[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 170 (Tuesday, October 31, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H11483-H11501]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 1996

  Mr. PACKARD. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 239, I call up 
the bill (H.R. 2492) making appropriations for the legislative branch 
for fiscal year ending September 30, 1996, and for other purposes, and 
ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of H.R. 2492 is as follows:

                               H.R. 2492

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the 
     following sums are appropriated, out of any money in the 
     Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the Legislative 
     Branch for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1996, and for 
     other purposes, namely:

                   TITLE I--CONGRESSIONAL OPERATIONS

                                 SENATE

                           Expense Allowances

       For expense allowances of the Vice President, $10,000; the 
     President Pro Tempore of the Senate, $10,000; Majority Leader 
     of the Senate, $10,000; Minority Leader of the Senate, 
     $10,000; Majority Whip of the Senate, $5,000; Minority Whip 
     of the Senate, $5,000; and Chairmen of the Majority and 
     Minority Conference Committees, $3,000 for each Chairman; in 
     all, $56,000.

    Representation Allowances for the Majority and Minority Leaders

       For representation allowances of the Majority and Minority 
     Leaders of the Senate, $15,000 for each such Leader; in all, 
     $30,000.

                    Salaries, Officers and Employees

       For compensation of officers, employees, and others as 
     authorized by law, including agency contributions, 
     $69,727,000, which shall be paid from this appropriation 
     without regard to the below limitations, as follows:

                      office of the vice president

       For the Office of the Vice President, $1,513,000.

                  office of the president pro tempore

       For the Office of the President Pro Tempore, $325,000.

              offices of the majority and minority leaders

       For Offices of the Majority and Minority Leaders, 
     $2,195,000.

               offices of the majority and minority whips

       For Offices of the Majority and Minority Whips, $656,000.
     
[[Page H11484]]


                         conference committees

       For the Conference of the Majority and the Conference of 
     the Minority, at rates of compensation to be fixed by the 
     Chairman of each such committee, $996,000 for each such 
     committee; in all, $1,992,000.

 offices of the secretaries of the conference of the majority and the 
                       conference of the minority

       For Offices of the Secretaries of the Conference of the 
     Majority and the Conference of the Minority, $360,000.


                           policy committees

       For salaries of the Majority Policy Committee and the 
     Minority Policy Committee, $965,000 for each such committee, 
     in all, $1,930,000.

                         office of the chaplain

       For Office of the Chaplain, $192,000.

                        office of the secretary

       For Office of the Secretary, $12,128,000.

             office of the sergeant at arms and doorkeeper

       For Office of the Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper, 
     $31,889,000.

        offices of the secretaries for the majority and minority

       For Offices of the Secretary for the Majority and the 
     Secretary for the Minority, $1,047,000.

               agency contributions and related expenses

       For agency contributions for employee benefits, as 
     authorized by law, and related expenses, $15,500,000.

            Office of the Legislative Counsel of the Senate

       For salaries and expenses of the Office of the Legislative 
     Counsel of the Senate, $3,381,000.

                     Office of Senate Legal Counsel

       For salaries and expenses of the Office of Senate Legal 
     Counsel, $936,000.

Expense Allowances of the Secretary of the Senate, Sergeant at Arms and 
Doorkeeper of the Senate, and Secretaries for the Majority and Minority 
                             of the Senate

       For expense allowances of the Secretary of the Senate, 
     $3,000; Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper of the Senate, 
     $3,000; Secretary for the Majority of the Senate, $3,000; 
     Secretary for the Minority of the Senate, $3,000; in all, 
     $12,000.

                   Contingent Expenses of the Senate

                      inquiries and investigations

       For expenses of inquiries and investigations ordered by the 
     Senate, or conducted pursuant to section 134(a) of Public Law 
     601, Seventy-ninth Congress, as amended, section 112 of 
     Public Law 96-304 and Senate Resolution 281, agreed to March 
     11, 1980, $66,395,000.


expenses of the united states senate caucus on international narcotics 
                                control

       For expenses of the United States Senate Caucus on 
     International Narcotics Control, $305,000.

                        secretary of the senate

       For expenses of the Office of the Secretary of the Senate, 
     $1,266,000.

             sergeant at arms and doorkeeper of the senate

       For expenses of the Office of the Sergeant at Arms and 
     Doorkeeper of the Senate, $61,347,000.

                          miscellaneous items

       For miscellaneous items, $6,644,000.

        senators' official personnel and office expense account

       For Senators' Official Personnel and Office Expense 
     Account, $204,029,000.

               Office of Senate Fair Employment Practices

       For salaries and expenses of the Office of Senate Fair 
     Employment Practices, $778,000.

                     Settlements and Awards Reserve

       For expenses for settlements and awards, $1,000,000, to 
     remain available until expended.

                      stationery (revolving fund)

       For stationery for the President of the Senate, $4,500, for 
     officers of the Senate and the Conference of the Majority and 
     Conference of the Minority of the Senate, $8,500; in all, 
     $13,000.

                          official mail costs

       For expenses necessary for official mail costs of the 
     Senate, $11,000,000.

                               rescission

       Of the funds previously appropriated under the heading 
     ``SENATE'', $63,544,724.12 are rescinded.

                       administrative provisions

       Section 1. (a) On and after October 1, 1995, no Senator 
     shall receive mileage under section 17 of the Act of July 28, 
     1866 (2 U.S.C. 43).
       (b) On and after October 1, 1995, the President of the 
     Senate shall not receive mileage under the first section of 
     the Act of July 8, 1935 (2 U.S.C. 43a).
       Sec. 2. (a) There is established in the Treasury of the 
     United States within the contingent fund of the Senate a 
     revolving fund, to be known as the ``Office of the Chaplain 
     Expense Revolving Fund'' (hereafter referred to as the 
     ``fund''). The fund shall consist of all moneys collected or 
     received with respect to the Office of the Chaplain of the 
     Senate.
       (b) The fund shall be available without fiscal year 
     limitation for disbursement by the Secretary of the Senate, 
     not to exceed $10,000 in any fiscal year, for the payment of 
     official expenses incurred by the Chaplain of the Senate. In 
     addition, moneys in the fund may be used to purchase food or 
     food related items. The fund shall not be available for the 
     payment of salaries.
       (c) All moneys (including donated moneys) received or 
     collected with respect to the Office of the Chaplain of the 
     Senate shall be deposited in the fund and shall be available 
     for purposes of this section.
       (d) Disbursements from the fund shall be made on vouchers 
     approved by the Chaplain of the Senate.
       Sec. 3. Funds appropriated under the heading, ``Settlements 
     and Awards Reserve'' in Public Law 103-283 shall remain 
     available until expended.
       Sec. 4. Section 902 of the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 
     1983 (2 U.S.C. 88b-6) is amended by striking the second 
     sentence and inserting the following: ``The amounts so 
     withheld shall be deposited in the revolving fund, within the 
     contingent fund of the Senate, for the Daniel Webster Senate 
     Page Residence, as established by section 4 of the 
     Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 1995 (2 U.S.C. 88b-
     7).''.
       Sec. 5. (a) Any payment for local and long distance 
     telecommunications service provided to any user by the 
     Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper of the Senate shall cover the 
     total invoiced amount, including any amount relating to 
     separately identified toll calls, and shall be charged to the 
     appropriation for the fiscal year in which the underlying 
     base service period covered by the invoice ends.
       (b) As used in subsection (a), the term ``user'' means any 
     Senator, Officer of the Senate, Committee, office, or entity 
     provided telephone equipment and services by the Sergeant at 
     Arms and Doorkeeper of the Senate.
       Sec. 6. Section 4(b) of Public Law 103-283 is amended by 
     inserting before ``collected'' the following: ``(including 
     donated moneys)''.
       Sec. 7. Section 1 of Public Law 101-520 (2 U.S.C. 61g-6a) 
     is amended to read as follows:
       ``Section 1. (a)(1) The Chairman of the Majority or 
     Minority Policy Committee of the Senate may, during any 
     fiscal year, at his or her election transfer funds from the 
     appropriation account for salaries for the Majority and 
     Minority Policy Committees of the Senate, to the account, 
     within the contingent fund of the Senate, from which expenses 
     are payable for such committees.
       ``(2) The Chairman of the Majority or Minority Policy 
     Committee of the Senate may, during any fiscal year, at his 
     or her election transfer funds from the appropriation account 
     for expenses, within the contingent fund of the Senate, for 
     the Majority and Minority Policy Committees of the Senate, to 
     the account from which salaries are payable for such 
     committees.
       ``(b)(1) The Chairman of the Majority or Minority 
     Conference Committee of the Senate may, during any fiscal 
     year, at his or her election transfer funds from the 
     appropriation account for salaries for the Majority and 
     Minority Conference Committees of the Senate, to the account, 
     within the contingent fund of the Senate, from which expenses 
     are payable for such committees.
       ``(2) The Chairman of the Majority or Minority Conference 
     Committee of the Senate may, during any fiscal year, at his 
     or her election transfer funds from the appropriation account 
     for expenses, within the contingent fund of the Senate, for 
     the Majority and Minority Conference Committees of the 
     Senate, to the account from which salaries are payable for 
     such committees.
       ``(c) Any funds transferred under this section shall be--
       ``(1) available for expenditure by such committee in like 
     manner and for the same purposes as are other moneys which 
     are available for expenditure by such committee from the 
     account to which the funds were transferred; and
       ``(2) made at such time or times as the Chairman shall 
     specify in writing to the Senate Disbursing Office.
       ``(d) The Chairman of a committee transferring funds under 
     this section shall notify the Committee on Appropriations of 
     the Senate of the transfer.''.
       (b) The amendment made by this section shall take effect on 
     October 1, 1995, and shall be effective with respect to 
     fiscal years beginning on or after that date.

                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                         Salaries and Expenses

       For salaries and expenses of the House of Representatives, 
     $671,561,000,  as follows:

                        house leadership offices

       For salaries and expenses, as authorized by law, 
     $11,271,000, including: Office of the Speaker, $1,478,000, 
     including $25,000 for official expenses of the Speaker; 
     Office of the Majority Floor Leader, $1,470,000, including 
     $10,000 for official expenses of the Majority Leader; Office 
     of the Minority Floor Leader, $1,480,000, including $10,000 
     for official expenses of the Minority Leader; Office of the 
     Majority Whip, including the Chief Deputy Majority Whip, 
     $928,000, including $5,000 for official expenses of the 
     Majority Whip; Office of the Minority Whip, including the 
     Chief Deputy Minority Whip, $918,000, including $5,000 for 
     official expenses of the Minority Whip; Speaker's Office for 
     Legislative Floor Activities, $376,000; Republican Steering 
     Committee, $664,000; Republican Conference, $1,083,000; 
     Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, $1,181,000; 
     Democratic Caucus, $566,000; and nine minority employees, 
     $1,127,000.
     
[[Page H11485]]


                  Members' Representational Allowances

   Including Members' Clerk Hire, Official Expenses of Members, and 
                             Official Mail

       For Members' representational allowances, including 
     Members' clerk hire, official expenses, and official mail, 
     $360,503,000: Provided, That no such funds shall be used for 
     the purposes of sending unsolicited mass mailings within 90 
     days before an election in which the Member is a candidate.

                          Committee Employees

                Standing Committees, Special and Select

       For salaries and expenses of standing committees, special 
     and select, authorized by House resolutions, $78,629,000.

                      Committee on Appropriations

       For salaries and expenses of the Committee on 
     Appropriations, $16,945,000, including studies and 
     examinations of executive agencies and temporary personal 
     services for such committee, to be expended in accordance 
     with section 202(b) of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 
     1946 and to be available for reimbursement to agencies for 
     services performed.

                    salaries, officers and employees

       For compensation and expenses of officers and employees, as 
     authorized by law, $83,733,000, including: for salaries and 
     expenses of the Office of the Clerk, including not to exceed 
     $1,000 for official representation and reception expenses, 
     $13,807,000; for salaries and expenses of the Office of the 
     Sergeant at Arms, including the position of Superintendent of 
     Garages, and including not to exceed $750 for official 
     representation and reception expenses, $3,410,000; for 
     salaries and expenses of the Office of the Chief 
     Administrative Officer, $53,556,000, including salaries, 
     expenses and temporary personal services of House Information 
     Resources, $27,500,000, of which $16,000,000 is provided 
     herein: Provided, That House Information Resources is 
     authorized to receive reimbursement from Members of the House 
     of Representatives and other governmental entities for 
     services provided and such reimbursement shall be deposited 
     in the Treasury for credit to this account; for salaries and 
     expenses of the Office of the Inspector General, $3,954,000; 
     for salaries and expenses of the Office of Compliance, 
     $858,000; Office of the Chaplain, $126,000; for salaries and 
     expenses of the Office of the Parliamentarian, including the 
     Parliamentarian and $2,000 for preparing the Digest of Rules, 
     $1,180,000; for salaries and expenses of the Office of the 
     Law Revision Counsel of the House, $1,700,000; for salaries 
     and expenses of the Office of the Legislative Counsel of the 
     House, $4,524,000; and other authorized employees, $618,000.

                        allowances and expenses

       For allowances and expenses as authorized by House 
     resolution or law, $120,480,000, including: supplies, 
     materials, administrative costs and Federal tort claims, 
     $1,213,000; official mail for committees, leadership offices, 
     and administrative offices of the House, $1,000,000; 
     reemployed annuitants reimbursements, $68,000; Government 
     contributions to employees' life insurance fund, retirement 
     funds, Social Security fund, Medicare fund, health benefits 
     fund, and worker's and unemployment compensation, 
     $117,541,000; and miscellaneous items including purchase, 
     exchange, maintenance, repair and operation of House motor 
     vehicles, interparliamentary receptions, and gratuities to 
     heirs of deceased employees of the House, $658,000.

                           child care center

       For salaries and expenses of the House of Representatives 
     Child Care Center, such amounts as are deposited in the 
     account established by section 312(d)(1) of the Legislative 
     Branch Appropriations Act, 1992 (40 U.S.C. 184g(d)(1)), 
     subject to the level specified in the budget of the Center, 
     as submitted to the Committee on Appropriations of the House 
     of Representatives.


                       Administrative Provisions

       Sec. 101. Effective with respect to fiscal years beginning 
     with fiscal year 1995, in the case of mail from outside 
     sources presented to the Chief Administrative Officer of the 
     House of Representatives (other than mail through the Postal 
     Service and mail with postage otherwise paid) for internal 
     delivery in the House of Representatives, the Chief 
     Administrative Officer is authorized to collect fees equal to 
     the applicable postage. Amounts received by the Chief 
     Administrative Officer as fees under the preceding sentence 
     shall be deposited in the Treasury as miscellaneous receipts.
       Sec. 102. Effective with respect to fiscal years beginning 
     with fiscal year 1995, amounts received by the Chief 
     Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives from 
     the Administrator of General Services for rebates under the 
     Government Travel Charge Card Program shall be deposited in 
     the Treasury as miscellaneous receipts.
       Sec. 103. The provisions of section 223(b) of House 
     Resolution 6, One Hundred Fourth Congress, agreed to January 
     5 (legislative day, January 4), 1995, establishing the 
     Speaker's Office for Legislative Floor Activities; House 
     Resolution 7, One Hundred Fourth Congress, agreed to January 
     5 (legislative day, January 4), 1995, providing for the 
     designation of certain minority employees; House Resolution 
     9, One Hundred Fourth Congress, agreed to January 5 
     (legislative day, January 4), 1995, providing amounts for the 
     Republican Steering Committee and the Democratic Policy 
     Committee; House Resolution 10, One Hundred Fourth Congress, 
     agreed to January 5 (legislative day, January 4), 1995, 
     providing for the transfer of two employee positions; and 
     House Resolution 113, One Hundred Fourth Congress, agreed to 
     March 10, 1995, providing for the transfer of certain 
     employee positions shall each be the permanent law with 
     respect thereto.
       Sec. 104. (a) The five statutory positions specified in 
     subsection (b), subsection (c), and subsection (d) are 
     transferred from the House Republican Conference to the 
     Republican Steering Committee.
       (b) The first two of the five positions referred to in 
     subsection (a) are--
       (1) the position established for the chief deputy majority 
     whip by subsection (a) of the first section of House 
     Resolution 393, Ninety-fifth Congress, agreed to March 31, 
     1977, as enacted into permanent law by section 115 of the 
     Legislative Branch Appropriation Act, 1978 (2 U.S.C. 74a-3); 
     and
       (2) the position established for the chief deputy majority 
     whip by section 102(a)(4) of the Legislative Branch 
     Appropriations Act, 1990;

     both of which positions were transferred to the majority 
     leader by House Resolution 10, One Hundred Fourth Congress, 
     agreed to January 5 (legislative day, January 4), 1995, as 
     enacted into permanent law by section 103 of this Act, and 
     both of which positions were further transferred to the House 
     Republican Conference by House Resolution 113, One Hundred 
     Fourth Congress, agreed to March 10, 1995, as enacted into 
     permanent law by section 103 of this Act.
       (c) The second two of the five positions referred to in 
     subsection (a) are the two positions established by section 
     103(a)(2) of the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 1986.
       (d) The fifth of the five positions referred to in 
     subsection (a) is the position for the House Republican 
     Conference established by House Resolution 625, Eighty-ninth 
     Congress, agreed to October 22, 1965, as enacted into 
     permanent law by section 103 of the Legislative Branch 
     Appropriation Act, 1967.
       (e) The transfers under this section shall take effect on 
     the date of the enactment of this Act.
       Sec. 105. (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, 
     or any rule, regulation, or other authority, travel for 
     studies and examinations under section 202(b) of the 
     Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 (2 U.S.C. 72a(b)) 
     shall be governed by applicable laws or regulations of the 
     House of Representatives or as promulgated from time to time 
     by the Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations of the 
     House of Representatives.
       (b) Subsection (a) shall take effect on the date of the 
     enactment of this Act and shall apply to travel performed on 
     or after that date.
       Sec. 106. (a) Notwithstanding the paragraph under the 
     heading ``general provision'' in chapter XI of the Third 
     Supplemental Appropriation Act, 1957 (2 U.S.C. 102a) or any 
     other provision of law, effective on the date of the 
     enactment of this section, unexpended balances in accounts 
     described in subsection (b) are withdrawn, with unpaid 
     obligations to be liquidated in the manner provided in the 
     second sentence of that paragraph.
       (b) The accounts referred to in subsection (a) are the 
     House of Representatives legislative service organization 
     revolving accounts under section 311 of the Legislative 
     Branch Appropriations Act, 1994 (2 U.S.C. 96a).
       Sec. 107. (a) Each fund and account specified in subsection 
     (b) shall be available only to the extent provided in 
     appropriations Acts.
       (b) The funds and accounts referred to in subsection (a) 
     are--
       (1) the revolving fund for the House Barber Shops, 
     established by the paragraph under the heading ``House Barber 
     Shops Revolving Fund'' in the matter relating to the House of 
     Representatives in chapter III of title I of the Supplemental 
     Appropriations Act, 1975 (Public Law 93-554; 88 Stat. 1776);
       (2) the revolving fund for the House Beauty Shop, 
     established by the matter under the heading ``house beauty 
     shop'' in the matter relating to administrative provisions 
     for the House of Representatives in the Legislative Branch 
     Appropriation Act, 1970 (Public Law 91-145; 83 Stat. 347);
       (3) the special deposit account established for the House 
     of Representatives Restaurant by section 208 of the First 
     Supplemental Civil Functions Appropriation Act, 1941 (40 
     U.S.C. 174k note); and
       (4) the revolving fund established for the House Recording 
     Studio by section 105(g) of the Legislative Branch 
     Appropriation Act, 1957 (2 U.S.C. 123b(g)).
       (c) This section shall take effect on October 1, 1995, and 
     shall apply with respect to fiscal years beginning on or 
     after that date.
       Sec. 107A. For fiscal year 1996, subject to the direction 
     of the Committee on House Oversight of the House of 
     Representatives, of the total amount deposited in the account 
     referred to in section 107(b)(3) of this Act from vending 
     operations of the House of Representatives Restaurant System, 
     the cost of goods sold shall be available to pay the cost of 
     inventory for such operations.
       Sec. 108. The House Employees Position Classification Act 
     (2 U.S.C. 291, et seq.) is amended--
       (1) in section 3(1), by striking out ``Doorkeeper, and the 
     Postmaster,'' and inserting in lieu thereof ``Chief 
     Administrative Officer, and the Inspector General'';
       (2) in the first sentence of section 4(b), by striking out 
     ``Doorkeeper, and the Postmaster,'' and inserting in lieu 
     thereof ``Chief Administrative Officer, and the Inspector 
     General'';

[[Page H11486]]

       (3) in section 5(b)(1), by striking out ``Doorkeeper, and 
     the Postmaster'' and inserting in lieu thereof ``Chief 
     Administrative Officer, and the Inspector General''; and
       (4) in the first sentence of section 5(c), by striking out 
     ``Doorkeeper, and the Postmaster,'' and inserting in lieu 
     thereof ``Chief Administrative Officer, and the Inspector 
     General''.
       Sec. 109. (a) Upon the approval of the appropriate 
     employing authority, an employee of the House of 
     Representatives who is separated from employment, may be paid 
     a lump sum for the accrued annual leave of the employee. The 
     lump sum--
       (1) shall be paid in an amount not more than the lesser 
     of--
       (A) the amount of the monthly pay of the employee, as 
     determined by the Chief Administrative Officer of the House 
     of Representatives; or
       (B) the amount equal to the monthly pay of the employee, as 
     determined by the Chief Administrative Officer of the House 
     of Representatives, divided by 30, and multiplied by the 
     number of days of the accrued annual leave of the employee;
       (2) shall be paid--
       (A) for clerk hire employees, from the clerk hire allowance 
     of the Member;
       (B) for committee employees, from amounts appropriated for 
     committees; and
       (C) for other employees, from amounts appropriated to the 
     employing authority; and
       (3) shall be based on the rate of pay in effect with 
     respect to the employee on the last day of employment of the 
     employee.
       (b) The Committee on House Oversight shall have authority 
     to prescribe regulations to carry out this section.
       (c) As used in this section, the term ``employee of the 
     House of Representatives'' means an employee whose pay is 
     disbursed by the Clerk of the House of Representatives or the 
     Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives, 
     as applicable, except that such term does not include a 
     uniformed or civilian support employee under the Capitol 
     Police Board.
       (d) Payments under this section may be made with respect to 
     separations from employment taking place after June 30, 1995.
       Sec. 110. (a)(1) Effective on the date of the enactment of 
     this Act, the allowances for office personnel and equipment 
     for certain Members of the House of Representatives, as 
     adjusted through the day before the date of the enactment of 
     this Act, are further adjusted as specified in paragraph (2).
       (2) The further adjustments referred to in paragraph (1) 
     are as follows:
       (A) The allowance for the majority leader is increased by 
     $167,532.
       (B) The allowance for the majority whip is decreased by 
     $167,532.
       (b)(1) Effective on the date of the enactment of this Act, 
     the House of Representatives allowances referred to in 
     paragraph (2), as adjusted through the day before the date of 
     the enactment of this Act, are further adjusted, or are 
     established, as the case may be, as specified in paragraph 
     (2).
       (2) The further adjustments and the establishment referred 
     to in paragraph (1) are as follows:
       (A) The allowance for the Republican Conference is 
     increased by $134,491.
       (B) The allowance for the Republican Steering Committee is 
     established at $66,995.
       (C) The allowance for the Democratic Steering and Policy 
     Committee is increased by $201,430.
       (D) The allowance for the Democratic Caucus is increased by 
     $56.

                              JOINT ITEMS

       For Joint Committees, as follows:


                        joint economic committee

       For salaries and expenses of the Joint Economic Committee, 
     $3,000,000, to be disbursed by the Secretary of the Senate.

                      joint committee on printing

       For salaries and expenses of the Joint Committee on 
     Printing, $750,000, to be disbursed by the Secretary of the 
     Senate.

                      joint committee on taxation

       For salaries and expenses of the Joint Committee on 
     Taxation, $5,116,000, to be disbursed by the Clerk of the 
     House.
       For other joint items, as follows:

                   Office of the Attending Physician

       For medical supplies, equipment, and contingent expenses of 
     the emergency rooms, and for the Attending Physician and his 
     assistants, including (1) an allowance of $1,500 per month to 
     the Attending Physician; (2) an allowance of $500 per month 
     each to two medical officers while on duty in the Attending 
     Physician's office; (3) an allowance of $500 per month to one 
     assistant and $400 per month each to not to exceed nine 
     assistants on the basis heretofore provided for such 
     assistance; and (4) $852,000 for reimbursement to the 
     Department of the Navy for expenses incurred for staff and 
     equipment assigned to the Office of the Attending Physician, 
     which shall be advanced and credited to the applicable 
     appropriation or appropriations from which such salaries, 
     allowances, and other expenses are payable and shall be 
     available for all the purposes thereof, $1,260,000, to be 
     disbursed by the Clerk of the House.

                          Capitol Police Board

                             Capitol Police

                                salaries

       For the Capitol Police Board for salaries, including 
     overtime, hazardous duty pay differential, clothing allowance 
     of not more than $600 each for members required to wear 
     civilian attire, and Government contributions to employees' 
     benefits funds, as authorized by law, of officers, members, 
     and employees of the Capitol Police, $70,132,000, of which 
     $34,213,000 is provided to the Sergeant at Arms of the House 
     of Representatives, to be disbursed by the Clerk of the 
     House, and $35,919,000 is provided to the Sergeant at Arms 
     and Doorkeeper of the Senate, to be disbursed by the 
     Secretary of the Senate: Provided, That, of the amounts 
     appropriated under this heading, such amounts as may be 
     necessary may be transferred between the Sergeant at Arms of 
     the House of Representatives and the Sergeant at Arms and 
     Doorkeeper of the Senate, upon approval of the Committee on 
     Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the 
     Committee on Appropriations of the Senate.

                            general expenses

       For the Capitol Police Board for necessary expenses of the 
     Capitol Police, including motor vehicles, communications and 
     other equipment, uniforms, weapons, supplies, materials, 
     training, medical services, forensic services, stenographic 
     services, the employee assistance program, not more than 
     $2,000 for the awards program, postage, telephone service, 
     travel advances, relocation of instructor and liaison 
     personnel for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, 
     and $85 per month for extra services performed for the 
     Capitol Police Board by an employee of the Sergeant at Arms 
     of the Senate or the House of Representatives designated by 
     the Chairman of the Board, $2,560,000, to be disbursed by the 
     Clerk of the House of Representatives: Provided, That, 
     notwithstanding any other provision of law, the cost of basic 
     training for the Capitol Police at the Federal Law 
     Enforcement Training Center for fiscal year 1996 shall be 
     paid by the Secretary of the Treasury from funds available to 
     the Department of the Treasury.


                        Administrative Provision

       Sec. 111. Amounts appropriated for fiscal year 1996 for the 
     Capitol Police Board under the heading ``Capitol Police'' may 
     be transferred between the headings ``salaries'' and 
     ``general expenses'', upon approval of the Committees on 
     Appropriations of the Senate and the House of 
     Representatives.

           Capitol Guide Service and Special Services Office

       For salaries and expenses of the Capitol Guide Service and 
     Special Services Office, $1,991,000, to be disbursed by the 
     Secretary of the Senate: Provided, That none of these funds 
     shall be used to employ more than forty individuals: Provided 
     further, That the Capitol Guide Board is authorized, during 
     emergencies, to employ not more than two additional 
     individuals for not more than one hundred twenty days each, 
     and not more than ten additional individuals for not more 
     than six months each, for the Capitol Guide Service.

                      Statements of Appropriations

       For the preparation, under the direction of the Committees 
     on Appropriations of the Senate and the House of 
     Representatives, of the statements for the first session of 
     the One Hundred Fourth Congress, showing appropriations made, 
     indefinite appropriations, and contracts authorized, together 
     with a chronological history of the regular appropriations 
     bills as required by law, $30,000, to be paid to the persons 
     designated by the chairmen of such committees to supervise 
     the work.

                        Administrative Provision

       Sec. 112. Section 310 of the Legislative Branch 
     Appropriations Act, 1990 (2 U.S.C. 130e), is amended--
       (1) by striking out ``Clerk'' and inserting in lieu thereof 
     ``Sergeant at Arms''; and
       (2) by striking out ``Librarian of Congress'' and inserting 
     in lieu thereof ``Architect of the Capitol''.

                          Office of Compliance

       For salaries and expenses of the Office of Compliance, as 
     authorized by section 305 of Public Law 104-1, the 
     Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1385), 
     $2,500,000, of which $500,000 shall be transferred from the 
     amount provided for salaries and expenses of the Office of 
     Compliance under the headings ``HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES'', 
     ``Salaries and Expenses'', and ``Salaries, Officers and 
     Employees''.

                    Office of Technology Assessment


                         salaries and expenses

       For salaries and expenses necessary to carry out the 
     orderly closure of the Office of Technology 
     Assessment, $3,615,000, of which $150,000 shall remain 
     available until September 30, 1997. Upon enactment of this 
     Act, $2,500,000 of the funds appropriated under this 
     heading in Public Law 103-283 shall remain available until 
     September 30, 1996: Provided, That none of the funds made 
     available in this Act shall be available for salaries or 
     expenses of any employee of the Office of Technology 
     Assessment in excess of 17 employees except for severance 
     pay purposes.


                       administrative provisions

       Sec. 113. Upon enactment of this Act all employees of the 
     Office of Technology Assessment for 183 days preceding 
     termination of employment who are terminated as a result of 
     the elimination of the Office and who are not otherwise 
     gainfully employed may continue to be paid by the Office of 
     Technology Assessment at their respective salaries for a 
     period not to exceed 60 calendar 

[[Page H11487]]

     days following the employee's date of termination or until 
     the employee becomes otherwise gainfully employed whichever 
     is earlier. Any day for which a former employee receives a 
     payment under this section shall be counted as Federal 
     service for purposes of determining entitlement to benefits, 
     including retirement, annual and sick leave earnings, and 
     health and life insurance. A statement in writing to the 
     Director of the Office of Technology Assessment or his 
     designee by any such employee that he was not gainfully 
     employed during such period or the portion thereof for which 
     payment is claimed shall be accepted as prima facie evidence 
     that he was not so employed.
       Sec. 114. Notwithstanding the provisions of the Federal 
     Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, as amended, 
     or any other provision of law, upon the abolition of the 
     Office of Technology Assessment, all records and property of 
     the Office (including the Unix system, all computer hardware 
     and software, all library collections and research materials, 
     and all photocopying equipment), shall be under the 
     administrative control of the Architect of the Capitol. Not 
     later than December 31, 1995, the Architect shall submit a 
     proposal to transfer such records and property to appropriate 
     support agencies of the Legislative Branch which request such 
     transfer, and shall carry out such transfer subject to the 
     approval of the Committees on Appropriations of the House of 
     Representatives and the Senate.

                      CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE

                         Salaries and Expenses

       For salaries and expenses necessary to carry out the 
     provisions of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (Public 
     Law 93-344), including not to exceed $2,500 to be expended on 
     the certification of the Director of the Congressional Budget 
     Office in connection with official representation and 
     reception expenses, $24,288,000: Provided, That none of these 
     funds shall be available for the purchase or hire of a 
     passenger motor vehicle: Provided further, That none of the 
     funds in this Act shall be available for salaries or expenses 
     of any employee of the Congressional Budget Office in excess 
     of 232 full-time equivalent positions: Provided further, That 
     any sale or lease of property, supplies, or services to the 
     Congressional Budget Office shall be deemed to be a sale or 
     lease of such property, supplies, or services to the Congress 
     subject to section 903 of Public Law 98-63: Provided further, 
     That the Director of the Congressional Budget Office shall 
     have the authority, within the limits of available 
     appropriations, to dispose of surplus or obsolete personal 
     property by inter-agency transfer, donation, or discarding.

                        Administrative Provision

       Sec. 115. Section 8402(c) of title 5, United States Code, 
     is amended--
       (1) by redesignating paragraph (7) as paragraph (8); and
       (2) by inserting after paragraph (6) the following:
       ``(7) The Director of the Congressional Budget Office may 
     exclude from the operation of this chapter an employee under 
     the Congressional Budget Office whose employment is temporary 
     or intermittent.''.

                        ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL

                 Office of the Architect of the Capitol

                                salaries

       For the Architect of the Capitol, the Assistant Architect 
     of the Capitol, and other personal services, at rates of pay 
     provided by law, $8,569,000.

                                 travel

       Appropriations under the control of the Architect of the 
     Capitol shall be available for expenses of travel on official 
     business not to exceed in the aggregate under all funds the 
     sum of $20,000.

                          Contingent Expenses

       To enable the Architect of the Capitol to make surveys and 
     studies, and to meet unforeseen expenses in connection with 
     activities under his care, $100,000.

                     Capitol Buildings and Grounds

                           capitol buildings

       For all necessary expenses for the maintenance, care and 
     operation of the Capitol and electrical substations of the 
     Senate and House office buildings, under the jurisdiction of 
     the Architect of the Capitol, including furnishings and 
     office equipment; including not to exceed $1,000 for official 
     reception and representation expenses, to be expended as the 
     Architect of the Capitol may approve; purchase or exchange, 
     maintenance and operation of a passenger motor vehicle; and 
     attendance, when specifically authorized by the Architect of 
     the Capitol, at meetings or conventions in connection with 
     subjects related to work under the Architect of the Capitol, 
     $22,882,000, of which $2,950,000 shall remain available until 
     expended: Provided, That hereafter expenses, based on full 
     cost recovery, for flying American flags and providing 
     certification services therefor shall be advanced or 
     reimbursed upon request of the Architect of the Capitol, and 
     amounts so received shall be deposited into the Treasury.

                            capitol grounds

       For all necessary expenses for care and improvement of 
     grounds surrounding the Capitol, the Senate and House office 
     buildings, and the Capitol Power Plant, $5,143,000, of which 
     $25,000 shall remain available until expended.


                        senate office buildings

       For all necessary expenses for maintenance, care and 
     operation of Senate Office Buildings; and furniture and 
     furnishings to be expended under the control and supervision 
     of the Architect of the Capitol, $41,757,000, of which 
     $4,850,000 shall remain available until expended.

                         house office buildings

       For all necessary expenses for the maintenance, care and 
     operation of the House office buildings, $33,001,000, of 
     which $5,261,000 shall remain available until expended.

                          capitol power plant

       For all necessary expenses for the maintenance, care and 
     operation of the Capitol Power Plant; lighting, heating, 
     power (including the purchase of electrical energy) and water 
     and sewer services for the Capitol, Senate and House office 
     buildings, Library of Congress buildings, and the grounds 
     about the same, Botanic Garden, Senate garage, and air 
     conditioning refrigeration not supplied from plants in any of 
     such buildings; heating the Government Printing Office and 
     Washington City Post Office, and heating and chilled water 
     for air conditioning for the Supreme Court Building, Union 
     Station complex, Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building 
     and the Folger Shakespeare Library, expenses for which shall 
     be advanced or reimbursed upon request of the Architect of 
     the Capitol and amounts so received shall be deposited into 
     the Treasury to the credit of this appropriation, 
     $31,518,000: Provided, That not to exceed $4,000,000 of the 
     funds credited or to be reimbursed to this appropriation as 
     herein provided shall be available for obligation during 
     fiscal year 1996.

                          LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

                     Congressional Research Service

                         salaries and expenses

       For necessary expenses to carry out the provisions of 
     section 203 of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 (2 
     U.S.C. 166) and to revise and extend the Annotated 
     Constitution of the United States of America, $60,084,000: 
     Provided, That no part of this appropriation may be used to 
     pay any salary or expense in connection with any publication, 
     or preparation of material therefor (except the Digest of 
     Public General Bills), to be issued by the Library of 
     Congress unless such publication has obtained prior approval 
     of either the Committee on House Oversight of the House of 
     Representatives or the Committee on Rules and Administration 
     of the Senate: Provided further, That, notwithstanding any 
     other provision of law, the compensation of the Director of 
     the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, 
     shall be at an annual rate which is equal to the annual rate 
     of basic pay for positions at level IV of the Executive 
     Schedule under section 5315 of title 5, United States Code.

                       GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

                   Congressional Printing and Binding

       For authorized printing and binding for the Congress and 
     the distribution of Congressional information in any format; 
     printing and binding for the Architect of the Capitol; 
     expenses necessary for preparing the semimonthly and session 
     index to the Congressional Record, as authorized by law (44 
     U.S.C. 902); printing and binding of Government publications 
     authorized by law to be distributed to Members of Congress; 
     and printing, binding, and distribution of Government 
     publications authorized by law to be distributed without 
     charge to the recipient, $83,770,000: Provided, That this 
     appropriation shall not be available for paper copies of the 
     permanent edition of the Congressional Record for individual 
     Representatives, Resident Commissioners or Delegates 
     authorized under 44 U.S.C. 906: Provided further, That this 
     appropriation shall be available for the payment of 
     obligations incurred under the appropriations for similar 
     purposes for preceding fiscal years.
       This title may be cited as the ``Congressional Operations 
     Appropriations Act, 1996''.

                        TITLE II--OTHER AGENCIES

                             BOTANIC GARDEN

                         Salaries and Expenses

       For all necessary expenses for the maintenance, care and 
     operation of the Botanic Garden and the nurseries, buildings, 
     grounds, and collections; and purchase and exchange, 
     maintenance, repair, and operation of a passenger motor 
     vehicle; all under the direction of the Joint Committee on 
     the Library, $3,053,000.

                       Administrative Provisions

       Sec. 201. (a) Section 201 of the Legislative Branch 
     Appropriations Act, 1993 (40 U.S.C. 216c note) is amended by 
     striking out ``$6,000,000'' each place it appears and 
     inserting in lieu thereof ``$10,000,000''.
       (b) Section 307E(a)(1) of the Legislative Branch 
     Appropriations Act, 1989 (40 U.S.C. 216c(a)(1)) is amended by 
     striking out ``plans'' and inserting in lieu thereof 
     ``plants''.

                          LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

                         Salaries and Expenses

       For necessary expenses of the Library of Congress, not 
     otherwise provided for, including development and maintenance 
     of the Union Catalogs; custody and custodial care of the 
     Library buildings; special clothing; cleaning, laundering and 
     repair of uniforms; preservation of motion pictures in the 
     custody of the Library; preparation and distribution of 
     catalog cards and other publications of the Library; hire or 
     purchase of one passenger motor vehicle; and expenses of the 
     Library of Congress Trust Fund Board not properly chargeable 
     to the income of any 

[[Page H11488]]

     trust fund held by the Board, $211,664,000, of which not more 
     than $7,869,000 shall be derived from collections credited to 
     this appropriation during fiscal year 1996 under the Act of 
     June 28, 1902 (chapter 1301; 32 Stat. 480; 2 U.S.C. 150): 
     Provided, That the total amount available for obligation 
     shall be reduced by the amount by which collections are less 
     than the $7,869,000: Provided further, That of the total 
     amount appropriated, $8,458,000 is to remain available until 
     expended for acquisition of books, periodicals, and 
     newspapers, and all other materials including subscriptions 
     for bibliographic services for the Library, including $40,000 
     to be available solely for the purchase, when specifically 
     approved by the Librarian, of special and unique materials 
     for additions to the collections.

                            Copyright Office

                         salaries and expenses

       For necessary expenses of the Copyright Office, including 
     publication of the decisions of the United States courts 
     involving copyrights, $30,818,000, of which not more than 
     $16,840,000 shall be derived from collections credited to 
     this appropriation during fiscal year 1996 under 17 U.S.C. 
     708(c), and not more than $2,990,000 shall be derived from 
     collections during fiscal year 1996 under 17 U.S.C. 
     111(d)(2), 119(b)(2), 802(h), and 1005: Provided, That the 
     total amount available for obligation shall be reduced by the 
     amount by which collections are less than $19,830,000: 
     Provided further, That up to $100,000 of the amount 
     appropriated is available for the maintenance of an 
     ``International Copyright Institute'' in the Copyright Office 
     of the Library of Congress for the purpose of training 
     nationals of developing countries in intellectual property 
     laws and policies: Provided further, That not to exceed 
     $2,250 may be expended on the certification of the Librarian 
     of Congress or his designee, in connection with official 
     representation and reception expenses for activities of the 
     International Copyright Institute.

             Books for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

                         salaries and expenses

       For salaries and expenses to carry out the provisions of 
     the Act of March 3, 1931 (chapter 400; 46 Stat. 1487; 2 
     U.S.C. 135a), $44,951,000, of which $11,694,000 shall remain 
     available until expended.

                       Furniture and Furnishings

       For necessary expenses for the purchase and repair of 
     furniture, furnishings, office and library equipment, 
     $4,882,000, of which $943,000 shall be available until 
     expended only for the purchase and supply of furniture, 
     shelving, furnishings, and related costs necessary for the 
     renovation and restoration of the Thomas Jefferson and John 
     Adams Library buildings.

                       Administrative Provisions

       Sec. 202. Appropriations in this Act available to the 
     Library of Congress shall be available, in an amount not to 
     exceed $194,290, of which $58,100 is for the Congressional 
     Research Service, when specifically authorized by the 
     Librarian, for attendance at meetings concerned with the 
     function or activity for which the appropriation is made.
       Sec. 203. (a) No part of the funds appropriated in this Act 
     shall be used by the Library of Congress to administer any 
     flexible or compressed work schedule which--
         (1) applies to any manager or supervisor in a position 
     the grade or level of which is equal to or higher than GS-15; 
     and
         (2) grants such manager or supervisor the right to not be 
     at work for all or a portion of a workday because of time 
     worked by the manager or supervisor on another workday.
       (b) For purposes of this section, the term ``manager or 
     supervisor'' means any management official or supervisor, as 
     such terms are defined in section 7103(a) (10) and (11) of 
     title 5, United States Code.
       Sec. 204. Appropriated funds received by the Library of 
     Congress from other Federal agencies to cover general and 
     administrative overhead costs generated by performing 
     reimbursable work for other agencies under the authority of 
     31 U.S.C. 1535 and 1536 shall not be used to employ more than 
     65 employees and may be expended or obligated--
         (1) in the case of a reimbursement, only to such extent 
     or in such amounts as are provided in appropriations Acts; or
         (2) in the case of an advance payment, only--
         (A) to pay for such general or administrative overhead 
     costs as are attributable to the work performed for such 
     agency; or
         (B) to such extent or in such amounts as are provided in 
     appropriations Acts, with respect to any purpose not 
     allowable under subparagraph (A).
       Sec. 205. Not to exceed $5,000 of any funds appropriated to 
     the Library of Congress may be expended, on the certification 
     of the Librarian of Congress, in connection with official 
     representation and reception expenses for the Library of 
     Congress incentive awards program.
       Sec. 206. Not to exceed $12,000 of funds appropriated to 
     the Library of Congress may be expended, on the certification 
     of the Librarian of Congress or his designee, in connection 
     with official representation and reception expenses for the 
     Overseas Field Offices.
       Sec. 207. Under the heading ``Library of Congress'' 
     obligational authority shall be available, in an amount not 
     to exceed $99,412,000 for reimbursable and revolving fund 
     activities, and $6,812,000 for non-expenditure transfer 
     activities in support of parliamentary development during the 
     current fiscal year.
       Sec. 208. Notwithstanding this or any other Act, 
     obligational authority under the heading ``Library of 
     Congress'' for activities in support of parliamentary 
     development is prohibited, except for Russia, Ukraine, 
     Albania, Slovakia, and Romania, for other than incidental 
     purposes.
       Sec. 209. (a) The purpose of this section is to reduce the 
     cost of information support for the Congress by eliminating 
     duplication among systems which provide electronic access by 
     Congress to legislative information.
       (b) As used in this section, the term ``legislative 
     information'' means information, prepared within the 
     legislative branch, consisting of the text of publicly 
     available bills, amendments, committee hearings, and 
     committee reports, the text of the Congressional Record, data 
     relating to bill status, data relating to legislative 
     activity, and other similar public information that is 
     directly related to the legislative process.
       (c) Pursuant to the plan approved under subsection (d) and 
     consistent with the provisions of any other law, the Library 
     of Congress or the entity designated by that plan shall 
     develop and maintain, in coordination with other appropriate 
     entities of the legislative branch, a single legislative 
     information retrieval system to serve the entire Congress.
       (d) The Library shall develop a plan for creation of this 
     system, taking into consideration the findings and 
     recommendations of the study directed by House Report No. 
     103-517 to identify and eliminate redundancies in 
     congressional information systems. This plan must be approved 
     by the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate, 
     the Committee on House Oversight of the House of 
     Representatives, and the Committees on Appropriations of the 
     Senate and the House of Representatives. The Library shall 
     provide these committees with regular status reports on the 
     development of the plan.
       (e) In formulating its plan, the Library shall examine 
     issues regarding efficient ways to make this information 
     available to the public. This analysis shall be submitted to 
     the Committees on Appropriations of the Senate and the House 
     of Representatives as well as the Committee on Rules and 
     Administration of the Senate, and the Committee on House 
     Oversight of the House of Representatives for their 
     consideration and possible action.

                        ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL

                     Library Buildings and Grounds

                     structural and mechanical care

       For all necessary expenses for the mechanical and 
     structural maintenance, care and operation of the Library 
     buildings and grounds, $12,428,000, of which $3,710,000 shall 
     remain available until expended.

                       GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

                 Office of Superintendent of Documents

                         salaries and expenses

       For expenses of the Office of Superintendent of Documents 
     necessary to provide for the cataloging and indexing of 
     Government publications and their distribution to the public, 
     Members of Congress, other Government agencies, and 
     designated depository and international exchange libraries as 
     authorized by law, $30,307,000: Provided, That travel 
     expenses, including travel expenses of the Depository Library 
     Council to the Public Printer, shall not exceed $130,000: 
     Provided further, That funds, not to exceed $2,000,000, from 
     current year appropriations are authorized for producing and 
     disseminating Congressional Serial Sets and other related 
     Congressional/non-Congressional publications for 1994 and 
     1995 to depository and other designated libraries.


                        administrative provision

       Sec. 210. The fiscal year 1997 budget submission of the 
     Public Printer to the Congress for the Government Printing 
     Office shall include appropriations requests and 
     recommendations to the Congress that--
       (1) are consistent with the strategic plan included in the 
     technological study performed by the Public Printer pursuant 
     to Senate Report 104-114;
       (2) assure substantial progress toward maximum use of 
     electronic information dissemination technologies by all 
     departments, agencies, and other entities of the Government 
     with respect to the Depository Library Program and 
     information dissemination generally; and
       (3) are formulated so as to require that any department, 
     agency, or other entity of the Government that does not make 
     such progress shall bear from its own resources the cost of 
     its information dissemination by other than electronic means.

               Government Printing Office Revolving Fund

       The Government Printing Office is hereby authorized to make 
     such expenditures, within the limits of funds available and 
     in accord with the law, and to make such contracts and 
     commitments without regard to fiscal year limitations as 
     provided by section 104 of the Government Corporation 
     Control Act as may be necessary in carrying out the 
     programs and purposes set forth in the budget for the 
     current fiscal year for the Government Printing Office 
     revolving fund: Provided, That not to exceed $2,500 may be 
     expended on the certification of the Public Printer in 
     connection with official representation and reception 
     expenses: Provided further, That the revolving fund shall 
     be available for the hire or purchase of passenger motor 
     vehicles, not to exceed a fleet of twelve: Provided 
     further, That expenditures in connection with travel 
     expenses of the advisory councils to the Public Printer 
     shall be 

[[Page H11489]]

     deemed necessary to carry out the provisions of title 44, 
     United States Code: Provided further, That the revolving fund 
     shall be available for services as authorized by 5 U.S.C. 
     3109 but at rates for individuals not to exceed the per diem 
     rate equivalent to the rate for level V of the Executive 
     Schedule (5 U.S.C. 5316): Provided further, That the 
     revolving fund and the funds provided under the headings 
     ``Office of Superintendent of Documents'' and ``salaries and 
     expenses'' together may not be available for the full-time 
     equivalent employment of more than 3,800 workyears by the end 
     of fiscal year 1996: Provided further, That activities 
     financed through the revolving fund may provide information 
     in any format: Provided further, That the revolving fund 
     shall not be used to administer any flexible or compressed 
     work schedule which applies to any manager or supervisor in a 
     position the grade or level of which is equal to or higher 
     than GS-15: Provided further, That expenses for attendance at 
     meetings shall not exceed $75,000.

                       GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE

                         Salaries and Expenses

       For necessary expenses of the General Accounting Office, 
     including not to exceed $7,000 to be expended on the 
     certification of the Comptroller General of the United States 
     in connection with official representation and reception 
     expenses; services as authorized by 5 U.S.C. 3109 but at 
     rates for individuals not to exceed the per diem rate 
     equivalent to the rate for level IV of the Executive Schedule 
     (5 U.S.C. 5315); hire of one passenger motor vehicle; advance 
     payments in foreign countries in accordance with 31 U.S.C. 
     3324; benefits comparable to those payable under sections 
     901(5), 901(6) and 901(8) of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 
     (22 U.S.C. 4081(5), 4081(6) and 4081(8)); and under 
     regulations prescribed by the Comptroller General of the 
     United States, rental of living quarters in foreign countries 
     and travel benefits comparable with those which are now or 
     hereafter may be granted single employees of the Agency for 
     International Development, including single Foreign Service 
     personnel assigned to AID projects, by the Administrator of 
     the Agency for International Development--or his designee--
     under the authority of section 636(b) of the Foreign 
     Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2396(b)); $374,406,000: 
     Provided, That not more than $400,000 of reimbursements 
     received incident to the operation of the General Accounting 
     Office Building shall be available for use in fiscal year 
     1996: Provided further, That notwithstanding 31 U.S.C. 9105 
     hereafter amounts reimbursed to the Comptroller General 
     pursuant to that section shall be deposited to the 
     appropriation of the General Accounting Office then available 
     and remain available until expended, and not more than 
     $8,000,000 of such funds shall be available for use in fiscal 
     year 1996: Provided further, That this appropriation and 
     appropriations for administrative expenses of any other 
     department or agency which is a member of the Joint Financial 
     Management Improvement Program (JFMIP) shall be available to 
     finance an appropriate share of JFMIP costs as determined by 
     the JFMIP, including the salary of the Executive Director and 
     secretarial support: Provided further, That this 
     appropriation and appropriations for administrative expenses 
     of any other department or agency which is a member of the 
     National Intergovernmental Audit Forum or a Regional 
     Intergovernmental Audit Forum shall be available to finance 
     an appropriate share of Forum costs as determined by the 
     Forum, including necessary travel expenses of non-Federal 
     participants. Payments hereunder to either the Forum or the 
     JFMIP may be credited as reimbursements to any appropriation 
     from which costs involved are initially financed: Provided 
     further, That to the extent that funds are otherwise 
     available for obligation, agreements or contracts for the 
     removal of asbestos, and renovation of the building and 
     building systems (including the heating, ventilation and air 
     conditioning system, electrical system and other major 
     building systems) of the General Accounting Office Building 
     may be made for periods not exceeding five years: Provided 
     further, That this appropriation and appropriations for 
     administrative expenses of any other department or agency 
     which is a member of the American Consortium on International 
     Public Administration (ACIPA) shall be available to finance 
     an appropriate share of ACIPA costs as determined by the 
     ACIPA, including any expenses attributable to membership of 
     ACIPA in the International Institute of Administrative 
     Sciences.

                       Administrative Provisions

       Sec. 211. (a) Effective June 30, 1996, the functions of the 
     Comptroller General identified in subsection (b) are 
     transferred to the Director of the Office of Management and 
     Budget, contingent upon the additional transfer to the Office 
     of Management and Budget of such personnel, budget authority, 
     records, and property of the General Accounting Office 
     relating to such functions as the Comptroller General and the 
     Director jointly determine to be necessary. The Director may 
     delegate any such function, in whole or in part, to any other 
     agency or agencies if the Director determines that such 
     delegation would be cost-effective or otherwise in the public 
     interest, and may transfer to such agency or agencies any 
     personnel, budget authority, records, and property received 
     by the Director pursuant to the preceding sentence that 
     relate to the delegated functions. Personnel transferred 
     pursuant to this provision shall not be separated or reduced 
     in classification or compensation for one year after any such 
     transfer, except for cause.
       (b) The following provisions of the United States Code 
     contain the functions to be transferred pursuant to 
     subsection (a): sections 5564 and 5583 of title 5; sections 
     2312, 2575, 2733, 2734, 2771, 4712, and 9712 of title 10; 
     sections 1626 and 4195 of title 22; section 420 of title 24; 
     sections 2414 and 2517 of title 28; sections 1304, 3702, 
     3726, and 3728 of title 31; sections 714 and 715 of title 32; 
     section 554 of title 37; section 5122 of title 38; and 
     section 256a of title 41.
       Sec. 212. (a) Section 732 of title 31, United States Code, 
     is amended by adding a new subsection (h) as follows:
       ``(h) Notwithstanding the provisions of subchapter I of 
     chapter 35 of title 5, United States Code, the Comptroller 
     General shall prescribe regulations for the release of 
     officers and employees of the General Accounting Office in a 
     reduction in force which give due effect to tenure of 
     employment, military preference, performance and/or 
     contributions to the agency's goals and objectives, and 
     length of service. The regulations shall, to the extent 
     deemed feasible by the Comptroller General, be designed to 
     minimize disruption to the Office and to assist in promoting 
     the efficiency of the Office.''.
       Sec. 213. Section 753 of title 31, United States Code, is 
     amended--
       (1) by redesignating subsections (b), (c), and (d) as (c), 
     (d), and (e), respectively;
       (2) by inserting after subsection (a) a new subsection (b) 
     as follows:
       ``(b) The Board has no authority to issue a stay of any 
     reduction in force action.''; and
       (3) in the second sentence of subsection (c), as 
     redesignated, by striking ``(c)'' and inserting ``(d)''.

                     TITLE III--GENERAL PROVISIONS

       Sec. 301. No part of the funds appropriated in this Act 
     shall be used for the maintenance or care of private 
     vehicles, except for emergency assistance and cleaning as may 
     be provided under regulations relating to parking facilities 
     for the House of Representatives issued by the Committee on 
     House Oversight and for the Senate issued by the Committee on 
     Rules and Administration.
       Sec. 302. No part of any appropriation contained in this 
     Act shall remain available for obligation beyond the current 
     fiscal year unless expressly so provided herein.
       Sec. 303. Whenever any office or position not specifically 
     established by the Legislative Pay Act of 1929 is 
     appropriated for herein or whenever the rate of compensation 
     or designation of any position appropriated for herein is 
     different from that specifically established for such 
     position by such Act, the rate of compensation and the 
     designation of the position, or either, appropriated for or 
     provided herein, shall be the permanent law with respect 
     thereto: Provided, That the provisions herein for the various 
     items of official expenses of Members, officers, and 
     committees of the Senate and House of Representatives, and 
     clerk hire for Senators and Members of the House of 
     Representatives shall be the permanent law with respect 
     thereto.
       Sec. 304. The expenditure of any appropriation under this 
     Act for any consulting service through procurement contract, 
     pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 3109, shall be limited to those 
     contracts where such expenditures are a matter of public 
     record and available for public inspection, except where 
     otherwise provided under existing law, or under existing 
     Executive order issued pursuant to existing law.
       Sec. 305. (a) It is the sense of the Congress that, to the 
     greatest extent practicable, all equipment and products 
     purchased with funds made available in this Act should be 
     American-made.
       (b) In providing financial assistance to, or entering into 
     any contract with, any entity using funds made available in 
     this Act, the head of each Federal agency, to the greatest 
     extent practicable, shall provide to such entity a notice 
     describing the statement made in subsection (a) by the 
     Congress.
       Sec. 306. (a) Upon approval of the Committee on 
     Appropriations of the House of Representatives, and in 
     accordance with conditions determined by the Committee on 
     House Oversight, positions in connection with House parking 
     activities and related funding shall be transferred from the 
     appropriation ``Architect of the Capitol, Capitol buildings 
     and grounds, House office buildings'' to the appropriation 
     ``House of Representatives, salaries, officers and employees, 
     Office of the Sergeant at Arms'': Provided, That the position 
     of Superintendent of Garages shall be subject to 
     authorization in annual appropriations Acts.
       (b) For purposes of section 8339(m) of title 5, United 
     States Code, the days of unused sick leave to the credit of 
     any such employee as of the date such employee is transferred 
     under subsection (a) shall be included in the total service 
     of such employee in connection with the computation of any 
     annuity under subsections (a) through (e) and (o) of such 
     section.
       (c) In the case of days of annual leave to the credit of 
     any such employee as of the date such employee is transferred 
     under subsection (a) the Architect of the Capitol is 
     authorized to make a lump sum payment to each such employee 
     for that annual leave. No such payment shall be considered a 
     payment or compensation within the meaning of any law 
     relating to dual compensation.
       Sec. 307. None of the funds made available in this Act may 
     be used for the relocation of the office of any Member of the 
     House of Representatives within the House office buildings.

[[Page H11490]]

       Sec. 308. (a)(1) Effective October 1, 1995, the unexpended 
     balances of appropriations specified in paragraph (2) are 
     transferred to the appropriation for general expenses of the 
     Capitol Police, to be used for design and installation of 
     security systems for the Capitol buildings and grounds.
       (2) The unexpended balances referred to in paragraph (1) 
     are--
       (A) the unexpended balance of appropriations for security 
     installations, as referred to in the paragraph under the 
     heading ``capitol buildings'', under the general headings 
     ``JOINT ITEMS'', ``ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL'', and ``Capitol 
     Buildings and Grounds'' in title I of the Legislative Branch 
     Appropriations Act, 1995 (108 Stat. 1434), including any 
     unexpended balance from a prior fiscal year and any 
     unexpended balance under such headings in this Act; and
       (B) the unexpended balance of the appropriation for an 
     improved security plan, as transferred to the Architect of 
     the Capitol by section 102 of the Legislative Branch 
     Appropriations Act, 1989 (102 Stat. 2165).
       (b) Effective October 1, 1995, the responsibility for 
     design and installation of security systems for the Capitol 
     buildings and grounds is transferred from the Architect of 
     the Capitol to the Capitol Police Board. Such design and 
     installation shall be carried out under the direction of the 
     Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives 
     and the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate, 
     and without regard to section 3709 of the Revised Statutes of 
     the United States (41 U.S.C. 5). On and after October 1, 
     1995, any alteration to a structural, mechanical, or 
     architectural feature of the Capitol buildings and grounds 
     that is required for a security system under the preceding 
     sentence may be carried out only with the approval of the 
     Architect of the Capitol.
       (c)(1) Effective October 1, 1995, all positions specified 
     in paragraph (2) and each individual holding any such 
     position (on a permanent basis) immediately before that date, 
     as identified by the Architect of the Capitol, shall be 
     transferred to the Capitol Police.
       (2) The positions referred to in paragraph (1) are those 
     positions which, immediately before October 1, 1995, are--
       (A) under the Architect of the Capitol;
       (B) within the Electronics Engineering Division of the 
     Office of the Architect of the Capitol; and
       (C) related to the design or installation of security 
     systems for the Capitol buildings and grounds.
       (3) All annual leave and sick leave standing to the credit 
     of an individual immediately before such individual is 
     transferred under paragraph (1) shall be credited to such 
     individual, without adjustment, in the new position of the 
     individual.
       Sec. 309. (a) Section 230(a) of the Congressional 
     Accountability Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1371(a)) is amended by 
     striking out ``Administrative Conference of the United 
     States'' and inserting in lieu thereof ``Board''.
       (b) Section 230(d)(1) of the Congressional Accountability 
     Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1371(d)(1)) is amended--
       (1) by striking out ``Administrative Conference of the 
     United States'' and inserting in lieu thereof ``Board''; and
       (2) by striking out ``and shall submit the study and 
     recommendations to the Board''.
       (c) The amendments made by this section shall take effect 
     only if the Administrative Conference of the United States 
     ceases to exist prior to the completion and submission of the 
     study to the Board as required by section 230 of the 
     Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1371).
       Sec. 310. Any amount appropriated in this Act for ``HOUSE 
     OF REPRESENTATIVES--Salaries and Expenses--Members' 
     Representational Allowances'' shall be available only for 
     fiscal year 1996. Any amount remaining after all payments are 
     made under such allowances for such fiscal year shall be 
     deposited in the Treasury, to be used for deficit reduction.
       Sec. 311. Section 316 of Public Law 101-302 is amended in 
     the first sentence of subsection (a) by striking ``1995'' and 
     inserting ``1996''.
       Sec. 312. Such sums as may be necessary are appropriated to 
     the account described in subsection (a) of section 415 of 
     Public Law 104-1 to pay awards and settlements as authorized 
     under such subsection.
       Sec. 313. (a) The Sergeant at Arms of the House of 
     Representatives shall have the same law enforcement 
     authority, including the authority to carry firearms, as a 
     member of the Capitol Police. The law enforcement authority 
     under the preceding sentence shall be subject to the 
     requirement that the Sergeant at Arms have the qualifications 
     specified in subsection (b).
       (b) The qualifications referred to in subsection (a) are 
     the following:
       (1) A minimum of five years of experience as a law 
     enforcement officer before beginning service as the Sergeant 
     at Arms.
       (2) Current certification in the use of firearms by the 
     appropriate Federal law enforcement entity or an equivalent 
     non-Federal entity.
       (3) Any other firearms qualification required for members 
     of the Capitol Police.
       (c) The Committee on House Oversight of the House of 
     Representatives shall have authority to prescribe regulations 
     to carry out this section.
       Sec. 314. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, 
     effective September 1, 1995, the Committee on House Oversight 
     of the House of Representatives shall have authority--
       (1) to combine the House of Representatives Clerk Hire 
     Allowance, Official Expenses Allowance, and Official Mail 
     Allowance into a single allowance, to be known as the 
     ``Members' Representational Allowance''; and
       (2) to prescribe regulations relating to allocations, 
     expenditures, and other matters with respect to the Members' 
     Representational Allowance.
       This Act may be cited as the ``Legislative Branch 
     Appropriations Act, 1996''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 239, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Packard] and the gentleman from 
California [Mr. Fazio] will each be recognized for 30 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California [Mr. Packard].

                             {time}   1200

  Mr. PACKARD. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I do not believe this bill will take very long, and I 
think that the gentleman from California [Mr. Fazio] and I can move 
very quickly through this bill. We have done it before.
  Mr. Speaker, the bill has been before the house and had the 
overwhelming support of the Members of the House. This is the 
legislative branch appropriations bill. It was passed 305 to 101. There 
have been no changes in the bill. It is the same bill that we have 
dealt with before.
  The President did veto it, and in his message he said that, ``It is, 
in fact, a disciplined bill . . . one that I would sign under different 
circumstances,'' and perhaps at a different time. So, Mr. Speaker, we 
are sending it back to him in the same form. We think he will sign it, 
along with other bills.
  In fact, he has since signed two appropriations bills, the military 
construction appropriations bill, the agricultural appropriations bill. 
The transportation conference report has been passed by the House and 
is soon to be taken up by the Senate, and several others are pending 
that will pass that the President, I think, will sign. So, he should 
sign this bill, and it is really noncontroversial.
  Mr. Speaker, let me summarize H.R. 2492 very briefly. It provides 
budget authority for $2.18 billion. That is $433 million below the 
President's request, a 16.5-percent reduction. It is $205.7 million 
below the 1995 level. That is an 8.6-percent reduction in funding from 
the 1995 levels.
  It also reduces staff of the legislative branch by 9.5 percent. The 
House of Representatives is cut by $57.2 million. That is a cut below 
1995 levels. The committee staff is cut by a third, 33 percent. The 
House administrative offices have been cut by $11.9 million and 313 
FTE's below 1995 levels.
  The joint committees, the printing and economic and taxation 
committees combined, are cut by 22.8 percent. We have eliminated the 
Office of Technology Assessment. I know that is controversial, but it 
does save the Congress and the Government $22 million. The work of OTA, 
we feel, is being duplicated by other agencies.
  The Architect of the Capitol is cut by $16.8 million below 1995 
levels. It ends the subsidies, the bill ends the subsidies on the flag 
office. It requests a proposal that will lead to the privatization of 
the custodial and maintenance work here on Capitol Hill. It creates a 
panel of outside experts to propose how to privatize the Capitol power 
plant.
  The Government Printing Office is cut by $7.9 million below 1995 
levels. The only increase in the bill is to provide for the 
digitalization of the collection for the National Digital Library at 
the Library of Congress.
  In summary, it is an excellent bill, reduced significantly from last 
year's level, an 8.6-percent reduction; one that the President said 
that he will sign under the proper circumstances. We strongly urge the 
Members of the Congress, the House, to pass the bill overwhelmingly 
today.
  Mr. Speaker, I submit the following for the Record.
  The bill before you today, H.R. 2492, is a bill identical to the 
conference agreement on H.R. 1854, the 1996 legislative branch 
appropriations bill. The house adopted that conference report by a vote 
of 305 to 101 on September 6, 1995.
  H.R. 1854 was returned by the President on October 3, 1995. The veto 
message of the President said:
  (a) ``H.R. 1854 is, in fact, a disciplined bill''
  (b) ``H.R. 1854 is ... one that I would sign under different 
circumstances.''

[[Page H11491]]

  The President had absolutely no substantive objections to the bill.
  Since then, he has signed two appropriations bills, military 
construction and agriculture. The conference report on the 
Transportation has cleared the House and will be taken up soon by the 
Senate.
  Several others are near completion, and we are proceeding in an 
effort to bring them to the House and to send them to the President in 
an expeditious manner.
  The legislative bill for fiscal year 1996 will greatly reduce the 
size of our own branch of Government.
  To summarize, H.R. 2492 provides budget authority of $2.18 billion. 
This is $433 million below the President's budget request, a 16.5 
percent reduction. It is $205.7 million below fiscal year 1995; that's 
an 8.6 percent reduction in funding below the current year. It reduces 
legislative branch jobs [FTE's] by 2,614 under fiscal year 1995--Senate 
staffing excluded--that's a 9.5 percent reduction in jobs.
  There are several provisions included, primarily to facilitate the 
operations of the House and Senate. The conference report on H.R. 1854 
(House Report 104-212) has been available for several weeks and 
explains these provisions. In the joint explanatory statement, 
contained in House Report 104-212, legislative agencies were given 
directives for carrying out the bill, and we expect that each agency 
and office covered by this bill will follow those directives. These 
directives will apply to H.R. 2492 as they did to H.R. 1854.
  A few of the highlights of the bill include:
  House of Representatives--has been cut $57.2 million below 1995. 
Included in this reduction, committee staff have been cut 33 percent; 
committee budgets have been reduced by $39.8 million; House 
administrative offices have been cut by $11.9 million below 1995; and 
administrative staff have been reduced by 313 FTE's.
  Senate--has been cut $33.7 million below 1995.
  Joint Items--Joint committees--printing, economic, taxation--have 
been cut by 22.8 percent overall.
  Office of Technology Assessment--has been eliminated, an additional 
$22 million savings.
  Congressional Budget Office--has been given $1.1 million and 13 more 
FTE's to perform unfunded mandates workload.
  Architect of the Capitol--has been cut $16.8 million below 1995. The 
bill ends the taxpayer subsidy to the flag office. Flag prices have 
been raised to reimburse the cost of the flag raising operation. 
Requests for proposal will be issued to privatize custodial and 
maintenance work, and a panel of outside experts will propose how the 
power plant can be privatized.
  Government Printing Office--has been cut $7.9 million below 1995. 
Congressional printing has been cut by $5.6 million, including the 
elimination of constituent copies of the Congressional Record for 
Members of the House. The number of daily records printed will be 
reduced from 16,935 to 10,615, and we have eliminated free copies of 
documents to judges, to former Members, to press and other media, and 
to executive agencies.
  Library of Congress--Funding increased $1.5 million--only increase in 
bill. The national digital library program of the library is funded at 
$3 million, the amount requested.
  General Accounting Office--cut $75 million below 1995. The report 
indicates our intent to reduce GAO by 25 percent over a 2-year period.
  Summary
  In summary, the bill is $205.7 million below fiscal year 1995. It 
effects a 2,614 reduction in full-time-equivalent jobs; that's a 9.5 
percent cut, not including Senate jobs, in total, it is a $432.8 
million reduction below the requests included in the president's 
budget, a 16.5 percent reduction.
  Every member can justify an ``aye'' vote on passage.

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[[Page H11496]]

  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. FAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Moran], a former member of this 
subcommittee.
  Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California [Mr. 
Fazio], my friend and the ranking Democrat on this subcommittee, for 
whom I was very proud to serve when he was chairman of the 
subcommittee.
  Mr. Speaker, I have some things that I think need to be said and they 
need to be said to the Members. I am going to ask the Members that are 
present to listen to this for a few minutes, because I want to talk 
about people whose jobs and whose lives are completely, exclusively 
dependent upon the decisions that we make; not that the Senate and not 
that the President or anyone else makes. These are people whose jobs 
and lives are completely dependent upon us.
  Mr. Speaker, we are holding hearings over in the Government 
Operations Committee about a handful of people that served at the 
pleasure of the President and that the President fired who worked in 
the travel office. But we have ignored how we have treated our own 
employees, which in many cases is far worse than anything that the 
President did to people who worked in the travel office.
  One of the first acts that this Congress did was to issue pink slips 
to all of the nonpartisan employees who work here. These are not people 
with a legislative or a political agenda. These are the people that 
deliver our mail and who clean our offices. These are the people who 
have dedicated their lives to making this great institution and all 
that it is today.
  Mr. Speaker, we have inherited this legacy that they have very 
carefully and conscientiously established and provided a continuity for 
the greatness of this institution. They are aware of it; I am not sure 
how well we are aware of it.
  Mr. Speaker, 2 weeks before Christmas, we told these nonpartisan 
employees that we would not need their services anymore. Since then, 
the leadership has worked hard to fire as many people as possible.
  Mr. Speaker, when this new Congress took over, they hired three dozen 
people whose principal purpose was to fire as many of our nonpartisan 
employees as possible, and this bill continues this trend.
  The first thing this bill does is to privatize everything it can. And 
privatization may sound good, Mr. Speaker, but not when it is taken to 
this extreme. When this bill first came before us, I pointed out how 
ludicrous it was to privatize the flag office. It was simple to make 
the flag office self-funding, and thankfully the Senate fixed that part 
of the bill. Our constituents can still have a flag flown over the 
Capitol and it does not cost the taxpayers one dime, and it is a great 
service and one that they appreciate, oftentimes more than we 
appreciate it.
  Unfortunately, there are many parts of this bill that were not looked 
at so rationally. First, there is the folding room. The folding room 
was established because all 435 of our offices need help with their 
mail. We placed impossible deadlines on these people, and they would 
often work 12-hour shifts without overtime. Think about that, to serve 
our needs they worked 12-hour shifts without getting overtime.
  Mr. Speaker, we asked them to work in the bowels of our office 
buildings. No windows, no frills. Ninety percent of these people who 
served us are minorities and, boy, they worked hard and were dedicated 
to their job.
  Now, we fire them. We eliminated it. And what we have done is to 
place two big photos and I am sure all of my colleagues have seen it. 
Apparently, it points up the difference between modernization and the 
way that things used to be done. It is a before-and-after shot. It 
shows how nice the office is now. How nice and clean and it is all 
organized. The before shot shows how messy it was when all these 
working class people were working every day for our benefit.
  Mr. Speaker, the trend continues. The people that work the night 
shift to clean our offices and enable us to take for granted that the 
office is going to be clean when we come in the morning, the people 
that deliver all the mail without fail conscientiously, they all fear 
the same thing will happen to them and they will.
  Mr. Speaker, they are all working people with families. They want to 
be able to plan for their future, yet their supervisors cannot tell 
them today if they will have a job next week or if they will be out on 
the street without health insurance. And even if they are lucky enough 
to stay on after we privatize them, they will lose their benefits that 
they have today. They will be given an hourly wage and that is it.
  These dedicated employees will be told that we no longer can afford 
to care if their child is sick or if they have a preexisting medical 
condition. They are going to be on their own, after spending their 
lives serving us.

  Mr. Speaker, in just another minute I want to tell my colleagues some 
specifics about what these lives are like. It is important to anybody 
that is listening to this to focus on it for just a minute.
  Mary Ann Wise started off working for our institution as a teenager 
right after high school. She worked hard. She was promoted. After more 
than 20 years of dedicated service, she was finally promoted to the 
chief of office systems management, because no one else in this 
institution better understood office systems management.
  I do not know if she is a Republican or Democrat. I do not know. I do 
not think she knows either, but I know she did her job very well. As a 
reward, my colleagues, we fired her. We just fired her.
  Mike Heny's story is much the same. Mike began working here as a 
junior accountant. He worked hard and a few years ago the Clerk 
promoted him to chief of finance. Nonpartisan, just doing his job day 
in and day out. We fired him, too.
  John Kostelnick was in charge of property. Things like the desks and 
the file cabinets in our offices. I want you to listen to this, please. 
The leadership gave him a quota. They gave John a quota. They told him 
to put together a list of people to fire. The leadership did not care 
how good a job his employees did. They just wanted to fire them. Mr. 
Speaker, John Kostelnick took the high road and he refused, so he had 
to resign.
  For several years now, the voters have been frustrated with the 
Congress. I would suggest to my colleagues that it is not right that we 
take this frustration out on the people who have served this 
institution for most of their adult lives.
  I do not think that frustration carries over to those people. People 
still want to come up and see the Capitol. They want it to be clean and 
they want it to be well-maintained. They want their Congressperson's 
office to be well-served, well-outfitted. These are the people that 
enabled us to be proud of the office that we work in and the 
institution that we are a part of.
  Mr. Speaker, this is the greatest legislative body in the world. It 
takes more than politicians to make this institution the great symbol 
of democracy that it is. It takes the dedication and the hard work of 
ordinary, nonpartisan people. People with families, with working-class 
incomes, and with a lot of responsibility that they take very seriously 
for this institution.
  Mr. Speaker, we ought not forget what they do for us, what they have 
done for us throughout their lives, or what they do for our 
constituents.
  Mr. Speaker, I oppose this bill today.
  Mr. FAZIO of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the 
gentleman from Hawaii [Mr. Abercrombie].
  Mr. ABERCROMBIE. Mr. Speaker, the reason that I would like to follow 
up on the remarks of the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Moran] is that 
many of my colleagues here may live closer. They may not have the same 
situation that I do, where my constituents have a 6-hour time 
difference.
  Mr. Speaker, I am here in the evenings that the gentleman from 
Virginia is referring to when the people are at work in these 
buildings. Some of my colleagues may be out of here. Maybe they are at 
the receptions. Maybe they are out with their lobbyist friends. I do 
not know.
  But, Mr. Speaker, I spend a good deal of my time here. I just want to 
point out before, my Republican colleagues take revenge on us, if they 
think they are taking revenge on us as politicians when they are firing 
people who have 

[[Page H11497]]

given their loyalty to this institution, there is a veritable army of 
people working here all night. They are here all night working. I ask 
my Republican colleagues, please, do not take out the revenge that they 
want to have on the Congress or on politicians by firing working people 
who do their jobs; who have been nothing but loyal to this institution; 
who are here every night; who do the job every day, the working people 
that keep the institution going.
  Mr. PACKARD. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds.
  Mr. Speaker, we are as sensitive and concerned about the employees of 
the House and of the agencies of government as anyone. We have got a 
mandate to downsize government. Every agency of government is being 
asked to downsize. We cannot downsize government if we do not downsize 
the number of employees of government.
  That is what we are trying to do. We are trying to do it in a 
sensitive, fair way.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. 
Roemer], a man who supported the bill last time.

                              {time}  1215

  Mr. ROEMER. I thank the gentleman from California for yielding me the 
time.
  Mr. Speaker, I took office here in the U.S. Congress in 1991. I have 
not voted for a legislative appropriations bill until this one. I rise 
in support, in bipartisan support, with common sense toward supporting 
this bill, Mr. Speaker.
  I think this is a good bill for a number of reasons. There are cuts 
in this bill, but we can spread the cuts in a fair manner. There are 
cuts to congressional mail accounts, up to 33 percent of our frank mail 
account. I believe that that is fair. I think Congress should take the 
first step in helping us balance the budget.
  There are ways by which we can privatize here and some other agencies 
on the Hill, here in the Washington, DC, area. I think we should be 
taking those steps as well.
  In a bill that I have worked on since I came to Congress in 1991, 
where I had about 120 Democrats and Republicans cosponsor my 
legislation, we passed this year, with the support of the gentleman 
from New Jersey [Mr. Zimmer], and that was to encourage Members of 
Congress to save money in their accounts. When we do that, that money 
can be returned directly to the U.S. Treasury to help reduce the 
deficit.
  I think these are measures we are supporting. I think it is high time 
that the U.S. Congress does take the first steps toward helping to 
balance the budget with fair, reasonable, commonsense cuts up here on 
the Hill.
  I support the gentleman's bill in a bipartisan way.
  Mr. FAZIO of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the 
gentleman from Montana [Mr. Williams].
  Mr. WILLIAMS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California for 
yielding me the time.
  Mr. Speaker, I know it is overwhelmingly politically popular today to 
talk about downsizing Government and cutting our own employees. I have 
supported some of the downsizing efforts, including in the legislative 
branch; and those downsizing efforts have been going on for the past 
several Congresses, not just in this one. But today I want to talk 
about something different.
  Back in 1992, Montana went from two Members of Congress down to one, 
me. I am honored to hold that seat.
  My colleagues, my staff is not paid enough. My staff is overworked, 
my staff is overburdened and there are not enough of them; and it is 
past time that people in a similar situation to mine stand on this 
floor and say that.
  My staff works 9 to 12 hours a day trying to keep up with a quarter 
of a million more constituents than has the average Member of Congress. 
A lot of my staff do what I do. They work weekends. My average salary 
in the staff is $26,000. In this, one of the highest cost-of-living 
cities in America, it is not right. It is not fair. They are underpaid, 
and they are overworked. Like me, they are doing their best to serve 
Montanans; and they are finding it very difficult because we keep 
cutting them.
  I went from representing 450,000 people to now representing 860,000 
people, and my postage account has been cut 40 percent from what it was 
when I represented half as many people as I do today. It is simply not 
fair to Montanans.
  By the way, this is not just true of my office. All Members who look 
closely at their staff will find that they are underpaid, that there is 
great tension, and that there is long hours; and it is not fair.
  By the way, it is becoming true not just in our offices but 
throughout America. Today, an announcement will be made by the Federal 
Government about the condition of wages, salaries, and benefits of the 
American worker. The increases in wages, salaries, and benefits last 
year, the year just concluded, the fiscal year, for the American 
worker, the increases have never been less since America has been 
keeping records than they are this year.
  Inflation, as low as it is, less than 3 percent, has outstripped 
wages, salaries, and benefits combined. This cheapening down of the 
American work force is lowering the standard of living for the American 
people, and it is just simply wrong.
  Mr. FAZIO of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, let me first comment on the comments of my colleague 
from Montana. It may well be that the Committee on House Oversight 
should consider the problem of those few States where the 
reapportionment brings about an anomaly where one or two or three 
States perhaps may have populations and one single representative that 
far exceed the average. It may be that we need to take a tip from the 
Senate, which does apportion staff related to population, and see how 
we might accommodate the concerns of the gentleman.
  I would be happy to yield to him at this time if he would want to 
respond.
  Mr. WILLIAMS. I appreciate the generosity of the gentleman in 
following up my remarks with the indication that perhaps the committee 
should take a close look at it.
  I know that my colleagues on the other side also have Members who 
represent a good many more people than the average Member of Congress. 
I would like to yield to the Chairman to see if he could address this 
anomaly.
  Mr. PACKARD. Mr. Speaker, there is no question that some States are 
more difficult to administer and to represent. Certainly Alaska is one 
of them, where they have to have more local congressional offices. The 
distance, the travel, the ability to service that size of State is a 
lot different than it is in my district or in many of the districts of 
the Congress. We are looking at that. I think it is a function of the 
oversight committee more than it is of the Appropriations Subcommittee, 
but we think that it must be addressed. We have made a commitment to 
ourselves to look at this in the coming year so that we can better 
address the needs of each individual district. But we are still in the 
mode of downsizing and that means we have to also participate in that 
process.
  Mr. WILLIAMS. I thank the chairman and the ranking member for their 
comments.
  Mr. FAZIO of California. Mr. Speaker, concluding on this point, I may 
just point out that in many cases during a decade, I think the district 
of the gentleman from California [Mr. Packard] and mine were both 
typical of this, our population would almost double just given normal 
growth rates in certain States. As a result, problems occur in that 
regard as well.
  Mr. PACKARD. If the gentleman will yield further, a few years ago. I 
had the largest district in population in the congress, well over 1 
million. Now I am down to 500,000. Of course the gentleman from Montana 
[Mr. Williams] has just the opposite. He represented a 500,000 
population or less district and now he has moved up because of 
reapportionment. These are often problems that are difficult to solve 
on a permanent basis because circumstances change.
  Mr. WILLIAMS. If the gentleman would continue to yield, an important 
point that I think we are all addressing is this: We are not talking 
about these funds for ourselves. We are talking about them because they 
will better serve our constituencies. When you represent close to 
900,000 people and take a 40 percent cut in postage and a 

[[Page H11498]]

cut in travel and a cut in personal office expenses, you cannot 
properly serve your constituents. That is what it is about.
  Mr. FAZIO of California. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I believe 
we could consider both the population shifts and the differing 
geography of larger States when we take up the budget in the formal 
course of events in the House Oversight Committee and I certainly will 
bring it to the attention of the gentleman from California [Mr. 
Thomas]. Those who may wish to introduce a rule change or legislation 
should do so and we could use that as the basis upon which we should 
deliberate.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. PACKARD. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
North Carolina [Mr. Coble].
  Mr. COBLE. I thank the gentleman from California for yielding me the 
time.
  Mr. Speaker, I had not planned to insert my oars into these waters 
until I heard the gentleman from Montana speaking. I want to get in on 
this.
  Sure, we work on weekends. We work hard. And many of our people are 
underpaid. But, Mr. Speaker, that problem exists from boundary to 
boundary, from border to border, from blue sea to blue sea.
  I know many people in my district, and I am sure you all do, too, 
Republican and Democrat alike, they go to work early in the morning, 
and they go back home late of a night, as my grandma used to say, 12, 
14 hours a day.
  I do not want anyone listening to our dialog today to believe that we 
in the Congress have a corner on the market of hard work, or have a 
corner on the market of working on weekends. We do work hard, and we 
work harder than most people realize. But so do the people we 
represent, Mr. Speaker. That is the point I want to drive home and 
drive it home firmly.
  I am afraid that many of us in this body, guilty by association if 
for no other reason, but this Congress, my friends of the House, has 
conducted business for the past several years in a reckless, imprudent 
manner. We have collected $5 million on the one hand, spent $10 million 
on the other, and then we incredulously wonder why we have problems 
fiscally and otherwise. It must be corrected. To correct it, I will 
admit, Mr. Speaker, will impose some pain. But the fiddler must be paid 
and we have been too lavish and too irresponsible in days gone by. The 
time to pay that fiddler, I fear, has come now, and we are going to 
have to do it and we are going to have to recognize others out there 
share our concern.
  Mr. PACKARD. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from 
California [Mr. Riggs], a member of the committee.
  Mr. RIGGS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, the distinguished 
subcommittee chairman, for yielding me the time. I simply wanted to 
alert him, the distinguished ranking member, and my other colleagues, 
that at the appropriate time I intend to push for full disclosure of 
the names of Members of Congress, past and present, as well as House 
officers, who may have violated House rules or the laws of the United 
States of America as revealed during the course of the ongoing audit of 
congressional finances.
  As the distinguished subcommittee chairman knows as well as the 
ranking member, we are now in a second phase of that audit which 
commenced really at the beginning of this Congress and is being 
conducted by the House inspector general, John Lainhart, in conjunction 
with the Price Waterhouse accounting firm. That second phase is 
designed to report to the House, specifically the House Oversight and 
Ethics Committees, again the names of those abusers and suspected 
wrongdoers.
  But at this juncture, I would like to ask the subcommittee chairman 
and the distinguished ranking member to make certain, as I am sure they 
are, but to make certain that they are aware of some of 
the irregularities and management problems that have been exposed 
during the course of that audit and to receive their assurance that 
they are in fact taking steps to rectify these problems. Specifically 
the Price Waterhouse audit report listed millions of dollars in waste, 
fraud and abuse. I am quoting from a Washington Times article last 
week, October 23, entitled Audit of the House May Lead to Prosecutions.

  The audit found that Members of Congress overspent their allowances 
by $14 million in fiscal 1994 but covered the excess by reprogramming 
money from other accounts. Five unnamed lawmakers were singled out for 
excessive overspending for employee salaries, office expenses and 
franked mail. Further, lawmakers violated payroll deadline rules by 
writing 3,400 supplemental paychecks worth $1.8 million for selected 
House aides. Another 700 retroactive salary increases worth $530,000 
were made after pay periods ended.

                              {time}  1230

  Five million dollars was wasted by the House Information Systems, 
HIS, to develop an upgraded House financial management system which the 
auditors and Inspector General Lainhart now say was unsuitable for the 
House purposes and ineffective, and now which will effectively be 
junked at a cost of $5 million.
  The auditors went on to find $900,000 worth of questionable travel 
reimbursement, where receipts were not provided or other violations of 
expense rules occurred.
  Last, the auditors found 2,200 possibly duplicative travel payments 
to lawmakers and House aides, 43 cases were double reimbursements were 
made but no funds returned, resulting in losses of about $10,000.
  So I call the distinguished subcommittee chairman's attention to 
these abuses, ask him what steps he will be taking.
  Mr. PACKARD. If the gentleman will yield, we are aware of the audit. 
It is an ongoing audit. It has revealed some very interesting and 
important things for us to take action on. I think the Committee on 
House Oversight has much more to do with this than the Subcommittee on 
Appropriations. However, we did appoint, this year our leadership 
appointed, a House administrative officer. Part of his role is to 
oversee this activity and make certain the situation is being 
corrected. Plus over our rules have been improved so this is not 
happening now, even though it has happened in the past.
  Much of the abuse is being corrected through additional rules, and 
even steps we have taken in our bill.
  Mr. RIGGS. Reclaiming my time, I say I appreciate the subcommittee 
chairman's recognition of these grave irregularities, and I hope he and 
the ranking member and others will join with me in my effort to require 
full disclosure.
  Mr. FAZIO of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  Let me assure my colleague, the gentleman from California [Mr. 
Riggs], the gentleman from California [Mr. Thomas] that my office is 
working diligently on a regular basis to provide oversight to the 
auditor general and to Price Waterhouse in the conduct of the second 
phase of the work that they had embarked on. The period of the audit, 
of course, was during the period when we had a nonlegislative services 
director responsible for the administration of the House, part of the 
reforms we had engaged in in the last Congress.
  But I think most importantly I can report that the Washington Times 
article was really a rehash of what had been in the first series of 
articles when we brought the raw data to the attention of our 
colleagues. Subsequently in the further work that Price Waterhouse has 
done under Mr. Lainhart's direction, many of the very real concerns 
that we all shared have been dealt with to the increasing confidence, I 
think it would be fair to say, of the gentleman from California [Mr. 
Thomas] and myself.
  Problems that were more systematic than individual have been 
identified largely, and while it is not possible for me to comment in 
any detail now, I certainly look forward to the completion of the 
second phase so that we can then assure our colleagues, first, of the 
degree to which there were problems; second, of the steps that we are 
going to take to help resolve them, and those are mostly systematic 
changes; and third, that the individuals who remain culpable, who 
remain, we believe, responsible for some of their actions, who perhaps 
will need to be dealt with in the Committee on Standards of Official 
Conduct, will be properly handled.

[[Page H11499]]

  There will be no effort on the part of anyone on either side of the 
aisle to cover up or in any way deny the public the information that is 
appropriate where we determine, where the auditor general determines, 
that there have been miscues or malfeasance. There is going to be, I 
think, however, a great deal of relief on the part of my colleagues and 
both sides of the aisle, once again, because we will determine, I 
think, quite properly that the degree to which this sounded like a 
major scandal in the offering has been vastly overstated.
  I am rather optimistic that there will be few individuals who are 
called before the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. But I do 
think it is an important study of this institution, one that we agreed 
to do, not just at the beginning of this Congress but in the last 
Congress when we created the office of auditor itself, and I am looking 
forward to the improvements that this institution, again in a 
bipartisan manner, can engage in because it is the only way we can 
learn from the problems of the past.
  Mr. RIGGS. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. FAZIO of California. I yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. RIGGS. I would like to just engage the gentleman in a brief 
colloquy, because I find one of the more egregious abuses identified in 
the audit report to be the $5 million, give or take, that was spent 
attempting to create a management information service, of the House 
Information Systems [HIS], and I am particularly disturbed by the 
comment attributed to one of our colleagues, the gentleman from North 
Carolina [Mr. Rose], in the Washington Times article when he is quoted 
as saying, ``Ours was not to reason why. Ours was to get the job 
done.''
  But I want to find out, because I genuinely do not know. Apparently 
the gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. Rose] is quoted as saying the 
House Finance Office was a separate entity, and it directed the 
commuter upgrade as a customer of House Information Systems.
  I would like to know exactly where responsibility for making that 
decision, the House Finance Office does not mean anything to me, where 
does responsibility lie in making the decision to spend $5 million on a 
management information system that was apparently not suited to our 
needs?
  Mr. ROSE. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. FAZIO of California. I yield to the gentleman from North 
Carolina.
  Mr. ROSE. Mr. Speaker, have you ever heard of Gen. Len Wishart? 
General Wishart was appointed as the bipartisan administrator of the 
nonlegislative services of the House. Mr. Michel, you have heard of 
him, Bob Michel, picked him with Foley. The first thing we assigned to 
General Wishart was the Finance Office.
  The audit that you are talking about covers only the period of time 
when General Wishart, the bipartisan administrator of nonlegislative 
services, was in charge of the finance office. You all have somehow 
forgotten that in your rewrite of history.
  General Wishart made the decision that the Finance Office should 
proceed with the development of a new financial management system 
alongside the one that was already in place. You do not go out and buy 
pocket quicken like you guys are talking about doing now to run the 
finances of this place, you understand. He spent $5 million developing 
the system. You boys take over and throw it in the street.
  Now, I have about had it with using a story about an audit report 
during a period when your man was in charge of the running of the 
Finance Office and most of the Clerk's Office.
  Mr. FAZIO of California. Mr. Speaker, at this point I would like to 
conclude my remarks on the purpose we are here for today, and that is 
the enactment of this legislation.
  First of all, let me say that it is a rather unprecedented occurrence 
that we are participating in. In my view, the President's veto was 
inappropriate, not because I do not share concerns with some of my 
colleagues about the final conference report that we adopted on this 
legislation. As the gentleman from California [Mr. Packard] knows, 
while I did support his bill on passage in the House, I was 
disappointed at the elimination of OTA and the reductions in the GAO's 
budget and, therefore, voted against the conference report. But I could 
not, and did not, counsel the President to veto the legislative branch 
bill.
  In my view, comity between the two branches of government is 
exceedingly important, and it ought never to be the propensity of the 
executive branch to in any sense try to affect the legislative branch 
budget, whether it be on introduction, as part of the unified budget, 
or whether it be at the point where we adopt what is in the best 
interests of both parties and both Houses and send the product on to 
the President for his signature. I must add parenthetically that it is 
equally inappropriate to micromanage the budget of the executive office 
of the President.
  Let me simply say I regret the President's action. On the other hand, 
I must say I wish we had not set it up for him quite so dramatically by 
sending him only two of the 13 regular appropriation bills prior to the 
beginning of the fiscal year and followed it up in the last month or so 
with only one more, the ag appropriations bill.
  We will, I believe, end up with 8 or 9 of the legislative budget 
products of the Congress, the appropriations bills, signed into law. I 
hope we will not have a difficult time with a second CR. Hopefully we 
will sometime be able to agree on all 13 of them and have our budget in 
place, and when we send this bill down as part of a package, I hope it 
will be signed, even though I may personally disagree with some of the 
decisions we have made in this conference report.
  I want to congratulate the gentleman from California [Mr. Packard] 
for a very difficult task well done. This bill is never easy for 
anyone, and as I have said several times, I simply wanted to be as good 
a ranking member for the gentleman from California [Mr. Packard] as the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Lewis] and the gentleman from Florida 
[Mr. Young] were for me during the years I chaired this committee.
  But there are problems that need to be addressed, and I hope we will 
continue to address them both in the Committee on House Oversight and 
in the appropriations bill for the next fiscal year, as relates to a 
number of activities that we are engaged in here in the House of 
Representatives.
  Mr. Speaker, at this point I will place the remainder of my remarks 
in the Record.
  Mr. Speaker, the legislative situation for this bill--the legislative 
branch appropriations bill for fiscal year 1996--has changed 
considerably since we passed the conference report on September 6.
  A veto by the President was an unprecedented occurrence during my 
tenure in Congress.
  So we are blazing new trails here in considering this bill for a 
second time.
  President Clinton said he'd veto the bill for congressional 
operations if we sent it to him as one of the first appropriations 
bills. We did--and he did.
  It is not advice I gave him. As the Members of the House know, 
vetoing the legislative branch bill was a historic first. It was never 
done during my 14-year tenure as chairman of this appropriations 
subcommittee.
  I'm troubled that the time-honored tradition that Congress governs 
its own affairs without interference from the Executive has been 
breached.
  I believe there is also a solid separation of powers argument against 
the President's veto as well.
  But Congress also has a responsibility to make progress on 
appropriations bills.
  The President is likely to sign most of the 13 regular appropriations 
bills.
  But the President received only two of our regular 13 appropriations 
bills prior to the beginning of the fiscal year on October 1.

  The Agriculture appropriations bill is the only appropriations bill 
we have sent to the President since September 26--over 4 weeks.
  By not getting our work on the appropriations bills done, we've left 
ourselves vulnerable to the President's argument that we shouldn't be 
taking care of ourselves first.
  So I'm pleased to see the ambitious House schedule for consideration 
of appropriations bills this week, and I hope we can show the President 
that we will do the people's business as well as our own.
  I understand that H.R. 2492--with the exception of several technical 
corrections--is identical to the provisions of the House- and Senate-
passed conference report for H.R. 1854, the bill vetoed by the 
President.
  I signed the conference report on H.R. 1854 as a courtesy to Chairman 
Packard. Ron Packard has done a good job under difficult circumstances 
during his maiden voyage as chairman.

[[Page H11500]]

  But I opposed the conference report on the House floor for two major 
reasons: the elimination of the Office of Technology Assessment--which 
the House had voted to continue--and the cuts to the General Accounting 
Office of greater than 15 percent, far greater than the reductions in 
the House-passed bill.
  I intend to oppose H.R. 2492 today because these provisions remain 
the same. I am also disappointed because--once more--we have missed a 
golden opportunity to enact lobby and gift reform.
  In other ways, the conference report was an improvement upon the 
original House-passed bill: $1.1 million was added for the 
Congressional Budget Office over the House committee recommendation--
more important, we added 13 positions at CBO to cope with their new 
duties relative to analyzing unfunded mandates.
  We restored cuts made to personnel at the Government Printing 
Office--we brought FTE's to 3,800, an additional 250 over the House 
level.
  We restored funds for the depository library program. It's a good 
idea to move into the electronic age but the House bill attempted to 
force everyone to do it overnight.
  We restored the Joint Committee on Printing. The Joint Committee has 
been an efficient method of overseeing printing operations; a divided 
operation between the House Oversight and Senate Rules Committees would 
have been a major change with unknown results.
  We restored the Folklife Center at the Library and restored funding 
at the Library of Congress which had been temporarily earmarked for 
OTA. Neither was a real target for cuts, and the conference 
demonstrated that by restoring funds to both.
  We kept the Flag Office alive; however, the cost of flags will rise 
to cover the costs of operating the Flag Office.
  So there were some improvements to the House version of the bill. 
However, the shutdown of the Office of Technology Assessment [OTA] was 
particularly thoughtless. That action has been criticized around the 
country and in the international community.
  But I'm reluctant to open the OTA issue at this late date.
  OTA is resigned to their fate. Under the circumstances, the 
conference committee made generous provisions for OTA's closeout, and 
as a result, their closeout has been a model of professionalism.
  OTA's many specialists have been finalizing reports at breakneck 
speed and a skeleton staff will be available until early next year to 
complete reports and provide for orderly closedown and orderly 
disposition of equipment and records.
  OTA's professional closeout is just one more example of the caliber 
of the agency we are abolishing and the big mistake we are making.
  In short, this bill is an improvement upon the original House-passed 
bill, but I will oppose it for the reasons I've outlined.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. PACKARD. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. 
I will just make a conclusion remark.
  I want to take this time to thank the gentleman from California [Mr. 
Fazio] for the gentle way in which he operates here. I truly enjoy 
working with him. All of the members of the subcommittee I have 
appreciated working with. They have all been very helpful in crafting 
this bill.
  It is a good bill. Three hundred and five Members voted for it last 
time. I fully expect that more will vote for it this time. It is a good 
bill. It needs to go to the President and be signed.
  If the entire Federal budget followed the model of our bill, we would 
balance the budget in 1 year and still have a small surplus left over. 
That is the model we have given to the Members of this body, and we 
hope that they will accept it as a good model, one that they can 
support and vote for, and I want to again thank the gentleman from 
California [Mr. Fazio] for the privilege of working with him on this 
issue in this bill.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Barrett of Nebraska). Pursuant to House 
Resolution 239, the previous question is ordered.
  The question is on the engrossment and third reading of the bill.
  The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time, and was 
read the third time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the passage of the bill.
  Pursuant to clause 7, rule XV, the yeas and nays are ordered.
  The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 315, 
nays 106, not voting 11, as follows:

                             [Roll No. 747]

                               YEAS--315

     Ackerman
     Allard
     Archer
     Armey
     Bachus
     Baesler
     Baker (CA)
     Baker (LA)
     Baldacci
     Ballenger
     Barcia
     Barr
     Barrett (NE)
     Barrett (WI)
     Bartlett
     Barton
     Bass
     Bateman
     Bentsen
     Bereuter
     Bilbray
     Bilirakis
     Bishop
     Bliley
     Blute
     Boehlert
     Bonilla
     Bono
     Borski
     Boucher
     Brewster
     Brown (FL)
     Brown (OH)
     Brownback
     Bryant (TN)
     Bunn
     Bunning
     Burr
     Burton
     Buyer
     Callahan
     Calvert
     Camp
     Canady
     Cardin
     Castle
     Chabot
     Chambliss
     Chapman
     Chenoweth
     Christensen
     Chrysler
     Clayton
     Clement
     Clinger
     Coble
     Coburn
     Collins (GA)
     Combest
     Cooley
     Costello
     Cox
     Cramer
     Crane
     Crapo
     Cremeans
     Cubin
     Cunningham
     Danner
     Davis
     Deal
     DeFazio
     DeLay
     Deutsch
     Diaz-Balart
     Dickey
     Dixon
     Dooley
     Doolittle
     Dornan
     Doyle
     Dreier
     Duncan
     Dunn
     Edwards
     Ehlers
     Ehrlich
     Emerson
     English
     Ensign
     Everett
     Ewing
     Fawell
     Fields (TX)
     Flanagan
     Foley
     Forbes
     Fowler
     Fox
     Franks (CT)
     Franks (NJ)
     Frelinghuysen
     Frisa
     Frost
     Funderburk
     Furse
     Gallegly
     Ganske
     Gekas
     Geren
     Gilchrest
     Gillmor
     Gilman
     Gonzalez
     Goodlatte
     Goodling
     Gordon
     Goss
     Graham
     Greenwood
     Gunderson
     Gutknecht
     Hall (OH)
     Hall (TX)
     Hamilton
     Hancock
     Hansen
     Hastert
     Hastings (WA)
     Hayes
     Hayworth
     Hefley
     Heineman
     Herger
     Hilleary
     Hobson
     Hoekstra
     Hoke
     Holden
     Horn
     Hostettler
     Houghton
     Hunter
     Hutchinson
     Hyde
     Inglis
     Istook
     Jackson-Lee
     Jefferson
     Johnson (CT)
     Johnson, E. B.
     Johnson, Sam
     Jones
     Kanjorski
     Kasich
     Kelly
     Kennedy (RI)
     Kildee
     Kim
     King
     Kingston
     Kleczka
     Klug
     Knollenberg
     Kolbe
     LaHood
     Lantos
     Largent
     Latham
     LaTourette
     Laughlin
     Lazio
     Leach
     Lewis (CA)
     Lewis (KY)
     Lightfoot
     Lincoln
     Linder
     Lipinski
     Livingston
     LoBiondo
     Lofgren
     Longley
     Lucas
     Luther
     Maloney
     Manton
     Manzullo
     Martini
     Mascara
     McCarthy
     McCollum
     McCrery
     McDade
     McDermott
     McHale
     McHugh
     McInnis
     McIntosh
     McKeon
     McNulty
     Meehan
     Metcalf
     Meyers
     Mica
     Miller (CA)
     Miller (FL)
     Molinari
     Mollohan
     Montgomery
     Moorhead
     Morella
     Murtha
     Myers
     Myrick
     Nethercutt
     Neumann
     Ney
     Norwood
     Nussle
     Obey
     Ortiz
     Orton
     Oxley
     Packard
     Parker
     Paxon
     Payne (VA)
     Peterson (FL)
     Petri
     Pickett
     Pombo
     Pomeroy
     Porter
     Portman
     Poshard
     Pryce
     Quillen
     Quinn
     Radanovich
     Ramstad
     Reed
     Regula
     Richardson
     Riggs
     Rivers
     Roberts
     Roemer
     Rogers
     Rohrabacher
     Ros-Lehtinen
     Roth
     Roukema
     Royce
     Sabo
     Salmon
     Sawyer
     Saxton
     Scarborough
     Schaefer
     Schiff
     Schumer
     Scott
     Seastrand
     Sensenbrenner
     Shadegg
     Shaw
     Shays
     Shuster
     Skeen
     Skelton
     Smith (MI)
     Smith (NJ)
     Smith (TX)
     Smith (WA)
     Solomon
     Souder
     Spence
     Spratt
     Stark
     Stearns
     Stockman
     Stump
     Stupak
     Talent
     Tanner
     Tate
     Taylor (MS)
     Taylor (NC)
     Tejeda
     Thomas
     Thornberry
     Torkildsen
     Traficant
     Upton
     Visclosky
     Vucanovich
     Walker
     Walsh
     Wamp
     Watts (OK)
     Weldon (FL)
     Weller
     Whitfield
     Wicker
     Williams
     Wilson
     Wise
     Wolf
     Woolsey
     Wynn
     Young (AK)
     Young (FL)
     Zeliff
     Zimmer

                               NAYS--106

     Abercrombie
     Andrews
     Becerra
     Beilenson
     Berman
     Bevill
     Bonior
     Browder
     Brown (CA)
     Bryant (TX)
     Clay
     Clyburn
     Coleman
     Collins (IL)
     Collins (MI)
     Condit
     Conyers
     Coyne
     de la Garza
     DeLauro
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[[Page H11501]]


                             NOT VOTING--11

     Boehner
     Fields (LA)
     Mfume
     Moakley
     Sisisky
     Tauzin
     Tiahrt
     Tucker
     Waldholtz
     Weldon (PA)
     White

                              {time}  1303

  Ms. KAPTUR, Mrs. MINK of Hawaii, Mr. BEILENSON, and Mr. CONYERS 
changed their vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
  So the bill was passed.
  The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________