overarching
summary of our fiscal year 2016 request. I will follow this summary
with a discussion of specific budget items of particular significance
to you and the Department.
The Department's fiscal year 2016 request totals nearly $379
million and represents an overall increase of 8.9 percent, or nearly
$31 million over the fiscal year 2015 enacted funding level of $348
million.
As with other law enforcement agencies, personnel salaries and
overtime represent the majority of our budget each year. As you know,
we are a service organization, and we need dedicated and trained
professionals to provide that service.
The Department's fiscal year 2016 personnel request reflects our
continuous efforts at all levels of management to effectively and
prudently manage our existing resources to achieve the best possible
balance of staff versus overtime to meet mission requirements. We are
constantly analyzing our workforce to align job functions, assignments,
workload, risk management, and organizational readiness along with the
ever-changing threat assessments and mandatory mission requirements
within a dynamic environment.
In light of the fiscal constraints of the Department and the entire
Federal Government, our fiscal year 2016 request again only includes
funding for 1,775 sworn and 370 civilian positions. These are the
staffing levels funded during fiscal year 2015. While the staffing
levels remain static in the fiscal year 2016 request, the funding
request represents an overall increase of approximately 7 percent over
the fiscal year 2015 enacted level. This increase is necessary to
addresses the natural salary increases incurred by the Department, and
increased overtime costs to meet our needs, especially for the 2016
presidential conventions.
As you are aware, the Department's current sworn staffing levels do
not entirely provide the necessary resources to meet all our mission
requirements within the established sworn officer utility or the number
of work-hours in a year that each officer is available to perform work.
This ``utility'' number is used to determine overall staffing
requirements, and balances the utility of available staff with annual
salary and overtime funding along with known mission requirements such
as post coverage, projected unscheduled events such as demonstrations,
late sessions and holiday concerts, and unfunded requirements that
occur after the budget is enacted, such as unforeseen critical
emergency situations. Because of the need to fill the mission
requirement gap through overtime, the Department has struggled to pull
our sworn personnel offline to conduct training. In order to achieve
mandatory training, we must utilize overtime to ensure that the
officers may be offline for training, while meeting our daily mission
requirements. There are flexibilities in other law enforcement agencies
in offsetting or deferring daily requirements to allow for training
that our unique mission does not afford.
Thus, mission requirements in excess of available personnel must be
addressed through the identification of efficiencies such as post
realignment and/or reductions, technology, and cutbacks within the
utility. Where necessary, we meet this requirement through the use of
overtime. The Department is currently in the process of implementing an
automated scheduling system to find more efficiency through
information-based management, while developing training and guidance
for supervisors on methods for reducing overtime. Once fully
implemented, this will result in enhancements to a number of policies
and procedures that have a direct and indirect impact on our overtime
needs. At the requested funded staffing levels, the Department's fiscal
year 2016 overtime projection is $30.9 million. This amount will cover
base mission requirements, the conventions, our support of non-
reimbursable events at the Library of Congress and the ability for
sworn employees to be backfilled while they attend necessary and
mandatory training.
The second area I want to cover in some detail is our requested
general expenses budget, which includes protective travel; hiring,
outfitting, and training of new sworn personnel; supplies and
equipment; management systems; non-personnel presidential convention
support and other non-personnel needs. We are requesting $71.4 million
for general expenses, which is an increase of $10 million over the
fiscal year 2015 enacted level. No new initiatives or program increases
are included in this request. The increase results from normal
increases in operating costs, convention costs, the cost to life cycle
key items and routine equipment and systems, and the restoration of
annual levels reduced in previous fiscal years to meet regular
Department needs.
With resources provided to the Department, our officers provide a
safe environment for the facilities of Capitol Hill. For the U.S.
Capitol Building alone, we provided a secure and open environment for
well over 1.5 million square feet, over 600 rooms, approximately 850
doorways, and miles of corridors; which speaks to the vast magnitude of
our mission and how our ability to remain agile and prepared to respond
is key to the accomplishment of our mission. In fiscal year 2014, the
Department performed over 9.6 million screenings of people entering
congressional buildings (including over 1.4 million visitors to the
Capitol Visitor Center). Outside the buildings we kept the Capitol
grounds safe by conducting more than 125,000 K-9 vehicle sweeps and
nearly 27,000 offsite vehicle inspections.
For the fifth year in a row, the Department has implemented uniform
procedures to effectively measure and justify U.S. Capitol Police
planning, program, and resource requirements through a comprehensive,
standardized, and repeatable management process, which we call the
``Force Development Business Process.'' It provides for a transparent
decisionmaking process, including reviews and approvals by an
Investment Review Board made up of key agency management, and provides
a structure that is results-driven and based on meeting operational
needs. In addition, in order to ensure the accuracy of our budget
request, our fiscal year 2016 budget went through multiple layers of
review and validation, and is traceable to supporting documentation for
each budget element.
Further, we continue our work to close audit recommendations and to
address our material weaknesses from prior audits by working closely
with our Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office to
address identified issues and by providing the evidence necessary to
close findings. In particular, I am pleased to report that the
Department received a fourth consecutive unqualified ``clean'' opinion
on our financial statements. Also in fiscal year 2014, we have worked
closely with the Office of Inspector General to close 29
recommendations and have completed actions that we believe could lead
to closure of another eight recommendations. Also, the Department
successfully closed all findings from outstanding GAO reports and
closed four complete OIG audits that have been open since 2008.
Further, we are working on the resolution of a number of other
recommendations in order to achieve efficiency and effectiveness of our
administrative programs. The long-term resolution of recommendations
related to internal controls, business processes and material
weaknesses remains of the highest importance to our management team.
I am grateful for your time today. We will continue to work closely
with you to make sure that we meet the needs of our mission in a
reasonable and responsible manner. I want to thank the women and men of
the USCP for their commitment to our mission and their support. I
appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today and would be glad
to answer any questions you may have at this time.
Senator Capito. Thank you. I thank all three of you for
your testimony, and I join the voice of my ranking member here
in thanking you for what you do for us every day and the
general public and really for the country. So I want to make
sure I get that on the record as well.
I want to begin with questions for the Secretary of the
Senate. You have asked for a request to upgrade the Financial
Management Information System (FMIS). But as I understand it,
you are going to have 6 years of budget requests to get you
fully up to speed. In my view, 6 years is a lifetime in any
kind of computer programming or software, and my concern is--
and I am wondering if you have the same concern--is it possible
by the time you get to full implementation, you are behind the
curve again? What would your comments be on that?
Ms. Adams. That is a good question. I think anytime a 6-
year project--certainly that does probably raise some eyebrows.
But our team, our planners have really done a lot of their
homework to put this plan into place. And the software that we
will procure will be software that will still work when it is
fully modernized. They will be purchasing the stuff that is in
production. While we are moving through the phases, if they
know that the third phase has gotten new software that we will
need, they will make sure that it is the most current form that
is available. And we will all be supported when we are done.
But I understand. Six years does sound like a long time.
The benefit of doing it over 6 years, though, is truly--I
want to make sure all the stakeholders that use FMIS have a
system that works in the end that truly works for them. And by
jamming it in in a shorter period of time, my concern is that
we will not meet all the needs of the Senate in that amount of
time. The shortest amount of time that we could do this in
would be 3 years, and that would really be pushing it. We would
likely need to add some additional full-time equivalents
(FTE's) to that in order to support it, and there would also be
some stuff for them on the Sergeant at Arms side in terms of
their support. Making sure that we have staff that is up to
speed and that they can support it when it is done, the 6 years
gives us the time to get staff up to speed so that when it is
done, we are not having to use contractor support and we have
more internal support.
Senator Capito. So basically the 6-year timeline, if you
were to squeeze it down--that was going to be my next question.
Can you get it done in 3 years? Can you get it done in 1 year?
Basically you are telling me that is not the advice that you
are----
Ms. Adams. It is not the advice that our folks that have
done all the planning--they have looked at other Federal
agencies that have systems to see how long do these sort of
things take to implement. And, you know, 3 years is really
pushing it. That would be the minimum number that we would be
able to.
Senator Capito. Well, maybe this time next year, when you
have implemented the first year, we can return to this question
because I think it is something that we want to make sure we
are modernizing to the point where it actually is modern at the
time that it concludes.
Ms. Adams. I agree. I agree.
Senator Capito. I would like to ask the Sergeant at Arms.
You mentioned your priorities, safety and security, cyber
health, customer relations, preparedness and partnerships. You
know, just a general question about number one on the safety
and security issue. Obviously, there are threats everywhere.
What kind of coordination are you doing in terms of being able
to assess what a terrorist threat to the Capitol is? I mean, I
am probably the only one of the five of us--well, maybe Julie
was here. I know you were in DC at the time on September the
11th. And I understand you were in New York City. You know, as
time has gone on here on the Capitol complex, I know we still
have the heightened awareness of that. But are the threats
more, less, or without being too specific, could you give us an
idea of where you see these threats presently on the Capitol
complex itself?
Mr. Larkin. Absolutely, Chairman.
The threat picture right now is very dynamic. And again, I
think that you can look at the information that we are getting
from the media and also from companion testimony from other
Government leaders up here on the Hill recently. We are in an
environment where we have a full spectrum of threat that not
only encompasses what we have seen overseas associated with al
Qaeda, ISIL, ISIS, and others, but then we are seeing more and
more here on the domestic front where we are encountering self-
radicalized or self-motivated individuals. And some of these
individuals are in communications with folks outside our
domestic environment, again taking direction, somewhat
supported either financially or with information resources. And
then there are others that are fully independent, and they are
the ones that remain the toughest target in the sense of
identifying them in advance of some type of act that they would
like to perform.
The only way that we are going to be able to stay ahead of
this is, as you alluded to, close communications and
coordination with our Federal partners and in some cases with
some of our trusted allies who, again, are dealing with much of
the same challenge, both with their assets overseas and their
own homelands. We are in daily contact with the intelligence
community. We are in daily contact, again, both with the House
Sergeant at Arms Office and the U.S. Capitol Police, with our
law enforcement partners, the FBI, Secret Service, Park Police,
the folks that are generic to the Capitol campus but we are
also in touch with law enforcement agencies that have a nexus
to each of the member offices in their respective States of
jurisdiction.
And again, as we see telltales or indicators that something
is not right, we are very aggressive in pursuing and getting to
the bottom of exactly what is taking place. And together with
that is being able to get effective notifications out to
members and staffs and so forth so that they have a level of
awareness that we are working something, that we have got it
contained, or its in motion and that they need to, along with
our assets, increase their vigilance.
Senator Capito. Thank you and thank you for that. I think
the communication is much improved over what it has been, and I
think that is something that we need to keep on top of.
U.S. CAPITOL POLICE MORALE
To the Chief, we talked just briefly as I came in. We
talked about the situation last night in Ferguson with two
police officers being shot, and I do not know what the details
of that are now but it certainly is a tragedy for everybody.
And I know that there have been some morale questions for
the Capitol Police. Certainly the greater question of law
enforcement in general--you have been in this field for
decades. We are having sort of a national discussion. Are you
finding within the Capitol Police these same kind of pushes and
pulls between the general public and law enforcement? What is
your perspective on that? And how do you perceive the morale of
the Capitol Police right now?
Chief Dine. Well, to the first part, the pushes and pulls I
think that law enforcement face across the country sort of
highlight the uniqueness of the U.S. Capitol Police. We are
essentially an amalgamation of multiple law enforcement
agencies rolled into one. A lot is asked of our agency, and it
highlights the importance that we maintain the nimbleness and
ability to confront all types of threats and issues as we
provide safety and security throughout the Capitol complex.
That is very critical. We are kind of a combination of an urban
department. We do investigations. We do a lot of intelligence
work, and we have continued to raise the bar as it relates to
intelligence. The challenge is pushing that type of information
out to our entire agency so that we can continue to provide
safety and security not only here but to member offices, deal
with threats, and investigations. Obviously our checkpoints and
our doors are critical, which is why the training is so
important to our agency, and we appreciate the support you
provided us.
One of the unique challenges that we face is training.
Unlike more traditional agencies, when we provide training to
our officers, we have to take officers offline and then use
overtime to fill those back positions. More traditional
departments can significantly change the level of staffing out
in the street from day-to-day and tour-to-tour. Part of that
points then to my mission of making sure that our agency from
top to bottom is cohesive, that we have a cohesive management
team that understands the mission that we face and those
nuances and the uniqueness of who we are and what we do. I
think that relates often to the morale piece. It is imperative
that we understand that we are one police organization that is
more important than any one individual, that we understand what
our roles and responsibilities are, and the more and better
people understand that, which is my role as Chief of Police to
make sure the management team and all of our leaders and
managers and officials within the agency are a cohesive team.
And in that way, we can best address the morale.
Senator Capito. Thank you.
PERCENTAGE OF FEMALE OFFICERS
Just a real quick question. Then I will ask my ranking
member. I want to get on the record, Chief--I asked you when I
was over at your headquarters what percent of your force is
female. Could you put that on the record for us?
Chief Dine. Yes, ma'am. We are proud of the fact that it is
about 18 percent.
Senator Capito. I think you are doing better than the
Senate.
Senator Schatz.
POTENTIAL IMPACT OF SEQUESTER LEVELS IN FISCAL YEAR 2016
Senator Schatz. Thank you, Madam Chair.
The Budget Control Act imposes spending caps that were
designed to limit discretionary spending. And I support and
many others support adjusting those caps to a more responsible
level, which would be closer in line with the request your
agencies have made to the subcommittee.
The cap in place for fiscal year 2016 would provide a .2
percent increase over the 2015 level. Yet, today we are
examining an increase of almost 9 percent for Capitol Police,
4.4 percent for the Sergeant at Arms, and 9.6 percent for the
Secretary of the Senate. And I should say I find these
increases to be totally reasonable, but not fundable unless we
deal with the sequester.
Chief Dine, the adjustments in the Budget Control Act (BCA)
caps in fiscal year 2014 and 2015 allowed your force to restore
the number of sworn officers protecting the campus to pre-
sequester levels and allowed the force to reinstate training
that had been canceled under sequester. And I understand you
were able to put all of the officers through active shooter
training. I am worried that these activities will be difficult,
if not impossible, to afford if we go back to the sequester.
Your budget request includes $17.4 million just to maintain the
current number of officers, plus an additional $13.5 million
for critical back-of-the-house support such as replacing 35
computer servers that are past their warranty.
So, Chief, if the budget for the Capitol Police was limited
to the current sequester levels, would you have to reduce the
number of officers on patrol, and what would happen to
training?
Chief Dine. Yes, sir. Thank you. I think there are several
key points.
Our fiscal year 2016 budget request includes approximately
$5 million of a one-time costs for the protection we provide
for the presidential conventions that was not part of the
fiscal year 2015 budget. This is a longstanding function in
which we engage every 4 years and does require additional funds
primarily for overtime and travel costs. Nearly $2 million in
overtime and $3 million in travel costs go to fund these
activities.
Secondly, the enacted level of the fiscal year 2015 budget
for salaries is less than the amount needed to fund the fiscal
year 2016 to fully fund, as you noted, the 1,775 sworn and 370
civilians' overtime and training costs. There are increases in
salaries due to normal salary increases for the existing staff,
annualization of the 2015 living increase, increases in benefit
costs, and also the additional day of pay due to leap year in
fiscal year 2016 that are not matched over fiscal year 2015.
If the funding levels for fiscal year 2016 are to be frozen
at the fiscal year 2015 levels, it will require us to absorb
the above increases in salaries and the one-time presidential
convention costs. We projected that will force us to reduce our
staff by approximately 250 people, which is significant. In
addition, we would have to cancel necessary training for the
planned officers and, as we discussed, training for our
department is critical in all phases.
This type of reduction in staff will force us to reduce--
curtail coverage in critical areas impacting the normal
functioning of the Capitol complex such as reduction or
elimination of mission support to minimal levels, reduce
protection and coverage of the congressional leadership, reduce
threat validation significantly, reduce post coverage, and an
inability to potentially provide coverage for certain response
capability and services. It may also affect our hazardous
material and hazardous device responses.
Obviously, what will be required and what we continually do
is to work with our stakeholders to make sure the required
reductions take place without creating significant security
issues. These reductions will result in impacts to access and
convenience areas throughout the complex, however.
Senator Schatz. But there would be fewer officers on
patrol, less money for training, if any money for training.
Chief Dine. Yes, sir.
Senator Schatz. And as a result, fewer doors and less
training. That is just as a starting point.
Chief Dine. Yes, sir.
Senator Schatz. Thank you, Chief.
Mr. Sergeant at Arms, assuming flat funding for 2016, would
the Sergeant at Arms Office have to delay the requested
upgrades for the IT systems, or would you be able to make
adjustments in other places?
Mr. Larkin. Senator, first of all, I think you have to look
at your question in two prongs, at least from the Sergeant at
Arms. One is the personnel and the other is non-personnel
expense.
With regard to personnel, we could probably absorb that
strain internally, and part of that is due to the fact that we
have an ongoing effort right now to look at our job tasks and
our personnel that are matched against those job tasks to see
if they are still relevant. And in some cases, we are re-
engineering and repurposing our personnel as we see evolutions
in technology where the technology can take up for some of the
FTE work, applying that, and balancing that, and it is an
ongoing process.
The other aspect of the personnel is that we are converting
some of our contractor positions over to Government positions,
which then yield savings to our bottom line.
Now, on the equipment side--and they are both linked--is
that we would have to prioritize our equipment investments and
certainly our refresh and either extending our refresh out,
which is sort of the situation that we were in here about 2
months ago where because decisions were previously made to
extend the refresh of equipment, we found ourselves challenged
one night, as you are well aware. And we were able to quickly
recover, but yet it certainly brought to everyone's--to the
forefront what can happen when a critical component fails
unexpectedly.
Now, what I feel will suffer is--and again, this is about
prioritization--extending those refreshes, potentially pushing
other equipment change-out or software change-outs further out
to other budget years. What I think would suffer would be
innovation. And again, I go back to some of the technical
advances that we see allow us to create a level of increase in
efficiencies and savings that I think that would also suffer.
So we would wind up in that do loop of trying to keep our lips
above water and support the Senate effectively.
Senator Schatz. Thank you.
And, Ms. Adams, I assume under the BCA levels, you would
have to delay the upgrade of your financial management system?
Ms. Adams. Yes, Senator, we would.
Senator Schatz. Thank you very much.
PREPARATION FOR POPE FRANCIS VISIT
I have a quick question about the preparation for the visit
of Pope Francis this September, and if you could just briefly
talk, each of you, about how you are preparing for it just
operationally. But the other question I have is do you bake in
an assumption about visiting dignitaries, or is something on
the order of magnitude of Pope Francis visiting--you are not
able to kind of regularly account for it in your annual
budgeting process? Is this going to be a hit to your budget, or
can you absorb it? That is one question.
The other question is what you are doing operationally to
make sure it is smooth and safe. Maybe starting with the Chief.
Chief Dine. Yes, sir, thank you.
Our Office of Administration estimates the costs for these
types of events, based on the requirements that are provided by
our operations, and those costs and the planning around those
costs is based on a risk/threat, available intelligence, and
appropriate response and duration of those types of events
obviously.
Normally we project a certain number of hours to be used
for these types of unscheduled events. Usually it is about
20,000 hours. But that is based on the events that we know of,
such as Congressional Delegation trips (CODEL's), known
protests such as the annual national grass-roots organization
of disability rights activists (ADAPT) type protests and other
special events that normally occur during the year that cannot
be projected for any type of pay period. The demonstrations and
anticipated activity resulting--as you mentioned earlier,
surrounding things like Ferguson, the Concert of Valor which
took place right next to us this past summer, the Israeli prime
minister visit, and the Pope visit later this year--those were
not anticipated, and those are in excess of the 20,000 hours
that we currently budget. It is a combination of fluidity in
terms of us budgeting for those types of events which we know
about and can foresee and project and those that are not.
For example, the Ferguson west front event required the
deployment of our civil disturbance unit, utilizing
approximately 2,500 hours of overtime and associated
enhancements and then we had to continue those. The papal visit
will be significant in planning and scope, similar to an
inauguration or perhaps even surpassing that. We anticipate
very, very, large crowds all during that day, much earlier than
prior to even before the Pope coming up to the Capitol, lining
all the streets. It is a huge and very significant event.
Now, we do a great job. Our officers do an outstanding job
working with the law enforcement community both here in the
region and across the country. We work in the field with them
seamlessly, and as you know--you have been to our command
center. During those major events, if one came to our command
center, you would see all of our partner agencies there working
with us. But that is a huge event that goes above and beyond
our budget.
Senator Schatz. Thank you.
Mr. Larkin.
Mr. Larkin. Thank you, Senator.
For the events that we know that occur each year on the
calendar, again, they are easy to forecast and provide a
projection. It is for these events that, again, occur out of
cycle from our budget cycle where, again, we can take a hit
financially on the amount of resources that we have to apply to
effect support for those visits, the papal visit being a good
example.
Right now, it appears that we are in a good place. However,
we do not know what we do not know. They are actively planning.
The State Department is working with the Vatican and also local
resources here to really scope what that visit is going to
entail. The Metropolitan Police Department, a great department,
is one that we have a great relationship with them. But the
fact is no one police department in DC can lift the strain of
this visit alone. So it really requires a significant mutual
aid effort that not only involves the departments here in the
District of Columbia but also involve outside resources. And
all those resources need to be coordinated, need to be
supported in order to address what we fully expect to be a mass
of humanity that will show up for this event. I have been
involved in a number of papal events and have protected a
number of Popes, and it is unlike any other--the closest
comparison would be an inaugural. But this will go over and
above an inaugural.
In addition, depending on where he goes on the eastern
seaboard, we could very well be asked to contribute personnel
to other cities such as Philadelphia and New York just by
virtue of the fact that our police officers here, our
departments here are very familiar with these type of events,
and as his events take place in other cities, there could be a
mutual aid request to send and deploy forces there in support.
Senator Schatz. Ms. Adams.
Ms. Adams. We do not anticipate any new costs for the
Secretary's Office. Our involvement in events--you know, so far
I have only participated in a couple of these with the State of
the Union and the most recent visit by Prime Minister
Netanyahu. But our Office of Interparliamentary Services will
work with the Sergeant at Arms Protocol Office, but there
should not be any new costs that come to our office.
Senator Schatz. Thank you.
And we here want to make sure that this is successful and
seamless and safe. And then on the budgeting side, on the
appropriations side, maybe we can at least stay in touch to
see--I know it is going to be a moving target, but I would sure
hate for the chair to be surprised next year about a shortfall.
But there is no reason to do anything less than everything that
is necessary to make sure that everybody, including and
especially the Pope, is safe.
DRONES AND DEFENSE TACTICS
Chief Dine, I have a question about drones. Last month,
drones were spotted flying all over Paris, hovering over the
Eiffel Tower. We know that a hobbiest voluntarily admitted to
flying over onto White House grounds. The Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) has released proposed drones regulations,
setting some restrictions, but largely allowing private drone
use. And without getting into a classified conversation or any
of your operational plans, I would just like you to talk a
little bit about how you are ensuring that the Capitol Police
have the latest and best information on drone capabilities and
potential defense tactics.
Chief Dine. Yes, sir. Thank you.
The Capitol Police actually has had an airspace coordinator
for the past 12 years, and we actively work with other law
enforcement partners on a variety of issues, including the
challenges we face regarding the unmanned aerial vehicles, or
UAVs. In fact, 2 weeks ago, U.S. Capitol Police facilitated a
meeting with over 20 law enforcement agencies regarding drones,
and the meeting focused on four key areas: the general issues
and concerns with these types of UAVs, the current laws that
each agency follows and would use to prosecute such types of
events--and we actually had people from the U.S. Attorney's
Office, local prosecutors at the meeting as well--the types of
tools for responding to these kinds of challenges, and lastly,
the development of a common and consistent message to the
community because that is also important in terms of educating
our community about these types of vehicles and what would be
legal and not legal. Of course, we discussed a number of other
related aspects.
We do work with all of our law enforcement partners on a
daily basis in coordination not only regarding UAVs but a
variety of other airspace issues. We are very plugged into this
issue because of the fact that we have had an airspace
coordinator, and you are familiar with some of the capabilities
we have in our command center. This unique challenge is
something that we need to stay on top of consistently and be
plugged in at the highest levels with all of our partner
agencies to make sure that we have the capability and
adaptability and nimbleness to respond.
Obviously, as it relates to the specific tactics and
approaches, I would be glad to meet with you in a private forum
to discuss some of the capabilities and things that are being
looked at more specifically to combat these types of things. We
are very plugged into the issue and aware of the challenges
that they bring.
PUBLIC ACCESS POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
Senator Schatz. Chief Dine, I want to ask you about the
unique mission that the Capitol Police have to contend with,
arguably different than any other police force, which is the
foundation of American democracy, access to citizens and staff
and the press to the Capitol campus. And yet, you have an
incredible obligation to protect the members and the staff and
the citizens.
And I understand almost 10 million people last year came
through the doors, and these are a lot of different doors. Each
entry point is unique and traffic volume fluctuates, and some
are mostly visitors. Some are members. Others are staff and
advocates. But it is an incredible challenge to balance those
two things leaning heavily on the safety and the security side,
but understanding that you still have to move people
efficiently and that a lot of times this is someone from some
other State and their only time in their life to really be in
the midst of American style democracy in this particular
fashion. So I recognize the challenge that the force has and
that your officers have.
How do you ensure what policies and procedures and what
training do you have in place to make sure that you have alert
officers at all times throughout their shifts?
Chief Dine. We do a number of things. We rotate officers
through their posts. We give them a number of breaks. One of
the things that we have been doing much more aggressively, as I
alluded to earlier, was pushing out key pieces of intelligence
information. It keeps them focused and alert and cognizant of
the various types of challenges that we face.
As you mentioned and as I mentioned earlier, we are kind of
an amalgamation of multiple types of agencies, and we take very
seriously and are very proud of the fact that we are protectors
literally of the democratic process, but we are also
ambassadors. Our role as America's police department is such
that when people come to the United States Capitol from all
over the world, we want, when they see our officers who are
often the first faces that they see when they come here and
often the last face they see, that they have just encountered
the best in American policing. That is what we want them to
believe and feel and see when they see us.
The alertness of our officers is critical. The various
types of threats that we face as they are moving people around
this very open campus, as we know, is quite a challenge, and
obviously it is imperative that our officers are alert and on
watch 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We engage in all those
types of activities to make sure that they are in that mode.
CELL PHONE POLICY
Senator Schatz. What is your policy on cell phones?
Chief Dine. We have a policy, obviously, that precludes
folks from not paying full time and attention to their duties
while they are on their posts.
Senator Schatz. Is it a general prohibition on being
distracted, or is there a specific reference to use of smart
phones and cell phones?
Chief Dine. Both, but we do give phones to our officials
and some officers have phones, but we want them to refrain from
using them while on post. As you know, we moved forward last
year, thanks to your support, with our new radio system which
is working splendidly. We want them to utilize a police radio
if they need to call for relief or call for a supervisor or
need to make an emergency phone call or deal with some type of
thing where they need to go offline. Officers have the
capability and adaptability to do that through our police
radio, and then obviously, they can get a break and make a
phone call. But it is imperative based on the significance of
our role that they are paying full time and attention.
Senator Schatz. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Chairwoman.
Senator Capito. Thank you.
I would like to ask a few more questions if the panel will
bear with me here.
I would like to talk to the Sergeant at Arms on the IT
upgrades. You mentioned just briefly--but we did have the
outage in January where the Senate system--the whole network I
think--went down. And you mentioned that the $13 million
increase for this coming year would go a long way to help to
prevent something like that happening again. Could you speak to
what happened and what this upgrade would do to prevent
something like that happening again?
Mr. Larkin. Yes, Chairman. Essentially we had a significant
switch failure at our primary computing facility that was due
for an upgrade during the February recess. However, it failed
in January. No other explanation other than that.
Senator Capito. Was that upgrade in the budget for last
year?
Mr. Larkin. It had been considered for upgrade a number of
years ago, but because of some of the budget pressures, a
decision was made to push out the refresh, which goes back to
Senator Schatz's question about the effects of squeezing our
budgetary line.
The source of the shutdown has been clearly identified. The
new hardware has been installed and is currently being tested
and is due for switch-over very shortly. And we expect that as
far as this type of scenario occurring again, we have mitigated
it with a high degree of confidence. In the event that we
have--again, I do not want to say a similar incident, but an
incident that challenges our systems the way we were challenged
in January, we will have a seamless switch-over to our
alternate computing facility without interruption to services.
Senator Capito. Thank you.
I am going to kind of wade into something here. Another
topical question in front of us today is the use of official or
personal email accounts to conduct business. I guess I am
unclear as to who sets the policy here for the Senate and what
policy exists. I mean, I think this is something that we need
to clarify. Is that something that falls within your domain at
the Sergeant at Arms?
Mr. Larkin. Chairman, I will have to get back to you,
again, with a clear answer on that. Again, obviously, with what
has occurred recently in the news, it has drawn attention to
this. There are policies in place. I would like to get back to
you as to the source of those policies and how well they are
defined.
Senator Capito. Okay, because I am speculating, obviously,
that if you are going to guarantee the security of the networks
of the Senate.gov, that does call into question where is the
security of personal emails. It is not an uncommon practice to
have two accounts. So I would like to follow up on this. I
think it is a discussion we should have here.
HEARING SECURITY
And one other thing for you is--and you and I have talked
about this. There was an occurrence in one of the subcommittee
hearings right after you took the job, where there was a call
to question as to the security that was provided to the
Senators and the witnesses that were testifying because of some
protestors in the room.
I mean, having been in several meetings where this has
occurred, many times folks who want to verbally protest or wave
signs will prepare the panel and the Capitol Police and say
this is what we plan to do. We want to have our protest. And
normally you can contain that easily, and then most of them
will then exit the room or sit quietly for the remainder of the
committee hearing.
But in this case, it sounded like it sort of got out of
hand. The timeliness of the reaction was questionable. I know
Senator McCain was very upset by what had happened in his
committee.
So I guess both of you would probably be appropriate to
answer this, but I would like to give you as Sergeant at Arms,
because you and I have talked about this, what kind of
protocols you are putting into place to try to alleviate that
situation.
Mr. Larkin. First of all, Chairman, the McCain incident was
underwhelming and ineffective response, which drew the
attention to the fact that we have high profile hearings that
occur almost daily on this campus. It motivated a look at our
procedures. It also created an opportunity to get together with
the new committees and ensure that everybody was in sync with
the committee processes and how to deal with these scenarios,
should they occur. The Capitol Police was very much involved in
that effort, along with the Sergeant at Arms and the
Secretary's Office, again, to ensure that everybody was
operating on the same playing field and understood what the
expectations were as far as conducting a committee hearing or,
for that matter, conduct that would be inappropriate in a
member's office by one of these groups that would show up
unannounced to voice their opinion.
There was significant focus on not obstructing their free
speech. However, as you alluded to, we accomplished getting
with these groups in advance of these hearings clearly
outlining what was appropriate behavior and what was not
appropriate behavior and then informing them as to what the
consequences would be.
Personally I directed the Capitol Police department as the
Chairman of the Police Board that anyone that is to be removed
from a hearing room for inappropriate behavior, whether it
presented a safety issue or a security issue, would be
arrested.
Senator Capito. Is that a new policy?
Mr. Larkin. That is a policy that had been exercised in the
past. However, I clarified that policy so that there would be
no misinterpretation as to when it would be enforced. And we,
again, got together with the committees, informed them of that.
Since these new processes have been in place, we have not
had any problems. We have had incidents, but they have been
quickly brought under control. Folks who have elected to voice
their opinion about various subjects have been allowed to do
so, but then when they have been warned, they either comply or
they are removed from the hearing room.
Senator Capito. Chief Dine, did you want to make a comment
on that?
Chief Dine. I can echo those remarks from the Sergeant at
Arms. Our response that day was not acceptable and not up to
our high standards. It did allow us to work with the Sergeant
at Arms and his staff and all the committees to highlight
further the communication between us, the Sergeant at Arms
staff, and the committees so we know ahead of time the
expectations of all parties.
We generally do an outstanding job at liaisoning with these
groups. Almost on a daily basis we protect the First Amendment
and the people's right to be heard up here. As an agency we
take that very, very seriously and, frankly, are very proud of
the manner in which we do that. That being said, the work of
the Congress must go on uninterrupted, and when we need to take
action, we need to do that.
It allowed us to formulate some better training, working
with our General Counsel's office who provides us outstanding
assistance. We actually are providing scenario-based training
so our officers and officials are extremely confident when they
are in these types of situations in terms of what actions to
take and what different laws apply. As Mr. Larkin said, they do
that on a daily basis very well generally. It allowed us to
strengthen the communication, the training, and the clarity
about which we want the officers to act.
Senator Capito. Well, thank you.
USCP OVERTIME
I am going to ask another budgetary question here. I
understand that striking the best balance between the cost of
on-board officers and the cost of overtime has been a
persistent struggle for the Capitol Police. The projected
overtime costs for fiscal year 2016 are $30.9 million, and the
budget request maintains, as we have said, the current officer
strength at 1,775.
So I am curious to know from the leadership's perspective,
both Chief Dine and Sergeant at Arms as chairman of the Capitol
Police Board, where things stand today. Is this the best we can
do? Is it possible to drive down overtime costs, or does
maintaining the 1,775 officers mean that we will always have a
$30 million cost of overtime? Chief Dine?
Chief Dine. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. I think there are a
couple key points that relate to this question.
The first one being the mission requirements of the
department significantly exceed the staffing levels we have.
There will always be the necessity of overtime.
Senator Capito. Could I ask just a quick question here?
Because you and I talked about this. Your staffing level is at
1,775. You are authorized for more officers. Correct? Or is
that your statutory limit?
Chief Dine. We are authorized 1,800 sworn positions.
Senator Capito. 1,800?
Chief Dine. Yes, ma'am.
Senator Capito. Okay. Continue. Sorry.
Chief Dine. What is asked of the agency has historically
exceeded our ability to do that without overtime. Our
requirements just exceed the staffing levels we have. There
always will be some use of overtime in certain situations like
this, and often it is more practical than having excess
capacity. It frankly makes us more nimble in a lot of ways.
However, there are additional fiscal year 2016 overtime costs
related to the conventions.
The other key point that I mentioned earlier was part of
our overtime cost relates to training needs because we have to
backfill people when we take them off line for training, which
is a little bit different than most other departments would
operate.
We obviously work continually with the Capitol Police Board
to determine that balance, to try to strike that correct
balance between overtime and what we request in a given fiscal
year. If we were to ask for more officers ever in the future,
it would still not offset overtime for that year because of the
time it takes to get officers on board. I mean, that is sort of
a hypothetical answer. It takes about a year to get full
utility from officers even when we hire them. I have obviously
directed our COO and CAO to continually monitor overtime costs
and strike that best balance between where we are fiscally with
the use of overtime and the number of people we have on board.
Right now, we are not at 1,775 either. We are always
striving to get to that number.
Senator Capito. Where are you right now?
Chief Dine. Probably around 1,730 or----
Senator Capito. Is that built into your budget that you are
50 under?
Chief Dine. Yes, ma'am. The budget is built to get to
1,775.
So it is a constant, I guess, striking that best balance
between staffing and overtime. And as I mentioned, the overtime
amount for what we are requesting is almost $2 million for the
conventions and training is about $1.5 million.
Senator Capito. Sergeant at Arms, do you have a comment on
your overview? And I am curious to know, do you have overtime
in your department? Do you pay overtime on your budget?
Mr. Larkin. There is some overtime components, but it is
for particular employees that are working in like our parking
areas and some of the other, what I would say, ground support
activities.
Senator Capito. So what comment would you make in terms of
the $30 million overtime at the Capitol Police?
Mr. Larkin. Well, first of all, as chairman of the Police
Board, it is incumbent upon me and the House Sergeant at Arms
and the Architect who make up the Police Board to provide
effective oversight on this overtime issue. Fortunately, my
deputy with his extensive appropriations background has been
invaluable in the examination of the police budget and the
overtime factor.
I think this is going to be an ongoing challenge as we try
to adjust the force to the threat conditions that challenge the
Capitol and also for the no-notice or those activities that are
not planned for or budgeted for in advance.
I will say, Chairman, that one of the things that continues
to haunt the force and our staffing is the discussion about
opening up doors. That does not come without a cost in human
resources and a financial cost, let alone a security challenge
that it presents to our armor, so to speak.
Senator Capito. One of my colleagues just hit me the other
day. They ought to reopen that door, the one down at the----
Mr. Larkin. Well, I can understand. You know, security is a
balance between what is effective against a threat, you know,
applying some common sense and reality as to how we can
effectively defend against a threat. And I am not talking about
goal line defense. I am talking about getting out ahead of the
threat, getting to it early so that we mitigate, minimize any
destruction. But you got that dynamic tension between that and
inconvenience. And there is also a factor of perception. In
other words, does your perception of security and a secure
environment match the functional security against that threat?
And obviously, if you are close to an incident such as 9/11,
then you have a high expectation for security. You kind of
trade off a lot of the inconvenience that comes with security.
The more you move away from that date, then you see that
pressure. But you have to accept that you also potentially are
putting yourselves more into a vulnerable position.
Senator Capito. Right. Thank you.
Senator.
Senator Schatz. Thank you.
Senator Capito. Well, I think I have no further questions.
And this concludes the Legislative Branch Appropriations
Subcommittee hearing regarding fiscal year 2016. I want to
thank the Secretary of the Senate, the Sergeant at Arms, and
the Chief of the Capitol Police. Thank you each for your
testimony and your frankness in your answering questions.
ADDITIONAL COMMITTEE QUESTIONS
The hearing record will remain open for 7 days, allowing
members to submit statements and/or questions for the record
which should be sent to the subcommittee by close of business
on Thursday, March 19th, 2015.
[The following questions were not asked at the hearing, but
were submitted to the agencies for response, subsequent to the
hearing:]
Questions Submitted to Hon. Frank J. Larkin
Questions Submitted by Senator Shelley Moore Capito
Question. Does the SAA currently utilize, or plan to implement, a
cloud computing based information technology infrastructure to operate
and deliver programs to the public?
Answer. The SAA is not currently utilizing a specific cloud
computing based IT infrastructure, however, the Senate is already
utilizing multiple separate cloud services primarily focused on public
access to information. We are taking advantage of cloud services where
they make the most sense for our environment, including: Committee
Video Streaming; Senate.Gov Website Serving; Web development tools/code
repository, Application Platform as a Service, Document repository,
Document Sharing; Office File Storage, Synchronization, &
Collaboration; Social Media; Senate Floor Video Streaming; Live Video
Streaming; Video Streaming; Social Media Archiving; Geographic
Information Services.
Cloud Computing is a very general term that encompasses a large
number of service types that are frequently very complex. The SAA is
continually researching and evaluating these services and taking
advantage of them whenever the benefits to the Senate and/or the public
are clear and measureable. The SAA fully expects to be utilizing more
and more cloud services as we move forward.
Question. Are there particular IT applications like e-mail,
disaster recovery, analytics, or other programs that SAA would consider
moving to cloud computing?
Answer. The SAA has an ongoing Cloud Computing Research and
Evaluation initiative with the goal of making recommendations regarding
cloud computing strategies for the Senate. The scope of this initiative
includes currently available public and private cloud services and will
evaluate all IT services provided by the SAA with respect to them.
Nothing is off the table from an IT perspective, however, there are
many other considerations such as data custody, data security, cost,
reliability, and performance, just to name a few.
Question. With today's mobile workforce, how does SAA provide
availability, while ensuring data governance and security?
Answer. The SAA provides Mobile Device Management technologies and
on-campus wireless network access to offices, which we use to apply
fundamental security controls. Additional security controls are under
the purview of the office system administrator. Although the SAA does
not have authority to control or view the data transmitted, stored, or
processed on these devices, we nonetheless offer training and guidance
to offices on how they can best secure their information.
Question. What are SAA's plans to leverage technologies like data
or video analytics, to provide more proactive security measures on
Capitol Hill?
Answer. The SAA works with the U.S. Capitol Police and our Federal
law enforcement partners to research and examine various forms of new
technology that show potential for use as security multipliers on
Capitol Hill and the member State offices. These forms include data or
video analytics as well as other technical security methods. The SAA
will continue to consider new technology, their associated deployment
capabilities and costs, as they relate to mitigating current/relevant
threats and risks.
______
Questions Submitted to Hon. Kim C. Dine
Questions Submitted by Senator Shelley Moore Capito
expenses account
Question. The requested increase includes $1.4 million for
Government support services from the National Finance Center and the
creation of an in-house capability for applicant testing and background
investigations. It appears as though you are proposing to contract out
for something that could be handled within the Department's Office of
Human Resources, while at the same time you are proposing to create an
in-house capability that would make more sense to contract out. Please
explain why the Capitol Police needs to purchase support services from
the National Finance Center and create an in-house capability for
background investigations.
Answer. The $1.4 million budget request is intended to upgrade
current HR processing functions with the National Finance Center (NFC)
and the expansion of an in-house capability to conduct employee
background investigations that were previously conducted by
contractors.
When the sequester took effect, the Department discontinued using
an automated staffing tool with a performance management component that
was very costly. The Department currently uses mainframe technology
which is antiquated and inefficient to process personnel actions with
NFC, which is our payroll system of record. This request will fund a
one-time cost to upgrade to a new platform with the National Finance
Center using technology that automates personnel action processing,
managers self-service, position management and offers an add-on
component called ePerformance. ePerformance is a self-service
performance evaluation application for managers, employees and human
resources administrators. This new platform also offers capability to
interface with USAStaffing which is the Department's cost saving
automated staffing tool that supports paperless onboarding to provide
end to end processing throughout an employee's career lifecycle.
Regarding the expansion of the Department's background
investigation capability, recent current events had generated
significant concerns surrounding the accountability and security of PII
information and the rising costs of cases being investigated through
contracted support. Due to such risk, we already are performing more
in-house, and this funding will allow us to fully fund and stabilize
that effort. Bringing the investigations in-house has minimized the
risk of security breaches on Capitol Hill and has allowed for a more
thorough investigation into each candidate to include subject
interviews, and to interview key individuals in an applicant's sphere
of contacts to insure the agency hires the right people who possess the
qualities, values and character outlined in the Capitol Police Board's
hiring standards. The Department will no longer rely completely on
external support to conduct field investigations but will instead
perform more of the investigative work and provide controlled oversight
of personnel security. This initiative includes merger of the Badging
and Credentials and Background Investigations Sections to ensure the
integrity of PII, quality, timeliness and eventual cost effectiveness
of investigations through internal continuity. This effort also
improves the alignment of business processes and expertise with well-
defined roles and responsibilities to perform this critical work for
the Department. The proposed expansion is designed to eliminate
vulnerabilities and instill confidence in our stakeholders.
Question. There are a multitude of requested increases throughout
the general expenses budget that pertain to training. Will this funding
level be a new baseline for training needs in future fiscal years?
Answer. This is another area that has suffered due to the budgetary
constraints of the last several years. Our increase for training is to
restore us to training levels throughout the Department that existed
about 5 years ago.
There is training that occurs every year. The training of our new
recruits is our most significant training effort and our request each
year is based on the number of recruits we project to hire. This
request is based on ensuring that we maintain our current funded
staffing levels of 1,775 sworn officers. However, the on-going training
of our sworn officers is the next most significant training effort.
Training for our civilian personnel is also critical. This involves
non-personnel costs and personnel costs, as we need to relieve the
officers from their ongoing duties to take the training and that
backfill costs results in projected overtime for the Department. The
non-personnel costs involved in officer training is fairly static each
year.
Many of the increases in our request this year is for individual
training for officers, officials and civilians, which is reflected in
various places in our budget as it affects nearly every bureau and
office, not just a targeted group within the Department. In tight
fiscal situations this is the training that must be deferred first, as
the previous two trainings have the highest priority. But we are asking
to restore training for only the highest needs of the Department and
are incurring the biggest increases in our most technological entities.
The technical training, particular in security services, IT and cyber,
are areas we want to keep as up to date as possible. We do see these
increases as baseline increases and do not foresee significant
increases after this.
Question. The request includes $2.7 million for travel, rental of
telecommunications equipment, and other purchases associated with the
Republican and Democratic Presidential Conventions scheduled for the
summer of 2016. Is this funding request based on actual expenditures
from the Presidential Conventions in 2012? Knowing that those
conventions are well covered by the Secret Service, the FBI and other
law enforcement agencies, would it be possible for the Capitol Police
to scale back its presence if the full amount of funding requested was
not available?
Answer. The funding request is based on actual expenditures with
normal cost increases. There is no new functionality we plan to
implement that was not performed at prior conventions. The United
States Capitol Police has the primary responsibility for the protection
of Members of Congress, Officers of Congress and immediate family
members of Members and Officers throughout the entire United States,
DC, Territories and Possessions. This, coupled with the scope of
members attending this event and criticality of ensuring both the
Continuation of Government and Continuation of Legislative Operations,
makes the Democratic and Republican Conventions a unique challenge for
the United States Capitol Police.
At all events, but particularly events of this magnitude, the
United States Capitol Police works collaboratively with all of our
partner agencies in a broad array of general law enforcement functions
to include, but not limited to, intelligence gathering, dignitary
protection, law enforcement actions, and other broad measures of
prevention and response capabilities. However, the Capitol Police
focuses our resources to ensure that the Congressional Leadership and
other members of Congress are safe and can participate in the
convention process without fear of harm. This includes, amongst other
functions:
--Securing hotels and spaces for their use in much the same manner as
we secure buildings and spaces on the U.S. Capitol Grounds.
This is often daunting as often multiple hotels are used in the
Convention Cities for members;
--Participating in a multi-agency response team to ensure our law
enforcement experts are available for action and analysis;
--Analyzing intelligence information for a variety of sources to
anticipate and mitigate negative consequence events before they
occur; and most critical,
--Implementing emergency action plans to include shelter-in-place,
internal relocation and full evacuation plans to ensure the
safety of members, the continuation of Government and the
continuity of legislative operations.
The U.S. Capitol Police, at the direction of the Capitol Police
Board and the authority of U.S. Code focuses on the congressional
contingent and their safety. Our resources, which are technical,
mechanical and human, are concentrated to the mission of the Agency. As
such, it is not recommended that our funding is reduced. However, the
U.S Capitol Police will work with our partner agencies, and under the
direction of the Capitol Police Board will strive to reduce operational
expenses at every opportunity.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator Brian Schatz
Question. What is the USCP policy regarding the use of personal
cell phones, personal smart phones, or other personal electronic
devices while on duty?
Answer. The Department policy is that while personal cell phones
may be carried on their person; officers can only use them in case of
emergency. The Department does not tolerate neglect of duty by officers
failing to pay full time and attention to their duties.
The actual policy on attention to duty reads as follows:
Directive 2053.013, Rules of Conduct: Rule B10
Rule B10: Neglect of Duty
Employees will devote their full time and attention to the
performance of their duties at all times while on duty.
The applicable policy on carrying a cell phone on their person is
found in Directive 1701.001, Uniforms and Equipment, Operational
Directive UNF 1.1, Uniforms, Equipment and Personal Grooming:
Personal Pagers/Phones/Communication Devices
1. When worn, personal pagers must be black or dark in color
to blend in with the web gear.
2. Personal cellular type phones that serve as pagers must be
permitted to the extent that they are used as pagers. These
phones must be black or dark in color to blend with the web
gear.
3. Employees are permitted to carry personal cellular phones,
that are black or another color but fully encased in a black
cover. Employees must not use personal cellular phones while on
duty, except in an emergency.
Question. What is the discipline process and penalty for violations
of this policy?
Answer. The disciplinary process for rank and file officers is
found in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) agreed to by the
Department and the Fraternal Order of Police Labor Committee. Penalties
for these types of violations can range from a written warning to
termination based on a series of factors required to be considered in
the CBA when determining disciplinary penalties.
A typical process for a violation of this type is that once an
employee is observed or otherwise found to be Neglecting Duty, which is
defined as failing to devote full time and attention to duty, then
discipline is initiated in one of two ways depending upon a number of
factors.
1. Command Discipline Report is initiated.
Command Discipline is lower level discipline that is initiated
at the Division-level that can result in a written warning up to 3 days
of forfeiture of accrued annual leave. A document is placed in the
personnel file for up to 18 months and this can serve as the basis of
future progressive discipline. The Chief of Police or Designee is the
final adjudicator for this level of discipline.
2. Department-Level Discipline which results in a ``Request for
Disciplinary Action'' which is a more serious type of disciplinary
action can occur, typically as part of progressive discipline. The
result can range from 1 day suspension (at a higher level) through
termination. Disciplinary actions stemming from this more severe type
of disciplinary action can be contested to the Assistant Chief of
designee, or possibly contested to a Disciplinary Review Board,
depending on the level of the recommended penalty. Ultimately, the
Chief of Police is the final adjudicator of this type of discipline.
Officers who have a disciplinary history can receive a much higher
penalty for a repeated violation or continued various violations, based
on their record.
So based on this question, it would be appropriate to advise that
for a Commander to determine the most appropriate level of discipline
and assign an appropriate penalty recommendation for an officer who
improperly uses a cell phone on duty, a Department manager may issue a
penalty that can vary based on the required factors for consideration
found in the CBA: (1) nature and seriousness of the violation, (2) the
employee's record, (3) comparative penalties (within the last 2 years)
and (4) any mitigating factors.
Suffice it to say, there is an established process for
accountability. Disciplinary actions are based on well-founded
observations or evidence stemming from field observation or reports of
investigation. These matters are reviewed at several managerial levels
of management. Employees are fully aware of the charges made against
them and they are permitted to be represented by their Union Stewards.
There is due process in every case and employees are fully able to
appeal or grieve disciplinary actions.
The Department's disciplinary process employs the theory of
progressive discipline, but there is nothing that stops the Department
from assigning a penalty that the adjudicator believes to be
appropriate in any instance in order to hold employees accountable for
their actions. Responsibility for initiating disciplinary actions stems
from field commanders who observe violations or from complaints made to
the Office of Professional Responsibility. The Chief of Police is
ultimately responsible for the overall discipline system.
The Department's management approach to controlling use of personal
cell phones has been to regularly emphasize the need for mission-focus
to our employees and to provide unclassified intelligence bulletins and
briefs on current threats, to employ field supervisor enforcement, and
initiate disciplinary actions when appropriate. The importance of
attentiveness to duty makes it of paramount importance for supervisors
to instill an anti-complacency message in our workforce and this
frequently a topic discussed at roll calls.
SUBCOMMITTEE RECESS
The next hearing of this subcommittee will be held on
Tuesday at 3 p.m. in Dirksen 138. At that time, we will hear
testimony from the Library of Congress and the Architect of the
Capitol regarding fiscal year 2016 budget requests.
Until then, the subcommittee stands adjourned. Thank you.
[Whereupon, at 11:01 a.m., Thursday, March 12, the
subcommittee was recessed, to reconvene subject to the call of
the Chair.]