    [Senate Hearing 116-]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

             LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2020

                                  ----------

                           WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2019

                                           U.S. Senate,
               Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations,
                                                        Washington, DC.

        The subcommittee met at 3:00 p.m., in room SD-124, Dirksen
    Senate Office Building, Hon. Cindy Hyde-Smith (Chairman)
    presiding.
        Present: Senators Hyde-Smith, Lankford, Murphy, and Van
    Hollen.

                LIBRARY OF CONGRESS AND ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL

                 opening statement of senator cindy hyde-smith

        Senator Hyde-Smith. Good afternoon. The subcommittee will
    come to order. I'd like to welcome everyone to the first of our
    fiscal year 2020 budget hearings for the Legislative Branch
    Appropriations Subcommittee. It is also my first hearing as
    Chairman of this subcommittee. I'm grateful to have the
    opportunity, and I'm very grateful that my Mississippi
    architects came to this first meeting. Thank you for being
    here. I look forward to working with my Ranking Member, Senator
    Murphy, and the distinguished Members of this subcommittee in
    crafting responsible funding legislation that supports the
    entire legislative branch of government.
        Today we have with us the Honorable Carla Hayden, Librarian
    of Congress, and Christine Merdon, Acting Architect of the
    Capitol. I appreciate your willingness to appear before the
    subcommittee today, and I certainly look forward to hearing
    your testimony. I'd also like to thank both of you for taking
    the time to meet with me before the hearings and giving me that
    great introduction to your agencies.
        Dr. Hayden, it was a pleasure to visit with you and to see
    some of the treasures that the Library keeps as part of our
    Nation's collection. And I especially enjoyed reading the draft
    report by Clarence Kerns, of the Federal Writers Project,
    describing agriculture on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the
    1930s. So thank you for sharing that special information with
    me.
        And, Ms. Merdon, I appreciate the time we had together in
    my office discussing the Architect of the Capitol's
    jurisdiction, and I'm very pleased to learn that you have some
    Mississippi State University architect grads working on the AOC
    Planning and Project Management Division and the Senate Office
    Buildings jurisdiction.
        I also want to thank your team for their help in my recent
    office move. We greatly appreciate the hard work, and it sure
    went smoothly. It was amazing just what a system that you have.
    It was really good and almost painless.
        Before we discuss the specific details of your requests, I
    would like to touch on the overall outlook of the fiscal year
    2020. Under current law, and absent a new budget agreement, we
    are looking at significant decreases to discretionary spending
    across the government. We must be responsible and thoughtful in
    how we allocate funding.
        We begin this year's appropriations process not knowing
    what kind of increases we will be able to accommodate, which
    makes it even more important that we fully understand each of
    your agency's greatest needs.
        This year, the total budget request for the Library of
    Congress is $803 million, which is comprised of offsetting
    collections and an appropriation of $747 million. This
    represents an increase in appropriations of $51 million, or 7.3
    percent, above the fiscal year 2019 enacted levels. This
    funding level will support continued investment in IT
    modernization, funding for Congress.gov improvements, and an
    additional investment in the Library's plan for an enhanced
    visitors experience at the Thomas Jefferson Building.
        The AOC request for fiscal year 2020 totals $832 million,
    an increase of $98 million, or 13.3 percent, above the fiscal
    year 2019 enacted levels. This increase is requested for
    capital projects across the campus, as well as a $24 million
    increase in the Capital Construction and Operations
    jurisdiction for project management support, IT services, and
    cybersecurity investments.
        I look forward to hearing more about these requests and
    having a productive discussion today.
        Now I will turn to my Ranking Member, Senator Murphy, for
    any remarks that he would like to make.

                    statement of senator christopher murphy

        Senator Murphy. Well, thank you very much, Senator Hyde-
    Smith. Welcome to the subcommittee. We are really excited, I
    think, to do great work together. This is a subcommittee in
    which we have always found it relatively easy to find a
    bipartisan balance and bipartisan wellspring of support for the
    great work that our agencies who labor here with us and around
    the Capitol.
        I do note the presence of a former Chairman of the
    subcommittee, Senator Lankford, here with us as well.
        So we're really looking forward to both of your
    testimonies.
        Dr. Hayden, you know, the Library is often called one of
    Washington's hidden gems. It shouldn't be. It should be as
    easily accessible and knowable as all of the other landmarks.
    And I'm excited that you remain committed to that project of
    opening up the Library of Congress to others. We provided a $10
    million downpayment in the fiscal year 2018 omnibus to kick off
    planning for this new Visitors Experience, and I'm interested
    today to get an update on the Master Plan and to answer some
    questions about projected costs.
        Ms. Merdon, thanks for taking the time to sit down with me.
    We note the growing backlog that continues to exist and persist
    inside the Architect of the Capitol, $1.5 billion. This does
    not come without costs and risks and threats to the people that
    work on this campus. And so we need to continue to attack it.
    And I'd love to hear from you today about how we balance
    between the preservation of our historic Capitol and then
    legitimate security needs that we have here.
        And then I'll also ask you at least one question regarding
    how the AOC manages its Construction Division's workforce and
    workload. As you know, Senator Klobuchar and I sent a letter to
    you recently about the layoff of about 30 staff people, and we
    want to make sure that we are managing staff in a way that
    avoids unnecessary layoffs as much as possible.
        Finally, I just join in Senator Hyde-Smith's caution about
    the path moving forward. We're talking about a 9-percent cut to
    your budgets if we don't come to a new agreement. And it
    doesn't do anybody any good for us to wait until the last
    minute to get that done, in part because you are both engaged
    in long-term planning projects. And so this constant peril of
    not knowing how much you are going to get is just an absolutely
    miserable way to run two organizations that are heavily
    dependent on long-term capital budgets, and hopefully we can
    avoid that situation for you once again.
        I look forward to your testimony.
        Senator Hyde-Smith. Thank you, Senator Murphy.
        And, Senator Lankford, so glad to have you. Would you like
    to make any opening comments?
        Senator Lankford. Not today. Thank you.
        Senator Hyde-Smith. Okay.
        I will now ask our witnesses, beginning with Dr. Hayden, to
    give a brief opening statement of approximately 5 minutes to
    allow adequate time for questions. The written testimony of
    each witness will be printed in full in the hearing record.
        Dr. Hayden, the floor is yours.
    STATEMENT OF THE HON. CARLA D. HAYDEN, LIBRARIAN OF
                CONGRESS
        Dr. Hayden. Well, thank you, Madam Chairman, Ranking Member
    Murphy, and Senator Lankford. This is a wonderful opportunity
    to provide testimony on the Library's fiscal year 2020 budget.
        I am now in my third year as Librarian of Congress, and I'm
    encouraged by the advancements we've made in sharing more of
    the Library's extraordinary collections and our staff's
    expertise, and our commitment to public service.
        Today, the Library holds more than 170 million items in all
    formats and languages, and has the world's largest collections
    of legal materials, films, and sound recordings. And last year,
    the Library welcomed nearly 1.9 million in-person visitors. The
    Congressional Research Service provided custom services to
    nearly 100 percent of Senate and House Member offices and
    standing committees, more than 450,000 claims were registered
    by the U.S. Copyright Office, and nearly 10 million
    preservation actions were performed on the physical
    collections. Over 20.9 million copies of braille and recorded
    books and magazines were circulated. The Library responded to
    over 1 million reference requests from Congress, the public,
    and Federal agencies. And the Library's websites received 100
    million visitors and 500 million page views. And in the past
    year, we have also completed organizational changes that
    streamlined our functions and supported a user-centered
    direction.
        And today I would like to formally announce the appointment
    of Karyn Temple to serve as the 13th United States Register of
    Copyrights. Ms. Temple, who is here today, has performed an
    excellent job as Acting Register for the last 2\1/2\ years. She
    has leveraged her skills as both a copyright lawyer and
    accomplished manager to provide exceptional leadership for the
    Copyright Office. Members of Congress urged me to move forward
    with her permanent appointment to lead the Copyright Office. So
    with strong support from Congress and copyright stakeholders, I
    am pleased that Ms. Temple has accepted her appointment as a
    permanent Register.
        I also greatly appreciate the support you gave in the 2019
    funding bill to meet high-priority needs, such as strengthening
    CRS staffing, restoration of copyright examiner workforce,
    support for hosting the legislative branch financial management
    system, hiring librarians and archivists to address a backlog
    in processing special collections, and much more. And so today,
    I am before you to ask for your consideration of our fiscal
    year 2020 request.
        In October, we launched a 2019 to 2023 Strategic Plan with
    four goals: expand access, enhance services, optimize
    resources, and measure impact. And the Library produced its
    first digital strategy, which complements the Strategic Plan
    and was recently released to guide the Library's digital
    transformation.
        The Library of Congress budget request for 2020 is for
    approximately $803 million, and it includes $26 million in
    mandatory pay and price level increases. And the balance of the
    increase represents critical program investments necessary to
    fulfill the Library's role and to move forward.
        Bringing the Nation's collections and histories out of the
    vaults and into the public spaces through a unique public-
    private partnership to enhance the visitor experience in the
    Thomas Jefferson Building remains a key avenue to expanding our
    access. We recently provided Congress with an update of our
    work to date--visuals are here today--on the Visitor Experience
    Master Plan, which envisions revitalizing exhibit spaces,
    creating an activities area for young people and lifelong
    learners and also having a welcoming orientation space where
    visitors can see Thomas Jefferson's Library as the foundation
    of the Library of Congress and look up into the inspiring Main
    Reading Room.
        Information technology requests continue with our
    modernization begun in fiscal year 2018, and that includes
    hybrid hosting; robust wireless networks; and enhanced network
    capabilities; also funding for Congress.gov, the official
    website for legislative data; and also funding to support the
    modernization of the National Library for Services for the
    Blind and Physically Handicapped. Our request also includes
    funding to optimize the policies, processes, tools, and staff
    capacity of the Financial Services Directorate vital to the
    Library, but also the entire legislative branch.
        And so, in closing, modernization and optimization, not
    only of our IT systems, but of the experiences visitors have
    when they come to the Library in person and digitally are
    critical to moving the Library forward.
        I look forward to your questions.
        [The statements follow:]
                   Prepared Statement of Hon. Carla D. Hayden
    Madam Chairman, Ranking Member Murphy, and Members of the subcommittee:

        Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony in support of
    the Library's fiscal year 2020 budget.
        Now in my third year as Librarian of Congress, I am encouraged by
    the advancements we have made in sharing more of the Library's
    extraordinary collections and our staff's expertise and commitment to
    public service. Today, the Library holds nearly 170 million items in
    all formats and languages and has the world's largest collections of
    legal materials, films, and sound recordings. Last year, the Library
    welcomed nearly 1.9 million in-person visitors. The Congressional
    Research Service (CRS) provided custom services to nearly 100 percent
    of Senate and House member offices and standing committees. More than
    450 thousand claims were registered by the U.S. Copyright Office.
    Nearly 10 million preservation actions were performed on the physical
    collections; over 20.9 million copies of braille and recorded books and
    magazines were circulated to more than 470,000 blind and physically
    handicapped accounts; and the Library responded to over 1 million
    reference requests from the Congress, the public, and other Federal
    agencies. The Library's web sites, including loc.gov, congress.gov,
    copyright.gov, and the CRS site, among others, received 110 million
    visitors and 503.1 million page views.
        Over the past year, we have moved forward in significant ways to
    increase access to the Congress's library. We created a Digital
    Strategy Office within the Office of the Chief Information Officer to
    partner with service units to incubate innovative digital projects. The
    new office has already launched a successful crowdsourcing project,
    ``By the People,'' which allows public contributions to and
    interactions with the digital collections in new ways while at the same
    time helping the Library make data more discoverable. A new, state-of-
    the-art case was installed to conserve and securely display the
    treasured Gutenberg Bible. We launched crsreports.congress.gov to
    provide the public with access to non-confidential research products
    produced by CRS for the Congress. The Law Library digitized 23,522
    pages of National Transportation Safety Board case findings to be
    available in fiscal year 2019. New collections have been made available
    online, among them the papers of President Theodore Roosevelt and
    Benjamin Franklin.
        I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the outstanding
    support that this committee and the entire Congress gives to the
    Library. In particular, I appreciate the support you have provided us
    for our fiscal year 2019 requests to meet high-priority needs such as
    strengthening CRS staffing in high demand areas, restoration of the
    Copyright examiner workforce, support for the increased hosting costs
    of the Legislative Branch Financial Management System, librarians and
    archivists to address the backlog in processing the special
    collections, and much more.
        Your strong support for staffing resources allows us to better
    handle critical work and to begin replacing specialized staff expertise
    that was developed over many years and lost--principally to
    retirement--and not replaced due to budget limitations. I also thank
    you for your continued extraordinary support for the Library's
    collection storage modules program at Ft. Meade as part of the
    Architect of the Capitol's budget.
        I come before you today to discuss the Library's funding request
    for fiscal year 2020 which continues and expands necessary
    modernization initiatives to include optimization efforts.
        In October, we launched the Fiscal Year 2019-2023 Strategic Plan
    with four strategic goals: Expand access, expand services, optimize
    resources, and measure impact. Our direction forward calls for a
    decisive shift to become more user centered, digitally enabled, and
    data driven. The first Digital Strategy, which complements the Fiscal
    Year 2019-2023 Strategic Plan, was recently released to provide a bold
    vision to guide the Library's digital transformation over the next 5
    years.
        We completed organizational changes that streamline functions and
    support the user centered direction. The former National and
    International Outreach service unit was reconstituted as two units, the
    Center for Learning, Literacy and Engagement and the Center for
    Exhibits and Interpretation, both with dynamic new directors. Whereas
    National and International Outreach was itself a service unit, the
    centers are located organizationally under the Office of the Librarian
    so that they are able to pull resources together from across the
    Library. The largest part of the Library was also realigned to become
    the Library Collections and Services Group, which now includes the Law
    Library, Library Services, and the National Library for the Blind and
    Physically Handicapped (NLS). All of these changes directly support
    public engagement with the Library's resources and services.
        With significant congressional support, IT centralization is in its
    final phase with staff and funding transfers from CRS, Copyright, and
    NLS to the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO). The
    Copyright Office is aggressively pursuing comprehensive modernization
    of its IT systems. With a solid, stabilized IT infrastructure close to
    realization, the Library is transitioning through the data center
    initiative from its restricted legacy hosting facility on Capitol Hill
    to a hybrid hosting infrastructure with enhanced security that is
    capable of accommodating greatly increased digital engagement.
        I am confident that we have a strong organizational structure and a
    robust strategic planning process internally in place to lead the
    Library into the future. I now ask for your assistance in helping us
    take the additional steps we need with an increase in funding for
    critical initiatives.
        The Library of Congress fiscal year 2020 budget request is for
    approximately $803 million, which represents a 6.8 percent increase
    over the Library's fiscal year 2019 enacted appropriation. This request
    includes $26 million in mandatory pay and price level increases. The
    balance of the increase represents critical program investments
    necessary to fulfill the Library's role and to move forward on the
    commitment to be more user centered.
        The top two goals in the new strategic plan, expanded access and
    enhanced services, aim to make the Library's unique collections,
    experts, and services available when, where, and how users need them.
        Bringing the Nation's collections and history out of the vaults and
    into public spaces through a public/private partnership to create the
    Visitor Experience remains a key avenue to greater access for all who
    visit. Over the past year we accelerated our planning for an enhanced
    visitor experience in the Thomas Jefferson Building. As part of the
    Master Plan, the Library is developing a resource plan to serve as the
    roadmap for a private fundraising initiative. A request for the design,
    fabrication and installation of a Treasures Exhibit Gallery, a Youth
    Center and Lab spaces, and staffing for 3 years will begin to realize
    the promise of the Visitor Experience initiative, elevating it to a
    level unmatched among peer institutions in Washington, DC.
        Since my confirmation, my goal as Librarian has been to expand
    users' access to the Library both on site and online. When it comes to
    our onsite efforts, my top priority is to help visitors become lifelong
    users. In early 2018, I presented to the Congress an opportunity to
    enhance the visitor experience of the Thomas Jefferson Building.
        I appreciate that Congress committed to a public-private
    partnership to provide $60 million for this project--$40 million in
    appropriated funds to be matched by $20 million in private funds raised
    by the Library. The Library of Congress Madison Council Chairman has
    offered to lead private fundraising for the Visitor Experience. The
    Library has received $11 million in verbal commitments and is working
    with a contractor to develop a capital campaign to raise the rest. I am
    grateful as well for congressional approval of $10 million in fiscal
    year 2018, $2 million of which was to be used immediately to contract
    with a professional firm to create a Master Plan from the design
    concepts shared with the Congress.
        We recently provided Congress a first ``look in'' to the Master
    Plan, which confirms that the Library can accomplish broadly within the
    $60 million budget what we envisioned during the design concept phase
    last year. We anticipate revitalizing exhibit spaces, creating an
    activities area for youth, and having a welcoming orientation space
    where constituents and visitors will see Jefferson's Library as the
    foundation of the Library, and look up through an oculus to the
    magnificent Main Reading Room.
        The majority of changes entail movement and deconstruction of 25-
    year-old exhibit cases and related materials and installation of new
    state of the art, secure and climate-controlled glass and steel exhibit
    cases. We have confirmed that building modifications for the oculus
    constitute light construction. We appreciate that from the inception of
    the project, both the Architect of the Capitol and U.S. Capitol Police
    have provided advice, feedback, and recommendations as we contemplated
    options with our professional design firm.
        As this is your Library, we want your constituents and visitors to
    have a better experience. With so many visiting school groups, we want
    them to leave more knowledgeable about the history of our country, have
    a better understanding of democracy in action, appreciate what it means
    to be a good citizen, and know the origins of the Library which is also
    the Congress' story. We also want visitors to leave motivated to learn
    more about our country and its cultural patrimony. I look forward to
    continuing to keep you informed about our progress on this project to
    showcase the unparalleled nature of the Library's collection.
        We are also seeking to enhance user access online through funding
    for congress.gov, the official web site for legislative data, to
    support high-priority, congressionally requested enhancements such as a
    mobile app, continuous development of the system, and the full
    retirement of the legacy Legislative Information System. Funding to
    support modernization of the NLS braille and talking books programs
    through digital delivery to braille eReaders, and by creating a cloud-
    based, scalable infrastructure for Internet delivery of talking and
    braille books, will position NLS to serve a far larger patron base.
        The Library's third strategic goal, optimize resources, expands
    modernization to encompass strengthening of our internal capacity and
    infrastructure in several critical areas. Our request to optimize the
    policies, processes, tools, and staff capacity and capability of the
    Financial Services Directorate (FSD) is vital to the Library. FSD needs
    a modernized skill base in data analytics, internal controls, budget,
    policy, and financial reporting to meet financial management methods
    and requirements that are continually evolving, integrating, and
    expanding. Because FSD's non-pay resources support the highly visible,
    mission-critical Legislative Branch Financial Management System, FSD
    has been challenged to fund needed improvements and acquire a new set
    of capabilities for the future as systems are modernized, processes are
    further automated, and the work shifts from transactional to
    analytical. FSD must also reconstitute the corporate knowledge that has
    been or shortly will be lost to retirement.
        Information technology optimization requests continue the network
    modernization begun in fiscal year 2018 by supporting operation and
    sustainment activities including hybrid hosting, a robust user wireless
    network, a staff wireless capability to the Library's campus network
    leveraging state-of-the-industry infrastructure to facilitate improved
    collaboration, and an enhanced metropolitan area network and wide area
    network capabilities. The request also provides the Library with a more
    secure operating environment using the Zero Trust Security model and
    establishes a Virtual Network Operations Center that will allow 24/7/
    365 monitoring. Optimization is also necessary to automate and
    streamline the manual process the Library currently uses to perform
    personnel security functions, and to implement Enterprise Customer
    Relationship Management (CRM), an approach to managing an
    organization's interaction with current and future customers with a
    focus on improving business relationships.
        Our fourth and final strategic goal, measure impact, uses data to
    measure the Library's impact on the world around us and share a
    powerful story. Our request establishes a robust data and analytics
    capability, through a centralized data analytics group, with processes,
    methodologies, and subject matter expertise needed to consistently and
    strategically identify, capture, analyze, and make decisions on data
    from its users' needs and quality of experiences, in alignment with the
    Library's new strategic plan.
        In closing, modernization and optimization--not only of IT systems,
    but of the experience visitors have when they come to the Library, the
    competencies needed in a modernized, more automated environment,
    braille and talking book delivery mechanisms, and capacity in data and
    analytics--are critical to moving the Library forward into the future.
    The fiscal year 2020 budget request furthers the modernization efforts
    of recent budget requests and targets critical workforce needs.
        Madam Chairman, Ranking Member Murphy, and Members of the
    subcommittee, the Library is the embodiment of the American ideal of a
    knowledge-based democracy. I thank you again for supporting the Library
    of Congress and for your consideration of our fiscal year 2020 request.
                                     ______

    Prepared Statement of Karyn A. Temple, Acting United States Register of
                                   Copyrights
    Madam Chairman, Ranking Member Murphy, and Members of the subcommittee,

        Thank you for the opportunity to submit the United States Copyright
    Office's fiscal year 2020 budget request.
        As the Supreme Court has recognized, copyright is the very ``engine
    of free expression.'' \1\ The U.S. copyright framework provides a
    balanced set of protections and exceptions to facilitate the country's
    economic and cultural growth, resulting in an extremely diverse
    cultural heritage and flourishing creative and technology sectors for
    the benefit of the American people. In 2017, the core copyright
    industries added more than $1.3 trillion to the U.S. GDP, accounted for
    6.85 percent of the U.S. economy, and employed 3.85 percent of the U.S.
    workforce.\2\ These impressive contributions are made by individual
    creators and businesses working in a wide variety of fields, including
    software, movies, music, books and journals, visual arts, and more.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        \1\ Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enters., 471 U.S. 539,
    558 (1985).
        \2\ International Intellectual Property Alliance, Copyright
    Industries in the U.S. Economy: the 2018 Report at 3 (2018).
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        The Copyright Office plays a critical role in this ecosystem. The
    Office is the only Federal entity charged by statute with administering
    the Nation's copyright laws. The Office also promotes creativity and
    free expression by offering educational and outreach programs on
    copyright as well as impartial, expert advice on copyright law and
    policy, for the benefit of all. A key component of the Office's work is
    to examine claims for copyright to determine whether to register them,
    and to record changes in ownership in those claims. In fiscal year
    2018, the Office received more than 540,000 new claims for copyright,
    registered 560,000 claims covering millions of works, and recorded over
    21,000 documents regarding copyright ownership. This represents a
    tremendous public record of the Nation's creativity that enables
    copyright owners to pursue claims in court and provides the public with
    new access to ownership information.
        Registration and recordation are, however, just two of the
    Copyright Office's important duties. The Office also has a central role
    in administering statutory licenses to use certain copyrighted works,
    managing over a billion dollars in royalties in fiscal year 2018 alone.
    The Office provides key support to the public on copyright issues,
    handling almost 200,000 public inquiries by phone, email, and in
    person. And the Office continues to handle the Copyright Act's
    mandatory deposit requirement that provides the Library of Congress
    with an impressive number of published works for its collection, which
    in fiscal year 2018 included more than 735,000 published works worth
    over $47.5 million.
        The Copyright Office also serves as a primary advisor to Congress,
    with a longstanding history of providing expert analysis on all
    copyright policy matters since its creation.\3\ In 2018, the Copyright
    Office continued this work by providing extensive assistance on
    copyright legislation, including the landmark Orrin G. Hatch-Bob
    Goodlatte Music Modernization Act (``MMA'') and the Marrakesh Treaty
    Implementation Act. The Office's important work on the Music
    Modernization Act was lauded by Congress, which emphasized that the
    Office ``has the knowledge and expertise regarding music licensing
    through its past rulemakings and recent assistance to the Committee
    during the drafting of this legislation'' \4\ to lead the historic
    law's subsequent implementation. The Office also advised on a variety
    of other copyright matters, including by providing a detailed analysis
    on the legal landscape of copyright as it relates to visual artists \5\
    and continuing policy studies on the section 512 notice-and-takedown
    regime and moral rights.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        \3\ See, e.g., H.R. Rep. No. 105-796, at 77-78 (1998) (Conf. Rep.)
    (directing the Office to continue its ``longstanding role as advisor to
    Congress'' by, among other things, providing ``testimony [on] pending
    legislation,'' conducting ``studies [that] have often included specific
    policy recommendations,'' and responding to ``specific requests by
    Committees for studies and recommendations on subjects within the
    Copyright Office's area of competence'').
        \4\ H.R. Rep No. 115-651, at 14 (2018).
        \5\ See Letter from Acting Register Karyn Temple to Senate
    Judiciary Committee and House Judiciary Committee, Copyright and Visual
    Works: The Legal Landscape of Opportunities and Challenges (Jan. 18,
    2019); Senate letter available at https://www.copyright.gov/policy/
    visualworks/senate-letter.pdf.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        The Copyright Office also is charged with a number of additional
    legal and regulatory responsibilities. For example, in 2018, the Office
    completed several rulemaking proceedings, including the seventh
    triennial section 1201 rulemaking process that provides exemptions to
    the law's prohibitions on anticircumvention of certain technological
    protection measures. The Office's section 1201 recommendations, which
    were based on the Office's updated and streamlined 1201 process, were
    widely praised in diverse areas of the copyright community. And the
    Office worked with the executive branch and the courts on a number of
    high-profile matters, including several Supreme Court litigations and
    international treaties.
        At the same time, the Copyright Office has dedicated significant
    resources and attention to modernization. Now more than ever, the
    Office recognizes the need to ensure that copyright owners and users
    have a robust, user-centered, and highly efficient system that will
    support prompt action on applications for registration and the
    development of a comprehensive record of ownership data.\6\ Based on
    2017's Modified U.S. Copyright Office Provisional IT Modernization
    Plan: Analysis of Shared Services, Support Requirements, and
    Modernization Efforts (``Modified IT Plan''),\7\ in January 2018, the
    Office created the Copyright Modernization Office (``CMO''), which is
    tasked with closely analyzing the Office's modernization needs. The
    Office also worked with the Library of Congress' Office of the Chief
    Information Office (``OCIO'') to begin the process of identifying both
    internal and external goals for a new system, and how to best move
    forward. For example, in 2018 the Office and the OCIO began joint
    design work to create public interfaces for the Office's forthcoming
    modernized applications (in conjunction with internal analysis of
    business requirements for potential substantive regulatory or practice
    changes). To help the public understand the process and planned
    timeline, the Office established a dedicated webpage and initiated a
    bimonthly webinar series to inform the public and highlight progress;
    staff members also conducted a number of presentations. While still at
    the beginning stages of IT modernization, the Office is excited to
    continue this essential work.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        \6\ See Fourth Estate Pub. Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC,
    --U.S.--, 2019 WL 1005829 (2019) (confirming that copyright owners can
    only institute copyright suits after the Copyright Office has acted on
    their copyright applications).
        \7\ U.S. Copyright Office, Modified U.S. Copyright Office
    Provisional IT Modernization Plan: Analysis of Shared Services, Support
    Requirements, and Modernization Efforts (2017), available at https://
    www.copyright.gov/reports/itplan/modified-modernization-plan.pdf.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        The Office's focus on modernization, however, does not encompass
    only information technology. Over the past year, the Office began
    several important initiatives to modernize its work flow and processes,
    and to continue to reduce processing times. The Office conducted a
    comprehensive review of older applications (those pending more than 1
    year) to determine the basis for the processing delay and to follow up
    with applicants if the Office still required further information to
    determine whether to register a work. To date, the Office has reduced
    the number of these claims by 74 percent.
        Additionally, the Office has explored a number of other ways to
    improve efficiency and processing times. For example, in 2017, the
    Office assembled a working group to review pendency times that included
    representatives from throughout the Office to develop recommendations
    for improvements. In 2018, the Office also formally reevaluated its
    training program for onboarding new registration examiners to identify
    ways to more quickly complete training. This evaluation included a
    working group with a cross-section of staff from each division of the
    Registration Program who identified efficiencies to shorten the
    previous year-long training program to 6 months, enabling examiners to
    more quickly begin fully participating in the application review
    process. The Office also engaged the Smithsonian Organization and
    Audience Research (``SOAR'') to review registration workflow and
    processes and provided recommendations. At the same time, the Office
    enhanced training initiatives to address more complex issues so that
    less correspondence with applicants is required. And, in the past two
    budget cycles, the Office requested additional examiner resources (15
    examiners in fiscal year 2018 and 15 examiners in fiscal year 2019).
    These important steps have yielded a significant positive effect on the
    Office's processing times and number of pending claims. In the past
    year, the Office reduced its workable claims by 46 percent and has seen
    a sharp drop in the processing time for pending registration
    applications. The Office also continued to focus on streamlining
    registration practices to make the process more efficient, and in the
    past 2 years alone has initiated or closed 17 rulemakings to modernize
    its regulatory practices, resulting in updated regulations regarding
    filing fees, deposit requirements, and registration policies.
    Rulemakings on topics as diverse as short online literary works and
    architectural works are pending public comment.
        The Office performs all of this important work on a relatively
    modest budget. As the Supreme Court noted just this month, changes in
    funding have real-world effects on the copyright community, and
    resulting processing delays can be ``attributable, in large measure, to
    staffing and budgetary shortages that Congress can alleviate, but
    courts cannot cure.'' \8\ With the loss of certain fees resulting from
    passage of the MMA,\9\ combined with the new statutory requirement for
    the Office to provide outreach pursuant to that legislation,\10\ the
    Office must undertake greater responsibilities with fewer resources.
    The Office is reviewing its overall funding and activities to make the
    best use of its resources.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        \8\ Fourth Estate, --U.S. --, 2019 WL 1005829, at *7.
        \9\ The MMA eliminated the need for certain Notices of Intent for
    certain mechanical licenses under section 115 of the Copyright Act.
    This change will reduce the Office's incoming fees by a not
    insignificant amount.
        \10\ MMA, H.R. 1551, 115th Cong. tit. I, Sec. 102(e) (2018)
    (mandating that the ``Register of Copyrights shall engage in public
    outreach and educational activities'').
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        The Copyright Office is honored to serve the country and the
    copyright ecosystem. Building on almost 150 years of experience, the
    Office is dedicated to advancing the ``engine of free expression'' and
    working with the public and other governmental actors. The Office is
    grateful for this opportunity to present a budget request that would
    enable this important work to continue in fiscal year 2020.
              funding and overall fiscal year 2020 budget request
        The Copyright Office greatly appreciates the Committee's support in
    fiscal year 2019 for its priority initiatives, which include fulfilling
    the Modified IT Plan goals, providing the public with online access to
    historical copyright records, and reducing registration and recordation
    processing times. Those initiatives are now fully underway, and the
    Office is pleased to report on a number of accomplishments as part of
    this fiscal year 2020 budget request. As the fiscal year 2019 enacted
    budgets included recurring annual funding for several of these
    initiatives, the Copyright Office fiscal year 2020 request includes
    only the mandatory pay-related and price level adjustments necessary to
    maintain the same level of funding support to continue the progress
    underway. The request also includes a funding transfer request, which
    will provide the OCIO with funding to support IT resources transferred
    from the Copyright Office to the OCIO as part of the Library's shared
    IT services initiatives.
        The Copyright Office's overall budget is composed of three separate
    budgets or program areas: (1) Basic Budget, which funds most of the
    Office's core operations, including the majority of payroll-related
    expenses. Historically the basic budget has been provided through a
    combination of appropriated dollars and authority to spend fee revenue,
    with fees constituting a majority of this funding (generally in the
    range of 50 percent to 67 percent); (2) Licensing Budget, which is
    derived completely from licensing royalty collections otherwise payable
    to copyright owners and filing fees paid by cable and satellite
    licensees pursuant to statutory licenses administered by the Office;
    and (3) Copyright Royalty Judges Budget, which funds the Copyright
    Royalty Board (``CRB'')--although the CRB is not a part of the Office,
    the Office administers its budget on behalf of the Library of Congress.
        For fiscal year 2020, the Copyright Office requests a combined
    total of $92.9 million in funding and 429 FTEs, of which $49.7 million
    would be funded through offsetting collections of fees collected in
    fiscal year 2020 and in prior years.

        The Office's fiscal year 2020 requests are:

      --Basic Budget: $85.1 million and 400 FTEs. The request includes
            mandatory pay-related and price level increases of $2.3
            million. The request also includes a transfer of $2.7 million
            to fund the Library's OCIO for IT resources transferred to them
            as part of the Library's shared services initiatives, and a
            reduction in the amount of $0.3 million for non-recurring costs
            associated with the Office's warehouse inventory. The fiscal
            year 2020 budget request requests funding for its Basic Budget
            from $43.2 million in offsetting fee collections (51 percent)
            and $41.9 million (49 percent) in appropriated dollars.
      --Licensing Division Budget: $5.95 million and 23 FTEs, all of which
            is funded via fees and royalties. The requested increase
            includes mandatory pay-related and price level increases of
            $0.2 million.
      --Copyright Royalty Judges Budget: $1.9 million and six FTEs, with
            $0.07 million to support mandatory pay-related and price level
            increases. $0.5 million (for non-personnel-related expenses) of
            the total request is offset by royalties. The remainder, $1.4
            million in appropriated dollars, is to cover the personnel-
            related expenses of the judges and their staff.
                      focus of fiscal year 2020 activities
        The Copyright Office's fiscal year 2020 funding request provides
    resources necessary to continue the progress already started towards
    the Office's strategic goals, which include: (1) modernization of the
    Office's IT systems and applications, including the Office's historical
    records initiative, and (2) modernization of the Office's business
    environment and practices so that the Office's core registration and
    recordation services are delivered as efficiently as possible.
    Copyright IT Modernization
        Modernization of the Copyright Office's aging information
    technology systems and applications continues to be the Office's top
    priority. As directed by the Committee, the Copyright Office has
    engaged in extensive collaboration with the Library's OCIO ``to achieve
    efficiencies in shared services, while allowing for mission-specific
    modernization to be the responsibility of the Copyright Office.'' \11\
    With the 5-year recurring funding provided in fiscal year 2019 through
    the support of the Committee, the Office and the Library's OCIO have
    partnered to facilitate work associated with the Office's envisioned
    Enterprise Copyright System (``ECS''), which will integrate data across
    the Office's core services for registration, recordation, and statutory
    licensing.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        \11\ S. Rep. No. 115-274, at 43 (2018) available at https://
    www.congress.gov/115/crpt/srpt274/CRPT-115srpt274.pdf.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        While the Copyright Office is working to determine its needs from a
    non-technical standpoint, the Library has a centralized IT model, with
    all responsibility for technical IT and agile training services
    consolidated within the OCIO. Thus, the Copyright Office has
    transferred the bulk of the fiscal year 2019 funding to OCIO through an
    intra-agency agreement so that OCIO can continue to maintain Library-
    wide responsibility for administering the activities and contracts
    associated with those services.
        The Copyright Office wants to assure the Committee that it has
    taken seriously the request to investigate innovative contracting
    methods, including possible no-cost contracting solutions for
    modernization. The Office coordinated with the OCIO, issuing a public
    Request for Information (``RFI'') in May 2018 that asked for comments
    on creative solutions, including possible no-cost options, for the
    development of a next-generation ECS. To further facilitate efforts to
    reduce risk associated with IT contracts for a project of this scope,
    the Office consulted with the General Services Administration (``GSA'')
    18F, the office within GSA that provides expertise to Federal agencies
    in planning successful IT projects. 18F provided the Office with input
    on the RFI, best practices in contracting for agile projects, and on
    the Copyright Office's preparedness for facilitating agile teaming. As
    a follow-on to the RFI and the 18F engagement, the Office and the OCIO
    are currently working with GSA to leverage their IT contracting experts
    for future modernization contracting activities, and plan to have GSA
    coordinate new public requests for proposals for the development of the
    ECS.
        Against this backdrop, and with the Committee's support, the Office
    has made important progress on modernization activities. Following is a
    summary of successes already achieved and progress underway:
    Public Outreach
        The Copyright Office recognizes the interest and investment that
    the copyright community has in the success of the Office's IT
    modernization, and the Office is committed to a robust program of
    communication, outreach, and transparent reporting for the Office's
    modernization activities.
        Beginning in fiscal year 2018 and continuing into fiscal year 2019,
    the Office conducted extensive public outreach with the OCIO and a
    digital User Interface/User Experience (UI/UX) contractor to begin to
    design the public interfaces relating to recordation functions and
    registration applications within the ECS. The Office visited four
    cities (Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles, and Nashville),
    conducting 68 in-depth interviews with copyright registration and
    recordation applicants and other public stakeholders to gain an
    understanding of end-user needs for the registration and recordation
    systems. The Office also conducted an extensive online survey,
    receiving over 10,000 responses. Using this public feedback, the UI/UX
    contractor developed preliminary wireframes of the new systems that
    will allow the Office to conduct ongoing user testing and further
    refine the user interfaces.
        The Office established a dedicated public webpage for modernization
    efforts located at copyright.gov/copyright-modernization/.
    Modernization activities have been chronicled on the Copyright:
    Creativity at Work blog and the newly-established CMO established a
    public email address (askcmo@copyright.gov) for modernization
    questions. Senior Office staff also gave numerous presentations
    highlighting ongoing modernization efforts, including at annual
    meetings of the American Intellectual Property Law Association
    (``AIPLA'') and Copyright Society of the USA (``CSUSA''), and Office
    staff highlighted modernization efforts at a variety of other speaking
    engagements. In 2019, the Office is expanding its outreach efforts to
    ensure that the public is informed and engaged in these processes,
    including with the newly-launched bimonthly webinar series featuring
    highlights of modernization.
        Additionally, the Office issued a Notice of Inquiry asking for
    public input on how to improve regulations and practices related to the
    registration of copyright claims in the digital age. To develop modern
    registration policies, the Office sought input on three areas of
    reform: (1) the administration and substance of the application for
    registration, (2) the utility of the public record, and (3) the deposit
    requirements for registration. The Office received comments in January
    2019 and is reviewing them to assist in the modernization process. The
    Office is considering issuing additional requests for public input on
    targeted areas such as types of works in the coming months.
    Recordation Automation
        Even before fiscal year 2019, Copyright Office staff had begun work
    to re-engineer its antiquated, paper-based document recordation system.
    Development is now underway on a new automated recordation system that
    will completely overhaul the current time-consuming, manual recordation
    of documents. In collaboration with the OCIO, the Office provided
    business-based objectives for an OCIO development contract to deliver a
    ``minimally viable product'' (``MVP'') of the recordation application
    in advance of an official project launch. This new system will automate
    customers' document submissions (i.e., data) and create a searchable
    data set that is both available and useful to the public. A limited
    public release of an MVP for the recordation application is expected in
    February 2020, which will allow the Office to gather feedback for
    continued development efforts. Product Launch is currently scheduled
    for the following year, in February 2021.
    Historical Records Initiative
        The historical records initiative is an IT modernization effort
    that was separately funded with 5-year recurring authority. The goal of
    the historical records project is to take all of the Office's
    historical records of copyright and make them digitally available to
    the public. This includes all USCO public records from 1870-1977 that
    are not available online and the public records that are already
    available online (post-1977 records) but need a more robust search and
    retrieval interface. The primary digitization efforts are aligned with
    results of the Office's recently completed industry analysis, a study
    conducted to ensure that the Office's efforts are efficient and in line
    with best practices. Recent successes include the latest public release
    of a Virtual Card Catalog (``VCC'') Proof of Concept, which provides
    the public with images of all of the Office's card catalog records
    including registrations, assignments, and other historical records. As
    of March 2019, the VCC included over 41.5 million card images from
    1870-1977, which can be filtered by time period and drawer label. The
    1955-1977 indexes can be filtered by the optical character recognition
    (``OCR'') text on the cards. The public feedback has been
    overwhelmingly favorable and will be used for future historical records
    development efforts.
    Data Management
        IT Modernization also encompasses data management, and the
    Copyright Office began work on its data management plan in fiscal year
    2018. The plan will serve all in the copyright community--from creators
    to users and the public at large--allowing them to reap additional
    benefits from Office data and information that will be authoritative,
    easily found, well described, high quality, secured, and managed across
    the entire enterprise. Ultimately this project will provide for a
    federated search and Business Intelligence reporting technology to
    allow users to search across registration, recordation, and licensing
    databases, and to facilitate improved chain-of-title sequencing that
    can connect registrations to records of assignments and transfers or
    other documents.
    Modernization of Copyright Office Business Practices
        With the funds provided for additional registration specialists in
    fiscal years 2018 and 2019, the Office has been able to clear a
    significant number of pending registration applications. As noted
    above, the Office also undertook a number initiatives to analyze and
    address processing times. In fiscal year 2018, the volume of workable
    claims, i.e., claims not requiring applicant action or awaiting the
    associated copyright deposit, were reduced by almost 1,900 claims per
    week compared to reductions of only 130 claims per week in fiscal year
    2017. The Office is continuing to focus on process improvements by
    including modernization of copyright regulations and practices in the
    Office's ongoing business process reengineering analysis.
        The Office's modernization initiative is about more than just
    technology--it also encompasses Office business process reengineering,
    an organizational and workload assessment, and personnel planning. For
    instance, in fiscal year 2018 the Office engaged the Office of
    Personnel Management's Human Resources Solutions (``OPM'') to conduct
    an organization analysis and redesign to achieve optimal position
    management and service delivery efficiency. OPM's work will be
    completed in early fiscal year 2020, and the Office intends to use the
    resulting analysis to reorganize the Office to better align with newly
    automated processes resulting from modernization.
    MMA Implementation
        In October 2018, Congress enacted the most comprehensive update to
    copyright law since the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Title I
    of the MMA amends the section 115 license for reproduction and
    distribution of musical works. Title II brings pre-1972 sound
    recordings partially under the Federal copyright statute. Title III
    addresses directing royalties to sound recording producers and
    engineers. The MMA also requires the Office to conduct multiple
    rulemakings to implement aspects of the law, engage in outreach and
    educational activities regarding changes to the section 115 license,
    and undertake a policy study with respect to the establishment of a
    public database regarding the section 115 license. The Office has been
    continuously updating its website to inform the public of the MMA, and
    relevant implementation dates. The Office has begun publishing updates
    to its circulars with the statutory changes as well as layman's
    explanations of the law and its administration.
        Days after the MMA was enacted, the Office issued interim rules to
    implement aspects of the MMA, addressing Title I (regarding the 115
    license) and Title II (regarding Pre-1972 sound recordings). The Office
    issued a Notice of Inquiry and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking addressing
    additional regulatory updates (noncommercial use). The public comment
    period for the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking closed on March 7, 2019.
    There is a statutory deadline of April 9, 2019 for publication of a
    final rule (noncommercial use).
        On December 21, 2018, the Office issued a Notice of Inquiry
    regarding the designation of a mechanical licensing collective and a
    digital licensee coordinator to carry out key functions under the
    updated mechanical licensing process. Comments were due March 21, 2019,
    with reply comments due April 22, 2019. The Office is committed to an
    open and transparent designation process. The Acting Register will
    recommend entities to be designated by July 8, 2019.
        The Office's outreach and educational activities will continue
    after each implementation step, including regarding the designation of
    the mechanical licensing collective and a digital licensee coordinator.
    The Office will also undertake a policy study regarding best practices
    that the mechanical licensing collective may implement in order to
    identify and locate musical work copyright owners with unclaimed
    accrued royalties held by the collective, encourage them to claim their
    royalties, and reduce the incidence of unclaimed royalties.
             pending changes to the copyright office fee structure
        When proposing a balance of user fees and taxpayer-funded monies to
    support its operations, the Copyright Office gives careful
    consideration not only to the public benefits of the national copyright
    system, but also to the impact of user fees on a copyright system that
    is dependent on voluntary copyright registration and recordation. To
    ensure that the Office's fees are ``fair and equitable and give due
    consideration to the objectives of the copyright system,'' \12\ the
    Office conducts regular studies of its operating costs and fee
    structure. For the most recent study, completed in fiscal year 2018,
    the Office engaged an outside consulting firm to comprehensively assess
    the internal drivers of the Office's costs as well as external factors,
    such as an assessment of economic trends that affect stakeholder value,
    statutory restrictions, and policy goals. The Office released the study
    in May 2018, along with a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, giving public
    notice of the Office's proposed fee schedule changes.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        \12\ 17 U.S.C. Sec. 708(b)(4).
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        The Copyright Office received a significant number of public
    comments regarding the Notice, and is currently reviewing those
    comments in anticipation of finalizing a new fee structure in fiscal
    year 2019.
                          more flexible fee authority
        The Copyright Office would also benefit significantly from greater
    flexibility in the use of prior-year unobligated fee balances. This
    could allow the Office to provide services to the public in the event
    of a lapse in appropriations. Flexibility in management of prior-year
    balances across budget cycles also could provide for more efficient and
    cost-effective administration of large, non-recurring projects related
    to modernization and other capital expenditures. To that end, once
    authorized, the Office anticipates including in a future budget request
    a change in appropriations language to allow for 20 percent of the
    balance available in prior-year fees to be available each year, in
    addition to appropriated amounts, for obligation without fiscal year
    limitation, and to allow the Office to access prior-year balances to
    continue operations during a lapse in appropriations.
        The Copyright Office appreciates the Committee's continued support
    of the Copyright Office's efforts to modernize both its technology and
    services, and to the operation of the copyright system overall.
                                     ______

    Prepared Statement of Mary B. Mazanec, Director, Congressional Research
                                    Service
    Madam Chairman, Ranking Member Murphy, and Members of the subcommittee,

        Thank you for the opportunity to present the fiscal year 2020
    budget request for the Congressional Research Service (CRS). I would
    also like to thank the Committee for your support of our fiscal year
    2019 request. The additional funds you generously provided have enabled
    CRS to strengthen the research and analytical capacity, which is so
    critical to our ability to provide Congress with exceptional service. I
    am pleased to report that we continue to make progress in our efforts
    to modernize CRS's IT systems and are ahead of schedule with respect to
    the public release of non-confidential written products via
    Congress.gov. In addition to outlining CRS's budget requirements for
    the coming year, my goal with today's testimony is to highlight some of
    the more noteworthy support the Service has provided to Congress during
    a very busy legislative session and to bring you up-to-date with
    respect to a number of important initiatives that we have undertaken
    over the past fiscal year.
                              service to congress
        Serving Congress is central to the Library's mission and CRS plays
    a critical role in this effort. CRS is proud to serve as Congress's
    research and analytical arm and embraces its mission: to provide
    Congress ``the highest quality of research, analysis, information, and
    confidential consultation, to support the exercise of its legislative,
    representational, and oversight duties.'' The Service provides
    expertise in every area of interest to Congress: American law; domestic
    policy; foreign affairs; government; and science, technology and
    industry.
        In fiscal year 2018, CRS supported Members, committees, and staff
    in fulfillment of their important responsibilities with a broad range
    of timely assistance. CRS experts provided more than 62,000 custom
    products and services, including confidential memoranda; in-person,
    telephone, and email consultation; congressional testimony; background
    products; and other miscellaneous services. The Service produced and
    maintained approximately 9,000 general distribution products and hosted
    more than 8,600 congressional participants at its seminars, institutes,
    and training programs. Between its customized product and service
    offerings, general distribution products, seminars and 24/7 online
    presence, CRS continues to interact, in some way, with virtually all
    Member and committee offices.
        CRS supported the Senate's consideration of executive and judicial
    branch nominations with in-depth research and analysis of relevant
    issues as well as advice and consultation regarding the nomination
    process. In addition, CRS experts provided extensive research and
    analytical support to multiple committees on work that culminated in
    the passage of bipartisan legislation (the SUPPORT Act) to combat the
    Nation's opioid epidemic. The Service worked closely with lawmakers as
    they considered legislation to reauthorize the farm bill, the Higher
    Education Act, the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness
    Reauthorization Act, and the Federal Aviation Administration
    Reauthorization Act.
        The Service provided analysis in foreign affairs matters, such as
    Russia and sanctions policy, North Korea, nuclear and ballistic missile
    threats, the Iran nuclear agreement, and the U.S. decision to withdraw
    from it, and a long list of other critical issues. Experts also
    provided guidance on the legislative process, administrative
    rulemaking, and the annual appropriations bills. In addition, CRS
    offered a robust roster of training for congressional staff including a
    public policy series; a series on the legislative process; the popular
    Federal Law Update series, which has been offered for more than three
    decades; and a series on disruptive technologies.
                             strategic initiatives
        CRS continuously examines its organizational enterprise to ensure
    it is properly aligned to meet Congress's needs. In fiscal year 2018,
    the Service engaged in strategic and directional planning in
    coordination with the Library. The CRS directional plan was informed by
    insightful feedback from congressional users of the Service. In
    addition, input for the directional plan was solicited from both
    managers and staff in a variety of venues including: senior management
    and first-line supervisor meetings, working groups, brown bag lunch
    dialogues, all-staff meetings, and focus group sessions. The resulting
    directional plan supports the implementation of the goals and
    objectives identified in the Library's strategic plan for 2019-2023.
    The following initiatives illustrate some of the strategic efforts of
    the Service in 2018:

        Public Release of CRS Products: Notably this past year, the
    Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 directed the Librarian of
    Congress, in consultation with the CRS Director, to establish and
    maintain a public website containing CRS reports. At our last hearing,
    I reported that CRS started work right away to implement the directive.
    This early planning enabled the Library to meet the statutory deadline,
    on Sept. 18, 2018, and launch the public website with over 600 reports,
    which are now accessible to the public at crsreports.congress.gov.
    Today, more than 2600 reports are available on the public site, a
    number that grows steadily as more products are added. In addition to
    the ``R-series'' reports, CRS recently began posting additional product
    types to Congress.gov.

        Integrated Research Information System (IRIS): With the initial
    year of funding provided in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018,
    CRS, in collaboration with the Office of the Chief Information Officer
    (OCIO), made progress in the effort to modernize its information
    technology systems. IRIS will provide an environment that will support
    CRS's work for Congress in four key areas: information research, policy
    and data analysis, content creation, and product delivery. The new
    system will improve efficiency and foster innovation in CRS operations,
    while continuing to protect the security and confidentiality of
    congressional data. CRS continues to engage stakeholders through an
    iterative series of development and implementation phases.

        Knowledge Management: CRS embarked on a knowledge management
    initiative in fiscal year 2018. Activities included the development of
    the CRS Research Portal, which consolidated research materials and
    documented best practices used by analysts to respond to selected
    policy issues. By the end of fiscal year 2018, 18 research sites
    containing approximately 20,000 documents were added to the portal.
    Other activities included digitization of critical or one-of-a-kind
    materials.

        The Service also continued initiatives in the areas of human
    resources management, policies and guidelines, and communications.
    These efforts have continued in fiscal year 2019.
                 fiscal year 2020 budget request and priorities
        The CRS budget request for fiscal year 2020 is 121.57 million
    dollars, a decrease of 4.1 million dollars (or -3.3 percent) from the
    amount budgeted for fiscal year 2019. Almost 85 percent of the
    requested amount would be dedicated to staff pay and benefits. The
    requested decrease takes into account a proposed transfer of 8.76
    million dollars of appropriated funds from CRS to OCIO to centralize IT
    operations and personnel within the Library. CRS is requesting no
    additional funding beyond that which is necessary to cover mandatory
    pay and price level cost increases.
        CRS's priority is to provide objective, nonpartisan, authoritative
    information and analysis that effectively meets the needs of Congress.
    As those needs evolve over time, CRS must necessarily adjust the way it
    executes its mission to ensure continued superior service. Rapid
    advances in digital technology, coupled with an increasingly diverse
    and tech-savvy Congress require CRS to adapt its products, services,
    and operational capabilities to meet the demand for more enhanced and
    accessible offerings.
        Looking forward to fiscal year 2020 and beyond, CRS will continue
    to focus on its goals and priority initiatives to enhance and expand
    the accessibility of its products and services, and to optimize the use
    of the Service's resources. CRS will meet the next milestones in
    modernizing its IT infrastructure as it enters the operational phase of
    an upgraded content management system and launches new authoring and
    publishing tools and processes as part of the IRIS project. Continued
    progress on this initiative will enable CRS to better meet Congress'
    expectations for exceptional products and services.
        Additionally, CRS will continue to strengthen its research and
    analytical capabilities to ensure that it is best positioned to provide
    the requisite mix of skills and expertise across the breadth of public
    policy areas that Congress will confront in the coming years. With
    Congress's generous support for this effort in the fiscal year 2019
    budget, CRS has successfully addressed coverage gaps in a number of the
    policy areas targeted in its fiscal year 2019 request. In fiscal year
    2020, the Service will continue to bolster its workforce with
    recruitment of additional expertise and identify areas of potential
    need as part of its ongoing assessment of resources in light of the
    changing congressional agenda.
                                   conclusion
        CRS appreciates its role as Congress's trusted resource and is
    committed to providing exceptional research, analysis, and information
    to meet the needs of every Member and committee. On behalf of my
    colleagues at CRS, I would like to express my appreciation to the
    Committee for its continued support. As we begin this 116th Congress,
    CRS looks forward to the Committee's input as we seek to improve
    products and services and strengthen operational capabilities in our
    ongoing effort to be Congress's foremost resource for public policy
    research and analysis.

        Senator Hyde-Smith. Thank you so much, Dr. Hayden.
        And congratulations, Ms. Temple.
        And now, Ms. Merdon, if you want to give us your opening
    statement.
    STATEMENT OF CHRISTINE MERDON, ACTING ARCHITECT OF THE
                CAPITOL
        Ms. Merdon. Thank you, ma'am.
        Chairman Hyde-Smith, Ranking Member Murphy, and
    distinguished Members of the subcommittee, thank you for the
    invitation to present the Architect of the Capitol's fiscal
    year 2020 budget. Because March is Women's History Month, I
    feel compelled to highlight some incredible, first here in this
    room as the first woman to lead the AOC, it gives me great
    pleasure to be sitting next to the first woman to lead the
    Library of Congress, and before you, Madam Chairwoman the first
    female Senator from the great State of Mississippi.
        I also appreciate the opportunity to present my first
    budget before this subcommittee. While I am new as Acting
    Architect of the Capitol, I am not new to understanding the
    needs and responsibilities of the agency. Serving 8 years as
    chief operating officer provided the opportunity to work with
    our very talented team. We have achieved many great successes,
    including the Capitol dome restoration and significant progress
    restoring the Russell Senate Office Building, a magnificent
    historic structure.
        Our request of $832 million prioritizes people, projects,
    and preservation to ensure we continue to fulfill our mission.
    We are honored to be trusted stewards of the most iconic
    buildings in the Nation, including the Senate and House office
    buildings, Supreme Court, Library of Congress, and the Capitol.
    Millions of people visit this beacon of democracy every year.
        Nearly everything you encounter on the Capitol campus is
    preserved and maintained by the AOC, from the incredible
    architecture that inspires you, the floors you walk on, and the
    lights that brighten your way. There is also an entire world of
    unseen utility, IT, and security infrastructure that enables
    you to do the work of the Nation in safety and comfort.
        Each year we are asked to do more. Our footprint,
    responsibilities, complexity of our work, and security
    requirements are all increasing. Our people working behind the
    scenes help the agency meet the mission every day. In the past,
    AOC has prioritized Capitol budget increases to maintain and
    improve our facilities. This has come at the expense of our
    operational needs.
        To meet these growing requirements, we must have the right
    resources. We request additional staff to support our project
    and operational needs. We must have more safety managers. We
    must have more project managers. And we must have more
    contracting officers to address our growing workload. For
    example, a typical Federal contracting officer executes 100
    contract actions a year; an AOC contracting officer executes
    double that amount.
        The AOC has more than 2,000 employees, including some of
    the most talented craftsmen in the world. To attract and retain
    specialized expertise in this competitive environment, we need
    talented human resource professionals. Our team and our
    inspector general confirmed cybersecurity is a high risk for
    the agency. We hold sensitive information; we must protect it.
        However, our IT funding is one of the lowest in the Federal
    Government, 3 percent of our budget compared to the Federal
    average of 11 percent. We've had many project successes over
    the last year, including the Cogeneration Project. It now
    yields significant energy savings, but we still have a long
    list of critical projects to complete. The Capitol Power Plant
    generates steam and chilled water throughout the campus through
    miles of tunnels. We must keep this critical infrastructure
    safe and reliable.
        Additional exterior security screening is essential to
    close a critical gap. We must keep threats outside the
    building. We are in a race against time to maintain our
    infrastructure. Stone elements from the Capitol can crumble in
    my hand.
        Preservation is a part of our heritage. The buildings, fine
    art, botanic assets: their value is priceless. We are
    requesting over $60 million in preservation projects to ensure
    major campus landmarks are enjoyed by future generations.
        During the dome restoration, our project team used AOC's
    original archive drawings from 1855 as a resource to complete
    the project. We have requested preservation resources to
    continue our work.
        So in recent years, our budget prioritized buildings over
    people. You will see in this year's budget we have increased
    our prioritization of our professionals. We know we must invest
    in the people we need to carry out our project and preservation
    mission. With your help, we will continue to be successful
    stewards of our nation's living history.
        [The statement follows:]
                   Prepared Statement of Christine A. Merdon
        Chairwoman Hyde Smith, Ranking Member Murphy and Members of the
    subcommittee, I appreciate the opportunity to present the Architect of
    the Capitol's (AOC) fiscal year 2020 budget. Our request of $832
    million will allow the agency to successfully meet our mission with a
    proactive focus on people, projects and preservation.
        Prior to becoming Acting Architect of the Capitol, I spent 8 years
    as the Deputy Architect of the Capitol and the Chief Operating Officer.
    I learned much about the agency, Congress and the needs of the Capitol
    campus in that role. And I am energized by the people who work here.
    The AOC's small but nimble group of employees is not always recognized,
    but their work matters greatly, and they have a passion and desire to
    do the best job possible to serve Congress and the Supreme Court,
    preserve America's Capitol, and inspire memorable visitor experiences.

                  U.S. Capitol Dome and the Statue of Freedom

        The AOC is the steward of the U.S. Capitol, Library of Congress
    buildings, U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Botanic Garden and surrounding
    office buildings, grounds and other facilities. I am proud of what we
    have accomplished this year. Nearly one-half of the campus' buildings
    are undergoing stone restoration as weather, age and environmental
    conditions are destroying many of the finer details of our monumental
    buildings. The Capitol Power Plant's cogeneration system began
    generating electricity and steam, which will be the biggest single
    contributor to the AOC's energy reduction in the coming years. We
    completed the first phases of the Cannon Renewal and the House Child
    Care Center expansion projects. The Capitol Visitor Center welcomed its
    21 millionth visitor, and the U.S. Botanic Garden engaged nearly a
    million visitors with innovative educational programs and seasonal
    exhibits. We also collaborated with partners to provide extraordinary
    support for special events on the Capitol campus, including the Lying
    in Honor ceremony for the Reverend Billy Graham, the Lying in State
    ceremonies for Senator John McCain and President George H.W. Bush, and
    the celebration of the 225th anniversary of the laying of the Capitol
    cornerstone.
        Despite these successful initiatives, we continue to face great
    challenges. The AOC is working hard to keep pace with our continually
    expanding footprint and increased responsibilities. We must ratchet up
    our efforts to attract and retain talented employees who are engaged
    and passionate about their work; support projects that are forward-
    focused and incorporate a broad view of the structure and growing needs
    of the Capitol campus; and position the agency as the authority on
    historic preservation to ensure that future generations can continue to
    take pride in the facilities and art under our care. I think of these
    challenges as the three Ps: people, projects and preservation.
                                     people
        The AOC has some of the most talented and widely admired craftsmen,
    tradesmen, artists, architects, engineers and scholars. Over the years,
    our agency has earned a well-deserved reputation as an agency with a
    ``can-do'' attitude. We have taken on new responsibilities and are
    committed to meeting ever-increasing workloads. However, there are
    areas that we need to improve. The most significant of these is
    attracting and retaining talented employees.

     AOC Employees are Highly Skilled, Well-Trained and Extremely Dedicated

        Much of our work is very specific and highly specialized. Surveys
    indicate that for the skilled trades--welders, electricians, machinists
    and others that are prevalent in construction and facilities
    management--the shrinking talent pool is likely to become more acute.
    Recruiting and retaining skilled professionals is increasingly
    competitive.
        Since fiscal year 2015, the AOC has strategically prioritized
    requested budgetary increases for our capital program at the expense of
    our operational needs. Congress supported our plan and provided
    significant increases in our capital program that have and will
    continue to address many critical repairs to our facilities and
    building systems across campus. In order to maximize the impact of
    these increases, our fiscal year 2020 budget requests a 9.2 percent
    increase to begin recruiting necessary personnel and updating critical
    support systems.
        With the expansion of new responsibilities and the ongoing and
    planned construction of new facilities both on and off campus,
    additional in-house resources are needed to lead and manage increasing
    campus-wide project design and development, construction oversight, and
    project management requirements. Personnel are required to reduce
    contract award and administrative lead times, and to avoid project
    delays and cost overruns. As our campus ages and our systems are
    updated, we need better support for emergency response, fire safety
    inspection efforts and oversight of fire and safety operations.

    Resources are Needed to Keep Pace With Growing Operational and Project
                              Support Requirements

        The AOC must also update and improve several critical information
    technology systems which we have identified as an agency enterprise
    risk. Our network is supported by decades-old infrastructure and end-
    of-life equipment that must be modernized. We are requesting increased
    funding to protect our critical infrastructure and meet the Legislative
    Branch Cybersecurity Working Group initiative to harden networks and
    defend legislative branch systems against malicious cyber activity.
                                    projects
        The AOC has a unique and important role. We have a responsibility
    to develop a vision for the future of the Capitol campus that will
    serve Capitol Hill and the American people well into the future. The
    decisions that we make about projects and priorities are important to
    preserve this beacon of American democracy for many generations.
        Adhering to a plan is important to me. Each year we use a risk-
    based process to prioritize needed projects. In fiscal year 2020, we
    are requesting $175 million for projects that will provide necessary
    maintenance to our energy delivery infrastructure, facilitate the next
    presidential inauguration as well as enhance security measures around
    the campus.
        Current projects across the campus include campus-wide stone and
    metal rehabilitation, garage and landscape restorations, House and
    Senate office building renewals, upgrades to security, fire and life
    safety systems, improvements to visitor services, and energy resilience
    and sustainability initiatives. Within our fiscal year 2020 Line Item
    Construction Program (LICP) request, approximately $58.2 million (25
    percent) will be used to complete the next phases of several critical
    infrastructure projects. Projects that were requested in fiscal year
    2019 but did not secure funding represent an additional $25.3 million
    (11 percent).

       The AOC's Risk-Based Project Prioritization Process Strategically
                              Identifies Projects

        All of our current and planned work comes with potential impacts to
    daily operations, and I am cognizant of potential construction
    fatigue--within the AOC, among members of Congress and their staffs, as
    well as our Capitol Hill neighbors. We will continue to communicate
    consistently with our stakeholders, work hard to minimize disruptions
    to the Capitol Hill community and those who visit, and always remain
    cognizant that the business of the Nation is taking place here.

       Critical Infrastructure Systems are in Need of Modernizations and
                           Replacement Across Campus

        The AOC's fiscal year 2020 request continues to focus on space and
    storage needs to be able to accommodate the growth of the AOC,
    congressional staff, Library of Congress collections and Supreme Court
    personnel. Security requirements and their ever-evolving needs and
    responsibilities also remain a priority.
                                  preservation
        Our heritage assets include buildings, monuments, landscapes,
    fountains, fine art, archival records and botanic assets. Their value
    is priceless. Over the last several years, we have expanded our
    foundational preservation documents, including building preservation
    guides and cultural landscape reports. We use these documents and our
    historic preservation policy as planning tools for restoring, renewing
    and reclaiming our heritage assets to a standard that is appropriate
    for the Nation's capital and the worldwide symbol of American
    democracy.

                    Conservation Work on the Rotunda Frieze

        The Architect of the Capitol is one of the few organizations where
    staff architects and engineers work directly with highly skilled, in-
    house preservation artisans daily. The buildings on Capitol Hill were
    carefully and purposefully designed and constructed, and this tradition
    continues.
        Much like an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure,
    adherence to conservation principles and regular maintenance will
    ensure we are successful in preserving our national treasures for years
    to come. To that end, our fiscal year 2020 budget request includes more
    than $60 million in projects that will continue to preserve the U.S.
    Capitol's exterior facade for future generations and ensure the
    historic architectural features of the Library of Congress buildings
    and major campus landmarks retain their original beauty.
        Over the past couple of years, the agency has worked hard to tackle
    aspirational plans and identify campus-wide solutions that help us to
    stitch the Capitol campus into a true campus environment. When I think
    of the things that I want the agency to accomplish under my leadership,
    I know that it will only be possible by focusing on the people,
    projects and historic preservation needed to uphold the unified and
    symbolic vision for the Capitol campus inherited from the Nation's
    founders.
        Thank you for your continued support and consideration of our
    fiscal year 2020 budget request.

                        VISITOR EXPERIENCE--MASTER PLAN

        Senator Hyde-Smith. Thank you very much, Ms. Merdon.
        I'm going to start off with my questions first. Dr. Hayden,
    I understand that the Master Plan for the Library's visitor
    experience is moving along very well and with completion
    planned for this June, I believe.
        Dr. Hayden. Yes.
        Senator Hyde-Smith. The initial design elements of the plan
    are impressive and seem to accomplish your goals of increasing
    access to the Library's many treasures. You have requested an
    additional $10 million for this project in fiscal year 2020 for
    contracts related to the Treasures Gallery and Youth Center.
    With an additional $8 million of already appropriated funds
    becoming available with the approval of the Master Plan, can
    you explain the need for the additional $10 million for this
    year?
        Dr. Hayden. Yes. And I'd like to also express appreciation
    for the AOC and their cooperation and partnership throughout
    the process. They were part from the very beginning in terms of
    the plan and also in terms of contracting the company that is
    in partnership with us with developing the plan. And so I
    wanted to start with that.
        The Master Plan that is due to Congress in June was
    developed with input from Members of Congress and staff,
    research briefs, traffic flow analysis, benchmarking, and upon
    the approval of the plan, the $2 million for the Master Plan
    will also include a resource plan for private fundraising
    because that was part of the initial concept and what we are
    looking forward to.
        The request for $10 million in 2020 will build upon the
    design work from the $8 million specified for use in fiscal
    year 2019 to start the contracting and design for the Treasures
    Gallery specifically and the Youth Center. So those are the two
    aspects that would be first. And then in the following years
    the funding also would be used for executing and design and
    implementation of the rest of the project, which would include
    the Orientation Center.
        Senator Hyde-Smith. Okay. We mentioned the renderings at
    one point earlier of the new spaces.
        Dr. Hayden. Yes, we've brought them along.
        Senator Hyde-Smith. Yes, they're quite impressive. Do you
    believe that the estimated cost of $60 million is still
    accurate to implement those elements?
        Dr. Hayden. And, in fact, we've been working with AOC on
    that, and there will be additional costing estimates, but we
    are confident that with the public-private partnership that we
    will be able to accomplish what we intend with the requested
    amount.

                          VISITOR EXPERIENCE--TIMELINE

        Senator Hyde-Smith. Okay. If you were to receive all of the
    requested increase, what is your anticipated timeline for the
    completion of this phase of the visitors experience?
        Dr. Hayden. In this phase, we would be able to complete the
    Treasurers Gallery and the Youth Center between 18 to 20
    months, and the Orientation Center, which now would include
    relocating the Thomas Jefferson Library, within 24 months. So
    those are the estimates as they stand today with
    acknowledgement that there could be some changes, but not
    significant, based on the type of project that it is. It's not
    heavy construction or things like that.

                          VISITOR EXPERIENCE--IMPACTS

        Senator Hyde-Smith. What would the impact be to the current
    Library users, particularly in the Main Reading Room?
        Dr. Hayden. I just have to stop and thank Congress for
    giving us the funding for the development of an actual Master
    Plan. During this time, we've been able to take a holistic look
    of the entire Library campus and how enhancing the visitor
    experience at the Thomas Jefferson will impact the other
    buildings and that.
        Early on, when we thought about how to give people an
    inspirational view of that Main Reading Room, we had thought
    there might be an opportunity for people to actually walk into
    the Reading Room, and we quickly found that that might
    interfere with the people who are doing research in the Reading
    Room, it might not give the best experience for the visitor
    coming in looking at people. And so we went back to the design
    firm and worked on another way to give people that
    inspirational view up into the Reading Room, and that was how
    we developed the plan of having an orientation experience.
        Right now, for instance, there are four ways to get into
    the Thomas Jefferson Building on different levels, and people
    come in and they don't know where they are, they don't know
    what the Library of Congress is, they definitely don't know
    what the Library of Congress can do for them when they get back
    home. And so we were able to condense the entryway from the
    Capitol Visitor Center and a carriage-level, a ground-level,
    entryway into an orientation experience, and the rendering
    shows that you could look up into the Reading Room from that
    area and be inspired and see that space, but you would not be
    intruding and walking into the Reading Room.
        Senator Hyde-Smith. Would there be any areas that would
    have to be closed during that time?
        Dr. Hayden. That would probably be phased, and we
    definitely were trying to avoid what happened when the Library
    had an extensive restoration in the late 1990s. The Reading
    Room was closed to the public for 5 years as it was restored,
    and we definitely don't want to do that. By not having to
    intrude or intervene in most of the area, it would be a very
    limited space in the middle of the Reading Room that is now a
    rather underused desk area. So we would try to make sure that
    we would not intrude on the Reading Room, and in other spaces.
    The Treasures Gallery, that would be in an existing exhibit
    space, so there would be signage and things saying that we are
    renovating and making Treasures Gallery, we would be able to do
    that. The youth area is an area that's mainly staff area now,
    and it would have little public impact. We would be moving
    staff members into other office areas and then using that
    space.

                                IT MODERNIZATION

        Senator Hyde-Smith. Gotcha. My second question, Dr. Hayden,
    regards the Library's significant investments in recent years
    for modernization of its IT systems and infrastructure across
    the entire organization. This year, your request continues
    those investments and adds new program increases for the Data
    Center, Congress.gov, and the National Library Service's BARD
    website. As part of this effort, has the Library established a
    system to measure the successes or outcomes of its Library-wide
    IT modernization efforts each year?
        Dr. Hayden. Yes. In fact, IT modernization in the first
    phase of stabilizing our systems and even optimizing other
    systems is being completed. We are building on the successes of
    the last 2 fiscal years and the opportunity to invest quite a
    bit in IT, and we thank Congress for that. We have completed
    and implemented 27 of the 31 GAO recommendations about the
    Library's information technology infrastructure, and that
    includes security as well as preparing for the modernization of
    the copyright process and CRS and the National Library for the
    Blind and Physically Handicapped moving into the digital realm,
    delivering things through the Internet for that.
        This year we're continuing on with securing our data and
    making sure that we are able to support modernizing those other
    functions. So this modernization effort is very successful in
    terms of looking at what GAO had recommended. And we are not
    only closing them, but we are implementing those
    recommendations. We have the remaining 4 of the 31 public
    recommendations are at GAO right now waiting to be reviewed and
    passed on, and 70 of the nonpublic recommendations that
    basically address security, and that's why they are nonpublic,
    are also being addressed.

                               IT CENTRALIZATION

        Senator Hyde-Smith. And to follow up to that, your budget
    request also proposes the realignment of Library personnel
    under the IT centralization framework. To date, what benefits
    has the Library seen occur related to centralization? And what
    unforeseen challenges have occurred that you can tell us about?
        Dr. Hayden. One of the greatest benefits of centralization
    is that we have greater oversight of our IT expenditures. We
    have greater oversight over IT security systemwide. We have
    centralized our security officers into one unit and oversight
    of a professional cybersecurity person. And we are already
    seeing that our efforts to modernize other service units,
    Copyright, Congressional Research Service, are moving at a very
    good pace. And so centralization has allowed us to actually be
    able to account for our IT spending and our planning for IT.
        Mr. Barton, who I think you got a chance to meet before the
    hearing, has led that effort, and it has been monumental to see
    the progress, and we have been commended by the Government
    Accountability Office (GAO) with the progress with IT.
    Centralization was one of the first recommendations for the
    Library, to centralize all IT functions in the Library,
    including staff.

                              CONGRESS.GOV REQUEST

        Senator Hyde-Smith. Okay. Again to you, Dr. Hayden, your
    request includes $3.6 million for the full retirement of the
    Legislative Information System (LIS) and continued enhancements
    to Congress.gov. Over the years, you have made a significant
    investment of over $38 million for Congress.gov to be a
    successful platform for the public and congressional users
    alike. Can you expand on the need for this additional
    investment this year?
        Dr. Hayden. This year, we are looking at the fact that
    Congress.gov has, since fiscal 2012, been underinvested in many
    areas. As we have invested in Congress.gov, we've had to take
    appropriations from other modernization efforts. And what this
    will allow us to do is to develop new programming and
    functionality for Congress.gov and make a transition from the
    LIS system, which is a legacy system. We will not retire LIS
    until all of the functionality is in Congress.gov. And so we
    make that commitment. And so this request will really
    accelerate the enhancements to Congress.gov, such as a mobile
    app search capacity and also being able to have access to
    committee hearings and other aspects that Congress has asked
    for to make it more robust. It also will provide additional
    security for the information that's available through
    Congress.gov.
        Senator Hyde-Smith. The retirement for LIS, is that pretty
    much on track right now?
        Dr. Hayden. It's on track, however, I want to reiterate
    that we will not retire LIS entirely until we have all the
    functionality in Congress.gov. For instance, the first thing
    that you see is an initial interface that you'll see with
    Congress.gov, but what's behind it will still have LIS
    information, and that will be there. We have to make sure that
    we transfer that to Congress.gov and make sure that it is done
    securely and we have the capacity to--this is getting a little
    in the weeds, but in terms of IT, that we can't totally retire
    LIS until we make sure that everything is able to be
    transferred.
        Senator Hyde-Smith. That makes perfect sense.
        Okay, Senator Murphy, I'll turn it over to you for your
    questions.

                        VISITOR EXPERIENCE--FUNDRAISING

        Senator Murphy. Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
        Dr. Hayden, I just wanted to sort of round out the
    conversation on the Visitors Experience. Can you give us an
    update on where you are in terms of private fundraising, and
    any commitments that have been received or goals that have been
    hit on the private fundraising side?
        Dr. Hayden. On the private fundraising side, we have been
    really encouraged by the interest in, we call it patriotic
    philanthropy, opportunities that we have with this project. The
    fact that Congress has indicated their support, has given us
    entre into many opportunities for private fundraising. To date,
    we have verbal commitments for $11 million of the $20 that we
    have already indicated that we would be able to raise with the
    opportunity to have additional funding if needed; we have
    contracted with an outside contractor for a fundraising
    development plan; and we are supplementing our development
    staff with a campaign director at this time. So it's very
    heartening to see the interest in this project, and the
    opportunities are there.
        And we also see it as a way of strengthening the Library's
    fundraising and development capacity that was started by my
    predecessor, Dr. Billington, in the mid to late 1990s and early
    2000s. And so we want to rebuild that capacity and have the
    Library have a pretty robust fundraising operation.
        Senator Murphy. So just to remind me, the overall budget is
    in the neighborhood of $60 million, and the private fundraising
    goal of that----
        Dr. Hayden. Is 20.
        Senator Murphy. Is $20 million?
        Dr. Hayden. Yes, it's 20.
        Senator Murphy. And of the--if you don't want to give
    details here, that's fine--but at what point are those
    commitments unlocked? Because you're asking us for--you've got
    8, you're asking for another 10, but you've got commitments on
    the private side. At what point are they willing to actually
    put money into the project?
        Dr. Hayden. The indications that we're getting is this
    budget cycle is very important because we have followed through
    with the Master Plan and the release of the $8 million to
    start, and so the indication that there would be additional
    support on the public side would give a tangible signal to the
    development effort, and our efforts are being led by the
    chairman of our Madison Council, and so they are primed to go.
        Senator Murphy. Just speaking for myself here, I would love
    to see those private commitments become real, concurrent with
    the next round of funding because as, of course, you remember,
    the initial funding commitment from Congress was made based on
    the understanding that it was necessary in order to leverage
    some private commitments. So I'd rather have some of that money
    show up earlier rather than us continue to fund it and have
    uncertainty as to whether it comes through.
        Dr. Hayden. I think I can say here that the $11 million in
    verbal commitments could be solidified very shortly. They are
    not nebulous. That's the initial thing that could be verified
    very shortly.
        Senator Murphy. Great.
        I'll sort of go back and forth for questions.
        Ms. Merdon, when the House took over the O'Neill bill from
    General Services Administration (GSA), it funded $30 million in
    renovations to triple the capacity of its child care center,
    and I've talked about this in previous hearings, but never got
    a chance to talk to you about it in open session. Here in the
    Senate, we have 68 slots total, 9 for infants. We always talk
    about how we should run government more like a business. No
    business with the number of employees that we have here would
    have such a small child care capacity. And so in the 2019
    Legislative Branch Act, we included language directing GAO to
    work with you and other partners to study and review current
    options to expand the Senate day care. I know it's still early
    days, but could you maybe give an update on whether those
    discussions have commenced and what goals you may have for the
    outcome of those discussions?
        Ms. Merdon. Yes, we are working with GAO on the study and
    we are also working with a consultant in developing a report
    for Congress that should be ready for your review by the end of
    the Spring. Our original vendor proposals for the study came in
    much higher than expected, so we are working to refine the
    requirements and make clarifications on the scope of work prior
    to solicitation.
        As a working mother, I understand the frustrations that
    employees do have, so this is a priority for us. You know, we
    have a lot of wonderful lessons learned from the House day care
    center, and getting the right people on board to do the report
    is very important, but also making sure we do it fiscally
    responsible is very important, too.
        Senator Murphy. I'm just curious. Why do you need an
    outside entity to do a report on child care capacity?
        Ms. Merdon. Well, we learned from the House Child Care
    Center is we need specific expertise on those who design child
    centers or those who start the development of child care
    centers because there are different types of requirements--
    there is the National Association for the Education of Young
    Children (NAEYC), there is GSA--and determining which one is
    the best for the Senate and having those discussions is very
    important.

                    MAKING CRS REPORTS PUBLIC-STATUS UPDATE

        Senator Murphy. Great.
        Back to you, Dr. Hayden. Let's go back to the 2018 omnibus,
    which included a provision directing CRS to make its current
    and prior reports public. Can you just give us an update on how
    the rollout for the reports have gone? We have benchmarks that
    were laid out in the law. Have you been able to hit those
    benchmarks? And will you be expecting further action and
    further developments over the course of the rest of this fiscal
    year?
        Dr. Hayden. Yes. CRS has been making the benchmarks and
    almost 80 percent of the nearly 2,700 active reports are
    available right now, and the remainder will be ready and online
    by March 31, this week. And other projects and products like
    ``In Focus'' and ``Insights'' will also become available in
    March. And they expect to have all of the projects available by
    September 30, and that was the target.
        Senator Murphy. Great.
        Dr. Hayden. So CRS, and working with our chief information
    officer and IT made that possible.
        Senator Murphy. Great. Two more questions for you, Ms.
    Merdon. First, on this issue over the Construction Division. So
    GAO issued a report making a recommendation about processes
    that you could formalize using sort of more current information
    available when making workforce decisions. Obviously, the goal
    here is if we don't have to, you know, lay off folks, if we can
    have a rightsized force for as long a period as possible,
    better for everybody. Have you concurred with the
    recommendations in the GAO report? And if so, are you moving
    forward with them?
        Ms. Merdon. We are actually delighted with that report, and
    the reason why is, you know, from a manager's point of view or
    employee's point of view, having swings in hiring and laying
    people off is you're not being a good employer. And it also
    becomes very difficult to retain people.
        So prior to the GAO engagement, we started developing a
    policy that would provide more rigor in how we do our planning
    of our workforce, also better commitments from the
    jurisdictions on money for funds for projects because the CD
    workforce is temporary employees because there is no
    appropriation, they are only project funded.
        So we put that policy on pause when GAO engagement began,
    and after the engagement, when we got the draft, we were
    absolutely delighted because they were recommending the same
    direction that we wanted to head to provide more rigor. We
    already had a plan as far as planning the work and, you know,
    doing what the industry calls resource leveling to keep the
    workforce steady, but the missing piece of that was the
    appropriations, getting commitment from the jurisdictions on
    the project funding. And by having GAO indicate that's one
    thing we need to do, and we were headed in the same direction,
    that is absolutely the right path we want, and that kind of
    confirmed where we needed to go.
        Senator Murphy. And thank you for that and thank you for
    taking that issue seriously.
        Lastly, on the Russell Stone project, behind schedule. How
    far behind schedule? What do we know about the ability to hold
    folks accountable for the delays? And then is there a way to
    kind of wrap this into the concern you have about your shortage
    of contracting personnel to oversee these contracts? I know you
    have a real worry that you don't have the folks you need in
    order to, you know, move these contracts and address issues
    that come up as contracts move along. This is a big-ticket item
    that's had some issues, and I know you want to have the ability
    to take care of issues that inevitably come up in these big
    projects as quickly as possible, and you worry that you don't
    have them now.
        Ms. Merdon. Thank you for recognizing the Russell Stone.
    And, yes, on the first sequence of work, we did have
    significant delays. Some of them were delays caused by the
    contractor's quality of work, and some of those were delays on
    us being able to answer questions or to track down information
    that we needed. And I think you're identifying, you know, maybe
    having more contracting officers or more project managers would
    help facilitate getting those questions answered.
        The Russell Stone, the first sequence actually completed at
    the end of the year. We are on track with the second sequence,
    which you'll see on 1st Street and Constitution. That will be
    done by the inauguration. And then the next sequence, the last
    sequence, on Delaware Avenue, will be awarded prior to the
    inauguration to begin after the inauguration.
        We did hold the contractor accountable. I was personally
    involved meeting with their executives coming from the Midwest
    to talk about ways to make corrections. So on the second
    sequence, we used those negotiated terms, those best practices,
    to keep the project on track, and it's working very well.
        Senator Murphy. Is it the same contractor on the second
    phase?
        Ms. Merdon. It is the same contractor, but they recognized
    that they needed to make changes in the processes primarily
    around the restoration of the windows. They developed a process
    that's more efficient where they're doing the restoration
    offsite, I believe it's in Ohio, and then after they restore
    it, they ship it to the site. I think we're taking a better
    pace on it, and that's working well for the project.
        Senator Murphy. Well, thank you to both of you. You are
    both exemplary public servants. We are very lucky to have you.
    These are not easy jobs with the resources being constrained as
    they are, but you bring a level of integrity and enthusiasm for
    your work to this subcommittee and to the Capitol and the
    Library every day. We appreciate your being here.
        Senator Hyde-Smith. Thank you, Senator Murphy.
        Ms. Merdon, you are requesting an additional $24.9 million
    in the Capitol Construction and Operations jurisdiction, and
    that's an increase of 24 percent, which is the largest
    operating budget increase across all jurisdictions. In addition
    to the $10.5 million increase provided in the fiscal year 2019,
    this would be a $35 million, or 37-percent, increase for this
    jurisdiction over the last 2 years. Can you describe the
    specific need for such growth in this jurisdiction?
        Ms. Merdon. Yes, ma'am. And thank you for bringing this up.
    This is actually very important to me.
        As I mentioned in my opening statement, our work is
    increasing. So the purpose of this increase is actually to
    rightsize Central Services for the rest of the agency. Central
    Services provides HR support, IT, contracting, project
    management, safety and fire protection support for all the
    jurisdictions. That is critical. And our workload as far as
    projects has increased over the last 2 years by 36 percent. Our
    workload in security requirements, in preservation, in safety
    and fire protection. Recently, there was a fire in the Russell
    Building, and we're only one deep in people responding. The
    fire happened on a Saturday night at 9:00. If that person
    wasn't available, we wouldn't have a safety/fire protection
    engineer here to respond. So the adding additional safety and
    fire protection engineers as well as project managers,
    contracting officers, human resources, it keeps operations
    working and keeps projects on time. The purpose of this
    increase is primarily to rightsize.
        In the increase is also our IT budget, about $9 million. As
    I mentioned in my opening remarks, we are the lowest funded in
    the Federal Government. We are absolutely the lowest funded in
    the legislative branch for IT, 3 percent, where the Federal
    average is 11 percent. And we use IT just as we use tools in a
    toolbox. Our trades use IT. If you were to look at the dome
    under construction, they weren't carrying a roll of documents
    under their arms, they were using iPads. You, ma'am, you used
    the ``Suite Selection'' when you selected your suite. So it's
    our IT that helps develop efficiencies for those types of
    things, but if only we have a 3-percent budget, we are unable
    to do more and keep up with the rest of our industry.
        Senator Hyde-Smith. I understand that part of the requested
    increase in Capital Construction and Operations (CCO) is for
    support to all jurisdictions for capital projects. Right now
    there are 47 ongoing construction projects, according to my
    information, across the AOC, another 11 projects in study or
    design phases, and an additional 25 requested in fiscal year
    2020.
        While we have a duty to preserve and maintain our historic
    buildings, given the strain these projects place on the Support
    Division, are we perhaps taking on too many projects at one
    time? Can you elaborate on that?
        Ms. Merdon. Sure. The challenge that we face when we
    prioritize projects and when we present the budget to you,
    these are projects that we need either continuing phases of
    existing projects, addressing areas where deterioration has
    taken place where it becomes unsafe, and for critical
    infrastructure, like our utility tunnels, our emergency
    generators. So we're asking for things that we need, not that
    are nice to have or take on that's too much new.
        So when we take a look, we take a hard look at our budget,
    what can we accommodate, what's ready for construction, and
    what do we need just to continue with the mission to serve
    Congress?
        Senator Hyde-Smith. Okay. Regarding the generators, the
    request for the Library Buildings and Grounds jurisdiction
    includes two new emergency backup generators for the James
    Madison Memorial Building. The project cost is estimated to be
    $48.8 million. That's more expensive than the cost of
    construction for the collection Module 6 at Fort Meade. Can you
    help us understand the high cost associated with that project?
        Ms. Merdon. Certainly. The existing emergency generators
    are in the garage currently, which do not meet code. The
    emergency generators provide lighting for life safety and
    emergency systems for the building. To meet code, we need to
    install the generators on the roof of the building. So there
    are some structural upgrades that need to happen on the roof as
    well as after we're done, we know that there is going to be
    repair work to be done on the roof.
        So it's a combination of bringing it up to code, bringing
    very large pieces of equipment on top of a roof that wasn't
    designed to accommodate generators, you know, using a crane,
    shoring up or increasing the structural loading capacity of the
    roof itself, and then knowing that we're going to have to do
    repairs after that.
        Senator Hyde-Smith. Do you know how much the cost of the
    generators themselves are?
        Ms. Merdon. The generator cost is $10.3 million of the
    total project cost.
        Senator Hyde-Smith. But we're talking about two, correct?
        Ms. Merdon. Correct.

                        NATIONAL LIBRARY SERVICE REQUEST

        Senator Hyde-Smith. Okay. Dr. Hayden, the Library is
    requesting $7.4 million for the National Library Service to
    begin infrastructure modernization under its BARD website and
    invest in braille e-reader technology. This would be the first
    installment of a large investment in NLS with a goal of
    increasing access and expanding patronage of the program. Do
    you anticipate the growth in patronage will come from these
    enhancements, or does this initiative seek to meet existing
    demand not currently being met?
        Dr. Hayden. It will do both. As you know, this program is
    for people with reading disabilities, and that's for all ages.
    It's also for institutions as well. And so there is currently a
    need to be able to provide things in a more digital format. And
    after the pilot program--and the head of the program is with us
    here today--it was very apparent that we needed to do more with
    the aspect of digital delivery using eReaders and being able to
    have a system that will support that. And the anticipation is
    that we would have even more people who would utilize the
    services if we had the addition of more digital capacity as
    well. So there are already people wanting to have more digital
    delivery as well as we know that there will be more in the
    future.
        Senator Hyde-Smith. What is the estimated timeline for
    these changes to the NLS system?
        Dr. Hayden. The initial pilot I mentioned has yielded quite
    a bit of information, and so there is now a contract that would
    be let to start with approximately 2,000 of the eReaders, and
    that would be shortly that we would be experimenting with those
    and seeing that delivery. And so within the next year or so we
    would be able to get more information on how those eReaders are
    received and also how the process is working.
        Senator Hyde-Smith. Okay. Ms. Merdon, in your testimony,
    you mentioned that attracting and retaining talented employees
    is one of your biggest challenges facing the AOC today, and the
    CCO increase would provide investments in human capital
    management, including a talent acquisition specialist to assist
    in hiring demands and ensure fairness in hiring. What impact
    has this issue of employee retention had on the agency? And is
    there an area where there has been a larger issue than others?
        Ms. Merdon. Thank you, ma'am. And you are correct, we are
    asking for talent acquisition management. It is important to be
    a great agency, and as the agency participates in the best
    places to work in the Federal Government, we're actually rated
    in the top third for midsize agencies. You know, our talent
    acquisition uses different methodology besides USAJobs; we use
    opportunities to, you know, use LinkedIn and other ones.
        But you're right, we do have other challenges in the
    agency. You know, most recently, you know, prevention of sexual
    harassment is a focus for me that I think requires a culture
    change in the agency. You know, I have made great strides in
    changing the training for our employees; instead of biannual,
    we do it annually. I have stood up a 1-800 number for our
    employees if they experience sexual harassment to call
    anonymously. And I think there are other opportunities in the
    agency to make it a better place to work by aligning better
    organizational structure for more transparency and
    accountability as well as aligning our diversity inclusion,
    disputes resolution, our EEO office directly with the Architect
    of the Capitol, as recommended by our inspector general.
        So--so, ma'am, to make it a best place to work, you know,
    we always need to make improvements and culture change, and I
    am committed to making those changes.
        Senator Hyde-Smith. And how are you currently handling
    those issues with the current resources that you have?
        Ms. Merdon. We have made great strides in the last several
    months. We have emphasized civility in the workplace, and
    instituted annual and mandatory prevention of sexual harassment
    courses. Since I assumed the Acting Architect role, I swiftly
    established a confidential hotline, coordinated additional
    training and met with leaders of the Office of Congressional
    Workplace Rights to establish clearly that I place a priority
    on a safe and respectful workplace. But I think there is more
    opportunities to make improvement, even as Acting Architect, to
    make this an even better place to work.
        Senator Hyde-Smith. So right now what you have currently
    you don't think is just quite adequate?
        Ms. Merdon. It's not quite adequate. I think it's important
    to provide additional oversight by restructuring staff,
    including moving the Diversity, Inclusion and Dispute
    Resolution (DIDR) to report directly to the Architect as
    recommended by a study done by our inspector general. I think
    even giving that presence would make a big difference, and also
    additional funds in the future. But I think focusing on hiring
    people, to hire the right people. I think human resources,
    attracting the talent, and just making this a great place to
    work and addressing cultural issues is important for me.
        Senator Hyde-Smith. Okay. Thank you for that. Ms. Merdon,
    this subcommittee has shown support for the Botanic Garden and
    the educational program it offers. This year's request includes
    funding to continue and expand the Urban Agriculture program.
    Can you give us some updates on this program and what you might
    expect from the new educational programming?
        Ms. Merdon. Sure. And we greatly appreciate the support
    that you have provided us in the past. So Urban Agriculture, we
    have partnered with other botanic gardens, including the
    Chicago Botanic Garden. We will be working with entities in
    Ohio on a train the trainer program, meaning we will provide
    instruction and educational resources to those who help others
    who want to learn more about urban agriculture. We have also
    worked with ``Armed to Urban Farm,'' which is a program
    teaching veterans and active duty military about urban
    agriculture, how to manage an urban agriculture farm. And then
    with your assistance and with your support, we actually hired
    an urban agriculture education specialist who now works at the
    Botanic Garden.
        Senator Hyde-Smith. Thank you.
        Senator Murphy, do you have any more questions?
        Senator Murphy. No, I'm all set.

                              SURPLUS BOOK PROGRAM

        Senator Hyde-Smith. Okay. Senator Lankford is on his way,
    and I think he did have some questions. I think we've covered a
    good bit of material today, and you've provided some very good
    answers, and maybe he will be here quickly.
        There is one other program that I am interested in because
    Mississippi is such a rural State, and that is the Library's
    Surplus Book Program. Dr. Hayden, as you know, it's very
    important, especially to my State and across the country in
    these rural areas, that additional resources were included for
    the program in the fiscal year 2019 legislative branch bill.
    Can you provide a general update on how the program is
    operating today and your plan for these additional resources?
        Dr. Hayden. The Surplus Books Program is an excellent way
    to provide new books for all ages to jurisdictions, and in the
    2018 execution of that, we had 76,000 items that were supplied
    to participants in 30 States, participants received books as
    well as 103 congressional offices that actually selected the
    surplus books to be sent for jurisdictions. I was able last
    year to actually be present in several States when surplus
    books were being presented by Congressional Members. And it
    means so much to schools, local libraries, especially libraries
    and schools that have had damages from tornadoes, hurricanes,
    fires, to receive brand-new books. And so with the execution,
    we are also expanding our outreach through our website and the
    congressional offices. One of our best ways to get the word
    out, is through the congressional offices.
        Senator Hyde-Smith. Great. That has been very helpful.
        Senator Lankford, I'll recognize you for your questions.

                    VISITOR EXPERIENCE--EXECUTION OF FUNDING

        Senator Lankford. Thank you very much.
        You all, thank you. Thanks for your work and thanks for
    what you're doing. I've got several questions. You may have
    already dealt with some of them, hopefully not, but I've been
    bouncing back and forth doing a couple things to try to be able
    to cover this. But I appreciate very much your service.
        Carla, it's good to see you again. Thanks for all your
    ongoing work. The Visitor Center experience, the $8 million
    that's still to be allocated this year, what is that part for?
        Dr. Hayden. With the approval of the Master Plan, that is
    to be formally presented to Congress this June, the contract
    was awarded to Pure+Applied, that was the design firm, in
    August of 2018. Upon approval of the plan, there would be
    design and contracting for the implementation and really the
    construction of the Treasures Gallery and the Youth Center.
        Senator Lankford. So is the $8 million for that
    construction? Because the $2 million, the first $2 million,
    that's been allocated----
        Dr. Hayden. For the Master Plan, right.
        Senator Lankford [continuing]. Is for the Master Plan to be
    able to get going.
        Dr. Hayden. Right.
        Senator Lankford. Is it $8 million design or is that $8
    million actually brick and mortar experience construction?
        Dr. Hayden. It will be design, and that will include the
    actual blueprints--and if AOC wants to jump in, you can with
    that--and also to award the contracts for the actual
    construction. You know, it's a contract----
        Senator Lankford. But it's not actual construction. This
    $10 million, $2 million is Master Plan, and $8 million is
    blueprints and design. None of that is construction. Is that
    correct or not correct?
        Dr. Hayden. It--from what I understand and what will be
    part of the contracts would be looking at how we could then go
    with actual construction, but it's not the actual construction.
        Senator Lankford. Okay. Do you have anything you want to
    add to that?
        Dr. Hayden. Yes, you might want to put the technologic.
        Ms. Merdon. Not--not at this time. I mean, you know,
    typically the plans cost, you know, maybe between 6 and 12
    percent of the actual construction, and then the actual
    construction, of course, is significantly more. I think you're
    in the very early planning phases. It is important that our two
    agencies coordinate and collaborate throughout the concept
    development phase to ensure final design and construction
    documents fully account for fire and life safety requirements,
    historic preservation and overall budget costs.

                     VISITOR EXPERIENCE--FUNDING STRUCTURE

        Senator Lankford. Right. So you're talking about $60
    million in total construction or $60 million just the Federal
    portion of construction?
        Dr. Hayden. The actual construction--and this is where the
    phasing and how you look at the actual fabrication--would be a
    portion of the entire 60. The design and development and the
    blueprints is another portion.
        Senator Lankford. So you're talking $10 million, $10
    million for Master Plan and design, $60 million for
    construction, and then there is also a private portion of it?
    I'm trying to figure out all the numbers.
        Dr. Hayden. The private portion of the 60, the entire
    project is 60.
        Senator Lankford. Okay.
        Dr. Hayden. With the three components, the Treasures
    Gallery, the Youth and Lifelong Learning Center, and the
    orientation area, that is actually a revision of getting into
    the Main Reading Room, which you saw initially. The thought was
    to have people walk in. We've definitely seen that that is not
    feasible to have people walking into that. So that is the
    orientation area. So there are three aspects. And the $20
    million from private sources is part of the $60. So the
    partnership would be 40----
        Senator Lankford. Right.
        Dr. Hayden [continuing]. From public sources and 20 from
    private.
        Senator Lankford. The 40 includes the $10 million that's
    already been allocated.
        Dr. Hayden. Yes.
        Senator Lankford. Okay. So $40 million total to complete
    the project from the Federal tax dollars. Will that include the
    ingress/egress stairs outside? Because I know that was part of
    the conversation as well, is that we've still got an ingress/
    egress portion.
        Dr. Hayden. No.
        Ms. Merdon. No, that is an AOC appropriation.
        Senator Lankford. Is that still around $24 million? Where
    is that?
        Ms. Merdon. It's--it's about $24 million, but I think
    we're--we received that appropriation for the north stair
    already. Ultimately, there will be four stairs throughout the
    building, but we're starting on the north stair right now.
        Senator Lankford. Will that be complete by the time the
    Visitor Center area is complete?
        Ms. Merdon. It's under design right now, and we are taking
    a look at the impact that the visitors experience will have on
    the size of the stairs. Dr. Hayden anticipates there will be
    more visitors, which impacts the size of how big it is, you
    know.
        Senator Lankford. Sure. And that was part of our
    conversation a couple years ago----
        Dr. Hayden. Yes.
        Senator Lankford [continuing]. To be able to make sure
    we've got stairs to address the ingress/egress problems
    already. We don't want to increase capacity without having to
    solve that one first.
        Ms. Merdon. Right. So we are working with the Library, in
    lockstep with them on the stairs.
        Senator Lankford. Okay.
        Dr. Hayden. And that's what we mentioned earlier, that AOC
    has been involved. Also, Capitol Police in terms of security
    and what will be the impact as well. So they've been involved.
        Senator Lankford. Madam Chair, may I ask a couple more
    questions with this because----
        Senator Hyde-Smith. Absolutely.
        Senator Murphy. Can I just piggyback on yours before you
    finish?
        Senator Lankford. Absolutely.
        Senator Murphy. This $10 million design to $50 million
    construction sounds like----
        Senator Lankford. High.
        Senator Murphy. Sounds high.
        Ms. Merdon. It--it depends on the complexity of the job. If
    you're building an office building in the suburbs, that number
    is going to be low. If you're building something in a historic
    building that requires historic preservation, very intricate
    designs, a lot of consultants coming in on historic
    preservation, structural issues on a historic building, that's
    going to raise the cost. I've seen it where a design can be
    about 30 percent of the construction costs because it's a very
    complex project. And this is I would consider a complex project
    because where it's being located and just, you know, we have to
    look at fire protection, historic preservation structure, and
    you've got to bring all those consultants in as well as your
    visitor experience consultants, which adds to that.
        Senator Murphy. Okay. I look forward to following up on
    that.
        Senator Lankford. Yes, I'd love to have a conversation on
    that just to be able to make sure we're tracking. I know you
    all are--there's a limited number of contractors out there that
    do this type of work as well----
        Ms. Merdon. Correct.

                       VISITOR EXPERIENCE--STAFFING NEEDS

        Senator Lankford [continuing]. And that does make a
    difference on the competition. Originally that number, that $60
    million number, also included some staffing as well, to be able
    to staff the visitor experience.
        Dr. Hayden. Yes.
        Senator Lankford. Do you anticipate that $60 million total
    is all construction, design, everything else, or do you
    anticipate there is an additional request coming back to this
    committee for FTEs in the future to manage this long term?
        Dr. Hayden. With this request, in fact, there are three
    employees to handle the design and development, and one is an
    educational expert for in terms of the Youth Center and looking
    at the programming for that and starting out with that.
        We are looking at our current staffing in terms of visitor
    services, the docent population as well, and our teaching with
    primary resources and that, and so we'll be looking at what
    types of repurposing almost some of the functions as we look at
    more visitors----
        Senator Lankford. Do you anticipate when the Master Plan
    comes back to us complete----
        Dr. Hayden. We do.
        Senator Lankford [continuing]. That there will also be a
    recommendation of how many FTEs----
        Dr. Hayden. Yes.
        Senator Lankford [continuing]. You will need after it's
    complete?
        Dr. Hayden. Yes.
        Senator Lankford. Okay. That would be very helpful.
        Dr. Hayden. And the need might include how we would arrange
    staffing patterns in a different way----
        Senator Lankford. That would be very helpful.
        Dr. Hayden [continuing]. And that's the type of thing that
    we're looking at.
        Senator Lankford. That would be very, very helpful.
        I have just one last quick comment, and this one is kind of
    funny and different. As I run the Capitol, as a lot of people
    do, I have run the Capitol, around it, and when I get on the
    west side of the Capitol for the last several years, I run past
    some fabulous temporary lighting that's out there with
    generators and lighting, and I've run past those temporary
    lights for a couple of years, and I've wondered how long
    temporary lights go up in an area that looks like it will
    probably need lights on it period. And I only raise that to say
    that there is some level at some point that the Architect of
    the Capitol makes a decision we need a permanent thing here or
    we need a temporary thing here, and trying to just figure out
    the cost differential. But those temporary lights have been out
    there a while, and I would love to just be able to hear the
    mindset of at what point we need a permanent item there and at
    what point we need a temporary light, or something like that.
    Does that make sense?
        Ms. Merdon. That makes sense.
        Senator Lankford. Yes.
        Ms. Merdon. Just to fine-tune where those may be, I'm
    thinking those may be on Constitution Avenue?
        Senator Lankford. No. On the west side--on the west side of
    the Capitol facing towards the Mall area and just off the
    sidewalk close to the Capitol. So there's a couple light posts
    there with six lights on them--with a gas generator on the
    bottom, and every night they fire up the generator and run
    them, and they've been like that for a couple years. And I
    thought one day we're going to have a light post probably right
    there that we just flick on.
        Ms. Merdon. Those temporary lights are there at the request
    of the USCP. Our historic preservation office has sent them at
    least two letters regarding their status to encourage the
    removal of the temporary lights. In the near future, we are
    meeting with them to identify the lighting needs in that area.
    Following that discussion, we will develop a plan to better
    address the overall lighting security needs on the campus. I'm
    happy to provide you with more information on that plan
    following our meeting with USCP.
        Senator Lankford. Yes.
        Ms. Merdon. In addition, we identified several years ago
    that some light posts were unstable, so we have a replacement
    program.
        Senator Lankford. That would be great.
        Ms. Merdon. Okay. Thank you for bringing that up.
        Senator Lankford. Well, just grab your crew and some tennis
    shoes and we'll go run it one night and I'll show you exactly
    where it is when we go past it.
        Ms. Merdon. That may be exceeding expectations.
        [Laughter.]
        Senator Lankford. Thank you very much. Thank you.
        Senator Hyde-Smith. Senator Murphy, do you have any more
    questions?
        Senator Murphy. All set.

                 CLOSING STATEMENTS OF SENATOR CINDY HYDE-SMITH

        Senator Hyde-Smith. Okay. This concludes the Legislative
    Branch Appropriations Subcommittee hearing regarding fiscal
    year 2020 funding for the Library of Congress and the Architect
    of the Capitol.

                         ADDITIONAL COMMITTEE QUESTIONS

        Thank you, Dr. Hayden, and thank you, Mrs. Merdon, for your
    testimony today. 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 Wednesday, April 3, of 2019.
        [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. Carla D. Hayden
                Questions Submitted by Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith
                              surplus book program
        Question. Dr. Hayden, the Surplus Book Program at the Library is a
    wonderful resource for libraries and schools in Mississippi and across
    the country, particularly in rural areas. The fiscal year 2019
    legislative branch bill provided additional funding for this program.
    How do you plan in coming years to make the program more effective?
        Answer. The program was established to make the best possible use
    of books that are surplus to the needs of the Library. The amount of
    books that are available for the program at any time is very limited
    based on the processing flows of the Library. In recent years, client
    demand has been satisfied by the selection available. However, if the
    program were to be publicized widely, the resulting increased demand
    could not be met, and clients would be dissatisfied. To make the
    program more effective, we plan to work more closely with congressional
    offices so that libraries and schools throughout the country with a
    need for these materials can be targeted. This will allow Members to
    serve their constituents directly through this Library of Congress
    service. This year the Library assigned a second technician to the
    program to meet increasing demands for information and appointments.

        Question. I have found that often the institutions that could
    benefit directly from the program are not always aware of this valuable
    resource. As you have testified, one of the main avenues of outreach is
    through our congressional staff and district offices, however I believe
    the program could benefit from additional methods of outreach. Have you
    explored ways in which the Library could increase awareness of the
    program?
        Answer. The Library reaches out to schools and other public
    entities about the surplus book program directly through its website,
    through trusted partners, and most critically through congressional
    offices. In order to communicate directly with interested organizations
    the Library maintains a website on the program (https://www.loc.gov/
    acq/surplus.html), including eligibility requirements and instructions
    on application through or separately from a congressional office.
    Information on the program is also available linked from the ALA
    website (http://libguides.ala.org/book-donations/seeking-books), a
    trusted resource for public libraries, school libraries, and other
    educational institutions. However, the Library's most important
    outreach efforts for the surplus book program are through congressional
    offices, to help them spread awareness of the program among their
    constituents. These efforts, primarily through the Library's
    Congressional Relations Office, are multi-faceted, including: Every new
    Congress scheduling appointments with new Member offices to discuss
    Library services for them, their staff and constituents, including the
    Surplus Books Program; Following a natural disaster, sending a notice
    into the States/districts affected providing information about the
    program and how it can be used in their State/district (Library staff
    also liaise with FEMA on an ongoing basis to ensure awareness of
    emergency needs and support for recovery efforts); Developing a new
    promotional video for the program; Making Surplus Program bookmarks
    available to organizations; Maintaining a congressional-only facing
    website which includes a description of the program (http://
    www.loc.gov/lcnet/constituent/); and advertising the program through
    the Committee on House Administration's weekly newsletter, as well as
    at district director meetings held at the Library of Congress. The
    Congressional Relations Office has done a remarkable job of promoting
    the program. Since the new 116th Congress took office, 39 new
    Congressional Offices have signed up for the Surplus Books Program.
                                     ______

               Questions Submitted by Senator Christopher Murphy
                          library visitor's experience
        Question. Dr. Hayden, I share in your excitement about the
    Visitor's Experience project. In total, I understand the project is
    expected to cost $60 million, and your vision is to share those
    expenses in a public/private partnership.
        In the Fiscal Year 2018 Omnibus Act, we provided $2 million for you
    to get started on planning right away and an additional $8 million that
    will be ``unlocked'' once we review your spending plans. Your fiscal
    year 20 request includes an additional $10 million for the project.
        What is the timeline for the $2 million? When can the Committee
    expect briefing materials for your plans for spending the remaining $8
    million provided in fiscal year 2018?
        Answer. With the award of the Master Plan contract in late August
    2018, the Library began drawing on the $2 million. When the Master Plan
    is submitted in June 2019, any monies remaining from the $2 million
    would go towards executing the approved Master Plan. The final master
    plan submitted in June 2019 will have a spending schedule detailing how
    the $8 million will be allocated.

        Question. What specifically is the plan for the additional $10
    million in fiscal year 2020?
        Answer. With the approved Master Plan, the first space to be
    designed and built will be the Treasures Gallery. The fiscal 2020
    request of $10 million would go towards the Treasures Gallery audio-
    visual contract, and the Treasures Gallery exhibit fabrication/
    installation/construction contract.

        Question. What portion of the fiscal year 2019 funding is
    designated for the Architect of the Capitol? Have those funds been
    transferred to the AOC? What portion of the $10 million requested in
    fiscal year 2020 will be for AOC activities related to the Visitor's
    Experience project? How do you foresee those funds being spent, based
    on the conversations the Library has had with AOC and in development of
    the Master Plan?
        Answer. To date no funding has been transferred to the AOC for this
    effort and the cost estimation process we are currently undertaking
    will specify the fiscal 2019 monies that would go to the AOC. We
    anticipate that the portion of the fiscal 2019 monies transferred to
    the AOC would pay for the AOC's Treasures design work.

        Question. What is the total budget--Federal and private funding
    together--for the program and when will it be complete? Where are you
    in terms of fundraising commitments and goals?
        Answer. A detailed cost estimate has been prepared by outside cost
    estimators and is currently being reviewed by the Library and the AOC.
    This detailed cost breakdown will be shared with Congress in the second
    project ``look-in'' to be scheduled in late April, early May. The
    numbers are on-track to be at the $60,000,000 that has been previously
    discussed.
        Current fundraising from the Library is $11,000,000 in verbal
    commitments.

        Question. How have you responded to the concerns of some
    researchers who are understandably nervous about more public access to
    the Main Reading Room? How are you ensuring those researchers can do
    their work and not be disturbed?
        Answer. The two areas in the Master Plan where visitors will have
    new views of the Main Reading Room (the Orientation/Oculus space, and
    the first floor viewing alcove) will not put visitors on the floor of
    the Main Reading Room. Researchers and their work will not be
    disturbed.
                                storage modules
        Question. The Fiscal Year 2018 Omnibus Act provided a considerable
    investment of $45 million for a ``double-wide'' storage facility. This
    will be the 6th and 7th installments in a long-term project to relieve
    the Library's storage problems and to provide long-term, climate-
    controlled storage for our most precious collections.
        How has the completion of the first 5 modules impacted storage here
    on the campus, in particular the life/safety hazards?
        Answer. Transferring collections to the environmentally optimized
    storage facilities at Ft. Meade has reduced but not fully eliminated
    the life safety risks from overcrowded aisles that restrict safe
    movement through the stacks. With the first five modules complete and
    with the additional storage space from Module 6 anticipated in 2021,
    the Library expects to clear all aisles and then begin rebalancing
    materials on the Capitol Hill campus to relieve overcrowding and double
    shelving. All of these efforts reduce the risks to the collections and
    occupants of the buildings, and improve the Library's ability to
    provide good inventory control and reliable order fulfillment.

        Question. What is the expectation for needing more storage modules
    once the first planned set of 13 is complete?
        Answer. The Library's storage requirements are driven by the rate
    of publication in the United States and globally, and the rate at which
    the Library acquires special format materials to build the National
    Collection. Book production quantities have not changed substantially
    over recent years: even as some information shifts from print to
    digital as a preferred format, total information output grows as well
    and demand for printed matter appears relatively stable. The Library
    also acquires materials of distinctive historical and cultural
    significance, whose value is inextricable from their physical format.
    Despite these continuing demands for storage space, the capacity
    planned for Modules 6, 7, and 8 will substantially address the
    Library's retrospective storage deficits, so the Library anticipates an
    update to its storage strategy for Module 8 and beyond, which will
    consider options available in storage technology and an updated
    evaluation of storage needs.
     impacts of no fiscal year 2020 budget agreements/post-sequester levels
        Question. Under the Budget Control Act, non-defense discretionary
    funding faces a cut of 9 percent in fiscal year 2020. Without a new
    budget agreement in place that lifts caps, we could see the legislative
    branch cut by at least $450 million if cuts are applied across-the-
    board. This would have a devastating impact on the work we've done in
    recent years to restore Library and AOC workforces, modernize IT
    systems, and chip away at backlogs.
        Please describe for me how such cuts would impact your agency. What
    initiatives or projects from previous years would be postponed or halt?
    What would be the impact on your employees? Your fiscal year 2020
    request focuses on meeting the strategic goals of modernization and
    optimization for the Library's IT systems and also the experience
    visitors have when they come to the Library. How would you continue to
    try and meet those goals under post-sequester levels--or would you not?
        Answer. This response assumes having knowledge of the enactment by
    October 1, 2019 with 12 full months to react to the reduction. The
    later in fiscal 2020 that enactment occurs, the greater the
    magnification of the ability to absorb the reduction will be. A 9
    percent reduction from the fiscal 2019 enacted base of $751.9 million
    would be $67.7 million and result in a budget of $684.2 million for
    fiscal 2020. This reduction would be almost double the 2013 reduction
    of 5.1 percent and take the Library back to fiscal 2017 levels when the
    majority of the Library's major modernization programs began. There are
    multiple high-impact alternatives for absorbing a $67.7 million
    reduction. Of the fiscal year 2019 enacted total of $751.9 million, Pay
    represents about 62 percent at $465.2 million and Non-Pay is 38 percent
    at $286.2 million.
        A 100 percent ``Pay only'' solution could be pursued to cover the
    reduction, however, while leaving Non-Pay modernization contracts
    intact; this would result in a drastic 14.6 percent reduction in Pay. A
    reduction of this size to the pay account would extend or pause
    existing modernization initiatives, make it impossible to start any new
    initiatives, and create unmanageable processing backlogs due to
    disruptions in the workforce. A 100 percent Non-Pay solution would be
    even more disruptive to the Library's operations and programs as
    absorbing all $67.7 million out of the $286.2 million Non-Pay budget
    (or 23.7 percent) would drastically slow and halt many programs. While
    such a large reduction of 9 percent will have a negative impact on
    modernization and core operations, a combination Pay and Non-Pay
    solution may provide more flexibility for selecting or isolating the
    reductions and impacts. The most significant impact of any combination
    reduction at this level will be the negative impacts to all the
    modernization progress the Library has made and the continuation of
    those efforts in the fiscal year 2020 budget request.
    Pay/Non-Pay Combination Solution
      --Implement 20 furlough days--avoids approximately $39.7 million
      --Implement a partial hiring freeze--could avoid up to $5.0 million
      --Reductions in various Non-Pay programs highlighted below--roughly
            $23.0 million

                                          THE ESTIMATED IMPACT BY APPROPRIATION
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                          9 Percent Reduction Impact Estimates
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                          # of      Cost Avoidance                    Reductions to
             Appropriation              9 Percent       Furlough       Through       Partial Hiring      Non-Pay
                                        Reduction         Days      Furlough Days        Freeze          Accounts
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    LC,S&E.........................      $43,204,680           20      $29,418,974       $3,707,069      $14,680,063
    CO, S&E........................       $8,406,630           20       $1,888,132         $237,922       $2,856,400
    CRS, S&E.......................      $11,311,920           20       $7,381,046         $930,081       $3,843,558
    BBPH, S&E......................       $4,750,470           20         $991,414         $124,928       $1,614,112
                                    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
          Total:...................      $67,673,700  ...........      $39,679,566       $5,000,000      $22,994,134
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Although any solution of this size will have a dramatic impact on
    operations and program, the combination of a 20-day furlough, partial
    hiring freeze and the remaining absorption from non-pay accounts would
    allow for a continuance of operations at a lower level. In this
    scenario, pay accounts would absorb $44.7 million and non-pay accounts
    would absorb $23.0 million. A 20-day furlough would absorb about $39.7
    million and a partial hiring freeze could absorb up to $5.0 million.
    The non-pay portion of the reduction would be $23.0 million, which
    would be absorbed through the calculated selection of the following
    items for reductions:

      --From Office of the Chief Operating Officer: contracted services
            would have major reductions to achieve the necessary cuts:

        --Custodial $8.4 million contract, $1.6 million cut, reduces
                cleanliness to minimum standards;
        --Momentum CGI $4.9 million contract, $1.1 million cut, reduces
                financial management capabilities and support for
                legislative branch agencies;
        --Guard Service $4.5 million contract, $1 million cut, fewer guards
                and hours of coverage;
        --Master Collection Storage, $1 million contract, $1 million cut,
                no additional shelving to support collections; and
        --Integrated Electronic Security, $1.1 million contract, $300,000
                cut, no security expansion or upgrades.

      --From CRS:

        --Reductions to research material budgets, professional development
                and travel, and deferment of some IT modernization efforts;
        --Possible extension of schedules of modernization programs such as
                IRIS, LIS Retirement and Congress.gov.

      --From Library Services:

        --Mass De-acidification could be substantially reduced or suspended
                and instead, collections can be safeguarded through
                environmentally optimized storage;
        --Acquisition Budget--GENPAC reduction of $3 million (19 percent of
                the budget) would eliminate 75,000 items from acquisition
                and made available to support Congress and the American
                people;
        --Postpone the replacement of end-of-life MAVIS collections
                management system that system supports NAVCC, Music, AFC
                and VHP in documenting collections and the preservation
                workflows;
        --Reduction in the digitization would significantly reduce the
                offsite accessibility of collections and would result in
                producing 1 million fewer master files and represent a 30
                percent drop in production;
        --Catalog conversion work would be halted, reducing inventory
                control of and user accessibility to more than 500,000 rare
                and special collection items;
        --Cuts to preservation reformatting and binding programs would
                compromise inventory control and long-term collection
                availability;
        --A 28 percent reduction in web harvesting--increasingly critical
                as a method for documenting and acquiring content related
                to U.S. Elections, Congress, and digital publications of
                State agencies; and
        --Foreign Language contracts including West Africa--Would not
                acquire approximately 5,875 books and serials from twelve
                countries in western Africa, where it is very difficult to
                acquire research-quality collection materials. These
                materials support Congress and the American people in
                researching urgent questions of geopolitical and medical
                importance.
        --May result in reduction of evening reading room hours in order to
                fully support core business hours (M-S, 8:30 am-5:00 pm).

      --From Office of the Chief Information Officer:

        --Given the interconnected nature of IT projects underway to
                overhaul the Library's technologic foundation, the
                reduction would have an outsized effect felt for several
                years reversing tremendous modernization progress of the
                last few years;
        --Extends the use of outdated infrastructure potentially increases
                IT security vulnerabilities and the expense of running and
                maintaining the Library's networks, continue suboptimal IT
                performance for Library staff and others who rely on the
                Library's network, and limit modernization efforts due to
                inadequate IT infrastructure; and
        --Slowing IT infrastructure modernization efforts would be
                necessary, with a corresponding increase in operational and
                security risks. Resulting in:

          -- Potentially extending the Data Center Transformation project
                completion date, keeping the outdated Madison Data Center
                operational longer; Postponing related IT infrastructure
                improvements, including modernization of the Library's
                other data centers, enhanced wireless services, and
                expanded IT Security monitoring; surge support for IT
                infrastructure optimization would likely need to be phased
                down; planning and execution of modernization efforts for
                major systems that support Congress and the American people
                would likely need to be reigned-in, including:

     -- Copyright IT modernization;
     -- CRS Integrated Research and Information System (IRIS);
     -- NLS Infrastructure and Bard modernization;
     -- Congress.gov continuous development and retirement of LIS;
     -- LOC.gov continuous development; and
     -- National Library Systems modernization.

      --From Office of the Inspector General:

        --Eliminate audit contract funding of approximately $200,000. This
                would eliminate OIG's ability to obtain IT audit specialty
                consulting expertise that are needed in identifying cost
                efficiencies in the IT and Copyright Office modernization
                efforts; and
        --Modify hiring plans by not hiring and effectively reducing staff
                from 15 to 14 FTE's and reducing the rate structure in
                hiring plan which will result in less experienced hires.

      --From Law Library:

        --Significantly reduces contractual services for collection
                maintenance assistance resulting in a reduction in
                accessioning, maintenance, preservation and inventory
                services for the Law collection. This adversely impacts the
                Law Library's ability to efficiently and effectively serve
                the Law collection to users;
        --Suspends reclassification of law collection materials to the
                Class K standard, from a generic, substandard
                classification standard. As a result, volumes of the Law
                collection will remain insufficiently classified, making
                them less secure, harder to locate, and take longer to
                serve; and
        --Reduces contractual services for digitization of collection
                materials such as the U.S. Serial Set, thus delaying
                completion of this project and limiting online availability
                of this collection.

      --From U.S. Copyright:

        --A 9 percent cut to the BASIC appropriation and to the
                appropriation available for Copyright Royalty Board
                personnel expenses would require the cancellation or
                deferral of ongoing modernization activities;
        --Deferring modernization activities and/or reducing staff
                resources will have severe negative effects on the Office's
                ability to provide efficient and timely services to the
                public, such as registration and recordation processing
                times and increases in backlogs;
        --The Copyright Royalty Board appropriated personnel costs would be
                impacted. This could create pressure on the USCO's BASIC
                appropriation to maintain the minimum staffing of the CRB
                allowed under the Copyright Act; and
        --With the enactment of the Music Modernization Act (MMA) in
                October 2018, the CRB, will be required to increase
                workload commencing reviews of the operating budget of the
                Music Licensing Collective, and initiate new proceedings to
                determine allocation of contributions to that budget by
                various licensees and licensee representative groups.

      --From NLS:

        --At a transformative time to continue to strategically transition
                into a digital future, the initiatives and projects from
                previous years, which would be impacted, postponed, or
                halted are numerous. For example, the following are
                modernization activities that will not be completed:
          -- Pilot program for a new smart phone based player;
          -- Research and development and pilot programs for next
                generation digital delivery services such as the smart
                speaker with voice control and on-demand streaming
                services;
          -- Modernization of existing NLS data systems to interface with
                new digital delivery services; and
          -- Impact on employees would be significant. Highly beneficial
                and productive morale would diminish as project development
                would slow or stop, resources would not be available to
                meet mission requirements, and patron frustration would
                increase as a result.

        --NLS' ability to modernize and optimize its IT services and
                capabilities and the congruent patron experience from those
                services would be severely tested;
        --A slowdown and extension of moving from physically based
                services, relying on hard-copy braille and physical-media-
                based talking books into a wireless delivery system
                utilizing digital braille files and optimizing the delivery
                and use of existing digital talking book files;
        --A halt modernization efforts to reduce costs and serve twice as
                many Americans who are unable to use standard print due to
                visual, physical or reading disabilities.
        --Will be unable to improve delivery to patrons or provide a
                greater selection of titles to choose from both in audio
                and braille formats; and
        --The most severe consequences would be felt in the elimination of
                funds for its two current fiscal 2020 program requests to
                modernizes the NLS braille and talking books programs:
          -- Providing braille eReaders and replacing end-of-life-cycle
                digital talking book players; and
          -- The modernized Braille and Audio Download (BARD) initiative
                will enhance service to NLS patrons by replacing the BARD
                web site with modernized, cloud-based, scalable, micro-
                service-based infrastructure to deliver talking and braille
                books and magazines via the Internet as called for in the
                2016 GAO-16-355 report. Funding is needed to support new
                positions, software development, cloud-computing expenses,
                and data management.
                          crs reports ``going public''
        Question. The fiscal year 2018 Omnibus included a provision
    directing CRS to make all of its current and prior reports public. This
    is a big win for transparency, and I'm excited especially that students
    and researchers now have access to the high-quality products created by
    CRS. I'm also proud of the fact that the provision fully protected the
    confidential work CRS performs for Members and our staff and ensured
    that CRS's mission remains as supporting the Congress.
        How has the rollout gone for the reports to be available online?
    Were you able to meet the benchmarks we laid out in the law? Will you
    need to take further action in fiscal year 2019?
        Answer. There are currently 3,648 CRS products on the public
    website, as of April 18, 2019. CRS has met the requirements laid out in
    statute and exceeded the timelines originally set out for publication.

        Question. When do you expect that CRS will fully comply with this
    direction and have all reports online and accessible by the public?
        Answer. All products required by law to be made publically
    available will be on the public website by September 30, 2019.
                       copyright it system accountability
        Question. In 2017, the Library's Inspector General reported on the
    unsuccessful development of a Copyright IT system. OIG noted that
    Copyright expended approximately $11.6 million; however, the audit
    noted that Copyright and the Library did not have a formal project cost
    analysis and tracking methodology at the project level. This resulted
    in inadequate reporting on the project's development with Copyright
    unable to report whether the project was on time and within budget.
    Properly estimating and tracking total costs is critical to cost-
    benefit analysis, especially since the Library and Copyright have made
    IT modernization a priority, and Congress has made considerable
    investments for those projects.
        What provisions has the Library made to improve the accounting for
    capitalized project development costs?
        Answer. The Library has completely revamped how IT projects at the
    Library are managed and controlled since that incident. All technology
    activities have been centralized under the Library's Chief Information
    Officer. A new IT governance model has been implemented that makes IT
    investment oversight a responsibility of the Library's executive
    leaders. The Library is adopting Technology Business Management (TBM)
    to ensure that IT costs are fully transparent and aligned with the
    Library's mission and vision.
        To ensure direct oversight of all IT projects, a centralized,
    Library-wide Project Management Office (PMO) within the Office of the
    CIO (OCIO) has been created. The PMO enforces the Library's project
    management processes and ensures that major IT projects are
    consistently and effectively managed. The PMO provides the CIO and OCIO
    senior leadership with a monthly Interim Progress Review (IPR) for all
    IT projects, tracking the four-pillars of project management: cost,
    scope, schedule, and risk.

        Question. Is the Library able to capture and capitalize all
    material internal development costs (including labor)?
        Answer. The Library recognizes the importance of being able to
    capture and capitalize all material internal development costs,
    including labor. However, the current process is not automated and
    requires significant manual input. The Library has completed a study on
    fully automating the capture of labor hours and costing. Until a tool
    to automate the capture and costing of labor hours is identified and
    implemented, the Library is committed to capturing labor hour tracking
    and costing for major IT investments manually.

        Question. At any time during the course of an IT development
    project, can OCIO and the CFO report whether the project is on time and
    total costs are within budget?
        Answer. Yes. The Library is still maturing its IT governance and
    finance controls, however, all chartered IT projects are managed by the
    PMO, and cost, scope, schedule, and risk are actively monitored.
                            it system modernization
        Question. The Library has established two major IT modernization
    programs. One for the Library at large and one for Copyright. Congress
    approved $75 million for the Copyright Modernization program to be
    completed over the next 2 years.
        Have you established a baseline for the Library-wide IT
    modernization program including current costs to date, projected total
    and yearly modernization development costs, and project planning
    details including the critical path by year?
        Answer. The Library has several major IT modernization projects
    either underway or in the planning phase right now.
        The Library launched a 3-year Data Center Transformation project in
    fiscal 2018 to restructure the agency's foundational IT infrastructure.
    That project, which is creating a modern, scalable data network--
    including a new state-of-the-art data center and cloud hosting
    environments--to replace the outdated Madison Data Center (DC1), is a
    critical part of the Library's effort to stabilize and optimize
    information technology.
        The Library has also launched two other major multi-year IT
    modernization efforts with Congressional support--one for the U.S.
    Copyright Office and one for the Congressional Research Service--both
    of which are off to solid starts.
        Finally, the Library has two significant IT modernization efforts
    in planning:
          1.  The Library's budget proposal for fiscal 2020 requested
    additional funding to support a modernization program for the National
    Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.
          2.  The Library is in the planning stages for the next generation
    National Library Systems, which will provide modern tools to support
    access to and management of the Library's collections. The Library
    anticipates having an initial plan for that effort to present to the
    Committee for fiscal 2021.
        It is important to note that once the Library's many important
    modernization efforts are completed, the Library will need to maintain
    a continuous development effort to ensure that the IT systems are kept
    current and that functionality is added as necessary to meet the
    demands of Library users--with, of course, Congress at the top of that
    list.

        Question. Have the success (outcome) measures been established for
    each year? Will you provide those to the Committee?
        Answer. In fiscal 2018 the Library launched the five-year Copyright
    IT Modernization program comprising several IT projects. The overall
    scope of the program will transform the Copyright Office into a modern
    organization better suited to meet current and emerging trends in the
    copyright landscape, as well as future changes to law. Leveraging
    current software development methodologies, Copyright applications will
    be incrementally developed and have ongoing sustainment & continuous
    development support to ensure that the Copyright Office can maintain a
    suite of IT services that will enhance its ability to deliver quality
    and scalable services. Among the initial IT projects prioritized by the
    Copyright Office are the Historic Public Records (HPR) Program: Virtual
    Card Catalog (VCC); Development of a Recordation system pilot; and User
    Experience Research for the next generation Enterprise Copyright System
    (ECS). Additionally, in late fiscal 2019 software development for the
    Public Records and Registration functionality are planned to commence.
    Beyond fiscal 2019, the ECS roadmap is targeted to deliver modernized
    IT systems to support other activities of the Copyright Office
    including Licensing Division Modernization, Copyright Division Workflow
    Modernization, and Historic Public Records Modernization.
        The modernization effort for the IT systems that support the
    National Library is still in initial planning. The Library will be
    happy to share the plan--and related outcome measures--with the
    Committee as soon as possible.
                   copyright backlog--it & staffing solutions
        Question. The Copyright Office has been in planning mode for
    several years to modernize its registration system. This is sorely
    needed to speed up processing times to match the influx of copyright
    needs due to the explosion of digital media. We provided more than $12
    million in fiscal year 2019 to finally kick off the $54 million, 5-year
    effort to build this new system, and it will also finalize a separate
    but related project to digitize the repository system for ownership of
    active copyrights, since they can be transferred.
        For the NextGen Registration System, what steps have you take to
    seek input from creative industries, and has that feedback been
    incorporated? How are you continuing to involve them in the process so
    that user needs are the main focus?
        Answer. The Copyright Office is dedicated to involving the public
    in the creation of the modernized online copyright registration system,
    which will be a key component of our enterprise copyright system (ECS).
    We understand that public input is crucial and that we must develop a
    system that can accommodate individuals and entities from throughout
    the diverse copyright community.
        As detailed in my Senate testimony, the Copyright Office has
    engaged and informed the public in a variety of ways, and will continue
    to do so throughout development of the new system. To date, the Office
    has conducted extensive public outreach with the Library of Congress's
    Office of Chief Information Office (OCIO) and a contractor to initiate
    the design of public interfaces for the recordation and registration
    functions. This outreach included, among other things: (1) visiting
    four cities (Washington, D.C.; New York; Los Angeles; and Nashville) to
    conduct sixty-eight in-depth interviews with copyright registration and
    recordation applicants and other public stakeholders; (2) conducting an
    extensive online survey, which received over 10,000 responses; and (3)
    using this public feedback to develop preliminary wireframes for new
    systems that will allow ongoing user testing and further refinement of
    user interfaces. We will continue to engage the public on the
    development of the system, and will work with a cross-section of the
    copyright ecosystem to ensure that we are able to provide a vastly
    improved information technology experience. Additionally, we intend to
    tailor and evaluate the effectiveness of our creative community
    outreach efforts throughout each stage of system development,
    leveraging lessons learned to inform and customize subsequent efforts.
    At any time, the public can contact us at our dedicated modernization
    email address askcmo@copyright.gov, which we closely monitor.
        Beyond these efforts, we understand the critical importance of
    engaging the copyright community directly in analyzing the legal and
    policy aspects of modernization, including the registration and
    recordation processes. Our October 2018 Notice of Inquiry on
    Registration Modernization solicited public input on many issues,
    including improving registration regulations and practices, the utility
    of the public record, and the deposit requirements for registration.
    This Notice provided an opportunity for members of the public and the
    creative industries to provide frank commentary, and we appreciate the
    many comments we received. We plan to release additional, more targeted
    notices as appropriate, and will continue to ensure that public input
    on policy issues are considered in the development of the new systems.
        Additionally, we are committed to making sure the public is kept
    informed of modernization developments. We launched a webpage solely
    focusing on modernization (www.copyright.gov/copyright-modernization/),
    which includes an overview of modernization issues, a year in review
    summary, quarterly quick fact updates, and information on our recently
    launched bi-monthly public webinar series that explores a variety of
    modernization topics and includes time for questions and answers. As
    mentioned in my testimony, senior Office staff have given multiple
    presentations that have included news on our modernization efforts,
    including at events such as the annual meetings of the American
    Intellectual Property Law Association, the American Bar Association
    Intellectual Property Law Section, and the Copyright Society of the
    USA, as well as a recent conference held at the USPTO. We are
    continuing to look for additional avenues to keep the public informed
    of our progress, and continue to prioritize public communications.
        Following up on the extensive work begun on the external user
    experience and user-interface design, the Office is poised to begin
    working with a contractor on designing the internal side of the
    registration system. Creating a more intuitive and flexible system for
    staff is essential to improve efficiency and productivity. This effort
    will include significantly enhancing supervisory and management
    functionality in the new system.

        Question. The fiscal year 2020 request also continues efforts to
    increase staffing to deal with the 300,000 application backlog--when do
    you anticipate the backlog will be fully cleared? What is the target
    time for turning around new registrations once your staffing efforts
    are complete?
        Answer. The Copyright Office is pleased to report that we have made
    significant progress in reducing processing times and the number of
    claims on hand with the help of new initiatives and additional
    staffing.
        Currently, the Copyright Office has 125,299 workable claims on hand
    as of April 6, 2019; these are claims for which we have received the
    application, deposit, fee, and anything else necessary to work on a
    claim. This number reflects the 45 percent reduction from March 2018 to
    March 2019 in pending workable claims, and is a nearly historic low.
    Additionally, we also have made major improvements in processing times,
    with the first half of fiscal year 2019 reflecting an average of 4
    months for online claims that do not need correspondence, a reduction
    of 33 percent since last fiscal year for the same type of claim. These
    advances are the result of improved staffing levels, the use of
    overtime for examiners, and related initiatives detailed in my Senate
    testimony.
        The Copyright Office staff have worked diligently to close pending
    claims in spite of budget and staffing pressures, increased complexity,
    varying types of materials at issue, and deposit requirements. For
    example, between 2010 and 2015, the registration program experienced a
    40 percent reduction in examiners, and, due to sequestration, staff
    were forced to take unpaid leave for several days during 2013. The
    Office is required to receive a significant number of physical deposits
    for published works that the Library considers for its collections.
    These deposits require additional processing and must go through the
    off-site security screening required on Capitol Hill and significant
    handling before being delivered to Registration examiners. Timing also
    depends on whether or not the Office must correspond with applicants if
    there are inaccuracies or deficiencies with an application--and the
    applicant is allowed a certain amount of time to respond to the
    Office's inquiries.
        Moving forward, additional staffing is expected to reduce
    processing times even further. Modernization of the Office's electronic
    system will also serve to create efficiencies and reduce processing
    times significantly, though timing issues relating to ``best edition''
    physical deposits for the Library's needs and paper applications are
    factors that will continue to affect processing times.
                            e-readers for the blind
        Question. Expanded and enhanced services for Library users are
    priorities in your fiscal year 2020 budget request, with a combined
    increase of more than $7 million for eReaders and talking book machines
    and infrastructure modernization. In 2016, legislation was enacted
    requiring the Library of Congress's National Library Service to provide
    e-Readers directly to Americans who are blind. Digital braille
    devices--or ``braille eReaders''--open worlds of learning to the
    thousands of Americans who are blind or have limited vision. Just with
    an eReader in their hand--as opposed to accessing bulky paper books--
    they can access over 400 State, national, and international newspapers
    through the NLS, which currently has 30,000 registered individual
    Braille users.
        How will modernizing the NLS' Braille and Audio Reading by Download
    (BARD) infrastructure meet the recommendations of the 2016 GAO report?
        Answer. In Report 16-355, GAO wrote that ``[e]ighty-five years
    after the program was established, NLS is providing an important
    service to many older and visually-disabled adults, but it is also
    missing opportunities to meet the needs of all groups eligible for
    services.'' Those opportunities were two-fold: a technological
    deficiency (``[T]here are obstacles to the wider use of BARD among
    NLS's customer base, but an NLS-provided audio player with wireless
    connectivity could mitigate some of these issues. Specifically, such a
    device would eliminate the multi-step process now required to download
    BARD files to a computer and then transfer them onto NLS's audio
    player.'') and a regulatory impediment (``To ensure that it provides
    all eligible populations access to its services and that its
    eligibility requirements are consistent with currently accepted
    practices, the Library of Congress should re-examine and potentially
    revise its requirement that medical doctors must certify eligibility
    for the NLS program for those with a reading disability caused by
    organic dysfunction.''). Thus, modernizing BARD meets the challenge of
    these recommendations by both transforming NLS' services into a 21st
    century digital model and by increasing the technical capacity of BARD
    to meet the challenge arising from an increased patronage due to the
    GAO-recommended easing of eligibility access for NLS services. As
    societal and cultural expectations increasingly rely upon and assume
    digital, cloud-based and micro-service capabilities, BARD's
    modernization is essential to meeting the recommendations of the GAO
    report and to meeting the expectations of NLS patrons.

        Question. How will upgrades to Braille eReaders and talking book
    machines impact the current way the Library uses them?
        Answer. NLS is excited about the potential inherent in providing
    refreshable braille devices because its braille-using patrons are eager
    to access this user-friendly technology. Providing these braille
    eReaders to patrons dramatically enhances the menu of NLS services by
    offering a service that is much more cost-efficient and convenient.
    Throughout the initial piloted roll-out and utilization of braille
    eReaders, NLS will continue to test for quality assurance to ensure
    patrons have access to the most reliable machine technology. As NLS
    continues to receive the resources necessary for purchase, it will
    further expand its number of braille patrons utilizing this new device.
        In terms of the digital transformation underway affecting the
    talking book machines, NLS will continue to distribute materials
    through the now-traditional method of providing digital talking book
    (DTB) devices through the mail service, even after incorporating the
    new wireless digital delivery system. As both NLS' digital capabilities
    as well as patrons' use of their own smart devices increase
    exponentially in years to come, it is anticipated that fewer patrons
    will utilize the traditional digital-talking-book methodology, lowering
    both NLS' costs and need to keep a high inventory of DTB machines as
    well as the expenditures of the U.S. Postal Service's Free Matter for
    the Blind Program.

        Question. When will the full program be rolled out? How many users
    to you aim to serve?
        Answer. The roll-out of the Braille eReaders will occur in phases
    to ensure proper quality control. NLS expects its eReader funding
    request for fiscal year 2020 to purchase approximately 3,500 eReaders.
    This allocation will build upon prior development, quality control, and
    pilot testing work done in fiscal years 2019 and 2020 utilizing fiscal
    year 2018 and fiscal year 2019 base funds for the purchase of 2,000
    machines. These allocations, plus the 14,000 total purchased in fiscal
    years 2021-2024, will provide approximately 19,500 new devices to the
    estimated two-thirds of NLS' 30,000 current braille readers who will
    want to use the new technology and do not already have one of their
    own. In addition, the fiscal years 2022-2024 funding, if approved, will
    allow for the purchase of new talking book machines to replace machines
    that have reached and surpassed their life expectancy. At an estimated
    $275 per unit cost, NLS will be able to purchase approximately 15,000
    talking book machines. These simultaneous developments will
    dramatically assist NLS in continuing to provide better, more modern,
    service to its clientele as it transitions into a digital and wireless
    future state in furtherance of its 1931 mandate.

        Question. What future investments do you anticipate NLS will need
    to meet these strategic goals?
        Answer. The combined $11.875 million requested for fiscal years
    2020-2024 ($2.375 million per year) for the purchase of braille
    eReaders and new talking book machines will greatly enable NLS to meet
    these initial strategic goals. NLS will be seeking other funding
    sources for the digital distribution component of this technological
    advancement. If it is successful, investment and resource needs beyond
    fiscal year 2024 will then solely come from NLS' base budget requests.
                                     ______

                Questions Submitted by Senator Patrick J. Leahy
                           making crs reports public
        Question. I am proud to have championed legislation, enacted as
    part of the fiscal year 2018 Omnibus, making Congressional Research
    Service (CRS) reports available to the public. For too long, taxpayers
    had been funding these CRS reports--routinely relied upon by Members of
    Congress to inform their work and priorities--without meaningful access
    to them.
        Please provide a comprehensive update on the Library's
    implementation of this legislation, detailing which CRS reports are
    currently available to the public, what remains to be made public, and
    an estimated timeline for completion.
        Answer. There currently are 3,648 products on the public website as
    of April 18, 2019. The breakdown is as follows:

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                   Product
                           Product Type                             Count
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                R-Series Reports
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Active R-series reports...................................  2,737
    Archived R-series reports.................................  61
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                 Non-R Products
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Active In Focus products..................................  559
    Archived In Focus products................................  2
    Active ``Blog'' products (i.e., Insights and Legal          259
     Sidebars).
    Archived ``Blog'' products (i.e., Insights and Legal        14
     Sidebars).
    Active Testimony products.................................  8
    Appropriations Status Tables..............................  8
                                                               -------------
          Total Products......................................  3,648
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Prep work currently is being done on the archived R-series reports
    as applicable before we begin to republish them to the public website.
    Additionally, there are approximately 650 active non-R products
    remaining to be published from our backlist (and approximately 340
    archived non-R products). All products required by law to be made
    publically available will be on the public website by September 30,
    2019.

        Question. It is my understanding that the Library is currently
    publishing reports only as PDF files, not as HTML or text files. In PDF
    format, these files can be difficult to read on mobile devices, and
    particularly for individuals with visual impairments. Publishing CRS
    reports as HTML and text files in addition to as PDF files would
    significantly improve the usability of these reports at a time when
    millions of Americans rely upon their mobile devices for information
    and news.
        Is the Library capable of publishing all reports as HTML and text
    files in addition to as PDF files? What would be the additional costs
    and resources associated with such an effort?
        Answer. The Library takes no position as to publishing the reports
    as HTML and/or text files in addition to PDF files and would follow the
    direction of the committee.
        Pursuant to congressional direction in the Consolidated
    Appropriations Act, 2018 explanatory statement, CRS reports were made
    available to the public in a PDF format. PDF files are considered
    secure because they are digitally signed and cannot be changed or
    otherwise manipulated. It should be noted that many legislative branch
    agencies, including CBO, GAO, and GPO, make their reports available to
    the public only in digitally signed PDF. Adding additional formats at
    one agency may indicate a requirement that all legislative branch
    agencies make reports available in multiple formats, thereby indirectly
    increasing cost and allocation of staff resources.
        From a technical standpoint, the Library would need to adjust the
    crsreport.congress.gov site, as well as the CRS authoring and
    publishing (A&P) tool and CRS.gov to facilitate publishing reports and
    other content in HTML for the public. An initial estimate suggests that
    work would require one FTE developer 24 weeks to complete, at a cost of
    $61,000. Once developed, that A&P pipeline would support the
    publication of CRS products that fit current CRS standard formats. To
    the extent that the system would need to be adapted to facilitate the
    publication of non-standard CRS formats (e.g. older formats maintained
    in CRS X), the Library would need to conduct additional development
    work for each new template, with a comparable development time and
    cost.

        Question. While the law directs the Library to focus on making
    publicly available CRS reports produced after the date of its
    enactment, it also encourages the Library to make ``additional CRS
    products that are not confidential products,'' such as non-confidential
    historic reports, available to the public. I am specifically interested
    in whether the Library will make public non-confidential, historic CRS
    reports that are already digitized within the internal CRS repository
    known as CRSX. When asked whether that was feasible by Congressman Mike
    Quigley, you wrote in response that ``there are a number of
    considerations regarding the feasibility of migrating non-confidential
    CRS archived non-distributable products to the public site.''
        Can you please explain what such considerations would be, and
    specifically what additional costs and resources would be associated
    with such an effort?
        Answer. If Congress were to direct the Library to make already
    digitized historic CRS reports available to the public, the Library
    would need additional resources to implement the directive. The process
    used to publish current reports to Congress.gov cannot be used to
    publish all of the historic reports. Many of the historic reports were
    not authored using the existing authoring and publishing tool, so CRS
    staff have manually created the metadata for these reports, rather than
    it being captured automatically Further, since CRS will need to scan/
    digitize many of these reports from paper, the OCR (Optical Character
    Recognition) file would likely not be accurate. A new publishing
    process would have to be developed and implemented to ensure the
    historic reports are published with the requisite quality and
    readability levels.
        The CRS X archive currently contains 28,581 reports, which fall
    into one of three groups based on publication year and technical
    characteristics. These two factors drive the level of effort to convert
    the document so that they are properly digitized, discoverable, and
    readable. Conversion of the current CRSX archive over a 1 year period
    would require about 40 FTE of contract support at an estimated cost of
    $2,400,000. Alternatively, CRS may be able to absorb the annual costs
    of document conversion if allowed a three year window to complete the
    project.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                   Group 1                  Group 2                  Group 3
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    No. of products.....................  1,776                     6,137                    20,660

    Publication year....................  2010-2018                 2000-2009                1914-1999

    Level of Effort/report..............  1 hour                    1.75 hours               3 hours

    Characteristics of reports..........  --Digitally produced      --Digitally produced     --Produced on
                                          --PDF versions available  --PDF may need            typewriters, word
                                          --Metadata automatically   verification for OCR     processors, or files
                                           extracted from report     accuracy                 no longer available
                                           to CRSX                  --May have incomplete    --Digitized into PDF
                                          --Likely to be             metadata                 from paper copies
                                           compatible with                                   --PDF may need
                                           workflow to push to                                verification for OCR
                                           public site                                        accuracy
                                                                                             --May have incomplete
                                                                                              metadata in CRSX
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Finally, this would not be a merely technical endeavor, there will
    be a level of review and judgment required to ensure that only products
    that were available for general congressional distribution are
    published (versus confidential responses to congressional requests).
    Not all historic documents were clearly marked at their time of
    creation.
                         national preservation programs
        Question. In Senate Report 115-274, accompanying Public Law 115-
    244, Congress stated that it ``expects the Library'' to provide support
    to ``the National Film Preservation Program and the National Sound
    Recording Preservation Program, including the federally chartered
    National Film and National Recording Preservation Foundations'' in
    order to ``help preserve historical and cultural artifacts that would
    otherwise disappear or be destroyed over time.''
        Can you please describe in detail what kind of support the Library
    is providing to these preservation programs and foundations? What
    further support could the Library provide with additional resources?
        Answer. As of fiscal 2019, the Library currently provides to the
    Preservation Boards and Foundations the maximum amounts allowed by law.
    Background/Additional Information:
    1.  Film and Recording Preservation Boards
     a.  National Film Preservation Board (NFPB):
        Congress has authorized an amount NTE $250,000 per fiscal year. The
    Library has provided $250,000 to the Board each year since its
    inception in 1988. (2 USC, Chapter 5, Section 179v)
     b.  National Recording Preservation Board (NRPB):
        Congress has authorized an amount NTE $250,000 per fiscal year. The
    Library has provided $250,000 to the Board each year since its
    inception in 2000. (2 USC, Chapter 27, Subchapter 4, Section 1743)
    2.  Film and Recorded Sound Preservation Foundations
     a.  National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF). (36 USC, Subtitle
    II, Part B, Chapter 1517, Section 151711)
        Since its establishment, the NFPF has proved quite successful in
    raising outside support (cash and preservation in-kind services) and
    the Library in return has provided matching funds as provided by the
    legislation. Through fiscal year 2018, the Foundation had raised
    approximately $15.1 million (13.7 million of that in cash), while the
    Library distributed to the Foundation $8.4 million in matching funds.
    In fiscal year 2019, Congress appropriated the additional $470,000 so
    beginning this fiscal year and going forward the Library will provide
    $1 million to the Foundation each year in matching funds as long as the
    NFPF meets the legislative requirement. $1 million is the maximum
    amount Congress has authorized.
     b.  National Recording Preservation Foundation (NRPF): (36 USC,
    Subtitle II, Part B, Chapter 1524, Section 152411)
        The NRPF regrettably has not enjoyed great success in fund-raising.
    Through fiscal year 2018, the Recording Foundation has raised
    approximately $400,000 in outside support (300,000 of that in cash
    including a $250,000 donation from musician Jack White in 2013). Given
    these fundraising struggles, the Library has not provided matching
    funds to the Foundation thus far, but the Library has provided
    approximately $330,000 in Recording Board funds to the Foundation under
    contracts in an attempt to jump start the Foundations' fund-raising
    efforts and to allow some grants to be provided to the recorded sound
    community. Like the NFPF, the Recording Foundation is authorized to
    receive up to $1 million in matching funds each year.

        Funding provided by Congress through the years has been extremely
    helpful and produced some remarkable successes, albeit on a boutique
    scale. Though much appreciated, the present funding levels still fall
    short of what is needed to preserve our country's audio-visual heritage
    held at archives. libraries, historical societies and museums
    throughout the United States. We have provided a slate of potential
    projects, focusing on items of substantial impact which can be scaled
    up or down depending on the amount of additional funding, and are
    consistent with the recommendations in the National Film and Recording
    Preservation Plans maintained and implemented by the Library of
    Congress.
    Film Board:
      --Preserve additional non-commercial NFR titles
      --Fund scholarships/internships to increase diversity
      --Work with technology partners to develop and fund cataloging and
            preservation tools to explore additional ways new technologies
            might enhance current practices.
    Recording Board:
      --Mass nationwide scanning project of 78rmp recordings
      --Fund development of an audio digitization robot to preserve
            endangered formats such as audio cassettes and lacquer discs
      --Rescue abandoned radio collections identified by the Board's Radio
            Preservation task force as being in danger of decay or
            disposal.
    Film Foundation:
      --Increase scope of preservation grants
      --Revisit legacy digitization
      --Expand international partnerships to return U.S. films
      --Increase digital access and streaming capabilities at NFPF web site
      --Touring programs of films preserved by NFPF
      --Create new preservation grant program to fund preservation of films
            now entering the public domain each year (works from 1923 on)
    Recording Foundation:
      --Increase audio preservation grants significantly
      --Award grants to enhance web capabilities of individual archives
                                     ______

                  Questions Submitted to Ms. Christine Merdon
               Questions Submitted by Senator Christopher Murphy
                          library visitor's experience
        Ms. Merdon, I share in the AOC and Library's excitement about the
    Visitor's Experience project. In total, I understand the project is
    expected to cost $60 million, and your vision is to share those
    expenses in a public/private partnership.
        In the Fiscal Year 2018 Omnibus Act, we provided $2 million for the
    Library and AOC to get started on planning right away and an additional
    $8 million that will be ``unlocked'' once we review the Master Spend
    plan. The Library's fiscal year 2020 request also includes an
    additional $10 million for the project.
        I understand some alterations to the Library's facilities are
    envisioned in this project.

        Question 1. What portion of the fiscal year 2019 funding is
    designated for the Architect of the Capitol? Have those funds been
    transferred to the AOC?
        Answer. To date, no funding has been transferred to the AOC for
    this effort. After the Library receives permission to access the
    remaining $8 million in fiscal year 2018 funding, we expect them to
    transfer funds for the AOC to complete design work.

        Question 2. What portion of the $10 million requested in fiscal
    year 2020 will be for AOC activities related to the Visitor's
    Experience project? How do you foresee those funds being spent, based
    on the conversations the AOC has had with the Library and in
    development of the Master Plan?
        Answer. We anticipate the LOC will be transferring funds to the AOC
    for the construction work associated with the Treasures Gallery. The
    exact amount to be transferred will be determined when the Treasures
    Gallery Design work is complete.

        Question 3. What out-year funding costs do you anticipate the AOC
    may need to carry out this project?
        Answer. Our current arrangement with the Library is that they will
    transfer all the necessary funding to support the design and
    construction requirements for this project. This will include funding
    for a project-funded team to manage the design and construction
    efforts.

        Question 4. How are you working with the Library on the details of
    the project?
        Answer. We are active partners with the Library, supporting the
    development of the master plan scope. Currently we are supporting the
    plan development to include feasibility review and working with the
    Library's cost estimating team to identify all the building-specific
    design and construction requirements.

        Question 5. Do you expect the vision is feasible given the historic
    and structural restrictions in the Jefferson building?
        Answer. The AOC endeavors to support the Library as it develops its
    vision to enhance the visitor experience. Aspects of the Library's
    vision may be feasible, but it has many components for which few
    details are defined and those components require further development to
    determine if they are feasible within the parameters established in our
    Preservation Policy. The AOC's Preservation Policy defines the
    parameters by which the emerging initiatives and priorities can be
    accommodated in our historic buildings in a manner that minimizes
    facility alterations without permanent loss or damage to the historic
    fabric. As with any alteration of historic buildings, we can expect
    challenges as we develop a greater understanding of the impact on the
    historic fabric of the building and work together to develop solutions
    that eliminate those impacts. As the design develops, we are committed
    to work with the Library to provide the guidance necessary to achieve
    an enhanced visitor experience that is aligned with our Preservation
    Policy and our joint stewardship responsibility for the Jefferson
    Building.

        Question 6. How have plans for the building changed as you've moved
    along in the design process?
        Answer. The master planning process has identified several office,
    support and library service areas that will be converted to visitor
    centric spaces. The most significant changes in the current plan
    involve the creation of an orientation experience and education area on
    the ground floor level of the Thomas Jefferson Building.

        Question 7. Are there other alterations needed for the Jefferson
    Building to accommodate more visitors?
        Answer. The AOC will continue to request congressional support for
    the four previously identified exit stair towers to resolve our active
    Office of Congressional Workplace Rights citation related to inadequate
    building egress. The first of these four stairs was funded in fiscal
    year 2018. The Visitor's Experience Project is wholly required to make
    the appropriate code accommodations for any increased visitation. We
    will work to accommodate any systems or site changes the Visitor's
    Experience.
                                storage modules
        The Fiscal Year 2018 Omnibus Act provided a considerable investment
    of $45 million for a ``double-wide'' storage facility. This will be the
    6th and 7th installments in a long-term project to relieve the
    Library's storage problems and to provide long-term, climate-controlled
    storage for our most precious collections.

        Question 1. Is the previous module finally complete?
        Answer. Module 5 was completed in October 2017 and is fully
    operational.

        Question 2. Where are you in terms of the timeline for construction
    of the new $45 million ``double'' module?
        Answer. Module 6 was awarded for construction in December 2018.
    Construction completion is planned for June 2021.

        Question 3. Where in the process is Module 7 and what can we expect
    in fiscal year 2020 and beyond?
        Answer. The design of Module 7 is complete. Target construction
    budget request is in fiscal year 2021.
     impacts of no fiscal year 2020 budget agreement/post-sequester levels
        Under the Budget Control Act, non-defense discretionary funding
    faces a cut of 9 percent in fiscal year 2020. Without a new budget
    agreement in place that lifts caps, we could see the legislative branch
    cut by at least $450 million if cuts are applied across-the-board. This
    would have a devastating impact on the work we've done in recent years
    to restore Library and AOC workforces, modernize IT systems, and chip
    away at backlogs.

        Question 1. Please describe for me how such cuts would impact your
    agency.
        Answer. The AOC will significantly reduce or suspend most employee
    training, reduce or eliminate sidewalk repair around the Capitol
    campus, reduce landscape maintenance and beautification as well as
    reduce routine maintenance and services at the expense of inflationary
    contract and lease increases and reduce preventative maintenance on
    non-critical systems. The AOC will also reduce contract pest control
    and furniture repair services as well as medical evaluation testing and
    environmental surveys, and support to human capital programs and IT
    services designed to secure our network from cyber intrusion. In
    addition, the CVC would reduce their services from 6 days per week to
    5.
        The AOC's ability to execute requested projects will also be
    reduced which will increase the significant backlog of deferred
    facility maintenance.

        Question 2a. What initiatives or projects from previous years would
    be postponed or halt?
        Answer. Ongoing projects funded with prior-year funds will
    continue.

        Question 2b. What would be the impact on your employees?
        Answer. At the fiscal year 2019 annualized continuing resolution
    level, sequestration has the potential to reduce the AOCs workforce by
    approximately -205 FTE from the fiscal year 2019 Enacted level, and
    -245 below the fiscal year 2020 required staffing level. Losses in
    staffing will decrease all aspects of AOC services to our customers
    including electrical, plumbing and paint facility shops, office
    cleaning and visitor services, facility condition assessments, project
    planning and management, construction management and inspection.
        In order to achieve required savings, the AOC will implement a
    hiring freeze, and freeze pay at fiscal year 2019 levels. However, at
    the AOC's average annual attrition rate, the AOC will also need to
    furlough all remaining employees an average of -5 hours per pay period
    over the final 18 pay periods of the fiscal year. However, pending an
    enacted fiscal year 2020 budget, the AOC would work with the Congress
    to request approval to reprogram funds from within available
    appropriations in order to avoid a furlough.
        A furlough will be devastating to the AOC because our craftsmen are
    difficult to replace if they were to leave the agency. They alone
    possess the knowledge, skills and abilitiesto preserve our Nation's
    historic facilities and ensure the Capitol complex retains its
    splendor.

        Question 3. What is the risk to Capitol construction projects if
    they have to be delayed?
        Answer. Under an fiscal year 2019 annualized continuing resolution,
    24 of the AOC's requested 25 Line Item Construction Program projects
    will be curtailed as they will violate the prohibition on initiating
    ``new starts'' during a continuing resolution.
        Delays to the AOC's requested $237 million projects request will
    defer construction on the 2021 Presidential Inauguration platform.
    Additionally, costs to projects such as piping replacement, electrical
    system upgrades, HVAC system maintenance, exterior masonry, and roof
    improvements will increase as those projects increase in disrepair.
        In addition to cost increases, deferment of these projects
    increases the risk of maintaining services and providing safe
    accommodations to our customers such as:

      --Campus-wide power delivery failure
      --Likelihood of interruptions to utility services delivery
      --Damage to cultural and historical artifacts at the Library of
            Congress

        Additionally, reducing our minor construction accounts will
    negatively impact our ability to address emerging maintenance
    requirements and customer-directed initiatives.
                            senate child care needs
        In recent years, the House has taken over the O'Neill building from
    GSA and funded $30 million in renovations to triple the capacity of its
    child care center. I applaud these efforts--all of us here know the
    challenges of having young children and incredibly busy jobs, so having
    closely-located child care makes a difference every day of the week.
        Yet here in the Senate, our own Day Care still remains much too
    small to accommodate the needs of the Senate. We have just 68 slots--
    and only 9 for infants. And we have 100 Senator Offices and 16 Standing
    Committees. That's far too small.
        Talk to nearly any parent here on the Hill and they will tell you
    the Senate Day Care is simply not an option due to wait times of years
    and years. I've heard stories of parents getting on the list when they
    get married--they don't even wait for a confirmed pregnancy to put down
    a deposit and get on the wait list.
        AOC completed a study in 2010 about the facility options for
    expanding the Senate Day Care. Unfortunately, the Sequester followed
    soon after, so we were not able to act on any of the options. Our
    Fiscal Year 2019 Legislative Branch Act included language directing GAO
    to work with AOC and other partners on a study to review the current
    operations of the Senate Day Care.

        Question 1. Have you begun discussions with GAO on costs associated
    with the operation of the center that are currently incurred by AOC?
    Can you give us a summary of those discussions? Of the facility options
    you identified in 2010, have you discussed with GAO whether any of
    those options are still available?
        Answer. The AOC met with GAO on March 15, 2019, to discuss services
    provided to SECCC by the AOC. The meeting covered facility operations,
    maintenance, contracts, projects and other costs incurred by the AOC.
    Follow-up cost data regarding these services that the AOC provides for
    the facility was sent to GAO on April 5, 2019.
        Regarding the options provided in 2010, our discussions with GAO
    focused on their task to evaluate the operational costs. We did not
    discuss in any detail the 2010 report. The only discussion with GAO was
    that the AOC was conducting a new study for expansion options.

        Question 2. What is the status of the funding we provided to
    contract with an outside company to complete an assessment of the Day
    Care needs? How long to you anticipate a delay, given that initial bids
    came in well over what we appropriated?
        Answer. The AOC has adjusted the approach to completing the
    assessment. A contract has been awarded to complete a standalone
    program of requirements. This will be used by an Architecture and
    Engineering (A&E) contractor to assess current AOC inventory options
    and real estate options on the market and only fully developing viable
    options. Eliminating non-viable options will allow the contractor to
    focus on potential sites, reducing the costs needed to complete the
    study.

      --Program of Requirements
        --Contract awarded on April 3
        --Final Documents--June 2019

      --A&E Contract
        --Contract Award--June 2019
        --Final Report--November 2019
                   gao report on aoc's construction division
        On the morning of our hearing, GAO issued a report on how AOC
    manages its Construction Division's workforce and workload. This report
    was in response to questions and concerns raised by Senator Klobuchar
    and me when 30 Construction Division employees were laid off in 2017,
    with AOC citing a lack of work for the Division. The report contains a
    recommendation that AOC formalize certain processes to ensure it is
    collecting and using the more current information available when making
    workforce decisions.

        Question 1. Has AOC concurred with the recommendation and indicated
    that it will evaluate the need for an AOC-wide policy or process to
    further stabilize the volatility of the Construction Division's
    workload?
        Answer. During my March 27 hearing in front of your committee, I
    stated that we are delighted with the GAO report on the Construction
    Division because its recommendation to formalize the process the
    Construction Division uses to collect information on the jurisdictions'
    construction priorities is completely aligned with the policy changes
    that we have in progress.
        In my March 12, 2019, letter to the GAO, the AOC concurred with the
    GAO report's findings and recommendation. We indicated we will shortly
    issue a formal Planning and Project Management written process to
    implement the recommendation. Although not specifically addressed as a
    GAO recommendation, in the longer term, the AOC will evaluate the
    development of an AOC-wide policy and/or process for further
    stabilizing the volatility of the Construction Division's workload. We
    have already taken positive steps in this direction by inviting the
    Director of the Construction Division to brief the status of the
    division's workload projection to the monthly Facilities Management
    Meeting, which is attended by each jurisdiction head or their senior
    representative.

        Question 2. Can you elaborate on what you plan to do and the
    benefits you expect?
        Answer. At this time, we have drafted a formal Planning and Project
    Management written process which (1) directs monthly Construction
    Division data calls to the jurisdictions to update and confirm
    information (scope, timing, priority) on future notional and potential
    projects, (2) directs a monthly follow-on meeting between the
    Construction Division project data manager and a jurisdiction
    representative to review and validate this information, and (3) directs
    the Director of the Construction Division to brief and discuss the
    Construction Division's workload at an AOC-wide forum on a monthly
    basis to ensure executive engagement. Please note, this is all in
    addition to numerous existing meetings between the Construction
    Division and jurisdictions where they discuss ongoing and upcoming
    construction efforts. The activities outlined by the written process,
    and the focus and intent of the GAO recommendation, are primarily
    directed toward collecting information on priorities and requirements
    regarding future notional and potential work for the purpose of being
    able to project the Construction Division's workload.
        As noted above, the AOC will evaluate the development of an AOC-
    wide policy and/or process for further stabilizing the volatility of
    the Construction Division's workload.
        The primary benefits we expect to achieve are increased AOC
    executive-level awareness and engagement with regard to Construction
    Division workload issues and better priority and requirements data for
    the Construction Division to be able to project and manage workload.

        Question 3. AOC has established a steering committee, which
    includes representatives from the jurisdictions, to determine and
    monitor the Construction Division's indirect rate that it charges for
    its projects. The committee intends to monitor and may adjust the rate
    throughout the year. How is this working and do you foresee adjusting
    the rate this year? If so, elaborate on the reasons and expected
    magnitude of the change.
        Answer. Prior to the beginning of each fiscal year, the steering
    committee reviews the estimated indirect rate and associated
    Construction Division spending estimates. The steering committee also
    oversees the distribution of actual indirect costs incurred throughout
    the execution year.
        The steering committee met in September 2018 to review and approve
    the estimated indirect rate for fiscal year 2019. The AOC will convene
    the next steering committee meeting in May to review updated indirect
    cost distributions and begin to prepare for end-of-year cost
    distributions. The Construction Division received positive feedback
    from jurisdiction customers on the transparency, coordination and
    precision provided by this new approach.
        We do not anticipate the need to change the rate during fiscal year
    2019.
           balancing historic preservation needs with campus security
        The AOC's fiscal year 2020 construction request includes a wide
    range of projects, from historic preservation to security and
    infrastructure enhancements. A concern I hear from Senators, staff, and
    other members of the Capitol community is how we strike a balance
    between maintaining the iconic historic nature of these buildings, but
    ensure the campus is safe, not just on the perimeters but also within
    the buildings themselves.

        Question 1. Can you give us some examples of AOC having to balance
    historic preservation with security needs on campus?
        Answer. Our Preservation Policy and Standards require that
    additions, alterations or related new construction not destroy historic
    materials, features or spatial relationships and be reversible to the
    greatest extent possible. Any new work will be differentiated, upon
    close inspection, from old and will be compatible with the historic
    materials, features, size, scale proportions and massing.
        AOC Design Services and the AOC historic preservation officer work
    with our Office of Security Programs and U.S. Capitol Police to
    accommodate emerging security requirements while complying with our
    preservation standards. Examples of recent successful installations
    include:

      --Enhanced Surveillance Capability for the Capitol West Terraces and
            Lawn: Working jointly with security personnel to understand the
            camera views required, the AOC designed a solution that
            incorporated the new cameras on the terrace balustrade
            lampposts. The original Olmsted Terrace lampposts were restored
            and the lantern tops were replaced to further conceal the added
            camera poles. Additionally, new cameras were installed using
            the design of the 19th century Olmsted lampposts and lantern
            tops to house and slightly screen the new cameras.

      --U.S. Capitol Roof Cameras: Additional, smaller cameras were mounted
            on the U.S. Capitol roof with custom-designed brackets that
            mounted between the roof balustrades. They required no anchors
            in the historic stone and the smaller camera size minimizes
            their visibility.

      --Security Separation for Visitor Screening: The AOC worked with the
            security team on the installation of new ballistic entrance
            doors and screening vestibule at the Cannon House Office
            Building Rotunda by maximizing the use of the existing masonry
            bearing walls for the screening enclosures and modeling the new
            wood clad steel and glass doors after the historic wooden
            doors. Security requirements were achieved while reducing the
            impact on the appearance from the exterior of the Cannon
            Building or the Rotunda. Rerouting visitor circulation through
            a side room required a new opening through a plastered masonry
            wall into the Rotunda which was positioned to align with the
            interior arcade to blend this new passageway to the
            architecture of the Rotunda.

      --Ballistic Entry Doors for the Dirksen Senate Office Building: The
            security team identified a need to improve the security
            performance of the Dirksen Building by adding new ballistic
            entry doors on the Constitution Avenue entrance. From a
            preservation perspective, it was not possible to accommodate
            that requirement in the ornamental metal and glass entrance of
            the building. We recommended that the interior vestibule
            doorway be replaced to meet the security requirement. The new
            ballistic doors at the Dirksen south entrance retained the
            visual appearance of the original doorway by replicating the
            original frame sizes, glass area and molding profiles. The new
            steel doors were clad with bronze to mimic the original satin
            bronze door finish. The original doors were retained and
            stored.

      --Blast Windows and Doors for U.S. Capitol, Cannon, Dirksen, Russell,
            Longworth and Rayburn Buildings: The requirement was to adjust
            the proposed frame dimensions, profiles and glass sizes to
            minimize the visibility of new blast windows and doors. On
            larger windows such as at the Dirksen and Rayburn Buildings, it
            was a challenge to accommodate the blast requirement, but we
            were able to insert structural mullions that aligned with
            architectural features of the existing monumental openings that
            allowed the blast design requirements to be met while
            minimizing the effect on the appearance of the buildings both
            from the street level and from the interior offices.

        Question 2. How does the need to weigh both of these concerns
    affect the maintenance backlog?
        Answer. The maintenance backlog is defined as deferred maintenance
    and capital renewal that is expected to become deferred maintenance in
    a 5-year period. Deferred maintenance is work that is past due often
    resulting in failure or partial failure of a system. Capital renewal is
    work anticipated to take place prior to its useful life. Most security
    needs on campus involve additional or updated equipment and new
    security requirements. This type of work is generally considered
    capital improvements and is not part of our maintenance backlog;
    although, there are occasions when a security need is addressed in a
    historically sensitive manner and also addresses a maintenance backlog
    item.

                              SUBCOMMITTEE RECESS

        Senator Hyde-Smith. The next hearing of the subcommittee
    will be held on Wednesday, April 3, at 3:00 p.m., at Dirksen
    124, when we will hear the testimony from the Capitol Police
    and the Senate Sergeant at Arms regarding their fiscal budget
    of 2020 request. Until then, the subcommittee stands adjourned.
        [Whereupon, at 4:13 p.m., Wednesday, March 27, the
    subcommittee was recessed, to reconvene subject to the call of
    the Chair.]