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55–537 2010

REVIEW OF THE USE OF COMMITTEE FUNDS 

IN THE FIRST SESSION OF THE 111TH CONGRESS (CONTINUED) 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON HOUSE 

ADMINISTRATION 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

Held in Washington, DC, February 3, 2010 

Printed for the use of the Committee on House Administration 

( 

Available on the Internet: 

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/house/administration/index.html 

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COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION 

ROBERT A. BRADY, Pennsylvania, Chairman 

ZOE LOFGREN, California, 

Vice-Chairwoman 

MICHAEL E. CAPUANO, Massachusetts 

CHARLES A. GONZALEZ, Texas 

SUSAN A. DAVIS, California 

ARTUR DAVIS, Alabama 

DANIEL E. LUNGREN, California, 

Ranking Minority Member 

KEVIN MCCARTHY, California 

GREGG HARPER, Mississippi 

JAMIE FLEET, Staff Director 

VICTOR ARNOLD-BIK, Minority Staff Director 

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REVIEW OF THE USE OF COMMITTEE FUNDS 

IN THE FIRST SESSION OF THE 111TH CONGRESS (CONTINUED) 

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2010 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION, 

Washington, DC. 

The committee met, pursuant to call, at 11:38 a.m., in room 

1310, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Robert A. Brady 

(chairman of the committee) presiding. 

Present: Representatives Brady, Lofgren, Davis of California, 

Davis of Alabama, Lungren, McCarthy, and Harper. 

Staff Present: Jamie Fleet, Staff Director; Matt Pinkus, Professional Staff/Parliamentarian; Kyle Anderson, Press Director; Joe 

Wallace, Legislative Clerk; Greg Abbott, Professional Staff Member; Shervan Sebastian, Staff Assistant; Victor Arnold-Bik, Minority Staff Director; Karin Moore, Minority Legislative Counsel; Mary 

Sue Englund, Minority Professional Staff Member. 

The CHAIRMAN. I would like to call the Committee on House Administration to order and thank you all for being here, and thank 

Chairman, Mr. Dreier, for being here, from the Rules Committee 

and we appreciate that. 

As you know, when we first had the hearing a while ago, a year 

ago when we were doing the resources for your committee, we 

thought it would be a good idea for you to come back after a year 

and let us know how you all are doing and maybe we could help 

you if you are not doing okay and hopefully you are doing okay. So 

it is as far as I got to say; as far as Mr. Lungren, I recognize you 

for any comments you would like to make. 

Mr. LUNGREN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you 

for agreeing to this idea that we have the committees come back 

and report to us after a year. We find out how the funding is going. 

We find out how the commitment has been about the staff ratios 

and we have had, I think, good hearings I think thus far, we only 

have a few more left. And I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for conducting these hearings. And I think we have actually accomplished 

something and helped members reach their objective, which is to 

have the committees work. And I look forward to working with you 

on this, thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Harper. 

Mr. HARPER. No remarks. 

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Chairman. 

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STATEMENT OF THE HON. DAVID DREIER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA 

Mr. DREIER. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and Mr. Lungren. And Mr. Harper thanks to all of you for all being here. Let 

me first say that the distinguished chairwoman of the Committee 

on Rules, Ms. Slaughter is in a meeting and she very much wants 

to be here and is hoping to be here. I know basically what she is 

going to say, I think, and I will tell you that from my perspective, 

by and large, it has been so far so good. We have traditionally had 

the 2/3, 1/3 ratio which we began in 1995 and that has continued. 

And while we have control of the staffing funding, staff funding, 

that has worked out well. The other areas of equipment and those 

sorts of things we don’t directly have control over, but I am happy 

to report that due to the close working relationship that we have 

at the staff level, that we have never been denied any opportunity 

to have the necessary resources that we need to do our job as members of the minority on the Rules Committee. 

I will say that there is one exception and one thing that does concern me greatly. I am sitting here at this moment looking right 

into a camera as I am testifying before you. There are a grand total 

of three committees in the House of Representatives that don’t provide regular televised coverage of the proceedings of their committee for the American people. Again, I would argue that we as 

members in the minority and Republicans have been treated fairly 

when it comes to staffing and equipment and resources that we 

need. But the American people have been denied by virtue of the 

fact that the Rules Committee does not have this regular opportunity for the American people to see the committee in action and 

working. 

The other two committees are the Intelligence Committee and 

the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. I think it is very 

understandable that the Intelligence Committee and the Ethics 

Committee would not have regular televised coverage. 

The Rules Committee, on the other hand, has a very interesting 

story. When I first went two decades ago, went on the Rules Committee, David Broder, the Dean of the Washington Press Corps, 

said to me, you know David, that committee up there is very, very 

small—that hearing room, by design. Broder looked at me and said, 

it is to keep us out. And there are stories throughout history of the 

action of the Rules Committee, things that have been done in a secretive way. I remember Czar Reid was known to have—I was told 

this by the late Robert Novak, who I suspect covered Czar Reid’s 

news conferences. When he came out he said after a meeting with 

members of his Rules Committee, gentlemen, to the gathering 

press, we have just perpetrated the following outrage in defining, 

describing the work product of the Rules Committee. 

Now as you know very well, the Rules Committee often can predetermine, almost predetermine the outcome of legislation on the 

House floor. So whether it is taxing, spending foreign policy initiatives, virtually everything that we do before a piece of legislation 

comes to the floor, a special rule is reported out. The committee 

chairman and ranking, member and members who seek to offer 

amendments come before the Rules Committee. 

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And unfortunately those proceedings are not only—they are not 

televised and they are not even made available on line. Now C– 

SPAN, on occasion, does come to the Rules Committee and they are 

relegated to a supply closet in the back of the room, which is challenging because sometimes, as you know, the Rules Committee 

hearings can go on for hours and hours and hours. And I look back 

at the C–SPAN employees who are relegated to this cramped closet 

and we could—when I was—when we were in the majority, I 

worked to lay the groundwork for us to have television coverage, 

the Rules Committee and I just don’t see any reason why we 

should not provide that opportunity for the American people to see 

the Rules Committee’s work in action. We know that this became 

a big issue in the Presidential campaign, transparency, accountability and disclosure are all guides that we have. And I think the 

final step before a measure moves to the floor of the House of Representatives should, in fact, be transparent, that is the Rules Committee. And so I hope that we will be able to have a chance to put 

those proceedings before cameras. 

I will say that, again, Mrs. Slaughter and members of her staff 

have been very accommodating in dealing with the challenges that 

we face. And I do feel strongly though Mr. Chairman, and Mr. Lungren, and Mr. Harper about the need for us to do what you do right 

here in this committee. So thank you very much. 

[The statement of Mr. Dreier follows:] 

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The CHAIRMAN. I understand. Thank you. Mr. Lungren. 

Mr. LUNGREN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, I wonder if 

you could venture a guess, Mr. Dreier, as to which institution will 

be the first to televise their proceedings, the Rules Committee or 

the U.S. Supreme Court? 

Mr. DREIER. Now, that is an interesting question and I don’t 

know. I certainly—I know that there is a rigorous debate as to 

whether or not the United States Supreme Court provides coverage. I did hear just yesterday that in our State of California, that 

the proceedings on the Proposition 8 campaign were not televised, 

but our friends in Hollywood have just put together an entire cast 

and they are reenacting, having looked at the transcripts of the 

court proceedings there and they are making apparently a motion 

picture out of it. 

Mr. LUNGREN. I am sure it will be nominated at the next Academy Awards. 

Mr. DREIER. It might. 

Mr. LUNGREN. They seemed to nominate a lot of movies nobody 

goes to. 

Mr. DREIER. Now they have got 10 from which to choose for best 

picture. 

Mr. LUNGREN. I know. Blind Side is a great one, by the way. 

I would like to compliment the Rules Committee on your restrained budget request last year. I think it was a modest 1.8 percent increase from 2008 to 2009, total increase for the 110th congress about 4.2 percent. One of the lowest, I think, you are in the 

bottom three of the requests in the entire House, we appreciate 

that. 

As of December 31st, your committee has about 17 percent unexpended balance. And as you know after a year that returns to basically the Treasury. So once again, your committee’s done a good job 

there. 

Do you have any insights as to how your committee was able to 

achieve a 17 percent savings while still starting off with a modest 

budget relative to other requests? 

Mr. DREIER. Well, let me first say that you know more about the 

operations than I from what you just outlined. I wasn’t familiar 

personally with all of those details. And I would say that if you 

look at the work of the Rules Committee, it is necessary that we 

have the resources, but we have been able to do that. Frankly, 

there have not been too many hearings held on legislative issues 

beyond the actual reporting out of the special rules for the House 

Floor. We did have one a couple of months ago, but that may be 

one of the reasons. The Rules Committee actually has jurisdiction 

on a number of issues, budget process. If you look at things like 

trade, one of the reasons I have been very involved in trade issue 

is so-called fast track negotiating authority is there. We as a committee have not really gotten into a lot of those issues recently. We 

did that in the past. And of course, holding those hearings and 

doing research on it does take resources and that may be one of 

the reasons that we have been able to keep those numbers as low 

as possible. 

I do say also that I think that as we look at the fact that the 

American people are trying to deal with cuts, I had a Town Hall 

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meeting last night and talked to a woman whose said that her income has gone from $40,000 a year to $16,000 a year. There are 

a lot of people hurting, and the idea of trying to, within the operations of the Congress, be as circumspect as possible recognizing 

how precious those taxpayer dollars is is an important thing, and 

that is why I support the idea of trying to turn back as much as 

we can. 

Mr. LUNGREN. Thank you very much. 

Mr. DREIER. Thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dreier. Also for the 

record, I want to make sure that Mr. Dreier is shown that he has 

sympathy and feelings for C–SPAN. 

Mr. DREIER. C–SPAN employees. You know the employees who 

are relegated to the broom closet. 

The CHAIRMAN. Now he is correcting me. 

Mr. DREIER. No, I have praise for C–SPAN but no sympathy for 

them. But some of the employees could be treated a little better if 

we just do what you guys do right here. 

The CHAIRMAN. I was trying to get you by here. 

Mr. DREIER. Yeah, thanks we need all the help we can. 

The CHAIRMAN. You just wouldn’t take it. 

Mr. DREIER. Thanks very much, fellas. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

While we are waiting for Mr. Rahall, I need to submit for the 

record an extend the statement that highlights our own use of the 

committee funds for the first session of 111th Congress including 

in the statement is a brief summary of our committee’s oversight 

activities, financial affairs and to continue to the 2/3, 1/3 relationship with the ranking member, Mr. Lungren. 

Mr. LUNGREN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate 

that. And I want to say that it is a pleasure working with you. We 

have probably had a great working relationship in part because we 

haven’t had any contentious issues thus far. I suspect with today’s 

hearing, we may start on some differences of opinion, but in terms 

of the work that we do in this committee on behalf of our colleagues and on behalf of the institution, you and I are on the same 

page and I appreciate that very much. I do appreciate the 1/3, 

2/3s and the fairness with which you have accommodated my request and the request of others on the minority side, so thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. Well, we are going to be, without question, from 

time to time, disagreeing, but we are not going to be disagreeable. 

Thank you. 

I understand Mr. Rahall is on his way, but rather than sit here 

looking at each other, I wouldn’t mind starting with Mr. Hastings. 

I know you two get along because everybody gets along with you 

and Mr. Rahall. So if you don’t mind, we will start with you. Mr. 

Lungren do you have anything you need to say? 

Mr. LUNGREN. No. 

STATEMENT OF THE HON. DOC HASTINGS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF WASHINGTON 

Mr. HASTINGS. Okay, thank you Mr. Chairman and Ranking 

Member Lungren and other members of the committee. I appreciate the opportunity to make brief comments considering the Nattjames on DSK5CLS3C1PROD with HEARING

7 

ural Resources Committee and the funding from the perspective of 

the Republican minority. First, we do receive a full third of the 

staff salary funds to administer and we receive 20 staff positions 

out of the 69 allocated to the committee. In an arrangement that 

predates my time as ranking member, nine of the 69 positions have 

been deemed administrative positions that support both sides of 

the committee. The majority pays the salaries of these nine from 

their 2/3 share. And while most of these tasks performed by these 

9 are managed by the majority, we have no complaints over the responsiveness or the services rendered to minority over the past 

year. 

Second, a sizable portion of the unspent committee funds for 

2009 is attributable to unspent staff funds from the minority’s 

1/3 share. One, I have always believed that the funds allocated to 

the committee and personal congressional offices should be allocated frugally and wisely. During my service in the House, for example, I have returned funds from my personal office allocation 

each and every year. 

The other reason for the unspent funds is that 2009 was my first 

year as ranking member on this committee. And as such, there was 

a turnover on the Republican staff and not all staffing positions 

there were filled for the entire year. For example several staff departed near the end of the year and these positions are just now 

being filled. In fact, just last week I announced a hiring of three 

new staff. So it is my expectation that we will soon be at full staff 

levels in preparation for this second session. 

In conclusion, I have no concerns or complaints about the administration of committee funds. Chairman Rahall and I do disagree 

over a fair number of policy matters under our committee’s jurisdiction, but I believe we share a common belief that political or policy differences should not be injected into the committee budget 

and administration matters. And it is in that regard that I very 

much appreciate his actions as we did this last year and I certainly 

believe that will be the same as we move forward this year. So 

thank you very much for the opportunity to testify. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

[The statement of Mr. Hastings follows:] 

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The CHAIRMAN. And thank you, Mr. Rahall, for joining us. 

STATEMENT OF THE HON. NICK RAHALL, A REPRESENTATIVE 

IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS 

Mr. RAHALL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. While I did not hear all 

of my ranking member’s comments, I am sure I associate myself 

with them. 

Mr. HASTINGS. You absolutely do, 110 percent. 

Mr. RAHALL. The first time in 110 years did you say? 

Thank you, Chairman Brady and Ranking Member Lungren, for 

the opportunity to be here today and update you on the status of 

the Committee on Natural Resources budget for the 111th Congress. I do ask unanimous consent to submit my full statement for 

the record, and I will now summarize my statement. 

The CHAIRMAN. Without objection, so ordered. 

Mr. RAHALL. Our committee’s budget for the first session was 

8,125,517 and almost 7.4 million was spent. There also remains 

roughly 67,000 in an outstanding first session obligation’s primarily for supplies and equipment. As with all the committees, the 

staff salaries account for the lion’s share of the budget. In our case, 

the majority has 40 staff slots and the minority has 20 and nine 

staffers are shared employees such as the Chief Clerk and the systems administrators. The minority fully controls 1/3 of the budget 

for staff salaries, the rest of the budget is shared and used primarily for equipment and travel without regard to political party. 

It is truly a bipartisan budget, and I would note that all these resources are put to good use by our committee, we shepherded almost 100 individual bills through the House last session. And I 

should note that one of those bills, the omnibus parks and public 

lands bill passed early last year including 168 House and Senate 

measures. 

So the bills we advance do not rename or name post offices or 

Federal buildings, rather they are substantive pieces of legislation, 

advancing natural resources, Native American and U.S. territorial 

policies. I thank you for this time and urge for the adoption of our 

budget if you so see in your wisdom. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

[The statement of Mr. Rahall follows:] 

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The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Lungren. 

Mr. LUNGREN. The gentleman is not engaged in the effort to get 

rid of the conspiracy of unnamed post offices? That is a rhetorical 

question. We do spend a lot of time making sure we get rid of that 

problem. 

When you were both here last time—first of all, in your written 

statement, Chairman Rahall, you noted an increase in the cost of 

certain vendor services such as Web site development. I remember 

when you were here before us last time, the ranking member 

talked about upgrading the minority Web site and there might be 

some costs involved in that. Has that been taken care of, any problem with that? 

Mr. HASTINGS. No, and thank you for inquiry, no. Our Web site 

now is up and running as we anticipated it would when we were 

here last time, so it is fully functioning right now. 

Mr. LUNGREN. Good, that was the only question I had. 

Mr. HASTINGS. The answer to the question is yes. 

Mr. LUNGREN. That is the only question I had because that was 

sort of in the air when you both testified here last time. I am glad 

that has gone forward, thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank both of you and appreciate your attendance. 

The committee on House Administration will stand in recess 

until the last vote in approximately 45 minutes. 

[Recess.] 

The CHAIRMAN. I would like to call the Committee on House Administration to order and thank you all for being here. We are 

going to take Judiciary, Mr. Conyers and Mr. Issa is going to sit 

in for Mr. Smith, I think he is doing double duty today. Thank you 

for coming, as you said last year when we did the funding we wanted you to come back and let us know how you are doing and any 

problems or anything we would be helpful with. We appreciate you 

coming back and meeting again with us. Mr. McCarthy, do you 

have anything? 

Mr. MCCARTHY. No, let them get started. 

The CHAIRMAN. You can start, Chairman Conyers. 

STATEMENT OF THE HON. JOHN CONYERS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MICHIGAN 

Mr. CONYERS. Chairman Brady, Ranking Member McCarthy, I 

am happy to be here with my good friend, Darrell Issa, to make 

sure that we give the clearest status report on the way the House 

Judiciary Committee uses the resources that are appropriated to 

us. I want to put in an apology for Lamar Smith, but he had a commitment that required him to remain on the floor. 

In accordance with House Res. 279, we were allotted $18.8 million for expenses for the 111th Congress. The committee’s funding 

was $9.2 million for the first session, $9.5 for the second session. 

And it is my understanding that the 2/3, 1/3 split for the minority 

payroll has been satisfactory over the years with my Republican 

colleagues. During the calendar year 2009, the committee spent $8.3 million 

on staff compensation. Our operational expenses, travel equipment, 

communications, printing for the calendar year was $547,799. To 

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implement the committee’s oversight and investigation agenda 

there were a total of 96 hearings held. The committee convened 21 

markups, of which 35 bills were reported. We are one of the busiest 

committees in the House of Representatives. 

The committee special impeachment task force held 6 hearings 

establishing its justification for the impeachment of the former 

Judge Samuel Kent and G. Thomas Porteous. On June 19th of last 

year, the House voted unanimously to recommend the articles of 

impeachment against Mr. Kent to the Senate. In support of the 

committee’s bipartisan impeachment efforts, slightly more than a 

half million dollars was allocated for that work. And of these funds, 

$218,000 represent consultants contract and operational funds, a 

total of $318,000. 

At the conclusion of the first session the task force operational funds for 2009 totaled $536,915. We have been very careful with 

the allocation of funds because we have so many members of the 

Judiciary Committee that also serve on this honorable body, and so 

we are pretty careful in the reports that we file when we come before you. The committee statement of expenses and fund balance 

as of December of last year indicated a balance of—wait a minute— 

$8,909. This figure with increase to reflect the end-of-year expenses. And so we anticipate in the neighborhood of $106,000 

unspent balance. 

I appreciate the opportunity to briefly outline our accounting of 

our resources and we have further backup material for your approval and analysis. And I thank you for this time. 

[The statement of Mr. Conyers follows:] 

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The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. Mr. Issa. 

Mr. ISSA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Lungren, 

I would ask unanimous consent that Mr. Smith’s entire statement 

be placed in the record. 

The CHAIRMAN. Without objection so ordered. 

[The statement of Mr. Smith follows:] 

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STATEMENT OF THE HON. DARRELL ISSA, A REPRESENTATIVE 

IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA 

Mr. ISSA. Thank you. It is a great honor to represent Ranking 

Member Smith here but I will speak as much for myself and perhaps even for Ranking Member Lungren. We have a committee 

that has been both frugal and effective. Chairman Conyers has 

been very fair in the allocation of resources. It has enabled both the 

majority and minority to do their job in a difficult time and a very 

busy time. The committee’s operations are to the full satisfaction 

of the minority through vigorous negotiation with the majority. Our 

needs for both personnel and hardware and software and other assets necessary to do our job have been answered. And we thank 

this committee, we have no unresolved issues and we look forward 

to the second session being equally productive under the leadership 

of the Chairman. And with that, I yield back. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

[The statement of Mr. Issa follows:] 

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The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Lungren, any questions. 

Mr. LUNGREN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to underscore what the Chairman said. One of the necessary tasks of the 

Judiciary Committee is to investigate and follow through on impeachment proceedings if the facts warrant. As a member of the 

committee’s task force, I can tell you we have done our job diligently. We did, in fact, bring to the floor of the House an impeachment resolution of one Federal judge last year. We are in the 

throes right now of proceeding on a second one; those are costly investigations to make sure that we are fair to the subject of those 

impeachment proceedings and fair to those complainants who 

brought evidence before us, and that is just an expensive proposition. And I would say that I think the Judiciary Committee has 

done an outstanding job in that regard. Those are the kinds of 

funds that have to be expended in ways that maybe are not always 

fully anticipated, yet they are being done within the budget of the 

committee. And I thank the chairman and I thank Mr. Issa; in 

absentia, I thank Mr. Smith for their leadership and I would yield 

back. 

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Harper. 

Thank you all for being here today, thank you. 

Mr. CONYERS. Thank you very much. Could I just add with all 

the judiciary members, Zoe Lofgren included, the impeachment 

task force is not something we are enthusiastic about or take any 

pleasure whatsoever in doing. It is very disturbing matter that occasionally, and thank goodness it is where we have members of the 

bench whose conduct or actions require us to make these investigations and we do so as soberly and as responsibly as we can. I thank 

you again, Chairman Brady, for your indulgence and our reporting 

to you over the years. 

Mr. LUNGREN. Do we have three of the youngest staff members 

of the Judiciary Committee in the front row? I have seen that they 

have been very attentive and I didn’t know whether they were 

going to testify. They have somewhat of a passing resemblance to 

Mr. McLaughlin. 

Mr. CONYERS. It is how we reduce our expenses in our committee. 

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Lungren, although a snow day is the excuse, it is 

part of circumventing the child labor laws in order to get more 

staff. [Laughter.] 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

We would like to ask Ms. Slaughter to come up. 

Chairlady Slaughter, Mr. Dreier was here already to testify, he 

had to leave and he knew you would be a little late so we would 

like to hear from you right now. 

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Thank you very much. 

The CHAIRMAN. Just push that button. 

STATEMENT OF THE HON. LOUISE SLAUGHTER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW 

YORK 

Ms. SLAUGHTER. It is on, I think. There we go. 

I do appreciate your kindness today in accommodating my schedule change. And I certainly appreciate Mr. Dreier for giving me the 

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opportunity to come at a different time than when he was here. I 

am really pleased to provide you an update on how the Committee 

on Rules expended funds in the first half of the 111th Congress. 

As you know, the Committee on Rules helps set the parameters of 

the debate for specific pieces of legislation. It has the unique role 

of considering the vast majority of complex legislative initiatives 

before they ever get to the House floor. Furthermore, the committee maintains jurisdiction over many other issues of critical importance to the operation of the House. Everything from the opening day Rules package to ensuring the ability of the House to function in times of crisis. This has been an extremely busy and productive year for us as it was for the entire Congress. 

Let me give you a few examples, we held 79 hearings in session 

1 of this Congress, we used over 400,0000 pieces of paper of which 

we are ashamed, we are trying to use less. And had almost 600 

Members testify at our meetings. As always, the first session of 

Congress is intense, and we were not surprised by this level of activity. Besides moving historic pieces of legislation on issues like financial regulatory reform and health care reform, the committee 

also handled the economic recovery bill. Our expectation is that the 

heavy workload will continue in the current year with an intensified focus on job creation. 

In light of the economic climate we have tried to be conservative 

in our budget, and I believe we have been. We have a modest 1.8 

percent increase in 2009 over 2008, in keeping with belt tightening 

elsewhere. Our budget is lean, with just enough in it to keep the 

committee functioning effectively on behalf of Members, staff, and 

the public. 

Part of our spending in this session of Congress will be geared 

toward making smart technology purchases that will assist staff 

and conserve resources. For example, as we try to lessen the 

amount of paper we use, we are considering ways we can put an 

even greater proportion of our work product into electronic form. 

This makes the process faster and ultimately saves money. Part of 

that push will be a continued spending on the internal Rules database that we have talked about in previous years called the Committee on Rules Electronic Database or CORE. 

The budget for the last year maintained the Rules Committee’s 

tradition of giving the minority one third of the total staff slots allocated to us along with control over one third of the committee salary funds. The other categories represent joint funding. We work 

with the minority to ensure that the necessary resources are made 

available to them. 

In summary, our budget for the first session of Congress was put 

together with care and represents an appropriate level of funding 

for our activities. We are planning to continue this tradition in the 

next year with additional investments that will help us better serve 

the House and the American people. 

I would also like to respond briefly to the complaint that we do 

not have cameras in our meeting room. All of you who have been 

to the Rules Committee know that you could probably fit six of our 

committee rooms within this single room. We are greatly strapped 

for space. However, all Rules meetings are and have always been 

open to cameras and the press. We never prevent reporters from 

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covering us and we always invite C–SPAN and other TV outlets to 

cover all of our hearings. In addition we also use temporary cameras in our hearing room for all major legislation. 

Our meetings on health care reform, stimulus, and financial 

services bills were all broadcast widely by the cameras that were 

at the Rules Committee. Cameras also film our other hearings, like 

the one the Rules Committee held on preserving antibiotics for humans. To encourage the We never prevent reporters from covering 

us and we always invite C–SPAN and other TV outlets to cover all 

of our hearings. In addition we also use temporary cameras in our 

hearing room for all major legislation. 

Our meetings on health care reform, stimulus, and financial 

services bills were all broadcast widely by the cameras that were 

at the Rules Committee. Cameras also film our other hearings, like 

the one the Rules Committee held on preserving antibiotics for humans. To encourage the 

openness of our meetings, we have upgraded the microphone system in our hearing room, so the TV coverage is improved and there 

is a better sound quality. We have taken other steps to improve 

openness in the last year. 

We provide copies of the rule to the public immediately and offer 

electronic copies for those reporters who cannot attend. Reporters 

get a copy of the rule at the same time the Members get it. Our 

website is one of the best in the House. We provide the entire committee report, copies and summaries of all amendments, and links 

to legislation. 

I will be happy to answer any questions you may have and I 

thank you again for your consideration this morning. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. Mr. Lungren. 

Mr. LUNGREN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Madam 

Chair, you commented, and I mentioned before when Mr. Dreier 

was here about the modest increase that you had this Congress 

over last Congress, that is a compliment to you and to Mr. Dreier 

and the way you are running the committee. I notice that as of December 31st, at least as reported to this committee, your committee 

had unexpended funds of around 600,000, about 17 percent of your 

budget. Can you give us any idea how you were able to achieve 

those savings or is that the result of not having full staffing? 

Ms. SLAUGHTER. No, I think we have some turnover in staff from 

time to time, but we are just frugal. My maiden name is McIntosh, 

I probably should tell you that. 

Mr. LUNGREN. This room has been redone, and one of the things 

that we had for this is to put in permanent cameras here in a little 

spot back there. Would there be any possibility we could do that 

in the Rules Committee so that there would actually be a mechanism by which it would be easier to have a feed from that room? 

Ms. SLAUGHTER. One of the difficulties is the size of the room. 

It is very confining as you know. We have noticed an increase in 

the number of staff that Members who come to testify bring with 

them. We almost always have standing room and people piled 

around. I don’t even know if you could see the cameras if you were 

in that room. But as I pointed out, you could put six of my hearing 

rooms within this single room. So we have probably the smallest 

hearing room in the Congress, yet we do the most work I think. 

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Nonetheless, I think it would be a distraction to have two of 

these huge cameras in that very small room. As I pointed out, we 

are open at all times to C–SPAN and any other cameras that want 

to come in. 

Mr. LUNGREN. If I am not mistaken, I think those are cameras 

in those recessed places there and one in the back. 

Ms. SLAUGHTER. The screens would be quite large. 

Mr. LUNGREN. If you were to make that request, I, for one, would 

be supporting an authorization for cameras somewhat like we have 

here or something similar. 

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Well, what we would like to request—— 

Mr. LUNGREN. What you said at the beginning of how important 

your work is, it is important. And all the number of bills that you 

deal with and the Rules that are set, because when I go home, I 

try to explain to my constituents that you have to understand the 

importance of the Rules, it establishes the ground rules. In some 

ways, even though you have permanent Rules, it is almost as if at 

the Super Bowl you have specific rooms for that game, that is what 

we do for every bill that is on the floor. 

My own personal belief, it would be good for us as a Congress 

if people could see that Members can come up, testify; they talk 

about why they think certain amendments should be; they get the 

response from your committee about whether it makes sense or 

not. And just my observation, I think it would be good, I would be 

happy to work with you if you could do something nonintrusive in 

your meeting room. 

Ms. SLAUGHTER. If you are open to it, we would really like to expand that room. It is much too small for the kind of work we do 

and the number of staff and everyone that is necessary in there. 

Maybe if you want to take the press area and move them somewhere else so that we can go in there. I’m sure you know already, 

that the only rest room is on the third floor for that second and 

third floor. So we are really jammed up there, I am sure you have 

noticed when you are there. 

Mr. LUNGREN. I noticed when I have testified. 

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Even the difficulty in getting to the testifying 

table. So we are perfectly open. We want everybody to know what 

we are doing, I think we were the first to make sure that all our 

material is quickly put on our web page, we think we have the best 

one in the House. All that information is there, easy to link to, 

hard copies are always available, staff is always available. We do 

everything we can and I agree with you, Rules is somewhat esoteric, but necessary, but we do need room to be able to do it. I 

thank you very much. 

Mr. Harper—McCarthy, I am sorry. 

[The statement of Ms. Slaughter follows:] 

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Mr. MCCARTHY. No problem, Madam Chair. Thank you for your 

testimony. I was quite impressed with how many committees you 

actually—meetings you have already had. You did say in your report there that you gave one-third of all staff, is that also one-third 

of the budget? 

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Yes, the staff budget, yes. 

Mr. MCCARTHY. I appreciate that. The only thing—if I could follow up on what Mr. Lungren said, if you were to expand, is there 

a room next door you could expand into? Isn’t there an office next 

door by the hearing rooms or no? 

Ms. SLAUGHTER. There is an office that is in constant use by all 

members of the Rules Committee on the Democratic side. We don’t 

have room up there even for even decent accommodations for the 

minority. And it would really be a good thing if we could look at 

some way that we could expand. 

Mr. MCCARTHY. Would you be willing to put in cameras now, 

though? 

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Excuse me? 

Mr. MCCARTHY. Would you be willing to put in cameras now? 

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Right now? 

Mr. MCCARTHY. Yes. 

Ms. SLAUGHTER. It is my belief that we are open as we can be, 

we are open to C–SPAN. We have reporters in there every single 

meeting, but the room that would be taken up by the screens would 

mean more people standing in the hall. As it is now, I have people 

standing out in the hall at every meeting who cannot get in that 

room. 

Mr. MCCARTHY. Having been to your hearings, yes. 

Ms. SLAUGHTER. You have been there. 

Mr. MCCARTHY. And how will you bring those cameras in now 

though because they take up so much space. 

Ms. SLAUGHTER. There is one little closet in the corner where C– 

SPAN comes, they operate out of the closet. 

Mr. MCCARTHY. But these are in a wall. 

Ms. SLAUGHTER. It is the screens that I am most concerned 

about. 

Mr. MCCARTHY. Would you be opposed to putting in cameras 

without the screens? 

Ms. SLAUGHTER. What would be the point. 

Mr. MCCARTHY. If you notice the screens are for the audience, 

and in Rules I agree with you it is so small you don’t have much 

of an audience. 

Ms. SLAUGHTER. No, we don’t. 

Mr. MCCARTHY. I am just thinking the people outside. Having 

just come from the retreat and listening to the President and his 

discussion and talk of wanting to open up the transparency here 

more, I think—— 

Ms. SLAUGHTER. We are very transparent, as my aide just reminded me, having offices in the Capitol is different than under the 

Architect of the Capitol, there is not a lot of—— 

Mr. MCCARTHY. I would be willing to work with you on that. 

Ms. SLAUGHTER. We are doing all right, Mr. McCarthy, thank 

you very much. 

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Mr. MCCARTHY. So you wouldn’t be opposed to putting a camera 

in. 

Ms. SLAUGHTER. We cannot in that small confined room do what 

you do here. 

Mr. MCCARTHY. I know. I am just asking to put a camera in. 

Ms. SLAUGHTER. I think we are perfectly covered. I have not had 

any complaints, to be honest with you. Now I am sure from now 

on I will get a lot of them because I know the game. But we are 

doing fine up there. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Thank you very much. 

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Frank and Mr. Bachus please. 

STATEMENT OF THE HON. BARNEY FRANK, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS 

Mr. FRANK. Mr. Chairman, where is the 5-minute rule when you 

need it? Let me say, Mr. Chairman, I think I can be very transparent because, like C–SPAN, according to Ms. Slaughter, I am operating out of the closet. The Committee on Financial Services had 

a large number of hearings and markups last year, as members are 

aware, culminating in a major piece of legislation, we had other 

legislation as well. I believe on the operational procedural level relations between the majority and minority have been good and I 

am open to any questions. 

[The statement of Mr. Frank follows:] 

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The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Bachus, anything you want to admit to?

STATEMENT OF THE HON. SPENCER BACHUS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ALABAMA 

Mr. BACHUS. I have new hearing aids, and I can press a button—— 

The CHAIRMAN. Push that button. 

Mr. BACHUS. I have new hearing aids, I can press a button and 

interpret Barney’s language from Alabama into Massachusetts. 

The CHAIRMAN. He doesn’t leave much for interpretation. 

Mr. BACHUS. The 1/3, 2/3 split, I think, has worked very well. We 

spent virtually all our allotment in the first session. The Chairman 

Frank’s staff has been very cooperative on administrative issues, I 

think they work well together. Our only request would be that we 

be granted access to FinMart and Document Direct to follow our 

funding and payments in a timely manner. That wouldn’t cost anything and it would greatly enhance our ability to manage our budget. 

It would also help green the Capitol and the alternative is to 

make copies of everything and it would also, I think, be—could be 

a savings, but with the broad range of issues continue to confront 

the committee, we expect a very busy legislative year, and with 

that, I think the 2/3, 1/3 split it would be necessary for us to continue to meet our obligations as the loyal opposition. 

[The statement of Mr. Bachus follows:] 

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Mr. FRANK. Mr. Chairman, I should say access of this access to 

a system, I will be honest with you, this is the first time I have 

heard of it, I am told by my staff that we were following the recommendation of this committee. I am open to discussions on it. I 

don’t have any proprietary concerns. I will talk to the ranking 

member about it. 

The other thing I wanted to say on behalf of, I think myself and 

Mr. Bachus, we were historically funded not very high in the 

rankings. I think we were as busy as any other committee in the 

Congress last year. We were able to increase it some, but I still 

very guilty about a number of very hard working, very talented 

staff, virtually all of whom could be making more money in the private sector who put in enormous hours on both sides. 

And I just want to say, my greatest regret about this is that we 

can’t do a better—we can not be fairer to these people, but I did 

want to acknowledge that. And if there is—I know there is not 

enough money around, but if there is, I think we can make as good 

a claim for more or for any. 

The CHAIRMAN. That is the purpose why we are having these 

hearings too, to be able to report back to where we have to report 

back to and hopefully—— 

Mr. FRANK. I think if you look at last year the number of markups, hearings, just—we could use roll call vote taker, we have 72 

members, 71 members. We are the second biggest committee, the 

bigger committee is Transportation Oversight. The issues there are 

not nearly as likely to go to roll calls as our do. And just in general, 

I think the people who work for us are pretty overburdened and 

not adequately compensated. 

Mr. CHAIRMAN. I understand. Mr. Lungren. 

Mr. LUNGREN. Thank you very much and I thank both of you for 

appearing before us. I was looking at the budget Financial Services 

has come up over—— 

Mr. FRANK. And we appreciate that. 

Mr. LUNGREN. It was very low if you think about it. I go back 

to 104th Congress in comparison to now. And so I appreciate the 

fact that particularly in this last year, you have had a lot more 

front line duties so to speak on issues of timeliness and urgency 

that the American people fully appreciate and still you managed to 

remain within your budget. 

On Mr. Bachus’s request, as I understand you are not asking 

that you have access to what the majority’s doing, you are trying 

to have some sort of software that will allow you to keep track of 

your spending on an instantaneous basis so you can watch that 

more carefully? 

Mr. BACHUS. And the committee already has software. I will acknowledge that I have not discussed it with Chairman Frank. 

Mr. FRANK. I didn’t even know about it. I didn’t even know what 

it was. 

Mr. BACHUS. I regret that I hadn’t—— 

Mr. LUNGREN. No, but I think there has been two committees— 

I think you are the second one who brought it up. I hope it is not 

a misunderstanding that the minority is trying to get information—— 

Mr. BACHUS. No, no, the—— 

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Mr. FRANK. No one is thinking about that. 

Mr. LUNGREN [continuing]. Information. 

Mr. FRANK. I am told what we do is what you do here, but I 

didn’t know before it came up. 

Mr. LUNGREN. Okay. 

Mr. BACHUS. These would be transactions that we make or requests. 

Mr. LUNGREN. I have no objection if you folks can work that out. 

It sounds to me instead of paperwork, you want a software system 

that allows you to follow your own bills rather than get a report 

at the end of the month. 

Mr. BACHUS. Right. And our own financial accounting reports 

from the minority. 

Mr. LUNGREN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. McCarthy. 

Mr. MCCARTHY. Mr. Chairman, I just want to—I sit on this committee and the number of hearings that we do have and the priority of what has been going on in the Nation, the work that has 

been provided, you have been using your money quite thoroughly. 

And when you sit down to the size and scope of the bills we are 

taking up, you want to make sure you have all the information and 

the implications of what will transpire. One, I want to thank the 

chairman for doing the one-third to the minority, I appreciate your 

willingness to look at the software that we are talking about as 

well, but I do know as we go down the path that this committee 

is putting a lot of work in the process. 

And one thing that wasn’t noted by these two, this is the second 

largest committee. Transportation is the only one larger. You have 

a lot of members on here and the size and scope of what you are 

going through the education for some of them to getting up on 

some of the issues—— 

Mr. FRANK. I appreciate that and the gentleman is a member of 

the committee. The nature of the issues, there is more controversy, 

I don’t mean to denigrate Transportation and Infrastructure, it is 

not that it is any less important, but it is of a different order of 

controversy. I am sure we have more rollcalls than just about any 

committee in the Congress. 

Mr. LUNGREN. Mr. Chairman, I just say when Mr. Frank was on 

the Judiciary Committee, there were no controversial issues at that 

time. 

Mr. FRANK. That is true. 

Mr. LUNGREN. Nor did he ever add to the controversy. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much. Thank you. Chairman 

Towns and Mr. Issa again. 

Mr. ISSA. First of all I want to thank Barney for asking for more 

money, it will make it easier for us. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you and thank you for coming back in 

front of us, that is part of the reason we want to hear how you are 

doing, and if we can be helpful we always want to be helpful. So 

Chairman Towns. 

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STATEMENT OF THE HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

Mr. TOWNS. Thank you very much, Chairman Brady and Ranking Member Lungren and all the members of the committee. I am 

pleased to be here to discuss the priorities and findings of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Thank you for this 

opportunity. 

Last year I testified before the committee that our two top priorities were to conduct rigorous oversight of economic stimulus funding and the use of funds provided to our Nation’s financial institution, through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, better known as 

TARP. I am pleased to join with the Ranking Member Darrell Issa 

to report back on our successful oversight during the past year. 

In 2009, the full committee conducted 12 oversight hearings on 

the financial sector, including hearings on government funding to 

AIG and Bank of America. The role of the credit rating agencies, 

and bonuses, and executive compensation. These oversight hearings lead directly to hundreds of millions of dollars being repaid to 

the Treasury. Several other financial institutions have repaid 

TARP funds to the Treasury. 

In addition, the full committee and its subcommittees convened 

several hearings overseeing economic stimulus spending. These 

hearings also produced tangible results in response to the testimony received at one hearing. I join with the Ranking Member, 

Mr. Issa, to write bipartisan legislation enhancing oversight resources for State and local governments which pass the house. 

In addition, the administration revised and improved its stimulus reporting practices and guidelines in response to our oversight. Our work on these 2 critical issues is just one aspect of the 

committee’s work. The few committee and subcommittees convened 

9 hearings in 2009 to examine the operational effectiveness of 

United States Government on issues ranging from cybersecurity, 

and Afghanistan contractors, to the Postal Service and this year’s 

census. 

In response to requests for information from Federal agencies 

and the private sector, we received millions of pages of documents. 

Needless to say, the scope of this work requires appropriate resources, and I am pleased to report that the committee has used 

our 2009 budget very effectively and fully. At the end of the year, 

all of our staff positions were filled and 96 percent of the budgets 

had been expended with most of the remainder obligated for expenses that are pending payment. 

I have continued the tradition of allocating 1/3 of the committee’s 

budget to the minority and I know Mr. Issa feels as strongly as I 

do about how important it is that this committee has sufficient resources, so we will be able to do our job and do our job effectively. 

In light of the current economic climate and our committee’s mission of promoting government efficiency, our bipartisan request for 

this year is simply that we maintain the 2010 funding level allocated in the committee funding resolution. Our primary expense is 

staff salaries given the complicated issues that this committee 

tackles both the majority and minority have assembled strong 

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nical expertise. Many of our staffers have decades of experience in 

Congress or in the other branches of the Federal Government. 

And many could easily receive much higher salaries from the 

other employers, but they stay here with us, maintaining our plan 

2010 funding level will allow us to maintain this talented and dedicated staff and enable us to incur prudent and necessary expenses 

for technology and travel in support of our mission. 

Let me conclude by thanking you, Chairman Brady and Ranking 

Member Lungren, and all the members of the committee for your 

support over the past year and look forward to working with you 

to ensure effective oversight for the rest of this Congress. Thank 

you for that. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

[The statement of Mr. Towns follows:] 

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The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Issa. 

Mr. ISSA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Lungren. 

No committee could have worked on a more bipartisan basis than 

this one has. Chairman Towns has been fair in the allocation of resources and we have worked together to find ways to get win-wins 

on the use of those dollars often not duplicating our efforts, but 

rather cutting them in half. The truth is though that the Oversight 

Committee is grossly underfunded. Yes, we live within our budget, 

each of us being within a few thousand dollars of full utilization. 

We did so partially by not staffing up at the beginning of the year 

and reserving funds for later in the year as our oversight role built. 

Which means that by definition, a full year in 2010 will be harder 

to achieve within a budget that last year was zeroed as far as 

growth, and this year increases only by 3 percent. 

The Chairman has done everything he can do within his power. 

We attempted to keep our costs down, but the truth is that this 

President has said he wants the most transparent government, 

that requires that we work on the bureaucracy that lies between 

the administration and ourselves in a cooperative way. The Chairman has coauthored legislation that would bring standard database 

management systems throughout the government. Our committee 

will have to shepherd that because frankly, the bureaucracy is 

pushing back on any utilization of common databases that create 

that transparency. Our work with the IGs, both regular and special 

IGs, means we each have less staff than they have IGs. We only 

have about one person for every 12 to 15 top level IGs that we 

work with. 

The whistleblower level is rising and just last week, this committee had to go through a quarter of a million documents in 1 

week in preparation for the oversight of the Federal Reserve of 

New York’s bailout of AIG. Quite frankly, we could not post those 

in good faith because we didn’t have the resource to ensure that 

no personal information was on it and the administration also did 

not seem to have those resources. So rather than take a chance on 

having Social Security or other information posted, we have to be 

very selective on what we made available to the public. 

Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, that is unacceptable. This committee is a committee of transparency and oversight. The beginning 

of the last Congress one of the justifications for zero increase was 

that other committees would do oversight. I have monitored that. 

The type of oversight we do has not been done in any other committee. Committees have continued to do the good work that they 

do, they have done it at a high level, but a 3 percent increase in 

those committees could never have begun to organize the kind of 

cross-government investigations that Chairman Towns’s people and 

my people do. 

I know that this year we will not be dealing with any anything 

other than the predetermined modest increase, but I would make 

several suggestions. First of all, this committee needs to invest on 

a Congress wide basis in items in the way of technology that will 

reduce the cost individual committees, that includes advance 

search, because although our committee is one of the premiere committees of searching through endless documents, it is very clear 

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view and they are not going to get human beings do it, they will 

have systems do it. 

Secondly, I regret our budgeting process does not meet a world 

class basis. I have lived only 1 year as a ranking member with this 

budget, but I must tell you in the private sector the idea that your 

budget doesn’t roll over, that in fact, you have to try to calculate 

how to get everything into this year so you don’t give it back not 

having it next year is typical government foolishness. It is exactly 

what our committee fights against. We don’t need or want or 

should have a use it or lose it. I would strongly suggest this committee, in its own deliberations, begin a modernization of House 

budgets. I would suggest that as much as 25 percent of a committee’s budget should be able to be rolled over essentially year to year 

in perpetuity. I know that requires action of the Congress, but I 

also know that frugalness starts off with an incentive to save and 

to have it in the future if needed. I know that that may be difficult, 

but I would suggest strongly that that in addition to additional 

slots that members may fill with either inexpensive or, in some 

cases, industrially free individuals also would be of benefit. Both 

the chairman and I have opportunities and space to put additional 

staff to work. We could, in some cases, find fellows and others that 

could be made available to us. However, both the chairman and 

myself and minority we filled all our staffs, we used all our staffs. 

So I know that a lot of what we do here is pro forma, but I hope 

that I have delivered you some ideas that your committee can do 

to help all of our committees in the future and I thank you for your 

patience and understanding and yield back. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. Mr. Lungren. 

Mr. LUNGREN. Thank you very much for the testimony of both of 

you and thank you for the work that you do. 

Mr. Issa, in your written testimony, you mentioned that the committee has been upgrading its technology to work more efficiently. 

Has the committee experienced any issues regarding information 

security as you have invested in these new technologies? And has 

the HIR for the House worked closely enough with you in identifying any security problems and attempting to ameliorate those 

problems? 

Mr. ISSA. Thank you, Mr. Lungren. I do not fault HIR for the 

failures of security alone. Cybersecurity, which is a major area of 

emphasis for our committee to try to make sure that on a governmentwide basis that we upgrade our systems and our capability is 

sorely lacking. Mr. Lungren, you and I both have worked on that 

in the past in other committee activities. But we did have a breakdown, we were one of the 19 sites that were hacked and brought 

down, and that was in spite of meeting all the requirements that 

were known at the time by HIR. That is only going to become larger as we have more access to the public and make more access. 

So I won’t fault House Administration, I am not going to fault 

any of the people who work in Congress because this is a governmentwide problem, but it is an example of the kind of thing that 

cannot be done by one committee alone. We can invest in better 

search capability to get through documents and to redact sensitive 

information and share it with other committees it allowed by the 

license, but to actually create a better firewall system than we 

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have today is going to have to be something this committee is going 

to have to look at closely. 

The CHAIRMAN. Ms. Lofgren? McCarthy? Mrs. Davis? 

Mrs. DAVIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, thank you all. I really 

appreciate the work that you are doing. And I know that you are 

saying that you are quite overwhelm and need some more help. 

The only other thing I might suggest as happens sometimes, maybe 

it doesn’t happen all the time, is a little more communication with 

the committees of jurisdiction over some of the issues that you are 

most interested in providing that oversight for. Because sometimes 

we don’t have a chance to have that communication and we would 

like to be actually more supportive of your efforts in that way and 

that might help. Thank you. 

Mr. TOWNS. Thank you very much, thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

Mr. ISSA. Thank you all. 

The CHAIRMAN. We have now heard from all committees which 

this committee provides funding for. And that concludes the business of this hearing, the committee funding hearing stands adjourned. And we would like to take about a 5-minute recess before 

we reconvene again for the next hearing, thank you. 

[Whereupon, at 1:33 p.m., the committee was adjourned.] 

tjames on DSK5CLS3C1PROD with HEARING