[House Hearing, 118 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                       PLEASE LEAVE YOUR MESSAGE
                              AT THE TONE:
                   ADDRESSING POST-PANDEMIC BACKLOGS
                     AND DELAYS AT FEDERAL AGENCIES

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

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                  SUBCOMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS  
                          AND THE FEDERAL WORKFORCE

                                 OF THE

                         COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT
                           AND ACCOUNTABILITY

                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                               __________

                             JUNE 21, 2023

                               __________

                           Serial No. 118-45

                               __________

  Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability
  
 [GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
 
                        Available on: govinfo.gov
                         oversight.house.gov or
                             docs.house.gov
                             
                             __________
                             
                         U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
52-825 PDF                    WASHINGTON : 2023
____________________________________________________________________________
                            
                             
                             
               COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY

                    JAMES COMER, Kentucky, Chairman

Jim Jordan, Ohio                     Jamie Raskin, Maryland, Ranking 
Mike Turner, Ohio                        Minority Member
Paul Gosar, Arizona                  Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of 
Virginia Foxx, North Carolina            Columbia
Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin            Stephen F. Lynch, Massachusetts
Gary Palmer, Alabama                 Gerald E. Connolly, Virginia
Clay Higgins, Louisiana              Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois
Pete Sessions, Texas                 Ro Khanna, California
Andy Biggs, Arizona                  Kweisi Mfume, Maryland
Nancy Mace, South Carolina           Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York
Jake LaTurner, Kansas                Katie Porter, California
Pat Fallon, Texas                    Cori Bush, Missouri
Byron Donalds, Florida               Jimmy Gomez, California
Kelly Armstrong, North Dakota        Shontel Brown, Ohio
Scott Perry, Pennsylvania            Melanie Stansbury, New Mexico
William Timmons, South Carolina      Robert Garcia, California
Tim Burchett, Tennessee              Maxwell Frost, Florida
Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia      Becca Balint, Vermont
Lisa McClain, Michigan               Summer Lee, Pennsylvania
Lauren Boebert, Colorado             Greg Casar, Texas
Russell Fry, South Carolina          Jasmine Crockett, Texas
Anna Paulina Luna, Florida           Dan Goldman, New York
Chuck Edwards, North Carolina        Jared Moskowitz, Florida
Nick Langworthy, New York
Eric Burlison, Missouri

                       Mark Marin, Staff Director
       Jessica Donlon, Deputy Staff Director and General Counsel
                      Bill Womack, Senior Advisor
                 Alex Rankin, Professional Staff Member
      Mallory Cogar, Deputy Director of Operations and Chief Clerk

                      Contact Number: 202-225-5074

                  Julie Tagen, Minority Staff Director
                      Contact Number: 202-225-5051
                                 ------                                

    Subcommittee on Government Operations and the Federal Workforce

                     Pete Sessions, Texas, Chairman
Gary Palmer, Alabama                 Kweisi Mfume, Maryland Ranking 
Clay Higgins, Louisiana                  Minority Member
Andy Biggs, Arizona                  Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of 
Byron Donalds, Florida                   Columbia
William Timmons, South Carolina      Maxwell Frost, Florida
Tim Burchett, Tennessee              Greg Casar, Texas
Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia      Gerald E. Connolly, Virginia
Lauren Boebert, Colorado             Melanie Stansbury, New Mexico
Russell Fry, South Carolina          Robert Garcia, California
Chuck Edwards, North Carolina        Becca Balint, Vermont
Eric Burlison, Missouri              Summer Lee, Pennsylvania
                                     Jasmine Crockett, Texas
                         
                         C  O  N  T  E  N  T  S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page

Hearing held on June 21, 2023....................................     1

                               Witnesses

                              ----------                              

The Honorable Rena Bitter, Assistant Secretary of State for 
  Consular Affairs, U.S. Department of State
Oral Statement...................................................     7
Mr. Scott Levins, Director, National Personnel Records Center
Oral Statement...................................................     9
Mr. Chad M. Poist, Deputy Commissioner for Budget, Finance, and 
  Management, Social Security Administration
Oral Statement...................................................    11

Written opening statements and the statement for the witness are 
  available on the U.S. House of Representatives Document 
  Repository at: docs.house.gov.

                           Index of Documents

                              ----------                              

  * Article, New York Times, ``The Government Agencies That 
  Became Smaller, and Unhappier, Under Trump''; submitted by Rep. 
  Balint.

  * Article, WJZ, ``Rep. Mfume Helps Man Collect $86K In 
  Disability Benefits''; submitted by Rep. Mfume.

  * Statement, Social Security Administration; submitted by Rep. 
  Mfume.

  * Statement, National Federation of Federal Employees, re: U.S. 
  Department of State's passport backlogs; submitted by Rep. 
  Mfume.

  * Statement for the Record: submitted by Rep. Connolly.

  * Questions for the Record: to Ms. Bitter; submitted by Rep. 
  Sessions.

  * Questions for the Record: to Ms. Bitter; submitted by Rep. 
  Donalds.

  * Questions for the Record: to Ms. Bitter; submitted by Rep. 
  Connolly.

  * Questions for the Record: to Ms. Bitter; submitted by Rep. 
  Higgins.

  * Questions for the Record: to Mr. Poist; submitted by Rep. 
  Sessions.

  * Questions for the Record: to Mr. Poist; submitted by Rep. 
  Higgins.

  * Questions for the Record: to Mr. Poist; submitted by Rep. 
  Donalds.

  * Questions for the Record: to Mr. Poist; submitted by Rep. 
  Connolly.

  * Questions for the Record: to Mr. Levins; submitted by Rep. 
  Sessions.

  * Questions for the Record: to Mr. Levins; submitted by Rep. 
  Higgins.

Documents are available at: docs.house.gov.

 
                       PLEASE LEAVE YOUR MESSAGE
                              AT THE TONE:
                   ADDRESSING POST-PANDEMIC BACKLOGS
                     AND DELAYS AT FEDERAL AGENCIES

                              ----------                              


                        Wednesday, June 21, 2023

                        House of Representatives

               Committee on Oversight and Accountability

                 Subcommittee on Government Operations
                       and the Federal Workforce

                                                   Washington, D.C.

    The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:23 p.m., in 
room 2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Pete Sessions 
[Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
    Present: Representatives Sessions, Palmer, Higgins, Biggs, 
Donalds, Timmons, Burchett, Boebert, Fry, Edwards, Burlison, 
Mfume, Norton, Frost, Casar, Connolly, Stansbury, Robert Garcia 
of California, Balint, Lee of Pennsylvania, and Crockett.
    Also present: Mr. Raskin of Maryland.
    Mr. Sessions. Good afternoon. The Subcommittee on 
Government Operations and the Federal Workforce will come to 
order. And we would welcome everybody to this important 
hearing.
    Without objection, the Chair may declare a recess at any 
time.
    I recognize myself for the purpose of making an opening 
statement.
    Before we go too far, I would like to, if I can, 
acknowledge that, even in formal settings like this, we 
recognize that it is important to remember that we are all 
people and that we have families. And I understand that some of 
the people who have business today have been visited by some 
hard luck in their life with a loved one. And I wanted to, 
without saying anything in particular, to let those know--
perhaps many of us, more than one or two, may be affected, but 
that it is my wishes for them and their family in these coming 
days that can be difficult to families. So, I want to offer 
that, and we will just let that ride there. But, when you 
receive information like this, I feel like it is the right 
thing to wish everybody the best.
    Today's hearing is on customer service issues at selected 
Federal agencies. The COVID pandemic provided a stress test to 
Federal agencies in many ways, and earlier this year, we heard 
in detail how fraud prevention measures failed in COVID release 
programs. That was a Subcommittee hearing that we did that was 
a bipartisan basis where we universally heard about the 
frailties of not only some of government's actions but also the 
impact that prevented measures from being fully understood and 
billions of dollars--hundreds of billions of dollars being 
lost.
    But another stress test was the ability to deliver services 
to the American people. And, as a person who worked in the 
private sector for a number of years that had a public opening 
to them, I will tell you I do recognize how difficult it is to 
not only match manpower with incoming needs of customers, but 
also to do so in a difficult time.
    But, with that said, we are here today to make sure that we 
have a clear understanding about not just what is behind us but 
what lies in front of us and the daunting challenge for each of 
the Members of Congress as we attempt to also do business with 
the government on behalf of many constituents that we have.
    I want to try and be fair, and it would not be fair to look 
back without the benefit of hindsight of recognizing what our 
Nation would be through, but today we also all recognize that 
there is some bit of experience that we have been through that 
we need to recognize that we must do better. And I know it is 
impossible and impractical for us to manage every single 
circumstance that we have ahead of us. Nonetheless, it is our 
duty and my duty, my duty not just as a Member of Congress but 
as the Chairman of this Subcommittee, to ask sometimes tough 
questions to make sure that we get straight answers, to know 
that we will report back to our constituents but also to work 
with you on making sure that we move forward better.
    First are the backlogs. Are they being retired? Are they 
behind us? Are they ahead of us? Disruptions, inefficiencies, 
uncertainty, all these things are questions that will be asked 
today. But overwhelmingly this Congress has asked--and I 
believe we did it at the end of last Congress--for you to be 
prepared with a master plan about how you intend to catch up, 
what your plan is on moving forward. In some way, we want to 
ask how that is going. It is not a measuring stick. It is an 
expectation. It is not a measuring stick that will tell us that 
we know the problems that you have encountered, but rather how 
we work together.
    As Members of Congress, we hear the frustrations of those 
unable to access government services, and they have come to 
rely on the government, and you are a part of the daily life 
too many times of people who need to do business, need to 
interact with government, and it needs to be done correctly and 
on time.
    So, on behalf of our constituents, each one of us up here--
and there will be others who join us today--we are eager to 
learn about these things and also about how you as the manager 
of the business are going to fix them.
    The second lens is, are we prepared for the next emergency? 
And, while COVID, by and large, we had heard about, that 
something may happen, when it did, it seemingly took us at a 
disadvantage.
    I think being behind is one thing. I think catching up is 
another, and I think being prepared for what is tomorrow is 
also important. Perhaps your answers will be better technology. 
Perhaps your answers will be help with more people. Perhaps 
your answer will be we have learned a lot, and we will be 
prepared. But this should be a part of what I hope, today, is 
that you will be able to talk about.
    The processes that are required in work, obviously, are 
ones that proved most fragile during COVID. We have seen those. 
We know them. But I would remind you that, in most people's 
mind, COVID was over 2 years ago.
    The Federal Government needs to get back to work. The work 
rules and regulations that have been the past few years are old 
and do not meet today's marketplace. And I believe government 
employees, while they are entitled to their opinions, if they 
are going to take an honest day's pay, they should work an 
honest day within the work structure that is best for the 
American people. It is not just a telework debate. It is the 
efficiency ratio that the Federal Government needs to demand at 
a time for all of its employees.
    So, we are looking at three agencies today: the National 
Personnel Records Center, the State Department's Consular 
Affairs Bureau, and the Social Security Administration. I know 
that there are different circumstances, and yet there are some 
common denominators about this, and that is your people do the 
work. Your people, professionals as government employees, 
experienced people, determine the success or failure of your 
department. But the American people expect you, them, and us to 
make this work.
    So, we will enjoy hearing from all three of you. As you may 
know, I have extended from 5 minutes to 10 minutes for each of 
you. You do not have to use all 10 minutes, but I do expect you 
not to run out of time by saying you really want to say 
something else. We sincerely want to hear from you today. We 
sincerely want you to admit the things that need to be said, 
and we will not hold back in understanding that from you, nor 
you understanding where we are. But I am eager to hear the 
specifics about the agency plans, and I want to thank each of 
you for taking time.
    And, before we swear you in today, I wish to yield to the 
distinguished gentleman, the Subcommittee Ranking Member, Mr. 
Mfume.
    The gentleman is recognized.
    Mr. Mfume. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate 
the opportunity. I want to thank you for convening this 
hearing, thank our witnesses who are seated before us and, 
obviously, the other Members of this Committee who feel very, 
very deeply about this issue.
    I think it is fair to say for all of us that Americans 
deserve nothing short than top-tier, customer-focused, 
accessible and efficient services from their government.
    Today we convene to discuss a topic that impacts veterans; 
it impacts grandparents; and all of those who rely on our 
Federal agencies as a lifeline. And there are quite a few 
people who rely in that way, and so we owe it to our 
constituents, to the American public, to keep our commitment to 
improving government work for the people.
    And, when discussing agency backlogs, I think it is pretty 
important to take note of the timeline leading up to our 
current crisis.
    In 2017, the previous administration implemented a nearly 
3-month government-wide hiring freeze. Some agencies maintained 
that their hiring freeze was substantially longer, such as the 
State Department, where the freeze lasted for 16 months. The 
freeze constricted, as we all know, the job market and 
destroyed employee morale and employee welfare in many 
respects.
    However, since then, we, I think, have been playing a game 
of catchup, and most agencies have struggled to hire enough 
staff even in the midst of record low unemployment. The 
American Federation of Government Employees reports that, in 
Fiscal Year 2022, the Social Security Administration's 
workforce was one of the smallest it has been in 25 years. And 
yet, we know that the number of people on Social Security, 
people who rely on those benefits to pay for food and to pay 
for medicine, has increased by more than 10 million people in 
the past decade. This increase in beneficiaries and a lack of 
staff has extended wait times to where they unfortunately and 
regrettably are today.
    The Social Security Administration is headquartered in my 
district in Baltimore County. And, for example, in the state of 
Maryland, processing times for disability claims increased by 
roughly 105 percent, and that is in the period from 2019 to 
2022, further extending processing times from 106 days to 218 
days.
    The issues of low staffing and long processing times are 
shared across almost all customer-service-focused Federal 
agencies, and I am sure all of you can attest to that.
    The passport demand is still at record high, putting 
significant stress on the agency. Last month, Secretary Blinken 
testified before the Congress, specifically the Appropriations 
Committee of the House, noting that the State Department is 
getting 500,000 applications a week for passports and noting 
that that is 30 to 40 percent higher than it was last year.
    So, these are really alarming statistics, no matter how we 
look at them, when it gets back to whether or not we are 
delivering the kind of customer service that we should be. 
Demand is skyrocketing, and yet staffing and resources remain 
static. And the most vulnerable communities are the ones that 
usually are disproportionately affected by these types of 
issues.
    If we look at our veterans, a stifling backlog at the 
National Archives and Records Administration's National 
Personnel Records Center says it could be the difference 
between receiving military benefits and not receiving them at 
all. It could be the distance or the difference between 
receiving assistance in a homeless shelter for a vet or living 
out on the street.
    And what really pulls at my heart are the countless 
constituent stories that, in particular, my district team 
relays to me each and every week as we go through our weekly 
staff meetings. There is one case I would like to just quickly 
call to the attention of those who are here, and we will just, 
for lack of a better term, say that this is Andrew's story. 
Andrew has multiple sclerosis. He contacted our office in 
February 2020--filed his disability claim in 2019, 3 years 
prior, and received a favorable decision in 2021. And yet the 
Social Security Administration would not release his benefits. 
So, my district staff and myself got involved. We were able to 
work with the agency and to, finally, after all of that time, 
secure Andrew the benefits that he not only desperately needed 
but that he was entitled to. But that process extended nearly a 
year after he had already received a favorable decision from 
the agency. In the end, the Social Security Administration 
provided him with $86,000 in retroactive benefits that he was 
owed.
    And I would ask, Mr. Chairman, unanimous consent to submit 
to the record the CBS article that details Andrew's case and 
further details how we were able to successfully intervene with 
the Social Security Administration.
    Mr. Sessions. Without objection, it will be entered in the 
record.
    Mr. Mfume. Thank you.
    My office alone--and I am sure every Member up here could 
give you a set of stories about what they have been receiving 
on the ground with real people every day who are reaching out. 
My office alone has closed 544 Social Security Administration 
cases and 683 passport cases since July of last year, and that 
demonstrates not just the service, but it demonstrates, I 
think, a tremendous need on behalf of our constituents for 
Federal agency service and for the diligence of Federal 
employees.
    One of those employees I have come to appreciate because of 
the way she has helped intervene in matters like that, and that 
is Mrs. Lauren Hughes, who serves as a public affairs 
specialist and is a phenomenal asset to the Social Security 
Administration and to the congressional offices in that region.
    And so, I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that 
that is why Democrats and Republicans have set aside parties' 
differences, and did so several years back, to pass the 
Modernizing Government Technology Act of 2017 to authorize the 
Technology Modernization Fund and secured nearly $1 billion in 
investment into the fund.
    But the issues here are more than just funding and more 
than just staffing. The issue really becomes vision. Do we have 
the vision as a government to be able to empower all of our 
agencies to carry out their tasks and their missions with 
respect to the constituent services and with respect to being 
able to make sure that what they are set up to deliver they do 
deliver? I have got a lot of faith in agencies. I do know that 
sometimes it may be a little unwarranted, particularly if there 
is an agency that is deliberately not doing what they should. 
But, by and large, I really believe that we have got to find a 
way to empower our Federal agencies, to encourage them, to hold 
them accountable, and then to be able to measure progress at 
some point in time.
    So, Mr. Chairman, there is certainly more work that can be 
done, and I believe that much of that work will take place in 
this very Subcommittee. Again, I want to commend you for 
convening us today. I look forward to hearing the facts, 
strategizing further action needed at the congressional level 
and, hopefully, at the end of the day making a real and lasting 
difference.
    I yield back.
    Mr. Sessions. I appreciate the comments from the 
distinguished Ranking Member and will tell our guests today 
that we would like to approach this from this side of the dais 
in the same way that Mr. Mfume spoke about, and that is from a 
perspective of we care very much about the agencies and the 
work that they do, but they have found themselves in the 
circumstance where people who we represent also need them, and 
we will work together to get this done.
    Thank you very much.
    I would like to introduce our three witnesses that have 
been asked to testify today and thank them all for being here: 
Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Rena Bitter; 
Mr. Scott Levins, Director of the National Personnel Records 
Center; Mr. Chad Poist, Deputy Commissioner of Social Security 
for Budget, Finance, and Management.
    As I introduce all three of them, I want to thank them for 
allowing our staff to come onsite and to learn more about their 
operations to see firsthand about not just the circumstances 
that might be the things that they deal with but, more 
importantly, to establish that relationship to where we learn 
about the Federal employees' jobs and how they help the 
American people.
    Assistant Secretary Rena Bitter. Assistant Secretary Bitter 
has headed the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs 
since August 2021, where, among other roles, she oversees the 
administration of the United States' passport system. She 
brings decades of diplomatic experience to her role, having 
previously served in several overseas posts, including the 
United States Ambassador to Laos. I also had an opportunity, in 
speaking with her, where I reconnected with one of my friends, 
two of my friends, who I had been to college with who I knew 
had a State Department career.
    Assistant Secretary Bitter, thank you for expecting me to 
follow up with them as I know you did, and thank you.
    Mr. Scott Levins. Mr. Scott Levins has served as Director 
of the National Personnel Records Center, a division of the 
National Archives and Records Administration, since 2011. At 
NPRC, Mr. Levins oversees the central repository of personnel-
related records for both military and civil services of the 
U.S. Government. Mr. Levins brings over 20 years of service at 
the National Archives to his role in leading the NPRC.
    Mr. Chad Poist. Mr. Chad Poist was named Director, a Deputy 
Commissioner of the Social Security for Budget, Finance, and 
Management this past May. Well, welcome to the job. Mr. Poist, 
congratulations on this new role in this capacity. He serves as 
the Social Security Administration's Chief Financial Officer 
and Performance Improvement Officer. Mr. Poist brings decades 
of experience in government, finance, and management roles and 
similar roles at Social Security Administration, as well as the 
United States Department of Commerce and the Department of 
Defense.
    So, thank you very much.
    I would now ask that all three of you rise to be sworn in 
as witnesses.
    I would ask that you please raise your right hand.
    Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony that you 
are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing 
but the truth, so help you God?
    Let the record reflect that all three of our witnesses have 
answered in the affirmative. And thank you very much.
    You may be seated. Thank you very much.
    I am going to be calling on you here, but as you know, you 
will be given the time that we have spoken about. We have a 
clock system which is easy for you to understand. It is kind of 
like a traffic light.
    And we would move first to the gentlewoman from the State 
Department for her opening testimony. The gentlewoman is 
recognized for 10 minutes.

                 STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE RENA BITTER

           ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR CONSULAR AFFAIRS

                        U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

    Ms. Bitter. Thank you so much, Chairman Sessions, Ranking 
Member Mfume, and other esteemed Members of the Committee. 
Thank you so much for the opportunity to discuss the work of 
the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs and to 
express my appreciation for the support we receive from Members 
of Congress and staff for our mission.
    It is a tremendous honor for me to be here today to 
represent the work of the 13,000 people in the Bureau of 
Consular Affairs to the Subcommittee with oversight of the 
Federal workforce. The public servants of this Bureau serve 
your constituents 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in 29 passport 
agencies and centers domestically and 240 embassies and 
consulates overseas. We are home to nearly one in five Civil 
Service employees in the State Department, and our 
geographically diverse Bureau serves U.S. citizen interests and 
supports the U.S. economy across the United States and around 
the globe.
    Mr. Chairman, 253 constituents across the great state of 
Texas are employed in passport agencies serving your and my 
home state. Ranking Member Mfume, last fiscal year alone we 
issued nearly 415,000 passport books and cards to Marylanders.
    The Bureau of Consular Affairs is funded by the fees 
collected for the services we provide to the traveling public. 
Though our funding does not come from appropriations, we adhere 
to the same budgeting and oversight regulations as if it did. 
That is to say, our revenue stream is treated for all intents 
and purposes as if it were appropriated. So, while our 
operations are funded by the significant revenue we generate 
through our fee-funded passport and visa services, we are very 
much a part of the State Department and reliant upon its 
platform.
    COVID-19 provided challenges in this arrangement. At the 
onset of the pandemic, the State Department, including the 
Bureau of Consular Affairs, was beginning to rebuild from a 16-
month hiring freeze that had reduced the size of our public-
facing staff across the globe. When the pandemic hit and 
international travel ground to a halt, it took our passport and 
visa services and our fees with it. We saw an immediate drop in 
revenue by 50 percent.
    It was thanks to Congress' support and partnership during 
those very dark days that enabled the Bureau of Consular 
Affairs to stay afloat. Thanks to stopgap appropriations, we 
were able to pay our staff and to, again, freeze hiring rather 
than having to let staff go.
    The expanded spending authorities you granted to us during 
that time also enabled us to be able to use consular revenue 
more flexibly. It has been the most important factor in our 
ability to rebuild. Extending those flexible authorities 
permanently would ensure that we avoid similar fiscal collapse 
in any future contingency.
    That said, despite yours and our best efforts, the pandemic 
hiring freezes and budget shortfalls left many posts and 
passport agencies significantly understaffed. When travel 
restrictions were lifted in late 2021 and international travel 
began to resume, our fee revenue rebounded, and we were able, 
again, thanks to expanded spending authorities, to begin 
hiring.
    At that point, years of hiring freezes had taken a toll on 
our staffing. Our domestic passport adjudication staff was down 
25 percent from where it had been just 4 years earlier, and our 
overseas visa adjudication staff was equally impacted.
    We have been working very hard to make up these deficits. 
On the passport side, we have increased our staff by 10 percent 
in the last year, with another 10 percent in the pipeline. 
Overseas we anticipate most positions will be backfilled by the 
end of this fiscal year. However, it does take time both to 
onboard and to train new staff for these national security 
positions. As a result, our processing times are still longer 
than we would like.
    We are also experiencing unprecedented demand. In Fiscal 
Year 2022, we issued 22 million U.S. passport books and cards. 
That was a record. We are on track to surpass that achievement 
this fiscal year by a projected 15 percent.
    We believe these numbers represent a trend and not an 
anomaly. Today 46 percent of Americans have passports, up from 
30 percent in 2008 and up from five percent in 1990.
    In our Fiscal Year 2023 operating plan, which was approved 
yesterday, we asked for an increase in the number of passport 
specialists, as well as increased investment to modernize our 
IT. Our Fiscal Year 2024 budget request reflects similar 
investments in our growth.
    With respect to inbound travel to the United States, which 
supports hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs in sectors across 
the country, today more people can travel to the United States 
than at any time in our history. Since travel restrictions were 
lifted in 2021, we have streamlined visa processing and 
dedicated more resources to reducing wait times consistent with 
national security.
    So, while having fewer staff at our overseas posts, our 
teams are issuing 22 percent more visas now than at the same 
period during pre-pandemic 2019.
    Despite our challenges and thanks to the hard work of our 
teams in the field and domestically, we are currently issuing 
more U.S. passports and visas than at any other time in our 
history. Ultimately, this is great news for the U.S. economy, 
businesses, family reunifications, and people-to-people ties. 
We plan to continue our aggressive rebuilding efforts to be 
able to meet the demand today and into the future while 
rigorously safeguarding our national security.
    We are striving to build a more agile and optimized Bureau 
of Consular Affairs to be able to serve your constituents. To 
do so, we are investing in the IT and human resources we need 
to ensure 21st century Federal customer experience.
    For example, new parents overseas can now electronically 
register the births of their U.S. citizen children. American 
citizens caught in crisis abroad can use a new online interface 
to directly communicate with Department officials in life-and-
death situations. And, before the end of the year, we 
anticipate that up to five million Americans annually will be 
able to renew their passports entirely online.
    Finally, I would like to say a word about the people of the 
Bureau of Consular Affairs. I could not be more proud of this 
team of public servants. We take very seriously our long 
history of serving our fellow citizens. Diplomats have been 
protecting the interests of Americans overseas since before our 
Nation had a Constitution. The people of Consular Affairs 
worked in person, both domestically and overseas, during the 
pandemic to continue to serve the public, often at personal 
peril. Our teams overseas supported the repatriation of 100,000 
Americans at the start of the pandemic.
    Our passport adjudicators returned to in-person work in 
June 2020. They did so because the nature of our work is to 
provide direct services to the traveling public. Often that 
means the work is extra rewarding. We can issue a visa to a 
student going to their dream school in the United States or a 
passport to someone so they can bid farewell to an ailing 
family member. We can help finalize an adoption for a U.S. 
family or help an American in crisis overseas.
    As the public face of the State Department domestically and 
of the United States overseas, we are proud of our partnership 
with Congress, and we are very grateful for its support. Your 
constituents are our constituents.
    As we navigate this current period of high demand, I want 
to say thank you to all Members and to your constituent 
services staff. You are invaluable partners in helping us to 
serve our shared constituents, and we are very grateful to you 
for your support.
    Thank you. And I look forward to our discussion today.
    Mr. Sessions. Thank you very much.
    Mr. Levins, you are recognized for 10 minutes.

                       STATEMENT OF SCOTT LEVINS

                                DIRECTOR

                   NATIONAL PERSONNEL RECORDS CENTER

    Mr. Levins. Good afternoon, Chairman Sessions, Ranking 
Member Mfume, and Members of the Committee. My name is Scott 
Levins, and I am the Director of the National Personnel Records 
Center, a component of the National Archives and Records 
Administration. Thank you for inviting me to testify about our 
ongoing efforts to eliminate the backlog of requests for 
military service records.
    The NPRC stores and provides access to more than 2 million 
cubic feet of records documenting U.S. military service of 
veterans. It also stores and provides access to more than 2 
million cubic feet of civilian personnel records. Our mission 
is to provide access to these important records to government 
agencies, military veterans and their families, former civilian 
Federal employees, and the general public.
    We are the physical custodians of over 4 million cubic feet 
of analog or paper records and the access point for a rapidly 
growing volume of electronic records. The NPRC employees 824 
Federal employees and contractors.
    During the first 2 years of the pandemic, NARA 
significantly curtailed onsite production due to limitations on 
building occupancy that were imposed to protect staff from the 
spread of COVID-19. As a result, NARA accumulated a large 
backlog of requests. NPRC never closed entirely during the 
pandemic. Although little was known about the spread of COVID-
19, NPRC still maintained limited onsite operations to ensure 
that we responded to the most urgent requests for records, such 
as those necessary to support funeral services, emergency 
healthcare, and homeless veterans seeking shelter. As the 
country gained a better understanding of COVID-19 protections, 
NPRC continuously implemented new workplace safety protocols 
and incrementally increased facility occupancy levels.
    Occupancy limitations were ended in March 2022. By then, 
the total count of unanswered requests for military records was 
604,000. Since then, NPRC has added 73 new Federal employees 
and 60 additional contractors to address the backlog.
    NARA used funds generously appropriated by Congress to add 
these staffing contractors, deploy laptops to staff, modernize 
our call center, and improve our systems for fulfilling 
military records requests. NARA is partnering with the 
Department of Veterans Affairs to digitize military service 
records to expedite our responses where possible.
    As of June 20, 2023, yesterday, the backlog of unanswered 
requests for military service records is 266,000. It is a 
little bit different than my written testimony because I 
submitted the written testimony last week, but updated it 
yesterday based on the current backlog. We define the backlog 
as the number of requests received that have not been fulfilled 
within the 20-workday deadline. Since April 1, 2022, the NPRC 
has responded to almost 1.8 million requests for military 
service records, including both new and backlog requests. The 
NPRC has continued to receive new requests throughout the 
entire period, and the volume of new requests has increased. 
Prior to the pandemic, we received approximately 21,000 
requests each week. Today we are receiving over 24,000.
    The NPRC has already eliminated the backlog of requests for 
separation documents, the DD forms 214 and equivalent, and 
returned to its pre-pandemic level of servicing 90 percent of 
those requests in less than 10 days and 95 percent in less than 
20 days. DD-214 requests represent approximately 60 percent of 
the requests that we receive. It is the record most often 
needed by veterans and their dependents to prove eligibility 
for benefits. NPRC prioritizes these requests ahead of other 
requests for military service records.
    Other requests are more complex and often require extensive 
redaction of third-party personal data, analysis of documents 
and extraction of verification of information contained 
therein, or the research of secondary sources. Therefore, these 
requests take longer to service than requests for a DD-214.
    Despite the increase in demand, we have a plan in place to 
eliminate the entire backlog by December of this calendar year.
    NPRC is performing its work today in ways that were 
unimaginable before the pandemic. NARA has asked a great deal 
from the NPRC workforce, many of whom are veterans themselves, 
and they have delivered. Response times on its most frequent 
and urgent requests have been restored, and unprecedented 
backlog reductions have been achieved.
    Earlier this month, NPRC hosted an onsite congressional 
open house. More than 50 congressional staff from all over the 
country traveled to St. Louis to learn about NPRC holdings, 
observe its work processes firsthand, tour the facility, and 
meet directly with its workforce. During the event, 
congressional staff reported significant improvement in 
responsiveness.
    During the pandemic, with each passing week, the center 
experienced backlog growth. Today, with each passing week, 
another significant stride is made in the right direction and 
the backlog is further reduced. However, there remains much to 
be done. NARA's senior leadership, as well as its workforce, 
are committed to eliminating the backlog as quickly as possible 
and providing America's veterans with the service they have 
earned and deserve.
    The newly confirmed Archivist of the United States, Dr. 
Colleen Shogan, has made this her top priority, receiving a 
briefing on the backlog within hours of being sworn-in and 
visiting NPRC in person during her first official travel as 
Archivist of the United States less than 2 weeks later.
    Throughout the pandemic, NARA provided recurring updates to 
Congress regarding the situation at NPRC. NARA will continue to 
provide quarterly updates to Congress and looks forward to soon 
reporting the permanent elimination of the entire backlog and 
the restoration of prompt service on all types of requests.
    We thank the Committee for its interest in this important 
matter and welcome any suggestions to improve service to 
America's veterans.
    Mr. Sessions. Thank you very much.
    Also, I would like to express our thanks to your staff for 
making sure that our investigators were able to come in and see 
firsthand not only the work that is performed but to make sure 
that they understood the processes and some of those 
impediments.
    Thank you very much.
    Mr. Levins. You are welcome.
    Mr. Sessions. We now move to Mr. Poist. The gentleman is 
recognized for 10 minutes.

                       STATEMENT OF CHAD M. POIST

                          DEPUTY COMMISSIONER

                  FOR BUDGET, FINANCE, AND MANAGEMENT

                  U.S. SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

    Mr. Poist. Chairman Sessions, Ranking Member Mfume, and 
Members of the Subcommittee, thanks for inviting me to discuss 
the status of customer service at the Social Security 
Administration. I am Chad Poist, the Deputy Commissioner for 
Budget, Finance, and Management.
    Social Security's programs and services touch the lives of 
nearly every American, and we appreciate your oversight of our 
important work. I hope to convey four main points.
    First, our budget directly determines the quality of 
customer service the public receives from us.
    Second, the challenges we face did not happen overnight, 
and it will take time to reverse them.
    Third, we are working to reduce backlogs and wait times by 
rebuilding our workforce and modernizing our technology.
    Fourth, we are successfully modernizing and expanding our 
digital services to meet the growing demand for convenient 
self-service options.
    Each day, our dedicated employees serve field office 
visitors, answer questions by phone, hold hearings, pay 
benefits, and complete numerous other workloads. Our priority 
has always been and continues to be providing mission-critical 
services to the public.
    During the pandemic, we made the unprecedented decision to 
implement maximum telework and close our offices to walk-in 
visitors, except for limited critical situations by appointment 
only. This allowed us to keep our employees and the public safe 
while continuing to deliver critical services. We also greatly 
expanded our digital and online services, as I will discuss 
later in this testimony.
    We successfully reentered our offices and expanded in-
person services in April 2022. However, after the disruption of 
the pandemic, we continue to face significant challenges in 
restoring service delivery to the standards the public expects 
and deserves. This is largely due to our staffing levels.
    After years of tight budgets, in Fiscal Year 2022, we 
dropped to our lowest staffing level in 25 years. Meanwhile, 
the number of beneficiaries and recipients we serve have 
increased by over 8 million in the last decade. We simply do 
not have enough staff to timely serve everyone who needs our 
help.
    The current tight labor market also makes it challenging to 
retain experienced staff and attract talented new ones. This 
year we expect to complete around 50,000 more retirement claims 
than last year, 2 million more Social Security number requests, 
and almost 130,000 more initial disability claims. We also 
expect to handle 2 million more phone calls on our national 800 
number.
    Initial disability claims are our biggest challenge. Over 1 
million people are waiting more than 7 months for an initial 
disability decision, which is far too long. These delays are 
largely concentrated in the State Disability Determination 
Services, or DDSs, which make the medical determinations for 
certain steps of our disability claims.
    Wait times increased during the pandemic because the DDSs 
had less access to recent medical evidence due to reduced 
doctor visits and a shortage of consultative examination 
providers. DDSs have also faced record high attrition among 
their staff and challenges hiring replacement staff.
    To increase DDS capacity, we have deployed cadres of 
technical experts to help work down the backlogs. These cadres 
are already showing results. So far, this fiscal year, they 
have completed nearly 20,000 cases. We are also working with 
DDSs to improve employee recruitment and retention. This 
includes encouraging states to make DDS pay more competitive 
and recruiting new consultative examination providers. It will 
take time, however, to see improvements in our service delivery 
metrics.
    We also face challenges with telephone services on our 
national 800 number. In spite of these challenges, millions of 
customers successfully use the 800 number as a primary method 
of contacting us. Due to our outdated phone technology and 
understaffed call centers, some callers have experienced busy 
signals, long waits, and dropped calls. We are addressing these 
issues with better technology and increased staffing.
    Prior to the pandemic, our outdated phone system was slated 
for necessary updates that turned transition into a modern 
platform. The pandemic redirected in-person service to 
telephone service, so we were forced to develop an interim 
phone system to answer calls outside of our physical 
infrastructure. This temporary solution allowed us to serve the 
public safely and continue our essential customer service, but 
it did not provide some of our prior critical functions, such 
as the ability to provide estimated wait times and a call-back 
feature. We look forward to keeping you updated on our progress 
and to improve our 800 number.
    With the funding we received this year, which we do 
appreciate, we are beginning to rebuild our workforce. Once new 
hires are fully trained and gain experience, starting in Fiscal 
Year 2024, they will help us to reduce backlogs and improve 
service to the public. For instance, with the Fiscal Year 2024 
President's budget, we plan to reduce wait times in the 
national 800 number from 35 minutes this year, down to 20 
minutes in Fiscal Year 2024.
    Technology is another important tool to improve customer 
experience. More and more customers are choosing to use our 
online services, and we are successfully modernizing and 
expanding our digital services to meet that demand. This also 
shortens wait times for those who need or prefer to connect 
with us in-person or over the phone.
    I will highlight just a few of our recent accomplishments 
with digital and IT modernization. Online My Social Security 
transactions have grown by about 25 percent each year since 
2018. These transactions include tasks like checking the status 
of an application, getting an estimate of future benefits, and 
managing the benefits someone already receives.
    We also launched our redesigned ssa.gov website in December 
2022. After incorporating user feedback, many of the most 
visited pages now have a more user-friendly and test-based 
approach that provides customers with a clear path to the task 
they need to accomplish.
    We also expanded remote hearing options during the pandemic 
to hold disability hearings via telephone and video for 
customers who choose those options. Even post-pandemic, these 
remote options have proven a strong success with our customers. 
So far, in Fiscal Year 2023, more than 80 percent of our 
customers have chosen to participate in their hearings by phone 
or video.
    It is worth noting that, while our online services and 
technology improvements are important, they do not replace the 
need for trained staff. Even when a customer chooses to follow 
an online application, which occurs about 60 percent of the 
time, we still need employees to process the online application 
and conduct follow-up interviews.
    So, to end where I started, to truly improve customer 
service, we need sufficient funding sustained over multiple 
years. The Fiscal Year 2024 President's budget request of $15.5 
billion for administrative expenses will help us restore 
staffing to process increasing workloads, continue to modernize 
technology, and reduce backlogs and long waits.
    If supported with sustained funding and sufficient 
staffing, our efforts will put us on the path to significantly 
improve our essential service delivery to the public in coming 
years. We are working diligently to improve customer service, 
but we need your support. We stand ready to work with you.
    Again, I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you and 
look forward to your questions.
    Thank you.
    Mr. Sessions. Thank you very much, Mr. Poist.
    We will go to our first Member, and that would be the 
gentleman from Alabama, Chairman Palmer.
    Mr. Palmer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thanks for holding 
this hearing. I think it is extremely important.
    Obviously, all of us in our district offices get a lot of 
requests for assistance with your various agencies, 
particularly with Social Security. And, Mr. Poist--is that the 
correct pronunciation--you mentioned having some staffing 
issues, and I am just wondering how your staffing issues might 
be impacting improper payments. This is an area that I have 
done a lot of work in over the years that I have been here, 
particularly on this Committee, and found that well over half 
of the issues with improper payments have to do with antiquated 
data systems, administrative errors, failure to verify 
eligibility, things like that, which are a staffing issue. And 
it could be staff that are not able to process the workload as 
quick as they need to. It could be people who are not as well 
trained as they need to be.
    Is that an issue? And is that something that you have 
looked into?
    Mr. Poist. We have not seen any noticeable differences in 
our payment accuracy rates. We rely heavily on data exchanges 
with other Federal agencies and other entities, so we have not 
seen any difference in payment accuracy rates.
    Mr. Palmer. OK. I will try to go back and look at the GAO 
report and--if I had thought of that before I came in here, I 
got that listening to your testimony.
    The other thing I wanted to ask is, how is your staffing 
issues impacting your productivity? Obviously, it is. I mean, 
you would not have brought it up.
    Mr. Poist. So, staffing alone does not affect the 
productivity. You know, we saw productivity decline quite 
significantly during the pandemic due to business processes 
workarounds. But, in the first half of 2023, we have actually 
seen productivity rebound quite nicely.
    Mr. Palmer. So, didn't you mention that you are having some 
worker shortage issues?
    Mr. Poist. Correct.
    Mr. Palmer. But your productivity is up even though you do 
not have an adequate workforce?
    Mr. Poist. So, productivity is not up. So, again, there is 
productivity, and then there is production. Total volume would 
be production. So, again, productivity itself has many 
variables that go into it. It could be new business processes 
implemented. It could be new systems that are implemented. It 
could be employees in training and then several things like 
that. You know, productivity is not where it was pre-pandemic, 
but it has rebounded in 2023 compared to 2022.
    Mr. Palmer. Well, what percentage of your workforce is 
working remotely?
    Mr. Poist. So right now--and so, in our public-facing 
sites, our field offices, we have almost all of our employees 
working in the field offices, and they are also almost all 
eligible for telework.
    Mr. Palmer. But that was not my question. What percentage 
of your employees--and you can break it out by field office, or 
you can break it out here inside the beltway. What percentage 
of your workforce has not returned to the office?
    Mr. Poist. So, we fully reentered our offices in March 
2022.
    Mr. Palmer. So, 100 percent of the employees are back in 
the office?
    Mr. Poist. They are also all eligible for telework.
    Mr. Palmer. What percentage of your employees are in the 
office?
    Mr. Poist. So, again, we look at it by type of office. So, 
like, in our field offices, again, 100 percent or almost 100 
percent of those employees are working in the office.
    Mr. Palmer. What percentage of the employees that are D.C.-
based are in the office?
    Mr. Poist. So, I would say D.C.-based, which would be 
mostly like an office-based environment, not our frontline 
employees, it is a small percentage.
    Mr. Palmer. How about you, Mr. Levins? What percentage of 
your workforce has returned to the office?
    Mr. Levins. If you drive by our facility, our parking lot 
is full. That has been the biggest difference in our ability to 
get our backlog down has been returning people to work. I would 
estimate 85 percent of our workforce is working onsite. We have 
three small teams that we transitioned to offsite work during 
the pandemic, and it is deliberate because what we wanted to do 
was--we have repurposed the space they occupy in the building 
to add more employees to address the backlog. Those three small 
teams are our Data Input Section. So, prior to the pandemic, 
when a request was received, we would digitize it, and then we 
would transcribe it into our production system. And we did that 
work onsite. What we do now is we digitize them in batches, and 
people working remotely--it is about 20 people--will transcribe 
those into our system.
    Mr. Palmer. So about 20 people are working----
    Mr. Levins. In that one team.
    Mr. Palmer. How about you, Assistant Secretary Bitter?
    Ms. Bitter. All of our public services--our passport 
adjudicators have been back in the office since June 2020.
    Mr. Palmer. OK. But overall, in the State Department--one 
of the things that I am concerned about is--and, Mr. Chairman, 
we have some information that indicates that a fairly 
substantial percentage of Federal employees have not returned 
to the office. That is part of what I am trying to find out.
    And, by the way, I think overall your productivity, working 
with the State Department in particular, has been pretty good. 
You have been consistent with what is advertised anyway and how 
long it takes to get things done. We would like to see that 
timeframe shortened, and if you need more people, we would like 
to know that.
    So, with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
    Mr. Sessions. I thank the gentleman.
    Mr. Mfume. Thank you very much, again, Mr. Chairman.
    Ms. Bitter, I would like to just go back to the State 
Department for just a moment.
    The Inspector General published, as I think you may be 
aware, a report in 2021 that found real delays in IT 
modernization initiatives for passport services. I do not think 
they were trying to lay blame. They were simply reporting there 
were serious delays here. Those delays kept staff working 
essentially in a paper-based environment and an inconvenience 
in many respects for customers by requiring the submission of 
paper applications rather than the ability to apply online.
    Does that sound correct?
    Ms. Bitter. Yes, sir.
    Mr. Mfume. OK. So, based on the Inspector General's report, 
could you tell the Committee what the current status is now of 
these IT initiatives and how, hopefully, they will improve 
processing times but, more importantly, customer service?
    Ms. Bitter. Yes, sir. Thank you.
    Maybe I will start with talking about exactly what you 
highlighted, which is online passport renewal. The State 
Department, we see OPR actually, online passport renewals, as 
the future of our services. We piloted this program to the 
general public from August to February of this last year. And, 
during that time period, 565,000 Americans got their passports 
online efficiently and securely.
    We asked everyone to submit a survey once they got their 
passport back. 12,000 people did, and 99 percent of them said 
that they were satisfied with the service. It was a pilot. 
There were pieces of it that we wanted to work on. We took the 
pilot offline in February, and we anticipate rolling it out 
more broadly at the end of this year. And, when we do, five 
million Americans should be able to use that system and apply 
online to renew their passport from the comfort of their own 
home in a secure and quick way. So, we are looking forward to 
that.
    Broadly speaking, one of the things when we talk about the 
consular affairs of the future and the services that we want to 
be able to provide to people, we look at this in two different 
ways. One is we want to hire people. We want to make sure that 
we have enough people in place to do the work, but, you know, 
we do not want to force people to do overtime. We do not want 
to surge our way out of backlogs and processing times. We want 
to be able to invest in our technology so that we can 
anticipate needs and we can use technology to our advantage to 
solve problems before they arise.
    So, we are grateful for the feedback and the inspection 
reports that we have gotten on our consular systems. We have 
taken them very seriously, and we are working closely with our 
teams to make sure that the recommendations are implemented. 
And, with respect to passports in particular, online passport 
renewal is a project that we are very proud of, and we are 
looking forward to rolling it out.
    Mr. Mfume. Thank you very much.
    Mr. Poist, I am going to get back over to the Social 
Security Administration for just a second.
    Can you describe to the Committee what you believe to be 
are the main contributors to the disability claims backlog that 
exist at Social Security?
    Mr. Poist. Sure. So, thank you for that question.
    So, we were seeing the pending and the average processing 
time grow prior to the pandemic in the initial disability 
claims. So, I would like to call this a bit of a perfect storm 
that hit us. Right? So, we had a pending that was growing prior 
to the pandemic. We hit these pandemic challenges that forced 
us to pull some workloads. We had trouble getting medical 
records from the medical community. We saw our consultative 
examinations that--a number of providers kind of fall off. And, 
at the same time the DDSs in the states were having recruitment 
and retention challenges. So, we are facing now the third year 
of historic levels of attrition in these states. In 2021, we 
saw about 20 percent attrition for the disability examiners. In 
2022, we saw that rise to about 25 percent for disability 
examiners. And here in 2023, we are experiencing right around 
20 percent again. So, we have fallen back to that 2021 level. 
However, historically, we have seen attrition there average 
between 12 and 15 percent.
    So, at the same time, we also implemented a new national 
case processing system that was going to make us more 
efficient. So, any time you implement a new system, there is 
going to be a small learning curve. So, again, it is really 
just a perfect storm of those recruitment retention challenges, 
not being able to replace all of those employees due to budget, 
and then some of those pandemic workarounds.
    Mr. Mfume. So, essentially, the difficulty in getting 
medical records, if I heard you correctly, recruitment and 
retention issues, attrition, which has continued to go up, is 
there any contribution to that backlog because of telework 
practices?
    Mr. Poist. I do not believe there is any contribution due 
to telework.
    Mr. Mfume. And has telework assisted in what you are doing, 
or has it slowed the process?
    Mr. Poist. So, telework during the pandemic really allowed 
us to continue our mission. Without telework, you know, I do 
not even like to think of what might have happened.
    Mr. Mfume. And what about now that the pandemic is over? Is 
that--would you consider that to be, as these other three 
areas, a contributor to the backlogs or an asset to doing away 
with backlogs?
    Mr. Poist. I do not really believe it is either an asset or 
a contributor. In each state--and, again, there is 52 separate 
DDSs across the country, so each of them have their own 
telework policies.
    Mr. Mfume. Well, I am always reminded, and I remind others, 
of the last four letters in telework is work. People who are 
teleworking are, in fact, working. The question becomes, are 
they being monitored in such a way that their product is 
productive or even more productive than it had been? But I will 
leave that up to the agencies. That is just me kind of giving 
an observation here.
    Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. I yield back.
    Mr. Sessions. The gentleman yields back his time.
    The distinguished gentleman from Louisiana, Mr. Higgins, is 
recognized.
    Mr. Higgins. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Mr. Poist, is it your testimony that you are saying that 
telework has not impacted the backlog that Americans are 
currently experiencing through your perspective in your 
jurisdictional authority?
    Mr. Poist. I do not believe that telework has contributed 
to our backlog.
    Mr. Higgins. You do not believe it has?
    Mr. Poist. I do not.
    Mr. Higgins. Well, that is stunning testimony because 
virtually every American watching has been impacted in some 
way, in our immediate family or those that we serve in our 
community and our state. We have been subject to very long wait 
times that have coincided with COVID when telework largely 
began. I am not saying it was created at that time, but surely 
you know what I am referring to, where massive numbers, 
percentages of our workforce was determined--I disagreed with 
that determination at the time, and I think history will prove 
men like me correct, but our Nation most certainly shifted to a 
large percentage of its workforce being forced to work at home, 
including this body. It was not nearly as functional in 
Committee participating remotely as it is when we are here and 
engaged and in person, involved.
    So, are you seriously telling this Committee that you are 
satisfied with telework as compared to onsite, in-person office 
work, and a level of performance that you have received from 
each? Is that what you are saying?
    Mr. Poist. So, there are many contributing factors here, 
and, again, budget and staffing are probably two of the largest 
ones. I do not believe that telework is the main contributor to 
any of our service challenges.
    Mr. Higgins. OK. We are going to agree to disagree because 
I only have 5 minutes to undo that knot.
    Let me ask you, sir, regarding the wait times that we are 
dealing with, how is it that Social Security can move so fast 
when the spouse of an elder dies to decrease their benefits, 
but they have got to wait 250 days for a response on an 
application, you know, through the very efficient telework 
force that we have in place? How can it move so fast when 
someone dies?
    Mr. Poist. I mean, I am not an operational expert. I mean, 
I would have to defer that back to our operations expert.
    Mr. Higgins. That is just the way it is. And Americans 
watching know what I am talking about. We have an elder in our 
family that the spouse dies, it is almost immediate they 
receive a letter that their benefits are being reduced by a 
certain amount, and if they dare to have collected for an 
additional month or so, they get billed for that. The agency 
seems to work very fast in that case, but across the country, 
we have waiting times of over 200 days.
    Ms. Bitter, I would like to commend some of your workforce, 
ma'am, in operating under challenging conditions, and I would 
ask you as well--do you think telework has impacted? But I am 
going to say that my office's interaction with your office, 
especially in the New Orleans office, those guys just bend over 
backward to help Americans that find themselves in a bind with 
a passport application, and they seem to work miracles. And I 
want to extend my gratitude for that.
    But the larger picture is that I am concerned about 
workforce presence in the office, across your jurisdictional 
authority. Would you address that as compared to telework, 
ma'am?
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you, sir. And thank you for the kind 
words about our New Orleans Passport Agency. We are very proud 
of them.
    For our public facing staff, over season, in Washington, 
people have been working throughout the pandemic, the passport 
adjudicators, since June 2020. Throughout this--I cannot speak 
to the broader State Department and what folks are doing. I 
think in our office we see plenty of people around. There are 
days where some people work from home, but for the most part, 
certainly----
    Mr. Higgins. Do you know what the numbers are----
    Ms. Bitter. I do not, sir.
    Mr. Higgins [continuing]. Ma'am, what the percentages are?
    Ms. Bitter. We can get back to you.
    Mr. Higgins. Could you maybe get back with us?
    Ms. Bitter. Yes, of course.
    Mr. Higgins. And I would ask the same of Mr. Levins and Mr. 
Poist, if you could respond to the Committee, in a given period 
of time, what the numbers or percentages are for onsite work 
versus telework.
    Mr. Chairman, my time has expired. I yield.
    Mr. Sessions. Thank you very much. The gentleman yields 
back his time.
    The gentlewoman from Pennsylvania, Ms. Lee, is recognized.
    Ms. Lee. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
    As Members of Congress, we have a duty to ensure that our 
government is both funded and functional. We need to make sure 
that everyone can easily renew a passport, access their Social 
Security benefits, or apply for veteran's benefits. It is our 
most vulnerable populations, the low income, the people of 
color, and the elderly, who suffer the most when our agencies 
cannot do their jobs. But we cannot hamstring those agencies 
and then cry foul when they do not work.
    Republicans have starved these agencies' resources for more 
than a decade, and the current backlog is turning routine 
applications into emergencies. One of my constituents is a 
dental student at the University of Pittsburgh. He planned to 
go on a dental mission trip to Honduras and lead a team to help 
the people there. Although he applied well in advance, the 
backlog meant that my district team had to help him to travel 
to another state to get a same-day passport at the Buffalo 
passport office.
    With the current backlog, only those who can afford to 
travel out of state to take a one-day appointment and pay the 
increased cost can obtain a passport to travel abroad in time. 
For my district in Pittsburgh, the two closest locations are 
Buffalo and D.C., a 3-hour and a 4-hour drive, respectively. I 
am extremely appreciative of my district team's hard work, but 
situations like this should not be the norm.
    Ms. Bitter, are there any plans to expand the number of 
locations offering same-day services so that people do not have 
to travel hours away?
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you for the question. I appreciate it. We 
absolutely understand why it is very important to have as many 
opportunities for people to be able to apply for a passport in 
person. Across the United States, there are 7,000 acceptance 
facilities where people can go and apply in person for a 
passport.
    We do a lot of monitoring and data to see exactly whether 
we are able to meet the needs of people across the United 
States. Our data shows that 95 percent of our customers reside 
within 25 miles of an acceptance facility, and that 90 percent 
of Americans live within a 5-hour drive of a counter, which is 
where you can get same-day service.
    So, it is--what we think we need to do is invest more in 
ensuring that we have the technology, that our systems are 
modernized, and that we are able to meet service demands.
    That said, with respect to acceptance facilities in 
particular, we are always looking for more places where we can 
provide service to people, and we are happy to work with your 
staff to see if there are more places within your district or 
close by where we can ensure that people can be seen in person.
    Ms. Lee. Thank you. And I hope that that also means a 
commitment to working more with our district offices to better 
expedite that process.
    Another--turning over, my Republican colleagues seem to 
conveniently forget that a big part of how we got here were 
Trump-era policies that decimated the workforce at our 
agencies.
    Last year, Social Security Administration saw its smallest 
workforce in 25 years, while also increasing the people they 
serve by more than 10 million in the past decade. A 2018 Trump 
executive order gutted the collective bargaining power of its 
workers. Luckily, President Biden has since reversed this 
policy, but SSA workers are now stuck with the contract made 
during that time. These workers are essential for getting 
millions of Americans the benefits they rely on to live. Yet, 
SSA was ranked as the worst Federal agency to work at in 
Partnership for Public Service's annual ratings.
    Mr. Poist, why has SSA not reopened contract negotiations 
with AFGE after President Biden reversed a Trump-era policy?
    Mr. Poist. Thanks for that question. So, we have great 
partnership with, actually, all three of our unions, including 
AFGE. We actually, last summer, we did come to terms with six 
contract articles with AFGE, and we are actually in 
negotiations with AFGE right now for another six articles.
    Ms. Lee. Thank you. Often it is the frontline workers who 
get the most flak, yet the hardest work. One of my constituents 
was mistakenly listed as deceased by SSA, and in the process of 
fixing the issue, some Medicaid payments were made in error. 
Ms. Hill lost some of that vital money. My district team was 
able to work with SSA to quickly fix the issue, and they issued 
them a reimbursement check. But again, if SSA had the resources 
and funding they need, my district team would not need to step 
in. Despite all of this, we do have some positive steps being 
taken.
    Mr. Levins, can you briefly explain what the Technology 
Modernization Fund, or TMF, is?
    Mr. Levins. Yes. The TMF was a vehicle that we were able to 
leverage to basically get a loan to fund the development of our 
replacement production system. The production system that we 
use at NPRC is about 20 years old, and it is out of date and in 
need of replacement. It is one of NARA's high value assets. 
With those funds, we were able to begin development, and we are 
targeting deployment in December of this year.
    Ms. Lee. Thank you. I will be respectful of my time. I did 
want to add, my Republican colleagues seem so invested in 
fixing the backlog on our agencies, but I think they need to 
understand that cutting funding is not the answer. We need to 
invest in the people and tech needed to ensure that our 
constituents get the service they are owed from their 
government.
    I yield back.
    Mr. Sessions. The gentlewoman yields back her time.
    We now yield to the distinguished gentleman from Florida, 
the gentleman, Mr. Donalds.
    Mr. Donalds. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Quick comment on 
spending levels. The Federal agencies are spending more than--
up over 40 percent from where they were in pre-COVID spending 
levels. COVID-19 is now over. Not sure what additional work the 
agencies are having to do, except for backlog work that the 
agencies were not able to get to because a lot of Federal 
workers were at home and not actually in the office going 
through the practices that they are hired to do.
    And look, I get it. It was COVID-19. You are not quite sure 
what you are dealing with. That made sense in year one. But 
year 2 and year 3, that made little sense to continue to leave 
the offices closed or on partial schedules. And from what we 
understand from previous testimony from the Director of Office 
of Personnel Management, that there are still members of the 
Federal workforce who have not returned to the office still 
today. Like, that is a significant problem.
    Cutting money from the Federal agencies because we continue 
to overspend drastically is a good and healthy fiscal thing 
that we should be doing in our country, and if that means that 
there are services that our people need and are going to need, 
then maybe Washington should rethink its policy overall to make 
sure that we can address the needs of the American people while 
not wasting the money of the American people.
    To the witness panel, thanks for being here. Going to pose 
a couple of questions here. Really just, you can answer whether 
it is acceptable or not.
    Ms. Bitter, I am going to start with you. A government that 
enforces an essential business-only policy, while 
simultaneously paying its employees full salaries, while 
millions of Americans wait inexcusable amounts of time for 
basic required services, is that acceptable or not?
    Ms. Bitter. I am sorry, sir. The question is broadly 
speaking?
    Mr. Donalds. If we develop an essential businesses-only 
policy, but everybody is still getting paid full-time, full 
benefits, while Americans are having to wait exorbitant amount 
of times, and, frankly, they have to call their Member of 
Congress to help them--help weed through the bureaucracy, is 
that acceptable or is it not acceptable?
    Ms. Bitter. I just want to make sure I understand the 
question, sir, please forgive me.
    Mr. Donalds. Sure.
    Ms. Bitter. So essential businesses only, I think what I 
hear you asking is about parts of the government that were 
closed except to essential services. Is that correct?
    Mr. Donalds. Yes, ma'am. Is that acceptable or not?
    Ms. Bitter. I can speak only for my organization and for 
the passport services, which I think is what people are most 
interested in. We have been, again, open since June 2020. And 
while the pandemic certainly disrupted our operations, we never 
stopped serving the public throughout for the entirety of the 
time.
    Mr. Donalds. I would argue it has been very delayed.
    Mr. Levins, what about you? Is that acceptable or not?
    Mr. Levins. Thank you for your question. I will never 
forget March 2020, and the day that the pandemic hit----
    Mr. Donalds. Mr. Levins, I agree. I was there too. We all 
remember March 2020. The question is: In September 2020, in 
March 2021, in September 2021, in March 2022, is it still 
acceptable for the American people to require services of their 
government only to not be able to get them in a timely fashion 
because we have members of the Federal workforce who are not at 
their posts doing their job? Is that acceptable or not?
    Mr. Levins. I will speak for our office. We never entirely 
closed.
    Mr. Donalds. Never entirely closed. OK.
    Mr. Poist?
    Mr. Levins. From day one, we had people there to perform 
essential services.
    Mr. Donalds. Thank you, Mr. Levins.
    Mr. Poist, is that acceptable or not?
    Mr. Poist. So, like the other two panelists, our offices 
never closed to the public. They were by appointment only.
    Mr. Donalds. Mr. Poist, let me ask you a question. What 
percentage of your workforce is actually in the office in the 
calendar year of 2021? I am going to excuse you for 2020. I get 
it. Early pandemic, everybody is trying to figure out what was 
going on. Was your office fully open in 2021?
    Mr. Poist. They were not fully open in 2021.
    Mr. Donalds. Were they fully open in 2022?
    Mr. Poist. They were.
    Mr. Donalds. They were fully open; everybody was back to 
work 100 percent in 2022? Obviously, not 100 percent. We know, 
people get sick, people call out, but you had, essentially, 
your entire workforce available to you in the year 2022?
    Mr. Poist. At the end of March 2022, we had fully reentered 
our offices.
    Mr. Donalds. So, it took about a year and a half for 
everybody to kind of come back in SSA. Is that correct?
    Mr. Poist. That is correct.
    Mr. Donalds. And there is no problem with that delay in 
people coming back to work?
    Mr. Poist. I do not see a problem.
    Mr. Donalds. That is the problem, Mr. Poist, is that you do 
not see a problem with that. But I tell you right now, the 
American people see a big problem with that. When people call 
my office--and listen, this not a partisan thing. It can be one 
of--it can be an office of a Republican Member or a Democrat 
Member of Congress. It does not matter. But when people call in 
looking for help from Social Security or passport services and 
trying to figure out how to get something done, they are not 
getting an answer, they got hung up on on the phone, so they 
call our offices; and when we call--and I get it, when we call, 
everybody is jumping through hoops to answer the call of a 
congressional office; you guys do not think there is a problem 
with that? Because I do.
    Listen, we will take care of every constituent request. It 
does not matter who the constituent is. But when the only 
answer a constituent gets is from their Member of Congress to 
basically rattle the cages of the bureaucracy, that is a major 
problem, and it is unacceptable.
    I yield back.
    Mr. Sessions. The gentleman yields back his time.
    The gentlewoman from New Mexico, Ms. Stansbury.
    Ms. Stansbury. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    And I want to say thank you, first of all, to our Federal 
agencies and employees who are here with us today.
    And I want to just start by saying that casework and 
helping New Mexicans is the bread and butter of my 
congressional office. It is a huge percentage of the work that 
we do on behalf of my constituents. That includes everything 
from helping our veterans, to helping our elders and seniors 
with Social Security, helping with immigration issues with the 
State Department. And these are very serious issues, and 
obviously, all of us and all of our constituents are 
experiencing real-life impacts that are affecting their 
families and their lives.
    But I do want to take a moment, because it really bothers 
me when my colleagues bring folks in front of this Committee, 
which is an oversight Committee, and then attack our Federal 
public servants, folks who literally are working for us every 
single day to try to address these issues. And the facts are 
that when you freeze hiring, when you cut pay, when you do not 
backfill jobs, and when you consistently attack Federal 
employees, it affects their morale, it affects Federal hiring, 
and it affects the services that our agencies are able to 
actually provide to the American people.
    So, the facts show that when we are not adequately funding 
our agencies, when we are not adequately staffing our agencies, 
and when we do not support our Federal personnel, we see the 
kind of issues that we are seeing here today. So, obviously, we 
want to talk a little bit about some of the challenges that the 
constituents across the U.S., but in my district in particular, 
are facing.
    New Mexico is a place where a disproportionate number of 
our families are low income. Our seniors depend on their access 
to Social Security to live, in some cases, check to check, and 
we also have one of the highest percentages of the number of 
individuals who are veterans and who have served in our 
military, and we are very grateful for their service.
    And I have to tell you that I actually, in preparation for 
this hearing, spoke in depth with our staff about their 
casework and what they have been seeing in each of our Federal 
agencies. And, in fact, we have a Social Security service 
center in my district in Albuquerque.
    Now, first of all, when it comes to Social Security, I 
actually agree with my colleagues on the other side of the 
aisle on this issue. Folks who are on Social Security, many of 
them obviously are elders. Many of them do not feel comfortable 
using some of the technologies that the Federal Government is 
trying to transition to.
    And when they call our regional offices or they call the 
800 number, and they get a runaround by an employee who is not 
physically in the office, it means that they are not going to 
be able to get their check. It means they are not going to be 
able to pay their rent. It means they are not going to be able 
to go grocery shopping and put food on the table. And for many 
of our folks who are also living with disabilities, it means 
that they are also not able to get qualified for their 
disability support systems.
    So, one of my asks, and I hope that you will take this 
back, Mr. Poist, to the Social Security Administration and to 
those who are up the chain who are listening today, is, we do 
need those offices reopened. We do need more staff physically 
in person. And we need to not be leaving our elders, seniors, 
and people with disabilities standing in long lines outside of 
Social Security offices trying to get their Social Security 
checks and benefits approved. So, I do want to make that point.
    Second, Ms. Bitter, I am very appreciative of your work. I 
will tell you, I think everyone here is having this experience 
right now. The passport backlog, the backlog on immigration and 
other issues that we are seeing is really just astronomical 
right now. And we have not received an adequate answer in my 
office about why we are suddenly hitting a wall.
    Like some of my colleagues, you know, normally, our 
regional folks are fantastic. They help us solve problems when 
we call, or we ask for help. But even now we are really running 
into some huge problems. So, can you please explain why are we 
seeing this backlog, and when do you hope to actually get it 
resolved?
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you for the question, Congresswoman. I 
just want to clarify, we are talking about passports?
    Ms. Stansbury. Yes.
    Ms. Bitter. Yes. Thank you. So just to--for the big picture 
and to back up and explain a little bit about where we are. We 
are fee-funded, and our revenue comes from fees paid for the 
services that we provide. And like the rest of the State 
Department, we went into the pandemic at a deficit from hiring 
freezes in prior years. And then, because we are fee-funded and 
travel stopped, our fees dropped, and we had to implement 
further hiring freezes.
    So, by the time travel came back and our fees rebounded 
about 18 months ago, we were starting 25 percent down from 
where we had been.
    Ms. Stansbury. And, Ms. Bitter, I am so sorry to interrupt 
you, but we are short on time. Can you tell us when you can 
expect to be caught up on this backlog?
    Ms. Bitter. Sure. We anticipate that by the end of the 
calendar year we will be at pre-pandemic waiting levels, and 
that later in the summer and then throughout the fall, wait 
times will continue to fall incrementally.
    Ms. Stansbury. And, Mr. Chairman, I know I am out of time, 
but I do want to just say one quick thing.
    Mr. Levins, I am grateful that you are here today. We are 
also seeing significant backlogs in getting those Federal 
records for our veterans, and, in fact, one of my constituents 
was unable to get a veteran's home loan because he did not get 
his paperwork in time. So, please let us know how we can help 
support your agencies. We know that you need support and 
funding and staffing, and we just really are grateful for all 
the work that you do. So, thank you.
    I yield back
    Mr. Sessions. The gentlewoman yields back her time.
    The distinguished gentleman from South Carolina, the 
gentleman, Mr. Timmons, is recognized.
    Mr. Timmons. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    As everyone is aware, we just had a long debt ceiling 
fight, and the outcome was determined by 11 percent of the 
budget. Our leaders preemptively removed 89 percent of spending 
from any conversation. We have $32 trillion of debt. We are on 
an unsustainable path, and it is a national security threat to 
this country.
    The solution lies in three areas: Healthcare, immigration, 
and Social Security. And so, I am going to talk about Social 
Security right now, and I am going to begin this by saying that 
I am not proposing that we take away anyone's Social Security 
that has paid into the system. But we have structural 
deficiencies. We have problems.
    And, Mr. Poist, I am going to go over those with you real 
quick. So, what year was Social Security created?
    Mr. Poist. 1935.
    Mr. Timmons. And what was the retirement age in the Social 
Security Act of 1935?
    Mr. Poist. Actually, I am not aware of that answer.
    Mr. Timmons. 65 is the answer.
    Do you know what life expectancy was in 1935? No? 59. That 
math works. It does not take an actuarial model to see that if 
most people are living to 59 and you do not get Social Security 
until 65, that math works.
    What is the retirement age now?
    Mr. Poist. I think it varies based on your date of birth.
    Mr. Timmons. 67 is generally the earliest that most people 
can retire at this point. Is that fair?
    Mr. Poist. Sounds fair.
    Mr. Timmons. OK. And do you know what the life expectancy 
is in 2023?
    Mr. Poist. I do not.
    Mr. Timmons. 76. 76. So, we have a problem. We have a 
problem. I have here the 2003 annual report of the board of 
trustees of the Federal Old Age and Survivors Insurance and 
Federal Disability Insurance Trust Funds. They are required to 
do an annual communication to Congress and to the President. 
And in this communication, it says--I will summarize it--
basically, we got 10 years at best until we go into austerity 
measures, where individuals that have paid in that are due 
benefits from these programs, we will not be able to meet our 
obligations.
    Do you know what happens when we go into austerity measures 
for Social Security?
    Mr. Poist. I do not. We have to get back to you on that 
one.
    Mr. Timmons. OK. So, the report here says that if nothing 
is done, 80 percent of benefits--so if you are supposed to get 
a dollar, you get 80 cents--will occur in 2023. There is also 
discrepancy as to what year this is. A couple of models say it 
is going to be sooner, almost 3 years sooner.
    So, the challenge here is that the people that are 
responsible for administering these benefits are saying that 
there is a problem. And I am actually just going to read the 
end.
    The trustees recommend that lawmakers address the projected 
trust fund shortfalls in a timely way in order to phase in 
necessary changes gradually and give workers and beneficiaries 
time to adjust to them. Implementing changes sooner rather than 
later would allow more generations to share in the needed 
revenue increases or reductions in scheduled benefits. Social 
Security will play a critical role in the lives of 67 million 
beneficiaries and 180 million covered workers and their 
families during 2023. With informed discussion, creative 
thinking, and timely legislative action, Social Security can 
continue to protect future generations.
    So, the people that are responsible for administering the 
programs that we all hold dear are saying that they have a 
problem, and they want Congress to do something about it. And 
our leaders preemptively said we are not going to discuss 
Social Security, healthcare, and immigration when resolving our 
$32 trillion in debt. There was brief talk of a commission the 
day of the vote, but that never has materialized.
    So, I just think that this is a major problem. I think that 
the longer we wait, the worse it will get. And I think that it 
is incredibly irresponsible for us to not begin conversations 
on how to save Social Security, because the people responsible 
for administering the program are saying that there is a major 
problem, and we are doing nothing. And the American people 
deserve better.
    And I hope that this Congress can get together and find a 
path forward, because the alternative is very bad for the 
American people, and we were sent here to solve problems, and 
this is a big problem, and it is past time that we give it the 
attention it is due.
    And with that, Mr. Chairman, I will yield back.
    Mr. Sessions. The gentleman yields back his time. Thank you 
very much.
    The distinguished gentlewoman from the District of 
Columbia, Ms. Norton, is recognized.
    Ms. Norton. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    For more than a decade--I say this to our witnesses--
congressional Republicans or their Majorities have sought to 
severely constrain the Federal budget, causing lasting harm to 
agencies. So, this is a question for all of the witnesses here 
today. Is your agency able to function properly if it is 
underfunded, yes or no?
    Ms. Bitter. No.
    Mr. Levins. No.
    Mr. Poist. No, we are not.
    Ms. Norton. In 2017, congressional Democrats signed a 
letter expressing concern to then President Trump that the 
Social Security Administration's declining budget would affect 
services to some of America's most vulnerable citizens.
    I ask unanimous consent to insert this letter into the 
record, Mr. Chairman.
    Mr. Sessions. Without objection, that letter will be 
entered.
    Ms. Norton. Thank you.
    That year, the Social Security Administration's declining 
budget led to the closure of 64 field offices nationwide, a 
burgeoning in disability hearings backlog with an average of 
540-day waiting period, increased wait times at every point of 
contact and extended durations for retirement and disability 
appointments. Because of the dire underfunding, Social Security 
Administration has had to impose an agency-wide hiring freeze 
multiple times, forcing fewer employees to serve more 
constituents.
    Mr. Poist, in 16 out of 20 last appropriations cycles, 
Social Security received significantly less than it told 
Congress that it needed. How has this consistent underfunding 
affected your agency's ability to serve older Americans and 
those with disabilities?
    Mr. Poist. Thank you for that question. So, the history of 
underfunding at Social Security has led to some of the 
challenges we have talked about, right. I mean, staffing being 
one of them, right. We hit our lowest level of staffing in 25 
years in Fiscal Year 2022. Again, we did receive an increase in 
our appropriation in 2023, so that has allowed us to rebuild 
some of our staffing. Pleased to report, as of today, we are up 
about 2,000 people from where we ended Fiscal Year 2022.
    But the underfunding that you were asking about, it also 
has hindered our ability to implement new IT initiatives across 
the agency. It has also limited our ability to fund overtime 
for our frontline operations to work down some of these 
critical backlogs.
    Ms. Norton. All right. Mr. Poist, this is another question 
for you. In fiscal 2022, the Social Security Administration 
reported its smallest workforce in 25 years, the result of 
insufficient funding. But the number of beneficiaries the 
agency served increased by more than 10 million people in the 
past decade. Field offices, payment centers, and disability 
determination services agencies throughout the country continue 
to operate under the effects of decreased staffing while also 
helping more people at some of the most vulnerable and 
sensitive moments.
    Sustained funding cuts have chopped the Social Security 
Administration's current budget. When adjusted for inflation, 
its funding has decreased more than 17 percent over the last 17 
years. At the same time, largely because of an aging 
population, the number of people qualifying for benefits has 
increased 21 percent.
    So, Mr. Poist, how would sufficient funding and staffing 
affect your agency's ability to provide customer service to 
older Americans and those experiencing a disability?
    Mr. Poist. So, with support of our fiscal--of the Fiscal 
Year 2024 President's budget request, I think we would see 
significant improvements to almost all of our customer service 
metrics. And I mentioned some in my oral testimony, we would 
see the national 800 number wait time decrease from 35 minutes 
this year to 20 minutes next year. We would also see all parts 
of the disability process; the production of volumes improve as 
well in 2024. We would also be able to continue modernizing 
some of our IT systems and developing those online suite of 
services to help customers reach us both online and in person.
    Ms. Norton. Congress needs to provide adequate funding to 
Federal agencies to bolster their workforce and by providing 
workers adequate compensation, offering comparable benefits, 
and exploring other steps to attract the next generation of 
Federal workers. Otherwise, it may be very difficult for 
agencies to make progress on backlogs and improve customer 
service.
    And, Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
    Mr. Sessions. The gentlewoman yields back her time. Thank 
you very much.
    The gentleman from North Carolina, Mr. Edwards, is 
recognized.
    Mr. Edwards. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I certainly 
appreciate you convening this hearing.
    I think it is important for us to understand how our 
Federal agencies are working, how they are failing, and how we 
can better provide service to the Americans that pay their 
taxes and expect a high level of services.
    There is an awful lot to unpack here with three 
distinguished folks like this, but I would like to focus just a 
bit on passports. That seems to be one of the issues that my 
office deals with the most. And do not get me wrong, I am 
excited to be in a place and my staff certainly is eager to 
help those with passport issues. And we get all kinds of calls 
with folks that need to go to weddings and honeymoons and have 
business trips and sales calls and mission trips and vacations 
of a lifetime, and seem to not be able to get service from the 
State Department on passports.
    In fact, while I see the role of a congressional office as 
being one to help break loose a logjam with bureaucracy, I feel 
that my office is now often the first point of contact. In 
fact, there have been situations where constituents would call 
and ask for help with a passport--to a passport agency, and 
then be told by that agency, you need to call your Congressman. 
And then my staff takes in the information and turns around and 
calls the agency back. It seems to be a very awkward, 
inefficient way to run things.
    And so, I have just a few questions on that. Ms. Bitter, I 
think I heard you say that 100 percent of the employees in--I 
am going to call it Department of State--are back at work live. 
Is that correct?
    Ms. Bitter. All of our passport--our public facing passport 
offices are open and have been open since June 2020 with their 
staff in the office.
    Mr. Edwards. And so, I get reports--because there is so 
many folks that are told they have to go visit an office, 
sometimes in Charleston, sometimes in Atlanta. I represent 
North Carolina in the southeast. Folks have driven all the way 
to Charleston to see locked doors.
    Is that something you would be aware of, or can you think 
of a reason that that passport office might have doors closed?
    Ms. Bitter. Sure. Thank you for the question. I should also 
say, first of all, we are grateful for the partnership of your 
constituent services staff. That is really important to us to 
be able to work with your staff to be able to draw to our 
attention problems that people may be having.
    Most of our passport centers and agencies have public 
counters. They see 23,000 people per week on an emergency 
basis. We try to publicize widely our service expectations, 
which is 10 to 13 weeks right now, so that people can plan for 
their trips.
    It happens that Charleston is not one of our agencies that 
has a public counter. So--but I think the closest one to your 
constituents would be in Atlanta.
    Mr. Edwards. We have sent a number of folks to Atlanta.
    What are the performance metrics for your agency? How do 
you measure success? How do you measure productivity of 
employees?
    Ms. Bitter. There are--how do we measure productivity? 
Overall, what we want to see is a reduction in wait times. We 
are disappointed with the wait times. We think they are high. 
And we anticipate that they will be going down later in the 
summer, back to pre-pandemic levels by the end of the calendar 
year. There are negotiations with the union service 
expectations and production standards, but I do not know off 
the top of my head what they are.
    Mr. Edwards. And that is a bit vague to me as a business 
person. And I hear you saying that you are looking for 
reduction in wait times. What are the wait times right now?
    Ms. Bitter. Right now, it is 10 to 13 weeks is the service 
expectation for a regular passport, and I think it is seven to 
9 weeks for an expedited passport.
    Mr. Edwards. Those are the times right now?
    Ms. Bitter. Uh-huh.
    Mr. Edwards. Do you have a goal for your agency what it 
should be?
    Ms. Bitter. Pre-pandemic, wait times typically, although it 
is seasonal, were 6 to 8 weeks and 2 to 3 or 4 weeks per 
expedite. We anticipate we will be back there at the end of the 
calendar year. We were there at the beginning of this fiscal 
year. We were, I think, 7 to 9 weeks. We are experiencing 
unprecedented demand. Last year, we issued 22 million passport 
books and cards, which was the most ever. And this year, we are 
on track to do 15 percent above that, and that accounts for the 
wait times.
    Mr. Edwards. And so that lends another question. Could we 
have anticipated, should we have anticipated the pent-up 
demand, which appears to me what we are experiencing after 
COVID? Now folks are traveling and trying to make up for lost 
trips. Could we--is there something we could have done to 
anticipate that demand?
    Ms. Bitter. What we have been doing is continuing to 
aggressively hire passport adjudicators. We came out of the 
pandemic after hiring freezes that we were rebuilding from and 
then hiring freezes because of the loss of the fees that we 
collect for travel. We were 25 percent below where we had been 
4 years before. So, we have been working very hard to rehire 
people, to hire as much staff as possible. We have hired 10 
percent of our staff within the last year. We have 10 percent 
in the pipeline now. We submitted a plan, an ops plan, that was 
approved yesterday by Congress for Fiscal Year 2023, requesting 
more positions and more investment in technology.
    Mr. Edwards. Today, how many positions are not filled to 
deal with passports that are funded?
    Ms. Bitter. I think we have about a 10 percent vacancy 
rate, but I will have to confirm that.
    Mr. Edwards. About a number?
    Ms. Bitter. I think we probably have--I do not know the 
answer to that, where we have requested 177 more in the ops 
plan.
    Mr. Edwards. All right.
    Ms. Bitter. And I think we probably have about a hundred 
that we need to fill right now, 100, 110. But we will have to 
confirm that.
    Mr. Edwards. So, I would just like to say, Mr. Chair, if I 
might, because I see my time is expiring, my staff is mostly 
complementary about the interaction that they have with those 
folks dealing with passports, once they are able to make 
contact. But my staff spends an inordinate amount of time on 
hold and calling back to make that contact. And it just seems 
as though we could do, we should do better by the American 
people with a service that only government can perform. Thank 
you.
    Mr. Chair, I yield back.
    Mr. Sessions. The gentleman yields back his time. I also 
want to thank the gentleman for requesting this hearing several 
weeks ago, and I hope that this meets some of that expectation 
of getting answers. Thank you very much.
    The distinguished gentleman from Maryland, the Ranking 
Member of the Committee, my friend, Mr. Raskin, is recognized.
    Mr. Raskin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, very kindly for 
recognizing me.
    The philosophy in my office is that everything we do is 
about constituent service, whether it is helping people get 
their Social Security checks, helping people get their 
passports, getting PPP loans. And when I go to vote on 
something like expanding America's infrastructure investment or 
lowering prescription drug costs that, too, is in service of 
our people. So that ethos informs everything we do.
    I agree with my friend from New Mexico who said that, as 
politicians, we cannot defund the government and then rail 
against the government. We need to make sufficient resources 
available so we can actually serve our people. But I am 
speaking as someone who supports funding the government to get 
the work done, and I have had some problems.
    And I want to start by referring to a constituent who is 
immunocompromised and applied for disability benefits from SSI 
in spring of last year. And she quickly got a denial for a 
nonmedical reason. It took more than 6 months for the Social 
Security Administration to tell her that she had simply checked 
the wrong box about obtaining her records, and had she checked 
the correct box, she was told, it would have changed the 
determination in her case.
    So, she reapplied. She waited another 6 months to get her 
case assigned to a different examiner. And in April of this 
year, she contacted me for help getting a status update on 
where things stood, and then she got another denial a month 
later.
    She had been unable to work since before the pandemic, and 
now needs a Social Security determination once again, which 
could take yet another year. Despite being immunocompromised, 
she finally had to get a part-time job because she was flat out 
broke. She then caught COVID-19 on the job.
    This story about seeming bureaucratic indifference and 
lethargy in responding to one of our fellow citizens is not 
unique. My district office hears hundreds of cases like this 
every year from desperate constituents who have been waiting 
and cannot get a status update from Federal agencies, like 
Social Security, which is probably not the worst, from my 
experience.
    Mr. Poist, what is causing these delays, and what can 
Congress do to help to remove the logjam?
    Mr. Poist. Sure. Thank you so much for that question. And, 
you know, we have got a lot of challenges with the initial 
disability process, and we feel deeply for that, the delays 
that that constituent waited. So, a lot of problems leading 
into the pandemic relating to long wait times, pendings 
growing, have been led mostly by recruitment and retention 
challenges in our states. Again, that worsened during the 
pandemic.
    I think we got a good plan in place to reverse course here. 
Really what can Congress do? That is support the Fiscal Year 
2024 President's budget request that allows us to rebuild 
staffing at both the agency and our State DDS partners. You 
know, staffing is probably the No. 1 concern in those State 
DDSs. I mentioned previously that we have seen record high 
attrition the last 3 years in those State DDSs.
    We are also working on a comprehensive plan for the initial 
disability backlog that we hope to release sometime later this 
year.
    Mr. Raskin. Well, I hope you do that sooner rather than 
later. We do not want a backlog in the plan to deal with the 
backlog. You know, if we can move that quickly. And I 
appreciate your hard work on this, and if there is anything we 
can do to help, let us know. It is hard to think of anything 
more important to us.
    You know, for passport help, my office has opened a 
thousand cases in the first 6 months of this year, which is 
double what we opened in all of last year. And it is impossible 
to manage our constituents' expectations because the Office of 
Passport Services continues to change the processing times, and 
that is not an acceptable way for us to be doing business.
    Recently, the Washington Passport Agency, which is the 
passport office closest to my district, announced it can no 
longer help with congressional inquiries on behalf of our 
constituents. We are told that only in cases of life or death 
emergency can we work to schedule our constituents for 
appointments. But if the constituent is on the phone all day 
and randomly manages to get through to the National Passport 
Information Center themselves, the call representative can then 
schedule a local appointment, even without a life or death 
emergency.
    So, Ms. Bitter, why are the congressional offices 
encountering such radical discrepancies in policy and 
inconsistency about whether and when and how we can actually 
help our constituents get their passports?
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you, sir. I am surprised to hear that 
your staff received that feedback. I really appreciate it. Now 
that we know, we can fix it. That is not our policy.
    Mr. Raskin. Can we contact you?
    Ms. Bitter. Yes.
    Mr. Raskin. Because I have got people working full time on 
this now.
    Ms. Bitter. We would be grateful, actually. We work very 
closely with constituent services staff. We would be grateful 
to be in touch with you.
    Mr. Raskin. OK. My staff is very nice, and they are very 
good.
    Ms. Bitter. So is mine, I promise.
    Mr. Raskin. We will get in touch with you. All right. Good. 
Then we will be able to remove some of the obstacles here. And 
I appreciate that.
    And I yield back to you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for 
calling this important hearing.
    Mr. Sessions. Yes, sir. And I thank the distinguished 
gentleman for taking time, not only to join us, but for his 
specific information that would be aimed at helping those 
organizations achieve a better viewpoint. Thank you, sir.
    The gentlewoman from Colorado, Mrs. Boebert, is recognized.
    Mrs. Boebert. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Director Levins, as director of the NPRC, how many 
unanswered requests do you currently have?
    Mr. Levins. As of yesterday, there were 338,000 unanswered 
requests, of which 265,000 are considered backlogged.
    Mrs. Boebert. And how many unanswered requests are too 
many?
    Mr. Levins. We service about 30,000 a week, and generally 
speaking, prior to the pandemic, our customer service standard 
we were trying to achieve was 10-day turnaround times. So, more 
than 60,000 would be too many to serve in 10 days or less.
    Mrs. Boebert. So, I know for a fact that my congressional 
office has contacted the NPRC multiple times to help veterans 
obtain a copy of their records to verify eligibility and 
receive their benefits. We saw the backlog of requests 
skyrocketed to over 600,000. And this is oftentimes too late 
for a veteran to receive lifesaving care because bureaucrats 
were refusing to show up for work.
    So, I see that number is about half now, but are your 
employees back at work full-time?
    Mr. Levins. Yes.
    Mrs. Boebert. In person?
    Mr. Levins. Yes, since March 2022.
    Mrs. Boebert. March 2022. And from what I understand, the 
backlog has decreased significantly after the NPRC returned to 
in-person work, after multiple requests from Congress to do 
exactly that.
    You said you came back to work in 2022, everyone came back 
in person. Why did that take so long?
    Mr. Levins. So, I want to be clear. First of all, we never 
closed entirely. We always maintained a skeletal crew there to 
make sure we handled the most urgent requests, such as those 
involving funerals, medical emergencies, homeless veterans 
seeking shelter. Throughout the pandemic, as local health 
conditions improved, we were able to bring additional people 
into the building. We worked with the National Institute of 
Occupational Safety and Health to review our building 
blueprints, our HVAC systems, and inform our leadership on what 
the safe amount of occupancy in the building was.
    At the time, our records were analog, not digital. We were 
not able to work remotely. We have made a lot of changes since 
then.
    Mrs. Boebert. Correct. Yes. Agencies are transitioning away 
from paper records, but NPRC still stores millions of records 
in two facilities in St. Louis. When a veteran or former 
civilian employee needs a copy of their records often to verify 
these eligibilities for benefits and whatnot, the NPRC staff 
has to pull and file those and process the requests. So, it is 
clearly impossible to do that remotely, so that would explain 
why your backlog reached 600,000. I am happy to hear that it is 
down, but I think there is still a lot of work to do because 
this is certainly impacting my constituents back home.
    Deputy Commissioner Poist, how did the SSA's transition to 
exclusively remote customer service during COVID negatively 
impact elderly citizens who previously relied on in-person 
service?
    Mr. Poist. Thank you for that question. So, in the early 
days of the pandemic, we definitely recognized some challenges 
that we experienced as we transitioned from that in-person 
service to mostly telephone and internet service in the early 
days of the pandemic. I think once we were able to, and I call 
it find our footing, I think service did improve to the 
American public. We did experience also some challenges with 
our 800 number. I think we have since kind of overcome those 
challenges. We see a stable system today, and we are hoping to 
implement our new Next Generation Telephony Project system by 
the end of this fiscal year.
    Mrs. Boebert. Can the SSA expedite disability 
determinations for applicants who do not have over 200 days to 
receive the benefits that they are entitled to?
    Mr. Poist. Once they give them back for the record, I will 
have to get our operational experts to weigh in on that one.
    Mrs. Boebert. Thank you.
    Assistant Secretary Bitter, if your family had planned a 
trip and they needed their passports, they needed them issued, 
renewed, would you prefer to have your appointment before or 
after the trip is scheduled?
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you for the question. We publish our 
service standards widely so that people do not have to make 
that choice, so that they can renew their passport before they 
make their plans.
    Mrs. Boebert. So, in my district, due to the backlog of the 
Department of State, several of my constituents and their 
families did not receive their passports on time. And when they 
requested appointments, they were scheduled for after their 
trips. This certainly has caused many families to have to 
cancel their trips whether, you know, that is for pleasure or 
something serious. And this is an issue that comes up in all of 
our offices regularly. And so, we would love to work with you 
to expedite all of these services that are provided and that 
are represented here today.
    Ms. Bitter. We would love to work with your constituent 
services staff.
    Mrs. Boebert. Yes, ma'am. Thank you.
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you.
    Mrs. Boebert. Mr. Chairman, I yield.
    Mr. Sessions. The gentlewoman yields back her time. Thank 
you very much.
    The gentleman from Florida, Mr. Frost, is recognized.
    Mr. Frost. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    I am proud to represent central Florida here in the U.S. 
Congress. Central Florida is home to Orlando, one of the top 
tourist destinations in the entire country. The closest 
passport agency to Orlando, Florida, is actually in Miami. It 
is about 235 miles away, about a 4-hour drive, an expensive 
plane ticket or train ticket to get there. The Miami Passport 
Agency is only open Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. until 2 p.m.
    I am concerned about the people who work Monday through 
Friday, the working class people who have a hard time taking 
off to go travel 4 hours to Miami for their passport 
applications.
    Assistant Secretary Bitter, I understand the Miami Passport 
Agency staff are working extremely hard under the constraints 
that they have and the hours that they are open. The problem 
for my constituents is it is not always possible to take time 
off to get down there. Are there any solutions that come to 
mind on ways that we can address this problem?
    Ms. Bitter. Yes. Thank you so much for the question, 
Congressman. We have 7,000 acceptance agencies across the 
United States where people can apply in person. For renewals, 
of course, people can send them in by mail.
    When we do our geographic surveys, we find that 95 percent 
of our customers live within 25 miles of an acceptance agency, 
and 90 percent of Americans live within a 5-hour drive of a 
counter.
    What we are aiming to do, of course, is to ensure that our 
service standards are widely publicized so people can plan 
their trips and they do not have to go to a passport agency, 
and also to invest in technology so people can have more access 
to the ability to apply from their own homes.
    We would love to work with you if there are more 
opportunities to increase the number of acceptance facilities 
so people can apply in person in your district. We would love 
to work with you on that.
    Mr. Frost. OK. Perfect, perfect. I would love to work with 
you on that well.
    Assistant Secretary Bitter, yesterday I sent a letter to 
Deputy Assistant Secretary Arndt, asking if the Department of 
State would consider accepting appointments on Saturday at that 
office.
    Would you be able to commit to taking a look at that letter 
and exploring that option, just so that way working families, 
who have a hard time getting there during the week, they have 
an opportunity to go to a counter and see somebody?
    Ms. Bitter. Certainly. And, in fact, our counters across 
the network have--each of them have opened some weekend hours, 
but I would love to look at that letter and will certainly work 
with you on that.
    Mr. Frost. Perfect. Thank you so much.
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you.
    Mr. Frost. Thank you to committing to taking a look at the 
letter, looking at how we can accommodate working families on a 
Saturday, and also looking at how we can probably get a counter 
in Florida's 10th congressional District. My constituents have 
family reunions, business trips, honeymoons to get to, and so 
we just want to make sure we are doing everything we can to 
advocate for them.
    I was just this morning rallying with AFGE with a lot of 
our workers. One of my colleagues brought this up earlier, but 
the Social Security Administration currently ranks as one of 
the worst Federal workplaces.
    Mr. Poist, what is being done to support our government 
employees who are currently working under some pretty severe 
constraints in terms of capacity?
    Mr. Poist. Thanks for that question. So, you know, again, 
staffing is really the No. 1 reason that our employees are 
reporting they feel overworked. So, again, with the Fiscal Year 
2023 appropriation that we received--and again, we are grateful 
for the increase we received over Fiscal Year 2022--we have 
implemented a pretty aggressive hiring plan for this year. I 
already mentioned that we reported about 2,000 net gains so far 
this fiscal year, so kind of a help is on the way for those 
employees out there on our front lines who are working day in 
and day out for us.
    So, I think that is the biggest challenge that we see, is 
they need staff. They need the additional support in their 
offices next to them.
    Mr. Frost. For the next fiscal year, Social Security 
Administration requests additional funding to improve customer 
service and field offices and hot lines, address processing 
center backlogs, and reduce the disability claims backlog. I 
know you have been expressing that capacity is really the main 
root cause of a lot of the problems we are seeing.
    Which Federal body is in charge of funding the Social 
Security Administration?
    Mr. Poist. I am sorry. I am not sure I understand your 
question.
    Mr. Frost. Which Federal body is in charge of funding the 
Social Security Administration? Who approves your budget?
    Mr. Poist. Oh, Congress.
    Mr. Frost. U.S. Congress. What percentage of the funding 
your agency requested has actually been authorized?
    Mr. Poist. So, for like 14 of the last 20 years, we have 
not received the President's budget level of requested funding. 
So, again, we have been severely underfunded for multiple 
years.
    Mr. Frost. Yes. Well, there you have it. I mean, the reason 
why disability claims are slower than molasses is not, you 
know, just a fact of life; it is because Republicans in 
Congress repeatedly have chosen to defund the Social Security 
and the Social Security Administration.
    What was the effect of telework during the pandemic?
    Mr. Poist. So, really, telework allowed our operations to 
continue during the pandemic when our service transitioned to 
mostly a telephone-based service, again, during the early parts 
of the pandemic. Again, our offices never fully closed to the 
public. They were limited to appointments only to protect both 
our employees and the visiting public who often, you know, met 
some of those vulnerability criteria with the pandemic.
    So, really, telework allowed us to continue our operations. 
And now that we have fully reentered back in March 2022--again, 
we do have telework still within the agency itself. It is 
mostly driven by a business decision. Managers decide who is 
telework eligible and who is not telework eligible, and also 
the flexibility to recall or suspend telework in our field 
offices if there is an expected high demand day or something 
like that.
    Mr. Frost. Thank you. I yield back.
    Mr. Sessions. The gentleman yields back his time. Thank you 
very much.
    The gentleman from Missouri, Mr. Burlison, is recognized. 
And I want to thank him for sticking out through this entire 
hearing.
    Mr. Burlison. I am the clean-up hitter.
    Mr. Sessions. Yes, sir.
    Mr. Burlison. Thank you.
    Thank you, everyone, for coming. Appreciate the work that 
you do for the citizens of the United States. I would be remiss 
if I did not convey--you know, and it is not anyone's 
particular fault, but the frustration that our constituents 
have when they call, whether it is they are canceling their 
family vacation, or, you know, someone is not getting their 
information timely from--as a veteran, or people cannot get 
into the Social Security office. I mean, our offices are 
fielding those calls, and so we appreciate the work that you do 
to work with our office staff.
    And so, I kind of want to go this route of questions. I 
come from the private sector, worked in IT. We had tickets. 
Whenever you have somebody call in, we had software that 
managed those tickets. We managed--because of that, we were 
able to look at particular employee data, look at a department, 
be able to identify ticket turnaround time, how that compares, 
how that is normative compared to other departments. We were 
able to identify employees that were exceptional.
    And then we would send out surveys. And then you would be 
able to determine, not only is an employee fast, but people are 
happy. People like talking to that employee. They are very 
pleasant to deal with.
    So, I am asking this question because I want to know: Is 
your agency going about the process of doing the same thing, 
collecting information about the productivity of your staff? 
And we can start with Honorable Bitter, and then move on.
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you. Absolutely, we have a very 
productive staff. The challenges that we are experiencing--
frankly, not unlike--I mean, we are coming out of a pandemic 
that has challenged sectors across the United States. Where our 
challenges are is we have not enough employees right now to 
handle what is record setting, unprecedented----
    Mr. Burlison. Do you have a system in place where you are 
able to keep track of the volume that they are taking on, the 
tickets, their turnaround time, the satisfaction scores? So, 
you are keeping that?
    Ms. Bitter. We keep that for the agency and also for our 
call center and for all parts of our organization.
    Mr. Burlison. Do you use that data for individuals on their 
annual report? It there any kind of merit pay based on their 
success or satisfaction?
    Ms. Bitter. I do not know the answer to that, actually. It 
is certainly part of the performance review of people. I do not 
know specifically how the data is used.
    Mr. Burlison. Because coming from the private sector, that 
is what we do. Your performance--a portion of your merit 
performance or pay increase is dependent upon data, as opposed 
to, you know, whether or not people at work like you or your 
manager likes you. So----
    Ms. Bitter. Understood. Understood.
    Mr. Burlison. So, something to consider.
    Same question, Mr. Levins.
    Mr. Levins. Thank you for your question. Yes, we are a very 
numbers-driven organization, and we have a pretty sophisticated 
production system, so every transaction does get assigned a 
number to it. All of our employees have performance plans. Most 
of the jobs lend themselves to quantitative production and 
qualitative standards as well, and that is how they are 
evaluated. And there is also incentive programs based on your 
productivity achievements. And then----
    Mr. Burlison. That is good. So, you do have incentive 
programs?
    Mr. Levins. Yes, yes.
    Mr. Burlison. That is great. Go ahead. I stopped you.
    OK. Let us move--Mr. Poist, same question.
    Mr. Poist. Sure. I think your original question was about 
surveys. I do appreciate the question. So, we do extensively 
survey some of our employees. We do a Federal Employee 
Viewpoint Survey each year.
    Mr. Burlison. So, you are asking the employes if they are 
satisfied. I am asking if the people that you serve, the 
taxpayers, if you are surveying them?
    Mr. Poist. Yes.
    Mr. Burlison. OK.
    Mr. Poist. So, we also survey our customers pretty 
extensively as well. So, we have an ``always on'' online 
survey, so any member of the public can go online at any time 
they choose and fill out a survey.
    Mr. Burlison. And then are you using any kind of merit pay 
or performance pay?
    Mr. Poist. I would have to get back to you on whether we 
use that in performance management.
    Mr. Burlison. OK. I would encourage you to do that.
    My next question, I have got little time, has to do with 
how do we improve. So, Ms. Bitter, how do we digitize and 
streamline and improve the process of getting a passport, 
renewing a passport?
    And then I would ask Mr. Levins same thing. How do we 
streamline the ability for someone, a veteran, to just--they 
should be able to login and just download all the documents 
that belong to them.
    Go ahead.
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you for the question.
    We piloted earlier this year our online passport renewal 
system. 565,000 Americans renewed their passport online; 12,000 
filled out a survey saying that they were very satisfied. It 
was a pilot where we were consolidating the lessons that we 
learned before we roll it out before the end of the year, and 
five million Americans should be able to take advantage of it.
    Mr. Burlison. Thank you.
    Mr. Levins. As I testified earlier, the majority of the 
holdings in our facility are analog or paper records. In the 
late 1990's, early 2000's, the military departments began 
setting up electronic personnel systems, but on a point-forward 
basis. They did not go back and digitize all of the paper that 
is going back to the Spanish-American War in our building. 
However--and that is why we struggled during the pandemic 
because we did not have access to electronic records. However, 
the VA is aggressively digitizing at a rate faster than I have 
ever seen in my lifetime. They are digitizing more and more 
electronic records. We have built technology to enable our 
production system to be accessed outside of the office in case 
there is another event like this, or even more common, weather 
emergencies, people can now be productive remotely by accessing 
those electronic records. And we have total functionality to 
send them to veterans in a secure manner as well.
    Mr. Burlison. Thank you.
    I yield back.
    Mr. Sessions. The gentleman yields back his time. Thank you 
very much.
    Mr. Casar, you are now recognized.
    Mr. Casar. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. This is an 
important hearing, and I appreciate so many of the Members all 
working to solve challenges for their constituents and wanting 
these Federal agencies to work.
    And we have stories about veterans' records and about 
Social Security benefits. I want to focus on some stories about 
what folks have been dealing with their passports and then 
thinking about how we can move forward from there, because this 
is not just about people going on trips. We have heard from 
constituents who--a single mother who sacrificed so much for 
months so that her daughter could get on a study abroad trip 
and that almost all falling apart, but we had to do the 
necessary work so that she could get on the trip; a constituent 
who was a recently naturalized citizen needing an emergency 
passport to see her father who was severely ill, and we were 
not able to help her to get to see him in time before his 
passing. I mean, these are very serious challenges that people 
face in their daily life, and we want to be able to be 
responsive. And so, I appreciate the questions around how is it 
that we can fix these backlogs.
    I want to focus on the State Department because we do not 
have enough time to cover everyone. But, Ms. Bitter, folks have 
brought up the surge in demands that you are facing. People 
have brought up telework, and then there has also been 
conversation about staffing shortages.
    Amongst those three, or any other, what percentage would 
you say of what you are facing in the backlog is the surge in 
demand for passports, a surge in requests, how much has to do 
with telework, and how much has to do with staffing shortages 
at the agency?
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you for the question.
    Just to zoom out a little bit, I just want to also 
emphasize again--first of all, thanks to your constituent 
services staff. We understand these challenges. We work very 
hard to publicize our service standards, so people do not fall 
into that trap. Our counter services receive 23,000 people a 
week. We have extended hours. We are working very hard to try 
to keep up with what is record demand and record staffing 
shortages.
    If I could zoom out and say that there are really two 
things that the state--that we need in order to be able to meet 
the demand of your constituents. No. 1 is fully funding the 
State Department. While we are fee funded, everything that we 
do relies on the State Department platform--hiring, contracts, 
IT. All of it sits on the State Department. So, when the State 
Department platform is not fully funded, it is very difficult 
for us to hire the people that we need, to make sure that we 
have the technology we need to roll out these systems. So that 
is No. 1.
    And then the second thing that we need is something that 
Congress already gave us, which was expanded expenditure 
authority so that we can move the fees that we receive to 
emerging challenges more efficiently. We got the expanded 
spending authority, but just on a year-to-year basis. For us to 
be able to make the kinds of investments that we want to make 
to be able to meet the demand and serve your constituents, 
investments in IT and hiring, we need the certainty to be able 
to strategically plan into the future, to be able to know that 
we will be able to expend those funds in as flexible a way as 
possible.
    Mr. Casar. And so, your sense or your testimony here is 
that it is really though increasing demand and the staffing 
shortage that have caused that backlog and that the President's 
budget has requested additional funding, but my assumption here 
is--but you can confirm--that if indeed we actually went and 
cut back on agencies that that would make the backlogs worse, 
not better?
    Ms. Bitter. It will make it much more difficult for us to 
meet your constituents' demands.
    Mr. Casar. And, according to Secretary Blinken, the Trump 
Administration caused a loss of about a thousand jobs at the 
State Department because of the 16-month hiring freeze. Is it 
correct that that Trump hiring freeze impacted staffing levels 
at the State Department?
    Ms. Bitter. The State Department had a 16-month hiring 
freeze, which we were recovering from when the pandemic hit. We 
had to further freeze positions because our fees were reduced. 
So, we came out of the pandemic 25 percent below where we had 
been 4 years prior.
    Mr. Casar. Thank you for your testimony. I appreciate 
everybody today talking about how we want to help our 
constituents and clear these backlogs, but I want to advocate 
for us funding these agencies, funding these hardworking staff, 
making sure that there is adequate hours, holding agencies 
accountable, being effective with those dollars. But we cannot 
break the government and then complain about how the government 
is broken. That cannot be our strategy moving forward if we 
want people to be able to get to their family funerals. If we 
want people to access their veteran records, if we want people 
to be able to get their disability check, we have to be 
realistic about adequately staffing these programs, supporting 
hardworking staff, and then not having a strategy of breaking 
the government and then complaining about how government is 
broken.
    Thank you so much. And I yield back.
    Mr. Sessions. The gentleman yields back his time.
    The distinguished gentleman, Mr. Burchett, is recognized.
    Mr. Burchett. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for 
allowing me to be here.
    I do not know why we always thank you all. You all are just 
supposed to do your daggum job, and we appreciate that. So, I 
guess I am thanking you for that and your expert coaching 
skills in the baseball game, Mr. Chairman; appreciate you on 
that.
    Mr. Sessions. Big win.
    Mr. Burchett. Big win, yes, sir.
    Thank you all for being here. I am the 435th most powerful 
Member of Congress, so, by the time they get to me, all the 
good questions have been asked. So, as I tell most of these 
folks, if the question has already been asked multiple times, 
act like it is a very thought-provoking question and that it is 
the most incredible question you ever heard because we will be 
playing this back for my constituents, and I would like them to 
think I was on top of my game. So, thank you all.
    My first question, though, how do you all intend--and I 
guess this is Ms. Bitter, Assistant Secretary, Ms.--is it Ms. 
Bitter? Is that Mrs., Ms., whatever? All right.
    How do you intend to improve the communications to help 
Americans get prompt passport status updates, provide payment 
information, or get details on problems with their 
applications, like a bad photo or a missing photo application? 
A number of our constituents have called my office complaining 
about difficulties getting timely updates on their passport 
applications. Either they cannot get through the national 
passport line, or they wait at the 1-877 literally for hours 
and to be read the same status update available online at 
travel.state.gov.
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you for--that is actually a question that 
has not been asked, so thank you very much.
    Mr. Burchett. Well, I need to thank Madison Heinshon and 
Jennifer Lingenfelter in my office who actually handle these 
all the time.
    Ms. Bitter. We are grateful to them.
    Mr. Burchett. Yes, ma'am.
    Ms. Bitter. So, we have been working really closely with 
our contractor to increase the capacity, and we have seen 
improvement, but we absolutely need to see more. Our call 
center handled like 3.5 million customer inquiries in the first 
4 months of this year, I think about a million just in April. 
So, what they have done is they have tripled the number of 
phone lines, and they have hired for operators. They have 
expanded their hours. They have included weekend hours. They 
have opened up a third facility to be able to handle these 
calls, and they have also introduced new technology to improve 
responsiveness. We also have gotten volunteers together on a 
surge team to support them.
    And you mentioned one thing that we are working on, which 
is the passport status check on travel.state.gov. We are 
working to improve that. We recognize that that is something 
that is lacking, and it does not give robust enough 
information. We anticipate rolling that out, I think, in the 
next couple of months.
    Mr. Burchett. All right.
    Ms. Bitter. So, that will take pressure off our call 
center.
    Mr. Burchett. Let me follow up with that.
    Are the congressional district offices being used as 
buffers for the Bureau of Consular Affairs? Because my office 
has opened up 112 passport cases in 2022, from January to June. 
For the same timeframe this year, the number is 304.
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you. Yes, I think we--and thank you for 
that.
    We tend to think of your constituent services staff as 
partners, rather than buffers. Although we are grateful anytime 
someone can draw to our attention challenges that a constituent 
is having; it is important to us because, if we do not know 
about it, we cannot fix it.
    And I would go further, we want to work with your 
constituent services staff. We want to partner on outreach into 
your district to make sure that people do not miss trips, that 
they understand what the service standards are so that they can 
plan their travel accordingly.
    Mr. Burchett. Yes, ma'am. But, when they are on hold for 3 
hours, that--I hate to say it, but those words are very hollow, 
I guess I should say because that does not--when I get an angry 
constituent--and I can tell you it happens a lot. If I am in a 
church parking lot or going to the store, I can generally tell 
by the tone of their voice that it is going to be a question 
dealing with something like this, because it seems to be the 
real hot button right now.
    And my office--the ladies in my office do an excellent job 
of it. So, I am pretty sure our Senator is calling them--or 
push them off on us as well. And a lot of times I know they are 
dealing with folks that are not even our constituents, and so 
it is very troublesome to me that this just keeps happening.
    But you are telling me that they are doing something to fix 
this problem?
    Ms. Bitter. We anticipate that our wait times will be back 
to pre-pandemic levels by the end of this calendar year and 
that, through the late summer and fall, that they will decrease 
incrementally.
    Mr. Burchett. And what measures, real quickly, are being 
implemented to catch up on the backlog?
    Ms. Bitter. We have surge teams in place across the 
Department of volunteers. We have called back retirees. We have 
kept people from their--new employees are working on passports. 
Surge teams across the Department actually and across the 
network and across the world are working to make sure that we 
can stay within our service standards, 10 to 13 weeks. And we 
recognize that we work very hard to publicize those service 
standards so people can plan their travel. People pay 
attention--unfortunately, people do not pay attention until 
they have a trip planned. So, we are working, again, our 
counters across the network see roughly 23,000 people per week. 
We have extended those hours, and these are for emergency 
appointments, and we have included weekend hours as well.
    Mr. Burchett. OK. I am out of time. But, ma'am, if there is 
ever something that we need to be doing on our end, I sure 
would like to know because this is really a hot button in 
Tennessee. I am sure it is across the country.
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you.
    Mr. Burchett. Thank you. Mr. Chairman.
    Mr. Sessions. The gentleman yields back his time. Thank you 
very much.
    The gentlewoman from Dallas, Texas, Ms. Crockett, is 
recognized.
    Ms. Crockett. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    And much like my colleague, a lot has already been said, a 
lot that I can reiterate. I think that this is probably one of 
the times we are a little bit more bipartisan in that our 
constituent work is being comprised of a lot of the same 
issues.
    I do want to say that we are having to work overtime 
because of passports specifically. I got a text message from my 
chief right before the weekend saying that he was going to have 
someone work over the weekend because last week alone we got 30 
passport cases that came in. We are kind of overwhelmed with 
passports. And, much like it has already been said, we have 
been told that, when people call the passport office, they are 
told to call your Congressperson. So, it feels as though we are 
doing the heavy lifting, and I do not want to beat up on you, 
but I do want to be real in this setting because this is what 
oversight is about. And, while I can appreciate advertising and 
telling people that this is the timeframe that it is taking, we 
have got emergencies that are arising as well.
    Now, because I am in Dallas, my constituents do not have to 
travel far because we do have a location there that can help 
them same day. That has definitely proven to be really 
beneficial to my constituents. And I do want to say that they 
really do appreciate the help, and so I know that they would 
send you the type of love that I am about to read from one of 
my constituents, Shawn, because I want people to understand it 
is not just summer vacations, even though those are spiking as 
well. It is other opportunities. Shawn contacted us 
frantically. He contacted my office. He contacted me directly. 
He contacted another elected official because he really needed 
help with a passport. But, ultimately, he emailed me back, and 
he said, ``My passport application had encountered unexpected 
delays, which left me uncertain about receiving it in time for 
a great academic achievement of my life, an internship in 
Oxford.''
    Oxford University. He was about to miss this because he 
could not get his passport. That is not something that everyone 
gets an opportunity to do. And so, I am excited that we were 
able to help him. He was excited that we were able to help him. 
But I do want you to understand truly the depths of the issues 
that exist as it relates to passports.
    I am going to move on to Social Security, though, because 
something that really has not been highlighted is something 
that was said by one of my colleagues from across the aisle, 
and I feel as if he was saying the quiet part out loud. He 
started talking about Social Security, and he started talking 
about life expectancy, and he talked about the fact that 
basically most people would die before they would ever get to 
Social Security. That is just summarizing it.
    Do you remember that questioning?
    OK. And so right now, he has a problem with Social Security 
because right now most people will live to see Social Security. 
So, essentially, we want to say that we are offering Social 
Security on paper, but we do not ever want to have to see a 
payout for that is what I got out of that questioning, and that 
is unfortunate.
    And I am curious to know if my colleagues on the other side 
of the aisle are expressing this faux outrage about this 
because, when we look at the cuts that have been taken--and, in 
fact, that particular colleague was upset because there were 
not cuts to Social Security.
    If I understand your testimony to be correct, you have 
testified that you have never been fully funded, or at least 
for the last--did you say 14 years?
    Mr. Poist. That is correct. 14 of the last 25 years we have 
not received the President's budget request.
    Ms. Crockett. So, you have not even been fully funded, and 
that particular colleague was upset about the fact that there 
is no negotiation that is going to take place about cutting the 
funding even more, but this does have real-life consequences.
    I do have a constituent; we are working on her case right 
now. She is a mother of three small children. She reached out 
to our district office for help because she has been unable to 
work since August 2020 after an illness attacked her muscles 
and nervous system. She is also unable to drive, and some days 
even struggles to move. She applied for disability with the 
Social Security Administration, but is still waiting to hear 
back to get approved. And, because she has not heard back, she 
has reached out to various community organizations throughout 
my district to see if they can help her with rent and 
utilities.
    This should not be the story of America, but I am alarmed 
when I hear people say the quiet part out loud. It seems like 
what we want to do is say: Hey, we are going to fight against 
you all because that is what we need to do for our 
constituents, but at the end of the day, if Social Security is 
not getting through the cases, guess what? That means that we 
are saving money because we are not getting money to people 
that really need that money.
    And so, you know, I hope that my colleagues across the 
aisle take this seriously as we are about to endure a fight as 
relates to the budget. And, if we really do want to prioritize 
our shared constituencies, as our stories are the same on both 
sides of the aisle, and the solution that I have heard from 
each of you is funding, funding so that you can modernize.
    Do I have that wrong?
    Mr. Poist. That is correct. For Social Security, we need 
funding to hire staff, to maintain staff, to increase our IT 
investments, to fund our overtime to support our backlogs.
    Ms. Crockett. So, if we are all having the same problems, 
it sounds like we all know what the solution is: fully fund 
your agencies. Thank you to your commitment to the people of 
the United States of America.
    And, with that, I yield back.
    Mr. Sessions. The gentlewoman yields back her time.
    I am going to yield myself time.
    Thank you to each of you who were here. This is not my 
closing statement. I am sure we expect others to come.
    Part of the discussion I would like to have, is there is a 
misnomer that I think we get wrong--you are entitled to answer 
it the way you do, but it is not unusual for reports to be 
heard in this city about some of the largest buildings that 
have Federal employees almost exclusively, but Federal 
employees. It has been reported that some 17 percent of 
employees, only 17 percent at one time or another reported to 
one of the major buildings here in Washington, DC, that were 
government workers.
    Those are the kinds of things that fuel the questions about 
when do you go back to work, what is that percent. I do 
recognize, or at least I think I do, the State Department does 
need to be on the job for issuing a passport. That is kind of 
hard to do over the phone. But I would just say that that is 
what fuels some of the conversation on our side about not being 
at work because the reality is some of the companies that own 
these badges offer that feedback. Some people in this city have 
complained about--and we held a hearing on it--how the city of 
Washington needs to get Federal workers back to work because 
they are having problems economically not only in small 
business, but the need to do their job.
    I would like to provide some feedback, if I can. There was 
a conversation that we had, Ambassador, where there was a 
conversation about online systems that were tried and evidently 
successful and now being looked at pending making that an 
online system. Good gosh, it seems like to me if it worked and 
you have got 12,000 people that said thank you, that that would 
be enough for the management of the organization to help us 
out, because primarily the people that we run across in Waco, 
Texas, and across central Texas already have passports. It 
seems like that they would be awesome candidates for that.
    Next point. A good number of companies across this country, 
I could say American Express, I could say American Airlines, 
they have people who, when you log on, they have a system that 
says: May we call you back, rather than you waiting online. May 
we call you back? And the time--sometimes the times are not 
advantageous or something you can plan for, but can we call you 
back between 47 and 52 minutes?
    Some of these same companies offer an opportunity for you 
to go online and actually engage a person who texts, what I 
would call text. It may be regular email, but it looks like 
texts to me, and they text back and forth to where you can see 
the conversation, ask a question, get the answer, ask for 
information. And it seemingly, to me, is a more effective way, 
not to somebody that is not computer literate. But someone who 
chooses to do this. And it seems like, to me, that there are 
other tasks which could be expanded from all three of your 
agencies.
    Next point--if I were to count these out, I have probably 
have 15 of them, I admit. And it is just feedback from watching 
the process. People generally send it in, and they hear back, 
let us say, 10 weeks later. And many of the times, maybe most, 
maybe all, the passport does arrive by Fed Ex or UPS the day 
before they go. But, pending that, it may have taken three 
phone calls back and forth. There is bound to be a burden off 
that process that you have of somebody answering the phone. It 
seems like to me that there could be the identification of a 
cell phone, an address that you would have that would be 
available to where you could engage someone and say: ``Hi. This 
is the passport office. You presented your passport on or about 
May the 25th. Please be advised that we anticipate it is going 
to be about 7 weeks. We are not trying to engage you. We are 
trying to keep you informed. Please do not respond back.''
    And then, as that passport is being worked or maybe put in 
maybe a week before that you would get back to them, because a 
number of our work calls--once again, this is Texas, do not 
know everything--are repeat questions. Are you sure you got it? 
Is it going to come back? They have got this plane that is this 
Friday. Are they supposed to cancel the flight? They have got 
three children with them. What do they do with the one child if 
they--I mean, you can imagine the enormous questions that 
evolve from that.
    My point is, is that if we--I think if you took into 
account some things that I think would be market based or that 
others do, I think your satisfaction would go up. I think your 
call volume would reduce. I think, even if you just texted back 
or called back--I would text--back to each congressional office 
and say, ``Please advise your constituent,'' then they would 
have a better contact. I am saying something, in my opinion, 
needs to be done that would reduce frustration and calls.
    All right. I have gone past my time. I am sure I will get 
time again here in just a minute, but I want to just provide 
that feedback myself.
    OK. The gentlewoman from Vermont, Ms. Balint, is 
recognized.
    Ms. Balint. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you all for being 
here. I am sure at this point you are feeling a little weary.
    I want to just start by saying you just cannot get blood 
from a stone. That is what I am getting from this hearing here.
    In 2017, then President Trump issued an executive order to 
freeze hiring across the government to reduce the Federal 
workforce. It was one of his very first actions after taking 
office. Although this order lasted just under 3 months, some 
Federal agencies experienced much longer hiring freezes. At the 
State Department, the hiring freeze lasted for 16 months.
    So, Ms. Bitter, how many people did the State Department 
lose during the Trump Administration from policies to reduce 
the size of the Federal workforce, including hiring freezes?
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you for the question.
    I will zoom out a little bit and answer sort of globally 
what happened was absolutely we were recovering when the 
pandemic hit from those hiring freezes, and then we instituted 
more hiring freezes, putting us at 25 percent below where we 
had been in 2017.
    So, to give you a sense--I am going to get these numbers a 
little bit wrong, but at the beginning of the last 
administration, I think there were probably around 1,450 people 
doing this work, and by the time we were able to begin hiring, 
there were just around 1,100.
    Ms. Balint. OK. So, you said a 25-percent decrease.
    Ms. Bitter. We were at 25 percent deficit when we were able 
to begin hiring again.
    Ms. Balint. OK. Significant.
    Ms. Bitter, how did staff attrition affect the State 
Department's ability to serve constituents? Just briefly, just 
tick them off, yes.
    Ms. Bitter. Right. Thank you.
    And I am just speaking just with respect to passport 
services. So, in addition to having much reduced staff, last 
year we received unprecedented demand for passport services, 22 
million passport books and cards. This year we are 
experiencing, it will be probably 15 percent above that. We 
have been able to grow our staff by 10 percent. But, again, 
this accounts for the wait times that are longer than we would 
like.
    Ms. Balint. And is the staff attrition you have experienced 
easily reversible at this point?
    Ms. Bitter. It takes a while to hire for national security 
positions. All of the people that work for us go through--the 
passport is the most important document that any American will 
hold and probably the most important document in the world for 
identity and citizenship. People go through rigorous screening 
to be able to work for us. And, even when we begin hiring, it 
does take time to bring people on board.
    Ms. Balint. And I imagine that losing significant staff 
also impacts institutional knowledge. Would you say?
    Ms. Bitter. That is fair.
    Ms. Balint. And we do not just experience that in, you 
know, departments and state governments. That is true for any 
organization. Right? You lose institutional knowledge, you lose 
key relationships, and it impacts the work on a day-to-day 
basis in any work setting.
    So, at this point, I ask unanimous consent to insert into 
the record a New York Times article that stated, quote, 
``President Trump's politicalization of normally neutral 
positions and frequent criticism of his own bureaucracy hurt 
the public's faith in government, the morale of employees who 
remain, and the prospects that a new generation will even enter 
public service,'' end quote.
    Ms. Balint. The Trump Administration's hiring freeze 
negatively affected welfare and morale for years. Even after it 
was lifted, the damage had been done. The Trump 
Administration's misguided efforts to shrink Federal agencies 
caused a mass exodus of knowledge, as I was just talking about, 
and know-how from agencies responsible for helping regular 
Americans, providing disability benefits, supplemental security 
income, access to lifesaving care, resources for veterans, it 
goes on and on, and as we have heard so much in this hearing 
around passports and visas.
    Mr. Poist, one of the most critical issues the Social 
Security Administration faces is the significant number of 
people waiting for months, even years, for a decision on their 
disability application or appeal.
    Would you agree with that?
    Mr. Poist. That is correct. Currently people are waiting 
over 7 months for an initial disability decision.
    Ms. Balint. Seven months for an initial decision.
    What is the root cause of your customer service challenges?
    Mr. Poist. Mostly staffing in our State DDSs.
    Ms. Balint. So, like I said when I started, you cannot get 
blood from a stone. We have Americans suffering because we have 
starved government of the resources it needs to take care of 
our constituents, and then we sit here wringing our hands 
wondering why we are not meeting the needs of constituents. We 
have to pay for the staff to do this work. We need to make sure 
that those staff have the resources necessary to meet 
constituent needs. And, you know, this is not rocket science 
here. If you starve agencies, they cannot do the work.
    Thank you. I yield back.
    Mr. Sessions. The gentlewoman yields back her time.
    The gentleman from California, Mr. Garcia, is recognized.
    Mr. Garcia. Thank you very much.
    I want to thank all of you for your service. I know that it 
is very hard work, and I have constituents reach out to the 
Federal Government, not just in our district but across the 
country, every single day. I have been in Congress for about 6 
months, and I have seen just the hard work that our Federal 
employees are doing every single day.
    Right before I took this job, I was mayor of Long Beach, 
California, for 8 years. We had 6,000 hardworking municipal 
employees who I respected and uplifted through very difficult 
times, including during the pandemic. And I think it is 
important to remember that most folks are in government or 
working in government because they actually want to help 
people. And so, I think first it is really important to 
recognize that, yes, there is a lot of work to do in all of our 
departments, but we have hardworking people behind those desks 
and on the phones and out in the community working to make our 
country a better place and to provide the best services 
possible under sometimes very difficult budget conditions.
    I personally have just been very impressed with just the 
level of feedback that we have received from working with a lot 
of the agencies across Federal Government. The passport and 
State Department issues have been brought up, which we are all 
aware of. I would also say that the response in helping us 
facilitate some of these difficult cases has been phenomenal in 
our office with passports. Yes, there is a huge challenge. We 
are very aware. We get the same emails and calls every day. But 
the response of those folks that are on the ground working with 
our office have been really something really great to see.
    And so, I want to thank the team that are working on--the 
passport team and the team that is there based in L.A. and 
California helping us through our process. I do want to give, 
just to take this moment, a shoutout to both Bryan Bravo and 
Isaac Romero on my team in the district office that are working 
on the passport issue and all of these issues every single day 
and to the countless residents that are contacting us that we 
can assist, whether it is for passports, whether it is to help 
with Medicare and Social Security issues or the other issues 
that our constituents are facing.
    And I think it is important, something I recognize that, 
you know, as mayor, it was all about the budget. It is all 
about ensuring that our agencies have enough to do the job that 
we are asking them to do.
    Now, the Federal Government is on a completely different 
scale, and I am learning that every single day, but I also--you 
know, I think it is important as we talk about cuts and even 
some of the attacks I heard earlier about some of our agencies 
and the hardworking folks in them, that we have also been 
under--the last few years we have been trying to clean up what 
I view as a mess by former President Donald Trump and his 
sabotage efforts, quite frankly, against some of our 
departments.
    If you look at the State Department, which we have been 
discussing, we had extremists within the Trump Administration 
constantly attacking the State Department and pushing back on 
any sort of additional support there as an agency.
    So, I personally am proud of the Biden-Harris 
Administration, the work that they have done to rebuild and 
support our agencies. There is still a lot more work to do, in 
fact, a lot more support that has been needed, but there has 
been really good progress that has been made.
    I want to note an executive order prioritizing customer 
service for those that rely on these services within the Biden-
Harris Administration, and I want to quote the order. And that 
is delivering excellent, equitable, and secure Federal services 
and customer experience. And I think that really says it all. 
And I commend both the President and the Vice President for 
leading an Administration that is focused on people.
    I also want to just make a quick note with the remaining 
time I have. Another great of example of this that I have been 
reading about with my staff is the National Personnel Records 
Center, which is part of the National Archives and Records 
Administration, they have done a great program for military and 
Civil Service personnel record requests, and I know you guys 
have been involved in that.
    Mr. Levins, briefly, can you just summarize for us in just 
this last minute the Administration's investments, as well as 
those from Congress, that have helped the National Personnel 
Records Center address veterans' records backlogs?
    Mr. Levins. Thank you for your question.
    Yes, Congress generously appropriated COVID relief funds 
for us, which we used to hire additional staff, contractors. 
Prior to the pandemic, our workforce did not have laptops. We 
used the funding to buy laptops. We also made information 
technology improvements to support the ingest of electronic 
records. The VA is digitizing records from our paper holdings, 
and we are able to now ingest those into our production system 
and work those using electronic delivery services to veterans 
instead of paper.
    Mr. Garcia. And I think it has been about a 50-percent 
reduction in the backlog of requests, approximately, and so I 
think--I just commend you and your team overall for the work 
that has happened there.
    And just, finally, I just want to thank all of our 
employees across all of our agencies for their hard work, and I 
hope we continue to invest not just in the departments but also 
in them and to constantly look at them in competitive 
marketplaces and that they are also being paid the fair wage 
that they deserve.
    Thank you.
    Mr. Sessions. The gentleman yields back his time.
    I want to thank our witnesses and this Committee for their 
feedback to us that authorized and set up this hearing.
    I want to thank our witnesses who have taken time to 
include us in their business decision-making. I want to thank 
them for their time and their study to come before this 
Subcommittee.
    I hope you will take seriously every single Member who 
spoke today throughout the highs and throughout the lows of 
some of the personal attacks that were made. But I think that 
the truth of the matter is that we need to continue to work 
together.
    All three of your specific agencies have been discussed on 
a regular basis by Members of this body. Much of the discussion 
is by people who were not here today because they are not part 
of this Committee, and we did not read them in. But that does 
not take away or diminish the need for us to be engaged with 
you, to speak with you, and to work with you.
    So, I believe that you will hear the Ranking Member say 
here in a minute that he wishes to do exactly that. So, before 
we close today, I would like for Mr. Mfume to be able to offer 
his thanks to you also.
    I think that it is important before you leave as our guests 
to say to you we would like to have you back. We would like to 
gain a perspective on the ideas that you heard today because I 
think each one of you received some bit of information and to 
find out how we can transmit to our colleagues and respond 
back, because I believe both Mr. Mfume and I do owe that to 
this body. We will write all of our Members. We will give them 
specific feedback. We will tell them what we have done, and we 
will also give them best wishes for the information which you 
provide us back about how you would like to take today's 
hearing.
    So, Mr. Mfume, the gentleman is recognized.
    Mr. Mfume. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
    It has been several hours, so we all got through it 
together. I want to thank you again, as I said before, for 
convening this hearing. I want to thank the Members of this 
body who thought it was important enough to raise the issue, 
and, hence, here we are.
    I really want to thank the three witnesses who have been 
here for, as I said before, several hours--Secretary Bitter, 
Deputy Commissioner Poist, and Director Levins. The information 
you have shared regarding the State Department, the NPRC, and 
Social Security will, I hope, go a long way at providing 
direction for all of us and for others who may visit these 
issues.
    Allow me, if I might, just to kind of in my own mind 
summarize what I am walking away with here. It is clear to me 
that policies such as the hiring freeze that we have heard 
about over and over again contributed to some extent to this 
whole issue of a customer service crisis. When you have got 
fewer people, you tend to do less work. And, if you are doing 
more work, you do not have those people for long because they 
get burned out. I think my colleague said something about 
getting blood out of a rock. We have just got to recognize that 
workers have limits. They are going to do all that they can do 
and should do, and we ought to all hold them to that. But 
because we have an ever growing population in this country, I 
mean, it is just booming, we have got to at some point realize 
that we cannot allocate the previous amount of resources to a 
mountain that is growing, crying out for help. We know that 
staff attrition, no matter how much we target it, cannot be 
quickly reversed. It takes a minute, as I have heard from some 
of you say today, to allocate resources to deal with Social 
Security's backup, with the backup at the State Department. 
Whether it is training a new person to be a passport 
adjudicator or a disability claims examiner, it takes a minute.
    And so, while we are looking at attrition and while we 
certainly believe that we ought to find a way to fund what you 
are doing, the real truth of the matter is it is going to take 
us a little bit of time to dig out of this hole. And, Ms. 
Bitter, I think I heard you say earlier that it will be the end 
of the calendar year until we get back to pre-pandemic levels.
    So that is the reality, and that is on us to be able to 
share it with our colleagues here. There is no magic wand or 
silver bullet. There is going to be just a lot of good, 
determined effort, I hope, at supporting our Federal workforce.
    I do know that the Biden-Harris Administration and 
Democrats are committed to assuring that agencies that serve 
the public are indeed funded by investing in them and in the 
workers and the technologies, all of which hopefully at the end 
of the day will put customers first. And providing the 
resources that these agencies need for what we should call 
optimal staffing levels and to acquire updated technology to 
improve how the government can deliver those services to our 
constituents has to be priority No. 1.
    I said earlier that the National Archives is a good example 
of how leadership and Congress together prioritize improving 
government services by championing an investment from the 
Technology Modernization Fund to help eliminate the veterans' 
records request backlog and to have that done by the end of the 
year. And I know vets all over this country who hear this, 
hopefully will know that there is some real help on the way.
    The other thing for me is that I have never considered 
telework to be the problem. I have always considered it to be a 
bridge to get to where we want to be. And, because of the 
pandemic, which we sort of overtalked about and referenced, 
there were delays and backlogs that brought about the need to 
telework. We were teleworking here in the U.S. Congress for 
committee hearings for well over a year. So, I understand it is 
not ideal, but it does not necessarily equate to poor quality 
if and when it is done right and overseen in the sort of way 
that makes sense. In fact, telework in many instances is a 
solution for avoiding increased backlogs and fostering some 
sort of continuity of work.
    We know that those backlogs, as has been said earlier, are 
attributable to a number of things; medical records as we spoke 
about earlier, retention and recruitment, attrition, and 
probably three or four other things that I cannot think of and 
has not come up today, not to mention the little things that 
break up continuity of work, like emergencies and inclement 
weather and all sorts of other things.
    So, there is a lot to be taken into consideration. I am 
going to certainly continue to urge my colleagues on this 
Committee on both sides of the aisle to follow the path that we 
are on. It is a path of bipartisanship and hopefully trying to 
find a way to deal with an issue that affects all of us. It 
does not mean that any Member of this Congress cannot express 
themselves. It is just that, at the end of the day, we are 
searching for consensus, because most people are not on the 
left or the right. Most are in the middle. We are trying to 
govern from there, and to govern effectively, we have got to 
make sure that everyone is heard, but, at the end of the day 
that there is real progress, that there ss a real effort to 
alleviate these problems that constituents are crying out 
about.
    You heard over and over again from Members of Congress 
about how they are approached in the street and at church and 
in community hearings by constituents who just feel like they 
are helpless, that agencies do not hear them, that they are put 
on hold and nobody cares. That is a painful thing when you do 
not have the ability to correct that yourself. If everybody was 
a Member of Congress, we would not have the problem, but we 
should not be the ones that have to rattle the cages to bring 
about good service for the people who need it most.
    So, Mr. Chairman, I am going to conclude there.
    I do have and would ask unanimous consent that two 
statements be entered into the record. A statement from the 
Social Security Administration, it is the AFL-CIO's American 
Federation of Government Employees that developed this, and I 
also have the statement about the Department of State's 
passport backlogs from the National Federation of Federal 
Employees that represent about 110,000 individuals. AFG 
represents about three-quarters of a million people. And as I 
said once on the floor, Federal workers are everywhere. They 
are not just in Washington, DC.
    Mr. Sessions. Without objection, they will be entered into 
the record.
    Mr. Mfume. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I will yield 
back.
    I want to thank, again, the witnesses for participating 
today.
    Mr. Sessions. Mr. Mfume, I want to thank you very much. We 
all have our own sayings. You have heard them today. I spent 16 
years vigorously in the free enterprise system, and we had a 
saying that by and large was, either it works or it does not 
work. If it is working, you are OK. But if it is not working, 
you have got to continue to do something different. And I think 
today you had an opportunity to receive feedback. I think it is 
important for you to listen to us, and we wait to hear back 
from you. I would like to engage each of you individually on 
the feedback from what you have heard from us today that I 
think came from both sides of the aisle.
    With that said, without objection, all Members will have 
five legislative days within which to submit materials and to 
submit additional written questions for the witnesses, which 
will be forwarded to the witnesses for their response.
    At this time, I see no other requests for time. So, without 
objection, the Subcommittee stands adjourned.
    Thank you very much.
    [Whereupon, at 5:10 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
    
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