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S. HRG. 110–742 

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS FOR 

FISCAL YEAR 2009 

HEARING 

BEFORE A

SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE 

COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

Architect of the Capitol (except House items) 

Government Accountability Office 

Government Printing Office 

Library of Congress 

Office of Compliance 

United States Capitol Police 

U.S. Senate 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations 

( 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/index.html 
(II) 

COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS 

ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia, Chairman 

DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii 

PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont 

TOM HARKIN, Iowa 

BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland 

HERB KOHL, Wisconsin 

PATTY MURRAY, Washington 

BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota 

DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California 

RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois 

TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota 

MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana 

JACK REED, Rhode Island 

FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey 

BEN NELSON, Nebraska 

THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi 

TED STEVENS, Alaska 

ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania 

PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico 

CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri 

MITCH MCCONNELL, Kentucky 

RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama 

JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire 

ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah 

LARRY CRAIG, Idaho 

KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas 

SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas 

WAYNE ALLARD, Colorado 

LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee 

CHARLES KIEFFER, Staff Director 

BRUCE EVANS, Minority Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH

MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana, Chairman 

RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois 

BEN NELSON, Nebraska 

ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia 

(ex officio) 

LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee 

WAYNE ALLARD, Colorado 

THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi 

(ex officio) 

Professional Staff 

NANCY OLKEWICZ

CAROLYN E. APOSTOLOU (Minority) 

SARAH WILSON (Minority) 

Administrative Support 

TERI CURTIN
(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Page 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 2008 

Architect of the Capitol ........................................................................................... 1 

United States Capitol Police ................................................................................... 15 

Library of Congress ................................................................................................. 25 

MATERIAL SUBMITTED SUBSEQUENT TO THE HEARING

U.S. Senate: 

Office of the Secretary ...................................................................................... 79 

Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper .................................................................. 140 

Government Accountability Office .......................................................................... 162 

Government Printing Office .................................................................................... 171 

Office of Compliance ................................................................................................ 182 

(1) 

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS FOR 

FISCAL YEAR 2009 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 2008 

U.S. SENATE, 

SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, 

Washington, DC. 

The subcommittee met at 3:33 p.m., in room SD–138, Dirksen 

Senate Office Building, Hon. Mary L. Landrieu (chairman) presiding. 

Present: Senators Landrieu, Alexander, and Allard. 

ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL 

STATEMENT OF STEPHEN T. AYERS, ACTING ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL 

OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR MARY L. LANDRIEU

Senator LANDRIEU. Good afternoon. Our subcommittee will come 

to order. 

We meet today to take testimony on the fiscal year 2009 budget 

requests for the Architect of the Capitol (AOC), the U.S. Capitol 

Police, and the Library of Congress. 

I want to welcome my good friend, Senator Lamar Alexander, 

now our new ranking member of the subcommittee, along with 

Senator Allard, the former chairman and ranking member of our 

subcommittee, and to thank Senator Allard again for his outstanding work in those capacities in the previous years. I look forward to working very closely with Senator Alexander as we have 

on several other subcommittees. 

The legislative branch budget request is a total of $4.7 billion. This is an increase of nearly $700 million, or a 17.4 percent increase over the current year. 

Last year the subcommittee received an overall increase of only 

3 percent. So as you can imagine, a 17 percent budget request will 

make it very difficult. Part of the goal of this hearing is to establish 

some potential priorities and to allow you to explain the request before us. We will need to look very closely at this. 

I want to welcome our witnesses today, our Acting Architect of 

the Capitol, Stephen Ayers; Chief of the Capitol Police, Phillip 

Morse; and Librarian of Congress, James Billington. 

Stephen, I would like to begin by commending you for a job well 

done taking over as Acting Architect of the Capitol nearly 15 

months ago. 
2 

We in the Senate are grateful for your leadership and steadfast 

commitment to the many issues that face us in the Capitol complex, especially our Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) as it comes on 

line. I look forward to hearing an update from you on this extraordinary facility. Since our last meeting, dozens of Senators and 

House Members have had a chance to tour the facility. Their general reactions have been very enthusiastic. 

AOC FISCAL YEAR 2009 BUDGET REQUEST

The fiscal year 2009 budget request for your office totals $643 

million, an increase of $228 million, or 55 percent. You explained 

this to me earlier this week and I am looking forward to your explaining it here. This is an enormous increase, perhaps justified, 

and that is part of what this hearing will be about because I know 

there are a number of maintenance projects, health and safety violations that need to be corrected, but we will have to work very 

closely see what is possible. 

I understand that most of what is pushing this is a $1.4 billion 

backlog of deferred maintenance and capital improvement projects, 

including many critical life safety projects in our complex. There 

are a large number of items in your request that contribute significantly to this increase, such as $127 million for ongoing repair 

work in the utility tunnels, which are quite extensive, that connect 

and lay under many of the buildings in the Capitol complex. This 

is a project of critical importance to our complex and, of course, to 

the safety of our workers. With a commitment to the Office of Compliance to complete this project totaling nearly $300 million in the 

next 5 years, I realize that this puts some constrictions on your 

budget. 

Finally, before I move ahead, I would like to extend my personal 

gratitude to your entire staff for their hard work in maintaining 

our Capitol complex on a daily basis. You have a very dedicated 

workforce and I appreciate it. 

UNITED STATES CAPITAL POLICE FISCAL YEAR 2009 BUDGET REQUEST

Chief Morse, welcome. I want to commend you for a job well done 

over the last 18 months. The pressures on your police force have 

been exceptional during this time of uncertainty, and the men and 

women who put their lives on the line each day are to be commended. 

I also want to thank you for sharing the story with me, in my 

office, about your officers showing up on a day they did not have 

to to protect our complex, and I hope to share the details of that 

story so people can really appreciate all that you do. I also want 

to welcome your Assistant Chief, Dan Nichols, and your recently 

hired Chief Administrative Officer, Gloria Jarmon. 

Your budget request totals $334 million. This is an 18 percent increase over current year. I realize the challenges your Department 

will face with the opening of the Capitol Visitor Center, the Library’s New Visitor Experience, and the merging of the Library of 

Congress police department with yours. We will have some questions about that a little later. 
3 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS FISCAL YEAR 2009 BUDGET REQUEST

And last, let me welcome our Librarian, Dr. James Billington. It 

is always good to see you. I want to congratulate you on the opening of the New Visitor Experience. I had family from Louisiana visiting just last week and they thoroughly enjoyed seeing the refurbishment of the Thomas Jefferson Library. I understand this was 

done primarily with private contributions, but with the great oversight of the Library. It truly is a gift to the Nation that the project 

turned out so beautifully, and I cannot wait to see it myself. 

The Library’s budget request totals $646 million, 5 percent above 

current year. I commend you and your staff for submitting a budget that is in line with what is normally done. It makes our jobs a 

little bit easier. 

I want to acknowledge your continuing commitment to the digital 

talking book project, which is also a priority of mine. Many people 

here in the room today are advocates for the extension and expansion of that project, and I want to recognize them. 

LIBRARY PARTNERSHIP APPRECIATION

I would also like to express my appreciation to you and the Library for your partnership with several of our universities around 

the country through Teaching with Primary Sources, and in particular, Southeastern University in Louisiana. It has been a great 

opportunity for them, as well as the resource established with the 

Middle Tennessee University and several others around the country. 

Finally, I would like to acknowledge your position as chairman 

of the Board of Trustees of the Open World Leadership Center, an 

independent international exchange program in the legislative 

branch. The subcommittee accepts for the record that written testimony of the Center’s executive director who is here with us, Ambassador John O’Keefe, on the Center’s 2009 budget request of 

$13.9 million. 

Open World does a wonderful job in representing Congress and 

hosting young political and civic leaders from the countries of the 

former Soviet Union in communities in all 50 States and building 

lasting partnerships between United States citizens and Open 

World delegates. I fully support this mission and its inclusion in 

our legislative branch. 

I would now like to turn to my ranking member and friend, Senator Alexander, for his opening remarks, and then we will proceed 

with your testimony and a series of questions from our panel. 

Thank you very much. 

STATEMENT OF SENATOR LAMAR ALEXANDER

Senator ALEXANDER. Thank you, Madam Chairman. I look forward to working with you. This is my first meeting as ranking 

member of the subcommittee, although Chairman Landrieu and I 

have worked together on a lot of other things over the last several 

years. I look forward to continuing this. 

I also want to say to Senator Allard that I respect very much the 

amount of time and interest he has given to this subcommittee, especially to the Capitol Visitor Center. As time has gone on, he has 
4 

dedicated an unusual amount of time to it, and I think it has had 

a very good result for the people of this country. It is not the kind 

of time that makes a lot of headlines at home, but it is the kind 

that does a lot of good for all of us. So I thank him very much for 

that. 

I think the chairman has done a nice job of going through the 

issues. 

Dr. Billington, Chief Morse, Mr. Ayers, welcome. I can remember 

when I was on your side of the table a few years ago, I was the 

Education Secretary and I came to my first hearing, and I noticed 

that I was seated in an uncomfortable chair that was very low, and 

all the Senators were way up here making it look like you were 

looking up at us. I remember being briefed for what was supposed 

to be called a hearing, and I went to it and barely got to say a 

thing. I came home and told my staff I think it should be called 

a talking because the Senators did all the talking, and I did not 

get to say a thing. 

So I am going to say I agree with the survey of issues that Chairman Landrieu has talked about. I am looking forward, as she is 

and Senator Allard, to the opening of the Capitol Visitor Center. 

UTILITY TUNNELS—STRUCTURAL PROBLEMS

I would like to hear more about the structural problems in the 

utility tunnels in the Capitol complex and the large backlog of deferred maintenance and capital improvement projects. I have asked 

the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study the way 

projects are being prioritized in the budget. Just because the Office 

of Compliance says something needs to be done does not necessarily mean, in my opinion, that it should go to the top of the 

list, and I would like to hear how you prioritize these things, given 

the urgency of a great many issues. 

The Capitol Police have a lot of new responsibilities and will 

have more, and I am looking forward to hearing how you are handling those. I am concerned about the overtime in the budget. I 

hope sometime during this discussion you can help me understand 

a little bit more why we have the large amount of overtime. 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS NEW EXHIBITS

Dr. Billington, the new exhibits in the Library of Congress are 

very exciting, and your imagination and that of your staff and your 

accommodation to all who visit there is really to be commended. I 

know how important your work with computers is, bringing what 

is inside that magnificent place to teachers and students all over 

the country. As we discussed, Middle Tennessee State University, 

which graduates about 80 percent of Tennessee teachers, is now 

going to have a chance to do that. We look forward to that. 

I thank you for coming. I look forward to this hearing. I will have 

some questions, and I look forward to working with you. 

Thank you very much, Madam Chairman. 

[The statement follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR LAMAR ALEXANDER

Chairman Landrieu, this is my first hearing as ranking member of the Legislative 

Branch Subcommittee and I look forward to working with you to meet the most im-
5 

portant needs of the Legislative Branch. Clearly the budget request of $4.7 billion 

for fiscal year 2009—a 17 percent increase—will be very difficult to accommodate, 

so I’d like to get a clear picture of the highest priorities in each of the agencies. 

I would like to welcome Acting Architect of the Capitol Stephen Ayers. Mr. Ayers, 

I understand you have been ‘‘acting’’ as the head of the agency for over a year and 

have done a fine job. 

There is quite a lot on your plate: finishing the Capitol Visitor Center and finalizing operations plans so when the facility opens later this year, visitors can expect 

a first-rate experience. While construction is 99 percent complete, I understand that 

fire alarm testing has been very challenging and will take several more months. 

I note that in the last year you hired a new director for the Visitor Center, Terrie 

Rouse, who has been working hard on operations plans and has hired a number of 

key staff. 

Another major project underway is fixing the structural problems and asbestos in 

the utility tunnels that underlie the Capitol complex. I understand it will take many 

years and hundreds of millions of dollars to complete. 

Also, you have been working on plans to address the large backlog of deferred 

maintenance and capital improvement projects campuswide. At the same time these 

high-priority projects are taking place, your staff must ensure that day-to-day operations of your agency are carried out effectively. That said, your budget request of $642 million—a 55 percent increase—will be a 

tough sell in view of budget constraints. This is why I’ve asked GAO to study the 

way projects are prioritized in your budget—to be sure the dollars we appropriate 

are going to those projects which can yield the biggest improvements in safety and 

reductions to deferred maintenance. 

After hearing from the AOC, I look forward to hearing from Capitol Police Chief 

Phil Morse. Chief Morse, along with his Assistant Chief Dan Nichols, has been 

doing an excellent job managing the U.S. Capitol Police in the last year, while attempting to address many critical operational and management challenges. The budget request for the Capitol Police is almost $334 million, $52 million or 

18 percent above this year’s budget. There are a number of new responsibilities the 

Capitol Police will be required to take on next year, including screening thousands 

of visitors each day to the Capitol Visitor Center, and absorbing the Library of Congress police force. 

We want to be sure you are managing your resources appropriately, according to 

a thorough analysis of the threats we face. You’ve taken a step in the right direction 

in the recent hiring of Gloria Jarmon as Chief Administrative Officer, and I expect 

she will help bring about improvements in financial management over the next 

year. 

I’m concerned about the amount in your budget for overtime spending, and want 

to be sure we look at this requirement very closely. 

Last, we will hear from Dr. James Billington, Librarian of Congress, accompanied 

by the Library’s Chief Operating Officer JoAnn Jenkins. The Library’s budget request of $646 million is 5 percent over the current year. 

Dr. Billington, you and your staff deserve accolades for the exciting new exhibits 

the Library has opened in the last couple of months, funded through the generous 

contributions of private donors. These exhibits are a great opportunity for visitors 

to learn about American history and the creation of our democratic form of Government. 

I also want to thank you for the initiative you will be starting at Middle Tennessee State University to train teachers on using the Library of Congress’ web site 

in their teaching curricula. This program, called Teaching with Primary Sources, 

has been tremendously successful in a number of States and we’re delighted that 

it is coming to Tennessee. Finally, I appreciate that in this tight budget you were able to include $12.5 million for the Digital Talking Books for the blind program. It is imperative that you 

make the switch from cassette tapes to a digital format so that the blind community 

can continue to benefit from the Library’s resources. 

Thank you, Madam Chair. 

Senator LANDRIEU. Senator Allard, do you have any opening 

comments? 

Senator ALLARD. Madam Chairman, I do not have any comments. 

I am anxious to hear from the witnesses that we have here. I just 

want to thank both you and Senator Alexander for your gracious 

remarks. Thank you very much. 

Senator LANDRIEU. Thank you. 
6 

Mr. Ayers, if you would begin. Thank you. 

SUMMARY STATEMENT OF STEPHEN AYERS

Mr. AYERS. Thank you, Madam Chairman, Senator Alexander, 

and Senator Allard, for the opportunity to testify today regarding 

the Architect of the Capitol’s fiscal year 2009 budget request. It 

was nearly 15 months ago, as you noted, that I began serving as 

Acting Architect and a little more than 1 year ago that I first testified before this subcommittee on our budget, operations, and accomplishments. 

This budget represents change for the AOC. It represents a 

change in leadership and a change in direction. It represents 

change from a reactive organization to one that looks forward, 

plans, and takes action to anticipate problems. 

It has also been a year of growth for us. Specifically, we have 

seen our scope of responsibility grow from 15 million square feet 

of buildings to 16.5 million square feet and from 370 acres of land 

to over 450 acres. With that additional responsibility comes added 

cost for maintenance, staff, utilities, and physical security. 

At the same time, the historic buildings and other physical infrastructure in our care continue to age. 

In addition, as fire and life safety standards have become more 

stringent since the buildings were constructed, we face significant 

requirements from the Office of Compliance to improve fire safety 

conditions throughout the complex. We are committed to ensuring 

that deficiencies are corrected and significant resources are devoted 

to protecting the people who work in and visit the Capitol complex 

each day. 

DEFERRED MAINTENANCE BACKLOG

As the chairman noted, we have a backlog of more than $600 

million in deferred maintenance and $800 million in capital renewal projects. As the AOC continues to be unable to fund these 

projects, this bow wave of unfunded requirements continues to 

grow. We have developed this budget through a deliberate planning 

process and it reflects only the highest priority initiatives and 

funding for our core activities. We made some difficult choices, and 

we have not requested funding for a long list of projects, additional 

staffing, and several operational initiatives and resources. 

While we obviously recognize this is a significant request at a 

time when fiscal restraint is necessary, we believe that without 

this important investment, these facilities will continue to deteriorate. It is fiscally responsible to request the budget needed now instead of waiting until facilities are in a crisis or beyond repair, 

thereby costing millions more to restore, renovate, or renew. If not 

addressed, facility requirements will only grow more serious and 

expensive over time. Therefore, we are requesting $643 million in 

our fiscal year 2009 budget. 

OPERATING BUDGET REQUEST

Our annual operating budget request of $385 million provides for 

funding for operating and maintaining the infrastructure that sup-
7 

ports the Congress, as well as the AOC’s internal infrastructure 

needs. 

The second component of our 2009 budget request is $258 million 

for capital projects. Chief among our responsibilities is maintaining, preserving, and upgrading the national treasures entrusted to 

our care. Determining which work is done first and where our limited resources are used involves a deliberate approach and multiyear planning. Our primary focus is on ensuring that fire and life 

safety deficiencies are corrected as quickly as possible. 

Madam Chairman, I noted earlier that the past year has been 

one of significant achievement for the AOC, in addition to seeing 

the substantial completion of the Capitol Visitor Center. Some of 

our other accomplishments include adding the Library of Congress’ 

new Audio Visual Conservation Center to our inventory; signing 

into effect our first collective bargaining agreement with AFSCME 

Local 626; completing office moves for the 110th Congress, including 21 Senate offices and 840 Senate staffer moves; and closing 68 

of 98 open items from the Office of Compliance. 

In addition, we closed 48 of 65 GAO’s general management recommendations aimed at improving our organization, and we received our fifth clean audit opinion on our financial statements. 

Internally, we continue to foster a results-oriented workplace and 

encourage communication throughout our team. I am pleased to report that a direct result of our efforts is a decrease in our injury 

and illness rate; it has reduced for the eighth year in a row. 

Madam Chairman, we greatly appreciate this subcommittee’s 

support and the investment the Congress has made in our facilities 

and infrastructure over the past several years. However, as these 

buildings age, they will require significant repairs, renovations, 

and upgrades to continue to be safe and healthy working environments. This will require a significant investment. 

ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL TEAM

AOC has accomplished much and experienced numerous successes. These achievements can be directly attributed to the dedicated professional individuals making up our team. Because of 

their efforts and commitment to excellence, we continue to provide 

exceptional service to the Congress and visiting public. 

PREPARED STATEMENT

Once again, thank you for the opportunity to testify today, and 

I am happy to answer any questions you may have. 

Senator LANDRIEU. Thank you. We are going to hold our questions until the end of the panel. 

[The statement follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF STEPHEN T. AYERS

Madam Chairman, Senator Alexander, and members of the subcommittee, thank 

you for the opportunity to testify today regarding the Office of the Architect of the 

Capitol’s (AOC’s) fiscal year 2009 budget request. It was nearly 15 months ago that 

I began serving as Acting Architect of the Capitol, and a little more than a year 

ago that I first testified before this subcommittee about the AOC, our budget, our 

operations, and our accomplishments. 

We have seen much change and growth in our Agency, and we have experienced 

many accomplishments and achievements. Specifically, we have seen our scope of 
8 

responsibility grow from 15 million square feet of buildings to 16.5 million square 

feet of facilities, and from 370 acres of land to more than 450 acres. With that additional responsibility comes added cost for maintenance, staff, utilities, and physical 

security. 

At the same time, the historic buildings and other physical infrastructure in our 

care continue to age. They require extensive maintenance in order to preserve them, 

as well as ensure that they continue to serve as functioning, professional working 

environments for years to come. Our buildings range in age from 27 years old for 

the Library’s Madison Building, to more than 200 years old for parts of the Capitol 

Building. This year we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Cannon House 

Office Building, and next year will be the 100th anniversary of the Russell Senate 

Office Building. 

As fire and life-safety requirements and standards have become more stringent 

since the buildings were constructed, we face significant requirements to abate Office of Compliance citations, and improve fire safety conditions throughout the complex. We are committed to ensuring that deficiencies are corrected and significant 

resources are devoted to protecting the people who work and visit here. Life-safety 

projects, such as the utility tunnel repair program, are very high priorities. 

Based on Facility Condition Assessments (FCAs) that have been conducted 

throughout the Capitol complex since 2004, we have been prioritizing projects based 

on a set of objective criteria. The FCAs indicate a backlog of more than $600 million 

in Deferred Maintenance and $800 million in Capital Renewal projects, with $900 

million of the total $1.4 billion being urgent or high priority. As the AOC continues 

to be unable to fund Deferred Maintenance, Capital Renewal, and new projects and 

initiatives, the ‘‘bow wave’’ of unfunded requirements continues to grow, as demonstrated in the following table. 

We have developed this budget through a deliberate planning process, and it reflects only the highest priority initiatives and funding for our core activities. We 

made some difficult choices in our efforts to be good stewards of the Capitol complex. We have not requested funding for a long list of projects, additional staffing, 

and several operational initiatives and resources. 

While we recognize this is a significant request at a time when fiscal restraint 

is necessary, we believe that without this important investment Capitol complex facilities will continue to deteriorate. It is fiscally responsible to request the funding 

needed now instead of waiting until facilities are in crisis and beyond repair, thereby costing millions more to restore, renovate, and renew. 

If not addressed, facility requirements will only grow more serious and expensive 

over time. Thus, we are requesting $642.7 million for fiscal year 2009. This is more 
9 

than $228 million greater than what was appropriated to our Agency in fiscal year 

2008, or a 55 percent increase. 

A large portion of that increase, however, is for our Utility Tunnel Improvement 

Program. In order to meet the 5-year schedule as per the agreement with the Office 

of Compliance signed last spring, we have requested $126.6 million for the Utility 

Tunnel Improvement Program in fiscal year 2009. Without the Tunnel Improvement 

Program request, our budget request would be 24.5 percent over what was appropriated in fiscal year 2008. 

Madam Chairman, we look forward to working with this subcommittee, the House 

Subcommittee on Legislative Branch, and our Oversight Committees to address the 

backlog of maintenance and repair projects, as well as find ways to improve and 

modernize Capitol complex facilities, so that a crisis situation is averted. 

ANNUAL OPERATING BUDGET REQUEST

Our fiscal year 2009 annual operating budget request for $384.4 million provides 

funding for continuing the routine activities of operating and maintaining the infrastructure that supports the Congress, other Legislative Branch Agencies, and the 

public, as well as AOC internal infrastructure needs in information management 

systems and operations. The increase of $48.1 million is driven primarily by the upfront investment requirement to meet legislated energy usage decreases; as well as 

fund the initial full-year operations of the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC). 

To date, the appropriation for the CVC has provided funding for the construction 

of the CVC and minimal operational start-up costs and facility maintenance. Beginning in fiscal year 2009, this appropriation will need to fund full-time, annual CVC 

operations and administration, as well as potential construction claims. In addition 

to salaries, equipment, and supplies, our fiscal year 2009 request will provide funding for the printing of informational brochures, educational public programs, exhibits, training, and other programs associated with the opening of the new facility. 

We are also looking to increase our investment in information technology (IT) in 

fiscal year 2009 to ensure a sustainable life-cycle replacement and upgrade program. 

Over the past 4 years, the AOC has not been able to replace or upgrade aging network, storage, server, and desktop systems at a rate required to sustain a secure 

and reliable IT infrastructure. 

Many of these systems were last upgraded or replaced in 2002 following the terror 

attacks of September 11, 2001, and are now nearing or past their expected life span. 

They have not been replaced due to budget shortfalls and restrictions under the continuing resolutions of the last few years. Those same shortfalls have also impacted 

our ability to perform the overdue certification and accreditation of our IT systems 

and to implement industry and Government-standard IT security capabilities, such 

as secure remote access and encryption. In fiscal year 2009, we will also complete 

the modernization of our computing infrastructure to take advantage of new ‘‘green’’ 

virtualization technologies and move to a Microsoft Exchange e-mail system, which 

is the de facto standard throughout the Government. 

In addition, new energy reduction and management initiatives, the utility tunnel 

upgrade projects, and the digitization of our curatorial photo archives are significantly increasing costs related to the management and storage of our electronic 

data. We are also working to migrate to a Web-based time and attendance system 

that will integrate with our facilities management system to enable more effective 

cost accounting for projects and integrate with the time clocks required under our 

union agreement. 

Finally, we are also continuing to develop and expand the capabilities of our automated human resources and financial management systems to keep pace with evolving technological and process changes and improve efficiency and usability of those 

systems. 

CAPITAL PROJECT BUDGET REQUEST

The second component of our fiscal year 2009 budget request is $258.2 million for 

capital projects. As I discussed earlier, chief among our responsibilities is maintaining, preserving, and upgrading the national treasures entrusted to our care by Congress. This includes the facilities, grounds, art work, and other assets. Determining 

which work is done first and where our limited resources are best used involves a 

deliberate approach and multi-year project planning. 

A vital tool that we rely on during this process is our Facility Condition Assessments (FCAs). The AOC has been conducting FCAs throughout the Capitol complex 

since 2004, to help us catalog and prioritize projects based on a set of objective criteria that allow us to evaluate the merits of each project. FCAs also provide us with 

a method for measuring the current condition of all facilities in a uniform way to 
10 

assess how much work is necessary to maintain or upgrade their conditions to acceptable levels to support organizational missions, prevent further deterioration, 

and help to determine when this work should occur. 

Once an FCA is completed on each facility, the information is rolled into a 5-year 

Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). The CIP is used to evaluate projects based on a 

set of pre-established criteria. These criteria include whether the work addresses 

fire and life-safety issues; code compliance; preservation of historic or legacy elements; economics and life cycle cost considerations, physical security and other considerations, such as environmental and energy efficiency. The projects are further 

evaluated based on the conditions of the facilities and their components, and the urgency in correcting the deficiencies. 

We are also developing the Capitol Complex Master Plan (CCMP) which requires 

executing necessary deferred maintenance and renewal work to keep existing facilities functioning while planning for major renewal projects. The CCMP and individual Jurisdiction Plans seek to address these growing problems through a flexible 

investment strategy incorporating reinvestment and new construction. Each Jurisdiction Plan is being evaluated to ensure sequencing of short- and long-term priority 

work is properly expedited and aligned to ensure successful execution and avoid duplication of efforts. Ultimately, the CCMP will establish a framework that will help 

the Congress to prioritize the maintenance, renovation, and construction of facilities 

over the next 5, 10, and 20 years while allowing for prudent budgeting of the costs 

for necessary upkeep and construction. 

Using the CIP process, we are able to comparatively vet the projects to ensure 

that the most urgent get addressed most quickly. Setting these priorities and setting 

limits resulted in some projects not rising to the top of the list based on the objective criteria used as part of the CIP process. It is not that these projects are not 

important. They are all needed and are mission critical, but the fiscally responsible 

thing to do is address the most urgent needs first. This multi-step methodology was 

used to produce the project priority list included in our fiscal year 2009 budget request submitted for the subcommittee’s consideration. 

As in previous budgets, our primary focus is on ensuring that fire and life-safety 

deficiencies are corrected and that significant resources are devoted to protecting 

the people who work and visit the Capitol complex. An example of a major life-safety project is the Utility Tunnel Improvement Program. 

In May 2007, the AOC and OOC signed a comprehensive settlement of a complaint and three citations involving safety in the utility tunnels. The AOC will permanently abate safety and health hazards within 5 years unless extended by mutual agreement of the parties or necessitated by funding shortfalls. Receipt of the 

$126.6 million requested in fiscal year 2009 assures that the AOC remains on schedule to meeting its obligations under the settlement agreement with the OOC. 

Other key capital projects included in the AOC’s fiscal year 2009 budget request 

are: U.S. Capitol Grand Stairs Smoke Control System; Smoke Control System— 

Adams Building; Refurbishment of FOB–8; and Various Energy Conservation Studies. 

In addition to these new capital projects, we have nearly completed construction 

of the Capitol Visitor Center project and are preparing to open the facility later this 

year. 

CAPITOL VISITOR CENTER BUDGET REQUEST AND PROJECT UPDATE

Our fiscal year 2009 budget request for the CVC includes $31 million to finish 

the construction phase of the project. Specifically, this money will be used to fund 

delay costs associated with increased scope, fire alarm changes, and the final acceptance testing. Last year, I testified before this subcommittee that CVC construction 

was 91 percent complete. Today, we are 99 percent complete with construction and 

are well underway with the final acceptance testing of the complex fire and life-safety systems in the facility. 

In the past year, we made much progress on the project. We worked with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and reached agreement on an estimated costto-complete figure of $621 million and an opening date of November 2008. We also 

established and met the November 15, 2007, substantial completion date, effectively 

stemming project delays and associated delay costs, which assured that the complex 

fire and life-safety pre-testing began on schedule on November 16. 

With regard to our progress in completing construction, we are working to complete punchlist items such as millwork, wall stone, floor stone, ceiling panels, plaster work, carpeting, doors, and other finishes. Professional crews have been thoroughly cleaning all of the CVC’s major public spaces. 
11 

A further indication that we are successfully transitioning from a construction 

project to a visitor services operation is that the 11-foot model of the Capitol Dome 

was installed in March, and it is an impressive sight to see at the center of Exhibition Hall. Historic drawings and sophisticated technology were used to create this 

unique 3–D model, and AOC staff ensured that every detail of the model is accurate. 

It is an important part of the CVC experience because it will allow children to have 

a very ‘‘hands-on’’ experience at their Nation’s Capitol. 

Video screens in the Senate and House Virtual Theaters have been installed and 

are being tested. Workers are now installing the 10-foot wooden doors on the east 

side of the Rotunda. The Capitol Superintendent’s Office has initiated relocation coordination meetings with future occupants, and has begun to identify its equipment 

and inventory needs to fully support maintenance operations. 

Outside, the East Front is taking on a much greener appearance with the warmer 

weather and the ongoing landscape restoration work being done. All of the construction trailers have been removed and crews have been preparing the grounds for sod 

placement and plantings. 

The sidewalk along First Street, NE., across from the Supreme Court Building, 

has been restored. The CVC truck entrance which had been located there since 2002 

has been completely dismantled and the area has been restored. 

We are pleased with the overall progress, and we believe that we’re on schedule 

to receive the temporary Certificate of Occupancy by July 31, 2008, as planned, and 

that the CVC will be available to open in November 2008. 

Madam Chairman, as you know, the CVC has been designed to greatly enhance 

the visitor experience by providing greater educational opportunities and muchneeded amenities to the millions of people who visit their Capitol Building each 

year. It is designed to match the Capitol in quality and endurance, and generations 

of Americans will greatly benefit from all it has to offer. 

In that regard, I am pleased to note that the CVC was recently recognized by the 

Washington Building Congress. Specifically, the project was singled out for 11 

Craftsmanship Awards for the high-quality, professional workmanship demonstrated throughout the facility by individuals who are ‘‘creative, precise, and possess the special skills associated with quality craftsmanship.’’ 

The features that were recognized with Craftsmanship Awards include the six 

skylights which allow natural light into the CVC; the custom light fixtures located 

throughout the CVC and Expansion Spaces that complement the existing fixtures 

in the Capitol Building; the installation of major hard scape features such as stairs 

and seat walls, as well as the re-installation of historic elements such as fountains 

and lanterns on the East Front; and the installation of monumental interior wall 

stone and marble, and ornamental staircases, doors, and other hardware. Technical 

skills of the teams responsible for electrical and fire alarm systems installation, and 

plaster work were also honored. 

In addition to the 11 Craftsmanship Awards, several of the winners were extended additional honors with the receipt of the ‘‘Star Award’’ for projects deserving 

of special recognition for demonstrating the highest level of quality. The CVC project 

was recognized for visual excellence and technical excellence, and the project also 

received the Hall of Fame award for the masonry work done throughout the facility. 

For the Washington Building Congress to recognize the CVC for its superb craftsmanship and quality is a true honor. The fine team that has worked on this project 

can take great pride in their role in helping to complete the largest single expansion 

of the Capitol Building. 

On the operations front, we hired a Chief Executive Officer for Visitor Services 

in September 2007 to join the AOC/CVC team, Ms. Terrie Rouse. She, in turn, has 

begun hiring staff to prepare for the CVC’s opening to the public. In addition, she 

has been developing a communications plan which focuses on executing an effective 

and valuable public education campaign about the CVC and all it has to offer. We 

have also been working on a transportation plan, as well as on the exhibits and 

other informational materials in anticipation of the opening later this year. 

A YEAR OF AOC ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Madam Chairman, as I discussed earlier, the past year has been one of significant 

achievement for the AOC in addition to seeing substantial completion of the CVC. 

I would like to sum up my testimony by listing a few of our many accomplishments. 

—Added the Library of Congress’ new 415,000 square-foot National Audio Visual 

Conservation Center located on the Packard Campus in Culpeper, Virginia, to 

our facilities inventory. 

—Signed into effect a Collective Bargaining Agreement with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 626, rep-
12 

resenting approximately 500 laborers, custodians, gardeners, and other workers 

in the House and Senate Office Buildings, U.S. Capitol, and the U.S. Botanic 

Garden. 

—Completed office moves for the 110th Congress, including 21 Senate Offices and 

840 Senate staffer moves with a 96 percent satisfaction rating, and 181 House 

Offices and 20 House Committees with a customer satisfaction level of 96 percent. 

—Completed the purchase of the Senate Mail Facility. 

—Completed the start-up, personnel training, and initial operation of the Capitol 

Power Plant’s West Refrigeration Plant Expansion. 

—Closed 68 of 98 items from the 39 Office of Compliance citations, as of April 

2008, and we have submitted a request to close six additional items. 

In addition, after working with the Government Accountability Office to regroup 

and consolidate some recommendations, we closed 48 out of 65, or 74 percent, of the 

GAO’s general management recommendations that we are tracking. Many of the remaining actions are larger, long-term efforts, and we continue to focus on moving 

them forward. 

In October 2006, we implemented our new fiscal year 2007-fiscal year 2011 Strategic and Performance Plan which emphasizes our mission areas and enabling services and focuses on results. In order to comply with the spirit and intent of the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), the AOC submits to Congress a 

Strategic Plan for program activities in accordance with the guidelines under Section 306 (Strategic plans) of the GPRA. The AOC consults with its employees and 

the Congress, and solicits and considers the views and suggestions of those entities 

potentially affected by or interested in such a plan. 

AOC employees also prepared an annual performance plan in accordance with the 

GPRA. The annual performance plan establishes objective, quantifiable, and measurable performance goals for each activity. In addition, we submit an annual report 

on performance for the previous fiscal year in the performance section of the AOC 
13 

Performance and Accountability Report, in accordance with the GPRA. Using these 

important tools, we have continued to improve our cost accounting procedures and 

internal controls. The results have been significant. We have just received our fifth 

consecutive clean audit opinion on our financial statements. 

Over the past year we have also been working to create a healthy and productive 

work environment where environmental awareness and conservation are the normal 

ways of doing business in the Capitol complex. There are a number of initiatives 

that the AOC has been engaged in for several years, and we continue to see results 

in our efforts to improve energy efficiency. 

Some of our energy-saving initiatives include: 

—Installing an E–85 fueling station. 

—Replacing conventional incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps 

(CFLs) across the Capitol complex. 

—Incorporating standards from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System into our design standards to start 

new construction from a ‘‘green’’ baseline. The Capitol Visitor Center is a prime 

example of this practice. 

—Replacing old, inefficient windows with airtight, insulated ones in buildings 

across the Capitol complex, including the Supreme Court and the Ford House 

Office Building. 

—Purchasing and leasing only Energy Star appliances and equipment. 

—Using Energy Savings Performance Contracting to increase building energy efficiencies and upgrade infrastructure. 

—Installing modern heating/cooling systems and adjusting and controlling HVAC 

schedules. 

—Upgrading elevators and escalators with energy-efficient solid state equipment, 

including high-efficiency motors. 

—Installing restroom fixture motion sensors and additional low-flow devices for 

water conservation. 

—Implementing a pilot program to upgrade controls on heating, ventilating and 

air conditioning (HVAC) terminal units in Senate offices and committee rooms 

to reduce energy usage while increasing comfort levels. 

—Implemented a pilot program to install dimmable lighting ballast systems with 

daylight and occupancy sensors in overhead lighting to maintain consistent 

lighting levels in Senate offices. A similar pilot is ongoing in the Capitol Building. 

—Installing occupancy sensor light switches for offices, conference rooms, and 

committee rooms upon request. 

Internally, we continue to foster a results-oriented workplace and encourage communication and teamwork throughout the Agency. This involves holding regular 

staff or shop meetings, conducting biannual town hall meetings with all AOC employees, and providing a variety of training opportunities. 

I am pleased to report that a direct result of our efforts is a decrease in our Injury 

and Illness Rate for the eighth year in a row. We dropped to 4.41 cases per 100 

employees in fiscal year 2007, down from 4.88 in fiscal year 2006, and significantly 

lower from a high of 17.9 in fiscal year 2000. 
14 

In addition, we are institutionalizing best practices throughout the organization. 

We have joined the Construction Users Roundtable (CURT), Construction Industry 

Institute (CII), Construction Managers Association of America (CMAA), and Building Owners and Management Association (BOMA), and several other professional 

associations, to learn about industry best practices and find ways to incorporate and 

engage those practices into our Agency. We have developed extensive core competencies in our procurement, financial management, and project management organizations and have seen our efforts pay off over the past year. 

Most importantly, we have improved our delivery of services to our clients as 

demonstrated by our annual Building Services Customer Satisfaction Surveys. In 

fiscal year 2007, we received high marks from our clients—more than 95 percent 

satisfaction—on areas such as maintenance and cleaning standards, services provided by AOC shops, and responsiveness. 

CONCLUSION

Madam Chairman, we greatly appreciate this subcommittee’s support and the investment Congress has made in our facilities and infrastructure over the past several years. However, as these buildings age, they will require significant repairs, 

renovations, and upgrades to continue to be safe and healthy working environments 

for Senators and their staffs. This will require a significant investment. 

My goal is to begin reducing the backlog of Deferred Maintenance and Capital Renewal work that has been identified over the past several years through Facility 

Condition Assessments, and address the ‘‘bow wave’’ of unfunded requirements that 

has continued to grow for our Agency. 

We are committed to working with Congress to address the backlog of maintenance and repair projects, as well as improve and modernize Capitol complex facilities, so that a crisis situation is averted. The longer we wait to address these issues, 

the greater the cost will be to fix the problems over time. 

The AOC is committed to being good stewards of the Capitol complex, and in that 

regard, over the past year; we have accomplished much and experienced numerous 

successes. These achievements can be directly attributed to the dedicated, professional individuals that make up the AOC team; including a strong senior leadership 

team. In my role as Acting Architect, I am honored and privileged to work along 

side them. Because of their efforts and commitment to excellence, we continue to 

provide exceptional service to Congress and the visiting public. 

Once again, thank you for this opportunity to testify today. I’d be happy to answer 

any questions you might have. 
(15) 

UNITED STATES CAPITOL POLICE 

STATEMENT OF PHILLIP D. MORSE, SR., CHIEF OF POLICE 

ACCOMPANIED BY: 

DAN NICHOLS, ASSISTANT CHIEF OF POLICE 

GLORIA JARMON, CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER 

Senator LANDRIEU. Chief Morse, if you could limit your remarks 

to 5 minutes, please. 

Mr. MORSE. Good afternoon, Madam Chairman and Senator 

Alexander, Senator Allard. I would like to thank you for the opportunity to discuss with you today the United States Capitol Police’s 

fiscal year 2009 budget request, as well as provide an update on 

our progress to improve management and controls over our programs. 

I am pleased to be joined here today with my Assistant Chief of 

Police, Dan Nichols, and my new Chief Administrative Officer 

(CAO), Gloria Jarmon. The addition of Ms. Jarmon’s background 

and expertise provides the department with a well-rounded leadership team necessary to complete our efforts to become a premier organization, both operationally and administratively. 

SUBCOMMITTEE SUPPORT

I would also like to thank the subcommittee for its continued 

support of the men and women of the United States Capitol Police. 

Your support, as well as the support from other oversight committees, is crucial to our successful execution of our mission. 

PROCESS OF CHANGE

During my time as Chief of Police, we have begun an important 

process of change, one which will require inspection, investigation, 

intelligence, enforcement, threat assessment, and personal protection capabilities to be able to meet the security requirements. I recognize that our requested increase is significant, but I believe it is 

an appropriate reflection of sound judgment on the part of those responsible for executing the mission of the United States Capitol Police. 

We realize that our request must be put into a broader context 

within the final allocation decisions that must be made. Whatever 

those decisions are, we remain committed to continuing the highest 

possible level of security and services provided to the Congress and 

the visitors to the Capitol complex. 

RECENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS

I would like to report that we have been very busy this last year. 

Among the highlights—we conducted a broad scope of law enforcement and security operations which resulted in the arrests of over 

1,100 people for various violations of the law. We handled multiple 
16 

major special events, to include the State of the Union, Capitol concert series, large scale demonstrations, and congressional events. 

We adopted a concept similar to community policing which provides 

direct outreach by our officers and officials to committees and 

Members’ offices within the congressional community. We implemented new security screening guidelines throughout the Capitol 

complex. We planned, coordinated, and evaluated a number of exercises within the Capitol related to air evacuations, lockdowns, and 

active shooter response. We finalized our continuity of operations 

plan and implemented a process for review and enhancement of 

that plan to meet evolving threats and requirements. We conducted 

multiple training exercises across the Capitol complex to improve 

readiness for our sworn personnel in the field. 

In the administrative arena, we brought on board a new Chief 

Administrative Officer, and I am looking to her to implement significant improvements in our administrative and internal control 

processes. 

In addition to filling our CAO position, we have made some additional progress in this area as well, and I would also like to welcome with us today our new Director of Financial Management, 

Mr. Steve Houghton, who is sitting in the audience. 

GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE RECOMMENDATIONS

In last year’s report, the subcommittee expressed concerns related to the department’s efforts to address GAO recommendations. 

Today, I am happy to report that since October 2007, we have 

closed 33 percent of the GAO recommendations and are actively 

working to address the rest of them. We have developed a full set 

of financial statements for 2007 and are actively working on statements for 2008. We have completed a full inventory of our capital 

assets and assigned values to these assets. We redesigned our 

budget planning and execution process to include formalizing the 

department’s Investment Review Board, and at the direction of the 

committees of jurisdiction, we completed an operational and administrative requirements analysis related to the merger of the Library 

of Congress police, and this resulted in the passage of legislation. 

We have revised the uniform and equipment policy of the Capitol 

Police that will result in uniformity of appearance and overall cost 

savings. And while we recognize that we have made progress over 

the year, we also realize we have a long way to go to meet the challenges that lie ahead. 

EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT AND HOMEWORK

In closing, I would like to say that I am looking forward to continuing my efforts as the Chief of Police to make the Capitol Police 

a best practices organization. The progress that we have made in 

the last year demonstrates the commitment and hard work of our 

employees. We will continue to see gradual results and a constant 

evolution into the premier organization I believe we should be. And 

I am committed to continuing to keep you and other stakeholders 

informed and will insist on continued transparency and openness 

both internally and with our external customers and stakeholders. 
17 

PREPARED STATEMENT

I would like to submit my full written testimony for the record, 

and my colleagues and I are prepared to answer any questions that 

you may have. Thank you. 

Senator LANDRIEU. Thank you very much, Chief. 

[The statement follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF PHILLIP D. MORSE, SR. 

Madam Chair and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to 

appear before you today to discuss the United States Capitol Police fiscal year 2009 

budget request, as well as provide an update on our progress to improve management and controls over our programs. I am pleased to be joined here by my Assistant Chief of Police, Daniel Nichols, and my Chief Administrative Officer, Gloria 

Jarmon. As you know, Ms. Jarmon recently joined the Capitol Police from the Government Accountability Office. Her background and expertise provides the Department with the well-rounded leadership team necessary to complete our efforts to become a premiere organization, both operationally and administratively. 

I would also like to thank the committee for its continued support for the men 

and women of the United States Capitol Police. Your support, as well as the support 

from our other oversight committees, is crucial to the successful execution of our 

mission. 

It has been a little over a year since I was selected to be the Chief of the United 

States Capitol Police. During this time the Department has undergone many cultural, operational, and management changes. These changes are part of a larger 

process to modernize the Department for mission capability and efficiency, while enhancing our ability to protect the Congress. I welcome this opportunity to provide 

you with an overview of the Department’s fiscal year 2009 budget request, as well 

as an update on our successes to improve our management practices and internal 

controls thus far. 

As in any organization, teamwork, and leadership are essential qualities of a wellmanaged security and law enforcement operation. It is through this teamwork and 

leadership that the USCP has been able to achieve many successes over the last 

year. I would like to recognize the hard work of all of the sworn and civilian personnel of the United States Capitol Police who exhibit their leadership and dedication to teamwork in meeting our mission every day. Each day of the year without 

exception, these dedicated individuals, with the support of the Capitol Police Board 

and the Congress, ensure the safety of the Members, staff, and millions of visitors 

from across the globe who come to see democracy at work. 

The Department accomplishes its mission through a variety of functions to provide round-the-clock protection to the Congress and the legislative process. In an effort to leverage and maximize technology as well as maintain efficiency and effectiveness in security operations, the Department has made significant investment in 

our human capital and infrastructure. We also provide high-quality training to our 

recruits, officers, and staff. To manage our infrastructure requirements, we have 

augmented our physical security as well as countersurveillance capabilities, automated antiquated security and administrative support systems, enhanced our detection and response capabilities for explosive and hazardous materials, maintained a 

state-of-the-art command center and sustained continued, uninterrupted operations 

of our incident command and emergency notification and response systems. 

The complexity of these operations and infrastructure requires the USCP to take 

a realistic approach towards identifying risks, and resource requirements to meet 

them, while eliminating lower priority operations and investment proposals for new 

departmental initiatives to insure the prudent use of critical resources. 

In our fiscal year 2009 budget submission, the Department is requesting your consideration of its request for personnel costs of $269.2 million and general expense 

costs of $64.4 million. This budget request of $333.6 million represents an increase 

of $51.8 million, which is nearly 18 percent over the amounts for fiscal year 2008 

at the enacted level of funding. As stewards of public resources and a Department 

benchmarking itself against rising standards of success, we are keenly aware of our 

increasingly lean resource environment. In developing the fiscal year 2009 budget 

submission, our main priority was to address the most critical threats, risks, and 

vulnerabilities to congressional security and several initiatives directed by the Congress, as well as addressing the administrative areas that pose a risk of fraud, 

waste and abuse. The Department’s fiscal year 2009 budget request focuses 81 per-
18 

cent of requested resources on Assessment, Prevention and Response, while 19 percent is focused on support activities for the overall mission. 

It is important to note the reasons for the increase in the Department’s fiscal year 

2009 budget request, as many of the items included in this increase are not within 

the control of the Department. Within these items is an increase of 6.1 percent of 

the nearly 18 percent increase related to the opening of the Capitol Visitor Center, 

the implementation of the Library of Congress Police Merger, security for the Architect of the Capitol’s Tunnel Project and security for the Library of Congress New 

Visitor Experience. Also included in the overall increase is an increase of 1.1 percent 

related to security for the upcoming Presidential Inauguration, as well as a nearly 

1 percent increase in the USCP Office of the Inspector General. In addition, 3.4 percent of the budget increase is related to the annualization of fiscal year 2008 costs 

and the Department’s annual cost of living allowance. 

The remaining 6.4 percent of the nearly 18 percent increase are items, which reflect the Department’s priorities and initiatives. Of these items, is a $1.6 million request for reconsideration of several new civilian positions, which were requested in 

the fiscal year 2008 budget request, but for which funding was not available within 

the fiscal year appropriation to support new FTE. The remaining items are salaries, 

to include overtime, and general expenses related to the initiatives developed under 

our new Force Development Process, as well as a select few of my priorities for the 

Department. 

The Department is requesting an increase in sworn and civilian personnel in fiscal year 2009, to include: 

—121 sworn FTE, which include sworn personnel in the following areas: 

—87 related to the Library of Congress Police Merger; 

—10 related to the Capitol Visitor Center, to include utilization of the tunnels 

for staff-led tours, as well as funding for the 21 sworn FTE authorized in fiscal year 2008; 

—11 related to the Library of Congress New Visitor Experience; and 

—13 related to the Protective Services Bureau’s Intelligence Capabilities Business Case. 

—38 civilian FTE, which are intended to support the following areas: 

—4 related to the Office of Financial Management to support budget and accounting activities; 

—4 related to the Library of Congress civilian support personnel for police operations; 

—3 related to the Protective Services Bureau’s Intelligence Capabilities Business Case; 

—8 related to the Office of Information Systems to support the new Radio 

project, and the closure of GAO and Inspector General recommendations and 

findings; 

—9 related to the Security Services Bureau to support security and technical 

program execution and related technology upgrades; 

—5 related to the Training Services Bureau to support training coordination department-wide; 

—2 related to the Office of Human Resources to support a diversity program 

and the closure of GAO and Inspector General recommendations and findings 

related to workforce planning; 

—1 related to the Office of Facilities and Logistics to support workplace safety 

programs; 

—1 related to the Office of General Counsel to support evolving legal coordination and mission support; and 

—1 related to the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer to support administrative oversight and management. 

—Additionally, our Inspector General is requesting an increase of 6 civilian FTE 

including a dedicated legal counsel and additional auditors and investigators. 

The increases referenced will raise the Department’s authorized and funded sworn 

personnel level from 1,702 to 1,823 FTE and civilian personnel from 414 to 458 

FTE. This is an overall increase in personnel from 2,116 to 2,281 FTE for the Department. 

The Department is also requesting an increase of $15.6 million in general expenses over its fiscal year 2008 appropriated funding levels. This increase includes: 

—$4.1 million for the Office of Information Systems to support lifecycle replacement costs for existing systems and to support increases in ongoing contracts. 

—$5.4 million for the Security Services Bureau to support lifecycle replacement 

costs for existing systems and to support increases in ongoing contracts. 
19 

—$1.2 million for the Office of Facilities and Logistics to support the LOC Police 

merger and other new sworn positions, to support the Presidential Inauguration, and to support increases in ongoing contracts. —$1.9 million for the Training Services Bureau to support the training requirements for the LOC Police merger and other new sworn personnel, as well as 

the operation of the Practical Application Center. —$200,000 for the Protective Services Bureau to support the Intelligence Capabilities Business Case from our Force Development Process. —$900,000 for the Office of Plans, Operations and Homeland Security to support 

a study of our Command Center requirements, increases to the Security Camera Operators contract, and various costs associated with the Presidential Inauguration. —$1.1 million for the Office of Human Resources to support increased costs related to sworn applicant testing and background investigations; and —$800,000 for the Uniformed Services Bureau, the Operational Services Bureau 

and other organizational elements in support of training activities, the Presidential Inauguration, and increased fuel costs. 

I recognize that our requested increase is significant, but I believe that it is an 

appropriate reflection of sound judgment on the part of those responsible for executing the mission of the Department. We expect to refine our budget process further in upcoming years and hope that this will help us realize efficiencies, which 

we can incorporate into future budget estimates. However, we felt it was important 

to present to the Congress the resources that in our best judgment are needed to 

optimally execute our mission in fiscal year 2009. 

We realize that our request must be put into a broader context within which final 

allocation decisions must be made. Whatever, those decisions are, we remain committed to continuing the highest possible level of security and service provided to 

the Congress and the visitors to the Capitol complex. 

The Department considers maintaining our onboard workforce and the completion 

of the Library of Congress Police Merger to be within the top 5 percent of our priorities. Among the remaining top 10 percent of our priorities are the CVC security, 

security operations for the Presidential Inauguration, and the lifecycle replacement 

of our critical systems, as well as the increased cost of current security contracts, 

sworn post scheduling, critical training programs, and funding for sworn applicant 

testing and backgrounds to meet attrition and new mission requirements. 

Of primary concern to achieving our operational and administrative goals are the 

potential impacts resulting from a lengthy continuing resolution in fiscal year 2009. 

With the upcoming opening of the Capitol Visitor Center, the Presidential Inauguration, the State of the Union, the Library of Congress (LOC) Police merger, the LOC 

New Visitor Experience and the security requirements for the AoC Tunnel Project, 

as well as maintaining normal post requirements, the Department’s salaries and 

general expense resource requirements under a continuing resolution (CR) will exceed our expected CR allocation. Therefore, the Department is preparing a Continuing Resolution Impact Statement to provide the committees with information on 

the potential impacts, as we know them today. In addition, we will continue to work 

closely with your staff to clearly define our resource needs in the event of a CR. 

In an effort to improve overall effectiveness, we have focused on a number of 

areas, beginning with overtime management. In fiscal year 2007, the Department 

concentrated heavily on the efficient utilization of our overtime allocation within our 

salary appropriation, as well as ways to effectively control the Department’s utilization of this resource. Based on current mission requirements, the current number 

of on-board sworn personnel is not sufficient to meet all of the identified mission 

needs. Therefore, USCP sworn personnel must be utilized to work overtime to meet 

these resource requirements. Last year, through a process of load leveling sworn 

personnel across the Department, constant analysis, and the reduction of low risk 

posts, we were able to reduce our projected overtime requirements of $24.7 million 

by close to $3 million. Yet, we still had to utilize over $22 million in order to meet 

our basic mission requirement. With the upcoming openings of new areas of the Library of Congress, the Capitol Visitor Center, the implementation of the Library of 

Congress Police merger and the anticipated presence of special events and protests 

in and around the Capitol, we know that we must continue the use of overtime to 

meet the Department’s mission. However, we believe that by continuing to utilize 

our established overtime allocation and tracking process, we will be able to ensure 

that we are utilizing overtime in an efficient and effective manner, balanced against 

the Department’s need to request additional sworn personnel to fill identified mission activities related to normal post requirements. 

As such, the Department is requesting consideration for overtime funding in fiscal 

year 2009 at $30.5 million, which is an increase of $4.1 million over the enacted 
20 

fiscal year 2008 funding level of $26.4 million for overtime within our salary appropriation. Included in this request is $21.7 million in overtime to address normal post 

requirements; $900,000 to support the security requirements for the AOC Tunnel 

Project; $1.1 million related to supporting additional posts requirements for the Library of Congress New Visitor Experience until sworn personnel are authorized, recruited, hired, trained, and deployed; $4.9 million to support security operations for 

the Capitol Visitor Center, to include backfill for additional sworn personnel until 

the positions are recruited, hired, trained, and deployed; and $1.9 million to cover 

the 2009 Presidential Inauguration post requirements. 

Another area of focus is in the area of human capital resource requirements. In 

the last few months, the Department received the final report from its contractor, 

Enlightened Leadership Solutions, which provides a detailed analysis of operational 

processes and the required manpower necessary to carry out each component of 

these processes. This Manpower Study, along with the Department’s Strategic Plan, 

the Force Development Process, the annual Environmental Assessment Process, and 

our soon to be published Strategic Human Capital Plan, will be utilized by the Department in future years to develop and enhance a single, long-term vision and related resource requirements. Our wish is for this vision to be a guide for us in everything we do from this point forward, as well as provide an indicator to you of our 

plan, process and progress. The goal of this entire effort is to create a set of clear 

targets to define our plan, budget and performance measurements for the next 10 

years. 

Previously, the USCP Concept of Operations (ConOps) dealt mostly with security 

at the entrances of congressional buildings and the Capitol grounds. The current situation in the world posed by terrorism and other threats has required us to develop 

a ConOps that stretches our capabilities beyond stopping a threat before it can get 

through the door. We utilize intelligence provided by our partners throughout the 

Federal Government to remain constantly vigilant of threats, so we can stop them 

long before they come within striking distance of the Capitol Complex and Members 

of Congress. Through the Manpower Study analysis, we have determined an immediate need to further develop this capability in fiscal year 2008 through some staffing realignments and in fiscal year 2009–2010 through a request for an increase in 

authorized sworn and civilian personnel to support this counter-intelligence effort. 

With an aging infrastructure, the limitation of current facilities and the quickly 

changing technology surrounding law enforcement, the Department is faced with a 

communications challenge. This challenge will require us to invest in a new radio 

system. We are grateful for the resources and support we have been given by Congress in this area to date. We recently received a cost analysis from our contractor 

based on a comprehensive requirements survey for our new radio system. We plan 

to provide this analysis to the committees following our internal validation of the 

data. 

Regardless of the approach we take in the future, our facilities are not designed 

and built to handle a modern operation, and may not be capable of handling the 

necessary infrastructure for this purpose. To that end, we are working with the Architect of the Capitol to develop a comprehensive facilities requirement, which will 

accompany our radio system resource requirements request to the Congress. 

In order to ensure that the Department had credible and supportable costing data 

before requesting additional support from the Congress, we did not include a request for funding for the new radio system in our fiscal year 2009 budget submission, as this supportable data was not available at the time of the submission deadline. Now that this data is available, the Department would like to initiate discussions with the Congress regarding the most appropriate venue to pursue this critical 

funding. 

During fiscal year 2007, the Department affected over 1,100 arrests, which range 

from robbery to driving while intoxicated to disorderly conduct to traffic offenses. 

In the first 5 months of fiscal year 2008, the Department affected over 340 arrests 

ranging from larceny to driving while intoxicated to traffic offenses. In addition, the 

Department conducted over 65,000 K–9 sweeps during the same 5-month period. 

In an effort to better engage our stakeholders in the mission of the Department, 

we have adopted a concept similar to ‘‘Community Policing’’, which provides direct 

outreach by USCP officers and officials to committees and Member offices within the 

congressional community. Over the last year, the Department has focused on this 

effort with positive response from our stakeholders by visiting every congressional 

office as a part of this outreach. Through this proactive communication process, the 

Department is better able to keep the congressional community abreast of security 

and safety issues of importance. Last month, we began our theft protection outreach 

efforts with Member offices and will continue this effort throughout the summer 

months. 
21 

Additionally, to better plan and execute security for special events and demonstrations, the Department has focused its efforts to ensure a holistic event plan is developed, to include staffing and resource requirements, as well as roles and responsibilities. Further, the Department has implemented an after action reporting process 

to capture issues and achievements from each event to be used for corrective actions, future planning and training purposes. 

During the high-volume months when visits to the Capitol complex are at their 

height, the Uniformed Services Bureau is making specific efforts to expedite visitors 

through security screening checkpoints. A contributor to our success in this area is 

the Department’s new security screening guidelines. So far, we have trained over 

600 officers, officials and security aides, to include all sergeants and lieutenants. 

These new security-screening guidelines standardize this process, so that officers 

are more consistent with their screening applications and more proficient in the detection of prohibited and unlawful items. Since the training was implemented, there 

have been some significant weapon seizures, to include the detection of a cane with 

a sword concealed inside and a switchblade knife in a backpack. Both of these detections resulted in arrests. 

Further, we have planned, coordinated and evaluated 15 exercises within the Capitol related to air evacuations, lockdowns, and active shooter, which simulates a person with a weapon within Capitol Complex structures. We have also conducted 60 

training exercises across the Capitol Complex to improve readiness for sworn personnel in the field. 

In addition, the Department has recently finalized its initial plan on continuity 

of operations to ensure its readiness to support the Congress in the event that the 

legislative process must be relocated. This will serve as a living document for the 

Department, upon which we will continue to enhance our preparedness and readiness efforts. Further, the Department has focused efforts to ensure the readiness of 

our personnel to address short-term limited evacuations from buildings or the interruption of activities, so the Department has the ability to perform its mission. 

These are just a few of the operational activities that the Department has undertaken in an effort to enhance its management infrastructure. But, just as critical 

are the mission support functions in our administrative area. 

As we develop these synchronized systems and improve the overall planning and 

mission capability of the Department, we are also working toward developing and 

implementing best financial management and internal controls practices within our 

organizational elements. We have taken on several positive steps in this area, and 

most recently have worked towards the ability to produce a full set of auditable Federal financial statements. 

I am pleased to report that we have shown some progress in meeting this goal. 

The Department completed a full inventory of our capital assets, and assigned values to these assets. This effort led to the completion of a full set of Federal financial 

statements for the fiscal year that ended on September 30, 2007. We know that our 

financial statements require further refinement and improvement. We are committed to continuing these efforts over the next several years under the guidance 

of our CAO, with a goal to achieve a clean opinion on the financial statements for 

the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010. We also know that even with a clean 

opinion, we will have to continue to address audit findings in this area until we 

achieve a best practices financial management operation. 

We have also taken steps to identify and address critical staffing requirements 

within our Office of Financial Management, to include the areas of management, 

budget, procurement, and accounting. Without filling these key positions, I am concerned that we will not be able meet our goals to correct the recommendations and 

findings in this area. I am pleased to report that over the last 8 weeks, the Department has advertised all current vacancies within OFM, and we have selected a Director for the Office of Financial Management, a Procurement Officer, a Budget Officer, and a Procurement Analyst, as well as finalized the hiring of an accountant and 

a contracting officer, who have both already started working for us. We hope to have 

selections made and the requests for appointment forwarded to the Capitol Police 

Board and authorizing committees soon for the Deputy Director for the Office of Financial Management and the Budget Analyst. 

I am also pleased with our efforts to redesign our budget planning and execution 

process, with the approval and assistance of the Appropriation Committees, as a 

part of our new Force Development Process. We have provided for the first time a 

budget submission, which we believe demonstrates the resource requirements of the 

Department, defines our methodology for making these resource requests and demonstrates how the Department is utilizing the resources provided to it by the Congress. 
22 

During my tenure, the Department has focused on instutionalizing my vision of 

‘‘Rising to the Challenge,’’ and we have set the bar very high for our officials and 

staff in an effort to make the USCP better able to meet our mission and enable 

every sworn and civilian employee to take more pride in the organization. 

We began instituting the ‘‘Rising to the Challenge’’ vision by tackling goals that 

are as simple as officers’ consistently looking professional and alert on post; or as 

complex as developing a standard and repeatable planning process for the Department that utilizes a comprehensive series of assessments and investment decisions. 

We have also worked to instill the common values of consistent practices, goal setting and commitment to the overall mission throughout every level of the Department. 

To ensure our success, we have worked to enhance communication and transparency, in order to keep all employees better informed on the workings of the Department, and the expectations of leaders and stakeholders. We have increased accountability down through all levels of management, so that the senior leaders can 

count on the front line supervisors to run the day-to-day operations, while we make 

a concerted effort at the statutory and Executive Management Team levels to map 

out the long-term strategic initiatives for the Department. 

Some key outcomes of my vision in 2007 were the successful completion of the 

Department’s Force Development Process for the fiscal year 2009 budget development and submission, as well as the development of a formal process to track and 

address recommendations from the OIG and GAO. 

Force Development incorporates the principles of threat based planning into our 

Concept of Operations (ConOps), investment decisions and resource requests and allocations. This standardized business approach is based on the concepts of consistent planning, budget formulation, execution and performance evaluation, in the 

spirit of the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA.) Force Development 

sets timetables and accountability for planning resource requirements, based on security risks and threats, as well as a higher level of accountability. 

Many of the components of the Force Development Process were already in place 

at the Department. We have simply designed a process flow that sets a consistent 

time table, integrates risk and other assessments into the formal process, links activities into one consistent and unified process, and adds a new level of performance 

tracking and reporting. 

I am also pleased with the intensive analysis that we have conducted in order to 

develop a small number of specific investment proposals for the fiscal year 2009 

budget submission using a five-step process. Lead Agents, which were members of 

our Senior Management Team and program managers, developed detailed business 

cases for specific investment proposals that where designed to meet the most critical 

needs identified by the Department’s annual environmental assessment. We utilized 

an internal costing group made up of representatives from the operational bureaus 

and administrative support areas of the Department, to define accurate resource requirements for each investment. We incorporated analysis panels of Senior Management Team members to meet with the Lead Agents to challenge their business cases 

and more clearly define the needs of the Department and develop recommendations 

for our Investment Review Board (IRB), which is comprised of members of the Department’s Executive Management Team. 

Finally, the IRB met to discuss each business case proposal and ask questions of 

the Lead Agents to further validate and refine the requirement. Following the IRB 

meetings, we conducted an online rating and ranking process which delivered to me 

a comprehensive analysis of the IRB rating, ranking, and comments for each investment proposal. This analysis allowed me to make my final decision for the proposals 

considered for inclusion in our budget. 

The second outcome from my vision is the Department’s efforts to address its 

management challenges. As you know, the Department struggled for several years 

to address the recommendations of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and 

the Department’s independent auditors. One of my first directives to the Executive 

Management Team was to embrace and implement the recommendations provided 

by the GAO and the USCP’s Office of the Inspector General, which included the recommendations of our auditors. 

My goal was to use these recommendations as a roadmap for the Department’s 

overall organizational improvement. The recommendations have provided the Department with an opportunity to implement a myriad of administrative and operational changes to create a well-managed organization, prevent the risk of waste, 

fraud, and abuse, and ensure the successful execution of our mission. 

As a first step toward meeting this goal, we established an Audit Liaison to coordinate the tracking and reporting of all open recommendations with the Executive 

Management Team. We implemented a directive, which establishes a formal audit 
23 

resolution process, and is based on the examples provided through policies and best 

practices followed in other Government agencies. In addition, the Directive established a process of developing action plans to deal with each open recommendation 

and ensure accountability from all levels of USCP employees responsible for their 

resolution and closure. 

Today, I am pleased to report that the Department has made significant progress 

in addressing these recommendations and findings since October 2007. Since the beginning of the fiscal year, we have closed over 30 of the 118 remaining recommendations and findings, leaving open a total of 80 recommendations and findings to resolve. Of those closed, 8 recommendations were in the financial management area. 

The remaining closed items were in the human capital, asset management, information systems, strategic management, operations, and overall management and internal controls areas. 

Over the last year, we have: 

—Developed and submitted for audit a full set of financial statements. 

—Developed and implemented a standardized and repeatable process to ensure 

compliance with reprogramming requirements concerning appropriated funds. 

—Implemented actions to monitor our purchase, travel, and fleet card programs 

and the expenditures made under these programs. 

—Implemented a standardized process for addressing procurement workloads to 

avoid backlogs. 

—Formalized the Department’s Investment Review Board process and provided 

training for its members. 

—Established a formalized process for responding to and resolving recommendations and audit findings. 

—Institutionalized our semi-annual reporting to the Capitol Police Board and our 

oversight committees. 

—Finalized our Continuity of Operations Plan and implemented a process for review and enhancement of the plan to meet evolving threats and requirements. 

—Finalized, submitted, and received approval for the USCP’s organizational 

chart. 

—Revised and implemented the processes and protocols for the use of blocking vehicles. 

—Revised and implemented protocols for the usage of radio frequencies during 

operational activities. 

—Developed and implemented a formalized process for the review and approval 

of information technology procurements. 

Additionally, we have developed and are initiating the implementation of a strategic human capital plan, to include linkages to the Department’s strategic plan and 

vision. This plan will assist the Department in addressing the gaps in the number, 

deployment, and alignment of human capital approaches to enable and sustain the 

contributions of critical skills and competencies within our workforce. We believe 

this plan is critical to our ability to hire and retain a professional workforce necessary to support the mission of the Department. 

Further, we have taken steps to suspend, review, and overhaul certain programs 

to validate that they are operating within the intent of Congress and under effective 

internal controls. 

Some examples of these are: 

—Suspension of the Student Loan Repayment Program in order to revise the 

overarching directive and procedures governing the program to ensure that the 

program is being utilized as a recruiting and retention tool, as intended. 

—Suspension of the Specialty Assignment Pay, Fitness Proficiency Pay, and Firearms Proficiency Pay in order to review these discretionary programs for prudent management and oversight. 

—Enhancement of our internal controls program. These efforts have provided a 

framework for organizational elements to address and resolve audit findings 

and recommendations. 

—Review of our uniform and weapon inventories. This review resulted in my decision to implement changes to our uniform policy, to include the number and 

types of uniforms utilized by the Department. My intent is to streamline the 

uniforms used by the Department and reduce our inventory and long-term uniform expenditures. 

—Review of other support areas such as training, procurement, travel processes, 

and fleet management to continue progress in addressing management and controls issues. 

In addition to our focus on these operational and administrative management activities, we have also been focused on the planning for and implementation of sev-
24 

eral large-scale initiatives, which will be impacting the Department within the upcoming year. 

The Department is making plans to provide security to the upcoming Democratic 

and Republican Conventions in August and September 2008, respectively. We are 

currently engaged in various planning efforts and site visits leading up to the 

events. 

As the completion of the Capitol Visitor Center nears, we are gearing up for the 

opening of this facility and to welcome the American public with courteous, efficient, 

and safe security. We are grateful for the authorization of an additional 21 sworn 

FTE in fiscal year 2008 to support the USCP’s CVC operational plan. As you know, 

we are requesting an additional 10 sworn FTE in order to support staff-led tours 

in the congressional office building tunnels. With these resources, we will have the 

tools to implement our operational plan consistent with current operating assumptions for the facility. 

In addition, with the recent legislation enacted in January 2008, Congress has expressed a timeline for the complete merger of the Library of Congress Police into 

the USCP. We have developed a very successful relationship with the Library of 

Congress (LOC) Police over the past few years and have integrated our sworn employees into their operations. In fiscal year 2009, we will be integrating the remaining LOC sworn personnel into the Department and will be training, equipping, and 

employing them as members of the USCP. Likewise, we will be welcoming their civilian employees into our ranks. 

While these are just a few examples of the serious efforts we have undertaken 

to enhance the management and internal controls of the United States Capitol Police, as well as implement long-term planning, I believe they represent our commitment to meet the challenges raised by the Congress and the successful execution 

of our mission to protect and defend the legislative process. Although much work 

remains to be done at the Department in the areas of management, we believe that 

significant progress has been made in implementing systems and processes that improve the administrative functions and our ability to perform our mission. 

In closing, I would like to say that I am looking forward to continuing my efforts 

as Chief of Police to make the Capitol Police a best practices organization. The 

progress we have made in the last year demonstrates the commitment and hard 

work of the employees of the Department. I want to recognize the fact that in many 

ways we are addressing and correcting processes, programs, and a culture that has 

been present for a long time. Everything will not be made perfect all at once. However, we will continue to see gradual results and a constant evolution into the premier organization I believe we should be. I am committed to continuing to keep you 

and our other stakeholders informed, and will insist on continued transparency and 

openness, both internally and with our external customers and stakeholders. 

We at the Capitol Police look forward to working collaboratively with the Congress to continue to safeguard the legislative process, Members, staff, and visitors 

to the Capitol Complex. Through this collaborative partnership, I believe we will realize our collective goal of transforming the United States Capitol Police into a premiere law enforcement organization. 

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today and the committee’s 

continued support of the men and women of the United States Capitol Police. 

My colleagues and I are ready to address any questions you may have. 
(25) 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

STATEMENT OF DR. JAMES BILLINGTON, LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS 

ACCOMPANIED BY JO ANN JENKINS, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER 

Senator LANDRIEU. Dr. Billington. 

Dr. BILLINGTON. Madam Chair, Senator Alexander, Senator 

Allard, it is really an honor to be here to present the Library of 

Congress’ fiscal year 2009 budget request and to be here along with 

our Chief Operating Officer, Ms. Jo Ann Jenkins, and other members of the Executive Committee who are seated behind me. 

I thank the Chair for your continuing interest in the vision and 

goals of the Library, for your efforts to focus attention on the Veterans History Program, and for the opportunity to work with you 

to bring Southeastern Louisiana University into our educational 

network which helps K through 12 teachers to make broader use 

of the Library of Congress’ collections of digitized primary sources. 

Senator Alexander, we look forward to working with you as well 

on a similar program with Middle Tennessee State University, and 

I thank you for being such a strong and thoughtful proponent of 

American history and civics education, which we are trying to advance with our educational programs and with the new library experience. So I look forward to continuing to work with you both and 

with all members of the subcommittee. 

Senator Allard, we have enjoyed hosting your capital conference 

at the Library these past several years. You will be missed. We 

thank you for your great interest in the Library and your support 

over the years, and when you retire at the end of the 110th Congress, we will miss you and wish you the very best. 

Madam Chair, we have submitted a very modest budget request 

for fiscal year 2009, based on fiscal year 2008 operating levels—levels that were achieved with some painful cuts in the Library’s 

budget. We have limited ourselves to request funding only to meet 

mandatory pay raises and unavoidable price level increases, to sustain basic current services, and to rescue from the brink of collapse 

the unique program that the Congress mandated and funded in 

2001 for preserving the growing volume of important information 

and knowledge that is produced only in highly impermanent digital 

form. 

COLLECTING AND PRESERVING DIGITAL CONTENT

The fiscal year 2007 rescission of $47 million from the National 

Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program resulted in a total loss to the program of $84 million when you add 

in the matching amount that the partners would have provided. 

We have requested $6 million in fiscal year 2009 and have provided 

a 5-year plan for keeping this program alive. I will submit the plan 

with my testimony. Collecting and preserving ephemeral digital 
26 

content is increasingly important for serving the information needs 

of the Congress—and for validating our new way of doing business, 

by sharing ongoing costs and expertise with a trusted network of 

vetted partners—in Louisiana, Tennessee, Illinois, Nebraska, and 

other States. 

We have had to accept that our long planned roll-out of the transition to a digital format for talking books and playback machines 

will be prolonged from 4 to 6 years. 

Madam Chair, the Congress of the United States has been the 

greatest patron of a library in the history of the world. The Congress can be proud of the record of acquiring and preserving, even 

in difficult financial periods, the largest and most varied collection 

anywhere of the world’s knowledge and of this Nation’s creativity. 

AUSTERITY AFFECTS LIBRARY MISSION

We respect the Congress’ understandable desire for austerity in 

this year’s budget request, and its authority to limit and redirect 

funds within the Library’s appropriations. But I feel obligated to 

say that if we are stretched much further, we may soon reach a 

breaking point from which it will be difficult to return, particularly 

if we have to cut deeper into basic Library programs as we have 

had to do recently. For instance, we had to absorb roughly $16 million in mandated cost-of-living increases in fiscal years 2007 and 

2008. 

We now have about 1,000 fewer staff to do far more work than 

was done 20 years ago when I became Librarian and before we 

began the Herculean task of superimposing a digital library and 

services on top of a traditional analog library. About three-quarters 

of the staff reductions have been in library services, endangering 

vital core missions. We are stretching out the useful life of the 

technological infrastructure of the Library. But we are reaching a 

dangerous point and we cannot and should not put in jeopardy the 

important role that the Library plays in the information infrastructure of America in this information age. 

NEW VISITORS EXPERIENCE

Despite these challenges, this is a time of great promise for the 

Library—as we continue using digital technology to transform the 

way we do our work and deliver our services to the Congress and 

the Nation in all areas of the Library. 

Relying largely on private philanthropy and in-kind donations, 

our outstanding, dedicated staff has already begun transforming 

the public spaces of the Jefferson Building into an interactive 

learning center for the greatly increased number of visitors who 

will be coming to the Library when the Capitol Visitor Center 

opens. David McCullough said at the opening of our new digitally 

enhanced exhibit of the priceless original documents involved in 

the creation of the United States—and I am quoting David 

McCullough—‘‘I saw yesterday an exhibition which every American 

ought to see: ‘Creating the U.S.’. If visitors to this, our capital city, 

whether they’re from our own country or from abroad, were to see 

only one exhibition, one building, one place during their visit, seeing ‘Creating the U.S.’ would be the one to see.’’ 
27 

We are also bringing into full operation the magnificent new National Audio Visual Conservation Center created with the support 

and funding of the Congress and the unprecedented gift of more 

than $150 million plus expert guidance from David Woodley Packard and the Packard Humanities Institute. And we will begin putting on line, with the support of UNESCO and other national libraries, an educational World Digital Library of primary documents of other cultures that will be accessible in seven languages. 

STRATEGIC INFORMATION RESERVE

Madam Chair, we recognize that difficult choices will continue to 

have to be made during this time of extraordinary budget constraints. But this Library is an essential part of our knowledgebased democracy. The Library collects, preserves, and makes accessible free of charge both here on Capitol Hill and everywhere else 

on the Internet important materials in languages and in formats 

that no one else does. We are in many ways a key part of our Nation’s strategic information reserve. The small 2 percent increase 

for programs in our budget request directly affects that strategic 

reserve. This Library has never been more important for the economic, security, and civic health of America than now in this information age and in the midst of the digital revolution, the most profound change in recent history in the mode of communication, as 

well as the generation of human knowledge. 

PREPARED STATEMENTS

I ask for your support for our modest funding request for fiscal 

year 2009, and we look forward to working with the subcommittee 

to craft a budget for fiscal year 2010 that can ensure for the future 

the Library’s historic mission of serving the Congress and the Nation in these challenging and changing but, at the same time, 

promising times. Thank you very much. I will be very pleased to 

answer any questions. 

Senator LANDRIEU. Thank you, Dr. Billington. 

[The statements follow:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF DR. JAMES BILLINGTON

Madam Chair, Senator Alexander, and other members of the subcommittee: It is 

an honor to be here to present the Library of Congress fiscal 2009 budget request. 

Madam Chair, I thank you for your continuing interest in the vision and goals of 

the Library. Senator Alexander, I want to welcome you to the subcommittee and 

look forward to working with you and all the members of the subcommittee. 

We have submitted a very modest budget request for fiscal 2009, based on fiscal 

2008 operating levels—levels that were achieved with deep and painful cuts to the 

Library’s budget. The Library has requested a total fiscal 2009 budget of $645.8 million, representing an increase of 5.3 percent over fiscal 2008. With this request, we 

have limited ourselves mainly to asking for funding to meet mandatory pay raises 

and unavoidable price-level increases, and a much smaller amount mainly to rescue 

from the brink of collapse the unique National Digital Information and Infrastructure Preservation Program (NDIIPP) that the Congress mandated and funded in 

2001 for preserving the growing volume of valuable information and knowledge produced only in highly impermanent digital form. 

The Congress of the United States has been the greatest patron of the library in 

the history of the world. We respect the understandable desire of the Congress for 

austerity in this year’s budget request. And we respect the Congress’s authority to 

limit and redirect funds within the Library’s appropriations. But I feel obligated to 

say that if we are stretched much farther, we may soon reach a breaking point. We 

are extending the useful life of the technical infrastructure of the Library, but we 
28 

cannot and should not put in jeopardy this important part of the information infrastructure of America in this information age. 

This is a time of great promise for the Library. In all areas, digital technology 

is being used to transform the way we do our work and deliver services to Congress. 

Copyright’s re-engineering program, Library Services’ digital acquisitions program, 

the Office of Strategic Initiatives’ NDIIPP initiative, the National Library Service 

for the Blind and Physically Handicapped Digital Talking Book program, and the 

Law Library’s Global Legal Information Network are but a few examples of a broader institutional goal: to add digital content and services on top of traditional Library 

programs. The relatively modest increases we are requesting are almost all designed 

to sustain the progress we have been making in the digital transformation of our 

collections, services, and internal procedures. Our digital initiatives are not miscellaneous, unrelated activities; they are related pieces in transforming all Library 

functions for the future. The digital transformation will occur over several years and 

will require continuity of congressional support. Beginning with our fiscal 2010 request, we will provide detailed advanced projections of what we will propose both 

to add and to reduce over the next few years in order to sustain our historic mission 

for the Congress and the Nation at a time of revolutionary change in the generation 

and communication of knowledge. 

The fiscal 2008 appropriation, including the across-the-board rescission, resulted 

in a 0.83 percent increase for the Library of Congress over the fiscal 2007 funding 

level. While total funding for fiscal 2008 included a $12.5 million increase to support 

the Digital Talking Book program, the Congress reduced funding levels in several 

of the Library’s other accounts, including a $10 million reduction to the Copyright 

Office’s no-year funding balance, a $4 million general pay reduction, and more than 

$5 million in targeted reductions to our Library Services program. In addition to 

these direct cuts, the Library has had to absorb roughly $16 million in cost-of-living 

increases in fiscal 2007 and 2008. 

We now have more than 1,000 fewer staff to do far more work than was done 20 

years ago when I became Librarian and before we assumed the Herculean task— 

and national leadership we have achieved—of superimposing digital library collections and services on top of our continuing role as the world’s largest and most diversified repository of analog materials (books, maps, movies, music, etc.). We already are having to begin cutting back on one of our most vital core missions: the 

comprehensive acquisition of information and knowledge that we alone collect and 

preserve for the Nation’s strategic information reserve. With difficulty and a focus 

on fiscal restraint, the Library’s Executive Committee and I eliminated more than 

$52 million in critical funding needs from this fiscal 2009 budget request, committing either to forgo or seek to fund internally those items or activities in fiscal 2009. 

All service units within the Library have been affected by the austere budgets of 

fiscal 2007 and 2008, but two programs were affected severely: 

BOOKS FOR THE BLIND AND PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED DIGITAL TALKING BOOK

PROGRAM

The Digital Talking Book Program (DTB) was funded at $12.5 million, rather 

than our original request for a $19.1 million increase, which means that our longplanned roll-out of the transition to a digital format for talking books and playback 

machines will be prolonged from 4 to 6 years. During the appropriations cycle, the 

Library made an appeal for $15 million for the DTB program, but this appeal was 

rejected in light of budget austerity across the broader Legislative Branch. 

Recognizing the very difficult budget environment that the Congress and the entire Federal Government face, Library leadership accepted the necessity of managing the Digital Talking Book program at the current (fiscal 2008) funding level 

and over the extended (6-year) transition period. Production of the playback machines is well underway, and digital books are being created, but the current funding level will, during this transition period, reduce the number of books on the shelf 

for blind readers, for whom we are the sole source of free reading material. The 

blind community continues to express its displeasure with the consequences of the 

lower funding level. 

NATIONAL DIGITAL INFORMATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE PRESERVATION PROGRAM

(NDIIPP)

NDIIPP was founded and funded by the Congress in 2001 on the principle of 

shared stewardship and costs. The fiscal 2007 rescission of $47 million from NDIIPP 

resulted in a total loss to the collaborative national digital preservation effort of $84 

million. We are living in an unprecedented period of unbounded creativity where important knowledge creation, legislative proceedings, and political discourse are in-
29 

creasingly documented only in ephemeral digital formats. We cannot as a national 

cultural institution of the United States afford to walk away from our mission responsibility to save these valuable records for future generations. The rescission to 

NDIIPP forced us to reduce by 75 percent the commitments we had already made 

to our partners in fiscal 2007. The rescission to NDIIPP has taken away the means 

by which we can save more content, expand the joint stewardship network, and 

build out the necessary underlying technical infrastructure. 

We have requested an increase of $6 million in fiscal 2009 and have provided a 

5-year plan for keeping this program alive. Without these program funds, we will 

be forced to begin shutting down the joint stewardship program and walk away from 

shared stewardship and costs with our sustaining network partners. Absent this 

funding, we will be left only to voice our alarm at the risks of loss and remain on 

the sideline in hopes that others will have the means to save our digital cultural 

heritage records. 

Collecting and preserving ephemeral digital content is essential if we are to continue serving the information needs of the Congress. This program is also important 

for validating our new way of doing business, by sharing ongoing costs and expertise 

with the network of NDIIPP partners we have built up in Florida, Iowa, California, 

and Minnesota. 

The Library has developed specific goals it will achieve during the next 5 years. 

The program has acquired 66 terabytes of at-risk digital content collected and preserved by its partners within a network of repositories. This is equivalent to the 

content in approximately 66 million books. It has developed a network of more than 

130 partners in the content, technology, research, Government, and business sectors 

across 25 States; 10 of these partners are Federal agencies. 

The NDIIPP partners have created, for free download, publicly available tools for 

preserving digital content. These tools make the life cycle management of at-risk 

content easier. Together with our partners, we have created, standardized, and 

shared the means to harvest content from the web, prepare content metadata, prepare content for long-term storage, and allow sharing and exchanging content across 

digital libraries. 

During the next 5 years NDIIPP will increase by tenfold (to 650 terabytes) the 

digital content under national stewardship. It will create a National Alliance for 

Content Stewardship that reaches all 50 States. This alliance will establish a formal 

presence in every State to champion and catalyze digital preservation efforts and 

investments from the public and private sectors, and also construct the technical architecture necessary for storage of the 650 terabytes of content distributed across 

the partnerships. 

Other than funding for mandatory pay and price-level increases and a $6 million 

increase for the NDIIPP program, the Library has limited its fiscal 2009 program 

funding requests to $5.8 million in order to maintain the services of our most critical programs. We have requested $3 million to cover the increased assessment for 

the State Department Capital Security Cost-Sharing program to keep alive our allimportant overseas offices; $0.9 million for the final increment of a 5-year adjustment for inflationary cost increases in the Library’s Acquisitions Program; $1.8 million to restore salary funding for staff operating the Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation in Culpeper, Virginia; and $156,000 for an additional staff member 

in the Library’s Office of the Inspector General. 

LIBRARY SERVICES

Beginning in fiscal 2006, Library Services (LS) began realigning its base funding 

in order to meet new requirements and support needed innovation without requesting new funding from the Congress for such programs and activities as upgrading 

of its preservation research and testing lab; acquiring historically important special 

collections that should rightly be included in the national library; and refurbishing 

many of the Library’s most heavily used public spaces. 

With the reductions to the LS budget in fiscal 2007 and fiscal 2008, current funding levels no longer support many important programs and activities. For example, 

the Packard Campus preservation laboratories are not yet operational. Even though 

staff and collections have been moved to Culpeper, fully half of the capacity to preserve at-risk collections at the New Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation 

cannot be realized. 

LS has absorbed part of the fiscal 2008 cuts by delaying hiring. This has resulted 

in gaps in critical language and subject-matter expertise. It has also meant that important supervisory and managerial vacancies in LS remain open at a time when 

anticipated retirements are at an all-time high. The long-term effects of the budget 

reductions are significant. Salaries and benefits of critical new hires will be 
30 

annualized in fiscal 2009. As a result, major preservation contracts for mass deacidification and binding, and collections management contracts that provide care and 

service of collections items, must be reduced. This directly affects the stewardship 

of the collections built over the past 200 years and their availability for future generations. Finally, the Library will be unable to acquire many special collections that 

are appropriate for the Library’s collections. 

COPYRIGHT

The Library’s fiscal 2009 budget justification includes a net appropriation request 

of $12.9 million to support the Copyright Office’s core operations. Of this amount, 

$10 million represents a request to restore funding the Congress temporarily reduced in the fiscal 2008 budget. The Congress directed the Copyright Office to use 

a no-year balance to fund normal operating expenses in fiscal 2008. As the balance 

of the no-year account will be depleted in fiscal 2008, the Copyright Office must 

have appropriated funding restored in order to maintain operations. 

The total increase in net appropriations requested for the Copyright Office also 

includes $1 million to support the implementation of the Copyright Records Preservation Project. This funding will remain in place for 6 years for digital imaging of 

pre-1978 public records, supporting at a very basic level the Copyright Office’s preservation and access goals. 

CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE (CRS)

The CRS Director’s testimony identifies four ways in which the Library’s Congressional Research Service fulfills a unique niche for the Congress. First, CRS has experts in the worlds that Members and committees inhabit. They understand Congress as an institution, its work processes, Members’ responsibilities, and legal and 

constitutional contexts. Second, the Service is in a unique position to analyze issues 

that arise from and are often dominated by the operations of executive agencies and 

their missions. Third, CRS is uniquely equipped to offer multi-disciplinary, analytic 

approaches to identifying relevant public-policy issues and to offer solutions to address them. The fourth is the Service’s ability to rally and immediately offer support 

when the Congress is faced with an emergency or other unexpected major event. 

Funding cuts and shortfalls in mandatory pay increases were mitigated by reducing the CRS staffing plan, deferring equipment purchases, and placing additional 

constraints on the acquisition of research materials. The plan for reducing FTE from 

705 to 675 in the fiscal 2008 Operating Plan targets support functions to avoid any 

loss of direct research capacity. CRS has reduced equipment expenses by deferring 

or eliminating upgrades or replacement of IT and office equipment. Research material costs were lowered by reducing user access to electronic resources; canceling selective print titles; not purchasing new resources; and continuing to partner with 

Library Services to acquire public policy research materials. 

LAW LIBRARY

The Law Library of Congress has placed special emphasis on the content of the 

U.S. legal material in the Global Legal Information Network (GLIN) and THOMAS 

to incorporate all laws published in the United States Statutes-at-Large and all congressional hearings. This will be expanded to include summaries and associated 

metadata for 100 U.S. treaties and other international agreements. The Law Library’s highest priority remains the need to re-classify books formerly categorized 

as ‘‘Law’’ into the K class in order to ensure a complete, current, and accessible law 

collection and provide timely responses to congressional requests for foreign legal 

law information. The Law Library has completed a comprehensive redesign of its 

public website and launched four RSS feeds thus far in fiscal 2008 that allow users 

to easily stay up-to-date with areas of interest by delivering news, such as the latest 

Research Report or issue of the Global Legal Monitor, to a desktop computer or 

other Internet device. 

In response to fiscal 2008 funding shortfalls related to the rescission and unfunded mandatory pay increases, the Law Library has realigned base funding from 

contractual services and equipment accounts in order to absorb payroll costs and to 

support key staff who provide important services to the Congress. The impacts of 

these include the shortening of performance periods for contractual services necessary to perform core law collections maintenance services, elimination of contracts 

providing GLIN data development and program support, and scaling back technological enhancements to the Law Library Multi-Media Center. 
31 

FUTURE PROJECTS AND RESOURCE NEEDS

The Library’s budget formulation process highlighted other highly critical activities that support the Library’s customers, to increase the use of the Library’s digital 

resources to promote knowledge and better world understanding and increase use 

of Library resources to inform scholarly, educational, and public-policy discourse. 

However, we chose not to bring forward a number of these important activities as 

requests for funding in this budget. 

The New Library of Congress Experience will give a greatly expanded number of 

visitors the opportunity to experience expanded exhibits and learn interactively 

from the breadth of our collections and knowledge of our curators and staff, all at 

the end of the passageway from the United States Capitol through the New Capitol 

Visitors Center. The journey will begin with a new orientation experience and travel 

though the Great Hall, as various new gallery spaces and educational content are 

delivered through state-of-the-art technology that will greatly enhance the in-person 

experience. To fulfill this journey, the Library will need to hire new specialized staff 

and create new systems, applications and interactive components to integrate and 

deliver complex technological services. In fiscal 2009, the Library will do what is 

possible with available resources and the significant private funds we have raised 

to implement these plans. However, given the scope of this effort, the Library will 

need to seek congressional support for the New Library of Congress Experience in 

fiscal 2010. 

Demand for online services, increased pressure on web services operations to enhance THOMAS, the World Digital Library (WDL), and the Legal Information Services (LIS) databases, and the need to develop new configurations and applications 

have severely strained technical assistance and infrastructure support provided by 

the Office of Strategic Initiatives (OSI) and Information Technology Services (ITS). 

Since 1995, THOMAS has provided free legislative information on the web. Our congressional and public constituencies have for several years been requesting upgrades to both THOMAS and LIS to enhance content and searchability. Again, the 

Library will attempt to use the prioritizing tools of the Strategic Plan to address 

these demands with existing resources. However, the IT and digital demands on the 

Library will need support from the Congress in fiscal 2010 to sustain the Library’s 

ability to provide services to the Congress and its constituents. 

CONCLUSION

2008 will be an exciting year in which our outstanding, dedicated staff will be 

working to build a new constituency for the Congress’s Library. We will transform 

with mostly private funding the public spaces of the Jefferson Building into a learning center for the large number of visitors who will be coming when the Capitol 

Visitors Center opens; we will begin operations in the magnificent new National 

Audio-Visual Conservation Center made possible by the unprecedented gift of more 

than $150 million by the Packard Humanities Institute and funding from the Congress; and we will begin putting online, with the support of UNESCO and a number 

of other national libraries, a World Digital Library of primary cultural documents 

in seven languages. 

Madam Chair, we recognize that difficult choices will continue to have to be made 

during this time of extraordinary budget constraints. But this Library is an essential part of our knowledge-based democracy. I ask for your support for our modest 

funding request for fiscal 2009 and look forward to working with this committee to 

craft a budget for fiscal 2010 that will sustain the Library’s historic mission of serving the Congress and the Nation. 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF AMBASSADOR JOHN O’KEEFE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OPEN

WORLD LEADERSHIP CENTER

Madam Chairwoman, Senator Alexander, and other members of the subcommittee, I appreciate the opportunity to submit testimony on the Open World 

Leadership Center’s budget request for fiscal year 2009. The Open World Leadership Center, of which I am the Executive Director, conducts the only exchange program in the U.S. legislative branch and has hosted more than 13,000 emerging leaders from Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Georgia, Moldova, 

Lithuania, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, our newest country. All of us at Open 

World are very grateful for the continued support in the legislative branch and for 

congressional participation in the program and on our governing board. We look forward to working with you on the future of Open World. 
32 

Over the past 8 years, Open World delegates have had the opportunity to meaningfully engage and interact with an estimated 120,000 Americans throughout the 

United States in professional, theme-focused programming that increasingly emphasizes continuing projects and partnerships. More than 6,000 American families and 

individuals in all 50 States have hosted the visiting participants. And in 2007 alone, 

the home hosting of Open World participants by dedicated Americans in 187 different congressional districts saved the Center an estimated $1.8 million in per diem 

accommodation and meal costs. Over the life of the program, Open World has 

awarded more than $32 million in grants to hosting organizations located in every 

region of the country. 

Open World’s impact on program participants is captured in the following statement by a Russian alumna from Orenburg who studied issues related to HIV/AIDS 

during her visit to Des Moines, Iowa, in 2006: ‘‘Upon return to Russia, I implemented several HIV preventive and treatment approaches. I was aware of these approaches prior to the Open World trip but it was only after seeing these efficiencies 

demonstrated in practice in the United States that I was able to actually implement 

them at home. To sum it up, the Open World trip to the U.S. confirmed for me the 

realistic possibility of implementing these very important measures in Russia.’’ The 

alumna, who is a doctor specializing in infectious diseases, met with various professional counterparts in Iowa, including an HIV/AIDS outreach specialist at the Polk 

County Health Department and the executive director of the AIDS Project of Central Iowa. 

Open World has a track record of identifying tomorrow’s leaders today. For example, Open World alumni make up 10 percent of the newly elected Russian State 

Duma. I believe part of Open World’s secret for identifying leaders on the rise is 

its strategy of targeting all regions in Open World countries, not just the major cities. In Russia, the country with the largest and oldest Open World program, 80 percent of Open World alumni live outside Moscow and Saint Petersburg. We also select relatively young delegates—their average age is 38. 

Program participants come to discuss topical issues of mutual interest and benefit, such as ways of treating post-traumatic stress disorder among war veterans, 

preventing the spread of avian flu, furthering the rights of women and children, and 

protecting the environment. Mayors and city council members see firsthand how our 

elected officials respond to constituents. All our delegates work with American hosts 

and peers who share their interests and are often eager to partner with them on 

collaborative projects. For example, when Open World first partnered with Rotary 

International in 1999, there were 33 Rotary clubs in Russia. Today there are 87 

clubs and 21 Rotaracts. 

Since August 2007, when we began a concerted effort to track post-visit successes, 

Open World has identified approximately 100 collaborative projects, partnerships, 

and other concrete post-visit results each month. Some illustrative examples. 

CALENDAR YEAR 2007 HIGHLIGHTS

Russia 

Open World hosted 1,165 Russian participants in calendar year 2007. Delegates 

came from 77 of Russia’s then 85 regions and represented a wide range of ethnic 

groups. Women accounted for 57 percent of the delegates. These participants were 

hosted in 45 U.S. States and the District of Columbia. Open World’s civic hosting 

themes were accountable governance, rule of law, and social issues. 

Many exchanges focused on issues of importance to both countries. For example: 

A group of 16 nonproliferation experts visited the U.S. Department of Energy 

national laboratories in Tennessee and Washington State. As a result of the 

visit, an American Material Protection, Control, and Accounting (MPC&A) contract with a Russian entity that was due to expire in 2007 was renewed for 

2008, thereby enhancing control of nuclear materials, including weapons-grade 

uranium and plutonium. Another delegate who is a senior instructor in the 

International Relations Department at St. Petersburg State University has been 

selected by the university to teach a course on nonproliferation policy, which 

would be the first-ever such course in a Russian university. 

In March 2007, Open World hosted Russian epidemiologists and community 

health planning leaders who worked with their counterparts in North Carolina 

on the preparation of a template to assist small to medium-size communities 

around the developed world in planning for, and responding to, outbreaks of catastrophic disease. 

A delegate active in anti-human trafficking efforts was offered a $48,000 

grant by her U.S. hosting organization at the completion of her 2007 Open 

World exchange to Arlington, Virginia. The September 2008-September 2009 
33 

grant, which is likely to be renewed annually, will support the new Center for 

the Study of Organized Crime and Corruption in Stavropol and its research on 

border security issues and irregular migration patterns that promote terrorism, 

human trafficking, and labor exploitation. The associate director of trafficking 

victims’ assistance programs at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, along 

with two Montgomery County, Maryland, detectives who met with this delegate 

while she was in the United States, visited Russia in April. The delegate helped 

arrange for the Americans to speak at numerous events, including a gathering 

of top-ranking police officers from Russia’s Southern Federal District, and a colloquy of students and faculty from the Stravropol University of the Russian 

Ministry of Interior. 

Another delegate visited United Cerebral Palsy of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 

and was inspired to organize a daycare program for children with cerebral palsy 

in Volgograd, Russia. She subsequently received the Russian Presidential 

Award and a grant of $35,000 for establishing the program. 

Four Russian mental health experts who counseled children and families affected by the 2004 Beslan school attack spent the evening of December 20, 2007, 

sharing experiences and strategies for healing in a Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, home with members of the Amish community who had suffered from the 

Nickel Mines school shootings in October 2006. Grandparents of one of the victims were among those who took part in the profoundly moving session. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was the focus of a second Russian team hosted 

at the same time by the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts. Three of the Worcester delegates had assisted Beslan survivors and continue to specialize in crisis counseling; the fourth treats military 

veterans of the conflict in Chechnya. During their Massachusetts visit, the delegates worked with some of America’s leading academic and clinical experts in 

PTSD—including several Veterans Administration specialists—and shared their 

own professional experiences in the North Caucasus. Potential results of these 

visits include journal articles, reciprocal visits by U.S. mental health experts, 

and curriculum sharing between U.S. and Russian institutions. 

The past year also saw impressive achievements produced by participants in earlier Open World exchanges. Below are just a few examples: 

Thanks to two Open World alumnae, the City of Ulan-Ude declared 2007 ‘‘The 

Year of Civic Initiatives’’ and allocated 2.8 million rubles (approximately 

$106,000) to 32 local NGOs to organize 100 different activities and programs 

throughout the year. One of the alumnae, an Ulan-Ude city administrator, was 

inspired to launch this campaign by learning about the work of Louisiana Eastern European Adoptive Families and other Louisiana nongovernmental community organizations during a 2005 Open World exchange. She involved a second 

alumna, the first deputy chairperson of her department, to help get the campaign off the ground. As part of the initiative, the Ulan-Ude city administration 

established an association called Family whose goal is to develop a foster-homes 

program to help orphans integrate into society. 

This winter, cultural program alumnus Arkadiy Babchenko’s award-winning 

book ‘‘A Soldier’s War in Chechnya,’’ an account of his experience as a young 

soldier in Russia’s Chechen wars, was published in translation in the United 

States. Critics have compared the book to ‘‘All Quiet on the Western Front’’ and 

Michael Herr’s ‘‘Dispatches’’. 

Another Russian alumna-author, Kseniya Golubovich, was one of 30-plus foreign writers to take part in the 2007 Fall Residency of the University of Iowa’s 

renowned International Writing Program (IWP), thanks to a coveted fellowship 

she won while on a 2006 Open World cultural exchange hosted by IWP. 

Golubovich writes essays on life in modern Russia for several newspapers and 

journals, and publishes in a variety of genres. During her fellowship she finished her second novel; met with a high school creative-writing class; gave readings and talks at the University of Iowa, Northwestern University in Evanston, 

Illinois, and Harvard University; was invited to serve as a presenter for an 

IWP-sponsored film series; and worked with university students and faculty. 

More and more Open World hosts are organizing visits to build ongoing ties 

with their Open World counterparts and other contacts. In 2007, 71 American 

judges and legal professionals visited Open World alumni in Ukraine and Russia. In another example, the Los Alamos (New Mexico)-Sarov Sister Cities Initiative, a regular Open World host organization, coordinated the reciprocal visit 

in June 2007 of four Los Alamos firefighters and police officials to Sarov, a city 

closed to most foreigners and Russians. There the Americans consulted with 

counterparts on specialized procedures for fighting forest fires in a nuclear city. 
34 

Ukraine 

The new government seeks closer ties to Europe and the United States and, with 

a substantial grant from the Millennium Challenge Corporation, has begun a program to reduce corruption in the justice system and reform education. Ukraine is 

a pivotal state in the region, faced with pressures from east and west. Open World’s 

program supplements Ukraine’s efforts to move toward more accountability and 

transparency at all levels of government. 

Open World welcomed 255 current and future Ukrainian leaders in calendar year 

2007, accomplishing wide geographic representation (25 of 27 Ukrainian regions), 

hosting delegations across the United States (24 States and the District of Columbia), and enrolling a high percentage of women delegates (49 percent). The Open 

World hosting themes for Ukraine in 2007 were accountable governance, NGO development, rule of law, and elementary and secondary education. Twenty-four 

Ukrainian Open World alumni took part in a major international forum entitled 

‘‘Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic Future,’’ held in Kyiv June 11–13. Forum sponsors included the Center for U.S.-Ukrainian Relations, the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, and the NATO Information Center/Ukraine. 

The alumni were invited to share the impact of their U.S. visits during forum sessions. Open World alumni in attendance included government officials, judges, journalists, human rights and democracy advocates, and NGO leaders. A conference organizer said that the Open World alumni ‘‘were the most articulate and best organized group at our... event.’’ 

Expansion Countries 

Open World hosted 130 emerging leaders from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Moldova, 

Georgia, and Azerbaijan in 2007. Participants included parliamentarians, environmental leaders, health specialists dealing with HIV/AIDS, judges, and prosecutors. 

One group of Tajik leaders involved with ecotourism visited Nevada to see how 

State and local officials and private individuals promote both ecotourism and cultural tourism to the State’s historic mining towns. During their exchange, they met 

with Thomas Tait, a former executive director of the Nevada Commission on Tourism. As a result of this meeting, the U.S. State Department has invited Mr. Tait 

to Dushanbe in 2008 to discuss ecotourism matters further with Open World alumni 

and other Tajik leaders. 

A Kyrgyz rule of law delegation hosted in Utah had the privilege of taking part 

in a mock session of the Utah Senate with the participation of State Senate President John Valentine. The following is an excerpt from a blog post by Senator Valentine dated September 13, 2007: 

Yesterday, we had the extraordinary honor of hosting 15 people from 

Kyrgyzstan here at the Utah State Senate. 

The Kyrgyz delegation is in Utah for a week to study America’s political processes and the Rule of Law. Senators McCoy, Bramble, Dmitrich and I, along 

with Rusty Butler of UVSC [Utah Valley State College], Representative Chris 

Herrod (who speaks Russian), and a few gifted staff replicated a legislative session and the Kyrgyz leaders played the part of Utah State Senators. 

They debated a mock bill, followed parliamentary procedure, tried to amend 

the bill twice, and ultimately killed it. When it was time to adjourn, they voted 

NOT to adjourn. Apparently we were doing something right and they wanted 

to stay. 

We had a great three hours. It was wonderful to spend time with good people 

from a part of the world beginning to find its way toward a stable democracy 

and self rule. 

Senator Valentine subsequently visited Kyrgyzstan with the majority leader of the 

Montana State Senate, Senator Carol Williams, in part to be reunited with Open 

World alumni. In 1999, before her election to the Montana Senate, Senator Williams 

personally hosted Open World delegations through Peace Links, an Open World 

grantee. She had this to say upon her return from the State Department-sponsored 

trip to the capital city of Bishkek: ‘‘More than ever, it is important for America to 

maintain and grow our relationships in Central Asia.’’ In order to encourage the ties 

that are developing between the U.S. mountain States and Central Asia, Senator 

Valentine hosted Open World’s inaugural parliamentary delegation from Tajikistan 

in 2007 and plans to visit Dushanbe in 2008. 

The mayor of the Azerbaijani village of Jil visited Texas in 2007. He noticed during visits to Bellaire and West University Place that ‘‘suggestion boxes’’ were prominently placed to gather feedback from citizens on how to improve city services. He 

also learned that city administrators make their city’s budget publicly available and 

publish a special bulletin for citizens with news on the city’s progress. Upon his return to Jil, he immediately instituted all three of these ideas in order to increase 
35 

1 Eurasia here means Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, 

Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. 

transparency and accessibility of information to citizens. What is particularly notable is that Jil is only a 35-minute drive from the border of Iran, where there are 

more Azeri-language speakers than in Azerbaijan itself. 

The U.S. State Department Resident Legal Advisor based in Tajikistan, who confessed to harboring ‘‘skepticism regarding U.S. taxpayer-funded visits of foreigners 

to the United States,’’ had this to say after debriefing two defense attorneys who 

had traveled to Gainesville, Florida, in June 2007 on an Open World rule of law 

exchange: 

I personally knew two of [the] defense attorneys before they left for the 

United States, and ‘‘debriefed’’ them upon their return to Tajikistan. I was anxious to determine if their experience went beyond subsidized tourism. To my 

great pleasure I found that [it] had. For several hours they asked me about, and 

we discussed, critical aspects of criminal justice and Rule of Law that were 

prompted directly and exclusively by their ‘‘comparative law’’ experience in the 

United States. Their questions and expressions clearly indicated to me that they 

had done far more than merely take a tourist’s look around. In addition to experiencing the general goodness of America, they obviously saw and absorbed 

what I would have wanted of them in satisfaction of my strict, developmental 

approach. This educational opportunity will only enhance their professional status in influencing change in Tajikistan. Moreover, it is something I could vouch 

for in good faith to the U.S. citizens who paid for it. I look forward to my continued involvement with Open World, confident that the foregoing experience can 

be replicated as to diverse individuals and fields of endeavor. 

Representative Larry Brown of the North Carolina General Assembly arranged 

for a delegation of newly elected Moldovan mayors to meet with the North Carolina 

Wine and Grape Council in Raleigh during a December 2007 exchange. The U.S. 

hosts and delegates agreed that many of North Carolina’s smaller wineries would 

benefit from Moldovan expertise in wine making. As a result of the meeting, the 

Continuing Education Division of Forsyth Tech Community College, the Moldovans’ 

host organization, plans to launch a distance-learning course for small North Carolina vintners taught by Moldovan wine experts. As Suzanne Stafford of Forsyth 

Tech observed, ‘‘The Moldovans get recognized and reimbursed for their expertise 

and the North Carolina winemakers improve their vintage. Everybody wins.’’ 

Program Administration 

In September 2007, the Center’s first full audit, for the 2006 fiscal year, was completed. The independent auditor concluded that ‘‘the accompanying financial 

statements... present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the 

Center as of September 30, 2006, and its net costs, changes in net position, budgetary resources, and financing of operations for the year then ended, in conformity 

with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.’’ The 

report also stated that the auditor’s ‘‘consideration of internal control over financial 

reporting disclosed no material weaknesses.’’ 

GOALS

In August 2006, the Open World Leadership Center Board of Trustees approved 

a strategic plan for fiscal years 2007–2011. The Strategic Plan was developed using 

the principles of the Government Performance and Results Act. It incorporates a 5- 

year outlook for the program and includes the following goals: 

—Expanding the geographic scope of the Program to include Eurasia 1 and the 

Baltic States. 

More than 43 million Muslims reside in countries where Open World is now active, and planned expansion into another predominantly Muslim country, 

Turkmenistan, in 2008 would increase this figure to 47.9 million. As stated earlier, 

in 2007 Open World hosted 130 leaders from five expansion countries: Georgia and 

Azerbaijan in the strategically important Caucasus region; Moldova in Eastern Europe; and Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia. Open World hosted its inaugural exchange from Kazakhstan in April 2008. Rule of law was the focus for all 

12 delegates, including the members of an intellectual property rights delegation 

that met with a staff member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the 

Internet, and Intellectual Property in Washington, DC, and then with the Motion 

Picture Association of America at the hosting site of Los Angeles. The Strategic Plan 

calls for Open World eventually to expand into all of Eurasia and the Baltic States. 

—Enhancing productivity and improving efficiencies. 
36 

To offset increasing airfare costs, Open World has distributed delegate travel 

more evenly throughout the year in order to take advantage of lower fares during 

off-peak travel seasons. Distributing travel over time in this manner has the added 

advantage of providing staff more time to organize higher-quality programs. Center 

staff comprehensively reviewed all contracts and identified and implemented additional cost efficiencies. These cost savings will help the Center maintain hosting at 

planned fiscal year 2008 levels. 

—Continuing to enhance the quality of U.S. programming. 

Open World has streamlined the process for reviewing delegate program agendas 

and coordinating with U.S. hosting entities. The monitoring of hosting programs, 

regular communication with hosts, evaluative site visits, and post-visit evaluations 

contribute to annual reviews and evaluations of all program elements. 

Last year, the Center launched its new results-tracking mechanism, called the 

Client Management System (CMS), which systematically gathers quantitative results to measure the Open World Program’s progress in meeting its goals. 

—Establishing a mechanism that facilitates the emergence of a network of leaders 

in the United States and Open World countries who have participated in the 

Program. 

The new Client Management System not only tracks results but automatically notifies Americans who have hosted Open World participants about results related to 

these individuals. Through its privately funded alumni program, Open World works 

closely with Americans visiting Russia and other Open World countries to facilitate 

meetings and partnerships. 

Open World’s multilingual website, which includes a digital directory for direct, 

translated communications between American professionals and hosts and Open 

World delegates, fosters interactive communication and facilitates ongoing projects. 

Open World also operates online forums and multiple list serves for Russian alumni, 

one with news of grants, competitions, and other sources of financial support, the 

other with updates on Open World news and announcements and opportunities for 

cooperation and partnership with fellow alumni. 

—Establishing diversified funding sources. 

Open World is formulating a comprehensive development strategy and identifying 

potential funding and cost-share partners within the international organization community and the executive branch. The Board of Trustees voted in January 2008 to 

establish a binational business advisory board for the Russia program. Membership 

will consist of business leaders from both the United States and Russia who will 

advise the Center on sources of material support. The Center plans to partner with 

Russia’s Federal Culture and Cinematography Agency to cost-share the travel to the 

United States of up to 200 Russian cultural leaders in 2008. Open World will also 

work to raise private funds to pay for 100 American cultural leaders to make reciprocal visits to Russia, with hosting costs to be provided by the same Russian agency. 

OPEN WORLD 2008

In response to congressional recommendations and directives from the Board of 

Trustees, Open World is maintaining a strong program for Russia and continuing 

its successful Ukraine program and expansion programs in Azerbaijan, Georgia, 

Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, and Tajikistan, while launching a program for Kazakhstan. 

We will add Turkmenistan in fall 2008 if funding is available. Below are just a few 

highlights of this year’s activities: 

Building on the successes and results generated by past Open World programs on 

human-trafficking prevention, Open World plans to host a number of anti-human 

trafficking delegations this fall. Many of the delegates will come from the Far East 

and southern regions of Russia, where human trafficking is a serious problem. Open 

World will target law enforcement officials, prosecutors, judges, legislators, NGO officials, and legal advocates for participation. By meeting with their U.S. counterparts, these delegates will learn about U.S. prevention initiatives and have opportunities to discuss how Russian laws against human trafficking might be strengthened. 

The Center plans to partner with the House Democracy Assistance Commission 

to provide Open World programming to 25 Ukrainian and Georgian parliamentarians and parliamentary staff in 2008. We also plan to extend our acclaimed judgeto-judge rule of law program to our exchanges for expansion countries. 

Overseas, the Russian Government is considering establishing a mirror program 

to Open World. If begun, the program would be housed in the Russian legislative 

branch and would bring American political and civic leaders to Russia. And in May 

of this year, Open World will be holding an alumni conference in Ulyanovsk, Russia, 

for regional judges who have participated in Open World’s rule of law program. The 
37 

conference will include sessions on the adversarial principle in the litigation process, 

judicial ethics, and norms of international law, and on how programs such as Open 

World can help develop professional contacts and sister-court partnerships. 

MEASURES OF SUCCESS

The Open World Leadership Center tracks the results of the Open World Program 

using eight categories, including projects, benefits to Americans, reciprocal visits, 

and partnerships. Since launching the results database in August 2007, Open World 

has identified more than 800 such results (see attached chart). 

FISCAL YEAR 2009 BUDGET REQUEST

The Center’s budget request of $13.9 million for fiscal year 2009 is a 3.5 percent 

decrease from the original fiscal year 2008 request ($14.4 million), but a slight increase over fiscal year 2007 funding ($13.86 million). The funding request will enable the Center to restore its programming to pre-fiscal year 2008 levels and fully 
38 

restore its proven mission of hosting young political, civic, and cultural leaders from 

Russia; maintain its important program for Ukraine; and continue smaller programs 

with select countries as approved by the Board of Trustees, in consultation with the 

subcommittee. The Board of Trustees believes that maintaining a robust grassrootsbased Open World presence in Russia is necessary and important for future U.S.- 

Russia relations as Russia changes presidential administrations. Programs in expansion countries will account for a larger percentage of hosting than in the past, 

reflecting the growing geopolitical importance of Central Asia and the Caucasus. 

Program hosting capacity in fiscal year 2009 at the requested level remains far 

below the limit of 3,000 set in the Center’s authorizing legislation. 

The budget request maintains hosting and other programmatic activities at a 

level of approximately 1,400 total participants. Actual allocations of participant slots 

to individual countries will be based on Board of Trustees recommendations and 

consultations with the committee and U.S. Embassies. The requested funding support is also needed to meet mandatory salary and benefit increases in fiscal year 

2009 and increased program costs due mainly to higher airfares and less favorable 

exchange rates. 

Major categories of requested funding are: 

—Personnel Compensation and Benefits ($1.367 mil) 

—Contracts ($7.691 mil—awarded to U.S.-based entities) that include: 

—Coordinating the delegate nomination and vetting process 

—Obtaining visas and other travel documents 

—Arranging and paying for air travel 

—Coordinating with grantees and placing delegates 

—Providing temporary health insurance for participants 

—Grants ($4.7 mil—awarded to U.S. host organizations) that include the cost of 

providing: 

—Professional programming for delegates 

—Meals outside of those provided by home hosts 

—Cultural activities 

—Local transportation 

—Professional interpretation 

—Administrative support 

On March 31, 2008, as required by Public Law 110–161, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008, the Open World Board of Trustees submitted a report entitled 

‘‘Potential Options for the Structure and Funding of the Open World Leadership 

Center’’ to the Chairmen of the Senate and House Appropriations Committees. We 

look forward to discussing with you and the congressional leadership the report recommendations and the next steps to assure the Center’s future. 

CONCLUSION

Funding the 2009 Open World Program will allow more than 15,000 Americans 

to meet and work with legislators, mayors, government administrators, judges, environmentalists, experts in human-trafficking prevention, and other leaders from 

across Eurasia. Many of our participants will engage in collaborative projects and 

ongoing partnerships with their new American contacts. Program participants will 

come from countries that share more than 1,145 miles of borders with Afghanistan 

and Iran. Americans will, once again, open their doors to leaders from Open World 

countries and give generously by contributing an estimated $1.8 million in donated 

accommodations and meals—freeing up appropriated funding that is applied to 

more grants to U.S. organizations to host delegates. 

While these results are measurable and visible, there are innumerable ‘‘soft’’ benefits that merit mention. In his ‘‘2007 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary,’’ 

Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., of the United States Supreme Court discusses 

a recent Open World-hosted visit to the United States by Russian Supreme Court 

Justice Yuri Sidorenko, who chairs the Council of Judges of the Russian Federation. 

Chief Justice Roberts writes that Justice Sidorenko, while visiting the grave of Chief 

Justice William H. Rehnquist at Arlington National Cemetery, met with a group of 

American schoolchildren and recounted his friendship with the late Chief Justice, 

initiated during an earlier Open World visit, and their shared interest in the rule 

of law. These powerful ‘‘defining moments’’ occur regularly. 

The fiscal year 2009 budget request will enable the Open World Leadership Center to fully continue making major contributions to an understanding of democracy, 

civil society, and free enterprise in a region of vital importance to the Congress and 

the Nation. The subcommittee’s interest and support have been essential ingredients in Open World’s success. 
39 

UTILITY TUNNELS—NUMBER ONE PRIORITY

Senator LANDRIEU. Let us limit our first round of questions to 7 

minutes each and then we will take a second round of questioning 

if necessary. 

Let me begin, if I could, with Mr. Ayers. Could you please explain why the utility tunnels are your number one priority and 

what the consequences would be if we are unable to provide the 

$127 million for the utility tunnel project? 

You might also want to take a second to explain in this very, 

very long and detailed list that you presented yesterday—and we 

will make a copy of this—what is significant about the top 10 

projects that total $148 million. 

Mr. AYERS. Thank you, Madam Chairman. I am happy to do 

that. 

First, of course, the utility tunnels are our number one project 

for a number of reasons. One, there are some serious safety deficiencies there that need to be corrected immediately. So that is 

first and foremost. 

Second, we have a complaint from the Office of Compliance, 

which is essentially an enforcement action requiring us to correct 

those issues. 

Third, we have entered into an agreement with the Office of 

Compliance whereby we abate all of the known hazards in those 

utility tunnels by June 2012, a 5-year time period. In order to do 

that, this is the funding level needed in fiscal year 2009 for us to 

meet our obligations of that agreement. 

OFFICE OF COMPLIANCE/OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH

ADMINISTRATION OBLIGATIONS

The repercussions of not funding it at that level is that we will 

not be able to meet our obligations under that agreement, and we 

will have to extend out the term by which we ultimately correct the 

deficiencies there. 

You mentioned the top 10 projects on our priority list. All of 

those projects are fire and life safety projects, and all of them have 

citations from the Office of Compliance. So that gives us some indication as well as from the Office of Compliance, that they are very 

important projects and that is why they will ultimately flow to the 

top of our list. 

[The information follows:] 

However, the fact that a project has a citation is not the only criteria used to 

evaluate whether or not the project is a priority. The AOC has been conducting Facility Condition Assessments throughout the Capitol complex since 2004 to help us 

catalog and prioritize projects based on a set of objective criteria that allow us to 

evaluate the merits of each project. In addition, once a Facility Condition Assessment is completed on each facility, the information is rolled into a five-year Capital 

Improvement Plan. This is used to evaluate projects based on a set of pre-established criteria. These criteria include whether the work addresses fire and life-safety 

issues; code compliance; preservation of historic or legacy elements; economics and 

life cycle cost considerations, physical security and other considerations, such as environmental and energy efficiency. 

The projects are further evaluated based on the conditions of the facilities and 

their components, and the urgency in correcting the deficiencies. Projects categorized as deferred maintenance are the highest priority followed by capital renewal, capital improvement, and capital construction projects. 
40 

Senator LANDRIEU. So, in other words, before we get to any of the 

beautification, expansion, cosmetic, and important architectural 

changes that need to be caught up, we have 10 projects totaling 

what is it? $148 million I think. 

Mr. AYERS. That is correct. 

Senator LANDRIEU. $148 million. That is basically what the legislative Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is 

saying we have to take care of before we can move on. And if we 

do not, we could be fined or—I am not sure if they can fine us. But 

there will be some actions taken for not complying. 

NONCOMPLIANCE ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS

Mr. AYERS. That is correct. There are a variety of enforcement 

actions they can take on those, not only because they are the Office 

of Compliance. Each of these are important projects, ultimately, to 

do. They do ultimately protect life, safety, and provide egress from 

the buildings to people in the Capitol complex. So certainly those 

projects will ultimately show up in our priority list, whether the 

Office of Compliance issues a citation or not. Certainly the citation 

will help move them to the top of the list. 

GREENING OF THE CAPITOL

Senator LANDRIEU. Another question. Another issue that has received a lot of coverage and interest is what we call the greening 

of the Capitol—the energy efficiency measures that have been initiated. How are these energy efficiency savings gained from such initiatives? Will some savings be reflected in the out-year budgets? 

Could you give a brief comment about any of the specifics regarding that? 

Mr. AYERS. Our basic requirement is to comply with the Energy 

Independence and Security Act of 2007 which requires all Federal 

agencies, including the Architect, to reduce energy consumption 3 

percent per year over 10 years. That ultimately leads to a 30 percent reduction in 10 years. 

We recently completed the second year of that program. The first 

year we reduced energy across the Capitol complex by 6.5 percent. 

The last year, we reduced it by 4 percent. We are into the third 

year of that program now, and we are implementing a wide variety 

of initiatives. 

For example, here in the Senate, we are working on a dimmable 

lighting system in many Members’ offices. We have completed the 

first 10 of those and they are showing really good results, an energy reduction of some of them of over 50 percent reduction in 

lighting load in each office. So we are rolling that program out and 

have recently received approval to do the next 10 Member offices. 

We are also replacing and enhancing our steam distribution system. We are turning off lights. We are replacing lights. We are 

being very careful about our mechanical systems that heat and cool 

office spaces, and we are also looking into public/private partnerships through the use of the Department of Energy’s energy savings performance contracts. That is really where we are going to 

get the most bang for our buck by implementing those contracts 

over the course of the next several years. 
41 

CVC SOFT OPENING—TRAFFIC CONGESTION

Senator LANDRIEU. One more question to you. I am privy to the 

plans for a soft opening of the CVC. We have all been briefed to 

some extent on the soft opening of the CVC and the plans for the 

visitors to be transported basically to that center with some limited 

access to certain streets surrounding the Capitol. And, that there 

may be another drop-off point, perhaps at Union Station. 

Do you share with me a concern that the congestion in front of 

Union Station today might not, under its current configuration, be 

able to absorb the thousands and thousands, if not millions, of 

tourists that might be dropped off at that point? I know there are 

some plans being discussed, but what are your views about that, 

Mr. Ayers? 

CVC VISITOR APPROACH

Mr. AYERS. Well, first and foremost, in terms of visitor approaches to the Capitol complex to visit the Capitol Visitor Center 

and ultimately the Capitol Building, the basic principle is those 

visitor approaches are not going to change from what they are 

today. People are still going to be dropped off on the west front, as 

well as use the Metro stations that are near the Capitol complex. 

But certainly, buses will have the ability to drop off on the west 

front and then go to Union Station to park. They have newly established 85-space parking facilities for tour buses there. 

I do share your concern that without any modifications to the 

front of Union Station now, it is very congested, it is very confusing, and quite frankly, it is difficult for people to cross the street 

there. 

I do know that the Redevelopment Corporation has studied the 

traffic around Union Station and they have proposed a pretty expansive renovation of that space, and it is my understanding that 

they intend to undertake that in the very near future. 

Senator LANDRIEU. Thank you. I will have some further questions, but let me turn now to Senator Alexander. 

PROJECT PRIORITY DEFINED

Senator ALEXANDER. Thank you, Madam Chairman. 

Mr. Ayers, continuing the chairman’s questioning, if the citations 

did not exist, would those 10 projects still be at the top of your list 

of capital projects? 

Mr. AYERS. They would certainly be near the top. I am not prepared to say whether all 10 would be the first 10 on the list, but 

they would certainly be near the top. We do consider each one of 

them an important enhancement to life safety without a citation. 

Senator ALEXANDER. But do you just automatically put something at the top of the list if the Office of Compliance gets interested in it? 

Mr. AYERS. I would not say it is automatic, but the likelihood of 

it reaching the top is in the high 90th percentile. 

Senator ALEXANDER. The first 10 are all Office of Compliance citations. I used to be president of a university, and the accreditors 

would come by, say, for the law school, and they would say, well, 

to have the kind of law school we think you ought to have, you 
42 

ought to spend all the money you have got on the law school, or 

we will do something to you. I would say, well, wait a minute. I 

was elected by the board to make decisions. We have an engineering school that needs some money, and we have a school over here 

that needs some money. We have this, that, and the other. So we 

had a discussion back and forth about that, and I did not accept 

everything the accreditors told me they thought the law school 

needed because I thought that was a big part of my job as well. 

It looks to me like you have just accepted whatever they said. 

Mr. AYERS. Well, that is true. 

OOC PROJECT ENFORCEMENT

Senator ALEXANDER. Then why do we not just let them set all 

of the priorities? I mean, why do we need a priority list from you? 

Mr. AYERS. Well, there is a list of projects that are below those 

10. 

Senator ALEXANDER. So you are saying we will just let the Office 

of Compliance tell us how to spend the first—how much is it? $148 

million. 

Mr. AYERS. Well, I believe by issuing a citation and ultimately 

a complaint, that is an enforcement action against my organization. 

Senator ALEXANDER. So you are saying every citation requires 

you to put that in the top priority. You just automatically put it 

there. 

Mr. AYERS. Ultimately those are going to quickly go to the top 

of the list, yes, because it is the law. It is an enforcement action, 

and we are required and compelled to do it. 

[The information follows:] 

As I noted earlier, the fact that a project has a citation is not the only criteria 

used to evaluate whether or not the project is a priority. We use our Facility Condition Assessments and a set of objective criteria, as well as consider fire and lifesafety issues, historic elements, physical security, energy efficiency, and other important factors in our project prioritization process. 

Senator ALEXANDER. But you said you negotiated with them to 

do it over a period of time. Correct? 

Mr. AYERS. We have done that on the utility tunnels, to do that 

over a 5-year period. 

Senator ALEXANDER. What if you only had $100 million this year 

to spend on construction projects? Would these 10 priorities still be 

the top 10? 

Mr. AYERS. I would say that is true. 

OVERTIME FOR CAPITOL POLICE

Senator ALEXANDER. Chief Morse, your budget includes $30 million for overtime spending, which amounts to 574,000 hours. This 

is an increase of about one-third over last year’s overtime budget. 

Help me understand why the increase is needed, and once you are 

fully staffed, do you think there will be less overtime? And what 

about the roughly 100 vacancies for sworn officers you now have? 

Would filling those make a difference in that, and if so, how realistic is it to expect that they might be filled soon? 

Mr. MORSE. With regard to the increase, we have some additional requirements with the ‘‘R’’ tunnel. The AOC’s current tunnel 
43 

requirement is two posts 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. So that 

equates to 11 FTE’s or the equivalent overtime. 

We also have the New Visitors Experience, the new requirements 

of 385 hours per week beginning in fiscal year 2009. 

We have preopening and certificate of occupancy and inspection 

October 1 through November 15, 2008, which gives us the opportunity to go into the CVC facility and begin training our officers, 

acclimating them to the facility and all the operating procedures, 

both emergency and routine. 

We have requirements based on all our USCP personnel who are 

working 16-hour days for events and rehearsals and security walkthroughs for the inauguration itself. 

So those are the additional requirements that are added to our 

base overtime requirements which are the normal post requirements, special events, extended sessions, our dignitary protection 

travel, planned special events, and the recruit class offsets, which 

you also mentioned. 

Certainly when you meet your authorized level, the overtime 

does drop. However, to exceed that current authorized level also 

drives other expenditures related to facilities, general expenses, 

training, et cetera. 

OVERTIME REDUCTION

Senator ALEXANDER. Well, I guess what I am getting to, are we 

going to expect to live with this amount of overtime for the next 

5 years? Particularly with the Capitol Visitor Center? Once you are 

fully staffed, can we expect a significant reduction in overtime? 

Mr. MORSE. Yes. From this particular, you can see a decrease because some of these are just new starts that will not be in next 

year’s budget. The inauguration is an example, as is the CVC, once 

we are up to speed with that, the New Visitors Experience, and 

then the completion of the tunnel projects. 

We also have, obviously, worked very hard to develop operating 

plans to reduce overtime, and this past year we were able to reduce 

overtime by about $3 million by simply taking a look at the deployment of our officers in relation to hours of operation, the number 

of pedestrians or vehicles that travel through posts, et cetera. So 

with that good work, we have had a significant reduction, and certainly with these additional requirements not being there, we 

should see a decrease in that request. 

Senator ALEXANDER. Thank you, Chief Morse. 

Madam Chairman, my time is up. 

Senator LANDRIEU. Thank you. 

Senator Allard. 

Senator ALLARD. Thank you, Madam Chairman. 

OOC HISTORY

I am thinking back as to when we set up the Office of Compliance, about 1994, and at the time it was set up, the argument was 

made that the Members of Congress ought to learn to live under 

the same rules and regulations that everybody else has to in the 

private sector. And here we are. The Office of Compliance was to 

bring the Congress under OSHA, just like all the rest. We had 

issues between the executive branch. We did not want an executive 
44 

agency coming in here and telling us what to do. So the Office of 

Compliance was set up. 

Now I think we are beginning to feel some of those rules and regulations that the private sector has to deal with when they deal 

with an OSHA inspection. 

There is no doubt that we have a problem with the tunnel, and 

it does need to be dealt with. And I can understand why it is your 

number one priority. 

OOC ALTERNATIVE PLANS FOR PRIORITY PROJECTS

Has the Office of Compliance expressed an interest in working 

with you in setting priorities if the Congress does not come up with 

the money to meet your requirements that you need to meet? Have 

they indicated which one is most critical to a life-threatening situation, hazard to the workers and whatnot, or even the public to 

those that may have a lesser health hazard, if any at all? 

Mr. AYERS. Yes, Senator. We have certainly had those discussions with the Office of Compliance and we could certainly work 

collaboratively to develop those priorities if we were not funded at 

those levels. I think that is a clear possibility. 

Senator ALLARD. And do you think what they required is necessary? 

Mr. AYERS. Yes, I do. Each one of them are projects that have 

a citation against it. I am familiar with all of them, and ultimately 

all of them need to be done. 

Senator ALLARD. I think it is good news if they are willing to 

work with you and work with the priorities and work with the 

Members of the Congress. It is too bad all the Members of Congress are not here to appreciate how some of these rules and regulations can impact somebody who is in business for themselves because it is impacting the operation right here, and it does upset 

your priorities. So I just wanted to make that point. 

UTILITY TUNNELS—REBUILD

The thing that surprised me is you have a $300 million price tag 

on it. That is one-half the cost of the Capitol Visitor Center. I am 

trying to think. Are you building new tunnels completely? When we 

first talked about these tunnels, I thought we were going in and 

just refurbishing and redoing them. This sounds like you are building completely new tunnels. Is that what we are doing? 

Mr. AYERS. Pretty close to that. On the ‘‘R’’ tunnel, as you know, 

from North Carolina all the way over to Constitution, that entire 

Second Street corridor needs to be completely excavated, curb to 

curb, all the way down to the floor level of the tunnel, which is 

some 30 feet deep or more in several areas. That is major, major 

construction work. 

Senator ALLARD. It is. 

UNITED STATES CAPITOL POLICE OVERTIME

The other thing I wanted to talk a little bit about was, Chief 

Morse, I share the concern with the other members here on the 

panel about the overtime on the police officers. We have had this 

issue before here before this subcommittee. Are you doing an anal-
45 

ysis? I think last time you were here we asked for an analysis. 

Would it be less expensive to bring on more officers who put in regular time than to carry a few officers with so much overtime? You 

understand the type of analysis. Is that being requested? Is anything being done in that regard to do that kind of an analysis? 

Mr. MORSE. We have completed a manpower study that we were 

directed to do. And as a result of that, we have briefed the committees of oversight and we are beginning to implement that. But I 

think that the one issue that concerns me is that if we go above 

the current full-time equivalent (FTE) authorization that we have, 

it drives other cost factors, and facilities is one of them. We have 

really met our limitation of facilities with regard to the number of 

people that we have. 

OVERTIME ANALYSIS STUDY

Senator ALLARD. Now, once you move into the new CVC, you are 

going to have more operating space there. 

Mr. MORSE. We will have more operating space, but unfortunately, we have already outgrown that before we have actually gotten into it. So the mission continues to expand, and with that 

comes people. And we have tried to be very resourceful in the way 

that we deploy our officers and change working hours and look at 

where we are spending overtime and how to create a better overtime environment. But the mission drives the need for that. 

And also, there is a lot of variables that we cannot control, and 

those are events that occur that drive overtime. 

Senator ALLARD. Right after 9/11, I mean, that was a different 

environment altogether. You are not anywhere near that as far as 

overtime requirement. 

But I guess the bottom line, you are telling me that your analysis 

has indicated to bring on more officers does not create a savings. 

You are operating as efficiently as you can with the overtime that 

you are paying. 

Mr. MORSE. That is correct. 

Senator ALLARD. Have you shared that study with this subcommittee? 

Mr. MORSE. I believe we have talked about the ELS study. 

Senator ALLARD. I think it would be beneficial if we could have 

this subcommittee go over those because I think it is a concern of 

the subcommittee, obviously, and one we have had. And I think it 

would pay to have the subcommittee staff at least review and 

maybe even have the Government Accountability Office look at it 

and see if they come up with the same assessment that you have 

come up with on that. 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS APPRECIATION

My time is about out. I want to conclude by thanking Dr. 

Billington for his fine work over at the Library. When I was chairman of this subcommittee and having been an avid user of the Library, I have gained a great appreciation for the facilities that you 

have there. 

We have the new facility that we built out in Virginia for the 

movies and the storage of the film and everything, and that is pret-
46 

ty well completed and everything moving well out there. That is 

the Hewlett Packard Foundation that put that in at their own cost. 

Now, I was thinking about the operation and maintenance of 

that. Is that built into this budget or does their trust take care of 

that? I thought we took care of the operation and maintenance and 

everything of that building once it was constructed. 

MAINTENANCE AND STAFFING OF PACKARD CAMPUS

Dr. BILLINGTON. Well, I think it is well underway. The keys were 

turned over to us last summer. We are still ramping up the operation, but practically everything has been transferred out there, 

more than 6 million items. We recently acquired the ‘‘CBS News’’ 

archive, a major addition to it, which we never could have even 

contemplated taking. So it is already an asset—— 

FUND LEVEL CONCERNS

Senator ALLARD. There is a lot of refrigeration over there in that 

building, and I would think that would be a cost that you have to 

deal with. 

Dr. BILLINGTON. There is, indeed. 

Senator ALLARD. Have you built that in? 

Dr. BILLINGTON. Maintenance costs are covered. The main problem we have is simply, the funds that were provided to fully staff 

it in 2008 are not there for 2009. So we have a request for the 

funding to get the campus up to the full operational level. This is 

extremely important because this is not just a question of entertainment. This is a question of information that is available on television, on radio, on recorded sound, as well as in films, documentaries, all kinds of media. We have been able, thanks to a successful private/public relationship, to bring these collections and services all together. We are ramping up the various machinery and 

mechanisms. We would love to give you and other Members a tour. 

It was not only more than $150,000 from the Packard Foundation, 

but a great deal of expertise, as David Woodley Packard is probably 

one of the world’s experts on this. Of course, we have very talented 

staff. 

The major thing that has not been covered is staffing. There was 

a 5-year plan agreed on, you remember, going back to the time that 

you were in the chair, which has been kept up faithfully. Based on 

this plan we have been able to move things out there, including all 

the 10 employees from the motion picture and recorded sound section in Dayton who now are safely relocated. We brought in collections from four different States where this stuff was stored. So we 

now have it all together, finally fulfilling a mandate that dates 

back to 1976 to create a national archive for radio and television, 

in addition to the movies and recorded sound. 

Our major need is just to get funding for the staffing that was 

part of the plan all along, but which for technical reasons is not 

in the 2009 budget. The cost is about $1.7 million to get those staff 

on board. With that funding for staff, we will be all set basically. 

There is an agreement to cover ongoing maintenance, thanks to 

the cooperation of the Architect of the Capitol. And it has been a 

wonderful three-way relationship to transform the campus. The 

Packard people have landscaped it. It has been very well accepted 
47 

in the community. It is going to be a major force not just for preserving our audiovisual heritage. It is the biggest and most technologically sophisticated facility of its kind in the world, and we are 

actually making the collections more available through it for study, 

to be able to answer questions from the Congress about what was 

on television x, what was on radio y. All we need in terms of the appropriations process is to make 

sure that we have in the 2009 budget enough to bring on the key 

staff as was intended from the beginning. 

Senator ALLARD. Thank you. 

Madam Chairman, I know my time is out, but I think he said they spent $150,000. It is $150 million. 

Dr. BILLINGTON. $150 million. 

Senator ALLARD. Yes. We will get that inserted in the record correctly. I think that is what you said. 

Dr. BILLINGTON. I am sorry. 

Senator ALLARD. Yes, I think that was. 

Dr. BILLINGTON. $150 million. 

Senator ALLARD. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chairman. 

Senator LANDRIEU. Thank you, Dr. Billington. 

CVC SECURITY—TRANSPORTATION

Let me begin, Chief Morse, with my second round on the ques- tion I brought up, just to clarify. We have spent $600 million-plus 

on a visitor center. The entrance was designed to be on First 

Street, on East Capitol basically. East Capitol comes right into the 

complex. And now I understand through a security analysis that 

you all have conducted, that dropping visitors off on First Street 

will probably not be able to occur because of the potential threat 

of the cargo space in and around many of these vehicles. 

So, again, the Architect spoke to this, but would you comment 

about some ideas that you might have about how to make this a 

pleasant experience for the millions of people that come to this 

Capitol? It is not just for those of us that work here and call it our 

office, but for the millions of people who actually own it and would 

like to get in to see it as conveniently as possible, what do you 

think might work to try to help resolve this, if we do decide that 

First Street cannot be reopened? 

LARGE VEHICLE RESTRICTIONS

Mr. MORSE. I think that there are a lot of other issues around 

buses in the District of Columbia and tourists than just the security component. Certainly the assessment was conducted and there 

is a risk there that was presented and the decision was to restrict 

buses, large vehicles, trucks, et cetera, to traverse the Capitol 

grounds. But we still allow public conveyance, Metro, Maryland 

and Virginia transportation, commuter transport, circulator system, along with sightseeing and taxi cabs and private vehicles. 

But one of the other components of buses into the city was that 

they had no place to park, and they had no place to traverse 

around the city other than the neighborhoods. And they had no 

place to drop passengers off in inclement weather. They had no 

place to spend time when perhaps a sightseeing attraction was not 

available at the time. 
48 

So Union Station was just one option that was looked at as a hub 

for bus parking, as well as the other amenities that it provides. 

And the recommendations that were made were to also provide 

transportation from that location that would drop off at the visitor 

center itself. 

TRANSPORTATION OPTIONS

Senator LANDRIEU. So, in other words, people would get off a 

tour bus and get onto a circulator or another tour vehicle and then 

approach the Capitol through the First Street, East Capitol side of 

the Capitol. 

Mr. MORSE. That would be certainly one method, and then you 

have Metro there. And we are also surrounded by two other Metro 

stations. Also, the circulator proposal is also blended in with the 

other major attractions in the city. So there are many forms of 

transportation to the CVC, and as Mr. Ayers described it earlier, 

the current bus drop-off down in the southwest, First and Maryland Avenue, and the pick up at First and Pennsylvania will still 

exist, and we think—— 

Senator LANDRIEU. But that is a walk up the hill. Right? 

Mr. MORSE. Yes, ma’am. 

ACCOMMODATING CVC VISITORS

Senator LANDRIEU. And we have so many seniors that visit this 

Capitol, and we have many disabled individuals that visit and a lot 

of parents with small children, so I think we have to be very careful. And I want to work very closely with all of you to come up with 

the very best way to get the citizens of this country, all of them, 

rich and poor and young and old, into this building safely, thus 

providing them the most enjoyable and enlightening and educational experience possible. And, then to move them out, and to 

do it with the good will of the neighborhoods. The city has a lot 

to say, and the local neighbors, of course, about how all this works. 

It is going to take effort, and it is going to take some money to 

make these changes because this is a huge investment that we 

have made in the visitor center. We want it to work from the beginning through the end of a person’s visit. It is not just to make 

their visit to the Capitol better, but actually more safe. I will come 

back to that. 

Let me ask you one more question, and if the Senator will allow 

me, I have two questions to Dr. Billington—actually three. 

COMMUNICATION ISSUE

The radio proposal you submitted—could you just comment about 

the cost? I understand you just received a report. Could you comment about that, please? Your hand-held radios. 

Mr. MORSE. Sure. The radio system proposal was a priority I 

made last year. We have a 25-year-old system that is analog and 

is in severe need of repair. Also, we are experiencing either hardware or interruptions at least once a week, as well as the lack of 

encryption and interoperability. We feel that in order to facilitate 

the business of the Congress and the safety of our officers and the 
49 

complex, that we need a system that is enhanced and that covers 

all those capabilities. 

Senator LANDRIEU. How much is this system going to cost, and 

is it interoperable with the police forces in the region, specifically 

the District, Maryland, Virginia, et cetera? 

Mr. MORSE. The system is and will be interoperable with local 

and Federal, State, municipalities that would assist us in a critical 

situation here at the campus. It also enables us—we are a very 

unique organization in that we have subterranean locations that 

we have to operate within. The actual procurement—from a procurement standpoint, they are telling me that it would be procurement sensitive. 

Senator LANDRIEU. You have not put an RFP out? 

Mr. MORSE. Right. 

Senator LANDRIEU. So it is going to be an expensive system, but 

we are working toward an interoperable system. Obviously, I have 

had firsthand experience with the disasters of Hurricanes Katrina 

and Rita and the communications system collapsing, and we most 

certainly do not want that to happen again under any circumstance. 

One question to Dr. Billington. Then I will turn it over to Senator Alexander. 

DIGITAL TALKING BOOK IMPLEMENTATION

Could you just explain the difference in how you will be able to 

conduct this digital talking book project? We have only been able 

to fund this project at $12 million a year for 6 years, which is $72 

million. The request from the advocacy group was $20 million over 

6 years. So it is going to be $12 million, which was originally requested. Can you just briefly explain the differences in either the 

level of service or what you are going to be able to do at the reduced amount of $12 million a year? 

Dr. BILLINGTON. The difference between a 4- and 6-year program. 

Senator LANDRIEU. Yes. 

Dr. BILLINGTON. Well, each year, 120,000 analog players must be 

replaced because of equipment breakdowns. In the course of the 6- 

year transition program, actually we would have, even under the 

6 years, more than enough digital players produced annually to replace the failed analog players. 

The problem is more in titles and so forth. Currently 2,000 new 

titles are made available on analog cassettes each year. There will 

be fewer new titles in the digital format, particularly initially. By 

the sixth year of the transition program, we will be back at the 

same level of producing 2,000 current digital titles per year. This 

is under the present system, which is actually $13.5 million a year 

including funds appropriated in 2005. But during this transition 

period we will closely monitor actual usage of both new and retrospective digital talking books and would modify the implementation plan to best meet the needs of the blind community. 

What it would require in financial terms to go from a 6 to a 4 

year implementation would be an increase of $9 million a year over 

the next 3 years, including the one before us, or a total increase 

in the appropriation of $27 million over the $13.5 million a year 

as it now stands. 
50 

Senator LANDRIEU. Well, I would like to continue to visit with 

you. And I was mistaken. It is whether it is going to be over a 4- 

year or a 6-year period. So it is a $72 million project, whether it 

is done over 6 years or 4 years. 

Let me just ask one more and then I will turn it over to Lamar. 

GROWING COLLECTIONS AND STORAGE REQUIREMENTS

Part of what is driving some of the cost of the Library is the collection policy of actually 10,000 new items daily, I understand from 

what I read, coming into the Library. At this rate of growth, how 

soon will your existing storage facilities be filled? How much additional storage will be needed, and has the Library given any 

thought to re-examining and narrowing its collection policies to be 

more selective about what it collects? And I know that is a long 

question with several parts, but if you could limit your response to 

1 or 2 minutes and you can follow it up with some written testimony. 

Dr. BILLINGTON. The question, Madam Chair, then is should we 

find some way of reducing that number. 

Senator LANDRIEU. Is it 10,000 items a day? 

Dr. BILLINGTON. Well, it is 8,000 to 10,000. It varies, but we have 

had over 2 million a year. We have 240 terabytes of stored information in the Library in addition. This is the world’s most universal 

collection, and it is very hard to predict what future Congresses or 

even this Congress are going to want or what the scholarly world, 

which is very heavily concentrated in America, will most benefit 

from. 

We could, of course, re-examine that. It would change the fundamental mission at a certain point. It does not mean we collect everything. Actually we get somewhere between 20,000 and 22,000 

items a year—a day, rather. These are not all bought, by the way. 

Most of these come on exchange or on copyright deposit or otherwise are free—so this is an enormous, unique collection device of 

the world’s knowledge. 

STORAGE CAPACITY RATING

Senator LANDRIEU. And our storage capacity. How would you 

rate it? Pretty good? 

Dr. BILLINGTON. The storage capacity is being expanded, thanks 

to the Fort Meade program. That has been delayed, stretched out, 

as almost everything we have has been stretched perhaps longer 

than we would like. 

We are currently actually examining and evaluating our acquisitions policy for both artifactual and for digital information. We will 

probably make a change. In fact, we are working with the GAO to 

study this problem. 

We are also studying current storage usage. But the plan, even 

though it has been delayed—the Architect of the Capitol has 

worked very effectively to expand storage at Fort Meade. We have 

ample storage capacity at the new Culpeper center for the audiovisual materials. We are studying this and we will be happy to get 

back to you on it. And I appreciate your asking. 

Senator LANDRIEU. Thank you. 
51 

Dr. BILLINGTON. The one thing about acquisitions—the reason 

that we do it and one of the very few constraints, along with this 

Culpeper staffing, that we have to really worry about—is, if you do 

not acquire the things the first time around, you do not have a second chance in most cases. 

Senator LANDRIEU. It is very complicated, I know. 

Dr. BILLINGTON. One other thing I would say is that the Library 

of Congress uniquely collects things that other libraries do not, 

some via our overseas offices which we must maintain—that is another one of the areas of programmatic necessity—to sustain the 

overseas offices. 

Senator LANDRIEU. Well, thank you so much. 

TRANSITION TO DIGITAL TALKING BOOKS

I think Senator Alexander has one final question. 

Senator ALEXANDER. I have one. I am glad the chairman asked 

about the digital books. I can remember, as my mother lost her 

eyesight, how valuable back then the cassettes were for her. So we 

will watch that carefully and do our best to try to provide as much 

funding as we can to help it move along rapidly. 

Will there be any gap in service as you go from cassettes to digital talking books? 

Dr. BILLINGTON. There is going to be a reduction in numbers, 

that is, numbers of available books. There will be the transition between the old cassettes and the new digital machines. There is always some awkwardness of having to use both, or having to substitute one for the other without the full number of books. There 

will be some problems. 

But there are a lot of things that have to be determined. You 

may remember last year when the $12.5 million was appropriated 

from both Houses, we did the exceptional thing of introducing an 

appeal to restore it to $15 million, which would have shortened the 

timeframe to about 5 years. 

It is true for many blind people this is their principal asset. This 

is the principal means, really the only means, of reading for many 

of them. It is also true and not widely realized that blind people 

read a lot more than sighted people. This is an important area. 

We want to study it very carefully. We want to make sure we 

have plenty of feedback, whatever the Congress determines—— 

Senator ALEXANDER. Well, I know you are working hard on it. 

ABSORBING MANDATED COSTS

Dr. BILLINGTON. The only other thing I would say is that, in general, we have been so tight with what we submitted to you this 

year that we have erred on the side of caution, because we really 

cannot transfer unfunded mandates. Mandated pay raises are unavoidable. We really do not have much give in the system anymore 

considering how much more we are doing in all respects. If it turns 

out that we receive an increase in one area, something over what 

we have been led to believe is possible from the overall budgetary 

point of view, we really just cannot absorb that from elsewhere in 

the overall budget. I have not made such an argument before in 20 

years of testifying, but we are really reaching a point where, if a 
52 

requirement is added, you cannot assume the Library can absorb 

it. 

Senator LANDRIEU. Well, I can assure you this subcommittee is 

going to be very sensitive, when we ask you to add things or the 

Congress, to the underlying mission of the Library, which is unique 

and very special. And we are very sensitive to that. Both of us will 

be. 

CVC TEMPORARY CERTIFICATE OF OCCUPANCY

I have one more question that I really need to ask about the 

CVC, if I could, to you, Stephen. When do you believe that we could 

have a soft opening of the visitor center? Because I know this has 

been long awaited. We are all anxious to have it open as soon as 

possible. When are you saying that we could at least have a soft 

opening for it? 

Mr. AYERS. We intend to have the temporary certificate of occupancy on July 31, and we are very confident in that date. It is after 

that date that Ms. Rouse, our CEO for visitor services, will begin 

moving her staff into the facility and the police will begin moving 

in. She has always anticipated, as the entire team has anticipated, 

that there will be 90 days of sort of this ramp-up period from July 

31 up through October. So I think it is later in that timeframe that 

we could have a soft opening. 

Senator LANDRIEU. So you will get your certificate July 31, and 

you feel very confident about this. 

Mr. AYERS. Yes. 

Senator LANDRIEU. And then some time, of course, to have the 

staff move in and have the opportunities for a soft opening. 

And the Rules Committee, I think, is working with our committee to plan some of this procedure, both the House and the Senate. So we will look forward to working with all of you on that. 

ADDITIONAL COMMITTEE QUESTIONS

I have several other questions, but because of the time and Senator Alexander had to leave to go to the floor, I am going to go 

ahead and recess the meeting, submit the rest of my questions. 

[The following questions were not asked at the hearing, but were 

submitted to the agencies for response subsequent to the hearing:] 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED TO STEPHEN T. AYERS

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY SENATOR MARY L. LANDRIEU

Question. The AOC has requested $33,625,000 for CVC operations, including activities related to the opening of the facility later this year. Are any of the activities 

you requested funding for not currently authorized? 

Answer. The legislation authorizing specific operations within the Capitol Visitor 

Center (CVC) and the transfer of certain functions to the AOC is still pending, thus 

direct authority for such operational, organizational, and other certain funding of 

CVC needs is not in place. In the interim, authority is derived, in part, from the 

AOC’s existing authority to receive funding to perform its necessary functions. 

Funding the operations of the CVC—as a division of the AOC—is a necessary function. Authority is also derived, in part, from the legislation authorizing the appointment of the CEO of Visitor Services (H.R. 2206, Sec 6701), and the ‘‘Four Leaders 

Letter’’ (March 30, 2007) to the AOC from Congressional leadership directing that 

the AOC perform necessary actions to ensure the opening and operation of the CVC 

in the absence of specific legislation. 
53 

Enactment of the pending CVC legislation is necessary to perform certain functions such as operating the gift shop with a revolving fund, contracting for the operation of the restaurant, providing insurance for non-Government exhibit artifacts, 

and transferring management responsibilities and funding for the Capitol Guide 

Service. In addition, the AOC has requested funding in fiscal year 2009 for items 

such as interpreters, graphic design services, and public educational programs. The 

AOC is working with Congressional Oversight Committees to gain approval for 

these efforts. 

Question. The AOC estimates the need for $240,000 for graphic design services 

for books and brochures that cannot be accomplished through the GPO. What specifically cannot be accomplished through the GPO and what is the basis of this estimate? 

Answer. Recently, the AOC’s Office of Visitor Services staff has met several times 

with the GPO to gain a better understanding of the services that the GPO offers. 

Any gift shop design services or additional printing services (with the GPO but not 

funded by the Capitol Printing and Binding appropriation) will be paid for out of 

the gift shop ‘‘seed’’ funds or the revolving fund. The CVC believed it was possible 

that there may be CVC operational graphic design services that the GPO would not 

be able to provide, or special operations brochures that would be disallowed under 

the Capitol Printing and Binding appropriation, and thus would need to be paid for 

out of the CVC operations budget. We will be meeting with Senate staff within the 

next few weeks to discuss what types of operational printing can be paid for out 

of the Capitol Printing and Binding appropriation and then will provide detailed 

briefings to Oversight and Appropriations staff. The original estimate was based on 

knowledge of printing costs for other, non-Government museums. 

Question. Please provide details associated with an estimated $800,000 for ‘‘extended hours’’ of the CVC. 

Answer. At the time of the fiscal year 2009 CVC budget submission, it was not 

yet determined how many days per week and how many hours per day the CVC 

would be open to the public. The $800,000 overtime request was based on an assumption that operating hours would be from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., 7-days-a-week, 

with 20 ‘‘peak weeks’’ per year. Based on revisions to CVC operations plans since 

the budget submittal, the full $800,000 will not be required. However, if Members 

host evening events and CVC staff is required at these events, it is estimated that 

beginning as early as January 2009, the CVC may require additional payroll funds 

for overtime costs. Based on hosted evening events beginning as early as January, 

we estimate that approximately $200,000 in overtime costs may be required, but 

this is contingent upon the number of events, and decisions regarding whether the 

exhibits, gift shops, and central coatrooms will be open during the events. 

Question. If the Congress was able to provide only $100 million for your construction budget, would you suggest that all of these funds go to meet citations? If the 

citations did not exist, would the projects in your budget still be the highest priorities? 

Answer. The fiscal year 2009 study, design, and construction budget requests reflect numerous internal reviews and were subjected to the AOC’s project 

prioritization criteria and process. If only $100 million was provided in the fiscal 

year 2009 budget, the first project on the list—the Utility Tunnel Improvement Program—would be funded at some level. We are examining options to adjust the fiscal 

year 2009 request and still meet the settlement agreement deadline. We are currently assessing rephasing options based on additional testing and studies, and will 

brief the staffs in detail when the options are developed. 

The top 10 projects on the AOC prioritized list are citation-related projects. Based 

on our project prioritization criteria, any project addressing an existing citation was 

placed at the top of the list of potential fiscal year 2009 projects. Lacking the formal 

citations, all of these life-safety projects would still be required. Where they would 

have fallen within a prioritized listing is not certain. It is important to note that 

at the time the fiscal year 2009 budget was being prepared, the Office of Compliance 

had rated each of the citation deficiencies at its highest risk code. The AOC also 

would rate these deficiencies with an appropriate degree of urgency since the required work for each project impacts an entire building and its occupants. The AOC 

is in the process of reassessing the fiscal year 2009 executability of each of the top 

projects based on events that have occurred since we submitted our 2009 budget request. We will provide detailed briefings to Oversight staff after we complete our 

assessment. At that time, we will be able to address the question as to whether all 

of the remaining $100 million (after Utility Tunnel Project rephasing) would go toward citation projects. 
54 

Question. There are no major projects included for the Senate Office Buildings in 

the fiscal year 2009 budget. Why? What are some of the major Senate building improvements we can expect in the future? 

Answer. Numerous Senate Office Building projects were initially identified for potential inclusion in the AOC’s fiscal year 2009 budget request. However, only one 

of these was identified as having an ‘‘Immediate Urgency,’’ while the remaining 

projects were determined to have a ‘‘High Urgency.’’ Our fiscal year 2009 request 

included only those projects with an ‘‘Immediate Urgency.’’ Thus, only one Senate 

project fell above the cut-line considered for inclusion in the fiscal year 2009 request. 

The project initially identified for potential inclusion in the fiscal year 2009 request was Phase II of Infrastructure Improvements in the Dirksen Senate Office 

Building (DSOB). However, this project was deferred to a subsequent fiscal year because construction of its prerequisite project, Phase I, Infrastructure Improvements 

is ongoing and precludes a fiscal year 2009 construction start for Phase II. Therefore, Phase II was deferred despite its ‘‘Immediate Urgency.’’ The AOC anticipates 

funding for Phase II of the project will be requested in the fiscal year 2010 budget. 

Dependant upon their future placement within a list of AOC prioritized needs, 

Senate projects that may be included in the fiscal year 2010 request include: Citation Abatement, Russell Senate Office Building (RSOB); Egress Improvements, 

DSOB and Hart Senate Office Building (HSOB); Smoke Detection, HSOB; Infrastructure Upgrades, Senate Underground Garages; Infrastructure Modernization, 

DSOB; Exterior Envelope, RSOB; Kitchen Exhaust Upgrades, DSOB and RSOB; 

Skylight Replacement, HSOB and RSOB; South West Steps Waterproofing and Vestibule Addition, RSOB; Greening and Energy Reduction Initiatives; Air Handling 

Unit Modernization, HSOB; Steam Humidification Replacement, DSOB and HSOB; 

Roof Replacement, HSOB; and Senate Jurisdiction Master Plan Execution. 

Question. For the utility tunnel program, AOC has requested more than $126 mil- lion. Of this total, about $2 million is requested for work on the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) tunnel. Why is this project not covered by the CVC project funding for 

tunnels? 

Answer. The $2 million identified is for construction of a new emergency egress 

for the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) utility tunnel. One of the utility tunnel safety 

citations received in 2006 involved providing safe egress from tunnels in the case 

of emergency. The AOC and OOC, after a review of industry practice, agreed that 

a standard travel distance of 300 feet to an emergency egress meets OSHA requirements. The AOC adopted this standard for all of its utility tunnels, and therefore, 

the application of this new standard to the CVC utility tunnel required the installation of this new emergency egress. 

Funding for this new egress was not included in the original CVC project. Since 

the utility tunnel will be turned over to the Capitol Power Plant (CPP) for operations and maintenance, and the Utility Tunnel Improvement Program is funding 

construction of all new egresses, the AOC included this project in the Tunnel Improvement Program. This will ensure its completion within the Settlement Agreement timeframe, its consistency with new, required egress design standards, and coordination with other facets of the Program. 

Question. The AOC requests $1 million for the design of the relocation of the East 

Refrigeration Plant Chillers in the fiscal year 2009 budget estimate. Please describe 

the factors that make this project an immediate priority. If the relocation is not 

funded this year, will the chillers still be capable of supporting Capitol Complex operations in the upcoming year? What are the detrimental effects, if any, of not moving the chillers this year? 

Answer. This project is an immediate priority because of the advanced age of the 

infrastructure of chillers 2 and 3. The East Refrigeration Plant (ERP) is well past 

its useful life. The reliability of all supporting systems including pumps, valves, 

electrical switchgear, and cooling units are increasingly subject to failure. As the infrastructure fails, in order to maintain system reliability, operations and maintenance costs will continue to increase and become potentially cost prohibitive. The 

two 3,000-ton ERP chillers are considerable investments and assets, but are underutilized in the ERP. Relocation of the chillers and replacement of their aged infrastructure will result in increased capacity, efficiencies (operating in one plant vs. 

two), and energy savings. 

The fiscal year 2009 request is to bring the relocation project to full design, including abatement and remediation projects in the East Switch Yard. Timing for 

this relocation project is critical and requires the sequential implementation of several key steps within two phases. The first required step is to prepare the existing 

bay in the West Refrigeration Plant Expansion (WRPE) for the incoming chillers. 

The design challenge is to accommodate the installation of two 3,000-ton chillers, 
55 

supporting pumps, valves, and controls into an existing chilled water system and 

building structure. If the fiscal year 2009 design relocation request is not funded, 

the relocation of the ERP chillers will be delayed and increased CPP efficiencies will 

not be realized. Costs to abate and remediate hazards will only increase over time 

if not addressed. 

The capability to continue supporting the Capitol complex without moving the 

chillers is difficult to ascertain given the precarious state of their support infrastructure within the ERP. When these chillers must be brought into service, the CPP 

has to operate them, as well as the WRPE chillers in an inefficient configuration. 

This results in increased electrical and water utility costs. During the relocation of 

the ERP chillers, the CPP must still provide continuous and reliable chilled water 

to its customers without interruption. It is less risky to move the chillers within a 

known and controlled timeframe, rather than be forced to shorten schedules in order 

to install the chillers within a new building with new infrastructure. 

An additional benefit to funding the project in fiscal year 2009 is that the eventual demolition of the ERP interior structures and decommissioning of switchyard 

and cooling towers will allow space for potential operational and/or energy saving 

projects such as heat recovery steam generators, gas turbines or turbo generators. 

Question. In the fiscal year 2009 Combined Requirements Chart, the AOC projects the need to fund the $20 million design of an in-plant power generation system, a 

cogeneration system for the Capitol Power Plant (CPP). AOC categorized this design 

project as ‘‘High Urgency’’; however, Congress has not officially made the decision 

to pursue a cogeneration system for the CPP. How can AOC project the need for 

$20 million for the design of a project that Congress has not yet decided to pursue? 

Is this an isolated instance within AOC’s projected future needs or are there multiple projected design costs that do not currently have congressional review or approval? 

Answer. These are two different issues. The AOC’s identifying the urgency of this 

project from a technical standpoint in the Combined Requirements Chart was part 

of a prioritization exercise used to formulate its fiscal year 2009 budget request. 

The CPP cogeneration project is identified in this chart as having a ‘‘High Urgency.’’ This initial determination was based on the technical merits of the project 

alone, as measured against objective project prioritization criteria. However, the 

prioritization rating alone is not the final determinant as to whether a request is, 

or is not, included in a budget submission. Prior to a budget submission, the AOC’s 

Program Development Process calls for reviews of the prioritized project list at numerous levels, to include the Senior Leadership Team and the Acting Architect. At 

these review levels, additional factors are considered beyond a project’s 

prioritization. The AOC may add or move projects above or below the prioritization 

cutoff line for valid reasons outside the scope of the prioritization criteria. 

Given the current lack of Congressional approval to pursue a cogeneration system 

for the CPP, even if the cited project had been classified as having the higher ‘‘Immediate Urgency’’ rating, it would not have been included in the fiscal year 2009 

Budget Submission, and funding has not been requested in fiscal year 2009. 

Question. What is AOC’s process for scrubbing its backlog of capital projects? For 

example, if a capital improvement project addresses several items in the deferred 

maintenance (DM) and capital renewal (CR) backlog, what steps does AOC take to 

reflect these changes in both backlogs as well as its projections for future budget 

needs? 

Answer. Often, a project addressing Deferred Maintenance will also include Capital Improvements, as ‘‘replacement-in-kind’’ fails to take advantage of new technologies, opportunities to reduce energy consumption, or other improvements. When 

the majority of the project’s scope addresses Deferred Maintenance, the project is 

classified as a Deferred Maintenance project for prioritization purposes. When the 

portion of the project addressing Deferred Maintenance is limited, and the majority 

of the project is providing for Capital Improvements, the project is classified as a 

Capital Improvement project. In either case, upon completion of the project, the extent to which Deferred Maintenance is addressed is captured in an AOC database 

(Facilities Management Assistant) and the tracked and reported backlog is reduced 

appropriately. 

The projection of future budget needs, with respect to Deferred Maintenance, is 

always in a state of change. As initiatives addressing a Deferred Maintenance item 

are completed, that item is removed from the backlog; however, new Deferred Maintenance items also appear in the database as a result of ongoing updates to the Facility Condition Assessments. 

Question. The AOC cited bi-annual town hall meetings with employees to encourage open dialogue and feedback as one of its fiscal year 2007 significant accomplishments. However, the AOC originally established employee focus groups as its pri-
56 

mary method for collecting employee feedback and has not conducted focus groups 

since 2004. The AOC recently reported plans to conduct the next round of employee 

focus groups concerning matters such as worker safety, for example, in early 2008. 

Have these focus groups been conducted yet? If not, why not? If they have been conducted, what are the preliminary findings of the focus groups? Are AOC employees 

indicating that they are satisfied with the level of communication from AOC management and other supervisors? 

Answer. Establishing bi-annual town hall meetings was an outcome of the 2004 

focus groups. Employees expressed a need for a ‘‘10,000-foot view’’ of the Agency and 

its operations, and the Town Hall meetings are designed to provide employees with 

the information and the opportunity for dialogue they requested. During the Town 

Hall meetings, each Organization Head (i.e.: Jurisdiction Superintendent for operations and Director/Officer for GA) gives an overview of the Agency’s major initiatives, especially those taking place in other AOC organizations of which employees 

would be less aware. Additional information is provided, such as updates on new 

policies issued, projects started or completed, and employee benefits. 

The AOC originally planned to conduct another round of focus groups in fiscal 

year 2007, but those plans were put on hold due to funding issues under the Continuing Resolution. From April 15–25, 2008, the AOC held 24 employee focus group 

sessions at different times and days to accommodate all shifts and work schedules. 

More than 10 percent of AOC employees participated. Preliminary data verifies that 

the 226 voluntary participants are highly reflective of the professional composition 

of the total AOC employee base. A report on the focus group sessions is now being 

finalized, and the AOC will brief its oversight committees on the findings from the 

sessions. 

Question. In its list of fiscal year 2007 significant accomplishments, AOC reported 

rolling out Management Operations Reporting (cost-accounting) agency-wide. While 

this is commendable, recent GAO reports have indicated that full implementation 

and use of AOC’s agency-wide cost-accounting system is years away. Given that this 

effort has been underway for several years now, why is AOC’s cost-accounting system still not fully implemented within the agency? How far away is AOC from fully 

implementing its cost-accounting system? Please describe where the agency is in 

this process and what steps remain to achieve full implementation. 

Answer. The MOR (cost accounting) project is a phased, multi-year project. The 

project is on schedule for full implementation of cost accounting by fiscal year 2010, 

with the use of cost accounting data for performance-based budgeting in fiscal year 

2011. The milestone targets, as described in the AOC’s Strategic Plan, are as follows: fiscal year 2007: Cost accounting introduced, pilot, and AOC-wide rollout (completed); fiscal year 2008: Adjustment and normalization of cost data (in process); fiscal year 2009: Baseline data collection (in planning); fiscal year 2010: Full implementation; and fiscal year 2011: Mature cost accounting system in-place and performance-based budget implemented. 

In fiscal year 2007, the AOC rolled out its cost activity taxonomy with more than 

1,000 codes. After finding duplicative codes and determining that the codes did not 

link well to the Strategic Plan, we streamlined and standardized cost activity codes 

to approximately 300. In fiscal year 2008, we are adjusting and normalizing cost 

data, creating new managerial reports, and monitoring compliance. In fiscal year 

2009, the AOC will pilot future benchmarking efforts to enable the organization to 

measure jurisdictions against one another and against other Federal agencies. We 

will introduce an indirect cost allocation methodology, so the full cost of work at the 

AOC can be measured. We will also integrate non-financial data (e.g. square footage) with cost data to provide more visibility on the cost of activities or outputs. 

The installation of business intelligence tools will play a major role in future reporting and benchmarking efforts. Enhanced reporting tools will provide better and 

timelier information to management. In fiscal year 2010 and beyond, as the AOC 

cost accounting and reporting systems continue to mature, we anticipate that managers will use cost accounting data to project future resource needs, identify and examine workload trends, allocate administrative expenses, determine unit costs, 

track workload output, measure performance, and assist with budget formulation 

and execution. 

Question. What is the status of hiring an Inspector General? When do you expect 

an IG to be on-board? 

Answer. The AOC has contracted with an executive search firm to conduct a nationwide search. In addition to posting a vacancy announcement on USA Jobs 

(OPM’s Web site), this firm is aggressively recruiting passive IG candidates (network, cold call, and data mine). To identify potential AOC IG candidates, recruiters 

have reached out to 85 contacts at various levels within a wide variety of organizations. The outreach efforts have yielded more than 130 potential candidate leads to 
57 

date. The recruiting firm is now reaching out to the leads to determine their suitability for the AOC IG position. The AOC anticipates receiving a list of the top candidates to be interviewed by late May and selecting the new IG in early June. Arrival of the IG candidate will depend upon his/her current employment and location, 

but it is hoped to have the new IG on staff by late June. 

Question. AOC has requested new statutory authority regarding Senior Executive 

Service-level employees. Please describe the reasoning behind the 29 (now 30) positions AOC has requested? What is the status of AOC’s development of a senior-level 

employee performance appraisal system? 

Answer. Existing AOC statutory authority at 2 U.S.C. 1849 establishes three separate AOC executive level pay categories, (e.g., one at the SES pay level; one at 135 

percent of the minimum GS–15 pay level; and one at 95 percent of the SES pay 

level.). The legislation that the AOC has requested would create a single cadre of 

AOC SES positions paid at the established SES pay rates in accordance with subchapter VIII of Chapter 53, Title 5. The 29 positions identified in the proposed legislation was the total number of AOC executive level positions authorized by statute 

in the three AOC executive level pay categories. Note: That number has increased 

by 1, from 29 to 30 due to the addition of a Deputy CEO for Visitor Services for 

the CVC. On February 1, 2008, the AOC instituted a revised executive appraisal 

system that we believe meets the requirements and criteria of subchapter II of 

Chapter 43, Title 5. 

Question. In recent fiscal years, Congress has appropriated funds for the Architect 

to pursue energy efficiency studies and initiatives. How are energy efficiency savings gained from such initiatives reflected in AOC’s fiscal year 2009 budget request? 

Answer. In fiscal year 2008, $400,000 ($399,000 post-rescission) was appropriated 

for energy audits. Funds were received at approximately the same time that the 

AOC had to submit its fiscal year 2009 budget request. These energy audits have 

not yet been finalized; however, we anticipate the audits will be completed in time 

to consider a number of energy projects when developing our fiscal year 2010 budget 

request. 

The current fiscal year 2009 request includes the following specific energy studies: 

Daylight Harvesting Study; Constant Volume Systems Conversion Study; Existing 

Motor Premium Study; Retro-Commission Building Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning Systems, Phase 2 Study; Electrical Sub-Metering Study; Domestic Water 

Process Survey Study; and the Server/Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning Study. 

The fiscal year 2009 budget request contains the following Capitol Power Plant 

projects that are projected to generate substantial reductions in energy usage: Chiller Replacement, West Refrigeration Plant (Design); and Wickes Boiler Modernization and Controls Replacement, Capitol Power Plant (Design). 

Question. Has any consideration been given to the addition of a gift shop and 

snack bar/restaurant at the Botanic Garden? 

Answer. The Botanic Garden realizes that a gift shop/food service would provide 

services that are sometimes requested by our visitors, and has considered these options. However, the over-riding factor in not pursuing them is the very limited 

amount of available space in the Conservatory. The Garden is using the West 

Orangerie as an exhibit space, and at times, as a staging area. The East Orangerie 

has been retrofitted as a classroom and is used for many, varied, public education 

programs. The Garden believes that it achieves more in terms of mission fulfillment 

by providing educational programs and exhibits than it would by providing a restaurant. 

If the Garden were able to acquire additional space and resources, a gift shop and/ 

or food service operation could be added. Both would require additional storage 

space for merchandise and safe food preparation, utility hook-ups, as well as sewer 

and sanitary provisions. 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED TO DR. JAMES BILLINGTON

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY SENATOR MARY L. LANDRIEU

FISCAL YEAR 2009 BUDGET REQUEST

Question. According to your budget justification, the Library’s senior leadership 

was instructed to conduct in-depth reviews of their programs, priorities, and current 

and planned projects in formulating the fiscal 2009 budget. This included proposals 

for funding cuts or elimination of programs. Please delineate the program cuts that 

were made in the budget formulation. 
58 

Answer. In formulating the Library of Congress’ fiscal 2009 budget, the Librarian 

asked the senior leadership to proactively identify projects or programs that could 

be cut or eliminated. While a majority of the offices did not make wholesale cuts 

of programs or projects, a number of offices and programs have been significantly 

affected by funding limitations. $52 million in critical new funding needs were identified in the early stages of fiscal 2009 budget formulation, much of it to address 

information technology infrastructure requirements. However these needs were 

eliminated from the fiscal 2009 budget submission in recognition of the severely constrained Federal budget environment. 

Program/project/initiative Description Funding 

Information Technology Infrastructure ............................................. Infrastructure investment for ACF, 

NAVCC, Web Services, New Visitors 

Experience, and Capitol Data Center.

$21 .177 

Digital Talking Books ....................................................................... Restore funding to original 4-year implementation timeframe.$13 .2 

Library Services Base Restoration .................................................... Partial restoration of fiscal 2007–2008 

base cuts.

$8 .998 

New Visitors Experience .................................................................... Enhance awareness of LoC programs 

and collections.

$4 .423 

Facility Services ................................................................................ Business Process Reengineering ........... $1 .247 

Law Library ....................................................................................... GLIN expanded access and Law Materials.$ .540 

Human Resources ............................................................................. Career Development ............................... $ .161 

Contracting ....................................................................................... Contract Specialist Support .................. $ .188 

Security ............................................................................................. Reading Room contract guards ............ $ .142 

Congressional Research Service ....................................................... Enhanced Access ................................... $1 .761 

Total, Fiscal 2009 Funding Requirements Eliminated from 

Request ........................................................................... ................................................................ $51 .837 

Integrated Support Services (ISS) was unable to request needed resources for the 

Facility Design and Construction office (FD&C). The IG has documented inefficiencies in FD&C core business processes, space management practices, and resource 

and staff support capacities that could be addressed through business process reengineering and technical and developmental training. ISS cannot respond to the IG 

recommendations, such as developing procedural manuals and utilizing automated 

systems to improve space allocation and design, without sufficient resources. Additionally, necessary custodial contract support for Fort Meade collections Modules 3 

and 4 has been unavailable due to a lack of resources. 

The combination of non-recurring program costs, insufficient price level increases, 

rescissions, and the need to contribute to unfunded mandates has left the Law Library of Congress with more than 81 percent of its fiscal 2008 budget dedicated to 

payroll costs. The Law Library, the smallest Service Unit within the Library, will 

be unable to absorb further funding cuts or the elimination of programs in its fiscal 

2009 budget without building significant arrearages or sacrificing key legal research 

and reference services to Congress. 

Fiscal constraints necessitated reductions in staff size and infrastructure investments in CRS. With almost 90 percent of the budget devoted to staff salaries and 

benefits, cuts will result in a smaller workforce. CRS positions are being reduced 

by 30 to a level of 675 FTE, the lowest level in 33 years. The loss of positions is 

being confined to the supporting offices to protect the analytical capabilities of the 

Service. Meanwhile, the cuts in infrastructure investments will delay the modernization of aging equipment and outdated capabilities. The hope is that this cost 

cutting will be transitory and not sustained in future years. 

Library Services’ cuts were made primarily in funding to acquire collections identified by curators as being valuable and useful to the Library, and by not requesting 

the restoration of fiscal 2007–2008 base funding cuts of approximately $9 million 

and $13.2 million for the Digital Talking Book Program. 

Question. Also, please delineate all shifts in funding from one significant program, 

project, or activity to another that were made as part of the proposed budget. 

Answer. The fiscal 2009 budget did not include shifts in funding from one significant program, project, or activity to another. Rather, the fiscal 2009 budget request 

reflected fiscal restraint through elimination of critical funding needs, by either forgoing or seeking to internally fund those items or activities in fiscal 2009. 
59 

STAFFING LEVELS

Question. What is the actual staffing level you expect to attain for fiscal 2008, by 

Appropriation/PPA, compared to the ‘‘authorized’’ level? What is the real increase 

in staffing requested for fiscal 2009, compared to the actual level in fiscal 2007 and 

fiscal 2008 (expected)? 

Answer. 
60 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS COMPARISON OF FTE LEVELS, FISCAL 2007 ACTUAL—FISCAL 2009 REQUEST 

Appropriation/PPA 

Fiscal 2007 

actual FTE 

level 

Fiscal 2008 

Fiscal 2009 

requested 

FTE 

Fiscal 2009 request 

Authorized 

FTE level 1

Expected 

FTE level Difference 

vs. fiscal 

2007 actual FTE 

vs. fiscal 

2008 expected FTE 

Library of Congress, S&E: 

National Library: 

Library Services .......................................................................................................................................................... 1,534 1,640 1,618 ∂22 1,618 ∂84 ................Office of Strategic Initiatives .................................................................................................................................... 310 363 343 ∂20 363 ∂53 ∂20 

Law Library ................................................................................................................................................................................... 92 101 101 ................ 101 ∂9 ................

Management Support Services: 

Office of the Librarian ............................................................................................................................................... 134 150 147 ∂3 150 ∂16 ∂3 Human Resources Services ........................................................................................................................................ 56 72 69 ∂3 72 ∂16 ∂3 Integrated Support Services ....................................................................................................................................... 138 157 149 ∂8 157 ∂19 ∂8 Security and Emergency Preparedness ...................................................................................................................... 123 131 123 ∂8 95 ¥28 ¥28 Office of the Inspector General ................................................................................................................................. 14 18 18 ................ 18 ∂4 ................

Total, Library of Congress S&E ............................................................................................................................. 2,401 2,632 2,568 ∂64 2,574 ∂173 ∂6 

Copyright Office, S&E: 

Basic ................................................................................................................................................................................... 448 439 433 ∂6 439 ¥9 ∂6 Licensing Division ............................................................................................................................................................... 30 30 28 ∂2 30 ................ ∂2 Copyright Royalty judges .................................................................................................................................................... 5 6 6 ................ 6 ∂1 ................

Total, Copyright Office, S&E ........................................................................................................................................... 483 475 467 ∂8 475 ¥8 ∂8 

Congressional Research Service, S&E ......................................................................................................................................... 681 675 675 ................ 675 ¥6 ................BBPH, S&E ................................................................................................................................................................................... 114 128 128 ................ 128 ∂14 ................

Total Library of Congress appropriations ....................................................................................................................... 3,679 3,910 3,838 ∂72 3,852 ∂173 ∂14 

1 Fiscal 2008 authorized FTE level per approved Operating Plan. 
61 

PERFORMANCE-BASED BUDGETING

Question. Please describe the efforts you will take in the next year to further the 

Library’s use of performance-based budgeting. 

Answer. The Library’s strategic plan provides the foundation for annual planning 

and budgeting efforts. The Congressional Budget Justification’s (CBJ) new format 

and content represents the Library’s initial efforts to illustrate how the Library’s 

funding allocations align with the five strategic plan goals. The new CBJ format and 

content also includes key organizational performance targets which communicate 

the results the Library plans to achieve with requested resources. 

Future Library efforts to implement the ‘‘Spirit of GPRA’’ and to demonstrate how 

performance informs budgetary decisions will include the following: 

—Improve the program performance assessment program. A team of Library-wide 

planners has been established to improve the quality of the fiscal 2010 annual 

program performance targets against the key performance benchmarks of specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound (referred to as the 

SMART) criteria. The team is also working to increase the number of performance targets that have pre-defined standards for achieving results. 

—In detailing prior year (i.e., fiscal 2008) performance information, include results achieved against previously planned (and reported in fiscal 2009 CBJ) targets. 

—Provide detailed breakout of operating budgets in table format for each Subunit 

overview section. This will further respond to committee feedback about needing 

a clearer (tabular) presentation of operating plan budget details. 

—Include in Subunit Overviews narratives specific information about how budgeted resources have enabled organizations to achieve results in the prior year 

and how base budget decisions (and projected base adjustments) are informed 

by performance goals. This information will speak to the question of how Library is ‘‘scrubbing the base’’ and how performance is driving resource decisions. 

—Finally, the Library will continue to lead the effort across the Legislative 

Branch to define the ‘‘spirit of GPRA,’’ improve our implementation efforts, and 

share best business practices. The Library’s Strategic Planning Officer chairs a 

subcommittee of the Legislative Branch Financial Management Council 

(LBFMC) that is focusing on GPRA. In 2007 this subcommittee developed a performance system for the Legislative Branch agencies to use to demonstrate 

measurable results. This performance system defines key performance indicators, elements and validation criteria derived from the GAO Report, GAO 01– 

1008G, Internal Control Implementation and Evaluation Tool, dated August 

2001. This system establishes a Legislative Branch-wide definition of the ‘‘spirit 

of GPRA.’’ In 2008 the subcommittee has been working to develop a baseline 

against the performance system criteria. The subcommittee will soon be performing a gap analysis to ensure that the best practices are implemented across 

the Legislative Branch. 

CONTRACTS MANAGEMENT

Question. According to the Inspector General, there are significant and long-standing problems in the Contracts Office, which has responsibility for over $180 million 

in annual spending. The deficiencies may prevent the Library from obtaining the 

best value in contracts and may expose it to liability. Please provide a complete explanation for your plans to overhaul this office. 

Answer. The Chief Operating Officer named an Acting Director of Contracts and 

Grants Management (OCGM) effective April 14, 2008. The incumbent formerly 

served as the Library’s Chief of Contracts and Logistics and has more than 20 years 

of experience in directing and/or auditing acquisitions and logistics operations in 

both military and civilian agencies. She has directed the day-to-day operations of 

Federal contracting officers, logisticians, and auditors/program evaluators who audited high profile, complex, multi-billion dollar Department of Defense (DOD) acquisitions. 

The new director was instructed to review and devise an action plan within her 

first 30 days on the job. The following represents her approach and plans for transforming the Contracts Office in the immediate future. 

New policy and procedures have been implemented around four critical goals: 

Goal One: Improve Communications 

OCGM Help Desk Phone and E-mail has been established for tracking status. 

New policies/procedures have been implemented for processing Requisitions. 

Acquisition Planning implemented for fiscal 2008 and fiscal 2009 contract actions. 
62 

Contracts Working Group established and first meeting held on May 7, 2008. 

Goal Two: Increase Productivity 

Tiger Team, made up of the most experienced contract specialists, has been 

formed to handle backlog contract actions. 

Interviews have been completed for the three GS–13 contract specialists appropriated, and offers have been extended. 

An Open Continuous Announcement (GS–12; GS–13; GS–14; GS–15) for contract 

specialists has been implemented to expedite hires as permanent staff openings 

occur. 

A contract has been awarded to conduct Workflow Analysis of the entire Contracts 

Operation, and the vendor began work on May 27. Specifically, the vendor will: 

—Benchmark current work practices with best practices and develop new PALTS. 

—Develop an Acquisition Strategy/protocol for the Agency. 

—Examine two automated systems and recommend an integration strategy. 

—IAG w/DCAA Support effective—May 2008; 

—OCGM Website Update—June 2008; 

—Acquisition Alerts Handbook Update—July 2008; and 

—COTR Training and Cert Program—August 2008. 

Goal Three: Improve Timeliness In LC Contracting Process 

The following activities have been implemented to positively affect efficiency: 

—OCGM Tiger Team (Backlog)—May 5, 2008; 

—LC-wide Acquisition Planning (Memo to SU’s)—May 12, 2008; 

—Personnel Assists—June–Sept 2008; 

—Workflow Analysis (Start Date)—May 19, 2008; 

—Using Various Contract Types—Now; 

—Using Letter Contracts for Urgent and Compelling—Now; and 

—Using Class D&Fs—Now. 

Goal Four: Improve Business Practices and Documentation 

Update Contracts Operating Instructions—April 2008-December 2008. 

Re-establish the Contract Review Board. 

—Established a Group to focus on Contract File Management. 

NDIIPP

Question. You have requested an increase of $6 million for the National Digital 

Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program to, according to your budget 

justification ‘‘maintain a minimum operational funding level.’’ How did you determine what the minimum operational funding level should be for this program? 

Please provide the 5-year plan for NDIIPP spending. 

Answer. The minimum operational funding level was formulated based on several 

factors. These include: 

—Recognition of agency and legislative branch budgetary constraints. 

—Our annual program operational experience to date. 

—A realistic assessment of needed content, network, and technical infrastructure 

investments to attain our 5-year program outcomes. 

The strategy is to approach the selection and preservation of content as triage of 

the most critical needs and risks to preserve digital content determined to be most 

valuable to public policy and Congress. 

The 5-year plan that follows outlines the goals and outcomes for the program. 

OFFICE OF THE ASSOCIATE LIBRARIAN FOR STRATEGIC INITIATIVES, 

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

Washington, DC. 

Date: February 5, 2008. 

From: Laura E. Campbell, Associate Librarian for Strategic Initiatives/Chief Information Officer 

Subject: NDIIPP Plan 2008–2013 

The National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program 

(NDIIPP) is the Library’s strategic direction for collecting and preserving critically 

important content that only exists in digital form. It is a transition to a new way 

of doing business, sharing ongoing costs and expertise with a trusted network of vetted partners. In order to sustain this collaborative approach to the stewardship of 

digital content ongoing investments are necessary. 

Attached please find the NDIIPP Plan for 2008–2013. 
63 

1 A terabyte is the equivalent of the digital text of 1 million books. 

COLLECTING AND PRESERVING DIGITAL CONTENT

NATIONAL DIGITAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE AND PRESERVATION PROGRAM

PROGRAM AND RESOURCE PLAN, FISCAL YEAR 2008-FISCAL YEAR 2013 

FISCAL YEAR 2008

NDIIPP: MAKING THE TRANSITION TO SUSTAINABLE STEWARDSHIP

Goal 

Align strategic direction of the NDIIPP program with available resources while 

fulfilling pre-2007 agreements with partners. 

Fiscal year 2008 objectives 

Operate existing network. 

Follow through on multi-year partnership agreements made in fiscal year 2007, 

to the extent possible with limited resources (see charts on page 5). 

Transition the no-year, term-limited program scenario to an annual operating program. 

Prepare NDIIPP Report (2003–2008). 

Program Achievements Fiscal Year 2003–2008 

Content.—66 terabytes 1 at-risk digital content collected and preserved by partners; provide access for Congress to partner content. 

Network.—Network of 130 partners in content, technology, research, government 

and business sectors across 25 States; 10 Federal agencies collaborating to develop 

standards to preserve and sustain at-risk content on a national level; report of Section 108 Copyright Working Group. 

Technical Infrastructure.—Storage and transfer infrastructure for 66 terabytes of 

partner content; 12 shared tools and technology services built and customized especially for digital content capture, storage and management. 

FISCAL YEAR 2008 PROGRAM OPERATING PLAN—SOURCES AND USES OF FUNDS 

[Original planned vs. current budget, dollars in millions] 

Fund type/Description 

Fiscal year 2007 

original 

planned 1

Current budget 

NDIIPP No-year funds 

Fund source: 

Fiscal year 2008 beginning balance ............................................................................. $5.513 $5.748 

Fiscal year 2008 restoration request ............................................................................ 21.500 ........................

Total no-year funds ................................................................................................... 27.013 5.748 

Fund use: 

Staff 2 ............................................................................................................................. 1.478 ........................

Program management and network administration ..................................................... 1.249 0.412 

Grants to/contracts with partners: 

States regional demonstration projects ............................................................... 13.500 2.291 

Content partnerships ............................................................................................ 6.000 1.688 

Repositories and infrastructure partnerships ...................................................... 2.000 1,357 

Total no-year funds .......................................................................................... 24.227 5.748 

Fiscal year 2008 ending balance (projected) ........................................................................ 2.786 ........................

NDIIPP Base Funds 

Fund source: Fiscal year 2008 enacted ................................................................................. ........................ 1.478 

Fund use: Staff 2 ..................................................................................................................... ........................ 1.478 

Fiscal year 2008 ending balance (projected) ........................................................................ ........................ ........................

1 Original planned amounts developed in February 2007. 

2 Request for staff salaries to be supported by base funds in the Fiscal Year 2008 Operating Plan. 
64 

Investments 

From fiscal year 2009–2013, the NDIIPP Program will invest resources in three 

areas; 

—Content will focus on bringing at-risk content under stewardship through a network of national partners. 

—Network will focus on expanding digital preservation action by establishing the 

National Alliance for Content Stewardship. 

—Technical Infrastructure will collaborate with partners to enable cost-effective 

storage and management of a variety of types of content brought under stewardship. 

Projected Achievements Fiscal Year 2009–2013 

Content.—650 terabytes of at-risk digital content under national stewardship, representing nearly a ten-fold increase over current levels. 

Network.—The National Alliance for Content Stewardship operational in all 50 

States. 

Technical Infrastructure.—Cost effective storage and management of 650 

terabytes of at-risk digital content distributed across the partnerships. 

NDIIPP FUNDING, FISCAL YEAR 2009–2013 1

[In millions of dollars] 

Fiscal year— 

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 

Staff ................................................................................................... 1.478 1.478 1.478 1.478 1.478 

Content .............................................................................................. 3.499 3.499 3.499 3.499 3.499 

Network .............................................................................................. .724 .724 .724 .724 .724 

Technical infrastructure .................................................................... 1.810 1.810 1.810 1.810 1.810 

Total ..................................................................................... 7.511 7.511 7.511 7.511 7.511 

1 Does not reflect price level or mandatory changes. 

NDIIPP FUNDING BY OBJECT CLASS FISCAL YEAR 2009–2013 1

[In millions of dollars] 

Object class 

Fiscal year— 

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 

11xx pay ............................................................................................. 1.478 1.478 1.478 1.478 1.478 

21xx travel ......................................................................................... .050 .050 .050 .050 .050 

24xx printing ...................................................................................... .015 .015 .015 .015 .015 
65 

NDIIPP FUNDING BY OBJECT CLASS FISCAL YEAR 2009–2013 1—Continued 

[In millions of dollars] 

Object class 

Fiscal year— 

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 

25xx contractual services .................................................................. 2.968 2.968 2.968 2.968 2.968 

31xx equipment/software ................................................................... 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 

41xx grants ........................................................................................ 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000 

Total ..................................................................................... 7.511 7.511 7.511 7.511 7.511 

1 Does not reflect price level or mandatory changes. 

CONTENT—ANNUAL INVESTMENT 1

[In millions of dollars] 

Investment area 

Fiscal year— 

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 

Cartographic/geospatial .................................................................... .475 .502 .479 .460 .444 

Web sites ........................................................................................... 1.519 1.623 1.797 1.885 1.928 

Audio visual ....................................................................................... 1.366 1.232 1.084 1.011 .977

Images and text ................................................................................ .138 .141 .140 .144 .150 

Total ..................................................................................... 3.499 3.499 3.499 3.499 3.499 

1 Does not reflect price level or mandatory changes. 

NETWORK—ANNUAL INVESTMENT 1

[In millions of dollars] 

Investment area 

Fiscal year— 

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 

Membership ....................................................................................... .290 .145 .145 .145 .145 

Standards development ..................................................................... .217 .290 .290 .290 .290 

Professional development .................................................................. .145 .217 .217 .217 .217 

Outreach ............................................................................................ .072 .072 .072 .072 .072 

Total ..................................................................................... .724 .724 .724 .724 .724 

1 Does not reflect price level or mandatory changes. 

TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE—ANNUAL INVESTMENT 1

[In millions of dollars] 

Investment area 

Fiscal year— 

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 

Tools ................................................................................................... .362 .543 .543 .543 .543 

Services .............................................................................................. .724 .543 .905 .905 .905 

Transfer protocols .............................................................................. .362 .362 .181 .181 .181 

Storage capacity ................................................................................ .362 .362 .181 .181 .181 

Total ..................................................................................... 1.810 1.810 1.810 1.810 1.810 

1 Does not reflect price level or mandatory changes. 

FISCAL YEAR 2009 TO FISCAL YEAR 2013

CONTENT

Goal 

By 2013, place over 650 terabytes of high value at-risk digital content of particular interest to Congress and its constituents under national stewardship. 
66 

Links to Library’s Strategic Plan 

Content goal, Outcome 3.—Increased shared content stewardship among libraries 

and other cooperating bodies. 

Content goal, Outcome 4.—Increased creative and intellectual output that contributes to the body of knowledge available to the Congress and other constituencies. 

Investments 

The following four categories of content (see table below) represent high priorities: 

CONTENT CATEGORIES 

Category Description Examples 

Cartographic/Geospatial ......................... Today’s maps are born digital and are 

rich with data critical to land use 

management, disaster relief, environmental planning and homeland 

security.

Congressional cartography 

At-risk State, regional and local government geospatial data (e.g., emergency response assets, jurisdictional 

boundaries, infrastructure maps) 

Aerial and satellite imagery, including 

coastal imagery 

Web Sites ................................................ The Web is an increasingly important 

source of information by and about 

government, as well as a mirror of 

the political and social events of 

our time. Much of the documentation of our daily lives, as well as 

public discourse and debate, has 

moved to this new digital landscape 

in which content appears and vanishes at incredible speed.

Materials related to critical public policy issues (e.g., public health and 

medical preparedness, water quality 

management, foreign investment 

and international outsourcing, personal privacy protection and data 

security) 

State and local digital publications 

and agency policy documents 

Audio Visual ........................................... The very nature of broadcast distribution makes television and radio one 

of the most at-risk forms of content. 

Non-commercial programming from 

both the United States and foreign 

countries is of particular interest.

Foreign news broadcasts 

U.S. television broadcasts 

Radio broadcasts 

Images and Text ..................................... These materials represent substantial 

information investments that have 

been made by the government, cultural heritage institutions and other 

segments of society.

State and local agency records (e.g., 

court records, vital records, land 

ownership records) 

Databases containing the results of research and surveys 

Previously digitized content 
67 

Content Types 

Content under stewardship by NDIIPP partners includes geospatial, digital television, web sites, social science datasets, business records and digital cultural heritage collections. Adding access functionality for search and retrieval and user interfaces, increases the cost of stewardship beyond basic maintenance costs of secure, 

monitored storage and data management. There is also a cost multiplier effect 

across complex and diverse content types. 

NETWORK

Goal 

By 2013, establish agreements with diverse stakeholders in all 50 States to sustain a digital preservation network. 

Links to Library’s Strategic Plan 

Outreach goal.—Increase awareness of the value and utility of the Library. 

Investments 

Network investments are in: 

Membership.—Building on fiscal year 2003–2008 partnerships, establish the National Alliance for Content Stewardship. 

Standards Development.—Collaborate with partners from content, technology, 

government and business sectors to develop standards to sustain at-risk digital content. 

Professional Development.—Promote awareness and adoption of good preservation 

practices through professional development for digital content stewards. 

Outreach.—Promote public awareness through a Web site and various media outlets. 
68 

TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

Goal 

By 2013, enable cost-effective storage and management of 650 terabytes of a variety of types of digital content. 

Links to Library’s Strategic Plan 

Content Goal, Outcome 2.—Enhanced preservation and accessibility. 

Content Goal, Outcome 3.—Increased shared content stewardship among libraries 

and other cooperating bodies. 

Organization Goal, Outcome 1.—Optimized cultural, physical and technology environment maximizing quality, efficiency and creativity. 

Investments 

The partners work collaboratively to develop the NDIIPP technical infrastructure 

by building the information systems, tools and services that support the digital programs. 

PROJECTED OUTCOMES FOR FISCAL YEAR 2009-FISCAL YEAR 2013 1

Category Outcome 

Tools ................................................................................ Systems and utilities that can be used by content collectors and 

managers to automate tasks and processing 

Services ........................................................................... Operational services for digital content management offered to 

stewardship communities 

Transfer protocols ........................................................... Robust and scalable digital content delivery mechanisms among 

partners and between the Library’s preservation and access 

technical environments 

Storage capacity ............................................................. Architecture to store more by reducing cost per byte over time 

1 See next page for detailed milestones chart by technical infrastructure components. 
69 

OVERSEAS FIELD OFFICES

Question. The budget request includes $5,366,000 for the Department of State 

Capital Security Cost-Sharing Program, an increase of $2,966,000 over the fiscal 

2008 level. What are the implications if this increase isn’t funded? 

Answer. If the increase is not funded, the Library will have to shift funds within 

its base to cover the CSCS assessment. The amount due to the Department of State 

was determined during fiscal 2007 and cannot be reduced at this point. The shifting 

of base funds will force the Library to consider closing some of its six offices. Because of their size and cost, two of the largest offices could be affected—Cairo, Egypt 

and Jakarta, Indonesia. The effect of closing these two offices would be grave. Analysts and reference specialists would be deprived of current, valuable materials from 

hotbed areas of the world. Lack of access to these materials would impede getting 

vital information pertaining to these areas. Closing these offices would also result 

in the termination of the Cooperative Acquisitions Program for regions covered by 

these two offices. Each overseas office currently operates a cooperative acquisitions 

program with at least forty participating libraries and educational and research centers. 

Question. What is the total cost of the overseas field offices, by office, compared 

to fiscal 2008? 

Answer. In addition to the $5,366,000 cited above for the Capital Security Cost 

Sharing program assessment, the projected costs for the offices for fiscal 2009 are 

$8.86 million total. The projected costs (salaries and overhead) for each office are: 

—Brazil—$1,338,508; 

—Egypt—$1,169,158; 

—India—$2,299,547; 

—Indonesia—$1,499,494; 

—Kenya—$1,707,071; and 

—Pakistan—$847,246. 

Projected costs may change due to regional rates of inflation and the falling value 

of the U.S. dollar against foreign currencies. Additionally, approximately $600,000 

will be spent to run the Cooperative Acquisitions Programs, all recovered from program participants and not included in the amounts cited above or the Library’s 

funding request. 

Question. What plans does the Library have to change its methods for acquiring 

materials from the six areas the field offices cover? 

Answer. Because the Library has determined that there are no viable means to 

continue to collect research materials from these areas without an actual presence 

in the regions, the Library does not plan to change the methods of acquiring materials from areas currently covered by the six offices. The Library still views as sound 

its ongoing (1) acquisitions of materials by its Capitol Hill staff for materials from 

parts of the world that have robust publishing and information dissemination infrastructures and (2) its acquisitions of materials by staff locally situated in areas of 
70 

the world where materials are difficult to obtain, that is, through its six overseas 

offices. Commercial book vendors remain inadequate for the parts of the world covered by the overseas offices and generally do not acquire non-commercially produced 

items. Non-commercial research materials, such as government and non-government 

issued reports, large bank reports, oil company reports, etc., would no longer be acquired without the local presence of the offices. Additionally, office staff members 

have language and subject expertise used to catalog materials acquired, which considerably lowers the overall cost of cataloging the materials. Without this expertise 

of the local staff, the processing of the materials that would be acquired would be 

done by Library staff in Washington at far greater expense. There is a growing lack 

of trained professional librarians in the United States with language and area studies expertise of the regions where we have overseas offices. The Library monitors 

publishing trends in all parts of the world. When problems are identified, we seek 

low-cost options for securing publications. China is a notable example. A single acquisitions office would not be adequate for such a large country. We have worked 

with local professors and graduate students to identify and purchase materials from 

remote regions of China. 

Question. What is the Library doing to work with other institutions to seek to 

cover some of the costs of the field offices? 

Answer. The Library works with the participants of the Cooperative Acquisitions 

Programs, whereby participants offset the cost of running the acquisitions programs 

and indirectly keep the cost of acquiring materials down by through discounts resulting from the purchase of multiple copies. 

LOC CONTRACTOR EMPLOYEES

Question. What is the total amount the Library spends on contracts each year? 

How many contract employees does this equate to? What is the average price of a 

contractor employee per hour, and how does that compare to the cost of the average 

LOC employee? 

Answer. The Library spent $2.256 million on personal services contracts in fiscal 

2007, primarily for expert skills or unique services required on a special or occasional basis, which could not be provided with any degree of efficiency by current 

Library staff. Hourly costs per contractor ranged widely based on the specific requirements of each contract. Where specific data was available on the costs of individual contractors (as opposed to the more prevalent breakdown of costs by task 

order or deliverable), hourly rates ranged from $25 to $125. The average hourly rate 

across all contracts was $60, as compared to the average cost of salaries and benefits of all Library employees over the same time period of $50. 

CATALOGING PRODUCTIVITY

Question. Please explain the extent to which the Library has become more efficient in its cataloging efforts over the past several years. 

Answer. From fiscal 2003 to 2007, cataloging production increased from 525 titles 

per FTE to 890 titles, an increase of 70 percent in only 5 years. At the same time, 

the cost per title cataloged decreased from $115.56 to $81.97, a reduction of more 

than 29 percent despite salary increases and inflation. (These costs include staff and 

supervisory salaries, fringe benefits, and directorate, service unit, and agency 

overheads.) Productivity and efficiency have increased through the following measures: 

—Implementation of the Library’s first integrated library system (LC ILS) in August 1999 laid the foundation for continuous business process improvements. 

—The LC ILS allowed the Library to develop automated applications that could 

interface with the LC ILS to facilitate staff efficiencies in searching and creation, validation, and quality assurance of bibliographic data. 

—Through ‘‘copy cataloging,’’ staff increased the use of cataloging data created at 

other institutions to represent items in the Library’s collections, thereby reducing cataloging costs by one-third for this group of items. To optimize use of copy 

cataloging, the Library (1) introduced software that searches the LC ILS and 

the external source of cataloging data with a single search and (2) centralized 

most copy cataloging activity in a single work team composed of technician level 

staff, thereby reducing the cost of copy cataloging. To ensure that the Library 

and the Nation’s libraries have access to a supply of high-quality cataloging 

copy, the Library provides training and administrative infrastructure for the 

Program for Cooperative Cataloging, an international consortium of more than 

500 institutions. 

—Catalogers now complete call numbers for most originally cataloged materials 

as part of a single workflow process. 
71 

—The Library focused on using the appropriate level of cataloging for all materials. In 1997, the Library adopted a new default level of cataloging that is sufficient for most of the materials it catalogs. Reference and rare materials receive fuller cataloging, while materials of low research value may receive minimal-level or collection-level cataloging, which describes resources at a lower expense. 

—The Library’s six overseas offices were upgraded with the Library’s ILS software and now catalog the materials they acquire at lower costs than can be 

done by Library staff on Capitol Hill. 

—The Library receives records suitable for initial bibliographic control from approximately thirty of its book dealers throughout the world, generally at no additional charge. 

—The Library obtains, through outsourcing, materials ready to be shelved, with 

complete cataloging, for some Italian, Japanese, and Russian materials. 

—The Library has begun using data leased from commercial sources in order to 

avoid keying massive amounts of data, again reducing cataloging costs. 

—The Cataloging in Publication (CIP) program, which in fiscal 2007 provided cataloging in advance of publication for 53,210 books judged likely to be widely acquired by the Nation’s libraries, is now nearly all electronic. Staff prepare catalog records on the basis of publisher galleys submitted in electronic form, permitting much of the catalog record to be constructed automatically. Further, the 

cost of mailing data via the U.S. mail has been practically eliminated. 

—The Library instituted partnerships with other research libraries in which the 

other libraries catalog electronic galleys that will be published by their own institutions. More than 3,300 catalog records were obtained through this Electronic CIP Cataloging Partners program in fiscal 2007. 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ACQUISITIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC ACCESS DIRECTORATE COST AND 

OUTPUT PER STAFF MEMBER, FISCAL 2003-FISCAL 2007 

Fiscal year Bibliographic 

volumes per FTE Cost per record 

2003 ........................................................................................................................................ 525 $115.56 

2004 ........................................................................................................................................ 559 124.95 

2005 ........................................................................................................................................ 644 119.66 

2006 ........................................................................................................................................ 840 94.64 

2007 ........................................................................................................................................ 890 81.97 

READING ROOMS

Question. According to the Inspector General, there is significant underutilized 

reading space owing to the dramatic growth in, and improved access to electronic 

information. Please describe plans to consolidate the reading rooms. 

Answer. Following the Inspector General’s recommendation in September 2007 to 

gather data on reading room use during the first quarter of 2008, Library Services 

actively engaged in a comprehensive usage survey among all the subject- and format-based research centers and reading rooms. Library Services is continuing to 

compile statistics in a consistent fashion during the second quarter as well to facilitate future decision-making. The recent inauguration of the Library of Congress Experience has resulted in greater public visitation and an expected increase in new 

cards issued by the Reader Registration unit. Even more visitors and a rise in new 

readership are anticipated once the CVC opens later this year. The recent announcement of the relocation—falsely described as a closure—of the European Reading Room that was broadcast over the Internet by scholars resulted in numerous 

complaints to Congress by researchers, underscoring the sensitivity of reducing the 

number of points of access to collections and staff expertise. 

The Copyright Office consolidated three reading rooms (the Copyright Card Catalog, the Records Maintenance Unit retrieval area, and the Licensing Division’s reading room) during the renovation of Copyright Office workspace. This action freed 

much-needed space for critical program activities and allowed the sharing of infrastructure and support services while making possible the provision of nearly the 

same level of service with fewer staff and with a smaller investment in infrastructure and technology. Also, as a result of consolidation visitors are confined to one 

area, reducing expenses for signage, security, etc. 
72 

COLLECTIONS STORAGE

Question. Current collections policies result in a daily addition of approximately 

10,000 items to the library’s collections. At this rate of growth, how soon will existing storage facilities be filled? 

Answer. The figure of 10,000 items per day includes both special format collections (e.g., maps, manuscripts, prints) and books and bound periodicals. For the 

book collections, approximately 1,500 items are added to the general, Areas Studies 

and Law collections daily. Special format collections constitute the remainder. 

Existing storage facilities have been, or are in the process of being, filled. Significant overcrowding in the facilities housing both book collections and special format 

collections has dictated a space utilization plan that requires the most efficient use 

of existing facilities and a construction/rental program for additional storage space 

off-site. 

Question. When will additional storage space be needed? 

Answer. Additional storage space is needed at the present time and is currently 

in the Library’s plans. Initiatives currently underway to address this are: 

—Upgrades to the third floor fire protection system at the National Audio-Visual 

Conservation Center (NAVCC) at Culpeper, Virginia which will permit the Library to complete the relocation of the recorded sound and moving image collections to that facility, allowing for future collections growth in those media. 

—Completion of Modules 3 and 4 and four cold storage rooms at the High Density 

Storage Facility (HDSF) at Fort Meade, Maryland. Scheduled for completion in 

the late winter or early spring 2009, this facility will house more than 16 million pieces in 150,000 containers of special collections material. The content of 

each shelf has been mapped to the shelf to maximize capacity, and for both 

Modules 3 and 4, there is no growth space allocated. Waiting lists of special format collections have been developed for subsequent construction/rental. 

—Reconfiguration of existing space at the Landover Center Annex (LCA), Landover, Maryland, to accommodate collections now on Capitol Hill in a Fort 

Meade-type configuration (storing collections by size to maximize capacity). This 

reconfiguration is anticipated to allow for approximately 6 months of growth in 

the book collections. 

—Construction of additional modules at Fort Meade. Design has been finalized for 

Module 5 which, like Modules 1 and 2, will house books and bound periodicals. 

Upon completion, Module 5 will have a storage capacity of 2.2 million items, 

and will allow us to remove the increasing number of items stored on the floor 

in the Jefferson and Adams Buildings, and to accommodate the more than 

300,000 items added to the general, Area Studies, and Law Library collections 

annually. 

Question. How much additional storage will be needed? 

Answer. 

Book and Bound Periodical Collections 

For the book collections, we are currently exceeding 100 percent capacity in the 

Jefferson, Adams and Madison bookstacks. 

Our goal, in the classified collections is to reduce the shelf load to an average of 

80 percent, which allows for the uneven growth of individual classes of material (in 

a classified/subject) collection. An average shelf load of 80 percent has been deemed 

the maximum average beyond which ongoing shifting and significant overcrowding 

ensue. In order to get to this target average, approximately 3.4 million items need 

to be relocated from Capitol Hill to off-site storage. This represents approximately 

1.5 Fort Meade modules. 

Note: There are a number of safety-related programs mandated by the Office of 

Compliance that will significantly reduce the storage capacity in the Jefferson 

Building stacks (addition of staircases). If these come to fruition, it will significantly 

alter the space projections for the book collections. The permanent loss of capacity 

is likely to be approximately 200,000 items, and during construction, more than 

500,000. 

If we were to obtain two additional book storage modules at Fort Meade of the 

same size as the current modules, with a total capacity of 4.4 million items, that 

would allow us to transfer the requisite number of volumes (3.4 million plus annual 

additions to the collections), allowing us to achieve our target shelf load. Currently, 

Modules 5 and 6 are planned to house the requisite book collections, however the 

construction schedule for both of these remains uncertain. From that point on, we 

would require one additional book storage module every 6 or 7 years. 
73 

Special Format Collections 

Special collections do not grow at the fairly steady rate the book and bound periodical collections do. 

A significant number of the special collections are housed in both overcrowded and 

inappropriate environmental conditions, inconsistent with the value and uniqueness 

of these collections. 

NAVCC has the necessary capacity to accommodate some future growth of the recorded sound and moving image collections. However, this requires upgrading of the 

third floor fire protection systems, which is currently underway. 

As stated earlier, Modules 3 and 4 at Fort Meade will allow us to relocate approximately 150,000 containers from overcrowded storage spaces on Capitol Hill. A 

waiting list has been developed of collections that will not fit into these two modules, and options are being pursued such as interim rental space until permanent 

space can be constructed at Fort Meade. Module 7 at Fort Meade will be the next 

special format collections module. 

Question. What is the status of moving items to Fort Meade for storage? 

Answer. Module 1 is completely filled with approximately 1.6 million items. 

Module 2 is approximately 65 percent filled. However, there are a significant 

number of categories of ‘‘must send’’ items for which space must be allocated in 

Module 2 because the construction schedule for the next book storage module (Module 5) is uncertain. Among these categories: children’s literature and minimal level 

cataloging. In addition, space has been set aside for post-processed material scheduled for transfer to Modules 3 and 4. An active program is currently underway to 

box and otherwise prepare special format collections for transfer to Modules 3 and 

4 when these open next year. Since post-processed collections often take up significantly more space than is the case pre-processing, we have planned to move some 

of these to Module 2 and relocate them to Modules 3 and 4 when the latter modules 

open. Given this, while Module 2 is not yet completely filled, there is very limited 

space remaining for permanent transfer if we are to leave the necessary growth 

space for the ‘‘must sends’’ and for the post-processed special collections. 

Modules 3 and 4 have been completely laid out, with every item assigned a shelf 

location. When these modules become available in early 2009, we will begin the relocation process. 

Question. What is the remaining capacity at the existing storage modules, and 

how does that compare to the original plan? 

Answer. As stated above, there is almost no remaining capacity in the two existing modules. Module 1 is filled; Module 2 is approximately 65 percent filled. However, we will complete as much filling as possible by the end of calendar 2008, and 

must leave some space for the ‘‘must sends’’ and interim space for post-processed 

collections moving to Modules 3 and 4. 

Question. Has more storage capacity been consumed then had been planned at 

Fort Meade? 

Answer. The availability of modules for both the book and special format collections is behind the originally projected schedule. According to the original construction and storage needs projections, a module should have been constructed and become available for storage every 2 years beginning in 1997. Had we been able to 

follow that schedule, we would now be occupying Module 6, with Module 7 coming 

online in calendar 2009. 

The Copyright Office also is experiencing a storage capacity problem. The Copyright Office is required to retain works deposited in connection with registration of 

claims to copyright. Copyright deposits are housed in two facilities: The Landover 

Annex (50,000 square feet, filled to capacity); and Sterling, Virginia, leased from 

Iron Mountain, Inc. (116,000 square feet). The annual cost for Iron Mountain storage is $191,000. Projected storage growth 

at that facility is 7,000 cubic feet per year, which increases the storage cost by 

$11,500 per year. 

The current leased storage space, however, does not adequately provide a safe and 

secure environment for the protection of the deposit collections. The facility fails to 

meet the requirements of 36 211 CFR 1228, ‘‘Disposition of Federal Records, Subpart K, Facility Standards for Records Storage Facilities’’ because the space is 

unconditioned and subject to wide temperature and humidity fluctuations. In order 

to properly fulfill the Office’s mandate of protecting and preserving America’s cultural heritage, materials would need to be moved to a NARA-certified facility that 

meets the 36 CFR 1228 requirements. Storage at such a facility would increase storage fees by 100 percent to $382,000 annually plus an annual growth increase of 

$23,000. 

In addition to storage costs, deposits and other materials must be transferred to 

and retrieved from storage on a regular basis. These transfer costs are $33,000 per 
74 

year. This is projected to increase at a rate of 10 percent per year, based on the 

growing rate of services requiring deposit retrieval. 

DIGITAL CONTENT

Question. With the explosive growth in the creation and distribution of digital content, what opportunities and challenges does this present the Library in terms of 

increasing access to and preserving the Library’s collections in the future? 

Answer. 

Opportunities 

Digitized Content: 

—Technological advances continue to provide opportunities to enhance access by 

increasing both the quantity and quality of our digitized content. Scanning 

equipment is getting better and faster. 

—Increasing sophistication in automated image quality review tools (device targets and software) allows us to increase efficiency of image quality review processes. The more of the production workflow we automate, the more we increase 

throughput through the production pipeline, while ensuring image quality. 

Born Digital Content: 

—The evolution of the Web into social networks brings opportunities for the Library to engage with public and private sector organizations to take advantage 

of access tools that distribute the description and linkage to content across organizations. Some very commonly used technologies are web services that allow 

users and researchers to organize and describe content in ways that serve multiple communities of users. 

—The Library will have the opportunity to provide access to more diverse content 

by collaborating with a network of collecting partners who have experience and 

expertise in the collection and management of diverse data types, e.g. 

Geospatial, social science datasets, web archives. 

Growing recognition of value of cultural heritage materials by commercial and 

non-governmental sectors is providing increasingly attractive opportunities to form 

mutually beneficial partnerships. Expectations for secure and trustworthy long-term 

management of digital content provide an opportunity to explore current and inprogress industry solutions. Identification of common challenges provides a solid 

basis for working with other Federal agencies and research institutions on common 

technical architecture requirements and standards. 

By reengineering Copyright Office business operations and transitioning to a webbased processing environment, the Office is positioned to acquire, retain, and eventually forward to the Library’s collections copyright deposits submitted electronically 

on a large scale. 

Challenges 

Technologies associated with digital content creation, dissemination, and curation 

evolve over time, creating large bodies of digital works with diverse formats, often 

built on layers of legacy applications that may become obsolete. 

Ongoing re-investments and training are needed to take advantage of continuing 

developments in digital library and information management, technical architecture, 

search and discovery, and web presentation tools. 

Anticipated exponential growth in digital content, whether for broad open immediate access or long term collection holdings and digital preservation, incur a new 

layer of management responsibility and costs for the institution that continue to 

grow every year as the volume of content grows. The receipt, storage and rendering 

of digital content in increasingly complex digital formats require continuous investment in staff recruitment and training to maintain currency and relevancy of technical skills. 

Growing user expectations for rapid, anytime, anywhere, easy access to the Library’s collections continue to strain the Library’s resources. Expectations that the 

content should be easily findable and searchable are difficult to meet with existing 

access mechanisms and tools. Securing databases/repositories against unauthorized 

access will continue to require investments in information security. 

The predicted ten-fold growth of digital data within the next 5 years presents 

challenges for the judicious identification, selection and acquisition of content for the 

Library’s collections as well as the storage and management of large volumes of 

data for preservation. 

The Library will have the challenge of developing and maintaining increasingly 

complex information architecture, access aids, and interfaces to more diverse digital 

content types as they are brought into its collections or linked to at collaborating 

partner sites. 
75 

Retaining electronic works as originally deposited to satisfy a legal requirement 

while also copying and converting electronic works for the purpose of long term 

preservation and accessibility needs. 

Amending the copyright law and regulations to require deposits of certain types 

of works and to define ‘‘best edition’’ requirements to include the Library’s preferred 

digital formats. 

Amending the copyright law to allow the Library to harvest online material, such 

as websites, in lieu of or in addition to mandatory deposit requirements. 

Question. What practical steps is the Library taking to address these opportunities and challenges? 

Answer. 

Digitized Content 

We are actively engaging with other Federal agencies, cultural heritage institutions, and commercial partners, allowing us to make more content available to increasingly broad constituencies. Digitization partnerships allow the Library to increase its digitization capacity for public domain collection materials. As long as the 

resulting files can be made freely available to the public, either immediately or following a relatively brief embargo period, the Library views these partnerships as 

advantageous. Digitization partnerships include: 

—Commercial partnerships to defray and subsidize the cost of digitization. In 

their general desire for copies of digitized text materials, these partners are 

willing to absorb a significant portion of the costs of digitization. In these situations, the Library has a great deal of latitude in choosing the actual materials 

to be digitized. 

—Commercial partnerships to investigate technical problems of mutual interest. 

A good example of this is the partnership we initiated last year with Xerox to 

investigate performance issues related to large databases of JPEG2000 images, 

which is a format under consideration for both master and derivative files. 

—Joint Federal agency or cultural heritage institution partnerships that share 

digitization cost burdens. As an example, we’ve had great success in coordinating with GPO and other institutions to minimize duplication of effort for 

scanning of government documents. The National Digital Newspaper Program 

(NDNP) is another example of cost-sharing; in this case, between the Library 

and NEH. We have also received a $2 million grant from the Sloan Foundation 

to digitize book collections, providing the Library with the opportunity to 

digitize items that are physically deteriorating, including brittle and difficultto-scan materials. We continue to evaluate projects to digitize specific sets of 

material, including exploring a collaborative project with NOAA to digitize 

30,000 coastal survey maps. 

—Born Digital Content.—The NDIIPP program model also follows an approach of 

shared costs, risks and expertise with networks of partners especially skilled 

with specific content types to save at-risk born digital content. These Partners 

also have been instrumental in developing the technical infrastructure and tools 

necessary for the collection and preservation of digital content. Expert communities are forming around specific content types such as geospatial. The Library 

will need to partner with these communities for secure and enduring access to 

valuable content. 

—Electronic Deposit.—A goal of the Copyright Office’s multi-year reengineering 

project is to increase the acquisition of digital materials for the Library’s collections. The Copyright Office is encouraging remitters to file e-service registrations including, where appropriate, submission of deposit copies and partnering 

with other Library service units in an eJournals eDeposit project. 

—Digital Content Management Requirements and Standards.—The Library has 

been working with other public sector entities to develop common requirements 

for the management of digital content from initial ingest through long-term access and preservation. 

Question. As the Library’s digital collections grow, how will the Library balance 

the public’s interest in more easily accessing the Library’s collections through means 

such as the internet against the need to protect the intellectual property of authors? 

Answer. It may be impossible with today’s technology to make an item from the 

Library’s digital collections available to the general public via the Internet and at 

the same time prevent the making of unauthorized copies. It is also important to 

strike the proper balance in regard to public access to the Library’s digital acquisitions and the copyright owner’s incentives to create. To the extent that the public’s 

access would interfere or compete with the traditional markets of a copyright owner, 

such access could have a negative effect on the goal of copyright—to encourage the 

creativity of authors. The Library will need to do more research on the feasibility 
76 

of rendering information via the Internet both in a format that will not allow storing 

or printing of the information and in a manner that does not interfere with a copyright owner’s traditional markets. In the meantime, the availability of digital works 

in the Library’s collections may need to be limited to on-site delivery. Policy will 

also need to be prepared covering inter-library loan of digital works. 

Question. The exceptions to copyright law granted to libraries and archives under 

Section 108 of the Copyright Act may need to be amended to address access to digital materials. How can the suggested recommendations from the March 2008 Section 108 Study Group Report help the Library and others sufficiently deal with challenges arising from digital technology? 

Answer. The Copyright Office has commenced a review of the Section 108 Study 

Group Report and associated recommendations. As a preliminary observation, we 

note that most of the recommendations address preservation activities. As the Office 

moves forward, it will focus on the recommendations but will also study and seek 

comment on additional issues, including the ability of libraries to make copyrighted 

works more accessible. 

Question. As the national Library, how is the Library providing leadership in the 

development of standards regarding digital content conventions? 

Answer. Federal Agency Digitization Working Group Leadership.—In early 2007 

the Library convened several Federal agencies (now numbering ten) to formulate a 

collective set of guidelines for digitization of images and, more recently, audio and 

video. The primary objective of the Federal Agency Digitization Working Group is 

to define the landscape in which standards guidelines were needed, and identify and 

prioritize ‘‘gaps’’ to be filled over time. These guidelines will be objectives based, i.e., 

they will be based on the purpose of the scan and the material involved, as a ‘‘one 

size fits all’’ approach does not apply. The group also will be formulating guidelines 

for metadata to be embedded within digitized images. The member agencies of the 

Federal Agency Still Images Digitization Working Group are LC, NARA, GPO, 

NLM, NAL, Smithsonian, National Gallery of Art, NTIS, National Geological Survey, and NTA. The Audio/Video subgroup currently comprises LC, DOT, GPO, NLM, 

NARA, NPS, and the Smithsonian. 

Digitization Guidelines.—The Library developed guidelines in the 1990’s for 

digitization of text, image, microfilm, audio and video. Those guidelines continue to 

be updated, and are available on the Library’s Web site. 

Metadata Standards Leadership.—For many years Library Services in the Library 

has been a leader in the development of rules and formats for describing resources— 

and for the last 10 years we have focused more of these efforts on harnessing retrieval of digital content. The cataloging rules are being revamped to be more accommodating to digital content; the formats for metadata have been enriched for 

digital content description and for linking to the digital resources described. A new 

Web compatible format for describing digital resources, Metadata Object Description 

Schema (MODS), has been developed under the leadership of the Library since 2002 

in collaboration with the community and is being widely used in digital projects 

across the United States. The Library has also teamed with the community to develop standards for ‘‘wrapping’’ digital resources so that they can be preserved and 

used in different systems, Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS), 

and the Library serves as the official home for that standard. Several standards for 

technical metadata (MIX and textMD) that are essential in the METS wrapper are 

also maintained by Library Services for and with the community. Library Services 

played and continues to play a leading role in the development of an important 

standard for preservation metadata related to digital resources, PREMIS, a major 

step forward in the struggle to assure the preservation of electronic media. The Library has become a center of activity for a variety of standards that are helping U.S. 

institutions collect and serve digital material because the Library is considered a 

stable and trusted home for these emerging and essential standards 

Web Archiving Tools.—The Library has supported the development of web 

archiving capture tools that reduce the volume of redundant data captured for frequently collected web sites. This is the SmartCrawler being developed at Internet 

Archive in partnership with the British Library and the Bibliotheque Nationale de 

France. 

Tools Development for Automated Evaluation and Validation of Image Files.—The 

Library has been working to develop methods and tools to perform automated evaluation and validation of the digital image files—verifying against both encoding and 

metadata guidelines and a comprehensive set of image characteristics. One tool (the 

Configurable Image Validator) is in production and the other (the Digital Image 

Conformance Evaluation system) is in beta testing. Both tools are based on flexible 

profiles that can be changed as guidelines evolve and expand. 
77 

Question. How will the trend toward digital content affect the Library’s costs in 

terms of information technology infrastructure and management and human capital 

requirements? 

Answer. The cost implications are significant. Increased content requires increases in servers, storage, software and the maintenance to support the additional 

hardware and software. Additional labor in the form of FTEs or contractors will also 

be required to manage the growing repositories. All of the growth will also be subject to technical refreshment every 3–5 years and requires continuing migration of 

the content to new or upgraded repositories, access systems, and services. 

To the extent resources allow, the Library is continually evolving and enhancing 

its technical infrastructure to support the increased volume and diversity of digital 

content. The Library employs multiple storage strategies to deal with the volume, 

diversity, and access requirements for the content. As the expectations for access to 

digital content rise, the costs for preservation rise. A dark archive with curator-only 

access costs less than a publicly available archive with a variety of user services 

where more expensive storage, servers, indexing services, and user interface development are required for highly-available public dissemination. Thus, our infrastructure strategies will be driven by the type and frequency of access, as well as the 

underlying data needs. For instance, tape-based repositories would be employed for 

content only available via fair use or other restrictions. Non-Copyright protected 

content that would be in high public demand would be stored on our fastest disk 

retrieval repositories. In all cases, the Library plans for the requirement to ensure 

the integrity of the underlying content and its accompanying metadata for future 

users. Question. What are the implications for the cost of managing the paper collections. 

Answer. The cost of managing the paper collections will not be affected by growth 

in the creation and distribution of digital content. The legacy collections will always 

require careful management and preservation and publishers are expected to continue to produce needed content in book form for years to come, thus adding to the 

costs of preserving the rising numbers of analog materials. 

The Library already acquires much digital content on CDs, DVDs and CD–ROMs. 

The challenge is electronically delivered digital content. Such content, in the form 

of digital files in various formats, includes electronic books and journals, audio recordings, audiovisual works, photographs, GIS and other data. Presently the Library 

is experimenting with eDeposit for eJournals, as part of a strategic effort to build 

a digital repository for copyright deposits acquired by the Library for its collections. 

The Copyright Office is acquiring many works as digital files through its eService; 

however, where the work is published in a physical form, physical copies must be 

deposited. The Library could get works published online through the copyright deposit system. However, for preservation and access purposes, the Library would like 

to have the authority to receive digital files that best serve its purposes. Pre-publication versions, rather than the published versions, appear to be preferable. If the 

law is amended to permit the Library to acquire these pre-publication versions and 

their relevant metadata, then the amount of e-content available to researchers will 

rise dramatically. 

Question. What are the cost implications for preserving and making available digital content? 

Answer. Digital content is frequently additive and not a substitute for the Library’s analog collections. The management, storage and preservation of digital content will result in new and different costs for the Library. Investments are needed 

in not only the underlying technical infrastructure, but also new life cycle management processes and staff expertise to effectively provide stewardship of digital content over very long time frames. The Library will need to define how digital content 

is to be stored, normalized, and made available and define and implement an infrastructure that protects the content, stores it in a cost effective repository infrastructure, and make it available through an access management protocol that prevents 

unauthorized copying. 

In contrast to the management of analog materials, the requirements and cost factors for digital materials are increasingly leading to a multi-layer architecture with 

modular services as most cost-effective for specific purposes. For example, services 

(including servers, storage and software) for public access systems are different from 

those provided for digital content indexing and pre-processing, and different from 

those provided for long-term preservation storage. 

Digitization has been, and largely remains, an access strategy. We are committed 

to making as much material as possible freely available. Having said that, though, 

there is a huge secondary preservation benefit to digitizing our materials, especially 

those that are rare or unique. Being able to offer high quality images instead of 
78 

serving the physical materials saves considerable wear and tear on the originals, so 

that we are in effect helping to preserve the originals by serving their digital surrogates. 

In some cases, though, digitization itself serves a direct preservation purpose. 

This is easiest to see in the case of brittle materials, where the physical items themselves have deteriorated, and digitization in effect provides a replacement copy. 

Because we have made such a considerable investment in our digitized materials, 

preservation of those digitized materials is itself a concern. By carefully weighing 

decisions about available formats, and working to provide metadata for identifying 

the content and characteristics of those files, we ensure that our digital investments 

will be sustainable over the long term. However, these materials do constitute an 

additional body of digital content for which we then become responsible. 

Question. Has the Library considered accepting digital content as a substitute for 

paper content for certain categories of its collections? 

Answer. The Library expects to acquire born digital (digital only) content in greater amounts as such content becomes increasingly available. Such content includes 

electronic books and journals, motion pictures, audio recordings, photographs, and 

GIS data. Presently, the Library is experimenting with an eDeposit for eJournals 

project as part of a strategic effort to build a robust electronic copyright deposit system for the acquisition of electronic content and associated metadata. As the Copyright Office implements demand deposits of content in digital format, the amount 

of e-content available to researchers will rise dramatically. However, the Library 

does not at this time expect to substitute digital surrogates for published paper copies. 

Question. The Open Content Alliance is a collaborative effort of a group of cultural, technology, nonprofit, and governmental organizations seeking to build a permanent archive of multilingual digitized text and multimedia content. How does this 

relate to the Library’s NDIIPP efforts? What is LOC doing to work with the Open 

Content Alliance? 

Answer. The Library received $2 million from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in 

support of a ‘‘Digitizing American Imprints’’ project, to work with the Internet Archive and the Open Content Alliance to digitize public domain books from the General Collections. Specifically, the Library proposed to concentrate on materials from 

the Genealogy and Local History collections as well as the American History collection. Materials scanned as part of that project will be incorporated into the digital 

collections made available by the Open Content Alliance. 

The project uses the scanning technology of the Open Content Alliance. The Library is currently processing these materials with ten scanning stations owned and 

operated by the Internet Archive. The Library also is working with a number of 

other Open Content Alliance institutions (e.g., the Smithsonian Institute, the Missouri Botanical Garden, and the Boston Library Consortium) to develop solutions to 

address the challenges of large scale book digitization. 

The Library also has other book digitization agreements. 

NDIIPP focuses on building a network of institutions to collect and preserve materials that are born digital or already exist in digital form. There is no direct relationship between NDIIPP and the Open Content Alliance. 

CONCLUSION OF HEARING

Senator LANDRIEU. Again, thank you all for your service to the 

Capitol and to the country. We appreciate it greatly. Thank you. 

Meeting recessed. 

[Whereupon, at 4:50 p.m., Wednesday, April 30, the hearing was 

concluded and the subcommittee was recessed, to reconvene subject 

to the call of the Chair.] 
(79) 

MATERIAL SUBMITTED SUBSEQUENT TO THE 

HEARING 

[CLERK’S NOTE.—The following testimonies were received by the 

Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch for inclusion in the record. 

The subcommittee requested that agencies provide written testimony because, given the Senate schedule, there was not enough 

time to schedule separate hearings for these agencies.] 

U.S. SENATE 

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY

PREPARED STATEMENT OF NANCY ERICKSON, SECRETARY OF THE SENATE

Madam Chairwoman, Senator Alexander, and members of the subcommittee, 

thank you for your invitation to present testimony in support of the budget request 

of the Office of the Secretary of the Senate for fiscal year 2009. 

It is a pleasure to have this opportunity to draw attention to the accomplishments 

of the dedicated and outstanding employees of the Office of the Secretary. The annual reports which follow provide detailed information about the work of the 26 departments of the office, their recent achievements, and their plans for the upcoming 

fiscal year. 

My statement includes: Presenting the fiscal year 2008 budget request; implementing mandated systems, financial management information system (FMIS) and 

legislative information system (LIS); continuity of operations planning; and maintaining and improving current and historic legislative, financial and administrative 

services. 

PRESENTING THE FISCAL YEAR 2009 BUDGET REQUEST

I am requesting a total fiscal year 2009 budget of $26,020,000. The request includes $24,020,000 in salary costs and $2,000,000 for the operating budget of the 

Office of the Secretary. The salary budget represents an increase of $1,632,000 over 

the fiscal year 2008 budget as a result of the costs associated with the annual cost 

of living adjustment and targeted merit awards that are associated with our Employee Feedback and Development Plans. The operating budget remains the same 

as our request in fiscal year 2008. 

The net effect of my total budget request for 2009 is an increase of $1,632,000. 

Our request is consistent with the amounts requested and received in recent years 

through the Legislative Branch Appropriations process. This request will enable us 

to continue to attract and retain talented and dedicated individuals to serve the 

needs of the United States Senate. 

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY APPORTIONMENT SCHEDULE 

Items 

Amount available 

fiscal year 2008, 

Public Law 110– 

161 

Budget estimates 

fiscal year 2009 Difference 

Departmental operating budget: 

Executive office ................................................................................. $550,000 $1,390,000 ∂$60,000 

Administrative services ..................................................................... $550,000 $1,390,000 ∂$60,000 

Legislative services ........................................................................... $550,000 $1,390,000 ∂$60,000 

Total operating budget ................................................................. $2,000,000 $2,000,000 ........................
80 

IMPLEMENTING MANDATED SYSTEMS

Two systems critical to our operation are mandated by law, and I would like to 

spend a few moments on each to highlight recent progress, and to thank the committee for your ongoing support of both. 

Financial Management Information System (FMIS) 

The Financial Management Information System, or FMIS, is used by approximately 140 Senate offices. Consistent with our strategic plan, the Disbursing Office 

continues to modernize processes and applications to meet the continued demand by 

Senate offices for efficiency, accountability and ease of use. Our goals are to move 

to an integrated, paperless voucher system, improve the Web FMIS system, and 

make payroll and accounting system improvements. 

During fiscal year 2007 and the first half of fiscal year 2008, specific progress 

made on the FMIS project included: 

—Web FMIS was upgraded twice, once in August 2007 and again in November 

2007. This system is used by Office Managers and Committee Clerks to create 

vouchers and manage their office funds, by the Disbursing Office to review 

vouchers and by the Committee on Rules and Administration to sanction vouchers. The two releases provided both technical and functional changes. The August release provided a new look, additional functionality, and ease of use features to the application’s web pages. The budget function within the application 

was also completely re-written to simplify budget entry. The November release 

permitted the start of three pilot programs. The first pilot permitted vendors 

paid by direct deposit to receive e-mail messages providing necessary account 

information to properly credit their accounts. The second pilot incorporated the 

functionality of the Senate Automated Vendor Inquiry (SAVI) System into Web 

FMIS, simplifying the systems architecture. The third pilot enabled the Disbursing Office to remit, via direct deposit, quarterly State tax payments to 

States. 

—The computing infrastructure for FMIS is provided by the Sergeant at Arms 

(SAA). Each year the SAA staff upgrades the infrastructure hardware and software. Three major upgrades were accomplished during the last year. The first, 

upgrading the mainframe operating software from Z/OS version 1.4 to version 

1.7. The second, upgrading the FMIS database software, from DB2 version 8 to 

version 8.1. The third, upgrading the Web Sphere software from v 6.0.2 to v 6.1. 

For each activity, the Disbursing staff tested the changes in the FMIS testing 

environment and then validated the changes in the production environment. 

—Disaster operation services for FMIS are provided at the Alternate Computer 

Facility (ACF). In both August 2007 and December 2007, the SAA conducted 

disaster recovery tests of the Senate’s computing facilities, including FMIS functions. The test involved switching the Senate’s network from accessing systems 

at the Primary Computer Facility (PCF), to the ACF, and powering down the 

PCF. The August test permitted the Disbursing staff a two-hour functional testing window. Within this time, Disbursing successfully tested all critical on-line 

components of FMIS, including Payroll, ADPICS, FAMIS, SAVI, Web FMIS, 

and Checkwriter. The December test allotted a longer test window, permitting 

a more complete and thorough testing of all of the different components including critical batch processes which had not been accomplished in our previous 

tests. 

During the remainder of fiscal year 2008 the following FMIS activities are anticipated: 

—Implementing the release focused on eliminating the partial use of employee social security number as part of each employee’s identification number. A new 

employee identification number will be established within our payroll system 

and this change will be incorporated and passed onto other integrated systems. 

—Implementing an imaging prototype to better assess system, application and 

functional requirements. 

—Completing analysis of the appropriate hardware/software acquisition strategy 

for electronic signatures, and imaging of supporting documentation, and beginning acquisition. 

—Implementing on-line distribution of payroll system reports. 

—Implementing e-mail notification to additional vendors of payments made via direct deposit after the successful completion of the pilot program. 

—Participating in the yearly disaster recovery test. 

During fiscal year 2009 the following FMIS activities are anticipated: 

—Conducting a pilot of the technology for paperless payment. This assumes identification of satisfactory hardware and software for electronic signatures and im-
81 

aging of supporting documentation, and resolution of related policy and process 

issues. 

—Continuing the implementation and the required updates to the Hyperion Financial Management application to provide the Senate the ability to produce 

auditable financial statements. 

—Continue the implementation of on-line financial reports. 

A more detailed report on FMIS is included in the departmental report of the Disbursing Office. 

CAPITOL VISITOR CENTER

While the Architect of the Capitol directly oversees this massive and impressive 

project, I would like to briefly mention the ongoing involvement of the Secretary’s 

office in this endeavor. The Clerk of the House and I continue to facilitate periodic 

meetings with senior staff of the joint leadership of Congress to address issues that 

might impact the status of the project or the operation of Congress in general. 

Although the construction creates numerous temporary inconveniences to Senators, staff and visitors, completion of the Capitol Visitor Center will bring substantial improvements in enhanced security and visitor amenities, and its educational 

benefits for our visitors will be tremendous. 

CONTINUITY OF OPERATIONS AND EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS PLANNING

The Office of the Secretary continued to support the Senate’s emergency preparedness program throughout 2007. The Secretary’s staff participated in the planning 

and conduct of nine emergency preparedness and continuity of operations (COOP) 

exercises last year. In July, we reviewed the requirements and challenges of conducting legislative business at an alternate location with the Clerk of the House. 

Later that month, we worked with the Office of the Sergeant at Arms to set up a 

functioning Senate chamber at an offsite location. The offices of the Secretary and 

the Sergeant at Arms continue to work with the House of Representatives to refine 

existing plans for offsite alternate chambers. 

In December of 2007, a joint discussion took place on ensuring the continuity of 

the legislative process in the event that both Congress and the Presidency must operate from alternate locations. Legislative staff of the Secretary of the Senate and 

the Clerk of the House were joined by White House staff to work out procedural 

and logistical issues which might arise in such a contingency. This was a productive 

meeting, and it is hoped that it will become an annual event. Other joint exercises 

with the Executive Branch are planned. 

The Secretary’s staff worked on a joint effort with the Sergeant at Arms to create 

a software application to automate the production and maintenance of COOP plans. 

That project is expected to be completed in June of this year. 

LEGISLATIVE OFFICES

The Legislative Department of the Office of the Secretary of the Senate provides 

the support essential to Senators to carry out their daily chamber activities and the 

constitutional responsibilities of the Senate. The department consists of eight offices: 

the Bill Clerk, Captioning Services, Daily Digest, Enrolling Clerk, Executive Clerk, 

Journal Clerk, Legislative Clerk, and the Official Reporters of Debates, which are 

supervised by the Secretary through the Director of Legislative Services. The Parliamentarian’s office is also part of the Legislative Department of the Secretary of the 

Senate. 

Experienced veterans of the Secretary’s office supervise each of the nine offices 

within the Legislative Department. The average length of service of legislative supervisors in the Office of the Secretary of the Senate is 19 years. The experience 

of these senior professional staff is a great asset for the Senate. In order to ensure 

well-rounded expertise, the legislative team cross-trains extensively among their 

specialties. 

BILL CLERK

The Office of the Bill Clerk collects and records data on the legislative activity 

of the Senate, which becomes the historical record of official Senate business. The 

Bill Clerk keeps this information in its handwritten files and ledgers and also enters 

it into the Senate’s automated retrieval system so that it is available to all House 

and Senate offices through the Legislative Information System (LIS). The Bill Clerk 

records actions of the Senate with regard to bills, resolutions, reports, amendments, 

cosponsors, public law numbers, and recorded votes. In addition, the Bill Clerk is 

responsible for preparing for print all measures introduced, received, submitted, and 
82 

reported in the Senate. The Bill Clerk also assigns numbers to all Senate bills and 

resolutions. All the information received in this office comes directly from the Senate floor in written form within moments of the action involved, so the Bill Clerk’s 

office is generally regarded as the most timely and most accurate source of legislative information. 

Legislative Activity 

The Bill Clerk’s office processed into the database more than 2,000 additional legislative items and more than 75 additional roll call votes than in the previous congress’ first session, for an overall percentage increase of slightly more than 32 percent. Only three legislative categories (Senate Joint Resolutions introduced, Senate 

Concurrent Resolutions submitted, and House Joint Resolutions received) saw no 

change or a small decline in activity. In contrast, three other categories (Amendments submitted, House Bills received, and Measures Reported) saw significant increases in activity. For comparative purposes, below is a summary of the first sessions of the 109th and 110th Congresses: 

109th Congress, 1st Ses- sion 110th Congress, 1st Ses- sion 

Percent change 

Senate bills ...................................................................................................... 2,169 2,524 ∂16.367 

Senate Joint Resolutions .................................................................................. 27 27 ......................

Senate Concurrent Resolutions ........................................................................ 75 64 ¥14.667 

Senate Resolutions .......................................................................................... 347 418 ∂20.461 

Amendments submitted ................................................................................... 2,695 3,892 ∂44.416 

House bills ....................................................................................................... 286 513 ∂79.371 

House Joint Resolutions ................................................................................... 11 9 ¥18.182 

House Concurrent Resolutions ......................................................................... 88 93 ∂5.682 

Measures reported ........................................................................................... 286 428 ∂49.650 

Written reports ................................................................................................. 212 254 ∂19.811 

Total legislation .................................................................................. 6,196 8,222 ∂32.699 

Roll Call Votes ................................................................................................. 366 442 ∂20.765 

House Messages 1 ............................................................................................ 225 263 ∂16.889 

Cosponsor Requests 2 ...................................................................................... 7,000 8,859 ∂26.557 

1 This number reflects how many messages from the House are typed up by the Bill Clerks for inclusion in the Congressional Record. It ex- cludes additional activity on these bills. 2 This number reflects how many cosponsors were input and subsequently appear in the Congressional Record. 

Assistance from the Government Printing Office 

The Bill Clerk’s staff maintains a good working relationship with the Government 

Printing Office (GPO) and seeks to provide the best service possible to meet the 

needs of the Senate. GPO continues to respond in a timely manner to the Secretary’s requests, through the Bill Clerk’s office, for the printing of bills and reports, 

including the expedited printing of priority matters for the Senate chamber. To date, 

at the request of the Secretary through the Bill Clerk, GPO expedited the printing 

of 83 measures for floor consideration by the Senate during the first session of the 

110th Congress. 

OFFICE OF CAPTIONING SERVICES

The Office of Captioning Services provides realtime captioning of Senate floor proceedings for the deaf and hard-of-hearing and unofficial electronic transcripts of 

Senate floor proceedings for Senate offices on Webster, the Senate intranet. 

General Overview 

Captioning Services strives to provide the highest quality closed captions, and 

year after year the office demonstrates it is up to the challenge. For the 14th year 

in a row, the office has achieved an overall accuracy average above 99 percent. 

Overall caption quality is monitored through daily Translation Data Reports, monitoring of captions in realtime, and review of caption files on Webster. 

The real-time searchable Closed Caption Log, available to Senate offices on Webster, continues to be an invaluable tool. Legislative staff, in particular, have come 

to depend upon its availability, reliability and content to help in the performance 

of their duties. The Senate Recording Studio is in the process of updating the Closed 

Caption Log software, which has not been updated since it was developed more than 

a decade ago. 
83 

Continuity of operations planning (COOP) and preparation continues to be a top 

priority to ensure that the office staff is prepared and confident about the ability 

to relocate and successfully function from a remote location in the event of an emergency. 

Capitol Visitor Center Update 

The office continues to prepare and plan for its relocation to the Senate expansion 

space in the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC), where it will be housed with the Senate 

Recording Studio. 

SENATE DAILY DIGEST

The Senate Daily Digest serves seven principal functions: 

—To render a brief, concise and easy-to-read accounting of all official actions 

taken by the Senate in the Congressional Record section known as the Daily 

Digest; 

—To compile an accounting of all meetings of Senate committees, subcommittees, 

joint committees, and committees of conference; 

—To enter all Senate and Joint committee scheduling data into the Senate’s webbased scheduling application system. Committee scheduling information is also 

prepared for publication in the Daily Digest in three formats: Day-Ahead Schedule; Congressional Program for the Week Ahead; and the extended schedule 

which actually appears in the Extensions of Remarks section of the Congressional Record. 

—To enter into the Senate’s Legislative Information System (LIS) all official actions taken by Senate committees on legislation, nominations, and treaties; 

—To publish in the Daily Digest a listing of all legislation which has become public law; 

—To publish on the first legislative day of each month in the Daily Digest a ‘‘Resume of Congressional Activity’’ which includes all congressional statistical information, including days and time in session; measures introduced, reported 

and passed; and roll call votes. (See Chart—Resume of Congressional Activity); 

and 

—To assist the House Daily Digest Editor in the preparation at the end of each 

session of Congress a history of public bills enacted into law and a final resume 

of congressional statistical activity. 

Committee Activity 

Senate committees held 1,005 meetings during the first session of the 110th Congress, 89 more than were held during the first session of the 109th Congress. 

All hearings and business meetings (including joint meetings and conferences) are 

scheduled through the Office of the Senate Daily Digest, published in the Congressional Record, and entered in LIS. Meeting outcomes are also published by the Daily 

Digest in the Congressional Record each day. 

Chamber Activity 

During the first session of the 110th Congress, the Senate was in session 189 

days, for a total of 1,375 hours and 54 minutes, and conducted 6 live quorum calls 

and 442 record votes. (See Attachment for 20-Year Comparison of Senate Legislative 

Activity) 

Computer Activities 

The Digest replaced its WordPerfect-based system for creating the Daily Digest 

with a new Word-based system that has shortened the time it takes to create the 

Digest and send it to the Government Printing Office (GPO). Information Systems 

staff, working closely with Daily Digest staff, developed a Daily Digest Authoring 

System to provide the Daily Digest with structured methods for creating, editing, 

and managing files. 

The Digest continues the practice of sending a disc along with a duplicate hard 

copy to GPO. GPO receives the Digest copy by electronic transfer, which promotes 

the timeliness of publishing the Congressional Record. The Digest office continues 

to feel comfortable with this procedure, both to allow the Digest Editor to physically 

view what is being transmitted to GPO, and to allow GPO staff to have a comparable final product to cross reference. 

The Digest office continues to work closely with Senate computer staff to refine 

the LIS document management system. The Digest is pleased to report that all refinements made to the Senate Committee Scheduling application have been successfully implemented. 
84 

Government Printing Office 

The Daily Digest staff continues to work with GPO on issues related to the printing of the Digest; with the onset of electronic transfer of the Digest copy, occurrences of editing corrections or transcript errors are infrequent. Discussions with 

GPO continue regarding page references inserted by GPO. 

DATA ON LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY—SECOND SESSION, 109TH CONGRESS 

[January 4, 2007 through December 31, 2007] 

Senate House Total 

Days in Session ......................................................................................... 190 164 ........................

Time in Session ......................................................................................... 1,375hrs 54′′ 1,477hrs 52′′ ........................

Congressional Record: 

Pages of proceedings ....................................................................... S16071 H16951 ........................

Extension of remarks ........................................................................ ........................ E2664 ........................

Public bills enacted into law .................................................................... 30 108 ........................

Private bills enacted into law ................................................................... ........................ ........................ ........................

Bills in conference ..................................................................................... 5 7 ........................

Measures passed, total 1 ........................................................................... 621 1,127 1,748 

Senate bills ....................................................................................... 102 44 ........................

House bills ........................................................................................ 147 516 ........................

Senate joint resolutions .................................................................... 5 3 ........................

House joint resolutions ..................................................................... 6 8 ........................

Senate concurrent resolutions .......................................................... 28 9 ........................

House concurrent resolutions ........................................................... 32 94 ........................

Simple resolutions ............................................................................ 301 453 ........................

Measures reported, total 1 ......................................................................... 422 486 908 

Senate bills ....................................................................................... 257 2 ........................

House bills ........................................................................................ 72 328 ........................

Senate joint resolutions .................................................................... 5 ........................ ........................

House joint resolutions ..................................................................... 1 ........................ ........................

Senate concurrent resolutions .......................................................... 8 ........................ ........................

House concurrent resolutions ........................................................... 6 7 ........................

Simple resolutions ............................................................................ 73 149 ........................

Special reports ........................................................................................... 22 8 ........................

Conference reports ..................................................................................... 1 12 ........................

Measures pending on calendar ................................................................. 333 48 ........................

Measures introduced, total ........................................................................ 3,033 6,194 9,227 

Bills ................................................................................................... 2,524 4,930 ........................

Joint resolutions ................................................................................ 27 75 ........................

Concurrent resolutions ...................................................................... 64 278 ........................

Simple resolutions ............................................................................ 418 911 ........................

Quorum calls .............................................................................................. 6 9 ........................

Yea-and-nay votes ..................................................................................... 442 648 ........................

Recorded votes ........................................................................................... ........................ 529 ........................

Bills vetoed ................................................................................................ 1 5 ........................

Vetoes overridden ....................................................................................... 1 1 ........................

1 These figures include all measures reported, even if there was no accompanying written report. A total of 253 written reports have been 

filed in the Senate, a total of 506 reports have been filed in the House. 
85 

20-YEAR COMPARISON OF SENATE LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY 

1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 

Senate Convened .............................................. 1/25 1/3 1/23 1/3 1/3 1/5 1/25 1/4 1/3 1/3 Senate Adjourned .............................................. 10/21 11/21 10/28 1/3/92 10/9 11/26 12/01 1/3/96 10/4 11/13 Days in Session ................................................ 137 136 138 158 129 153 138 211 132 153 Hours in Session ............................................... 1,126′48′′ 1,003′19′′ 1,250′14′′ 1,200′44′′ 1,091′09′′ 1,269′41′′ 1,243′33′′ 1,839′10′′ 1,036′45′′ 1,093′07′′ Average Hours per Day ..................................... 8.2 7.4 9.1 7.6 8.5 8.3 9.0 8.7 7.8 7.1 Total Measures Passed ..................................... 814 605 716 626 651 473 465 346 476 386 Roll Call Votes .................................................. 379 312 326 280 270 395 329 613 306 298 Quorum Calls .................................................... 26 11 3 3 5 2 6 3 2 6 Public Laws ...................................................... 473 240 244 243 347 210 255 88 245 153 Treaties Ratified ............................................... 15 9 15 15 32 20 8 10 28 15 Nominations Confirmed .................................... 42,317 45,585 42,493 45,369 30,619 38,676 37,446 40,535 33,176 25,576 Average Voting Attendance .............................. 91.58 98.0 97.47 97.16 95.4 97.6 97.02 98.07 98.22 98.68 Sessions Convened Before 12 Noon ................. 120 95 116 126 112 128 120 184 113 115 Sessions Convened at 12 Noon ........................ 12 14 4 9 ...................... 6 9 2 15 12 Sessions Convened after 12 Noon ................... 5 27 17 23 10 15 17 12 7 7 Sessions Continued after 6 p.m ...................... 37 88 100 102 91 100 100 158 88 96 Sessions Continued after 12 Midnight ............ 7 9 13 6 4 9 7 3 1 ......................Saturday Sessions ............................................ ...................... 1 3 2 2 2 3 5 1 1 Sunday Sessions ............................................... ...................... ...................... 2 ...................... ...................... ...................... ...................... 3 ...................... 1 

20-YEAR COMPARISON OF SENATE LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY—Continued 

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 

Senate Convened .............................................. 1/27 1/6 1/24 1/3 1/23 1/7 1/20 1/4 1/3 1/4 Senate Adjourned .............................................. 10/21 11/19 12/15 12/20 11/20 12/9 12/8 12/22 12/9 12/31 Days in Session ................................................ 143 162 141 173 149 167 133 159 138 189 Hours in Session ............................................... 1,095′05′′ 1,183′57′′ 1,017′51′′ 1,236′15′′ 1,042′23′′ 1,454′05′′ 1,031′31′′ 1,222′26′′ 1,027′48′′ 1,375′54′′ Average Hours per Day ..................................... 7.7 7.3 7.2 7.1 7.0 8.7 7.7 7.7 7.4 7.2 Total Measures Passed ..................................... 506 549 696 425 523 590 663 624 635 621 Roll Call Votes .................................................. 314 374 298 380 253 459 216 366 279 442 Quorum Calls .................................................... 4 7 6 3 2 3 1 3 1 6 Public Laws ...................................................... 241 170 410 136 241 198 300 169 248 142 Treaties Ratified ............................................... 53 13 39 3 17 11 15 6 14 8 Nominations Confirmed .................................... 20,302 22,468 22,512 25,091 23,633 21,580 24,420 25,942 29,603 22,892 Average Voting Attendance .............................. 97.47 98.02 96.99 98.29 96.36 96.07 95.54 97.41 97.13 94.99 
86 

20-YEAR COMPARISON OF SENATE LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY—Continued—Continued 

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 

Sessions Convened Before 12 Noon ................. 109 118 107 140 119 133 104 121 110 156 Sessions Convened at 12 Noon ........................ 31 17 25 10 12 4 9 1 4 4 Sessions Convened after 12 Noon ................... 2 19 24 21 23 23 21 36 24 32 Sessions Continued after 6 p.m. ..................... 93 113 94 108 103 134 129 120 129 144 Sessions Continued after 12 Midnight ............ ...................... ...................... ...................... 2 3 8 2 3 3 4Saturday Sessions ............................................ 1 3 1 3 ...................... 1 2 2 2 1 Sunday Sessions ............................................... ...................... ...................... 1 ...................... ...................... 1 1 2 ...................... 1 

Prepared by the Senate Daily Digest—Office of the Secretary. 
87 

DISPOSITION OF EXECUTIVE NOMINATIONS (110–1) 

[From: 01/04/2007 to 12/31/2007] 

Civilian Nominations, totaling 490, disposed of as follows: 

Confirmed ........................................................................................................................................ 276 

Unconfirmed .................................................................................................................................... 180 

Withdrawn ....................................................................................................................................... 31 

Returned to White House ................................................................................................................ 3 

Other Civilian Nominations, totaling 3,807, disposed of as follows: 

Confirmed ........................................................................................................................................ 3,799 

Unconfirmed .................................................................................................................................... 8 

Air Force Nominations, totaling 6,096, disposed of as follows: 

Confirmed ........................................................................................................................................ 6,090 

Unconfirmed .................................................................................................................................... 5 

Returned to White House 1 

Army Nominations, totaling 6,721, disposed of as follows: 

Confirmed ........................................................................................................................................ 6,698 

Unconfirmed .................................................................................................................................... 19 

Returned to White House ................................................................................................................ 4 

Navy Nominations, totaling 4,691, disposed of as follows: 

Confirmed ........................................................................................................................................ 4,688 

Unconfirmed .................................................................................................................................... 3 

Marine Corps Nominations, totaling 1,342, disposed of as follows: 

Confirmed ........................................................................................................................................ 1,341 

Unconfirmed .................................................................................................................................... 1 

Summary 

Total Nominations carried over from the First Session ....................................

Total Nominations Received this Session ................................................................................................ 23,147 

Total Confirmed ........................................................................................................................................ 22,892 

Total Unconfirmed .................................................................................................................................... 216 

Total Withdrawn ....................................................................................................................................... 31 

Total Returned to the White House ......................................................................................................... 8 

ENROLLING CLERK

The Enrolling Clerk prepares, proofreads, corrects, and prints all Senate passed 

legislation prior to its transmittal to the House of Representatives, the National Archives, the Secretary of State, the United States Claims Court, and the White 

House. The Enrolling Clerk physically transmits all Senate messages to the House 

of Representatives. 

During 2007, 43 enrolled bills (transmitted to the President) 3 enrolled joint resolutions (transmitted to the President) and 8 concurrent resolutions (transmitted to 

the Archives) were prepared, printed, proofread, corrected, and printed on parchment. 

Overall, a total of 1,041 pieces of legislation in one form or another, were passed 

or agreed to by the Senate, and all were processed from this office. The Enrolling 

Clerk prepared and delivered 205 messages from the Senate to the House of Representatives. 

Throughout 2007, the Enrolling Clerk’s staff continued to train and work closely 

with the Legislative Information System (LIS) Project Office in an effort to further 

implement the use of XML software editors in the production of Senate documents. 

EXECUTIVE CLERK

The Executive Clerk prepares an accurate record of actions taken by the Senate 

during executive sessions (proceedings on nominations and treaties) which is published as the Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate at the end of each 

session of Congress. The Executive Clerk also prepares daily the Executive Calendar 

as well as all nomination and treaty resolutions for transmittal to the President. Additionally, the office processes all executive communications, presidential messages 

and petitions and memorials. 

Nominations 

During the first session of the 110th Congress, there were 1,174 nomination messages sent to the Senate by the President, transmitting 23,147 nominations to positions requiring Senate confirmation and 31 messages withdrawing nominations sent 

to the Senate during the first session of the 110th Congress. Of the total nomina-
88 

tions transmitted, 490 were for civilian positions other than lists in the Foreign 

Service, Coast Guard, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Public Health Service. In addition, there were 3,807 nominees in the ‘‘civilian list’’ categories named above. Military nominations received this session totaled 18,850 

(6,096—Air Force; 6,721—Army; 4,691—Navy; and 1,342—Marine Corps). The Senate confirmed 22,892 nominations this session. Pursuant to the provisions of paragraph six of Senate Rule XXXI, eight nominations were returned to the President 

during the first session of the 110th Congress. 

Treaties 

There were 10 treaties transmitted to the Senate by the President during the first 

session of the 110th Congress for its advice and consent to ratification. These were 

ordered printed as treaty documents for the use of the Senate (Treaty Doc. 110–1 

through 110–10). 

The Senate gave its advice and consent to eight treaties with various conditions, 

declarations, understandings and provisos to the resolutions of advice and consent 

to ratification. 

Executive Reports and Roll Call Votes 

There were nine executive reports relating to treaties ordered printed for the use 

of the Senate during the first session of the 110th Congress (Executive Report 110– 

1 through 110–9). The Senate conducted 30 roll call votes in executive session, all 

on or in relation to nominations and treaties. 

Executive Communications 

For the first session of the 110th Congress, 4,531 executive communications, 276 

petitions and memorials and 33 Presidential messages were received and processed. 

Legislative Information System 

The Executive Clerk consulted with the computer staff during the year to improve 

the processing of nominations, treaties, executive communications, presidential messages and petitions and memorials. 

Additionally, the Executive Clerk worked closely with the Legislative Information 

System staff of the Sergeant at Arms (SAA) in the development of the new program 

for processing the nomination lists through a Web-based application which can be 

done entirely by the Executive Clerk, freeing the SAA programmers from this responsibility. It has proved to be a time and cost effective method of managing the 

nomination lists from the Pentagon, and the Departments of State, Commerce, and 

Health and Human Services. 

JOURNAL CLERK

The Journal Clerk takes notes of the daily legislative proceedings of the Senate 

in the ‘‘Minute Book’’ and prepares a history of bills and resolutions for the printed 

Journal of the Proceedings of the Senate, or Senate Journal, as required by Article 

I, Section V of the Constitution. The Senate Journal is published each calendar 

year, and in 2007 the Journal Clerk completed the production of the 923 page 2006 

edition. 

The Journal staff take 90-minute turns at the rostrum in the Senate chamber, 

noting the following by hand for inclusion in the Minute Book: (i) all orders (entered 

into by the Senate through unanimous consent agreements), (ii) legislative messages 

received from the President of the United States, (iii) messages from the House of 

Representatives, (iv) legislative actions as taken by the Senate (including motions 

made by Senators, points of order raised, and roll call votes taken), (v) amendments 

submitted and proposed for consideration, (vi) bills and joint resolutions introduced, 

and (vii) concurrent and Senate resolutions as submitted. These notes of the proceedings are then compiled in electronic form for eventual publication at the end 

of each calendar year of the Senate Journal. 

The LIS Senate Journal Authoring System continues to be updated as needed to 

further assist in the efficiency of production. The 2007 Senate Journal is expected 

to be sent to GPO for printing at the end of May 2008. 

OFFICIAL REPORTERS OF DEBATES

The Office of the Official Reporters of Debates is responsible for the stenographic 

reporting, transcribing, and editing of the Senate floor proceedings for publication 

in the Congressional Record. The Chief Reporter acts as the editor-in-chief, and the 

Coordinator functions as the technical production manager of the Senate portion of 

the Record. The office staff interacts with Senate personnel on additional materials 

to be included in the Record. 
89 

On a continuing basis, all materials to be printed in the next day’s edition of the 

Record are transmitted electronically and on paper to the Government Printing Office (GPO). Each day roughly 90 percent of transcript production for GPO is done 

electronically, thus significantly reducing the time required by GPO to retype materials for presentation in the Congressional Record by the next day. There were 

many days during the year that the full Senate portion of the Congressional Record 

was done electronically with no rekeying done by the GPO. There was not one occasion in 2007 that the Congressional Record was not delivered to the Senate by the 

following day at noon. 

This year saw further procedural work in a pilot project to provide on-line Record 

corrections. Trial efforts by this office showed that, throughout the year, very few 

of such errors were found in the many hundreds of thousands of words produced 

in the Congressional Record. 

PARLIAMENTARIAN

The Parliamentarian’s office continues to perform its essential institutional responsibilities to act as a neutral arbiter among all parties with an interest in the 

legislative process. These responsibilities include advising the Chair, senators, and 

their staff, as well as committee staff, House Members and their staffs, administration officials, the media and members of the general public, on all matters requiring 

an interpretation of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the precedents of the Senate, 

unanimous consent agreements, as well as provisions of public law affecting the proceedings of the Senate. 

The Parliamentarians work in close cooperation with the Senate leadership and 

their floor staffs in coordinating all of the business on the Senate floor. The Parliamentarian or one of his assistants is always present on the Senate floor when the 

Senate is in session, standing ready to assist the Presiding Officer in his or her official duties, as well as to assist any other senator on procedural matters. The Parliamentarians work closely with the staff of the Vice President of the United States 

and the Vice President himself whenever he performs his duties as President of the 

Senate. 

The Parliamentarians serve as the agents of the Senate in coordinating the flow 

of legislation with the House of Representatives and with the President and ensure 

that enrolled bills are signed in a timely manner by duly authorized officers of the 

Senate for presentation to the President. The Parliamentarians are a critical point 

of contact for emergency planning for representatives of the President. 

The Parliamentarians monitor all proceedings on the floor of the Senate, advise 

the Presiding Officer on the competing rights of the Senators on the floor, and advise all Senators as to what is appropriate in debate. The Parliamentarians keep 

track of the amendments offered to the legislation pending on the Senate floor, and 

monitor them for points of order. In this respect, the Parliamentarians reviewed 

more than 1,000 amendments during 2007 to determine if they met various procedural requirements (such as germaneness). The Parliamentarians also reviewed 

thousands of pages of conference reports to determine what provisions could appropriately be included therein. 

The Office of the Parliamentarian is responsible for the referral to the appropriate 

committees of all legislation introduced in the Senate, all legislation received from 

the House, as well as all communications received from the executive branch, State 

and local governments, and private citizens. In order to perform this responsibility, 

the Parliamentarians do extensive legal and legislative research. During 2007, the 

Parliamentarian and his assistants referred 3,177 measures and 4,839 communications to the appropriate Senate committees. The office worked extensively with Senators and their staffs to advise them of the jurisdictional consequences of particular 

drafts of legislation, and evaluated the jurisdictional effect of proposed modifications 

in drafting. As in previous years, the office continues to address the jurisdictional 

questions posed by the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, by the 

adoption of S. Res. 445 reorganizing intelligence and homeland security jurisdiction 

of the Senate’s committees, and by the enactment of the Intelligence Reform and 

Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. The Parliamentarians have made dozens of decisions concerning the department’s responsibilities. 

During all of 2007, the Parliamentarians reviewed a myriad of drafts of the ethics 

reform proposals before they were finally adopted into law. The Parliamentarians 

now have the responsibility for potentially reviewing every provision of every bill, 

joint resolution, or conference report considered by the Senate for the presence of 

earmarks, as well as to advise whether the conferees exceeded their authority in including any provision in a conference report. 
90 

The Parliamentarian’s office hopes to complete a Supplement to the Senate Precedents by the end of this Congress. This is an enormous undertaking, but will be a 

valuable resource for Members and their legislative staff. 

During 2007, the Parliamentarians again (as they have in the past) conducted a 

comprehensive seminar for Senate staff on Senate procedure, under the joint auspices of the Secretary of the Senate and Sergeant-at-Arms. This seminar was 

videotaped for ongoing use by the Senate as an institutional teaching tool. 

FINANCIAL OPERATIONS

DISBURSING OFFICE

The mission of the Senate Disbursing Office is to provide efficient and effective 

central financial and human resource data management, information, and advice to 

the offices of the United States Senate and to Members and employees of the Senate. The Senate Disbursing Office manages the collection of information from the 

distributed accounting locations within the Senate to formulate and consolidate the 

agency level budget, disburse the payroll, pay the Senate’s bills, prepare auditable 

financial statements, and provide appropriate counseling and advice. The Senate 

Disbursing Office collects information from Members and employees that is necessary to maintain and administer the retirement, health insurance, life insurance, 

and other central human resource programs and provides responsive, personal attention to Members and employees on an unbiased and confidential basis. The Senate Disbursing Office also manages the distribution of central financial and human 

resource information to the individual Member offices, committees, administrative 

and leadership offices in the Senate while maintaining the confidentiality of information for Members and Senate employees. 

The organization is structured to enhance its ability to provide quality work, 

maintain a high level of customer service, promote good internal controls, efficiency 

and teamwork, and provide for the appropriate levels of supervision and management. The long-term financial needs of the Senate are best served by an organization staffed with highly trained professionals who possess a high degree of institutional knowledge, sound judgment, and interpersonal skills that reflect the unique 

nature of the United States Senate. 

Executive Office 

The primary responsibilities, among others, of the Executive Office are to: 

—oversee the day-to-day operations of the Disbursing Office (DO); 

—respond to any inquiries or questions that are presented; 

—maintain fully and properly trained staff; 

—safeguard the staff as well as the assets of the Secretary of the Senate; 

—ensure that the office is prepared to respond quickly and efficiently to any disaster or unique situation that may arise; 

—provide excellent customer service; 

—assist the Secretary of the Senate in the implementation of new legislation affecting any of her departments; and 

—handle all information requests from the Committee on Appropriations and 

Committee on Rules and Administration. 

This year the Executive Office arranged with the Senate Office of Orientation and 

Training to conduct a customer service presentation. We also coordinated specialized 

training in the ADPICS and FAMIS systems for the Sergeant at Arms (SAA) Finance Staff. In addition, all staff attended the new ethics training and the office 

participated in all of the Senate continuity of operations (COOP) exercises as well 

as two disaster recovery exercises performed last year. 

As a result of the change in majority, the Executive Office issued more than 200 

letters to staff explaining the requirements of displaced staff as authorized by applicable Senate Resolutions. This was the first election year cycle where so many offices were affected. At the same time, we prepared and arranged for the distribution 

of retroactive cost of living adjustment (COLA) letters and issued budget letters to 

the 140 Senate accounting locations when the full year continuing resolution was 

passed. 

The Executive Office was involved in the coordination of the Government Accountability Office cash count of the Financial Services office (Front Office) operations 

and provided all of the requested information for the agreed-upon procedural review 

of the Office of Public Records. Both offices received a clean bill of health. 

Staff provided assistance to numerous Senate offices in making estimates before 

the end of the fiscal year, particularly in the preparation of payroll assumptions. 
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In addition, the office prepared an account analysis of all expenditures and transfers 

from 1990 to 2007 for the Senate Collection. 

Deputy for Benefits and Financial Services 

The principal responsibility of this position is to provide expertise and oversight 

on Federal retirement, benefits, payroll, and financial services processes. Coordination of the interaction between the Front Office, Employee Benefits, and Payroll sections is also a major responsibility of the position, in addition to the planning and 

project management of new computer systems and programs. The deputy for Benefits and Financial Services ensures that job processes are efficient and up to date, 

modifies computer support systems as necessary, implements regulatory and legislated changes, and designs and produces up-to-date forms for use in all three sections. 

General Activities 

Implementation of the new Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program (FEDVIP) took place in January. The implementation was successful and proceeded smoothly. Expected follow-up trouble-shooting and minimal fine-tuning of 

technical programming issues was completed during January and February. 

Oversight of the many issues resulting from the change in Senate Majority was 

conducted from January through March. Incoming, outgoing and transferring staff 

were processed and counseled and adjustments to office allowances were processed. 

Research on the appropriate Resolutions was conducted. Similar actions took place 

following the death of Senator Craig Thomas of Wyoming and the resignation of 

Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi. 

After year-end processing of payroll for calendar year 2006, W–2 forms were 

issued promptly and made immediately available on the Document Imaging System 

(DIS). After budget approval, the retroactive employee COLA was processed over a 

2-month period in March and April to allow for make up of the retroactive portion 

due employees. 

The new server for the DIS became fully operational early in 2007. During the 

year, the deputy worked with SAA Technical Support to determine additional DIS 

requirements to provide greater human resources management system functionality 

and provide off-site access to a wider array of payroll documents. The office intends 

to implement these upgrades in 2008 and to complete plans to expand the scope of 

the DIS to bring it into full compliance with COOP guidelines. 

A major initiative is to eliminate the use of employee social security numbers 

wherever possible. During 2007, the ‘‘Social Security Migration’’ project was begun. 

The office has worked extensively with SAA Technical Support to establish requirements and guidelines and develop strategies for the payroll system side of this important migration. Meetings and coordination have led to extensive testing, programming and feedback. In addition, Disbursing has conducted research and coordinated with internal Senate and external users on how this migration will affect 

their end products and provided information and test data so transitions will be 

smooth. Because the payroll system ‘‘communicates’’ with so many entities receiving 

and providing data, this migration is a major project that requires extensive coordination. The migration is anticipated for mid-2008. 

The deputy and Payroll group worked with Disbursing’s information technology 

group, several SAA Technical Support groups and contractors to establish the guidelines and specific requirements for the provision of electronic payroll reports for Senate offices. Testing and implementation of this project is scheduled for 2008. 

Due to the increase in popularity and participation in the Student Loan Program 

(SLP), the Financial Clerk and deputy dedicated time and resources to establishing 

an SLP administrator position. In addition, Disbursing was involved in extensive research with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on guidelines affecting the taxability 

of reimbursements to the Senate of SLP payments. Efforts were made to make the 

program guidelines and administration clearer to participants and office administrators. 

In response to the passage of S. 1, the Honest Leadership and Open Government 

Act of 2007, Disbursing staff coordinated with the staff of the Office of Public 

Records and other offices of the Secretary as well as SAA Technical Support to determine the requirements of the legislation and prepare for implementation of those 

requirements. Payroll system programming was established and tested to provide 

compliance with the legislation within a very short timeframe. Terminating employee notices were drafted and data for Web site availability was provided. In compliance with the legislation, notices were sent to terminating employees beginning 

in November and Web site data was delivered before the end of the year. 
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Front Office—Administrative and Financial Services 

The Front Office is the main service area of all general Senate business and financial activity. The Front Office staff maintains the Senate’s internal accountability of funds used in daily operations. Reconciliation of such funds is executed 

on a daily basis. The Front Office staff also provides training to newly authorized 

payroll contacts along with continuing guidance to all contacts in the execution of 

business operations. It is the receiving point for most incoming expense vouchers, 

payroll actions, and employee benefits related forms, and is the initial verification 

point to ensure that paperwork received in the Disbursing Office conforms to all applicable Senate rules, regulations, and statutes. The Front Office is the first line of 

service provided to senators, officers, and employees. All new Senate employees (permanent and temporary) who will work in the Capitol Hill Senate offices are administered the required oath of office and personnel affidavit. Staff are also provided 

verbal and written detailed information regarding pay and benefits. Advances are 

issued to Senate staff authorized for official Senate travel. Cash and check advances 

are entered and reconciled in Web FMIS. Repayment of travel advances is executed 

after processing of certified expenses is complete. Numerous inquiries are handled 

daily, ranging from pay, benefits, taxes, voucher processing, reporting, laws, and 

Senate regulations, and must always be answered accurately and fully to provide 

the highest degree of customer service. Cash and checks received from Senate entities as part of their daily business are handled through the Front Office and become 

part of the Senate’s accountability of federally appropriated funds and are then 

processed through the Senate’s general ledger system. 

General Activities 

—Processed approximately 1,000 cash advances, totaling approximately $900,000 

and initialized 730 check/direct deposit advances, totaling approximately 

$630,000. 

—Received and processed more than 25,000 checks, totaling over $2,200,000. 

—Administered oath and personnel affidavits to more than 2,700 new Senate staff 

and advised them of their benefits. 

—Maintained brochures for 11 Federal health insurance carriers and distributed 

approximately 4,100 brochures to new and existing staff during the annual Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Open Season. 

—Provided 30 training sessions to new administrative managers. 

The Front Office continues its daily reconciliation of operations and strengthened 

internal office controls. New locks for cash drawers were installed, allowing better 

central control of the cash accountability. Training and guidance to new administrative managers and business contacts continued, as did the incorporation of updates 

of the scanning and imaging project into daily operations. A major emphasis was 

placed on assisting employees in maximizing their Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) contributions and making them aware of the TSP catch-up program. The Front Office 

continued to provide the Senate community with prompt, courteous, and informative 

advice regarding Disbursing Office operations. 

Payroll Section 

The Payroll Section maintains the human resources management system (HRMS) 

and is responsible for processing, verifying, and warehousing all payroll information 

submitted to the Disbursing Office by senators, chairmen and other appointing officials for their staffs, including appointments of employees, salary changes, title 

changes, transfers and terminations. It is also responsible for input of all enrollments and elections submitted by Members and employees that affect their pay 

(e.g., retirement and benefits elections, tax withholding, TSP participation, allotments from pay, address changes, direct deposit elections, levies and garnishments) 

and for the issuance of accurate salary payments to Members and employees. The 

Payroll Section jointly maintains the Automated Clearing House (ACH) FedLine facilities with the Accounts Payable Section for the normal transmittal of payroll deposits to the Federal Reserve. Payroll expenditure, projection and allowance reports 

are distributed to all Senate offices. Issuance of the proper withholding and agency 

contribution reports to the Accounting Department is handled by Payroll as is transmission of the proper TSP information to the National Finance Center. In addition, 

the Payroll Section maintains earnings records for distribution to the Social Security 

Administration and employees’ taxable earnings records for W–2 statements. The 

Payroll Section is also responsible for the payroll expenditure data portion of the 

Report of the Secretary of the Senate. The Payroll Section calculates, reconciles and 

bills the Senate Employees Child Care Center (SECCC) for their staff employee contributions and forwards payment of those contributions to the Accounting Section. 
93 

The Payroll Section provides guidance and counseling to staff and administrative 

managers on issues of pay, salaries, allowances, and projections. 

General Activities 

In March, the Payroll Section processed a retroactive employee Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) of 2.64 percent. Due to a delay in the fiscal year funding and the 

authorization of the COLA, the Payroll Section processed the COLA as adjustments 

in March and April to accommodate both the retroactive portion due employees as 

well as the prospective portion. To accomplish this, they worked with the SAA Technical Support staff to insure proper application of the COLA. The Payroll Section 

maintained the normal schedule of processing TSP election forms. Employees took 

full advantage of the increase of TSP deductions making the most of the new 

$15,500 maximum. For those employees over age 50, the TSP catch-up program provided an opportunity to make additional contributions in excess of the standard limitations. 

Payroll allowance, expenditure and projection reports are provided to all Senate 

offices on a monthly basis. A desire to provide these reports in an electronic format 

was previously identified. Payroll participated in determining and refining requirements and identifying strategies for the project during 2007. The goal is to make 

these reports available electronically in 2008. 

The Payroll Section provides administration of the Student Loan Program. Due 

to the growth of the Program, a dedicated Student Loan Administrator was added 

as a full time position within the Payroll Section. The SLP Administrator worked 

to improve processes for administration of the program. In addition, strides were 

made in providing clarification to issues affecting SLP, and additional emphasis was 

placed on recovery of outstanding debts to the SLP. The dedicated SLP e-mail address and phone line have proven successful additions for users as well as the SLP 

Administrator. 

The Payroll Section staff worked diligently in 2007 with the SAA Technical Support staff and external entities to eliminate use of paper and tape-driven correspondence. In July, the Payroll Section began transmitting all U.S. Savings Bond 

payments electronically to the Federal Reserve. In September, they began transmitting all TSP payments electronically. This transmission of TSP payments was the 

final phase in complete electronic transmission with the TSP. Disbursing is now 

completely paper-free and tape-free in its correspondence and transmissions with 

the TSP and the Federal Reserve for Savings Bonds. 

The Payroll Section was involved in the implementation and follow-up of the 

FEDVIP which took effect January 1, 2007. The office continues to refine and improve processes in working with the third-party administrators who administer 

FEDVIP, FSA and Long Term Care (LTC) Insurance. 

The 2007 majority change presented the Payroll Section with the task of transferring all staff in those affected offices to their new offices and making the related 

budgetary changes to office allowances, projections and expenditures. Disbursing Office staff looked into the specifics of applicable Senate Resolutions to determine their 

impact on outgoing staff and to ensure that procedures allowed for the proper administration of the resolutions. Payroll processed the paperwork and payments for 

approximately 350 employees affected by the change. In addition, the Payroll Section administered transfers and payments of staff following the death of Senator 

Craig Thomas of Wyoming and again after the resignation of Senator Trent Lott of 

Mississippi. 

The Payroll Section is also assisting in the testing and trouble-shooting of the ‘‘Social Security Migration’’ project that will take place in 2008. Members of the Payroll 

staff attended a conference where they garnered valuable information on the Senate’s Payroll System, planned upgrades and updates, as well as networking with 

other users who have dealt with similar migrations. 

The Payroll Section again participated in disaster recovery testing. This year two 

separate tests were conducted. Both entailed using the Alternate Computing Facility (ACF) processing equipment to operate the payroll system from the Hart Building while SAA programmers ran trial payrolls from remote sites. Part of the test 

was for members of SAA Production Services to produce the payroll output from 

printers located at the ACF. The payroll system test proved very successful. 

Employee Benefits Section (EBS) 

The primary responsibilities of the Employee Benefits Section are administration 

of health insurance, life insurance, TSP, and all retirement programs for Members 

and employees of the Senate. This includes counseling, processing of paperwork, research, dissemination of information, and interpretation of retirement and benefits 

laws and regulations. EBS staff is also expected to have a working knowledge of the 
94 

Federal Flexible Spending Account (FSA) Program, the Federal LTC Insurance Program and FEDVIP. In addition, the sectional work includes research and 

verification of all prior Federal service and prior Senate service for new and returning appointees. EBS provides this information for payroll input. It also verifies the 

accuracy of the information provided and reconciles, as necessary, when official personnel folders and transcripts of service from other Federal agencies are received,. 

Senate transcripts of service, including all official retirement and benefits documentation, are provided to other Federal agencies when Senate Members and staff 

are hired elsewhere in the Government. EBS is responsible for the administration 

and tracking of employees placed in Leave Without Pay (LWOP) to Perform Military 

Service and the occasional civilian appointment to an international organization. 

EBS also handles most of the stationery and forms inventory ordering and maintenance, as well as all benefits, TSP, and retirement brochures, for the Disbursing Office. EBS processes employment verifications for loans, bar exams, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Office of Personnel Management, and Department of Defense, 

among others. Unemployment claim forms are completed, and employees are counseled on their eligibility. Department of Labor billings for unemployment compensation paid to Senate employees are reviewed in EBS and submitted by voucher to 

the Accounting Section for payment, as are the employee fees associated with FSAs. 

Designations of Beneficiary for Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance (FEGLI), 

retirement, and unpaid compensation are filed and checked by EBS. 

General Activities 

The year began with EBS finalizing retirement estimates and processing the 

many retirement cases associated with the outgoing senators and their staffs, as 

well as those staff on committees who were affected by the changes. Many regular 

retirement, death, and disability cases were also processed throughout the year. 

There was a great deal of employee turnover in early 2007, resulting in a dramatic increase in appointments to be researched and processed, retirement records 

to be closed-out, termination packages of benefits information to be compiled and 

mailed out, and health insurance enrollments to be processed. Transcripts of service 

for employees going to other Federal agencies, and other tasks associated with employees changing jobs were at a high level this year. These required prior employment research and verification, new FEHB, FEGLI, FSA, FEDVIP, Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) and TSP 

enrollments, and the associated requests for backup verification. 

With the death of Senator Craig Thomas, EBS assisted with the resulting benefits 

and retirement claims counseling and processing. EBS provided counseling and assisted Senator Thomas’ staff with transition issues. EBS also assisted Senator John 

Barrasso and his staff with their transition to fill the seat of Senator Thomas. EBS 

also counseled Senator Trent Lott’s personal and Whip staff with their transition 

issues in light of the senator’s resignation. 

EBS conducted agency-wide seminars on CSRS and FERS and attended interagency meetings as a result of the many new features of the TSP Program. EBS 

also attended a conference conducted by our payroll systems developer, Integral Systems, to broaden our knowledge in system applications and upgrades, with an emphasis on security. 

Many employees changed health plans during the annual FEHB Open Season. 

These changes were processed and reported to carriers very quickly. This year, the 

Disbursing Office again offered Senate employees access to the online ‘‘Checkbook 

Guide to Health Plans’’ to research and compare FEHB plans. This tool will remain 

available to staff throughout the year. The Disbursing Office also hosted a FEHB 

Open Season Health Fair, which was well attended. The Health Fair included representatives from most of the local and national FEHB plans. Other representatives 

in attendance included LTC, FSA, FEDVIP and The Consumers Checkbook Guide. 

Disbursing Office Financial Management 

Headed by the deputy for Financial Management, the mission of Disbursing Office 

Financial Management is to coordinate all central financial policies, procedures, and 

activities; to process and pay expense vouchers within reasonable time frames; to 

work toward producing an auditable consolidated financial statement for the Senate; 

and to provide professional customer service, training and confidential financial 

guidance to all Senate accounting locations. In addition, the Financial Management 

group is responsible for the compilation of the annual operating budget of the 

United States Senate for presentation to the Committee on Appropriations as well 

as for the formulation, presentation and execution of the budget for the Senate. On 

a semiannual basis, this group is also responsible for the compilation, validation and 
95 

completion of the Report of the Secretary of the Senate. Disbursing Office Financial 

Management is segmented into three functional departments: Accounting, Accounts 

Payable, and Budget. The Accounts Payable Department is subdivided into three 

sections: Vendor/SAVI, Disbursement and Audit. The deputy coordinates the activities of the three functional departments, establishes central financial policies and 

procedures, and carries out the directives of the Financial Clerk and the Secretary 

of the Senate. 

Accounting Department 

During 2007, the Accounting Department approved 51,950 expense reimbursement vouchers and 29,400 certification and vendor uploads, processed 1,300 deposits 

for items ranging from receipts received by the Senate operations, such as the Senate’s revolving funds, to cancelled subscription refunds from Member offices. General ledger maintenance also prompted the entry of thousands of adjustment entries 

that include the entry of all appropriation and allowance funding limitation transactions, all accounting cycle closing entries, and all non-voucher reimbursement 

transactions such as payroll adjustments, COLA budget uploads, stop payment requests, travel advances and repayments, and limited payability reimbursements. 

The department continues to scan all documentation for journal vouchers, deposits, 

accounting memos, and letters of certification to facilitate both storage concerns and 

COOP backup. 

This year the Accounting Department assisted in the validation of various system 

upgrades and modifications. During January 2007, the Accounting Department completed the 2006 year-end process to close and reset revenue, expense, and budgetary 

general ledger accounts to zero. The new certificate of deposit log, developed in 

2006, was modified to make it more user-friendly for data entry, and some testing 

was required to make fully functional. 

The Department of the Treasury’s monthly financial reporting requirements includes a ‘‘Statement of Accountability’’ that details all increases and decreases to the 

accountability of the Secretary of the Senate, such as checks issued during the 

month and deposits received, as well as a detailed listing of cash on hand. Also, reported to the Department of the Treasury on a monthly basis is the ‘‘Statement of 

Transactions According to Appropriations, Fund and Receipt Accounts,’’ a summary 

all activity of all monies disbursed by the Secretary of the Senate through the Financial Clerk of the Senate. All activity by appropriation account is reconciled with 

the Department of the Treasury on a monthly and annual basis. The annual reconciliation of the Treasury Combined Statement is also used in the reporting to the 

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as part of the submission of the annual 

operating budget of the Senate. 

This year, the Accounting Department transmitted all Federal tax payments for 

Federal, Social Security, and Medicare taxes withheld from payroll expenditures, as 

well as the Senate’s matching contribution for Social Security, and Medicare to the 

Federal Reserve Bank. The department also performed quarterly reporting to the 

IRS and annual reporting and reconciliation to the IRS and the Social Security Administration. Payments for employee withholdings for State income taxes were reported and paid on a quarterly basis to each State with applicable State income 

taxes withheld. System modifications were installed to allow electronic (ACH) payment of quarterly State taxes. Extensive effort was put forth to gather information 

for the various jurisdictions as to their requirements for ACH transmittal. A pilot 

program for the electronic payment of quarterly State taxes consisting of Minnesota, 

Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC, was transmitted in January of 2008. Monthly reconciliations were performed with the National Finance Center regarding the employee withholdings and agency matching contributions for the 

TSP. 

There are also internal reporting requirements, such as the monthly ledger statements for all Member offices and all other offices with payroll and non-payroll expenditures. These ledger statements detail all of the financial activity for the appropriate accounting period with regard to official expenditures in detail and summary 

form. It is the responsibility of the Accounting Department to review and verify the 

accuracy of the statements before Senate-wide distribution. 

The Accounting Department, in conjunction with the deputy for Financial Management and the Assistant Financial Clerk, continues to work closely with the SAA 

Finance Department in completing a new draft of the Senate Wide Financial Statements for fiscal year 2006 in accordance with OMB Bulletin 01–09, ‘‘Form and Content of Agency Financial Statements’’ and any updates required by OMB Circular 

A–136, ‘‘Form and Content of the Performance and Accountability Reports’’. Plans 

are underway to finalize the implementation of the fixed asset system, and financial 
96 

management software has been upgraded to a new release and is expected to be 

fully operational during the first quarter of 2008. These two items are priorities discussed in monthly accounting meetings. 

Accounting also has a budget division whose primary responsibility is compiling 

the annual operating budget of the United States Senate for presentation to the 

Committee on Appropriations. The Budget division is responsible for the preparation, issuance and distribution of the budget justification worksheets. Despite working under a continuing resolution in fiscal year 2007, the budget justification worksheets were mailed to the Senate accounting locations and processed in November. 

The budget baseline estimates for fiscal year 2008 were reported to OMB by midJanuary. The budget analyst is also responsible for the preparation of 1099’s and 

the prompt submission of forms to the IRS before the end of the January. 

Accounts Payable: Vendor/Senate Automated Vendor Inquiry Section 

The Vendor/Senate Automated Vendor Inquiry (SAVI) Section maintains the accuracy and integrity of the Senate’s central vendor (payee) file for the prompt completion of new vendor file requests and service requests related to the Disbursing office’s Web-based payment tracking system known as SAVI. This section also assists 

the information technology (IT) department in performing periodic testing and monitoring the performance of the SAVI system. Currently, more than 15,300 vendor 

records are stored in the vendor file, in addition to approximately 10,000 employee 

records. Daily requests for new vendor addresses or updates to existing vendor information are processed within 24 hours of being received. In 2004, the A/P Department began paying vendors electronically via the ACH. Besides updating mailing 

addresses, the Vendor/SAVI section facilitates the use of ACH by switching the 

method of payment requested by the vendor from check to direct deposit. Whenever 

a new remittance address is added to the vendor file, a standard letter is mailed 

to vendors requesting tax and banking information. If a vendor responds indicating 

they would like to receive ACH payments in the future, the method of payment is 

changed. Currently, more than 2,100 vendors and over half of the home State office 

landlords are being paid via ACH. 

SAVI is a Web-based payment tracking system. Senate employees can electronically create, save, and file expense reimbursement forms, track their progress, and 

get detailed information on payments. The most common service requests are requests for system user identification and passwords and to reactivate accounts. Employees may also request an alternative expense payment method. An employee can 

choose to have their payroll set up for direct deposit or paper check, but can have 

their expenses reimbursed by a method different from their salary payment method. 

The Vendor/SAVI section works closely with the A/P Disbursements group resolving returned ACH payments. ACH payments are returned periodically for a variety 

of reasons, including incorrect account numbers, incorrect ABA routing numbers, 

and, in rare instances, a nonparticipating financial institution. 

The Vendor/SAVI section electronically scans and stores all supporting documentation of existing vendor records and new vendor file requests. Currently electronic records for over 9,000 vendors have been verified against paper records and 

the paper files certified for destruction. In the near future, this section will assist 

the IT Department in testing an automatic e-mail notification system which will 

alert vendors when an EFT payment has been made and will provide pertinent payment information. 

During 2007, the Vendor/SAVI section processed over 2,450 vendor file requests, 

completed nearly 2,200 SAVI service requests, mailed over 1,150 vendor information 

letters, and converted almost 500 vendors from check payment to direct deposit. 

The SAVI web-based system was upgraded in 2006 and further upgrades were 

discussed in 2007. Currently, SAVI exists as a stand alone application, but it will 

be incorporated into Web FMIS in 2008. This will enable users to take advantage 

of SAVI more fully while using a single system to handle payment inquiries. Since 

outside vendors do not have access to SAVI, an e-mail notification system was developed to alert vendors when payments are made. Testing began in 2007 and was 

completed in January of 2008 under a pilot program. Another major upgrade is the 

conversion of current employees social security numbers to an employee identification number so that no part of their Social Security number will be used as part 

of their vendor number. 

Accounts Payable: Disbursements Department 

A disbursement is the entry and exit point for voucher payments. The department 

received in excess of 152,000 vouchers. All of these items were paid by the department either by Treasury check or ACH. As a result of the increasing popularity of 
97 

electronic payment, the department wrote 28,659 expense checks and the remainder 

of the payments was via ACH. Approximately 150,000 reimbursements were transmitted via ACH. The department has experienced a slight decrease in the number 

of checks written, but a substantial increase in the number of ACH payments, thus 

in keeping with the department goal of reducing the use of paper checks. 

A new version of Checkwriter was installed as part of the release of Web FMIS 

version 2007.2. The new version was needed to facilitate the payment of quarterly 

State taxes via ACH. 

After vouchers are paid, they are sorted and filed by document number. Vouchers 

are grouped in 6-month ‘‘clusters’’ to accommodate their retrieval for the semi-annual Report of the Secretary of the Senate. Currently, files are maintained for the 

current period and two prior periods in-house as space is limited. Older documents 

are stored at the Senate Support Facility (SSF). The inventoried items are sorted 

and recorded in a database for easy document retrieval. Several document retrieval 

missions were successfully carried out and the department continues to work closely 

with warehouse personnel. 

A major function of the department is to prepare adjustment documents. Adjustments are varied, and include re-issuance of items held as accounts receivable collections, re-issuance of payments for which non-receipt is claimed, and various supplemental adjustments received from the Payroll Department. Such adjustments are 

usually disbursed by check, but an increasing number are now handled electronically through ACH. Paper payroll check registers were replaced by an electronic 

version using Reveal software in 2006, and a spreadsheet is maintained by Disbursements to track cases of non-receipt of salary checks, including stop payment 

requests and re-issuance. 

During 2007, while experiencing an increase in ACH payments, Disbursing also 

experienced an increase, though small, in the number of ACH returns. Returns are 

usually the result of receiving incorrect account or routing information and are easily corrected with payee contact. Some returns result from account closings or nonparticipating financial institutions and, while a bit more difficult, these items are 

resolved either by receiving updated information or simply converting the payment 

to a check. All rejected items are logged into an ACH reports folder. They are classified as either Payroll or Accounts Payable, and the actual daily reports are also 

scanned into the folder. Once logged in, the payroll items are forwarded to the Payroll Department, and the non-payroll items are forwarded to Vendor/SAVI to determine appropriate corrective action. Accounting memos are prepared outlining the 

actions to be taken, and Disbursements prepares the adjustments as warranted. 

The Department also prepares the forms required by the Department of Treasury 

for stop payments. Stop payments are requested by employees who have not received salary or expense reimbursements, and vendors claiming non-receipt of expense checks. During this year, the A/P Disbursement supervisor and the Accounts 

Payable manager continued using the Department of Treasury—Financial Management Service (FMS) online stop pay and check retrieval process known as PACER. 

The PACER system allows us to electronically submit stop-payment requests and 

provides online access to digital images of negotiated checks for viewing and printing. Once a check is viewed, it is printed and may be scanned. Scanned images are 

then forwarded to the appropriate accounting locations via e-mail. During 2007, over 

500 requests were received for check copies. The use of PACER has enabled us to 

save the $7.50 processing fee we paid in the past. PACER is expected to go to a 

Web-based product in 2008, thus enabling us to research using the Internet rather 

than the slower mainframe system currently in use. 

Accounts Payable: Audit Department 

The Accounts Payable Audit Section is responsible for auditing vouchers and answering questions regarding voucher preparation and the permissibility of expenses 

and advances. This section provides advice and recommendations on the discretionary use of funds to the various accounting locations, identifies duplicate payments submitted by offices, monitors payments related to contracts, trains new administrative managers and chief clerks about Senate financial practices and the 

Senate’s Financial Management Information System, and assists in the production 

of the Report of the Secretary of the Senate. 

A major function of the section is monitoring the fund advances for travel and 

petty cash. The Funds Advance Tracking System (FATS) was used to ensure that 

advances were charged correctly, vouchers repaying such advances were entered, 

and balances were adjusted for reuse of the advance funds. An ‘‘aging’’ process was 

also performed to ensure that travel advances were repaid in the time specified by 

the travel advance regulations. Travel advances may be repaid via regular voucher 
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processing, or may be canceled if the corresponding travel is not taken and the 

funds are returned. 

Late in 2006, a new advance module was placed into service for issuing and tracking advances. The module is part of Web FMIS version 11 and is the first of a twophase project. The first phase has been completed and accommodates issuance, 

tracking, and repayment of advances. The second phase accommodates entry and 

editing of election dates and Senator-elect vouchers and has now been installed. In 

addition to other functionality, an advance type of petty cash was created and regular petty cash audits are performed by the department. We successfully performed 

22 petty cash audits in 2007. 

The Accounts Payable Audit Section processed in excess of 152,000 expense vouchers in fiscal year 2007, as well as 30,000 uploaded items. In addition, the section 

sanctioned in excess of 87,000 vouchers under authority delegated by the Senate 

Committee on Rules and Administration. This translates to roughly 16,600 vouchers 

processed per auditor, and 30,000 vouchers posted per certifier. The voucher processing consisted of providing interpretation of Senate rules, regulations and statutes 

and applying the same to expense claims, monitoring of contracts, and direct involvement with the Senate’s central vendor file. On average, vouchers greater than 

$100.00 that do not have any issues or questions are received, audited, sanctioned 

electronically by the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration using Web 

FMIS and paid within 8 to 10 business days. 

Uploaded items are of two varieties: certified expenses and vendor payments. Certified expenses have been around since the 1980’s and included items such as stationery, telecommunications, postage, and equipment. Currently, the certifications 

include mass transit, mass mail, franked mail, excess copy charges, Photography 

Studio, and Recording Studio charges. Expenses incurred by the various Senate offices are certified to the Disbursing Office on a monthly basis. The expenses are detailed on a spreadsheet which is also electronically uploaded. The physical voucher 

is audited and appropriate revisions are made. Concentrated effort is put forth to 

ensure certified items appear as paid in the same month they are incurred. 

Vendor uploads are used to pay vendors for the Stationery Room, Senate Gift 

Shop, State office rentals, and refunds of security deposits for the Senate Page 

School. The methodology is roughly the same as for certifications, but the payments 

rendered are for the individual vendors. Although these items are generally processed and paid quickly, the State office rents are generally paid a few days prior 

to the month of the rental in keeping with a general policy of paying rent in advance. 

The Disbursing Office has sanctioning authority for vouchers of $100.00 or less. 

These vouchers comprise approximately 60 percent of all vouchers processed. The 

responsibility for sanctioning rests with the certifying accounts payable specialists 

and are received, audited, and paid within 5 business days of receipt. As in the previous year, Disbursing continued to pass two post-payment audits performed by the 

Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. 

Additionally, advance documents and non-Contingent Fund vouchers are now 

posted in Audit. Currently, there are three certifying accounts payable specialists 

who handle the bulk of the sanctioning responsibilities within the group. 

The Accounts Payable Audit Group provided training sessions in the use of new 

systems, the process for generation of expense claims, and the permissibility of an 

expense; and participated in seminars sponsored by the Secretary of the Senate, the 

SAA, and the Library of Congress. The section trained 36 new administrative managers and chief clerks and conducted 6 informational sessions for Senate staff 

through seminars sponsored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). The Accounts Payable group also routinely assists the IT department and other groups as 

necessary in the testing and implementation of new hardware, software, and system 

applications. Web FMIS version 2007.1 was in use for most of the year and version 

2007.2 was released in August. The section participated in testing for the release 

of Web FMIS version 2008.1 late in the year. Testing and discussions continue for 

employee identification number conversion, and implementation is expected in 2008. 

The cancellation process for advances was upgraded and streamlined in 2006 and 

continues to work well. This was necessary to ensure repayment of advances systematically for canceled or postponed travel in accordance with Senate Travel Regulations, as well as to provide functionality consistent with the release of Web Advances Phase I. The new process eliminates the need to create zero dollar vouchers, 

allows the Disbursing Office to completely handle the cancellations in FAMIS, and 

allows administrative managers to simply void their advance documents. 
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Disbursing Office Information Technology 

Financial Management Information System 

The Disbursing Office Information Technology (DO IT) department provides both 

functional and technical assistance for all Senate financial management activities. 

Activities revolve around support of the Senate’s Financial Management Information System (FMIS) which is used by staff in 140 Senate accounting locations (i.e., 

100 Senator’s offices, 20 committees, 20 leadership and support offices, the Office 

of the Secretary of the Senate, the SAA, the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration Audit section, and the Disbursing Office). Responsibilities of the department include: 

—Supporting current systems; 

—Testing infrastructure changes; 

—Managing and testing new system development; 

—Planning; 

—Managing the FMIS project, including contract management; 

—Administering the Disbursing Office’s Local Area Network (LAN); and 

—Coordinating the Disbursing Office’s disaster recovery activities. 

The Disbursing Office is the ‘‘business owner’’ of FMIS and is responsible for making the functional decisions about FMIS. The SAA Technology Services staff is responsible for providing the technical infrastructure, including hardware (e.g., mainframe and servers), operating system software, database software, and telecommunications; technical assistance for these components, including migration management 

and database administration; and regular batch processing. The office’s contract 

support team along with the SAA, is responsible for operational support and is also 

under contract with the Secretary, for application development. The three organizations work cooperatively. 

Highlights of the year include: 

—Implementation of two releases of FMIS; 

—Incorporating the functionality of the FATS sub-system into Web FMIS, thus 

enabling Disbursing to retire the FATS system; 

—Preparing for converting employee vendor numbers to a number that does not 

contain any portion of the employee’s social security number; 

—Preparing for a pilot of remitting quarterly State tax payments via direct deposit; 

—Testing infrastructure changes that included upgrades to the mainframe operating system (Z/OS), the database (DB2), and Web Sphere; 

—Coordinating and participating in the FMIS portion of the yearly Senate-wide 

disaster recovery exercise for the ACF; 

—Coordinating and participating in a first-time FMIS only disaster recovery exercise for the ACF; 

—Issuing a spreadsheet by which any Senator’s office could estimate a potential 

COLA for their office based on office-defined criteria; 

—Supporting the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration’s post-payment 

audit of a statistically valid sample of vouchers of $100.00 or less; 

—Installing new printers throughout the Disbursing Office; and 

—Conducting monthly classes and seminars on Web FMIS. 

Supporting Current Systems 

The DO IT department supports FMIS users in all 140 accounting locations, 

Disbursing’s Accounts Payable (A/P), Accounting, Disbursements, Vendor/SAVI and 

Front Office sections, and the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration Audit 

staff. The activities associated with this responsibility include: 

—User support—provide functional and technical support to all Senate FMIS 

users; staff the FMIS (help desk); answer hundreds of questions; and meet with 

chiefs of staff, administrative managers, chief clerks, and directors of various 

Senate offices as requested; 

—Technical problem resolution—ensure that technical problems are resolved; 

—Monitor system performance—check system availability and statistics to identify system problems and coordinate performance tuning activities for database 

access optimization; 

—Security—maintain user rights for all ADPICS, FAMIS, and Web FMIS users; 

—System administration—design, test and make entries to tables that are at the 

core of the system; 

—Support of accounting activities—perform functional testing and production validation of the cyclic accounting system activities. This includes rollover, the 

process by which tables for the new fiscal year are created, and archive/purge, 
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the process by which data for the just lapsed fiscal year is archived for reporting 

purposes and removed from the current year tables; 

—Support the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration post payment 

voucher audit process—provide the data from which the Rules Committee audit 

staff selects a statistically valid sample of vouchers for $100 or less. In this way 

the Rules Committee audit staff review vouchers sanctioned under authority 

delegated to the Financial Clerk; 

—Upload bulk financial transactions directly to FAMIS—upload documents, such 

as certifications and vouchers from the Keeper of Stationery, directly into 

FAMIS. These documents, submitted via spreadsheets, are reviewed by the DO 

A/P and/or Accounting sections prior to upload; and 

—Training—provide functional training to all Senate FMIS users. 

Normal Tasks 

As part of our normal tasks to support current systems, Disbursing created 110 

new Web FMIS user accounts and an additional 112 new ADPICS/FAMIS user accounts. Additionally, the office staff created new organization, department and location codes for the new senators in the 110th Congress (nine newly elected Senators, 

one due to the death of Senator Craig Thomas, and one due to the resignation of 

Senator Trent Lott). Through the ‘‘rollover’’ process, Disbursing created the tables 

necessary for two new fiscal periods—fiscal year 2008 (for all FMIS users), which 

began 10/1/2007 and Resolution 89B (for Committees), which began 3/1/2007. The 

two queries for the Rules Committee’s audit identified 24,770 records for the period 

10/1/2006 to 3/31/2007 and 25,195 for the period 4/1/2007 to 9/30/2007. The office 

uploaded over 340 files of multiple documents such as certifications, vouchers from 

the Keeper of Stationery, SAA budget entries, and journal entries. Finally, since this 

was a year in which a new Congress began, Disbursing staff offered Web FMIS 

classes twice a month during February and March in order to meet the needs of 

the Senate user community. The classes were offered once a month for the remainder of the year. 

Unusual Tasks 

IT completed a number of unusual tasks to support current systems this year: 

—Designed and implemented a new office information authorization form as well 

as two new mainframe system forms (security and document approval paths updates) to facilitate user administration; 

—Implemented procedures to create documents for rarely used funds, such as foreign travel, in Web FMIS instead of ADPICS, taking advantage of the sophisticated functionality in Web FMIS for travel advances and travel advance repayments simplifying processing of these documents by the A/P and Accounting 

staff; and 

—Created and distributed a spreadsheet for Senate offices to use to calculate a 

potential January 2008 COLA using office-defined criteria. 

Testing Infrastructure Changes 

The SAA provides the infrastructure on which FMIS operates, including the mainframe, the database, security hardware and software, and the telecommunications 

network. During 2007, the SAA implemented three major upgrades to the FMIS infrastructure: upgrading the mainframe operating software, Z/OS from version 1.4 to 

version 1.7; upgrading the FMIS database from DB2 v 8 to DB2 v 8.1; and upgrading the Web Sphere software from v 6.0.2 to v6.1. Because the Z/OS upgrade was 

accomplished as a stand-alone activity, IT tested all FMIS subsystems in a testing 

environment and validated all FMIS subsystems in the production environment 

after the implementation. Since the other two upgrades were accomplished at the 

same time as a FMIS release, DB2 with the 2007–2 release and Web Sphere with 

the 2008–1 release, all were tested as part of the release testing. 

Managing and Testing New System Development 

During 2007, the DO IT department supervised development, performed extensive 

integration system testing, and implemented changes to FMIS subsystems. For 

each, implementation and production verification was done over a weekend in order 

to minimize system down time to users. Since 2006, multiple sub-system upgrades 

were consolidated into two releases each year. This reduced the amount of regression testing required. In order to accurately reflect the variety of changes in each 

release, the releases are now numbered by fiscal year. During 2007, Disbursing implemented two releases, and worked on a third: 

—FMIS r2007–2, implemented in August 2007; 

—FMIS r2008–1, implemented in November 2007; and 

—FMIS r2008–1.5, scheduled to be implemented in January 2008. 
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The items selected for development and implementation were based on user requests, suggestions from the SAA technical staff, and the IT department. The IT department meets regularly with users through scheduled user group meetings. For 

five weeks this spring the Disbursing IT department met weekly with the Web 

FMIS users group in order to review the new page designs and functionality that 

were implemented in FMIS r2007–2. Additionally, Disbursing IT met with the 

ADPICS/FAMIS users group (primarily SAA users) on a monthly basis. IT also implemented a monthly meeting with the Accounting Section in order to address their 

concerns in a user group format. 

FMIS 2007–2 

For Web FMIS users in senators and committee offices, FMIS 2007–2 implemented a new look, additional functionality and ease-of-use features. The most 

prominent changes for these users included changes to the homepage, which now 

displays: 

—a budget summary panel with subtotals by payroll and non-payroll for amounts 

budgeted, spent and remaining; 

—a tab with a graphical display of the four top non-payroll expenditure categories; 

—a count of documents that have been saved but not submitted; and 

—a document quick access panel that enables searching for a document by vendor 

name, or document number. 

Additionally, this release features a completely re-written budget function that 

simplifies budget entry. The ease-of-use features include automatic population of 

fields when a new vendor or expense category is added and when the office has only 

one location. 

Integration of the election date functionality from the FATS system into Web 

FMIS resulted in automatic notification, at the point that a document is submitted, 

if the per diem expenses on that document violate the 60-day election date moratorium period. This release marked the retirement of the legacy FATS system, simplifying the FMIS system architecture. 

For the Rules Committee Audit users, the new functionality in this release enabled them to ‘‘check out’’ documents instead of having documents assigned to them 

by a supervisor. The new functionality was so well received that it is anticipated 

it will be used for the imaged document pilot. 

For the Accounting Section, enhancements to the CD Log function simplified the 

work required to prepare deposits to be made to the Senate’s depository bank. 

For SAA users, there were three important enhancements. Two changes enabled 

use of the SAA’s work flow system. These were the ability to interface on-demand 

purchase order and voucher information from ADPICS and adding an approver field 

to several ADPICS screens. The other enhancement was to add fields in Web FMIS 

that will enable the SAA finance staff to use Web FMIS to create travel advance 

and voucher from advance documents, thereby enabling the SAA to take advantage 

of the sophisticated functionality in Web FMIS for travel advances and travel advance repayments. 

FMIS 2008–1 

With this release, Disbursing began three pilot programs. The first pilot sends email messages to vendors paid by direct deposit that provides the same basic information that would be on a check stub. Providing the check stub information directly 

via e-mail helps the vendor credit the payment properly. The second pilot incorporates the functionality of SAVI into Web FMIS as ‘‘Staffer Functionality.’’ When 

implemented Senate-wide, staffers will use Web FMIS functionality to create expense summary reports and view payment information. They will be able to access 

this functionality using three different browsers: Internet Explorer 7, Safari, and 

Firefox. Full implementation will eliminate the SAVI subsystem and therefore simplify FMIS system architecture. The third pilot enables Disbursing to remit, via direct deposit, quarterly State tax payments to States. 

For Web FMIS users in Senators and committee offices, this release provided a 

completely re-written reconciliation function, added budget ease-of use features, and 

enabled users to create a custom user id. Additionally, Disbursing began posting 

documents under the Web FMIS Help system in order to provide more assistance 

on-line. New system functionality enabled Disbursing to relate identification of 

users who manage accounts for multiple offices. these ‘‘multi-org’’ users. 

The release included functionality for other user groups as well. For SAA users, 

this release provided online inquiries that enabled them to easily access payment 

information. For Disbursing IT system administrators, this release provided new 
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functionality for managing users and the Web FMIS system functions assigned to 

them. 

Planning 

The Disbursing IT department performs two main planning activities: 

—Schedule coordination—planning and coordinating a rolling 12-month schedule; 

and 

—Strategic planning—setting the priorities for further system enhancements. 

Schedule Coordination 

In 2007, this department continued to hold two types of meetings among Disbursing, SAA and the contractor to coordinate schedules and activities. These were: 

—Project specific meetings—a useful set of project-specific working meetings, each 

of which has a weekly set meeting time and meets for the duration of the 

project (e.g., Archive/Purge meetings and Web FMIS budget function meetings); 

and 

—Technical meeting—a weekly meeting to discuss the active projects, including 

scheduling activities and resolving issues. 

Strategic Planning 

The FMIS strategic plan has a longer time horizon than the rolling 12-month time 

frame of the technical meeting schedule. It is designed to set the direction and priorities for further enhancements. In 2002, a 5-year strategic plan was written by the 

Disbursing IT and Accounting staff for Disbursing Office Strategic Initiatives. This 

detailed description of five strategic initiatives formed the base for the Secretary of 

the Senate’s request in 2002 for $5 million in multi-year funds for further work on 

the FMIS project. The five strategic initiatives are: 

—Paperless Vouchers—Imaging of Supporting Documentation and Electronic Signatures.—Beginning with a feasibility study and a pilot, implement new technology, including imaging and electronic signatures, in order to reduce the Senate(s dependence on paper vouchers. This will enable continuation of voucher 

processing operations from an alternate location should an emergency occur; 

—Web FMIS.—Respond to requests from the Senate’s accounting locations for additional functionality in Web FMIS; 

—Payroll System.—Respond to requests from the Senate’s accounting locations for 

online real time access to payroll data; 

—Accounting Subsystem Integration.—Integrate Senate-specific accounting systems, improve internal controls, and eliminate errors caused by re-keying of 

data; and 

—CFO Financial Statement Development.—Provide the Senate with the capacity 

to produce auditable financial statements that will obtain an unqualified opinion. 

Managing the FMIS Project 

The responsibility for managing the FMIS project was transferred to the Disbursing IT department during the summer of 2003 and includes developing the task 

orders with contractors, overseeing their work and reviewing invoices. In 2007, two 

new task orders were executed: 

—Web FMIS reporting enhancements; and 

—Service year 2008 extended operational support, which covers activities from 

September 2007 to August 2008. 

In addition, work continued under four task orders executed in prior years: 

—Imaging and signature design and electronic invoicing enhancement continuation; 

—Web FMIS r10; 

—SAA finance system and reporting enhancements; and 

—Service year 2007 extended operational support (which covered activities from 

September 2006 to August 2007). 

Administering the Disbursing Office’s Local Area Network (LAN) 

Disbursing continued to administer its own local area network (LAN), which is 

separate from the network for the rest of the Secretary’s Office. Upkeep of the LAN 

infrastructure, including performing routine daily tasks, and replacing equipment 

regularly is critical to providing services. During 2007, LAN administration activities included: 

—Maintaining and Upgrading the Disbursing Office’s LAN; 

—Installing Specialized Software; and 

—Maintaining Projects for the Payroll and Benefits Section. 
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Maintaining and Upgrading the Disbursing Office LAN 

Disbursing maintained the existing workstations with appropriate upgrades including: 

—Installing new printers for all staff; 

—Ordering, and beginning to deploy new laptops for selected staff; and 

—Implementing Internet Explorer 7 for all staff. 

Installing Specialized Software 

Disbursing uses a variety of specialized software that is critical to workflow processes. In 2007, Disbursing: —Updated check scanning software.—This software enables staff to scan the front 

and back of checks deposited by Disbursing in its depository bank; 

—Updated ‘‘Reveal’’ software.—This software enables staff to view reports created 

by the FMIS batch process on-line; 

—Installed a new version of ‘‘EasyACH’’.—This software enables Disbursing to resend direct deposit payments, a functionality that was eliminated from the new 

ACH software provided by the Federal Reserve; and 

—Tested a replacement for ‘‘Rumba’’.—This software emulates a mainframe 3270 

terminal and is used by all Senate staff who access ADPICS and/or FAMIS. 

Maintaining Projects for Payroll and Employee Benefits Sections 

Disbursing continued to support the Payroll/Benefits Imaging system, developed 

by SAA staff, which electronically captures and indexes payroll documents submitted at the front counter. This is a critical system for the Payroll and Employee 

Benefits sections. During 2007, the Disbursing network administrator worked with 

SAA staff to configure and install two servers for this project: one in the Disbursing 

Office and one at the ACF. 

Coordinating the Disbursing Office’s Disaster Recovery Activities 

In August, the SAA technical staff conducted a Senate-wide disaster recovery test 

of the Senate’s computing facilities, including FMIS functions. The test involved 

switching the Senate’s network from accessing systems at the Primary Computing 

Facility (PCF) to the ACF and powering down the PCF. The SAA’s primary purpose 

was to test the technical process of switching to the ACF; thus, only a limited 

amount of time was available for functional testing. In essence, FMIS systems and 

data were ‘‘failed-over’’ to the ACF, made available for testing for the functional 

testing window, and then the systems were ‘‘failed back’’ to the PCF. The data, 

changed during the test period, was not ‘‘failed back’’. Thus, changes made while 

testing at the ACF were not reflected in production data. 

The Disbursing staff set minimal goals of accessing all critical FMIS subsystems. 

While the Disbursing IT staff coordinated activities, the actual testing was done by 

Disbursing functional and technical staff, the contractor, and SAA technical staff. 

Disbursing IT staff and the contractor tested ADPICS/FAMIS, Web FMIS, SAVI, 

and Checkwriter. Disbursing payroll staff and SAA technical staff tested the payroll 

system. 

Within the limited scope of the test, Disbursing successfully tested all the critical 

components of FMIS, with the exception of (a) accessing Checkwriter, (b) accessing 

some reports used by Disbursing (e.g., on the Reveal server and the Disbursing report server), and (c) critical batch processes which were not tested. 

At the Disbursing Office’s request, the SAA added a FMIS-only Disaster Recovery 

test in December. The longer time allotted to this test enabled more complete functional testing, (including for example, following single documents from data entry 

in ADPICS and Web FMIS through payment in FAMIS), running more reports than 

during other tests, and testing the critical payroll and FAMIS batch processes. 

While the Disbursing IT staff organized the functional test plan, the actual testers 

included Disbursing IT staff, payroll staff, contractor support staff, and, for the first 

time, SAA Finance staff. No major problems were encountered and because of the 

longer time of this test, the problems that were encountered were investigated. 

ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES

CONSERVATION AND PRESERVATION

The Office of Conservation and Preservation develops and coordinates programs 

directly related to the conservation and preservation of Senate records and materials for which the Secretary of the Senate has statutory authority. Initiatives include: deacidification of paper and prints, phased conservation for books and documents, collection surveys, exhibits, and matting and framing for the Senate Leadership. 
104 

Over the past year, the office has embossed 89 books and matted and framed 250 

items for Senate leadership. For more than 25 years, the office has bound a copy 

of Washington’s Farewell Address for the annual ceremonial reading of the address. 

In 2007, a volume was bound and read by Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee. 

As mandated in the 1990 Senate Library Collection Condition Survey, the office 

continued to conduct an annual treatment of books identified by the survey as needing conservation or repair. In 2007, conservation treatments were completed for 56 

volumes of a 7,000 volume collection of House hearings. Specifically, treatment involved recasing each volume as required, using alkaline end sheets; replacing acidic 

tab sheets with alkaline paper; cleaning the cloth cases; and replacing black spine 

title labels of each volume as necessary. The office will continue preservation of the 

remaining 3,694 volumes. 

The office assisted the Senate Library with books sent to the Government Printing Office’s Library Binding section. Additionally, the office collaborated with the 

Senate Library to create three exhibits located in the Senate Russell building basement corridor. 

The Office of Conservation and Preservation staff continues to assist Senate offices with conservation and preservation of documents, books, and various other 

items. For example, the office staff continues to monitor the temperature and humidity in the Senate Library storage areas, including the Senate Support Facility, 

for preservation and conservation purposes. 

CURATOR

The Office of Senate Curator, on behalf of the Senate Commission on Art, develops and implements the museum and preservation programs for the United States 

Senate. The Curator collects, preserves, and interprets the Senate’s fine and decorative arts, historic objects, and specific architectural features; and the Curator exercises supervisory responsibility for the historic chambers in the Capitol under the 

jurisdiction of the Commission. Through exhibitions, publications, and other programs, the Curator educates the public about the Senate and its collections. 

Collections: Commissions, Acquisitions, and Management 

A painting of Senator Robert C. Byrd was unveiled in the Old Senate Chamber 

on September 25, 2007, as part of the Senate Leadership Portrait Collection. Additionally, a portrait of Senator Tom Daschle was approved and was unveiled on April 

22, 2008; a painting of Senator Trent Lott will be completed in late 2008. 

One hundred and eight objects were accessioned into the Senate collection, including 38 Senate Chamber floor and gallery passes—the earliest dating to 1882; 26 invitations and programs to events such as portrait unveilings, joint sessions, and the 

laying in state of President Gerald Ford; 6 political cartoons from the weekly humor 

magazines Judge and Puck; 10 stereoviews of the Capitol; a circa 1970s electronic 

speaker (commonly referred to as a ‘‘squawk box’’) which allowed Senators and staff 

to listen to Senate floor proceedings from their offices; the paint palette used by artist Michael Shane Neal while working on the portrait of Senator Byrd; and two revolving desk chairs similar to those used in Capitol offices and committee rooms in 

the early 20th century. 

Of particular note was the Senate Commission on Art’s acquisition of a large and 

elaborate 1880s Hall’s safe which had been auctioned as excess Senate property by 

the General Services Administration in the 1970s. The safe illustrates the necessary 

modernization of administrative procedures due to rapidly increasing Senate membership after the Civil War. This historic object—with its gold leaf, etched surfaces, 

inlaid wood, and hand painting—is also a superior example of 19th century American industrial arts. 

Forty-one new foreign gifts were reported to the Select Committee on Ethics and 

transferred to the Curator’s office. They were catalogued and are maintained by the 

office in accordance with the Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act. Appropriate disposition of 28 foreign gifts was completed following established procedures. 

Seventy-four collection objects were moved into a new curatorial storage space in 

the Senate Support Facility (SSF), which provides state-of-the-art museum storage 

for the Senate’s art and historic collections. All objects were given a priority designation and identified with color coded object tags. In the event of an emergency, 

the colored tags will assist staff in removing the highest priority objects first. 

An integrated pest management (IPM) program administered by the Curator’s office is now in operation for the SSF curatorial storage space. The pest management 

program monitors for the presence of insect pests, which can cause damage to furniture, rugs, and other textiles. To date, there has been no evidence of pests that 

are a threat to collections. Other practices, including regular cleaning of the space 

and inspection of all objects prior to placing them in storage, are also key compo-
105 

nents of the program. During the fall, additional support for the IPM program was 

established through the Architect of the Capitol’s (AOC) overall pest management 

program for the SSF. The program provides supplies and includes expert advice for 

structural repairs, sanitation, and storage procedures to prevent the entrance and 

harboring of pests. 

Also in operation in the SSF curatorial storage space is an environmental monitoring system. This is the first phase of an extensive electronic environmental monitoring system that tracks environmental conditions in significant spaces; information on temperature, relative humidity, and the presence of water is sent to a computer in the Curator’s office. The system also alerts staff when readings deviate 

from established ranges. 

Preparations continued for the two new curatorial storage spaces in the Capitol 

Visitor Center (CVC). Installation of the specialized preservation storage equipment 

for these spaces will occur in late 2008. 

In 2007, the Curator’s office began implementation of a comprehensive maintenance program for all collections and historic spaces under its care. The purpose of 

the program is fourfold: to monitor the condition of both collections and the spaces 

in which they are displayed and stored; to maintain systematic records of condition 

changes and steps taken to make improvements; to prioritize the maintenance and 

conservation needs of collections; and to develop communication and educational resources for other Members of the Senate community regarding the care of collections 

and historic spaces. An outline of the program was created and a comprehensive 

monitoring plan is in place. Daily and weekly inspections are conducted, with plans 

for monthly inspections underway. 

Surveys of the condition of related objects in the Senate collection are another 

component of the integrated maintenance program. They are an important tool for 

prioritizing conservation needs so that resources are directed to the most unstable 

objects first, before additional damage further diminishes their historic and aesthetic value. The conservation undertaken in 2007 for several historic overmantel 

mirrors was in response to an assessment conducted in 2006, and planning began 

this year for an assessment of the Senate’s historic timepieces. For the time being, 

treatment for Eliphalet Frazer Andrews’ portrait of John Adams and for the frame 

for John Blake White’s painting, Sergeants Jasper and Newton Rescuing American 

Prisoners from the British, have been postponed until such time as they can be addressed within the context of collection conservation priorities. 

To improve artwork lighting in the Senate wing of the Capitol, the Curator’s office 

developed a pilot project to address the quality of the light and apply museum lighting standards to a segment of the second floor corridor. A lighting designer produced 

a plan for the pilot area, provided equipment specifications, and positioned the 

lights, which the AOC purchased and installed. Building on the artwork lighting 

pilot project, recommendations were obtained for lighting needs related to new artwork installations in four areas of the Senate wing—Room S–109, the east and west 

Brumidi stairwells, and the Senate chamber lobby. The report was forwarded to the 

AOC for a feasibility review. 

In preparation for display in the CVC, the Curator’s staff developed specifications 

based on original construction and finish techniques for the replication of an original 

1819 Senate chamber desk. The desk will be built by the Senate Sergeant at Arms 

(SAA) Cabinet Shop, and the Curator’s office staff will record all phases of the construction and finishing for future reference. 

As part of its ongoing effort to document the Senate chamber desks, the staff developed a new database to more accurately record information. The database allows 

the office to document the specific dates a Senator occupied a desk, as well as the 

period in which the desk drawer was inscribed. This is a significant improvement 

from past databases, which were unable to determine the exact dates of occupancy 

and the sequence of desks occupied. 

Keeping with scheduled procedures, all Senate collection objects on display were 

inventoried, noting any changes in location. In addition, as directed by S. Res. 178 

(108th Congress, 1st session), the office submitted inventories of the art and historic 

furnishings in the Senate to the Committee on Rules and Administration. The Curator’s staff, with assistance from the SAA and Senate Superintendent’s staffs, compile the inventories, which are to be submitted every 6 months. 

Conservation and Restoration 

During 2007 conservation treatment was completed on four paintings in the Senate fine art collection, and work began on the recently acquired painting Henry Clay 

in the U.S. Senate, as well as on several historic mirrors in the decorative art collection. 
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Conservation was completed on the monumental painting, The Battle of Lake 

Erie, by William Henry Powell, which has been displayed in the east grand stairway 

of the Senate since 1873. The canvas had not had any major conservation since 

1956, and cleaning removed a heavy layer of grime and buildup from tobacco smoke. 

Following cleaning, areas of previous repairs and retouching were treated to remove 

discolored repaint and make repairs less noticeable. The entire canvas received a 

new coat of synthetic resin varnish, and final toning and inpainting were done 

where necessary to integrate old damages. At the same time, the frame received a 

surface cleaning and damage on the bottom right side was filled and gilded to match 

the surrounding surface. 

A frame conservator repaired minor damage to the outer gilt frame of the painting, George Washington at Princeton, by Charles Willson Peale; and emergency conservation was done on the gilt frame of Mike Mansfield, by Aaron Shikler, which 

was damaged while hanging in S–207 of the Capitol. Additionally, a conservator applied a protective coating of varnish to Bradley Stevens’ painting, The Connecticut 

Compromise, which is adhered to the wall above the entrance to the Senate Chamber Lobby in the Senate Reception Room. 

Conservation treatment began on the Phineas Saunton’s monumental painting, 

Henry Clay in the U.S. Senate, donated to the Senate in 2006. Due to the extremely 

fragile and unstable condition of the painting, and its size (11 feet by 7 feet), it was 

necessary to limit the amount of shipping it underwent until conservation could 

begin. A painting conservator conducted a condition evaluation on-site, and the evaluation was provided to other painting conservators to prepare proposals. The painting was then shipped directly from the donor to the conservator selected, where it 

is now undergoing extensive analysis prior to conservation. Treatment for the frame 

was handled separately. Conservation is anticipated to be completed by late 2008, 

and the painting will then be installed in the east Brumidi stairway. 

In response to critical conditions identified in the Senate historic mirror collection, 

the Curator’s office developed a multi-phased conservation project. The first mirror 

frame (S–115) underwent extensive conservation to address existing structural, 

gesso, ornament, and finish problems and was returned to the Capitol earlier this 

year. As part of this initial effort, procedures, and standards were instituted that 

will aid in future planning. 

Conservation treatment was also completed on a gilt frame overmantel mirror in 

conjunction with planned renovations of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing 

room (SR–418). Treatment included removal of tape, consolidation of small areas of 

separation, and touch-up to minor losses in gilding. 

The Curator’s staff participated in training sessions for the U.S. Capitol Police regarding the care and protection of art in the Capitol, and continued to educate the 

housekeeping personnel on maintenance issues related to the fine and decorative art 

collections. 

Historic Preservation 

The Curator’s office worked with the AOC and SAA to review, comment, plan, and 

document Senate wing construction projects that affect historic resources. Construction and conservation efforts that required considerable review and assistance included exit sign installations; restaurant exhaust system upgrades; directional sign 

installations; Brumidi corridor mural conservation; egress modification of the 

Brumidi west corridor, the Old Senate Chamber, and the Old Supreme Court Chamber; the refurbishing of rooms S–115 and S–120; and scagliola conservation. The 

AOC’s appointment of an historic preservation officer enhanced this effort. The Curator’s staff will work with the AOC’s historic preservation officer to refine project 

review procedures in order to ensure the highest preservation standards are applied 

to all Capitol projects. Finally, the Curator’s office’s initiative to increase their service offerings by facilitating projects for Capitol offices has been very successful. In 

2007 the staff assisted the Committee on Rules and Administration, the Committee 

on Veterans’ Affairs, and the Democratic Leader with preservation projects. 

An initiative to document the appearance of Capitol leadership suites continued 

in 2007. This program records changes in the decorative history of the Senate wing’s 

historic spaces, providing important visual documentation on the history of the 

rooms. 

Research and investigation continued on the ambitious Senate Reception Room 

restoration and rehabilitation project. The office conducted surveys and interviews 

with staff to gain an understanding of the current use of the room. Fabric analysis 

was contracted by the AOC and initial samples collected. Appropriate members of 

the Senate Reception Room Advisory Board were assembled in order to advise on 

the testing. The Curator’s staff has continued to keep the Senate community informed on the progress of this developing project. 
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Historic Chambers 

The Curator’s staff continued to maintain the Old Senate and Old Supreme Court 

chambers, and coordinated periodic use of both rooms for special occasions. New procedures were developed with the U.S. Capitol Police to record after-hours access to 

the historic chambers by current Members of Congress. 

By order of the U.S. Capitol Police, the Old Senate Chamber was closed to visitors 

after September 11, 2001. However, the historic room was opened to Capitol Guide 

and staff-led tours during eight Senate recesses in 2007. Thirty-six requests were 

received from current Members of Congress for after-hours access to the chamber. 

A re-enactment swearing-in ceremony for the newly elected Senators of the 110th 

Congress, and also the re-enactment swearing-in ceremonies for Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming and Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi were of special significance. 

The Senate Curator worked closely with the AOC and their contractor to oversee 

the creation of accurate, existing condition drawings of the Old Senate and Old Supreme Court chambers. These architectural drawings were completed and accepted 

by the Historic American Building Survey for their collection. The drawings provide 

important historical and archival documentation of the Capitol—no such detailed 

drawings existed previously of these historic chambers, or any spaces within the 

Capitol. The drawings will be available on-line and at the Library of Congress. 

Loans To and From the Collection 

A total of 54 historic objects and paintings are currently on loan to the Curator’s 

office on behalf of Senate leadership and officers in the Senate wing of the Capitol. 

The staff returned 13 loans, coordinated 15 new loans, and renewed loan agreements for 25 other objects. Over 30 loans are projected to be renewed next year. 

The Senate state chinaware was inventoried and used at 14 receptions for distinguished guests, both foreign and domestic. It was used for events such as a luncheon for the President of Iraq and a tea for the Prime Minister of New Zealand. The 

Secretary of the Senate’s official china continues to be used for large functions and 

hosting foreign dignitaries, and the Curator purchased additional china pieces this 

year. 

Publications and Exhibitions 

In response to increasing concerns regarding the dissemination of inaccurate information about the Capitol and Congress, the Curator’s office staff, in conjunction 

with staff from the Senate Library, the Senate Historical Office, and the Office of 

Web Technology, published an on-line Guide to Staff-Led Tours, available on the 

Senate’s Webster intranet site. This electronic publication provides a brief and easyto-follow outline for all important art works and historic spaces within the Capitol. 

It can be printed from the site in a format convenient for staff to carry and refer 

to while conducting a tour, and it provides links to more detailed information as a 

resource for further research. 

As part of an ongoing program to provide more information about the Capitol and 

its spaces, the office developed a brochure for the Democratic Leader’s suite. To expand on the information provided by existing brochures and allow customization, 

the office created templates for either a companion pamphlet or a fact sheet. The 

Assistant Republican Leader’s suite was one of the offices to benefit from this initiative. Additionally, as part of an ongoing program to provide more information about 

the Capitol and its spaces, all Commission on Art brochures were updated and 

added to the Senate.gov Web site. 

The office updated The Senate Chamber Desk Web site for the 110th Congress. 

In addition, four new stories were added to the traditions and historical facts section, and a procedural document was created to provide technical details and standards for future updates. 

The Senate Curator and staff continued to be a significant contributor to Unum, 

the Secretary of the Senate’s newsletter. 

Polices and Procedures 

The Commission on Art in 2007 issued guidelines that govern the use of the Old 

Senate and Old Supreme Court Chambers. These guidelines, incorporate the many 

regulations, policies and precedents of the Chambers’ use, and ensure that these 

historic spaces are maintained, used, and protected according to the Senate’s original intent in restoring them in the 1970s. The historic chambers were previously 

governed by rules that were read into the Congressional Record by then-Majority 

Leader and Chairman of the Commission on Art Mike Mansfield in 1975 and 1976. 

The new guidelines strengthen the original rules and address the wide variety of 
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demands that are now placed upon the rooms. The rules are consistent with the 

Commission’s supervisory and maintenance responsibilities under 2 USC § 2103. 

The 110th Congress Senate Curatorial Advisory Board was empanelled in 2007. 

Four new and eight returning members were welcomed at the first meeting held on 

October 25, 2007. Composed of respected scholars and curators, this 12-member 

board provides expert advice to the Commission on Art regarding the Senate’s art 

and historic collections and preservation program, and assists in the acquisition and 

review of new objects for the collection. 

Collaborations, Educational Programs, and Events 

The office is coordinating efforts to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Richard 

B. Russell Senate Office Building, which opened its doors in early 1909. Several 

meetings were held among the offices of the Curator, Library, Historian, and Web 

Technology to develop a multi-faceted effort consisting of research, restoration, publications, and exhibition projects that will mark the centennial of the first Senate 

office building. In anticipation of the historical resources needed to support these 

initiatives, the Curator’s staff conducted extensive archival research, identifying 

over 200 images documenting the construction and completion of the building and 

it furnishings and occupants. 

In 2007 the Senate Curator granted permission for the use of Senate art images 

and text published on Senate.gov to a team of scholars based at the University of 

Maryland in College Park. These scholars, in collaboration with other experts at 

various universities, are developing an automated image cataloging system for use 

by college professors and researchers. Once complete, the system will permit users 

to search the texts of scholarly journals and books for metadata terms which can 

be applied to specific images of art and architecture, and to cross-reference these 

metadata terms with the appropriate approved cataloging thesaurus in the appropriate field. Although the application is in the early stages of development, the cooperation of the Curator’s staff has resulted in important contributions to the 

project; additionally, when the application is launched, it is hoped to benefit the office by developing effective metadata for both collections management and Senate.gov functions. 

The Curator assisted the AOC Curator and staff of the Joint Committee on the 

Library to develop a plan for the National Statuary Hall statues in the CVC, and 

also guidelines for the Rosa Parks statue. Other joint projects with institutions included assistance to the Center for Legislative Archives at the National Archives for 

the February 2008 exhibit of the Senate’s collection of Clifford Berryman cartoons 

and continued work with the CVC exhibit staff on several initiatives for the new 

facility. 

The Senate Curator and staff gave lectures on the Senate’s art and historical collections to various historical groups and art museums. The staff also assisted the 

Secretary with the new Senate staff lecture/tour series. 

Office Administration and Automation 

During 2007 the office continued work on the major redesign of the Senate art 

Web site, with the goal of providing easier, more intuitive access to the Senate’s art, 

historical collections, and on-line exhibits and publications. This task was undertaken in coordination with the Senate Webmaster and Senate Library staff. This 

year saw the completion of the specifications for information structure and ‘‘wire 

frame’’ design layouts for most portions of the site. Working extensively with the 

staff from the Office of Web Technology, Curator staff also developed a protocol for 

instructing the Senate.gov content management system to automatically generate 

new layouts with existing metadata used to populate and configure the current site. 

This task also required careful coordination with the Curator’s collections management team to ensure that data recorded in the process of managing the Senate’s 

collections is appropriately configured to be used successfully in the new art site environment. 

The Curator’s continuity of operations (COOP) plan was tested with an extensive 

in-house tabletop exercise. Over two dozen recommendations to improve the office’s 

COOP readiness were identified as a result of this exercise, and the proposed modifications are currently being made. 

The office modernized its procedures for public requests to use Senate collection 

images by developing a Web-based system accessible through Senate.gov. Staff receive approximately 75 requests each year for images, and the new electronic system has greatly improved the ordering process. 

Objectives for 2008 

The Curator’s staff will oversee installation of the collection storage equipment for 

the two storage spaces in the CVC in the fall of 2008. Museum-quality storage sys-
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tems have been ordered to house collection objects in these new spaces. Objects in 

need of archival re-housing will be identified and prioritized as part of the preparations for the collection move in 2009. 

The office is continuing with the installation of the environmental monitoring system. Sensors will be placed in the historic chambers and curatorial storage rooms 

in the Capitol and CVC by the end of the year. The Curator’s staff is also continuing 

the integrated pest management program established last year. Monthly monitoring 

is currently done in the storage spaces in the Capitol and SSF, and will be instituted in the CVC storage spaces when completed. 

Conservation and preservation concerns continue to be a top priority. The conservation treatment begun in 2007 to restore the historic painting and frame, Henry 

Clay in the U.S. Senate, will be completed in 2008. Efforts are also underway, in 

collaboration with the AOC and with the services of a conservator, to repair graffiti 

related damage and clean Alexander Calder’s monumental sculpture, Mountains 

and Clouds. Also related to the conservation will be the development of a maintenance plan, installation of new protective measures, and efforts to better educate 

staff and visitors about this important work of art. Following completion of an assessment of the Senate’s historic timepieces, planning will begin for the conservation and maintenance of the clocks. 

The Curator’s office will continue its effort to locate and recover significant historic Senate pieces, with a special emphasis on the Russell Building furnishings. Recent efforts have focused on the acquisition of a mahogany flat top desk, swivel arm 

chair, easy chair, and davenport. Last year, office staff conducted an initial survey 

of existing pieces which indicated that less than half of the pieces originally supplied for Senator’s personal offices remain in the Senate. The Senate Curator hopes 

to identify, preserve, and protect these unique pieces. The first phase will be to conduct a detailed condition survey of the surviving historic Russell furnishings. The 

survey will determine conservation priorities, provide information on the age, origin, 

and importance of the pieces, and furnish necessary records for disaster planning. 

With regard to collections documentation and access, the office plans several initiatives to improve data standards and electronic access to records should a COOP 

event occur. The first phase will involve developing more detailed cataloguing and 

data entry guidelines to ensure electronic object records are consistent. The guidelines will combine all current style guides and cataloging procedures into a single 

document for easy and efficient access. In addition, the current collection database 

will be evaluated to assess the stability and efficiency of the system, since the 

amount of information (including photographs) for each object continues to grow. 

This project will most likely lead to a phased project to update and/or upgrade the 

system. 

The office will move towards identifying art handling companies that can be of 

assistance in the event of an emergency. Other emergency preparedness activities 

include identifying alternate locations for staging and storage, and developing procedures for the initial response steps in an emergency. All current loan agreements 

will be scanned and procedures for maintaining current loan agreements in electronic format will be developed. This will assist the office in the event of an emergency and provide the information needed to locate loans and contact lenders. 

Professional photography is scheduled for numerous objects in the Senate collection, including upcoming Senate leadership portraits, CVC loan objects, and historic 

prints. 

The office will continue to administer the current commissioned leadership portrait of Senator Trent Lott and advance efforts to commission a painting of Senator 

Bill Frist. The staff coordinated the unveiling of the portrait of Senator Tom 

Daschle. 

With the restoration of the S–115 mirror completed, staff will move forward with 

other critical frame conservation priorities from the multi-phased conservation 

project developed in 2007. This work will employ the procedures and standards established in the first conservation project, refining them as necessary, and will include on-site consolidation of at least two mirrors. The staff will also work with the 

AOC to remedy known installation hardware concerns. 

The staff will continue to focus efforts at coordinating with the AOC regarding 

preservation issues related to Senate restoration and remodeling projects, disseminate project information to the Senate, develop preservation projects at the request 

of the Senate, conduct condition inspections, and arrange necessary maintenance. 

The Curator staff will enhance outreach to Capitol offices and continue to promote 

its preservation services. The Senate Curator will oversee specific projects, including 

the creation and installation of the occupant’s State seal in S–210, and the restoration and rehabilitation of the Senate Reception Room. 
110 

The office will enlarge its offerings of brochures and information sheets on historic 

rooms by beginning research on the Republican Leadership suite. 

In 2008 the Curator’s staff will launch the first phase of its redesigned art Web 

site. The new site will organize art works by subject, rather than by medium, as 

it is currently organized. In addition to the reorganization, the newly launched site 

will include images from the Senate’s graphic art collection. 

Curator’s staff will also develop and post two new Web sites in 2008. The first 

will address frequently heard myths about Senate art, dispelling this misinformation through the use of interactive quizzes and evidence-gathering. The second Web 

site will illustrate the history and conservation of Phineas Staunton’s monumental 

painting of Henry Clay. 

Most notably, the Curator’s staff will continue plans for the Russell Senate Office 

Building Centennial. Among the proposals under consideration are informational 

panels to be placed at appropriate locations in the building, a publication, lectures 

and tours, a Web exhibit, restoration of original building furnishings, and an exhibit 

showcasing the original seven furniture pieces supplied in 1909 to Senators for their 

offices. Planning and development will continue through 2008, and the results will 

be unveiled in early 2009. 

JOINT OFFICE OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

The Joint Office of Education and Training provides employee training and development opportunities for all Senate staff in Washington, DC, and the States. There 

are three branches within the office. The Technical Training branch is responsible 

for providing technical training support for approved software packages and equipment used in either Washington, DC, or the State offices. Staff in this branch provides instructor-led classes, one-on-one coaching sessions, specialized vendor provided training, computer-based training, and informal training and support services. 

The Professional Training branch staff provides courses for all Senate staff in areas 

which include management and leadership development, human resources issues 

and staff benefits, legislative and staff information, and new staff and intern information. The Health Promotion branch staff provides seminars, classes and 

screenings on health and wellness issues. Staff from this branch also coordinates an 

annual health fair for all Senate employees and plans three blood drives every year. 

Training Classes 

The Joint Office of Education and Training offered 990 classes and events in 2007, 

drawing 10,124 participants. Registration desk staffers handled over 32,000 e-mail 

and phone requests for training and documentation. 

Of the above total, 240 Technical Training classes were held with a total attendance of 1,024 students. An additional 487 staff received coaching in 202 sessions on 

various software packages and other computer related issues. Two hundred seventyeight Professional Development classes were held with a total attendance of 3,270 

students. The staff managed or assisted the staffs of the Employee Assistance Program, Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness, the Disbursing Office, the 

Senate Library and the Senate Select Committee on Ethics with 163 training classes 

attended by 2,013 students. 

The Office of Education and Training staff is available to work with teams on 

issues related to team performance, communication, or conflict resolution. During 

2007, over 142 requests for special training and team building were met with 1,389 

staff taking part. 

In the Health Promotion area, 2,552 staff participated in 62 Health Promotion activities throughout the year. These activities included: lung function and kidney 

screenings, blood drives, the Health and Fitness Day, and seminars on health related topics. 

Annually, this office provides a Senate Service Expo for Senate office staff. Thirtyfive presenters from the offices of the Secretary of the Senate, the Sergeant at Arms, 

the Architect of the Capitol, the Capitol Police and the Library of Congress participated in this year’s program. 

State Training 

Since most of the classes that are offered are only practical for Washington, DCbased staff, the Office of Education and Training continues to offer the ‘‘State Training Fair’’ which began in March 2000. In 2007, 3 sessions of this program were attended by 164 State staff. 

This office also conducted the State Directors Forum, which was attended by 49 

State administrative managers and directors and a Constituent Services Forum attended by 76 State staff. In addition, this office has implemented the ‘‘Virtual Classroom’’ which is an Internet-based training library of 3,000∂ courses. To date, 504 
111 

State office and Washington, DC, staff have registered and accessed a total of 1,153 

different lessons using this training option. Additionally, the Professional Training 

branch offered 22 video teleconferencing classes, which were attended by 355 State 

staff and Technical Training offered 13 video teleconferencing classes for 96 State 

staff. Three Technical Training Trips reached 76 staff in 3 States. Education and 

Training also created 18 Senate-specific self-paced lessons that have been accessed 

by 320 staff. 

SENATE CHIEF COUNSEL FOR EMPLOYMENT

The Office of the Senate Chief Counsel for Employment (SCCE) is a non-partisan 

office established at the direction of the Joint Leadership in 1993 after enactment 

of the Government Employee Rights Act (GERA), which allowed Senate employees 

to file claims of employment discrimination against Senate offices. With the enactment of the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 (CAA), Senate offices became 

subject to the requirements, responsibilities and obligations of 11 employment laws. 

The SCCE is charged with the legal defense of Senate offices in employment law 

cases at both the administrative and court levels, from the inception of the case 

through appeals and Supreme Court review. Also, on a day-to-day basis, the SCCE 

provides legal advice to Senate offices about their obligations under employment 

laws. Accordingly, each Senate office is an individual client of the SCCE, and each 

office maintains an attorney-client relationship with the SCCE. 

The areas of responsibilities of the SCCE can be divided into the following categories: 

—Litigation (defending Senate offices in courts and administrative hearings); 

—Mediations to resolve lawsuits; 

—Court-ordered alternative dispute resolutions; 

—Union drives, negotiations, and unfair labor practice charges; 

—Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)/Americans with Disability Act 

(ADA) compliance; 

—Layoffs and office closings in compliance with the law; 

—Management training regarding legal responsibilities; and 

—Preventive legal advice. 

Litigation, Mediations, and Alternative Dispute Resolutions 

The SCCE defends each of the employing offices of the Senate in all court actions, 

hearings, proceedings, investigations, and negotiations relating to labor and employment laws. The SCCE handles cases filed in the District of Columbia and cases filed 

in any of the 50 States. 

OSHA/ADA Compliance 

The SCCE provides advice and assistance to Senate offices by assisting them with 

complying with the applicable OSHA and ADA regulations; representing them during Office of Compliance inspections; advising State offices on the preparation of the 

Office of Compliance’s Home State OSHA/ADA inspection questionnaires; assisting 

offices in the preparation of emergency action plans; and advising and representing 

Senate offices when a complaint of an OSHA violation has been filed with the Office 

of Compliance or when a citation has been issued. The SCCE played a significant 

roll in the inspection process by pre-inspecting Senate offices to ensure compliance 

with the ADA/OSHA and by providing counsel to Senate offices during the inspection process. 

In 2007, the SCCE pre-inspected 132 Senate offices to ensure compliance with the 

ADA and OSHA. Inspections included 98 Senate Member offices in the Hart, Dirksen, and Russell buildings, 31 Sergeant at Arms (SAA) offices also in the Hart, 

Dirksen, and Russell buildings, the Senate Day Care Center, Senate Webster Hall 

Page Dormitory, and the Senate Support Facility. At the conclusion of the inspection 

process, Senate offices had no significant problems, and 97 percent of the problems 

were abated immediately. 

Management Training Regarding Legal Responsibilities 

The SCCE conducts legal seminars for the managers of Senate offices to assist 

them in complying with employment laws, thereby reducing their liability. 

In 2007, the SCCE gave 55 legal seminars to Senate offices. The topics included: 

—The Congressional Accountability Act of 1995: Management’s Rights and Obligations; 

—The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA); 

—Avoiding Legal Landmines in Your Office; 

—Understanding Sexual Harassment in the Workplace; 
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—A Manager’s Guide to Preventing and Addressing Sexual Harassment in the 

Workplace; 

—Hiring the Right Employee: Advertising and Interviewing; 

—Military Service Academies Interview Training; 

—Employers’ Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them; 

—The Employment Eligibility Verification Program; 

—Diversity Awareness: The Legal Perspective; 

—Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990; 

—Legal Pitfalls in Evaluating, Disciplining and, Terminating Employees; 

—A Manager’s Guide to Complying with the Family and Medical Leave Act; and 

—Interviewing Candidates for the Page School Program. 

Legal Advice 

The SCCE meets with Members, chiefs of staff, administrative directors, office 

managers, staff directors, chief clerks, and counsels at their request to provide legal 

advice. For example, on a daily basis, the SCCE advises Senate staff on matters 

such as interviewing, hiring, counseling, disciplining, and terminating employees in 

compliance with the law; handling and investigating sexual harassment complaints; 

accommodating the disabled; determining wage law requirements; meeting the requirements of the Family and Medical Leave Act; management’s rights and obligations under union laws and OSHA; management’s obligation to give leave to employees for military service and to reinstate them at the conclusion of that service; and 

management’s obligation to verify with Department of Homeland Security and the 

Social Security Administration that each new hire is legally eligible to work in the 

United States. In 2007, the SCCE had over 1,998 such meetings. 

The SCCE provides legal assistance to employing offices to ensure that their employee handbooks and office policies, supervisors’ manuals, job descriptions, interviewing guidelines, and performance evaluation forms comply with the law. In 2007, 

the SCCE prepared 199 such documents for Senate offices. 

Union Drives, Negotiations and Unfair Labor Practice Charges 

In 2007, the SCCE handled one union drive and assisted in negotiations with another union. 

Miscellaneous 

The SCCE, working with the Office of Web Technology, has prepared and designed an SCCE website to be launched in 2008. The site will inform Senate offices 

of their legal obligations under the CAA, will provide Senate offices access to legal 

forms and documents, and will alert Senate offices of upcoming SCCE seminars. 

Working with the management of Member offices, the SCCE has developed a series of 11 legal seminars that the SCCE will present monthly to chiefs of staff, administrative directors, office managers and the committee counterparts of each. 

Those completing the series will receive a certificate from the Secretary of the Senate. 

Responding to requests by Member offices, the SCCE designed two new seminars: 

‘‘Military Service Academies Interviewing Training’’ and ‘‘Interviewing Candidates 

for the Page School Program.’’ The SCCE gives these seminars across the country 

to the individuals who interview on behalf of Member offices for the academies and/ 

or the Senate Page School. The purpose of the training is to ensure that the interviews are conducted in compliance with the law. 

Since 2001, the SCCE has utilized a document management system. In this fiscal 

year, we upgraded the system to stay current with technological advances. In addition, the SCCE continues to operate a ‘‘paperless’’ office by scanning and electronically storing all incoming documents. 

SENATE GIFT SHOP

Since its establishment in October 1992 (2 U.S.C. 121d), the Senate Gift Shop has 

continued to provide service and products that maintain the integrity of the Senate 

while increasing the public’s awareness of its history. The Gift Shop serves Senators, their spouses, staffs, constituents, and the many visitors to the U.S. Capitol 

complex. 

The products available include a wide range of fine gift items, collectables, and 

souvenirs created exclusively for the U.S. Senate. The services available include special ordering of personalized products and hard-to-find items, custom framing, including red-lines and shadow boxes, gold embossing on leather, etching on glass and 

crystal, engraving on a variety of materials, and shipping domestically and abroad. 
113 

Facilities 

In addition to the three physical locations, the Gift Shop has developed a presence 

on Webster, the Senate’s Intranet. The Web site currently offers a limited selection 

of products that can be purchased by phone, email, or by printing and faxing the 

order form provided on the site. Plans to further develop the Web site include a 

greater selection of merchandise, eventually adding an e-commerce component to facilitate online transactions. The Gift Shop Administrative Office staff also provide 

mail order service by phone or fax, and special order and catalogue sales by phone, 

fax, and face-to-face. 

The Gift Shop maintains two warehouse facilities. The bulk of the Gift Shop’s 

stock is held in the Senate Storage Facility (SSF), an offsite storage site. While the 

Sergeant at Arms (SAA) of the Senate is in charge of the SSF’s overall management, 

the Director of the Gift Shop has responsibility for the operation and oversight of 

the interior spaces assigned for Gift Shop use. Storing inventory in this centralized, 

climate-controlled facility provides protection for the Gift Shop’s valuable inventory 

in terms of physical security as well as improved shelf life for perishable and nonperishable items alike. 

The second Gift Shop warehouse is maintained in the Hart Building. This facility 

serves as the point of distribution to the Gift Shop store and the Capitol Gift Shop 

counter, both of which have limited storage space. Stock from the Hart warehouse 

is sold directly from the Administrative and Special Order Office. The Hart warehouse also accommodates the Gift Shop’s receiving, shipping, and engraving departments. Gift Shop management will continue to look for ways to make improvements 

with the product-handling between the on-site and off-site warehouse locations. 

Sales Activities 

Sales recorded for fiscal year 2007 were $1,573,827.93. Cost of goods sold during 

this same period were $1,064,357.47, accounting for a gross profit on sales of 

$509,470.46. 

In addition to tracking gross profit from sales, the Gift Shop maintains a revolving fund and a record of inventory purchased for resale. As of October 1, 2007, the 

balance in the revolving fund was $2,302,981.87. The inventory purchased for resale 

was valued at $2,750,681.79. 

Additional Activity 

The Gift Shop is currently upgrading both its back office and point of sale computer systems. This will create the opportunity for the Senate Gift Shop computer 

hardware and software packages to be upgraded sufficiently to fulfill its needs well 

into the foreseeable future. 

In fiscal year 2007 the Gift Shop initiated a program to address issues pertaining 

to lead content in product and the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) 

recommended guidelines concerning lead. After several meetings with representatives from the CPSC and independent private companies that offer lead testing programs, the Senate Gift Shop implemented a program for evaluating and monitoring 

products. 

Selected Accomplishments in Fiscal Year 2007 

Official Congressional Holiday Ornaments 

The year 2007 marked the 14th year of the Congressional Holiday ornament. 

Each ornament in the 2006–2009 series of unique collectables depicts an image celebrating the day-to-day activities taking place on the Capitol grounds. The four images of the series are based on original oil paintings commissioned by the Gift Shop. 

Sales of the 2007 holiday ornament exceeded 30,000 ornaments, of which more 

than 7,000 were personalized with engravings designed, proofed, and etched by Senate Gift Shop staff. This highly successful effort was made possible by the combined 

efforts of our administrative, engraving, and store staffs. Additional sales of this ornament and ornaments from previous years are expected to continue for years to 

come. 

Capitol Bookend 

The Capitol bookend is a remarkably detailed recreation of the central portion of 

the Capitol. Created of resin, metal, and plaster, the piece displays fine architectural details. Marble recovered during the renovations to the east front of the Capitol was added to the building materials, making the piece truly unique. 

Capitol Box 

The Gift Shop worked with the Pickard Corporation, a manufacturer of fine china 

in Illinois, to recreate a round porcelain box originally developed by Tiffany and 
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Company more than 12 years ago and subsequently taken out of production by Tiffany. The round box contains a series of four images on its perimeter depicting the 

early meeting places of Congress. The lid depicts a more recent image of the Capitol 

as it appears today. With Tiffany’s permission, the original designs and colors were 

replicated on a Pickard Corporation white porcelain box. It was produced in the 

United States. Early sales indicate that this will once again be a most popular item 

with Gift Shop customers. 

Webster Intranet Site 

The Web site has been expanded with the addition of sections dedicated to artwork, jewelry, commemorative plates, and baby goods. The overall design of the Web 

site has been updated and navigation through the site has been streamlined. 

Projects and New Initiatives for 2008 

Senate Photo Studio 

In partnership with the Senate Photography Studio, the Gift Shop will offer prints 

of original photos taken by Senate photographers. These images will be offered as 

an exclusive to the Gift Shop and be made available in several sizes and formats. 

Professional matting and framing will be available. 

Congressional Plate Series 

The 108th, 109th, and 110th Official Congressional Plates will continue to be sold 

for years to come. The 111th congressional plate, the final of the series, has been 

produced and delivered. This plate will be held in inventory and not offered for sale 

until the convening of the 111th Congress. 

Hand Painted Fine China 

The Gift Shop is developing a line of fine china that will be hand-painted with 

Brumidi floral motifs taken from the LBJ Room, the President’s Room, and the 

Brumidi northwest corridors in the Capitol. The painting will be done by Anna 

Weatherly, an artist based in Arlington, Virginia. The collection will include assorted plates, cups and saucers, and cachepots. 

Candlesticks 

The Gift Shop is working with Mottahedeh & Company, a New York-based firm 

specializing in fine art giftware, to design and produce an exclusive brass candlestick. This item will replicate a stanchion that is part of the rail and banister 

adorning the marble staircase descending to the northwest Brumidi corridor. 

Senate Bronze Door Bookend 

The Gift Shop has begun designing a new bookend, this one depicting the Senate 

bronze doors originally designed by Thomas Crawford in 1855. The bookend will depict the fine architectural and artistic details of the original doors which are located 

near the Senators’ entrance to the chamber floor. As with the Capitol bookend, the 

materials used to create the Senate bronze door bookend will contain marble recovered from the Capitol itself. 

Senate Scarves 

The Gift Shop has developed four new scarf designs depicting various elements 

of Constantino Brumidi art. The ceiling of the LBJ Room and other Brumidi corridor 

frescos are the central subject for this product. Echo Design Group of New York will 

be providing the first proofs of the scarves in early 2008. We anticipate that this 

product will be available for sale in the spring of this year. 

Webster Intranet Site 

In the coming year the Gift Shop will continue to increase Web site usability. The 

addition of content, as well as the continual refinement of page design and navigation features, enhances user satisfaction. Using the Web site, staffers in State offices 

have the opportunity to take better advantage of the services the Gift Shop offers. 

Capitol Complex Lumber 

In the autumn of 2001, the construction of the Capitol Visitor Center extension 

required the removal of many trees from the Capitol complex. As part of a Gift Shop 

initiative, the felled trees were recovered, milled, kiln dried, and are now being 

stored as lumber at the Senate Support Facility. This stored wood, approximately 

12,000 board feet, has been inventoried and separated by species. Several products 

have been created from this commemorative lumber. Wooden desk boxes with a variety of Capitol images on porcelain stone inset into the lids are already popular. 

One style of wooden pen has been produced and is offered for sale in the shop. Other 
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designs are to follow shortly. Over the course of the next year, additional opportunities for using this lumber in the development of new products will be explored. 

SENATE HISTORICAL OFFICE

Serving as the Senate’s institutional memory, the Historical Office staff collects 

and provides information on important events, precedents, dates, statistics, and historical comparisons of current and past Senate activities for use by Members and 

staff, the media, scholars, and the general public. The staff advises senators, officers, and committees on cost-effective disposition of their non-current office files and 

assists researchers in identifying Senate-related source materials. The historians 

keep extensive biographical, bibliographical, photographic, and archival information 

on the 1,897 former and current senators. Historical Office staff edits historically 

significant transcripts and minutes of selected Senate committees and party organizations for publication, and conducts oral history interviews with key Senate staff. 

The photo historian maintains a collection of approximately 40,000 still pictures 

that includes photographs and illustrations of Senate committees and most former 

senators. The office staff develops and maintains all historical material on the Senate Web site, Senate.gov. 

Editorial Projects 

Pro Tem: Presidents Pro Tempore of the United States Senate Since 1789 

To honor the important role played by the Senate’s president pro tempore (PPT) 

since 1789, the historians completed a book-length history of the office and its occupants. For each of the 87 individuals who have served in the office, a biographical 

profile highlights their PPT service along with their non-Senate careers, includes 

commentary by contemporaries, historians, and biographers, and presents a photographic likeness of the individual. Divided into four sections (The Formative Years, 

1789–1860; A Question of Succession, 1861–1890; Fathers of the Senate, 1891–1946; 

The Modern Era, 1947-present), the book includes contextual essays that explain 

the evolution of the office, its changing duties and responsibilities, its place in the 

line of presidential succession, and the unique role played by these leaders in Senate history. The 120-page book includes a preface by current President pro tempore 

Robert C. Byrd and will be printed in May of this year. 

Traditions of the United States Senate 

In support of the 2006 new Members’ orientation program, the office prepared a 

32-page booklet designed as a guide to the Senate(s distinguishing customs and rituals. The booklet’s popularity inspired publication of a revised edition entitled Traditions of the United States Senate. In the early months of the 110th Congress, 

prior to publication of the updated Chamber floor seating chart, this booklet was 

distributed to Senate chamber gallery visitors. Sufficient copies are available so that 

it can serve that same purpose at the start of the 111th Congress. Copies are available through the Senate Office of Printing and Document Services. 

‘‘States in the Senate’’ 

In 2007, the Historical Office staff began the development of a new feature for 

Senate.gov, ‘‘States in the Senate.’’ In this collaborative project, the historians, historical editor, photo historian, and historical writer began researching and writing 

time lines and selecting illustrative images for each of the 50 States, highlighting 

persons and events of the State’s history that relate to the U.S. Senate. When complete, the project will present an interactive time line for each State, with links to 

relevant documentary and visual material. It is designed to inform senators, staff, 

and constituents about their State’s historical role in the Senate. 

Russell Building Centennial 

In preparation for the centennial of the Russell Senate Office Building’s 1909 

opening, the office prepared text for a 32-page booklet that will highlight the facility’s design, construction, and subsequent evolution. Relevant excerpts from the office’s oral history interviews have been compiled, and identification of photographs 

and other images to illustrate the building’s history is underway. In collaboration 

with the staffs of the Office of Senate Curator, the Architect of the Capitol, and the 

Senate Library, the historians are planning exhibits and a feature on Senate.gov. 

Administrative History of the Senate 

Throughout 2007, the assistant historian continued the research and writing for 

the historical account of the Senate’s administrative evolution. This study traces the 

development of the offices of the Secretary of the Senate and Sergeant at Arms 

(SAA), considers 19th and 20th century reform efforts that resulted in reorganiza-
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tion and professionalization of Senate staff, and looks at how the Senate’s administrative structure has grown and diversified. In particular, during the past year the 

assistant historian has taken advantage of newly available archival and print 

sources for the 19th century to complete additional research and has continued to 

write the first four chapters covering the period 1789–1877. 

The Idea of the Senate 

For more than two centuries, senators, journalists, scholars, and other first-hand 

observers have attempted to describe the uniqueness of the Senate, emphasizing the 

body’s fundamental strengths, as well as areas for possible reform. From James 

Madison in 1787 to Lyndon Johnson biographer Robert Caro in 2002, sharp-eyed analysts have left memorable accounts that can help modern senators better understand the Senate in its historical context. This project identifies 30 major statements by knowledgeable observers. Each of the brief chapters includes an extended 

quotation and an essay that places the quotation in historical context. This work 

will be published during 2008. 

Rules of the United States Senate, Since 1789 

In 1980, Senate Parliamentarian Emeritus Floyd M. Riddick, at the direction of 

the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, prepared a publication containing the eight codes of rules that the Senate adopted between 1789 and 1979. 

In the 1990s, the Senate Historical Office staff, in consultation with Dr. Riddick, 

developed a project to incorporate an important feature not contained in the 1980 

publication. Beyond simply listing the eight codes of rules, the office’s goal is to 

show how—and why—the Senate’s current rules have evolved from earlier versions. 

This work, to be completed during 2008, will contain eight narrative chapters outlining key debates and reasons for significant changes. Appendices will include the 

original text of all standing rules and all changes adopted between each codification. 

Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, 1774–2008 

Since publication of the 2005 print edition of The Biographical Directory of the 

United States Congress, the historians have added new biographical sketches and 

bibliographical citations that incorporate recent scholarship to the work’s online 

database (http://bioguide.congress.gov). The assistant historian and historical writer 

work closely with the staff of the House Office of History and Preservation to maintain accuracy and consistency in the joint Senate-House database and to promote 

this valuable resource among historians, teachers, students, and the public. 

Oral History Program 

The office’s historians conduct a series of oral history interviews, which provide 

personal recollections of various Senate careers. Interviews were completed with 

several members of the Senate’s telecommunications staff; Deputy Assistant Sergeant at Arms Michael A Johnson; John D. Lane, administrative assistant to Senator Brien McMahon (D-CT, 1945–1952); G. William Hoagland, former staff director 

of the Senate Budget Committee and advisor to Senate majority leader Bill Frist; 

and James R. Ketchum, the former Senate Curator. Other interviews are ongoing 

with former Senator Charles McC. Mathias (R-MD, 1969–1987); Tim Profeta, who 

played a significant role in drafting the legislation that created the Office of Senate 

Legal Counsel during his long and diverse Senate staff career that spanned 30 

years; and Keith Kennedy, former staff director of the Senate Appropriations Committee. In addition, the office staff inaugurated a new oral history project, conducting interviews with current and former Senate spouses. The complete transcripts of 25 interviews conducted since the 1970s have been posted on the Senate.gov. Each month, the office features a different oral history on the Web site. 

Unum, the Secretary of the Senate’s newsletter, now features a series entitled ‘‘Senate Voices,’’ which includes excerpts from the oral histories, beginning with former 

Senator George A. Smathers (D-FL, 1951–1969). 

Member Services: Members’ Records Management and Disposition Assistance 

The Senate archivist assisted Members’ offices with planning for the preservation 

of their permanently valuable records, emphasizing the importance of managing 

electronic records and transferring valuable records to a home-state repository with 

a digital asset management system. The Senate archivist held meetings with staff 

members from offices that will close at the end of the 110th Congress were held to 

plan for the preservation and deposit of Members’ collections. This included identifying appropriate repositories for those members who had not already selected one 

and working with staff to promote informed selection and preservation of historical 

documentation, including electronic records. The archivist revised the Checklist for 

Closing a Senator’s Office and the pamphlet, Senators’ Papers: Management and 
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Preservation Guidelines. To enhance communication within the Senate regarding 

archival preservation, the archivist led brown-bag lunch discussions and has developed a Listserv that promotes archival training for staff within members’ offices, efficient records management, and historical records preservation. The Center for Legislative Archives sponsored a special staff directors’ tour and dinner to promote appreciation of records preservation. The Senate archivist continued to work with staff 

from all repositories receiving senatorial collections to ensure adequacy of documentation and the transfer of appropriate records with adequate finding aids and 

provided advice on access restrictions as well. The archivist conducted a seminar on 

records management for Senate offices and participated in the Sergeant at Arms’ 

Senate Services Fair. In addition, in May 2008, the archivist will begin offering 

training in records management for State office staff through the use of video teleconferencing. The archivist continues to serve in leadership roles for the Society of 

American Archivists’ Congressional Papers Roundtable and the Association of Centers for the Study of Congress. 

Member Services: Committee Records Management and Disposition Assistance 

The Senate archivist provided each Senate committee with staff briefings, record 

surveys, guidance on preservation of information in electronic systems, and instructions for the transfer of permanently valuable records to the National Archives’ Center for Legislative Archives. The archivist oversaw the transfer to the Archives of 

642 accessions of Senate records. The historians provided many training sessions to 

Senate interns tasked with archiving committee records. The archivist and assistant 

archivist responded to approximately 197 requests for loans of records back to committees, totaling nearly 1,000 boxes. The archivist worked with the Foreign Relations Committee to transfer classified transcripts to the National Archives. The archivist worked with the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and the 

Senate Recording Studio to begin the transfer of televised recordings of committee 

hearings to the National Archives. The archival assistant continued to provide processing aid to committees and administrative offices in need of basic help with noncurrent files. The staff initiated a project to scan committee National Archives’ 

transfer sheets dating from 1982 through 2004 into the OnBase document management system supported by the SAA. To date, records of the Senate Committees on 

Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry; Appropriations; Armed Services; Banking, 

Housing, and Urban Affairs; and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions have been 

processed. This information is provided to the Center on electronic media both as 

a security measure and to enhance future researcher access to the records as they 

become open for research. 

Member Services/Educational Outreach: ‘‘Senate Historical Minutes’’ 

The Senate historian continued a series of ‘‘Senate Historical Minutes,’’ begun in 

1997 at the request of the Senate Democratic Leader. In 2007, he prepared and delivered a ‘‘Senate Historical Minute’’ biweekly at Democratic Conference meetings. 

These 430-word ‘‘Minutes’’ enlighten Members about significant events and personalities associated with the Senate’s institutional development. More than 300 of 

them are available as a regularly expanded feature on Senate.gov (‘‘Historical 

Minute Essays’’). An illustrated compilation was published in 2006 as 200 Notable 

Days: Senate Stories, 1787–2002. 

Photographic Collections 

The photo historian enhanced the office’s upcoming publications on Senate presidents pro tempore and the Russell Building’s centennial by selecting images to illustrate the respective texts. The photo historian continued to provide timely photographic reference service by phone and e-mail, while cataloging, digitizing, rehousing, and expanding the office’s 40,000-item image collection. She also maintained 

the office’s continuity of operations (COOP) plan and updated backup copies of the 

office’s vital electronic records. The photo historian worked closely with the National 

Archives to arrange for the scanning of a large collection of early 20th century historical photographs donated to the Office, thus adding hundreds of new images to 

the collection. 

Educational Outreach 

Much of the Historical Office’s correspondence with the general public takes place 

through Senate.gov, which has become an indispensable source for information 

about the institution. Office staff maintain and frequently update the Web site with 

timely reference and historical information. In 2007, the office staff responded to 

more than 1,300 inquiries from the general public, the press, students, family genealogists, congressional staffers, and academics, through the public e-mail address 

provided on the Senate.gov. The diverse nature of their questions reflects varying 
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levels of interest in Senate operations, institutional history, and former Members. 

Office staff also provided seminars on the general history of the Senate, Senate committees, women senators, Senate floor leadership, relations between the press and 

the Senate, and the U.S. Constitution. The historians also participated in Senate 

staff seminars and office retreats, and conducted dozens of briefings for specially 

scheduled groups. 

Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress 

This 11-member permanent committee, established in 1990 by Public Law 101– 

509, meets semiannually to advise the Senate, the House of Representatives, and 

the Archivist of the United States on the management and preservation of the 

records of Congress. Its membership representing the Senate includes the Secretary 

of the Senate, who is chairing the panel during the 110th Congress, the Senate historian, and appointees of the secretary and the majority and minority leaders. The 

Historical Office staff provides support services for the Committee’s regular meetings. 

Capitol Visitor Center Exhibition Content Committee 

Staff historians completed their assignments in drafting text for displays in the 

17,000 square-foot exhibition gallery of the Capitol Visitor Center. 

HUMAN RESOURCES

The Office of Human Resources was established in June 1995 as a result of the 

Congressional Accountability Act. The office focuses on developing and implementing human resources policies, procedures, and programs for the Office of the 

Secretary of the Senate that not only fulfill the legal requirements of the workplace 

but which complement the organization’s strategic goals and values. 

These responsibilities include recruiting and staffing; providing guidance and advice to managers and staff; training; performance management; job analysis; compensation planning, design, and administration; leave administration; records management; maintaining the employee handbooks and manuals; internal grievance 

procedures; employee relations and services; and organizational planning and development. 

The Human Resources staff administers the following programs for the Secretary’s employees: the Public Transportation Subsidy program, Student Loan Repayment Program, parking allocations, and the summer intern program that offers 

college students the opportunity to gain valuable skills and experience in a variety 

of Senate support offices. As a 2008 initiative, Human Resources has migrated eligible commuters to the Smart Benefits Program, which is operated by the Washington 

Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. 

Recruitment and Retention of Staff 

Human Resources has the ongoing task of advertising new vacancies or positions, 

screening applicants, interviewing candidates, and assisting with all phases of the 

hiring process. Human Resources coordinates with the Sergeant at Arms (SAA) 

Human Resources Department to post all SAA and Secretary vacancies on the Senate intranet, Webster, so that the larger Senate community may access the posting 

from their own offices. 

Training 

In conjunction with the Senate Chief Counsel for Employment, staff continues to 

develop and deliver training for department heads and staff. Training topics include 

sexual harassment, interviewing skills, Family Medical Leave Act administration, 

and an overview of the Congressional Accountability Act. 

Interns and Fellows 

Human Resources staff manages the Secretary’s internship program and the coordination of the Heinz Fellowship program. From advertising, conducting needs 

analyses, communicating, screening, placing and following up with all interns, the 

office keeps a close connection with these program participants in an effort to make 

the internship most beneficial to them and the organization. 

Combined Federal Campaign 

The office has taken an active role in the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) for 

the Senate community at-large. The office serves as co-director of the program for 

the Senate, participating in kick-off meetings, identifying key workers in each office, 

and disseminating and collecting necessary information and paperwork. 
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INFORMATION SYSTEMS

The staff of the Department of Information Systems provides technical hardware 

and software support for the Office of the Secretary of the Senate. Information Systems staff also interface closely with the application and network development 

groups within the Sergeant at Arms (SAA), and the Government Printing Office 

(GPO) on technical issues and joint projects. The department provides computer-related support for all local area network (LAN) servers within the Office of the Secretary. Information Systems staff provide direct application support for all software 

installed on workstations, initiate and guide new technologies, and implement next 

generation hardware and software solutions. 

Mission Evaluation 

The primary mission of the Information Systems Department is to continue to 

provide the highest level of customer satisfaction and computer support for the office 

of Secretary of the Senate. Emphasis is placed on the creation and transfer of legislative records to outside departments and agencies, meeting Disbursing Office financial responsibilities to the Member offices, and office mandated and statutory obligations. 

Fiscal Year 2007 Summary of Improvements to the Secretary’s Local Area Networks 

The Senate Active Directory/Messaging Architecture (ADMA) project implementation provided a central point of IT system administration, and the opportunity to 

deploy enterprise-wide solutions which include remote access to Outlook Web Access, Webster, Legislative Information Systems (LIS), and newswire services. The 

Secretary’s office piloted and successfully implemented the ADMA Refresh program, 

replacing server hardware to take advantage of increased performance factors, lower 

power consumption, and improve efficiency by reducing the number of servers required to provide new technologies. 

The passage of S. 1, the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007, 

mandated the replacement of the existing Public Records filing solution with an enhanced joint solution with the House of Representatives. Four older servers were replaced to accommodate the increased amount of lobby registrations. Software development directed by the SAA and the Secretary of the Senate in collaboration with 

the Office of the House Clerk’s staff insured the new system was available in December 2007. A single web portal was introduced for registrants who are no longer 

are required to visit two different Web sites to file lobby reports. Additionally, the 

new architecture provides fail-over capability to the Alternate Computing Facility 

(ACF). 

Upgraded and replaced 30 percent of handheld mobile devices (BlackBerry) for essential staff. Coverage is now available in Webster Hall. 

New laptops with secure wireless printing functionality were provided for the 

teaching staff of the Senate Page School. 

Initiated Senate Gift Shop and Stationery Room Project requirement to update existing point of sale and back office hardware and software application. Project is ongoing in 2008. 

Completed additional Senate Wireless network access verification testing for staff 

access in Hart, Russell, Dirksen, and Postal Square locations. 

Completed installation of Disbursing backup servers at an offsite location. 

Installed and upgraded ADMA servers for Chief Counsel for Employment (SCCE) 

department. Provided SCCE with additional mini-file server to transport all critical 

data to an offsite location. 

In the past, technical staff were required to visit approximately 75 workstation 

and laptop locations to install LIS applications. In May 2007, an improved method 

was adopted to audit software applications, and deployed standard applications and 

LIS upgrades without visiting each workstation location. In 2007, 5 major and 40 

minor upgrades were required on each legislative workstation/laptop. The time 

saved represents a tremendous support cost reduction, and insures a more efficient 

method of software application deployment with fewer interruptions to the end user. 

Installed and deployed a group of eight ‘‘hot-spare’’ laptops at the ACF. These 

units are located in a secure data center, and insure legislative staff can access LIS 

applications from any senate location or access from outside the Senate with virtual 

private network (VPN) access. 

Upgraded and replaced the senate Library database and Web servers. 

Implemented Curator Environmental application at the Senate Support Facility. 

Living Disaster Recovery Planning System (LDRPS) has been a long-term project 

to provide both Secretary and SAA staff with the ability to author and distribute 

COOP documents on-line. Phase 2 is scheduled for completion in March 2008, and 
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Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness (OSEP) implementation is scheduled for June 2008. 

The Infosystems Desktop Virtualization project began in November 2006 and expanded in 2007 to include a critical application, Member status tracking. Desktop 

virtualization involves separating the physical location where the personal computer 

desktop lives (such as a home or office) from where the user is accessing the computer (such as airport or hotel business center). The member status VM (virtual machines) environment was successfully tested during the July 2007 COOP exercise. 

VM lower the initial hardware investment cost by 80 percent, reduce power consumption requirements, and can simplify and expedite disaster recovery efforts. The 

LIS Project office has adopted the VM software application for testing different 

versions of its LEXA software. 

Each year a different staff member from the Information System department is 

assigned to direct the Senate Concurrent Capability Exercise. This strategy allows 

for each department staff person to gain experience in the event of a short or longterm COOP event. 

In conjunction with SAA and OSEP, the Secretary has adopted WebEOC as the 

standard application tool to manage localized or widespread coop events. Initial staff 

training for key departments was accomplished in the fourth quarter of 2007. 

Installed offsite laptop for Parliamentarian to process an indexed search of all 

precedents off-line when not connected to the Senate fiber network. 

Replaced and upgraded Senate Security workstations in preparation of the relocation to the CVC. 

Increased IT security with requesting real-time email security alert notifications 

from the SAA/Security Operations center. While intrusion detection has been dramatically increased at the network perimeter, increased levels of user training are 

required. SAA training personnel provided on-site IT Security training classes for 

personnel located in the offices of the Senate Gift Shop, Senate Library, and Office 

of Reporters of Debate 

Adopted the Microsoft Office Groove application during the July 2007 COOP exercise as the standard file migration tool to transfer legislative documents when GPO, 

Senate Office of Legislative Counsel, or the Secretary’s staff is displaced. 

Installed Senate Messaging Alert Client (SMAC) on all BlackBerry devices. 

Developed standardized server operating system software images for server upgrades in the Disbursing Office and SCCE. 

Implemented Remote Data Replication (RDR) process. Effectively this consists of 

a set of ‘‘sync’d’’ servers and provides automatic failover of all Secretary data files 

and Outlook mail account information to the ACF. 

INTERPARLIAMENTARY SERVICES

The Office of Interparliamentary Services (IPS) has completed its 26th year of operation as a department of the Secretary of the Senate. IPS is responsible for administrative, financial, and protocol functions for all interparliamentary conferences 

in which the Senate participates by statute, for interparliamentary conferences in 

which the Senate participates on an ad hoc basis, and for special delegations authorized by the Majority and Minority Leaders. The office also provides appropriate assistance as requested by other Senate delegations. 

The statutory interparliamentary conferences are as follows: NATO Parliamentary 

Assembly; Mexico-United States Interparliamentary Group; Canada-United States 

Interparliamentary Group; British-American Interparliamentary Group; United 

States-Russia Interparliamentary Group; United States-China Interparliamentary 

Group; and United States-Japan Interparliamentary Group. 

In June, the 46th Annual Meeting of the Mexico-U.S. Interparliamentary Group 

was held in Texas and the United States-China Interparliamentary Group meeting 

was held in Washington, DC. In July, the British-American Parliamentary Group 

meeting was held in Vermont. IPS staff handled the arrangements for these successful events. 

All foreign travel authorized by the Majority and Minority Leaders is arranged 

by the IPS staff. In addition to delegation trips, the office provided assistance to individual senators and staff traveling overseas. Senators and staff authorized by committees for foreign travel continue to call upon this office for assistance with passports, visas, travel arrangements, and reporting requirements. 

IPS receives and prepares for printing the quarterly financial reports for foreign 

travel from all committees in the Senate. In addition to preparing the quarterly reports for the Majority Leader and the Minority Leader, IPS assists staff members 

of senators and committees in completing the required reports. 
121 

IPS maintains regular contact with the Department of State and foreign embassy 

officials. The office staff frequently organizes visits for official foreign visitors and 

assists them in setting up meetings with leadership offices. The staff continues to 

work closely with other offices of the Secretary of the Senate and the Sergeant at 

Arms in arranging programs for foreign visitors. In addition, IPS is frequently consulted by individual Senate offices on a broad range of protocol questions. Occasional questions come from State officials or the general public regarding Congressional protocol. 

On behalf of the Majority and Minority Leaders, the staff arranges receptions in 

the Senate for heads of state, heads of government, heads of parliaments, and parliamentary delegations. Required records of expenditures on behalf of foreign visitors under authority of Public Law 100–71 are maintained in IPS. 

Planning is underway for the 48th Annual Meeting of the Canada-U.S. Interparliamentary Group and the first meeting of the United States-Japan Interparliamentary Group which will be held in the United States in 2008. Advance 

work, including site inspection, will be undertaken for the Mexico-U.S. Interparliamentary Group conference and the United States-Russia Interparliamentary 

Group conference to be held in the United States in 2009. Preparations are also underway for the 2008 United States-China Interparliamentary Group meeting and 

the spring and fall sessions of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. 

LIBRARY

The Senate Library provides legislative, legal, business, and general information 

services to the United States Senate. The library’s collection encompasses legislative 

documents that date from the Continental Congress in 1774; current and historic 

executive and judicial branch materials; an extensive book collection on American 

politics, history, and biography; and a wide array of online systems. The library also 

authors content for three Web sites—LIS.gov, Senate.gov, and Webster. 

Notable Achievements 

Senate-wide taxonomy, indices, and content development projects implemented to 

improve Web information delivery, functionality, and stability. 

Knowledge base project implemented to manage Senator biography database. 

Installed, tested, and implemented three new servers to support the catalog database upgrade and Web-based catalog. 

Processed 5,913 congressional documents received from a university library yielding 275 documents not previously in the Senate collection. 

Shelved more than 8,000 volumes of the Congressional Serial Set at the Senate 

Support Facility (SSF) and completed an inventory of the Serial Set collection. 

The use of Web technology to meet the Senate’s ever-increasing demand for information continues. A Web content management system (CMS), first installed in 2002 

to support Senate.gov publishing, significantly improved the library’s ability to efficiently deliver Senate information, while saving staff time and labor. The increased 

availability of resources on the Web combined with efficient content management 

has dramatically increased library inquiries. Prior to the availability of Web-based 

information, library inquiries totaled 46,368. Present-day inquiries totaled approximately 1.5 million. 

SENATE LIBRARY INQUIRIES 

Year Traditional 

Web 

Total 

Increase from 

prior year 

Intranets Senate.gov (percent) 

2007 ..................................................................... 26,309 63,186 1,392,947 1,482,442 ¥9 

2006 ..................................................................... 31,032 35,634 1,561,138 1,627,804 ∂90 

2005 ..................................................................... 33,080 40,488 782,588 856,156 ∂35 

2004 ..................................................................... 33,750 20,749 581,487 635,986 ∂61 

2003 ..................................................................... 46,234 18,871 329,327 394,432 1∂751 

2002 ..................................................................... 40,359 6,009 ( 2 ) 46,368 ( 3 ) 

1Web inquiry statistics, first available in 2003, increased the total from the previous year by 751 percent. 

2 Not available. 

3 Baseline. 

The library continues to invest in training on information modeling, meta data 

management best practices, and using XML publishing technology. Understanding 

the power of current technology and user needs enables the library to generate costefficient, relevant, and educational Web resources. This appreciation of user needs 
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stems from the most valuable service the library offers to the Senate—traditional 

face-to-face and telephone research services. 

Webster Modernization 

The library is serving as a major contributor in the first major review of Webster, 

the Senate intranet, since 2002. The Webster Modernization project has three primary goals: establish a Webster Advisory Group (WAG), redesign the information 

architecture, and develop a taxonomy. As a WAG member, the library will help to 

determine guidelines, policies, and technical and content areas of responsibility for 

the four Webster stakeholders—Secretary of the Senate, Sergeant at Arms (SAA), 

Senate Chaplain, and the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. The new 

Webster home page is expected to launch in 2008. 

The library is committed to building and maintaining a service-oriented information architecture, encyclopedia-like index pages, and the first-ever taxonomy in support of Webster. The information architecture will be displayed as five site-navigational index pages arranging Senate administrative products and services by service, organization, legislative topic, building location, and A-to-Z subjects. Index 

pages will include key subjects such as votes, the Congressional Record, and research databases. The taxonomy will produce targeted site search results in a timely 

and efficient manner. 

Incorporating a CMS into the Webster redesign will significantly improve both 

site production and end user workflow. The library is working with the Web Technology office to establish processes that will repurpose Senate.gov content and CMS 

functionality. Staff time dedicated to both authoring and editing Web publications 

is significantly reduced by repurposing a single data source. 

A redesigned ‘‘New Books List’’ on the library’s Webster site was launched in August. The new list is produced in XML and Web-published via the CMS—key components in the success of the entire Webster project. These technologies streamline the 

publishing process and cut production time in half. Colorful book jacket images and 

Government documents are featured on the new list. A prototype redesign for the 

library’s catalog page was created to incorporate preconfigured executable searches 

for new Senate hearings, new books, books on order, and hearings held by committee during a given year. 

Floor Schedule 

The CMS offers added efficiencies by permitting floor schedule information for 

Webster and Senate.gov to be published from a single source. In addition to convening and adjournment times, program highlights, and links to roll call votes and 

the Daily Digest, the Webster floor schedule will link to Legislative Information System (LIS) bill status records for currently active legislation. Librarians publish the 

floor schedule after each Senate meeting adjourns. 

Legislative Records 

Improved procedures to guarantee legislative data accuracy were put into place 

in February when the Senate Validation Clerk position was transferred to the library. Each day that the Senate is in session, the validation clerk edits the Congressional Record against LIS data. Discrepancies are promptly reported to the appropriate office and corrected. These changes have greatly improved the workflow between the Secretary of the Senate, the SAA, and the LIS Office within the Library 

of Congress. 

LEGISLATIVE RECORD VALIDATION 

Document type Edits 

Bill status ............................................................................................................................................................ 61 

Daily Digest .......................................................................................................................................................... 53 

Debates ................................................................................................................................................................ 67 

Executive status ................................................................................................................................................... 26 

Legislative activity ............................................................................................................................................... 5 

Morning Business ................................................................................................................................................. 31 

Total ........................................................................................................................................................ 243 

2007 Days in session .......................................................................................................................................... 171 

Efficient Web-publishing tools, including the CMS and XML, are used to produce 

the library’s three most popular legislative publications—Hot Bills List, Appropria-
123 

tions Legislation, and Cloture Motion Activity tables. These publications, which are 

generated from a single data source, appear on Webster, LIS.gov, and Senate.gov. 

Librarians are responsible for monitoring floor activity and updating these tables on 

a daily basis. 

HOT BILLS, APPROPRIATIONS, AND CLOTURE WEB INQUIRIES 

Publication Senate.gov LIS Webster Total 

Hot bills (active legislation) ......................................................... 376,512 22,794 2,815 402,121 

Appropriations legislation (fiscal year 1987-present) ................. 16,528 9,917 9,464 35,909 

Cloture motion activity (1971-present) ........................................ 7,183 865 5,664 13,712 

Total Web Inquiries ......................................................... 451,742 .................... .................... ....................

Instruction and Professional Outreach 

Two new research classes and an interactive resource page on Webster were developed this year. Librarians combine service, research, and technical skills to provide practical training for the Senate. In conjunction with National Library Week, 

Technical Services presented public catalog training sessions for Senate staff. 

SENATE LIBRARY CLASSES 

Subject Students Classes 

Insider’s Guide to Senate.gov ......................................................................................................... 11 2 

LIS Savvy ......................................................................................................................................... 297 37 

Research tips and tricks ................................................................................................................ 37 2 

Totals ................................................................................................................................. 345 41 

Senator Biography Database 

The library is overseeing efforts to customize a multifunction data repository for 

biographical and institutional information about the 1,897 individuals who have 

served as United States senators. The knowledge database will enhance the storage, 

organization, and retrieval of Senate Web content through support for the site 

search engine, taxonomy construction, as well as display of an A-to-Z index and topical subindexes. The library is testing 50 member record data fields with an initial 

database release scheduled for August 2008. 

Collection Development 

The library provides several digital resources to the Senate. The American State 

Papers and the United States Congressional Serial Set, with a comprehensive collection of 325,000 legislative documents and 56,000 maps, were added this year. These 

provide staff with desktop access to two centuries of the most important legislative 

documents. The New York Times microfilm collection scope expanded significantly 

to include 1851–1961 following the transfer of microfilm reels from two executive 

branch agencies. 

The library received and processed the first installment of 5,913 congressional 

documents offered by the University of Wyoming. These acquisitions provided the 

Senate with 275 documents not previously in the collection and represent a rare opportunity to improve the comprehensiveness of the congressional collection. 

As a participant in the Government Printing Office’s (GPO) Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), the library receives selected categories of legislative, executive, and judicial branch publications. The library received 18,903 Government publications in 2007, 12,050 of those through the FDLP. In response to the trend of 

issuing Government documents in electronic format, 702 links were added to the library catalog, bringing the total to more than 22,300. The links provide Senate staff 

desktop access to the full-text of each document. 

ACQUISITIONS 

Category Total 

Congressional Documents .................................................................................................................................... 14,736 

Executive Branch Publications ............................................................................................................................. 4,167 
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ACQUISITIONS—Continued 

Category Total 

Books .................................................................................................................................................................... 822 

Total Acquisitions ................................................................................................................................... 19,725 

A major ongoing project is the title-by-title evaluation of executive branch publications. During the project’s sixth year, 1,279 items were withdrawn from the collection, 651 of which were donated to requesting Federal libraries. The project’s final 

phase will improve organization and access by integrating Government documents 

into the larger primary collection. Toward this end, 382 documents were merged 

into the collection. 

Cataloging 

The library’s productive cataloging staff draws on years of experience to produce 

and maintain a catalog of more than 187,700 bibliographic items. During 2007, 

13,643 items were added to the catalog—a 3 percent increase over 2007—including 

6,628 new titles, and 5,637 withdrawn items. A total of 37,331 maintenance transactions contributed to the content, currency, and record integrity of the catalog. 

Senate staff searched the library catalog on 5,035 occasions (∂6 percent), viewing 

4,819 catalog pages. The catalog is updated nightly to ensure that Senate staff will 

retrieve accurate and current information on library holdings. The addition of book 

jacket images for 280 new titles enhanced visual appeal and utility. 

A related, ongoing project involves cataloging the Senate Historical Office’s book 

collection. Records for 298 titles were added to the library catalog, bringing the total 

number of Historical Office titles to 1,665. Library staff assisted the Historical Office with the reorganization and shelving of their book collection in LC call number 

order. 

INFORMATION SERVICE SUPPORT ACTIVITIES 

Category Total 

Document Deliveries ............................................................................................................................................. 3,319 

Circulation: 

Item Loans .................................................................................................................................................. 2,547 

New Accounts .............................................................................................................................................. 406 

Total Accounts ............................................................................................................................................. 1,308 

Microform Center: 

Titles Used .................................................................................................................................................. 49 

Journals Used .............................................................................................................................................. 658 

Pages Printed .............................................................................................................................................. 2,926 

Photocopies .......................................................................................................................................................... 101,533 

Name Authorities Cooperative Program (NACO) 

NACO, an international cataloging authority headquartered at the Library of 

Congress, manages personal name and subject control for the library community. As 

one of 457 participants, the library contributed 248 personal names and congressional terms. That exceptional number underscores the very special nature of the 

Senate’s collections and skills of the library’s catalogers. 

Library System Upgrade 

The library installed, tested, and deployed two new data servers and a Web server 

to support the catalog upgrade. New capabilities have shortened data transfer time, 

provided needed data redundancy, enhanced authority record maintenance, and provided support for dynamic delivery of catalog content. That content will be desktop 

available via preconfigured executable searches and RSS feeds. The server and system upgrades were accomplished with no service disruption for Senate staff searching the library’s catalog. 

Senate Support Facility (SSF) 

A networked computer workstation and printer were added to the library’s SSF 

site. This provides for communication with the main library and facilitates searching the Senate’s online resources, including Webster and the library catalog. 

Staff shelved more than 8,000 volumes of the United States Congressional Serial 

Set received from Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania. The project replaced 
125 

volumes that were in poor condition, identified volumes in need of conservation, and 

recovered 40 missing volumes. 

Preservation and Binding 

During the year, 393 volumes containing hearings, committee prints, bills and 

resolutions, Congressional Records, and other materials were bound by the GPO. In 

addition, two sets of the Annals of Congress (84 volumes) were cleaned and bound 

for preservation. Technical Services staff attended several book repair training sessions led by the Director of the Office of Conservation and Preservation. In the 

course of these sessions, 36 historic volumes were repaired. 

Budget 

Budget savings in 2007 totaled $1,058; and, after a decade of budget monitoring, 

savings total $76,871.86. This continual review of purchases eliminates materials 

not meeting the Senate’s current information needs. This oversight is also critical 

in offsetting cost increases for core materials and for acquiring new materials. The 

goal is to provide the highest service level using the latest technologies and best resources in the most cost-effective manner. 

Continuity of Operations (COOP) Plan 

Several library initiatives further enabled the Office of the Secretary to provide 

information services to the Senate from off-site. Projects include housing core documents at the SSF, training staff to remotely access the Senate network from a Senate-issued laptop, and training staff to remotely check-in with the Office of Security 

and Emergency Preparedness from a Senate-issued Blackberry. Additionally, the library expanded the digital congressional research collection containing fully searchable congressional documents dating from the First Congress. These databases can 

be remotely accessed and support immediate digital delivery of information. 

Unum, Newsletter of the Office of the Secretary of the Senate 

Unum, the Secretary’s quarterly newsletter has been produced by Senate Library 

staff since October 1997. It serves as an historical record of accomplishments, 

events, and personnel in the Office of the Secretary of the Senate. The newsletter 

is distributed throughout the Senate, and to former staff and Senators. The four 

2007 issues highlighted the 10-year anniversaries of LIS and Unum, three committee histories, and a National Library Week book talk by former Senator Edward 

Brooke. 

Major Library Goals for 2008 

Establish taxonomy and service-oriented architecture for the Webster redesign. 

Use the Senator Biography Database to populate frequently requested information 

lists published on Senate.gov. 

Provide library profiles to disaster recovery agencies. 

Establish a GPO contract for binding special material. 
126 

SENATE LIBRARY STATISTICS FOR CALENDAR YEAR 2007—ACQUISITIONS 

Books Government Documents Congressional Publications 

Total 

Ordered Received Paper Fiche Hearings Prints Bylaw Reports/ Docs 

January ............................................................................................................................................... 13 82 301 31 365 15 95 167 1,056 February ............................................................................................................................................. 11 29 389 ................ 300 14 77 201 1,010 March ................................................................................................................................................. 41 66 323 ................ 369 44 145 226 1,173 

1st Quarter ........................................................................................................................... 65 177 1,013 31 1,034 73 317 594 3,239 

April .................................................................................................................................................... 25 49 162 230 282 30 72 221 1,046 May ..................................................................................................................................................... 33 125 136 214 358 40 62 282 1,217 June .................................................................................................................................................... 22 76 161 ................ 375 21 128 369 1,130 

2nd Quarter .......................................................................................................................... 80 250 459 444 1,015 91 262 872 3,393 

July ..................................................................................................................................................... 11 53 168 25 384 13 84 379 1,106 August ................................................................................................................................................ 4 45 165 304 349 22 64 505 1,454 September .......................................................................................................................................... 19 54 257 103 234 21 61 254 984 

3rd Quarter ........................................................................................................................... 34 152 590 432 967 56 209 1,138 3,544 

October ............................................................................................................................................... 81 127 216 230 2,331 131 43 480 3,558 November ........................................................................................................................................... 24 65 171 146 2,723 152 71 425 3,753 December ........................................................................................................................................... 22 51 285 150 1,326 73 65 288 2,238 

4th Quarter ........................................................................................................................... 127 243 672 526 6,380 356 179 1,193 9,549 

2007 Total .......................................................................................................................................... 306 822 2,734 1,433 9,396 576 967 3,797 19,725 2006 Total .......................................................................................................................................... 347 889 2,062 1,271 3,350 221 748 3,003 11,544 Percent Change .................................................................................................................................. –11.8 –7.5 32.6 12.8 180.5 160.6 29.3 26.4 70.9 
127 

SENATE LIBRARY STATISTICS FOR CALENDAR YEAR 2007—CATALOGING 

S. Hearing 

Numbers 

Added to 

LIS 

Bibliographic Records Cataloged 

Total 

Records 

Cataloged Books 

Government Documents 

Congressional Publications 

Paper Fiche Electronic 

Hearings Prints 

Docs./ 

Pubs./ 

Reports 

January ............................................................................................................................................... 12 65 7 ................ 10 550 5 12 649 February ............................................................................................................................................. 36 15 2 6 14 357 ................ 10 404 March ................................................................................................................................................. 29 28 7 2 5 601 19 14 676 

1st Quarter ........................................................................................................................... 77 108 16 8 29 1,508 24 36 1,729 

April .................................................................................................................................................... 26 41 5 ................ 29 331 4 8 418 May ..................................................................................................................................................... 59 48 5 ................ 55 255 ................ 11 374 June .................................................................................................................................................... 16 41 6 1 23 505 43 8 627 

2nd Quarter .......................................................................................................................... 101 130 16 1 107 1,091 47 27 1,419 

July ..................................................................................................................................................... 288 15 1 2 59 527 1 17 622 August ................................................................................................................................................ 115 17 14 5 7 510 1 1 555 September .......................................................................................................................................... 44 31 7 2 18 751 1 8 818 

3rd Quarter ........................................................................................................................... 447 63 22 9 84 1,788 3 26 1,995 

October ............................................................................................................................................... 35 83 18 6 22 548 ................ 7 684 November ........................................................................................................................................... 5 46 5 ................ 14 326 ................ 25 416 December ........................................................................................................................................... 22 21 7 33 11 319 ................ 15 406 

4th Quarter ........................................................................................................................... 62 150 30 39 47 1,193 ................ 47 1,506 

2007 Total .......................................................................................................................................... 687 451 84 57 267 5,580 74 136 6,649 2006 Total .......................................................................................................................................... 318 1,499 70 96 171 5,506 98 692 8,132 Percent Change .................................................................................................................................. 116.0 ¥69.9 20.0 ¥40.6 56.1 1.3 ¥24.5 ¥80.4 ¥18.2 
128 

SENATE LIBRARY STATISTICS FOR CALENDAR YEAR 2007—DOCUMENT DELIVERY 

Volumes 

Loaned 

Materials 

Delivered Facsimiles 

Micrographics 

Center Pages Printed 

Photocopiers 

Pages Print- ed 

January ........................................................................... 275 374 62 153 8,389 

February ......................................................................... 286 289 29 211 11,314 

March ............................................................................. 168 306 31 158 4,886 

1st Quarter ....................................................... 729 969 122 522 24,589 

April ............................................................................... 244 369 66 186 7,674 

May ................................................................................ 241 286 24 414 6,083 

June ................................................................................ 204 270 56 253 16,327 

2nd Quarter ...................................................... 689 925 146 853 30,084 

July ................................................................................. 193 237 34 146 12,795 

August ............................................................................ 180 191 31 359 9,074 

September ...................................................................... 207 223 .................. 171 7,842 

3rd Quarter ....................................................... 580 651 65 676 29,711 

October ........................................................................... 216 318 29 308 7,794 

November ....................................................................... 206 290 29 .................. 5,914 

December ....................................................................... 127 166 25 567 3,441 

4th Quarter ....................................................... 549 774 83 875 17,149 

2007 Total ..................................................................... 2,547 3,319 416 2,926 101,533 

2006 Total ..................................................................... 2,941 3,290 878 4,479 101,297 

Percent Change ............................................................. ¥13.4 ∂0.9 ¥52.6 ¥34.7 ∂0.2 

SENATE PAGE SCHOOL

The United States Senate Page School exists to provide a smooth transition from 

and to the students’ home schools, providing those students with as sound a program, both academically and experientially, as possible during their stay in the Nation’s capital, within the limits of the constraints imposed by their work situation. 

Summary of Accomplishments 

Completed the process to be re-accredited by the Middle States Commission on 

Secondary Schools on December 12, 2007. 

Conducted closing ceremonies for two successful page classes on June 8, 2007, and 

January 18, 2008, the last day of school for each semester. 

Successfully completed orientation and course scheduling for the Spring 2007 and 

Fall 2007 pages. Needs of incoming students determined the semester schedules. 

Provided extended educational experiences, including 19 field trips, a guest speaker, opportunities to play musical instruments and vocalize, and foreign language 

study with the aid of tutors. Summer pages participated in eight field trips to educational sites as an extension of the page experience. Administered national tests 

for qualification in scholarship programs as well. 

Continued the community service project embraced by pages and staff since 2002. 

The Senate Page School students and staff collected items for gift packages and 

then assembled and shipped the packages, which included letters of support, to military personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

Purchased updated materials and equipment, including new academic support 

software for use in math, social studies, and English. Purchased a few pieces of replacement equipment for the science lab, as well as an LCD projector and presentation cart for use in all classrooms. 

Reviewed and updated the continuity of operations and evacuation plans. Pages 

and staff continue to practice evacuating to primary and secondary sites. 

Participated in escape hood training. Staff was recertified in CPR/AED procedures. 

Trained tutors and substitute teachers in evacuation procedures. 
129 

Continued ongoing communication among the Page School, the SAA, Party Secretaries, and the Page Program. 

Summary of Plans 

Our goals include: 

—Continuing individualized small group instruction and tutoring by teachers on 

an as-needed basis; 

—Continuing to offer foreign language tutoring assistance to students; 

—Complementing the curriculum with field trips focusing on sites of historic, political, and scientific importance; 

—Administering English usage pre- and post-tests to students each semester to 

assist faculty in determining needs of students for usage instruction; 

—Offering staff development options, including attendance at seminars conducted 

by Education and Training and subject matter and/or educational issue conferences conducted by national organizations’; 

—Continuing the community service project; 

—Conducting a Senate Page School Feedback Survey of all first semester pages 

to assist staff in determining areas of strength and areas for improvement in 

the program; and 

—Providing all necessary responses to the re-accreditation report. 

PRINTING AND DOCUMENT SERVICES

The Office of Printing and Document Services (OPDS) serves as the liaison to the 

Government Printing Office (GPO) for the Senate’s official printing, ensuring that 

all Senate printing is in compliance with Title 44, Chapter 7 (Congressional Printing 

and Binding) of the U.S. Code as it relates to Senate documents, hearings, committee prints and other official publications. The office assists the Senate by coordinating, scheduling, delivering and preparing Senate legislation, hearings, documents, committee prints and miscellaneous publications for printing, and provides 

printed copies of all legislation and public laws to the Senate and the public. In addition, the office assigns publication numbers to all hearings, committee prints, documents and other publications; orders all blank paper, envelopes and letterhead for 

the Senate; and prepares page counts of all Senate hearings in order to compensate 

commercial reporting companies for the preparation of hearings. 

Printing Services 

During fiscal year 2007, OPDS prepared 4,744 requisitions authorizing GPO to 

print and bind the Senate’s work, exclusive of legislation and the Congressional 

Record. This number represents a 10 percent increase over the previous year. Since 

the requisitioning done by the OPDS is central to the Senate’s printing, the office 

is uniquely suited to perform invoice and bid reviewing responsibilities for Senate 

printing. As a result of this office’s cost accounting duties, OPDS is able to review 

and assure accurate GPO invoicing as well as play an active role in helping to provide the best possible bidding scenario for Senate publications. 

In addition to processing requisitions, the Printing Services Section coordinates 

proof handling, job scheduling and tracking for stationery products, Senate hearings, Senate publications and other miscellaneous printed products, as well as monitoring blank paper and stationery quotas for each Senate office and committee. 

OPDS also coordinates a number of publications for other Senate offices such as the 

Curator, Historian, Disbursing Office, Legislative Clerk, and Senate Library, as well 

as the U.S. Botanic Garden, U.S. Capitol Police and Architect of the Capitol. These 

tasks include providing guidance for design, paper selection, print specifications, 

monitoring print quality and distribution. Last year’s major printing projects included ‘‘The Report of the Secretary of the Senate’’, ‘‘New Senators Guide’’, ‘‘The 

United States Senate 110th Congress, Traditions of the United States Senate’’, and 

‘‘PRO TEM: Presidents Pro Tempore of the United States Since 1789’’. 

Hearing Billing Verification 

Senate committees often use outside reporting companies to transcribe their hearings, both in-house and in the field. OPDS processes billing verifications for these 

transcription services ensuring that costs billed to the Senate are accurate. OPDS 

utilizes a program developed in conjunction with the Sergeant at Arms Computer 

Division that provides more billing accuracy and greater information gathering capacity and adheres to the guidelines established by the Senate Committee on Rules 

and Administration for commercial reporting companies to bill the Senate for transcription services. During 2007, OPDS provided commercial reporting companies 

and corresponding Senate committees a total of 935 billing verifications of Senate 
130 

hearings and business meetings. Over 77,000 transcribed pages were processed at 

a total billing cost of over $498,000, a 15 percent increase over the previous year. 

The office continued processing all file transfers and billing verifications, between 

committees and reporting companies electronically ensuring efficiency and accuracy. 

Department staff continues training to apply today’s expanding digital technology 

to improve performance and services. 

HEARING TRANSCRIPT AND BILLING VERIFICATIONS 

2004 2005 2006 2007 

Billing Verifications ...................................................... 787 949 934 935 

Average per Committee ................................................ 41.4 49.9 49.2 49.2 

Total Transcribed Pages ............................................... 56,262 66,597 66,158 77,831 

Average Pages/Committee ............................................ 2,961 3,505 3,482 4,096 

Transcribed Pages Cost ................................................ $366,904 $426,815 $433,742 $498,541 

Average Cost/Committee .............................................. $19,311 $22,463 $22,829 $26,239 

Secretary of the Senate Service Center 

The Service Center within OPDS is staffed by experienced GPO detailees who provide Senate committees and the Secretary of the Senate’s Office with complete publishing services for hearings, committee prints, and the preparation of the Congressional Record. These services include keyboarding, proofreading, scanning, and composition. The Service Center provides the best management of funds available 

through the Congressional Printing and Binding Appropriation because committees 

have been able to decrease, or eliminate, additional overtime costs associated with 

the preparation of hearings. Additionally, the Service Center provides work for GPO 

detailees assigned to legislative offices during Senate State work periods. 

Document Services 

The Document Services Section coordinates requests for printed legislation and 

miscellaneous publications with other departments within the Secretary’s Office, 

Senate committees, and GPO. This section ensures that the most current version 

of all material is available and that sufficient quantities are available to meet projected demands. The Congressional Record, a printed record of Senate and House 

floor proceedings, Extension of Remarks, Daily Digest and miscellaneous pages, is 

one of the many printed documents provided by the office on a daily basis. In addition to the Congressional Record, the office processed and distributed 11,992 distinct 

legislative items during the first Session of the 110th Congress, including Senate 

and House bills, resolutions, committee and conference reports, executive documents, and public laws. 

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD STATISTICS 

2005 2006 2007 

Total Pages Printed ................................................................................... 34,787 24,881 37,699 

For the Senate .................................................................................. 16,393 12,362 16,659 

For the House .................................................................................... 18,394 12,519 21,040 

Total Copies Printed and Distributed ........................................................ 1,049,463 780,302 1,001,619 

To the Senate .................................................................................... 295,366 210,084 274,524 

To the House ..................................................................................... 397,327 326,648 424,944 

To the Executive Branch and the Public ................................................... 356,770 243,570 ........................

Total Production Costs ............................................................................... $16,014,706 $13,115,660 ........................

Senate Costs ..................................................................................... $6,640,823 $5,006,708 $6,483,411 

House Costs ...................................................................................... $8,933,244 $7,784,653 $10,035,868 

Other Costs ....................................................................................... $440,639 $324,299 $374,102 

Data provided by the Government Printing Office. 

The demand for online access to legislative information continues to be strong. Before Senate legislation can be posted online, it must be received in the Senate 

through OPDS. Improved database reports allow the office to report receipt of all 

legislative bills and resolutions received in the Senate which can then be made 

available online and accessed through other Web sites, such as LIS and Thomas, 

by congressional staff and the public. 
131 

Customer Service 

The primary responsibility of OPDS is to provide services to the Senate. However, 

the office also has a responsibility to the general public, the press, and other Government agencies. Requests for legislative material are received at the walk-in 

counter, through the mail, by fax, and electronically. Online ordering of legislative 

documents and the Legislative Hot List Link, where Members and staff can confirm 

arrival of printed copies of the most sought-after legislative documents, continued 

to be popular. The Legislative Hot List site is updated several times daily each time 

new documents arrive from GPO to the Document Room. In addition, the office handled thousands of phone calls pertaining to the Senate’s official printing, document 

requests and legislative questions. Recorded messages, fax, and e-mail operate 

around the clock and are processed as they are received, as are mail requests. The 

office stresses prompt, courteous customer service while providing accurate answers 

to Senate and public requests. 

SUMMARY OF ANNUAL CUSTOMER SERVICE STATISTICS 

Calendar year Congress/session Public mail Fax request On-line request Counter request 

2004 ............................................ 108th/2nd .......... 1,137 2,229 564 36,780 

2005 ............................................ 109th/1st ........... 1,369 2,326 1,464 40,105 

2006 ............................................ 109th/2nd .......... 1,048 1,633 1,751 26,640 

2007 ............................................ 110th/1st ........... 957 1,346 1,613 24,854 

On-Demand Publication 

The office supplements depleted legislation where needed by producing additional 

copies in the DocuTech Service Center, staffed by experienced GPO detailees, who 

provide Member offices and Senate committees with on-demand printing and binding of bills and reports. On-demand publication allows the department to cut the 

quantities of documents printed directly from GPO and reduces waste. The 

DocuTech is networked with GPO, allowing print files to be sent back and forth 

electronically. This allows OPDS to print necessary legislation in the event of a GPO 

COOP situation. During 2007, the DocuTech Center produced 378 task orders, for 

a total of 8,843 unique legislative documents and over 595,000 printed pages. 

Accomplishments and Future Goals 

Over the past year, OPDS has striven to provide new services and improve existing ones. Of particular note is the office staff’s commitment to the ‘‘Greening the 

Capitol’’ initiative. Improved quality 100 percent recycled copier and letterhead 

paper has been made available to all Senate offices. The office staff works diligently 

to track document requirements by monitoring print quantities and reducing waste 

and associated costs. Electronic proofing procedures implemented in 2006 continued; 

over four hundred new and revised print jobs were routed electronically for customer approval, improving turnaround time and efficiency. 

The office’s future goals include working with GPO on their Federal Digital and 

Microcomp Replacement Systems developing online ordering of stationery products 

for Senate offices. The office staff continually focuses on COOP and the emergency 

preparedness. OPDS staff continues to seek new ways to use technology to assist 

Members and staff with added services and improved access to information. 

OFFICE OF PUBLIC RECORDS

The Office of Public Records receives, processes, and maintains records, reports, 

and other documents filed with the Secretary of the Senate involving the Federal 

Election Campaign Act, as amended; the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995; the Senate Code of Official Conduct: Rule 34, Public Financial Disclosure; Rule 35, Senate 

Gift Rule filings; Rule 40, Registration of Mass Mailing; Rule 41, Political Fund Designees; and Rule 41(6), Supervisor’s Reports on Individuals Performing Senate Services; and Foreign Travel Reports. 

The office provides for the inspection, review, and reproduction of these documents. From October, 2006, through September, 2007, the Public Records office staff 

assisted more than 2,400 individuals seeking information from reports filed with the 

office. This figure does not include assistance provided by telephone, nor help given 

to lobbyists attempting to comply with the provisions of the Lobbying Disclosure Act 

of 1995. A total of 140,010 photocopies were sold in the period. In addition, the office 

works closely with the Federal Election Commission, the Senate Select Committee 

on Ethics and the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives concerning the filing 

requirements of the aforementioned Acts and Senate rules. 
132 

Fiscal Year 2007 Accomplishments 

The office staff changed the lobbying e-filing program to conform with the modifications to the IBM forms made by the Clerk of the House; and began work to implement S. 1, the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which amended the 

Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995. 

Plans for Fiscal Year 2008 

The Public Records office will complete implementation of S.1. 

Automation Activities 

During fiscal year 2007, the Senate Office of Public Records staff began design 

of a new lobbying data base, new public query programs for senate.gov, and a new 

page design for senate.gov. 

Federal Election Campaign Act, as Amended 

The Act requires Senate candidates to file quarterly reports. Filings totaled 4,461 

documents containing 283,564 pages. 

Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 (LDA) 

The Act requires semi-annual financial and lobbying activity reports. As of September 30, 2007, 6,915 registrants represented 18,068 clients and employed 41,386 

individuals who met the statutory definition of ‘‘lobbyist’’ since the January 1, 1996 

enactment of the LDA. The number of registrants increased by almost 350 from the 

previous year, while the number of clients actually decreased by 3,400. This reduction is due, in part, to a review of the records to remove duplicate entries. The total 

number of individual lobbyists disclosed on 2007 registrations and reports was 

16,469. The total number of lobbying registrations and reports processed was 

43,705. 

Public Financial Disclosure 

The filing date for Public Financial Disclosure Reports was May 15, 2007. The reports were available to the public and press by Thursday, June 14. Copies were provided to the Select Committee on Ethics and the appropriate State officials. A total 

of 3,693 reports and amendments were filed containing 22,465 pages. There were 

424 requests to review or receive copies of the documents. 

Senate Rule 35 (Gift Rule) 

The Senate Office of Public Records has received 365 reports during fiscal year 

2006. 

Registration of Mass Mailing 

Senators are required to file mass mailings on a quarterly basis. The number of 

pages was 682. 

SENATE SECURITY

The Office of Senate Security (OSS) was established, under the Secretary of the 

Senate, by Senate Resolution 243 (100th Congress, 1st Session). The office is responsible for the administration of classified information programs in Senate offices and 

committees. In addition, OSS serves as the Senate’s liaison to the Executive Branch 

in matters relating to the security of classified information in the Senate. This report covers the period from January 1, 2007, through December 31, 2007. 

Personnel Security 

Five hundred eighty-seven Senate employees held one or more security clearances 

at the end of 2007. This number does not include clearances for employees of the 

Architect of the Capitol, nor does it include clearances for congressional fellows assigned to Senate offices. OSS also processes these clearances. 

OSS processed 3,315 personnel security actions, a 45.8 percent increase from 

2006. One hundred-forty investigations for new security clearances were initiated 

last year, and 96 security clearances were transferred from other agencies. Senate 

regulations, as well as some Executive Branch regulations, require that individuals 

granted Top Secret security clearances be reinvestigated at least every 5 years. Staff 

holding Secret security clearances are reinvestigated every 10 years. During the 

past 12 months, reinvestigations were initiated on 87 Senate employees. OSS processed 193 routine terminations of security clearances during the reporting period 

and transmitted 431 outgoing visit requests. The remainder of the personnel security actions consisted of updating access authorizations and compartments. 

Overall, the average time required to process a Senate employee for a security 

clearance has decreased from 309 days to 270 days. The average time for investiga-
133 

tions has decreased by 12.6 percent relative to 2006. The average time for an initial 

investigation conducted and adjudicated by the Department of Defense (DOD) is 241 

days from the date that OSS requests the investigation until the letter from DOD 

granting the clearance is received in OSS. The average time for DOD initial investigations decreased 13.0 percent. The periodic re-investigation process averages 304 

days, a decrease of 9.4 percent relative to 2006. The average time for an initial investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and adjudicated 

by DOD is 225 days, while the periodic re-investigation process averages 363 days. 

The FBI investigation with DOD adjudication times represents a decrease of 22.1 

percent and 6.2 percent respectively. 

Two hundred-one records checks were conducted at the request of the FBI and 

Office of Personal Management (OPM). Four record checks were performed on behalf of Customs and Immigration. The remaining checks were performed for the 

FBI. This represents a 1.0 percent increase in records checks completed by OSS. 

Security Awareness 

OSS conducted or hosted 64 security briefings for Senate staff. Topics included: 

information security, counterintelligence, foreign travel, security managers’ responsibilities, office security management, and introductory security briefings. This represents a 0.2 percent increase from 2006. 

Document Control 

OSS received or generated 3,623 classified documents consisting of 118,070 pages 

during calendar year 2007. This is a 45.6 percent increase in the number of documents received or generated in 2006. Additionally, 80,940 pages from 2,910 classified documents no longer required for the conduct of official Senate business were 

destroyed. This represents a 30.3 percent increase in destruction from 2006. OSS 

transferred 1,232 documents consisting of 38,525 pages to Senate offices or external 

agencies, up 36.0 percent from 2006. These figures do not include classified documents received directly by the Appropriations Committee, Armed Services Committee, Foreign Relations Committee, and Select Committee on Intelligence, in accordance with agreements between OSS and those Committees. Overall, Senate Security completed 7,765 document transactions and handled over 237,535 pages of 

classified material in 2007, an increase of 38.0 percent 

Secure storage of classified material in the OSS vault was provided for 107 Senators, committees, and support offices. This arrangement minimizes the number of 

storage areas throughout the Capitol and Senate office buildings, thereby affording 

greater security for classified material. 

Secure Meeting Facilities 

OSS secure conference facilities were utilized on 1,406 occasions by a total of 

9,213 people during 2007. Use of OSS conference facilities increased 19.9 percent 

over 2006 levels. Eight hundred ninety-six meetings, briefings, or hearings were 

conducted in OSS’ three conference rooms. Of those, nine were ‘‘All senators’’ briefings, and two were hearings. OSS also provided, to senators and staff, secure telephones, secure computers, secure facsimile machine, and secure areas for reading 

and production of classified material on 510 occasions in 2007. 

Projects and Accomplishments 

OSS hosted the second annual Technical Exposition for the Office of the Director 

of National Intelligence (DNI) in April 2007. Classified and unclassified exhibits representing the technical and scientific accomplishments of the U.S. Intelligence Community were shown to Members of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as cleared staff from throughout the Legislative Branch. OSS 

personnel provided assistance with security, site preparation, and escorting during 

the 4 months leading up to the Expo. The office and DNI are planning another Expo 

in March 2008. 

OSS is preparing to move to the Capitol Visitors Center (CVC) when it is ready 

for occupancy in the summer of 2008. OSS has been coordinating with internal offices and other U.S. Government agencies to insure the space will be appropriate 

for the storage, processing and discussion of classified material. OSS is developing 

plans and procedures for use of the new space and for moving the Senate’s classified 

holdings to the new space in a secure and efficient manner. This will involve determining the need for holding each of the approximately 10,000 documents currently 

stored in the office. 

STATIONERY ROOM

The mission of the Keeper of the Stationery is to: 
134 

—Sell stationery items for use by Senate offices and other authorized legislative 

organizations; 

—Select a variety of stationery items to meet the needs of the Senate environment 

on a day-to-day basis and maintain a sufficient inventory of these items; 

—Purchase supplies utilizing open market procurement, competitive bid and/or 

GSA Federal Supply Schedules; 

—Maintain product supply and order capability during Continuity of Operations 

incidents; 

—Maintain individual official stationery expense accounts for Senators, Committees and Officers of the Senate; 

—Render monthly expense statements; 

—Ensure receipt of reimbursements for all purchases by the client base through 

direct payments or through the certification process; 

—Make payments to all vendors of record for supplies and services in a timely 

manner and certify receipt of all supplies and services; and 

—Provide delivery of all purchased supplies to the requesting offices. 

Fiscal Year 2007 

Statistics 

Fiscal Year 2006 

Statistics 

Gross Sales ............................................................................................................................. $5,456,125 $4,945,381 

Sales Transactions .................................................................................................................. 45,608 45,471 

Purchase Orders Issued .......................................................................................................... 7,356 6,795 

Vouchers Processed ................................................................................................................. 8,078 8,313 

Office Deliveries ...................................................................................................................... 7,305 6,085 

Number of Items Delivered ..................................................................................................... 153,813 156,172 

Number of Items Sold ............................................................................................................. 587,529 608,104 

Mass Transit Media Sold ........................................................................................................ 91,569 86,483 

$20.00 ............................................................................................................................ 75,922 72,388 

$10.00 ............................................................................................................................ 6,955 4,510 

$5.00 .............................................................................................................................. 8,692 9,585 

Public transportation users .................................................................................................... 1,763 ( 1 ) 

1 Not available. 

Fiscal Year 2007 Highlights and Projects 

Recycling Initiatives 

Through review of products and processes, the Stationery Room began examining 

its recycling commitment to promote the ‘‘Greening of the Capitol’’ initiative that 

was launched during this reporting period. Our goal is to promote environmentallyfriendly and safe products and product end-of life cycle disposition. 

In conjunction with the Office of the Senate Superintendent, the Stationery Room 

launched a battery recycling program, placing battery recycling containers in the 

store area for customers to safely dispose of batteries for recycling. These containers 

are collected periodically by the Superintendent’s Office and shipped to a metals recycling plant for environmentally-safe disposition. 

The Stationery Room is also lending its support in promoting the Senate Superintendent’s recycling program for safe disposition of printer, fax and copier cartridges. This effort was initiated to eliminate the disposal of these materials in landfills. Users are encouraged to drop these materials off at the Superintendent’s dropoff site in the Dirksen Building. The Stationery Room promotes this effort through 

signage in and around the store, reminding customers of the drop-off site and periodic flyers which are enclosed with monthly statements. 

The use of copy paper sold in the Stationery Room was also investigated. For 

many years, the Stationery Room has carried copy paper with a 30 percent postconsumable content. The Stationery Room has added or increased its selections to 

include 50 percent and 100 percent post-consumable copy paper. 

Business cards ordered through the Stationery Room were another target of opportunity for change. The Stationery Room staff worked with vendors to provide a 

business card stock with a 30 percent-50 percent post-consumable content. Additionally, vendors are now using a soy-based ink in the printing process. 

Fine writing papers and envelopes were also analyzed for content and it was determined the post-consumable content from the paper mills could be increased without degradation of the quality. These products now contain a post-consumable content of 50 percent. 

Operational requirements are currently under review to ensure materials used 

also meet the same goals to promote an environmentally friendly campus. The Sta-
135 

tionery Room is currently evaluating use of various types of plastic and paper bags, 

along with reusable bags made of 100 percent post-consumer plastic bottles that are 

now sold in the store. 

Senate Support Facility (SSF) 

The facility continues to be a major asset for Stationery Room operations. During 

fiscal year 2007, the Senate Sergeant at Arms Central Operations Division transported 31,678 cartons of product from the U.S. Capitol Police screening facility to 

the SSF for processing and distribution to the Senate campus. This process has virtually eliminated most commercial vehicular traffic coming to the Senate campus in 

support of Stationery Room operations. The Senate Sergeant at Arms’ (SAA) Central 

Operations Division is to be commended for the support and ‘‘team effort’’ they provide to the Stationery Room operation in meeting its responsibilities to the Senate 

community. 

Public Transit Subsidy Program 

During the last quarter of fiscal year 2007, the Washington Metropolitan Transit 

Authority (WMATA) advised the Stationery Room they would be discontinuing the 

Metrochek paper media at the end of 2008 and transitioning agencies to the Smart 

Benefit Smart Trip Card. A WMATA analysis showed that 60 percent of participants in the Public Transportation Subsidy Program were already using the Smart 

Trip Card. WMATA determined it would be more cost-effective and efficiencies could 

be achieved by moving all participants to the Smart Benefit program. Since 1992, 

the Stationery Room has been administering the Senate’s Public Subsidy Program 

and with that responsibility has begun a transition process, working with WMATA, 

the 

Committee on Rules and Administration and the Executive Office of the Secretary 

of the Senate to accomplish this move in fiscal year 2008. 

Computer Modernization 

The Senate Stationery Room continues to utilize the Microsoft Business Dynamics 

Retail Management System and the Microsoft Business Dynamics Great Plains accounting software for its operations, which was installed in August 2005. During 

this reporting period, strategic planning began for the applications to be upgraded 

by the primary contractor. This planning resulted in the execution of a contract at 

the end of this reporting period. It is projected the Stationery Room system will be 

upgraded from version 1.2 of the Retail Management System (RMS) to version 2.0 

and from version 8.0 to 9.0 of the Great Plains accounting software during the second/third quarter of fiscal year 2008. 

Also during fiscal year 2007, the Stationery Room did some preliminary investigations for two system enhancements, which would provide value and efficiencies for 

its customers. Subject to funding for fiscal year 2009, the Stationery Room would 

like to proceed with the e-commerce storefront online ordering system and further 

develop a means to move select data to the SAA’s TranSAAct system for use by Senate offices. The latter would move monthly customer account statements along with 

transactional detail to the TranSAAct system. The migration of account/sales data 

would eliminate the monthly mailings and labor associated with the statements 

while building historical data retention for sales transaction information and budget 

forecasting. 

OFFICE OF WEB TECHNOLOGY

The Department of Web Technology is responsible for the Web sites that fall 

under the purview of the Secretary of the Senate: 

—the Senate Web site (Senate.gov)—available to the world; and 

—the Secretary’s Web site on Webster (Webster.senate.gov)—available to Senate 

staff. 
136 

THE SENATE WEB SITE—SENATE.GOV

The Senate Web site content is maintained by over 30 contributors from seven 

departments of the Secretary’s office and three departments of the Sergeant at Arms 

(SAA). Content team leaders meet regularly to share ideas and coordinate the posting of new content. 

Major Additions to the Site in 2007 

A portal for new lobbying disclosure and guidelines established through the legislation commonly referred to as S. 1, the Honest Leadership and Open Government 

Act of 2007. This portion of the site connects visitors to the various new disclosure 

and registration applications associated with the Office of Public Records. http:// 

www.senate.gov/pagelayout/legislative/glthreelsectionslwithlteasers/ 

lobbyingdisc.htm 

—Homepage feature articles were published on the following topics: 

—Art in the Senate: A View of the Senate’s Past; 

—What Happens When a New Congress Begins?; 

—New Multimedia Exhibit, Isaac Bassett: A Senate Memoir; 

—Oral History Project: Life in the Senate; 

—The president of the Senate’s Role in the Legislative Process; and 

—‘‘We the People’’ Celebrating the Constitution. 

Accomplishments of the Office of Web Technology in 2007 

Completed upgrade of Documentum Content Management System (CMS) to 5.3 

from 4.3. Upgrade was done seamlessly to content authors and users of Senate.gov, 

so no down time was experienced. 

Trained content authors in the use of new Documentum CMS and produced documentation to assist in authoring. 

Aided Senate Library in collecting requirements and writing a statement of work 

for developing a new knowledge base. The Montague taxonomy system will be used 

to organize data available on Senate.gov and Webster. 

Collaborated with other stakeholders (Secretary, SAA, Committee on Rules and 

Administration and Chaplain) on the design of a new Webster. A governance board 

was established with members from each of the stakeholders. The information architecture and wireframe layouts of the centrally managed intranet pages were established and agreed to. Work on the masthead/banner and the graphical presentation 

of the central pages is nearing completion, and development of the site is currently 

underway. 

Audited the Senate.gov pages regularly, updating and correcting links; verifying 

content; and reviewing individual page designs throughout Senate.gov. 

Initiated a project to develop a children’s Web site on Senate.gov. Worked with 

content team leaders to gather and analyze existing content on Senate.gov and publications produced by the Office of the Secretary to find topics of interest to children. 

The content analysis phase of this project is ongoing. 
137 

Continued on the Senate.gov content reorganization project. A task force was established to study the ‘‘Legislation and Records’’ bucket, or section, and return recommendations on reorganization of the content therein. The task force did a thorough study, including conducting usability tests on items that were more difficult 

to locate, and returned a report to the full content team. The report was accepted 

unanimously. The changes in the ‘‘Legislation and Records’’ section will be implemented when all six buckets have been reviewed. The task force will turn their efforts now to the ‘‘Senators’’ bucket. 

Reorganized the file structure of the CMS. Began work on the ‘‘Congressional 

Records’’ folder, tracking file moves and editing existing reference items that will 

live in this section. This restructuring of the file system will make it easier to collect 

usage statistics for the site. 

Worked with the Curator’s office to reorganize their content within the ‘‘Art and 

History’’ bucket. Facilitated discussions on information architecture and page layout 

of art content, and offered advice on usability and best practices. 

Initiated a project to build a library of documentation to facilitate the creation and 

maintenance of web content; updated existing instructions on using Documentum to 

reflect changes in the new version of the CMS; documented tasks to be done at the 

beginning of a new Congress; and created procedures and directions manual for updating the Senate Chamber Desk Web site. 

Collaborated with the staffs of the Historical Office, Curator, and Library to 

produce the Webster page Guide to Staff-Led Tours. The intention of the site is to 

aid staff while they conduct tours of the Capitol. It includes information on art, architecture, and the history of the Capitol. 

Senate.gov Usage Statistics 

In 2007, over 8 million visitors a month accessed the Senate Web site. Twentyone percent of them entered through the main Senate Homepage while the majority 

came to the site via a bookmarked page (possibly directly to their Senator’s site) or 

to a specific page from search results. 

Title of web page 2006 Visits/ month 

2007 Visits/ month 2006–2007 Percent Increase 

Visits—Entire Site ..................................................................................... 6,081,000 8,196,662 26 

Senate Homepage ...................................................................................... 1,685,000 1,704,675 1 

Reviewing statistics on Web page usage helps the content providers better understand what information the public is seeking and how best to improve the presentation of that data. Visitors are consistently drawn to the following content items, 

listed in order of popularity. 

MOST VISITED PAGES IN 2007 

Top pages 2006 Visits/ 

month 

2007 Visits/ 

month Percent Change 

Senators contact info list .......................................................................... 216,929 448,301 ∂52 

Roll Call votes ........................................................................................... 63,099 62,879 ........................

Active legislation ....................................................................................... 30,053 36,907 ∂19 

Senate leadership ...................................................................................... 19,278 18,191 ¥6 

Bills and resolutions .................................................................................. 18,155 17,231 ¥5 

State information ....................................................................................... 15,988 14,774 ¥8 

Committee hearings scheduled ................................................................. 15,901 18,232 ∂13 

The most popular page on the main Senate Web site is the list of Senators with 

links to their Web sites and comment forms by a large margin. Visitors also continue to be interested in legislative matters in 2007 with Roll Call Vote Tallies, the 

Active Legislation table, and the Bill and Resolutions section being particularly popular. 

Webster—HTTP://Webster/Secretary 

Webster Usage Statistics 

The most popular page on the Secretary’s Web site is the ‘‘Financial Services’’ 

page with about 1,600 visitors a month—more than the Secretary’s main homepage 

which receives about 1,550 a month. The ‘‘Financial Services’’ page (which is linked 

to from the Webster homepage) contains information on employee benefits (insurance, retirement, payroll, etc.) and provides access to the many forms employees 
138 

need to obtain or modify these benefits. Other popular areas of the Secretary’s site 

include the Senate Library Web site, the list of departments with descriptions and 

contact information, jobs postings, and the Web page that lists all Secretary of the 

Senate services. 

The Secretary’s site on Webster will be redesigned in the coming year in keeping 

with the look of Webster’s main page. The redesign will incorporate the ability for 

staff in departments to update their sites themselves if they wish. 

LEGISLATIVE INFORMATION SYSTEM (LIS) PROJECT

The Legislative Information System (LIS) is a mandated system (Section 8 of the 

1997 Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2 U.S.C. 123e) that provides desktop 

access to the content and status of legislative information and supporting documents. The 1997 Legislative Branch Appropriations Act (2 U.S.C. 181) also established a program for providing the widest possible exchange of information among 

legislative branch agencies. The long-range goal of the LIS Project is to provide a 

‘‘comprehensive Senate Legislative Information System’’ to capture, store, manage, 

and distribute Senate documents. Several components of the LIS have been implemented, and the project is currently focused on a Senate-wide implementation and 

transition to a standard system for the authoring and exchange of legislative documents that will greatly enhance the availability and re-use of legislative documents 

within the Senate and with other legislative branch agencies. The LIS Project Office 

manages the project. 

Background: LISAP 

An April 1997 joint Senate and House report recommended establishment of a 

data standards program, and in December 2000, the Senate Committee on Rules 

and Administration and the Committee on House Administration jointly accepted 

the Extensible Markup Language (XML) as the primary data standard to be used 

for the exchange of legislative documents and information. 

Following the implementation of the LIS in January 2000, the LIS Project staff 

shifted its focus to the data standards program and established the LIS Augmentation Project (LISAP). The over-arching goal of the LISAP is to provide a Senate-wide 

implementation and transition to XML for the authoring and exchange of legislative 

documents. 

The current focus for the LISAP is the development and implementation of an 

XML authoring system for legislative documents produced by the Senate Legislative 

Counsel (SLC) and the Enrolling Clerk. The XML authoring application is called 

LEXA, an acronym for the Legislative Editing in XML Application. LEXA replaces 

the DOS-based XyWrite software used by drafters to embed locator codes into legislative documents for printing. The XML codes inserted by LEXA provide more information about the document and can be used for printing, searching and displaying 

a document. LEXA features many automated functions that provide a more efficient 

and consistent document authoring process. The LIS Project staff has worked very 

closely with the SLC and the Enrolling Clerk to create an application that meets 

the needs for legislative drafting. 

LISAP: 2007 

Throughout 2007 additional features and fixes were added to LEXA, enabling the 

SLC to use the application for more and more of their drafting requests. In 2007, 

99 percent of introduced and reported bills and resolutions produced in the SLC 

were drafted in XML. Some of the new functionality added to LEXA in the last year 

included the following: 

—A utility to list and then print multiple files as one document; 

—An improved tool for creating conference reports in draft and final forms; 

—Additional tagging for creating appropriations language in a bill or amendment; 

and 

—Various new or improved features to automate and speed the drafting process 

and creation of almost all types of measures. 

The Senate Enrolling Clerk’s staff began doing much of its document preparation 

in LEXA at the beginning of the 110th Congress. The LEXA developers worked 

closely with the office to improve the processes for creating engrossed and enrolled 

documents in XML. The two groups also worked closely with the Government Printing Office (GPO) to make certain that the engrossed and enrolled documents print 

in the required formats. Although a few of the lesser-used printed versions still remain to be worked out, the last major stage to be completed in 2007 was for Senate 

engrossed amendments (EAS). With the addition of the EAS documents, almost all 

stages of a measure can be produced in XML. 
139 

Support for LEXA users remains an important concern. The LIS Project Office 

provides support for LEXA through the LEXA HelpLine and LEXA Web site (http:// 

legbranch.senate.gov/lis/lexa). The HelpLine is a single phone number that rings on 

all the phones in the office. The Web site, which is located on a server accessible 

by the legislative branch, is used to distribute updates of the application to GPO 

and provides access to release notes, the reference manual, and other user aids. The 

2004 legislative branch appropriations act directed GPO to provide support for 

LEXA, much as they have for XyWrite. GPO continues to work toward augmenting 

the support provided by the LIS Project Office. 

GPO maintains the software module that converts a Senate or House XML document to locator for printing through Microcomp. They also develop and maintain the 

stylesheet that is used on LIS (http://www.congress.gov) and Thomas (http://thomas.loc.gov) to display the XML bills. GPO is also nearing completion of a new tool 

to create and print tables. The new table tool will be used by both the House and 

Senate, providing another module that is common to both applications. 

The LIS Project Office, the SLC, and the Systems Development Services group of 

the Sergeant at Arms conducted a pilot installation of a document management system (DMS) in the SLC. In 2006, the team had identified DMS software that will 

work with both LEXA and XyWrite documents. The 2007 pilot identified a few 

issues to be resolved, and the three groups continue to work together with the SLC 

systems integrator to implement the DMS in a way that will benefit the entire office. The DMS will provide a powerful tracking, management, and delivery tool for 

the SLC. 

LISAP: 2008 

The LIS Project staff will continue to work with the House, GPO, and the Library 

of Congress on projects and issues that impact the legislative process and data 

standards for exchange. These groups are currently participating in two projects 

with GPO: one to define requirements for replacing the Microcomp composition software and another to improve the content submission and exchange processes. 

Senate, House, and GPO software developers will move together to upgrade their 

respective installations of Microsoft.Net. This upgrade will allow GPO to vastly improve the time it takes to compose large documents for printing. The printing component is common to both the Senate and House applications, and all groups must 

do the upgrade at the same time. This is planned for the first quarter of 2008. 

The LIS Project Office will work with the House and GPO in 2008 to resolve any 

HTML display issues so that the XML versions of Senate documents will be made 

available on LIS and Thomas. The HTML version produced from the XML data 

more closely resembles the printed document. This improved HTML format will 

eventually replace the version currently available on the Web. 

The Enrolling Clerk will use LEXA to produce engrossed and enrolled bills in 

XML. The LIS Project staff will continue to work with the SLC and the Enrolling 

Clerk to refine and enhance LEXA so that more and more of the documents produced by those offices will be done in XML. Once all of the documents can be produced in XML using LEXA, those offices will be able to stop using XyWrite. Since 

XyWrite is not compatible with other Windows software, moving away from it will 

allow the offices to use more modern technologies for all functions. Other Senate offices that do drafting with XyWrite may begin using LEXA, including the Committee on Appropriations. 

The LIS Project staff will monitor the use of the tagging structures created for 

appropriations language to determine if it provides enough description so that appropriations bills might be created as XML documents. XML tags and LEXA functions will be added as needed toward the appropriations bills being prepared using 

LEXA. 

The legislative process yields other types of documents such as the Senate and 

Executive Journals and the Legislative and Executive Calendars. Much of the data 

and information included in these documents is already captured in and distributed 

through the LIS/DMS database used by the clerks in the office of the Secretary. The 

LIS/DMS captures data that relates to legislation including bill and resolution numbers, amendment numbers, sponsors, co-sponsors, and committees of referral. This 

information is currently entered into the database and verified by the clerks and 

then keyed into the respective documents and re-verified at GPO before printing. 

An interface between this database and the electronic documents could mutually exchange data. For example, the LIS/DMS database could insert the bill number, additional co-sponsors, and committee of referral into an introduced bill while the bill 

draft document could supply the official and short titles of the bill to the database. 

The Congressional Record, like the journals and calendars, includes data that is 

contained in and reported by the LIS/DMS database. Preliminary document type 
140 

definitions have been designed for these documents, and applications could be built 

to construct XML document components by extracting and tagging the LIS/DMS 

data. These applications would provide a faster, more consistent assembly of these 

documents and would enhance the ability to index and search their contents. The 

LIS Project staff will coordinate with the Systems Development Services Branch of 

the Office of the Sergeant at Arms to begin design and development of XML applications and interfaces for the LIS/DMS and legislative documents. As more and more 

legislative data and documents are provided in XML formats that use common elements across all document types, the Library of Congress will be able to expand the 

LIS Retrieval System to provide more content-specific searches. 

SERGEANT AT ARMS AND DOORKEEPER

PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE TERRANCE W. GAINER

INTRODUCTION

Madam Chairman and members of the subcommittee, thank you for inviting me 

to testify before you today. I am pleased to report on the progress the Office of the 

Sergeant at Arms (SAA) has made over the past year and our plans to enhance our 

contributions to the Senate in the coming year. 

For fiscal year 2009, the Sergeant at Arms respectfully requests a total budget 

of $226,359,000, an increase of $23,370,000 (or 11.5 percent) over the fiscal year 

2008 budget. This request will allow us to maintain the improvements and level of 

service we provide to the Senate community. It will also fund the development and 

maintenance of business and network security applications, among other support 

services. Appendix A, accompanying this testimony, elaborates on the specific components of our fiscal year 2009 budget request. 

In developing this budget and our operating plans, we are guided by three priorities: (1) ensuring the United States Senate is as secure and prepared for an emergency as possible; (2) providing the Senate outstanding service and support, including the enhanced use of technology; and (3) delivering exceptional customer service 

to the Senate. 

This year I am pleased to highlight some of this office’s activities to include the 

furtherance of our efforts towards our United States Senate Sergeant at Arms Strategic Plan in which we are capturing performance measures that will help us assess 

our work. Our accomplishments in the areas of security and preparedness, information technology, and operations are also impressive. We are preparing for next year 

by planning for the major events and by ensuring that the Office of the Sergeant 

at Arms is an agile organization that can adjust to the unexpected. 

Specifically, planning efforts are under way for the January Inauguration and we 

are all ramping up for the opening of the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) later this 

year. Our office has been involved with the CVC since its inception, and scores of 

hours have been spent preparing for the operations and security of the center. We 

have worked collaboratively on this bicameral project with representatives from 

Leadership, oversight committees and other agencies to ensure the design, construction and operational aspects of the facility achieve the desired results. Our participation and the challenges presented have been vast and varied, including but not 

limited to security, hours of operation, emergency preparedness, information technology, furnishings for the Senate side of the CVC, Senate Meeting Rooms design, 

set-up and maintenance, bus routes, Capitol tour routes, coat checks, official appointments, accommodating visitors to the Senate Gallery, broadcast media infrastructure, ATM service, telephone service, and other communication infrastructure. 

Assisting with these and all of the efforts of the Office of the Sergeant at Arms 

is an outstanding senior management team including Drew Willison who serves as 

my Deputy, Administrative Assistant Rick Edwards, Republican Liaison Mason 

Wiggins, General Counsel Joseph Haughey, Assistant Sergeant at Arms for Security 

and Emergency Preparedness Chuck Kaylor, Assistant Sergeant at Arms for Police 

Operations Bret Swanson, Acting Assistant Sergeant at Arms and Chief Information 

Officer Kimball Winn, and Assistant Sergeant at Arms for Operations Esther Gordon. The many accomplishments set forth in this testimony would not have been 

possible without this team’s leadership and commitment. 

The Office of the Sergeant at Arms also works with other organizations that support the Senate. I would like to take this opportunity to mention how important 

their contributions have been in helping us achieve our objectives. In particular, we 

work regularly with the Secretary of the Senate, the Architect of the Capitol, the 

Office of the Attending Physician, and the United States Capitol Police (USCP). 
141 

When appropriate, we coordinate our efforts with the United States House of Representatives and the agencies of the Executive Branch. I am impressed by the people with whom we work, and pleased with the quality of the relationships we have 

built together. 

During this first year serving as Sergeant at Arms, I have seen their great work, 

and I would be remiss if I did not mention how proud I am of all the men and 

women of the Sergeant at Arms team who help keep the Senate running. The employees of the Office of the Sergeant at Arms are among the most committed and 

creative in Government. We are continuously building on the success this organization has experienced in recent years. 

None of our efforts would be accomplished, though, without the guidance of this 

Committee and the Committee on Rules and Administration. Thank you for the support you consistently demonstrate as we work to serve the Senate. 

SECURITY AND PREPAREDNESS

Protecting the Senate and Planning for the Unknown 

In our security and preparedness programs, we work collaboratively with organizations across Capitol Hill to secure the Senate. We also rely upon Senate Leadership, this Committee, and the Committee on Rules and Administration for guidance 

and support. 

While more than 6 years have passed since 9/11 and the anthrax attacks, and although no major attack has occurred against us at home, the threat of attack remains. The recent apprehension of an individual armed with a shotgun in the Senate park underscore our need for vigilance and emergency preparedness. Not all 

hazards are manmade, and our contingency plans can be implemented to respond 

to natural disasters as well. Over the past 2 years, Senate offices in Washington, 

DC, and in the States have been impacted by local disruptions and natural disasters. The security and emergency programs that have been developed over the past 

7 years have enabled the Senate and our supporting agencies to respond appropriately in each instance, ensuring the safety of staff and visitors and recovering 

operations as rapidly as possible. The ongoing improvement and appropriate expansion of our security and emergency plans and programs will continue to be a priority 

for the Sergeant at Arms. 

On September 6, 2000, the Bipartisan Leadership for the 106th Congress directed 

the Capitol Police Board to develop and manage a program which would enable the 

Congress to fulfill its constitutional obligations in the event of a disaster-related incident. The Capitol Police Board was further directed to coordinate with Officers of 

the Senate and House to develop a comprehensive Legislative Branch emergency 

preparedness program. As a member of the Capitol Police Board and Chairman for 

2007, the Senate Sergeant at Arms continued to build on the accomplishments of 

previous Boards. 

Our efforts to ensure that we can respond to emergencies and keep the Senate 

functioning under any circumstance have grown over the past years. To continue 

improvements in this area and better manage our security and preparedness programs, we have established seven strategic priorities to focus our efforts: 

—Emergency Notifications and Communications.—Provide effective communications systems, devices, and capabilities to support the Senate during any emergency. 

—Accountability.—Ensure accurate and timely accounting of Members, Senate 

staff, and visitors during an emergency. 

—State Office Security and Preparedness.—Support Senate State Offices with a 

full suite of security enhancements and a comprehensive preparedness program. 

—Emergency Plans, Operations and Facilities.—Continue emergency planning, 

emphasizing life-safety, continuity of operations, and programs to address the 

needs of individuals after a disaster. 

—Training and Education.—Continue a strong emergency preparedness training 

program. 

—Exercises.—Conduct a comprehensive exercise program to validate, rehearse and 

improve Senate readiness to act in the event of an emergency. 

—Office Support.—Provide responsive security services and customer support to 

Senate offices, committees, and support organizations. 

Emergency Notification and Communications 

Our emergency notification and communications initiatives ensure that we have 

effective communications systems, devices, and capabilities in place to support the 

Senate during an emergency. Last year we expanded the coverage of text alerts to 

include any PDA on any cellular or data service provider. This included leveraging 
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the peer-to-peer capabilities of BlackBerry devices using PIN messages. This year 

we are upgrading our telephonic alert system to enable the integration of text and 

telephone messaging into a single Web-based interface, allowing the Capitol Police 

to initiate voice and text messages to several thousand individuals in a matter of 

seconds. 

We have also installed a video-based alert system that will allow the Capitol Police to display emergency messages on the Senate cable TV network that will become operational this year. Over 1,300 wireless annunciators are in place across the 

Senate, and the Capitol Police have completed the installation of a public address 

system that can broadcast into public areas throughout the Capitol, Senate Office 

Buildings, and outdoor assembly areas. Further, if the Senate is forced to relocate, 

we have the capability to video teleconference and broadcast between an emergency 

relocation site and other Legislative Branch and Executive Branch sites. 

Earlier this year we began to deploy 57 Blue Emergency Phones throughout the 

Senate Office Buildings and Capitol. These phones will serve as a two-way communication device between the caller in distress and the USCP Command Center. 

There will be 7 phones installed in public eating areas and 50 phones will be installed near the emergency staging areas. This significantly enhances life-safety 

communications at our mobility impaired evacuation elevators and in our most trafficked public areas. These phones will be operational in early 2008. 

Looking forward we will continue to integrate and improve our telephonic and 

text-based notification capabilities to support offices and staff during emergencies. 

To meet Federal requirements the current wireless annunciator system must be 

narrow band compliant by October 1, 2008. This summer we will replace all 1,300 

devices throughout the Senate. This year our CIO organization will begin a multiyear telecommunications modernization project. A key component of that is an enhanced 9–1–1 capability that will benefit emergency responders and staff. 

Accountability 

Accountability of Members and staff remains an area of emphasis in all our emergency plans and evacuation drills. One of our major initiatives 2 years ago was to 

improve procedures for offices to report accountability information to the Capitol Police and the Sergeant at Arms quickly and accurately using proximity enabled 

laptops and a BlackBerry-based application that allows Office Emergency Coordinators to account for staff remotely using their BlackBerry. This past year we have 

focused on office training to ensure every office has an account that is up to date 

and that staff know how to remotely check-in. The backbone for this capability, 

termed the Accountability and Emergency Roster System (ALERTS), allows each office to manage staff rosters as well as to indicate who in the office is to receive 

email and telephonic alerts from the Senate’s emergency notification system. A total 

of 287 Senate staff members were trained on how to use ALERTS and Remote 

Check-in during in-office or classroom sessions. Our staff has also trained personnel 

in the Capitol Police Senate Division on the use of this system. 

Accountability and internal communications are stressed in the Emergency Action 

Plan template that we have developed for use by all Senate offices. This template, 

offered to all offices, encourages the development of internal communications procedures during emergencies through a phone tree or emergency contact list. Offices 

are encouraged to establish and periodically practice these internal procedures for 

accounting for staff members, post emergency. To aid in this effort, we conduct 

Emergency Action Plan training classes with a special emphasis on staff accountability and stress this initiative during all Office Emergency Coordinator training. 

Once a quarter, our office conducts a remote accountability exercise with Senate 

Office Emergency Coordinators. During our most recent exercise, over 198 individuals logged on in exercise to provide office accountability, and we worked with 20 

offices on training and configuration issues. We have also conducted follow-up calls 

to offices that did not use our accountability system following drills or actual evacuations to provide assistance or training if needed. 

State Office Security and Preparedness 

The Senate’s State Office Preparedness Program consists of several elements. 

First is the Physical Security Enhancement Program. This program provides a security assessment of each State office, followed by physical security enhancements if 

the office desires to participate in the program. We have completed an initial physical security survey of all established State offices and the results of these on-site 

reviews were provided to each Member. In addition to the physical security enhancements, we have recently implemented a program that provides additional 

emergency preparedness and continuity of operations support to State offices. 
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Since the program’s inception in 2002, we have conducted 615 State office security 

surveys and will conduct another 150 surveys of new and relocating offices and 

those due a resurvey for the 110th Congress over the coming months. We have completed security enhancements in 260 State offices of which 73 were completed in 

2007. In 2006, we finalized an agreement with the Federal Protective Service and 

General Services Administration to streamline installation of security enhancements 

for Senate State offices located in Federal buildings. We are currently working with 

65 State offices in some stage of planning or approval. To date, members of our Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness have visited approximately 35 State 

offices where security enhancements have been installed or implemented. Staff from 

each of these offices has expressed gratitude for the security enhancements and the 

personalized visit. In short, this is a successful program and we will continue our 

emphasis in this area. 

Our State Office Preparedness Program combines our existing physical security 

enhancement program with additional emergency preparedness and continuity of 

operations planning (COOP) support. This level of support includes equipment and 

training that is similar to those programs that are currently offered to Member’s 

Washington, DC, offices. We conducted a pilot project to evaluate this program in 

11 State Offices during the fall of 2007 and launched the full program in January 

2008. This program provides a general risk assessment to each office, a set of basic 

emergency supplies, Web-based training and a template to build an office emergency 

plan. We will meet with D.C. office managers, and offer VTC based sessions to State 

Offices. Office response has been very encouraging and we look forward to reporting 

on this next year. 

Emergency Plans, Operations, and Facilities 

Our emergency plans ensure that we attend to the safety of Senate Members and 

staff, as well as to the continuity of the Senate. It is the responsibility of each Member office and committee to have the requisite plans in place to guide their actions 

during any emergency event. Every Member office had completed and filed an emergency action plans with OSEP at the conclusion of the 110th Congress. New Membership and office moves have necessitated that many of these be redone. A total 

of 154 offices currently have completed and filed emergency action plans with our 

office of Security and Emergency Preparedness. Many Senate offices similarly have 

institutional or internal continuity of operations responsibilities. Every office within 

the SAA and Secretary of the Senate has COOP plan and the SAA continues to support offices and committees as their respective plans are developed. Our staff provides training guides, templates, and assistance with in-office consulters to any office that request it. These offices that have updated plans are encouraged to maintain and exercise them. 

Evacuation procedures for mobility-impaired individuals continue to be a major effort between Emergency Preparedness and United States Capitol Police. Each Senate office building has a primary and secondary emergency evacuation elevator. 

Each of these elevators is designated with a sign indicating it is an emergency staging area. Specific procedures have been established for the safe and efficient evacuation of those who have mobility impairments. In 2007, procedures were revised to 

provide mobility impairment emergency evacuation elevator support to the 9th floor 

meeting area of the Hart Senate Office Building. 

To improve mobility impaired evacuation capabilities OSEP is working with the 

AOC to provide emergency power to all emergency evacuation elevators. When this 

project is complete our evacuation capabilities will be doubled. The United Sates 

Capitol Police have trained their officers in these procedures and practice these 

whenever we conduct exercises. Supporting impaired staff, our office of Security and 

Emergency Preparedness distributes and provides training for Victim Rescue Units 

that are designed to be used by those with mobility impairments in smoke-filled environment. In 2007, 49 staff members were trained in mobility impaired evacuation 

procedures. 

The Senate has an established structure to evaluate Senate emergency programs, 

plans, and requirements. Several years ago, we identified the need for post-event 

care and family assistance. Over the past year, we have continued to develop plans 

that provide critical services to affected families following a wide-spread event. In 

support of this, the Senate’s Employee Assistance program, has conducted training 

with a core group of employees to establish peer support teams. That training will 

expand this year. 

Over the past year, Avian Flu has been a heightened planning activity for Government and other organizations. Last year the Sergeant at Arms established plans 

and capabilities to support continued operations of the Senate and our employees 

in a pandemic environment. We have conducted several informational briefings for 
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Senate Chiefs of Staff in coordination with the Office of the Attending Physician 

(OAP). The OAP has information posted on their web-site and continues to support 

offices upon request. This will remain an active planning area in the coming year. 

This year we asked the RAND Corporation to assist in conducting strategic review 

of emergency preparedness activities provided to Senate offices by our Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness. During this review, RAND representatives 

interviewed Senate offices and staff in several focus groups and met with the many 

agencies we partner with to support the Senate. RAND also conducted an extensive 

review of Senate emergency outreach and preparedness material, to include planning templates, training classes, in-office briefings, brochures, and online content. 

The RAND strategic review culminated in a final annotated briefing in the fall of 

2007. Chief among the findings of this report is the conclusion that OSEP’s training 

and outreach programs are comprehensive and structured to adequately prepare 

Senate staff for emergency events. In its final report, RAND also highlights the 

challenges associated with serving the busy and transient Senate community. Resulting RAND recommendation on leveraging existing communication (i.e., newsletters, informational materials, in-office contacts), streamlining training programs, 

and utilizing post-incident materials, in-office contacts), streamlining training programs, and utilizing post-incident ‘‘teaching moments’’ are currently being incorporated into OSEP strategic plans and projects. 

Recognizing the Sergeant at Arms’ responsibility to coordinate the actions of internal organizations, inform and support Senate offices, and effectively manage the resources within our purview during an emergency, the SAA has established a consolidated Senate Emergency Operations Center (EOC) capability that pulls key functional area representatives together into a single operational area during an emergency. The Sergeant at Arms and Secretary of Senate exercised this capability during 2007. Last year we established a Web-based EOC management and information 

tracking capability using WebEOC. This year we have further upgraded the capabilities of this system and continued regular staff training for each functional area. 

WebEOC is a widely used application throughout the Government and within the 

National Capitol Region. This allows the Senate EOC to remain in contact with supporting agencies and provides situation awareness during an emergency. 

Training and Education 

In addition to assisting offices in the creation and maintenance of continuity and 

emergency plans, we provide training to Senate staff on emergency plans, procedures, and equipment. Our training program is a vital component of overall emergency preparedness at the Senate, and is designed to emphasize emergency procedures, equipment, and the critical protective actions staff members should take to 

protect themselves during an emergency event. Our formal training program is coordinated through the Joint Office of Education and Training, while in-office sessions are frequently requested and administered directly through OSEP. 

During the past year, we have conducted 425 separate training classes, reaching 

an audience of over 4,000 staff members. Our classroom training curriculum includes: escape hood and equipment, Senate-specific emergency procedures, emergency action planning, personal preparedness planning, and emergency procedures 

for individuals with mobility impairments. Additional personalized in-office sessions 

on emergency action plan development, accountability, and remote check-in use are 

also offered. OSEP also sponsors several well-attended seminars yearly, to include 

‘‘Evacuating D.C.’’ (led by representatives from local government transportation and 

emergency management agencies) and CPR and AED Awareness (taught by Office 

of Attending Physician personnel). 

Not everyone is able to attend training classes. To augment our training efforts, 

the SAA creates and distributes topic-specific brochures and guidance documents to 

further enhance Senate preparedness. These are distributed throughout the community and describe procedures, emergency equipment, and other useful instruction for 

emergencies. We have continued to expand computer and Web-based training. Last 

year we created a Web-based training course on mobility impaired evacuation procedures. We have consolidated all our Web-based training on our OSEP Web page. 

This not only includes our classes but also contains courses from outside speakers 

such as the D.C. Emergency Management agency who presented a seminar on D.C. 

shelter-in-place and evacuation plans. We also have training that is specifically targeted at State office staff on our web site and have used VTC classes to reach out 

for personal training classes. Just this past February, OSEP completely revised 

their web site to make it more useful to Senate staff. 

We have also leveraged special recognition activities such as National Preparedness Month in September, October’s Fire Prevention Week, OSEP Open Houses, and 

the Senate Services Fair to provide additional resources and open-door services to 
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the Senate. These also provide a valuable forum to inform the Senate Community 

of additional services available to them. 

Exercises 

Exercises ensure the Senate’s plans are practiced and validated on a regular 

basis. Our comprehensive exercise program is structured to do just that. Every year 

the Sergeant at Arms and Secretary of the Senate develop and publish an exercise 

calendar and guidance for the year that also includes a 6-year exercise plan to guide 

future test, training, and drill activities. This year’s exercise plan provides for up 

to 17 diverse events over the course of the year. It maintains and strengthens existing key capabilities, while developing needed and emerging ones. A key area of emphasis is the integration of several joint exercises with our congressional partners. 

This year, for the first time, we are conducting a ‘‘no-notice’’ exercise of our capabilities to set up selected functions at different locations. During fiscal year 2007, 

we conducted a series of five (5) major exercises in partnership with the U.S. Capitol 

Police, and other Legislative Branch entities to include the Office of the Attending 

Physician, Secretary of the Senate, and Architect of the Capitol, Rules Committee 

and the U.S. House of Representatives. The format for these exercises included functional capabilities demonstrations and tabletop scenarios and discussions. 

An Emergency Operation Center exercise and a Leadership Coordination Center 

exercise were conducted with the purpose of further developing practicing and validating operational concepts. In addition, a joint contingency capabilities and Chamber Protective Actions rounded-out the exercises that were conducted. In addition, 

a number of smaller exercises were conducted throughout the year including: 

monthly alert systems tests, an exercise of the Senate’s emergency transportation 

plan, evacuation drills, tests of the Senate’s mobile communications and broadcast 

capabilities, communications tests with the Executive Branch, and regular training 

of office staff related to developing emergency plans and procedures. 

Office Support 

A hallmark of our support to the Senate community is our personal in-office support that serves as a microcosm of our previously discussed strategic priorities. Recognizing the pace and nature of Senate office business, we extend our whole suite 

of services into the office. This tailorable, flexible package recognizes that requirements for life safety and continuity planning compete for time with other activities. 

Our support activities, which include a variety of planning, training and equipment 

support, are frequently one-on-one interactions with Members, office Chiefs of Staff, 

emergency planners, or entire office staffs. In-office support occurs in the areas of 

accountability, developing Emergency Action Plans and Continuity of Operations 

Plans and the previously mentioned State Office Program. 

Training is a significant aspect of our office support. Our entire schedule of training activities may be tailored to office-specific requirements. Frequently, we are 

asked to assist offices with staff reviews of their emergency plans, provide updates 

on topics of interest or conduct escape hood refresher training, which may include 

staff audiences from 8 to 48. The success of our outreach efforts are evident in the 

over 300 in-office training sessions conducted during the past year. 

I previously noted our support to the Senate’s mobility-impaired population, which 

usually averages between 25 and 35 staff. This individual office support is indicative 

of our efforts to meet Senate needs. This is a valuable service that often goes unnoticed by our general population. SAA staff provides in-office training to individuals 

with temporary or permanent disabilities and their designated buddies. This training includes a full review of evacuation procedures for those with impairments, an 

actual evacuation route rehearsal/walk-through to the different evacuation elevators 

in their building and equipment training. We issue each of our mobility impaired 

individuals a Victim Rescue Unit (smoke hood) and a wireless annunciator/pager 

and provide training on the operation of each. 

We offer each office a suite of emergency equipment and respond to service calls/ 

questions on this equipment throughout the year. During the last year, we received 

over 200 requests to repair, replace, relocate, or add to your suite of emergency 

equipment. Our goal is to respond to these requests within 24 hours and we have 

a good track record. As referenced earlier in the document, we make annual visits 

into each office to check for completeness and functionality of this emergency equipment. 

To facilitate office feedback and requests for support we have established and published a general telephone number as well as web-based and email feedback mechanisms. These are used by offices—we received over 300 calls or electronic feedback 

forms over the past year. To solicit feedback on our internal programs within the 

Sergeant at Arms we recently conducted an emergency preparedness survey of our 
146 

entire staff. We will use this to improve our internal plans and training programs. 

We will meet with Member offices to determine if this would be useful to evaluate 

their emergency preparedness. All of these activities help us improve our services 

to better meet the security and emergency preparedness needs of the Senate. 

Office of Police Operations and Liaison 

Security Vulnerabilities 

Efforts continue to address security vulnerabilities throughout the Senate complex. These vulnerabilities demand that we constantly assess and re-evaluate both 

the physical plants of the Capitol and Senate buildings and screening methodologies 

for staff and visitors. The mandate necessitates expert input and resources in the 

planning and procurement of emerging security technologies in areas such as: enhanced individual screening technologies, the podium badging system, proximity 

card readers, cameras, and various blast protection options. The SAA actively participates in various working groups aimed at studying these vulnerabilities, collating data, making recommendations for improvements, and implementation oversight. On March 2, 2007, the Board agreed to establish a Capitol Vulnerability 

Study Working Group (CVSWG) comprised of representatives from the House and 

Senate Sergeant at Arms, Architect of the Capitol and the U.S. Capitol Police to 

evaluate the U.S. Secret Service report, 2006 United States Capitol Vulnerability 

Assessment. The report contains many recommendations for security improvements 

in the Capitol and the Capitol Visitor Center. The CVSWG was issued instructions 

regarding priorities of effort, methods of coordination and reporting milestones. The 

group accomplished its initial task and provided to the United States Capitol Police 

Board its final report in October 2007. The Board is continuing to work with the 

group as they complete their work, which will lead to important security enhancements throughout the Capitol Complex. 

Foreign CODEL Support Program 

The Foreign CODEL support program continues to ensure that the unique needs 

and security requirements of Senators are met while they perform official travel outside the contiguous United States. Through a coordinated liaison effort between the 

SAA, USCP, and the Department of State, threat assessments and security reviews 

are conducted for Senators’ official foreign travel. While our travel costs have been 

reduced due to most of this work being accomplished right here in Washington, the 

SAA still remains prepared to support the USCP for CODEL trips that require their 

travel. 

HSPD12/FRAC Project Participation in Executive Branch Programs 

On August 27, 2004, the President signed Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD) 12—Policy for a Common Identification Standard for Federal Employees and Contractors. The directive and subsequent published guidance established 

vetting and credentialing standards for identification badges issued to Federal employees and contractors for use in accessing Federal facilities and information systems. While Legislative Branch employees are not bound by HSPD–12, Senators’ 

personal staff and support staff occupy space in buildings across the country that 

are implementing required changes to physical access procedures via these cards. 

We continue to work with the Federal implementers of HSPD–12 and anticipate 

issuing compatible, ‘‘Smart Card’’ ID badges to affected Senate staff this fiscal year. 

Another smart card-based program affecting the Senate is the First Responder 

Authentication Credential (FRAC) system launched under the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security. FRAC cards will be used to verify the identification 

of individuals who will need to access a controlled area during an emergency situation. We are actively participating in exercises and staying abreast of the program’s 

development in the National Capital Region and envision limited Senate staff receiving these badges during the 111th Congress. 

Technological Developments in Security 

In cooperation with our congressional partners in the USCP and House of Representatives, we are monitoring and implementing technological advances to maximize the effectiveness of current security tools, particularly those which operate in 

conjunction with our ID badges. For example, the Capitol Police’s Podium Badging 

System (PBS) will allow officers to use facial recognition through a congressional ID 

badge’s proximity card to validate the badge at all electronically-monitored access 

points on campus. This allows the Capitol Police to honor only those ID badges 

which are still active in the ID Management System, and helps ensure badges are 

not misused. To ensure advantages realized with the addition of the PBS are preserved, we will continue to monitor the transition of the proximity card industry 
147 

from our 125 kHz frequency to contactless 13.56 MHz. The 13.56 MHz contactless 

smart cards offer enhanced security through encryption and mutual authentication 

and can support multiple applications such as biometrics and computer log-on security. Smart cards are the future of access control and will be thoroughly tested with 

the launch of the HSPD–12 and FRAC initiatives. 

Mail Handling 

The anthrax and ricin attacks of past years necessitated new security measures 

and our Office responded. We have worked collaboratively with this Committee, the 

Committee on Rules and Administration, our science advisors, the Capitol Police, 

the United States Postal Service (USPS), the White House Office of Science and 

Technology Policy, and the Department of Homeland Security in developing safe and 

secure mail protocols. 

All mail and packages addressed to the Senate are tested and delivered by Senate 

Post Office employees whether they come through the U.S. Postal Service or from 

other delivery services. We have outstanding processing protocols in place here at 

the Senate. The organizations that know the most about securing mail cite the Senate mail facilities as among the best. We have been asked to demonstrate our procedures and showcase our facilities for some of our allies and for other Government 

agencies, including the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security. When they 

look for ways to improve their mail security, they visit our facility. 

Last year, the Senate processed, tested, and delivered over 15,300,000 safe items 

to Senate offices, including over 9,700,000 pieces of U.S. Postal Service mail; over 

5,300,000 pieces of internal mail that were routed within the Senate or to or from 

other Government agencies; over 67,000 packages; and almost 162,000 courier 

items. This total volume of mail represented an 11 percent increase in the mail that 

we delivered compared to 2006 and was the most mail that we have processed and 

delivered since 2003. 

We have been good stewards of taxpayer dollars in the process. We continue to 

seek improvements in mail processing and have worked with this Committee to 

identify avenues to reduce our costs. During the spring of 2007, we moved from our 

leased Alexandria letter mail processing facility into a newly constructed facility 

that we worked with this Committee and the Architect of the Capitol to purchase. 

This new facility has enhanced our processing of Senate letters and has enabled us 

to perform the package testing that was previously being performed by a vendor. 

Bringing the processing of packages in-house has increased the security of the packages addressed to the Senate’s Washington offices and is projected to save the Senate over $200,000 annually. This state-of-the-art facility has provided a safer and 

more secure work environment for our employees and it is designed to serve the 

Senate’s mail processing needs for decades. 

We also worked with this Committee and the Committee on Rules and Administration to build one of the best facilities within the Government to process time-sensitive documents that are delivered to the Senate. In August 2006, we opened the 

Courier Acceptance Site to ensure all same day documents are x-rayed, opened, tested, and safe for delivery to Senate offices. The number of time-sensitive documents 

addressed to Senate offices is significant. We processed almost 162,000 courier items 

during 2007. This was the most courier items that we have processed during a year 

and represented a 19 percent increase in courier packages from 2006. 

Since the anthrax attacks of 2001, our Office has worked with the Department 

of Homeland Security, the U.S. Postal Service, and our science advisors in seeking 

avenues to improve the safety of the mail routed to Senate State offices and to 

Members’ home addresses. USPS has installed detection units at mail processing 

plants throughout the United States. Virtually every letter is run through this 

equipment which is designed to detect certain contaminants, thereby providing a 

safety screen that did not exist in the past. 

Our Senate Post Office and our Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness 

worked collaboratively with our science advisors to develop and introduce the first 

device designed to provide Senate staff who work in State offices a level of protection when handling mail. We worked with eight Senate State offices to test and pilot 

the Postal Sentry Mail Processing Device and the results were favorable. We now 

offer this device to any Senate State office that would like this additional level of 

protection to process their State office mail. 

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Enhancing Service, Security, and Stewardship 

We continue to embrace and enhance the role of technology to improve upon physical and information security and life safety, to prepare for emergencies and to sup-
148 

port the entire Senate’s information technology needs. As in our other areas, we also 

emphasize stewardship—the careful use of all our resources, including the funding 

we are provided, our personnel and the external resources that we consume—in all 

aspects of our information technology operation. 

As we do each year, we have updated and are performing under our 2-year Information Technology Strategic Plan. The current revision, under which we will be operating in fiscal year 2009, is the first to incorporate stewardship as a guiding principle for all of our actions. The five strategic information technology goals articulated in the current plan and their supporting objectives drive our information technology programmatic and budgetary decisions: 

—Secure.—A secure Senate information infrastructure. 

—Customer Service Focused.—A customer service culture top-to-bottom. 

—Effective.—Information technology solutions driven by business requirements. 

—Accessible, Flexible, and Reliable.—Access to mission-critical information anywhere, anytime, under any circumstances. 

—Modern.—A state-of-the-art information infrastructure built on modern, proven 

technologies. 

Following our strategic goal of being customer-service focused, we actively engage 

the people for whom we work to help us determine which technologies to implement, 

which business requirements to automate, and which efforts to undertake. We also 

initiate our own projects to improve our ability to perform our core functions. As 

a result, we have more than 50 projects, ranging in size from a few days’ work to 

multi-year and multi-million-dollar efforts, underway at any given time, all of which 

support our strategic goals. Our major accomplishments during the past year include: 

—Allowing the Senate to comply with the online filing and reporting provisions 

of S. 1, the Honest Government and Open Leadership Act of 2007, by working 

closely with the Secretary of the Senate’s Office of Public Records to implement 

new systems for reporting and disclosure of lobbying relationships. 

—Satisfying our customers to a greater extent as evidenced by the excellent ratings we received on our fifth annual information technology customer satisfaction survey. 

—Improving our ability to defend ourselves against external computer-based 

threats by awarding a contract to monitor our networks and take protective actions, while respecting the privacy of individual offices’ data and communications. 

—Making it easier for our customers to obtain cellular telephones and BlackBerry 

devices by implementing an online catalog and ordering system. 

—Progressing well toward the implementation of our new telephone system, including the creation of a comprehensive lab and the completion of the final engineering phase. Pilot testing will begin this summer and full implementation will 

begin this winter. 

—Improving the ability of Members, staff, and visitors to communicate by extending our infrastructure that supports cellular telephone and BlackBerry devices 

and wireless data networks into the Capitol and the Senate expansion space in 

the Capitol Visitor Center. 

—Providing offices with a means to retain more e-mail data online, with rapid 

and flexible search and retrieval capabilities, through deployment of a solution 

for e-mail archiving that allows older messages to be moved out of the message 

data base but still remain online. By leveraging lower cost storage and highperformance indexing, the solution provides a cost effective, long-term electronic 

mail storage option without a negative impact on the Senate’s messaging infrastructure. 

—Improving the experience of office staff as they accommodate the required physical inventory of Senate assets by implementing barcode scanning technologies. 

—Making it easier for office administrative personnel to manage their offices by 

deploying additional phases of TranSAAct, the web-based system for managing 

certain office functions. TranSAAct now offers single sign-on access to 13 other 

applications, access to electronic versions of billing statements, and online 

means to grant floor privileges and authorization to make charges at the Recording Studio. 

—Freeing our customers to choose a BlackBerry device from the carrier of their 

choice through the implementation of a Senate Messaging Alert Client that operates independently of the Senate e-mail network and any particular carrier’s 

infrastructure, and provides the sender of an alert with notification that it was 

delivered and read by each recipient. 
149 

ENHANCING SERVICE TO THE SENATE

Customer Service, Satisfaction, and Communications 

Our strategic plan stresses customer service as a top priority, and we actively solicit feedback from all levels and for all types of services. Our fifth annual CIO customer satisfaction survey showed that our overall customer satisfaction rating increased slightly from the 87 percent mark of the previous year. This comprehensive 

online survey measures our customers’ satisfaction with the systems, solutions, 

service and the quality of personnel in our organization. Based on the survey results, each year, we develop an action plan based on the survey results, which 

stresses the areas in which improvement is indicated. As always, we continue to emphasize strong communications and customer relationships, bringing new technologies into the Senate as quickly as possible, moving business and information online, and offering choices that allow offices to meet their unique business requirements. 

In addition to the annual CIO customer satisfaction survey, we solicit customer 

feedback for every help desk ticket opened. In several major contracts that affect 

our customers, we include strict service levels that are tied to the contractors’ compensation—if they do well, they get paid more; if they do poorly, they get paid less. 

As an example of how well the service levels have been working for one contract, 

we have exceeded the service level every month in system installation service levels, 

help desk resolution times, and customer satisfaction under the recently recompeted 

IT Support Contract, which was developed, reviewed, and awarded with participation from our customers. We also communicate effectively with our customers 

through a well-developed outreach program that includes information technology 

newsletters, quarterly project status reviews, participation in information technology working groups, weekly technology and business process review meetings 

with customers, joint monthly project and policy meetings with the Committee on 

Rules and Administration, the Senate Systems Administrators Association, and the 

Administrative Managers’ Steering Group. 

Keeping Senators and Staff Informed 

The Senate Information Services program continues to deliver premium, vital online information services to Senators and staff. These services range from the Senate’s own near-real-time news tool, NewsWatch, to mission-critical external research 

services providing far-reaching current and archived news and general information, 

historical newspapers dating back as far as the 18th century, Federal and State 

statutes and case law, regulatory and judicial updates, congressional news and current policy issues analysis, information technology policy developments, and daily 

updated directories of personnel in Government, business, media, and professional 

associations. Senate users accessed more than 3.5 million real-time news stories and 

almost 2 million pages of congressional news and current policy analyses throughout 

2007. During the same period, staff conducted more than 15,000 hours of legal research, viewed contact and biographical information for 60,000 professionals in 

wide-ranging disciplines, and reviewed newspaper content contained in almost 

25,000 images from more than 400 local daily newspapers from the United States 

and around the world. 

Robust, Reliable, and Modern Communications 

We continue to make good progress toward modernizing the Senate’s entire telecommunications infrastructure to provide improved reliability and redundancy in 

support of daily operations and continuity of operations and Government, as well 

as to take advantage of technological advances to provide a more flexible and robust 

communications infrastructure. We are completing the final engineering and design 

stage of this multi-year project to modernize the systems that provide telephone and 

other telecommunication services to the Senate on Capitol Hill. The new system has 

been engineered to provide redundancy for increased reliability and availability resulting in a state-of-the-art system of converged voice, data, and video communications technologies built upon Internet telephony protocols, also referred to as IP telephony or voice over IP. The new telecommunications system will replace our 20- 

plus-year-old telephone technology, eliminate single failure points, provide new capability and value to the Senate, and benefit from the security of running behind 

our infrastructure’s firewalls. Early next year we will begin launching the program. 

The entire Senate enjoys the benefits of a modern, robust, reliable, and scalable 

messaging infrastructure that includes built-in options for continuity of operations, 

design choices, and a platform for leveraging modern technologies including collaboration, mobility, and communications. Offices continue to take advantage of the 

choices offered as we completed six migrations of offices’ electronic mail from one 
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to another of the flexible design options to meet the offices’ changing business needs. 

In the coming fiscal year, we will upgrade the messaging system to the latest software edition that will provide additional features and benefits for electronic mail 

users. We are also deploying Microsoft’s Office Communications Server system to 

allow instant messaging and collaboration within the Senate and messaging to external clients without the risks associated with other instant messaging clients. 

Web-Based and Customer-Focused Business Applications 

This year, we completed the second phase and began the third phase of 

TranSAAct, which is our platform for moving business online. Based on the business 

requirements of offices and the Committee on Rules and Administration, we continue to develop TranSAAct to eliminate paper-based manual processes and move 

them to the Web. Through TranSAAct, administrative managers and chief clerks 

can manage and track invoices for SAA services through a modern Web interface, 

and have single sign-on access to 13 Web-based applications including the ALERTS 

emergency notification database, package tracking, the transit fare subsidy system, 

and the garage parking database. The latest additions to TranSAAct provide offices 

the ability to request services online and use electronic signatures for approvals, 

eliminating paper requests and significantly streamlining the previous manual processes for granting floor privileges and authorizations to request services from the 

Recording Studio. These two are the first of a host of other such processes to be 

moved online. Because it is built on an extensible modern database framework, 

TranSAAct allows indefinite expansion as new requirements are fulfilled. We look 

forward over the coming months and years to moving additional business process 

to the Web, reducing the time, paper and errors associated with the current manual 

processes. 

We also completed development on the next iteration of our highly successful 

Service Academy nominations application, which we have renamed the Office Application Manager. The Office Application Manager is designed to help offices create, 

manage, and respond to Web-based application submission for service academies, internships, and fellowships. Electronic submissions reduce the amount of paper used 

while streamlining the submission process for constituents and offices. 

We are continuing to work with the other major stakeholders (the Secretary of 

the Senate, the Committee on Rules and Administration, and the Chaplain’s Office) 

on restructuring Webster. We are currently in the process of completing a more 

functional front page, banner, and look and feel for the Senate intranet site. Included in the effort is a new method of categorizing information on the site to improve search results and content layout for the site, making information easier to 

find and significantly improving the user experience. 

We have also implemented a modern content management system to enable Webster content providers the ability to develop and maintain the content of their pages 

more easily without the need to know web programming. We also made the same 

system, CommonSpot, available to offices to develop and maintain their websites. 

Showcasing and Promoting Modern Information Technology in the Senate 

This past year we continued to highlight new technologies in the Information 

Technology Demonstration Center through a series of well-attended ‘‘Demo Days’’. 

After products are tested and validated in our technology assessment laboratory, 

they are then available for offices to try in the demo center. The Demo Days feature 

live demonstrations of new and emerging technologies. Just to name a few of the 

new products and technologies that we have recently brought to the Senate, in the 

past year we introduced Microsoft Groove 2007 for enhanced collaboration on documents across organizational boundaries, HP server integrated lights-out management board to enable remote monitoring and management of servers, personal 

videoconferencing hub for easier configuration of video conference calls with multiple participants, Microsoft’s Vista operating system, and a reporting application to 

allow individual office system administrators to see quickly how they are doing with 

respect to automatically-downloaded software updates. 

Also, this past year, we hosted two more highly-successful Senate emerging technology conferences and exhibitions to expose Senate staff to new technologies and 

concepts. These conferences are designed around technology themes of immediate 

interest Senate-wide. The two conferences held this past year featured mobility and 

staying connected anytime and anywhere and ‘‘green’’ initiatives in technology, for 

use in the office and at home. Speakers included industry leaders; Government 

agencies; and Member office, Architect of the Capitol, and CIO staff. 

In order to perform technology assessments, feasibility analysis, and proof of concept studies, to ensure we are considering technologies that will directly support the 

Senate’s mission, we continue to improve the capabilities in our technology assess-
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ment laboratory. Technologies and solutions are vetted and tested here prior to 

being announced for pilot, prototype, or mass deployment to the Senate. To ensure 

that relevant technologies and solutions are under consideration, the CIO-sponsored 

technology assessment group, consisting of CIO staff and our customers, performs 

high-level requirements analysis and prioritizes new technologies and solutions for 

consideration for deployment in the Senate. Some of the new technologies evaluated 

and/or recommended for support through our lab testing during the current fiscal 

year include: 

—Server virtualization to reduce the number of physical servers we require; 

—Enterprise instant messaging, a critical business communication tool that provides all the customary instant messaging capabilities without sacrificing enterprise class reliability and security; 

—A Microsoft Vista operating system image and security configuration customized 

for the Senate; 

—More than 30 new Hewlett-Packard, Fujitsu, and Apple portable or desktop 

computer offerings; 

—18 new Hewlett-Packard workgroup printers; 

—12 new document imaging scanners; 

—Almost 600 Microsoft critical software security patches; and 

—12 office productivity suite applications. 

We will continue or intensify these efforts in fiscal year 2009 to ensure that the 

Senate is always well-equipped to perform its functions. To keep our customers informed of our efforts, we publish the results of our studies on the emerging technology page of the CIO’s portion of Webster. 

Enhancing Security with Accessible, Flexible, and Reliable Systems 

We continue to seek ways to improve the security of our technology infrastructure 

in order to protect data, respect privacy, enable continuous Senate operations and 

support our emergency and continuity plans. Our efforts over the past year have 

enabled us to support alternate sites and the replication of information, as well as 

emergency and contingency communications. We are delivering increased support 

for remote access and have completed the in-building wireless infrastructure. A significant commitment to information technology security is improving our ability to 

protect the Senate from increasing external cyber threats, and the multi-year telecommunications modernization project is driving improvements in the reliability of 

our communications infrastructure. We also seek ways to enable individual offices 

to replicate and defend the electronic information that is the lifeblood of their existence. Our efforts all center on improving the ability of the Senate to accomplish its 

mission. 

Alternate Sites and Information Replication 

We are continuing the testing of our technology in scenarios in which our primary 

infrastructure and primary work locations have become inaccessible. This includes 

the simulated loss of our primary data and network facilities, as well as simulated 

loss of staff work spaces. All mission essential Senate enterprise information systems continue to be replicated at our alternate computing facility (ACF), using our 

recently upgraded optical network and storage area network technology. In August, 

the CIO conducted the third comprehensive test of the facility: Senate primary computing facilities (including network access) were completely shut down and reconstituted at the ACF. For most systems full capability and functionality were provided 

from the ACF for a period of 4 hours and then systems were ‘‘failed-back’’ to the 

primary computing facility on Capitol Hill. In this test we kept several major systems in production mode at the ACF for several days before returning them to the 

primary facility. In December, working with staff from the Office of the Secretary 

of the Senate, we conducted a second failover exercise involving the Senate’s financial systems. On May 29 and 30, 2007, approximately 210 members of the CIO organization, including staff from all departments and vendors, participated in our first 

pandemic exercise. The exercise was a proof of concept activity, demonstrating the 

CIO’s ability to support mission essential systems with a minimum number of onsite personnel, and the ability to support substantial numbers of people working 

from home. All three of these exercises were extremely successful and gave us valuable insight into how we would provide our support in an emergency. 

This past year our CIO organization also continued helping offices protect their 

data by enabling them to replicate data to State offices or the ACF through the remote data replication program. As of January 2008, there are 54 Member offices and 

21 committees taking advantage of this program, with 68 percent installed at the 

ACF and 32 percent installed in Members’ State offices. Remote data replication 

provides the Senate an unprecedented ability to access institutional data in the 
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event of an emergency. Another system that is integral to emergency planning, particularly in the event of a mass telecommuting scenario, such as a pandemic, is the 

Senate’s video teleconferencing system. Through this highly-successful project we 

have installed more than 600 units in offices across the Nation with usage rates in 

excess of 33,000 minutes per day when the Senate is in session. 

Two—enterprise and hybrid—of the three architectural options we offer for electronic messaging provide complete replication of the office’s electronic mail at the 

ACF. Eighty-six percent of offices are now taking advantage of the continuity of operations capability inherent in the enterprise and hybrid options. Also, the recently 

introduced e-mail archiving system provides complete replication to the ACF electronic mail that has been archived to ‘‘near-line’’ storage media for long term storage. 

Finally, we also offer offices a virtual file server system that allows them to store 

data securely on our large, centrally hosted, enterprise-class storage area network. 

The system, as designed, provides redundancy for disaster recovery and continuity 

of operations and minimizes the environmental and staff burden of in-office data 

storage. Offices that opt to use the system also enjoy enterprise-level data backup 

and off-site storage of backup tapes while retaining control of data recovery. In the 

event of a disaster that renders our primary computing facility unavailable, the data 

at the ACF will be brought online and will provide users consistent access to their 

data. The system has been available since December 2006, and 14 Member offices 

and four committees have taken advantage of this exciting technology. 

Securing our Information Infrastructure 

As a result of information security activities we described in last year’s testimony, 

we have gained a much better understanding of the dynamic nature of global cyber 

threats. This knowledge, combined with the flexible technologies used in our information security operations center, allows us to understand the overall IT operational risk present in the Senate environment. We have evolved from a defensive, 

reactionary posture of responding to cyber threats and attacks to an active detection 

and prevention posture. We are deploying technologies and processes that will detect malware and attempts at exploitation in real time as they are attempted and 

that have the ability to actively prevent most of these attempts, including ‘‘zero-day’’ 

attacks, from being successful, which spares Senate information technology assets 

from being affected and requiring remediation. Adjusting our controls in response 

to new threats and making security recommendations to offices and committees allows us to help ensure continuity of Government by increasing availability of the 

IT infrastructure, even under duress. 

The list of electronic threats to our information infrastructure is growing in number and sophistication. Over the next year, we will meet the challenge of managing 

a volatile security environment by: (1) optimizing our current configuration of security controls, expanding the role of our security operation centers; (2) optimizing our 

current configuration of security controls to enhance our incident handling capabilities and operational protocols; (3) improving our collaboration with other Federal 

agencies in the areas of incident response and situational awareness; (4) evaluating, 

testing, and deploying new security control mechanisms; and (5) enhancing communication with office IT staff to give them timely and usable information in order to 

improve the security posture of their own IT infrastructure. 

Similar to security in the physical world, security in the information technology 

world requires constant vigilance and the ability to detect and deter attacks. The 

threats to our information infrastructure are increasing in frequency and sophistication, and they come from spyware, adware, malware, Trojans, keyloggers, spybots, 

adbots, and trackware, all of which continuously search for vulnerabilities in our 

systems and which we see being generated from foreign as well as domestic sources. 

Countering the evolving threat environment means increasing our awareness of the 

situation, improving our processes, and continually researching, testing, and deploying new security technologies. Because we have very little advance notice of new 

types of attacks, we must and do have flexible security control structures and processes that we frequently revise and adjust. Our efforts to cultivate external relationships to improve our overall awareness of Internet-based threats have been effective. As the global threat environment has shifted, we have modified our processes 

and our technologies to improve our awareness and response to better protect the 

Senate’s IT infrastructure. 

This last year, we experienced growth in providing computer security assistance 

to offices. We are increasingly called upon to help office system administrators properly configure desktop and server security controls and assist them in evaluating 

our weekly reports on anti-virus controls. Also, we implemented an outreach program (with 15 offices completed and 6 scheduled for training) and work with system 
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administrators to ensure staff is regularly informed of threats to Senate information 

and what they can do to help reduce the risk from such threats. As a part of the 

information sharing process, we annually produce 35–40 blog entries, articles and 

user notices targeted at administrators and the general Senate population. As the 

Senate continues to employ cutting edge technologies, our IT security group’s activities will adjust in order to ensure optimal product performance and service delivery. 

We continue to use cutting edge technology, not only within our IT security services, 

but also in our IT security infrastructure. For example, we recently upgraded our 

anti-virus infrastructure to allow us greater flexibility, better utilization of our computing resources, and enhance our availability and disaster recovery capabilities. 

This infrastructure is very scalable, and we can continue to expand capabilities 

while conserving on costs. 

Protecting the Senate’s information is one of our most important responsibilities. 

This year we have continued to make tremendous strides in this area with the development and operation of the Senate’s redundant information security operations 

centers, one located on Capitol Hill and the other at the Alternate Computing Facility. The mission of these centers is to identify and understand threats, assess 

vulnerabilities, identify failure points and bottlenecks, determine potential impacts, 

and remedy problems before they adversely affect Senate operations. We augment 

this capability with close liaisons with other Federal agencies to ensure we have the 

most up-to-date information and techniques for combating cyber threats. Running 

within our information security operation centers, a state-of-the-art security information management system aggregates and reports on data from a variety of 

sources worldwide to help us track potential attackers before they can harm us. The 

combination of the information security operations centers, our defense-in-depth capability at all levels of our network infrastructure, and our enterprise anti-virus/ 

anti-spyware programs, and centralized security update management service has 

proven highly effective. 

We must remain vigilant because the threat environment, as measured by detected security incidents, remains very high. For example, every day we detect approximately 1,121,000 potential security threats targeting the Senate, more than 40 

percent of which are characterized as medium- to high-risk and our information security watchstander staff handles 40–50 security issues each month. Monitoring the 

Senate’s information technology environment has been significantly improved over 

the past year from detecting and being able to analyze and categorize 2.5 to 4 million ‘‘events,’’ which are items of Senate network traffic that have the potential to 

cause a security breach, in October 2007, to the ability to detect and analyze 7 to 

9 million events currently as of February 2008. Moving ahead, our information security operations centers will be able to detect and analyze on the order of 12 to 19 

million events per day. We will then upgrade our infrastructure to be able to handle 

approximately 30 million events in a 24-hour period, which will help prevent our 

systems from being overwhelmed during a widespread malware outbreak or distributed denial of service attack directed at the Senate, and will also allow for significant future growth of the Senate security monitoring sensor network. 

Our anti-virus controls detected and countered nearly 1,087,000 viral events in 

Senate computers during calendar year 2007. All offices use our managed anti-virus 

system and centralized software update servers. These systems protect over 11,500 

Senate computers, and are a main reason why only one major viral outbreak event 

was handled by our incident handling team in 2007. Our security controls contained 

the outbreak to only 2 percent of our systems, and prevented any operational impact 

on an extended Senate session during a holiday period. This is quite a contrast to 

viral outbreaks of just a few years ago when several thousand machines were affected and notable disruptions in Senate IT operations were experienced multiple 

times throughout the year. 

Of course, we undertake all our information security monitoring activities in compliance with our information privacy policy. Although the constraints of our policy 

make defending against threats more difficult, we believe they are necessary to retain the trust of those whom we serve. 

Our information security watchstander, which is patterned after similar security 

operations center positions in other agencies, is an around-the-clock duty of our IT 

security staff. The position provides the Senate community a central point of contact 

when reporting and responding to IT security events. The watchstander also reviews 

and responds to IT security alerts, suspicious activity bulletins, and warnings compiled by public and private sources, and coordinates efforts to increase Senate-wide 

IT security awareness. Due to the ever-increasing numbers and potential severity 

of IT security events, the number of IT Security staff has been increased to handle 

the larger volume and variety of events. Some examples of watchstander responsibilities are responding to complaints from offices of increased e-mail spam and 
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phishing attempts, creating user notices in response to warnings on vulnerabilities, 

and responding to reports of suspicious network traffic identified by our security operations center. 

IT security is, and will continue to be, a growth area as we work to stay ahead 

of threats and put safeguards in place. We plan to increase both our analytical and 

defensive capabilities. In support of that, we are hiring the three new full-time employees in our IT Security Branch that were approved in our fiscal year 2008 appropriation. Further security sensors and other protection technologies will be deployed 

at Senate network perimeters that will enhance our ability to protect the Senate 

from cyber threats, malware, and other network-borne threats from outside entity 

networks that directly connect to the Senate. Sophisticated security products and 

technologies will also be integrated into our new telecommunications system, thus 

providing a monitoring, detection and active prevention capability that will further 

protect us from current and future cyber threats and better satisfy the Senate’s requirements for privacy of voice communications. 

Emergency and Contingency Communications 

We provide a comprehensive array of communications systems and options with 

the objective of being able to communicate under any circumstance. For instance, 

we are currently deploying the Senate Message Alert Client, which eliminates our 

dependence on any single commercial carrier for emergency communications to 

BlackBerry devices and provides the flexibility of device-to-device communications. 

Through this client, staff can create inter- or intra-office emergency notification lists 

that can be used to send emergency messages directly to devices on the list in real 

time. The Senate Message Alert Client and the global e-mail alert system are two 

of the primary methods for the USCP and the SAA to issue mass emergency communications messages. 

This year we continued upgrading and testing our two Senate emergency response 

communications vehicles according to a monthly exercise plan. These assets are 

available for deployment with LAN, WAN, telephone, and satellite connectivity and 

provide the ability to relocate significant information infrastructure virtually anywhere. We also continue to train and expand our deployment teams, and work to 

revise and refine our operations procedures for deployment of these vehicles in support of the Senate. 

During the year we completed the in-building wireless infrastructure in the Capitol and the Capitol Visitor Center. This infrastructure provides coverage in areas 

where it was previously poor or non-existent and also allows Senate staff to connect 

back to their offices via wireless remote computing. The wireless infrastructure also 

supports every carrier, allowing Members to use the carrier of their choice with the 

device of their choice across the Senate campus. In the Capitol Visitor Center, we 

are providing all services within the Senate expansion space. At the request of the 

Architect of the Capitol we are also providing cellular and BlackBerry coverage to 

the core of the Visitor Center. 

As we demonstrated during our pandemic exercise last spring, the mobile and remote computing technologies we provide allow Senate staff to access and modify 

their information and communicate from virtually anywhere, anytime. We will continue to enhance and expand these capabilities in order to support a potentially dispersed workforce with the ability to telecommute. These capabilities are crucial to 

our ability to support the Senate in an emergency situation where the workforce 

must be dispersed and also support the Senate’s ability to provide employees with 

flexible work options on a daily basis. 

We are dedicated to providing an integrated and highly-reliable emergency communications infrastructure through a variety of projects including expanding our 

emergency communications infrastructure, integrating and streamlining emergency 

communications capability, liaison with the USCP command center, developing specifications for outfitting emergency operations and leadership coordination centers, 

and conducting monthly comprehensive testing of emergency alert notification systems. 

Enhancing Stewardship through Fiscal and Environmental Responsibility 

Stewardship of our resources is intertwined in everything we do, as well as being 

a driving force for some of our activities. We are always looking for ways to improve 

our processes or technologies so that we save time, money, electricity, paper, or 

other resources. Our CIO organization is a good steward of the fiscal resources of 

the Senate, as they are consistently and continuously improving on the services offered to our customers while seeking only modest increases in funding. Many of 

their initiatives save offices hundreds or thousands of dollars in costs that would 

otherwise be borne out of their official accounts. As most of these initiatives save 
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money due to a reduction in the purchase of some commodity, they also fit in with 

our efforts toward environmental stewardship. Some examples of our efforts to enhance fiscal and environmental stewardship are: 

—Implementation of virtual file servers, which allow the Sergeant at Arms and 

other offices to combine multiple file servers onto fewer physical devices, reducing the need to manufacture devices and therefore dispose of them, reducing 

power and air conditioning requirements, saving funds, and enhancing our ability to provide reliable and redundant services. 

—The electronic fax system saves offices hundreds of thousands of pages of paper 

each year by allowing staff to dispose of unwanted fax messages electronically 

before they are printed, and reduces the need for fax toner cartridges, which 

again reduces the need for manufacturing and disposal of them, and saves offices tens of thousands of dollars a year on their purchase. 

—Online billing through our TranSAAct system has eliminated approximately 

30,000 pages of printed billing statements each month. As we add Verizon Wireless and other services into TranSAAct we will save even more paper. 

—Scrutiny of our telecommunications bills for overcharges and incorrect items has saved us more than $100,000 in the current fiscal year. 

We also ensure that the devices we recommend to the Senate meet the applicable 

EnergyStar guidelines, and where feasible, the guidelines for the responsible manufacture of information technology equipment. 

OPERATIONS AND SUPPORT

Consistently Delivering Excellent Service 

The commitment to exceptional customer service is a hallmark of the Sergeant at 

Arms organization and the cornerstone of our support functions. The groups that 

make up our support team continue to provide exceptional customer service to the 

Senate community. 

Capitol Facilities 

Capitol Facilities serves the Senate community by providing a clean and professional work environment through its Environmental Services Division. The Furnishing Division provides creative framing services to all Senators and committees, 

custom cabinets and other high quality furniture, carpeting, and draperies. 

During the past year, Capitol Facilities has implemented a new quality assurance 

system to track and monitor the cleaning quality performed during the night in the 

Capitol and the cleaning supplies used. It has improved the consistency and level 

of cleaning by using technology to inspect and report on all areas cleaned in the 

Capitol while at the same time resulting in a 50 percent reduction in the time required for inspections allowing more time to be devoted to cleaning. This system has 

also allowed us to monitor cleaning supply levels more closely and reduce consumption. 

Capitol Facilities has purchased and are using new event chairs for special events 

in the Capitol resulting in improvements in appearance and comfort for the Senate 

community and visitors. 

Improvements made to our Cabinet Shop include installation of a ‘‘Brandt’’ 

edgebander which applies both veneer and solid wood to the edges of cabinets and 

other furniture. Since this process was originally done by hand which was very labor 

intensive and slow, we have been able to reduce the amount of production time by 

10 percent for items requiring this application. The addition of a cabinet designer 

to our staff has facilitated the CAD (Computer Aided Design) process and given the 

department better presentation drawings for the client to review and working drawings to build from. This designer has also been instrumental in the completion of 

the first set of complete drawings for the historic Webster Desk in the Senate 

Chamber. 

Both Leadership Offices and Senate Security are participating in the testing 

phase of an integrated work management system that features an on-line furniture 

catalog, ordering functions, and work order tracking capability. 

Printing Graphics and Direct Mail 

We provide photocopying, print design, and production services to the Senate. The 

Printing, Graphics, and Direct Mail (PGDM) department continues to provide high 

level service and customer support to the Senate community. In fiscal year 2007, 

we responded to an increased demand for color publications by using both digital 

color reproduction and traditional full-color offset printing. PGDM produced more 

than 19 million full-color pages utilizing offset presses, a 61 percent increase over 

fiscal year 2006, and over 1.7 million digital color reproductions on our printers, a 

29 percent increase over fiscal year 2006. In fiscal year 2007 PGDM purchased a 
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digital production press, which incorporates multiple print management functions in 

one system, reducing turnaround times and producing higher quality products. 

The department also processed more than 16 million black and white copies, a 

large percentage of which were sent to PGDM in digital format. The convenient 

web-based print ordering service expanded, increasing web-based printing request 

production to more than 6.6 million documents. PGDM staff expanded the very popular CMS imaging service and scanned over 700,000 documents, a 61 percent increase over fiscal year 2006. We saved the Senate approximately $662,000, enabled 

quick turnaround times, and provided convenient customer service by producing 

over 7,446 large format charts in-house. Constituent mail saw first class postage increased to $0.41 per piece and PGDM saved Senate offices over $2.1 million in postage expenses by sorting over 11 million pieces of mail during fiscal year 2007. We 

also worked with other Senate partners to process 55,000 flag requests. 

The Senate Support Facility has been in full operation for more than 2 years. A 

key initiative for the facility was to provide a secure transfer service from the 

United States Capitol Police Off-Site inspection facility to the Senate Support Facility. In fiscal year 2007, PGDM transferred more than 100,000 items from the inspection facility to the Senate Support Facility, greatly reducing the number of 

trucks entering the Capitol complex. 

Parking Office 

The Parking Office is a leader in our ‘‘Green’’ initiatives. There are 17 flex-fuel 

vehicles in the Fleet, one hybrid vehicle and one electric car. 

The Parking Office also plays a critical role in planning and exercising transportation and logistics in emergency operations. The Parking Office has worked closely 

with OSEP in these endeavors and has produced the final draft of COOP transportation manuals. 

Photo Studio 

The Photo Studio has developed procedures to replicate the Photo Browser database at the Alternate Computing Facility, providing a secure backup and recovery 

plan for customer’s photo images. 

Photo Studio staff also designed new web pages to provide a more user-friendly 

and informative interface for customers, and implemented an FTP service which allows customers to upload multiple image files at one time. 

The Photo Studio is currently evaluating Digital Asset Management (DAM) products to replace the Photo Browser image database and order fulfillment system. Our 

fiscal year 2009 budget request plans for upgrades to existing server hardware to 

ensure adequate maintenance and secure storage for Senators’ and Committees’ 

photo images which currently number more than 1.2 million. Our goal is to implement a fully supported DAM and ordering system that will function securely within 

the Senate environment. 

Senate Hair Care 

Senate Hair Care increased service prices in fiscal year 2007. This resulted in a 

revenue increase of $50,546 over fiscal year 2006 totals, approximately 12.5 percent. 

Customers are responding enthusiastically to new retail products offered in Senate 

Hair Care. We have responded to the needs of customers who travel by offering an 

expanded range of travel size retail products, to keep customers compliant with the 

TSA 3–1–1 rule. 

Recording Studio 

Our Recording Studio is responsible for providing gavel to gavel coverage of Senate floor proceedings, broadcasting Senate committee hearings, and providing radio 

and television production studios and equipment for Senators’ use. Last year, we 

televised all 1,384 hours of Senate Floor proceedings, 755 committee hearings, and 

broadcast 1,348 radio and television productions. 

Committee Hearing Room Upgrade Project 

Demand for additional committee broadcasts has been ever increasing. In 2003, 

we began working with this Committee and the Committee on Rules and Administration to upgrade and install multimedia equipment in Senate committee hearing 

rooms. The project includes digital signal processing audio systems and broadcastquality robotic camera systems. 

To date, we have completed 19 hearing rooms, S–207, S–211 and have 2 more 

rooms in the design phase. Room enhancements include improved speech intelligibility and software-based systems that we can configure based on individual committee needs. The system is networked; allowing committee staff to easily and automatically route audio from one hearing room to another when there are overflow 
157 

crowds. Additionally, the system’s backup will take over quickly if the primary electronics fail. 

As part of the upgrades included in our move to the CVC, we are installing technologies to enhance our ability to provide broadcast coverage of more hearings simultaneously without adding staff. For example, the Committee Hearing Room Upgrade Project will allow us to cover a hearing with one staff member. Before the 

upgrade, three staff members were required to adequately cover a hearing. These 

technology enhancements, coupled with the expansion of the number of control 

rooms for committee broadcasts to 12, will enable us to increase our simultaneous 

broadcast coverage of committee hearings from 5 to as many as 12. 

Migration to the Capitol Visitor Center 

The most significant work we anticipate for the Senate Recording Studio, over the 

next 6 months, is its move from the basement of the Capitol to the CVC. This move 

will enable the Recording Studio to complete its upgrade to a full High Definition 

Facility, and to implement a number of improvements that have been planned to 

coincide with the opening of the CVC. The Studio anticipates moving all aspects of 

its operation, including the engineering shops, the Senate Television operation, Studio production and post-production facilities, committee broadcast services, and all 

administrative and management offices to the CVC by September 1, 2008. 

My earlier testimony discussed the impact the CVC will have on the Senate Recording Studio. We have other departments that will be impacted by the CVC and 

their operations and processes will change with its opening. 

Senate Appointments Desks 

To improve security and the flow of people who visit the Capitol, the Senate Appointments Desk will add two desks in the CVC, one located near the main entrance 

and the other located outside of the Senate Meeting Rooms on the lower level. Approximately 80 percent of the people who have appointments at the Capitol will 

enter through the CVC, reducing congestion within the Capitol and minimizing 

processing and waiting time for our guests. Approximately 95,000 people who previously entered through the Capitol’s North Door will enter through the CVC when 

it opens. We will maintain scaled versions of the Capitol and the Russell Building 

Appointments Desks for visitors with appointments with Leadership and for those 

who have appointments in both the Senate office buildings and the Capitol. Our Appointments Desks staff will expand from 6 to 10 and our projected labor efficiencies 

experienced in other departments will enable us to transfer four FTEs to the Senate 

Appointments Desk team. 

Senate Gallery Visitors 

We plan to improve the visitor experience for the estimated 200,000 people annually who want to witness Senate proceedings from the Gallery. We will process these 

guests through the CVC, rather than the Capitol’s North Door, improving security 

and thereby eliminating the long lines and congestion that had been commonplace 

throughout the Capitol. Our Senate Doorkeepers team will manage a staging room 

that has been designated on the main floor of the CVC near the elevators that will 

facilitate the collection of Gallery-prohibited items and the movement of people in 

a secure manner. The staging room and the surrounding areas offer our guests numerous creature comforts and educational opportunities. The staging room will be 

converted into a Senate Meeting Room when the Senate is not in session. 

CONCLUSION

We take our responsibilities to the American people and to their elected representatives seriously. The Office of the Sergeant at Arms is like dozens of small 

businesses, each with its own primary mission, each with its own measures of success, and each with its own culture. It has a fleet of vehicles that serves Senate 

Leadership, delivers goods, and provides emergency transportation. Our Photography Studio records historic events, takes official Senate portraits, provides a 

whole range of photography services, and delivers thousands of pictures each year. 

The SAA’s printing shop provides layout and design, graphics development, and production of everything from newsletters to floor charts. The Office of the Sergeant 

at Arms also operates a Page dormitory, a hair salon, and parking lots. It provides 

many other services to support the Senate community, including framing, flag packaging and mailing, and intranet services. Each of these businesses requires personnel with different skills and different abilities. One thing that they all have in 

common, though, is their commitment to making the Senate run smoothly. 

Over the past year, the staff of the SAA has kept the Senate safe, secure, and 

operating efficiently. This Committee and the Committee on Rules and Administra-
158 

tion have provided active, ongoing support to help us achieve our goals. We thank 

you for your support and for the opportunity to present this testimony and respond 

to any questions you may have. 

APPENDIX A—FISCAL YEAR 2009 BUDGET REQUEST

ATTACHMENT I—FINANCIAL PLAN FOR FISCAL YEAR 2009

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: OFFICE OF THE SERGEANT AT ARMS—UNITED STATES SENATE 

[Dollar amounts in thousands] 

Fiscal year 

2008 budget 

Fiscal year 

2009 request 

Fiscal year 2009 vs. fiscal year 2008 

Amount Percent Incr/ Decr 

General Operations and Maintenance: 

Salaries .............................................................................. $60,600 $69,758 $9,158 15.1 

Expenses ............................................................................ $78,379 $84,572 $6,193 7.9 

Total, General Operations and Maintenance ................ $138,979 $154,330 $15,351 11.0 

Mandated Allowances and Allotments ....................................... $55,616 $52,818 ($2,798 ) ¥5.0 

Capital Investment ..................................................................... $3,315 $14,515 $11,200 337.9 

Nondiscretionary Items ............................................................... $5,079 $4,696 ($383 ) ¥7.5 

TOTAL ............................................................................. $202,989 $226,359 $23,370 11.5 

Staffing ....................................................................................... 949 956 7 0.7 

To ensure that we provide the highest levels and quality of security, support services and equipment, we submit a fiscal year 2009 budget request of $226,359,000, 

an increase of $23,370,000 or 11.5 percent compared to fiscal year 2008. The salary 

budget request is $69,758,000, an increase of $9,158,000 or 15.1 percent, and the 

expense budget request is $156,601,000, an increase of $14,212,000 or 10.0 percent. 

The staffing request is 956, an increase of 7 percent. 

We present our budget in four categories: General Operations and Maintenance 

(Salaries and Expenses), Mandated Allowances and Allotments, Capital Investment, 

and Nondiscretionary Items. 

The general operations and maintenance salaries budget request is $69,758,000, 

an increase of $9,158,000 or 15.1 percent compared to fiscal year 2008. The salary 

budget increase is due to the addition of seven FTEs, a COLA, and merit funding. 

The additional staff will support increased demand for services, as well as advancing technologies. 

The general operations and maintenance expenses budget request for existing and 

new services is $84,572,000, an increase of $6,193,000 or 7.9 percent compared to 

fiscal year 2008. Major factors contributing to the expense budget increase are cost 

escalations in the IT support contract, $1,661,000; a new cyber security contract, 

$800,000; purchase of furnishings and carpet, $697,000; additional maintenance 

costs to support Internet bandwidth, $600,000; and other IT support agreements, 

$442,000. 

The mandated allowances and allotments budget request is $52,818,000, a decrease of $2,798,000 or 5.0 percent compared to fiscal year 2008. This variance is 

primarily due to decreases in telecom services costs. 

The capital investment budget request is $14,515,000, an increase of $11,200,000 

or 337.9 percent compared to fiscal year 2008. The fiscal year 2009 budget request 

includes funds for hearing room audio/video upgrades, $5,000,000; data network engineering equipment, $2,300,000; network upgrade project, $1,800,000; replacement 

of printing equipment, $1,795,000; upgrade of the Storage Area Network (SAN), 

$1,520,000; and the modular furniture replacement project for SAA space, 

$1,000,000. 

The nondiscretionary items budget request is $4,696,000, a decrease of $383,000 

or 7.5 percent compared to fiscal year 2008. The request funds three projects that 

support the Secretary of the Senate: contract maintenance for the Financial Management Information System, $3,656,000; maintenance and necessary enhancements 

to the Legislative Information System, $835,000; and maintenance and enhancements to the Senate Payroll System, $205,000. 
159 

ATTACHMENT II—FISCAL YEAR 2009 BUDGET REQUEST BY DEPARTMENT

The following is a summary of the SAA fiscal year 2009 budget request on an organizational basis. 

FISCAL YEAR 2009 BUDGET REQUEST BY DEPARTMENT 

[Dollar amounts in thousands] 

Fiscal year 

2008 budget 

Fiscal year 

2009 request 

Fiscal year 2009 vs. fiscal year 

2008 

Amount Percent Incr/ 

Decr 

Capitol Division .......................................................................... $30,175 $37,621 $7,446 24.7 

Operations ................................................................................... $40,077 $46,274 $6,197 15.5 

Technology Development ............................................................. $44,578 $53,399 $8,821 19.8 

IT Support Services ..................................................................... $72,557 $71,996 ($561 ) ¥0.8 

Staff Offices ............................................................................... $15,602 $17,069 $1,467 9.4 

TOTAL ............................................................................. $202,989 $226,359 $23,370 11.5 

Each department’s budget is presented and discussed in detail on the next pages. 

CAPITOL DIVISION 

[Dollars in thousands] 

Fiscal year 

2008 budget 

Fiscal year 

2009 request 

Fiscal year 2009 vs. fiscal 

year 2008 

Amount Percent Incr/ 

Decr 

General Operations and Maintenance: 

Salaries ................................................................................ $15,752 $18,151 $2,399 15.2 

Expenses .............................................................................. $12,423 $12,570 $147 1.2 

Total, General Operations and Maintenance .................. $28,175 $30,721 $2,546 9.0 

Mandated Allowances and Allotments ......................................... $1,800 $1,800 .................... ....................

Capital Investment ....................................................................... $200 $5,100 $4,900 2,450.0 

Nondiscretionary Items ................................................................. .................... .................... .................... ....................

TOTAL ............................................................................... $30,175 $37,621 $7,446 24.7 

Staffing ......................................................................................... 286 286 .................... ....................

The Capitol Division consists of the Executive Office, the Office of Security and 

Emergency Preparedness, the U.S. Capitol Police Operations Liaison, Post Office, 

Recording Studio and Media Galleries. 

The general operations and maintenance salaries budget request is $18,151,000, 

an increase of $2,399,000 or 15.2 percent. The salary budget increase is due an expected COLA and merit increases, and other adjustments. 

The general operations and maintenance expenses budget request is $12,570,000, 

an increase of $147,000 or 1.2 percent. 

The mandated allowances and allotments budget request for State office security 

initiatives is $1,800,000. 

The capital investments budget request of $5,100,000 will fund hearing room 

audio and video upgrades, and two new vehicles in the Post Office. 
160 

OPERATIONS 

[Dollars in thousands] 

Fiscal year 

2008 budget 

Fiscal year 

2009 request 

Fiscal year 2009 vs. fiscal 

year 2008 

Amount Percent Incr/ 

Decr 

General Operations and Maintenance: 

Salaries ................................................................................ $17,140 $19,161 $2,021 11.8 

Expenses .............................................................................. $5,772 $6,876 $1,104 19.1 

Total, General Operations and Maintenance .................. $22,912 $26,037 $3,125 13.6 

Mandated Allowances and Allotments ......................................... $16,665 $16,992 $327 2.0 

Capital Investment ....................................................................... $500 $3,245 $2,745 549.0 

Nondiscretionary Items ................................................................. .................... .................... .................... ....................

TOTAL ............................................................................... $40,077 $46,274 $6,197 15.5 

Staffing ......................................................................................... 305 305 .................... ....................

The Operations Division consists of the Central Operations Group (Director/Management, Parking Office, Printing, Graphics and Direct Mail, Photo Studio, and 

Hair Care Services), Facilities, and the Office Support Services Group (Director, 

Customer Support, State Office Liaison, and Administrative Services). 

The general operations and maintenance salaries budget request is $19,161,000, 

an increase of $2,021,000 or 11.8 percent. The salary budget increase is due to an 

expected COLA and merit increases. 

The general operations and maintenance expenses budget request is $6,876,000, 

an increase of $1,104,000 or 19.1 percent. This increase is primarily due to additional maintenance costs, and purchases of furnishings and carpet for Capitol offices 

whose occupants relocated to the CVC and the election cycle. 

The mandated allowances and allotments budget request is $16,992,000, an increase of $327,000 or 2.0 percent. This request includes funds for the rent expenses 

of home State offices. 

The capital investment budget request is $3,245,000. This request includes funds 

for modular furniture replacement in SAA office space, $1,000,000; and several 

equipment replacement projects in Central Operations, including the purchase of a 

laser printer, $500,000; photo studio server upgrade and printing system, $450,000; 

plate maker, $400,000; and six copy center printers, $275,000. 

TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT 

[Dollars in thousands] 

Fiscal year 

2008 budget 

Fiscal year 

2009 request 

Fiscal year 2009 vs. fiscal year 

2008 

Amount Percent Incr/ 

Decr 

General Operations and Maintenance: 

Salaries .............................................................................. $12,060 $14,939 $2,879 23.9 

Expenses ............................................................................ $25,399 $27,694 $2,295 9.0 

Total, General Operations and Maintenance ................ $37,459 $42,633 $5,174 13.8 

Mandated Allowances and Allotments ....................................... .................... .................... ...................... ....................

Capital Investment ..................................................................... $2,040 $6,070 $4,030 197.5 

Nondiscretionary Items ............................................................... $5,079 $4,696 ($383 ) ¥7.5 

TOTAL ............................................................................. $44,578 $53,399 $8,821 19.8 

Staffing ....................................................................................... 140 146 6 4.3 

The Technology Development Services includes the Technology Development Director, Network Engineering and Management, Enterprise IT Operations, Systems 

Development Services, Information Systems Security and Internet/Intranet Services. 
161 

The general operations and maintenance salaries budget request is $14,939,000, 

an increase of $2,879,000 or 23.9 percent. The salary budget increase is due to the 

addition of six FTEs, an expected COLA and merit funding for fiscal year 2009. 

Technology Development requires six FTEs to provide network infrastructure support, support the growing demand on IT Security, and for additional enterprise 

database systems support. 

The general operations and maintenance expense budget request is $27,694,000, 

an increase of $2,295,000 or 9.0 percent. This increase is due to a new cyber security 

contract and additional maintenance costs to support expanded Internet bandwidth 

required to meet Senate business requirements. 

The capital investment budget request is $6,070,000, an increase of $4,030,000 or 

197.5 percent. This request includes data network engineering costs, $2,300,000; 

data network upgrade project, $1,800,000; and upgrade of the Storage Area Network 

(SAN), $1,520,000. 

The nondiscretionary items budget request is $4,696,000, a decrease of $383,000 

or 7.5 percent. The request consists of three projects that support the Secretary of 

the Senate: contract maintenance for the Financial Management Information System, maintenance and necessary enhancements to the Legislative Information System, and maintenance and enhancements to the Senate Payroll System. 

IT SUPPORT SERVICES 

[Dollars in thousands] 

Fiscal year 

2008 budget 

Fiscal year 

2009 request 

Fiscal year 2009 vs. fiscal year 2008 

Amount Percent Incr/ Decr 

General Operations and Maintenance: 

Salaries .............................................................................. $6,577 $7,160 $583 8.9 

Expenses ............................................................................ $28,254 $30,710 $2,456 8.7 

Total, General Operations and Maintenance ................ $34,831 $37,870 $3,039 8.7 

Mandated Allowances and Allotments ....................................... $37,151 $34,026 ($3,125 ) ¥8.4 

Capital Investment ..................................................................... $575 $100 ($475 ) ¥82.6 

Nondiscretionary Items ............................................................... .................... .................... ...................... ....................

TOTAL ............................................................................. $72,557 $71,996 ($561 ) ¥0.8 

Staffing ....................................................................................... 113 113 ...................... ....................

The IT Support Services Department consists of the Director, Office Equipment 

Services, Telecom Services, and Desktop/LAN Support branches. 

The general operations and maintenance salaries budget request is $7,160,000, an 

increase of $583,000 or 8.9 percent. The salary budget will increase due to an expected COLA and merit funding for fiscal year 2009. 

The general operations and maintenance expenses budget request is $30,710,000, 

an increase of $2,456,000 or 8.7 percent. This increase is primarily due to cost escalations in the IT Support Contract and other IT support agreements. 

The mandated allowances and allotments budget request is $34,026,000, a decrease of $3,125,000 or 8.4 percent. This budget supports voice and data communications for Washington, DC, and State offices, $13,290,000; computer equipment, 

$12,915,000; procurement and maintenance of office equipment for Washington, DC, 

and State offices, $4,559,000; maintenance and procurement of Member and Committee mail systems, $4,500,000; and the Appropriations Analysis and Reporting 

System, $100,000. 

The capital investment budget request is $100,000, a decrease of $475,000 or 82.6 

percent. The current budget request includes funds to help manage constituent email correspondence. 
162 

1 An overview of GAO’s strategic plan for serving the Congress is included as appendix I. 

STAFF OFFICES 

[Dollars in thousands] 

Fiscal year 

2008 budget 

Fiscal year 

2009 request 

Fiscal year 2009 vs. fiscal 

year 2008 

Amount Percent Incr/ Decr 

General Operations and Maintenance: 

Salaries ................................................................................ $9,071 $10,347 $1,276 14.1 

Expenses .............................................................................. $6,531 $6,722 $191 2.9 

Total, General Operations and Maintenance .................. $15,602 $17,069 $1,467 9.4 

Mandated Allowances and Allotments ......................................... .................... .................... .................... ....................

Capital Investment ....................................................................... .................... .................... .................... ....................

Nondiscretionary Items ................................................................. .................... .................... .................... ....................

TOTAL ............................................................................... $15,602 $17,069 $1,467 9.4 

Staffing ......................................................................................... 105 106 1 1.0 

The Staff Offices Division consists of Education and Training, Financial Management, Human Resources, Employee Assistance Program, Process Management & Innovation, and Special Projects. 

The general operations and maintenance salaries budget request is $10,347,000, 

an increase of $1,276,000 or 14.1 percent. The salary budget increase is due to the 

addition of one FTE, an expected COLA, and merit funding. Process Management 

and Innovation will add one Senior IT Specialist to replace on-site contract support 

for SAA-developed applications and websites. 

The general operations and maintenance expenses budget request is $6,722,000, 

an increase of $191,000 or 2.9 percent. This increase is due to additional costs of 

system design and development for TranSAAct, software purchases and electronic 

subscriptions. 

GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF GENE L. DODARO, ACTING COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE

UNITED STATES

Madam Chair and members of the subcommittee: I appreciate the opportunity to 

present GAO’s budget request for fiscal year 2009. I am proud to say that we serve 

the Congress and the American people well, and I want to publicly acknowledge the 

professionalism, talents, and dedication of the GAO workforce in supporting the 

Congress and improving Government. We submit for your consideration a funding 

proposal that would ensure the GAO can continue to help Congress make informed 

oversight, policy, and funding decisions. 

At the outset, I want to thank the subcommittee for its support of GAO last year, 

especially in light of the overall budget pressures that the subcommittee faced when 

considering priorities. We ask for your continued support so that GAO can take on 

the issues of greatest interest to the Congress and address an increased demand for 

our services.1

The budget authority we are requesting for fiscal year 2009—$545.5 million—represents a prudent request of 7.5 percent to support the Congress as it confronts a 

growing array of difficult challenges. We will continue to reward the confidence you 

place in us by providing a strong return on this investment. In fiscal year 2007 for 

example, in addition to delivering hundreds of reports and briefings to aid congressional oversight and decisionmaking, our work yielded: 

—financial benefits, such as increased collection of delinquent taxes and civil 

fines, totaling $45.9 billion—a return of $94 for every dollar invested in GAO; 

—over 1,300 other improvements in Government operations spanning the full 

spectrum of national issues, ranging from helping Congress create a center to 

better locate children after disasters to strengthening computer security over 

sensitive Government records and assets to encouraging more transparency 
163 

over nursing home fire safety to strengthening screening procedures for VA 

health care practitioners; and 

—expert testimony at 276 congressional hearings to help Congress address a variety of issues of broad national concern, such as the conflict in Iraq and efforts 

to ensure drug and food safety. 

DEMAND FOR GAO SERVICES IS HIGH AND INCREASING

Demand for GAO’s analysis and advice remains strong across the Congress. During the past 3 years, GAO has received requests or mandated work from all of the 

standing committees of the House and the Senate and over 80 percent of their subcommittees. In fiscal year 2007, GAO received over 1,200 requests for studies. This 

is a direct result of the high quality of GAO’s work that the Congress has come to 

expect as well as the difficult challenges facing the Congress where it believes having objective information and professional advice from GAO is instrumental. 

Not only has demand for our work continued to be strong, but it is also steadily 

increasing. The total number of requests in fiscal year 2007 was up 14 percent from 

the preceding year. This trend has accelerated in fiscal year 2008 as requests rose 

26 percent in the first quarter and are up 20 percent at the mid-point of this fiscal 

year from comparable periods in 2007. As a harbinger of future congressional demand, potential mandates for GAO work being included in proposed legislation as 

of February 2008 totaled over 600, or an 86 percent increase from a similar period 

in the 109th Congress. 

The following examples illustrate this demand: 

—Over 160 new mandates for GAO reviews were imbedded in law, including the 

Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008, the Defense Appropriations Act of 

2008, and 2008 legislation implementing the 9/11 Commission recommendations; 

—New recurring responsibilities were given to GAO under the Honest Leadership 

and Open Government Act of 2007 to report annually on the compliance by lobbyists of registration and reporting requirements; and 

—Expanded bid protest provisions applied to GAO that (1) allow Federal employees to file protests concerning competitive sourcing decisions (A–76), (2) establish exclusive bid protest jurisdiction at GAO over issuance of task and delivery 

orders valued at over $10 million, and (3) provide GAO bid protest jurisdiction 

over contracts awarded by the Transportation Security Administration. 

Further evidence of GAO’s help in providing important advice to the Congress is 

found in the increased numbers of GAO appearances at hearings on topics of national significance and keen interest (see table 1). 

In fiscal year 2007 GAO testified at 276 hearings, 36 more than fiscal year 2006. 

The fiscal year 2007 figure was an all-time high for GAO on a per capita basis and 

among the top requests for GAO input in the last 25 years. This up tempo of GAO 

appearances at congressional hearings has continued, with GAO already appearing 

at 140 hearings this fiscal year, as of April 4th. 
164 

TABLE 1.—GAO’s Selected Testimony Issues by Strategic Goal, Fiscal Year 2007 

Goal 1: Address challenges to the well-being and financial security of the American 

people 

Federal oversight of food safety 

Capacity and service gaps among 

homeless veterans programs 

Reauthorizing the State Children’s 

Health Insurance Program 

Claims processing challenges for 

veterans’ disability benefits 

FEMA payments on hurricane-damaged 

properties 

Nursing home oversight 

Private pension fees 

Small Business Administration’s disaster 

preparedness efforts 

Improved safety for coal miners 

Federal actions to improve child welfare 

services 

Oil and gas royalties 

Medicare physician payments 

Effects of seller-funded down payments 

on home loans 

Status of the future air traffic control 

system 

USPS reform efforts 

Federal real property issues 

Emergency management plans for 

schools 

Goal 2: Respond to changing security threats and the challenges of globalization 

Status of benchmarks for Iraqi 

Government 

DOD’s management of systems and 

assets 

Improving the military’s supply chain 

Linking defense strategy with military 

personnel requirements 

Navy shipbuilding 

Using best practices for space 

acquisitions 

Vulnerabilities in U.S. export control 

systems 

Combating nuclear smuggling 

Securing radiological sources in foreign 

countries 

Improving the efficiency of U.S. food aid 

procedures 

National strategy to enforce intellectual 

property rights 

DHS’s major mission and management 

functions 

Risk-management principles and 

homeland security 

Secure border initiative 

Bankruptcy reform and credit counseling 

National strategy to improve financial 

literacy 

VA’s information security management 

Goal 3: Help transform the Federal Government’s role and how it does business 

Contracting and security challenges in 

Iraq 

Federal acquisitions and contracting 

challenges 

Acquisition challenges at DHS 

Security vulnerabilities at unmonitored 

border locations 

Incomplete reporting of improper 

Federal payments 

Transforming DHS’s financial 

management systems 

Challenges facing the polar satellite 

program 

Electronic voting 

Balancing individual privacy with 

homeland security needs 

Health information technology and 

privacy 

Long-term fiscal challenges 

Tax compliance 

Human capital challenges facing the 

Federal Government 

Rebuilding the gulf coast 

Preparations for the 2010 Census 

Fiscal stewardship challenges facing the 

United States 

Tax abuses by Medicare Part B 

providers 

Source: GAO. 

MODEST INCREASE IN STAFFING WOULD HELP MEET DEMAND

Our FTE level in fiscal year 2008 is 3,100—the lowest level ever for GAO. We 

are proud of the results we deliver to the Congress and our Nation with this level, 

but with a slightly less than 5 percent increase in our FTEs to 3,251 we can better 

meet increased congressional requests for GAO assistance. While this increase 

would not bring GAO back to the 3,275 FTE level of 10 years ago, it would allow 

us to respond to the increased workload facing the Congress. 

GAO staff are stretched in striving to meet Congress’s increasing needs. People 

are operating at a pace that cannot be sustained over the long run. I am greatly 

concerned that if we try to provide more services with the existing level of resources, 

the high quality of our work could be diminished in the future. But I will not allow 

this to occur. This is not in the Congress’s nor GAO’s interest. 

One consequence of our demand vs. supply situation is the growing list of congressional requests that we are not able to promptly staff. While we continue to work 
165 

with congressional committees to identify their areas of highest priority, we remain 

unable to staff important requests. This limits our ability to provide timely advice 

to congressional committees dealing with certain issues that they have slated for 

oversight, including 

—Safety concerns such as incorporating behavior-based security programs into 

TSA’s aviation passenger screening process, updating our 2006 study of FDA’s 

post-market drug safety system, and reviewing State investigations of nursing 

home complaints. 

—Operational improvements such as the effectiveness of Border Security checkpoints to identify illegal aliens, technical and programmatic challenges in DOD’s 

space radar programs, oversight of federally funded highway and transit 

projects and the impact of the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act. 

—Opportunities to increase revenues or stop wasteful spending including reducing 

potential overstatements of charitable deductions and curbing potential overpayments and contractor abuses in food assistance programs. 

GAO’S FISCAL YEAR 2009 BUDGET REQUEST

Our fiscal year 2009 budget request seeks to better position us to maintain our 

high level of support for the Congress and better meet increasing requests for help. 

This request would help replenish our staffing levels at a time when almost 20 percent of all GAO staff will be eligible for retirement. Accordingly, our fiscal year 2009 

budget request seeks funds to ensure that we have the increased staff capacity to 

effectively support the Congress’s agenda, cover pay and uncontrollable inflationary 

cost increases, and undertake critical investments, such as technology improvement. 

GAO is requesting budget authority of $545.5 million to support a staff level of 

3,251 FTEs needed to serve the Congress. This is a fiscally prudent request of 7.5 

percent over our fiscal year 2008 funding level, as illustrated in table 2. Our request 

includes about $538.1 million in direct appropriations and authority to use about 

$7.4 million in offsetting collections. This request also reflects a reduction of about 

$6 million in nonrecurring fiscal year 2008 costs. 

TABLE 2.—FISCAL YEAR 2009 SUMMARY OF REQUESTED CHANGES 

[Dollars in thousands] 

Budget category FTEs Amount Percentage 

change 

Fiscal year 2008 base ............................................................................... 3,100 $507,239 ........................

Subtotal—requested changes ................................................................... 151 38,288 7.5 

Fiscal year 2009 budget authority ............................................................ 3,251 545,527 ........................

Source: GAO. 

Our request includes funds needed to 

—increase our staffing level by less than 5 percent to help us provide more timely 

responses to congressional requests for studies; 

—enhance employee recruitment, retention, and development programs, which increase our competitiveness for a talented workforce; 

—recognize dedicated contributions of our hardworking staff through awards and 

recognition programs; 

—address critical human capital components, such as knowledge capacity building, succession planning, and staff skills and competencies; 

—pursue critical structural and infrastructure maintenance and improvements; 

—restore program funding levels to regain our lost purchasing power; and 

—undertake critical initiatives to increase our productivity. 

Key elements of our proposed budget increase are outlined as follows: 

Pay and inflationary cost increases 

We are requesting funds to cover anticipated pay and inflationary cost increases 

resulting primarily from annual across-the-board and performance-based increases 

and annualization of prior fiscal year costs. These costs also include uncontrollable, 

inflationary increases imposed by vendors as the cost of doing business. 

Rebuilding capacity 

GAO generally loses about 10 percent of its workforce annually to retirements and 

attrition. This annual loss places GAO under continual pressure to replace staff capacity and renew institutional memory. In fiscal year 2007, we were able to replace 
166 

only about half of our staff loss. In fiscal year 2008, we plan to replace only staff 

departures. Our proposed fiscal year 2009 staffing level of 3,251 FTEs would restore 

our staff capacity through a modest FTE increase, which would allow us to initiate 

congressional requests in a timelier manner and begin reducing the backlog of pending requests. 

Critical technology and infrastructure improvements 

We are requesting funds to undertake critical investments that would allow us to 

implement technology improvements, as well as streamline and re-engineer work 

processes to enhance the productivity and effectiveness of our staff, make essential 

investments that have been deferred year after year but cannot continue to be delayed, and implement responses to changing Federal conditions. 

Human capital initiatives and additional legislative authorities 

GAO is working with the appropriate authorization and oversight committees to 

make reforms that are designed to benefit our employees and to provide a means 

to continue to attract, retain, and reward a top-flight workforce, as well as help us 

improve our operations and increase administrative efficiencies. Among the requested provisions, GAO supports the adoption of a ‘‘floor guarantee’’ for future annual pay adjustments similar to the agreement governing 2008 payment adjustments reached with the GAO Employees Organization, IFPTE. The floor guarantee 

reasonably balances our commitment to performance-based pay with an appropriate 

degree of predictability and equity for all GAO employees. 

At the invitation of the House Federal workforce subcommittee, we also have engaged in fruitful discussions about a reasonable and practical approach should the 

Congress decide to include a legislative provision to compensate GAO employees 

who did not receive the full base pay increases of 2.6 percent in 2006 and 2.4 percent in 2007. We appreciate their willingness to provide us with the necessary legal 

authorities to address this issue and look forward to working together with you and 

our oversight committee to obtain necessary funding to cover these payments. The 

budget authority to cover the future impact of these payments is not reflected in 

this budget request. 

ESTABLISHING AND MAINTAINING CONSTRUCTIVE UNION RELATIONSHIPS

As you know, on September 19, 2007, our Band I and Band II Analysts, Auditors, 

Specialists, and Investigators voted to be represented by the GAO Employees Organization, IFPTE, for the purpose of bargaining with GAO management on various 

terms and conditions of employment. GAO management is committed to working 

constructively with employee union representatives to forge a positive labor-management relationship. 

Since September, GAO management has taken a variety of steps to ensure it is 

following applicable labor relations laws and has the resources in place to work effectively and productively in this new union environment. Our efforts have involved 

—delivering specialized labor-management relations training to our managers; 

—establishing a new Workforce Relations Center to provide employee and labor 

relations advice and services; 

—hiring a Workforce Relations Center director, who also serves as our chief negotiator in collective bargaining deliberations; and 

—postponing work on several initiatives regarding our current performance and 

pay programs. 

In addition, we routinely notify union representatives of meetings that may qualify as formal discussions, so that a representative of the IFPTE can attend the meeting. We also regularly provide the IFPTE with information about projects involving 

changes to terms and conditions of employment over which the union has the right 

to bargain. 

We are pleased that GAO and the IFPTE reached a prompt agreement on 2008 

pay adjustments. The agreement was overwhelmingly ratified by bargaining unit 

members on February 14, 2008, and we have applied the agreed-upon approach to 

the 2008 adjustments to all GAO staff, with the exception of the SES and Senior 

Level staff, regardless of whether they are represented by the union. 

FISCAL YEAR 2007 ACHIEVEMENTS

In fiscal year 2007, we addressed many difficult issues confronting the Nation, including the conflict in Iraq, domestic disaster relief and recovery, national security, 

and criteria for assessing lead in drinking water. For example, GAO has continued 

its oversight on issues directly related to the Iraq war and reconstruction, issuing 

20 products in fiscal year 2007 alone—including 11 testimonies to congressional 

committees. These products covered timely issues such as the status of Iraqi Gov-
167 

ernment actions, the accountability of U.S.-funded equipment, and various contracting and security challenges. GAO’s work spans the security, political, economic, 

and reconstruction prongs of the U.S. national strategy in Iraq. 

Highlights of the outcomes of GAO work are outlined below. See appendix II for 

a detailed summary of GAO’s annual measures and targets. Additional information 

on our performance results can be found in Performance and Accountability Highlights fiscal year 2007 at www.gao.gov. 

Financial benefits 

GAO’s work in fiscal year 2007 generated $45.9 billion in financial benefits. These 

financial benefits, which resulted primarily from actions agencies and the Congress 

took in response to our recommendations, included about $21.1 billion resulting 

from changes to laws or regulations, $16.3 billion resulting from improvements to 

core business processes, and $8.5 billion resulting from agency actions based on our 

recommendations to improve public services. 

TABLE 3.—GAO’S SELECTED MAJOR FINANCIAL BENEFITS REPORTED IN FISCAL YEAR 2007 

[In billions of dollars] 

Description Benefit 

Helped to ensure funding for U.S. Postal Service retirement-related health care ..................................................... 5.4 

Improved the Internal Revenue Service’s methodology for pursuing delinquent taxes .............................................. 4.2 

Encouraged National Aeronautics and Space Administration decision to terminate the space launch initiative .... 3.7 

Helped to reduce food stamp fraud and abuse .......................................................................................................... 3.4 

Recommended that the Department of Housing and Urban Development track and reallocate unspent housing 

funds ........................................................................................................................................................................ 2.2 

Helped to increase collections of civil debt ................................................................................................................ 1.7 

Recommended that the Congress reduce the Department of Defense (DOD) fiscal year 2007 operations and 

maintenance budget ................................................................................................................................................ 1.5 

Identified an opportunity for DOD to reallocate funds to cover new initiatives ........................................................ 1.2 

Source: GAO. 

Other improvements in Government 

Many of the benefits that result from our work cannot be measured in dollar 

terms. During fiscal year 2007, we recorded a total of 1,354 other improvements in 

Government resulting from GAO work. For example, in 646 instances Federal agencies improved services to the public, in 634 other cases agencies improved core business processes or governmentwide reforms were advanced, and in 74 instances information we provided to the Congress resulted in statutory or regulatory changes. 

These actions spanned the full spectrum of national issues, from strengthened 

screening procedures for all VA health care practitioners to improved information 

security at the Securities and Exchange Commission. See table 4 for additional examples. 
168 

TABLE 4.—GAO’s Selected Other Improvements in Government Reported in 

Fiscal Year 2007 

. . . that helped to change laws 

Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2007, Pub. L. No. 

109–295. 

—developing a center to locate children after disasters. 

—improving Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) information 

on the status of hurricane relief and recovery funds. 

Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007, Pub. 

L. No. 110–53. 

—re-examining inspection exemptions for inbound cargo. 

—re-examining inspection exemptions for domestic air cargo. 

. . . that helped enhance services to the public 

—strengthened screening procedures for all VA health care practitioners. 

—tightened monitoring criteria in the Environmental Protection Agency’s 

rule on lead in drinking water. 

—encouraged reporting of nursing home fire safety deficiencies. 

—improved information security at the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

. . . that helped to promote sound agency and governmentwide management 

—FEMA establishes control to help limit disaster assistance payments to individuals with invalid Social Security numbers. 

—NASA establishes policies for reimbursement by nonofficial travelers on 

passenger aircraft. 

—Army requires credit card vendors to conduct credit checks before issuing 

individually billed travel cards. 

Source: GAO. 

High risk series 

In January 2007, we also issued our High-Risk Series: An Update, which identifies Federal areas and programs at risk of fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement 

and those in need of broad-based transformations. Issued to coincide with the start 

of each new Congress, our high-risk list focuses on major Government programs and 

operations that need urgent attention. Overall, this program has served to help resolve a range of serious weaknesses that involve substantial resources and provide 

critical services to the public. GAO added the 2010 Census as a high-risk area in 

March 2008. 

TABLE 5.—GAO’S HIGH-RISK AREAS AS OF MARCH 2008 

High-risk area Year designated 

high risk 

Addressing challenges in broad-based transformations: 

Strategic Human Capital Management 1 .................................................................................................... 2001 

Managing Federal Real Property 1 .............................................................................................................. 2003 

Protecting the Federal Government’s Information Systems and the Nation’s Critical Infrastructures ..... 1997 

Implementing and Transforming the Department of Homeland Security .................................................. 2003 

Establishing Appropriate and Effective Information-Sharing Mechanisms to Improve Homeland Security ........................................................................................................................................................... 2005 

DOD Approach to Business Transformation 1 ............................................................................................. 2005 

DOD Business Systems Modernization ............................................................................................... 1995 

DOD Personnel Security Clearance Program ...................................................................................... 2005 

DOD Support Infrastructure Management ......................................................................................... 1997 

DOD Financial Management .............................................................................................................. 1995 

DOD Supply Chain Management ........................................................................................................ 1990 

DOD Weapon Systems Acquisition ..................................................................................................... 1990 

FAA Air Traffic Control Modernization ......................................................................................................... 1995 

Financing the Nation’s Transportation System1 ........................................................................................ 2007 

Effective Protection of Technologies Critical to U.S. National Security Interests 1 ................................... 2007 

Transforming Federal Oversight of Food Safety 1 ....................................................................................... 2007 

The 2010 Census (New) .............................................................................................................................. 2008 
169 

TABLE 5.—GAO’S HIGH-RISK AREAS AS OF MARCH 2008—Continued 

High-risk area Year designated 

high risk 

Managing Federal contracting more effectively: 

DOD Contract Management ........................................................................................................................ 1992 

DOE Contract Management ......................................................................................................................... 1990 

NASA Contract Management ....................................................................................................................... 1990 

Management of Interagency Contracting ................................................................................................... 2005 

Assessing the efficiency and effectiveness of tax law administration: 

Enforcement of Tax Laws 1 ......................................................................................................................... 1990 

IRS Business Systems Modernization ......................................................................................................... 1995 

Modernizing and safeguarding insurance and benefit programs: 

Modernizing Federal Disability Programs 1 ................................................................................................. 2003 

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation Single-Employer Insurance Program ............................................. 2003 

Medicare Program1 ..................................................................................................................................... 1990 

Medicaid Program1 ..................................................................................................................................... 2003 

National Flood Insurance Program1 2006 

1 Legislation is likely to be necessary, as a supplement to actions by the executive branch, to effectively address this high-risk area. 

Source: GAO. 

CONCLUDING REMARKS

GAO’s achievements are of great service to the Congress and American taxpayers. 

With your support, we will be able to continue to provide the high level of performance that has come to be expected of GAO. 
170 

APPENDIX I: GAO’S STRATEGIC PLAN FRAMEWORK

APPENDIX II: AGENCYWIDE SUMMARY OF ANNUAL MEASURES AND TARGETS

AGENCYWIDE SUMMARY OF ANNUAL MEASURES AND TARGETS 

Performance measure 2004 

actual 

2005 

actual 

2006 

actual 

2007 

actual 

2008 

target 

2009 

target 

Results: 

Financial benefits (dollars in billions) ................. $44.0 $39.6 $51.0 $45.9 $40.0 $40.0 

Nonfinancial benefits ............................................ 1,197 1,409 1,342 1,354 1,150 1,150 
171 

AGENCYWIDE SUMMARY OF ANNUAL MEASURES AND TARGETS—Continued 

Performance measure 2004 

actual 

2005 

actual 

2006 

actual 

2007 

actual 

2008 

target 

2009 

target 

Past recommendations implemented (in percent) .................................................................. 83 85 82 82 80 80 

New products with recommendations (in percent) .................................................................. 63 63 65 66 60 60 

Client: 

Testimonies ............................................................ 217 179 240 276 220 200 

Timeliness (in percent) 2 ....................................... 89 90 92 94 95 95 

People: 

New hire rate (in percent) .................................... 98 94 94 96 95 95 

Acceptance rate (in percent) ................................ 72 71 70 72 72 ( 3 ) 

Retention rate: 

With retirements (in percent) ................................ 90 90 90 90 90 90 

Without retirements (in percent) ........................... 95 94 94 94 94 94 

Staff development (in percent) ............................. 70 72 76 76 76 76 

Staff utilization (in percent) 4 ............................... 72 75 75 73 5 75 75 

Leadership (in percent) ......................................... 79 80 79 79 80 80 

Organizational climate (in percent) ...................... 74 76 73 74 6 75 75 

Internal operations: 

Help get job done .................................................. 4.01 4.10 4.10 4.05 4.00 4.0 

Quality of work life ................................................ 3.96 3.98 4.00 3.98 4.00 4.0 

1 Our fiscal year 2008 target for financial benefits differs from the target we reported for this measure in our fiscal year 2008 performance 

budget in January 2007. Specifically, we decreased our financial benefits target by $1.5 billon based on (1) our assessment of our past recommendations that are likely to be implemented by Federal agencies and the Congress in the coming fiscal year and (2) the impact that our 

budget could have on the work that leads to financial benefits. 2 Since fiscal year 2004 we have collected data from our client feedback survey on the quality and timeliness of our products, and in fiscal year 2006 we began to use the independent feedback from this survey as a basis for determining our timeliness. 3 N/A indicates that the data are not available yet or are not applicable because we did not collect the data during this period.

4 Our employee feedback survey asks staff how often the following occurred in the last 12 months (1) my job made good use of my skills, 

(2) GAO provided me with opportunities to do challenging work, and (3) in general, I was utilized effectively. 5 Our fiscal year 2008 target for staff utilization differs from the target we reported for this measure in our fiscal year 2008 performance 

budget in January 2007. We lowered the staff utilization target by 3 percentage points because we determined that based on our past performance, the target was unrealistic, and we reset it at a level that is still challenging but more likely to be achieved. 6 Our fiscal year 2008 target for organizational climate differs from the target we reported for this measure in our fiscal year 2008 performance budget in January 2007. We decreased the organizational climate target by a percentage point because we determined that based on our past performance, the target was unrealistic, and we reset it at a level that is still challenging but more likely to be achieved. 

Source: GAO. 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF ROBERT C. TAPELLA, PUBLIC PRINTER

Madam Chair, Senator Alexander, and members of the Subcommittee on Legislative Branch Appropriations: It is an honor to be here today to present the appropriations request of the Government Printing Office (GPO) for fiscal year 2009. 

RESULTS OF FISCAL YEAR 2007

For the past 5 years we have worked to transform GPO from a traditional printing factory into a state-of-the-art digital business that is dedicated to meeting the 

21st century information product needs of the Government and the public. The 

record of 2007 shows that with the plan we developed, and with the hard work and 

support of our talented employees, GPO was put on the path to increase access by 

the American people to digital and other information products of the Federal Government, and to unlock our potential for the future. 

With the print marketplace shifting from analog to digital technologies, GPO’s 

customers in Congress, Federal agencies, and among the public require dynamic and 

creative solutions to meet their changing needs. In 2007, we achieved major milestones in customer service and product development for the Federal marketplace in 

printing and information management. 

We responded to the Nation’s explosive demand for the new e-passport by more 

than doubling previous production. We implemented a new, flexible program for 

meeting the document needs of Federal agencies through a well recognized national 

vendor. We developed an information rich online guide to House and Senate Members for Congress. We readied our new digital platform, GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys), which will be a digital repository for all Federal documents, for its first 

public release in 2008. 
172 

We have carried our innovative performance into fiscal year 2008. This year, for 

the first time in history, the President transmitted his Budget of the United States 

Government to Congress electronically. GPO assisted OMB by provided authentication for the Budget via digital signature. This authentication verifies to anyone who 

downloads the e-Budget that the content is official and unaltered. GPO’s authentication capability ushers in a new era for Federal publications, in terms both of digital 

capability as well as a capability to promote environmental sustainability in the 

Government’s publishing and information dissemination activities. 

These innovative contributions to the Government’s information toolkit are emblematic of today’s GPO: a modern, efficient, and effective partner in providing a 

broad range of products beyond printing, the theme of our recently released Annual 

Report. They and other services like them are just some of the examples of how 

GPO will fulfill its mission to Keep America Informed in the digital age. 

Our original objective in transforming GPO was to ensure that it survives. We 

achieved that goal and more, and now GPO is beginning to thrive. In 2007 I am 

pleased to report that we recorded net income for the fourth consecutive year, including another positive adjustment to long-term workers’ compensation liability. 

We increased overall revenues to levels that have not been experienced at GPO 

for more than a decade, principally as the result of e-passport work produced 

through our security and intelligent documents business unit as well as other 

inplant operations. Efforts to economize and increase efficiency also contributed 

measurably to our financial results. We are grateful to the support provided to our 

appropriations request for fiscal year 2008 by this subcommittee and its staff. 

Of the total funding increase requested by GPO for fiscal year 2009, approximately $21.2 million, or 43 percent, is directly related to the establishment and operation of FDsys, which is being designed to ingest, organize, manage, and output 

authenticated, official Federal information content for any use or purpose. The funding package for FDsys that we are proposing for fiscal year 2009 includes $15.5 million for GPO’s revolving fund to complete the initial release of FDsys and continue 

development of system enhancements; begin replacing GPO’s aging Microcomp automated composition system with modern technology to be used for accepting information to FDsys; and replace GPO’s dated Production Estimating and Planning (PEPS) 

system with a modern manufacturing workflow system, to be used to track and 

manage workflow through FDsys. It also includes $5.7 million for GPO’s Salaries 

and Expenses Appropriation to digitize the legacy FDLP collection and acquire expanded Web harvesting services, both of which will provide information for ingest 

to FDsys. When implemented, these systems will be coordinated with GPO’s Oraclebased financial systems, resulting in a seamless digital platform for the provision 

of GPO products and services for years to come. 

FISCAL YEAR 2009 APPROPRIATIONS REQUEST

For fiscal year 2009, we are requesting a total of $174,354,000, to enable us to: 

—meet projected requirements for GPO’s congressional printing and binding and 

information dissemination operations during fiscal year 2009; 

—recover the shortfall in the Congressional Printing and Binding Appropriation 

accumulated in fiscal year 2007 and projected for fiscal year 2008; 

—provide investment funds for necessary information dissemination projects in 

the Federal Depository Library Program; 

—complete the initial release of FDsys and continue development of system enhancements, and implement other improvements to GPO’s information technology infrastructure; and 

—perform essential maintenance and repairs to our aging buildings. 

Congressional Printing and Binding Appropriation.—This account covers the cost 

of printing and other information services supporting the legislative process in the 

House of Representatives and the Senate. These services include production—in 

both print and online formats—of the daily and permanent Congressional Record, 

bills, resolutions, and amendments, hearings, committee prints and documents, miscellaneous printing and binding including stationery and document franks, and related products, as authorized by the public printing provisions of Title 44, U.S. 

Code. 

We are requesting $97,928,000 for this account, representing an increase of 

$8,153,000 over the level provided for fiscal year 2008. The increase represents the 

shortfall in this appropriation accumulated in fiscal year 2007 and projected for fiscal year 2008, offset in part by reductions in various congressional printing workload categories that are anticipated based on historical projections for a first session 

year following a Presidential election. 
173 

The Congressional Printing and Binding Appropriation is essentially an estimate 

of the work that Congress will require to support its operations in a given fiscal 

year. A shortfall in this appropriation occurs when available funding is insufficient 

to fully cover the costs of congressional work. GPO does not have the authority to 

refuse to perform work that is required by Congress in the absence of funds. Instead, GPO will produce the work and temporarily finance it with available funds 

in our revolving fund. GPO then seeks to have Congress pay back the shortfall in 

subsequent appropriations, in order to restore funds that are meant to be used for 

investment in new equipment and technology. 

During fiscal year 2008, GPO reduced key congressional rates based on redistributing overhead costs, which was made possible by financial performance in other 

business units. The resulting costs reduced the shortfall accumulated in fiscal year 

2007 and projected for fiscal year 2008 from $17.2 million to approximately $9.3 million. The remaining shortfall will be partially offset by anticipated reductions in a 

number of congressional workload categories, principally the U.S. Code, hearings, 

the Congressional Record, and business and committee calendars. The increase we 

are requesting represents the amount that is required to be restored to GPO’s revolving fund. 

Under our appropriations bill language, GPO has the authority—with the approval of the Committees on Appropriations—to transfer forward the unexpended 

balances of prior year appropriations. We appreciate the support you have shown 

GPO this year by authorizing the transfer of approximately $1.1 million in prior 

year balances from fiscal year 2004 and 2005 to the revolving fund. These funds 

could be used to offset part of the shortfall. 

CONGRESSIONAL PRINTING AND BINDING 

[In millions of dollars] 

Amount 

Fiscal year 2008 approved .................................................................................................................................. 89.8 

Fiscal year 2009 request ..................................................................................................................................... 97.9 

Change 1 ................................................................................................................................................. 8.1 

1 Change includes: Repaying the shortfall sustained in fiscal year 2007 and projected for fiscal year 2008. 

Salaries and Expenses Appropriation of the Superintendent of Documents.—The 

largest single component of this appropriation is for the Federal Depository Library 

Program (FDLP), under which publications in print and electronic formats are made 

available to approximately 1,250 libraries nationwide for the free use of the public. 

This account also provides for the cataloging and indexing of Government publications as well as the distribution of Government publications to international exchange libraries and other recipients as authorized by the documents provisions of 

Title 44, U.S. Code. 

We are requesting $43,426,000 for this account, representing an increase of $8.5 

million over the current level of funding. The increase is required to cover mandatory pay and price level increases as well as overhead distribution, and to continue 

improving public access to Government information in electronic formats. Of the 

total increase, $917,000 is for mandatory pay and price level changes, and 

$1,164,000 is for the level of overhead required to be distributed to Salaries and Expenses programs. The balance of $6,432,000 is for program investments. 

As GPO continues to perform information dissemination through the FDLP on a 

predominately electronic basis, which was mandated in the conference report accompanying the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act for FY 1996, we need to invest 

in technology infrastructure and supporting systems. Our requested increase will 

cover projects for FDLP program outreach, additional data storage, modernization 

of item selection systems and other mainframe-based applications, and the initial 

costs for digitizing the FDLP legacy collection, a key component of GPO’s strategic 

vision and FDsys. 

SALARIES AND EXPENSES 

[In millions of dollars] 

Amount 

Fiscal year 2008 approved .................................................................................................................................. 34.9 
174 

SALARIES AND EXPENSES—Continued 

[In millions of dollars] 

Amount 

Fiscal year 2009 requested ................................................................................................................................. 43.4 

Change .................................................................................................................................................... 8.5 

Change includes: 

Mandatory requirements ............................................................................................................................. 2.1 

Investment requirements ............................................................................................................................ 6.4 

Revolving Fund.—We are requesting $33,000,000 for this account, to remain 

available until expended, to fund essential investments in information technology 

infrastructure and systems development, and facilities maintenance and repairs. 

The key projects covered by this request include $10,000,000 to complete the development of FDsys, which is scheduled to go live later this year; $5,500,000 to 

cover the replacement of GPO’s 30-year-old automated composition system and upgrade GPO’s manufacturing workflow tracking system; and $17,500,000 for maintenance and repairs to GPO’s buildings, including elevator replacement and renovation, window replacement, retrofitting our air handling units with more efficient 

equipment, replacing the roof membrane and insulation, and related projects. These 

facilities projects will protect our employees and improve the energy efficiency of 

GPO’s buildings. At the same time, we are continuing to review options for the future of GPO’s buildings, including renovation and/or construction of new facilities 

on GPO-owned property. 

REVOLVING FUND 

[In millions of dollars] 

Amount 

Fiscal year 2008 approved .................................................................................................................................. ........................

Fiscal year 2009 requested ................................................................................................................................. 33.0 

Change .................................................................................................................................................... 33.0 

Change includes: 

Investments in information technology infrastructure and systems development .................................... 15.5 

Building maintenance and repairs ............................................................................................................. 17.5 

Madam Chair, Senator Alexander, and members of the subcommittee, we look forward to working with you, and with your support we can continue GPO’s record of 

achievement. To assist you in your review of our request, I am including with my 

prepared statement several charts illustrating how GPO’s use of technology has generated savings in congressional printing costs and distribution costs, how a significant part of our request this year is to support our FDsys project, and showing how 

the close relationship of GPO to congressional printing in the process of how a bill 

becomes a law. 

GPO GENERATES SAVINGS FOR CONGRESS

GPO’s use of electronic printing and information technologies has significantly reduced the cost, in real economic terms, of congressional publications. In fiscal year 

1975, on the threshold of our conversion to electronic photocomposition, the appropriation for Congressional Printing and Binding was $74.8 million, the equivalent 

in today’s dollars of $290 million. By comparison, GPO’s approved funding for fiscal 

year 2008 is $89.8 million, a reduction of more than 70 percent in real economic 

terms. This has resulted in taxpayer savings of hundreds of millions of dollars. The 

savings have come from productivity improvements and staffing reductions made 

possible through the use of modern information technology. 
175 

Productivity increases resulting from the use of electronic printing and information technologies have enabled GPO to make substantial reductions in staffing requirements while continuing to improve services for Congress. In the mid-1970’s, 

GPO employment was approximately 8,200. Today, GPO has approximately 2,300 

employees on board, fewer than at any time in the past century. In the past 4 years 

alone GPO’s staffing has been reduced by 28 percent. Personnel reductions at GPO 

have been accomplished while modernizing and improving GPO services. 
176 

GPO ACHIEVES SAVINGS IN INFORMATION DISSEMINATION

GPO once distributed Government documents to Federal depository libraries primarily in print and related formats, including microfiche and CD–ROM. In fiscal 

year 1995, the year that GPO Access debuted, this activity was funded at an annual 

cost of $18.7 million, the equivalent of $25.8 million in constant 2007 dollars. For 

fiscal year 2009, the same function can be funded at $8.7 million, a reduction of approximately two-thirds in real economic terms. GPO used the savings from reduced 

printing distribution to fund the establishment and operation of GPO Access, 

achieving additional savings for the taxpayers and vastly expanding public access 

to Government information. This achievement also allowed the Salaries and Expenses Appropriation to remain relatively flat for more than a decade. GPO’s plan 

to establish and operate a modern, state-of-the-art digital platform in FDsys will potentially achieve further savings and even broader public access to Government information. 
177 
178 
179 
180 

Of the total funding increase requested by GPO for fiscal year 2009, approximately $21.2 million, or 43 percent, is directly related to the establishment and operation of FDsys, which is being designed to accept, organize, manage, and output 

authenticated, official Federal information content for any use or purpose. The funding package for FDsys that we are proposing for fiscal year 2009 includes $15.5 million for GPO’s revolving fund to complete the initial release of FDsys and continue 

development of system enhancements; begin replacing GPO’s aging Microcomp automated composition system with a modern technology to be used for accepting information to FDsys; and replace GPO’s dated Production Estimating and Planning 

(PEPS) system with a modern manufacturing workflow system, to be used to track 

and manage workflow through FDsys. It also includes $5.7 million for GPO’s Salaries and Expenses Appropriation to digitize the legacy FDLP collection and acquire 

expanded Web harvesting services, both of which will provide information for ingest 

to Fdsys. When implemented, these systems will be coordinated with GPO’s Oraclebased financial systems, resulting in a seamless digital platform for the provision 

of GPO products and services for years to come. 
181 
182 

OFFICE OF COMPLIANCE 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF TAMARA E. CHRISLER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Madam Chair, Ranking Member Alexander, members of the committee, I am 

pleased to appear before you as the Executive Director of the Office of Compliance 

in support of the Office’s fiscal year 2009 request for appropriations. Joining me 

today is Board Member Roberta Holzwarth. Along with us are General Counsel 

Peter Ames Eveleth, Deputy Executive Directors Barbara Sapin and Sana Shtasel, 

and Director of Finance and Administration Beth Hughes Brown. 

The subcommittee will note that the Office of Compliance submits, once again, a 

zero-based budget to support the agency’s mission of furthering a safe, healthy, and 

fair workplace on Capitol Hill. This year’s budget request is a minimal increase over 

our request for appropriations in fiscal year 2008. In fiscal year 2009, the Office is 

requesting a total of $4,307,500 for its operations, which is only a 4.9 percent increase over the agency’s 2008 budget request. Because of the across-the-board 

recissions and other cuts made to the agency’s 2008 appropriations, this year’s request contains items that had been requested but not funded in fiscal years 2007 

and 2008. It includes approximately $345,000 to fully fund the authorized level of 

FTE positions and concommitant salaries; approximately $134,000 for mandatory 

cost-of-living adjustments and employee salary increases; and $156,000 for initiatives that were originally requested in fiscal year 2007 or fiscal year 2008. Setting 

aside these repeat requests, mandatory COLAs, and the cost of fully funding the 

agency’s current staff complement of 21, the agency’s request for new discretionary 

projects (less than $300,000) is extremely minimal but necessary to fulfill our mission. 

In fiscal year 2009, the Office of Compliance is expanding its effort to communicate and collaborate with its stakeholders. During the past fiscal years, we have 

achieved much success in our safety and health program through increased communication with the Office of the Architect of the Capitol in remediating hazards in 

the utility tunnels. We are realizing success in our education and outreach program 

through our publications and much utilized web site, as well as the implementation 

of a comprehensive baseline survey that will inform the Office’s focus, to ensure that 

its programs are of maximum benefit to employing offices and employees on Capitol 

Hill and in the District and State Offices. In fiscal year 2009, the agency hopes to 

launch another significant initiative to improve its effectiveness and productivity on 

Capitol Hill—prevention and reduction. 

PREVENT AND REDUCE

The Office plans to establish two new ‘‘prevent and reduce’’ initiatives in fiscal 

year 2009. The first initiative is anticipated to reduce the number of incidents giving rise to allegations of violations of the Congressional Accountability Act (CAA), 

which will ultimately save taxpayer dollars. As originally discussed in our House 

fiscal year 2008 appropriations hearings, similar language to the Notification and 

Federal Employee Anti-discrimination and Retaliation Act was contemplated and 

drafted for the legislative branch. Toward the same end of resolving complaints at 

the lowest possible level and reducing the cost to taxpayers in discrimination and 

retaliation claims, we received encouragement from a very interested stakeholder to 

dedicate one or two FTEs toward educating the employing offices of their rights and 

responsibilities. The Office is delighted to request additional staffing to assist the 

agencies in preventing violations of the CAA, and encouraging resolution at the lowest possible level. The agency is requesting FTE positions for a trainer and an 

ombuds person for conflict prevention for this purpose. 

The agency also requests an additional FTE for a Fire Safety Engineer to prevent 

serious fire hazards and to reduce the number of unabated fire safety citations. During fiscal year 2007, the OGC closed 11 of 38 outstanding citations. While progress 

has been achieved in abating these hazards, several longstanding RAC 1 fire safety 

citations remain unabated. In June 2007, the AOC provided the Office of Compliance with a detailed plan to abate these outstanding hazards. The AOC also identified specific actions taken to address many additional fire safety deficiencies during 

2005 and 2006. The Office of Compliance’s General Counsel expressed concern that 

under the AOC’s proposed abatement plans the most serious hazards involving open 

stairwells would not be fully abated for an excessive period of time—in one facility, 

not until 2015, while in other instances, abatement dates were as yet undetermined. 

Accordingly, we suggested alternative means for accelerated abatement. After extensive discussions between the parties, the AOC has recently developed, and the 

OOC has approved, innovative and more efficient abatement plans for the Cannon, 

Longworth, and Russell Office Buildings that resolve the fire safety hazards identi-
183 

fied in the 2000 citations involving these three buildings. It is significant that the 

AOC’s abatement plans not only abate the fire safety issues in the citations but do 

so in a manner that preserves the historic architectural features within those buildings. The agency is committed to working with the AOC and other entities to 

achieve an acceptable level of fire safety within the other legislative branch buildings, and this requested FTE would support and over time play a leadership role 

in the Office’s ongoing fire safety abatement initiative. This employee would be 

groomed to assist and succeed an existing contract inspector—a nationally renowned 

fire safety expert—to allow for continuity in this critical area. 

The second initiative is designed to reduce legislative branch agencies’ reliance on 

the OOC’s safety and health inspections, and instead empower them to find and remediate their own internal deficiencies. It would fund contracted services for the 

agency’s Zero Accident Initiative, which involves working with employing offices to 

implement preventive maintenance programs, and training supervisors and employees to follow safe practices. The Office would work with employing offices to analyze 

accident and injury records to help create policies to prevent future accidents. Together, the two initiatives amount to about half of the newly requested discretionary 

funding for fiscal year 2009, and both initiatives are designed to save taxpayer dollars. 

CONCLUSION

The Office welcomes fiscal year 2009 with enthusiasm for the initiatives we hope 

to implement. Preventing violations of the CAA and reducing the number of hazards 

is the agency’s focus for the upcoming year. The Office continues to see itself as a 

resource on Capitol Hill. Our appropriations request will enable us to continue the 

progression we have been on over the past several years from a strictly regulatory 

agency, to an enabling and supportive resource for legislative branch agencies. We 

are positioned to assist our stakeholders in meeting the requirements of the CAA, 

be it for safety and health matters, or for making the workplace fair for all employees. Thank you for your support, past and future, of our mission. 

I remain available to answer any questions that you have. 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF ROBERTA HOLZWARTH, MEMBER, BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Madam Chair and members of the subcommittee, good morning. I am Roberta 

Holzwarth, and I represent the Board of Directors of the Office of Compliance. I am 

honored to be here today to join Executive Director Tamara Chrisler in testifying 

on behalf of the Office’s fiscal year 2009 budget request. 

Thanks to the assistance of this subcommittee, the Office of Compliance has had 

an extraordinary year, culminating not only in the recent appointment of Tamara 

Chrisler as our Executive Director, but also in our two statutory Deputy Executive 

Directors and a Deputy General Counsel. Our new Deputy Executive Directors for 

the Senate and House, respectively, are Barbara Sapin and Sana Shtasel, who 

joined us on March 4 and February 11, respectively. Let me take this opportunity 

to thank the subcommittee for the recent administrative amendments to the Congressional Accountability Act that permitted us to retain and attract this caliber talent. I also want to thank publicly both Ms. Chrisler and our General Counsel Peter 

Eveleth for their graceful leadership during a time of challenge and transition. 

Ms. Sapin has recently concluded her term as a member of the Merit Systems 

Protection Board, where she adjudicated appeals of personnel actions in personnel 

cases affecting the Federal workforce. In addition, Ms. Sapin held positions at the 

National Labor Relations Board, the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Ms. Shtasel served as Chief 

of Staff to former U.S. Senator Bob Packwood, among her many previous accomplishments. She also litigated the constitutional predicate to the Congressional Accountability Act (Davis v. Passman, 442 U.S. 228 (1979)). 

We also have a new Deputy General Counsel, Susan Green, who joined us in late 

November. Ms. Green, who has more than 20 years’ experience in occupational safety and health, labor standards, and labor-management issues, served as Chief Labor 

Counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and thereafter advised the Secretary of 

Labor on equal pay, pension, and other labor issues. 

The collective extraordinary credentials of our new staff testify to the growing 

stature, accomplishments, and effectiveness of the Office of Compliance, signaling 

only greater things in the year to come. 

As a result of this subcommittee’s approval of our fiscal year 2008 request, the 

Office of Compliance has added 4 new full-time equivalent positions to its former 

complement of 17; resolved long-standing, profound health and safety violations in 
184 

the U.S. Capitol Power Plant; achieved enormous improvements in our internal office infrastructure; and moved closer to adopting and submitting for congressional 

promulgation regulations with enormous benefit to veterans and legislative branch 

employees who serve in the military. 

The Office has been fulfilling a prodigious mission with minimal resources, and 

we are anxious to be able to make use of the resources that we have already been 

authorized. As Ms. Chrisler has enumerated, the budget proposal in front of you is 

the bare minimum, permitting us to make use of the resources that have already 

been authorized, endeavor to fulfill our statutory mandates, and continue the many 

contributions I am convinced the Office of Compliance makes daily to the legislative 

branch. 

Our mission and our vision are vast, but our budget is small. The requested increase is extremely modest, in an effort both to respond to current fiscal realities 

and continue our proof positive that we make good with very little. Although we 

have a far longer ‘‘wish list,’’ consistent with our statutory mandates, this budget 

will permit us only to complete those projects and initiatives that rise to the most 

critical level, both from a safety and health perspective and in order to save taxpayer dollars. 

I would like to thank you, Madam Chair, as well as the subcommittee, for supporting the language in the House report that accompanied its version of the fiscal 

year 2008 Legislative Branch Appropriations bill, that directed that the Office of 

Compliance be enabled to use internal email lists to distribute our publications. We 

anticipate this will streamline our distribution processes, as well as result in cost 

savings over time. 

On behalf of the entire Board of Directors of the Office of Compliance, I urge your 

support of the entirety of the budget request. 

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. The rest of the Board 

and I wholeheartedly support this budget request and hope you will respond to it 

favorably. I am available to address any questions. 
(i) 

LIST OF WITNESSES, COMMUNICATIONS, AND 

PREPARED STATEMENTS 

Page 

Alexander, Senator Lamar, U.S. Senator From Tennessee: 

Prepared Statement of ..................................................................................... 4 

Statement of ...................................................................................................... 3 

Ayers, Stephen T., Acting Architect of the Capitol, Architect of the Capitol ..... 1 

Prepared Statement of ..................................................................................... 7 

Questions Submitted to .................................................................................... 52 

Summary Statement of .................................................................................... 6 

Billington, Dr. James, Librarian of Congress, Library of Congress .................... 25 

Prepared Statement of ..................................................................................... 27 

Questions Submitted to .................................................................................... 57 

Chrisler, Tamara E., Executive Director, Office of Compliance, Prepared 

Statement of ......................................................................................................... 182 

Dodaro, Gene L., Acting Comptroller General of the United States, Government Accountability Office, Prepared Statement of .......................................... 162 

Erickson, Nancy, Secretary of the Senate, Office of the Secretary, U.S. Senate, 

Prepared Statement of ......................................................................................... 79 

Gainer, Honorable Terrance W., Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper, U.S. 

Senate, Prepared Statement of the ..................................................................... 140 

Holzwarth, Roberta, Member, Board of Directors, Office of Compliance, Prepared Statement of ............................................................................................... 183 

Jarmon, Gloria, Chief Administrative Officer, United States Capitol Police ..... 15 

Jenkins, Jo Ann, Chief Operating Officer, Library of Congress .......................... 25 

Landrieu, Senator Mary L., U.S. Senator From Louisiana: 

Opening Statement of ...................................................................................... 1 

Questions Submitted by................................................................................... 52, 57 

Morse, Phillip D., Sr., Chief of Police, United States Capitol Police ................... 15 

Prepared Statement of ..................................................................................... 17 

Nichols, Dan, Assistant Chief of Police, United States Capitol Police ................ 15 

O’Keefe, Ambassador John, Executive Director, Open World Leadership Center, Library of Congress, Prepared Statement of .............................................. 31 

Tapella, Robert C., Public Printer, Government Printing Office, Prepared 

Statement of ......................................................................................................... 171 

(iii) 

SUBJECT INDEX 

ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL 

Page 

A Year of AOC Accomplishments ........................................................................... 11 

Additional Committee Questions ............................................................................ 52 

Annual Operating Budget Request ........................................................................ 9 

Architect of the Capitol: 

Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Request ................................................................... 2 

Team .................................................................................................................. 7 

Capitol Visitor Center: 

Budget Request and Project Update ............................................................... 10 

Soft Opening—Traffic Congestion ................................................................... 41 

Temporary Certificate of Occupancy ............................................................... 52 

Visitor Approach ............................................................................................... 41 

Capital Project Budget Request .............................................................................. 9 

Deferred Maintenance Backlog ............................................................................... 6 

Greening of the Capitol ........................................................................................... 40 

Library Partnership Appreciation .......................................................................... 3 

Library of Congress Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Request ........................................ 3 

Noncompliance Enforcement Actions ..................................................................... 40 

Office of Compliance (OOC): 

Alternative Plans for Priority Projects ........................................................... 44 

History ............................................................................................................... 43 

Occupational Safety and Health Administration Obligations ...................... 39 

Project Enforcement ......................................................................................... 42 

Operating Budget Request ...................................................................................... 6 

Project Priority Defined ........................................................................................... 41 

United States Capital Police Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Request .......................... 2 

Utility Tunnels: 

Number One Priority ....................................................................................... 39 

Rebuild .............................................................................................................. 44 

Structural Problems ......................................................................................... 4 

GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 

Demand for GAO Services is High and Increasing ............................................... 163 

Establishing and Maintaining Constructive Union Relationships ...................... 166 

Fiscal Year 2007 Achievements .............................................................................. 166 

GAO’s Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Request ............................................................... 165 

Modest Increase in Staffing Would Help Meet Demand ...................................... 164 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

Fiscal Year 2009 Appropriations Request ............................................................. 172 

GPO: 

Achieves Savings in Information Dissemination ........................................... 176 

Generates Savings for Congress ...................................................................... 174 

Results of Fiscal Year 2007 .................................................................................... 171 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

Absorbing Mandated Costs ..................................................................................... 51 

Additional Committee Questions ............................................................................ 52 

Austerity Affects Library Mission .......................................................................... 26 

Books for the Blind and Physically Handicapped Digital Talking Book Program ...................................................................................................................... 28 
Page

iv 

Content ..................................................................................................................... 65 

Calendar Year 2007 Highlights .............................................................................. 32 

Cataloging Productivity ........................................................................................... 70 

Collecting and Preserving Digital Content ........................................................... 25, 63 

Collections Storage .................................................................................................. 72 

Congressional Research Service (CRS) .................................................................. 30 

Contracts Management ........................................................................................... 61 

Copyright .................................................................................................................. 30 

Digital: 

Content .............................................................................................................. 74 

Talking Book Implementation ......................................................................... 49 

Fiscal Year: 

2008 ................................................................................................................... 63 

2009: 

Budget Request ......................................................................................... 37 

To Fiscal Year 2013 ................................................................................... 65 

Fund Level Concerns ............................................................................................... 46 

Future Projects and Resource Needs ..................................................................... 31 

Goals ......................................................................................................................... 35 

Growing Collections and Storage Requirements ................................................... 50 

Law Library ............................................................................................................. 30 

Library Services ....................................................................................................... 29 

LOC: 

Appreciation ...................................................................................................... 45 

Contractor Employees ...................................................................................... 70 

New Exhibits ..................................................................................................... 4 

Maintenance and Staffing of Packard Campus ..................................................... 46 

Measures of Success ................................................................................................ 37 

Network .................................................................................................................... 67 

National Digital Information and Infrastructure Preservation Program 

(NDIIPP)........................................................................................................ 28, 62, 63 

Making the Transition to Sustainable Stewardship ...................................... 63 

New Visitors Experience ......................................................................................... 26 

Open World 2008 ..................................................................................................... 36 

Overseas Field Offices ............................................................................................. 69 

Performance-based Budgeting ................................................................................ 61 

Reading Rooms ......................................................................................................... 71 

Staffing Levels ......................................................................................................... 59 

Storage Capacity Rating ......................................................................................... 50 

Strategic Information Reserve ................................................................................ 27 

Technical Infrastructure ......................................................................................... 68 

Transition to Digital Talking Books ....................................................................... 51 

Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Request .......................................................................... 57 

OFFICE OF COMPLIANCE 

Prevent and Reduce ................................................................................................. 182 

UNITED STATES CAPITOL POLICE 

Accommodating CVC Visitors ................................................................................. 48 

Additional Committee Questions ............................................................................ 52 

CVC Security—Transportation ............................................................................... 47 

Communication Issue .............................................................................................. 48 

Employee Commitment and Homework ................................................................ 16 

Government Accountability Office Recommendations .......................................... 16 

Large Vehicle Restrictions ...................................................................................... 47 

Overtime: 

Analysis Study .................................................................................................. 45 

For Capitol Police ............................................................................................. 42 

Reduction ........................................................................................................... 43 

Process of Change .................................................................................................... 15 

Recent Accomplishments ......................................................................................... 15 

Subcommittee Support ............................................................................................ 15 

Transportation Options ........................................................................................... 48 

United States Capitol Police Overtime .................................................................. 44 
Page

v 

U.S. SENATE 

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY

Administrative Offices ............................................................................................. 103 

Bill Clerk .................................................................................................................. 81

Capitol Visitor Center ............................................................................................. 81 

Conservation and Preservation .............................................................................. 103 

Continuity of Operations and Emergency Preparedness Planning ..................... 81 

Curator ..................................................................................................................... 104 

Disbursing Office ..................................................................................................... 90 

Enrolling Clerk ........................................................................................................ 87 

Executive Clerk ........................................................................................................ 87 

Human Resources .................................................................................................... 118 

Implementing Mandated Systems .......................................................................... 80 

Information Systems ............................................................................................... 119 

Interparliamentary Services ................................................................................... 120 

Joint Office of Education and Training .................................................................. 110 

Journal Clerk ........................................................................................................... 88 

Legislative Information System (LIS) Project ....................................................... 138 

Legislative Offices .................................................................................................... 81 

Library ...................................................................................................................... 121 

Office of Captioning Services .................................................................................. 82 

Office of Public Records ........................................................................................... 131 

Office of Web Technology ........................................................................................ 135 

Official Reporters of Debates .................................................................................. 88 

Parliamentarian ....................................................................................................... 89 

Presenting the Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Request ................................................. 79 

Printing and Document Services ............................................................................ 129 

Senate: 

Chief Counsel for Employment ........................................................................ 111 

Daily Digest ...................................................................................................... 83 

Gift Shop ........................................................................................................... 112 

Historical Office ................................................................................................ 115 

Page School ....................................................................................................... 128 

Security ............................................................................................................. 132 

Stationery Room ...................................................................................................... 133 

SERGEANT AT ARMS AND DOORKEEPER

Enhancing Service to the Senate ............................................................................ 149 

Information Technology ........................................................................................... 147 

Operations and Support .......................................................................................... 155 

Security and Preparedness ..................................................................................... 141 

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