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25–576 2017

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION’S PRIORITIES 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON HOUSE 

ADMINISTRATION 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

MARCH 28, 2017 

Printed for the use of the Committee on House Administration 

( 

Available on the Internet: 

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

(II) 

COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION

GREGG HARPER, Mississippi, Chairman 

RODNEY DAVIS, Illinois, Vice Chairman 

BARBARA COMSTOCK, Virginia 

MARK WALKER, North Carolina 

ADRIAN SMITH, Nebraska 

BARRY LOUDERMILK, Georgia 

ROBERT A. BRADY, Pennsylvania, 

Ranking Member 

ZOE LOFGREN, California 

JAMIE RASKIN, Maryland 

(1) 

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION’S 

PRIORITIES 

TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 2017 

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. Gregg Harper [Chairman of the Committee] presiding. 

Present: Representatives Harper, Davis, Comstock, Smith, 

Brady, and Raskin. 

Staff Present: Sean Moran, Staff Director; Kim Betz, Senior Advisor; Mary Sue Englund, Director of Administration & Operations; 

Cole Felder, Deputy General Counsel; Erin McCracken, Communications Director; C. Maggie Moore, Legislative Clerk; Rob 

Taggart, Deputy Legislative Clerk/Oversight; Mary Sue Englund, 

Director of Administration & Operations; Jamie Fleet, Minority 

Staff Director; Matt Pinkus, Minority Senior Policy Advisor; Khalil 

Abboud, Minority Chief Counsel; and Eddie Flaherty, Minority 

Chief Clerk. 

The CHAIRMAN. I now call to order the Committee on House Administration for today’s hearing examining the Smithsonian Institution and its priorities. The hearing record will remain open for 

5 legislative days so members may submit any materials they wish 

to be included. A quorum is present, so we may proceed. 

In 1846, Congress created the Smithsonian Institution at the behest of Englishman James Smithson. A scientist by trade, Mr. 

Smithson willed his estate to the United States to found at Washington under the names of the Smithsonian Institution an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge. 

Today, the Smithsonian Institution encompasses 19 museums, 9 

research centers, and the National Zoo. The Smithsonian Institution plays a critical role in collecting and preserving our Nation’s 

history and culture. The Smithsonian Institution also works with 

entities around the world to advance critical scientific discovery 

and research. 

For the past 20 months, Secretary David Skorton has led the Institution. The Committee looks forward to discussing the new strategic plan, which is currently being drafted with Secretary Skorton, 

that will guide the Smithsonian Institution over the next decade. 

We expect to hear from Secretary Skorton on the challenges the 

Smithsonian Institution faces, particularly in an environment in 

which Federal funding is uncertain, at best. 

2 

These challenges include such things as balancing new strategic 

initiatives with available funding; broadening public access to its 

collections both in person and digitally; operating a new museum, 

the National Museum of African American History and Culture, 

and revitalizing one of the most visited museums in the world, the 

National Air and Space Museum; preserving priceless collections 

for scientific research to tell the American story; and—not glamorous but very important—prioritizing facility maintenance and revitalization needs. 

I particularly want to focus on this last challenge. It is our hope 

to address the realities faced by the Smithsonian Institution today. 

By realities, I am talking about the growing list of deferred maintenance projects, the rising costs associated with maintaining and operating museums and facilities, and protecting collections for their 

future use. These realities must be a pillar of the upcoming strategic plan, and this Committee looks forward to seeing the strategic 

plan upon its completion. 

So I thank Secretary Skorton for his appearance before the Committee today. And I would like to now recognize the Ranking Member of the Committee, Mr. Brady, for the purpose of providing an 

opening statement. 

Mr. Brady. 

Mr. BRADY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for calling this 

hearing. 

Everyone loves the Smithsonian, so I appreciate the opportunity 

to hear from our witness about what is happening there and how 

we can be helpful. 

Of course, I emphasize my number one concern about the Smithsonian: that access to our museums and many of our exhibits remain free. That has always been my priority. 

I want to acknowledge the Smithsonian presence in my district. 

The African American Museum in Philadelphia and the National 

Museum of American Jewish History are Smithsonian affiliates, 

and they are proud of that, and I am honored to represent those 

great institutions. Also, since 2012, the Smithsonian has had 40 

fellows, 59 interns, and 31 research associates from my district. So 

I am well represented there. I am proud of the work my constituents are doing to advance the cause of the Smithsonian. 

I look forward to hearing from you, Mr. Secretary. 

And I yield back the balance of my time. 

The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman yields back. 

Does any other Member wish to be recognized for the purpose of 

an opening statement? 

Seeing none, I would like to now introduce our witness. Dr. 

David Skorton is the 13th Secretary of the Smithsonian. He assumed his position in July, on July 1, 2015. As Secretary, Dr. 

Skorton oversees the entire Institution and its entities. Dr. Skorton 

is the first physician to lead the Smithsonian. He is a board certified cardiologist and previously was the president of Cornell University. 

3 

Again, we thank the Secretary for joining us today. And the 

Committee has received your written testimony. And the chair now 

recognizes Secretary Skorton for 5 minutes. 

Dr. Skorton. 

STATEMENT OF DR. DAVID J. SKORTON, SECRETARY, 

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 

Dr. SKORTON. Thank you, Chairman Harper and Ranking Member Brady and all the Members of the Committee, for the opportunity and the honor of testifying today. 

My colleagues and I greatly appreciate the continuing support of 

the Congress and your confidence in our work to understand, preserve, and tell the story of America, and to inspire new generations 

to dream the American Dream. 

Your investment in the Smithsonian is an investment in the 

civic, educational, scientific, and artistic life of our Nation. The 

Smithsonian is the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex, and through our museums, the National Zoo, the 

research centers, and education initiatives, we seek every day to 

help all of us, as Americans, understand each other, ourselves, and 

our role in the world, in part through the arts and humanities. 

We use increasingly cutting-edge technology to create unprecedented access to our treasures, and we seek to inspire educators, 

students, and learners of all ages. 

Last year was exceptional for the Institution, culminating with 

the opening of the National Museum of African American History 

and Culture. This beautiful and thought-provoking museum has 

been a huge success with the public. We have hosted more than a 

million visitors since the end of September. 

The year 2017 will be a time of transition for our Institution as 

we implement, as the Chairman mentioned, a new strategic plan. 

Building on the tremendous momentum of the previous strategic 

plan, we are working closely with the Strategic Planning Committee to incorporate input from across the Smithsonian before presenting the plan to our Board of Regents, to the Office of Management and Budget, and to the Congress. 

A strong strategic plan will allow the Institution to focus even 

more effectively on our key priorities: improving how we pursue 

our core mission; better leveraging partnerships with American 

and international organizations; communicating more effectively; 

cultivating our generous donors and supporters; and identifying 

and advancing special specific initiatives. 

In the months and years ahead, we seek to increase our positive 

impact as we convene important conversations, continue our important work in science and history, while sharpening our focus on the 

arts, promoting diversity leadership, enhancing our global reach, 

establishing a culture of national thought leadership, greatly increasing digital access, and refocusing expenditures on maintaining 

and revitalizing existing facilities. 

Many important issues have a national and global impact, and 

the Smithsonian is bringing people together to discuss solutions. 

Our research centers do important work to understand the correlation between healthy ecosystems and our own well-being, a concept 

termed by the Center for Disease Control as One Health, helping 

4 

us to address emerging threats from pandemic disease to species 

decline. 

Research and scholarship at the Smithsonian are anchored by 

our national collections. Today, I brought some personal favorites, 

especially Sandy Koufax’s baseball mitt, which would have been a 

favorite of my late dad, who was a big fan of his. It is our obligation in the public interest to hold these national treasures and preserve them for future generations. 

One way that we preserve and expand access to our collections 

is by digitizing them. To date, we have digitized more than 29 million items from the 154 million items in the collection, with many 

available to download in people’s homes, in labs, and in classrooms, 

and in this way we seek to serve the many, many Americans who 

cannot visit our museums on The Mall or in New York City. 

Our Collections Space Framework Plan guides our long-term decisions about the collections from our facilities to the way we care 

for the collections. Facilities maintenance will be a major focus in 

the coming years as we continue to address our large deferred 

maintenance and repair needs. Reducing this backlog, I believe, 

gives the best value to the American taxpayer, since inadequately 

funded maintenance can lead to costlier capital improvements 

down the road. 

One such project that the Chairman mentioned is the National 

Air and Space Museum revitalization. As you know, the building 

systems have greatly exceeded their useful lives. They are overtaxed by the over 7 million annual visitors to the museum, which 

is nearly four times more than they were designed for. The building’s exterior stone cladding is failing and needs to be replaced. 

The Air and Space Museum project 35 percent design estimates 

are $676 million, but as it evolves, every effort is being made to 

contain these project costs. Although this is an enormous expense, 

we believe the project is absolutely essential and hope to begin construction in fiscal year 2018. 

We will leverage this Federal investment by raising an additional 

quarter of a billion dollars in private support to totally revamp the 

23 galleries throughout the facility. The result will be an exciting 

new experience, in essence, a new National Air and Space Museum. 

While the Smithsonian is nationally important, our reach is also 

global. We work around the world to protect and preserve cultural 

heritage and to do groundbreaking scientific research. 

In 2017, we aim to finalize an agreement with the renowned Victoria & Albert Museum to create a first international museum exhibition presence in London, which does not involve a capital 

project. 

Though our creative staff continues to have impressive success, 

we do face significant challenges. We need to provide adequate 

staffing, including security, at the new National Museum of African 

American History and Culture. We need to fill more curatorial positions throughout the Institution and enhance security across our 

most visited sites. 

As we look ahead to fiscal 2018, the Institution is prepared for 

any budget contingencies. We have recently appointed a group of 

10 unit directors to serve as a budget review panel to look at potenVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:33 Jun 07, 2017 Jkt 025576 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\A576.XXX A576
5 

tial scenarios and to make recommendations to ensure the most efficient use of precious Federal resources. 

Given our budgetary constraints and a growing maintenance 

backlog and facility renovation, we must use capital resources wisely and efficiently. We are fully committed to better telling the story 

of all Americans. However, despite the worthy recommendations for 

new museums to be added to the Smithsonian, we currently lack 

the capacity and resources to bring new museums to fruition. 

Again, I am honored to be a part of this great Institution. The 

Smithsonian is a valuable resource that I believe has proven its 

worth for 171 years as a steward of our past and investment in our 

future. I am confident that with the continued support of Congress 

and the administration, we can be even more relevant and a unifying presence in an increasingly diverse and vibrant America. 

Thank you for the chance of interacting with you today, and I 

look forward to any and all questions. Thank you. 

[The statement of Dr. Skorton follows:] 

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The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Secretary Skorton, for your testimony. 

We will now move to our questions portion, and I will begin by 

recognizing myself for 5 minutes. 

There are so many treasures, and of course you have brought 

just a small collection here but of pretty priceless baseball objects. 

But these treasures are throughout the system. 

And one of my favorites is in the Air and Space Museum, which 

is our plane from Mississippi, the Key Brothers airplane, the old 

Curtiss Robin monoplane, where in 1935 the Key Brothers set the 

flight endurance record at 27 days without landing, and that is still 

the record for that. And so your plane hangs in the Smithsonian 

when that happens. So it is something that is a real treasure to 

us to see that. 

But I wanted to talk to you about some of these issues, particularly where we are on how we are going to move forward and do 

the things that are necessary. What do you see as the biggest risk 

facing the Smithsonian today or in the future, and how do you intend at the Smithsonian to manage that risk? 

Dr. SKORTON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

We really have two categories of risks to the Smithsonian. One 

is the risk of our inability to keep up with the maintenance and 

revitalization backlog. We maintain approximately 12 million 

square feet of space. Last year, we had over 20 million individual 

visitors to our museums. And in some cases, like the National Air 

and Space Museum, we continue to have multiples of the number 

of visitors that my predecessors thought might actually come, almost four times the number right now that were initially suggested. 

So that is just one of many examples. And as I mentioned in the 

testimony, it is very important to realize that inadequate funding 

and attention to maintenance and backlog and revitalization needs 

will eventually lead to costlier capital projects. So that is one whole 

category. 

The other category, besides the physical capital, is the human 

capital, and it is very important that we pay attention to our curatorial ranks, to the science ranks. Like all organizations in our 

country, we are graying, and the aging workforce at the Smithsonian means that we have to be ready to hire a renewed workforce 

as people get to retirement. 

And so we are planning very carefully our use of resources so 

that we can increase the curatorial ranks, some hopefully by Federal funding, some through philanthropy, and in the meantime 

work on these capital issues. 

The CHAIRMAN. Okay. How will the national campaign, how will 

the funds raised from the national campaign support the operations and maintenance of facilities? 

Dr. SKORTON. So the national campaign, which has been very, 

very successful because of the huge generosity of the American 

public, corporations, and individuals, we have raised over $1.6 billion in the campaign so far. The campaign continues through the 

end of this calendar year. 

17 

The funds are used for a wide variety of uses, but to specifically 

answer your question about facilities, they are used for upgrades 

and renovations largely to interior spaces. 

And so one example that those of us in Washington know about 

is the renovation of the Renwick Gallery, and this allowed us to do 

things in that space that we were unable to do and led to a tremendous, tremendous increase in visitorship to that. And there are 

other examples, but that is one that I think shows the possibility 

of philanthropy helping us. 

It is difficult to raise philanthropy for the sort of changes that 

need to be done to the National Air and Space Museum, I want to 

hasten to add however, because, for example, replacing now defective stone cladding on the outside, in my experience fundraising of 

approximately 25 years, I have found it hard to get philanthropists 

interested in that sort of project, whereas interior things we can. 

And to restate it, our goal is to raise a quarter of a billion dollars 

to redo every single one of the 23 galleries within the museum. 

The CHAIRMAN. It is obviously a goal of, I think, all of us, and 

I know you, to make sure that admission to the Smithsonian remains free of charge so that groups, school groups and others, can 

come up and not have an expense to come in. So what populations 

of visitors, who can we get to come in? How can we expand what 

is there to open this up even further? 

Dr. SKORTON. First of all, I want to thank you for bringing the 

point up and thank the Ranking Member, too, for bringing up the 

point about free entry. I am absolutely committed, as is the entire 

Smithsonian family, to maintaining free access to these museums. 

It is critical, the museums were set up in the public interest, and 

we want to be there for all Americans. 

Having said that, our best efforts to get people to come to The 

Mall and to our facilities in New York City are always going to fall 

short of the number of Americans who could attend. So we are trying in other ways to reach out to America where it lives. 

One approach is through digitization of the collections to the extent that we can do that, and that allows us to allow people in 

their own living room, so to speak, to look at individual parts of 

the collection and learn more about all the things that we are 

studying. 

The second, as you have mentioned very kindly, is our 216 affiliate museums around the country, and we have affiliate museums 

in all the States represented on this Committee. 

A third is our Traveling Exhibition Service, which allows us to 

bring parts of our collection to Main Street USA. And then we have 

other ideas through the use of social media and other new technologies to reach out to America. 

So we want to make sure that people feel welcome at The Mall 

and welcome in other parts of the city where we have facilities here 

and in New York City, but we also want to reach out beyond. And 

to summarize again at the end, we are absolutely committed to 

maintaining free admission. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you so much, Secretary Skorton. 

I will now recognize the Ranking Member, Mr. Brady, for 5 minutes for questions. 

Mr. BRADY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

18 

I think I heard your last statement, you are going to keep it free, 

right? 

Dr. SKORTON. Yes. 

Mr. BRADY. Free admission. Thank you. I appreciate that. 

What more can we do to expand the Smithsonian Affiliates Program? I have two, as I mentioned in my earlier statement, in my 

district, and I think it is a good way to bring the power of the 

Smithsonian to other parts, other districts throughout the United 

States. It is good to feel and hand touch and see, and that instead 

of coming to Washington, I think you can get a glimpse and maybe 

hopefully come to Washington and visit the main campus, so to 

speak. 

Dr. SKORTON. I am hungry to continue to grow our Affiliates Program. It has grown very substantially under the leadership of my 

predecessor, Wayne Clough, and through the leadership of our acting provost, who is right here, Richard Kurin, and it has grown 

substantially even in the 2 years or so that I have been here. 

So if you have any ideas, Congressman, please send them directly to me, and we will continue to look into it. In the meantime, 

we are also making sure that we have this robust Traveling Exhibition Service so that we can go out to areas around the country. 

And I am committed to both of those being very robust. 

Mr. BRADY. Good. Thank you. And also, I want to commend you 

for your wisdom in maintaining and keeping Mr. Greg Abbott behind you there. Greg is formerly from my staff, and I know he is 

a great addition and does a great job. And we talked all the time 

when we had our hearings for 2 or 3 days that it is hard to keep 

good staff. It is hard to keep them when you have got to pay them. 

And so I am sure he wouldn’t mind a raise, sir. 

I got to give you a plug, Greg, got to give you a plug. 

Dr. SKORTON. You know, I have been told by our HR office to just 

not answer questions about Mr. Abbott’s salary. 

Mr. BRADY. Well, I will make a private conversation someday. 

Dr. SKORTON. I am at your service, sir. 

Mr. BRADY. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back my time. 

The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman yields back. 

I now recognize Mrs. Comstock for 5 minutes. 

Mrs. COMSTOCK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

And I thank the witness today. It is delightful to be with you. 

I think I was in third grade when I first came to the Smithsonian. My mom is a teacher, and so we dutifully went through all 

of the highlights of the museum at that age. And she did the same 

with my three children. And now she is a docent at the Smithsonian, and so she is very good at now bringing the great-grandchildren around. 

And I am fortunate to have the Udvar-Hazy Center museum in 

my district, and so my 2-year-old granddaughter and I and my husband were out there a few weeks ago. And I loved the little picture 

set-up you have where you can have a little space suit photo 

shopped on to you, and she was very excited. She got her ride in 

the spaceship, on the space shuttle, and then she got that picture. 

19 

So that is in her room, and she is thrilled. So when she is an 

astronaut somewhere down the road heading to Mars, we can 

thank you for all the good efforts that you make there. 

So I did want to ask about the Udvar-Hazy, as some of the renovations are going on, and the planes and all, and the storage facilities. How is that progressing at this time? 

Dr. SKORTON. Thank you for your kindness. And I just want to 

mention, we want to invite you and your granddaughter to come 

to the National Museum of American History where the Wegmans 

Corporation has developed something we call Wonderplace, and it 

is aimed at children ages zero to 6, zero to 6. So we are very interested in early child—— 

Mrs. COMSTOCK. Wonderplace? 

Dr. SKORTON. It is called Wonderplace in the National Museum 

of American History. And we are glad to work with your staff. If 

you want to come, we are actually more interested in having your 

grandchild, but you could also come along. 

Mrs. COMSTOCK. I will get good grandma, nana points. 

Dr. SKORTON. But thank you very much for bringing up the issue 

of storage space relevant to the National Air and Space Museum. 

If I may take just a moment, Chairman, I would like to just remind people the strategy that we want to use in revitalizing the 

National Air and Space Museum. We have two basic axioms that 

we want to follow in doing the revitalization. One is that we want 

to end up giving the United States of America a new National Air 

and Space Museum at the least possible cost, even though obviously it is a tremendous cost. And secondly, we want to keep the 

museum open to the American public. So our plan is to do it in 

phases and always to keep at least half of the museum open. 

In order to do that, we have to put some of the precious artifacts 

in there somewhere else. And so we have asked for—it is going to 

be one of our top requests coming up—for an additional storage facility, as Representative Comstock mentioned, in your district, in 

the Udvar-Hazy area. 

That will serve two purposes. The first purpose is that it will 

allow us to efficiently move along with the plans for the revitalization. And then when that revitalization is complete, we will use 

that new storage facility to give us a big jump-start on replacing 

some inadequate and nonoptimal storage that we have throughout 

our system because the growth in our collection has been done at 

such a breakneck pace. 

So that is the reason that that is a very high priority for us, and 

we hope for Congress’ support in that request. 

Mrs. COMSTOCK. Thank you. And I did have one—first of all, I 

also want to thank you for digitizing the collection because I do see, 

as schools are—particularly in my area, since I am here locally— 

they are cutting back on field trips. They are not getting down and 

using the museums as much as they might. And I am always surprised at even on weekends people not getting down and using this, 

you know, coming. I guess maybe parking is always a challenge, 

and if Metro is not working right and all of that. We have Metro 

in my region, so as it expands, hopefully we will get folks back in 

here. But I really appreciate the digitizing of it because I think 

that can bring it to life and hopefully spur that interest. 

20 

But on another, very different front, because I noticed that some 

of the people who are leaving in some of the senior positions at the 

museum, how do you plan for that transition and finding those key 

people? Because obviously these are very unique and important 

jobs to have the understanding of how to run a museum and to 

really have that skill set with these unique jobs. Where do you find 

the folks, what is the transition process, and how can we help with 

making that as smooth as possible? 

Dr. SKORTON. Thank you very much for recognizing our other big 

challenge besides facilities, and that is the human capital, as we 

put it. And thank you also for being sensitive to realize that the 

skill set needed to work at this kind of creative organization, if not 

unique, is at least very unusual. 

I have found two things since being at the Smithsonian that have 

been hugely, hugely gratifying on this front. First is an immense 

feeling of pride and I would even say joy in the workforce of the 

Smithsonian. We tend year after year after year to rank high in 

agencies of our size in terms of employee satisfaction; always trying 

to do better. And I think part of that is that they are very proud 

of the positive things that we can do for America through education, through research, and through the, as our founder called it, 

the diffusion that is the museums themselves. 

The second thing I have found is that when openings come up 

we are inundated with people who want to come, people from the 

inside of the Institution that want to move up the ladder, people 

from outside the Institution that want to become part of something 

that is attempting to do a positive. 

And if I might just say, in a time where museums and libraries 

are still respected and considered honest purveyors of information, 

I think people more and more would like to be a part of contributing to such a thing. 

So it is true, as you very insightfully noticed, that we have a lot 

of turnover happening in the Institution right now. A lot of it is 

because of people having served there a very long time. 

And just last night, in fact, Dr. Kurin and I were at a recognition 

party for our wonderful director of the National Museum of African 

Art, Dr. Johnnetta Cole, who likes to say that she just celebrated 

her 40th birthday times two. 

And we are just in the process of beginning to look into that situation. So it is a challenge. The good news is that people seem to 

be very, very interested in being part of the Smithsonian, and I believe that will continue in the future. Thank you for asking about 

that. 

Mrs. COMSTOCK. I can tell you, my mom, being a docent, the joy 

that she sees in the place and being able to continue to work with 

children. Actually my daughter, the mom of the aforementioned little granddaughter who is 2 years old, I was telling my daughter 

where she should buy her house based on the lovely children who 

came down. She kept saying there in the area where they bought 

their house what a nice group of children there were that she was 

taking through. 

But the employees really do bring joy to those children, and it 

is a delightful place to volunteer and work. So thank you for creating that spirit. 

21 

Dr. SKORTON. Mr. Chairman, if I just might insert very quickly. 

The CHAIRMAN. Yes, sir. 

Dr. SKORTON. Thank you also for reminding me to recognize our 

volunteers. We have about 6,500 paid employees. We have about 

the same number of in-person volunteers, as you mention, and we 

have about the same number of digital volunteers who help us with 

things from a distance. Without the volunteers, we would not be 

able to open the doors in the morning. So thank you very much, 

Representative Comstock, for reminding me. 

The CHAIRMAN. The gentlelady yields back. 

The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Nebraska, Mr. 

Smith, for 5 minutes for questioning. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Thank you, Dr. Skorton. I appreciate your service. 

Deferred maintenance and backlogs and so forth, what would you 

say is the long-term plan to address this? And I see where there 

was a requested increase in facilities capital appropriations for fiscal year 2017. Can you speak to that? 

Dr. SKORTON. Yes. Thank you very much, and thank you for your 

attention today. 

Deferred maintenance is a big issue and has been a big issue in 

every nonprofit I have worked for over the years, so it is definitely 

not unique to the Smithsonian. 

What is different about the Smithsonian is our public-facing nature, that we have millions of Americans walking in. So we are 

concerned not only about the beauty of the buildings, but about 

their functionality, but especially about security and safety for the 

people who come in. 

Industry standards suggest that we should be spending something on the order of 2, maybe 3 percent of the base in maintenance each year, and I am very, very grateful to the huge steady 

support that Congress has given us. Nonetheless, I must say that 

the money that has been appropriated has been about half of what 

projections would be for the future. 

So more funding for maintenance, even though it is always hard 

to come by, is the bedrock of going forward. Once the funding is 

available, at whatever level, the other bedrock is having a carefully 

designed plan for prioritizing a dizzying number of things that 

need to be dealt with. 

And our facilities professionals have done, in my experience of 30 

years of leading institutions, have done an absolutely world-beating 

job of prioritizing, based on really two criteria. One criterion, the 

chief one, is the public’s safety and health. And the second one is 

what future costs could be reduced or prevented even if judicious 

things were done along the way to do maintenance and revitalization. 

And so because it is an interest of mine, Congressman, I have 

look very carefully in the weeds at how this is done. I am very impressed with what our facilities professionals are doing. And I hope 

to have more chance to speak to Members of Congress about the 

importance of saving future costs by doing some preventive maintenance and deferred maintenance in the Institution, and I very 

much appreciate your question. 

22 

Mr. SMITH. Sure. And you utilize a lot of partnerships with the 

private sector for promotion and exhibits and so forth. Can private 

sources of funds be used for maintenance? Do they get used for 

maintenance? 

Dr. SKORTON. Private sources can definitely be used for interior 

changes. An example that I like to give is the Renwick Gallery in 

town here near the White House where many of the things inside 

were done through philanthropy, and there are other examples. 

In my fundraising experience, and it is a long experience, I have 

found it hard to interest philanthropists, either corporations or individuals, in helping with things that are falling apart, to just be 

plain about it. And we try that. I have tried in earlier philanthropic 

campaigns in other settings to interest donors in that, and I found 

it a very, very heavy lift to do that. 

Mr. SMITH. Hard to put a family name on a new roof? 

Dr. SKORTON. It is hard. It is hard. But I would tell you what 

is a beautiful partnership and a very exciting partnership, and I 

don’t think there is a better exemplar in our country than the 

Smithsonian, is a partnership between solid Federal funding that 

makes philanthropists say: You know, if the U.S. Government is interested in keeping this thing at the top, I want to put my part in. 

And I like to think that it goes in the opposite direction as well. 

If I do my job and I bring in very robust philanthropic funding, and 

that is, trying to lift ourselves up by our own bootstraps, perhaps 

you will see us as not just showing up with our hand out. So I 

think both those things go together. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. 

Dr. SKORTON. Thank you very much. 

Mr. SMITH. I yield back. 

The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman yields back. 

The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Illinois, the Vice 

Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Davis, for 5 minutes. 

Mr. DAVIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

And thank you, Mr. Skorton, for being here today. My kids are 

always advocates of the Smithsonian when they are out here on 

regular occasions, and it is great to be able to let them roam The 

Mall and go see some of the great collections that you have. 

I have got a question about the Collections Space Framework 

Plan that identified 47 percent of collection storage space as unacceptable. What is the plan, and how does it address the collections 

remaining in unacceptable spaces until facilities can be revitalized 

or constructed to meet acceptable standards? 

Dr. SKORTON. Thank you very much, Mr. Davis, for your attention to that matter and for focusing us on one of the things that 

genuinely keeps me up at night. 

So we have this national collection of 154 million objects and 

specimens and things, and that is just the physical. We also have 

millions and millions and millions of other things in archives and 

so on. And that will all be for naught if we can’t take better care 

of them, so I appreciate your attention to that. 

We really have, again, a multiphased approach through our facilities professionals. One is, in every situation where maintenance 

is required, we have a careful prioritization. And in answer to Mr. 

Smith’s question, I mentioned that we have this very careful procVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:33 Jun 07, 2017 Jkt 025576 PO 00000 Frm 00024 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\A576.XXX A576
23 

ess or prioritization based first on public safety and then based on 

the cost of eventual problems if we don’t do it. 

In the case of the collections, the prioritization is based on how 

hard it would be to replace something. Many of these things are 

absolutely irreplaceable. And then secondly, what the actual risks 

are in that particular building, in that particular space within the 

building, in that particular part of the space. 

In some cases, the facilities professionals have been able to do 

relatively modest, inexpensive things, changing the way a cabinet 

is used or putting new cabinetry in or things of that sort. And in 

other areas, we have just done our best to move things around and 

try to put things that are in the most danger in the best space. 

But I appreciate your question. And I must say, make no mistake 

about it, that we need to pay more attention to this. We hope for 

your support of things like the Udvar-Hazy place, because we have 

as much to do in high priority projects as we have already done. 

So we are at about the halfway point on that. 

So again, it is prioritization, it is fixes that we can afford right 

now, and it is planning and working with the Office of Management and Budget and with Congress in general to put only our 

highest priority needs forward, which we have. 

Mr. DAVIS. So you are going to prioritize some of the needs that 

we need to address in a time when you know our Federal funds are 

very, very limited. I mean, these are concerns, because what you 

do and what the Smithsonian staff does on a regular daily basis 

is amazing. And to be able to have these properties, to be able to 

have these collections sitting in displays that are acceptable, great. 

To just the regular visitor, they may not know that some of these 

exhibits are in unacceptable standards. 

But at some point we will gladly ask you to come back, I am 

sure, at the Chairman’s discretion, to talk about how you are working toward making these unacceptable conditions much more acceptable and how that prioritization is working on behalf of the 

Smithsonian, but in the end, working on behalf of the taxpayers 

who are the visitors to your Institution. 

So one last question. I do have a question about the Garber facility. 

Dr. SKORTON. Garber, yes. 

Mr. DAVIS. Yeah. At what expense, both time and funds, does relocating collections from the Garber facility have on your operations? 

Dr. SKORTON. Can you ask it one more time, sir? I didn’t hear 

it right. 

Mr. DAVIS. At what expense, both time and funds, does relocating collections from the Garber facility have on your everyday 

operations? 

Dr. SKORTON. I see. There is no question that relocating items 

from that facility has a direct effect on the efficiency of our operations. And I apologize, I don’t have an exact number to tell you 

right now linked to that. 

But I wonder if this would be acceptable to the Vice Chairman 

and to the Chairman, if we came back to you very quickly with a 

more detailed set of information about the general question you 

asked, as well as the Garber, as well as the relationship between 

24 

the request at Udvar-Hazy and what is happening at Garber and 

that day-to-day operation. 

If that would be acceptable, rather than give you an imprecise 

answer now, I would like to give you a more precise answer, which 

we can get to you in short order, if that is acceptable. 

Mr. DAVIS. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you for your time. 

I yield back. 

The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman yields back. 

I want to tell you again how much we appreciate you being here 

today, Secretary Skorton. We take our oversight of the Smithsonian 

as a serious matter, just as you do your job. None of us like surprises, so we will certainly try to keep very open lines of communication. And likewise, we are available. If there is something that 

we need to know, I know you will reach out to us as you have been 

doing. And we appreciate the great work that your team is doing. 

With that, without objection, all Members will have 5 legislative 

days to submit to the Chair additional written questions for the 

witness, which we will forward and ask the witness to respond as 

promptly as he can so his answers may be made a part of the 

record. 

Without objection, this hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 12:16 p.m., the committee was adjourned.] 

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