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57–843 2010

BUSINESS MEETING ON COMMITTEE RESOLUTION 

RELATING TO ENERGY DEMONSTRATION 

PROJECTS 

MEETING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON HOUSE 

ADMINISTRATION 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

Held in Washington, DC, Wednesday, April 28, 2010 

Printed for the use of the Committee on House Administration 

( 

Available on the Internet: 

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


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COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION 

ROBERT A. BRADY, Pennsylvania, Chairman 

ZOE LOFGREN, California, 

Vice-Chairwoman 

MICHAEL E. CAPUANO, Massachusetts 

CHARLES A. GONZALEZ, Texas 

SUSAN A. DAVIS, California 

ARTUR DAVIS, Alabama 

DANIEL E. LUNGREN, California, 

Ranking Minority Member 

KEVIN MCCARTHY, California 

GREGG HARPER, Mississippi 

JAMIE FLEET, Staff Director 

VICTOR ARNOLD-BIK, Minority Staff Director 


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BUSINESS MEETING ON COMMITTEE RESOLUTION RELATING TO ENERGY DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION, Washington, DC. 

The committee met, pursuant to call, at 11:08 a.m., in Room 

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

[chairman of the committee] presiding. 

Present: Representatives Brady, Lofgren, Capuano, Davis of California, Lungren, and Harper. 

Staff Present: Tom Hicks, Senior Election Counsel; Matt Pinkus, 

Professional Staff/Parliamentarian; Kyle Anderson, Press Director; 

Joe Wallace, Legislative Clerk; Greg Abbott, Professional Staff; 

Darrell O’Connor, Professional Staff; Shervan Sebastian, Staff Assistant; Victor Arnold-Bik, Minority Staff Director; Karin Moore, 

Minority Legislative Counsel; Salley Collins, Minority Press Secretary; Katie Ryan, Minority Professional Staff; and Mary Sue 

Englund, Minority Professional Staff. 

The CHAIRMAN. I would like to call the Committee on House Administration to order. I am hoping that this will be a nice, short 

meeting. Immediately following the conclusion of this meeting, we 

will begin the full committee oversight hearing. 

Today we will consider a committee resolution to authorize energy demonstration projects in the House of Representatives. 

And I now call up Committee Resolution 8, which is before the 

Members. And, without objection, the committee resolution is considered as read and open for amendment. 

[The information follows:] 


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The CHAIRMAN. Committee Resolution 8 authorizes the Chief Administrative Officer, CAO, to conduct a series of demonstration 

projects that explore ways to reduce energy consumption, leading 

to better energy efficiency and cost savings. 

Funds for the project were already approved through Public Law 

11–68, the Fiscal Year 2010 Legislative Branch Appropriations Act. 

This act was adopted in a bipartisan fashion at both the subcommittee level and on the floor. 

Our committee, through adoption of the resolution, will exercise 

its authority under the rules of the House to initiate disbursements 

of the funds. Under the committee resolution, the CAO will have 

four requirements that must be met. 

First, the CAO will be required to submit project plans along 

with justification for the proposal to the Committee on House Administration before any appropriated funds may be spent. 

Second, the CAO must act in accordance for all procurements for 

proposed demonstration projects with the guidelines for procurement of goods and services for the U.S. House of Representatives. 

Third, the CAO must submit a detailed report to the committee 

outlining the progress and cost of each part of the demonstration 

project starting on the preceding month of the start date until 

project completion. 

And, finally, the CAO will be required to submit, upon completion of each project, an independent, third-party, expert evaluation 

detailing, among other things, the project’s utility, efficiency, and 

economics. 

I urge approval of the committee resolution. 

And, if there is any additional debate, the 5-minute rule will be 

applied. 

Ranking Member Lungren. 

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

And I appreciate you calling this business meeting. In adhering 

to our normal legislative procedures, I do think it is important that 

we deliberate over and vote on issues such as these. 

Mr. Chairman, a number of my colleagues and I do have concerns, however, about this resolution. You know, yesterday, this 

committee took the unusual step of going to the floor of the House 

and introducing and passing a resolution which froze Members’ salaries—in other words, it did not allow Members to receive the costof-living adjustment. 

And there was recognition during the debate that, while that 

does not have a significant impact on the budget relative to all the 

other expenditures, it was important for us to do that because it’s 

symbolic and it also shows that we are aware of the very difficult 

economic situations that are affecting our constituents. 

And so, while in some other circumstances we may think a couple of million dollars is not that big a deal, it is a big deal these 

days. And I just have some concern about this program. 

It is my understanding that the Architect of the Capitol is responsible for dealing with the energy needs of the House, as well 

as the Senate. As I understand, the Architect of the Capitol is the 

one charged with ensuring that there is consistent, reliable energy 

for the House. 


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And more than just providing this energy, the Architect of the 

Capitol is the one who has already been working within this House 

to improve energy efficiency. They have provided energy to these 

historic buildings over a century, all the while doing so with less 

energy, lower costs, and improved services over that period of time. 

And I just wonder why it makes sense for us to establish this 

within the province of the CAO. We have had some difficulty in 

terms of the program of carbon offsets. The waste composting program has been over-budget. I just don’t see where this is a justification for putting another several millions of dollars to pay for 

demonstration projects. 

And so I understand—I can count the people who are here; I can 

see the way the vote is going to go. But I did want to at least register my concern and the concern of Members on our side of aisle 

about this. And I appreciate the chairman giving me the time. 

The CHAIRMAN. I thank the gentleman. 

Ms. Lofgren. 

Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Chairman, I will be brief. And I would like to 

speak in favor of the resolution. 

This really follows on the 2007 initiation of the Greening of the 

Capitol program, which was assigned to the CAO. And the CAO established under that program a goal of reducing the House’s energy 

consumption by 50 percent over 10 years, which obviously would be 

a huge cost-saver for the House. 

I just want to reflect back on some of our prior efforts on this. 

Congressman Zach Wamp and I introduced a bill to authorize the 

CAO to carry out a series of demonstration projects to promote the 

use of cutting-edge technologies. And the purpose of the bill was to 

find innovative ways to reduce energy consumption, promote energy efficiency, and to save costs, ultimately, for the House. 

Mr. Wamp and I reintroduced the bill this year, and the bill was 

marked up and reported out of the House Administration in June 

of last year. This authorization really follows along on that effort. 

The Leg Branch Appropriations has stepped forward to act. And, 

pursuant to their actions, the CAO did issue a request for proposals. I think 36 proposals were submitted. There was an outside 

group that evaluated them; it wasn’t the CAO himself who did. 

And so now we want to assert our jurisdiction. And I think that 

is fair enough to do. I have talked to Mr. Wamp, who I think is 

somewhat frustrated at our pace of innovation, to be honest. But 

I think he does understand the need for the House Administration 

Committee, as well as Leg Branch, to play their appropriate role 

in this. 

And so, I really think—I understand and I certainly respect Mr. 

Lungren. We work together on many items. But I do think that 

this is a smart thing to do. And, you know, we can have differences 

of opinion, but I hope that the resolution will be adopted. 

And I yield back and thank the gentleman. 

The CHAIRMAN. I thank the lady. 

Any more debate? 

Are there any amendments? 

If not, the question is an agreement to the committee resolution. 

All those in favor, signify by saying, ‘‘Aye.’’ 

Any opposed? 


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In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. So ordered, that the 

ayes have it. 

Thank you. And we now will adjourn this meeting and go into 

our oversight hearing. 

[Whereupon, at 11:16 a.m., the committee proceeded to other 

business.] 


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