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95–762 2015

HOUSE OFFICER PRIORITIES FOR 2016 AND 

BEYOND 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON HOUSE 

ADMINISTRATION 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

JUNE 3, 2015 

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 

CANDICE S. MILLER, Michigan, Chairman 

GREGG HARPER, Mississippi 

RICHARD NUGENT, Florida 

RODNEY DAVIS, Illinois 

BARBARA COMSTOCK, Virginia 

MARK WALKER, North Carolina 

ROBERT A. BRADY, Pennsylvania 

Ranking Minority Member 

ZOE LOFGREN, California 

JUAN VARGAS, California 

PROFESSIONAL STAFF

SEAN MORAN, Staff Director 

KYLE ANDERSON, Minority Staff Director 


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HOUSE OFFICER PRIORITIES FOR 2016 AND 

BEYOND 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015 

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

The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 1:01 p.m., in Room 

1310, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Candice S. Miller 

[chairman of the Committee] presiding. 

Present: Representatives Miller, Harper, Nugent, Davis, Comstock, Walker, Brady, and Lofgren. 

Staff Present: Sean Moran, Staff Director; John Clocker, Deputy 

Staff Director; Bob Sensenbrenner, Deputy General Counsel; Reynold Schweickhardt, Director of Technology Policy; John L. 

Dickhaus, Legislative Clerk; Erin McCracken, Communications Director; Katie Ryan, Professional Staff; Brad Walvort, Professional 

Staff; Kyle Anderson, Minority Staff Director; Matt Pinkus, Minority Senior Policy Advisor; Khalil Abboud, Minority Deputy Staff Director/Director of Legislative Operations; Mike Harrison, Minority 

Chief Counsel; and Eddie Flaherty, Minority Chief Clerk. 

The CHAIRMAN. I now call to order the Committee on House Administration for today’s hearings on the operations and priorities of 

the House officers. The hearing record will remain open for 5 legislative days so that members might submit any materials that they 

wish to be included. 

When our Founding Fathers drafted our Constitution, the first 

institution of government that was created in Article I, Section 1, 

was the House of Representatives. Unlike the Senate, where Members can be appointed to vacancies, the Constitution requires that 

no Member shall serve in the House who has not been elected by 

the people, and each Member must stand for reelection every 2 

years to make this body the closest to the people. That is why the 

House is known as the people’s House. 

The last clause of Article I, Section 1, gives the House the power 

to choose our Speaker and other officers of the House. We are 

meeting today to hear from the officers of the House that were 

elected at the beginning of the 114th Congress about current House 

operations and priorities that each of the officers set forth to accomplish during this Congress, as well as in the years to come. The 

House officers are partners with us as we work for the American 

people to implement their agenda to move this great Nation forward. 

While our primary purpose as Members is to legislate and be the 

voice of our constituents, we also must, of course, be good stewards 


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of the institution. The House officers are integral to meeting the 

daily and long-term needs of the Congress’ work and the physical 

makeup of the institution itself. Each officer is sworn to do their 

very best to support the vital duties of this great legislative body. 

The House officers our Committee will hear from today are the 

Clerk of the House, Karen Haas; the House Sergeant at Arms, Paul 

Irving; and the Chief Administrative Officer, Ed Cassidy. 

For more than 200 years, since the First United States Congress 

met, our House officers have been asked to take on all kinds of duties to better support and improve the overall function of our institution. In 1789, Congress’ first order of business was the election 

of its first Speaker. And its second order of business was the election of the first Clerk of the House. 

The Clerk of the House performs invaluable and essential duties 

that keep the legislative process in the House running smoothly. 

Her responsibilities include everything from processing introduced 

bills; to operating the electronic voting system; to transcribing floor 

and committee proceedings; and ultimately compiling and making 

available to the public all of the legislative proceedings and associated documents in both hardcopy and electronic formats as well. 

The Clerk serves as our official record keeper and protector of 

the House’s collection of art, archives, and history. This responsibility requires great coordination, cooperation, and consultation 

with individual committees and certainly Members as well of the 

Office of the Historian and National Archives. The office works 

very diligently to make the legislative and historical records accessible to the public, not only now but in formats that will last even 

as technology evolves. 

Finally, the Clerk’s Office is charged with carrying out the 

House’s public disclosure responsibilities and does so through the 

operation and maintenance of the House’s Financial Disclosure Filing System and the Lobbying Disclosure System. The Clerk’s Office 

plays a vital role in the House’s efforts to provide transparency in 

every action that we take and to ensure that both legislative and 

Member information is being accessible to the public. 

Docs.house.gov, which serves as an online one-stop shop for legislative information, is just one example of the efforts that the Clerk’s 

Office undertakes. 

Our Committee looks forward to hearing from the Clerk on her 

priorities and planned improvements for both House operations 

and public access to legislative information. 

The position of Sergeant at Arms of the House was created 2 

weeks after the Clerk’s position in 1789. The Sergeant at Arms is 

the chief law enforcement and protocol officer in the House and is 

charged with securing and keeping order within the Chamber. Duties of the position include all manner of security issues ranging 

from overseeing the House floor; to ensuring that the proper identification is issued, both to Members and to staff; to coordinating 

with other law enforcement and security agencies to monitor potential threats to Members of Congress and the complex here in the 

Capitol. 

The Sergeant at Arms manages state visits, including responsibilities related to security when the President or other dignitaries 

visit during joint sessions. The Sergeant at Arms develops protocols 


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and programs to keep Members, staff, and visitors safe in any potentially dangerous event, and ensures that the Congress can accomplish its legislative work in a safe environment and in full view 

of the American public. 

Mr. Irving serves as a member of the U.S. Capitol Police Board, 

responsible for policy oversight over the U.S. Capitol Police. Just 

last week, this Committee, as you know, Paul, heard from the 

Chief of Police. We certainly look forward to your perspective as 

well on current procedures and future improvements to both our 

campus and district office security as well. 

The Chief Administrative Officer position, often abbreviated as 

CAO, which is what we are going to refer to it here, was established in 1995 at the beginning of the 104th Congress. The CAO 

is responsible for providing administrative, financial, and technical 

support of the entire House. This office is also charged with managing the House’s computer system and technology infrastructure; 

finances; human resources; procurement; budgeting; staff training; 

and is ultimately responsible with properly outfitting offices, both 

here in D.C. as well as in the districts, so that each can run at its 

maximum efficiency. And of particular note, the CAO manages the 

House finances, making sure that the House pays its bills on time 

and keeps good track of the funds and assets entrusted to us by 

the taxpayers. 

Also, the CAO runs the House cybersecurity program. We are 

going to be interested to hear how the House must continue certainly to evolve our cyber posture to manage emerging threats. 

Additionally, the CAO plays a major role in providing logistic 

support for the House offices by running the House supply store, 

managing our concessionaire contracts, and provisioning furniture 

as well. Because of that broad logistics role, the CAO is very engaged in the Cannon renovation. I am sure we will be hearing 

something about that as well and their coordinated efforts with the 

Architect of the Capitol’s Office on that project. 

The CAO also provides a number of unique services that are critical to House operations. The House Recording Studio, a business 

unit within the CAO, provides public access to the House floor and 

committee proceedings. The office supports the media galleries, ensuring open and accessible coverage of the House. 

Finally, the CAO also supports the House’s Wounded Warrior 

Program, which provides Members access to a remarkable group of 

veterans who are continuing their service to our country. 

Again, each House officer is integral to furthering effective governance while protecting taxpayers’ dollars and we are very, very 

interested in hearing from all of them because good policies provide 

for effective and accountable government. Together, the House continues to work on ways that we can all prioritize our resources and 

rein in costs; all while we uphold our commitment to increase the 

level of transparency, accountability, and public access to our operations for many years to come. 

So I want to thank all of the witnesses for appearing here today. 

I would now recognize our ranking member. 

Mr. BRADY. Thank you, Madam Chairman. 

I would like to join with my friend Chairman Miller in welcoming 

our witnesses today. As you know, the Committee on House AdVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:23 Aug 21, 2015 Jkt 095762 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\A762.XXX A762

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ministration has jurisdiction over the administration and operation 

of this institution. And your respective organizations, along with 

the House Superintendent, in many ways form the operational 

backbone of the House. 

You have been entrusted with ensuring the safety and security 

of visitors, Members, and staff; maintaining integrity of our legislative system; and making sure that our bills are paid. And for that, 

we are most appreciative. 

I would be remiss if I did not specifically mention the dedication 

and invaluable service of the people in your respective organizations. Their contributions often go unrecognized, but I am sure that 

you would agree that you could not succeed without them, nor 

could this House. 

I look forward to hearing your testimony. 

But I would like to make one note, Madam Chair, that I am looking at the Honorable Ed Cassidy sitting up there at the front of the 

desk, and for years, he was back in that corner. And I don’t know 

who the hell he was watching, me or you, but he was watching 

somebody. But we got you right now. Now we are watching you, 

sir. Thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. I thank the gentleman. 

Let me give a very quick, more formal introduction of our three 

testifiers. 

We will start with the Clerk. Karen Haas was sworn in as the 

Clerk of the House of Representatives on January 5, 2011. This is 

her second occupancy of this position, having previously served as 

the House Clerk from 2005 to 2007. She has a very strong working 

knowledge of the House, as she served on Capitol Hill as a legislative staffer, a floor assistant to a former Speaker, and a staff director for a House committee. 

Paul Irving was sworn in as the Sergeant at Arms of the U.S. 

House of Representatives on January 17, 2012, during the second 

session of the 112th Congress. He is the 36th person to hold this 

position since 1789. Previously, he served as an assistant director 

of the U.S. Secret Service from 2001 to 2008 and served as a special agent with the Secret Service for 25 years. 

Ed Cassidy was elected to the post of CAO in January of 2014. 

Prior to serving as the CAO, Mr. Cassidy worked for 7 years as a 

senior leadership aide to Speaker Boehner, most recently as Director of House Operations. He has served more than three decades 

in Federal Government service, largely here in this House but also 

in the executive branch. 

Again, we welcome you all and look forward to your testimony. 

With that, the chair would recognize the Honorable Karen Haas. 


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STATEMENTS OF THE HONORABLE KAREN L. HAAS, CLERK, 

UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES; THE HONORABLE PAUL D. IRVING, SERGEANT AT ARMS, UNITED 

STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES; AND THE HONORABLE ED CASSIDY, CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER, 

UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE KAREN L. HAAS 

Ms. HAAS. Chairman Miller, Ranking Member Brady, Members 

of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before 

the committee today regarding the priorities of the Office of the 

Clerk for the upcoming year. 

As you know, my staff and I routinely meet with your committee 

staff, and we appreciate the support and feedback that we receive. 

To a large extent, the core responsibilities of the Clerk’s Office remain constant from year to year. Our office is charged with supporting the legislative operations of the House and its committees, 

preserving and protecting the heritage of the House, and providing 

numerous public disclosure services. 

While our core responsibilities remain fairly constant, the manner in which we perform our work requires regular review to ensure that we are taking advantage of rapidly evolving technology 

that can improve the timeliness, accuracy, transparency, and public 

accessibility of our work product. 

One of the Clerk’s most important responsibilities is recording, 

tallying, and publicly disclosing our floor votes cast in the House 

of Representatives. During the coming year, we will implement the 

next phase in a multiyear process of updating the electronic voting 

system used by the House. Our next step is to update the voting 

stations throughout the Chamber. We will replace our voting boxes 

and related wiring and will upgrade Member voting cards to be 

compatible with improved technology. In addition, we will also 

make plans to enhance the disclosure of vote results that the 

Clerk’s Office makes publicly available online. 

We will also be working on a number of improvements to the 

Clerk’s Web site in the coming year. We are focusing our redesign 

efforts on making information we provide on House floor activity 

more prominent and user-friendly for both internal users and the 

public that relies on our office to provide accurate, timely, and official information on the legislative activity of the House. We hope 

to deploy a fully redesigned site by the end of next year. 

The Clerk’s Office also provides numerous legislative support 

services for our House committees. In the coming year, we will continue to work with this committee on your project to streamline 

and standardize the process for producing committee hearing reports. 

Management of official House records is also an important responsibility of our office. We will continue to work closely with the 

National Archives as they develop a plan to ensure that there is 

adequate and sufficient space to preserve House and Senate 

records in Washington in the medium and long term. Our goal is 

to ensure that congressional records continue to be archived in a 

manner that allows committees to access their records in a timely 


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manner and to make House records publicly available for research, 

pursuant to House rules. 

We will continue to work closely with the House Historian as he 

writes a history of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in Congress. This project was commissioned by the House and builds on 

the already published works on Black Americans in Congress, 

Women in Congress, and Hispanic Americans in Congress. 

We are also in the process of redesigning and enhancing the ‘‘Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress,’’ which provides historical information on every Member who has served. We have completed the requirements phase on the upgrade to the bioguide Web 

site, and we will move into the design and development phase 

when resources permit. 

Finally, the Clerk’s Office is charged with administering a number of public disclosure requirements. Following passage of the 

STOCK Act in 2012, we undertook the design and development of 

the electronic filing system for all Financial Disclosure Statements 

and Periodic Transaction Reports. In May, we completed the second 

cycle in which the electronic filing system was available. We are 

pleased to deploy several improvements to the system, including 

the ability for filers to import information from previous electronic 

filings. In the upcoming year, we will provide technical assistance 

to the Committee on Ethics with its internal review system and 

continue to use feedback we receive from users to improve the system. 

Lastly, it is important to note that we depend on the professionalism, skill, and dedication of our staff as we carry out the 

roles in supporting the legislative operation of the House. In the 

Clerk’s Office, we are fortunate to have many employees with decades of service, and their institutional knowledge is invaluable. We 

recognize the need to continue to provide professional development 

and cross-training opportunities. 

Our staff is also well positioned to provide training to House employees concerning research and record management, among other 

topics. We look forward to continuing those efforts with the CAO 

through the House Learning Center. 

Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. 

[The statement of Ms. Haas follows:] 


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The CHAIRMAN. Thank you so very much. 

The chair now recognizes Paul Irving. We are going to ask you 

to keep to 5 minutes since we are in a vote series here. 

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE PAUL D. IRVING 

Mr. IRVING. I will. Thank you, Madam Chair. 

Good afternoon, Chairman Miller, Mr. Brady, and members of 

the Committee. I deeply appreciate the opportunity to appear to before you today to discuss the Sergeant at Arms’ priorities for 2016 

and beyond. I look forward to continuing to work closely with you 

and other members of the Committee throughout the 114th Congress. 

As the Committee is aware, as the chief law enforcement officer 

of the House, I am responsible for directing all security matters 

which relate to the House of Representatives. Together with the 

Senate Sergeant at Arms and the Architect of the Capitol, I serve 

as a member of the U.S. Capitol Police Board, which oversees the 

Capitol Police as well as establishes policies and guidelines which 

safeguard the Capitol complex and its occupants. 

I also work very closely with the other officers of the House, 

Karen Haas and Ed Cassidy. 

In the security arena, I devote considerable time to a host of ongoing priorities to ensure the safety of Members, their staff, and 

visitors to the House of Representatives. These priorities include 

threat and intelligence monitoring and analysis by reviewing all 

threats and intelligence directed to Members of the House of Representatives in Washington, in their district offices, or wherever 

they may be. I monitor events on the Capitol complex, such as 

demonstration activity, committee hearings, head of state visits, 

and major events taking place on the complex. 

Congressional delegations, or codels, are also monitored to ensure that the military and the Department of State provide adequate security in country. I monitor and review all security plans 

for Member-sponsored events off the Capitol complex, where Members and leadership may gather. And, of course, we ensure the security posture is maintained daily during each and every activity 

in the House of Representatives. 

Although I have submitted a more comprehensive testimony for 

the record with regard to our major ongoing initiatives for fiscal 

year 2016, I would like to mention a few of them briefly. One of 

our top priorities is airspace security. We are working closely with 

the Department of Defense, Department of Transportation, and Department of Homeland Security to ensure we have the most efficient and robust early detection, identification, and warning systems. 

With regard to garage security, we are working toward 100-percent screening of all those who enter our House office buildings. We 

are also working on an initiative to safeguard our Chamber Galleries to ensure that all searches are conducted to prevent any potential disruption to those Galleries. 

Another important project that will utilize no additional manpower is the relocation of our appointments desks to ensure that 

all those entering the Capitol are vetted. 


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Working in conjunction with the Capitol Police Board and members of the Capitol Police, our camera security initiative will ensure 

that all coverage of the exterior of the Capitol is taken care of by 

the end of this fiscal year. 

To enhance district office security, we are in the process of offering mail hoods to district offices so that district staff can open mail 

safely and securely in the confines of their own offices, and we are 

working toward enhancing literature and tools available through 

our Law Enforcement Coordinator Program. To further improve 

our response to emergencies on the Capitol complex, we are continuing to promote the importance of our office Emergency Coordinator Program and encourage every Member office to partake in 

that program. 

Aside from long-term initiatives, some of the areas that we are 

focusing on this year have been the State of the Union Address, 

several Gold Medal ceremonies, eight visits by heads of state, four 

joint meetings of Congress in the House Chamber, and the recent 

Memorial Day concert. 

There are a number of major events this year for which planning 

is underway. Primarily, the Speaker has extended an invitation to 

the Pope to address a joint meeting of Congress on September 24. 

This is the first such address delivered by a pontiff to Congress. 

In my role as a member of the Capitol Police Board, I spend considerable time attending to duties associated with oversight of the 

U.S. Capitol Police. This includes the protection, security, intelligence and threat assessment, counterterrorism, and emergency 

response and preparedness functions of the Capitol Police. This includes life-safety assessment and recovery relating to the continuity of Congress and the protection of individuals in the Capitol 

complex. 

I want to assure the Committee that I work very closely with the 

members of the Capitol Police Board, the Chief of Police, and his 

staff. And, of course, I report to you, leadership, and this committee 

on these critical issues so vital to the safety and security of all 

those Members, staff, and visitors to the House of Representatives. 

In closing, I would like to thank the Committee for the opportunity to appear before you to discuss some of my priorities for the 

current year, fiscal year 2016, and beyond. As always, I want to assure you of my deep commitment and that of everyone in my office 

of providing the finest possible service to the House of Representatives, while maintaining a safe and security environment for all. 

As noted, I have submitted my full testimony for the record. I 

will continue to keep the committee informed of my activities, and 

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

[The statement of Mr. Irving follows:] 


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The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much. 

Mr. Cassidy. 

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE ED CASSIDY 

Mr. CASSIDY. Thank you, Chairman Miller, Ranking Member 

Brady, Congressman Harper, Ms. Lofgren. 

It is a real privilege today to join the Committee for this discussion of the priorities that we face together in fiscal year 2016. It 

is a special privilege to be here representing the hundreds of dedicated men and women professionals who serve in the Office of the 

Chief Administrative Officer. 

As the principal manager of House finances, information technology, physical property and equipment, and a wide range of other 

administrative and support services, the men and women in the 

Chief Administrative Office continually strive to carry out efficiently and effectively our wide range of responsibilities. And that 

imperative will grow even more compelling this year as the CAO 

launches costly but absolutely critical initiatives in cybersecurity, 

asset management, and a number of others that I would be happy 

to discuss with the committee. 

In the interest of time, however, and recognizing that votes have 

been ordered over in the House Chamber, I will suspend at this 

point and look forward to discussing those issues in detail with the 

committee or in the questions and answers. 

[The statement of Mr. Cassidy follows:] 


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The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much. 

I really appreciate that. 

Before we adjourn here—and we will reconvene right after 

votes—let me just say that the purpose of this hearing was to provide for our due diligence with oversight, but really, in the most 

part the driving impetus for me was to be able to demonstrate how 

efficiently and effectively this House is being run and what a great 

team of House officers the Speaker has appointed for this Congress. 

In the Clerk’s Office, the transparency and the different things 

that you have done there are just remarkable I think. 

Certainly, Mr. Irving, to be able to look at the challenges that 

our Nation is facing here on this campus and to be so safe and secure is, again, just a mark of yourself and your entire time. 

Mr. Cassidy, of course, we just came through a clean audit. I 

know there are other things that the media wants to write about 

here sometimes, but that is a wonderful, wonderful achievement 

that that has happened with your team and working together with 

everyone. 

So I look forward to really helping to amplify what I think is an 

extremely positive team of House officers and the remarkable work 

that is happening here. 

At this time, I would recess the hearing. The Committee will reconvene right after the vote series. 

[Recess.] 

The CHAIRMAN. Okay. We will reconvene the Committee on 

House Administration and continue the hearing on the House officers. A quorum is present, so we can proceed. 

Clerk Haas, I think I will start right in with you. 

Ms. HAAS. Okay. 

The CHAIRMAN. I appreciated very much and was interested in 

your testimony about the electronic voting system, which obviously 

we all have a huge interest in. Maybe you could just flesh out for 

us a bit about the system and some of the challenges that you are 

facing. I know that we had a little bit of a chat about how some 

of the technology is new, and some of it is old. What are some of 

the various problems that you are looking at there and what do you 

think you need to do and how we can be of assistance with that? 

Obviously, we can’t have any incidents there. 

Ms. HAAS. I appreciate that. We have been in a multiyear process of updating the electronic voting system. In 2009 and 2010, the 

summary boards and the main display boards were upgraded. 

What we have discovered is, you know, one of the last pieces on 

the floor to be upgraded are the voting stations themselves as well 

as the wiring. So we are undertaking a project to update both the 

wiring and the voting stations. We have started that process. We 

expect to be able to begin testing in August of next year. 

As part of that, we will also be upgrading the cards, the voting 

cards that Members use, the technology. And the current cards are 

quite old. So it is an opportunity for us to look at new technologies 

and other potential ways that we can use those cards. 

So we are beginning the process now. As I mentioned, we expect 

to be able to test in August of next year and then would deploy at 

the end of the Congress or the beginning of the new Congress. But 


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that will be in coordination with this committee and with leadership. 

The CHAIRMAN. You know, I guess, just as Members, we have all 

gotten used to wherever the voting stations are at. So I don’t know 

if you have any plans to move those. Every time we have a series 

of 2-minute votes, I sometimes think it would be good to have a 

voting station in the middle of some of those rows, but I don’t know 

if that is even possible. 

Ms. HAAS. So, currently, under our current situation, it is not 

possible. We are maxed out. We have 46 stations throughout the 

Chamber. With this new upgrade, we will be able to have that option if leadership decides they would like additional stations. That 

is something that has been coordinated over the years with leadership on both sides of the aisle. So we are open to providing additional stations if that is what the decision is. 

The CHAIRMAN. Okay. Very good. 

To the Sergeant at Arms, I would like to ask you a little bit 

about a hearing we had a couple of weeks ago with Chief Dine. One 

of the things that all the Members were interested in was the 

gyrocopter incident. I guess I would just ask you, do you have any 

lessons learned that you have been participating in since that time 

of how we can better protect the campus here? 

One of the things, I am not sure if I am advocating for this, but 

I did ask the Chief about it, and here I think I am putting my 

Homeland Security hat on, but if you look along the southern border and the way that we have been able to utilize, actually, in 

some cases surplus DOD goods that have been particularly effective 

at border security with the eye in the sky. As I say, I don’t think 

I am advocating for some of the blimps or other equipment, the 

dirigibles that you can see, but some of the UAVs that they have 

available now, the VADERs, et cetera, are incredibly effective. I am 

not sure, again, whether that is something that could be utilized 

here, but perhaps. What is your thought on equipment like that? 

Mr. IRVING. Thank you, Madam Chairman. 

Yes, as a matter of fact, even before the gyro incident, which obviously generated a fair amount of attention here, we were looking 

at the airspace security. It was a pretty aggressive initiative to improve some of the gaps that we have. We will have to get into more 

of a classified session to get into some of that. But that was a priority for us. We work very closely with the Department of Defense, 

Department of Transportation, and Homeland Security with some 

continuing efforts in that endeavor. There will be a couple more 

things coming online, again, which I will allude to in a classified 

briefing. 

I want the Committee to be aware of the fact that the Capitol 

Police Board and the Capitol Police are looking at this and working 

very closely with Defense and the other executive branch agencies 

on this issue. 

You raise an excellent point in terms of the southwest border. 

There are systems in place down there that we are very well aware 

of. It is a different pattern here in a congested urban environment 

versus something that is a little less congested. So there are more 

challenges to airspace security in this national capital region. HavVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:23 Aug 21, 2015 Jkt 095762 PO 00000 Frm 00046 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\A762.XXX A762

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ing said that, we have some countermeasures in place, and we will 

have some additional ones in the not too distant future. 

I want to assure you that the couple of themes, here, from the 

perspective of airspace security, which is the early identification 

and warning, we are working aggressively on that. In terms of the 

Capitol Police’s ability to conduct certain countermeasures, their 

weapons and use-of-force policy, that is a separate issue which we 

have also addressed. Again, we can get into that in more detail in 

a classified session. 

We also have not only the low and slow aircraft but also the 

drone issue. That is another facet of this that we are also working 

on. We also have some classified systems in place that we can chat 

about further. 

I want to assure the committee that the Capitol Police Board, 

Capitol Police were aggressively working this with our partners in 

military and other executive branch agencies. 

The CHAIRMAN. You know, since you mention the Capitol Police 

Board, let me just ask a question. If you don’t want to answer it, 

you don’t have to. Maybe I am just making a comment here, but 

I am looking at the construct of the Capitol Police Board, which 

has been in place for 150 years; and maybe it made sense then. I 

am not sure that it does right now. So you have yourself, then your 

Senate counterpart, and then the Architect of the Capitol on the 

police board. 

I just think from a management wiring diagram, if you will, organizational chart, I am not sure that serves us as well as perhaps 

it should. So I am almost throwing this out to the other members 

of the Committee to contemplate that. I don’t know if you have any 

comment about that, or since you sit on the police board you would 

rather not say. I totally understand, but I personally have a little 

bit of consternation about whether or not it is the best system. 

Mr. IRVING. I certainly feel free to comment on it if you like, 

Madam Chair. I speak to Kim Dine on a daily basis on issues relating to House-wide interests, security and protocol interests. The 

Senate Sergeant at Arms does the same relative to the Senate. But 

the Senate Sergeant at Arms and I deal with Kim Dine, again, on 

a daily basis relative to security for the entire complex. And I think 

it is a good dynamic, the relationship that I have with the Senate 

Sergeant at Arms to deal with security campuswide. As you know, 

we have the Pope coming, joint visits, State of the Union, inaugurations, events that require campuswide security protocols. We have 

a lot of initiatives that are ongoing now that are campuswide, so 

I work very, very closely with the Senate Sergeant at Arms. But 

I also filter many, many, many comments, requests, concerns from 

Members, House Members, to the Chief so that his phone is not 

ringing from every Member. He will come to me. I will speak to 

them about it. I will express those concerns to the Chief. 

I really want to assure the committee that the Capitol Police 

Board does exert robust oversight on the Chief. We are with him 

each and every day. I know that there has been a number of things 

in the media lately that cause concern. But we have talked to the 

Chief before a lot of these issues became public and certainly afterwards. And aside from, obviously, both Sergeants at Arms, the Architect of the Capitol is a critical component because a lot of the 


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security initiatives that we want to put in place deal with the infrastructure of the Capitol and the office buildings. And the Architect has, obviously, jurisdiction over that. I would say it is a pretty 

good construct, but again, I am on the Board. 

The CHAIRMAN. Okay. I appreciate that. 

The chair recognizes our ranking member. 

Mr. BRADY. Thank you, Madam Chairman. 

The luxury you have of asking a question behind you is that I 

don’t have to ask any because great minds think alike. You would 

ask the questions that I would ask, and you already answered 

them. 

But I want to say thank you to the Clerk and to the Sergeant 

at Arms and to the Chief Administrative Officer because I know 

you have a tough job dealing with our egos, 435 of us, you know. 

I appreciate the job that you do. I appreciate the courtesy you show 

us on the floor every time we are there, which we are always there 

every day. 

Sergeant at Arms, thank you for being informative. You know, 

we don’t get that much from the Chief. We have expressed that. 

But you always keep us informed of what is going on every second, 

every minute. And we do appreciate that. And I know that will continue. We thank you for that. 

And to the Chief Administrative Officer, thank you, you have 

been a friend for a lot of years. Thanks for what you do. And, 

again, dealing with all the egos that you have to deal with. 

The only question I would have is we are your oversight committee, so if there is anything you need us to do to make your job 

a little easier because when your job becomes easier, nobody comes 

and complains to us and causes us any problems. So is there anything you think that we need to do, whether it be right here now 

or anywhere on the floor? I see you always on the floor. You know 

where my office is. You just come to us, and whatever we can make 

it easier for you because I know it is tough enough, again, dealing 

with us, dealing with the egos that you have to deal with. So thank 

you, again, for all of you being here. 

Mr. IRVING. Thank you. We appreciate very much your support. 

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Harper. 

Mr. HARPER. Thank you, Madam Chair. 

And thanks to each of you for the great work that you do. Unlike 

many entities that we might provide some oversight on, we have 

firsthand knowledge of what you do. And we appreciate the hard 

work. And what you do is not really—it is certainly not partisan. 

It is really not bipartisan. It is nonpartisan. And you make this 

place function very well. So we thank you for that. But we all want 

to do the very best we can, whatever that role is. 

And, you know, as a person who occupies an office in Cannon, 

we would obviously wish that we weren’t going through that process. 

Mr. Cassidy, that is an incredible undertaking, past due, as you 

know, but coming along very nicely, a long process. But you have 

so much to deal with, each of you. And it is just one of the buildings that you have responsibility for. 

And but I want to say to, first, you, Mr. Cassidy, congratulations 

on the audit. That is not an easy accomplishment. Can you share 


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a little bit of background on that for us on how that worked and 

your comments on that? 

Mr. CASSIDY. Certainly, Mr. Harper. And thank you very much 

for those kind words. 

As was mentioned by the chairman in her opening remarks, the 

House recently received its 17th consecutive clean audit. These audits occur every year. They are conducted by an outside private auditing firm, a CPA firm. That firm is contracted for not by us but 

by the Inspector General of the House. And it is essentially a review of the House’s financial managers. I don’t know that it is unprecedented across the government, but certainly nowhere else in 

the legislative branch and nowhere in the executive branch of 

which I am aware—not even the Senate gets independent outside 

audits of its financial statements. But the House does. 

It is a very worthwhile exercise. It raises the confidence, we 

hope, of Members and the citizens you represent that the funds entrusted to the United States House of Representatives are spent effectively and efficiently and appropriately. 

And this audit, if you will, as any of you who have been in business know how daunting it can be to be audited by anybody. I had 

hundreds of auditors working for me in the executive branch, and 

I got a nonstop stream of calls from CEOs and other corporate officials complaining about the enthusiasm of our auditors. 

Our folks are on the other side of that. You know, our financial 

managers under the Chief Financial Officer of the House, Traci 

Beaubian, who is with me here today, they are on the receiving end 

of this annual financial audit. The audit is a report card, if you 

will. And Traci and her team welcome the opportunity to test 

themselves against the highest generally accepted accounting principles. And they welcome the fact that each and every year, those 

auditors, no surprise to any of you who have been audited, they 

find areas that can be improved. 

And as the chairman of this committee likes to say, the biggest 

room in any house is the room for improvement. Our financial 

staff, our accountants, our financial managers relish the opportunity not only to be tested against those standards but to have 

outside independent eyes point out areas where we can improve. 

And each and every year, our processes do improve as a direct result of that audit. 

I would be happy to talk later about some examples of that, the 

most current of which would be our Asset Management Reform 

Project that is underway right now. 

But I appreciate the kind words. Our folks live and breathe that 

about 9 months out of every year. And it is always a huge sigh of 

relief when we get that report. And this year’s report was more encouraging than any in recent memory. So thank you. 

Mr. HARPER. Congratulations. And to the team, congratulations. 

Mr. Irving, thank you for your hard work, your dedication. And 

it is a lot, and a great responsibility that you have to look at the 

safety of our Capitol complex and things that are there. But I 

would like to talk for just a moment, I only have just a little bit 

of time left, about the security needs in our district offices. I think 

there are over 800 district offices across the country and in the Territories. And so those are things that, you know, we all have conVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:23 Aug 21, 2015 Jkt 095762 PO 00000 Frm 00049 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\A762.XXX A762

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cerns about. And I know I have discussed those with you in the 

past. I know the mail hoods have been discussed in the district offices. Can you just share a little bit about what you see is the 

things that we can do to improve our security in the district offices? 

Mr. IRVING. Thank you very much, Congressman. 

I appreciate your kind words again. The district offices are certainly a challenge because as you indicate, there are over 800, actually over 900. We need to maintain relationships with each and 

every one of them. We can’t be everywhere. So we have a robust 

program, the Law Enforcement Coordinator Program, whereby we 

ask staff in each district office to appoint someone to work with my 

office, to work liaison with local law enforcement. 

Any time a Member is going to make an appearance or do something in their district that could raise a certain profile, we like to 

ensure local law enforcement is apprised of that. District office security is critical. Resident security is critical. So we would like Law 

Enforcement Coordinators to contact our office. And we provide 

them guidance on a daily basis. We give them checklists, we give 

them tools that they may need to ensure that those district offices 

and the Members are as safe as possible. 

Mr. HARPER. And I know for us and for you, threat assessment 

is always an ongoing situation because—— 

Mr. IRVING. Yes. 

Mr. HARPER. Some are legitimate, some are not. And I know that 

is a difficult thing. But I want to say thank you for the job your 

office does. It works very well I know with our office for sure and 

others that I hear. 

And my time is up, so I yield back. 

Mr. IRVING. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. 

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Nugent. 

Mr. NUGENT. Thank you, Madam Chair. 

And I appreciate you all, your service to this country and to the 

House of Representatives in particular. You all have unique and 

different responsibilities. 

But I really want to talk to our Sergeant at Arms. I appreciate 

you coming up in our meeting yesterday. It was very enlightening 

in regard to the discussion as it relates to the Capitol Police. And 

you know my background in law enforcement. And I want to make 

sure that the Capitol Police Board has the authority and has the 

ability to do what they need to do, but more importantly, I want 

to make sure that the Chief of Police is accountable to you all and 

through oversight of this committee to make sure that we get the 

best of the best. You know, I think that and what I worry about 

in my conversations with some of the officers is that they feel 

underappreciated. You know, they are not security guards; they are 

Capitol Police. And it is a huge responsibility to keep this campus 

and all the Members safe. And I know we are on the same page 

when it comes to that. 

But all I can do is encourage the Capitol Police Board to make 

sure that they hold the Chief of Police accountable because we 

talked about a numerous number of issues yesterday, everything 

from, you know, training, experience, the things that are important 

to the rank and file because, you know, they want to do a great 

job. Most of our police officers across this country and, more imporVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:23 Aug 21, 2015 Jkt 095762 PO 00000 Frm 00050 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\A762.XXX A762

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tantly, right here in the Capitol, really want to do a good job. And 

they want to be proud of the job that they do. They want to be 

proud of the agency they serve with and those that serve with 

them. 

So we need to do everything, and I think the chairman is on the 

right track by holding the meeting that we had with the Chief last 

week or the week before, I guess. It all runs together, Madam 

Chair. But it is really important to us because we are the community. The Members are the community that they are sworn to protect. Obviously, the citizens that come to the Capitol, but we are 

the constituency, and we want to make sure that we have a voice 

in that. 

And I think, by you coming and sitting down and talking with 

Members, and I know you have done that in the past, you have 

other meetings we have had, but you need to have all the information at your fingertips. And I know that you have all had issues 

from time to time. And I have no doubt that you are going to rectify that, at least by our conversation yesterday. And if you want 

to add anything as it relates to the Capitol Police. 

But I just want to just reiterate that, you know, I have the utmost respect for those that wear the uniform in law enforcement 

to protect us no matter where you are in this great country. And 

you talk about the district offices. It is so important that they have 

a good liaison with their local law enforcement agency because you 

are up here, and I am down in Florida. And the local law enforcement agency has the primary responsibility at that point to make 

sure that things go right. And they need help from time to time. 

But go right ahead. 

Mr. IRVING. Thank you. Again, Congressman, I appreciate all of 

your time and attention to this. The committee has been so supportive. And going back to the chair’s comments and Mr. Brady’s 

comments, this committee has always been so responsive and supportive. Usually, before we make an attempt to implement a security measure which has a tendency of affecting the business processes of the institution, I come to you first because there is a fair 

chance your phone will ring if we have done something to change 

a certain business process which has a tendency of coming down 

on convenience or lack thereof. 

Having said that, your door has always been open. I appreciate 

all the time that you and have I spent together talking over these 

issues. Because of your background, you know all of these issues. 

And I appreciate your support of the Capitol Police Board and the 

Capitol Police. 

I do want to assure you that the Capitol Police Board is conducting robust oversight of the Chief and of the Capitol Police. 

They do a fantastic job each and every day. They have a tough job. 

We hear some things every now and then in the press. But, frankly, there are thousands of contacts with the public, with Members 

each and every day, and they do a fantastic job. And my hat’s off 

to the men and women of the Capitol Police, but more importantly, 

I thank you for your leadership, your oversight, and your support. 

And we will certainly continue to keep you posted as we work all 

the issues that we addressed yesterday, certainly things that have 


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been out there. But, again, I want to thank you for all of your support. 

Mr. NUGENT. I appreciate that. 

And, Madam Chair, I am out of time, but I would hope that we 

have a followup meeting with the Capitol Police, with yourself, or 

with the Chief to see where they are in regards to the things that 

we have talked about. And I know that the Sergeant at Arms has 

talked about where are we at in regards to, are those things getting fixed to our satisfaction? And I know Mr. Brady feels the same 

way. I am not going to put words in his mouth. But we want to 

know. And I think that is a fair thing for us to do. And I appreciate 

your indulgence. Thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much. Mr. Davis. 

Mr. DAVIS. Thank you, Madam Chairman. 

And I would like to associate myself with many of the comments 

that my colleague Mr. Nugent mentioned about our concerns. We 

had a great meeting with Mr. Irving just yesterday and talked 

about many of these issues. 

Thank you for your service. Thanks for what you are doing to address some of these issues. 

Thank you all for being a part of this great institution. 

I come from a different perspective. I spent 16 years as a district 

office staffer, so I have a vested interest in district office issues. 

And I know many of the issues that each of you address relate to 

district offices. And there are some differences between district offices and what we see here in D.C. And sometimes I think that the 

district offices and what they have access to may be taken for 

granted because of the access that we have on this campus to many 

different issues, that security being one of them. 

So I am glad, Mr. Irving, that there has been a focus on district 

office security issues. And I look forward to working with you with 

my perspective if there are any issues that you think I can be helpful on in the future too. 

One issue, I will start with you, Mr. Irving, and this actually, unfortunately, relates back here. It is something you mentioned in 

your testimony about the Garage Security Enhancement Project. 

Would the completion of that project require any different procedures for Members and staff in your opinion? 

Mr. IRVING. There will be some changes. And I am working very 

carefully with the committee and leadership on that. We will be restricting, or the goal ultimately is to restrict the number of access 

points so that everyone can undergo security screening. So that will 

certainly require, you know, assistance from the committee and 

leadership to get us to that point. 

There will be some conveniences that will be dispensed with. But 

I will say that we will do everything we can to ensure that Members have access to the doors that they require. We will probably 

be undergoing either a prox card or a biometric type of entrance 

system so that Members can utilize more doors. As you know, 

Members do not undergo magnetometer screening whereas staff 

and visitors do. It will probably be a very similar protocol. But the 

goal is for everyone to have that 100 percent screening. 

Mr. DAVIS. Thank you. You and I would agree that project is critical. 


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Mr. IRVING. Yes. And I appreciate so much the committee’s support on that project and mail hoods. And I could go on and on on 

a lot of the initiatives that I have enumerated in my testimony. 

This committee has been so supportive. So thank you. 

And I know that we will have to work through some of the details of that initiative because of the access point closures and 

routings and what have you. But we will do our best to make sure 

that the business process of the institution is not affected. 

Mr. DAVIS. Thank you. Thanks very much, Paul. 

Mr. Cassidy, back to my district office issues. Obviously, you 

know, you and I have talked about many different district office 

issues. And I am happy to be someone that can offer a different 

perspective on many of the issues. And I know that one issue that 

we have worked on has been district office connectivity. I can tell 

you firsthand the connectivity issues at a district office are vastly 

different than what we can experience here on this campus. 

We have been very active as a committee and been concerned 

with these connections. And I know there has been an initiative 

that you have been working on and CAO has been working on. Can 

you kind of give us an update on how that is going? Anything the 

committee can do to be of assistance? 

Mr. CASSIDY. Certainly, Congressman. The Committee has already been very helpful on this project. 

The issue, in a nutshell, for those who aren’t familiar with it, is, 

how do we connect the computer systems in 800 or 900 district offices with the House network back here? For many years now, we 

have done that by providing between Washington and a Member’s 

principal district office a high speed data link called an MPLS circuit. And then, from the district, the main district office to any 

other district offices that a Member may have, they are responsible 

for providing that connection. But the House connects the primary 

office back to here. 

The challenge around that is that in the years since that technical approach was adopted, the demand for data to move back and 

forth through this pipeline, if you will, has exploded as a result of 

video and social media and all of the things with which the committee is familiar. With that in mind, what we have been looking 

at is an alternative to the MPLS circuits we use today, which have 

a maximum flow-through rate of 3 megabytes, if you will. We have 

been looking at something called VPN, which is an Internet 

connectivity. 

Mr. DAVIS. Which some offices use now. 

Mr. CASSIDY. Which many offices, most offices in fact, use to connect their primary office to any satellite offices, and a small number use to connect their D.C. offices to here. That is a good news/ 

bad news story. The good news in the first instance is that it is a 

lot less expensive to use VPN than it is to use MPLS. And, secondly, the VPN technology has a much higher ceiling, if you will, 

on the amount and the speed with which data can move back and 

forth. 

But it also has a lower floor. So with the classic traditional 

MPLS model we have been using, you get 3 megabytes; you don’t 

any get any more than that, and you don’t get any less. 


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With VPN, you get a much higher ceiling, but 3 isn’t guaranteed. 

And depending on the time of day, depending on the makeup of the 

network in your district, the number of customers, the demand and 

such, you may find slower speeds. 

What we have done in the last several months, with the strong 

support of this committee, is to begin connecting up Members’ primary district offices. We are up over 70 now. The majority of those 

are freshmen, but they are not all freshmen. Several members of 

this committee participated in a pilot project around this. And we 

now have a fairly robust plan, which we will share with the committee shortly, to take that number up around 400. As it happens, 

there are a handful of Members in certain parts of the country— 

the islands are a good example of that, but there are actually some 

rural areas in this country—where the current MPLS approach actually is the best. So we are not going to mandate a move to VPN, 

but we are going to facilitate a move to VPN, and we are going to 

do it as quickly as we can possibly get it done. 

We learned a lot in the pilot. And the staff of this committee was 

an integral part of that process. We hope to put those lessons 

learned to use. We may find out—we actually have an RFP that 

was on the street recently, just closed, seeking proposals to provide 

this service—we may find out we have got some hybrid approaches 

that employ both of those technologies in particular places, and so 

you get the best of both. 

But we are going to work very closely with this committee going 

forward, as we have up to this date, and try to make this transition 

as expeditious as we can. But it is probably another year or two 

before we get this thing rolled out to all of the offices that want 

it. But we are moving—in fact, we are ahead of schedule right now 

on that rollout. 

Mr. DAVIS. Thank you. 

My time has expired. 

The CHAIRMAN. Mrs. Comstock. 

Mrs. COMSTOCK. Madam Chairman, I don’t have any questions. 

The CHAIRMAN. Okay. 

Mr. Walker. 

Mr. WALKER. Thank you, Madam Chairman. 

First of all, let me say thank you guys for being here. Even Sergeant at Arms Mr. Irving coming by yesterday and taking time to 

visit with us, I appreciate that. It meant a lot to us. 

I want to go back and talk about the partnering agencies from 

the Capitol Hill Police’s perspective. Talk to me about the confidence in our response with the other agencies that we have taken 

in the aftermath of some of the drone stuff, some of the gyrocopter 

stuff. Can you give me a little briefing and get me caught up to 

speed as far as how you feel like you guys are doing there? 

Mr. IRVING. Thank you, Congressman. We engaged our local, 

Federal, State partners in law enforcement on all of these issues. 

On the gyro issue in particular that you addressed, there are a 

number of working groups, airspace security working groups specifically, dealing with a number of Department of Homeland Security agencies as well as military and Department of Transportation, 

FAA, Secret Service. MPD is involved, and Metro Transit. You 

have got the Park Police, Pentagon Force Protection Agency. So 


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there are a lot of local national capital region law enforcement 

partners that are engaged with the Capitol Police. The Chief enjoys 

a very good relationship with all of those other chiefs. 

And the Capitol Police Board, obviously, is attuned to all of those 

meetings and monitors those meetings. So I will tell that you there 

is considerable respect amongst all of the law enforcement for each 

other, not only in the law enforcement, domestic law enforcement 

perspective, policing perspective, but also in the intelligence perspective, intelligence-sharing perspective. 

Mr. WALKER. And I love to hear the relational side is good and 

even working. 

Let me talk specifically about the technical aspect. And I believe 

I have got the date, if my memory serves me correctly, is January 

2014, there was a completely new system put in for communications. We talked a little bit about the interoperability of it. You can 

talk about specifically the gyrocopter that day, but my larger concern is, is that functional? Do we do tests or drills on that? Are we 

sure that we have got an opportunity or really the potential to communicate across the board going to a frequency, whatever it is? Is 

there a plan in place that if there is, God forbid, a situation that 

we are able to utilize that to the max? 

Mr. IRVING. Thank you, Congressman. 

On the communication front, the new radio modernization program has been working well, and is a tremendous success. There 

is interoperability. As we have discussed, interoperability is a combination of pre-event planning not only, you know, before something happens, but also, you know, merging that pre-event planning with the technology. 

From a technological perspective, the new radio modernization 

program can accomplish that. There is interoperability amongst all 

of the law enforcement entities in the national capital region. 

Training is always an issue in terms of time and expense. Capitol 

Police is working toward training with other law enforcement partners, though not as much as we would like. 

We can tell you, though, there is command level, there is communication almost daily between the command center, Capitol Police 

command center, Metro PD command centers, and the other multiagency coordinating centers in the national capital region. 

Mr. WALKER. So if something was to happen this afternoon, there 

would be a frequency or something that everybody is instructed to 

go to. The Capitol Hill Police is talking to agencies across the 

board. I mean, do we feel comfortable that that particular plan is 

in place? 

Mr. IRVING. Yes, Congressman, very confident that, at the command center level, absolutely. 

Mr. WALKER. Okay. 

Before my time expires, I want to bring Mr. Cassidy in this as 

well. A lot of times we are talking about the very physical threats. 

I want to touch on cybersecurity for just a moment there. Both of 

you guys can address this. It is a high priority for this committee, 

obviously, as it is for others. And I just want to talk about what 

are we taking proactive steps in regards to cybersecurity, and how 

do we see that possibly affecting us from this particular committee’s perspective? 


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Mr. CASSIDY. Congressman, as you know, and as all the members 

of the committee know, we don’t lack for high priorities in the IT 

area here in the House. We have a number of them. But there is 

no higher priority for us than cybersecurity. This is a target-rich 

environment. You have got 10,000 or 11,000 Members and staff deployed in 800 or 900 locations around the country. We have lots of 

devices, lots of programs, lots of systems, lots of flexibility that supports a pretty decentralized working style, if you will, here in the 

House. 

The danger is that, on any given day, at any given minute, any 

one of those people is likely clicking on something they shouldn’t 

click on. And so that is a big challenge. And so what we have done 

to try to mitigate that, in addition to a number of technical approaches around secure configuration management and the like— 

Mr. WALKER. When you say they are clicking on something they 

shouldn’t be, obviously, we have a certain responsibility, Members 

and our staff. Can you be a little more specific when you say that 

that may put us a little more at risk? 

Mr. CASSIDY. Certainly. For example, sir, phishing campaigns, 

which are known to all us, are campaigns in which someone pretending to be someone that you know sends you an email that looks 

just like you would expect an email to look like from that individual or that organization and asks you or offers to show you 

something, asks you to click on a link. If you click on that link, you 

have immediately put the House at risk. 

And so we have technological approaches to deal with that, but 

we also are working much harder in the last year or two on the 

education side. As you recall, we stiffened our password policies recently. We require longer passwords. You have to change them 

more frequently. You can’t keep flipping back and forth between 

the last two or three passwords you have used, which I have done 

most of my adult life. We now require you to come up with truly 

new passwords. 

We produce a publication called ‘‘Connected and Secured’’ that 

goes out every single month. It goes out every single month trying 

to give people in the House suggestions around safe social media 

practices, email practices, and the like. 

Mr. WALKER. I appreciate your work on that. 

Thank you, panel. 

Madam Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank the gentleman very much. 

Are there any other questions from any of the members? 

Well, I just want to, again, thank all of the House officers for 

their participation today, their statements, and the answering of 

questions. Obviously, you have a very engaged Committee here 

with what is happening with the House officers. I looked at this as 

an opportunity to really make sure that the folks understood what 

this Speaker has done in appointing these individuals and how he 

really is such an institutionalist and believes in this institution and 

how we are all so committed in our common goals to make sure 

that this House runs effectively, efficiently, transparently, and 

safely in every way. 

As we look at all of the different challenges that the House faces, 

we look to all of you. Obviously, this Committee wants to ensure 


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55 

that you have the resources that you need and that we can help 

you in any way that we can to share our common goal. 

It looks like Mr. Cassidy would like it say one other thing as 

well. I certainly recognize you to say something. 

Mr. CASSIDY. Thank you, Madam Chairman. 

I just want to take a moment if I could, a moment of privilege, 

if you will. Mention was made earlier about the work done by all 

of our staffs. But not enough has been said about the work done 

by your staffs. In particular, I want to point out, as everyone up 

there knows, but maybe not everyone in the room knows, our positions are thoroughly nonpartisan; our organizations are thoroughly 

nonpartisan. We serve the House equally. We work with this Committee equally. 

There isn’t anybody in this room today who has worked harder 

or cared more or done more to facilitate our efforts in the CAO, and 

I hope I speak for my colleagues, than Kyle Anderson, the minority 

staff director of this committee. He has recently announced his intention to move on. And I just wanted to say personally how much 

I appreciate Kyle’s contributions, his advice, his counsel, and the 

effort he has undertaken to help us do our jobs because, at the end 

of the of the day, our jobs are really about helping all of you do 

your jobs. And Kyle has been a terrific partner. 

The CHAIRMAN. I appreciate you saying that. Kyle is going to be 

missed. He is great. He really is. He is wonderful to work with. 

Mr. BRADY. Now we need to get the double doors open so he can 

get his head out. 

The CHAIRMAN. All right. Well, we thank you all very, very much 

for your appearance today. 

I thank the Committee members as well for appearing. 

And, with this, the hearing will be adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 3:26 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.] 


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