U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON : 

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office

Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800

Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001

80–194 2013

ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING FOR THE 113TH 

CONGRESS 

MEETING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON HOUSE 

ADMINISTRATION 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, FEBRUARY 5, 2013 

Printed for the use of the Committee on House Administration 

( 

Available on the Internet: 

www.fdsys.gov 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTS
(II) 

COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION 

CANDICE S. MILLER, Michigan, Chairman 

GREGG HARPER, Mississippi 

PHIL GINGREY, M.D., Georgia 

AARON SCHOCK, Illinois 

TODD ROKITA, Indiana 

RICHARD B. NUGENT, Florida 

ROBERT A. BRADY, Pennsylvania, 

Ranking Minority Member 

ZOE LOFGREN, California 

JUAN VARGAS, California 

PROFESSIONAL STAFF

KELLY CRAVEN, Staff Director 

JAMIE FLEET, Minority Staff Director 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTS
(1) 

ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING FOR THE 113TH 

CONGRESS 

Tuesday, February 5, 2013 

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

The committee met, pursuant to call, at 3:00 p.m., in Room 1310, 

Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Candice S. Miller [chairman of the committee] presiding. 

Present: Representatives Miller, Harper, Nugent, Rokita, 

Gingrey, Brady, and Vargas. 

Staff Present: Kelly Craven, Staff Director; Peter Schalestock, 

Deputy General Counsel; Kimani Little, Parliamentarian; Joe Wallace, Legislative Clerk; Yael Barash, Assistant Legislative Clerk; 

Salley Wood, Communications Director & Deputy Staff Director; 

Linda Ulrich, Director of Oversight; Bob Sensenbrenner, Elections 

Counsel; Karin Moore, Elections Counsel; Phil Kiko, Counsel; 

Jamie Fleet, Minority Staff Director; Matt Pinkus, Minority Senior 

Policy Analyst; Matt Defreitas, Minority Professional Staff; Khalil 

Abboud, Minority Elections Staff; Thomas Hicks, Minority Elections Counsel; Mike Harrison, Minority Professional Staff; and 

Greg Abbott, Minority Professional Staff. 

The CHAIRMAN. I would like to call to order the Committee on 

House Administration for its organizational meeting for the 113th 

Congress. We are here today to formally adopt for the 113th Congress the rules of our committee, our oversight plan, and the parking policy as well for this Congress, and let me just begin by thanking everybody for their attendance here today. I am delighted to 

see you all and certainly for all of our retiring members or, excuse 

me, our returning members, I think that the entire Congress 

thanks you for your service on this committee, your dedication to 

the mission of this committee, which is ensuring that Congress 

runs in a very efficient way, cost-effective way, a transparent way, 

and that as well we need to optimize member services for Members 

of Congress as they serve their constituents and serve our Nation. 

As well this committee has a principal jurisdiction, one that serves 

to protect and promote the very core of our democracy, which of 

course includes oversight of our Federal elections process. 

This is a small committee but a very important committee. The 

leadership of both parties do recognize that, so it is an honor to 

serve with each of you. Of course, we have all been selected by our 

respective leadership because of the unique qualifications that each 

member here brings, and I think with all the different types of responsibilities and jurisdiction that this committee has, we have an 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTS
2 

opportunity to have an impact in a very real way, in a way that 

other Members of Congress might not have, so certainly I think 

that is so in both the short term as well as the long term, and I 

think we are all excited about that. 

So let me just briefly recognize the members on our side as we 

begin our organizational meeting. First of all, Gregg Harper, who 

represents Mississippi’s 3rd District, third term in Congress, and 

his third term on the committee, so three is your lucky number I 

would say. But he has been very involved in this committee on a 

number of different issues. Last Congress he served as the chair 

of the Subcommittee on Elections. This Congress Mr. Harper has 

agreed to serve as the chairman on the Joint Committee on the Library of Congress, and we are certainly looking forward to his leadership on that and so many other issues as well. 

Dr. Phil, Dr. Phil Gingrey represents the 11th District of Georgia. We came into Congress together, we all called him Dr. Phil, 

we still do. Beginning, as I say, his sixth term in Congress and second on this committee. During the last Congress he served as the 

chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight, and again we look forward 

to his continued work on making a positive impact on Washington 

and with this committee. 

Mr. GINGREY. Thank you, Madam Chair. 

The CHAIRMAN. Aaron Schock, who is not with us currently but 

again returning to the committee, has been the chairperson of the 

Franking Commission. He will continue to do that, and he has 

worked in a very bipartisan way on this committee, and we are 

looking forward to him continuing to advance those goals. 

Todd Rokita, former secretary of state, as was myself, Todd represents the 4th District in Indiana, second term in the House. He 

was actually a president of the National Association of Secretaries 

of State at one time, and I think when we think about that as an 

organization and having them continue as stakeholders, ground 

floor stakeholders, as they say, on election issues, that will be a 

particularly great expertise to bring as well, so I think between 

Gregg and Todd we have really good expertise on election area. 

And Rich Nugent comes from the 5th District of Florida, second 

term in the House and on this committee, was a law enforcement 

officer for 40 years, and not a gray hair to be had with all of those 

years of law enforcement, but he will be invaluable particularly as 

we think about security on the campus and working with the Capitol Police and so many other issues as well. 

So I am delighted to have been appointed by Speaker Boehner 

on this committee. I actually served on this committee in the 109th 

Congress. Speaker Hastert had appointed me at that time. So I 

have a bit of an understanding of some of the various things that 

happen on this committee, but I hope that my background as a 

former secretary of state and all of my jobs actually in public service were administrative in nature before I came to Congress, so the 

legislative part was new for me then, but I am very excited about 

the work. I spent most of the last 2 months having an opportunity 

to meet with the various professional staff that is here, and I use 

that term in a very descriptive way. They are incredibly professional, the staff on this committee, the amount of work that they 

produce. Going through the new members orientation, I know you 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTS
3 

can speak to that, but so many of the different things that they are 

involved with, the House officers, whether it is the Sergeant of 

Arms, the Clerk of the House, et cetera, and meeting with the CRS, 

the Smithsonian. I met today actually with the printing office, the 

printers, all of these kinds of things. It is great to see the dedication, the commitment, again how professionally they approach their 

jobs and how we all want to do a better job as we go forward. As 

well, Ranking Member Brady and I have had a number of conversations about the committee and his vision, and I think good 

communications is always a critical component of good government 

and look forward to working with him. 

I will say that one of the things that—and we are going to be 

addressing here with the rules as we do the rules, I think a way 

for our committee really to take a lead on being sensitive to the financial restrictions that are being faced by the entire Congress certainly is as we look toward ourselves is whether or not we ought 

to continue with the subcommittees as have been stood up for the 

last couple of Congresses. Actually we didn’t have subcommittees 

when I was here in the 109th. I know they were stood up during 

the interim time, and they have been a very important component 

of this committee, but as I have talked to everybody, I think, about 

this, we have decided to lead by example and to eliminate the two 

subcommittees that we have. Again, I think with such a small committee structure, we can definitely show that we can do more with 

less by doing that. I think a number of issues can be addressed. 

Certainly the elections, bringing it to the full committee, and engaging all of the members I think is a very good way to proceed 

and I think from an oversight committee different things that Phil 

Gingrey has worked on in the past with his subcommittee, we are 

looking forward to him taking a lead on a number of those issues, 

bringing them back to the full committee for potential hearings, et 

cetera. 

So I look forward to a very productive Congress, and I would just 

simply say to the members that you will find that my door is certainly always open to ideas and suggestions as we go forward, and 

with that I would like to ask the ranking member for his opening 

statements. 

Mr. BRADY. Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate, and again I 

thank you and appreciate all our conversations that we did have. 

I welcome you back to our committee. I am a little closer to you 

now. Last time you were pretty far away from me, but it is good 

to have you here, and I appreciate you conversing with me on the 

direction you would like this to go and accepting some of my feedback, and I know that we will be able to work together. This is a 

committee that tries to help people, you know, and that is what I 

like to do. I like to help them before they need other people’s help 

or guidance, and it is a Congressman’s committee, you know. It is 

a committee that we are here to try to be helpful to work things 

out, so I do appreciate you being here and looking forward to working with you. 

I would also like to welcome in our newest Democratic member, 

Congressman Juan Vargas from California, thank you. A former 

city councilman, State Assembly member, State senator, Mr. 

Vargas is no stranger to the legislative process or institutions. As 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTS
4 

a Harvard-trained lawyer—and I will not hold that against you— 

Mr. Vargas will certainly be useful to all members of the committee 

as we work through the rules and regulations that this committee 

is involved in as well as the details of election and campaign finance laws, and I am also glad that you agreed to serve on this 

committee, and welcome you, and we will get together, you know, 

I will let you know just what is expected and what this committee’s 

role is and what direction we would like it to go into. So, again, 

thank you for being here. 

Madam Chairman, our organization meetings are brief, so let me 

say that I recommend that the Democratic members support the 

three resolutions before us today. The committee rules, oversight 

plan, and parking policy have been developed with our input, and 

we should adopt them without delay. I look forward to the important work of this committee, and I yield back the balance of my 

time, and I again congratulate you. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, I appreciate that and 

again welcome to you. We look forward to working with you as 

well. So much for as a new member. 

The first item on the agenda is consideration of Committee Resolution 113–1, which is the proposed committee rules for the 113th 

Congress. Pursuant to House rule XI, clause 2, the Committee on 

House Administration shall adopt written rules governing its procedure. The proposed rules are similar to the rules adopted by this 

committee during the last Congress. They conform with recent 

changes to the House rules as amended in this Congress. Overall 

I think these changes provide for greater transparency in the operation of the committee. I hope the members will support them. 

I now recognize the ranking member, Mr. Brady, for any statement on the resolution he wishes to give. 

Mr. BRADY. Thank you, Madam Chairman. I have no statement. 

The CHAIRMAN. I now call before the committee Committee Resolution 113–1, committee rules. Without objection, the first reading 

of the resolution is dispensed with, and the resolution is considered 

read and open for amendment at any point. 

[The resolution follows:] 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTS
5 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 13 here 80194A.001
6 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 14 here 80194A.002
7 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 15 here 80194A.003
8 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 16 here 80194A.004
9 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 17 here 80194A.005
10 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 18 here 80194A.006
11 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 19 here 80194A.007
12 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 20 here 80194A.008
13 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 21 here 80194A.009
14 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 22 here 80194A.010
15 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 23 here 80194A.011
16 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 24 here 80194A.012
17 

The CHAIRMAN. Any member like to offer an amendment to the 

resolution? 

Then I move that the committee adopt the Committee Resolution. The question is on the motion to adopt the resolution. I ask 

that all members who are in favor of the motion signify by saying 

aye. 

Aye. 

Opposed? 

In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. The ayes have it, 

the motion is agreed to. Without objection, the motion to reconsider 

is laid upon the table. 

Next item on the agenda is consideration of Committee Resolution 113–2, which is the committee oversight plan. Rule X, clause 

2(d) of the House rules states that no later than February 15th of 

the first session of Congress the committee shall adopt an oversight 

plan for that Congress. The oversight plan will focus on identifying 

and reducing wasteful spending within House operations by increasing operational efficiency and streamlining various House 

technology initiatives. The committee will also work with the agencies it has direct oversight of by establishing best practices to improve their services to the House community as well as the millions 

of constituents visiting each year. 

I recognize ranking member Mr. Brady, for a statement on the 

resolution. 

Mr. BRADY. Thank you, Madam Chairman. I have no statement. 

The CHAIRMAN. I now call up and lay before the committee Committee Resolution 113–2. Without objection, the first reading of the 

resolution is dispensed with, and the resolution is considered read 

and open for amendment at any point. 

[The resolution follows:] 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTS
18 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 027 here 80194A.013
19 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 28 here 80194A.014
20 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 29 here 80194A.015
21 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 30 here 80194A.016
22 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 31 here 80194A.017
23 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 32 here 80194A.018
24 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 33 here 80194A.019
25 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 34 here 80194A.020
26 

The CHAIRMAN. I recognize myself for the purpose of offering a 

manager’s amendment. A copy of the amendment has been provided to all members, and without objection the amendment will be 

considered as read. 

[The amendment follows:] 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTS
27 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 36 here 80194A.021
28 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 37 here 80194A.022
29 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 38 here 80194A.023
30 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 39 here 80194A.024
31 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 40 here 80194A.025
32 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 41 here 80194A.026
33 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 42 here 80194A.027
34 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert offset folio 43 here 80194A.028
35 

The CHAIRMAN. Any member wish to be heard on the amendment? 

If there is no further debate, then the question is on whether the 

committee will adopt the amendment. 

All those in favor signify by saying aye. 

Aye. 

Opposed say nay. 

Motion carried. 

Now I move that the committee adopt the Committee Resolution 

as amended, and the question is on the motion to adopt the resolution. 

All members in favor signify by saying aye. 

Aye. 

Opposed say nay. 

The motion carried. 

I don’t want you to think every meeting will be like this. 

Mr. BRADY. He will get use to it. 

The CHAIRMAN. Okay. The last item on the agenda is the Committee Resolution 113–3, the parking policy for the 113th Congress. 

Pursuant to House rule X, clause 1, the Committee on House Administration has jurisdiction over the parking facilities used by 

members, staff, and authorized personnel of the House of Representatives. The parking policy for this Congress was created in 

consultation with the minority, and I want to thank the minority 

for their suggestions and the bipartisan work on the parking policy, 

and I certainly want to thank House parking security for working 

with the committee in developing the policy. 

I recognize the ranking member, Mr. Brady, for any statement 

on the resolution. 

Mr. BRADY. I have none, Madam Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. I now call up and lay before the committee Committee Resolution 113–3. Without objection, the first reading of the 

resolution is dispensed with. The resolution is considered read and 

open for amendment at any point. 

[The resolution follows:] 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTS
36 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert graphic folio 46 80194A.029
37 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert graphic folio 47 80194A.030
38 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert graphic folio 48 80194A.031
39 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert graphic folio 49 80194A.032
40 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTSInsert graphic folio 50 80194A.033
41 

The CHAIRMAN. Does any member have an amendment to the 

resolution? Then I move the committee adopt the Committee Resolution, and the question is on the motion to adopt the resolution. 

All members in favor signify by saying aye. 

Aye. 

Opposed say nay. 

Motion carried. 

Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. 

And before we can conclude, I guess I would just ask any other 

member if they have any comments about any business before the 

committee or any business they would like to see before the committee or any other comment. 

Okay. This concludes all the matters before the committee. I certainly want to thank everybody for participating. Again, look forward to working with you all this Congress. 

The meeting is now adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 3:13 p.m., the committee was adjourned.] 

Æ 


pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with REPORTS