    [House Hearing, 117 Congress]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                        LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS
                                     FOR 2023

    _______________________________________________________________________

                                     HEARINGS

                                    BEFORE THE

                           COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

                             HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                         ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                                  SECOND SESSION

                                     __________

                        SUBCOMMITTEE ON LEGISLATIVE BRANCH

                             TIM RYAN, Ohio, Chairman

      KATHERINE M. CLARK, Massachusetts     JAIME HERRERA BEUTLER, Washington
      ED CASE, Hawaii                       MARK E. AMODEI, Nevada
      ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York           DAN NEWHOUSE, Washington
      JENNIFER WEXTON, Virginia

      NOTE: Under committee rules, Ms. DeLauro, as chair of the full
    committee, and Ms. Granger, as ranking minority member of the full
    committee, are authorized to sit as members of all subcommittees.

                  Faye Cobb, Elizabeth Lapham, and Ryann Kinney
                                Subcommittee Staff

                                     __________

                                      PART 2

                       FISCAL YEAR 2023 LEGISLATIVE BRANCH
                             APPROPRIATIONS REQUESTS

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                                     __________

              Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations

                     U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE

    48-382                   WASHINGTON : 2022

                          COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

                      ROSA L. DeLAURO, Connecticut, Chair

      MARCY KAPTUR, Ohio                          KAY GRANGER, Texas
      DAVID E. PRICE, North Carolina              HAROLD ROGERS, Kentucky
      LUCILLE ROYBAL-ALLARD, California           ROBERT B. ADERHOLT, Alabama
      SANFORD D. BISHOP, Jr., Georgia             MICHAEL K. SIMPSON, Idaho
      BARBARA LEE, California                     JOHN R. CARTER, Texas
      BETTY McCOLLUM, Minnesota                   KEN CALVERT, California
      TIM RYAN, Ohio                              TOM COLE, Oklahoma
      C. A. DUTCH RUPPERSBERGER, Maryland         MARIO DIAZ-BALART, Florida
      DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Florida           STEVE WOMACK, Arkansas
      HENRY CUELLAR, Texas                        CHUCK FLEISCHMANN, Tennessee
      CHELLIE PINGREE, Maine                      JAIME HERRERA BEUTLER, Washington
      MIKE QUIGLEY, Illinois                      DAVID P. JOYCE, Ohio
      DEREK KILMER, Washington                    ANDY HARRIS, Maryland
      MATT CARTWRIGHT, Pennsylvania               MARK E. AMODEI, Nevada
      GRACE MENG, New York                        CHRIS STEWART, Utah
      MARK POCAN, Wisconsin                       STEVEN M. PALAZZO, Mississippi
      KATHERINE M. CLARK, Massachusetts           DAVID G. VALADAO, California
      PETE AGUILAR, California                    DAN NEWHOUSE, Washington
      LOIS FRANKEL, Florida                       JOHN R. MOOLENAAR, Michigan
      CHERI BUSTOS, Illinois                      JOHN H. RUTHERFORD, Florida
      BONNIE WATSON COLEMAN, New Jersey           BEN CLINE, Virginia
      BRENDA L. LAWRENCE, Michigan                GUY RESCHENTHALER, Pennsylvania
      NORMA J. TORRES, California                 MIKE GARCIA, California
      CHARLIE CRIST, Florida                      ASHLEY HINSON, Iowa
      ANN KIRKPATRICK, Arizona                    TONY GONZALES, Texas
      ED CASE, Hawaii                             JULIA LETLOW, Louisiana
      ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York
      JOSH HARDER, California
      JENNIFER WEXTON, Virginia
      DAVID J. TRONE, Maryland
      LAUREN UNDERWOOD, Illinois
      SUSIE LEE, Nevada

                        Robin Juliano, Clerk and Staff Director

                                       (ii)

                                C O N T E N T S

                                  ----------

                                 March 30, 2022

                              U.S. Capitol Police

                                                                       Page
    J. Thomas Manger, Chief, U.S. Capitol Police.....................     1
        Answers to submitted questions...............................    81

                                 April 5, 2022
                        Government Accountability Office

    Hon. Gene L. Dodaro, Comptroller General, U.S. Government
      Accountability Office..........................................    35
        Answers to submitted questions...............................    62

                          Congressional Budget Office

    Philip Swagel, Director, Congressional Budget Office.............    65
        Answers to submitted questions...............................    87

                         Congressional Workplace Rights

    Teresa M. James, Acting Executive Director, Office of
      Congressional Workplace Rights.................................    89

                                 April 6, 2022
                            House of Representatives

    Hon. Cheryl L. Johnson, Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives.....   109
        Answers to submitted questions...............................   164
    Hon. Catherine Szpindor, Chief Administrative Officer, U.S. House
      of Representatives.............................................   117
    Hon. William J. Walker, Sergeant at Arms, U.S. House of
      Representatives................................................   125

                               Submitted Material

    Enumale Agada, Acting Director, Office of Diversity and Inclusion   143
    E. Wade Ballou, Jr., Legislative Counsel, Office of Legislative
      Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives.........................   146
    Douglas N. Letter, General Counsel, Office of General Counsel,
      U.S. House of Representatives..................................   151
    Joseph C. Picolla, Acting Inspector General, Office of Inspector
      General, U.S. House of Representatives.........................   154
    Ralph V. Seep, Law Revision Counsel, Office of the Law Revision
      Counsel........................................................   159

                                 April 27, 2022
                              Library of Congress

    Dr. Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress..........................   177
        Answers to submitted questions...............................   214

                          Government Publishing Office

    Hon. Hugh, Halpern, Director, Congressional Publishing Office....   219

                            Architect of the Capitol

    J. Brett Blanton, Architect of the Capitol.......................   243

                                  Members' Day

    Hon. Derek Kilmer, a Representative in Congress from the State of
      Washington.....................................................   264
    Hon. William R. Timmons IV, a Representative in Congress from the
      State of North Carolina........................................   270
    Hon. Dan Newhouse, a Representative in Congress from the State of
      Washington.....................................................   275
    Hon. Andy Levin, a Representative in Congress from the State of
      Michigan, submitted statement..................................   278
    Hon. Steve Cohen, a Representative in Congress from the State of
      Tennessee, submitted statement.................................   280
    Hon. Seth Moulton, a Representative in Congress from the State of
      Massachusetts, submitted statement.............................   283
    Hon. Mike Quigley, a Representative in Congress from the State of
      Illinois, submitted statement..................................   285

                   LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS FOR 2023

                                     __________

                                             Wednesday, March 30, 2022.

                          UNITED STATES CAPITOL POLICE

                                    WITNESS

    CHIEF J. THOMAS MANGER

                       Opening Statement of Chairman Ryan

        Mr. Ryan. I now call to order the hearing on the United
    States Capitol Police.
        Recording is in progress.
        This is a hybrid hearing. So we need to address a few
    housekeeping matters, so if you can bear with me for a minute.
        For members joining virtually, please be respectful of
    members in the hearing room. And do not talk over them when
    members in person have been recognized.
        For the members joining virtually, once you start speaking,
    there is a slight delay before you are displayed on the main
    screen. Speaking into the microphone activates the camera
    displaying the speaker on the main screen. Do not stop your
    remarks if you do not immediately see the screen switch. If the
    screen does not change after several seconds, please make sure
    you are not muted.
        To minimize background noise and ensure the correct speaker
    is being displayed, we ask you remain on mute unless you have
    sought recognition. The chair or an individual designated by
    the chair may mute participants' microphones when they are not
    under recognition to eliminate inadvertent background noise.
    Members who have virtually are responsible for muting and
    unmuting themselves.
        If I notice, when you are recognized, that you have fraught
    unmuted yourself, I will ask you if you would like the staff to
    unmute you. If you indicate approval by nodding, the staff will
    unmute your microphone.
        Finally, House rules require me to remind you that we have
    set up an email address to which members can send anything they
    wish to submit in writing at any of our hearings. That email
    address has been provided in advance to your staff.
        Okay. So let's begin. Chief Manger, very happy to see you.
    Thank you for being here.
        Chief Administrative Officer Richard Braddock, members of
    the Capitol Police Executive Team, Thomas DiBiase, U.S. Capitol
    Police General Counsel, and the FOP Chairman Gus Papathanasiou.
        Thank you for being here. We appreciate all the work you
    guys are doing, together with the management and labor, to make
    this whole operation work.
        I want to thank each of you and all the officers and
    civilians at the Capitol Police who work tirelessly to ensure
    the safety and security of the Members, employees, visitors,
    and facilities, both here and within our districts.
        The Capitol Police have a very unique role as the only law
    enforcement agency solely responsible for protecting the
    Congress and the U.S. Capitol complex. I repeat this at each of
    our hearings to emphasize the essential role the Capitol Police
    plays as an agency of the legislative branch. The men and women
    of the Capitol Police put their lives on the line each day to
    ensure Congress can operate efficiently and carry out their
    roles as described in the Constitution. You do your jobs so
    that we can do ours.
        Thank you for joining us this morning to discuss the
    department's fiscal year 2023 budget request. Currently
    resources for the Capitol Police are 10 percent of the entire
    legislative branch budget, totaling $602.5 million. Today you
    will be requesting $708 million, a significant increase above
    what was already provided in supplemental funding and the
    fiscal year budget. This is an increase of $105.5 million over
    the fiscal year 2022 enacted totals.
        Safety, security, and wellness remain this subcommittee's
    top priorities. I don't need to tell you that the threats to
    Members and the Capitol complex are significantly on the rise.
    As stated in your request, increases in the numbers of threats
    and directions of interest towards Members of Congress have
    increased tenfold in the past 5 years.
        In one year, from 2020 to 2021, these threats and
    directions of interest towards Members increase almost 12
    percent, reaching as high as 9,625 threats.
        On January 6th, we witnessed how these threats turn into
    action. Today, Chief, I hope you will address how your budget
    request of an additional $905 million reflects the Capitol
    Police's response to the many security recommendations that
    have been made since the attack and how more resources will
    positively impact the security planning, policies, and
    procedures that were lacking on that day.
        The continuous rise in threats makes it clear that
    increases in improvements are needed. But we on this committee
    need to understand in detail how any increases provided will be
    used to increase our security posture and keep us, our staffs,
    and visitors safe.
        As the Capitol campus begins to reopen to the American
    public, we need to understand the plan for this year, next
    year, and the future. We need to know how your request will
    enhance security, be regularized, and make us all safe.
        I look forward to your testimony today.
        At this point, I would like to yield to our ranking member,
    my friend and colleague from Washington State, Ms. Herrera
    Beutler, for any opening comments she would like to make.

              Opening Statement of Ranking Member Herrera Beutler

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        And thank you, Chief, for being here. Welcome to your first
    hearing, hopefully the first of many.
        As was stated, the United States Capitol Police fiscal 2023
    request is about a 17.52-percent increase over last year. I
    don't need to go into all those numbers. We talked about this a
    little bit as well.
        And for those who are not aware--I know the folks in this
    room are, but those who may be watching--the Capitol Police
    serve to protect this Capitol, the people's House. And it is
    the epicenter of and a beacon in terms of democracy. And, yes,
    it is an increasingly partisan political landscape. It is
    probably not more partisan than it has been at times in the
    past.
        I really think that everything together, including
    frustrations from a global pandemic, has brought to a boil
    feelings and emotions here that probably I think everybody, the
    stress of it, everyone is feeling. Only your members, your
    staff have to do a job to keep people safe in the middle of all
    of that and allow it to still function.
        The daily service and the sacrifices of the Capitol Police,
    the men and women who wear that uniform, I think are amazing.
    They give it to protect a historic--not a monument but a
    living, breathing example of what our country is. And it is
    here in the heartbeat of democracy. So we are really, really
    grateful to you. And we are grateful to the men and women who
    continue to come in every day.
        Over the last year, the department, the leadership, and the
    policies of the department have been justifiably scrutinized
    through numerous reviews stemming from the January 6th
    insurrection.
        Those include Capitol Police by the inspector general, the
    Architect of the Capitol inspector general, the GAO, Government
    Accountability Office, third-party assessments, and numerous
    congressional reviews, including by this committee, that have
    offered substantial recommendations in the needed evolution of
    the operations of your department. In fact, we installed a new
    chief.
        In addition to the enhancements to your intelligence and
    investigative capabilities, enhanced training, developing
    better resources, management methods, and advancement to the
    department's overall culture are still a work in progress. You
    are building on it, but it still is going to grow.
        As the Capitol Police expands its reach across the Nation,
    investigating threats aggressively--we talked about this. I am
    just going to repeat it because I think people need to know. We
    went from, you know, 1,000 to maybe 1,500 threats about 5 or 6
    years ago to Members of Congress to almost 10,000 in a year.
    That is today's numbers. And that is what you are tasked with
    trying to help manage, all this while you are trying to rebuild
    your force here in D.C.
        And increasing your capabilities and your resources right
    now really is the perfect time to implement a lot of the
    recommendations that have been from these ongoing assessments.
    So these recommendations and the best practices, I think,
    should be the foundation to the advancement of department and
    how its human and its technical and physical resources
    function. That is my view.
        As various recommendations are implemented--and I know you
    have been, you are doing that--and changes are made to the way
    that the department operates, it is important that there be an
    increased transparency and accountability because people are
    going to need to see how this is happening.
        This department's first budget request--this is the first
    budget request since January 6. And it takes into account the
    resources Congress provided in the security supplemental last
    year and now must account--now must be accounted to your
    overall funding.
        I believe the subcommittee recognized we would see an
    increase in your budget request this year, but you are asking
    for over $100 million increase. An increase that significant
    obviously needs to be thoughtfully considered in view of the
    public, and I look forward to hearing more about the resources
    the Capitol police need and are requesting today and through
    this hearing.
        So thank you for be here. We really appreciate it.
        I yield back.
        Mr. Ryan. Thanks, Ms. Herrera Beutler. Thank you, Ms.
    Herrera Beutler, for be the great partner in all this over the
    last couple of years. So we appreciate your leadership.
        The chair of the full committee, Ms. DeLauro.

                       Opening Statement of Chair DeLauro

        The Chair. Thank you.
        Thank you very much, Chairman Ryan and Ranking Member
    Herrera Beutler. This is an incredibly important hearing, and I
    want to say a thank to you Chief Manger for testifying here
    this morning.
        It has been just a little over a year since a mob of
    violent insurrectionists stormed the Capitol. Their intent was
    on stopping the peaceful transfer of power. A horrifying day
    for many of us but even more so horrifying for the women and
    men of the U.S. Capitol Police. Many of them risked their lives
    defending us and our democracy. And four officers ultimately
    lost their lives. Others suffered serious injuries, while still
    more are continuing to suffer from the psychological traumas
    that they endured.
        As these officers recover from that day and return to post-
    COVID operations, which include opening the campus to visitors,
    it is critical that we ensure the force is sufficiently
    equipped to meet existing security needs and that we fully
    support the Capitol Police.
        The Capitol Police are dealing with more threats, as has
    just been mentioned by our ranking member, that almost 10,000
    threats against members that are becoming more sophisticated
    and are involving individual actors as well as domestic
    terrorist groups.
        The Capitol Police continue to be called upon to protect
    the Congress, not only here in D.C. but also in our districts.
    This means the Capitol Police of yesterday is no longer
    sufficient to meet the challenges of today or tomorrow, and it
    is our responsibility to help equip them to meet those
    increased challenges.
        That is why I am proud that we were able to include an
    increase of $87 million for the Capitol Police in the fiscal
    year 2022 government funding package. That funding will support
    more than 2,000 officers, over 450 civilian members of the
    Capitol Police force. This funding also included several
    significant measures to help bring more transparency,
    diversity, leadership training, and to standardize vetting of
    individuals who seek employment with the Capitol Police.
        It has been said, but it is worth saying over and over
    again: You protect us every single day. You put your lives on
    the line every single day. That has implications for the police
    force, but there are implications for your families as well and
    their concern about what happens to the men and women that they
    love, and are they being safe?
        We recognize, and we need to recognize for those who don't,
    what a tough job this is. And what we need to do is to respect
    the work of the Capitol Police and that we must provide the
    resources that are necessary. For you to do your job to protect
    us, we need to protect you.
        And I would probably go so far as saying is that these days
    there is a low morale problem with law enforcement agencies.
    Capitol police, police departments around the country, we need
    to let you know and our law enforcement agencies around the
    Nation that we are here to fund the police and to make sure
    that you have what you need to get the job done.
        And so we know that how we want to--there are new
    challenges, and, therefore, we need to do more. As I said, we
    need to honor the sacrifices. But we need more funding for
    staffing, providing for hazard and retention bonuses, increase
    overtime pay, student loan repayment, and, most importantly, a
    better work-life balance. It means providing for the mental
    health that the chair spoke about so that the officers of the
    Capitol Police remain resilient and committed to the
    indispensable role they play while also ensuring they feel
    respected and valued in the critical work that they do to
    secure the United States Congress.
        With that, let me yield back.
        And I thank you so much, Chief, for being here and look
    forward to your testimony.

                         CHAIRMAN OUTLINES PROCEEDINGS

        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Ms. DeLauro.
        I agree with you 1,000 percent on what you said. We are
    seeing these issues all over the country of people not--having
    difficulty filling spots in departments all over the country.
        So, Chief, at the beginning of your testimony, please
    introduce any colleagues that you have here joining you with
    your presentation.
        And, without objection, your written testimony will be made
    part of the record. Please summarize your statement for the
    members of the committee. And, once you have finished your
    statement, we will move to the question-and-answer period.
        Thank you again for being with us, and the floor is yours.

                      Testimony of Chief J. Thomas Manger

        Chief Manger. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Ryan. Thank
    you, Chairwoman DeLauro. Thank you Ranking Member Herrera
    Beutler, and members of the subcommittee. I appreciate the
    opportunity to present the United States Capitol Police budget
    for fiscal year 2023.
        And, Chairman Ryan, thank you for acknowledging the several
    members of my staff that are here. Also with us is Acting
    Assistant Chief Sean Gallagher. And, as you mentioned, we have
    the CAO, my general counsel, and the chairman of the FOP, who I
    am very pleased is here as well.
        Mr. Ryan. You need to say his last name for us.
        Chief Manger. Gus Papathanasiou.
        Mr. Ryan. Excellent.
        Chief Manger. If that is my first question, I answered it
    well. But I told him it is like Cher. He can just go by Gus.
    Everybody knows who he is.
        As this committee knows very well, our mission is complex,
    relentless, and unique in Federal law enforcement. As has been
    said by several members of this committee, we are responsible
    for the protection of the United States Capitol, the most
    notable symbol of democracy around the world.
        This fiscal year 2023 budget request allows the United
    States Capitol Police to keep pace with the evolving
    challenges, the additional responsibilities, and increasing
    service demands that we face. From the dramatic increase in
    threats against Members of Congress to increased staffing
    needs, recruitment and training demands, all of the United
    States Capitol Police organizational elements are being tested
    to keep up with this increased workload.
        Following the events of January 6, the Congress
    appropriated over $106 million in emergency supplemental
    funding. These funds were not only intended to provide
    desperately needed support for the department but to also
    address deficiencies and lay the foundation from which the USCP
    could begin to transform from a primarily policing organization
    into a protective agency.
        The emergency supplemental appropriation went toward the
    procurement of much needed safety equipment to include state-
    of-the-art civil disturbance response equipment and
    reimbursement for critical State and local law enforcement
    assistance in meeting the department's mission across the
    country.
        It also provided the establishment of the reimbursable
    mutual aid agreements with local and State and Federal law
    enforcement partners to ensure that the Capitol Police has the
    capacity to respond to critical incidents within the Capitol
    complex. This authority has proved to be very valuable and has
    been utilized on several occasions so that the congressional
    community remains safe and can proceed with its business
    uninterrupted.
        The department's fiscal year 2023 budget request serves as
    a midpoint in this transformation process. In developing the
    fiscal year 2023 budget request, we considered the previous
    funding for various programmatic activities with the
    understanding that the inspector general's investigations into
    the challenges and failures leading up to January 6th remain
    ongoing and may lead to future resource requirement needs.
        The IG has submitted numerous flash reports, which include
    findings on policy, training, deployment, leadership, and
    staffing gaps that affected the department's preparedness and
    response to the events of January 6th. Additionally, select
    recommendations from General Honore's report commissioned by
    the United States House of Representatives were also reviewed
    and factored into the formulation of our budget request.
        In fact, as has been pointed out, this is the first budget
    that has been prepared since the IG reports have been
    completed. And many, if not most, of the requests that you will
    see in our fiscal year 2023 budget submission, are tied
    directly to the inspector general's recommendations.
        The fiscal year 2023 USCP budget request, therefore, is
    over $708 million, which is an increase of 17.5 percent over
    the fiscal year 2022 enacted levels. This includes budgetary
    authority and resources to fund 2,126 sworn officers and 567
    civilian positions. Specifically, this request is focused on
    nine areas that are critical to transform the department into a
    stronger protective agency.
        The nine areas of focus are, first, the normalization of
    staffing levels for post-COVID and post-January 6 environment.
    Our staffing levels pre-pandemic and pre-January 6 are,
    frankly, now inadequate and unsustainable in our ability to
    fulfill our mission moving forward.
        Number 2, enhancing the department's intelligence
    capabilities; three, expanding dignitary protection
    capabilities; four, expanding the capabilities to address
    threats, directions of interest towards Members, to enhance our
    cybersecurity, and to be able to do additional criminal
    investigations; five, expanding physical and technical security
    capabilities in support of securing the Capitol complex; six,
    enhancing major event planning and command and control and
    coordination; seven, enhancing response in special operations
    capabilities; eight, reengineering training capabilities to
    meet the recruit training, in-service training, physical
    skills, professional development, and leadership training; and
    nine, enhancing the support operations infrastructure in order
    to execute mission-oriented transformational activities.
        Additionally, in this budget, the department is seeking to
    fund the continued development and implementation of additional
    wellness and resiliency resources for our workforce.
        And, lastly, the fiscal year 2023 budget request includes
    the cost associated with the utilization of contracted security
    guards to address secondary security posts. This will allow our
    officers to be realigned to meet critical frontline security
    requirements, while additional, full-time personnel are
    recruited, hired, and trained.
        Mr. Chairman, the events of January 6th exposed critical
    deficiencies with operational planning, intelligence, staffing,
    and equipment. I recognize those issues have to be addressed,
    and that is the basis for our fiscal year 2023 request. My
    leadership team and I are focused on the transformational
    change needed to make the improvements in those areas both now
    and in the future.
        We thank the subcommittee for its support and guidance
    during this process and for its support with both the Emergency
    Security Supplemental Appropriations Act and the Consolidated
    Appropriations Act of 2022 and for its keen understanding of
    our mission and the required resources needed to deliver the
    services expected by the Congress in the future.
        Thank you again for this opportunity to appear before you,
    and I am pleased to answer any questions that you might have.
        [The information follows:]

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                          OUTSTANDING RECOMMENDATIONS

        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Chief. I appreciate it.
        We are going to go right into questions, and I will begin
    and start the process here. As we think about the reopening,
    all I can think about here is the safety and security, you
    know, continuing to hear stories from Members on that day,
    stories from officers on that day, seeing footage from January
    6.
        So we know that there have been nearly a dozen reports, as
    you mentioned, offering 104 recommendations by the GAO and
    various other organizations on needed improvements and reform.
    So, as we move to reopen safely, I just have a couple of
    questions here.
        So 42 of the 104 recommendations that I mentioned have been
    closed. And, for those 62 recommendations that are not
    implemented, how does the fiscal year 2023 request address the
    additional resources or changes needed for the Capitol Police
    to close those additional recommendations? And can you provide
    a couple of examples for us of those outstanding
    recommendations, kind of at the top of your list as to your
    priorities?
        Chief Manger. So, as we prepared the budget document for
    the clerks, one of the things that I had my folks do was with
    each individual request, if it tied to an inspector general
    recommendation, to list that recommendation that it was tied
    to. So you will see many of the requests that we make are tied
    directly to one of the inspector general's recommendations.
        General Honore's report had a number of recommendations as
    well. We have notated those that are as a result of
    recommendations from the Honore report.
        So many, if not most, of the requests we are making come
    right from those recommendations. Some examples: additional
    training instructors, specialty equipment for the Civil
    Disturbance Unit, additional criminal specialists to enhance
    our data analytics related to Member protection, additional
    mountain bike officers, and an expansion of our K-9 program.
    These are just some of the examples. Some of them involve
    additional position requests. And, again, they are tied
    directly to the recommendations from the inspector general.

                            RECRUITMENT OF OFFICERS

        Mr. Ryan. So the increase in full-time officers, what is
    the timeline? Can you give us an idea? I know you have got to
    get training. You got to go recruiting. As we mentioned, there
    is difficulty recruiting cops all over the country. You are in
    a very unique situation here, competing with southern Maryland
    and northern Virginia. There is all kinds of issues you are
    dealing with. Give us an idea of your timeframe for a ramp-up
    and how this request fits into the ramp-up.
        Chief Manger. So, as I mentioned in my initial remarks,
    this--we are about halfway through from the--from January 6 to
    the present, we have made a lot of improvements. We have gotten
    a lot accomplished. We are about halfway done. I think we are
    in the midpoint of where we need to be. If we are able to get
    what we are requesting in the 2023 budget, that puts us another
    lap or two around the track.
        Mr. Ryan. What does that mean?
        Chief Manger. Well, I think we are--we will be just, in
    broad numbers, three quarters of the way there if we are able
    to get this done.
        And so, in terms of numbers, right now this budget request
    would put us around 2,140 officers, sworn officers. Right now,
    we have I think, 1,849 officers, if memory serves. So we are
    close to 300 below where we need to be. And some of those--now,
    not all of those--I am not asking for 300 additional positions
    because some of those positions are already authorized. We just
    haven't been able to fill them because we have gotten behind in
    attrition because FLETC being closed for nearly a year for
    COVID. That has put us behind the eight ball in terms of our
    staffing, but we are making progress.
        I have got about 130 officers in the pipeline in training
    right now. Some of them are--have--I just spoke with a group
    yesterday, a new class yesterday, second day on the job. I just
    spoke with them yesterday. We have got other folks that are
    getting ready to graduate the academy. But in the pipeline,
    somewhere in that pipeline we have got 130 officers in training
    right now.
        So this--and this goes to so many of the questions I am
    guessing that the committee has about reopening and, you know,
    when we will be ready to be able staff all the, you know, staff
    the CVC and all those sorts of things. We do have a phased
    reopening plan where we can staff, as we can staff these
    positions, we can get closer back to the way things were pre-
    COVID. We have already begun. We are making progress already.
    We will be able to do more by Memorial Day, more by the end of
    the year.
        But it is--we are still--and I hope I am answering your
    question. I mean, we have still over 300 officers below where
    we are authorized. And eventually I think somewhere around
    between 2,300 and 2,400 officers is where I think we need to be
    5 years from now.
        So I hope that answers your question.
        Mr. Ryan. Yeah, that did.

                               OFFICER ATTRITION

        What is--as far as, you know, read stories and just kind of
    talking to the officers coming in and out of the buildings,
    people quitting, I mean, we are seeing this, again, across the
    country. How is that? What is the mood? Are people leaving
    still? Are cops leaving still? Are they looking for other work?
    Are they looking to get out of the profession entirely? How is
    that affecting the Capitol Police?
        Chief Manger. Well, as you know, that is a national trend.
    I would say to you that post-January 6, we saw our attrition
    rate nearly double. So, clearly, there were folks that
    rethought their, you know, rethought the job, rethought about
    whether they wanted to continue to work here, do this job, and
    more than double--about double what we normally see leave for
    the department through retirements and resignations.
        We have seen that scale back now. I think the retention
    bonus that we got, we were able to give, through your actions,
    has made a big difference.
        But the one thing that I have been very pleased is that,
    much like after 9/11, there was no problem from the military or
    from public safety in terms of recruiting. People wanted to
    serve their country. And there really has been--we--the one
    thing--while we have seen our attrition go up, while we had the
    issue with FLETC being closed for nearly a year, the fact is
    that there are still people that want to serve their country by
    being a Capitol Police officer. We have had more success and
    not seen the difficulty in recruiting folks to at least come in
    through the door.
        Now, look, we still only hire about--less than 10 percent
    of the people that apply to be Capitol Police officers actually
    meet our standards. But we have enough people interested in
    serving that we have not had a problem at least getting the
    applications to come in.
        Mr. Ryan. Okay.
        Chief Manger. My hope is that that continues and that we
    continue to be able to fill the classes that we have got
    scheduled so that we can get those staffing numbers up over the
    next year or two.

                                  INTELLIGENCE

        Mr. Ryan. Just quick, one quick question here, because my
    time has expired. But I am the chairman. So I am going to take
    some liberties here.
        The intelligence issue, that was a key issue on January 6,
    where there was a bottleneck, and the information that the
    department had did not make its way down to the rank-and-file
    members. Can you talk to us about that issue, and has it been
    fix and to your standards?
        Chief Manger. The short answer to that question is, yes, we
    are making great progress. Through the supplemental, we were
    able to get a really great jump-start in terms of what we
    needed. This fiscal year 2023 budget, you will see additional
    requests related to intelligence and building up our
    capability. And, again, the supplemental got us halfway there.
    This budget is going to get us, you know, much further along,
    and so we have asked for additional positions.
        We are bringing on board a new director of intelligence. He
    comes from the NYPD. He was the director of intelligence
    analysis for the NYPD. He has a great deal of experience in the
    field, and we are very excited. He begins, I think, in the next
    week or two. And he certainly has a vision about what he would
    like to do, and we are trying to make sure that we give him the
    resources to enact that vision.
        The issues that we had before were gathering, analyzing,
    sharing, using intelligence, disseminating it among our own
    staff. Those issues have been fixed. I mean, we are doing a
    much better job at doing those kinds of things.
        So there is still more work to be done because part of
    making this transformation into a protection agency involves a
    robust intelligence capacity, not just in an intel unit but to
    have intelligence analysts who work for the United States
    Capitol Police in different task forces, over at the FBI, over
    at DHS, and in different, other divisions within the
    organization so that the information is getting disseminated
    and shared with all the people that need it and that it becomes
    part of our operational planning.
        Mr. Ryan. Great. We would probably love to meet him when he
    gets settled.
        Chief Manger. We will make sure that happens.
        Mr. Ryan. Just kind of meet and greet and hear his vision.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler.

                             ACCESS TO THE CAPITOL

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        I am going to switch gears a little bit. We talked about
    this in my office. The Capitol has been closed about 2 years
    now, and a few days ago Capitol officials unveiled a proposal
    to reopen the complex. And, under the plan, we would still be
    months away from providing our constituents with full access to
    their Capitol.
        And, in January, General Walker--and we had this
    conversation as a committee or committee members, I believe--
    cited COVID as kind of the dominant reason--and things looked a
    little different in January--but the dominant reason the
    Capitol complex was still closed while recent reports really
    talk about the constraints you have in terms of staffing and
    opening doors and being at the right stations.
        In either respect, since closing down, the goal of
    reopening, I think, should be another priority. It should be up
    there with some of these other things we have talked about. How
    was the decision to implement the phased reopening made, and
    who gave that direction? And, over the last couple of years,
    given the resources the department has been provided, how has
    the department been working to address the staffing shortages
    and security concerns in preparation?
        Chief Manger. So I will take responsibility. It was my
    decision to recommend to the leadership of the House that we do
    a phased reopening because we could--we don't have the staffing
    to be at all the posts where we were pre-pandemic.
        One of the reasons is we have more posts now than we had
    pre-pandemic because of a fair--a number of issues. We are
    staffing posts that didn't exist 2, 3 years ago.
        So I appreciate the willingness to and the understanding
    that we can open limited tours, you know, for now. But, again,
    you will see the CVC opened in a limited capacity hopefully by
    Memorial Day. By the end of the summer, my hope is we can do a
    little bit more.
        So, as we have the staffing, we want this facility opened
    as much as anybody. And I regret that we are the chokepoint; we
    are the problem in terms of getting it reopened fully. But I do
    think everybody is on board that they want to make sure that
    the safety and security of this campus is what it should be as
    we reopen.
        So we had, as I mentioned before, we are--we have multiple
    training classes in progress. We typically would do three,
    four, five a year. We are now doing over 12. Now I think this
    year we may end up doing 13.

                                CONTRACTED HELP

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Okay. I am going to switch gears a
    little bit because we talked a little bit about contracted help
    to supplement in some of these instances.
        Chief Manger. Yes.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Not to take over positions but to help
    with this process.
        I have seen reports that say about three quarters of the
    contracted security guards can't pass a basic background check.
    Is that--so has that delayed the rollout? And is it--how is the
    department--I mean, I have got to believe that there has got to
    be a security company that has got a better system. How is that
    being addressed?
        Chief Manger. So, when we first heard the number of the--
    the first group, that we were having difficulty finding folks
    that could pass the background check, we decided to contract
    with additional firms. And we are having much better luck now
    in getting folks that can pass the background check because we
    didn't want this to delay things.
        So, if there was a delay, it was a matter of maybe a week
    or two. But we do have folks that have passed. When we get them
    on board, they are going to go through, I believe, about a week
    of training. And then they will be--we will be able to deploy
    them in the field. And I do think it is important to----
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. In noncritical positions.
        Chief Manger. Yes. The secondary posts, and this is a
    temporary solution.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. I understand that completely. And I
    think that makes sense, given the fact that we are over 300
    down from where we should be with regard to officers, and that
    is going to take some time to backfill.
        Earlier this month--this is a little bit of a transition--
    GAO released a report raising concerns about officers training
    in preparation to respond to violent demonstrations and that
    senior leadership needed to--and this is a quote--better
    understand and address officers' morale issues and concerns
    with using force.
        How are you addressing that GAO list, those
    recommendations?
        Chief Manger. So it is a training issue. And everyone has--
    is getting additional training. We have already started this.
    And, with regard to use of force, first and foremost, it is
    legal training because use of force has to be lawful. And so
    that is a big part of the training.
        But you add in de-escalation training, emphasis on
    communication skills. Frankly, if--the officers who have the
    best communication skills in terms of dealing with people have
    the--usually have the lowest uses of force.
        But we have got officers trained in cultural competence,
    duty to intervene. We have got less lethal training and more
    capacity and more training that is being done for the less
    lethal to better protect our officers.
        And one of the big things is, especially with civil
    disturbance and crowd control, is that we have--we are
    training--we are forming teams, CDU platoons, that will be
    teams that work together all the time. So you are working
    together with the same people all the time. They are training
    together. They are training with other agencies.
        But so I think all of this is going to help us in terms of
    dealing with those issues that you described.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Thank you for that.
        I yield back.
        Mr. Ryan. The gentlelady from Connecticut, Ms. DeLauro.

                          INTELLIGENCE BUDGET REQUESTS

        The Chair. Thank you very, very much.
        And thank you for your testimony. And thank you for the
    great work that has been done since January 6 and the kind of
    rigor on the assessments of what we need and what we should be
    doing going forward, which was certainly so key to what we did
    in the supplemental, and now we move on.
        You did a chat about intelligence, and there is an
    increased request for intelligence funding in this budget. What
    drives those requests? And what are the new standards for
    sharing intelligence, asset coordination internally, as well as
    outside partners, if you could just spend a moment on that?
        Chief Manger. So I think what is driving it, is two things.
    I mean, one, as we prepare for demonstrations, it is good to
    have the intelligence that you need to make the proper
    operational plan. The plans that we make should be intelligence
    driven. They weren't always, and now they are. Obviously, the
    threats that we are getting not only against Members of
    Congress but against the Capitol itself, that is an important
    part where we are focusing a lot of energy.
        I am sorry. The second part of your question.
        The Chair. How are you sharing that information?
        Chief Manger. Oh, sharing information.
        The Chair. Because there was a very, very big problem----
        Chief Manger. Yes.
        The Chair [continuing]. That we dealt with on January 6.
        Chief Manger. So and the--part of it, when we do the
    operational planning, we have an incident action plan. And in
    there we make sure that everybody who has got a leadership
    role, everybody who is in charge of whatever aspect of the
    plan, we make sure that they know everything about the plan,
    not just--they don't just know about their little sliver of the
    pie. They know everything that is going on.
        We have also issued cellphones to every one of our
    officers. So now that information, the intelligence information
    is delivered every day to all of our personnel. So, if we get a
    report about, you know, someone who is, you know, they see an
    individual walking along Independence Avenue and it appears the
    individual has a gun, that information goes out in real time.
    It goes out to every one of our officers so that they are aware
    of this lookout.
        So it is not only sharing the information with the folks
    that are doing the operational planning, but it is sharing it
    with everybody in the organization as well.
        The Chair. And it is sharing with, you know, district
    police department.
        Chief Manger. That is why we have task force officers in
    seven different organizations, including Metropolitan Police
    and other law enforcement organizations that have an intel
    component. So, yes, we are there with them.
        The Chair. That is great because you know that was a
    serious issue on January 6th.
        Chief Manger. Yes.

                               REALISTIC TRAINING

        The Chair. A couple more questions.
        The GAO report that has been referred to talked about
    Capitol police officers wanting more realistic training. And I
    guess it is a double-edged sword on that with, you know,
    providing that kind of training. What are we doing in terms of
    that realistic training in the complex, et cetera? And I guess
    that drives overtime. But tell me, you know, what we are trying
    to do to address that issue that--in my conversations, they
    talked about realistic training.
        Chief Manger. Yes. Two things. One, we are actually
    training with other agencies. So, when we ask for other
    agencies to come in and help us, we are actually training with
    them. So we are doing that.
        In addition, we have now got, I think, four virtual
    training systems that we are going to have one at the Capitol,
    one in our academy, one at the Fairchild Building. And there is
    another one that I am sure somebody will whisper it in my ear.
        So we have four of these machines that provide amazing
    training, and it is not just use-of-force training. It is de-
    escalation training. It is a host of things that you can do in
    a virtual atmosphere, which is much more realistic than just
    sitting in a classroom and hearing about it.

                                 MEMBER SAFETY

        The Chair. Okay. Thank you.
        Just a final question, if I can.
        We talked about the 10,000 threats more than double the
    number of threats in 2017.
        What are we doing--and we hear this from Members all of the
    time on both sides of the aisle--to ensure Members' safety when
    they are not in the Capitol, where we do have now increased
    protection and support provided by the Capitol Police? Does
    your budget request account for needs related to the Member and
    staff security in the district?
        Chief Manger. Yes. We provide--and all you have to do is
    request it. You can request it through the Sergeant at Arms or
    just request it directly from us, and we will provide security
    recommendations. We can do a security assessment of your home
    offices, make recommendations. We will also coordinate with the
    local police and sheriff's departments in an individual's home
    office to ensure that they are aware of the needs. They can be
    aware of any threats or individuals that we are concerned
    about.
        All that information can be shared with local law
    enforcement. But we can do--we will, in fact, do assessments
    of, whether it is a local office, whether it is someone's
    residence, we provide those services. And we will be able to do
    that even better with more capacity because there is more of a
    demand now for that kind of service. So this will assist us in
    making sure that we can achieve or meet the workload, meet the
    work demand that we have.
        The Chair. Thank you.
        And I know my time has run out, and I know something that
    the chair has been interested in, and this is Member security
    in their residence. So I am hopeful that we can continue that
    conversation and look to see what--how we can deal with that
    issue as well. I know it is uppermost in the minds of the
    Members of Congress, their family, their security, their
    family's security.
        So thank you so much.
        And thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Ms. DeLauro.
        The gentleman from Nevada, Mr. Amodei.

                             CAPITOL INFRASTRUCTURE

        Mr. Amodei. Thanks, Mr. Chairman.
        And first of all----
        Mr. Ryan. I didn't see you. I literally thought you were
    going to pop up on the screen. Sorry.
        Mr. Amodei. Well, I probably was until I found out we have
    all of this new square footage compared to the old days. This
    is kind of posh, and thank you for your leadership.
        Mr. Ryan. We are moving on up. We are moving on up.
        Mr. Amodei. And, Chief, if I was--I was going to be kind of
    mean, I would use part of my time to ask the chairman if he
    could pronounce Gus' last name, but since I will just confess,
    I don't, so he is Gus P. We will skip from that.
        I want to thank you for taking some time the other day to
    come by and talk about your stuff, and I am not a guy who
    believes that money is the answer to every issue. But, quite
    frankly, I think I have been here long enough to know that
    prior to the 6th, you know, we were kind of doing things the
    way we were and whatever. It is like it is obviously time for a
    change, and I think that that is going to require some
    resources. So thank you for the work you have done to basically
    on numerous fronts to kind of identify that and where we start
    and see how that goes. I appreciate that.
        I also want to highlight for you that, since we are doing
    this and the precipitating factor was January 6, I would like
    to encourage you--and I know this isn't all your area. The
    Architect of the Capitol has a piece of it, and the Sergeant at
    Arms has a piece of it. But to--when you are looking at how we
    do a better job, especially on campus, although the thoughts
    about security for Members when they are off campus are pretty
    poignant, but especially on campus stuff, you know, it is,
    like, hey, there is some indication just in our routine stuff,
    it is, like, well, that is kind of always the way we did it.
        And I am thinking specifically about how you come and go
    from the buildings that our offices are in as one of those
    areas that you and I have discussed to please take a leadership
    role with your other folks on the board and, you know, say,
    hey, while we are doing this and we are looking at technology
    and we are looking at are they staffed appropriately, do you
    need sworn officers to do that, or don't you--obviously, your
    workforce is an issue, but I have a ton of confidence in the
    Architect's ability, if there are different ways to do things,
    not to ruin the historical integrity of the facilities, this
    building, obviously, the Capitol, stuff like, that make that
    stuff blend. And I don't think that we have fully explored
    that.
        So I am hoping that you can be a champion as one of the new
    guys ton block to revisit that both in terms of what an
    appropriately trained workforce needs to be in those areas, who
    you need in those areas, and, oh, by the way, where can we get
    some benefits for everybody involved with technology so that we
    avoid things which, I mean, we have been doing them for that
    way a long time.
        Today is an example. People are coming back to the Capitol,
    and they are in the buildings. And when we talk about security
    and safety and I see large groups of people queued outside of
    buildings, I think for bad people, that can represent a target.
    And it puts your people in danger, and it puts everybody in
    danger.
        And so not that it is--but I just sit there and go, you
    know, that has been going on for a long time. So it is my hope
    that, as the new chief law enforcement officer on campus, that
    you can take the opportunity of the reset on this to see if
    there is a way that we can do these better.
        And I will give you one other thing on the record for your
    colleagues. I know someday we are going to build a visitor
    center in a parking lot somewhere. But, quite frankly, that is
    unpersuasive when we have so many needs that compete for
    resources and things like that.
        So, in my mind, to your colleagues on the board, that is
    not much of an answer. And so--and maybe it is, whatever. But I
    would just encourage to you be a leader in that, and we will
    look forward to getting with you offline and working through
    any other issues and if we have any other questions.
        And, with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
        Mr. Ryan. I thank the gentleman.
        The distinguished gentlelady from Massachusetts, Ms. Clark.

                                  RECRUITMENT

        Ms. Clark. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        And, Chief Manger, thank you for joining us. And really I
    share in the gratitude my colleagues have expressed for the
    work of the Capitol Police, and I think your word was
    appropriate. The circumstances and challenges are relentless,
    and you meet them with hard work and dedication, and we could
    not function without you. So we are very, very grateful.
        I was going to ask you about recruitment. I am delighted to
    hear that that is one problem you don't seem to be having. And
    I wonder if you are participating in any particular programs or
    associating with groups to help diversity within the hiring.
        Chief Manger. Yes. First of all, we have contracted with a
    search firm that is helping us recruit because I don't want to
    take any chances. I want to make sure that that is not the--
    doesn't become an issue for us.
        But, more importantly, we have--we are very pleased to have
    hired a chief diversity officer that came on board about 2 or 3
    weeks ago. Vilma Alejandro has already hit the ground running
    and is ensuring that we are--that our practice, our hiring
    practices, recruitment practices are exactly where they need to
    be. And so I am very pleased with the work that she has done
    already and have high hopes that she is going make a real
    impact for us.
        Ms. Clark. That is great. Thank you.
        And I know we had talked previously about some of the new
    vetting and background programs that you were putting in place,
    and I know some of this is under the Sergeant at Arms. Can you
    give me a little update on where we are in that process?
        Chief Manger. So I--now is that with regard to----
        Ms. Clark. For the officers.
        Chief Manger. Oh.
        Ms. Clark. I know we had talked about before making sure
    that our officers are safe and that there are background checks
    going into the Capitol Police you are looking to hire.
        Chief Manger. Yes. We have very high standards that we
    maintain, which is one of the reasons that we have to get so
    many people through the door to apply, because we are very
    selective.
        One of things that we are doing differently than we did
    years ago was doing a deep dive in someone's social media
    because you can learn a lot about a person and if there are
    issues by looking at some of that information. We used to send
    people----
        Ms. Clark. I remind my children of this daily
        Chief Manger. Yes.
        You know, we used to send people to--you knocked on the
    neighbor's door and said: Do you know, you know, this
    individual? They have applied to become a Capitol Police
    officer. What do you think?
        And you would get the neighbors, you know, would say: Oh,
    yeah, seems like a nice kid or whatever.
        But this, I think, is a better way to, in fact, do the
    vetting that we need to do to make sure that we have somebody
    who has the integrity, the character, and, frankly, the
    character traits that we are looking for that we believe makes
    a good police officer.
        Ms. Clark. Thank you.

                                SUPPORT SERVICES

        What steps are you taking to either expand or build on the
    wraparound support services that you put in place for officers
    after January 6?
        Chief Manger. I appreciate you asking that question because
    this is tremendously important.
        Two goals that we have in mind. One is we want to focus on
    helping employees cope with just the daily stress of life, the
    daily stress of being a police officer. But we also want to
    provide services to our employees that have been through a
    crisis, been through a traumatic event, and provide that
    treatment and, you know, because they have been through a
    traumatic incident, to help build their resiliency. So those
    are the two things we are trying to accomplish.
        We are doing it in a number of ways. One, we have
    contracted with the Center for Mind-Body Medicine and that--we
    have a number of folks going through that program now. And, in
    fact, I appreciate the FOP chairman, Gus Papathanasiou. He is
    going through it with a number of his shop stewards to really
    give us a good evaluation of the program, and so I appreciate
    that.
        We also are standing up our own health and wellness center,
    and we have named that after Officer Howard Liebengood who we
    lost just after January 6. It is a center for wellness. It will
    include employee assistance, health, nutrition, fitness,
    trauma-informed care specialists, peer support, building
    resiliency and work-life balance, the support dog program--that
    is probably the most popular thing is the support dog--three
    fitness centers, a chaplain program.
        So the Liebengood Center, we are working closely with
    Howie's wife in terms of the opening. We are in the process of
    hiring a director for that center, and Mrs. Liebengood would
    like us to get that person on board before we make the formal
    opening. We actually are already producing services. We just
    haven't done the formal opening of the Liebengood Center. That
    should be coming very soon, but we want to get the director on
    board for that.
        Ms. Clark. That is wonderful.
        Thank you very much.
        I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Ms. Clark.
        The distinguished gentleman from Hawaii, Mr. Case.

                           RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION

        Mr. Case. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
        Chief, I wanted to follow up on the chair's questions along
    the lines of recruitment and retention, because I think the
    basic question is whether you are getting to where you need to
    be on your staffing and whether you have the funding in this
    budget or others to get there.
        And I don't want to--I don't want the--I don't want there
    to be an artificial limitation on your request along those
    lines. I just want to understand exactly what the situation is
    so we can determine, you know, whether the funding is adequate.
        So you said earlier--I just made a couple of comments. You
    said earlier you need about 1,849 officers.
        Chief Manger. That is what we have now.
        Mr. Case. Oh, I am sorry.
        Chief Manger. Yes.
        Mr. Case. Okay. I am sorry. 1,849 now, 300 short of where
    you think you need to be. And where you think you need to be is
    based on all of the reports, all of the, you know, post-January
    6 analysis; you think you need to be 300 more than what you
    have today.
        Chief Manger. That is correct.
        Mr. Case. Okay. And you said you have 130 officers in the
    pipeline, which obviously means you have a number of officers
    that are not in the pipeline.
        And, you know, you, although you feel comfortable on the
    recruitment side of things, that obviously depends on your
    attrition rate as well. And, you know, you said your attrition
    was lower than it was or than what you expected. But what
    actually is it? And the question I am asking is: How is this
    pipeline working? How fast is it going? Is the pipeline
    producing an increase in officers or a reduction and on what
    timeframe?
        Chief Manger. That is a good question. The--our typical
    attrition--and I am not--let's remove the year January 6 and
    the following year because it was double what it normally was.
    Normally 75 to 80 people will leave the department each year
    either because they are retiring, because they resign, you
    know. A couple get fired. But around--between 75 and 80 a year
    will leave.
        So what we are trying do is to increase the number of folks
    that we are hiring more than what we used to in a typical year.
    Again, in a typical year, we hired 120 people or so. Now we are
    looking to hire well over 200 people. We could get as high as
    280 but certainly over 200 people a year. This gets us ahead of
    attrition.
        And I think our attrition is going to go--start going back
    to normal because of the things that were in the supplemental,
    the hazard pay, the specialty pay, the retention bonus. Those
    are things that I think are keeping officers here.
        So I believe at this point we are, in fact, getting ahead
    of attrition. But we have got a ways to go before we get up to
    where we need to be.
        Mr. Case. Okay. So I am just breaking that down. So you are
    losing in a normal year, you said, about 70.
        Chief Manger. 75 to 80, yes.
        Mr. Case. Is that--are you ahead of that? Behind that?
    Where are you right now this last year just to take a snapshot?
        Chief Manger. Well, if you take the past--see, last year,
    the year from January 6, 2001, to January 6, 2022--I am sorry--
    2021 to 2022, we lost 140, 150 people.
        Mr. Case. Okay.
        Chief Manger. So that was not a normal year.
        Mr. Case. All right.
        Chief Manger. This year I believe we are beginning to get
    ahead of attrition. And I think that, unless--I mean, my hope
    is that, with everything we put into place, with everything we
    have been able to put through into place because of the
    decisions by this subcommittee, we will be able to get ahead of
    attrition. I think we have slowed it down back to normal, and
    we have increased the hiring. So that----
        Mr. Case. Are you ahead of attrition today or----
        Chief Case. Today, yes.
        Mr. Case [continuing]. Hope to get ahead of it?
        Chief Manger. No, I believe we are. Right, today, if I look
    at, you know, beginning of this fiscal year, we are--we are
    ahead of attrition.
        Mr. Case. Okay. I guess then the question is: How far ahead
    are you, and how fast then--what is that rate? And how quickly
    does that get you to full complement of officers? And do you
    have the resources you need to successfully compete on both the
    recruitment and the retention side? Even though you are better
    on both recruitment and retention, is that enough?
        Because if I am looking at that time budget numbers, I
    mean, basically you are asking for a 17.5-percent increase over
    fiscal year 2022. Right? So that is pretty recent, and we
    plussed up there. But of that 17 percent, the rate at salaries
    and benefits is 11 percent. So you are allocating more of that
    increase to nonsalaries and benefits, which may well be what we
    need to do.
        But then I question, well, are we doing enough on the
    salaries and benefit side to get to your--to get to your full
    complement? And if you look at it over 2 years, you see it
    about 23 percent, fiscal year 2021, actual to your proposed
    increase for salaries and benefits; 40 percent overall. So the
    trend on both sides is that the increases are going more to
    nonsalaries and benefits than the salaries and benefits.
        And to the ranking member's question, you know, you
    recommended a phased opening because of shortages in the force.
    And so I just--it is an open question in my mind, like, are we
    doing enough to get you to a full complement fast enough to
    achieve everything we want?
        Chief Manger. I am trying to keep--you have four questions
    you asked me. We are getting ahead. I said we are ahead of
    attrition. We are getting ahead of attrition this year. It is
    still early. We have put more people in the pipeline than we
    have lost. So that is where I base my decision we are getting
    ahead of attrition.
        One of the problems that caused the folks to leave here is
    the fact that we were burning our officers out. We didn't have
    enough cops, and we are holding them over constantly, canceling
    days off, making them--forcing them to work overtime. I have
    been a cop 43 years. Cops like overtime, but they also like to
    know they are going to have a day off once in a while, like, to
    spend time with their families. And we were burning them out
    because we were so short, and the demands had increased so
    exponentially.
        So, when you see that not--the, you know, much of our
    percentage of increase is not related to salaries and benefits
    and that sort of thing, it is because we have to get more
    people. That is the only way I am going to solve--one of the
    big ways I am going to solve the attrition problem because cops
    here think: Look, we didn't have enough people. When things go
    bad, all it means is I don't get a day off, I have to work
    over. I have to work double shifts.
        Again, they like that to a certain level, but then it gets
    to point where they are burnt out. And so we have to get more
    people so we can manage that--manage the overtime and make sure
    we have enough people when we have a big event that they feel
    confident, okay, we have enough people and the event is going
    to go okay. I am trying to work on both things at the same
    time.
        Do I think we are--it is going to take us a couple of
    years. It could--I hope it is just a couple of years to get us
    where we need to be because it takes so long to hire--to
    recruit, hire, and train somebody to the point where you can
    actually send them out on their own. A training process is
    better part of a year. So all this takes a while. That is why
    we are doing all these things simultaneously.
        Mr. Case. Thank you very much.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Mr. Case.
        The gentlelady from Virginia, Ms. Wexton.
        Ms. Wexton. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member, and
    thank you, Chief Manger, for joining us here today. It is great
    to see you. I grew up in the DC/Metro area, so I feel like I
    have seen you on my TV for like 20, 30 years now. Good to have
    you here on the Capitol Police.
        Chief Manger. Thank you for saying I didn't speak to your
    kindergarten class because I have had that happen before too.
    But thank you.

                         LINE OF DUTY DEATH DESIGNATION

        Ms. Wexton. I appreciate your coming out of retirement to
    help us here. I think that you are doing a great job at setting
    the department up for the next level, you know, of what we are
    facing in today's world. So I want to thank you for that.
        I also want to thank you for talking about Howie
    Liebengood, who was my constituent, and about the center that
    is opening. I am overjoyed that those resources were included
    in the security supplemental, that you guys are taking it
    seriously and really working to make that happen.
        But you probably saw in the news that the D.C. Police and
    Firefighters Retirement and Relief Board declared Jeffrey
    Smith's death to be a line-of-duty death. You did see that,
    correct?
        Chief Manger. Yes.
        Ms. Wexton. It is my understanding that Serena Liebengood
    and his family are seeking a line-of-duty death designation
    with DOJ for Howie. Is that correct?
        Chief Manger. Yes, it is. In fact, we helped her with the
    paperwork.
        Ms. Wexton. Okay. Very good.
        And has the Capitol Police taken a position on what DOJ
    should do with that?
        Chief Manger. Not yet.
        Ms. Wexton. Do you anticipate that you will?
        Chief Manger. When the time comes that it is appropriate to
    do so, we will.
        Ms. Wexton. Okay. Thank you.
        I am not going to put you on the spot and ask you what that
    position will be, but I certainly hope that you guys do the
    right thing for the Liebengood family because for them it is
    not about money, it is not about stuff; it is about the
    acknowledgment that Howie would still be with us were he not
    defending the Capitol on January 6th. So, hopefully, you will
    do the right thing.

                                    TRAINING

        Now, following up on Mr. Case's questions about training
    and about making sure we have the officers in the pipeline.
        You had told me in our phone conversation that--I think you
    said that there are 13 classes at FLETC right now, or is that--
    --
        Chief Manger. Not right now. We will have 13 classes
    throughout this fiscal year, yes
        Ms. Wexton. That is an awful lot to be graduating from
    FLETC.
        Do you anticipate that they can keep up that pace of
    training classes like until we get to where we need to be?
        Chief Manger. Yes. Our training folks have ensured that
    they--we have the seats available that we need.
        Ms. Wexton. Okay. Very good.

                               LIEBENGOOD CENTER

        Back to the Howie Liebengood Center. Do you have any--
    believe me, I have represented a jurisdiction that is going to
    be getting phase 2 of the Silver Line of Metro here for long
    enough time that I know that people don't like to give me dates
    that things are going to open, but do you have some
    anticipation of when the center, the bricks-and-mortar center
    will open?
        Chief Manger. Yeah. Soon. I mean, it is there. Actually,
    the offices are--the suite of offices that will be the center
    are operating already. We just--talking to Mrs. Liebengood, she
    would like--we are working with her, and her wish--I hope I am
    speaking--saying this accurately, but she wants it to be--when
    we do the ribbon cutting, she wants everything to be in place,
    including the director. And we are in the process of hiring one
    now. My hope is that we are talking about weeks and not months.
    So it is soon I hope.
        Ms. Wexton. Very good.
        Chief Manger. That is our intention.
        Ms. Wexton. Thank you. Thank you.

                           OFFICER SUPPORT RESOURCES

        And what is being done to inform the Police Department to
    inform the officers about what resources are available and
    encourage them to take advantage of them?
        Chief Manger. So here are 39 bulletins that we put out
    electronically and we post for our officers. All 39 of these
    bulletins over the past year have to do with wellness, health
    and wellness initiatives that the department is making
    available to our officers. So 39 bulletins that we put out over
    the past year, making sure folks know what we have available.
        Ms. Wexton. Very good. And encouraging them to partake of
    these services as well?
        Chief Manger. Yes, ma'am.
        Ms. Wexton. Very good.

                                 CROWD CONTROL

        Now, a couple of the members here asked about the trainings
    that you have and the fact that this GAO report indicated that
    a lot of officers didn't feel like they were particularly well-
    trained in certain areas, in particular with regard to crowd
    control, I guess.
        And it is my understanding, you had said that you--you guys
    had enhanced the training for crowd control. But that was
    mainly concentrated in the Civil Disturbance----
        Chief Manger [continuing]. Correct.
        Ms. Wexton. What steps are being taken to ensure other
    officers are getting the training they need for crowd control?
        Chief Manger. So everyone gets what we call crowd
    management training, and that--you know, the Civil Disturbance
    folks get, you know, when folks are crossing the line in terms
    of their demonstration activity, you know, has--where they have
    crossed the line, that they are doing something against the
    law. But crowd management training is being given to all of our
    officers.
        Ms. Wexton. Are you able to use that immersive artificial
    intelligence, you know, system that you have in order to give
    that crowd control training?
        Chief Manger. Yeah. I mean, this is a very--this has great
    capability. So, yes, I think that--being able to--because you
    stand in front of a screen where you are talking to different
    people, and depending on what happens, your response, they can
    change the scenario or change a response to the person you are
    dealing with. So it is very realistic training, and you can do
    it in dozens and dozens of settings.
        Ms. Wexton. Thank you.
        I see my time has expired, so I yield back.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Ms. Wexton.
        Next in batting cleanup for the committee is the
    distinguished gentleman from New York, Mr. Espaillat.
        Mr. Espaillat. I thought I was closer. But okay.
        Thank you, Chief. Thank you for your efforts to make us
    safe right now.
        Many experts have asserted that a potential second attack,
    God forbid, against the Capitol will be different than the
    first one, just like an angry, racist mob. In fact, the April
    2nd attack that led to the death of Officer William Evans was a
    different one, and we sort of like couldn't prevent that from
    happening.
        And I see that, given what is happening in Ukraine and the
    fear of cyber attacks against our country, I see that you have
    included in your budget of $5 million to address threats and
    expand cyber security capabilities of your department.
        How safe are we in that department, if you may, from cyber
    attacks, and what does the $5 million do? That is the first
    question.
        The second question is that the K-9 unit has been increased
    or has been included in the budget or would cost over $2.5
    million to expand the capability, and we know two of our--both
    the DNC and RNC were in clear danger as pipe bombs were placed
    near just like a block away from here.
        How much does that increase sweeps, and what does that mean
    in terms of security?

                             K-9/CYBER ENHANCEMENTS

        Chief Manger. So, I will answer the K-9 question first. We
    have increased a number of sweeps that we do daily. In fact,
    multiple times a day that we are doing sweeps, and we have
    increased the locations where we do them.
        Mr. Espaillat. By how much?
        Chief Manger. I will have to get back to you with that, but
    I know it is significantly. And one of the things we want to do
    is be able to sustain that and be able to do all the locations.
    You know, we can't just focus on the Capitol without focusing
    on the office buildings as well, and we have the Library of
    Congress and the Botanic Garden. So we want to make sure weare
    giving everybody good service in terms of the multiple sweeps a
    day.
        With regard to the cyber, how safe are we, I will tell you
    that if--I get briefings from the FBI fairly regularly, and it
    is one of the biggest concerns that the FBI has is cyber
    attacks, and that has increased in the past month.
        I always feel like we are staying one step ahead of the bad
    guy. And occasionally the bad guy, you know, does something
    that we didn't anticipate. So much of the effort is focused on
    ensuring education for everybody that works in this complex to
    be able to identify an attack. And then also a fair amount of
    technology is being put--used to prevent attacks that we know
    about, or that we have seen around the world. So that is
    basically where we are focusing our efforts.
        Mr. Espaillat. And how could you work, or is it necessary
    for Capitol Police to work with our staff, with our teams, to
    ensure that we are--that my database is untouched and
    protected?
        Chief Manger. That is a team effort between the Sergeant at
    Arms' offices and the Capitol Police. But, again, we get--the
    real experts--and I guess the best information we get typically
    is from Homeland Security and the FBI. But what we need to do
    is make sure that we--especially if there is specific
    information that people could take precautions or be aware of
    specific attacks, we have to make sure that we get that out to
    all of the employees, the staff, everybody on the campus.
        Mr. Espaillat. Mr. Chairman, before my time is up, I just
    want to share with you, I still have this gut feeling, eerie
    feeling, when I walk out of the Capitol, when I walk down the
    steps of the Capitol after voting that we are just still wide
    open and susceptible to an attack. Yes.
        Chief Manger. Can I react, if I might? Because you are not
    alone in that sense. I think it will take some time, but one of
    the things that we would like to do, the Capitol Police want to
    do, is restore that sense of safety that people had on this
    campus. Look, you know, you could have a lone actor do
    something anytime, anywhere in our country, but for many, many
    years, this was--people did have a better sense of safety on
    this campus than they have today. And it will take some time,
    but my intention is to restore that sense of safety that people
    have.
        Mr. Espaillat. I just mean that because when I am walking
    around the campus, I see runners coming through. I see people
    walking through. Like, they just get right in. I just think we
    are wide open.
        Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

                        Closing Remarks of Chairman Ryan

        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Mr. Espaillat.
        Chief, thank you. A lot of kudos to the men and women who
    served here on January 6, and I just wanted to note that there
    will be a plaque hanging in the west front of the U.S. Capitol
    honoring the officers and the agencies that were there that day
    protecting us.
        And Ms. Herrera Beutler was a big part of making that
    happen, and it was a bipartisan effort. But I think it is
    important that we honor the people who were there that day
    showing a tremendous amount of courage.
        And I just want to say I am really proud of the committee
    here because you saw the scope and the depth of questioning on
    all of these issues that are just critically important. And we
    want you to know that you and your relationship with Gus and
    the union is really important, and your relationship with us is
    very important as the appropriators. And we recognize the
    significant lift here to try to get us where we need to be. I
    think when you are talking about training and getting officers
    on-boarded, it is like, yeah, there is no magic wand here that
    we could just wave, and all of a sudden, there is 300 new
    officers. This is clearly a process.
        And we want you to know that we are partners with you on
    this. We appreciate your leadership. These are very difficult
    times, and we have to be united as we move forward to try to do
    this. You know, the American people want to get back here. The
    schools want to get back here. The tours want to get back here.
    And I think, given everything going on in the world, I think we
    have to do everything we can to make sure people can come and
    be reminded of how important America is and how important this
    Capitol is.
        We can't thank you enough. I appreciate your focus, as you
    know, on the wellness piece, and I am really glad to see this
    is moving forward in such a significant way. You know, the
    trauma, just life in general, let alone you are a cop and let
    alone you are cop in the U.S. Capitol and a cop that had to
    kind of work through January 6.
        So we want to make sure that part of the retention is that,
    you know, we care about how people feel and the traumas they
    are dealing with. So I appreciate you giving that some effort.
        We do want to, I think, at some point connect you with
    House Wellness Program, and Bryan Weiss is doing a great job
    and we have been standing that up through this committee the
    last few years. And basically it is--and I think you are moving
    in that direction too. It is almost like a buffet of services,
    from financial to nutrition to diet to the different practices
    and techniques that people can use to really deal with the
    trauma and just kind of--you know, life is crazy now for
    everybody. So we appreciate you doing that, and that is of
    significant interest to this committee. We appreciate
    everything that you are doing. Please say thanks to your team,
    that we appreciate it. And we are going to look very closely--I
    am sorry.
        I yield an unlimited amount of time to my partner here.

                             RANKING MEMBER REMARKS

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. I am sorry. I agree with so much of
    what the chairman said. And I just want to echo and ditto those
    statements, except I can't say Gus' last name.
        I did want to mention on the plaque, it is a very small
    thing. But my hope is that, years and years from now, when
    tours come through this Capitol, that that will be a stop on
    those tours. And what the children of tomorrow are told was
    that was one of many dark days in our Nation's history, and we
    overcame, and here are the men and women who made sure those
    people failed.
        I know we are years from that, but that is something I
    believe will happen, and I am very excited that the names of
    the officers are on there because they really did, I think--we
    will never know fully their sacrifice and those around the
    Capitol as well, but that is more to me a symbol of the failure
    of those who are against democracy.
        So thank you for that.
        Chief Manger. Thank you, all, for--I appreciate your kind
    words, and I will pass them along to my officers.
        Mr. Ryan. Great. Thank you. Appreciate it.
        Until next time, hearing is adjourned.

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                                                Tuesday, April 5, 2022.

                        GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE

                                   WITNESSES

    THE HON. GENE L. DODARO, COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE U.S., GOVERNMENT
        ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE ORICE WILLIAMS BROWN, CHIEF OPERATING
        OFFICER, GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE

                       Opening Statement of Chairman Ryan

        Mr. Ryan. The committee will come to order. This hearing is
    fully virtual, so we need to address a few of the housekeeping
    matters. Members are responsible for muting and unmuting
    themselves. For the purposes of eliminating inadvertent
    background noise, the chair or staff designated by the chair
    may mute participants' microphones when they are not under
    recognition. If I notice when you are recognized that you have
    not unmuted yourself, I will ask if you would like the staff to
    unmute you. If you indicate approval by nodding, staff will
    unmute your microphone.
        We will begin with the chair and ranking member. Then
    members present at the time the hearing is called to order will
    be recognized in order of seniority.
        We are using the 5-minute clock, which you will notice on
    your screen. It will show how much time is remaining. If there
    is a technology issue, we will move to the next member until
    the issue is resolved. And if you wish to add any extraneous or
    additional material to the record. Per House rules, we have set
    up an email address where members can send anything they wish
    to submit for the record after seeking recognition for its
    inclusion. That email address has been provided in advance to
    your staff.
        I would like to welcome the Comptroller General of the
    Government Accountability Office, Mr. Gene Dodaro, to present
    the GAO's fiscal year 2023 budget request.
        Mr. Dodaro, we welcome you back to our subcommittee. The
    subcommittee has great admiration for you personally and GAO's
    work in ferreting out misconduct and finding ways to save
    billions of dollars with public, fact-based, nonpartisan
    recommendations to improve Federal agency operations and save
    taxpayers billions of dollars.
        The GAO has been a tremendous resource to Congress,
    especially this past year in researching and providing
    recommendations after the attack on January 6. The GAO has
    worked hard to respond to inquiries, conduct oversight, and
    provide valuable recommendations to the United States Capitol
    Police, Architect of the Capitol, and others in response to the
    attacks.
        GAO published numerous flash reports providing invaluable
    insight toward reform and security upgrades. We want to thank
    you and your team for GAO's recommendations and technical
    assistance to the committee on ways that the Congress can
    strengthen and reassert its power of the purse over
    appropriations.
        The GAO's proposals to reinforce Congress' constitutional
    power of the purse, GAO recommended requiring the Office of
    Management and Budget to publicly post all apportionments of
    executive branch appropriations as a way to improve
    congressional oversight and facilitate GAO providing more
    timely advice and legal decisions to Congress.
        We strongly believe in these goals, and we are pleased to
    report that the Fiscal Year 2022 Consolidated Appropriations
    Act enacted a new requirement for OMB to make apportionments of
    appropriations publicly available, consistent with GAO's
    recommendation. We look forward to OMB's timely implementation
    of this provision.
        This year, GAO is requesting an increase of $91 million in
    appropriated funds over what was provided in fiscal year 2022,
    as well as 3,500 full-time equivalents, or FTEs, in fiscal year
    2023. Included in this increase is $25 million in no-year funds
    to meet the congressional directives and report requests of the
    Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. We look forward to
    hearing your testimony today and justification for these
    significant increases.
        At this point, I would like to yield to my colleague and
    friend, Ms. Herrera Beutler, our ranking member, for any
    opening statements that she would like to make.

              Opening Statement of Ranking Member Herrera Beutler

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        And, Mr. Dodaro, I have only had like four cups of coffee
    today already--welcome back. It is very good to see you.
        The Government Accountability Office supports Congress in
    meeting our constitutional responsibility by ensuring that the
    money that we appropriate is spent for the purpose it was
    prescribed. And, interestingly, we have seen challenges to that
    in the last number, at least since my time in Congress, so your
    work is doubly important. And, honestly, this benefits American
    people by improving the performance of their funds and the
    accountability to the Federal Government.
        With products such as 1,602 new recommendations, 578
    reports, and over 60 congressional testimonies last year alone,
    your agency is meeting its strategic objective in providing
    quality, timely service to Congress, and another important tool
    that GAO is constructing is a framework for managing improper
    payments. And most individuals or families or businesses who
    hear that would probably be like, wait, what, that is not
    already in place? Well, thank you to GAO we are moving in that
    direction.
        And, for fiscal 2021, the Office of Management and budget
    reported that the Federal agencies had estimated about $281
    billion in improper payments. The economic instability and
    increased flow of Federal funds associated with COVID-19--and
    this is a significant increased flow of funds, at a very--in a
    very clipped pace--have greatly increased the opportunities for
    fraud, making that framework for managing improper payments
    really essential to our Nation's financial management.
        It is also really great to see a wide range of work being
    done by the new Science, Technology Assessment, and Analytics
    Unit, from the framework for oversight of artificial
    intelligence, questions for policymakers to consider regarding
    long COVID, and identifying opportunities and challenges to
    counter drone technology. So this unit will provide Congress
    valuable insights into emerging technologies and policy
    recommendations to harness the benefits and mitigate some of
    the risks with those emerging technologies.
        Your fiscal 2023 budget request continues to build staff
    capacity and audit resources, modernize IT systems, and address
    building infrastructure deficiencies. I look forward to hearing
    how these resources will further improve GAO's work.
        And, with that, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.

                         CHAIRMAN OUTLINES PROCEEDINGS

        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Ms. Herrera Beutler.
        I don't believe that Ms. DeLauro is here or Ms. Granger.
        So, without objection, your written testimony will be made
    part of the record. Mr. Dodaro, please summarize your statement
    for the members of the committee. Once you have finished your
    statement, we will move to the question-and-answer period. So
    the floor is yours, sir.

                          Testimony of Gene L. Dodaro

        Mr. Dodaro. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, Ranking
    Member Herrera Beutler, members of the committee. I am very
    pleased to be here today to talk about GAO's work and our
    budget request.
        First, I want to thank the committee very much for the
    support that you have given us over the past few years. And I
    believe we have returned a great investment on the support that
    you have given us. Over the last 5 years, we have returned $158
    for every dollar invested in GAO in financial benefits to the
    government. There have been over 1,200 other benefits and each
    year in terms of improvements in public safety greater
    efficiency and effectiveness of agency operations as a result
    of implementation of our recommendations as well.
        Now, in addition to our normal work, which supports about
    90 percent of the standing committees of the Congress, we have
    been given a few special assignments. First was to track and
    report on a realtime basis over $4.5 trillion spent for the
    coronavirus relief assistance. We have issued nine
    governmentwide reports talking about the status of that work.
    We have issued over 135 individual reports. We have made 277
    recommendations for midcourse corrections, both in the public
    health area as well as increasing transparency and
    accountability over the funds.
        Just last month, I testified before the Senate outlining 10
    specific legislative improvements that Congress could make that
    deal with a pervasive and growing improper payments problem and
    the lack of prevention of fraud in the first place.
        In addition, we updated our high-risk list for the
    Congress, which we do at the beginning of each new Congress.
    Two areas that I want to highlight because they are very
    important to the well-being of the American people. One is the
    need for greater Federal leadership and a national strategy to
    deal with drug misuse. This is particularly important in light
    of the growing number of overdose deaths, which have reached
    historic levels, and we outline a number of ways that that
    could be done.
        We also highlighted and added HHS' leadership and
    coordination for public health emergencies, not just infectious
    diseases but natural disasters and other areas. There is a need
    for more clarity in roles and responsibilities, better and
    consistent communication with the public, and better
    transparency and oversight over that work.
        Also, our work on identifying overlap duplication and
    fragmentation in the Federal Government has now resulted in
    over 1,200 recommendations, half of which have been implemented
    by the Congress. So far that has saved $515 billion to the
    Federal Government as a result of implementation of our
    recommendations in that area.
        Now, we are seeking funds for five areas: One is to
    increase our work in the science and technology area. We have
    greatly increased the number of technology assessments. Ranking
    Member Herrera Beutler mentioned the work we are doing in
    artificial intelligence. We have also done Blockchain, 5G, and
    a number of other areas that I could talk about in the Q&A.
        Also, we are getting more requests not only from committees
    but individual Member offices. So I want to increase the number
    of staff we have in that area to not only provide more
    technology assessments but also to provide more technical
    assistance to the Members throughout the Congress.
        A second area is cybersecurity, which is an area I have
    long been concerned about. I designated it a high-risk area
    across the government in 1997. We added critical infrastructure
    protection in 2003. We have beefed up that area.
        The Federal Government, in my opinion, is still not acting
    at a pace commensurate with the evolving great threat to our
    national security. So I would like to beef up, again, our
    cybersecurity work. We are getting inundated with requests from
    the Congress, particularly now that the concern has been
    growing, which it should have been, in the critical
    infrastructure protection area and other areas like defense
    weapons systems. This is not just information systems; it is
    the functioning of all the Federal Government's operations.
        The third area is national defense. Obviously, the
    situation in Ukraine and other developments around the world
    means that we will be getting increased requests from the
    Congress. There is also a lot of concern about competition from
    Russia and China. We are doing a lot of work in hypersonic
    weapons, artificial intelligence and, military readiness. I
    think with additional investments in defense the number of
    requests that we will receive will continue to increase in that
    area.
        Fourth is healthcare. Healthcare is the fastest growing
    portion of the Federal Government's budget. Half of the
    improper payments that Ms. Herrera Beutler mentioned are in
    Medicare and Medicaid. Medicaid alone had over $98 billion in
    improper payments last year, and Medicare over $45 billion.
        And those are not complete estimates, in my judgment. The
    managed care portion of Medicaid is not being really evaluated
    for improper payments. That is about half of the Medicaid
    program. So this problem is a lot bigger. But, also, we have
    been doing a lot more work in behavioral health issues, mental
    health issues that have been a growing problem. They were
    exacerbated during the pandemic.
        And then the fifth area, as the chairman mentioned, is
    infrastructure investments. The Congress has made a huge
    investment in that area. The Infrastructure Act gave us about
    35 individual mandates for us to do specific studies. The
    Consolidated Appropriation Act, which just passed, adds seven
    more mandates. Our discussions with the committees indicate
    that we will be getting a lot more requests even over and above
    those mandates, so we could use a little extra help in that
    area.
        Our budget submission would also help us improve our
    infrastructure operations and the environment in GAO. Also our
    information technology program, not only to improve our own
    computer security but also to continue to make our operations
    more efficient and effective and getting more digital products
    to the Congress in a faster pace.
        Lastly, I would just close by publicly thanking the
    dedicated, talented people that we have at the GAO. We are one
    of the best workforces for audit organizations in the world. I
    am very pleased that we were also rated number one in best
    places to work this past year by the partnership for public
    service among midsize agencies in the Federal Government. So I
    am very proud of our record at GAO.
        I am happy to respond to questions today, appreciate the
    opportunity. I know that you will take our requests carefully
    under deliberation, so thank you very much.
        [The information follows:]

      [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                            MANAGING MEMBER REQUESTS

        Mr. Ryan. Thank you. I appreciate it. Always great to hear
    from you. This is one of my favorite hearings every year to
    hear about how you are trying to help us modernize the
    government.
        A couple questions. I will start off here first, Mr.
    Dodaro. Do you know how many member requests you guys were
    unable to respond to in the past year or so?
        Mr. Dodaro. Yes. Well, we are able to get to all the
    requests but not as quickly as we would like, Mr. Chairman. I
    mean, that is part of the problem. There are about 67 that we
    weren't able to get to when we promised the committee that we
    would be able to get to them because of developments that
    happened. Like, for example, we had reached agreement with
    everybody about all the requests before the omnibus passed, and
    then there is, you know, 25, 30 more statutory mandates in
    there.
        According to the congressional protocols that we negotiated
    with the Congress, priority one are requests for statutory
    mandates and committee and conference report mandates; priority
    two requests from committee chairs and ranking members. And so
    we do that. So about 10 percent of the work that we do we
    couldn't get to exactly when we said we were going to get
    there. I am hopeful, if our budget request is honored, we will
    be able to do better on that next year.
        Mr. Ryan. Can you give us a little more specifics on doing
    better, so what does that mean? What is the average turnaround
    time now for a Member request, and what would it be if this
    budget request was fulfilled and you got 3,500 full-time
    equivalents?
        Mr. Dodaro. Yes. Well, typically we are fully booked all
    the time. So, when we get a request in, if it is not priority
    one--priority ones we try to start right away--it is about 8
    months before we can get to a number of Member requests. And so
    what I would like to do, if we get this request, is at least
    get it down lower than 8 months. I am not sure how much. A lot
    depends on how much--what the volume of requests are during the
    year and the increase in the numbers statutory requirements
    that Congress has given us.
        There has been a huge increase in the statutory mandates
    that Congress has given us, you know, including the coronavirus
    area. There we had to provide monthly briefings to the set of
    committees as well as bimonthly reports on what was the
    equivalent of doubling the size of Federal expenditures during
    the year. So it is a very dynamic situation.
        We are always working with the committees to set
    priorities. That is the best way to deal with this. I regularly
    meet with chairs and ranking members of committees to try to
    make sure that we are working on their greatest priorities and
    what their needs are. And, of course, their needs always evolve
    and change as well. So it is about 8 months, but we want to do
    better.

                        STAFF RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION

        Mr. Ryan. Let me ask you a couple quick questions here. We
    are all hearing about having trouble recruiting and getting
    people on board. How is the wage structure there? Is it
    competitive, or are you having trouble finding people to come
    and work for GAO?
        Mr. Dodaro. No, we are not having any difficulty. I mean,
    the wage issues are always important to focus on. We have
    provided cost-of-living increases and given performance pay
    increases. Since March 2020, when the pandemic started, we have
    hired over 1,000 people.
        Four hundred and some were interns, which is the pipeline
    for our continued hiring. We hired 556 permanent employees. I
    am very pleased.
        We have, you know more than doubled the staff in the
    Science, Technology, and Assessments area. When we started in
    2019, we had 49 people in that area. Now we have 127. We are on
    target to get--try to get to 149 by the end of the year. I
    would like to increase it another 20 or so next year. Same in
    cybersecurity.
        We are not having problem, and our retention rate is really
    good, Mr. Chairman. We have retained at least 94 percent of our
    people since 2017 or better every year. So our attrition rate
    is 6 percent or so, and half of that is retirements. I will be
    the last baby boomer left in GAO.

                              GAO RECOMMENDATIONS

        Mr. Ryan. Great. Real quick, we know you make these great
    recommendations, and we value them. What actions have you guys
    taken as far as encouraging agencies to act, and what can we do
    from the congressional side to encourage people to implement
    what your recommendations are?
        Mr. Dodaro. Yes. I appreciate that question. About 76
    percent on average of our recommendations get implemented
    during a 4-year period of time. Some of them are complicated
    and it takes time to act.
        What I do is meet with every new leader of the Federal
    departments and agencies across the government to talk to them,
    get to know them. I do that on a regular basis when there is a
    new administration, or there is a change in the leadership
    position because of turnover. I send letters to every head of
    departments and agencies across the government listing open
    priority GAO recommendations. I don't list everything, but I
    prioritize it for their personal attention. Those letters are
    sent to the congressional committees. They are also made
    public, so there is a lot of visibility over those issues.
        We also work with the committees to make sure that the
    committees take action. Like in the omnibus there were, 20-some
    provisions directing people to implement GAO recommendations.
    So that is what we do.
        Now, what the Congress could do is to continue to hold
    oversight hearings, work with us to implement open
    recommendations. Right now, we have about 5,000 open GAO
    recommendations, which we keep accumulating. Ms. Herrera
    Beutler mentioned we made 1,600 new recommendations last year.
    So we are always adding new recommendations. About 446 are
    priority recommendations. These are things that could have
    significant savings and things that would be important for
    public safety and security reasons.
        Mr. Ryan. All right. Great.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler.

                               IMPROPER PAYMENTS

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        And I had a similar question along the first--what the
    chairman just asked, so I am going to skip down a little bit.
        So, Comptroller, given the Nation's long-term fiscal
    challenges, I don't think--I don't think anybody here would
    agree--or would agree that we should not be wasting $281
    billion on improper payments. In fact, the $281 billion I
    understand is a conservative estimate, considering several
    agencies with large programs are not reporting estimates and
    some estimates are not comprehensive.
        So Congress needs, I think, GAO's guidance to address this
    problem. So what is GAO doing to address this area of
    significant waste in the Federal budget, and do you have any
    recommendations to our committee for legislative or technical
    changes to prevent these improper payments?
        Mr. Dodaro. Yes. As I mentioned in my opening statement, I
    testified about 10 different legislative solutions to these
    areas. Number one, we need to get the chief financial officers
    of all departments and agencies involved in reviewing the
    estimates.
        Right now, it is only the program people who administer the
    programs that provide the estimates. We need to get more rigor
    in the estimates, but also to follow up on corrective action
    plans and to bring the rate down. The rate has been brought
    down through concerted effort in the Medicare program, but not
    Medicaid. Also this is a pervasive problem. There were 86
    programs that reported last year improper payments at 16
    different agencies across the government. A third of those had
    error rates above 10 percent, some approaching 20 percent error
    rates. So this is a real problem.
        So we get the CFOs more involved. Second, there needs to be
    more public reporting. OMB retrenched on the provision to have
    it reported. Each agency produces a public financial report
    every year. And OMB said that you didn't have to report
    improper payments in the financial report of the agency. I
    said, that doesn't make sense. I mean, the financial report is
    basically to say how agencies provided stewardship over Federal
    funds and whether the payments were proper or not. So I have
    been encouraging OMB to reinstate the requirement, but Congress
    should put it into law.
        Thirdly every new Federal program that is over $100 million
    should be determined to be susceptible to improper payments. So
    estimates are made in the first year of the program. Agencies
    should have to prove that it is not a problem given the
    pervasive nature of this rather than the current situation,
    which is they are not required to make estimates until 2 or 3
    years into the program when these problems are entrenched. Then
    it is too late before we get on top of the problem.
        I also made a number of recommendations to improve fraud
    prevention, but I know you have other questions, so we can talk
    about those potentially later. I would be happy to submit my
    testimony to the committee with all our legislative
    recommendations.

             GAO SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT, AND ANALYTICS TEAM

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. That would be great. I feel like
    every--we could spend a long time just talking about the
    Medicaid piece alone, dedicate a whole hearing to.
        I wanted to ask about--I am trying to decide what to do,
    which one to do. Honestly, let's see, we will--I am going to
    just stay on the Science, Technology Assessment, and Analytics
    team. The committee is really pleased with the work and the
    growth of this--of I think the STAA--ST double A, okay, I don't
    know how to say it right, but we are excited about this.
        And I think your candid assessment about whether STAA would
    benefit from greater independence within GAO to have better
    autonomy to pursue kind of self-directed work, that could
    benefit Congress. Do you think that it has enough staff,
    resources, and bandwidth to do this? And then should it have
    its own appropriations line? And, if not, how do we ensure that
    division gets the resources needed?
        Mr. Dodaro. Yes. Well, first of all, STAA, like all the
    teams in GAO, have tremendous independence to do the work and
    we work in cooperation. And, also, all the work we do in GAO
    basically has people from multiple teams staffing that work.
    So, for example, when we do a technology assessment on
    regenerative medicine, which we are going to do, our healthcare
    professionals and our healthcare team work on that too, with
    STAA. You need people that have both technical and policy
    backgrounds.
        I am not in favor--and I testified on this before the House
    Committee on Modernization. I am not in favor of separate line
    item appropriations for STAA or any other team in GAO because I
    think it will lead to stovepipes within the agencies. I have
    spent most of my career eliminating stovepipes within GAO and
    in Federal agencies across the Federal Government.
        And I mentioned other areas in my statement that are of
    intense interest to the Congress, including defense and
    healthcare. So I think it would be disastrous and ruin our
    flexibility if there was a specific appropriation for defense,
    healthcare, STAA. I mean, we are being responsive. We have
    increased the size of the group. I am asking for some
    additional resources. We have never, never not met any requests
    from Congress in the STAA area. From my perspective, this is a
    solution in search of a problem. I think it would be very
    detrimental to GAO to go in that direction.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Message received. Thank you. Thank you
    so much.
        I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Ms. Herrera Beutler.
        Next is Ms. Clark.
        Ms. Clark. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you.

                           REDUCING REPORT WAIT TIME

        Ms. Clark. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        It is good to be with you, Comptroller Dodaro. I want to
    begin by thanking you and your team for two GAO reports I
    requested, one on preventing child abuse in youth residential
    facilities and another that evaluated the employer-provided
    childcare credit. They took over a year to get here, but they
    were incredible when I got them.
        So I am delighted to hear that this budget is looking to
    reduce the 4-month wait. You have been able to narrow this down
    to further. But do you have any sense of timeframe, or it is
    just this budget will help you keep moving in the right
    direction?
        Mr. Dodaro. Well, it will help us keep moving in the right
    direction. I hesitate to give a timeframe, because I don't know
    what the volume of requests are going to be.
        Ms. Clark. Yeah.
        Mr. Dodaro. You know, we are unlike a consulting firm that
    has to go out and look for business. Business comes to us, and
    it comes in droves, and it comes from a lot of different
    sources, so I hesitate to give you a specific time frame. But
    this will give us 100 more people, and I am confident that that
    will help us to be more timely in being responsive to the
    Congress.

                             CYBERSECURITY THREATS

        Ms. Clark. That is good news.
        And I also want to thank you for your focus--it is a
    priority for Congress and the Biden administration--on
    cybersecurity. And I know that is one for your Information
    Technology and Cybersecurity team, ITC. I wonder if you can
    share with us what your assessment of the Federal Government's
    efforts in recent years to secure critical infrastructure,
    especially in light of the threats from Russia that we are
    seeing, and to what extent your budget is going to improve upon
    ITC's expertise and capacity to remedy cybersecurity
    shortcomings?
        Mr. Dodaro. Yes. As I mentioned in my opening statements, I
    don't think the Federal Government is operating at a pace
    commensurate with the evolving threat. This is particularly
    true in the critical infrastructure area. There are standards
    produced by the National Institute of Standards and Technology
    that are given to the private sector. Eighty percent of the
    computing assets in our country are in the private sector
    hands. So this is very important. Critical infrastructure
    protection, as I mentioned, was designated a high-risk area in
    2003. So I have long been concerned about this and industrial
    control systems and other things as we become more dependent on
    technology, but those standards are voluntary to be implemented
    on the part of the private sector. There are a very few
    specific areas where the Federal Government has regulatory
    authority that they can be more aggressive and encourage
    implementation of those standards. So, really, right now, for
    many of these 16 critical infrastructure sections, the Federal
    Government really doesn't know how prepared the infrastructure
    sectors are to deal with cybersecurity threats.
        I was glad to see the Congress pass legislation to require
    more reporting of cybersecurity incidents and on a faster
    basis, so that is one step in the right direction. But there
    needs to be more sharing of information between the public
    sector and the private sector. What this reminds me of is
    before 9/11 when there was not enough sharing among the 16
    different intelligence agencies about terrorist threats. We
    have a very, stovepiped kind of situation, and there is not
    enough sharing. As a result, we are not able to react enough or
    to give them advice on how to prevent things.
        So there is a lot more work that needs to be done. I am
    pleased that we are becoming more aggressive in the Federal
    Government about dealing with these issues, but it shouldn't
    take a Colonial Pipeline issue and some of these other real
    disastrous situations to prompt action.

                         INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY SHARING

        Ms. Clark. Yes. And speaking of sharing that--I agree with
    you the sharing across the private and the public. But sticking
    to the public and the public, last year, we talked about your
    ability to share information and the challenges you were
    experiencing with respect to the intelligence community, and
    you were optimistic in your assessment of IC's willingness to
    cooperate. And I wonder if you could update us on how your
    meeting with Director Haines went last year, and has anything
    changed since your last assessment of cooperation from the IC?
        Mr. Dodaro. Yes, I was very pleased with my meeting with
    Director Haines, as I have been with most of my meetings with
    the agencies. And where I have had some problems I have
    talked--had further discussions--with the agencies, and that
    has been worked out. It is working there.
        In the intelligence community, my optimism was correct. So
    I still feel optimistic about it. There are always going to be
    special challenges in that area because of the sensitivity, but
    I am confident we can work through all those issues. And we
    have been getting additional requests from the Congress. For
    example--to look at--Chinese language skills in the
    intelligence community. We are looking at that issue now. We
    have looked at personnel vetting. We have looked at hiring and
    talent management in the agencies. And so our work is
    increasing, and the cooperation has been good.
        Ms. Clark. Great. Thank you.
        Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Ms. Clark.
        Next up is the gentleman who was the first to arrive here
    today on the committee, Mr. Newhouse.

                                COVID-19 RELIEF

        Mr. Newhouse. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the
    recognition for being on time.
        Mr. Comptroller General, thanks for being with us this
    morning, and thank you and everyone that you work with for your
    very important efforts on the key function of the Federal
    Government, and I appreciate all the work that you have done
    and for your reporting today.
        I just wanted to talk a little bit or ask you a little bit
    about, first of all, you know, part of the COVID relief efforts
    that Congress established this special investigator for COVID-
    19 programs, and so I am curious as to your--you talked a
    little bit about it in your opening remarks but your--I want to
    be clear about your coordination, the relationship with that
    office, the intersection that you have kind of delineated the
    responsibilities. So that is one idea I want to be clearer on.
        Then also, you know, the numbers are, you know, out of
    something over $4.5 trillion of aid that has been put out
    there, you know, the numbers of fraud still are pretty
    staggering, large numbers. And I wanted to know if the numbers
    that were being reported are specific, clear numbers of fraud,
    or are they estimates? And if they are specific, does that mean
    that these are active cases that we are going after the
    recovery of these funds?
        And I have heard that overall the number is something over
    $230 billion in fraud, with only about--and correct me if I'm
    wrong--only about $10 billion of that overall been recovered.
    If that is the case, you can verify. But what is the prospects
    of recovering more than that amount, and what will it take to
    get there? Is this kind of like squeezing blood out of a
    turnip, so to speak, or is there a good chance of us recovering
    more? So I just want to start with those thoughts, if you
    could.
        Mr. Dodaro. Sure. First, on the special pandemic relief
    accountability committee that was established in the Inspector
    General community, right after the CARES Act was passed in
    2020, one of my first calls was to Michael Horowitz, who became
    the chair of that committee to work on cooperative agreements.
    I just met this March with the IG community, all 78 or so IGs
    to coordinate. We also coordinate with each one individually.
    So we have very effective working relationships with the
    inspector general community to make sure we are each using our
    resources effectively and efficiently, and we coordinate on a
    regular basis.
        Now, with regard to the fraud situation--there was a great
    sense of urgency to get this money out. As a result, some of
    the controls that should have been in place before the payments
    were made were either reduced or eliminated. Then, also, a
    number of corrective actions that we had recommended, had not
    been put in place. If you do not have these prepayment controls
    in place, you have got to quickly do post-payment reviews to
    make sure you did it right. The money is out there, but then
    you check, you monitor, and then you audit, and those were slow
    to come.
        Now, part of this problem, Congressman Newhouse, was
    exacerbated by the fact that agencies did not implement
    legislation the Congress passed in 2016. In 2015, GAO had
    identified a fraud framework that could be used to prevent
    fraud. Now, the only way to successfully safeguard the Federal
    Government's money from fraud is to prevent it in the first
    place. You have very dim prospects of recovering the money
    after it is long gone. In your analogy, I would bet more on the
    turnip than I would on getting the money back in these cases.
    But the agencies were slow to implement this 2016 law. This was
    particularly true at SBA and the Labor Department, the
    Unemployment Insurance program. So I was very disappointed, and
    this caused a problem.
        Now, with regard to the number, they are all estimates.
    Fraud is a very specific thing because you have to prove
    intent, so it is really a legal determination. So, until all
    these cases are resolved--now, there have been hundreds of
    people that have already pled guilty. There have been some that
    are convicted. There are hundreds of other investigations
    ongoing.
        We know there was a huge improper payments problem. There
    is $78 billion in improper payments just estimated in
    unemployment insurance alone for 2021. That doesn't include all
    the special programs that were created by the Congress. So some
    of the money has been recovered. Sometimes there is judgments
    against people for restitution. But the odds of that being
    collected--you know, I mean, there is a kind of rule of thumb
    in the law enforcement community. It is about 10 percent of
    what the restitution was set at--so the best thing to do is
    prevent it.
        Now, I made legislative recommendations to have more fraud
    reporting in the financial report of the Federal Government,
    for Congress to reinstitute that requirement that lapsed, to
    provide more visibility. I have also recommended that Congress
    provide more aggressive oversight to make sure agencies can
    prevent fraud in the first place. That is our best safeguard
    right there.
        Mr. Newhouse. Yeah, prevent it before it happens. Yeah.
        Mr. Dodaro. Absolutely.
        Mr. Newhouse. Yeah. Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, my
    time is up, so thank you.
        Mr. Ryan. Thanks to the gentleman from Washington.
        The distinguished gentlelady from Virginia, Ms. Wexton.
        Ms. Wexton. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate it.

                               IMPROPER PAYMENTS

        Mr. Dodaro, thank you for joining us here today. I really
    like what you are saying. I mean, I don't like what you are
    saying; I just like that you are saying it. It is just very,
    very important, and the GAO has done a lot to help save the
    government money.
        So I am really curious about this issue of improper
    payments versus fraudulent payments. At what point are you able
    to determine whether they go from just being improper to being
    fraudulent, and is that something you have to refer to DOJ in
    order for that determination to be made?
        Mr. Dodaro. Yes, that is exactly right. We at GAO, since we
    are in the legislative branch, we do not have law enforcement
    authority. So, when we identify potential fraud, we refer it to
    the Justice Department or to the inspectors general. The
    inspectors general have much more--many more criminal
    investigators than GAO. So that is why when we work with them,
    they do more of the fraud investigations, so we refer it to
    them as well.
        Ms. Wexton. Got it. Okay.

                              EMPLOYMENT INCREASES

        And you were asking for about 100 more full-time employees
    for fiscal year 2023. Is that right?
        Mr. Dodaro. Yes, that is correct.
        Ms. Wexton. And what area of expertise are those people
    going to have? I mean, do you need them because of these new
    mandates that you have from the infrastructure bill and from
    all the COVID relief and everything?
        Mr. Dodaro. No, we have the talent really on board in those
    areas. The new people would be mostly in the science and
    technology area. We are still hiring--we have hired a lot of
    engineers, people with scientific backgrounds, microbiology,
    chemistry, aerospace engineering. So we want to continue to add
    to our science and technology area and more cybersecurity
    people in GAO.
        We will hire some people in defense area. If we get the
    additional money for infrastructure spending oversight that we
    are asking for, I would hire additional people, but they
    wouldn't necessarily be specialists--most of that work can be
    done by generalists at GAO. We have people that are experts in
    physical infrastructure that have been doing surface
    transportation, bridge work, telecommunications for a while.
        So we have the capability; just be sizing that up a little
    bit more to deal with this work, because some of the
    coronavirus mandates, go through 2025. The infrastructure, some
    of those programs will go through 2024 as well. We are still
    auditing the TARP program from the Recovery Act days back from
    2009, 2010 believe it or not.
        So these things have long tails on them, just like disaster
    aid. And so we need more people to sustain this, because if we
    don't, what happens is it eats up our capacity, so when new
    requests come in from Congress, we can't be as responsive. So,
    if we don't get help on these special efforts, it would make it
    much more difficult to reduce that 8-month response time I
    talked about earlier.
        Ms. Wexton. Okay. So you think you are going to need these
    people in perpetuity really? I mean, it is just not--it is not
    like that could be a temporary thing----
        Mr. Dodaro. Yes, as much as perpetuity exists in life, you
    know, yes, we will need that capacity for the most part. I put
    surface--financing the Federal Government's transportation
    infrastructure on our high-risk list in 2007. Despite this
    recent, big investment in the nation's infrastructure, there
    they are going to be continued needs. We don't have a way to
    fund our transportation infrastructure on a regular basis the
    way we used to with the gas tax.
        I mean, the gas tax hasn't been increased since 1993. The
    Congress has been tapping general appropriation funds since
    2008 to supplement the revenues that should be going into the
    trust fund. So the whole issue about user pay has been broken
    there in the transportation area. So I do think there is going
    to be more attention that have to be focused on transportation
    issues beyond implementation of this new investment in that
    area.

                                     FRAUD

        Ms. Wexton [continuing]. Versus fraudulent payments, does
    GAO often uncover them before like Medicaid does itself and
    before these agencies uncover it themselves?
        Mr. Dodaro. In some cases, we do, but not in most cases. In
    most cases, I mean, these are estimates that are made. And what
    I want to do, and I have tried to work with the administration,
    is in the Medicaid area--and this is true in Unemployment
    Insurance as well--they are administered at the State level.
    Now, each State has an auditor that is either appointed or
    elected and we deal with those State auditors all the time. I
    think we ought to invest and give them more responsibility to
    audit at the State level because each of these programs, the
    Medicaid programs are different in each State. They are not
    uniform. And I think the State auditors, getting them involved
    could help prevent some of these things where they could
    identify them ahead of time.
        I am also working with the administration, Treasury, and
    OMB, and the White House person focused on the American Rescue
    Act implementation, on new ways to do identity verification so
    we know when somebody applies that that is the person who says
    they are. A lot of this fraud occurred with people stealing
    identities, making up identities, fake firms. We should be able
    to do a better job in identifying and verifying who we are
    going to give the money to before we give it to them.
        Ms. Wexton. That has been a continuing issue. So, if you
    find any solutions, please let us know, because it is something
    we have been looking for for many years, so----
        Mr. Dodaro. I used to have a greater faith in human nature
    before I took this job, but, you know, these emergencies bring
    out the best in people, healthcare workers and others, but they
    bring out the worst in people that want to prey on this
    situation, and they do. They are very creative, and so we need
    to be on our guard.
        Ms. Wexton. Thank you very much, Mr. Dodaro.
        And thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back since it appears
    my time has long expired now.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Wexton.
        The distinguished gentleman from Hawaii, Mr. Case.

                               STAFFING REQUESTS

        Mr. Case. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My faith in human nature
    has been on a long up and down curve since taking this job.
    Thank you again for all of your service, and I join everybody
    else's comments along those lines.
        Can I just say on the subject of just understanding your
    staffing requests, first of all, for fiscal year 2022 recently
    enacted, 3,400 FTEs, are you at 3,400 FTEs right now?
        Mr. Dodaro. No. We will be close to that by the end of the
    year. We are like--our projections are, I think, around 3,390,
    so we are very close.
        Mr. Case. Okay. And then, I guess, the similar question is,
    so you want to go up another 100. In response to Ms. Wexton,
    you outlined the areas where you want to go up. I just did some
    really simple math just to understand what you were trying to
    achieve and kind of broke it down to a unit cost, if I can put
    it that way. And it looks like your unit cost per FTE request
    is about 5 percent up from fiscal year 2022 to 2023. All I did
    was just take the total amount requested, divided by--you know,
    divided by the FTE and run a percentage from year to year on
    it.
        And I guess, first of all, does that sound about right, No.
    1, and then, No. 2, I am just trying to ask myself, is that
    enough to get you to 3,500 FTEs at an increase of somewhere
    around 5 percent? I guess it would make sense if--I guess it
    would depend a lot on where those FTEs were, but if you are
    trying to hire into the far more competitive----
        Mr. Dodaro. I think you went on mute, Congressman.
        Mr. Case. I don't know where I went off.
        Mr. Dodaro. Well, you weren't off long.
        Mr. Case. Okay. So, if you are trying to hire--I was saying
    that if you are--that would depend a lot on where your FTEs
    were coming from. Maybe 5 percent would be reasonable in some
    areas of FTE increase. But if you are in a highly competitive
    environment, as I suspect you still are from a salary
    perspective, is that going to be enough to get you to 3,500
    FTEs or at least the ones that you want?
        Mr. Dodaro. Yes, I think we can get there. We have been
    fairly aggressive in hiring this year, even though our
    appropriation wasn't known until halfway through the fiscal
    year. You know, that is a problem. I mean, when I testified
    before the House Modernization Committee, they want to know
    what they could do to help us. And I said, well, if we can get
    our appropriation passed before the beginning of the fiscal
    year, that would be a good start, because you don't want to
    hire until you know.
        Now, we were able to be more aggressive this year since we
    did get additional supplemental appropriations for the CARES
    Act work, and so we felt confident moving forward in that area.
    So we are going to end this year in a good position. A lot
    depends on your strength at the end of the year and how many
    people you have, because if you don't have a lot of people on
    board at the beginning of the fiscal year, it is hard to burn
    the FTE level during the year.
        So I feel confident we will be able to do that and we will
    be able to find the people that we need. We have been pretty
    successful in the science and technology area, cybersecurity as
    well. I have been very pleased with our ability to recruit in
    those areas. The other areas, healthcare and defense, won't be
    a problem at all. We have got a long track record there, and we
    have done pretty good.
        I mentioned earlier that we hired 440-some interns since
    the COVID started. What we do is we hire our interns
    competitively, and so, once we know how much money we will
    receive, we can make those that did a good job a job offer
    right away and get them all scheduled to come in. So I am
    fairly confident we can hit the FTE level. Of course, it would
    help if we get our 2023 appropriation, you know, at least by
    the end of the first quarter in 2023.
        Mr. Case. Oh, I am glad you said 2023. I was going to ask
    you which first quarter were you referring to.
        And just a quick clarification, the amounts that were
    allocated straight from the bipartisan infrastructure plan
    where you picked up obligations there, are those positions
    necessary to carry those out, are those part of your 3,500
    FTEs, or are those kind of a separate category of staff?
        Mr. Dodaro. Those are a separate category of staff.
        Mr. Case. Okay.
        Mr. Dodaro. We are asking for multiple years, and over
    those years, it would be equivalent of 125 staff but spread
    over a number of years.
        Mr. Case. Okay. Great. All right. Thank you so much again.
        I yield back.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Mr. Case.
        The distinguished gentleman from Nevada, Mr. Amodei. Going
    once? Going twice?
        Mr. Amodei. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Can you hear me?
        Mr. Ryan. There you are.
        Mr. Amodei. Hey, sorry about that.
        Sorry, Mr. Comptroller General. Listen, we have reviewed
    your report, been listening with your conversations with the
    other folks. I want to thank you for your service, and we will
    yield back.
        Mr. Dodaro. Thank you.
        Mr. Amodei. Yep.
        Mr. Dodaro. Good to see you again.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you.
        The distinguished gentleman from New York, Mr. Espaillat.
        Mr. Espaillat. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Thank you, Comptroller Dodaro. Last year, the GAO science
    and technology team grew tremendously, reaching a total of 123
    staff members as of December of 2021. What is your staff goal
    for the S&T team in order to bolster your expertise in science
    and technology, and how will your fiscal year 2023 proposal
    help you achieve this goal? That is the first question.
        Mr. Dodaro. Sure. We are hopeful that we can achieve about
    149 staff by the end of this fiscal year, although that is a
    little bit of a stretch goal. But I am hopeful then that we can
    increase it to about 165 people or so depending upon the
    response to our budget request in fiscal 2023, Congressman.

                           ENGLISH-LANGUAGE-LEARNERS

        Mr. Espaillat. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Comptroller.
        Now, my second question is, as part of the GAO's COVID-19
    monitoring and oversight responsibilities under the CARES Act,
    the GAO found that some English-language learners couldn't
    fully participate in distance learning due to language barriers
    that limited access to technology. Your report states that
    English-language learners lost the opportunities to practice
    their language skills, according to school district officials
    and representatives of a professional association.
        This is a reality that I have heard from my constituency.
    Additionally, families have informed me that their children are
    being misclassified as having learning disabilities instead of
    having English-language learners' challenges; thus, the
    services they received are often misguided and delaying their
    academic success.
        Will you commit to studying how local education agencies
    determine how students are classified as English-language
    learners in order to guarantee that the funds to these
    populations are used in a manner that is what we intended as
    Members of Congress?
        Mr. Dodaro. Yes. I am happy to look further at that issue.
    You know, as a parent, and grandparent myself, I am very
    concerned about the learning loss that occurred during the
    pandemic. We found in a national survey that over 1 million
    teachers had at least one student who never showed up at all
    during the pandemic.
        And so this is a problem. It is a problem especially for
    those that have language challenges but also special needs
    children as well regardless of the language. And so this is a
    very important issue. It is a sad development for our children,
    and hopefully we can recover, but I would be happy to look
    further at that issue.
        Mr. Espaillat. Very often English-language learners are
    expected to be proficient, English proficient in like a very
    short period of time. Most data shows that it takes anywhere
    from 6 to 7 years to be language proficient. And some of the
    metrics of the tests that are provided by States are tough even
    for U.S.-born children with regards to English language arts.
        And so--and a language learner, an English-language learner
    may be asked within a year to be performing at a level that
    even U.S.-born children have difficulties meeting. And so, as a
    result, they often get misclassified as having a disability, or
    they are forced into failure, you know, and they are sort of
    like pushed into a corner where they will fail.
        So I think it is important that we adapt to their needs and
    be able to recognize what their needs are, whether they are a
    English-language learner or children with special needs, and
    then provide the tools that they will be able to use to move
    forward. But I do hope--thank you, and I do hope that my team
    will be working with you eliminating these barriers for
    academic achievement for English-language learners.

                        Closing Remarks of Chairman Ryan

        Mr. Ryan. I thank the gentleman.
        Thank you, gentleman from New York. We appreciate it.
        We covered a lot of ground here today, Mr. Dodaro. Thank
    you so much for your time. We have got a lot of different
    hearings going on now that our members need to get to, as you
    know happens this time of year. So we are only going to do one
    round of questions. We appreciate your thoroughness.
        And, again, on a personal level, I think all the members of
    the committee, we lean on you and we count on you and we count
    on the work of all the good people that you have with you. So
    if you could just make sure you let them know how invaluable
    they are to us trying to make this thing called government work
    and trying our best to modernize to keep up with all of the
    challenges that we all face. Please let them know how much we
    appreciate them, and we appreciate you.
        And, you know, we will definitely be in touch. And we are
    going to look very, very closely at your budget request,
    knowing the demands that you all have and then also considering
    the demands we have here with the limited amount of resources.
    So we appreciate you. We love you and can't thank you enough.
        And, with that, this hearing is adjourned.
        Mr. Dodaro. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

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                                                Tuesday, April 5, 2022.

                          CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE

                                    WITNESS

    PHILLIP SWAGEL, DIRECTOR, CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE

                       Opening Statement of Chairman Ryan

        Mr. Ryan. The committee will come to order. This hearing
    this afternoon is fully virtual, so we need to address a few
    housekeeping matters. First, for today's meeting, the chair or
    staff designated by the chair may mute participants'
    microphones when they are not under recognition for the
    purposes of eliminating inadvertent background noise.
        Second, members are responsible for muting and unmuting
    themselves. If I notice when you are recognized you have not
    unmuted yourself, I will ask you if you would like the staff to
    unmute you. If you indicate approval by nodding, staff will
    unmute your microphone.
        Third, you will notice a clock on your screen that will
    show how much of the 5-minute clock is remaining. If there is a
    technical issue, we will move to the next member until the
    issue is resolved, and you will retain the balance of your
    time. But we are going to be very strict with the 5-minute rule
    here today because we have another hearing and then a round of
    votes, so we are going to need to get through these hearings.
        Fourth, we will be beginning with the chair and ranking
    member. Then members present at the time the hearing is called
    to order will be recognized in the order of seniority.
        Finally, House rules require me to remind you that we have
    set up an email address to which members can send anything they
    wish to be submitted in writing--or they wish to submit in
    writing at any of our hearings. That email address has been
    provided in advance to your staff.
        Dr. Swagel, nice to see you again. Thank you for joining
    us. We appreciate your time here today to discuss the fiscal
    year 2023 budget request for the Congressional Budget Office,
    affectionately known here on Capitol Hill simply as CBO.
        CBO is a nonpartisan office that plays a key role in this
    institution. CBO helps Congress effectively exercise the power
    of the purse assigned to us by the Constitution. With CBO,
    Congress has its own independent economic analysis and cost
    estimate of proposed legislation, and therefore, we do not have
    to rely solely on the Office of Management and Budget within
    the executive branch.
        CBO is vital for both the House and Senate Appropriations
    Committees, as we are the source of some of CBO's heaviest
    workload. We employ CBO's help in making sure our bills add up
    to what they are supposed to, and we need CBO cost estimates at
    each stage of legislative action.
        As you noted in your April letter to Senator Braun, CBO has
    not yet published updated economic and budgetary projections
    this calendar year. The current absence of information leaves
    this committee even more dependent on CBO's forthcoming
    baseline projections.
        As chair of the subcommittee, I am acutely aware of the
    certainty and precision that the appropriations process demands
    of CBO, so I want to underscore how critical it is that your
    public commitment to provide us with the information necessary
    to discharge our duties on a schedule that supports those
    responsibilities holds firm. Again, we appreciate all the
    support you provide to us so we can make significant
    investments in American jobs and economic growth.
        For fiscal year 2023, CBO is requesting a total of $64.6
    million, a $3.7 million, or 6-percent, increase over fiscal
    year 2022 enacted totals. According to the request, this will
    mainly be used to support salaries and benefits for personnel.
        Dr. Swagel, I look forward to your testimony today, but
    first I would like to yield to my friend and colleague from the
    great State of Washington, Ranking Member Jaime Herrera
    Beutler, for any opening comments that she would like to make.

              Opening Statement of Ranking Member Herrera Beutler

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        And it is great to see you again, Dr. Swagel. Your work is
    always of interest. It is always important. It is not always
    understandable, but that is part of why we enjoy working with
    you.
        The CBO's fiscal 2023 request is $60.953 million, which
    represents a 6.4-percent increase over last year's enacted
    level. And the Congressional Budget Office, for those folks who
    are watching--this is an exciting hearing--need to know how
    much what you do impacts everything we are able to do here in
    Congress. It is actually absolutely crucial.
        And basically you provide the congressional budget, and it
    is the information on budgetary impacts of all the legislation
    that we are considering and trying to consider, and so much of
    it hinges on how--what is the cost of it and what are the
    impacts and how is it paid for.
        And then really the tireless work of you and your staff is
    so appreciated. And I know your staff, when we have long
    evenings and weekends, your staff do as well because they are
    trying to make it work to get our legislation moving and in the
    right form for us.
        So the majority of your requests for increase is your
    personnel cost to cover current employees' salary and benefits
    as well as provide funds for seven new staff members, which I
    believe you already spoke about, to meet the needs for the
    increase in legislative activity.
        And something I find really important is ensuring all
    offices have equal access to the information that CBO provides,
    and you and I have spoken about this before. In recent years,
    Congress has appropriated funds to allow CBO to improve its
    responsiveness and its transparency to all Members.
        And I was really pleased to see that, during your estimate
    release for the Build Back Better legislation, CBO released one
    title at a time in order to expedite the information instead of
    waiting for the entire behemoth of a report to be completed.
    And with a bill well over 2,000 pages, thousands of requests
    from staff as they develop the legislative proposals, and over
    half of the agency involved in the estimate, I really
    appreciate the creative flexibility that you and your team used
    to ensure the information was provided as fairly and as quickly
    as possible. So I look forward to hearing more about your
    agency's work and your ideas on how we can help CBO improve.
        And, with that, I yield back, Mr. Chairman.

                         CHAIRMAN OUTLINES PROCEEDINGS

        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Ms. Herrera Beutler.
        Without objection, your written testimony will be made part
    of the record.
        Dr. Swagel, please summarize your statement for the members
    of the committee. Once you have finished your statement, we
    will move to the question-and-answer period. The floor is
    yours.

                          Testimony of Phillip Swagel

        Mr. Swagel. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Ryan, thank you,
    Ranking Member Herrera Beutler, and thank you, members of the
    subcommittee, for this opportunity to testify about the
    Congressional Budget Office's budget request. And, as you just
    said, the purpose of my testimony today is to request an
    appropriation of $64.6 million for fiscal year 2023, and that
    is a 6-percent increase from the amount that we were provided
    in fiscal year 2022. And thank you, you know, to both you and
    to the entire committee for your support and for providing our
    full request this fiscal year.
        So the request for 2023 would support our goal to be more
    transparent and more responsive. And I am very well aware of
    the need for us to make sure that what we do is understandable,
    and it is a key challenge for us is to make sure our analysis
    is clear and make sure it is timely, and to get that balance
    right and to improve when we don't get the balance right.
        So, as you just said, about three quarters of the requested
    increase for next year is for personnel. That would cover the,
    you know, normal increases for the existing staff. It would
    cover the full year for the salaries and benefits for the staff
    we hired last year--or this year, that is, in fiscal year 2022,
    and then allow us to hire seven new staff next year.
        One would be in IT, and we just need more help in IT,
    especially with the hybrid environment. Four would focus on
    health policy and the mix of energy, infrastructure, and
    climate, and those are areas of heightened legislative
    activity, you know, both health now, and then we are building
    capacity on energy and climate especially.
        And then two others would be flexible, you know, more
    junior staff who would shift across topics to help on
    especially complicated work. And it is something we have been
    doing in the past that has been successful, and I want to keep
    building on that. And then the remaining roughly one quarter of
    the increase, about $1 million, would be mainly for IT
    enhancements, including cybersecurity.
        So, in 2021, CBO worked on three major legislative
    packages, and so we provided technical assistance and cost
    estimates for the American Rescue Plan Act, the Infrastructure
    Investment and Jobs Act, and the Build Back Better Act. And,
    you know, we worked, you know, both to provide timely
    information, and as Representative Herrera Beutler said, to
    make sure that the information went out evenly to all
    interested parties. And I got that message, how important that
    is.
        We released the budget and economic projections, well, last
    year in February and July of 2021. We are working on the next
    update now to be released next month, in May. And, absolutely,
    you know, Mr. Chairman, as you said, and I understand that
    having that update as soon as possible is essential for the
    work of the Appropriations Committee. You know, the delay in
    the administration's budget is the challenge for us because we
    get data from the administration only when they release the
    budget, so, you know, that set us back some.
        So, in addition to that, to the cost estimates and
    appropriations work, we produce reports on a range of topics,
    on military pay, estate and gift taxes, infrastructure
    investment. We did work on lots of different health topics. We
    had one on the minimum wage last year and many other issues. We
    have, you know, lots of work in progress. We put out a
    quarterly report on what we have in the pipeline, so there is,
    you know, lots of work there.
        Looking ahead to next year, the requested funding would
    allow us to, you know, really keep doing our--fulfilling our
    mission to support the Congress, right. We would fulfill
    thousands of requests for technical assistance generally from
    committees but from others looking for information as they
    develop legislation.
        You know, I suspect we would get about 700--roughly 700
    cost estimates, you know, probably more than we did last year.
    Most of those are to the authorizing committees after bills are
    reported, scorekeeping reports and estimates for
    appropriations, and then analytic papers and reports. And then
    a wide range of other things, you know, blog posts, chart
    books, interactive slide decks, and much more.
        So, in summary, to achieve our goal to be as responsive as
    possible, CBO requests an increase of $3.7 million. With your
    support, we look forward to continuing to provide timely and
    high-quality analysis to the Congress. Thank you again for your
    support, and I am happy to take any questions.
        [The information follows:]

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                             RESPONDING TO CONGRESS

        Mr. Ryan. Appreciate that. Thank you.
        My question is around transparency and more so
    responsiveness. We see your multiyear plan here to increase
    capacity on all of the various issues that you mentioned. But
    we are, you know, very concerned on this committee--and not
    just with you. We had this with the GAO earlier--about
    responsiveness to the Appropriations and to the Budget
    Committee. So, building on your prior efforts, if you could
    tell us how the 2022 budget that has been enacted will enable
    your agency to further increase the timeliness of support for
    the upcoming 2023 cycle.
        Mr. Swagel. No, of course. And, in some instances, it has
    been a continuing effort at the areas in which the Congress is
    especially working intensively. In healthcare, right, health
    policy was a focus of both the reconciliation packages, the
    Rescue Plan Act and Build Back Better, and so the fiscal year
    2022 appropriation allowed us to hire more in healthcare, which
    is already the largest group within the agency and we hired
    more. We lose some, you know, both to retirements and to, you
    know, sort of other agencies or the private sector, but we are
    still expanding.
        And so, you know, we are working on coverage expansions, on
    drug pricing, on Medicare reform and much more. And then energy
    and climate is the other area where the fiscal year 2022 is
    allowing us to build, and essentially we are building capacity
    that, you know, I--whenever climate legislation comes, I want
    us to be ready for it, and energy legislation as well. And so
    that is what we are building capacity.
        And then the 2022 appropriations allowed us to keep going
    further on IT, improving our resiliency, improving our
    cybersecurity, and just working better in the hybrid
    environment.
        Mr. Ryan. Okay. With that, I am going to go to my
    colleague, Ms. Herrera Beutler.

                             ACCESS TO AGENCY DATA

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Thank you so much.
        Okay. Well, I wanted to ask--there was two questions I
    wanted to ask. During a Modernization Committee hearing, you
    noted that the public data doesn't always provide the level of
    information that you and your team need to complete your
    reports, and creating data user agreements with agencies and
    using that information can be hindered because of delays in
    creating the agreements.
        It should be a bipartisan priority, in my mind, to minimize
    the barriers to your work. So can you speak to how significant
    this roadblock is to CBO's work and what Congress could do to
    help ensure that you are getting the information that you need?
        Mr. Swagel. No, thank you. You know, we obtain data from
    many agencies, and for the most part it is smooth. You know, a
    challenge--you know, sometimes the challenge is getting the
    agreements in place, and we have about three dozen data-use
    agreements for protected information for nonpublic information,
    you know, from Census and IRS and other agencies.
        You know, one of the challenges we face is that the data
    generally remain in the possession of that agency. And, before
    the pandemic, our staff would go to, you know, go to Suitland
    or, you know, to work at the census or, you know, go to the--
    like Treasury for IRS. In the pandemic, we have arranged for
    remote use on a temporary basis, and we are working now--as we
    emerge from the pandemic, we are working to make that
    permanent. And I am hopeful that we will--you know, we will
    succeed in that. And, obviously, of course, I would come back
    to the committee if I face challenges.
        I would say, one other challenge is sometimes with just
    fast-moving information getting information from agencies, you
    know, it is not a problem; it can just be, you know, they are
    not working at the same pace as we are. If the Appropriations
    Committee needs to, you know, know how much money is in an
    account, well, we--you know, the data that we have access to is
    generally 2 months old. And so we will have to reach out to the
    agency to get it, and they are just not always, you know, sort
    of working at the same speed as the Congress. And so that
    sometimes can be a challenge as well.

                            ADVISER DISCLOSURE FORMS

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Thank you for that.
        Switching gears a little bit to conflicts of interest, CBO
    supports obviously the congressional budget process by
    providing analysis of budgetary and economic issues. And to
    help inform its work product, CBO makes use of an outside panel
    of advisers. And because outside experts can have conflicts of
    interest, CBO requires that your advisers annually submit forms
    to disclose, quote, substantial political activity and
    significant financial interest, which is pretty reasonable.
        Recently, CBO implemented a mechanism to allow for remote
    review of these disclosures forms, which I think is good. It is
    refreshing to see that the public can have the ability now to
    review these forms, but the access is timed and the forms are
    not downloadable. And I just wanted to understand the reasoning
    behind the process being implemented the way it is and to see
    if there is an effort to improve that accessibility and
    transparency. Are there any future plans to put the forms
    online?
        Mr. Swagel. Okay. No, no, thank you. And as you said, the
    panel of outside advisers is important to us, that we get
    advice. And so, for example, recently we had a meeting with
    some of the advisers on what is happening with interest rates
    and inflation, which is just, of course, a vexing problem for
    the Nation, but it is--for us in the budget, you know, it has
    an important impact on, you know, both revenues and spending.
    And so we do rely on the expertise.
        We are trying to balance the burden on them of the
    disclosure against, you know, of course, the importance of the
    transparency. So, when the system disclosure was set up, it was
    patterned after what the disclosure for congressional staff,
    and it is through the--is the House Legislative Resource
    Center. And so they are available, you know, to the public on
    request.
        During the pandemic, we put them online instead of just in
    person, as it was done before the pandemic. You know, to be
    honest, I am not sure what we are going to do after the
    pandemic. We are just--we are sort of coming to grips with that
    now as we transition back to in person. It has worked. I mean,
    it has worked having them available electronically.
        You are right; we haven't let people download, but we
    understand that, you know, people have, and so, if it is not on
    the screen, people can, you know, take a snapshot and have the
    information. So we are going to keep thinking about that, you
    know, as we emerge from the pandemic.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Sounds good. Thank you so much.
        I yield back, Chairman.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Ms. Herrera Beutler.
        Next is the distinguished gentlelady from Massachusetts,
    Ms. Clark.

                         STAFF RETENTION AND CHILDCARE

        Ms. Clark. Well, thank you, Chairman from Ohio and our
    ranking member from Washington.
        Director Swagel, it is really good to see you again. Thank
    you for being here. And, before the pandemic, we had a chance
    to talk about some of the issues you were having with losing
    staff to the private sector. We know this is unfortunately not
    unique to CBO, but you know how critical your mission is to how
    Congress functions.
        And you raised the issue that childcare is one of the real
    concerns for CBO staff and that they are at the bottom of the
    list for the childcare center, making it difficult to access
    affordable childcare. And you had mentioned that you were going
    to be conducting a survey, and I wondered if you could provide
    an update on the status or the outcomes of that survey, and
    anything in particular that your budget justification reflects
    those needs of staff?
        Mr. Swagel. Okay. No, no, thank you. And it is--it remains
    a key issue for us, and it is something we have thought a lot
    about, you know, both with the, you know, ongoing childcare
    needs and then also, during the pandemic, you know, just the
    particular difficulties that our staff with young children face
    and sometimes continue. You know, parents of ages zero to 4,
    they are like the--you know, a little bit left behind yet in
    the pandemic.
        And, you know, I realize it is a capacity issue for all
    congressional staff, but, you know, as we come back from the
    pandemic, it would be enormously helpful, you know, increase
    support for childcare, you know, for the entire campus. And I
    am not looking for CBO to jump ahead of anyone else, but, you
    know, we would use it, and that is really the result of our
    survey.
        And, of course, we did a lot of work on childcare for the
    Build Back Better plan, and so we have lots of analysis about
    what childcare would do, you know, to parents, and it is a
    microcosm of our issue.
        And then the budget request would help us, in some
    instances, as we emerge from the pandemic, we are coming back
    in person, but we are going to have more flexibility in a
    hybrid environment. And the budget request would support that.
    You know, the IT support that we have requested would really
    let us work better in a hybrid environment. You know, I think
    especially it would be helpful for parents with young children.

                                   STAFF PAY

        Ms. Clark. That is great. And--yes, and I personally
    appreciate the CBO's work on the childcare and how often I
    asked and how great your team was to work with.
        Your budget justification also includes a pay increase of
    4.6 percent for staff making under $100,000 a year in addition
    to performance-based salary increases. This is nearly double
    your fiscal year 2022 request, and I just wondered how you got
    there. Is this tied into some of your survey and results and
    retention issues?
        Mr. Swagel. Yeah, no, thank you. You know, it is partly
    that, and it is partly our projection of inflation, you know,
    for next year, which, you know, in some instances, like I said
    before is one of the challenging aspects of the macro
    environment now. And so that is what the--you know, the 4.6
    percent, you know, as you said is for staff making less than
    $100,000 and, you know, some considerably less than that.
    Anyone making more than $100,000 gets performance increases
    only. You know, there is no across-the-board raise. And it is,
    as you said, it is for retention. I mean, essentially every CBO
    staff member took a real wage cut this year just because
    inflation outpaced, you know, our pay increases. You know, it
    was just a fact of life. And so we are hoping to, you know,
    make back up some of that ground--we are not going to fully
    make it back up--and then have money to target, in some
    instances, to target--you know, to target especially high-
    achieving staff.

                                 COST ESTIMATES

        Ms. Clark. That is great. And I will sneak one in real
    quick here at the end. I know that your number of formal cost
    estimates to Congress has continued to decline. I wondered if
    you had any recommendations for offices looking to determine
    the cost estimates of their legislation when they are unable to
    obtain a score from the CBO.
        Mr. Swagel. Yeah, you know, it is a challenge. In some
    instances, it is a challenge in two ways, that--as you said,
    the number of formal cost estimates we provided last year was
    lower than in the past, you know, 400 or so as opposed to 700
    or 800 in the past. And in some ways, it is a reflection of the
    legislation that we were dealing with.
        So, you know, the three major packages, ARPA, the IIJA--I
    was about to say the BIF, but, you know, everyone knows the
    infrastructure package, and Build Back Better. I mean, Build
    Back Better was over 200 pages of cost estimate. That counted
    as one.
        And so, in some instances, it was just, sort of more
    complex legislation where we are going back and forth, and then
    there is more suspension bills where we don't do a full cost
    estimate, you know, we will just put up a PAYGO table.
        Looking to this year and into the future, it seems like we
    are not going to have those same kind of massive legislation,
    and we will be more--you know, I suspect we are going to have
    just more cost estimates and little bit back to normal.
        I am sorry. I apologize for going over. For Members not
    being able to get a cost estimate from us, it is really a
    challenge. And, you know, in healthcare especially the work is
    so complex, and we are doing so much work for the committee
    chairs that we are just not able to produce cost estimates, you
    know, for Members other than the, you know, committee chairs
    and ranking members.
        We provide technical assistance and we will help Members
    develop the legislation, but almost always we just cannot get
    them a regular cost estimate. And I just--I don't have a
    solution. You know, I just don't--I don't think I could add
    enough people in healthcare to, you know, to do cost estimates
    for everyone.
        Ms. Clark. Thank you so much.
        Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you. Next is the distinguished gentleman
    from Nevada, Mr. Amodei. Mr. Amodei tends to appear and
    disappear periodically. He is the magic man.
        We will go next, Mr. Newhouse.

                           ADDRESSING STAFFING NEEDS

        Mr. Newhouse. Ah, thank you, sir, Mr. Chairman.
        Good afternoon, Mr. Director. Thanks for being with us
    today. Good to see you again.
        So, looking at your staffing report, part of your request
    you talk about having, I think, something over 200 analysts
    that have expertise in a whole host of policy areas, certainly
    they score bills and make assessments. You may or may not know,
    but in my real life, I am a farmer, and so certainly many of
    the priorities that I have in Congress fall within the
    agricultural or the food space, so to speak.
        So I am just curious, out of all of those 205 or so
    analysts, how many of them specifically have policy expertise
    in the agricultural or food-related areas? And as we approach
    another farm bill in 2023, do you intend to hire any new
    analysts in order to have the necessary expertise?
        And I guess it kind of leads to another even bigger
    question: I can't think of a great example, but as you handle
    kind of a cyclical demand for information, for instance, in a
    case of a farm bill, you know, what is your--how do you address
    that need for or increased--need for demand of information, and
    then it may taper off after a bit?
        Mr. Swagel. No, it is a great question. And it is--so I
    took over as director in June of 2019, and so I have not yet
    gone through the farm bill, which I know is a major
    undertaking, and CBO provides, you know, a huge amount of
    support. We have a dedicated group that focuses on, you know,
    on USDA and on ag issues. And, for example, every year, we
    convene a meeting of government experts on farm prices, and
    then we go essentially commodity by commodity on farm prices,
    and we host that.
        And so there is a sense in which we maintain that
    underlying expertise going forward. I am sorry; I don't know--I
    am just--I am trying to think of the people on the other end of
    the hallway here--how many focus on ag issues. It is not a huge
    number, but then we have others, for example, you know, with
    crop insurance, we have a group that does financial analysis,
    and they contribute to the work on, you know--this is cost
    estimates relating to farm insurance--to crop insurance,
    rather.
        So it is--yeah, I am sorry; I don't have the number. But,
    in some instances, you know, that is part of the strength of
    the organization is the flexibility. And so we have people, you
    know, by area, you know, by topic like ag, and then we have by
    function, like financial analysis, and bringing those two
    groups together.
        Mr. Newhouse. So they kind of cross over?
        Mr. Swagel. They do, yeah. Yeah.
        Mr. Newhouse. Okay. And maybe you don't know the exact
    number. It is not a large number, but I am certain it is the
    cream of the crop of your staff, so--well, thank you very much.
    Appreciate that.
        Mr. Chairman, I will yield back the balance of my time. You
    are muted, Mr. Chairman.

                              BASELINE COMPLETION

        Mr. Ryan. I knew that. I knew that.
        I would like to ask when the baseline will be completed.
        Mr. Swagel. Yeah.
        Mr. Ryan. Because we need that quickly for us to get moving
    here. So can you give us some kind of idea when that is going
    to be?
        Mr. Swagel. Yeah. So, I will give you, you know, two dates.
    You know, one is for the, you know, the final report. That is
    late in May, but we are aiming to transmit the information that
    the Appropriations Committee needs, you know, no later than May
    4.
        Now, if I can shave any time off of that and get it to the
    committees, you know, both the House and Senate, before then, I
    promise you the staff directors from both sides have explained
    to me in detail how important it is to have that information as
    soon as possible. And I have promised them that I will be in
    touch essentially, you know, weekly, you know, with updates if
    we can get our work done any sooner.
        Mr. Ryan. So you understand the urgency.
        Mr. Swagel. I do. I do. I absolutely do.
        Mr. Ryan. Okay.
        Mr. Swagel. Yeah.
        Mr. Ryan. Great.
        Distinguished gentleman from Hawaii, Mr. Case.

                             CBO SCORES AND TIMING

        Mr. Case. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
        Director, we have, what is in my view--I won't blame it on
    anybody else unless you want to join me--a pretty disturbing
    trend or temptation towards bringing very large bills up for
    votes, especially on the floor, unscored by CBO, no CBO score.
    We certainly had that discussion last year, and your team was
    incredible in terms of actually scoring Build Back Better.
        We see another example of that this week where we have got
    a bill that is at $55 billion, as far as I understand it, that
    may well be headed to the floor without a CBO score. And I am
    not asking you to weigh in on the merits or demerits of that. I
    am sure you have your view, but I am not going to engage you in
    the tug of wars over that. But I am going to ask whether there
    are mechanisms to at least remove the urgency of time to get a
    CBO score, at least minimize it, to get some kind of a sense?
    Like is there such a thing as a mini CBO score or a preliminary
    score? Or for that matter, are you asked routinely to score
    bills going into markup in committee as opposed to once a
    markup is finished?
        Now, I understand you have to fine-tune it after a markup--
    that is an obvious one--before you get to the floor. But, I
    mean, I am looking for some ways, if the reason--if the true
    reason for some of these bills coming to the floor without a
    CBO score is some perceived need for speed, then, you know,
    number one, can you meet it? And, number two--and I am sure the
    answer is you are going to say, yes, we can, under most
    circumstances--but, number two, is there some way to get ahead
    of that so that we can at least get a better sense of the
    budgetary implications of some of these very, very large bills,
    especially over time?
        Mr. Swagel. Yeah. It is something we think a lot about is
    trying to balance that, you know, the speed and responsiveness,
    you know, against completeness and accuracy. And, you know,
    like I said before, for Build Back Better, we arrived at this
    new way of doing it by putting out the cost estimate, you know,
    incrementally, you know, essentially, you know, one title or a
    couple titles at a time.
        You know, a lot of times with the big, complex legislation,
    we are working bilaterally with the authorizing committees or
    sometimes with the leadership or multiple committees, you know,
    back and forth. You know, we call that technical assistance
    before the legislation is public. And so the authors of the
    legislation or the, you know, the members and staff developing
    the legislation will have a broad picture of the cost and maybe
    they will fine tune it. You know, they will give us a draft. We
    will say, you know: Look, it does this. We are not sure that is
    your intent.
        And, obviously, it is up to them, and say: Look, here is
    the cost, this provision, you know, it seems to cost more than
    you probably had in mind, and here is why.
        And they will fine tune it. So there is often a lot of back
    and forth, but until the legislation is public, we don't put
    out the cost estimate and provide the broad information. And so
    that, in some instances, that is the challenge that we face.
        And just the last part of the answer is, for some
    legislation, and this goes back to 2020, the CARES Act, you
    know, the third of the COVID responses, you know, it just came
    too quickly, and we just did not have the ability to, you know,
    to have the cost estimate. I think we had it 2 or 3 weeks later
    just because some of the provisions in there were complex.
        You know, so sometimes we just can't get it. But that--I am
    sorry, so let me just recap. You know, a lot of times, we will
    have partial information or preliminary information just not in
    the final public bill, and that is why it is not distributed
    more broadly.
        Mr. Case. But, I mean, it could be distributed if they had,
    you know, a million caveats on it, like assuming this, then
    this, then--if you don't change this provision of the bill,
    then this. And so those efforts are, you know, ongoing during
    bill development. I presume that people who are putting the
    bills together want to know what the costs are and the
    budgetary implications of various options in the bills, right?
    So you are working those things along the way, and that
    information could be public as opposed to getting to, you know,
    the final stamp of approval, CBO score?
        Mr. Swagel. Right. No, no, that is right. And, you know,
    again, generally that information is going on a bilateral basis
    to, you know, generally the committees and the committee staff.
        Mr. Case. You mean parallel. I mean, I guess, is that what
    you are saying, like bilateral versus as in budget versus
    authorizing, or like you are going down the road at the same
    time they are going down the road?
        Mr. Swagel. Yeah, exactly. So it is going--you know, say
    health legislation being developed, we will be working with,
    you know, say Ways and Means, you know, if it is in their
    jurisdiction, and we will be providing them feedback in the
    Senate, say the Finance Committee, you know, we will provide
    them, you know, initial information. It is not like a ballpark
    score, but maybe it is on some pieces of their legislation----
        Mr. Case. Right.
        Mr. Swagel [continuing]. And they will fine tune it.
        The childcare in Build Back Better had that same quality to
    it, that, you know, they had a certain allocation, and we
    worked--you know, again, they were in charge, but the committee
    would fine tune the legislation, and we would provide
    additional information on the cost and, you know, impact,
    number of children, number of States.
        Mr. Case. Okay. Great. Thank you so much. I yield back.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Mr. Case.
        The gentleman from Nevada, Mr. Amodei.
        Mr. Amodei. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
        Mr. Ryan. That was the most insightful questioning you have
    had on this committee in years.
        Mr. Amodei. Thank you for the compliment, and I will make
    sure and note that for the record.
        Mr. Ryan. The gentleman from New York, Mr. Espaillat.

                     CBO SCORING OF IMMIGRATION PROVISIONS

        Mr. Espaillat. Sorry not to be able to accommodate you in
    such a distinguished way, Mr. Chairman, but I do have some
    questions. Thank you.
        Yes, Director, the CBO scoring of immigration provisions in
    the past reconciliation bill, my first question, on November 2,
    2021, the CBO score plan A of the immigration provision that my
    colleagues and I fought very hard to secure in the Build Back
    Better initiative, CBO estimated that these immigration
    provisions would have cost the U.S. Government about $124
    billion over 10 years, which violated the Senate Budget
    Committee's fiscal year 2022 budget resolution, which would
    have capped the deficit of the provisions at $107 billion over
    10 years.
        According to the methodology published, the CBO predicted
    that a majority of the immigrants that would be legalized
    through this provision would, in fact, be using Federal social
    safety net programs, such as Medicaid, Medicare, Social
    Security, et cetera.
        Why didn't the methodology include data from Federal agency
    or think tanks to include or consider how granting citizenship
    to these undocumented individuals would have allowed for
    greater access to education and work opportunity, thus a
    significant positive impact to the Nation's economy and the tax
    space?
        Mr. Swagel. No, it is a great question. It is something we
    think about a lot. And you are absolutely right that--you know,
    again, this is not a normative response. The CBO has no opinion
    on the legislation, but it is absolutely right that
    legalization, you know, bringing people out of the shadows, you
    know, they would have a leg up and a ladder up to improve their
    skills. Their children, you know, in the same way, would have
    greater opportunities. You know, some of the children, of
    course, are citizens in the first place, but ones who are not.
        And so there would be long-lasting effects. Those effects
    generally come, you know, in scale outside the budget window.
    And inside the budget window, the challenge for us is that we
    include the economic contributions of people who are here
    already. And so, you know, the legislation that you referred to
    in the reconciliation would have provided access to, you know,
    social benefits, we already had the economic contributions of
    the people, and so--of people who were here already. And, in
    some instances, that was the challenge for the legislation is
    that we had--you know, we counted already.
        Mr. Espaillat. But if you had the contributions to the
    people that were already here, why wasn't that included in the
    formula to offset the difference that basically torpedoed the
    initiative, because that was the reason why it was shot down in
    the Senate because of the discrepancy in the 10-year period of
    $124 billion versus $107 billion?
        Mr. Swagel. No, no, that is exactly right, and I
    understand, yeah, the dynamic. And, in some instances, because
    we had that already, the legislation did not, you know, add an
    increment to that. Maybe the best way to think about it is
    there was previous legislation, before I was Director of the
    CBO score, as having a massive economic positive, and we did a
    dynamic score, you know, for immigration, that more immigrants
    would mean a larger labor force, a larger economy, that would
    mean higher incomes, and that would feed back into positive
    revenues. So it wouldn't pay for itself, but it would have a
    meaningful positive for the economy. And that was bringing new
    people in.
        And whereas this one in contrast was the people were
    already here so we already had their economic contributions,
    and that is why the legislation, in some instances, it didn't--
    you know, it didn't give those additional positives. And,
    again, you know, that is not a normative comment, and there is
    so many contributions of immigrants. It just didn't have the
    new ones in ways that we didn't have already, and that is why
    we couldn't include it in the----
        Mr. Espaillat. Well, I look forward to working with you in
    the future to address this particular issue as it sort of like
    contributes to the narrative that immigrants come in to milk
    the system as opposed to getting up very early in the morning
    and taking care of our frail, elderly, cutting our grass,
    taking care of our kids, delivering food to our houses, and
    doing all the things they did during the pandemic for us to
    stay alive.
        So thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
        Ms. Wexton. Mr. Chairman, you are muted, but I assume you
    are calling on me. I am not sure.
        Mr. Ryan. Sorry. Ms. Wexton, the distinguished gentlelady
    from Virginia.
        Ms. Wexton. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member.
        And, Director Swagel, it is great to have you back with us
    today. You know, I enjoyed reading your bio, and I saw how your
    professional progression went from the lesser institutions than
    the University of Chicago and Northwestern to the University of
    Maryland. I am very pleased that you elevated yourself to work
    at the University of Maryland, of which I am an alumna.
        Mr. Swagel. Yes.
        Ms. Wexton. And then eventually reaching your highest and
    best use as Director of CBO, so it is great to have you with us
    and delightful to have you back in front of our committee
    again.
        So most the questions that I had have already been
    answered, but I would like to follow up just briefly on a
    couple of the questions from Mr. Espaillat, because I am
    curious, you know, when you say that they were already getting
    their economic benefit of the people who were undocumented into
    the economy, what about like is there a way that you can score
    for the fact they would instead be paying taxes that would be,
    you know, there would be payroll taxes, there would be FICA,
    there would be all the Medicare taxes and everything associated
    with their employment? I mean, can you account for that?
        Mr. Swagel. Yes, so we do have some of that. And, of
    course, absolutely, people--immigrants pay taxes, including
    undocumented immigrants. They pay sales taxes. As you said,
    they pay FICA. You know, if they are legalized, they come on
    the books, they might pay some, you know, additional FICA, and,
    you know, we try to analyze that. You know, the scale of that
    increment is still pretty modest, you know, against the cost,
    and that is essentially what shows up in our estimates.
        Ms. Wexton. So you have to assume that every single one of
    them would take advantage of public benefits, or do you do it
    based on like the regular population?
        Mr. Swagel. Yeah, we do it based on--essentially, we try to
    drill down into the population of who would gain legal status.
    And so, you know, we go by, you know, by the age distribution
    and male, female, and so on, and, you know, different ages
    especially get different benefits.

                                TELEWORK AT CBO

        Ms. Wexton. Okay. I see. And then, back to the issue of the
    employees at CBO and what you are doing in terms of telework,
    and you had indicated in your earlier testimony that you guys
    were looking at a maximum telework or having a hybrid model
    going forward, I guess. And when you appeared before us last
    year, you said that you were surveying the workforce there to
    determine whether they wanted to continue with remote
    employment and stuff like that. Can you tell us what the
    results of that were? I would assume that people like the
    flexibility of the remote option.
        Mr. Swagel. Yes, that is right, and people did. It has been
    interesting, they still want to come back, you know, for the
    most part. And so we are going to end up about 2 and a half
    days a week on average in the office, you know, for required in
    the office, and we will have a concept of core days. So
    Tuesdays and Wednesdays, you know, essentially the entire
    staff, you know, with the exception of, you know, a small
    number of people who have the option to remote work, you know,
    essentially 100 percent of the time.
        But we will have 2, you know, 2 and a half days on average
    when everyone is here, and then the other days, there will be
    flexibility. And it seems like that is a good balancing act.
    And we are phasing that in, you know, over time, so by July,
    you know, I think we are going to be back at that equilibrium.
        Ms. Wexton. You haven't seen any impairment of the work
    product as a result of the teleworking, have you?
        Mr. Swagel. You know, being in person is definitely better.
    We have fulfilled our mission, so I feel like we have done our
    job. You know, there have been times, like for Build Back
    Better, you know, sort of the end of Build Back Better, we were
    in person. I mean, there were just dozens of people, and, you
    know----
        Ms. Wexton. Right, because you can't have that
    collaboration as much when you are working remote, that is for
    sure.
        Mr. Swagel. Yeah. Yeah. So I am looking forward to being in
    person. Actually, just today I met a staffer who has been here
    for 2 years. I met her in person for the first time, and she
    was just so excited to be back, so we are looking forward to
    that.
        Ms. Wexton. Wonderful. Great. Well, thank you so much,
    Director. I don't have any more questions. But before I go,
    before I yield back, I do want to just indicate that I really
    appreciate all your work on childcare and your comments about
    how it would benefit your workforce and the entire campus
    really. So thank you very much.
        Mr. Swagel. Thank you.
        Ms. Wexton. And, with that, I will yield back, Mr.
    Chairman.

                         Chairman Ryan Closing Remarks

        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Ms. Wexton.
        And that is going wrap it up for us. Thank you so much for
    all your good work, and please let your team know how much we
    appreciate it. We know it is not an easy job, but we do want to
    push on getting those numbers to us as soon as humanly
    possible. So thank you so much for your time and service to
    your country.
        And, with that, this hearing is adjourned.
        Mr. Swagel. Thank you.

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                                                Tuesday, April 5, 2022.

                         CONGRESSIONAL WORKPLACE RIGHTS

                                   WITNESSES

    TERESA M. JAMES, ACTING EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF CONGRESSIONAL
        WORKPLACE RIGHTS
    JOHN D. UELMEN, GENERAL COUNSEL, OFFICE OF CONGRESSIONAL WORKPLACE
        RIGHTS

                       Opening Statement of Chairman Ryan

        Mr. Ryan. The committee will come to order. This hearing is
    fully virtual, so we need to address a few housekeeping
    matters. Members are responsible for muting and unmuting
    themselves. For the purposes of eliminating inadvertent
    background noise, the chair or staff designated by the chair
    may mute participants' microphones when they are not under
    recognition. If I notice when you are recognized that you have
    not unmuted yourself, I will ask you if you would like the
    staff to unmute you. If you indicate approval by nodding, staff
    will unmute your microphone.
        We will begin with the chair and ranking member. Then
    members present at the time the hearing is called to order will
    be recognized in order of seniority. We are using the 5-minute
    clock, which we will adhere to strictly today, which you will
    notice on your screen. It will show how much time is remaining.
        If there is a technology issue, we will move to the next
    member until the issue is resolved, and you will retain the
    balance of your time in fairness.
        Finally, in regard to adding extraneous or additional
    material to the record, per House rules, we have set up an
    email address where members can send anything they wish to
    submit for the record after seeking recognition for its
    inclusion. And that email address has been provided in advance
    to your staff.
        I would like to welcome the Acting Executive Director of
    the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights, Teresa James; and
    General Counsel of the Office of Congressional Workplace
    Rights, John Uelmen, to present the fiscal year 2023 budget
    request.
        The Office of Congressional Workplace Rights is responsible
    for administering the Congressional Accountability Act for the
    approximately 30,000 employees in the legislative branch. The
    mission of the office is to continue assisting the legislative
    branch community in creating and maintaining a workplace that
    is safe, accessible, and free from discrimination and other
    unlawful employment practices.
        In the last year, your office has worked on education
    initiatives for the House workforce, including Members, in
    addition to implementing cybersecurity improvements, necessary
    IT systems, and network upgrades in line with governmentwide
    security standards. You are also working towards full migration
    of a risk-based management suite.
        The upgrades you made in the last year were important
    factors to ensuring that staff courses on preventing
    discrimination and harassment, including sexual harassment in
    the workplace, could be more widely available and managed
    within the House network. I am encouraged that OCWR continues
    to work on modernization and look forward to hearing your
    comments on your request.
        OCWR fiscal year 2023 budget request of $7.5 million is
    flat with the fiscal year 2022 enacted total and includes an
    additional full-time employee, full-time equivalent. While 70
    percent of your budget goes towards pay and benefits for these
    employees, you are also enhancing several of your programs. I
    look forward to your testimony today.
        And, at this point, I would like to yield to my colleague,
    the distinguished lady from Washington State and ranking
    member, Jaime Herrera Beutler, for any opening comments that
    she would like to make.

              Opening Statement of Ranking Member Herrera Beutler

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        And welcome, Ms. James.
        The Office of Congressional Workplace Rights fiscal 2023
    request is $7.5 million dollars, which is the same as your 2022
    enacted level, which I don't think we have seen that yet. OCWR
    is an independent, nonpartisan office that ensures that the
    congressional workplace is safe, free from discrimination, and
    accessible to the public.
        And, in addition to your regular work in administering the
    Congressional Accountability Act, your office has also recently
    been engaged in discussions regarding staff unionization. Over
    25 years ago, OCWR drafted regulations on how staffers could
    unionize, and then this year you dusted off that language and
    confirmed that the regulations as drafted would still
    effectively create the legal framework necessary for
    congressional staff to unionize.
        And, as a former congressional staffer, I understand the
    very unique working situation that staff here face, but I do
    have several concerns on how this effort is being considered
    and questions on how it would be implemented. This has also
    implications that relate directly to your office as the topic
    presents a resources issue when you are asked to provide
    briefings, provide certification approval for petitions, and
    other support to ensure unionization efforts are done properly,
    and I am curious to just hear your thoughts on that matter.
        I appreciate you and the work of your team, your staff to
    protect the rights of the 30,000 employees on Capitol Hill, to
    assure access for persons with disabilities, and educating our
    constituency on the Congressional Accountability Act mandate.
        So, with that, Mr. Chairman, thank you and I yield back.

                         CHAIRMAN OUTLINES PROCEEDINGS

        Mr. Ryan. Thank you.
        Without objection, your written testimony will be made part
    of the record. Executive Director James, please summarize your
    statement for the members of the committee. Once you have
    finished your statement, we will move to the question-and-
    answer period. Please begin. The floor is yours.

                          Testimony of Teresa M. James

        Ms. James. Okay. Thank you, Chairman Ryan and Ranking
    Member Herrera Beutler, and distinguished members of the
    subcommittee. On behalf of the Office of Congressional
    Workplace Rights, I thank you for the opportunity to discuss
    with you our budget request and justification for fiscal year
    2023 and our progress on our ongoing mission to advance
    workplace rights, safety and health, and accessibility in the
    legislative branch.
        The OCWR is one of the smallest organizations of its kind,
    yet its mandate to apply 14 workplace and accessibility laws to
    the legislative branch is extremely broad. The OCWR manages an
    administrative dispute resolution program to resolve workplace
    claims arising under the CAA. We investigate, enforce, and
    resolve matters concerning safety and health, public access,
    and labor management laws applied to the legislative branch. We
    provide a program of education and outreach concerning
    workplace rights and responsibilities, and we advise Congress
    on whether provisions of law relating to employment should be
    made applicable to the legislative branch.
        To perform this mandate, the OCWR is requesting to remain
    at the fiscal year 2022 funding level of $7.5 million with $2
    million remaining available until September 2024. The OCWR is
    also requesting one additional FTE for fiscal year 2023 to
    manage the office's program required by the Reform Act, to
    permanently retain records of investigations, mediations,
    hearings, and other matters, and to administer the office's
    records management function and perform other related duties as
    assigned.
        This year marks the 26th year or the anniversary of the
    passage of the Congressional Accountability Act and the second
    full year implementing the provisions of the CAA Reform Act.
    Most of our experience operating under these new reforms was
    acquired while working remotely as a result of the COVID-19
    pandemic, yet we have been able to adapt and meet these
    challenges.
        Confidential advising, case adjudication, and mediation
    under our administrative dispute resolution program continues
    in a virtual environment. We continue to provide training and
    education resources to employees on the Hill and throughout the
    country via our new website and videoconferencing platforms,
    such as Zoom for Government.
        Our training and education materials are directed to the
    entire congressional workforce, from Members of Congress and
    senior staff to entry level employees. They focus on underlying
    practices and behaviors that can lead to discrimination and
    create a hostile work environment. And they can be tailored to
    the needs of specific workplaces and groups of employees.
        In addition to these resources, our Office of General
    Counsel regularly conducts brown bag lunch seminars for the
    legislative branch community on current legal developments.
    Moreover, safety and health and accessibility inspections also
    continue. And where our inspectors need to be in the physical
    workplace, they follow guidelines issued by the Office of the
    Attending Physician and the CDC.
        In addition to these responsibilities, we are in the
    process of administering our second annual workplace climate
    survey for the legislative branch, as is required by the Reform
    Act.
        Our office also has taken action to implement new laws
    under the CAA, such as the new provisions of the Family and
    Medical Leave Act that grant paid parental leave to legislative
    branch employees and the Fair Chance to Compete Act, which
    places restrictions on employing office's ability to request
    criminal history information from job applicants prior to
    extending a conditional offer of employment.
        Although implementing the Reform Act began in fiscal year
    2019, many initiatives will require ongoing funding in fiscal
    year 2023 and beyond. For example, the OCWR's secure e-filing
    system requires continued cybersecurity upgrades and design
    modifications to assure information security and
    confidentiality. Online training and educational models must be
    developed and continually updated to reflect changes in the
    law. And the legislative branch climate survey will require
    ongoing funding to administer every 2 years as mandated by the
    Reform Act.
        In sum, our fiscal year 2023 budget request focuses on
    supporting the OCWR's statutory functions and assuring the
    delivery of services to the congressional community.
    Additionally, funding will be supported on unanticipated
    increases associated with continued implementation and
    administration of changes set forth in the Reform Act.
        I thank the members of the subcommittee for their
    unwavering support for the critical work that we do, and the
    privilege of your time, and I look forward to answering your
    questions.
        [The information follows:]

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                           MEMBER AND STAFF TRAINING

        Mr. Ryan. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. We are going to
    jump right into the question and answers.
        And I know that you provide program of education and
    training for Members of Congress and the legislative branch
    staff, and the request that you have here includes $260,000 for
    nonpersonnel services for the education and outreach program.
    And we would like to understand a little bit better how you are
    utilizing your funding to adapt the training to the changes
    within the House work environment over the last couple of
    years. How have you adapted to training to support a hybrid
    work environment through the pandemic? Do you feel more people
    have used the--or attended the training using the online model?
    And I will let you answer those and----
        Ms. James. Thank you.
        Mr. Ryan. Go ahead.
        Ms. James. We have always trained on the provisions of the
    Congressional Accountability Act, but it wasn't mandated before
    the Reform Act. So now we are able to provide training on the
    Congressional Accountability Act on the process to resolve
    claims on the protections that are provided to staff. However,
    we also understand that the House has its own mandated
    training, and so that is not something that we provide, but
    that is something that we could provide.
        We also do train other instrumentalities on Capitol Hill
    regarding their workplace rights and protections under the
    Congressional Accountability Act. And so we modify our
    training, as needed. Some of the training not only includes the
    Congressional Accountability Act in those provisions, but we
    have training on implicit bias, and we recently developed a
    video, which I believe the House is now sharing on its website,
    which is fabulous, but that is something that we developed last
    year.
        We also provide training on bystander intervention, so in
    other words, if you see something, say something. It is ways to
    constructively intervene, to distract someone, to provide
    supportive behavior, to report an incident if you see one.
    Civilian inclusion, we also train on that and on racial equity
    and how to prevent discrimination and harassment in the
    workforce, and we continue to develop training. We are working
    on a module right now on ageism. So, you know, we look at what
    the substantive provisions of the act are and develop training
    that speaks to and supports those rules and regulations.
        Mr. Ryan. When it comes to the bystander intervention, does
    the training give the employees the examples that basically
    coach you up on how to intervene? Is that part of it?
        Ms. James. Yeah. Basically, it says, you know, if you see
    something, you know, if there is something going on in your
    office and you know that it is inappropriate, you can support
    someone. You can intervene if you see something. You can tell
    your supervisor: Hey, you know, I am seeing something that is
    happening over here and I think you need to say something to
    someone.
        It really is, you know, designed to help people without
    creating more conflict in the workplace to effectively
    intervene.
        Mr. Ryan. And I am assuming there is a nuance in the
    training for a supervisor versus non-supervisor. Is that true?
        Ms. James. Right. I mean, we want to encourage staff to
    not--you know, if they see a situation that could be very
    problematic, maybe they don't want to get involved, and they
    should go to the supervisor, and the supervisor has the
    authority to intervene.

                         CYBERSECURITY RISK MANAGEMENT

        Mr. Ryan. In the GAO--switching gears here a bit real
    quick, the GAO found weaknesses in the project planning
    oversight system in cybersecurity risk management. Back in
    February 2020, they made five recommendations to OCWR to
    address these weaknesses, but as far as I know, there hasn't
    been any--they haven't been fully addressed.
        So what is the status of your response to the
    recommendations from the GAO? How do you plan to apply the
    funding that you requested today for this year toward
    implementing these recommendations? And what would the cost be
    to fully implement their recommendations?
        Ms. James. So we have been working with the Library of
    Congress and other service providers to ensure that we have
    addressed all of the issues. I believe we have got a little
    more time. We are working toward making sure that the systems
    are as fully safe as possible. And, you know, I am--
    unfortunately, I lack a certain IT expertise here, but it is
    something that we have been taking very seriously, and we have
    been working with the service providers to ensure that all the
    information is fully protected.
        Mr. Ryan. And do you know the cost to fully implement?
        Ms. James. I do not.
        Mr. Ryan. If not, you can--yeah, if you could get it to us.
        Ms. James. We will do that.
        Mr. Ryan. Okay. Great.
        Distinguished gentlewoman from Washington State, Ms.
    Herrera Beutler.

         RECOMMENDATIONS TO UPDATE THE CONGRESSIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY ACT

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Let's see, I am going to start with the--well, maybe the
    shorter one first. Ms. James, last year OCWR's biannual report
    to Congress was released and contains about a half a dozen
    recommendations to update the Congressional Accountability Act.
    Some recommendations include whistleblower protections,
    providing subpoena authority to aid in trafficking, safety and
    health investigations, and approving the board's FMLA
    regulations once they are resubmitted. What processes have been
    made in the last year toward these recommendations, and what
    would it take to fully implement all of your recommendations?
        Ms. James. Well, I think some of it requires some action on
    Congress' part. Our board is able to adopt regulations, but
    Congress has to pass them for them to become effective. And so
    the 102B report the board, you know, sends every 2 years saying
    these are our priorities and this is what we are hoping the
    Congress is able to move forward for us.

                                  UNIONIZATION

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Okay. Thank you.
        Switching over to the issue of unionization, until the OCWR
    recently reviewed the regulations, for almost 30 years, the
    proposed unionization regulations hadn't been debated,
    researched, or even seriously thought about on Capitol Hill.
    Allowing congressional staff to unionize potentially, in my
    mind, creates numerous conflicts of interest and I think would
    definitely have an impact on a Member's constitutional
    responsibilities in terms of influencing how a Member makes
    decisions about policy.
        This I think needs to be carefully thought out before
    putting anything into action, and so a couple of things: During
    OCWR's recent review of the regulations, did your team give any
    thought to the potential conflicts of interest congressional
    unions could create, and if so, what potential conflicts did
    your team consider? And then, with these potential conflicts in
    mind, does OCWR plan to develop guidance on the organization
    and management of the unions in the House of Representatives?
        Ms. James. So, yes, we have guidance, and it is available
    on our website at OCWR.gov. There are frequently asked
    questions and other information. We do know that the process
    would be very complex because of the nature of Capitol Hill. We
    also understand that, you know, the implementation is going to
    be something that, as Members, you know, need to run for office
    every 2 years, that it creates additional issues.
        We have with us John Uelmen, who is our general counsel and
    who deals directly with some of these issues.
        I don't know, John, do you want to step in here?
        Mr. Uelmen. Well, you know, the only thing I would add is
    that, you know, the regulations, which are developed and passed
    by the board, they are largely procedural, and so they have
    procedures in place. The big question for them, whether there
    were procedures in place that could address the issues that you
    are talking about. And so they were satisfied that the
    regulations that were proposed back in 1996 do have those
    regulations.
        So, essentially, the procedures----
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. The board felt like the regulations
    that were developed in 1997 would address the conflicts of
    interest. How is that possible considering like, you know,
    there is a--the whole media world that has changed in that
    amount of time in terms of communication online and with
    constituents? The board felt like the regulations were
    adequately would address all that?
        Mr. Uelmen. I think what you are misunderstanding, the
    regulations--the question for them is whether the procedures
    were adequate. Those questions are raised in individual
    proceedings. In other words, if somebody believes there is a
    conflict of interest, you know, having somebody represented,
    they can raise that in a representation petition. So the
    question for the board was whether the procedures in place
    would be adequate to address questions that were raised, you
    know, in particular organizing efforts.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. All right. Well, I don't know that I
    have--I don't have a--see a timer up, Mr. Chairman, so I don't
    know how much time I have or if I am done.
        But I would say, Mr. Uelmen, and maybe Ms. James, that
    those are things--I didn't understand the answer to that
    question completely. And if it is hard for me to understand, I
    would guess that it would be hard for--it is not clear to me
    even what the answer was there.
        So, in terms of addressing this and numerous other
    questions, I think maybe--I don't know if frequently asked
    questions on the website is going to do it. I would maybe
    prefer to have a little bit more detail from you on this to see
    if you could address those things or if there is more stuff
    that needs to be done regulatory wise or in law. That is
    essentially what I am getting at.
        So, with that, Mr. Chairman.
        Mr. Ryan. Yeah, appreciate it. I mean, I always want to
    ensure rights. I think we need to look to the House
    Administration Committee too and seek their guidance as to what
    the next steps are going to be.
        Next is the distinguished gentlewoman from Massachusetts,
    Ms. Clark.

                   ADVANCING WORKPLACE RIGHTS AND PROTECTIONS

        Ms. Clark. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        And thank you, Director James, for joining us.
        I wanted to go back to the Congressional Climate Survey
    that you mentioned in your opening remarks. And I wondered, as
    you are working on the second biennial survey, were there any
    findings or trends that you were able to discern from the first
    survey completed in fiscal year 2021, and how have those
    findings informed your work to advance workforce rights and
    protections?
        Ms. James. Thank you. The climate survey was quite a lift.
    The results fortunately were very positive. I think that, you
    know, we were happy to find that most staffers feel very
    comfortable in their workplace environment. We are able to take
    the information and utilize that as we develop training. We
    will be shortly rolling out the next climate survey. We are
    required to do this every 2 years, so it will be coming out
    shortly again for staff. And we encourage them to take the
    survey, because the more information that we can gather, the
    more significant the data is. So----
        Ms. Clark. What sort of actions are you taking to increase
    awareness about the survey?
        Ms. James. So, when the survey goes out, staff get repeated
    messages through their email, and this is all confidential. We
    don't know--you know, everything has been taken care of sort of
    electronically where nobody knows exactly who is connecting
    certain results with what individual. So that is why they get
    repeated messages saying: Take the survey, take the survey.
        We have information up on our website about the survey. We
    put it out with our newsletters saying: Take the survey.
    Because obviously the more people who take it, the more
    reliable the information is. And so, like I said, it should be
    going out shortly. We are still working with our Oversight
    Committee on a couple of things, and then this will be going
    out.

                              PAID PARENTAL LEAVE

        Ms. Clark. Great. Speaking of promoting awareness, you
    mentioned the paid parental leave law, the Federal Employee
    Paid Leave Act signed into law in 2019. Where are you in the
    process of amending your existing regulations to address these
    new provisions?
        Ms. James. So we have proposed new regulations. You know,
    as far as we are concerned, the provision is applicable
    regardless of, you know, the status of the regulations. It is
    important that we put out again with our newsletters and other
    informational materials that this is available for staff.
        Ms. Clark. And I noted that, in your budget request, you
    said you are doing presentations on the topic of paid parental
    leave to help ensure the legislative community knows their
    rights. Are there additional ways that you are ensuring staff
    and offices understand this new law?
        Ms. James. Well, the information is available on our
    website. We include it in our training. So we do have trainers
    who have been currently, for I guess the last 2 years actually,
    have been training via, you know, Zoom just to reach the
    different staff while everybody has been working remotely. But
    they cover that sort of information in their training as well.

                        DISCRIMINATION REPORTING PROCESS

        Ms. Clark. Great. One thing that I am hearing anecdotally
    is reports that staffers do not often see the official
    complaint process for discrimination or harassment as an
    option. They think--they have doubts that the process will be
    worth the result. And so what would you say--I know you have
    done a lot of work on this area. What would you say to a
    staffer who is hesitant to engage with the grievance process?
        Ms. James. I would suggest that anyone who has a concern
    about their workplace issues, if they don't feel comfortable
    approaching their supervisor to say, ``Hey, something is going
    on,'' that they can always call our office and speak to our
    confidential adviser. The confidential adviser can give them
    information about how the CAA applies to their issue and give
    them information on the process. But they can also talk with
    them through ways that matters might be resolved without having
    to go through a complaint process.
        If the employee feels as though they are not able to
    resolve it on their own, they can certainly go through our
    process. Employees of the House are represented by the Office
    of House Advocacy, so there are different, you know, offices in
    the House that can also assist staff.
        We serve the broad legislative branch, you know, staff, so
    including House, we have Senate, Library of Congress, Capitol
    Police, and others. But we do have a process that is, you know,
    very friendly to staff to make sure that they understand how to
    use it.
        Mediation is an option under our process. It used to be
    mandatory. Our board recommends that parties take advantage of
    the mediation process, and a value to that is that an issue can
    be resolved by agreement between the parties without the
    employee having to take their case to court or to a hearing
    process and prove that they are victim of some kind of
    discrimination or that their FMLA rights have been violated.
        So it is an opportunity for parties to say: Hey, this is a
    less-than-ideal situation that we are in, but we think that we
    can resolve this by an agreement between us.
        And so I think that the mediation process really needs to
    be reexamined as a way for people to promptly resolve their
    issues.
        Ms. Clark. I see that I am out of time. Thank you, Director
    James.
        I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you.
        The distinguished gentleman from Nevada, Mr. Amodei.
        Mr. Amodei. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Since you were so
    complimentary about the last questioning thing, I am going to
    yield back, except I want to compare your score on this year's
    training test with mine to see which one of us scored better on
    the test. Other than that, I yield back.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you.
        The gentleman from--distinguished gentleman from Hawaii,
    Mr. Case.

                                   BUDGETING

        Mr. Case. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am not going to get into
    your guys' contest. It sounds pretty difficult.
        Ms. James, so I am just trying to understand the budget
    request. It is a level budget request, right?
        Ms. James. Right.
        Mr. Case. Pardon?
        Ms. James. Yes.
        Mr. Case. Okay. No increase, but you do talk here about, in
    your testimony I think it was, about increasing--70 percent
    reflects personnel cost including increased compensation and
    benefits associated with additional staff hired. So I guess
    that implies to me that you are allocating more of a level
    budget over on the personnel side for those increases and thus
    reducing it somewhere else?
        Ms. James. Well, we are asking to maintain $2 million to
    roll over to the next year. We have one FTE open that we would
    like to fill, so part of it is personnel issues. The other
    thing is we don't control the number of claims that come to our
    office or the issues related to investigations that are
    conducted. So we can't always control the expenditures.
        So, if we have people who go to hearing, and hearings can
    be very lengthy, then we may end up needing to have more money
    available to conduct hearings, or, you know, as we saw with the
    January 6 event, we needed money available to be able to, you
    know, investigate and take a look at any OSHA violations.
        So, within our limited budget, and as you see, our budget
    is relative to many other budgets rather minor, and we do the
    most with what we have, but we do find ourselves in a situation
    where we may need money that can roll over to the next year.
        Mr. Case. Okay. Maybe I am getting myself confused. So what
    exactly is that $2 million? Because if you have a level
    budget--I am just kind of going back to my question. If you
    have a level budget and your FTEs are staying level as well,
    are you increasing by--you want to increase by one FTE?
        Ms. James. Right, we want to increase by one FTE.
        Mr. Case. So where are you paying for your increased
    staffing from if your budget is level? What is this $2 million
    carryover? Is that where it is coming from?
        Ms. James. Contractors. So, in other words, you know, when
    our cases go up, cases now go through two hearing processes, a
    preliminary hearing review and then a merits hearing. So, under
    the new process, it has gotten a little bit more complicated
    and a lot more expensive. So we don't know if we will have, you
    know, 30 cases this year or 60 cases this year. We don't know,
    you know, what will come out of, you know, the general
    counsel's investigations. We don't know what kind of support he
    may need if there are any significant issues that occur on
    Capitol Hill.
        Mr. Case. Is that $2 million part of the $7.5 million?
        Ms. James. Yes, it is.
        Mr. Case. Okay. That explains it to me. All right. Sorry
    about that.
        Ms. James. Yes, sir.
        Mr. Case. I mean, I guess the question then is, why aren't
    your FTEs going up? I mean, you seem to have an increased
    workload. You are being asked to do more, and we see other
    parts of the leg branch asking for increases in the FTE count.
    I am not saying you should or shouldn't; I am just asking the
    question of why you are not going up. Do you just have capacity
    there already, or you have decided you are going to make do
    with the FTEs that you have, or the contractors give you some
    flexibility in terms of stable FTEs?
        Ms. James. So the contractors give us some flexibility. We
    also have staff that work very hard because they wear many
    hats. You know, we know that FTEs are hard to come by, so, you
    know, we would love to have five more, but we figure, you know,
    one more at least is getting us closer to, you know, a
    manageable situation. But, yes, you know, again, we don't know
    what any coming year is going to bring, especially as we saw
    last year.
        Mr. Case. Is there any one part of your responsibilities,
    like one area of concern, that you just see ramping up faster
    than you expected or you are projecting it to go up faster
    because of, you know, external conditions or whatever the case
    might be? Is there any one area that we should kind of be
    watching for--or, you know, real pressure on your budget?
        Ms. James. The only thing that probably would be the
    strongest pressure on our budget would be the labor management
    issues, you know, if we had to, you know, quickly pick up and
    bring on people and conduct, you know, elections, you know, in
    hundreds of offices, that might be quite intense.
        Mr. Case. Okay. Great. Thanks so much. I yield back.
        Ms. James. Thank you.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Mr. Case.
        Next is the distinguished gentleman from the State of
    Washington, Mr. Newhouse.

                                  TRANSPARENCY

        Mr. Newhouse. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Good afternoon, Ms. James. Thanks for being with us today.
    I appreciate that.
        I just had a couple of questions, and I am sure everybody--
    we got a copy of your fiscal year 2023 budget request. I am
    sure everybody on the committee did. However, just a quick
    search at your website, we couldn't find a similar copy of your
    request for fiscal year 2023 or any prior years either. So,
    just curious, for the sake of transparency, would you think it
    is important to provide that kind of a budget request on your
    website?
        Ms. James. We can certainly do that. There isn't anything--
    you know, any reason why it is not up there. We have redone our
    website. We have just redone it recently, so we are still
    finding where things can be improved, and we would be happy to
    put that information on the website.

                         MEASURABLE PERFORMANCE METRICS

        Mr. Newhouse. Okay. Good. Just a little thing we noticed
    that might be helpful.
        So, in I believe it was December of 2019, the GAO in their
    work did a study on your agency's management practices. I am
    sure you are much too familiar with that. The agency, I
    understand, that you implemented several of their
    recommendations, and one of them was that the OCWR identify
    desired performance results and develop performance measures
    and report progress toward those results.
        Now, your budget request states that you are in the process
    of finalizing a strategic plan for the years 2021 through 2026,
    so you are still finalizing that strategic plan, which will
    include those measurable performance metrics. So two questions:
    How soon do you think the committee can expect to receive a
    copy of that report? And then how do you intend to implement
    changes and make those budget requests if you don't have that
    final strategic plan?
        Ms. James. We do have a strategic plan, and we may be
    making some modifications to it. But we do have our 2021
    through 2026 strategic plan, and that will, you know, guide us
    in many things. And so we will be reporting on the results of
    that. Also, I believe it won't be until summer that we will
    have worked through some of these issues with respect to the
    findings that you reference.
        Mr. Newhouse. So maybe I just misread that, but your budget
    request talks about the fact that you are in the process of
    finalizing that plan.
        Ms. James. Right. So we hope to have the plan done soon,
    but it is not done yet.
        Mr. Newhouse. Okay. And so when do you think we can get
    that report?
        Ms. James. I would guess sometime in the next couple of
    months.
        Mr. Newhouse. Okay.
        Ms. James. Yeah.
        Mr. Newhouse. Okay. Very good. Well, thank you again for
    being with us today. I appreciate what you do.
        And, Mr. Chairman, I will yield back.
        Ms. James. Thank you.
        Mr. Ryan. Mr. Newhouse, yeah, we will be anxious to get
    that report as soon as we can.
        The distinguished gentlewoman from Virginia, Ms. Wexton.
        Ms. Wexton. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

                          CONGRESSIONAL CLIMATE SURVEY

        And thank you, Ms. James, for joining us here today and for
    all that you are doing to keep our employees safe and content
    in their jobs.
        So, I guess, you know, one of the things I realize from
    these committees, the subcommittee, is how a lot of us have the
    same questions, and for whatever reason, the gentlelady from
    the Commonwealth of Massachusetts always seems to ask the
    questions that I have before I come up and get my turn.
        But there is one question I would ask about the
    Congressional Climate Survey that is coming up. How do you
    decide what questions to put on there? And do you just recycle
    the same questions from the previous year, or do you base it on
    what is actually happening on the ground? Or how do you decide
    what questions end up----
        Ms. James. So we do work with our oversight committees, and
    there is some discussion about the questions and how best to
    ask the questions and what way is going to clarify what the
    question is that is being asked so that we make sure that we
    work with the contractor who has experience in, you know,
    conducting these kinds of surveys. So it is very important that
    we have a mixture of the experience that our contractor brings
    to the table and the experience that we have and our oversight
    committees have in understanding the environment here in the
    legislative branch.
        Ms. Wexton. So, for example, this year, as the ranking
    member pointed out, there is an issue going on with the
    possibility of unionizing here. So is that something you would
    ask about in the Congressional Climate Survey, kind of do a
    little straw poll or to see if people have an interest in it or
    if they----
        Ms. James. Well----
        Ms. Wexton [continuing]. By that?
        Ms. James. That may be something that hasn't been finalized
    yet, so it may be something that we are taking--will be taking
    a look at as we work with our oversight committees on that
    issue. If there is some energy in that direction, then we would
    do so, absolutely.
        Ms. Wexton. I mean, I just think it might be a good idea
    just because it is a completely anonymous survey, and we could
    get a good idea after whether there is even an interest among
    the workforce to do so.
        Ms. James. Yeah, that is an excellent idea.
        Ms. Wexton. Thank you very much.
        And, with that, I will yield back, Mr. Chairman.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Ms. Wexton.
        Next is the distinguished gentleman from New York, Mr.
    Espaillat.

                                  UNIONIZATION

        Mr. Espaillat. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Thank you, Acting Director James and General Counsel
    Uelmen.
        When Congress passed the Congressional Accountability Act
    in 1995, it put in motion a process for unionization of
    congressional staff. Currently, the House of Representatives
    are now actively considering legislation that would provide for
    House staff to unionize, and Speaker Pelosi has indicated her
    support, as well as Senator Schumer in the Senate.
        In recent oral testimony by Mr. Uelmen before the House
    Administration Committee, he raised questions and concerns
    about insufficient funding for the OCWR in light of the
    unionization push. The influx of briefings, resources, and
    information around this topic would present a resources issue
    for the office, one that could be exacerbated by the large
    number of offices that could be unionized. And the current
    system for union approval relies on one person at the OCWR to
    certify petitions and oversee elections, the executive director
    of the OCWR.
        The OCWR has requested $7.5 million in budget for fiscal
    year 2023, which is identical to fiscal year 2022 and 2021. In
    light of the ongoing unionization efforts, what additional
    funds would OCWR need to provide a smooth review and approval
    process for congressional unions should a unionization
    resolution be approved by the House?
        Ms. James. First, let me just say--and, John, please feel
    free to weigh in here, but, you know, in the House, all the
    employing offices, each Member is their own employing office.
    So, at this point, until we know more, until we work and have
    some experience in this area, we don't know what it is going to
    look like on the House side.
        You know, we know when we have done elections with Capitol
    Police and others, and they are one, you know, unit of staff
    who are represented by the union. It would be very different in
    this Capitol--in the House environment than what we are used
    to, I think than what many are used to.
        John, did you want to add something here?
        Mr. Uelmen. Well, that question was posed by CHA, and we
    did estimate that--to do this expeditiously, because obviously
    these petitions would have to be moved through--you only have a
    2-year term and people who are unionizing. So we were looking
    at another $500,000 plus two FTEs to do this, I think, in the
    manner to--so if it was passed, that is what we would be
    seeking, I think, to expeditiously handle the petitions that
    would come through, so----
        Mr. Espaillat. So you have a dollar amount in view already
    to handle this appropriately?
        Mr. Uelmen. That is correct.
        Mr. Espaillat. Thank you.
        Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Mr. Espaillat. I appreciate it.
        Just in the nick of time. They just called votes. So I want
    to thank the committee. The statutory functions of this
    office----
        Mr. Espaillat. I tried to help you a little bit there.

                         Chairman Ryan Closing Remarks

        Mr. Ryan. You are doing good. You are doing good.
        The statutory functions of this office continue to be vital
    for the House community and their workplace protections. We
    appreciate all your service. Please tell your team how much we
    thank and appreciate them for their work, largely behind the
    scenes, to make this the kind of place that people want to
    work.
        So, with that, thank you again for joining us, and the
    hearing is now adjourned.
        Ms. James. Thank you.

                                              Wednesday, April 6, 2022.

        FISCAL YEAR 2023 BUDGET REQUEST FOR THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                                   WITNESSES

    HON. CHERYL L. JOHNSON, CLERK, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
    HON. CATHERINE SZPINDOR, CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER, U.S. HOUSE OF
        REPRESENTATIVES
    HON. WILLIAM J. WALKER, SERGEANT AT ARMS, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                                ACCOMPANIED BY:

    ENUMALE AGADA, ACTING DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
    WADE BALLOU JR., LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL, OFFICE OF THE LEGISLATIVE
        COUNSEL, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
    DOUGLAS N. LETTER, GENERAL COUNSEL, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
    JOSEPH C. PICOLLA, ACTING INSPECTOR GENERAL, OFFICE OF INSPECTOR
        GENERAL, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
    RALPH V. SEEP, LAW REVISION COUNSEL, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                       Opening Statement of Chairman Ryan

        Mr. Ryan. I now call to order the hearing on the fiscal
    year 2023 budget of the House of Representatives.
        This is a hybrid hearing so we need to address a few
    housekeeping issues. For members joining virtually, please be
    respectful of members in the hearing room and do not talk over
    them when members in person have been recognized. I will gavel
    you down if you are like virtually harassing us.
        For the members joining virtually, once you start speaking
    there is a slight delay before you are displayed on the main
    screen. Speaking into the microphone activates the camera,
    displaying the speaker on the main screen. Do not stop your
    remarks if you do not immediately see the screen switch. If the
    screen does not change after several seconds, please make sure
    you are not muted. Lessons we have all learned for our million
    Zoom calls we have done over the past couple of years.
        To minimize background noise and ensure the correct speaker
    is being displayed, we ask that you remain on mute unless you
    have sought recognition. The chair or an individual designated
    by the chair may mute participants' microphones when they are
    not under recognition to eliminate inadvertent background
    noise.
        Members who are virtual are responsible for muting and
    unmuting themselves. If I notice when you are recognized that
    you have not unmuted yourself, I will ask you if you would like
    the staff to unmute you. If you indicate approval by nodding,
    staff will unmute your microphone.
        Finally, House rules require me to remind you that we have
    set up an email address to which members can send anything they
    wish to submit in writing at any of our hearings. That email
    address has been provided in advance to your staff.
        So let's get going.
        I would like to welcome the officers and officials of the
    House of Representatives to present the fiscal year 2023 budget
    request. Testifying before us today, we have The Honorable
    Cheryl L. Johnson, Clerk of the House; The Honorable Catherine
    Szpindor, Chief Administrative Officer; and The Honorable
    William J. Walker, Sergeant at Arms; and House officials.
        Thank you all for joining us today. We welcome you back to
    our subcommittee.
        Before we begin with the testimonies, I would like to thank
    all of the officers, officials, and their staffs for the
    extraordinary work over the past year. Through the pandemic, a
    violent mob of insurrectionists, the reopening of the Capitol
    complex, and just life on Capitol Hill, you continue to serve
    this body and provide a host of services that are necessary for
    us to represent our constituents and do the work that will
    address our country's critical needs.
        The request for the House of Representatives is $1.8
    billion, an increase of $114.5 million over the fiscal year
    2022 enacted level. I would like to note this is a significant
    increase, 7 percent, over the very healthy increase provided in
    the fiscal year 2022 budget. With that in mind, I look forward
    to hearing each of your testimonies.
        At this point, I would like to yield to the ranking member,
    my friend and colleague from Washington State, which is the
    only State named after a United States President, the
    distinguished gentlewoman Jaime Herrera Beutler, for any
    opening comments that she may have.

              Opening Statement of Ranking Member Herrera Beutler

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And we are,
    in fact, the only State that has been named after a President,
    the greatest President.
        I know that the work that you do keeps us on track. And so
    a lot of what I wanted to talk about was--well, we will get to
    it, but I have so many different questions for you. I will keep
    this brief.
        It is a privilege to have you all here. I am extremely
    pleased to see how well your offices are working with the
    Capitol Police, with the Attending Physician. You have had no
    shortage of challenges in the last couple of years and the
    other legislative branch entities, to open the Capitol complex,
    to give access to our constituents and visitors in a way that
    maximizes our safety. It is definitely a new time, but it is
    energizing I think to see everybody coming back and the opening
    of services and the food services, as more staff are able to
    come back to work in the office and tour groups are able to
    come back to the Capitol.
        Thank you for all that you are doing in this reopening
    effort. We truly, truly appreciate it, and I encourage
    everything we can do to get to that full opening, which I know
    is high up on your list.
        Your offices have continued to expand and improve your
    services in a very unpredictable year and a difficult year,
    from the cybersecurity improvements executed by the CAO and
    realtime situational awareness of House security
    vulnerabilities to modernize efforts by the Clerk for easy-to-
    use, secure, and reliable technology solutions.
        You know, what the rest of the private sector, what they
    are using, we are bringing that into the U.S. House of
    Representatives. And it will make the House more efficient as
    well as making access to the information easier for the public,
    which is incredibly important.
        You continue to show ingenuity and flexibility to ensure
    that the people's House improves its efficiency and
    transparency while preparing for the future with these
    modernization efforts that are going to serve the House
    community for years to come.
        So, as the committee evaluates your budget request for
    fiscal year 2023, there are some substantial increases in here
    that we are going to need to review. I am looking forward to
    talking with you about and hearing how you are going to
    continue to improve the capabilities and the efficiencies of
    the House of Representatives.
        So, with that, thank you so much, and I yield back.

                         CHAIRMAN OUTLINES PROCEEDINGS

        Mr. Ryan. I thank the gentlelady from Washington.
        Witnesses, at the beginning of your testimony, please
    introduce any colleagues that you have that are here that you
    would like us to recognize.
        And, without objection, each of your written testimonies
    will be made part of the record.
        I ask each of you, the Clerk, the Sergeant at Arms, and the
    Chief Administrative Officer, to summarize your remarks and
    highlight your efforts of the past year to the committee.
        And, after opening statements, we will move to the
    question-and-answer period, and during the question-and-answer
    period, we will adhere to the 5-minute rule.
        Madam Clerk of the House, Ms. Johnson, we will start with
    you.

                         Testimony of Cheryl L. Johnson

        Ms. Johnson. Thank you.
        Mr. Ryan. The floor is yours.
        Ms. Johnson. Good afternoon. Chairperson Ryan, Ranking
    Member Herrera Beutler, Members of the Subcommittee, thank you
    for your support for the Office of the Clerk and for the
    opportunity to testify regarding our operations and my fiscal
    year 2023 budget request.
        First, it gives me great pride to report to you that
    throughout the many challenges of the past 2 years, we have
    successfully fulfilled our duties, supporting the House while
    simultaneously ensuring the safety of our dedicated staff.
        As the Members of this Subcommittee are aware, the work of
    the House did not slow during COVID. In fact, work performed by
    Clerk staff measurably increased since the start of the
    pandemic. I remain immensely proud of our committed staff for
    meeting the many challenges they have confronted, even in the
    face of significant risk to their own health and well-being.
        The Office of the Clerk consists of specialized
    professional staff across nine divisions who support not only
    House and committee proceedings but also Members and staff
    directly.
        This past year has been particularly busy for our staff. We
    have continued our longstanding duties, such as maintaining the
    House Journal, certifying the passage of legislation,
    transmitting messages and bills to the Senate and the
    President, providing Member training, managing vacant offices,
    and performing archival and curatorial services to the House.
    But in addition to these duties, we have undertaken a number of
    initiatives to add new services as well as improve existing
    ones for the benefit of Members, staff, and the public.
        The Office of the Clerk quickly implemented new systems and
    processes in response to new legislative rules born by the
    global pandemic. We have since worked diligently to further
    improve and enhance those systems and processes, as they have
    become heavily utilized.
        For example, the eHopper is now the vastly preferred way
    for Members to introduce bills, with more than 9 out of 10
    bills submitted electronically. I am pleased to tell you that
    we will soon roll out an enhanced eHopper solution with
    improvements in the experience for you and your staff.
        We are continuing the redevelopment and redesign of the
    Legislative Information Management System, known as LIMS. LIMS
    is one of the two most important systems which supports the
    legislative process in the House, with the other being the
    Electronic Voting System, and the redesign project is one of
    the largest IT projects the Clerk's Office has ever undertaken.
        This Subcommittee is also well aware of another IT
    initiative in our office known as the Comparative Print
    Project, which will allow you and your staff to create on-
    demand point-in-time comparative prints between legislative
    text and between legislative text and current law. We are
    excited to be nearing the time when we will be rolling this new
    service out House-wide in the coming months.
        I appreciate this subcommittee's ongoing support for the
    operations of our office. For fiscal year 2023, I respectfully
    request $40,327,000 for the Office of the Clerk. This is an
    increase of 10.48 percent above the fiscal year 2022 enacted
    funding level.
        Eighty-three percent of this funding request will support
    salaries, training, and technology to carry out existing and
    new responsibilities. The remaining 17 percent of this request
    is for non-personnel related expenses: equipment, software
    maintenance, warranties and contracts, such as closed
    captioning, exhibition, curation, and stenographic reporting.
        Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Herrera Beutler, Subcommittee
    Members, the Office of the Clerk is dedicated to making
    efficient and effective use of funds allocated to our efforts
    in serving this great institution. Thank you for this
    opportunity, and I look forward to your questions.
        [The information follows:]

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Mr. Ryan. Thank you so much.
        I will next go to the Chief Administrative Officer, Ms.
    Szpindor.

                        Testimony of Catherine Szpindor

        Ms. Szpindor. Thank you, Chairman Ryan, Ranking Member
    Herrera Beutler, and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for
    this opportunity to present the fiscal year 2023 priorities and
    subsequent budget request of $211.2 million for the Office of
    the Chief Administrative Officer.
        Guided by our organizational motto, ``Member Focused,
    Service Driven,'' the CAO continues to focus on four
    priorities: improving communications with Members and staff;
    instituting rigorous planning, prioritization, and execution of
    projects; enhancing its support for the well-being of the House
    employees; and promoting and fostering an inclusive and diverse
    workforce.
        Our Fiscal Year 2023 Budget Request includes an increase of
    $18 million, or approximately 9 percent above the Fiscal Year
    2022--sorry.
        Mr. Ryan. I was going to say something, but I could hear
    you fine.
        Ms. Szpindor. I project.
        Mr. Ryan. You are doing great.
        Ms. Szpindor. Our Fiscal Year 2023 Budget Request includes
    an increase of $18 million, or approximately 9 percent, above
    the Fiscal Year 2022 Enacted funding level.
        Our requested increase includes $5.9 million for technology
    initiatives critical to House operations to strengthen the
    cybersecurity of House cloud resources, improve the House
    network, improve Member office technology, streamline the
    onboarding and offboarding for House staff, expand House data
    storage and archival and retrieval services, and continue the
    support for remote meetings and proceedings.
        $5 million of our requested increase is defined as the
    CAO's new Emerging Projects Investment Fund, to provide
    accountability for specific high-priority, high-impact
    projects. Often these projects are requested by CAO leadership,
    House leadership, or committees and key stakeholders. This fund
    ensures the CAO champions those investments which directly meet
    the priorities of the House.
        $1.3 million of our request will provide our logistics and
    support team with contractor support and equipment needed for
    district office inventories, the CAO TV Program, and to acquire
    and deliver new furniture.
        Finally, $5.8 million of our request is allocated for
    increases in personnel longevities and a cost-of-living
    adjustment.
        The CAO continues to deliver new services and improve
    services for the House. Launched in August 2021, the HR HUB is
    growing and a valuable resource for Member staff, containing
    more than 125 documents and resources to assist Member office
    staff to hire, develop, and retain staff. The CAO continues to
    expand the HR HUB to include job descriptions and career paths
    for common roles in Member offices. As part of the HR HUB, the
    CAO will launch the House Resume Bank, where prospective
    applicants can submit their resumes for specific job roles.
    Office staff can then select candidates from the Resume Bank
    based on their hiring needs and preferences.
        The Office of Employee Assistance and the Center for Well-
    Being will continue to explore new resources and services to
    directly support all House offices, including self-help mobile
    apps, new partnerships to enrich our capabilities and provide
    helpful and needed services to House staff.
        Since June 2021, the CAO's new training program, called CAO
    Coach, has provided over 50 training events, some with more
    than 300 participants, and 580 one-on-one coaching sessions
    geared to Member staff. Staffed by former chiefs of staff and
    district directors with two legislative directors joining the
    team very soon, the CAO Coach program will continue to meet in-
    demand training, provide one-on-one support for Member and
    district office staff.
        Earlier this year, the CAO launched the Congressional
    Excellence Program, which pairs Members and their chiefs with
    leadership and organizational development experts to build a
    compelling vision of service, display excellence in leadership,
    and make a significant impact on behalf of their districts and
    our Nation. We anticipate this program to grow in coming years.
        Through our strategic focus on planning, prioritizing, and
    executing our projects, we are confident the planned fiscal
    year 2023 investments, priorities, and initiatives will support
    and facilitate the work of the people's House and the Members
    and staff who serve it each day.
        Thank you for your continued support and for the
    opportunity to present the CAO's fiscal year 2023 budget
    request. Thank you.
        [The information follows:]

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Mr. Ryan. Thank you very much.
        Sergeant At Arms Walker.

                         Testimony of William J. Walker

        General Walker. Good afternoon, Chairman Ryan, Ranking
    Member Herrera Beutler, and members of the Appropriations
    Subcommittee. I appreciate the opportunity to present the
    Office of the Sergeant at Arms budget request for fiscal year
    2023. It is an honor and privilege to serve this great
    institution and our Nation as the 38th Sergeant at Arms.
        With me this afternoon is Ms. Kim Campbell, she is the
    Deputy Sergeant at Arms; and Ms. Kathleen Joyce, she is my
    chief of staff.
        Before going into my budget overview, I would like to frame
    the risk environment for the Capitol complex, Members of
    Congress, and this institution as an enterprise. The risk and
    threat atmosphere, especially for Members, has increased
    significantly and dramatically over the past year to 18 months,
    and it continues, unfortunately, to grow.
        This unfortunate circumstance has been confirmed by
    intelligence information from Federal law enforcement agencies
    and others in our Federal Government. Their assessment is that
    threat actors are promoting acts of violence against government
    organizations and legislators on the Federal, State, and local
    levels.
        In view of this growing threat, the Sergeant at Arms'
    fiscal year 2023 budget request is $38,793,000. This request
    includes $16,558,000 to fund 168 full-time equivalent positions
    plus 14 new FTEs, for a total of 182 full-time equivalent; and
    $22,235,000 for nonpersonal items.
        The $11,098,000 increase over the fiscal year 2022 enacted
    budget is ascribed to additional personnel required to
    strengthen Sergeant at Arms' staffing levels in addition to
    enhance the safety and security of this complex, its Members,
    its staff, and all visitors.
        This office has leveraged risk analysis to enhance our
    situational awareness and enable Sergeant at Arms staff, in
    partnership with the United States Capitol Police, to develop
    comprehensive and seamless security plans. Because of the
    growing threats that I mentioned and directions of interest
    communications, we continue to focus on the five dimensions of
    Member security that I noted in my previous testimony before
    this body.
        And they are: Member security on Capitol Grounds; Member
    security at their residences; Member travel security; special
    events in Members' home districts, and I might add here in the
    Nation's Capital as well; mass Member events, I feel strongly
    that the Capitol Police should be made aware of those events;
    and then active threats against Members of Congress that we are
    relentlessly pursuing. The hope is that we dissuade them with
    judicial action.
        Accordingly, I offer an overview of my fiscal year 2023
    budget request, highlighting some of the significant physical
    and other security measures and strategies that are ongoing or
    brand new.
        As noted in my January testimony, dynamic proactive
    security, mission-critical, must have an integrated focus on a
    comprehensive security plan for this Congress. Some specific
    and important security initiatives that I would like to note
    are as follows: We need to replace the escape hoods and the
    Victim Rescue Units, VRUs, that are at the end of their life
    cycle. That alone is $5 million. That is 17,000 units that we
    need. Providing access to a standard security package for
    Members' residence, strengthening the District Office Security
    Program, including security systems, installations, mail-safety
    devices and periodic security briefings. We need to increase
    security awareness and threat mitigation, briefings for
    district law enforcement coordinators. I would like to share
    with you a book at the end of my presentation that we put
    together. Next, emphasizing that law enforcement coordinators
    have the knowledge, skills, abilities and, hopefully, the
    access and reach, as well as the credibility to serve as a
    vital link between Members and their local law enforcement to
    ensure any security measures are met, any security needs.
        We need to procure software to support emergency
    operations, conduct pre-event planning for evacuations,
    sheltering, and specified internal relocation drills,
    continuing the implementation of the Joint Audible Warning
    System being developed collaboratively with the Capitol Police
    and have the USCP, the Capitol Police replace the outdated
    annunciator system, which will enhance the life safety
    notification system for the United States House of
    Representatives.
        We also want to continue our contracted services and
    continue with rehired annuitants--and you have been very
    gracious with that, but we need more--with security subject-
    matter expertise, people with deep knowledge and experience in
    security and proactive intelligence--protective intelligence,
    rather, to provide greater capability and capacity to
    effectively address the executive protection, intelligence, and
    special event security responsibilities of this office, the
    hiring of additional Sergeant at Arms staff to increase
    effectiveness in the following areas: police services,
    emergency management, parking security, and information
    services.
        As you know, many Members receive threats and unusual
    directions of interest communications that understandably raise
    concerns for Members, their families, and staff. The number of
    threatening communications has dramatically increased over the
    past several years. And these threats have become more visceral
    and violent. For example, since January 2022 to yesterday,
    there have been 1,811 threatening communications made against
    Members of Congress. Furthermore, in 2021, there were 9,625
    investigations related to threatening communications against
    Members of Congress.
        Accordingly, my office, specifically the Police Services
    Division, continues to proactively interface with Member
    offices to coordinate security for special events or mass
    Member events that take place off Capitol Grounds. In 2021,
    Police Services staff, along with the United States Capitol
    Police, conducted 51 security awareness briefings for Member
    offices.
        Since January of 2022, Police Services has conducted five
    security awareness briefings. In 2021, Police Services had
    6,446 interactions with Member district offices and have 950
    interactions to date. Accordingly, I am asking for six new
    full-time equivalents to optimize this critically important
    division and better provide services to Members, both in
    Washington, D.C., and in their residences.
        When a Member office desires law enforcement support for an
    event, the Sergeant at Arms requests that the United States
    Capitol Police provide a security assessment. If the United
    States Capitol Police security assessment determines that
    protection is warranted, we work collaboratively with the
    Capitol Police and other Federal, State, and local law
    enforcement to ensure protection is provided. Protective
    services can range from a notification to a police department
    to an actual USCP presence.
        My office will continue to coordinate with security
    experts, intelligence professionals, and leverage physical
    security countermeasures to develop and maintain optimal
    technical and operational security postures for the Capitol.
    These important physical and other security efforts continue to
    be coordinated with the Architect of the Capitol, the Senate
    Sergeant at Arms, the Chief of Police, as well as the
    committees of jurisdiction.
        Lastly, our fiscal year 2023 budget request continues to
    support funding for staff travel, including advanced
    operational planning and other large-scale off-campus events
    attended by Members of Congress. Funding will continue to
    provide critical job-specific training for my staff in the
    areas of leadership, management, professional development,
    information technology, and emergency preparedness. Funding
    will continue to cover communication services for all divisions
    of the Sergeant at Arms as well as printing of emergency
    preparedness brochures, district security training material, et
    cetera.
        In closing, the fiscal year 2023 budget request has been
    prepared in the spirit of zero-based budgeting, without
    jeopardizing mission-critical services provided to the House
    community.
        Thank you once again for the opportunity to appear before
    you this afternoon. I am profoundly grateful for the
    committee's unwavering support to our sincere efforts to
    preserve the delicate balance between necessary and required
    security measures and an open Capitol.
        Finally, let me thank my staff for their hard work and
    unwavering commitment to excellence.
        I am happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you
    again.
        [The information follows:]

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Mr. Ryan. Fantastic. Thank you for the testimony. We are
    really proud of the work that you have done over the last year
    or two and all of your teams, so make sure you let them know.
        And we are going to start the question and answer, and we
    are going to start with the ranking member, Ms. Herrera
    Beutler. You have 5 minutes.

                              CAO INVESTMENT FUND

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I will
    speak quickly.
        Ms. Szpindor, I am just going to be brief because I want to
    get as many out as I can. Your office is requesting to realign
    funds from various business units to establish a CAO Investment
    Fund. The purpose of the fund is very broad, in saying its
    projects--saying it is for projects that would impact Member,
    committee, and leadership offices. And I was hoping you could
    elaborate what the $5 million fund will be used for, why you
    believe it is necessary, and who would make decisions for its
    use.
        Ms. Szpindor. Thank you. The Investment Fund, really, think
    of it as a way of having--as pulling funds that we have asked
    for traditionally in each of our business units.
        These are funds that each of our business units have put
    forward for their budget this year, but they were for large
    projects that we feel like are better managed if they are then
    brought into an investment fund picture, where we set those
    aside. From a management perspective, we are making some very
    important decisions about them as we go through, evaluate the
    projects, better understand them.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Can I ask just so that--because I am
    still--I am fuzzy on the different business units. Could you
    just--is it possible to give me examples so that I follow you
    easier? Thank you.
        Ms. Szpindor. No, that is fine. Within the CAO, we have the
    Finance Department, Procurement, Logistics, and HIR, or House
    Information Resources. All of those are our business units
    within the CAO.
        Traditionally, when we have done our budget, we accumulate,
    through zero-based budgeting, the budgets for each of those
    business units, including any special projects that they may
    have been asked to include or work on in the future years. I
    will give you an example.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. I--okay.
        Ms. Szpindor. The Digital Service Program is an example of
    one. Some of the modernization that we are doing in Web
    Services is an example.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. So this is money they are going to be
    asking for each year anyway.
        Ms. Szpindor. Yes.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. So, as part of the budget, you are--I
    still don't totally understand how----
        Ms. Szpindor. We are not removing them, really, from the
    budget. They are part of the budget. We are conceptualizing
    them as part of this investment program that we are doing. And
    all that really means is that they are going to have a higher
    level of oversight. We are going to make sure that we are
    evaluating each one of those projects to ensure that, when we
    get ready to get started with it, we can execute it.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Okay.
        Ms. Szpindor. I know that, in the past, sometimes we have
    had projects that we have started, and we thought when we first
    asked for the money that we were going to be able to get
    everything done that was needed for that project in a
    particular year. However, after we got into the project, we did
    our requirements----
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Is this a $5 million start to it?
        Ms. Szpindor. It is just--yes.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. And so the $5 million will be a
    cushion fund?
        Ms. Szpindor. Well, actually, the $5 million is what they
    would have had in their business units anyway.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Okay. As part of--okay, okay.
        Ms. Szpindor. We are not creating any type of slush fund or
    anything like that.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Got it, okay.
        Ms. Szpindor. We are just simply saying: You have this
    particular project in your business unit, and it is a major
    project.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Thank you. I apologize. I need to
    switch gears just because I am watching my time. And I may
    follow up. Thank you for breaking it down.
        Ms. Szpindor. I hope that helps.

                           CONTRACT SECURITY STAFFING

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. It does. Thank you, thank you.
        General Walker, the Capitol Police is currently working to
    bring on security contractors temporarily to help supplement
    their sworn officers to reopen the Capitol and to make sure all
    the security demands are met.
        And I understand, in your budget request, you also have
    requested an increase in nonpersonnel costs due to contracted
    services to assist with controlling access to the House Chamber
    and galleries during peak visitation.
        And what I wanted to ask is, is the Sergeant at Arms
    suffering from a similar attrition as the Capitol Police that
    you would need the supplemental security contractors, or is
    this just standing practice for Chamber security during peak
    visitation?
        General Walker. Yes, ma'am. Thank you for the question. It
    is the latter. It is a standing practice. So these are seasonal
    people that come on. They come off. They come back on. And,
    fortunately, we are not suffering from the attrition that the
    United States Capitol Police is having.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. And I will save for another round.
    Thank you for that.
        General Walker. Yes, ma'am.
        Mr. Ryan. I thank the gentlelady.
        We are going to go virtual here with the distinguished
    gentleman from New York, Mr. Espaillat.

                                 CYBERSECURITY

        Mr. Espaillat. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
        My question is for the Honorable Catherine Szpindor. And
    the CAO budget calls for $2 million to support cybersecurity
    for cloud modernization of House services, and in it, you list
    14 cybersecurity priorities.
        How does this complement the cybersecurity enhancement
    called by the Sergeant at Arms, and how do the two entities
    work together to ensure that the House network is secure from
    external cyber attacks?
        Ms. Szpindor. Thank you, sir. The Sergeant at Arms staff
    and our staff work very closely from a cybersecurity
    standpoint. The House CISO, Randy Vickers, is here with me
    today, and he spent quite a bit of time with both the Clerk's
    organization, as well as the Sergeant at Arms, making sure that
    we are all working together on behalf of ensuring that we are
    securing the House from a cyber attack of any type as well as
    just having common day-to-day practices that ensure we are
    following good cyber practices at the House.
        The money that we are spending as opposed to what maybe the
    general is spending here has to do with a lot of our hardware,
    our software, ensuring that we are improving our cloud
    services' architecture and the software that then surrounds
    that architecture, to ensure we are preventing any type of
    intrusion into it.
        And the same is true for a lot of our other systems, not
    just cloud but many of our other systems that we run every
    single day within the House on behalf of the Members and the
    staff, such as our payroll and benefit system, our H.R. system,
    and others.
        So, a lot of our money goes internally to the architecture
    that supports I guess the bedrock of our technology within the
    House.

                           COMMUNICATING WITH MEMBERS

        Mr. Espaillat. Thank you. Thank you.
        My next question is for General William Walker, William J.
    Walker. And since the emergency security supplemental became
    law, what steps has the Sergeant at Arms implemented to improve
    communications with Members of Congress, the public, and other
    stakeholders since the insurrection? And how will this fiscal
    year 2023 budget you propose build on that progress?
        General Walker. So thank you for the question, Congressman.
    So we use the money to improve communication to Members; is
    that the question?
        Mr. Espaillat. Yes. What steps have you taken to improve
    communications with Members of Congress, the public, and other
    stakeholders?
        General Walker. Well, not so much with the public, but we
    are focused on the Members. So Police Services has reached out
    to all the Members, through the law enforcement coordinator and
    through the district security office. So that is how we are
    using the funds.
        But if I am hearing a suggestion that we need to do more
    with the public, we will look into that. But right now, we
    communicate on a regular basis with the Members and their
    staff.
        Mr. Espaillat. Thank you. Thank you both.
        Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
        Mr. Ryan. I thank the gentleman.
        The distinguished gentleman from Washington State.

                            HOUSE APPOINTMENTS DESK

        Mr. Newhouse. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you all
    for being here with us today to talk about your proposed budget
    request. As we were speaking just informally before the
    hearing, the public is coming back. The halls are filling up.
    There are now lines in places. It takes longer to get from
    point A to point B. But I think we would all agree it is a good
    thing that the people's House is beginning to open. So thanks
    for your efforts to make that happen and look forward to
    continuing that process so that we are fully open as soon as
    possible.
        But I want to--I appreciate, Major General Walker, you
    contacting me last week. We were able to talk about some of
    these issues, and I expressed to you some of my concerns about
    where we are in that process. And I just wanted to expound on
    those this afternoon. And so I have got several questions, and
    I will just express them to you, and we can have that
    conversation.
        So, just to start with, where within the House protocol and
    Chamber operation policies is it written that the House
    Appointments Desk, which you know I have an issue with, must
    take the names and information of individuals when they attempt
    to visit the United States Capitol?
        And what is done with those names? What is done with that
    information of the individuals visiting after they have
    visited? Is there a log or a database that is maintained? Who
    has access to that information that is provided to the House
    Appointments Desk?
        If I recall, you said you are the 38th Sergeant at Arms.
    You were installed on April 26, 2021. And this practice of
    taking these names and visitor information began last fall,
    when our office, it became necessary to submit these names by
    email. There is an online submission form I think that has a
    date on it of February of 2022.
        So was the collection of these names and information your
    decision or perhaps directed by someone, for instance, the
    Speaker of the House, to make this change? Where is the change
    in policy in written form that is accessible to Members of
    Congress and to the public? And what kind of metrics did you
    follow in making the decisions to require this information?
        And, just probably a coincidence, but this morning, as you
    know, it was raining. I had an appointment this morning. The
    guests arrived at the door of the Cannon Building a full hour
    before the appointed appointment, and by the time they got to
    my office, we had about 5 minutes remaining for an available
    meeting because of the--I think there was probably a hundred
    people backed up at the door, standing in the rain waiting to
    get in, just so they could go through this process of giving
    names and information.
        So just expressing--trying not to be--I just want some
    information on why, why we have to keep doing this. It is truly
    a bottleneck, and it is impeding the work that needs to be done
    here.
        General Walker. Thank you, Congressman Newhouse, and thank
    you for your time last week. So I am going to answer in reverse
    order. There is no system of record in the House Sergeant at
    Arms. So the names are not run against anything. The names--
    when I got here, the names were being collected with the
    thought that they would be kept for 60 days and then destroyed.
        Oh, sorry about that. So I will just recap.
        When I got here, the names were being requested for 60
    days, and then they would be--you know, there is no system of
    record. So the names would be destroyed after 60 days.
        So a decision is going to be made to not have the names
    anymore this week. So I will be publishing that soon. There is
    no other information. It is just a name. And, without date of
    birth, place of birth and others, what can you do with it?
        Mr. Newhouse. Can I say hallelujah here?
        General Walker. Sir?
        Mr. Newhouse. Can I say hallelujah here?
        General Walker. Yes, sir. But I just want to manage
    expectations. So I go around the complex as well, outside and
    in, and this morning, I saw the long lines. So the expectation
    I want to manage is that, on some doors, there was one metal
    detector working, and that is a symptom of not having enough
    Capitol Police officers.
        So the names will speed it up. Not requiring the names will
    speed it up, but the lines will still be--it won't be just
    coming in because you are still going to have to negotiate the
    metal detectors, and there are less officers there.
        So I want to be clear: There is no system of record. No one
    keeps these names. No one puts these names through a database.
    The names are just kept. And, from my research, the thinking
    was, if something were to happen, law enforcement would have a
    starting point to go and find out who was here. My experience
    is you would need more than a name. So my name, for example,
    even my full name, William Joseph Walker, is extremely common.
    You would need more than that. So I look to see it disappear
    this week.
        Mr. Newhouse. I appreciate that.
        General Walker. Yes, sir.

                   SERGEANT AT ARMS FISCAL YEAR 2023 REQUEST

        Mr. Newhouse. Thanks for that information.
        The other question, just stemming from your testimony
    today, you went through a long list of things, improvements and
    necessary changes in the safety and protocol, policing needs
    and all those kinds of things. But I think the chairman would
    agree, a 60-percent increase in an appropriated budget is huge,
    one that bears at least some perusal.
        Could you help me understand? Some of those things I think
    are one-off, so to speak, replacing some of the hoods and
    things like that. But about how much of the budget is going to
    be ongoing? Is this going to be a new level of requirements
    moving forward? Are we going to get back to some level of
    maintaining what had been more normal in the last few years?
        General Walker. Thank you, Mr. Newhouse.
        So I will just talk about the hoods first. The hoods were
    way beyond their life cycle, and then they were used
    effectively on January 6. So we have to replace those hoods.
        Mr. Newhouse. Yes, I am not questioning the need for that.
    Just that is one example of something that is a one-off
    purchase. It increases the budget need this year, but next year
    won't be there, perhaps.
        General Walker. No, it won't be there next year. But that
    $11 million, that was a big chunk of it, just to replace that.
    And then the additional funds--it is all real money, but the
    additional funds is to acquire and bring on subject-matter
    experts, really practitioners in protection and intelligence
    and security, and we need those people.
        Mr. Newhouse. And many of those costs will continue on into
    the future, you are anticipating.
        General Walker. Well, I anticipate that would be a stable
    cost because we will keep them. Hopefully, we will get 3 to 5
    years out of these people. And then we will train the people we
    have here, and then the cost should go down.
        But I am bringing in subject-matter experts from across
    Federal law enforcement to help us better understand what is
    facing us. Then, as I grow people and develop people, part of
    it was leadership development to get the skills that we need to
    better protect the campus, better protect the Members, their
    families. I will develop subject-matter experts in-house, and
    then the cost should go back down.
        Mr. Newhouse. I appreciate that.
        General Walker. Yes, sir.
        Mr. Newhouse. Thank you.
        I see I have gone way over my time, Mr. Chairman. Thank
    you.

                        CYBERSECURITY NEEDS FOR FY 2023

        Mr. Ryan. Good questions, Mr. Newhouse. Thank you.
        So I am going to try to get through a few of the questions
    here that we would like to better understand. I am going to
    start with the CAO.
        We were talking a little bit about cyber attacks. I may
    have missed it, but is there a specific number in the line item
    for cyber that you are asking? I know there is. What is that
    specific number, and what is the increase?
        Ms. Szpindor. There is a specific number for cybersecurity.
        Mr. Ryan. Is your mike on? Now I am paranoid about it.
        Ms. Szpindor. I am getting there, yes. For cybersecurity,
    our budget for this year is $26 million. That is about a 13
    percent increase and included in that is a number of things for
    cyber, which is the increase in some of our contractor dollars
    that we have.
        We are renegotiating some of our contractors, which we use
    a fairly large percentage, both for on-site, as well as we have
    a contract with an outside firm that does 7-by-24 monitoring of
    our network around the clock. So, there is some increase there.
        And then also just increases on the type of technology that
    we are using for cloud. There is a technology, and I am not
    going to go in and try and explain it, but it is using
    containers around our applications so that we can--it is a type
    of technology that builds in the security into the container
    where your application is. And there has been a lot of time and
    effort spent by the cybersecurity team and working with our
    applications staff in being able to get that technology up and
    going.
        Mr. Ryan. How many of the personnel, how many people are
    working as contractors on cyber?
        Ms. Szpindor. On cyber, there is probably about--and I
    would have to ask Randy. It is about----
        Mr. Vickers. We have about 62 percent, about 62 people out
    of the 100 that are on my staff. I still have some vacancies on
    the FTE, but I have about 62 contractors.
        Mr. Ryan. Okay. All right. As far as the prevention of
    cyber attacks, I mean, I think we are seeing a lot with
    everything going on in Ukraine of just this broader kind of
    awareness happening now about cyber.
        Is there anything you are concerned with that we need to
    know about with regard to any kind of cyber attack here?
        Ms. Szpindor. Well, we certainly are in a hyper state of
    visual review of everything that is going on. And I know that
    Randy and his team, the cybersecurity group, are looking daily
    for any indication of anything coming in from outside of our
    network.
        Mr. Ryan. Maybe we should do that offline in a little more
    classified setting----
        Ms. Szpindor. Right.
        Mr. Ryan [continuing]. Which probably would be better.
        Ms. Szpindor. And we can do any type of cyber briefing to
    the staff.

                             HOUSE WELLNESS CENTER

        Mr. Ryan. Yeah, I think we are going to probably get that
    scheduled.
        I want to talk a little bit with you about the House
    Wellness Center.
        Ms. Szpindor. Yes.
        Mr. Ryan. You know, this place was a very, very difficult
    place, high-stress environment prior to COVID and prior to
    January 6th. And so this is a very important I think component
    of our strategy to retain and make sure we are taking care of
    the workforce here that are public servants, and they are
    serving the country.
        I am really proud of Bryan and his team and what they have
    been able to do in the last couple years, rolling out a lot of
    these resiliency-based programming for staffers. And it is
    really important to me and I know the committee to continue to
    provide the rollout of these new programs to support the staff,
    the Members, and the Capitol Police.
        So, if you could just talk a little bit about any needs
    that you see within the wellness, any kind of programming that
    you anticipate the center or OEA providing in the next year
    that builds upon the work that we have done.
        I know there are only 11 FTEs right now. And so how are you
    growing your staff to meet the operational and administrative
    challenges?
        Ms. Szpindor. We are increasing the staff. Within the next
    year, we should have approximately 15 full-time staff in OEA,
    and we are going to be adding two more full-time individuals to
    the Center for Well-Being as well. We also have a fellow from
    the Green and Gold Star family that is working there. And so,
    we have a lot planned with those individuals, and it is a good
    thing that we are going to be able to improve the staff levels
    there.
        In the center for OEA, we intend to continue to increase
    in-person and virtual retreat services, both in D.C. and across
    the Nation and territories, by going out and actually working
    with the offices.
        I know that the OEA team has been very instrumental in
    working with our Coach program. In many of the sessions that we
    have been having with staff in the district office, they have
    participated as well, especially when it has to do with
    casework and some of the things that the individuals in the
    district office are going through.
        Mr. Ryan. I had never heard of this Coach program. I love
    it. It sounds terrific. Maybe we need to do a better job of
    getting it out so----
        Ms. Szpindor. It is remarkable, what is happening as far as
    the feedback we are getting from district office staff. It is
    tremendous. And we had a district--and we are getting off the
    subject, but we had a district office directors fly-in last
    Thursday and Friday. And we had over a hundred district office
    directors here for a 2-day event, and it was really remarkable.
        So, the OEA team is working very carefully with that. They
    are also looking at launching some new apps. We currently have
    a Calm app that was brought in and is being marketed heavily by
    the Wellness Center. So----
        Mr. Ryan. Can you give that to Members of Congress? Can we
    get them the Calm app? Yes.
        Ms. Szpindor. Calm us all down.
        Mr. Ryan. Yeah.
        Ms. Szpindor. But the House Center for Well-Being is really
    gearing up this year for a number of programs that they are
    launching, and meditation- and resilience-based programs. They
    have a Resilient Leadership Program on Transcendental
    Meditation, and they are partnering with the David Lynch
    Foundation for that. They have a SKY Breath Meditation, in
    partnership with the Art of Living Foundation, and the ABCs of
    Resiliency, which is a program in partnership with the Garrison
    Institute.
        So, we have got some very good things happening over the
    rest of this year.
        Mr. Ryan. That is fantastic.
        We are going to do a quick second round here. They did call
    votes. So Ms. Herrera Beutler.

                           OFFSITE OPERATIONS CENTER

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        General Walker, your budget request includes funding for
    the establishment of an offsite location, but does not provide
    further description as to why the site is necessary. What is
    the capability for this new location? What capability is it
    bringing to your office that you don't already have? And,
    unfortunately, briefly, because I am going to move right--I
    have one other question for you.
        General Walker. Yes, ma'am. I will be as fast as I can read
    this.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Thank you.
        General Walker. So we want to establish an offsite
    operations to ensure the House can continue emergency
    operations if an event impacts access to the Capitol complex.
    Past events have demonstrated that access to and operations
    from the existing operation center on Capitol Grounds could be
    hindered or not even possible.
        So establishing an operations center outside of the
    immediate Washington, D.C., we are looking at probably a 30- to
    50-mile radius is what we are looking for, would allow us to
    continue operations. And I will stop there in case you have
    something else, but I have got a couple more paragraphs.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Your office is responsible for the
    purchase and installation of security systems from our Member
    offices, our district offices. And part of the funding increase
    you requested would go to increase the service.
        I wanted to know what the percentage of Members who
    currently utilize the offering. Have you noticed an increase in
    that?
        And then, under that same header in your budget, there is
    request for funding for a security program to enhance security
    for Members of Congress, and I was hoping you could elaborate
    in detail, more detail.
        General Walker. Yes, ma'am. So the first question, about 83
    percent of Members' district offices utilize the funding. The
    variance could be there are some Member district offices that
    are in Federal locations. And then, just asking around, there
    are some Members, believe it or not, their district office is
    adjacent to a police department, and in one, police
    headquarters is on the first floor. So they won't need the
    money. So it is about 83 percent, ma'am.
        And then the second question was?

                           ENHANCING MEMBER SECURITY

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Security program to enhance security
    for Members of Congress was a new part of your budget request.
    Can you elaborate a little bit more about what that entails?
        General Walker. So that is aspirational. We would like to
    have residential security for all Members. I think with the
    threatening communications that Members are receiving, it is
    untenable. And I want peace of mind, and I hope everybody does
    as well.
        So, when you come here, you come to work to work, and your
    center of gravity back home in Washington, they are safe and
    secure. So I propose that we have residential security for all
    441 customers.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Thank you.
        And I will yield back to the gentleman, who comes from the
    State where they are the only one to have a nonrectangular
    flag.

                              HOUSE INTERN PROGRAM

        Mr. Ryan. We are including you all in our joke here.
        So I want to do something on the House intern program, Ms.
    Szpindor,
        Ms. Szpindor. Yeah.
        Mr. Ryan. This is, you know, something that--I interned
    here way long time ago. And they just were getting rid of the
    LBJ Internship Program, which was a really phenomenal program
    to help people, you know, that just didn't have the money to be
    able to come here, you know, White people, Black people, Brown
    people, poor--you know, just people who can't afford to come,
    and have this amazing experience here as a young person.
        So this intern program is really important to us on the
    committee, and that is why we have funded it, expanded it to
    committees. We are now encouraging a portal with the Office of
    Diversity and Inclusion to really reach into the HBCUs, reach
    into the minority institutions, so that we are really creating
    a pipeline of opportunity here for young people all across the
    country, and, you know, super excited about that. So digging in
    to get resumes and making sure that we establish that is really
    important.
        So I have a couple quick questions here. Do you have any
    information on how Members are utilizing their intern
    allowance? You know, are they splitting it between several
    interns, or, you know, is it district-focused, here in D.C.?
    How are they using it?
        Ms. Szpindor. Well, I have some statistics for you, and we
    can share with the Committee. I have a report that we submitted
    I guess a couple months ago to the Committee on House
    Administration. But about 69 percent of the funds, which are
    over $7 million--$7,893,551 were authorized for the calendar
    year 2021--were disbursed as of December 31st, 2021. That was
    69 percent. Of that, 74 percent was for the Washington, D.C.,
    House paid interns, 23 percent for district office paid
    interns, and 3 percent was for Leadership office House paid
    interns.
        The total number of interns that participated in the
    program were 3,624. On an average, 302 were appointed each
    month. Eight House paid interns were employed, on the average,
    in each participating office. Seventy-six days were the average
    for employment out of a potential 120. And the average annual
    salary for each of these was $14,108 out of a potential maximum
    of $21,600.
        So, we do not have anything without calling the offices
    individually to ask, how many of these were only part time as
    opposed to full time? But I think that gives you a pretty good
    breakdown for how the interns were used.

                         Chairman Ryan Closing Remarks

        Mr. Ryan. Yeah. That is great. That is great. We have got
    the clock running here. So we will probably just leave it at
    this, and we will submit questions and maybe a couple of
    followups that the committee may have. And we are going to
    hustle over to go vote.
        But I just again wanted to say thank you. It has been a
    very difficult year for a lot of folks, and I am going to get
    official here for a second.
        I would like to thank each of you and your teams, and on
    behalf of the Members, our staffs, our constituents, thank you
    for the work that you are doing.
        The subcommittee stands in recess until April 27, 2022, at
    which time we will receive testimony from the Library of
    Congress, Government Printing Office, and Architect of the
    Capitol. So, again, please thank all of your staffs for all of
    their great work, and we will continue to stay in touch, and we
    will very carefully review your suggestions. Thank you so much.
        And, with that, the hearing is adjourned.
        [Material submitted for the record follows:]

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                                             Wednesday, April 27, 2022.

          FISCAL YEAR 2023 BUDGET REQUEST FOR THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

                                   WITNESSES

    DR. CARLA HAYDEN, LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS

                                ACCOMPANIED BY:

    J. MARK SWEENEY, PRINCIPAL DEPUTY LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS
    SHIRA PERLMUTTER, REGISTER OF COPYRIGHTS/DIRECTOR OF THE U.S. COPYRIGHT
        OFFICE
    DR. MARY MAZANEC, DIRECTOR, CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE
    JUDITH CONKLIN, CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER
    JASON BROUGHTON, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL LIBRARY SERVICE FOR THE BLIND AND
        PRINT DISABLED

                       Opening Statement of Chairman Ryan

        Mr. Ryan. The committee will come to order.
        This hearing is fully virtual, so we need to address a few
    housekeeping matters.
        First, for today's meeting, the chair or chair's staff
    designated by the chair may mute participants' microphones when
    they are not under recognition for the purposes of eliminating
    inadvertent background noise.
        Second, members are responsible for muting and unmuting
    themselves. If I notice when you are recognized that you have
    not unmuted yourself, I will ask you if you would like the
    staff to unmute you. If you indicate approval by nodding, staff
    will unmute your microphone.
        Third, you will notice a clock on your screen that will
    show how much of the 5-minute clock is remaining. If there is a
    technology issue, we will move to the next member until the
    issue is resolved, and you will retain the balance of your
    time.
        Fourth, we will begin with the chair and ranking member.
    Then members present at the time the hearing is called to order
    will be recognized in order of seniority.
        Finally, House rules require me to remind you that we have
    set up an email address which members can send anything they
    wish to be submitted in writing at any of our hearings. The
    email address has been provided in advance to your staff.
        Today, we are conducting three panels. First, the Library
    of Congress, then the Government Publishing Office, and
    finally, the Architect of the Capitol. We will take a 10-minute
    recess between Library of Congress and GPO panels. However, we
    will remain on this video feed, so members do not have to log
    off. The Architect of the Capitol hearing is scheduled for 2
    p.m. today, and we will reconvene at that time.
        I would like to welcome the Librarian of Congress, Dr.
    Carla Hayden, to present the fiscal year 2023 budget request
    for the Library of Congress.
        Dr. Hayden, it is always a pleasure to hear from you and
    your team. I see them behind you. So at the beginning of your
    testimony, please introduce your colleagues who will be joining
    you today.
        I would like to thank each of you for the extraordinary
    work you and your teams do for Congress and your devoted
    patrons.
        I also would like to thank Sarah Boliek, Mary Klutts, and
    the budget team, and the CRS staff for all their work during
    the fiscal year 2022 appropriations process. This staff can be
    relied on at all hours, and we appreciate that.
        Since its founding, the Library of Congress, the largest
    library in the world, continues to engage, inspire, and inform
    millions of patrons. Over the past few years, the Library has
    made significant strides in the areas of modernizing essential
    technology and optimizing operations to facilitate easier and
    robust access to its collections for Congress and the public.
    These collections are invaluable. They teach us of things past
    and the possibilities of things to come.
        Currently, resources for the Library of Congress are 13.4
    percent of the entire Legislative Branch budget, totaling a
    little over $794 million in appropriated funds in fiscal year
    2022.
        For fiscal year 2023, the Library has requested $824.9
    million. This updated request is $7.2 million less than the
    amount cited in the President's budget, and an increase of 3.9
    percent, or $30.9 million, over the fiscal year 2022 enacted
    total.
        Dr. Hayden, I look forward to your testimony. I hope you
    can expand on the Library's 10 new initiatives totaling $24
    million that aim to increase your investments in IT, ensure the
    safety of the Library's $170 million worth of collections, and
    provide the best visitor experience.
        At this point, I would like to yield to my colleague and
    friend from the Pacific Northwest, the ranking member, Jaime
    Herrera Beutler, for any opening comments that she would like
    to make.

              Opening Statement of Ranking Member Herrera Beutler

        Ms. Herrera Beutler.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        It is great to see you, Dr. Hayden, and your team from the
    Library for being here. I was laughing to myself because these
    are all the books I have checked out from the Library. I have
    not read them all, but they are right where I can see them when
    I wake up so that I read them all. So thank you. You fulfill
    such an important role for all of us.
        So Chairman Ryan went through kind of the budget request
    already, and I think that--so I am not going to rehash those
    numbers, but your request also asks for additional resources
    for new or expanded programs in technology innovation,
    financial infrastructure optimization, expanded engagement with
    visitors to the Library, and strengthening data analysis
    expertise. And we talked a little bit about some of this
    earlier.
        As the largest library in the world, the Library of
    Congress receives some 15,000 items each working day and adds
    more than 10,000 items to its collection. Among its
    responsibilities, the Library provides Congress with objective
    research to inform the legislative process and administers the
    national copyright system.
        It is great to see your doors back open--we talked a little
    bit about this--for visitors and researchers and your program
    opportunities being done online as well for those of us who
    have constituents a little bit further away than the D.C. Metro
    area. So I look forward to your testimony today.
        And, with that, Chairman Ryan, I yield back.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Ms. Herrera Beutler.

                         CHAIRMAN OUTLINES PROCEEDINGS

        Mr. Ryan. Dr. Hayden, at the beginning of your testimony,
    please remember to introduce any of your colleagues who will be
    joining you during your presentation today. Without objection,
    your written testimony will be made part of the record.
        Dr. Hayden, please summarize your statements for the
    members of the committee. Once you have finished your
    statement, we will move to the question and answer.
        Please begin. The floor is yours.

                         Testimony of Dr. Carla Hayden

        Dr. Hayden. Thank you, Chairman Ryan, Ranking Member
    Herrera Beutler, and members of the subcommittee. We appreciate
    this opportunity to give testimony in support of the Library's
    fiscal 2023 budget.
        And I am joined by my colleagues. Starting to my left,
    Shira Perlmutter, who is the Register of Copyrights; next, Mr.
    Mark Sweeney, our Principal Deputy Librarian; to my right, far
    end, Mary Mazanec, who is the head of the Congressional
    Research Service; and immediately to my right is Judith
    Conklin, who is our head of OCIO, our Chief Information
    Technology Officer.
        And 2 years ago, the Library did have to close its doors as
    the pandemic began, and we moved quickly and successfully to
    adopt new and innovative approaches to serving Congress and the
    American people virtually under unprecedented conditions. In
    fact, the pandemic accelerated our ongoing efforts to engage
    the public virtually and share our collections and services in
    new and exciting ways that allowed us to reach more people
    across the Nation.
        So thanks to the dedication and innovation of our workforce
    during the past year, critical mission efforts were able to
    proceed, including the Congressional Research Service and the
    United States Copyright Office. They were able to operate
    largely as normal.
        We also were able to produce a full year of virtual
    programming, including our National Book Festival, and we
    continued to work for the unveiling of the Visitor Experience
    that will begin in 2023.
        I would like to take this opportunity to express my
    gratitude to Congress for their support of the Library's
    priority needs, including our Library Collections Access
    Platform, L-CAP, the replacing our outdated security systems,
    and all of the things that are allowing us to operate
    virtually.
        So I come before you today to discuss the Library's fiscal
    2023 appropriations request, and it is an increase over the
    previous year for critical program investments that are
    necessary for us to continue to meet our mission.
        With the new and modern IT infrastructure in place, thanks
    to your support, we are now using continuous innovation and
    delivery to ensure that we are constantly optimizing and
    modernizing the technology we use.
        The cloud has become an important part of our IT planning,
    and the fiscal 2023 request seeks to establish a dedicated
    cloud management program that will enable us to integrate the
    cloud solutions into our traditional IT infrastructure, while
    supporting all of our business needs. The Congressional
    Research Service needs to adapt and optimize its information
    system, IRIS.
        Also, the Library seeks funding to stabilize our financial
    infrastructure. That is essential to all of our operations.
    That includes increased funding for the hosting of the
    Legislative Branch Management System--Financial Management
    System that supports eight Legislative Branch agencies.
        Also, this request this year is funding for phase two of
    Enterprise Planning & Management for the Library's Cost Center
    of Excellence. This will modernize and optimize our payroll
    operations. Many of them are now in a manual state.
        The Copyright Office seeks to expand its data analysis
    capacities in economic research and fee analysis so that they
    can have better information about their decisions with fees.
    And as we prepare to unveil the Visitor Experience, we are
    requesting additional funds for visitor engagement staff. And
    the Library expects a significant increase in visitors in the
    next 3 to 5 years.
        So, in closing, the Library's 2023 justification includes
    strategically placed modernization efforts, and with the
    support of Congress, we will continue to strengthen our
    institutional capacity to carry out our mission. I look forward
    to answering any of your questions or concerns.
        [The information follows:]

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Dr. Hayden.
        We will now start with the standard 5-minute rounds,
    alternating, and I will begin.

                             CYBERSECURITY THREATS

        I know how valuable the 170 million collections are, and we
    appreciate you and your team's vigilance in trying to keep them
    safe. I know you mentioned the cyber threat particularly coming
    from nation-states have recently targeted Federal IT systems,
    which is a deep concern to us. They are using very
    sophisticated and ever-changing cyber attack techniques.
        For example, beginning as early as January 19, the Russian
    Foreign Intelligence Service compromised several Federal agency
    networks after hacking the SolarWinds network management
    software used by those agencies. And we continue to be warned
    that a particular foreign government is exploring options for
    potential cyber attacks against the U.S.
        In light of this significant threat, I know you talked a
    little bit about the investments. If you could talk a little
    bit about that in more detail, also the challenges that the
    Library faces in preventing these cyber attacks, what this
    committee can do to help you address those challenges. And will
    this address your request here? Will this address the remaining
    recommendations and, if so, when do you expect to fully address
    those recommendations?
        Dr. Hayden. Chairman, you are certainly correct that our
    assets and our collections are very valuable, and we have a
    duty to protect them. And IT security, as we invest more in our
    IT throughout the Library, is a top priority for the Library.
    And we have strengthened our defenses in the past few years.
    And our CIO, Judith Conklin, is considered--and we are very
    fortunate--a cybersecurity guru. And she has emphasized
    cybersecurity in all of our efforts, and I think she can tell
    you much more accurately about what we are doing at this time.
        Ms. Conklin. Thank you, Dr. Hayden.
        We know the Library is a constant target, as evidenced by
    the nearly 200,000 attempted cyber-attacks a year, including
    many from advanced nation-state actors including the one you
    spoke about.
        With the committee's support, we have invested smartly in
    cybersecurity over the last few years, and our IT security team
    is officially on high alert over what is happening right now.
        We are working to meet three strategic IT security
    objectives: IT centralization, stabilization, and optimization.
    And the centralization is we have all of our IT security team
    within our centralized IT environment in OCIO.
        IT security enhancement for high-value assets, assets
    meaning we identify our highest assets and we treat them
    differently; We secure them more. And we integrate IT security
    in all of our Library IT modernization projects, so it is
    embedded within our development processes. We have made great
    progress on all three fronts.
        In addition, like DOD and other government agencies, we are
    implementing Zero Trust, and that is a network architecture to
    protect congressional and other high-value data. We are closely
    coordinating our cybersecurity efforts with our partners in the
    other Legislative Branch agencies, that includes the CIOs
    within the Legislative Branch and the chief information
    security officers.
        We also are receiving intelligence from the broader
    cybersecurity community, which we use to strengthen our
    cybersecurity tools, and then we are able to adapt quickly as
    we are alerted to those threats.
        Our main challenge is that we can never rest on these
    accomplishments we have already made. The threats are
    constantly evolving, and we must adapt in real time to thwart
    them. That means we are continually having to invest in the
    latest cybersecurity tools and expertise to ensure that we keep
    the Library and Congress protected.
        Thank you.

                               VISITOR EXPERIENCE

        Mr. Ryan. I appreciate that. I appreciate that.
        Quickly, Dr. Hayden, I am going to take a little bit of
    liberties and overrun here just because I want to get this
    question in, and then we will go to Ms. Herrera Beutler.
        Because we have had so many conversations over the last few
    years, when I was both the ranking member and now chair of the
    committee, around the Visitor Experience, if you could just
    give us a couple elements of that. One, you know, what is the
    status of it? Two, who are the private sector partners that are
    continuing to come in? I know you mentioned that last time that
    we talked.
        And also, given the fact that the Architect of the Capitol
    is involved with the construction, how is the project coming?
    And if you can give us a little update about that and the
    relationship with the Architect.
        Dr. Hayden. Well, I am very excited and [inaudible] Your
    support of the project, and the project is on track, and we are
    seeing results in the design phase, and we are actually moving
    into the construction phase.
        The three elements of the Visitor Experience, which is
    enhancing how people in person interact with the collections
    and the staff at the Thomas Jefferson Building, include a
    Treasures Gallery, first time the Library has had a Treasures
    Gallery. It is on schedule to open in late 2023. The Youth
    Center for the young and the young at heart is scheduled to
    open in the spring of 2024, and the Orientation Gallery and
    Welcome Center is scheduled to open in the fall of 2025.
        The fundraising is going well, and we are also meeting our
    schedule on that. We have major support from our philanthropic
    group, the Madison Council led by Mr. David Rubenstein, who has
    definitely taken the lead in making sure that we meet our $20
    million private fundraising goal. We have $15.7 million pledges
    in hand and $5 million actual cash in hand right now.
        We have been working closely from the very beginning, even
    in the planning stages--the initial planning stages on the
    project with the Architect of the Capitol. And there is a
    schedule of regular meetings with them and, in fact, I have
    been in contact with the Architect very recently to make sure
    that we are working together on any cost estimates. And as we
    go forward, we are about 50 percent in design right now. And so
    we are working with the Architect of the Capitol staff at all
    levels to make sure that we keep our progress going.
        And I am smiling because we just received, and I hope that
    the committee was able to receive, an audit of the project that
    was just released yesterday. And it was from the Inspector
    General, and it acknowledges that--and I will just have to
    quote--that the project is on schedule and within budget. The
    cost estimates are reasonable, current, and updated, and the
    Library is on target to raise the private funds as pledged.
        So we are very excited that things are moving along.
        Mr. Ryan. Fantastic. That is great to hear.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler.

                       COVID-19 AMERICAN HISTORY PROJECT

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        And, wow, it is so great to hear on time and under budget.
    That is so rare. It is wonderful. Congratulations.
        I wanted to switch over to a project that I know you are
    aware of with regard to COVID. So we passed, the House passed
    H.R. 4738, and it is called the COVID-19 American History
    Project Act, and it was very broadly supported.
        And it was by Representative Julia Letlow from Louisiana,
    and her story is obviously unique. She is the widow of
    Congressman-elect Luke Letlow. So he was the 41-year-old newly
    elected Representative from Louisiana who tragically died of
    COVID before he was actually sworn in.
        So the bill directs the American Folklife Center at the
    Library of Congress to establish a history project to collect
    and make publicly available individual stories and record
    records of experience during the COVID-19 pandemic in the
    United States. And it also authorizes you to solicit and accept
    donations to carry out the project.
        Obviously, there are a lot of unique stories that need to
    be told. And one of the things I am reminded of is your Oral
    History Project with regard to veterans, which is just
    priceless, and I think this has that same potential.
        Has the Library initiated any planning for the potential of
    the project or explored any funding options to implement the
    project?
        Dr. Hayden. Well, thank you for that question, because the
    American Folklife Center is the most appropriate place within
    the Library to capture the stories and the histories of people
    who were affected by COVID-19. And we have started to
    investigate the resources that would be needed. And we were
    pleased that the projected legislation would allow the Library
    to solicit and accept donations to carry it out, because we
    want to make sure that it receives the same excellence in
    programming that the Veterans History Project has, and we would
    continue that. So we would need additional resources, and we
    are preparing what that would entail.
        And so we also, though, wanted to make sure that there is
    an awareness that we are already collecting materials about the
    COVID-19 experiences. We started immediately to have rapid
    response collections available for the public and, of course,
    Congress. We joined with other cultural institutions to make
    sure that, for instance, there are photographs that are being
    collected. We have artists who are responding to the pandemic.
    We are mapping the spread of the pandemic with data shots and
    all of these types of things, with bulk data from Johns
    Hopkins, and we are archiving pandemic-related websites.
        So there are a lot of efforts throughout the Library, even
    commissioning new works of music from composers in response to
    it. So we are looking forward to having more of an opportunity
    to just outline what that type of project would be and how it
    could work in the Library and the resources that are needed.

                        LEGISLATIVE INFORMATION SERVICES

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Okay. I am going to jump in. Thank you
    for that.
        Switching gears to the public meetings, we asked--the
    Congress asked the Library to convene a public meeting at least
    once a year for 2 years to discuss input from the Library's
    Legislative Information Services. And the Library held these
    meetings and, by all accounts, they were a huge success.
        But, obviously, you know, there is no requirement to do
    future meetings, and I just wanted maybe for you to share a
    little bit your assessment on the meetings, whether they were
    worthwhile and, you know, is your opinion on the two reports
    being submitted to Appropriations Committee regarding the
    meetings a good idea and do you have plans to hold more?
        Dr. Hayden. We definitely have plans to continue. The two
    meetings were very successful. We were able to actually
    incorporate some of the suggestions that were talked about
    during those meetings.
        We did note, though, at the second year, the second
    meeting, there was a marked decrease in the attendance, about
    50 percent. And so we are looking at ways that we could engage
    the public even more. And we know that possibly people were
    tired of looking at things virtually.
        So we really want to make sure that the attendance--and the
    next one is scheduled in the fall, will be coming up in the
    fall--that we find more ways. And so we will be watching that
    attendance with the meeting. Very helpful. We definitely want
    to continue.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. All right. Thank you very much, Dr.
    Hayden.
        I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
        Mr. Ryan. Thanks, Ms. Herrera Beutler.
        Next is the distinguished gentlewoman from Massachusetts,
    Ms. Clark.

                   PHYSICAL STORAGE AND PRESERVATION STRATEGY

        Ms. Clark. Thank you, Chairman Ryan.
        And really wonderful to have you with us, Dr. Hayden, as
    always. And I would like to begin by thanking you and the
    Library of Congress specifically for correcting its catalog
    entry on the Armenian genocide to recognize that that was, in
    fact, a genocide.
        And I stood in solidarity with Armenian Americans in my
    district to commemorate the 107th anniversary of this atrocity
    just 3 days ago. And I cannot tell you how important it is that
    the world's largest library is now a proactive partner in
    promoting the truth about the 1.5 million Armenian lives lost
    in the early 20th century. So we are deeply grateful to you for
    that work.
        I am interested in learning more about the Library's
    physical storage and preservation capacity. I know the Library
    of Congress continues to expand its digitization efforts, but
    the number of digitized items represents just a small fraction
    of your overall collection.
        Can you give us a sense to what extent your current storage
    and preservation capacity meets your goals of expanding
    collections over the next few years, and what challenges are
    you experiencing in this area that this committee could be of
    help with?
        Dr. Hayden. Thank you so much for that question, because
    the Library is actually at a critical point in our storage
    efforts. We continue--we have our feet basically in both
    worlds. We are collecting and seeking out collections in
    physical, that require physical storage, and we also are very
    aware that there will be the need to increase our capacity for
    born-digital materials that are coming at the same time.
        But the physical storage needs are pressing with--and I
    think the committee is aware of the reprogramming for a module
    in Fort Meade, where we have our main physical storage. And we
    are really in need of making sure that that continues.
        And our Principal Deputy Librarian, Mark Sweeney, in fact,
    was one of the main architects of that program. And I would
    like him to give you more of a sense of why that is so critical
    to us, that physical storage.
        Ms. Clark. That would be great. And if he could also
    address how the development of Module 7 is going as well.
        Mr. Sweeney. Thank you very much.
        Preservation storage for the Library is one of our most
    significant challenges at this time. As you know, the Library
    has a 25-year plan for the building of 13 storage modules at
    Fort Meade. These are special modules in the sense that they
    are climate controlled and extend the life of a wide variety of
    collections. At this point right now, we have six modules that
    have been built and where collections are being stored.
        Module 7 was approved for funding in fiscal 2021 to the
    Architect of the Capitol. As a result of security concerns,
    that money was used for other purposes. The downside on that
    for the Library is that if we don't have funding for that, we
    will effectively run out of space at Fort Meade for collections
    beginning in fiscal 2025. And the timeline to build a storage
    module is about 18 months.
        Fortunately, the Architect of the Capitol has done a good
    job of planning for that module. There should be just a very
    limited refresh of the design, so we can move very quickly to
    construction. Actually, the site has even been prepped. Site
    work has been done. So it is shovel ready and desperately
    needed by the Library for our growing collections.
        Ms. Clark. Thank you so much.

                     VETERAN'S HISTORY DIGITAL SUBMISSIONS

        In my remaining minute here, I did want to just go back to
    something the ranking member mentioned, which is the Veterans
    History Project. Dr. Hayden, I wonder--we have talked about the
    inability to accept digital submissions. I wonder if you can
    give me an update on any progress on developing the digital
    submission portal so veterans do not have to submit their
    histories by paper or DVD.
        Dr. Hayden. We have made progress in that regard, and we
    are in development with OCIO to make sure that we can----
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Mr. Chairman, I am so sorry to
    interrupt. I cannot hear Dr. Hayden.
        Ms. Clark. It is all of a sudden very difficult.
        Mr. Ryan. Dr. Hayden, is your microphone on?
        Dr. Hayden. It is.
        Mr. Ryan. Okay. Maybe if you could maybe pull your
    microphone a little bit closer. Can you pull your microphone a
    little bit closer?
        Ms. Kinney. They are adjusting it right now. Are you able
    to hear me?
        Mr. Ryan. Yes.
        Ms. Kinney. Okay. Our team is working on it right now.
        Mr. Ryan. Okay.
        All right. There we go.
        Dr. Hayden, take your time and answer Ms. Clark's question.
        Dr. Hayden. Okay. This is an example of our crackerjack IT
    team that is with me today, and they are able to make
    adjustments on the spot. And we have had, as you can imagine, a
    lot of experience with that recently.
        And Veterans History, we have been able to do as much as we
    can to make sure that the latest technology is available to
    veterans so that they and their families can submit their
    stories.
        And so we have been able to do programming with, in fact,
    63 Members of Congress in the last year, and specializing in
    rural areas and giving workshops virtually. So the submission
    and being able to have veterans submit digitally is of utmost
    importance for us.
        And Judith might be able to give more of the technological
    aspect of that.
        Ms. Conklin. Thank you.
        Mr. Ryan. Yes.
        Ms. Conklin. For Veterans History, we do have an investment
    in it, and we follow project management principles to ensure it
    gets completed.
        I will tell you that I am a veteran and I submitted my oral
    history several years ago. It is an exciting project for the
    Library of Congress, and we will definitely succeed in this
    project.
        Ms. Clark. Thank you so much.
        Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Ms. Clark.
        The distinguished gentleman from the great State of
    Washington, Mr. Newhouse.

                              MASS DEACIDIFICATION

        Mr. Newhouse. Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
        Well, thank you for being with us today, Dr. Hayden. I
    appreciate that. Also, thank you for an opportunity to visit
    prior to the hearing so that we could talk in detail about some
    of your budget requests. I appreciated that time.
        I just have a couple of areas that I wanted to ask you
    about. The first is the mass deacidification program that you
    are engaged in. It has, I think, been ongoing for at least 20
    years, with a 30-year plan.
        Could you give us a little update on that, on the progress
    of that? And a couple things I would like you to cover if you
    could. Are you anticipating it could take longer than the 30-
    year timeline that we have at this point? Also, the budget
    request has a $2.5 million number to deacidify--that is a hard
    word to say--the books that you have classified as high in
    value, or is that what they are for, and could you give me an
    example of the types of high-value texts that you are in the
    process of deacidifying?
        Dr. Hayden. Well, I want to start by thanking the committee
    for supporting the Library in its preservation rebalancing
    efforts. We mentioned some of the challenges coming up with the
    born-digital materials that will be added to our collections
    and the need for physical storage, so we appreciate that.
        And the program--Mark Sweeney was involved, in fact, in
    that program and how that was established and can give you more
    of an update on where we are. He has been with the Library 35
    years, so he was there at the inception.
        Mr. Sweeney. Thank you, Dr. Hayden.
        You are correct that in the very beginning of this program
    back in the late 1990s, it was envisioned that it would be a
    30-year program. However, the Library has been reducing the
    quantity which needs treatment over the last several years. In
    fact, Congress in the fiscal 2021 budget approved the
    retirement of this program with a 2-year funding of $2.5
    million, which we are on track to execute and to be able to
    wrap up the program at the end of this fiscal year.
        The items that we are currently treating are relatively low
    in number and definitely low in priority. Materials are
    primarily in our music monograph collection at this point. And
    we have swept through all of the high-priority subject areas in
    our general collections, as well as a considerable number of
    manuscripts from our manuscript collection.
        So we are fully on target to retire this program at the end
    of fiscal 2022 and will not be asking for additional resources
    for that program going forward. We feel that we can best meet
    the most pressing preservation needs of our collection with our
    new preservation strategy, which balances our resources between
    both our physical and our digital collections here at the
    Library.

                     ADDITIONAL STAFF FOR PROGRAM INCREASES

        Mr. Newhouse. Good. Awesome. That is great. Thank you.
        Then just one other thing, Dr. Hayden, and we talked a
    little bit about this in our meeting prior to the hearing. If I
    am reading correctly your budget request, there are
    approximately 5 dozen new FTEs funded. I know they are for
    several different responsibilities. Could you tell me, are
    those new positions for the Library or are there some of those
    that may be filling positions that, because of the pandemic,
    opened up, people were either let go or left and you need to
    bring the numbers back up to where they were?
        Dr. Hayden. Congressman, you are correct. Approximately or
    definitely 59 FTEs, and they cover the 10 major initiatives,
    the program increases. And that includes additional staff that
    we are adding on. I mentioned the Visitor Experience. We are
    adding staff to start engaging, to think about visitor
    engagement for the new visitors that are coming in.
        That personnel and payroll processing, that some of those
    items are in manual state. There are two FTEs that are going to
    be working on that new system. And, for instance, the cloud
    program office that we are establishing, those are new
    positions that will be dedicated to our cloud.
        Our project management and our IT management, those are
    also new positions. So what you see--and Copyright Office, for
    instance, cost estimators, and Shira could elaborate on that.
    Those are new positions as well. So these positions will add to
    the expertise of our staff members that we currently have.
        Mr. Newhouse. Okay. Well, thank you. That is good
    information to have. And I hope that is helpful to us to make
    the decisions we need to. So thank you for that.
        And just my last point, Mr. Chairman, I hope those Library
    books that Ms. Herrera Beutler has are not overdue.
        Mr. Ryan. We may need an audit.
        Mr. Newhouse. Thank you, sir. I will yield back.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Mr. Newhouse.
        The distinguished gentleman from Hawaii, Mr. Case.

                     MANDATORY PAY AND PRICE LEVEL INCREASE

        Mr. Case. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
        Dr. Hayden, good to see you again. Just a quick real basic
    question here. I am looking at your testimony. The Library of
    Congress' fiscal year 2023 budget request is for $871.8
    million, a 3.9 percent increase over your fiscal year 2022
    enacted. And then you go on to say: ``This request includes
    $30.8 million in mandatory pay and price level increases.''
        And if I am doing all of that math, that indicates that
    virtually all of your 3.9 percent increase is in mandatory pay
    and price level increases. Do I have that right or am I missing
    something?
        Dr. Hayden. With the mandatory pay-related costs, that is
    $21.49 million. There is a price level increase of $9.27
    million, and that includes offsetting collection authority, and
    then you add in the FTEs.

                        FUNDING NEEDS FOR CYBERSECURITY

        Mr. Case. Okay. But I guess my point being, your mandatory
    pay and price level increases are virtually all of your--90
    percent-plus of your actual requested increase over fiscal year
    2022. Is that right? There is not a whole bunch left over if
    you take your $30.8 million of pay and price level increases to
    get to 3.9 percent.
        Dr. Hayden. Yes.
        fiscal 2023 net percentage increase clarification for the record
        The 3.9 percent increase in the Library of Congress 2023 budget
    submission is comprised of Mandatory Pay Increases, Price Level (Non-
    pay inflationary) increases, new programmatic increase requests and
    non-recurring cost reductions (example: costs removed from the base
    after project implementation). The mandatory pay and price level
    increases for fiscal 2023 round to $30.8 million, however, new program
    request costs of $24.4 million are added and then costs for programs
    that are ``non-recurring'' ($22.4 million) are subtracted for a total
    ``net'' increase of $32.8 million (or 3.9%).

        Mr. Case. Okay. And so when we are talking about things
    like, you know, cybersecurity, I guess my question is: There is
    not a whole bunch of extra money being asked for in the
    cybersecurity area or, for that matter, any other area, right?
        Dr. Hayden. The increase--we just talked about the
    specialized staffing that is going to be required for, for
    instance, the cloud program office, different areas in the
    Library. So you are looking at the cost of having staff and the
    mandatory increases for existing staff.
        For cybersecurity, I am going to have Judith give you more
    on that, but----
        Mr. Case. And how much additional are you asking for for
    cybersecurity? I am just following up on the chair's questions
    along these lines, because I agree with its importance. How
    much extra is over to cybersecurity?
        Dr. Hayden. When you look at--and I am turning to Judith
    now with how cybersecurity, the types of things that are IT
    related in our increases. Judith----
        Ms. Conklin. Yes.
        Dr. Hayden [continuing]. How much would you estimate of the
    OCIO program increases, that is the cloud, the cost estimating,
    how much of that would you think?
        Ms. Conklin. It is definitely built into the cloud request
    that we have, the cloud program office. And it is also built
    into our base in this year. We did have an increase in fiscal
    year 2022 from the agency to fund additional IT security needs.
    And IT security is built into everything we do. So as we get
    increases in our base funding, IT security is built into that.
        Mr. Case. Okay. So I think what you are saying is that your
    basic cybersecurity initiatives were built already into the
    fiscal year 2022 enacted, plus some personnel and price
    increases that are part of your 3.9 percent increase.
        So you are--in other words, many of your cybersecurity
    initiatives are already in fiscal year 2022. There is not a
    huge new amount. And you feel that you are sufficient in terms
    of the trajectory you are on right now, with some adjustments
    just for, you know, personnel and normal price increases,
    mandatory, right?
        Ms. Conklin. Yes. That is correct. We have been fortunate
    that we have had support from the committee for previous years'
    increases for IT security. As I said in a previous answer,
    depending on threats and changing IT security environment, or I
    like to call them bad actors, in the future, we might need, in
    future years past fiscal year 2023. But for fiscal year 2023,
    we did not----
        Mr. Case. Okay. Yeah, because you have made the point in
    spades to this subcommittee, and we have agreed with you, that
    cybersecurity is critical. And I think we are just trying to
    make sure that you have done what you need to do and you are
    making the request that you need to make to keep yourself on an
    improved cybersecurity track. So thank you very much.
        I yield back.
        Dr. Hayden. And if I may, we can provide more details for
    the record specifically on the cybersecurity----
        Mr. Case. Thank you.
        Dr. Hayden [continuing]. Cost.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Dr. Hayden. Thank you, Mr. Case.
        The distinguished gentleman from Nevada, Mr. Amodei.
        Mr. Amodei. Hey, Mr. Chairman, thank you.
        Dr. Hayden, good to see you. Thank you for taking the time
    to chat, most recently last week. I have a few issues, but they
    are not directly relative to the budget hearing, Mr. Chairman.
    So, Dr. Hayden, I look forward to talking with you soon.
        And I yield back.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Mr. Amodei.
        The distinguished gentleman from New York, Mr. Espaillat.

                           FORT MEADE STORAGE MODULE

        Mr. Espaillat. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Thank you, Dr. Hayden, for being with us again and the
    services you provide through the Library of Congress.
        Dr. Hayden, your budget calls for a $51 million funding
    stream for the Fort Meade storage site. How will this funding
    support the Library's immediate and long-term storage and
    preservation needs?
        Dr. Hayden. The Fort Meade module, as Mark Sweeney really
    elaborated on, is critical to making sure that we have the
    capacity to continue to add to our collections. We just had, in
    fact, a very generous donation of a significant person, the
    creator, Neal Simon, that is going to be really pivotal for us
    in being able to show the creative process.
        And we have more collections that are being either sought
    or potentially coming to us. So we are going to have a need in
    the next 20 to 50 years to have the capacity physically to
    accept that. And Mark can give more on that.
        Mr. Sweeney. Thank you, Dr. Hayden.
        Yes, collection storage is always a critical issue for the
    Library of Congress, especially now for the Module 7, which
    obviously is at least 18 months behind now as a result of the
    change in funding.
        That new storage module would hold the equivalent of 4
    million book volumes. Right now, the Library has at least a
    million volumes that are improperly stored here on Capitol
    Hill, either on the floor or in triple shelving. And, of
    course, the collections continue to grow. We do that as a
    necessity. We are storing through Copyright a significant, you
    know, volume of daily production, as well as the signature type
    of special collections that Dr. Hayden just mentioned.
        So in order for us to achieve our mission, you know, the
    collections continue to grow and collection storage, high-
    quality collection storage is critical to the Library.
        Dr. Hayden. And I have to add, as a librarian, this is
    almost--it is heart-wrenching to think that we would have to
    turn away collections and especially for the Nation's library,
    because we don't have the proper storage or the capacity. So
    thank you for asking that.

                     JANUARY 6TH IMPACT ON LIBRARY PROJECTS

        Mr. Espaillat. I also recognize that in fiscal year 2021,
    $41.5 million I think it was, was enacted for the construction
    of Fort Meade within the Architect of the Capitol's budget.
    However, circumstances now require the funding be repurposed
    for the support of urgent Capitol Hill campus security needs
    following the events of January 6th.
        What other Library projects were impacted due to the
    January 6th events?
        Dr. Hayden. Well, definitely the reprogramming of the
    funding that we were ready to go in design of that module was a
    very significant impact on the Library, because the timing now
    with constructing that module is getting even more critical for
    us.
        There were other aspects that the event of January 6th
    brought up was our need, and we were very pleased and grateful
    for the support for improved cellular service. That became very
    apparent. And we had support from the U.S. Capitol Police and
    the Architect of the Capitol to request that we have improved
    cellular service in that Thomas Jefferson Building in
    particular as well as our other buildings, and also to update
    our security systems, the actual devices, the cameras, and all
    of those things.
        So those, it brought it into stark relief how we have to
    update those systems that support security and observation in
    our buildings, and communication.
        Mr. Espaillat. Thank you. And thank you so much, Dr. Hayden
    and your team, for all the work that you do at the Library of
    Congress.
        Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.

                         Chairman Ryan Closing Remarks

        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Mr. Espaillat.
        I appreciate all the committee members here.
        And, Dr. Hayden, thank you for your discussion here today.
    As always, we are going to continue and this committee will
    continue to support the Library of Congress.
        You are invaluable to this institution, you know, and we
    all believe that it is our duty to protect the collections and
    give a good quality experience to the American taxpayer. So we
    are going to continue to support you on that. We appreciate all
    your good work. We appreciate your very sophisticated and
    diligent team that you have with you and surrounded yourself
    with some great people that can help us protect this
    institution for generations to come. So we appreciate you being
    here.
        Before we adjourn this panel, I just want to remind all
    members of the committee we are going to do the Government
    Publishing Office in 10 minutes. Please do not log off. We are
    going to continue to use the same line for the next panel. So
    we will just adjourn here for about 10 minutes and we will be
    right back.
        And, again, Dr. Hayden, thank you for your fantastic
    leadership. We appreciate you.
        Dr. Hayden. Thank you.
        Mr. Ryan. The hearing is adjourned.

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                                             Wednesday, April 27, 2022.

      FISCAL YEAR 2023 BUDGET REQUEST FOR THE GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE

                                    WITNESS

    HON. HUGH N. HALPERN, DIRECTOR

                       Opening Statement of Chairman Ryan

        Mr. Ryan. For our second panel today, I would like to
    welcome the Director of the Government Publishing Office, Mr.
    Hugh Halpern, to present the fiscal year 2023 budget request.
    Thank you for joining us today. We welcome you back to our
    subcommittee.
        This has been a tough couple of years for all agencies. I
    would like to acknowledge the staff of GPO for the
    extraordinary work they continue to do despite life's
    challenges.
        Congratulations to GPO on being recognized by Forbes
    Magazine as one of the best midsize employers in America. This
    is a testament to the hardworking individuals that continue to
    support this body and ensure that not only this body but all
    Federal agencies are able to produce government documents for
    their customers.
        The GPO fiscal year budget request is $130.9 million, an
    increase of $6.6 million, or 5.4 percent over what was provided
    in fiscal year 2022. I read in your request that this is only
    the second time in more than a decade that GPO has requested an
    overall increase.
        I look forward to your testimony today and hope it will
    shed some light on GPO's fiscal year 2023 investments, its
    strategic plan, and how these investments and plans will
    benefit Congress and the American people.
        At this point, I would like to yield to my colleague and
    friend from Washington State, the home of five active
    volcanoes, the ranking member, Ms. Herrera Beutler.

              Opening Statement of Ranking Member Herrera Beutler

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Way to start, Mr. Chairman, but
    nothing was effusive there for that introduction. Consequently,
    the only one that has erupted in the continental United States
    in the last number of years is in my district. So there you
    have it.
        Welcome back, Mr. Halpern. It is good to see you here
    today. And I know you have been in this role for a while, but I
    still expect to see you, like, on the Floor. So it is great to
    see you in this role. I am sure you are enjoying it.
        As Mr. Ryan said, the fiscal increase for 2023 is 5.37
    percent, and which it is astounding to think it is only the
    second time ever that you have requested that.
        A U.S.-based manufacturing operation with over a dozen
    offices nationwide and a mission to keep America informed, the
    U.S. Government Publishing Office, GPO, publishes and
    disseminates official government publications to Congress,
    Federal agencies, Federal depository libraries, and the
    American public.
        The GPO has used the resources Congress has provided to
    fully embrace the technological opportunities available to
    effectively fulfill its mission today. However, even with these
    successful technological advances, GPO has not been immune to
    the supply chain shortages and supply chain challenges that we
    have seen, whether it is cost of raw materials or just the
    constrained labor market that our Nation is experiencing right
    now. And my understanding is a significant portion of your
    fiscal year 2023 request is going towards personnel and supply
    cost increases.
        So I look forward to learning more about your plans to
    continue system and collection development, modernization
    efforts like XPub, and cybersecurity projects.
        So, with that, I yield back.

                         CHAIRMAN OUTLINES PROCEEDINGS

        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Ms. Herrera Beutler.
        Mr. Halpern, without objection, your written testimony will
    be made part of the record. Please summarize your statement for
    the members of the committee. Once you have finished your
    statement, we will move to the question-and-answer period. The
    floor is now yours, sir.

                          Testimony of Hugh N. Halpern

        Mr. Halpern. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman.
        Chairman Ryan, Ranking Member Herrera Beutler, and members
    of the subcommittee, thank you so much for the opportunity to
    testify on the fiscal year 2023 appropriations request of the
    Government Publishing Office.
        I am privileged to lead GPO's more than 1,500 talented
    craftspeople and professionals as we support the publishing and
    printing needs of all three branches of government, especially
    including Congress and the rest of the Legislative Branch. I
    appreciate the subcommittee's past support for GPO and look
    forward to continuing our partnership.
        For fiscal year 2023, as you mentioned, I am requesting
    approximately $130.9 million in appropriated funds, a 5.4
    percent increase over the prior year. As you know, GPO operates
    very much like a commercial enterprise, and about 88 percent of
    our $962 million revenue last year came from directly billing
    our other Federal customers.
        As you may recall from my testimony last year, fiscal year
    2020 marked GPO's first net loss since 2011. I am pleased to
    report that fiscal year 2021 marked a significant rebound for
    GPO, with a net operating income of $55.6 million versus fiscal
    year 2020's $21.5 million loss. Without the hard work of my
    teammates, we would not have been able to recover so
    decisively.
        We have taken concrete steps to ensure that GPO continues
    to be a great place to work, including government-leading
    telework and remote work policies. As the chair mentioned, that
    is why I was so happy to see that Forbes recently named GPO as
    one of the best midsize employers in the U.S.
        The agency's fiscal year 2023 request includes almost $83
    million for congressional publishing, a 5.2 percent increase
    over fiscal year 2022. This figure includes our estimate of
    Congress' needs and also factors in increased cost for both
    labor and raw materials. Of note, it is 32 percent lower in
    constant dollars than fiscal year 2010's congressional
    publishing appropriation.
        Our request for public information programs, which fund the
    Federal Depository Library Program, the operation of govinfo
    and other initiatives, the $35.3 million, a 3.6 percent
    increase over the prior year. Increased labor and material
    costs are also driving the increase in that request as well.
        Finally, we are requesting a total of $12.7 million in
    direct appropriations to GPO's revolving fund to support
    capital and IT investments important to Congress and the
    agency.
        Of note, this request includes increased direct support for
    the development of XPub, the agency's next-generation
    composition software. This software will radically change the
    print and digital composition process for Congress and GPO.
    Development of this system is critical for our partners in the
    House and Senate Offices of Legislative Counsel as well as the
    Clerk and the Secretary, as GPO is responsible for the software
    stack that supports printed and digital output. We expect to be
    able to deliver XPub for the printing of bills, resolutions,
    and amendments by the end of the calendar year, with deployment
    to follow on a timetable established by our customers in the
    House and Senate.
        These funds will assist us in the continued development of
    this system for other legislative products and help us to
    transition the system to a software-as-a-service so that we can
    ensure a future revenue stream to support improvements well
    into the future.
        We are also requesting funding to support continued
    development of govinfo, the world's only ISO-certified trusted
    digital repository. Last year, we celebrated the 9 billionth
    document retrieval on govinfo and its predecessor sites. It is
    a system that enjoys great success and great support, and we
    are requesting approximately $5.9 million to support the
    infrastructure, and that is nearly a million dollars less than
    we requested for the same purpose last year.
        Lastly, we are requesting $150,000 in continued funding for
    our cybersecurity efforts. And I am forwarding, as required by
    law, the agency's Inspector General's request for $1 million to
    outsource his IT and human capital operations.
        Thank you for this opportunity to present our budget
    request, and I am happy to answer your questions.
        [The information follows:]

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                          COVID-19 IMPACTS ON STAFFING

        Mr. Ryan. I appreciate that, Hugh. Thank you so much.
        I have got one question that is very relevant to the
    Appropriations Committee. We hear that COVID has imposed a
    significant strain on the workforce as it relates to staffing
    levels. And combined, that presents a challenge for GPO to meet
    its deliverables to congressional committees and, in
    particular, the Appropriations Committee, during our peak
    times. Given these challenges, GPO still produces what we need,
    but it certainly hasn't been a smooth ride, as you know better
    than anybody.
        So if you could give us your perspective and comments for
    the record, what can be done in the future to make this process
    smoother, and what steps are you taking to ensure GPO has the
    appropriate workforce, in terms of both size and skills, in
    place for today and the future, especially given that half of
    your workforce is eligible for retirement in the next 5 years?
        Mr. Halpern. That is a great question. And actually, the
    funny thing is I am testifying on that very topic before the
    Modernization Committee tomorrow. So this is a great practice
    run for me.
        So we are really happy to support both the House and the
    Senate, but particularly some of our committees, like the
    Appropriations Committee, rely on GPO to produce the documents
    that they need to do their work.
        And you are absolutely right. At the height of COVID, we
    were running into significant constraints, largely because we
    were having to operate with about half of the staff operating
    at any one time. And we did that for two reasons. One was to
    improve social distancing in office areas that are pretty
    cramped and folks are put together, but the other was to
    maintain capability. So if we had a situation where somebody
    got infected on one shift and we had to quarantine everybody
    who was around them, we still had capability to meet Congress'
    immediate needs.
        Where that really manifested in terms of problems was a
    backlog in processing introduced bills. And I am sure all of
    you had some measure that probably wasn't headed to the Floor
    right away but was nonetheless important but was stuck in our
    backlog around May 2021.
        Once we were able to bring everybody back into the building
    and we rearranged office areas a little bit, but we also had
    the vaccine rolling out--so it all sort of worked together--we
    were able to clear that backlog in a matter of months.
        In May 2021, we had about 1,800 bills sitting in our Bill
    End processing unit, and we had that pretty much cleared out by
    September. Today, we are close to our weeklong turnaround for
    normal items, and then we are able to process priority items
    for the House and the Senate usually overnight, depending on
    length and volume and things like that. So we are about at our
    normal service level agreement for the House and the Senate.
        But the issue you bring up with our labor force is probably
    the single most difficult issue I am dealing with and, frankly,
    one of the most critical issues that we are dealing with for
    GPO for long term. You know, we are having extreme difficulty
    recruiting particularly for the specialized trades. So think
    proofreaders, bookbinders, press operators. Those are all skill
    sets that are in demand but are very, very hard to come by.
        Right now, we are recruiting for our summer class of recent
    graduates and interns and actually having great success there.
    And to give you an idea, 25 years ago, we brought in a cohort
    to our recent graduate program, and many of those people are
    the executives who sit with me at our leadership table.
        We expect to start recruiting our new apprentice class for
    proofreaders hopefully in the coming couple of weeks. We really
    want to sync this up. We will be recruiting a little bit
    internally, but we are also looking to hire recent high school
    grads, because it is a great place to work and a great skill
    set that you don't necessarily need a college degree, and we
    want to help train that next generation of folks as well.
        But I can give you one example of an area where we really
    have a critical need, and it is very problematic. Bookbinders,
    the folks who put together our passports, they--as I told
    somebody yesterday, I could stand out on the street corner of
    South Capitol and H Street handing out stacks of thousand
    dollar bills and still not be able to recruit bookbinders who
    can pass a background check and have the right set of skills.
        We have been working very closely with our unions to try
    and develop a new position that doesn't quite have the skill
    level of a journey person bookbinder but who can still operate
    some of the machinery. We are still in negotiations over that.
    We are hoping that will close soon, but everybody has sort of
    got to look for GPO's future long term in that effort.
        But, you know, we know that we have got to figure out a
    path to get more of these skilled folks in the door, and that
    is really one of the critical things, both in our strategic
    plan and our day-to-day work.
        Mr. Ryan. Let me ask you something real quick. So you
    talked about the bookbinders. What percent of the workforce
    under you does not need a college education that could use
    some--a certification, a training, I don't know what you guys
    necessarily call it, but what is the percent of your workforce
    that would not need a college degree?
        Mr. Halpern. So we are actually--in our Human Capital unit,
    we are actually going back through position descriptions to try
    and review for exactly that. So where we might have positions
    that had a college degree requirement that we really don't need
    it, we are trying to excise that so that we have got a broader
    base of folks to recruit from.
        And my own son is a really, really good example. Rather
    than going to college, he decided to enlist in the Army, and he
    spent the last 9 months learning a great set of skills that
    will serve him, not only through his time in the Army, but when
    he gets out into the world as well. And we want to make sure we
    are recruiting from that group of folks, because there are a
    lot of really talented, really great young folks who I think
    could benefit from the kind of employment we offer here at GPO.
        To give you an idea, the way our workforce breaks down,
    about two-thirds of the workforce is mostly blue-collar. We
    have got two-thirds of folks who have to come to work every
    single day. Their job is here in the building. We have got
    about one-third of our workforce, mostly white-collar, who can
    work remotely or use telework or things like that.
        So that is generally the rule of thumb I use, but I can get
    you more refined statistics when we are done.
        Mr. Ryan. Yeah. We would love to see that. I am well over
    my time.
        The distinguished gentlewoman from Washington State, Ms.
    Herrera Beutler.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        It was both exciting to hear that you are revamping
    everything, but distressing to hear that there are not enough
    people to bind books that can pass those background checks.
    That is astonishing. I am curious as to how we help fix that.
    Maybe give me that real quick before I get into my more formal
    questions.
        Mr. Halpern. Sure. And it is a problem. So bookbinders,
    press operators are really folks from a--and, you know, I think
    your dad was a printer.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. I was going to say. Yeah. He had to
    switch careers. He had done that my whole life, although he
    wasn't necessarily on the press operating side of it. But just
    the industry as a whole, the bottom fell out.
        Mr. Halpern. Right. Absolutely. So, you know, we are trying
    to sort of mine for both folks who may be in a transition. So
    to give you an idea, we are trying to stand up a second shift
    on our passport operation, and we have been trying to do that
    since I got here 2 years ago. We are just having trouble
    finding the skilled people we need to get that work done.
        So, for instance, when the Baltimore Sun decided to close
    its printing plant, we sent folks up there to try and sell them
    on GPO. You have got a bunch of folks who are going to find
    themselves out of a job, and we wanted to see if they would be
    interested in coming to join us, either as bookbinders or press
    operators or whoever.
        But part of the problem is, if you are working over in our
    passport operation, you have got to have a security clearance,
    and it takes us a while to adjudicate that clearance.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Like an SF-86, like the serious one?
    Like an SF-86, like the big deal?
        Mr. Halpern. Yes.
        You need to maintain a secret clearance, because you are
    going to have access to all of the anticounterfeiting features
    that we build for the State Department into the passport.
        And we have just switched over so that we are operating--so
    that we are only producing the new passport, the next-
    generation passport, which is the most advanced identity
    document anywhere in the world. So we need folks who can sort
    of have access to the nitty-gritty of how all of that works and
    we are sure that they aren't spreading those secrets to folks
    they shouldn't be spreading it to.
        So, you know, that is just one of the complications we have
    got. I think we are kind of at an inflection point where the
    kind of education and the kind of work that folks are doing is
    changing, and we want to try and be on the leading edge of that
    so we can find new groups of folks, these smart folks in high
    school who may not want to go to college but want a good
    middle-class lifestyle, get them to GPO, because that is what
    GPO has been doing for generations.
        We have been employing folks, providing that great middle-
    class lifestyle, and giving them the opportunity to produce
    things of critical need for the Nation.

                      IMPACTS FROM SUPPLY CHAIN SHORTAGES

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Thank you for that. And thank you for
    the peek into the challenges on that.
        And I wanted--I guess along that line, I mean, that is like
    human capital supply chain shortages. Could you speak to us a
    little bit about the impact from the--around supply chains that
    have caused, you know, your budget request to increase?
        Mr. Halpern. Sure. So as a general matter, paper is a
    really good example. When we can get paper, it is usually 20 to
    30 percent more than what we were paying a couple of years ago.
        And the question is, is when we can get it, because what
    has happened--and you may have seen this in the Northwest,
    there are a number of paper mills up there. They are shifting
    their mix of products that they make, largely the cardboard. So
    they are supporting the Amazons and the Walmarts of the world,
    because that is where the profit is for them. It is less so in
    those printing grade papers that we need for the Congressional
    Record or for the other documents that we produce.
        So just getting paper is really hard to do. When we can get
    it, we are paying a premium for that.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. That is shocking to me if you consider
    how much Federal land there is in the West and the mortality of
    the land on the Federal forest, the Gifford Pinchot, which goes
    up around the Mount St. Helens, just to support other Federal
    efforts.
        I mean, we should not be paying a premium. Especially, I
    have some timber companies that have had to shift and it has
    been in large part because they can't rely on the Federal
    Government to get access to that. But that seems like something
    we could help with.
        Mr. Halpern. And we would love to have those conversations
    with both the timber folks and paper mills to figure things
    out. In the meantime, we have been trying to come up with novel
    answers.
        So, for instance, one of our teammates came up with an idea
    where we were able to take older rolled paper that we had that
    was meant for a different kind of press that we don't use
    anymore. We were able to send that out, have them basically
    slice that in two and extend our paper supply for several
    months. And it was a great example of sort of our folks'
    ingenuity.
        So we are working closely with some of the paper mills and
    paper suppliers. My deputy and I went out to go visit a paper
    mill few months ago. And now that things are opening up again,
    we plan to be spending some more time talking with both our
    suppliers and contractors to figure out where the problems are
    and how we can be helpful.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Thank you for that. I appreciate it.
        Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
        Mr. Ryan. Thanks, Ms. Herrera Beutler.
        Next is the distinguished gentlewoman from Massachusetts,
    Ms. Clark.

                                STAFF RETENTION

        Ms. Clark. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman and Ranking
    Member.
        And it is good to be with you, Director Halpern. I want to
    reiterate our congratulations on being listed as one of
    America's best midsized employers. And thank you for extremely
    interesting testimony and responding with these challenges with
    such ingenuity.
        Mr. Halpern. Thank you.
        Ms. Clark. And that brings me to one aspect of what we have
    been talking about with your workforce and ways you are trying
    to recruit and retain. With over half of your staff reaching
    retirement eligibility in the next 5 years, what are you doing
    to retain that institutional knowledge? What sort of plans are
    you making around that?
        Mr. Halpern. So that is a great question. That is actually
    one of the key elements of our strategic plan as we talk about
    how we develop the workforce, it is how do we create an
    environment where folks want to continue to work here at GPO.
        You know, we are actually blessed that so many of our
    employees really regard GPO as a great place to work. We
    literally have generations of folks working here at GPO. You
    know, I can point to our plant manager, who was the acting
    director of the agency for a little while. He started as a
    bookbinder, no college education. I believe it was 1968. So he
    has been here for 50-odd years and, you know, continues to
    provide us with great advice and counsel even to this day.
        I have a couple of bookbinders over in our passport
    operation who are in their 80s, and they still love coming to
    work every day. So, you know, we have this combination where I
    think people enjoy working here, and we want to keep that
    spirit and retain them as much as we can.
        But we also realize that at some point folks have earned
    their retirement and they need to enjoy that, and we want to
    facilitate that. So what we need to do is really recruit that
    next generation of folks who can work alongside our
    craftspeople, learn those skills.
        And we are really looking to invigorate these
    apprenticeship programs. So, as I was saying, we are starting
    with our first class hopefully here in a couple of--or
    announcing our first class here in a week or two for
    proofreaders. And that is going to be a fairly small class, but
    we want to ramp that up so that we are hitting sort of the
    journey person trades, so the, you know, bookbinders, press
    operators, those folks, typographers, hitting those folks, and
    then also extending that to electricians and plumbers, because
    we have got a million square feet under roof we have got to
    maintain.
        So I really want to reinvigorate that apprenticeship
    program, and I want to build partnerships with local high
    schools so that we have got a stream of folks where we can say,
    look, if you want to go to college, that is great, but if you
    want something else, we have got a training and job path for
    you to follow here at GPO.
        And it is something that is sort of tried and true and has
    worked really well in the past, and we just need to
    reinvigorate that.

                          FEDERAL DEPOSITORY LIBRARIES

        Ms. Clark. Amazing. Thank you.
        I wanted to follow up also on a discussion we had a while
    ago about Federal depository libraries. I see you have asked
    for five full-time--five FTEs for your enhanced outreach. I
    wonder if you could just tell us how that is going. And in
    particular, I am interested in your new pilot to help make
    government information more available, especially on topics
    related to women's suffrage, voting, civil rights, and other
    important areas.
        Mr. Halpern. So this has been a great area of success for
    us, and the library community have been great supporters of GPO
    long, long before I got here.
        The good news is we are actually starting to hire folks for
    those extended outreach programs, and our telework and remote
    work policies have actually really--actually made that a lot
    easier. We have actually gotten very good at on-boarding people
    who have never been here in D.C. Our IT team is great at
    getting folks computers and phones and all that stuff without
    them having to come here to headquarters.
        We have also been working on these pilot programs. You
    know, we have one I think that is ongoing right now with a
    library in Utah dealing with some of their World War II
    materials that are very rare, and preserving and digitizing
    those materials so they are accessible to everyone. And we are
    starting our next round with the pilot program, looking at
    different programs and accepting applications from libraries
    all across the country, so that GPO can partner with them to
    help preserve some of those Federal collections that we have
    out there.
        The other thing that I want to highlight in terms of the
    FDLP is we have a task force going on with both folks here at
    GPO, folks in the library community, and folks in the Federal
    library system, really looking at the future of the FDLP and
    what makes sense.
        And, you know, there is a lot of talk of the move to
    digital and should we have an all-digital depository library
    program in the future. I am expecting a report back from them
    by the end of the calendar year, basically saying, one, is that
    a good idea, and if it is, what does that program look like, so
    that we can develop a program that helps deliver information to
    all of your constituents and all of our customers. So it is
    really a key thing for us to look at going into the future.
        Ms. Clark. Great. Thank you so much, Director Halpern.
        And I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Ms. Clark.
        The distinguished gentleman from Washington State, Mr.
    Newhouse.
        Mr. Newhouse. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Mr. Halpern, great to see you.
        Mr. Halpern. Good to see you, sir.
        Mr. Newhouse. And I got to say too, it is great to see you
    doing such a great job at GPO. We knew you would do what you
    are doing. Your work experience here with us in the House told
    us that you had a bright future. And just thank you for your
    hard work and your great leadership.
        Mr. Halpern. Thank you.

                    UNITED STATES LEGISLATIVE MARKUP PROJECT

        Mr. Newhouse. In your budget request, you talk about the
    GPO completing the planning and procurement on the USLM, or
    United States Legislative Markup, which my understanding is a
    project to remodel bills and resolutions into a new format. So
    I would like to have you give a little more insight into that,
    what you expect to complete in this fiscal year.
        And also, I don't know if this is the right venue or if you
    are the right person to ask this question, but I think several
    States besides Washington do this, and it seems to me it would
    be good for the Congress to do it as well. When a bill is
    introduced that modifies existing law, it would--I don't know
    the right term to use here, but it would kind of be shown in a
    redline format so that we can see what language is being
    deleted or amended, and that would be very helpful. And I just
    wondered if that is part of what you are looking at in this
    USLM.
        Mr. Halpern. Well, let me take that second part of the
    question first, because that is a little bit easier. And this
    is actually much of what I am going to be talking about
    tomorrow with the Modernization Committee.
        So when we were a much smaller country, we made some poor
    decisions when we decided how we were going to construct our
    system of laws and, more importantly, how we were going to
    construct our system for changing those laws. And we made
    decisions that didn't really scale well, particularly when you
    bring them forward to more of a modern era.
        All of our bills, anything that amends current law is
    drafted as an instruction to an unseen clerk. And that makes it
    really hard to figure out what is going on.
        So the good news is--and I can't take full responsibility
    for this. This is really a Clerk project. But the Comparative
    Print Project will provide you the kind of view of a bill that
    you are looking for. And I know that the Clerk is anxious to
    get that rolled out to Members. I will let her talk about the
    timetable for that.
        But I have seen that system develop since basically--you
    may remember the Republican Conference where we adopted that
    rule from Mr. Posey that really spurred development of that
    system.
        And I have really got to hand it to the Clerk. She and her
    team have really, really put that together, through successive
    clerks, to really develop a first-rate project on that front.
        Mr. Newhouse. Good.
        Mr. Halpern. USLM refers to a much larger project that
    involves not only us in the House and the Senate, but everyone
    who might deal with legislation or regulation overall. And so
    one of the things to keep in mind is when we first switched
    over to digital typesetting in the early 1980s, that was based
    on a purely proprietary GPO system where all we could do was
    really--it described how these documents were supposed to look.
    The data wasn't particularly useful any more than that.
        And the best way to sort of see the poor effects of that
    are if you or your staff are trying to, I don't know, edit a
    passage from a bill in Word just to share with leg counsel or
    somebody else, whether you are trying to just copy that out of
    a PDF or use GPO's provided display of the plain text, they are
    terrible. They are awful. They are hard to use. I feel like I
    need to apologize for it every single time I talk about this.
    And it has been around for 30 years.
        Well, what USLM does--and this follows on to a program
    started in the mid-1990s, where we use XML, Extensible Markup
    Language, where we are describing not how things look but what
    they are. It is a subsection. It is a heading. It is a
    paragraph.
        And when you do that, you can apply formats on top of that.
    You can say, oh, headings always look this way, or something
    along those lines. But once it is data, you can use that in a
    lot of different ways. So you can build a system like the
    Comparative Print Project, where it is looking at that data and
    doing some really keen AI things, where it is saying, oh, I
    understand what the instruction is here, let me go out to the
    current law and lay those two things on top of each other and
    give you a display that is usable.
        We can do that--and there are lots of other applications.
    XPub is really going to be key to that. So what happens now is
    when you go to leg counsel and they say, Mr. Newhouse, here is
    your bill, and they hit control P to print, it takes a file
    that is drafted in XML, sort of the precursor to USLM,
    translates that back into GPO's typesetting codes, and then
    another program that was created by GPO translates that into
    what we call postscript, which is a page description language,
    and then Adobe Acrobat takes that postscript and produces that
    PDF that you see on the other side.
        There are multiple possible points of failure in that. I
    know that personally, because I have had to tell two speakers
    that their particular priorities couldn't go forward because we
    couldn't get it to print. And those, I can assure you, were
    uncomfortable conversations.
        Mr. Newhouse. I can imagine.
        Mr. Halpern. But XPub will take that XML or USLM formatting
    and spit that out as a PDF, or make it easily postable online,
    or, most importantly, give you a usable text display of that
    piece of legislation. So you can cut that off of the web page,
    paste it into your Word document and edit to your heart's
    content, and give that to leg counsel and go, here is how I
    want that to look.
        And so that is really one of the promises of the system.
    And we have got examples of that on our GitHub repository, and
    we hope to deliver that to the House and Senate by the end of
    the calendar year. We are working very closely with them to try
    and make sure that we can hit that deadline.
        Mr. Newhouse. Awesome. Great. Well, thank you very much,
    Hugh. Again, good to see you.
        Mr. Halpern. You too.
        Mr. Newhouse. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will yield back.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Mr. Newhouse.
        The distinguished gentleman from Hawaii, Mr. Case.

                              UNEXPENDED BALANCES

        Mr. Case. Thank you, Chair.
        Mr. Halpern, let's see, I am just trying to get the prior
    year unexpended balances straight in my head. So if I have it
    correct, your budget this year does not include somewhere in
    the range of $3 million, is that correct, in approved
    application of prior year unexpended balances to your costs?
        Mr. Halpern. I believe that is the case. I don't have those
    particular numbers right in front of me. But, for instance,
    those prior year unexpended balances have been funding XPub
    development sort of up to the last couple of years, where we
    have been required--where we have been requesting additional
    directed appropriations for that purpose, because those
    unexpended balances have been dwindling over the years.
        Mr. Case. Okay. So just to clarify, why do you have
    unexpended balances from year to year?
        Mr. Halpern. So the best example of that is the
    congressional printing appropriation. So the best way to think
    about that is it is a deposit account, or think of it as like a
    gift card. It is an $80 million gift card that we bill against
    for all of Congress' printing and publishing needs for a given
    year.
        Some years, we estimate what that number is, and some years
    we fall below that. Congress--there are fewer bills introduced
    or fewer committee reports or fewer specialized things. We
    don't have to do inauguration, so we don't have those expenses,
    those kind of things.
        Mr. Case. You say that they are dwindling. So, I mean, how
    long until your current balance is exhausted? It is a matter of
    years, I mean, because you are increasing your costs, right?
        Mr. Halpern. Our costs are increasing substantially. And
    the volume of congressional work is going up in some respects.
    Each year, we have a greater number of pages for congressional
    bills that we have to process. So, you know, it depends on the
    year. We have started requesting these additional
    appropriations, largely because those unexpended balances are
    no longer available.
        And I can get you a more detailed response to show you how
    that plays out over time. But if we don't have these additional
    appropriations, for instance, for the XPub development, we are
    going to have to find those funds elsewhere. So either we build
    that into the page rate, the rate we charge the appropriation
    for each page we have to process, or we have to cut back on
    other priorities to fund that one.
        Mr. Case. Okay, great.
        Okay. That is all I have, Chair. I yield back. Thank you.

                         Chairman Ryan Closing Remarks

        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Mr. Case.
        If there are no further questions, again, we want to just
    say thanks, Hugh. And all of us who watched your work here in
    the House are really proud to see what you are doing, and we
    want to be here to support you and to continue to support the
    workers that are there.
        Obviously, you got some hurdles that we want to help you
    overcome with regard to the workforce and, you know, getting us
    the stuff that we need. So let's see what we can do in the near
    future to continue that friendship and that relationship that
    we have had with you for such a long time and making sure we
    get the products to the Appropriations Committee and other
    committees in a timely manner.
        Mr. Halpern. Absolutely.
        Mr. Ryan. We want to make sure we address that issue. So
    thank you again. Appreciate it. Make sure you tell all your
    team how much we appreciate them.
        And, with that, this hearing is adjourned until 2 p.m.,
    when we will hear from the Architect of the Capitol.

                                             Wednesday, April 27, 2022.

        FISCAL YEAR 2023 BUDGET REQUEST FOR THE ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL

                                    WITNESS

    J. BRETT BLANTON, P.E., ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL

                       Opening Statement of Chairman Ryan

        Mr. Ryan. The committee will come to order.
        This hearing is fully virtual, so we need to address a few
    housekeeping matters.
        First, for today's last meeting, the chair or staff
    designated by the chair may mute participants' microphones when
    they are not under recognition for the purposes of eliminating
    inadvertent background noise.
        Second, members are responsible for muting and unmuting
    themselves. If I notice when you are recognized you have not
    unmuted yourself, I will ask if you would like the staff to
    unmute you. If you indicate approval by nodding, staff will
    unmute your microphone.
        Third, you will notice a clock on your screen that will
    show how much of the 5-minute clock is remaining. If there is a
    technology issue, we will move to the next member.
        Fourth, we will begin with the chair and ranking member.
    Then members present at the time the hearing is called to order
    will be recognized in order of seniority.
        Finally, House rules require me to remind you that we have
    set up an email address to which members can send anything they
    wish to submit in writing at any of our hearings. That email
    address has been provided in advance to your staff.
        The committee will come to order.
        For our third and final panel today, I would like to
    welcome the Architect of the Capitol, the Honorable Brett
    Blanton, to present the AOC's fiscal year 2023 budget request.
        Mr. Blanton, thank you, and thank you to the AOC.
        I also want to thank Jonathan Kraft and Christine Leonard
    for their work during the last appropriation cycle in getting
    us up to speed quickly as we transition subcommittee team
    members.
        For fiscal year 2023, the AOC is requesting $1.67 billion,
    an increase of $890.5 million or 115 percent in appropriated
    funds over what was provided last year. This is a significant
    request.
        I see that at least 71 percent of this increase is focused
    on addressing the physical security changes that have been
    recommended in reports following the January 6th attack on the
    Capitol. I hope you can provide details on the additional needs
    for this increase in your testimony here today.
        A smoothly functioning AOC is important to all Members and
    staff. We understand the workload for AOC staff continues to
    increase as you continue to work on ongoing projects and
    simultaneously addressing the new challenges that have arisen
    this past year.
        On top of that, the AOC continues to face a significant
    backlog of substantial facility renovation needs, both
    immediate and long term. New construction projects require
    design and implementation, and there continues to be concerns
    regarding discrimination in the AOC workplace.
        As you tackle these very important issues, you will have
    our subcommittee's support. However, it is critical you give us
    some reassurances today about how your budget request addresses
    these challenges.
        At this point, I would like to yield to my colleague and
    friend from Washington State, the ranking member, Jaime Herrera
    Beutler, for any opening comments that she would like to make.

              Opening Statement of Ranking Member Herrera Beutler

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. All right. I got the mute button off.
        Thank you, Chairman Ryan.
        And, Mr. Blanton, thank you so much for being here today.
        So I wanted to start off with saying I really appreciate
    how proactive you have been on reaching out on a number of
    things that the AOC has been working on and including this
    year's budget request. I think it helped us put it in
    perspective a little bit. A little bit of sticker shock, but it
    was helpful to get that information beforehand.
        And I want to say thank you to your staff for their due
    diligence and really hard work over the past year in dealing
    with a lot of challenging circumstances across the Capitol
    community and working in coordination with the Office of the
    Attending Physician, the Capitol Police, and the other entities
    to prepare the campus to open its doors to our--reopen our
    doors to our constituents in light of all of that.
        In addition to the major undertakings that you all are
    already engaged in, such as the Cannon House Office Building
    renewal and the pipe replacement at the Capitol Power Plant,
    the AOC is asking for--it is a substantial increase to address
    security recommendations in the aftermath of the January 6th
    riot. I don't even know what the right word is.
        Mr. Blanton, I fully support doing what needs to be done to
    keep everyone who passes through the doors of Congress safe:
    visitors, staff, Member alike. But, obviously, when we are
    discussing this much money, we need to do it with the utmost
    scrutiny and transparency, which I know you agree.
        So I know that some of the information does need to remain
    classified, but you have also agreed publicly, you know, that
    there is a lot around here that has been overclassified and
    there does need to be, where we can make it happen, more
    transparency. So I agree with that. I think that the taxpayer
    dollars we are using, obviously, it is not private money, and
    we want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to
    open up as much as we can so that folks know, the American
    taxpayer knows that what they are paying for and what the
    return on that is.
        And I think there is a good story to tell. I think that is
    part of why opening up on the transparency sometimes will help
    us tell that story to the public more, and I think it will make
    it go a lot further.
        So I look forward to your testimony and how your office is
    going to move forward in this, in many of these initiatives in
    order to execute this mission.
        And, with that, I yield back to Chairman Ryan from the
    State where the first ambulance service was established in
    Cincinnati. So thank you.

                         CHAIRMAN OUTLINES PROCEEDINGS

        Mr. Ryan. Thank you for that reminder, Ms. Herrera Beutler.
    I appreciate it.
        Without objection, Mr. Blanton, your written testimony will
    be made part of the record. Please summarize your statement for
    the members of the committee. Once you have finished your
    statement, we will move to the question-and-answer portion of
    our show. You have the floor.

                         Testimony of J. Brett Blanton

        Mr. Blanton. Chairman Ryan, Ranking Member Herrera Beutler,
    and members of the subcommittee, I appreciate the opportunity
    to testify today. Before I begin, I would like to extend my
    appreciation for the committee's work to achieve the
    Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022.
        I also appreciate the committee's strong support for the
    Cannon Renewal program. As the Cannon Building moves forward
    towards final completion, we are meeting deadlines and keeping
    the project on track. At the same time, we are making major
    progress with other prioritized projects and initiatives.
        Before I go into detail about AOC's budget requests, I want
    to acknowledge two major anniversaries this week. First, we are
    joining communities around the Nation to celebrate the 200th
    anniversary of Frederick Law Olmsted's birth. The founder of
    American landscape architecture, Olmsted designed many of our
    country's favorite parks.
        Relevant to today's hearing, he was the visionary behind
    the plan for the Capitol Grounds. Enduring for centuries,
    Olmsted's design accentuates the unforgettable experience of
    looking upon the Capitol Building.
        Beyond his enduring design, Olmsted's detailed plan
    included the lanterns and walkways that AOC preserves and
    maintains today. AOC's arborists still care for about 40 of the
    original trees planted as part of Olmsted's plan. Perhaps
    unknowingly, many visitors continue to be inspired by Olmsted's
    majestic and unforgettable vision for our treasured Capitol
    Building.
        As we enjoy the beautiful environment in the springtime, we
    are also honoring another significant milestone, the
    bicentennial commemoration for the two-term President, Ulysses
    S. Grant. Particularly relevant for AOC and this committee, we
    are honoring the 100th anniversary of the Grant Memorial.
    Situated at the edge of Union Square Reflecting Pool with the
    Capitol as its backdrop, this historic monument marks the
    eastern side of the National Mall. Henry Merwin Shrady spent
    over 20 years creating this sculpture, which is now recognized
    as the largest equestrian monument in the country.
        Eleven years ago, AOC took responsibility for the
    Memorial's preservation. Since then, we have undertaken a
    meticulous conservation effort to restore it to its original
    splendor, highlighting the details of the original sculpture.
        Facing the Lincoln Memorial, the monument symbolizes the
    bond between the President and the general who fought together
    to save our Nation.
        Embodying that same spirit, AOC employees have remained
    steadfast in their unwavering service in the face of adversity
    over the last 2 years. Every day, I am struck by the commitment
    and talent of our hardworking employees. Whatever the weather,
    our grounds teams work diligently to maintain this oasis where
    nature can flourish, surrounded by the large urban forest. And
    throughout our entire agency, the legacy of our Nation's
    founder continues to inspire us.
        Today's vision and mission are clear: The U.S. Capitol is a
    symbol of Western democracy and an historic landmark. It is
    also one of the most architecturally significant buildings in
    the entire world.
        As we consider what the next century will bring, we are
    engaging in our own visionary process for the Capitol's future
    that will include an updated, comprehensive master plan.
        At the same time, AOC employees are working tirelessly to
    upgrade capabilities and facilities to meet the technical,
    space, and accessibility needs of the 21st century workforce.
    United in our shared mission and goals, AOC staff has improved
    security measures across campus, in close coordination with the
    Capitol Police, as well as the House and Senate Sergeant at
    Arms.
        While some of these changes are more visible than others,
    we have worked continuously throughout the pandemic to preserve
    and maintain the Capitol complex. AOC's budget request seeks
    additional support for critical measures to ensure safety of
    Members of Congress, staff, and visitors on campus.
        As the subcommittee considers campus-wide security
    improvements, the AOC needs adequate resources to support our
    partners in the Capitol Police, as well as the House and Senate
    Sergeant at Arms. We must work together efficiently and
    immediately so that resources are appropriately aligned towards
    our shared priorities. Our safety and security depend upon our
    united strength and collaboration. With the committee's full
    support and sufficient resources, I stand ready to implement
    these urgent and necessary requirements.
        As this committee knows, delayed funding has consequences.
    We are working constantly to reconcile the cost of historic
    preservation and pressing modern demands. We need to take
    immediate steps to address deferred maintenance across the
    Capitol complex. AOC's budget request reflects essential life
    safety projects for the safety of all and well-being of
    everyone who works and visits here.
        While physical security and infrastructure improvements are
    top priorities, I also remain focused on transformative change
    within the AOC. We need to cultivate and maintain a positive
    and productive work environment where people have the necessary
    skills, training, equipment, and support.
        Every day, I am continually impressed and inspired by the
    expertise, tenacity, and determination of AOC employees.
    Reflecting a wide range of roles and responsibilities, we are
    all contributing to the success of Congress, the Supreme Court,
    and the Library of Congress. Together, we are getting the job
    done for the American people.
        Despite all the challenges we have overcome during the past
    2 years, I remain optimistic and determined about our way
    forward. The Capitol will continue to endure as a beacon of
    democracy, serving and inspiring future generations, yet our
    success depends upon our collective ability to be consistent
    and unwavering in our focus, commitment, and results.
        On behalf of the Architect of the Capitol staff, I thank
    you for your support, and look forward to answering your
    questions.
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                       SECURITY NEEDS IN FY 2023 REQUEST

        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Mr. Blanton. We appreciate it. We
    appreciate your testimony.
        We know you are seeking to implement a lot of the
    recommendations that were given to you for improvements to
    build the whole campus up and to provide security. So I have
    got two or three questions along those lines, because, as Ms.
    Herrera Beutler said, this is a significant increase that you
    are requesting.
        So if you could, you know, share with us a little bit just
    to give us a little background on what you all have done
    already with regard to safety around the campus. What is the
    coordination level that you are having right now with the
    Capitol Police and the Sergeant at Arms around the security,
    and how does the budget request correspond to funding requests
    from the Capitol Police? If you can kind of go through that for
    us, it would be terrific.
        Mr. Blanton. Yes. Thank you.
        Over the past year, we have done, using existing
    appropriations--well, let me back up.
        Immediately following the events of January 6th, we asked
    for transfer authority so that we could do a comprehensive
    physical security assessment of the Capitol Building and the
    Capitol complex. This assessment broke the Capitol into several
    zones where we were looking at the different security ratings
    within these zones.
        Paramount to this was making sure that we aren't defending
    ourselves against the last battle, but realizing that taking
    lessons learned from the events of January 6th and using that
    to inform a number of different threat scenarios across the
    campus. Concurrently, we have been doing upgrades to the
    Chamber--the House Chamber. The Speaker's lobby was upgraded,
    the Chamber doors were upgraded, and also the gallery was
    upgraded.
        We also built a new foundation alarm around the Capitol
    Building that will help deter and identify when people are
    trying to scale the Capitol. We have upgraded kiosks for the
    Capitol Police. We have in the House leadership offices within
    the Capitol Building installed peepholes to the leadership
    doors, installed anti-intrusion hinges on leadership doors, and
    other security devices. So there has been a great deal of work
    that is going on.
        The current projects that are identified in the AOC's 2023
    request have been greatly coordinated with both the House and
    the Senate Sergeant at Arms. They were involved in the process
    from the beginning, as well as the Capitol Police, to develop
    what the scope for the comprehensive security assessment and
    the mitigations that we are asking to fund afterwards.
        And can you forgive me, I can't remember what your third
    question was. Capitol Police. I apologize.
        The Capitol Police is getting a significant increase in
    their manning and budget and personnel requirements. You will
    see in my budget is a commensurate increase, because, for
    example, when you have more officers, we need to lease more
    space and they need more storage, and so there is a tail
    associated with the increase in Capitol Police.
        I will say, we have worked very closely together to ensure
    that any Capitol Police initiative has identified the AOC
    portion of that initiative so that we can determine and have
    full visibility of what the solution on the Capitol Police side
    is, and what it involves on the AOC side.

                               FY 2023 PRIORITIES

        Mr. Ryan. And now, what other priorities are reflected in
    here that maybe you haven't mentioned? I will give you a minute
    or two to answer that.
        Mr. Blanton. Thank you.
        Mr. Ryan. Outside of the comprehensive assessment.
        Mr. Blanton. Life safety and deferred maintenance. If you
    look at all of our projects, with the exception of the
    resubmission for the Module 7 book storage for the Library of
    Congress, every one of them is addressing either a life safety
    or a deferred maintenance issue.
        Of great concern to me is our fire suppression around this
    entire Capitol complex and the deterioration of the utility
    tunnels, the 4 miles of utility tunnels around campus. Some of
    these are being held up by wood shoring. I have people that go
    in there every day, and there is a risk that it could collapse.
        We have expansion joints. I don't know if you have seen
    videos in the past of where manholes were shot out 40 to 60
    feet in the air in New York City when these expansion joints
    break. And so that is a danger to not only my staff, but it is
    also a danger to anybody who is walking around campus at that
    particular time.
        Mr. Ryan. Ms. Herrera Beutler, 5 minutes.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        On that last front, has that--your request for funding on
    those issues, is this something that was made by your
    predecessor? I have a hard time believing that we have spent
    this much money on the Cannon Renewal Project. And some of it
    was really necessary and then some of it was just changing it
    and updating it. But it is hard to believe that some of those,
    like, whatever was more cosmetic or artificial is more
    important than what you just described.
        Mr. Blanton. These requests were submitted in previous
    years. In fact, all of them are really follow-on phased
    programs. They just get funded in smaller increments. And now
    some of the deterioration has been accelerating over recent
    years.

                                  FIRE SAFETY

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Okay. Thank you.
        Well, let's talk about the fire safety piece of that. So
    you, you know, in talking about the--you shared with us your
    concern over the lack of sprinklers in the Capitol Building
    and, obviously, the hazard there. In the omnibus that was
    recently passed, there was $6.8 million to address that
    concern. Will that adequately meet that need to eliminate this
    hazard or do you need more--do you think more needs to be done?
    And then also, what is the timeframe for installation of a
    sprinkler system now that those funds are in hand?
        Mr. Blanton. Thank you. The $6.8 million was actually for
    design, the design effort for the sprinklers within the Capitol
    Building. It finishes the sprinklers in the basement and then
    addresses the sprinkler systems in the first through third
    floors. The fourth floor was done through in-house labor forces
    using our already appropriated money.
        With the timeframe, this is a very extensive design for
    this building because you have to make sure that we are not
    just putting red pipes up on this historic fabric. It is going
    to take at least a year and a half for the design effort, which
    would then put this, at the earliest, in line for a 2025 budget
    submission.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. So we are not getting any like actual
    fire suppression benefit out of that money this year? It is
    all----
        Mr. Blanton. No. It is designing it this year.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. We just hope that a fire doesn't
    start?
        Mr. Blanton. Unfortunately, that is the risk, and that is
    what scared me about the events of the 6th, if inadvertently
    something happened.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Started a fire.
        Mr. Blanton. Yes. I will say, we are going to be also using
    my already appropriated dollars from 2022 to do attic sprinkler
    system within the Chamber. That will make it so if we have a
    fire in the Chambers, that there will be a means of safely
    egressing out of it.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Something like the wood or the really
    flammable material. I guess it kind of just depends on the room
    you are in, huh? It depends on where you are at.
        Mr. Blanton. That is correct. Some of the rooms are----
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Better than others.
        Mr. Blanton. Yes.

                              CAPITOL POLICE BOARD

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Okay. We learned in an emergency,
    don't be in the Chamber.
        Let's see. So I wanted to switch a little bit to the
    Capitol Police Board transparency. And, you know, as the AOC,
    you are one of the three voting members now, right, of the
    Capitol Police Board. Last year, you suggested the Board does
    have some--has some needless secrecy.
        And I wanted to know, do you think that the--because they
    have made a lot of changes here. They are finally, you know,
    implementing those GAO recommendations, or at least a number of
    them they are on track to.
        Do you think it is still the case, in terms of the
    transparency of the Capitol Police Board, or are there further
    changes you would recommend?
        Mr. Blanton. I think the Capitol Police Board has made
    monumental improvements post-January 6th. The coordination is
    significant between all entities of the Capitol Police,
    including the chief of police and their staff, much greater
    than it ever has been in the past.
        And with that, there is definitely--and I don't want to
    speak for the other Sergeants at Arms, but we have a great
    sense of wanting to be as transparent as possible.
        Ms. Herrera Beutler. Good. Good. Thank you.
        That is all I have, Mr. Chairman.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Ms. Herrera Beutler.
        We are going to the distinguished gentleman from New York,
    Mr. Espaillat.

                    CONCERNS REGARDING STAFF DISCRIMINATION

        Mr. Espaillat. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you once
    again for allowing me to ask questions.
        Mr. Blanton, the AOC has a pattern of discrimination going
    back 20 years, and a pattern of settling lawsuits with no
    further action in terms of firing the perpetrators involved,
    who, in fact, in some cases was a supervisor.
        How will your budget address this alarming internal matter,
    and how will you hold bad actors accountable, especially with
    already two allegations just this year?
        Mr. Blanton. Thank you for the question. I can tell you I
    take this very seriously. I will say the allegations that are
    from this year are actually legacy allegations that were just
    coming up in court now. They have been reviewed by AOC, and in
    one of them it was determined that the allegations were not
    true.
        One of the challenges we have with it is when it goes to
    court the U.S. attorney that is taking the case oftentimes will
    do a settlement, and that settlement is not actually negotiated
    between AOC and the individual. It is between the U.S. attorney
    and the individual themselves, since they are representing the
    United States Government. And then we will find--like in one of
    the cases, we actually found out about the negotiated
    settlement by reading about it in the newspaper. We weren't
    even informed of it.
        What we are doing now is we are under a multiyear journey
    to change the culture of AOC. I am investing significant
    resources in a cultural transformation. This is starting from
    the top, where it is modeling good behavior, to now we are
    getting down into the more senior-level supervisors.
        We are, in areas where we are noticing issues, whether it
    is from discrimination or if it is just bullying or some other
    culture issues, we are having small working groups with them to
    bridge each other and teammates.
        The issue with AOC is some people come from various
    cultures all around this area. We are a very diverse, both
    geographically and racially, organization. And something----
        Mr. Espaillat. That should be a strength, Mr. Blanton. That
    should not be a liability or weakness. The diversity issue
    should be a strength. But if you don't have the systems there
    in place to keep people from engaging in this kind of behavior,
    it will continue to be a problem.
        Mr. Blanton. Those are the systems that we are putting in
    place because I believe diversity is a strength to an agency as
    well; diversity in individuals but also diversity of thought,
    because you bring in different experiences and different ways
    of looking at it when you have a diverse org--looking at any
    problem when you have a diverse organization.
        And that is what those small groups are really meant to do
    is to really build that glue that keeps the organization
    together and builds upon our diversity.

                       CAPITOL POLICE BOARD TRANSPARENCY

        Mr. Espaillat. Mr. Blanton, real quickly, as the Architect
    of the Capitol, you are one of the three voting members of the
    U.S. Capitol Police Board. The Capitol Police, including the
    Board, have come under significant criticism for a perceived
    lack of transparency and accountability to congressional
    stakeholders and the general public.
        In fiscal year 2021 and 2022, this committee directed the
    Capitol Police to create a process for the public to request
    records, to publish arrest information as data, and to make the
    Capitol Police Inspector General reports available online. So
    far, none of these directives have been implemented. Can you
    explain why, and when are they going to be in place?
        Mr. Blanton. Congressman, I will have to take that up with
    the Capitol Police and get back to you, because I cannot speak
    for the chief of police. I don't know----
        Mr. Espaillat. You are a member of the Board, correct?
        Mr. Blanton. That is correct. But I want to make sure that
    I am coordinating an answer with the chief of police so that we
    get you the proper answer. I will take that for the record.
        Mr. Espaillat. Thank you.
        Mr. Chair, I yield back.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Mr. Espaillat.
        And, Mr. Blanton, let me just say that I think the entire
    committee is in agreement with Mr. Espaillat in the issues he
    is bringing up, and we are very concerned about it and hope you
    will report back to us with the answers, and continue to try to
    change the culture there. And this committee stands ready to
    help in any way that we can.
        The distinguished gentleman from Nevada, Mr. Amodei.
        Mr. Amodei.
        Mr. Amodei. Thank you for your courtesies. We are just
    monitoring you. And I yield back.
        Mr. Ryan. The distinguished gentleman from Washington
    State, Mr. Newhouse.

                          FY 2023 BUDGET JUSTIFICATION

        Mr. Newhouse. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good to hear from
    you, the chairman from the State where the home of the very
    first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red. Go Reds.
        Welcome, Mr. Blanton. Thank you for being with us. Just a
    real general question first. We did get your budget detail. I
    appreciate that. However, noticing on your website,
    justification for the budget has not been posted. And since we
    are looking at an increase from I think last year $782 million
    enacted budget to this year's request of over $1.6 billion, can
    we expect that detail to be posted soon, sir?
        Mr. Blanton. The justification for it?
        Mr. Newhouse. Yes, sir.
        Mr. Blanton. Of that, $600 million total are security
    projects so that detail won't be posted, but I will offer to
    have a meeting with you and discuss any of those projects in as
    much detail as possible.

                      CANNON HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING RENEWAL

        Mr. Newhouse. That would be very welcome. Thank you. I
    appreciate that. And maybe the rest--some of the other members
    of the committee might be interested in those numbers as well.
        My office is in the Cannon Building, and so the renewal
    project is reminded of several times a day. It was started I
    believe my first year, 2014, initially expected to last for 10
    years and cost $752 million. At this point, the last number I
    heard, we are expecting a $934 million cost. IG report of March
    of this year stated that because of COVID and the events of
    January 6th, cost to complete this project probably will
    increase by another $5.6 million.
        So a question: Is that correct?
        And also, I understand that the phases one through five
    include renovating the existing fifth floor of the building. Is
    that still the plan? Will the fifth floor continue to be worked
    towards completion?
        Mr. Blanton. That is correct. The fifth floor is in this
    phase and the last phase. We are still going to continue the
    construction of new suites and build-out of the fifth floor.
        The report the IG referenced, those were mostly historic
    costs that were eaten in the program. And when we received
    funds from the COVID and security supplemental, we reimbursed
    the project for those costs. And I appreciate the support of
    the committee for that.
        The latest increase from the integrated cost schedule risk
    analysis is really focusing on the inflationary aspect of the
    materials now. The materials have--they have gone wide in their
    fluctuation in cost. At one point, they were up over 100
    percent. Now they are down at an increasing of a 70 to 80
    percent for some of the key materials, like cobalt steel that
    are used for the walls and stuff like that.
        We are continuing focus on that, but we are seeing that is
    going to lead in phase three for a $33 million increase than
    what we expected. That was funded in our fiscal year 2022
    omnibus. I appreciate the great support of this committee for
    the Cannon Project.
        What you see in 2023 and on our 2024, that is really cash
    flow so that we can pay the contractor bills. It is not to get
    the award of the contract. That is what we needed to do in the
    2022 budget.

                             CAPITOL VISITOR CENTER

        Mr. Newhouse. Well, thank you.
        Short amount of time left, and I wanted to ask you a little
    bit about the Capitol Visitor Center. There is a request for
    over $27.5 million there. As far as I understand, the CVC is
    still closed to the public. It may be set to reopen soon, next
    month.
        As you can imagine, my office has been flooded with
    requests for constituent tours. In fact, a couple of weeks ago,
    I had a group of constituents that had to wait outside in the
    rain outside the Cannon Building in order to get through, since
    they have to go through my office for tours.
        Just wanted to verify that information, if it is still
    closed? Is it set to reopen? And if you could share with us the
    metrics you used in choosing the delayed reopening of the
    Capitol Visitor Center.
        Mr. Blanton. Thank you for the question. The Visitor Center
    itself is closed as an entrance to the Capitol Building. The
    reason for that is manpower for the Capitol Police. It takes a
    significant amount of police presence to have the main doors of
    the Visitor Center manned.
        The chief is confident that he will have--because of the
    increased number of people going through the Federal Law
    Enforcement Academy, that around the Memorial Day weekend, that
    he will have enough manning to open--partially open the doors
    in the front, which then would allow the rest of the Visitor
    Center to be open.
        Mr. Newhouse. Okay. That would be awesome. Thank you. Thank
    you for being with us today.
        Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Mr. Newhouse.
        The distinguished gentlewoman from Massachusetts, Ms.
    Clark.

                              ENERGY CONSERVATION

        Ms. Clark. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Thank you, Mr. Blanton, for being with us again. I wanted
    to focus first on the energy conservation efforts that you are
    undertaking. I understand you are partnering with DOE, DOE's
    National Renewable Energy Lab, to complete an analysis of
    potential renewable energy opportunities. And I wondered if
    that analysis has been completed and, if so, if you could share
    some of the opportunities you may have identified.
        Mr. Blanton. The analysis is still underway.
        Ms. Clark. Okay.
        Mr. Blanton. I will be more than happy to share the results
    with you. I think it--I am excited for it. I will say that I am
    very proud in the energy conservation measures that the AOC has
    undertook.
        If you look at the goals that were established under the
    Energy Policy Act of 2005, when we used a baseline that was
    common across the entire Federal Government, we have reduced
    our energy intensity--and that is measured by the amount of
    energy per square foot--by almost 50 percent in a 15-year
    period, which is significant.
        If you were to rank all of the Federal agencies across the
    entire government, we would have the third greatest reduction
    in energy conservation--in energy consumption. And a lot of
    that is by our cogeneration plant that we got funded for
    several years ago, through an energy savings performance
    contract, and also due to these energy-saving performance
    contracts at various jurisdictions around campus.
        The study that we are doing with Renewable Energy Lab is
    now looking, instead of having them done in silos, like one for
    the House and one for the Senate and one for the Library, is
    doing it broad across campus so we can maybe get more synergies
    from the different jurisdictions.
        Ms. Clark. Well, that is great. How is--I know some of the
    early analysis was looking at solar. Are you evaluating the
    feasibility of solar across the campus?
        Mr. Blanton. Yes. Yes, we are. My rule of thumb is for
    every roof project we do, I want to have an analysis of solar
    to be put on that roof if we can make it fit into the historic
    fabric or structurally fit.

                      IMPACT OF JANUARY 6TH ON THE CAPITOL

        Ms. Clark. Great. On the condition of the Capitol complex
    facilities, I know the recent estimate of damage caused by the
    January 6th attack on the Capitol is a total of 2.7, which is
    up from the $1.5 million estimate from May 2021. I wonder if
    you could tell me sort of what drove some of that up, and have
    you initiated a comprehensive facility security assessment?
        Mr. Blanton. Thank you. I will answer the second question
    first. We did a campus-wide facilities--a comprehensive
    security assessment post-January 6th. We used the Army Corps of
    Engineers Threat Reduction Center, which really is their
    expertise in the entire executive branch. Like, for example,
    they do the White House. We have also brought in the Defense
    Threat Reduction Agency to come up with scenarios, risk-based
    scenarios that we would come up with physical mitigations to.
        And so that is complete. We have been briefing oversight
    and appropriators in both a classified and unclassified setting
    on this so that we could provide details at the appropriate
    level for Members and staff. I will welcome providing a brief
    to you if you are interested.

                            GENDER NEUTRAL RESTROOMS

        Ms. Clark. Okay. Great. I have two quick questions about
    restrooms. One, we have three gender-neutral or single-stall
    restrooms for five House Office Buildings. Do you have a plan
    for building out more of these in your renovation and
    construction?
        Mr. Blanton. The short answer is yes, because one of my
    initiatives is having a building official that goes through and
    reviews every project for code. So when we do a major
    renovation, it is now modern code to have what they call family
    restrooms. They could be any--male, female, and children can go
    in together. Those will be--those would be gender-neutral
    restrooms. And, we are looking to make sure that our restrooms
    meet ADA criteria as well.

                           FEMININE HYGIENE PRODUCTS

        Ms. Clark. Okay, great. Yes, we have a problem with that as
    well.
        Very quickly, I see my time is out, we talked in the report
    language from last year's budget about making sure that your
    budget covered free feminine hygiene products available to no
    cost in our House Office Building restrooms. Does your budget
    include that or do you need additional resources to get that
    done?
        Mr. Blanton. We don't need additional resources.
        Ms. Clark. Okay.
        Mr. Blanton. What we did identify is either, whether it is
    report language--and I would prefer if this is done joint
    between the House and the Senate and, say, across campus. The
    cost is small enough that it is already mixed into every one of
    our jurisdictions' budgets.
        Ms. Clark. Okay. Thank you very much.
        And I yield back, Mr. Chairman.

                         CHAIRMAN RYAN CLOSING REMARKS

        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Ms. Clark.
        Mr. Blanton, thank you. We appreciate it.
        In the interest of government efficiency, we are finished
    with our agency hearings. So no one could ever say that the
    Legislative Branch Subcommittee is not efficient.
        But we look forward to staying in touch. A lot of the
    issues that the committee raised here today are very important
    for us, for our constituents who visit here, for the Capitol
    Police, and all the staff members that work here.
        So we got a lot of work to do, and we are going to go over
    your budget very, very carefully. We know it is important, and
    we want to support you the best we can. And we appreciate your
    time here today, and we will be in close contact with you over
    the coming months.
        With that, this hearing is adjourned.

                                               Wednesday, May 18, 2022.

                                  MEMBERS' DAY

                                   WITNESSES

    HON. DEREK KILMER, MEMBER OF CONGRESS
    HON. WILLIAM R. TIMMONS, MEMBER OF CONGRESS

                       Opening Statement of Chairman Ryan

        Mr. Ryan. The committee will come to order.
        This hearing is fully virtual, so we need to address a few
    housekeeping matters.
        Members are responsible for muting and unmuting themselves.
    For the purposes of eliminating inadvertent background noise,
    the chair or staff designated by the chair may mute
    participants' microphones when they are not under recognition.
        If I notice when you are recognized that you have not
    unmuted yourself, I will ask you if you would like the staff to
    unmute you. If you indicate approval by nodding, staff will
    unmute your microphone.
        We will begin with the chair and ranking member. Then,
    members present at the time the hearing is called to order will
    be recognized in order of seniority.
        We are using the 5-minute clock, which you will notice on
    your screen. It will show how much time is remaining. If there
    is a technology issue, we will move to the next member until
    the issue is resolved, and you will retain the balance of your
    time.
        Finally, in regard to adding extraneous or additional
    material to the record, per House rules we have set up an email
    address where members can send anything they wish to submit for
    the record after seeking recognition for its inclusion. That
    email address has been provided in advance to your staff.
        I am pleased to welcome each of you to the Legislative
    Branch Member Day hearing. It is very important that the
    subcommittee hear the concerns of our fellow legislators and
    members of the public before we begin the work on marking up
    our fiscal year 2023 subcommittee bill.
        We hope you are pleased with the progress that we have made
    last year on issues raised in the past concerning staff
    retention, salaries, interns, and Capitol complex security
    initiatives.
        We realize that we have more work to do. We look forward to
    hearing your suggestions, and we will do our best to
    incorporate them into the bill, providing allocations will
    allow us to do so.
        At this point, I would like to yield to my colleague and
    friend, the ranking member, distinguished gentlelady from
    Washington State, Ms. Jaime Herrera Beutler, for any opening
    comments that she may have.

              Opening Statement of Ranking Member Herrera Beutler

        Ms. Herrera Beutler. I am grateful to be here. Looking
    forward to hearing everybody's thoughts. I know some of you put
    a lot of effort and careful consideration into how we can make
    this place better. I am excited to hear from you all.
        And I yield back.

                         CHAIRMAN OUTLINES PROCEEDINGS

        Mr. Ryan. Great. I thank the gentlelady.
        I am pleased to welcome both the chair and the ranking
    member of the Select Committee on Modernization, Mr. Kilmer, a
    fellow appropriator, and Mr. Timmons, as our first two
    witnesses today.
        Your work to modernize Congress is appreciated. And,
    through our efforts together, Congress can continue working to
    become more transparent and more efficient.
        Mr. Levin, I also look forward to hearing from you today.
        Without objection, your full statements will be entered
    into the record.
        Would the Member representing the Sixth District of
    Washington, Mr. Kilmer, please begin with your oral remarks?
                                  ----------

                                    WITNESS

    HON. DEREK KILMER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF
        WASHINGTON
        Mr. Kilmer. Thank you, Chairman Ryan and Ranking Member
    Herrera Beutler. Thanks for hosting today's Member Day hearing,
    and thank you for your leadership and partnership.
        I am here to talk about the work of the Select Committee on
    the Modernization of Congress, which I have the honor of
    chairing in partnership with the vice chair, William Timmons,
    who is here too.
        The select committee's guiding principle is to make
    Congress work better for the American people. That simple but
    somewhat profound goal guides our work on the committee. It
    helps us identify institutional problems, and it helps us
    develop solutions to those problems.
        To date, the select committee has issued 142 bipartisan
    recommendations to make Congress more effective, efficient, and
    transparent on behalf of the American people. Those
    recommendations address a wide range of topics that include
    boosting congressional capacity, encouraging collaboration and
    civility in the institution, improving staff recruitment and
    retention, and modernizing technology, among other things.
        All told, over two-thirds of the select committee's
    recommendations have seen meaningful action toward
    implementation, with 30 of our recommendations having been
    fully implemented. The committee's implementation success story
    is due in large part to the hard work of our numerous partners
    in the House, including this subcommittee.
        And I first want to emphasize the important contributions
    this subcommittee made to modernizing the House workforce. The
    recent increase in the MRA, enhanced funding to compensate
    committee interns, the establishment of the House Task Force on
    a Diverse and Talented Workforce are all crucial investments to
    the capacity of the House. And this action and the Speaker's
    recently announced minimum annual pay will ensure that the
    House remains competitive in hiring and retaining expert staff
    to better serve the American people.
        This subcommittee also provided funding for a biennial
    bipartisan retreat. The select committee made that
    recommendation, to hold bipartisan retreats, and we are hopeful
    that it takes place next Congress and believe it will encourage
    Members to make connections with their colleagues and create
    trust and help everyone find at least a bit of common ground.
        Today, Vice Chair Timmons and I want to highlight some of
    the ways we believe we can continue to make progress to
    modernize the House.
        First, we support increased funding for the Modernization
    Initiatives Account, which this subcommittee established last
    Congress. Previously, the CAO requested $10 million for this
    account, and, since that time, the select committee has issued
    nearly 100 new recommendations.
        Increased funding from the $2 million appropriated last
    year would support projects undertaken by the newly established
    House Digital Service as well as initiatives by the Clerk's
    Office to establish a database of committee votes and adopt
    modern tools to help deconflict scheduled committee hearings--I
    say as I am in three hearings at the same time.
        Congress is stronger when Members find ways to work
    together to solve problems. This subcommittee can support the
    effectiveness of Congress by continuing to support expanded
    programming options that foster civility and collaboration
    through the Congressional Staff Academy and the new
    Congressional Member Leadership Development Program.
        Additionally, the Modernization Committee has put forward
    recommendations for the development of technology tools that
    would facilitate Members working together on developing policy
    initiatives together in a more collaborative way.
        Congress is also stronger when it receives and leverages
    the best possible information from the invaluable legislative
    support agencies. We would request support to ensure that the
    products, services, and outreach of these agencies are designed
    to meet the needs of an evolving Congress. Having the support
    agencies report regularly to Congress on any challenges they
    are facing accessing Federal data would also give us the
    opportunity to intervene, if appropriate, and help them to help
    us.
        I would also like to address the physical and digital
    accessibility barriers that prevent people from having a voice
    in the legislative process. I am requesting support--our
    committee is requesting support for removing accessibility
    barriers and providing greater information about entrance
    security procedures for visitors and staff with disabilities,
    as well as the establishment of a designated drop-off and pick-
    up point.
        Finally, I would like to mention a request I made that
    reflects the spirit of investing in our staff and, thus, our
    capacity. I am requesting that this subcommittee look at the
    authority of the Student Loan Repayment Program and consider
    opportunities to open the program to payments of tuition as
    well as loan repayment. Tuition assistance programs are widely
    available in the private sector and in Federal agencies, and a
    House program would help us both keep expert staff here longer
    and actually help us develop staff expertise during their
    employment in the House.
        Making Congress work better for the American people is a
    worthwhile investment, and, on behalf of the Select Committee
    on Modernization, I appreciate your consideration of these
    requests. I am happy to provide any additional information to
    support your work.
        And, again, thank you for the opportunity to speak before
    the subcommittee today.
        [The information follows:]

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Mr. Kilmer. Appreciate that. And we
    appreciate all your good work too.
        And I just am very excited about what you guys have been
    able to present to us and others here in Congress over the last
    couple of years. I think it is really, really important. And I
    think some of the ideas you are putting forth this year are
    really important as well.
        So big thanks to you. Let's continue to try to see what we
    can do together.
        Mr. Timmons, you are up.
                                  ----------

    HON. WILLIAM TIMMONS, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA
        Mr. Timmons. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Chairman Ryan and Ranking Member Herrera Beutler, thank you
    for hosting today's Member hearing. And thank you for your
    leadership. You all really have been so critical in
    implementing a lot of the recommendations that the select
    committee has made. And we are just very thankful for your
    willingness to work together to really improve this place and
    heal this institution. We have made a lot of progress over the
    last 3\1/2\ years, and we have 7 more months, and we are going
    to be sprinting to the finish line.
        I am here today to talk about some of the recommendations
    the select committee has made to make Congress a more effective
    and efficient institution. I have really enjoyed serving with
    the vice chairman. Kilmer and I have become close friends and
    partners, and we have made a lot of progress, but, as I said,
    we have more work to do.
        I am proud of what we have accomplished since the inception
    of this select committee in the 116th Congress. We have proven
    that it is possible for Members from both sides of the aisle to
    sit down together, engage in challenging but productive
    discussions, listen and learn from one another, and ultimately
    find bipartisan solutions to the challenges that we all face.
        I also want to highlight your subcommittee's leadership in
    investing in the staff that make this place work. Expert staff
    ensure the House is able to carry out its Article I and
    oversight responsibilities. With the amount of money we send to
    the executive branch every year, it makes sense to make this
    small investment in staff to assist us in overseeing how that
    money is spent. Enhancing compensation for committee interns
    and the recent increase to the MRA send a message that we are
    building out our capacity to represent our constituents, and I
    just want to thank you for your work in that area.
        I also want to join the chairman in highlighting some of
    the select committee's recommendations that we think should be
    supported this year. A modern Congress is one that is well-
    equipped to serve the American people, and we think that is
    worthy of continued support.
        I first want to underscore the importance of the
    Modernization Initiatives Account. This flexible account is
    important to implementing initiatives to make the House more
    transparent and accessible.
        Enhanced funding may help support the Clerk's Office in
    providing committee staff with modern tools to help deconflict
    Member schedules while we are in session. We have spent a lot
    of time talking about the calendar and the schedule, and we
    need more resources to really maximize our ability to
    deconflict our time on the Hill. So I think that is a very
    important area.
        We can do our best work when we are getting the best
    information possible from legislative support agencies.
    Providing the direction and support needed for the Library of
    Congress to produce nonpartisan summaries of bills before they
    receive votes would help us, as Members, be informed when we
    vote.
        If support agencies are encountering challenges accessing
    the data they need to do their work, they should be directed to
    report regularly on these challenges and any actions Congress
    can take to support their efforts. These agencies also need to
    ensure their products, services, and outreach are designed to
    meet the needs of an evolving Congress. We are constantly
    changing; so should they.
        This subcommittee can also promote civility and
    bipartisanship through report language--in particular,
    directing the Architect of the Capitol to explore bipartisan
    co-working spaces for staff, along with encouraging the CAO to
    build out curricula centered on civility and collaboration as
    part of the Congressional Leadership and Staff Academies. This
    can help generate a more productive work environment.
        The request that the chair and I submitted to you last
    month advanced select committee recommendations that will make
    Congress work better for the American people, and I believe
    that is a worthy investment. I appreciate your consideration of
    these requests, and I am happy to provide additional
    information to support your work.
        Again, thank you so much for the opportunity to speak with
    you today, and I appreciate your support in these endeavors. I
    yield back.
        [The information follows:]

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Mr. Ryan. Appreciate that, Mr. Timmons, and we appreciate
    your contribution.
        And you guys work in such a great bipartisan way, which is
    very refreshing in this body. But you guys just finding the
    sweet spot, finding the things that you can agree on and move
    together, I think, is very, very refreshing. And I know you
    have a commitment to reform, including in this institution.
        So we appreciate your contribution, how closely you work
    with Mr. Kilmer. And, you know, he has periodic spats of
    depression because he is a Seattle Seahawks fan, and we
    understand that. And so you are just going to--you know, I just
    want to give you the heads-up in case you catch him on a bad
    Monday, which he has a lot of. I am just going to--I will leave
    it at that.
        Mr. Levin, look forward to your remarks.
        Mr. Levin?
        Ryann, is Mr. Levin with us?
        Ms. Kinney. He is actually voting in a markup right now, so
    he is going to have to miss it.
        [The information follows:]
        Mr. Ryan. Okay. No worries.
        Great. Do any of the members of the committee have any
    questions for our guests?
        Mr. Newhouse. I have a question, Mr. Chairman.
        Mr. Ryan. Yes. The gentleman from Washington State.
                                  ----------

                                    WITNESS

    HON. DAN NEWHOUSE, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STATE OF WASHINGTON
        Mr. Newhouse. Thank you.
        And thank you, Mr. Kilmer and Mr. Timmons. Appreciate your
    being with us today and so much appreciate your work. I was on
    the select committee for the 116th and truly believe that it is
    an effort well worth it.
        As you remember, one of my focuses was improving civility.
    Maybe we have made some progress there, but there is still a
    lot of work to do in that area.
        And one of the things that I thought was a good result of
    some of the precautions taken during the pandemic was allowing
    the use of the Speaker's Lobby for Members' use only and not
    for members of the press. I thought it lent itself to greater
    opportunity for interaction between Members of Congress. Kind
    of a safe haven, so to speak, off the noisy floor, where you
    could have private conversations.
        And I see that that is no longer the case, and I just
    wondered if there was any progress that we might expect there.
        And, then, as far as modernization is concerned, certainly
    some people advocate for remote voting, and maybe some of that
    could be considered proxy voting. And I just wanted to put my
    two cents' worth in, that continuing the proxy voting should
    not be part of a modernization effort. I don't think it lends
    itself to good governance.
        But that is just my opinion about that, and I hope we don't
    continue that practice.
        So, any comments from either of you, I would appreciate it.
    Thank you.
        Mr. Kilmer. I am happy to take a swing, Mr. Chairman.
        So, first of all, Congressman Newhouse, we miss you on the
    modernization committee and appreciate your focus on civility
    and collaboration.
        Our committee has----
        Mr. Timmons. We will take you back. We will take you back
    if you want to come back.
        Mr. Newhouse. Would you? Oh. It is good to be wanted. Thank
    you.
        Mr. Kilmer. We have made a number of recommendations
    related to the use of space. And, as you mentioned, one of our
    recommendations was to have space, whether it be, as you
    mentioned, the Speaker's Lobby or just someplace in proximity
    to the House floor, that could be identified for Democrats and
    Republicans to engage one another, collaborate with one another
    outside of the eyes of the C-SPAN cameras and the press, where,
    you know, it would be valuable for Members to be able to have
    discussions. That exists on the Senate side. That doesn't
    currently exist on the House side.
        As Vice Chair Timmons mentioned, we have also made a
    recommendation to have some co-working space where, you know,
    if Congresswoman Herrera Beutler's team and my team are working
    on legislation together or on an appropriations request
    together, that there may be an area where Members could get
    together and collaborate, you know, that is kind of--with
    nobody getting a home-field advantage, necessarily, but just a
    place where folks can work together.
        Again, most modern workplaces have that kind of a co-
    working space. A lot of the executive-branch agencies have
    that. Congress does not right now. And we have recommended that
    that be something that gets a good look.
        Mr. Newhouse. Good. Good. Thank you.
        Mr. Timmons. I will follow up with a couple things.
        We were able to make recommendations regarding a separate
    budget for committees to have beginning-of-the-year bipartisan
    dinners at the Library of Congress.
        We were able to make a recommendation that would facilitate
    additional bipartisan meeting space. I know you recall how
    challenging it was for us to find places to break bread in the
    Capitol, so we have made that recommendation.
        Obviously, we previously recommended about orientation, to
    make it more bipartisan.
        We do have a couple more--I am hopeful we will get a couple
    more recommendations in the civility space.
        I definitely agree with you that, once we get the furniture
    back in the Speaker's Lobby, it wouldn't be that challenging to
    have the reporters stay outside of the Speaker's Lobby. So, I
    mean, I think that is something we can explore going forward.
    We got have a lot of space in the Capitol, and they don't need
    to be in the Speaker's Lobby; it is not necessary.
        And then we also made recommendations to create more
    bipartisan space for both staff and for Members, hopefully, in
    the Capitol, outside of just the Members' Dining Room. So we
    are trying to create more opportunities for collaboration in a,
    you know, even playing field, not on one person's turf or the
    other.
        So we are still working on it very hard, and I agree that
    it is an important priority.
        Mr. Newhouse. Well, again, thank you guys for your hard
    work. And I think you have shown tremendous progress, made a
    lot of good suggestions, and many of them have been
    implemented.
        You know, I would consider coming back to the committee.
    The likelihood of disparaging comments of our favorite sports
    teams is less to happen on your committee, Mr. Kilmer, than
    this one.
        So thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
        Mr. Kilmer. You have my commitment, Dan, that we won't
    disparage any Washington State team.
        Mr. Timmons. At least you all have a State team. We don't
    have any professional teams in South Carolina. So, you know,
    there is that.
        Mr. Ryan. You guys barely have any college teams down
    there, last I checked.
        That is coming from an Ohio State guy. Come on.
        Any other questions for this very distinguished group of
    panelists?
        No?
        Great. Well, in all seriousness, you guys are great, and we
    really appreciate your recommendations. And you guys are
    digging into some issues that, you know, this committee just
    doesn't quite have the time for, which is the whole purpose of
    the Modernization Committee. And I think a lot of Americans
    would be very, very proud to see you guys working together like
    you are. So we appreciate it. Thank you for joining us.
        I want to take a brief moment to thank my subcommittee
    colleagues and the staff for a job well done--Faye and Ryann
    and Rachel on my team and the entire staff and team and all of
    your staffs as well. We got through a lot of material, a lot of
    hearings. And now we continue to slog through this and try to
    figure out what it is going to look like.
        This is our last hearing for the fiscal year 2023 budget
    cycle, so big thanks to everybody. And we will see you on the
    House floor.
        Thank you. The hearing is now adjourned.
        [Information submitted for inclusion in the record
    follows:]

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