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89–054 2003

MARK-UP OF THE OMNIBUS COMMITTEE FUNDING

RESOLUTION, AND OTHER PENDING ITEMS

MEETING

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON HOUSE 

ADMINISTRATION 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, MAY 6, 2003

Printed for the use of the Committee on House Administration

(

(II)

COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION 

BOB NEY, Ohio, Chairman

VERNON J. EHLERS, Michigan 

JOHN L. MICA, Florida 

JOHN LINDER, Georgia 

JOHN T. DOOLITTLE, California 

THOMAS M. REYNOLDS, New York 

JOHN B. LARSON, Connecticut 

Ranking Minority Member

JUANITA MILLENDER-MCDONALD, 

California 

ROBERT A. BRADY, Pennsylvania 

PROFESSIONAL STAFF

PAUL VINOVICH, Staff Director 

GEORGE SHEVIN, Minority Staff Director

(1)

MARKUP OF OMNIBUS COMMITTEE FUNDING 

RESOLUTION, AND OTHER PENDING ITEMS 

TUESDAY, MAY 6, 2003

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION, 

Washington, DC. 

The committee met, pursuant to call, at 5 p.m., in room 1334, 

Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Robert W. Ney (chairman 

of the committee) presiding. 

Present: Representatives Ney, Ehlers, Linder, Doolittle, Larson, 

Millender-McDonald and Brady. 

Staff present: Paul Vinovich, Staff Director; Fred Hay, Counsel; 

Channing Nuss, Deputy Staff Director; Jeff Janas, Professional 

Staff Member; George Shevlin, Minority Staff director; Matt 

Pinkus, Minority Professional Staff Member; Keith Abouchar, Minority Professional Staff Member; and William H. Cable, Minority 

Special Counsel. 

The CHAIRMAN. The meeting will come to order on Congress’s 

omnibus committee funding resolution, a separate resolution funding the Committee on Homeland security, and finally a committee 

resolution establishing the 108th Congress frank mail allocation for 

committees. The committee is meeting today to consider H. Resolution 148, the omnibus resolution providing for the expenses of certain committees of the United States House of Representatives for 

the 108th Congress; also we will be considering H. Res. 110, a separate resolution authorizing funding for the Select Committee on 

Homeland Security as well as House Administration Committee 

resolution providing frank mail allocations to the same committees. 

As everyone is well aware, we have the task this year of funding 

a newly created committee, Homeland Security, that will be done 

in a separate measure due to the fact it is a brand new authorization of a committee. In February of this year the Chair and Ranking Member of each committee presented a budget request to the 

Committee on House Administration and introduced individual resolutions to support their funding requests. 

H. Res. 148, the omnibus primary expense resolution, combines 

all of the individual resolutions into one bill. These resolutions, 

along with the committee resolution setting the frank mail allocation, will finally fund committees for the 108th Congress. The mark 

is an amendment in the nature of a substitute outlining each committee’s authorized spending levels for 2003 and 2004. Therefore, 

this is a biennial operating budget for these committees for the 

Chairs and the Ranking Members. A separate amendment in the 

nature of a substitute will be offered authorizing funds for the Select Committee on Homeland Security, and the Appropriations 

2

Committee has already authorized the actual spending amount for 

that committee. 

So I am pleased to put before the committee a Chairman’s mark 

that can be supported by a majority of Members on both sides of 

the aisle. I feel that both the Chair and Ranking Members will 

agree that this carefully crafted agreement will provide sufficient 

funding for them to carry out the duties and responsibilities with 

which they are charged. 

As we all know, the Select Committee on Homeland Security was 

created at the beginning of this Congress. That committee will provide an important oversight function of the newly created Homeland Security Department, and ensuring that the combined agencies are doing their job we all expect of them with regards to protecting our homeland. The Select Committee on Homeland Security 

submitted a budget request of just over 11 million; however, due 

to the fact that the Homeland Security budget represents a special 

situation with regard to this funding cycle, we have not included 

them, again, as I mentioned earlier, in the Chairman’s mark of the 

omnibus expense resolution. As I also stated earlier, we will instead today pass an amendment in the nature of a substitute to the 

resolution introduced by Select Committee on Homeland Security 

authorizing their funding for the 108th Congress. 

Committees of the House requested a total of 252.5 million in spending for the 108th Congress. This is a $49 million increase 

over what was authorized in the 107th Congress, and represents a 

24.1 increase in the amount of moneys that they requested. Removing the Homeland Security from the equation, the request by committees totaled 241.5 million, a 37.9 million increase over the 107th 

authorized levels, or 18.6 percent increase overall for committee 

funding. Further, the Chairman’s mark reduces the amount requested by those committees that I just stated by 18.8 million, or 

a 7.8 percent decrease. 

The amendment in the nature of a substitute providing expenses 

for all committees other than the Homeland Security authorizes 

222.7 million, a 9.4 percent increase. I would note that is 9.4 percent, and if you divide that by the 2 years, it comes to—my math 

is not really good, but it comes to around 4.5, I assume, somewhere 

near that. Our scientist tells me 4.7 per year, which is very reasonable and very responsible. This is a 19.2 million increase over the 

107th Congress at the authorized levels. 

It should be noted that the 108th Congress funding level of 222.7 

million excluding Homeland Security is still lower than the funding 

levels in the 103rd Congress in both constant and actual dollars. 

The mark for the 103rd Congress was 223.3 million. When adjusted 

for inflation, it amounts to 252.3 million in 2003 dollars. This 

means that while 10 years have elapsed since the beginning of the 

103rd Congress, our funding levels are just reaching the levels authorized in that Congress on a real-dollar basis because of the drastic cuts that were instituted in the 104th Congress, the year I came 

into the Congress. On a constant dollar basis we are significantly 

under the adjusted amount by approximately $29.6 million. I am 

proud of the numbers. 

During the process as well as in the 107th Congress, the committee identified two special categories of requests that we felt 

3

needed to be addressed separately from the regular funding process. It is important to ensure that we put forth the most accurate 

reflection of the amounts we are providing to committees, and 

those numbers should not be distorted and inflated with other special needs. 

Here, our further requests to upgrade committee rooms and requests for disaster recovery equipment. As we did the previous session of Congress, we do in a separate measure the upgrades. We 

are attempting to upgrade every hearing room. This will allow the 

public to have more access to the Congress. If they are not coming 

to Washington, D.C., it can be seen over the Internet. We have had, 

in our own House Administration Committee, a broadcast of witnesses from Prague who have been able to testify on election reform. We are attempting to modernize the committee hearing 

rooms, and it is a process that has been going on for quite a few 

years, but we hope to have it done in the near future. 

And also, the second process would be to have disaster recovery 

equipment. In the 107th Congress, we removed hearing upgrade requests from the normal committee funding process as those costs 

would have severely distorted the actual amounts it takes to run 

committees, because these are one-time shots that should not be included in these committee funding resolutions. It was also felt that 

the hearing room served an institutional function, and therefore, 

upgrades should be paid for out of a centralized House fund where 

appropriate. 

Hearing rooms were in desperate need of refurbishing. Most have 

not seen an upgrade in decades. Having removed the upgrades in 

the process—from the committee funding process, we were able to 

proceed and make significant progress towards bringing our hearing rooms to the 21st century standards. While we have not finished all of our main and subcommittee hearings rooms as yet, we 

are well on our way to making the proceedings of committees more 

accessible and user-friendly to the general public not only across 

the Nation, but across the world. 

On a different but related note, the 108th Congress has seen a 

substantial but understandable amount of requests from committees with regard to disaster recovery equipment directly related to 

the events of September 11 and subsequent biological attacks that 

were directed to the Capitol complex with the anthrax. The hearing 

room upgrades, the protection of committee data was thought to 

serve an institutional function. Therefore, the costs for providing a 

mechanism that gives committees an alternative off-site storage 

site for data in the event of a debilitating or catastrophic event 

should be borne by the House and not by the committees individually. Further providing enterprise solutions for off-site data storage ensures that a common standard will be applied for the equipment purchased and used to provide backup storage for committee 

data. 

As we all know, we have had to undertake and will continue to 

undertake as a committee different ideas and approaches that we 

never thought we would be talking about since 9/11. At one point 

in time when our buildings were shut down, and we could not get 

into the computer equipment—water had leaked down through, 

and some of the equipment was possibly going to be compromised—

4

the U.S. House would have been faced with the fact that we would 

not have had access to data. This will allow these committees to 

have basically a backup that will ensure that the work of the committees and the U.S. House will still be available to the public, as 

it should be. 

There is no way these committees could pay for this individually, 

for these costs. That is why we will follow up with another measure. In response to the situation, the committee, in conjunction 

with the Chief Administrative Officer Jay Eagan and the Architect 

of the Capitol, has already begun work on an alternative computing 

facility, ACF, that will allow committees to store their data in a 

protected off-site facility outside of the metro Washington, D.C., 

area. This facility is expected to be completely operational in the 

mid to later part of this year. In the interim, some committees 

have used funds to purchase disaster recovery equipment from previous years’ funds. 

The House is also offering committees a centrally funded option 

of having data tapes collected by a courier on a weekly basis where 

they are delivered to an alternative site until this is fully up and 

operational so the committees are still able to take their data off 

site as we speak. Committees will continue to work with the proper 

entities in the House and consult with other committees to ensure 

that a secure standard enterprise system is instituted that will satisfy the needs of the committee. 

I will say in closing, I want to thank the gentleman from Connecticut Mr. Larson, also the members of both Minority and Majority on the committee. Gentleman had the tough duty to be able to 

sit down and piece a budget. This is not an easy thing to do. We 

took a lot of time with it, deliberated on the budgets to make sure 

that these committees have enough effective operating money to 

carry out the tasks which are important to the constituency across 

the country. I appreciate his patience and appreciate the working 

cooperation. I appreciate his tenacity for the Ranking Members and 

fighting for the moneys they need to operate, and also the tenacity 

that Mr. Larson and the Members have had to make sure that the 

one-third/two-thirds is intact. We appreciate it. I know the Ranking 

Members appreciate it, and the chairman of the committees. 

And with that, I thank all the Members for being here, and Mr. 

Larson. 

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

Let me at the outset ask unanimous consent to revise and extend 

my remarks and submit on behalf of myself and Juanita MillenderMcDonald and Robert Brady the response of the Minority on this 

committee. And I am sure they will have comment as well, but I 

just want to start by thanking you and your staff for the cooperative effort that was put forward to ensure that the business of our 

body gets done. I mean, at the end of the day, when you take a 

look at the various budgets that we have put together, they are for 

the specific purpose, as we heard from the various Chairs who 

came before this committee, to continue to do the outreach, to collect the data, to go through the public hearing process that enables 

us to come closer to our constituents and perhaps even move outside the Beltway in terms of our thinking. If we heard that from 

one, we heard that from several different Chairs. 

5

And this budget is tight, but it fairly addresses the concerns that 

were put forward by the various committee Chairs. As the Chairman has indicated, committee funding obviously was uppermost in 

everyone’s minds, and especially as it relates to funding of COLAs 

for people who work here on a day-in-and-day out basis, who work 

extraordinarily hard and oftentimes don’t get the kind of credit 

that perhaps their executive branch counterparts do in terms of 

both their work ethic and their professionalism and the amount of 

time they spend working on behalf of the citizens of this great 

country. So I am pleased again and can’t thank the Chairman 

enough and his staff for understanding those specific work-related 

concerns of those who work on all of our behalf and make our job 

that much easier. 

The whole issue of homeland security, as the chairman indicated 

again, is an extraordinarily important issue given the events of 

September 11, and one that I believe has been handled appropriately and, again, fairly. Your chairmanship and your leadership 

in this area especially in guaranteeing the one-third/two-thirds 

split—and it should be known for the record that that wasn’t always the case, and it wasn’t the case when the Democrats were in 

control. And I think it is even more incumbent for a Democratic 

Ranking Member to acknowledge that and to acknowledge the effort that has been made by you and by the Speaker. And it was 

duly noted by Juanita Millender-McDonald especially, serving on 

the Small Business Committee as well, that you are stepping up 

and making sure that not only is it a one-third/two third split, but 

the splits are made in such a manner that the Minority determines 

how their money is spent as well. That has not gone unrecognized 

and is duly appreciated on behalf of the Ranking Member and all 

of the Minority, which you have so valiantly stood up for in making 

sure they had an equitable means and manner in which to present 

their concerns in the various committees that serve this great body 

of ours. So I want to thank you for that as well. 

I know that we are also voting on the internal operations of our 

franking, and again, I thank you and your staff for the work there. 

I would also like to acknowledge the staff on the Minority side who 

have done a great job working very closely with your staff and putting together this document and assisting in the amendment. 

Much needs to be done. There are great concerns for more outreach and hearings in the aftermath of September 11, the current 

war that is going on, the shuttle disaster, just to name a few. So 

I think the Congress as a body has been well served by this budget, 

and clearly we are asking and encouraging Democrats to support 

this resolution. And you have our support and our unending thanks 

for the quality and equitable manner that you have chaired this 

committee and put forward legislation that assists the entire body 

in a bipartisan fashion. 

The CHAIRMAN. I thank the gentleman. 

Mr. Ehlers. 

Mr. EHLERS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate all your 

work on this, and both the Ranking Member and yourself, and I 

am very happy that we finally achieved the one-third/two-thirds. It 

is high time, and it should have happened long before, but because 

it was so outrageously distorted under the previous Majority, there 

6

were some very bad feelings that we couldn’t overcome. But we 

have done it now; that is all behind us. 

I also want to put on the record and hope that the Ranking 

Member will agree with me in this, I don’t anticipate the Republicans ever losing the Majority. 

Mr. LARSON. I might disagree with you there. 

Mr. EHLERS. And it certainly won’t happen in the near future, 

and I hope not when I am here. But if it happens sometime in the 

future, I would like to ask Mr. Larson that you go on record as supporting continuation of this fair treatment. 

Mr. LARSON. If the gentleman will yield, I will absolutely go on 

record stating that and have said so to our leadership and to all 

of our Ranking Members. 

Mr. EHLERS. I thank the Ranking Member, and I appreciate that. 

And since he is likely to be the Speaker if we were to lose the Majority, that is a good source to have that commitment from. 

With that, I yield back, Mr. Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from Michigan makes me think 

maybe we should go up a little higher than one-third just in case. 

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, 

and let me echo the comments and overtures of my friend Mr. 

Ehlers, that the work that you and the Ranking Member have done 

to try to bring a budget to this House that is fair and that is reasonable for the committee Chairs and Ranking Members. And, Mr. 

Ehlers, I hate to think you are leaving after the 108th Congress, 

but nonetheless, I do want to echo what the Ranking Member has 

said in terms of your leadership not going unnoticed in terms of the 

one-third/two-thirds and to ensure that the Ranking Member on 

Small Business has the autonomy to use her one-third in the fashion that she sees fit. So I applaud you for your leadership on that 

and to ensure that that continues to be a practice in this House. 

And I am just happy to be a part of this budget that we are bringing forth today to help our colleagues to further the business of the 

people of this great country. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank the gentlelady. 

The gentleman from California. 

Mr. DOOLITTLE. Mr. Chairman, you and the Ranking Member 

ought to be commended for your leadership. It is remarkable to the 

degree of consensus we seem to have on this and will look forward 

to voting to approve it. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

Mr. Brady. 

Mr. BRADY. Just all sorts of thank you for your leadership and 

for the leadership on both sides. And I feel like I am on some kind 

of time warp or something with all this camaraderie going on. I 

wonder if we took a walk across the street, I doubt, but it feels 

good here. So thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. Maybe we can take this feeling to the floor. 

In all seriousness I want to commend the members of this committee. This will be the second time I think in decades we have had 

a bipartisan vote, and it says something, I think, for all of you and 

the institution. It is—it is easy to disagree on these. And, of course, 

everybody had different opinions of where we would go on this, but 

having a bipartisan vote to have that trend out there on something 

7

that could be very difficult. I think says a lot for the character and 

integrity of each and every member of this committee. So I want 

to thank you for that. 

The Chair lays before the committee House Resolution 148 open 

to amendment. And the Chair offers an amendment in the nature 

of a substitute. Is there any discussion? 

And on—the question is on the amendment in the nature of a 

substitute. Those in favor of the amendment will say aye. 

Those opposed will say nay. 

And with that, the amendment is agreed to. 

Chair recognizes Mr. Ehlers for the purpose of offering a motion. 

Mr. EHLERS. Mr. Chairman, I move that the committee order 

House Resolution 148 as amended reported favorably to the House 

of Representatives. 

The CHAIRMAN. Question is on the motion. Those in favor of the 

motion will say aye. 

Those opposed will say nay. 

The motion is agreed to, and the committee orders that House 

Resolution 148 be reported favorably, as amended, to the House of 

Representatives. 

The Chair lays before the committee House Resolution 110 open 

to amendment, and the Chair offers an amendment in the nature 

of a substitute. Is there any discussion? 

Question is on the amendment in the nature of a substitute. 

Those in favor of the amendment will say aye. 

Those opposed will say nay. 

Amendment is agreed to. 

Chair recognizes Mr. Ehlers for the purpose of offering a motion. 

Mr. EHLERS. Mr. Chairman, I move that the committee order 

House Resolution 110, as amended, reported favorably to the House 

of Representatives. 

The CHAIRMAN. The question is on the motion. Those in favor of 

the motion will say aye. 

Those opposed will say nay. 

The motion is agreed to, and the committee orders that House 

Resolution 110 be reported favorably, as amended, to the House of 

Representatives. 

The Chair leaves before the committee a committee resolution establishing the 108th Congress frank mail allocation for committees, 

and I think the Members have that allocation. Is there discussion? 

The Chair recognizes Mr. Ehlers. 

Mr. EHLERS. Mr. Chairman, I don’t have any discussion on this 

motion per se, but I want to just mention an issue that has troubled me, and I hope you and the other members of the committee 

will join in addressing it, and that is with the advent of e-mail, we 

are applying the same franking regulations basically to e-mail as 

we have always applied to snail mail. And I think it is just inappropriate, and we have to as a committee rethink that. 

And I am raising that issue even though it doesn’t pertain directly to this resolution because I think the committee should start 

thinking about how we could adapt the franking regulations to better fit with e-mail, which is a totally different situation. And we 

send it out at basically no cost to the taxpayers. I believe it is simply inappropriate to treat the two the same way, and I hope memVerDate jul 14 2003 01:17 Sep 10, 2003 Jkt 089054 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 E:\HR\OC\A054.XXX A054
8

bers of the committee will begin thinking about that and we can 

have some discussion about that. 

Mr. LARSON. Will the gentleman yield? 

Mr. EHLERS. Yes. 

Mr. LARSON. I couldn’t agree more with the gentleman, and I 

think it is a salient point. And having said that, Mr. Chairman——

The CHAIRMAN. If the gentleman could yield, I wanted to say 

something on this. Last year this issue was raised. At the time the 

issue was raised after a Democrat primary had occurred. And I 

can’t remember which State it was, but a Democrat primary had 

occurred. At that time I communicated with Minority Members because once the Democrat primary had occurred, if this had changed 

or had it been subject to change, we would have changed the rules 

after a primary. Whether it was a Democrat or Republican, it 

would have been irrelevant, but we would have changed the rules. 

And that Member in that primary could have rightfully said, I 

could have used this. So we let it sit as a result; actually about a 

week ago have started to look at it, and we are working on it to 

the point we will come to the gentleman from Connecticut. 

So we are trying to get to that point to analyze it, but that is 

why I wanted to tell you the history of this. Once the one primary 

occurred, to change the rules after that would have been unfair to 

that Member. 

Mr. EHLERS. Mr. Chairman, that is why I am raising it now. I 

have a weekly e newsletter, and I am amazed of how many citizens 

ask me, why don’t I get that newsletter anymore. And it is very 

factual and no propaganda of any sort, no partisanship, just to simply report on what happened. And our citizens are deprived of that 

news, which we send out at no cost to us. It doesn’t help us in our 

campaigns, and it is simply inappropriate to apply that standard 

to something like that. 

The CHAIRMAN. The Chair recognizes Mr. Ehlers for the purpose 

of offering a motion. 

Mr. EHLERS. Mr. Chairman, I move the committee resolution establishing the 108th Congress frank mail allocation for committees 

be adopted. 

The CHAIRMAN. Question is on the motion. Those in favor of the 

motion will say aye. 

Those opposed will say nay. 

The motion is agreed to, and the committee resolution establishing the 108th Congress frank mail allocation for committees is 

adopted. 

I ask unanimous consent that Members have 7 legislative days 

for statements and materials to be entered in the appropriate place 

in the record. Without objection, the material will be so added. 

I ask unanimous consent the staff be authorized to make technical and conforming changes on all matters considered by the committee at today’s meeting. Without objection, so ordered.

And having completed our business for today, the committee is 

hereby adjourned, and I want to thank the Members. 

[Whereupon, at 5:30 p.m., the committee was adjourned.]