good morning to call the meeting to order of the legislative branch subcommittee on the house committee on appropriations this morning we are here for our public annual public witness hearing it's an opportunity for the staff or employees of our legislative branch agencies and organizations that are served by them to provide us with input on a variety of issues related to the appropriations process and others clearly related to the internal workings of the of the agency like to welcome our first witness who is already at the table mr john parade who's the executive director of strategic initiatives at the national federation of the blind mr perot your full statement will be in the record please proceed with your five minute summary and i would ask each person who testifies that we are going to strictly limit you to five minutes because we have many people who wish to testify today mr right absolutely thank you madam here my name is john perry and i am the executive director for strategic initiatives at the national federation of the blind on behalf of blind americans the national federation of the blind urges you to fully fund the transition from obsolete cassette technology to digital talking books over a four year period if the conversion digital books is extended from four years to six years the library of congress has said that hundreds of thousands of americans will not have access to new books for up to three years twenty seven percent fewer books will be available during the transition period and one point seven million books will be permanently lost imagine blind high school students not having access to new books for the entire time they are in high school i imagine blind parents not having access to new books about infants until their child is no longer an infant imagine older americans not having access to new medical information until it is too late to use the information this is what the current six year transition will do to the blind of our nation this is no small matter it affects the lives the futures and the  of an entire class of human beings one of the most common experiences encountered by any blind person is being told to wait the lives of blind people are important yes but not as important as something else wait we will get to you we'll get you as soon as the current emergency has come to an end we'll get to you as soon as the other priorities have been met we'll get to you a soon as the other important things have been managed wait is it any wonder that sometimes blind people feel as if something needs to be done now it is any wonder that blind people have trouble understanding while everything else seems to be so important but our lives can be conveniently moved to the back burner is it any wonder that when the national library service determines that a modest sum needed to give us literacy that we feel betrayed by public officials who tell us that one more time we must wait literacy has meant the blind people have capacity but it has an even greater significance the literacy of blind people is a mechanism for the blind to gain inspiration and hope we read about whether what others have done and we imagine that we could do likewise a book in the hand today frequently means an act of courage in the future this is what literacy has meant to us more reading more recreation more participation in community activities more education more employment more contemplation of a brighter tomorrow more building and more joy on march nineteenth two thousand and eight eighty seven of your colleagues wrote to urge you to fund the transition over a four year period madam chair time is running out the library has already distributed the last new cassette player needed to play the special four track sets equality is not something that can be distanced dispensed with in times of to school there eddie equal opportunity and equal access to information is fundamental to our democracy and our american way of life madam chair the blind of this nation urge you to fund the transition from obsolete to sec technology the digital talking books over a four year period thank you thank you very much with their i do think it's important to note that the blind community is we're not left out of the out in the cold by any stretch of the imagination and in our bill there are sixty seven million dollars in blind services funding in the legislative branch appropriations bill in addition to that the library itself has only requested twelve and a half million dollars keeping with their feeling that the implementation of this program over six years would not cause the blind community to suffer a significant reduction  services and i have a tremendous amount of respect for your leadership and leadership of the organization but this organization and every agency and every organization that that is served by the by this legislative branch bill needs to recognize that we are in the tightest of budgets circumstances we are very likely going to have to carry eight hundred twenty six million dollars appropriation for the tunnels that we have to abate as best those from this is not a matter of telling you to wait you are not going to be required to wait you will continue to receive those services and get expanded services we just may have to implement them over a longer period of time so i appreciate your your comments and i am certainly supportive and we are going to do everything we can to implement this program over the shortest period of time and so i thank you and thank you for your testimony if in fact this is there any place else that has those available or no there's just there is a fraction of books available for purchase from books stores if you go into a barnes and noble they'll be a few books shelves with books  cassette and maybe thousands of print book shelves but one of the biggest things is there are seventeen thousand public libraries in the united states i believe it's fundamental that every american has the right and the ability to go get print books at one of these seventeen thousand libraries the blind of this nation only have one library provided by the library of congress for us to get this be equivalent of the library of congress only makes one percent of all print books available to begin with and we have a chart that's been made public and it indicates that there's going to be years where blind people if weeks tend to six years blind people won't have access to new books for a matter of years and i urge the committee to consider what impact that would be if if you had no access to books for years that that that's something that is not right for blind americans you know if i could add how many people would this affect their eight hundred thousand patrons in the united states and approximately half will be affected by the delay and not having access to new books about four hundred thousand thank you you're welcome at this time ask unanimous consent to enter into the record the following letter that i received last june twenty first two thousand and seven from to dr billington the librarian of congress dear madam chair we appreciate the support the committees have shown regarding the digital talking about program our great hope is that we can receive fifteen million dollars over five years however at the house funding level of twelve and a half million  program as quickly as possible but the librarian himself has put forward a reasonable proposal that will allow us to implement this and not do it to the exclusion of everything else that we have to do and that's del and i can assure you that i and the rest of the members of the committee are committed to trying to make sure that we can implement this program in the in the shortest possible time  doesn't apologize for being late madam chair you know we spoke about this in another hearing and so what i'm going to do is take you at your word on this and i know that during the markup that we had last year this became a disputed item and i think i believe that you are committed to this and i think that the people that are gathered in this room today who feel very passionate about this issue should know that i think the the chairperson of this committee is committed she's told me that on a number of occasions both publicly and privately and i believe that's president of the congressional research employees if that's the action if they're off their full statement will be in the record and you can proceed when you are able to have a seat with your five minute statement good morning madam chair representative liaison and members of the subcommittee my name is dennis ross the congressional research employees association the union representing over five hundred employees of the congressional service let me begin by stating that progress has been maybe tween korea and library management including that of c r s to develop a more cooperative relationship as a result we have resolved more of our problems internally and have not had to result  litigation we thank you for your efforts to improve labor imagine relations with the library however issues do remain in his written testimony the cirrus director stated he was committed to doing his best to attract and retain experts staff including those hired as part of the c r s succession initiatives we find his retention commitment lacking seriousness provide more flexible work arrangements is becoming more difficult for staff who want to start a family or care for elderly parents to be granted part time status and effort a couple months ago to job share a analyst position to accommodate a mother to be was cancelled by the director because c r s to not have a job share policy we are still waiting for decisions even though we negotiated a policy and procedures for working offsite episodically the director later added conditions that made it virtually impossible for staff to take advantage of it this even includes staff suffering from permanent or temporary medical conditions many staff work outside their normal working hours without any opportunity to receive comp time or comparable time off with credit hours the c s bargaining unit staff are the only staff in the entire library of congress denied the opportunity to earn credit hours the director also stated the serious analytical divisions are going through a major restructuring of their first line supervisors under the current arrangement the supervisor still respond directly to congressional requests to maintain their position as subject matter experts albeit at a reduce level the new senior research managers were not had any direct research or analysis responsibilities we believe that this will result in a loss of service to congress also the director knows that his new group of managers will serve as a pool of potential candidates to fill vacancies in a senior leadership team korea hopes that the selection of this group is adequately diverse the library's new strategic plan has workforce as one of its five strategic goals and one that will quote receive focus attention and a commitment to action unquote in its fiscal year two thousand and nine budget justification however there was hardly a mention of workforce they work for strategic goal let alone workforce development the only training  it is for a supervisory development program to train two hundred eighty seven supervisors with serious now committed to having staffing gauge and individual development plans is necessary to to identify the specific amount of funds that will devote to support these plans requests that us hear us to report what activities are planned and to support workforce development and the funding required to do so including should be funds for the jointly negotiated career opportunity plan that includes career counseling tuitions support job details and opportunities for upward mobility this program has been quite successful but has received very inconsistent funding the program can pay for itself by taking proven good sirus employees and developing them recruitment costs would be minimal and the staff already are familiar with c r with the c r s mission there are two other issues the first is the restructuring of the library's officer workforce diversity or o w d the subcommittee is aware there are diggers staff were informed in early march that they would receiving a reduction in force notices that the library would seek early out and buy out of the already and that only one to three of the incumbents for sure to be retained all their staff would be terminated no later than the beginning of july any denial of this by the library is dishonest fortunately your intervention has affected the process but there has been no further communication since then to staff or to the unions the office workers diversity need to perform more effectively and efficiently but poor management is the issue and not poor staff performance furthermore the inspector general's report upon which the decision to restructure is based has too many weaknesses to have any standing as a restructuring document last week the office of workforce diversity announced that it would no longer retain its full time staff interpreter immediately to dest af korea members met with me to express a deep concern over this loss and effect on them as well as the other sixteen deaf or hard of hearing staff at the at the subcommittee request any study or analysis done by the library as its basis for its decision to give these duties to the current access program manager and any overflow to contractors who it which is more cost effective we are confident that any such study would demonstrate the this meant diminishment of the benefits previously held to the staff the last time the staff met with management was april first madam chair you raise concerns over this issue in the march hearings in the library still need your attention to this matter thank you thank you very much mr roth i do want to ask you that there was one question i want to ask you about was the the part time in california arrangement that you're having the numbers are having difficulty with  long has that been going on for and is there a comfort then you alluded to a cumbersome approval process that takes that that takes too long you know if it were me as someone who prides myself on providing my op yes with generous terms as far as balancing work and family especially given my own personal struggle to balance work and family every day and i think it's imperative that we set an example in government for encouraging family and families to be and employees to be able goes on part time it's subject to management so prove they're also telling them that at the end of this part time period there's no guarantee that they'll be able to come back full time so there's the fear that if i take part time i may end up being part time for the rest of my life  and so you know there's a disturbing with life things how are you going to handle these types of issues there's no part of this is because there's been a lack of monitoring part time in the past sometimes people years ago when i'm part time because of family needs but the library  ok you know your kids in high school now your kids is this it's time to come back they let him go through almost a whole career as part time so there's a fear i say because what about the telework to other work we do actually have an article in our contract we had a good provisions and then like two months after we the contracts are implemented the director added two conditions saying that the only way you could be on telly work was be if you're out you have to be home and you doing a rush request for congress and you were in a dire situation at home your basement would be flooding and you know you have to be there i don't have any doubt it would seem to me if there's any type of job that would really be perfect for tele work i mean why does it matter whether you're doing research in your office or research at home i mean the internet gives the same ability you can bring materials i mean if there's any work that is perfectly suited it's being a c r s employee especially an analyst the director who leads that congress wants to sit at your beck and call and we you know we have to be yet thank you very much fuse me one ok we're going to go they just called three votes so we are scheduled here until once and we'd like to make sure that we get get through everybody is as quickly as possible and give you the op next on an opportunity we're going to  and if you can proceed with your five minute summary thank you ok fine thank you thank you for providing the the goal this opportunity to to to to testify due to the limited time this oral statement will only address problems implementing the new electronic system of processing copyright rigid registrations in the in the copyright office several years ago the the copyright office decided to to to modernize its its paper processing system of copyright ridge submissions over the internet this vision is testing of applications for copyright registration received over the internet on august fifth two thousand and seven the copyright office began converting paper applications into electronic records in a process referred to as in ingestion the guild regrets to report that this implementation is is not going well since the beginning of the of the curve of the current of the current fiscal year a back log in impending impending claims converted into electronic records has grown to up to over three hundred thousand  the staff was only able to to to register during this period slightly over over sixty thousand copyright claims in essence the copyright office is placing seventy five percent of our receipts into an ever growing backlog  these these these stats compare unfavorably with the offices with the offices of accomplishment in the last in the last fiscal year when the office registered over five hundred and twenty six thousand copyright claims are under the old system while claims that receive online are easier to to process than in in just two planes they appear more labor in intensive than processing in in paper the at the relative costs appear to be about about seventy about seventy dollars for processing paper about one hundred and and forty dollars for claims submitted online and about three hundred dollars for i ingested claims it is unfortunately unfortunately unfortunately clear that the that the current electronic system cannot be fixed cannot be fixed quickly  order to process all all eleven thousand copyright claims received received weekly on a timely basis the guild the guild record and you can receive the five minutes thank you madam chairman and members of the committee it's a pleasure to be here by way of introduction i am bill orton i was a former member of the house of representatives from one hundred ninety seven and i am a member of the standing american bar association standing committee on the law library of congress i'm appearing today at the request of president barack and bar association william h newcomb i know from my experience in this body that you can read and have studied my written statement and so i won't go over all of that i will simply touch a couple of the highlights and then respond to questions if you have any  written testimony represents the position of the american bar association my comments afterwards would represent my own views i won't take time talking about the many wonderful things that i could spend hours on about the law library of congo yes but in one nine hundred thirty to recognize the vital importance of the law library and formed a committee on which i served to be the voice of the legal profession concerning the law libraries ongoing development and effective up operation pursuant to our stewardship we strongly support full and robust funding of both the entire library and the library of congress with this in mind that i c appreciation for your support of the library but also sorrow and criticism for the serious wounds inflicted by many budgetary cuts in the past decade and a half the law library has been recognized by the american business  as the mother lode of reliable information on foreign and comparative law with this expanded with the expansion of american enterprise abroad this area of laws critical but with a high percentage of foreign law specialists in the law library near or beyond retirement age the law library does not have the budget to implement a succession plan to replace and train them in addition to our support for full and robust funding for the library we are also advocating for greater transparency in the appropriation process for the library thereby promoting greater accountability of the congress commitment each of the libraries successes we also believe that one means by accomplishing such transparency could also provide a necessary mechanism for attracting private source funding from those whom the library serves all return to that in a moment we're sensitive to the realities of the appropriation process recognizing that some see it as a zero sum gain where you must take from the right hand to give to the left i urge you to refrain from the analysis that would take funds from the larger library to give to the library but we do or to restore what was taken away over time and equip it to fully serve the functions for which it was created one hundred seventy five years ago there are obvious problems that continue at the law library for instance catalyze cataloguing the law collection into the k classification despite the commitment to catalogue the classification a third of the entire collection remains under the old classification and unavailable because only a few staffers remember the old system and could find the volumes under that old classification several years after the law library created the classification while all other libraries have finished the law library is the only library that has not completed the classification there's real concern the law library could become a museum periodicals and loose leaf collections which provide the most current analysis and status of the law until recently were as much as a year out of date the standard among libraries entails  three days to a week posting these services the law library which was a year back log currently takes thirty to ninety days to post under this standard our law library would rate only as a third class law library one remedy would be to fully fund the library another step towards solution is to provide transparency and accountability through a process advanced by senator ted stevens to create and require an independent line item in budget authority for the library of congress in the federal budget of the library of congress accordingly we have been working with a rabs olof on legislation that would propose such an approach in addition our committee  interested and willing to assist with funding challenges of the library of congress as a vehicle to receive private funding assistance rep lofgren this bill would authorize a public private funding foundation to support the library of congress is ongoing projects we have included dr billington and his staff in this of these and other creative solutions we want to be clear that the library staff opposes the budget line item for the law library we continue to seek creative solutions with the library but until such an alternative is advanced we ask for your support for the line item for the law library and for the public private foundation we also seek your support for a special appropriation of a modest three and a half million dollars to bring the law library collection current cover necessary staff replacement and others needed resources we also ask for your support for the global legal information network to achieve stability a private foundation was established to transition ten seconds please to transition to a non governmental entity however it is a victim of its own rapid growth it now needs a minimum of funding to carry it until it can transition to an all private fund foundation and with that i would be happy to answer any questions you might have thank you very much mr doesn't the library of congress already have the ability to raise private funds for the library they do have the ability to raise private funding the problem we have had as we go around seeking for funding and that the amount of funding and the continuing nature of the funding that would be needed to fund the type of projects that the law library needs we find that people are hesitant to commit the amount and the continuing funding without being certain that their private source funding will not simply replace government appropriations the way to do that is provide transparency of the government appropriations so they can see through the line item that the government appropriations are there they're continuing and then they i know that the money that is going into the private foundation is not replacing the government  appropriations they're going into the private foundation and the private foundation is i mean the same thing could still happen if you have a private foundation that you're raising money into the congress could still back out the same funds because it's not like it wouldn't be public how much money you raise into the foundation they could but it would be then public and there would be public accountability for what is happening there would be transparency  it would be evident that because the private foundation money is coming in then more budget cuts are going directly to the library and it would be very evident that the public funding of the library is going down while the private funding is going up and then you could tie it directly and put public pressure to to bring the public funding back up and then as far as the line item itself that's happened i wouldn't that make it more difficult for the library of congress you're just part of the overall operating budget of their budget has been so small and it's such a small percentage of the overall budget there have not been emergencies i don't know what type of emergency there would necessitating any kind of significant contribution i would think that if there were such emergencies the private sector could step in and help with that kind of an emergency also ok thank you very much i used to do this when i was in congress it it's a matter of keen concern and interest to a broad cross section of the motor coach and tour industry has you see i am from the national tour association and that's that's a group that kerry that's an organization that carries package tour members but we have the american bus association we have the youth travel association we have the united motor coach association and we are deeply concerned about the proposal for how to manage how to manage and pete pete period up to one thousand tour buses fifty five thousand to tourist coming to washington d c and the cap presumably transportation provide by the circulator where the district of columbia pay a dollar apiece to go to and a dollar apiece to come back from the visitor center and that solution is  that response is not a adequate solution in any way to reasonable access and reasonable management of the volume of the touristic that come by motor coach you've heard some excellent testimony from president solutions or the responses that i think are more in the brain of common sense than the one that been proposed in the transportation plan that you're considering put into place a system whereby tour buses passengers and their contents be inspected and to enable them to move to the closest to the to the closest drop off point to a new capital business center if the system could maintain maximum security little logistical problem good for the public or the c c security personnel travel and tourism advocacy groups suggest the establishment of procedures through which tour operators can minimize screening by using steps to expedite clearance such as no luggage on the bus registering the passenger and scheduling in advance or other steps that will assist the capital place in the duties to maintain maximum security identify three identify an area close to capital center which can serve as a location for both screening holding empty buses waiting to reload their passengers after ticket visiting the capitol hill for drop off locations for security cleared buses to pick up and drop off passengers on a prescheduled basis and five if you and the members of your committee madam chair were to issue i think a rational mandate to all the parties of interest involved in this particular issue compel them to sit in a room either in the union station or in the capitol hill police station and hammer out a balanced and rational response here we all have an interest in making this work better than it ever could or would under the proposed travel  and we should be able collectively all parties of interest hammer out that solution and come back to you with a proposal that has unanimous support of the parties of interest and i think we're able to we would be able to do th concerns about the and i feel comfortable speaking for both of us and i'm sure you can speak for himself we have concerns about the dollars charge we have concerns about the way that the number of people that would end up being able to go on each circulator bus because with good large groups of schoolkids that we get coming through here all the time time the amount of time it would take to get transport them from union station to to the capital would really be too much to expect of a large group of kids like that to wait so i where most people are going to be dropped off at the at the west front and buses can park in the union station where they cannot do that now right now they're expected to circulate until they pick up their group again that seems actually better in so far as that i understand that that disembarking embark procedures that they have we're suggesting that the private sector should assume a larger responsibility and role here that if for example they were to empty all luggage from all motor coaches that are that are providing access to the capitol hill before they get to capitol  significant would they do that with you says that he would leave them at the hotel they would would simply not bring them with him and they would arrange their tour schedule in such a fashion that they would have a prearranged deposit point for that luggage with the understanding that that's what rush responsible way to the most reasonable way to gain access to it to the new the new visitor center and and then provide in advance for example in coordination with the capitol hill police advance the not only i can already but the clearance of who's on that on that coach and for the most part significant numbers our students are who are coming to visit to capitol hill as part of their school assignment tens of thousands are represented by that category minimal amount of security risk i think entailed with those kinds of access situations and we're we're we want to be a partner in the testimony today and i believe that if we're going to use the west end as a as a as a meaningful drop off point that is a situation that exists now and as i understand it that capitalist to be honest with you caught a somewhat by surprise because we thought we had addressed it and taken care of the issue access to the capital by motorcoach ok thank you thank you very much opportunity to be here today hello converse with them is just feels very much appreciate the opportunity to come today to talk about how those that are advocates of people with disabilities particularly will be able to access the new capitol visitor center appreciate all the work that's gone into making the c b c as accessible as possible we know how much time and attention has been given to that and we really look forward to bringing our volunteers our cars our staff up to appreciate that the new building the focus of my remarks is going to be on the transportation plan that we just heard about and how it could potentially hinder the ability of many people to visit the capital to participate in meetings with their elected officials and realize just participate the public process i'm going to share a bit of our experience trying to negotiate getting people disability for congressional point ment's and hope that it might inform the debate a little bit more than a decade we've been bringing people up to capitol hill  every other year as part of our convention i've been directly involved in coordinating the transportation aspects of that since one thousand nine hundred six we're our experience is really i think that a case study in how it's become increasingly difficult for people disabilities and older adults to participate in the public policy process through meetings there lector special are policy and practices bad to provide transportation from a convention hotel on coach buses up to the house of representatives and senate office buildings for participants many of whom have mobility impairments or world or adults in the past we dropped them off at a location prearranged at the capitol police that were jason to the congressional office buildings  and were convenient in order to assist people disabilities who the distance between the house and senate would be a challenge we also provided a small bus that would cycle a throughout the day that people could get on and off to to facilitate that transfer  as security concerns rightfully have increased however that solution has not been possible for us our last convention was in two thousand and seven we work tires tirelessly to stay within the current roles possible we began that process several months before convention we had letters of support and phone calls from members to both the house and senate side police and had direct communication with the capitol police  themselves everyone could not have been more accommodating and wanting to work with us and willing to work with us we finally reached a solution where we had a drop off drop off location just out of the security  leave the permit are getting get screened each time however when the day actually came because of lack of available personnel at the time to actually screen the many coaches the at the location a situation that we were prepared for and had been warned my top that the buses we weren't able to use those mini buses and had to come up with kind of on the fly solutions during the day further compound of the issues the public transportation system metros metro   and she was absolved a small girl so luckily her mother could help transfer her into the taxes they drive away i see the trunk of that wheelchairs taking half out and i'm just crossing my fingers and crying that the trunk doesn't come down to something doesn't break it was it was from union station isn't the one you or i would use there are curb cuts on the compass out and circle so to get from union station to the capital you have to go around and up so it's about twice as far so you either have to inconvenience your whole group if you're with the tour group and take everyone around the long way or you have to kind of separate yourself and catch up with your group later which isn't really always appropriate because of some of these issues what we've decided next  bring people up need to wrap up in fact what i need to wrap up ok absolutely that we're going to be using private probably going to use private vehicles with drivers that is an option for us but is not an option for most people so i just encourage you to try to come up with a solution to this issue that that allows people to spell it is to have the access that need thank you via testimony and so i thank you very much next we'll hear from mr ronald lodge a lake chair of the interim council a g a o employees organization with a a o employees organization and a specialist in the applied research and methods team it's a privilege to appear before the subcommittee we are particularly grateful madam chair wasserman schultz for your efforts to ensure adequate funding for g a o and also for your support of our efforts to unionize over the past two years thank you very much the g a o employees organization represents about seventeen hundred sixty analysts just over half of g a o thirty one hundred employees last fall g a o employees voted by a two to one margin to establish this union since our votes to organize we have elected an interim council of thirty nine members that represents each mission team and field office developmental employees in various diversity groups we respectfully seek your continued support in order to sustain and grow the workforce necessary to provide high quality service to congress and the american people our ability to sustain our workload is being challenged by both the decreasing numbers of our workforce and the increasing demand for our work jails full time equivalent staff usage is at an all time low of thirty one hundred fiscal year two thousand and eight down one hundred sixty three since two thousand and three in the first quarter of fiscal year zero eight we received twenty six percent more requests from congress than we did in the first quarter of two thousand and seven potential mandates for g a o work are up about eighty six percent over the same time period as last year we are very concerned about the impact of stretching our limited resources across an increasing number of engagements for all these reasons we ask that this committee support geos two thousand and nine appropriation budget request such that g a o capacity can be replenished at the rate needed to meet the increasing and compelling demands of the u congress should it be necessary for g a o to use nine funds to meet the intent of the retroactive pay provision in h r fifty six eighty three the g a o act of two thousand and eight we would appreciate your assistance in making sure that these funds are separate from those intended for the two thousand and nine annual pay increase historically g a o has not shared detailed budget information with its staff or the public including annual budget justification recently g a o took a positive step toward budget disclosure when it issued a report on its contract awards for the past two fiscal years we believe management should take more proactive steps in making the budget process fully transparent we would like to work with management to achieve our goals in a fiscally responsible manner by having access to relevant and detailed budget information geos employees would very much appreciate any assistance you can provide to encourage o management to provide full disclosure on its operating budget budget justifications and actual expenditures real time we are proud of the work we do for the u s congress we are committed to establishing a constructive partnership with g a o management in early february we quickly completed our first negotiated pay agreement with g a o management for two thousand and eight we've begun to develop a working relationship with acting come troll janeiro we're very encouraged by mr darrow statement before this subcommittee that he was committed to working constructively with employee union representatives to forge a positive labor relationship our hope the cio management would view us as a full partner has not been realized for example we were disappointed that g a o management did not proactively share with us their views or suggested changes to h r fifty six eighty three g a o act of two thousand and eight even though some of these were directly impact our bargaining unit we were also disappointed that g a o management did not meet with us to discuss their fiscal year two thousand and nine budget request before they hit a hearing before this subcommittee nor have yet provided any budget documentation in another example g a o has decided to evaluate its performance management system and we wholeheartedly agree that this needs to be done however g a o has already gathered a great deal of evidence about problems with the performance management system it is our view that there is evidence to support some adjustments to the system right away as the exclusive representative for the bargaining unit we look forward to working with g a o on  in closing i'd like to reiterate our appreciation for the opportunity to testify and look forward to working with you i'd be pleased to answer any questions that you or other members of the subcommittee may have thank you mr i do like i have been really  pleased to watch the evolution of the process that you have been through with your fellow employees and the recognition finally that the union received from g a o the question i have is that you alluded to it briefly but have you seen  in terms of their relationship with the acting comptroller general versus the former comptroller general yes we have several experiences in his brief time as acting come troll or general that are very encouraging to us  what he's been saying to several mission teams in meetings staff meetings around the organization that number one management intends to take a serious look at our performance management system which is a serious concern for us and number two that he considers our current workload an issue that we need to address so from our perspective as a bargaining unit we're quite encouraged by this and look forward to working with him great i look forward to continuing to work with you and i appreciate the input they gave us today be entered into the record and you can proceed with a five minute summary thank you ma'am represent more than one thousand sworn members of our department the men and women of united states capitol police take great pride in being given the responsibility to protect members of congress congressional community and the millions who visit here those who are recruited and trained to carry out our vital mission are among the best educated and motivated people i have encountered anywhere in the law enforcement community they bring intellect in on the ground experienced the merit of tasks associated with securing and protecting everyone within the capitol complex i believe we are a well under utilized insight and ideas that could support future improvements and securing the capitol the capitol complex faces a constant threat that is not always easy to detect or identify to deter  combat threats department must be given the adequate in appropriate resources to fulfill our mission in addition to the obvious need for training equipment and adequate funding to carry out our mission for the congress and the nation we need you to understand our mission and your cooperation in the performance of our mission we recognize that often our duties may be viewed as an inconvenience but they are essential for maintaining security throughout the complex an officer needs to stay focused on the possible threat without fear from reprisal properly carrying out their duties due to this ever changing threat officers cannot pass we monitor activity but must be able to take a proactive approach to investigate investigate suspicious activity the effectiveness of the individual officer at each of the post each of the patrol vehicles and the very support positions around the department is most affected by the personal motivation it is dangerous for everyone who relies upon us if we are reluctant to do what is difficult required the human factor in our profession is unusually critical because a blind returned hood can allow the person intent on harm to bring arms toxins or other dangerous commodities to the halls in offices of the capitol calm plex your police officers must feel that they will be supported by their supervisors their chief the police board and the members when they make good faith efforts to do their job if they come to a common sense that good efforts are punished by the powers that be because they feel inconvenienced that more damage is done to our security than you may understand i urge this committee and the congress to regularly publish its support for its police officers who don't leap or form their duties as individuals and as an agency where inconvenience me security we must encourage responsible officers and officials to support security and to recognize those who work to secure those who protect i have devoted a lot of my time to our mission to protect you and i wish to raise a serious issue that is a more traditional union concern i would like to highlight our retirement the law enforcement profession is more competitive now than ever it is critical to the capitol police to not only recruit the most qualified personnel possible but also to retain them for the length of their career one of the greatest deciding factors in african consumers when making a decision for employment in law enforcement is a compensation package offered by each agency our goal is to enhance our retirement benefits to be more competitive with other agencies thus more appealing potential applicants and doing so we will we will not only be able to attract the best applicants but to retain the officers that are currently in the field the costs associated with training a new office or just to have them leave for another agency is wasting the resources provided by congress and the taxpayer and to many instances s capitol police department is recruiting are for competing local and federal law enforcement agencies many young men and women who become u s capitol police officers begin to look elsewhere after completing a few years on our department this very issue faced the d metropolitan police department in the early one nine hundred seventy s when congress approved an extension of its authorized strength even with the un pression president step of authorizing it's for military personnel who joined the metropolitan police department the m was unable to reach the new authorized strength because too many new recruits left for law enforcement careers elsewhere securing a few years of experience whatever it is a matter of record that the only thing that stabilized amputees workforce was the adaptation of a twenty year retirement system by the congress subsequent to home rule for the district the city abandoned twenty year retirement now they are in the process of passing legislation that will restore twenty year retirement as they work to increase the size of their police department and stabilize or force again we recognize the challenge that this presents in are aware of the paygo issue but hope to work with all the relevant committees to find an offset and accomplish this goal in the future that concludes my statement i'll be happy answer any questions tha reference a restraint that you indicate some officers feel about the actions that they are able to take to do their job can you elaborate on that a little bit well ma'am unfortunate many times officers are worry about upsetting key staffers or even members of certain committees and they feel if they do their job correctly and the inconvenience people too lame coming in through the doors that they will face  reprisal can you be more specific do you mean like if they require that oftentimes there's complaints that are generated against officers for simply carrying out their duties and when to be honest when the complaints come from certain members or staffers the officers feel that they're gonna get in trouble i don't mean to press you but do you mean for example if an officer expect someone a staff person to go through the magnetometer exactly as the going around them i'm talking or if they're not with their boss exactly sometimes they'll ok well i appreciate you bringing that to our attention and that's something that we'd be glad to follow up on on on the retirement on the retirement issue capitol police officers a part of the federal retirement system and for example you know the police or not other other agencies other police agencies are not and are you suggesting that the federal retirement benefit package is not is not as lucrative as other police agencies that are not part of that system what i'm saying is we lose a lot of our officers to local departments but we also lose them to federal agencies the difference with our retirement compared to other primal agencies is a law enforcement avail to be availability pay which is factored into many each and eleven positions when they get t retirement so basically they get twenty five percent higher retirement benefits than a capital police officer i'm sorry for my ignorance but i don't know what law enforcement valvoline pay as it's basically they're given twenty five percent more than their base pay it's basically in lieu of overtime they're given what's called leap pay and that's factored into the base salary when they retire that's included in their their and the overtime are not factored into your and i kept police officers overtime is not included into the retirement benefit ok and quite a bit of the hours that you work is overtime correct right ok so an officer would be used to that salary and that's an competitive competitive disadvantage i understand ok thank you mr layton thank you very much officer tagamet let me just say that i don't think we are able to express enough to the capitol police force how much we appreciate your protection and your representation and your service to as members to the capital community and to the visitors and and citizens that come to tour the capitol complex and we truly who's feels intimidated or something i would like to know who it is and what's going on specific cases because that simply is totally out of bounds and will follow up with the right leadership on that as well thank them thank you very much  thank you for this opportunity to appear before you today on behalf of the american association of law libraries the american library association of the special libraries association madam chair wasserman schultz and ranking member latest we really appreciate your giving us this opportunity to urge your support for the full f b i two thousand and nine appropriations request for the u s government printing office our communities are committed to public access to government information and they robust federal depository library program your constituents benefit daily from the collections and services of the thirty depository libraries in your districts and states as well as the government information available online at all libraries i'd like to point out  the depository library spend millions of dollars every year for staff space in the technological infrastructure needed to put your constituents in touch with the government information they need that comes in all formats depending upon the agenc decision to produce it past studies have shown that depository libraries in fact spend about ten dollars for every one dollar of federal investment so the monies that you appropriate to support public access and the f d multiplied many times over by the costs contributed by depository library my long statement describes in detail why we are asking you to fund fully g p s congressional printing and binding salaries and expenses and revolving fund monies and all three accounts contribute to promoting public access to print and electronic documents and to meeting the needs of depository libraries i'd like to use my brief time this morning really to urge you to agree to a g p s request of twenty one point two million for the federal digital system we believe that feds this is absolutely essential to g p s future it's a myth to think that utilizing the web to provide public access to reliable government information doesn't carry a hefty price tag there are enormous costs in managing the lifecycle of online information including its permanent public access and pro survey sion the funding of feds to date has come from monies reprogrammed in two thousand and five we ask that you show your support for feds us with a commitment to its launch next fall and to its future enhanced months the g p o access system authorized by legislation back in hundred three is the central mechanism for making federal government information available to the public g p o has done a remarkable job on a shoestring and now estimates that about ninety four percent of new titles in the federal depository library program are electronic with this increasing emphasis on online access it's time to replace the obsolete technology of the cheapo access system with the state of the arc art fatsis and here's why web technology that makes it challenging for the average user to search and locate the information they need in addition there are times when the technology fails as it recently did when access to three years of the online congressional record nine hundred ninety four to nine hundred ninety six became unavailable to you cers fortunately in this case the congressional record is one of g p l is essential titles and so is still available for anyone in print who can go to a local depository library during the past year we have been very pleased with the progress g p s made with a number of areas because of the new functionality is offered through fed sis i'd like to briefly mention two of them information disseminator for the federal government by providing the assurance that an electronic document has not been altered since g p o disseminated it this year g p o launched an online collection of authenticated public and private laws of the hundred tenth congress the ability to authenticate online legal resources is especially important and in february g p o digitally signed the two thousand and nine online version of the budget of the united states government and also published it in print after all m b had announced that it would only publish the two hundred twenty two hundred page budget of thirty seconds in space thank you  documents in two thousand and six they completed a very important pilot with the environmental protection agency in which they harvested over two hundred thousand on available e nine is fight all to supporting the needs of depository libraries and your constituents who use them every day last year i ask you to become champions of the g p l and the f d a p this year i ask that you please champion fads and at the same time support g p s online funding other funding needs that are really crucial to their information dissemination program thank you myspace the f t lp is here program and we really appreciate your continuing support thank you very much we will be entered into the record and you can proceed with a five minute summary of your statement i will chairwoman diprivan appreciate the opportunity to talk to you today concerning the management and the government printing office and the morale of its employees i've been a machinist at the government printing office for eleven years my responsibility is included repairing the presses for the congressional record passports and the federal register i'm also a member of the international association of machinists an aerospace workers and invoiced president of the local laws twenty one thirty five there was a time in a not too distant g p o was a great place to work it was a place where people came to work with smiles on their faces today the smiles are gone morales is an all time low and the only thing that keeps g p o employees going is the need to bring home with paycheck to their families and a sense of duty to the nation and its taxpayers should began in two thousand and two the day that bruce james a new public printer walked through the doors of g p s mr james began his tenure by calling the employees a cheap ignorant and illiterate there was such a backlash too is common that mr james had to make public apologies but a damage was already do insult to injury security became an obsession with the public printer employees were made to feel like they were security risks when i questioned labor relations department about the new security procedures i was told by them that all federal agencies were going through the same changes but i made phone calls to fourteen different agencies and found out that none of them were making employees with valid id badges go through the same measures we were going through and some of these agencies where the state department the f a a and the i r s and yet employees at g p o with valid id badges were made to empty their pockets go through magnetometers and have their lunches x rayed moreover congress had appropriated five million dollars for security upgrades a o such as hydraulic barriers to keep trucks out from invading the building that these were never installed since that it was rumored that this money was placed in the revolving fund and used for travel over the years it is because of the variety of reasons like technology changes and outsourcing the numbers of employees of and slipped from eighty five hundred ploys to twenty two hundred employees at the time of the g p o at eighty five hundred employees there were three production managers in the past when g p o cried poverty they typically would reduce cost by cutting overhead the previous public printer michael de mary only limited honored for management positions including five deputy public printers congress authorized or early retirement and we lost many low paying jobs my shop alone lost six times full time employees and the workload increased also detrimental to our morale the cuts in management were short lived in the first two years that mr james was public printer with the employment levels of twenty two hundred mister james had more people in management than g p o had when we had eighty five hundred employees we now have approximately six production managers with an unknown number of assistant production managers and production engineers that the g p o is paying between ninety thousand and one hundred forty three thousand dollars a year  moreover mr james hired back one hundred five of the positions that mr de marial had reduced worse while the g p o had two professional photographers on staff mr james hired a personal photographer ninety thousand dollars a year coincidentally mr james had made it known to a number of media outlets that the job he wanted after the g p o was a governor or a senator of nevada i personally witnessed mr james making a video showing him heading towards capitol hill in two thousand and two after assessing the training needs a g p o mr james promised a joint venture with local universities and colleges to meet the needs of the employee education with great fanfare mr james hires the patrick to head training and fired in two thousand and six g p a receive five million dollars to help me training requirements at the best the only training we ever received was windows x p our word perfect and that was that was if the workload would permit it's hard to believe the five million dollars was spent on windows x p training g p u had a great opportunity to invest in their greatest asset their workforce but they didn't a month ago mr patrick left g p o still talking about the skills and assessments as i stated earlier the morality pos in all time low key employees have had to endure being called names being treated like security risks with over the top and intrusive security checks else who are sitting in reductions in forc we had an agreement in principle with mr michael stein who was hired as a head of labor relations to simplify the pay scales for twenty three borgen units we came to an agreement in principle and the next day mr stein was fired i told my membership that i wouldn't get a haircut so we got a new contract and this is where i stand today thank you very much mr ailes i noted that your testimony  where the press room was and he had to be led there i don't think the workers are having any better so you haven't had any improvement in your relationship with the management of the printer no sense is taking over  follow up with each of the agency heads on the concerns that when there were concerns raised on the concerns raised by each of the people who testified today and we will look into the the criticism and concern in some cases we will be able to  help change the situation or at least inquire as to how the situation might change and improve because it is important to me as the chair to make sure that the quality of life in the working environment for employees and the capitol complex it is is a very high quality