[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 16 (Wednesday, February 3, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H480-H482]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL APPOINTMENT ACT OF 2010

  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and 
pass the bill (H.R. 2843) to provide for the joint appointment of the 
Architect of the Capitol by the Speaker of the House of 
Representatives, the President pro tempore of the Senate, the majority 
and minority leaders of the House of Representatives and Senate, and 
the chairs and ranking minority members of the committees of Congress 
with jurisdiction over the Office of the Architect of the Capitol, and 
for other purposes, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 2843

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Architect of the Capitol 
     Appointment Act of 2010''.

     SEC. 2. APPOINTMENT AND TERM OF SERVICE OF ARCHITECT OF THE 
                   CAPITOL.

       (a) Appointment.--The Architect of the Capitol shall be 
     appointed jointly by the Speaker of the House of 
     Representatives, the President pro tempore of the Senate, the 
     majority and minority leaders of the House of Representatives 
     and Senate, the chair and ranking minority member of the 
     Committee on House Administration of the House of 
     Representatives, the chair and ranking minority member of the 
     Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House 
     of Representatives, the chair and ranking minority member of 
     the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate, the 
     chairs and ranking minority members of the Committees on 
     Appropriations of the House of Representatives and Senate, a 
     member of the Senate to be designated by the majority leader 
     of the Senate, and a member of the Senate to be designated by 
     the minority leader of the Senate.
       (b) Term of Service.--The Architect of the Capitol shall be 
     appointed for a term of 10 years, and may be reappointed for 
     additional terms.
       (c) Conforming Amendment.--Section 319 of the Legislative 
     Branch Appropriations Act, 1990 (2 U.S.C. 1801) is repealed.
       (d) Effective Date.--This section shall apply with respect 
     to appointments made on or after the date of the enactment of 
     this Act.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from 
Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz) and the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Daniel E. Lungren) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Florida.


                             General Leave

  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks in 
the Record on H.R. 2843.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Florida?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of H.R. 2843, the Architect of 
the Capitol Appointment Act. I thank the original cosponsors of this 
bipartisan legislation, including Ranking Member Representative Robert 
Aderholt of the Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee; Ranking 
Member Zach Wamp, who I want to thank especially for initially 
cosponsoring this legislation with me when he was the ranking member of 
the Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee; Representative Tom 
Latham, who is also a former ranking member of the Legislative Branch 
Appropriations Subcommittee--Mr. Speaker, maybe it's me, since I keep 
losing ranking members on the other side of the aisle. And it has been 
a pleasure to work with all of these gentlemen--Representative Robert 
Brady, chairman of the Committee on House Administration, and his 
ranking member, Representative Dan Lungren, and of course former House 
Administration Ranking Member Vernon Ehlers.
  This legislation effectively removes the appointment role of the 
Architect of the Capitol from the executive branch, placing it in the 
rightful hands of the legislative branch where it belongs.
  Specifically, this bill provides for the joint appointment of the 
Architect of the Capitol by House and Senate leadership, both majority 
and minority, and the chairs and ranking members of each of the House 
and Senate committees of jurisdiction--including the Committees on 
Appropriations, House Administration, Senate Rules, and Transportation 
and Infrastructure.
  This is a long overdue change. The Architect of the Capitol serves a 
legislative branch function and as such, he or she should be chosen by 
the legislative branch. By making this change, we can simplify a 
process that has caused unnecessary delays in choosing a permanent 
Architect.

[[Page H481]]

  Because of the delays in this process, we have had an Acting 
Architect in place since February of 2007. It is now February of 2010. 
And Mr. Hantman, the immediate past Architect, was appointed following 
a 2-year vacancy.
  The Capitol campus is currently facing over $1 billion in deferred 
maintenance. We've been working diligently over the last several years 
to address that backlog, and the Architect has been very helpful in 
coordinating and addressing that backlog, but we need to make sure that 
we establish some permanence and some consistency. It's critically 
important that a permanent Architect is selected so that he or she can 
face these issues with an eye to the future.
  It's our hope that this bipartisan legislation becomes law so that 
Congress can play a direct role in selecting the right candidates for a 
legislative branch position of significant importance like this one.
  I ask for all Members' support in passing this vital legislation.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such 
time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a very simple bill. It returns the authority of 
managing our place to the Members of Congress. We are the legislative 
branch. The Capitol is our House. It is not the purview or within the 
province of the President of the United States. It seems strange, to 
say the least, that we have a process by which we do not direct who it 
is we establish as the person who is really the official caretaker of 
the Capitol.
  The Architect suggests that you sit in a room designing architectural 
designs for the purpose of new additions and new buildings, and the 
Architect would be responsible for that under his direction. But he 
really takes care of this place. He is the top appointed official to 
make sure that the House of Representatives, the United States Senate 
and the entire Capitol complex runs.
  And somehow, we have set up a situation in which there is input by 
the House, input by the Senate, and the tiebreaker is the President of 
the United States essentially, and that really doesn't make sense. We 
don't choose who the chief usher of the White House is--and when I say 
``chief usher,'' people don't realize that's the person who runs the 
White House complex.
  And so it just makes very, very good sense. And I congratulate the 
gentlelady for bringing this to our attention, the gentleman, Mr. Wamp, 
and the other cosponsors.
  So I rise in support of this bill, which will, as we say, establish a 
bicameral process by which we appoint the Architect of the Capitol. The 
Architect has carried the responsibility of preserving and enhancing 
the Capitol complex since construction on the U.S. Capitol began in 
1793. Following the construction of the Capitol Visitor Center, 
management and administration of that center was placed under the 
purview of the Architect--further cementing the Architect's role in 
support of the legislature and its operations.
  So accordingly, it is, as I say, the appropriate process by which the 
Architect is appointed by a bipartisan, bicameral process free of 
decisionmaking responsibility by the executive branch. The appointment 
process will be better aligned with the mission of the Office by 
emphasizing the relationship between the Architect and the ongoing 
legislative operations of the Federal Government.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Wamp).
  Mr. WAMP. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to thank the distinguished ranking 
member for his time and all of the benefits that he brings to the House 
of Representatives.
  This reminds me of when I got here in 1995 and in the morning, you 
would hear the strange noise as they would slide ice buckets down the 
floor up to the door of your office. And many of us thought, What are 
we doing paying people to deliver ice to our offices in 1995? And of 
course we ended that practice because it was an antiquated practice.
  And if you study the history of this, this is an antiquated issue 
that has really never been resolved. The history of the Capital City 
and the need for the President to be involved in the appointment of the 
Architect of the Capitol that had responsibilities as we laid the city 
out is an issue of long ago but not today.
  So I want to thank the original author, Ms. Wasserman Schultz of 
Florida--who I don't agree with much these days--but I certainly agree 
with her a lot on this issue. And I thank her for her service because 
she and I came side-by-side to get the Capitol Visitor Center finally 
finished on time and with the revised budget. And it took extraordinary 
cooperation and work, and we did that. And frankly, it was because the 
legislative branch engaged in a very meaningful way to finally get our 
arms around all of those change orders and all of the delays and 
inefficiencies, and it just underscored the need for the legislative 
branch to drive the process. And it was by far the largest challenge 
that the Architect of the Capitol had seen in centuries, literally, to 
do the Capitol Visitor Center. And it reminded us of how important it 
is that we have in the House and Senate a cohesive and unified effort 
to oversee the Architect and the Architect's work.
  In no way is this about an Architect. As a matter of fact, Stephen 
Ayers, the acting Architect, I think has done an outstanding job, and I 
hope will be made permanent under this new legislation which gives the 
legislative branch the total authority.
  The gentlelady worked with me to make sure that the committees of 
jurisdiction--including this very committee that brings this bill to 
the floor today--is involved in the decisionmaking process so that it's 
not just the leaders either. These committees have their hands in these 
issues. There are bigger issues today in our country than this, but it 
doesn't mean we shouldn't keep the trains running on time. That is what 
this is, making sure that we're doing our job.
  This is my 16th and final year here. I thank the gentleman from 
California. I have called him the conscience of the Republican minority 
today, and when he was in the majority I called him that because he was 
here early, he left to go back to California, he came back here. He has 
really provided extraordinary depth of knowledge and at times has been 
the conscience of the Republicans in the Congress. Extraordinary man.
  Ms. Wasserman Schultz is a tiger. This is one of those issues that 
few people would grab the tiger by the tail, but she's that kind of 
person.
  So we're doing this because it needs to be done. We're doing it for 
the legislative branch. We're doing it for efficiency and 
accountability and responsibility, and I urge passage.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. 
Lungren and Mr. Wamp. I couldn't have said it better myself.
  It is incredibly important that we be good stewards of the Capitol 
complex and the facilities that we have the privilege to work in. It 
still amazes me every day when I walk up to the Capitol or past the 
Capitol when it's at night when it's all lit up or in the daytime. It's 
a structure that everyone who sees it marvels at it.
  And it's our responsibility as the leaders of the, essentially, 
administrative committees that have responsibility for taking care of 
and funding the needs of the legislative branch to make sure that we 
are the ones that ultimately are held accountable and have the 
opportunity to coordinate the appointments of the Architect of the 
Capitol. It no longer makes sense--I am not sure that it ever made 
sense--to have the President of the United States be involved in what 
is essentially a legislative branch function, and it will make for a 
more efficient process and will enable us to preserve these facilities 
into the future for future generations.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such 
time as I may consume.
  I hope we have a unanimous vote in favor of H.R. 2843, and then I 
hope our colleagues on the other side of the aisle will see the wisdom 
of this and join us in reasserting the proper role of the legislative 
branch. And hopefully we can convince the President to give up this 
responsibility that I am sure does not weigh heavily on him at the 
present time.
  This makes good sense. It ought to be accepted on a unanimous vote.

[[Page H482]]

  Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 2843, as 
amended, a bill to provide for the joint appointment of the Architect 
of the Capitol by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the 
President pro tempore of the Senate, the majority and minority leaders 
of the House of Representatives and Senate, and the chairs and ranking 
minority members of the committees of Congress with jurisdiction over 
the Office of the Architect of the Capitol, and for other purposes.
  I extend my thanks to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman 
Schultz), Chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on 
Legislative Branch, and the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Aderholt), 
Ranking Member of the Subcommittee, as well as the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Brady), Chairman, and the gentleman from California 
(Mr. Lungren), Ranking Member of the Committee on House Administration, 
for their cooperation and willingness to work with the Committee on 
Transportation and Infrastructure on this bill.
  The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure has a long and 
productive association with the Office of the Architect of the Capitol. 
Under House rule X, section (r), the Committee on Transportation and 
Infrastructure has jurisdiction over the Capitol Building and the House 
and Senate Office Buildings, in addition to public buildings and 
occupied or improved grounds of the United States generally. Over the 
years, the Committee has worked with the Architect's office on 
developing the Capitol Hill master plan, Capitol Hill Building fire and 
life safety programs, parking studies, and most recently on 
requirements in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (P.L. 
110-140) to ensure the energy efficiency of not only the House and 
Senate office buildings, but also to upgrade the Capitol Power Plant.
  This bill provides congressional leaders with authority to appoint 
the Architect of the Capitol, and the appointments process includes 
House as well as Senate leadership, both majority and minority.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 2843.
  Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2843, is a bipartisan 
initiative that would move the Architect of the Capitol selection 
process entirely to the legislative branch. This legislation has been 
amended from the version reported by the Committee on House 
Administration to include two additional House and two additional 
Senate Members. As amended, this legislation provides the following 
with authority to select the AOC: The Speaker of the House, the 
President Pro Tempore of the Senate, the majority and minority leaders 
of the House of Representatives and Senate, the chair and ranking 
minority member of the Committee on House Administration of the House 
of Representatives, the chair and ranking minority member of the 
Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate, the chair and 
ranking minority member of the Committee on Transportation and 
Infrastructure of the House of Representatives, the chairs and ranking 
minority members of the Committees on Appropriations of the House of 
Representatives and Senate, a Member of the Senate to be designated by 
the majority leader of the Senate, and a Member of the Senate to be 
designated by the minority leader of the Senate.
  Under the current system, the office of the Architect has been vacant 
for nearly 3 years. The long delay in filling the position has been 
exacerbated by the complexities and uncertainties of the current law, 
and the involvement of the executive branch.
  The Committee on House Administration believes that enactment of H.R. 
2843 will streamline the selection process.
  I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.
  Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. And urging support of that, I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. I yield back the balance of my time.

                              {time}  1100

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz) that the House suspend 
the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 2843, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
  The title of the bill was amended so as to read: ``To provide for the 
joint appointment of the Architect of the Capitol by the Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, the President pro tempore of the Senate, the 
majority and minority leaders of the House of Representatives and 
Senate, the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on House 
Administration of the House of Representatives, the chair and ranking 
minority member of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure 
of the House of Representatives, the chair and ranking minority member 
of the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate, the chairs 
and ranking minority members of the Committees on Appropriations of the 
House of Representatives and Senate, and two other designated members 
of the Senate, and for other purposes.''.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________