c and the progress that is being made on the plans for operating the c d c as well as welcoming chief mourner who is here to give us an update on the security plan that the security plans and the logistical plans for a ride of c and philip morris the chief of the u s capitol police i'm really proud of the work that this committee done over the last little bit more than a year we have consistently been able to  keep the focus on the goal which is to open open the c d c and not have slippage in either the target date for opening which is november as well as the estimated cost which has continued to be for the last for about the last year six hundred twenty one million dollars you know we're certainly more comfortable with with the place that we're at in terms of the progress that the c d c has made and i commend the the project team who has worked very hard at trying to make sure that we have not had slippage but obviously we have to remain vigilant and mindful of the fact that we could face slippage if we're not if we're not careful so we're here to get our regular update i look forward to hearing about the progress efforts on the visitor center we know that the logistics and activities associated with getting it ready for the opening are very complicated and time consuming and your efforts are not going on noticed project was recognized by the washington building congress with various craftsmanship awards for outstanding work so i think you should be very proud of that and thank you excellent thank you very much and congratulations  we usually do you're prepared statements will be entered into the record in the air you can proceed with a five minute summary of your statement that afternoon madam chair and congressman late members of the subcommittee i'm pleased to be here did today to report on the progress made to complete the c and prepare for its opening in operation later this year the comprehensive fire and life safety testing is proceeding on schedule the required fire alarm wiring enhanced months we discussed at last month's hearing are ongoing now and we've determined that the change in the associated testing will not invest adversely affect the project schedule we recently recently submitted our third quarter spending plan in which we evaluated the project's cost to complete i'm pleased to report that upon review the government accountability office agrees with our project team that the estimated six hundred twenty one million dollars cost to complete remains unchanged along with the ongoing fire alarm testing where completing minor construction in the library of congress tunnel the house hearing room the east front exterior grounds and on the house and senate a tree of stairs in addition we've been addressing the height variables associated with the electrical vaults and correcting the smoke control system issues associated with the atria stairs we've received a preliminary report on the plows or pavers and we're evaluating the information to determine a course of action to address those repairs with regard to the remaining construction work workers have completed all major floor and wall stone in the crypt rotunda and gallery levels inside the east front metal workers completed work on the bronze hand rails in the house and senate stairwell atria and are preparing the toronto work on the stairway landings in the library of congress predestinarian tunnel ceiling panel installation is approximately ninety seven complete and the toronto floor work is progressing smoothly the eleven foot model of the capitol dome was installed on march twenty first as scheduled and it's an impressive sight to see at the center of the exhibition hall historic drawing fence the fist ikeda to knology were used to create this unique three d model and you see staff ensured that every detail was accurate it's a it's an important part of the c b c because it will allow children to have a very hands on experience video screens in the house and senate virtual theaters have been installed and are being tested and workers are now installing the ten foot wooden doors on the east side of the rotunda our capital superintendent's office has also initiated relocation coordination meetings with all occupants of the c and has begun to identify the equipment and imagery needs to fully support their maintenance operation crews continue to work to complete punch list items such as mill work wall stone floor stone ceiling panels plasterwork carpeting doors and other finishes and as of april ninth there were approximately eight thousand eight hundred open items on the main punch list given the pace of work remain on schedule to receive the temporary certificate of occupancy on july thirty first scheduled in march forty one change orders were settled the magnitude of change or the proposals being received continues to diminish with most new proposals coming in below ten thousand dollars the team continues to focus their efforts on settling the largest outstanding change orders first and as quickly as possible and it dissipates in of the c b c openings miss rouse and her team continue to work with oversight committees and congressional leadership on plans for c b c visitor services operations and i know she has several updates to share with the subcommittee today madam chair as you know the c b c has been designed to greatly enhance the visitor experience by providing greater educational opportunities and much needed amenities to the millions of people who visit their capitol building each year it's designed to match the quality of the capital in quality and in durance and generations of americans will new to benefit from all that it has to offer and that regard i'm pleased to note that the c was recently recognized by the washington building building congress specifically the project was singled out for eleven craftsmanship awards for high quality professional workmanship demonstrated throughout the facility in addition to the craftsmanship awards several of those winners works were extended additional honors with the receipt of two of three star awards presented to projects demonstrating the highest level of quality and visual and technical excellence the project also received a hall of fame award for the masonry work done throughout the facility for the washington building congress to recognize the c b c for its a per craftsmanship and quality is truly an honor the fine team that has worked on this project can take great pride in their role in helping to complete this largest single expansions of the capitol building in its history and that concludes my statement and i'd be happy to answer any questions you may have personnel feel we put their team managers in place to run our gift shops our exhibition space in our restaurant last month i introduce to you my deputy who is an accomplished administrators he will oversee the operations aspect of the visitor's center  discussed at last month's hearing i am hiring a diverse and professional staff our job fair last week was extremely successful we received more than six hundred applications for the sixty visitors assistant positions that are available a with help from our colleagues all over the capitol complex we interviewed approximately two hundred people we called that number planned the selection within the next two weeks i think the overwhelming response was due in large part to outreach to the different congressional caucuses are advertisements in smaller nontraditional outlets in our contact with schools and universities across the country the visitor system position is a crucial component of our set up with so much that is new about the capital to outsiders and even to people who work here we need to make sure that the visitor assistance our frontline ambassadors can respond quickly and completely to any situation and questions that arise we can continue to be mindful of the fact that despite the progress we've made in hiring key personnel we have a huge task ahead in hiring up to the designated staff level for the capitol visitor center we have only a fraction of the time that is considered average for two hundred thousand square foot facility are dedicated to angle continued to work on hiring all necessary staff and training will be vitally important for all employees in the context of operational planning we're also where of our dynegy as a component of the office of the architect of the capitol as an extension of the capitol building itself even now we are serving as an arm of the capital operation by meeting on a regular basis not only with our subcommittee but with the capital preservation committing our oversight committees house and senate leaders should have even senior leadership teams in the capitals architect office from a programming perspective and learn the more unusual exhibits in the capitol visitor center what's installed since our last meeting the ten foot high touchable model of the capitol dome produced by midwest model makers of indianapolis and made a y the dome will provide visitors with an intimate look at the iconic symbol of representative democracy our young visitors will love this model of the capitol dome and for that reason we make sure that a durable easily cleaned and it will never need painting since color is impregnated in the mold madam chair as you know from our weekly updates we have made steady progress in the development of the advance reservation system for the past month we've been working closely with the current visitor services staff on how to administer the advance reservation system during the busiest capital tour seasons we continue to work on developing the c b c web site we want to prepare people for the much improved capital to prove that awaits them with the logistical information that they need and we want to make the website is easy to navigate as possible more importantly we want to whet the appetite of our visitors regarding what the capital has to offer that will inform involve and inspire them in a very personable way we also continue to communications with the u s capitol police the d c department of transportation and others as visitor approaches to and from the visitor center there are a variety of approaches to the capital from walking to biking to taking public and private transportation the nation's capital is a friendly walking town walking city residents and visitors alike enjoy our sidewalks are generous green spaces that make walking along the magnificent monuments and memorials a capital they will still be able to do so when the visitor center opens some of the companies however may choose to park and drop off passengers at union station which is approximately where proximity seventy five available parking spaces are from union station there is a variety of options for tourists who wish to visit the capitol building including picking up a city tour bus riding a local metro brusca walking four blocks to the visitor center as bad as far as it is from the white house to the washington monument from the  capitol where me towards will exit the subway the walk to the visitor center is only two blocks thank you for this opportunity to update the subcommittee on our activities and thank you for your continued support and interest i will be pleased to answer any questions you may some members of the committee i'd like to thank you for inviting me here today to testify today i'd like to focus my comments on the department's plans for addressing potential volumes of visitors to the c with regard to anticipated volume we have systems in place to allow us to for reassignments or resources and personnel to meet critical needs throughout the capitol complex we believe that we have the capability to move personnel in a timely manner to address surges and pedestrian flow as well as other events while maintaining the security of the capitol complex we have also completed our operational emergency special operating procedures that are commensurate with this high level volume of visitors and are prepared to initiate training with our officers and employees when the occupancy permit is issued based on the historical data tourists to the nation's capital do not drive to their destinations therefore we would not anticipate a flow we wouldn't to supinate the same flow of vehicular traffic that is currently play president with a higher level of for the street traffic partment currently supports the large charter buses dropping off litters to the capital on first street northwest and southwest along the west front the department continues to work whopper dibley with the i o c and the district's department of transportation to look at movement of visitors to the capitol complex within the current security restrictions for large vehicles is important to note that there will be many means of arrival at the entrance of the c d c many noted by miss rouse that include public transit buses commercial sightseeing vehicles taxi cabs personal passenger vehicles as well as walking from the numerous metro and subways near the capitol with regard to the tours the department believes the main entrance of the capitol visitor center remains the optimum entry point for visitors to the c d c and the capitol are planning assumptions have consistently relied upon the state of the art c b c entrance configuration to process large numbers of litters in a more efficient manner so that we can sustain the high level of security standards currently maintained throughout the capitol complex we also understand the concerns raised regarding the ability of members to maintain staff led tours for their constituencies the department is continu work with congress on this matter in closing i'd just like to thank you again for the opportunity to appear before you today and i'll be glad to answer any questions that you may have  members of the subcommittee last hearing a c s continue to move the contraction forward and also the fire alarm acceptance testing the number of open p c s or change orders while still large continues its downward trend the number of punch th items or deficiencies is down by about ten percent since last year the deficiencies deficiencies that we discussed last month are continuing towards resolution a tree a smoke exhaust equipment is on hand there some remaining temporarily work on your critical pass continues to slip over a schedule was not received during the past months we don't know the full extent but we do know that we don't expect it to affect the schedule at this point we raise the issue of the east front pavers on several occasions a o c s investigation of that issue continues however it appears the problem is widespread and could affect the majority of the plaza at some point during repairs responsibility is still uncertain since last hearing the reviewed and revised portions of its cost estimate the number of line items changed either up or down but the bottom line remains the same as six hundred twenty one million dollars estimate in the case of the estimate is realistic given the fourteen months four to five months remaining construction time contingency appears adequate provided there are no unusual delays summer in summer madam chair the schedule remains the same in november agree we're on the same page we're still at six hundred twenty one million dollars at the method cost to complete and an opening of november and that we're on track for both of those yes that's correct ok that's  good to know comforting i want to touch base with both the chiefs and you ms ross about the best thing plan because i have to tell you that since our last hearing i have had and i don't know if you have missed amazing although i have to imagine that you have had a lot of members come up to me on the floor expressing concern about the bussing plan that they're concerned about their constituents i represent a district with a very high proportion of senior citizens and i have about to be fourth graders when about to be fourth graders who are in the approaching the school year in which they make that trip to washington d c in many cases across the country although i know you minimized in your opening statements the distance that would be required for people to walk from where the bus dropped them off i have to tell you my my eight year olds have little legs that they complain after a couple  blocks and i have a four year old also so i'm concerned that the distance that you're asking people to walk is too great particularly for of the frail elderly and for young children i'm also concerned about the dollars per person  that that would be charging people to get on the circulator bus and i and lastly concerned if you can address at how are we going to with some of these large tours be able to use just one bus per group what do you anticipate the buses accommodating an entire group and what do you do with the leftovers of it doesn't try to take them and into components for many buses sixty percent of the buses do in a typical busy time on the charter buses will still drop off at the west front until people drop off there and they sort of walk around the building so that's the way most people historically have come to the hill and i would imagine that's to continue to be be the scenario if buses for some reason off to to drop off at union station that's when they will take the can optionally come to the capital a number of one they could if they want to get on the circulator bus and pay a dollar but if they can drop off of the west front why would they drop off at union station that it depends upon the bus company it depends upon what arrangements they've made the capitol police have and we verify that so that they can still continue to drop off at that particular site but they make shoes to drop off at union station what we've tried to do and we've begun to talk with our programming about it is we've heard people talking about younger audiences walking the approximate four blocks is we're trying to figure out a way to make that also a learning experience for them because as you come along the grounds people have these trees labeled for example and they have other ways to make that part of the learning experience the public programs staff that will come will be packaging previews that package for teachers to help them make every part of their moment on the capital an experience so that as part of what we're what we're trying to do the bus companies may have the option since they are packaging educational tours to offer them the opportunity for a card that will give them access to use the circulator bus that would be a fee that they would probably pass on in their packaging that is a possible solution the other one that we can encourage people to do is take cap go to capitol south it's only two blocks up union station is four blocks so there are other other opportunities many people because of the new tourism that's going to go on in this into washington d c will be coming up from american history and they're going to be coming down the street from the newseum there's now a new triangle of excitement if you will between about three musing about whether they'll fit on obama circulator bus which is about thirty people they won't on an in twenty two regular bus that's about forty people so that would be an option they would have to what do you do i mean i usually most of my school groups are and i'm sure the members of school are so the same one hundred fifty i mean how we going to keep these groups together and make sure that their teachers can keep track of them and how long will the kids who got dropped off at the  capitol have to wait for the other buses to bring the other kids i mean the deal is this is that not sound like it's going to work if they're opting for the circulator bus those buses are every ten minutes down to my understanding from from that if we are preparing groups if they opt to use the circulator bus we would remind them how big the group is and have that be part of their pretty experienced remember you need to have x number of supervisors groups of thirty if they fifteen minutes before their entire group gets to the capital to begin their tour i mean that is not going to work if they're going to take the circulator and not walk the four blocks if they're at union station with all due respect little kids i don't even like to walk from union station to here little kids are not going to walk we're not going to be able to walk to school groups of young children from the union station to the capitol and expect that to be a realistic everyday thing my understanding in understand them have a small child one point i know that what that's like it's hurting kept most of them are typically dropped off at the west front and then they're just walking around the building so it is an issue obviously large vehicles are are an issue for us for for a security reasons but many people have asked you know can you screen buses before they come up and those those issues were talked  about years ago when we started these discussions and it takes more officers more assets and read resources and it also takes a location it takes space because of you know traffic congestion and such so those were all the considerations made with regard to union station where i believe one of the one of the primary reasons union station was selected was because it provided parking to commercial buses which has not been something that they've been afforded in the past they've only been allowed to drive around the city or stand in neighborhoods and that's always been an issue and it was also very difficult to reconnect groups of people with their with their bus companies they ended up walking a considerable distance at the end to get those buses so sort of the solution was to find a place that was was a hub if you will provided shelter and amenities bathrooms and stores and cetera and then the solution would come from you know the people involved in moving  it was incorporated into a much larger plan where the c d c would not just be the focal point of the city attractions that they would enter connect with other attractions along the mall so the circular her bus system that runs along the mall would also run up on capitol hill as well as the circulator system is primarily used for stations to the c d c to the thank you madam chairman i share your concerns i mean i have the honor every every year to get up and have six thirty breakfast with about one hundred twenty people get on another bus to come up to the capitol or almost seemed to me the bus full of high school or grade school kids or whatever and you would almost have a  the separation of groups and such would be very on organize and that type of thing if school children and we have to find a way to fix that with guards to the buses buses can be screen and they're correlated come into the capitol visitor center at a certain time if they're taken in store tour and also was reminded by staff that if they're coming down from union station if they're both company opted to  n circulator buses and metro buses do not have compartments that that are hidden compartments that can carry those loads so we do the screening of the buses prior efforts you're going to have to cover the circulator bus plan with respect to the circulator bus plan that's being proposed existing assets and resources would cover  could break it out for you the truck interdiction program was a program that was initiated without f t e afforded f d a so that's that's all back filled with overtime those officers would when the circulator the additional circulator bus system from union station is incorporated would be no different than the current buses and metro buses that we screen very quickly and allowed to access the hill however if any streets that are currently closed were to be opened for that transit then it would then it would in fact drive more for additional overtime so it's from his existing overtime that we currently operate the truck interdiction program so it would be a no additional cost based on this proposal by  thank you i think it is good to raise concerns about the drop offs and that i think that this is something that should be under close scrutiny and a lot of monitoring the first couple times with feedback from individuals and different groups are going to be set up different ways i didn't make much money but i spent summers running day camps for y m c a and so i did big group things and it's going to it's a difference it's going to mean what your ratio is to the age of the student is going to be a whole lot of factors involved but the one thing that happens here quite often is inclement weather and rain and felt someone's on walking us those four blocks getting off of a bus folks knowing that the circulators an option or do the circulators at some point become overwhelmed because they're not dedicated in that so i think there's some questions but i think  we can come up with some best practices but there really needs to be really good information going out to the groups how far they're going to be expected to be walked what they could do with with bad weather and you know every state has different regulations on on field trips every school district has different regulations on field trips at their specs practices as to you know pre prepared your groups up ahead of time that's what we used to do so people knew what group that they were in and we did things with you know color code any you see that and you've done enough field trips with your kids but i really do i really do think thinking and thinking ahead is is probably a good idea because one last hit on the capitol complex  to be great i'd like to learn more about the papers because i would like to be able to tell my constituents that are going over to the senate that they can walk through outside and not take the extra walk tell me what's going on with the pavers and when we can get this fixed yes ma'am as you probably know if you look out on the plaza now you'll see many of the papers are chipped some of them are coming up expanded a little bit contracting what check they asked us to do a more survey work on the plaza which we've done we're expecting a draft report from them this week we've set up an a panel to assess that report then we're going to go ahead and give it to the contractors involved and give them a chance to look at it and then at the time that that's happening we're going to be looking at the options we know we have a problem we know we have to fix a good portion of the plaza and we're going to look at but the weather is like you know what the weight is why are we doing all of this and not the person who has the contract well the contractor there's actually two two major contractors involved and one was the architect who designed the plaza and the second was the contractor that installed the pavers in the system and what we had to find out was what is the cause or what are the causes of the problems that we're having are they design related or the installation related or is it a combination thereof and that's what we've asked our engineering consultant to determine and that's what we need to first get definitive assessment of the  cause and then determine what we need to do to fix it how to fix it and there are some options there so we have to involve both the designer and the contractor installed within this process that we're going to get if someone didn't live up to what was specified in the contract i'm assuming that they would be responsible for making it right and observing the because that is correct our difficulty will be a practical one and that is that  will probably take some time to sort that all out from the contractual and a legal standpoint but what we're going to do so that we don't have to wait for that process to unfold as once we get  our assessment complete and reviewed and get the comments back from the contractors our plan is to proceed and then we will work out the full responsibility part of that as we proceed but we don't want to hold payments have been made and what we would do now is go back to the appropriate parties and then seek payment reimbursement for whatever portion it's deemed that they would be responsible for to solidify what we're going to do and get congressional stakeholder input on the fix and the timing our assumption is we may have to stage this because we don't want to have the plaza torn up one hundred percent all at once  and then proceed to starting sometime in the summer but it's not quite clear yet how long it's going to take us because we don't know which fix we're going to go with how much of the plows we have to work on and exactly how much time that's going to take an active necessity or convenience i think and we've got the acting architect here who can correct me if i'm wrong but i think the original capital cost one point four million dollars and seventy nine days we're talking about a six hundred twenty one million dollar beautiful new visitor center that we're all excited about and we're still going to tell people they have to get off four blocks away or go to union station and get on a circulating circulator bus and potentially pay a dollar it's appropriate we're having this discussion on april fifteenth tax day when millions of americans are writing their checks to fund the federal government but i think the record should know that they're letting the groups off there because useful to know because cheap not trying to compare apples and oranges but some of us have been to the border on border trips and we've seen knology where eighteen wheelers can pull through unlike a body scan at a hospital they can determine whether someone is illegally coming into the country or they're bringing drugs or weapons or something else it seems to me the technology is there i know it requires additional resources but it also seems that you'd be able to balance with this is this option is going to cost is this option to cost y and i think it be useful for the committee to know what all options you have maintaining security obviously as a primary concern but also convenience to the american taxpayers what groups have and chief i guess is question goes to you or to the head of the c b c what groups have you met with regarding the transfer transportation plans of the c b c civically have you met with some of the bus companies we've been meeting since we were discussing transportation when we met extensively i have not personally met with the bus tour operators however our consultants have been involved with discussions with them as we've had discussions with union station so that's the level of conversation that we've had we do know that the bus operators groups are very interested in the renewed interest to get into the c if i can get two more quick questions first there was an article in roll call yesterday or maybe today that talked about the possibility that there's a juror's meeting in the congressional office buildings would also have to use the c b c main entrance to come over to the capitol is that currently the plan that's always been the assumption yes so we have constituents that are waiting in our office to meet with us they need to come over to the robin room to meet with the chairwoman and they will have to go up to the c b c to enter the building that has been the assumption yes that will be very convenient i'm sure and i guess one other question that was rice in the last briefing was the comment or the conversation about the gift shops currently as i understand it the gift shop in the capitol is run by the capitol historical society is that correct yes in the crypt yes and yet the new gift shops will be run by the house and profits will go into revolving fund back into the c also be developing our own product lines and looking at various things the profit or you access cash over the cost of products will go into a revolving account and once a year that access if there we are hopeful that with the c b c will be having emergency agreement with them that we'll be buying their product they have some wonderful things they are mission and vision really ties a lot to what we are about enough an educator i appreciate what they have done and hopefully we can continue to partner with them on a variety of things but hopefully by this time next month we'll be able to say that we work something out thank you so much thank you very much in the morning and let me welcome all of you and thank you very much for your hard work and your service and for getting us to where we have come so far and i want to thank our chair because i haven't been that excited about this project as you know like many of us but under your leadership i'm becoming a little bit more excited about the opening and especially with this team until i heard about the dollar for every time i get really excited then there's a little glitches that cause me a little bit of heartburn so i have to associate myself with with your comments and figure out if we can figure out a way to not do this because i can sleep very quickly how this could exclude many many people who would want to come to some may not be a lot of money to others it's a lot of money you know especially families with a lot of kids especially with low income individuals all of your you know hard work with regard to the issues diversity the black history month celebration was wonderful and i hope you have other events planned celebrating the diversity of  the staff because it's a wonderful staff and we have many cultures represented many backgrounds represented i think that's a excellent way to make sure that we celebrate everybody who works there  on your small business small disadvantage business women on business diversity inclusion equal opportunity peace i want to ask you a couple of questions i have a copy of your testimony and i was pleased to see that that you presented before the i guess was the transportation was of the transportation subcommittee transportation and also a copy of the small business program just clarify for me when you say small business i mean that includes small disadvantaged businesses which means minority owned businesses that means women owned business then under small businesses women owned businesses it's hard for me to kind of figure out how these goals at the end said i mean i see a percent small disadvantage concerns but yet everything is under the small business program so can you kind of break out how you how you are going to do the small disadvantage piece and the women on business piece and then for ms rounds let me first thank you so much for all the outreach to and i understand you had a job there six hundred people showed up i think your work and reaching out to the congressional caucuses that represent women people of color and people with disabilities socially economically disadvantaged individuals i think that is really taking hold and i'd just like to ask you how how it's working and if you can give us is for construction contracts above a million dollars will include this clause that requires contractors to recruit small businesses and small businesses under that definition include small disadvantage women owned businesses hubs owned businesses all of those are included under this umbrella heading of small businesses and then the second program we have is we've decided to set aside all of our work from  five thousand dollars to one hundred thousand dollars for small businesses and under that umbrella of small businesses we've internally set aside two goals and the first is eight percent for small disadvantaged businesses under that umbrella and then the second is five percent for women owned businesses again under that small business some bring a lot of course under that are also hubs and small businesses veteran and small businesses service disabled small businesses there's a variety of definitions from the small business administration but all of those are under this global umbrella of small business ok thank you very much and i'll talk to you for the bath because i wan how it's work how it's breaking and thank you we are making some progress on the hiring front we still have two hundred sixty eight positions to feel the the number of activities with diversity of our applicants is amazing six hundred fifty people responding to a series of ads was outstanding almost two hundred people showing up for interviews it's just a testament to all the hard work that that has to be done we do have much more work that we have to do in order to fill these positions key to all of this for me more so in my mind is the training of everyone the ability to have welcoming professional trained staff is key in the museum world in the visitor world the most important thing that can happen to a young person when they enter a building like that capital is someone says smiles at them and greets them because that will be the memory that they take home with them so the ability for us to train our staff and retrain our staff constantly on our ability to service will make a tremendous difference on what people think about their experience so we're dubbed telling that activity with the same energy that we're working with our hiring right now and also the languages that they're going to be provided for and the interactive features of the say the safe do you have that there were five languages and the minute i said that i want a spanish and one is korean and i'll get back to the other team for record in the years went forward i do want to be able have multi languages available on munger visitor assistant as well as our tour guide because that's going to be key to our ability to see in ourselves as a c website and the process that visitors would go through to book a tour at the last hearing i had asked you to go back and take a look at the website itself and particularly the home page where it did not appear that finding where you could click to book at tor was very prominent on the home page and the members you have the mockup of the home the reservation system in the home paid and the website in your packet what progress have you made in making the tour information more prominent on the website on the home page as well as it's my very strong suggestion that you change the wording of the buttons for contacting your senator and contacting your representative to be contact your senator for a tor contact your representative for a tour which i know you have done under group reservations but it still says contact your senator contact your representative and not with tour information for individual and family is that just an oversight in our strategy let me go to the first question we have on our terms like is what you're looking at is a template made the tour information flows right and we're going to make it as prominent as possible it'll also appear in other different places we'll continue to link into the house of representatives u s senate we use those existing sites because they have the the best information and that's our goal to us the rest of it is just blazer language under the tour page the group preservation we did change the buttons there to help people be able to navigate into the system we still looking at the notion of having them there under contact your senator for the smaller groups for the for the individuals that might be coming whereas we're working through with our our team that was where we are at this moment i don't understand that answer is a difference in the wording between individual and family reservations and group reservations why wouldn't you be including contact your senator or how representative for a tour button on the individual reservation section at this moment we were focusing primarily on the group reservations for for doing that and trying to still go through the logistics of how that would be done for the individuals in the family and the famil individuals so i'll get back to you to you to let you know how we're progressing on that is there still is there a question mark as to whether or not you would use that wording because again it is the does a strong desire of the members of the house and senate to not have people default into the advance registration reservation system which the way these three buttons are laid out is what would happen when they're interested in taking a tour there's nothing in the individual and family reservation section that would indicate that you could get a tour from the member that represents you to i mean it just says contact your senator contact your representative if i want to tour i'm not interested in contacting the representative or senator i want to reservation which is the third button so i don't know how to make any more clear or or for that the members can make any more clear that you need to clearly indicate on the button for all the reservations and all the options that constituent can book a tour through their member i don't understand what is the problem i don't think there is a problem it's just a question of those going through the logistics of making sure that that's what we can do we know we can absolutely do it with the groups and that's what we're focusing on who's we because it's actually harder for a member's office to give a tour to a large group because we have to enlist more staff to handle the ratio of staff to two constituent it isn't difficult at all for a member's office to handle a small group or an individual given here on how we are proceeding with i was addressing the buttons i'm getting frustrated because this is the third c d c oversight hearing in which i have gone back and forth it might be the fourth c d c oversight hearing in which we've gone back and forth with you on making sure that we can maximize our constituents opportunity to take a tour of the capital led by our staff and it's really i feel like i am i'm struggling with you in order to be able to ensure that that can still happen and you know i shouldn't have to go through four meetings for oversight hearings in order to do something as simple as ensuring that our constituents can book a tour and know where to go and what button to click on to do that medicare i think is just my inability to communicate this well be as easy as you got when to contact your senator there is a button that asked if you want to take a staff like tour so my problem is i'm having a difficulty communicating what these other screens are so i need to do a better job at that and i will get back to you with that info before my time expires i want to clearly indicate that i don't think it should be several screens later i think on the tour page right at the beginning it should indicate that you can click on that button to book a tour through your member that represents you not contact and then and then click on the button that says take it or so i don't know how many how much more crystal clear i can architecture and what a great great facility this is and it appears to me we're making it as humanly possible for anyone to get there as soon as we can i mean we're doing everything we can to keep people as far away from a to put them either costs in the most or put them at a long distance hike doing everything we can to make it on accessible and i  convoluted and just i would hope that we could find some resolution to these problems because it just doesn't seem to me that it's going to work and we're going to have a lot of people who  are not going to enjoy the whole experience because of some of the things that maybe they had to go through to get there you testified last week on a different subject from an ny attempts to to save over time and redeploy our personnel but with twenty one i believe it's twenty one shy of our number to operate the c b c that for and the possibility of staff led tours the tunnel is an additional ten and with the opening of the new visitors experience as well as attrition it would be very difficult and it would impact our ability to provide a number of officers to do the job my biggest concern is that we would have to back fill it with overtime and working our officers extremely well i definitely don't want to make it difficult or doing everything we can and seems like i'm willing to i have i have been working with everyone regarding the security requirements  will provide a much greater experience for people first of all you'll be able to get through different magnetometers at a rate that right now the capitol police have been able to do the speed with which people will get into the building they will they'll be able to get into an environment that air conditioning and you can use restrooms part of the frustration of visitors often is how uncomfortable they are for that wait a moment and part of our whole welcoming approach is to make sure that we minimize that capitol but once they get to us we want to make that a welcoming experience as a very good job of making it welcoming so i do think we need to be mindful of that part of that we also want to make their dwell time within the i'm sorry i'm going to turn it over to you in a second but we are now moving from the point where we have had for the last year you know our almost exclusive focus on the construction of the facility which is ninety nine percent complete which we have repeatedly and consistently for the last several hearings been able to hear a report since november when you got to get the project partners got together and agreed on the cost to complete and the opening date and that has not shifted it's allowing us to focus more on the logistics of your operational plans and you know at the end of the day you need to understand that we as members are going to bear the brunt of the criticism and the concern in the complaint when our we have frustrated constituents who are the parents of hot crying little kids or senior citizens who are passing out from heat or you know people who are frustrated that they've already had to reach deep in their pocket to pay for the field trip to get their kids up here and on top of that now it's another dollar to put them on a circulator bus and we're separating those kids and making them wait i don't know how long so they actually get to the soul of the and you know i know this seems harshly critical of your plan but you just and i know you have an incredible amount of experience in this ralph and i have confidence that you have the ability to make this process smooth but she's between i mean i realize that the c d c is is designed so that we can keep the capital cost secure but the members have always been really very very mindful of not making the capital into a fortress and that's something that i just ask that you keep in mind and thank you ms lee ms lee and i have to associate myself with your remarks i will go through that because i think bottom line is people have to feel that their experience was worth it and that they had a pleasant experience and to be able to benefit from all of the the good stuff that they're going to learn  oftentimes just the experience of getting there going through whatever they're going through is overriding to it overrides what they really are there to participate in and so i  some change orders have been closed yet there are new proposed change orders which almost means there is a wash in terms of actual closing of change orders so i'd like to find out what is going on what the number of outstanding proposed change yours are how much and where do you think this will land and let me before you respond let me just because i wasn't at the if you look at it in the last several months you're actually you're absolutely correct the the number that we're able to settle is basically about the same as a new ones coming in and the reason the reason for the new ones coming in is acceptance testing and there are issues that come up there that we have to address so i would say that for the next probably two months we'll probably have additional change proposed changes coming in  we'll still be settling the ones that we have but we probably aren't going to be seeing a an appreciable drop for probably the next sixty days and i suspect after that we'll see a drop because we'll be closing out and settling more than will be opening what do you think the dollar amount of the the new proposed changes well right now the dollar value of the proposed changes is roughly under thirty million dollars  well could i provide that information or procurement related issues so i'd rather not say publicly but we can get you that information the other point i'd like to make is that most of those however  the new ones or the ones we haven't settled are under twenty thousand dollars and historically about thirty percent of those that we've got don't go through their rejector avoided so  we probably won't be seeing all of that thirty million dollars actually come to fruition in a modification ok thank you and just for the record the chair than for me that that the change our orders are within the six hundred twenty standing outside or whatever the the only concern i have with the tunnels and i've expressed this before is that they're very tight the air flow is poor the lighting conditions are poor  and it's very difficult to evacuate people or you know help people in that type of environment it's not very welcoming it's not a situation that many like to be  with with the front entrance of the c d c being so grand and open and obviously the technology there to screen very high volume number of people what is it is optimum but we realize that  there are concerns and assumptions may change and i think from the beginning we've planned out various assumptions that could change and you know if we needed people or resources or  tunnels correct that's correct ok great ok well this is an informative hearing and i'm glad that that we were able to air a lot of the concerns because that's the only way that we're going to be able to make sure beautiful as it is and as much time and effort and money that has gone into building it we don't want to have reports from constituents who walk away frustrated and who are or who arrive into  the the c d c grouchy in a bad mood to start with and then less open to the experience and we've all been through that when we've been in various vacation situations no no no vacation is perfect we'd and the information that we'd like to see it from you in a day or on paper because we've talked about the damage to the papers on the east front plaza at a number of our hearing so far and today g a o noted in a state its statement that substantial rework may be required to prevent further damage there are a few features of the capitol visitor center project that are going to be more visible than the new plaza so i want to make sure you have a well thought out plan in place to address the damage to the papers with that in mind by may thirtieth i'd like the architect of the capit submit its plan for repairing the plaza pavers moving forward this plan should include a general schedule for these repairs and explanation of how you will ensure the repairs don't impact the presidential inauguration and a general outline we're not looking for chapter and verse here but a general outline