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58–000 2010

U.S. CAPITOL POLICE BUDGET CONCERNS 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON CAPITOL SECURITY 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON HOUSE 

ADMINISTRATION 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, JULY 29, 2010 

Printed for the use of the Committee on House Administration 

( 

Available on the Internet: 

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


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(II) 

COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION 

ROBERT A. BRADY, Pennsylvania, Chairman 

ZOE LOFGREN, California, 

Vice-Chairwoman 

MICHAEL E. CAPUANO, Massachusetts 

CHARLES A. GONZALEZ, Texas 

SUSAN A. DAVIS, California 

ARTUR DAVIS, Alabama 

DANIEL E. LUNGREN, California, 

Ranking Minority Member 

KEVIN MCCARTHY, California 

GREGG HARPER, Mississippi 

PROFESSIONAL STAFF

JAMIE FLEET, Staff Director 

VICTOR ARNOLD-BIK, Minority Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON CAPITOL SECURITY 

MICHAEL E. CAPUANO, Massachusetts, Chairman 

ROBERT A. BRADY, Pennsylvania DANIEL E. LUNGREN, California 


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(1) 

HEARING ON U.S. CAPITOL POLICE BUDGET 

CONCERNS 

THURSDAY, JULY 29, 2010 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON CAPITOL SECURITY, 

COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION, 

Washington, DC. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 11:00 a.m., in room 

1310, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Michael E. Capuano 

(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. 

Present: Representatives Capuano and Lungren. 

Staff Present: Jamie Fleet, Staff Director; Matt Pinkus, Professional Staff/Parliamentarian; Kyle Anderson, Press Director; Joe 

Wallace, Legislative Clerk; Darrell O’Connor, Professional Staff; 

Ryan Caimi, Intern; and Katie Ryan, Minority Professional Staff. 

Mr. CAPUANO. The hearing will come to order. The purpose of the 

hearing is to exercise the subcommittee’s oversight function. In 

considering the Inspector General’s audit of the Capitol Police 

budget, formulation process, significant problems were discovered 

earlier this year. The subcommittee would like some explanation as 

to what went wrong and how it is being corrected. 

Today we have I believe only two people testifying, Chief Morse 

and Mr. Hoecker from the Inspector General. And with that, I am 

going to forgo any introductory comments and yield to the ranking 

member. 

[The information follows:] 


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Mr. LUNGREN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. This is an 

important hearing. We all agree the Capitol Police are a vital part 

of the operation here. They protect this institution, both the Members and the staff, as well as the millions of constituents who visit 

here every year, and we shouldn’t forget that we have had members of our force that have lost their lives in defense of our safety. 

That is why I think it is so important that our oversight proceed. 

We are here to discuss concerns of the Capitol Police fiscal year 

2010 and fiscal year 2011 budgets. After miscalculations were discovered earlier this year the Inspector General for the police performed an audit of the Department’s budget formulation process. 

I would say let’s be blunt, the audit does not reflect well, to say 

the least, on the financial and administrative management of the 

Capitol Police. The findings suggest that there was not an accurate 

formulation of the original fiscal year 2010 budget submission. And 

that these miscalculations unfortunately carried over into fiscal 

year 2011 budget formulation. When the revision of both budgets 

were resubmitted to the Congress, they too had errors. The root 

causes appear to be from a lack of adequate controls of the budget 

formulation process, inconsistent application of past budgetary 

practices and processes and ineffective management of the administrative division. 

So here we are, the expected shortfall for fiscal year 2010 is somewhere between 3.8 and $5.1 million. And despite an amended 

fiscal year 2011 submission the Department is still expecting a fiscal year 2011 shortfall between 9.3 and $14.8 million, $5.4 million 

more than stated in the amended fiscal year 2011 budget. 

With all due respect, I don’t think those are small discrepancies. 

Furthermore, the report states that a potential shortfall exists in 

the funding of the radio modernization project. This project is one 

of the most important that we have. At every hearing that we have 

had I raised my concern about whether we can move forward on 

this more expeditiously, whether we have the proper funding. And 

I was disappointed to find that there is a question about that now. 

And I found it deeply troubling to read in the report, and I quote, 

‘‘Other matters came to our attention during field work which we 

believe resulted from behavior which was considered deficient or 

improper when compared with behavior that a prudent person 

would consider reasonable and necessary business practice given 

the facts and circumstances.’’ The Office of Inspector General identified potential conflicting statements, procurement, time and attendance, pay and ethical issues. 

This is serious stuff. I hope we have a chance to go through this 

in some detail because I view this as a very critical report from the 

Inspector General. So I look forward to hearing from our witnesses 

and discussing the specifics of the report as well as any plans the 

Department has to address these issues and return the administrative office to one that exhibits integrity, reliability and professionalism, because that is what we would expect, it seems to me, 

from such an important agency. 

This is very serious, Mr. Chairman. I thank you for having this 

hearing. And I hope that we can find out what the problem is, how 

we solve the problem and how we go forward in the future. So 

thank you very much. 


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Mr. CAPUANO. Thank you, Mr. Lungren, and before we hear from 

the witnesses I would like unanimous consent to place my full 

statement on the record and to keep the record open for 5 days to 

receive any written questions or additional material from witnesses 

or other members. 

Without objection, that is so ordered. I guess we will begin with 

Chief Morse. 

[The statement of Chief Morse follows:] 

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

UNITED STATES CAPITOL POLICE 

Chief MORSE. Chairman Capuano, Ranking Member Lungren, 

and other members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity 

to appear here today regarding the U.S. Capitol Police budget concerns. I would also like to thank you for your sustained and unwavering support for all the men and women of the United States Capitol Police. 

As you know, earlier this year the Department discovered that 

we had made a salaries calculation error in fiscal year 2010 and 

2011 budget requests, which has resulted in a projected fiscal year 

2010 salary shortfall. As a result, the Department submitted a 

budget amendment for our fiscal year 2011 budget request. 

Once I learned of the problem I took immediate action to assess 

the issue, coordinate with the Capitol Police Board, notify our oversight committees, stabilize our fiscal year 2010 budget execution, 

and develop a plan to address the problem. 

As part of addressing the problem I asked my Executive Management Team to conduct an Investment Review Board to identify 

general expense funding for potential reprogramming to address 

the salary shortfall with a primary focus on maintaining our security and law enforcement mission and mitigating possible impacts 

on our workforce. This effort resulted in the set-aside of critical 

general expense funding sufficient to address the shortfall within 

our stated goal of mitigating those impacts. 

Additionally, the Capitol Police Board provided their technical 

experts to assist the Department in validating our 2011 budget resubmission, as well as providing technical guidance on our efforts 

to address the 2010 shortfall. 

Further, the Government Accountability Office continues to provide its assistance and guidance to the Department in addressing 

outstanding audit recommendations and incorporating best practices into the Department’s efforts to resolve our budget formulation issues. 

Concurrent with this effort, I asked the U.S. Capitol Police Inspector General to conduct an audit of our fiscal year 2010 and 

2011 budget formulation processes and provide me with a report as 

soon as possible so that I can take any necessary or immediate actions. 

Specifically, I requested that he take a look and validate the 

2010 impact, review and validate the 2011 budget request and 

make recommendations to me on how to improve our processes so 

we could implement changes for our 2012 budget formulation process. 


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The Inspector General has completed his audit and provided an 

audit report of his findings to me and the Capitol Police Board. His 

report contains several recommendations to assist the Department 

in strengthening its financial management practices, to include our 

future budget formulation processes. I have reviewed the report 

and its recommendations, and I generally agree with them. 

To address the recommendations with a focus on ensuring that 

this failure does not occur again, we are actively realigning our 

processes to adopt those suggestions from the report. We are developing standard operating procedures to formalize our budget formulation processes and we are working in a collaborative manner 

with the Capitol Police Board to implement their guidance and recommendations. 

Our focus is on ensuring that we have necessary people and processes in place to perform the financial management requirements 

of the Department in a fiscally responsible and transparent manner consistent with the expectations of our stakeholders and the 

public. 

In closing, I want to assure you that we understand the gravity 

of these issues that caused this problem and we are taking the necessary steps to correct them. While these issues have been significant, please be assured that we have taken every measure to mitigate the effort on our mission and our personnel. 

I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today and I am 

happy to answer any questions you may have. 

[The statement of Chief Morse follows:] 


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Mr. CAPUANO. Thank you, Chief. 

Mr. Hoecker. 

STATEMENT OF CARL W. HOECKER, INSPECTOR GENERAL, 

UNITED STATES CAPITOL POLICE 

Mr. HOECKER. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Lungren, my name is Carl 

Hoecker. I am the Inspector General for the United States Capitol 

Police. Thank you for inviting me here this morning to discuss our 

work with the Department’s budget formulation process. 

As the Chief requested, my office conducted the audit of the 

budget formulation process. Our objectives were to assess whether 

the Department has adequate controls over the budget formulation 

process to ensure that accurate data is collected and developed. 

Two, to determine if staff complied with those controls during the 

formulation of the fiscal year 2010 and fiscal year 2011 budget 

process. 

Three, if not, note the exceptions and root causes and finally determine the reasonableness of the fiscal year 2010 and 2011 revised 

budgets for personnel compensation and benefits. Our scope included the original and revised amended fiscal year 2010 and 2011 

budget submissions and processes/controls utilized to formulate 

those submissions. 

The OIG found that the Department did not have adequate controls over the budget formulation process to ensure that adequate 

data was collected and developed. The Department’s policies and 

procedures did not accurately document or define its budget formulation processes. And the budget execution and monitoring standard operating procedures are incomplete and outdated. 

During the formulation of the fiscal year 2010 and 2011 budgets, 

the Department did not follow proven past practices or comply with 

prior controls over budget processes. During the formulation of the 

2010 budget, the Department did not fully utilize its Force Development Process, nor did it apply the fiscal year 2009 format or consistently follow best practices for developing personnel compensation and benefits. We also noted noncompliance with fund control 

processes was permitted. As a result, the Department is at risk of 

requesting insufficient funding or overspending its appropriations. 

The OIG concluded the overarching root cause is the Department’s administrative management has allowed inadequate financial weaknesses to persist, neglected to hold individuals accountable for implementation of GAO and OIG recommendations, and ineffectively managed its workforce. 

The OIG found that miscalculations, omissions, and other factors 

contributed to the insufficient budget submissions for fiscal year 

2010 and 2011 resulting in a significant deficit for the Department. 

For fiscal year 2010 OIG projects the benefits and salaries and benefits budget shortfall to range between 3.8 and $5.1 million. This 

deferential depends upon actual attrition for the remainder of fiscal 

year 2010 and the impact of the Department’s cost cutting measures implemented by the Chief. Since our projection for the budget 

shortfall is about $1.7 million less than the Department’s, OIG believes that the fiscal year 2010 revised budget shortfall is reasonable. 


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For fiscal year 2011, OIG projects that the salary and benefits budget shortfall to range between 9.3 and $14.8 million. This is 

based on the Department’s budget estimate submission and depends on the actual attrition and the Department’s cost cutting 

measures. OIG’s projection of the fiscal year 2011 shortfall is about 

$5.4 million more than the Department’s $9.4 million. 

OIG made eight recommendations which provide a genuine opportunity to strengthen controls over processes involved in budget 

formulation. Specifically, OIG recommended that the United States 

Capitol Police establish a formal budget formulation and allocation 

process that links all costs to its mission, goals, and objectives 

within its strategic and human capital plans. This process should 

include written policies and procedures delineating each office’s 

role and responsibility, to include specific methodology, sources of 

data and records management for calculating compensation of benefits. 

Also, the Capitol Police should establish a mechanism for the Investment Review Board and the Executive Management Team to 

review specific programs each year, evaluating their effectiveness, 

efficiency and how they contribute to achieving a specific strategic 

goal. The Department should implement and document processes, 

procedures, and controls to identify and help ensure that key funds 

control personnel are properly trained. The OIG recommended that 

the Chief evaluate whether the Department has appropriate leadership and management within the Office of Administration. 

This concludes my testimony. I will be pleased to answer your 

questions. 

[The statement of Mr. Hoecker follows:] 


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Mr. CAPUANO. Thanks, Mr. Hoecker. 

Chief, do you trust Mr. Hoecker? 

Chief MORSE. I have read the report and the recommendations 

and have reviewed the—— 

Mr. CAPUANO. No, Chief, do you trust the man? 

Chief MORSE. Yes, I have no reason to distrust him. 

Mr. CAPUANO. Do you trust his judgment? 

Chief MORSE. Yes. 

Mr. CAPUANO. Do you trust his professionalism? 

Chief MORSE. Yes. 

Mr. CAPUANO. Chief, you are a great cop. I think you have done 

a great job as far as the policing aspect of it. I feel very safe as 

a Member of Congress. I think this is the safest place on Earth because of what you and your staff have done. 

Mr. Hoecker is a professional accountant, a professional Inspector General. The issues here have nothing to do with the actual policing of the Hill. I am not questioning you on that. These issues 

are administrative. His training to me is unquestionable, in fact 

more training than I could imagine. 

If he were questioning you on police deployment, I would ask him 

the same questions. The questions are on financial management. 

None of us can know all things about what we do. I am a former 

mayor. I had to do everything just like you have to do everything. 

I couldn’t do everything, I couldn’t be the police chief, the fire chief, 

the DPW commissioner, the city auditor, and on and on and on. I 

had to delegate those things to people who were qualified in their 

role. 

When the Inspector General says something and when now after 

a year and a half, depending on when you measure the time, we 

are now into our third serious financial problem that I am aware 

of, two years of personnel items and personnel items in any budget, 

particularly in the police department, in this case 80 percent, that 

is not unusual, that is typical. And now the radio program, of 

which I have been a strong proponent on every measure, at every 

step. Now we are in problems financially, not on problems of the 

radio but financially on the radio issue. 

Chief, I have got to tell you, here is my strong advice to you: 

Take Mr. Hoecker’s report and say, yes, sir. Several places here 

you disagreed. On funds availability control you say that you have 

actually accomplished certain things that the IG then comes back 

and says you didn’t. You didn’t provide us documentation. 

The report also questions—questions the relationship, the way 

the IG’s office has been treated by certain people in your department. I understand the normal human nature when being questioned by somebody who might not say good things about whatever 

it is you are doing is to be defensive, but honestly it all comes back 

to you. You are the Chief. This isn’t the first time we have had a 

similar, a comparable issue in just the last couple of months. When 

there is a problem, you say yes, sir. And I would strongly say that 

if the roles were reversed and you were saying you should have 14 

cops on the corner and you should say no, you shouldn’t, you 

should have some other number, I would be on your side because 

you are the professional police officer. 


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He is the professional accountant. Do what he tells you. Do it 

quickly. I have got to tell you, personally, on a personal basis, I am 

tired of this. I think I have done everything I can to defend the Department’s record since I have been on this committee, and I will 

continue to do so because I think you have been great on many different levels. We have certain disagreements, but they have been 

fine. I am tired of defending this issue. As a matter of fact, I won’t 

do it anymore. And I won’t do it anymore because I don’t mind 

human error, everybody makes mistakes. I am not measuring 

somebody by the mistakes they make, unless they are repeated. 

This is a repeated mistake and the reaction to the mistake has 

been typical defensiveness as opposed to simply saying, okay, we 

screwed up, we will fix it as you say to fix it. 

Honestly, I am a little bit concerned and personally disappointed 

in the fact that we are here on this issue again today. This is not 

a new issue. 

As a matter of fact I want to ask you, as I understand it, according to the report in March 2009, was the first alerting to wait a 

minute, your budget isn’t 80 percent. It was 80 percent of personnel last year, now it is only 65 percent of personnel this year. 

Honestly, that should stick out as a red flag to anybody. I do my 

own office budget every year. I know what my personnel numbers 

are. They fluctuate a little bit, but really not much. Mine is in the 

same range, about 80 percent. If all of a sudden I did my numbers 

and it came up with 65 percent on a personnel basis I would say, 

yeah, I must have missed something. If you knew—when did you— 

when did it come to your attention that there was some serious 

questions? Now was this March 2009 commentary made to you or 

to one of your staffers? 

Chief MORSE. That was not made to me, but to one of the staff, 

I believe. 

Mr. CAPUANO. Did staff alert you to it? 

Chief MORSE. No. 

Mr. CAPUANO. Here is the problem, holding your personnel accountable. There are lots of different ways to hold people accountable, but if you have a staff that is being asked that question, that 

then didn’t react to it and didn’t bring it to your attention, that is 

a problem. That is a staff who is not protecting you, and not protecting the Department, and not protecting the Congress and not 

protecting the taxpayer. 

Again, I don’t want to—personally I am not focused on the mistakes. Mistakes get made every day and in every profession, everywhere. My focus is on the reaction to those mistakes when they become aware—when you become aware of them or when somebody 

who should tell you becomes aware of them. 

As I understand it, there still has been no suggestion on how to 

reprogram the money this year or next year, is that correct or is 

that out of date? 

Chief MORSE. Our reprogramming has been sent to the Capitol 

Police Board for review today. And we expected for it to be accomplished at this time because we now have a pretty good outlook on 

what the remaining funds requirements would be. And we certainly wanted to be as close as we could be so that we would not 

be adverse to our general expenses any more than we needed to be. 


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So we are now prepared to move our reprogramming letter forward. 

Mr. CAPUANO. With the indulgence of the ranking member, Mr. 

Hoecker, would you say now, knowing what you know now after 

the inspection, after the reports and the give and take, should we 

leave the financial functions of the Capitol Police within the Capitol Police or should they be moved into an independent entity? 

Mr. HOECKER. One sense tells me that is way above my pay 

grade, sir. 

Mr. CAPUANO. I just asked you a question. That makes it within 

your pay grade. 

Mr. HOECKER. Right, sir. I think the police with a little help can 

get it done this year and can move forward. Since we have issued 

the report we have seen some progress on the recommendations 

and, for instance, there was a control that was not in place. When 

we were at the exit interview talking to the Chief about that control, shortly before that, they had reinstituted that control. So 

there are indications that they are taking this serious and they 

have formed a team I believe to go in there and to proceed on the 

fiscal year 2012 budget. 

Mr. CAPUANO. Has the cooperation between the Department and 

your office been improved? 

Mr. HOECKER. Yes, sir, and I can clarify. 

Mr. CAPUANO. Has it been improved sufficiently? 

Mr. HOECKER. Yes, sir. I didn’t want you to misunderstand our 

report, and perhaps it could be better written in that respect, but 

there were a couple of folks that were not truthful, we believe, not 

forward, not cooperative. This was not from the Chief’s office. 

Mr. CAPUANO. Are they still in place? 

Mr. HOECKER. Yes, sir. 

Mr. CAPUANO. Not truthful. Did I hear you correctly? 

Mr. HOECKER. We have reason to believe that they withheld information from us, sir, yes. 

Mr. CAPUANO. Not truthful? Chief, accountability. Not truthful? 

I understand defensiveness. Not truthful to the Inspector General? 

To your own Inspector General? That is acceptable behavior within 

the Department? 

Chief MORSE. No. Lying is not acceptable. 

Mr. CAPUANO. Those people are still in place? How do we know 

that once they lied to the IG once they won’t do it again? 

Chief MORSE. Well, before I can make personnel decisions with 

respect to conduct or performance, I have to be given all the facts 

in order to evaluate that. And at this point I do not believe that 

the Inspector General has all the information with respect to his 

findings to submit to me yet. So—— 

Mr. CAPUANO. Mr. Inspector General, is that accurate? 

Mr. HOECKER. Yes, sir, it is. We have initiated a number of investigations and we will finalize those investigations and report 

them to the Chief so that he can take appropriate action, if action 

should be taken. 

Mr. CAPUANO. Chief. Somebody lies on their application to be a 

Capitol Police Officer. They are automatically rejected out of hand; 

is that correct? 

Chief MORSE. Yes, sir. 


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Mr. CAPUANO. Somebody lies to the Inspector General. If they 

are found after fair investigation and fair review, what happens to 

them. 

Chief MORSE. I believe that statutorily if they lie to the Inspector 

General it can be a criminal offense, and then of course if that were 

to be forwarded then we would wait for the legal process to be completed. 

Mr. CAPUANO. Sir, I respect that, I am not looking to convict 

somebody prior to the appropriate process. But again I am going 

to end where I started. Chief, I am begging you, I am begging you, 

take the IG’s report and just do it. Do it as quickly as you humanly 

can, and anybody who stands in the way get rid of them or at least 

begin the process of getting rid of them. Please don’t make us have 

to come back here on this again. The next thing I hear from the 

IG I want to hear that you have implemented all the suggestions 

he has made. 

Chief MORSE. If I could just for the record, I would like to show 

you the actions that we have taken, the immediate actions with respect to the audit and the corrective actions that we plan to implement in the future. 

The first thing and immediate thing that I did was take charge 

of the situation and mitigate any impact to security or law enforcement or personnel to the police department. 

Mr. CAPUANO. Chief, hang on one second. Honestly, it is not me 

you have to answer to. I am not a CPA, I am not a certified forensic accountant. He is. And if he tells me you have done sufficiently, 

that is really all I need to hear. I am not qualified to judge whether 

you have. 

Chief MORSE. Okay. 

Mr. CAPUANO. I will be very clear. I think you know me well 

enough to know by now that if I didn’t think you were an honest 

person or a capable or a qualified or a truthful person I would say 

so. I do. I think you have a good heart and I think you want to 

do the right thing. But I also think you have been dragging your 

feet on this issue. I am trying to say very clearly stop dragging 

your feet. Do what he tells you to do. And if there are people in 

the way, get rid of them. Whatever it takes, do it. If he says you 

have done it, fine by me. If he says you haven’t done it, no disrespect intended, I am going to side with him on financial matters. 

I will side with you on police matters every day of the week. Listen 

to him, don’t come back to us. 

I think I have to yield to the ranking member, thanking him for 

his indulgence. 

Mr. LUNGREN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I would reiterate the chairman’s comments about the quality of service from 

the police force that we are getting from the standpoint of policing. 

I think the Chief is doing an excellent job and I would be upset if 

he left because I think we have a very professional force. I think 

the men and women in uniform here do a tremendous job under 

very difficult circumstances. 

Having said that, I am, as I mentioned in my opening statement, 

very disappointed with the administrative side of things. 

Mr. Hoecker, I want to hone in on some of your comments here. 

You said in your prepared statement that the OIG concluded that 


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the overarching root cause is that the Department’s administrative 

management has allowed inadequate financial weaknesses to persist, neglected to hold individuals accountable for implementation 

of Government Accountability Office and OIG recommendations, 

and ineffectively managed its workforce. 

What are you talking about when you say the Department’s administrative management? 

Mr. HOECKER. That would be the CAO, everything under the 

CAO’s office. 

Mr. LUNGREN. The CAO within the Department? 

Mr. HOECKER. Yes, sir. 

Mr. LUNGREN. That is a pretty strong set of findings that you 

made here. Inadequate financial weaknesses to persist; in other 

words, they did not take your previous recommendations into account. That is the Administrative Management Team; is that correct? 

Mr. HOECKER. What I meant by that, sir, was every year we do 

a financial statement audit and in 2005 and 2006 we combined— 

2004 and 2005 were combined, fiscal year 2006 was standalone, fiscal year 2007 and fiscal year 2008. Each year there has been material weaknesses. Material weaknesses means that—this is in terms 

of internal controls, that means that there is a control that is not 

working properly and the auditors are not satisfied that that will 

not prevent errors or misstatements. 

Mr. LUNGREN. So you would expect if you point that out that 

that would change for the next audit, wouldn’t you? 

Mr. HOECKER. Yes, sir. I would expect an organization would get 

the financial statement report, look at the internal controls report 

that is contained therein, and focus on clearing any kind of material weaknesses. 

Mr. LUNGREN. You say neglected to hold individuals accountable 

for implementation of Government Accountability Office and OIG 

recommendations. What do you mean? 

Mr. HOECKER. Well, sir, there are the plans to clear recommendations to provide evidence to the auditors and it appeared 

to us that this schedule, they had target dates, and instead of 

meeting those target dates for whatever reason the target date just 

kept on shifting. Combined with that is that we found nothing in 

the performance evaluation of individuals involved that linked strategic plans, strategic goals, and also improving financial operations 

and clearing open recommendations. We found none of that in the 

performance evaluations or in the performance standards. 

Mr. LUNGREN. You are talking about individuals within the administrative management side of the House? 

Mr. HOECKER. Yes, sir. 

Mr. LUNGREN. We are not talking about sworn officers? 

Mr. HOECKER. No, sir. 

Mr. LUNGREN. Ineffectively managing the workforce, that is within the Department’s Administrative Management Team? 

Mr. HOECKER. Yes, sir. 

Mr. LUNGREN. I am very, very concerned about a statement 

about identifying potential conflicting statements, procurement 

time and attendance, pay and ethical issues. That covers a range 

of things. Can you tell me what you are talking about there? 


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Mr. HOECKER. Well, sir, we have initiated a number of investigations to address those. When we were conducting this audit we 

came across these various issues and they at least seemed to be 

some type of misconduct either at least something in the Department’s rules of conduct, a deficiency there or perhaps worse. But 

that is what we are looking at in our investigation. 

Mr. LUNGREN. Are these sworn officers? 

Mr. HOECKER. No, sir. 

Mr. LUNGREN. This is the administrative side of the house. 

Mr. HOECKER. Yes, sir. 

Mr. LUNGREN. In your final statement, of the four recommendations you made you say, the OIG also recommended the Chief 

evaluate whether the Department has the appropriate leadership 

and management within the Office of Administration. What do you 

mean? 

Mr. HOECKER. I mean that the Chief should look at the whole 

CAO’s shop, look and see if the right skill sets are present, look 

and see if the right leadership traits are exhibited by the individuals through the whole administrative function. 

Mr. LUNGREN. You say earlier in your testimony, the formulation 

of fiscal year 2010, 2011 budgets, the Department did not follow its 

proven past budget practices. What do you mean by that? 

Mr. HOECKER. Well, sir, fiscal year 2009, although budgets are 

estimates by definition, fiscal year 2009 seemed to work. The people, the stakeholders were generally happy with that, we didn’t 

have a shortfall, it worked. What did not happen was they did not 

use the fiscal year 2009 as a go by, as a sample of this is our target. What I also mean by that is two budget officers ago, a budget 

officer prepared a document. This document spelled out exactly 

how to prepare personnel compensation and benefits and it resides 

in the electronic document system for the Capitol Police. That was 

not used during the fiscal year 2010 and the fiscal year 2011 budget submissions. 

Mr. LUNGREN. When you say budget officers, is that a person or 

a personnel spot within the administrative side of the house. 

Mr. HOECKER. Yes, sir. 

Mr. LUNGREN. You find that a little odd that they would not follow the practices that worked in prior years? 

Mr. HOECKER. I do find that unusual, sir. 

Mr. LUNGREN. You say that during the formulation of the 2010 

budget the Department did not fully utilize its Force Development 

Process. You used capitals for that, Forced Development Process. Is 

that a specific term of art or a specific program? What is that and 

what was not followed? 

Mr. HOECKER. Yes, sir. The Force Development Process developed by the Chief, I believe in 2006, and perhaps the Chief can expound on that a little bit more, but the way I understand that process, if they have a new initiative they have a group of senior people 

in the Department to evaluate the environment, the risks, the cost 

and what is required and what they are trying to achieve by this 

new initiative. And that is applied to the general expense areas. 

What we found in fiscal year 2010 is that they weren’t using that. 

And we found an e-mail that asked why aren’t you using that and 


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then from the e-mail traffic we saw that they had done a modified 

version of Force Development. 

Mr. LUNGREN. E-mail from whom to whom? 

Mr. HOECKER. Um, it was from the Chief to the administrative 

section, sir. 

Mr. LUNGREN. So the Chief asking why this wasn’t utilized? 

Mr. HOECKER. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. 

Mr. LUNGREN. Then you say a failure to follow past best practices for developing the personnel compensation and benefits. What 

do you mean by that? 

Mr. HOECKER. That is the fiscal year 2009 standard, if you will, 

that they used and also the document that resides in the Hummingbird system, which is their document retrieval system. 

Mr. LUNGREN. And that was not followed? 

Mr. HOECKER. It was not, sir. 

Mr. LUNGREN. And you also noted noncompliance with the funds 

control process. What does that mean? 

Mr. HOECKER. The funds control process, what we mean by that 

is it is funds availability control. And what that means is that I 

want to expend these funds, I want to buy this piece of equipment, 

or I want to hire this person at this level. What this funds control 

is, it asks the budget folks do we have enough money to pay this. 

That was lifted in June of 2009. 

Mr. LUNGREN. Lifted, you mean removed? 

Mr. HOECKER. Yes, sir. 

Mr. LUNGREN. Not utilized anymore. 

Mr. HOECKER. Yes, sir. 

Mr. LUNGREN. Let me ask you this, if you were a new administrative officer coming into this department and you saw these 

things, what would you do? 

Mr. HOECKER. What I would do, sir, is scrub each process from 

the bottom up. 

Mr. LUNGREN. And if you followed—if you noted that something 

had worked in prior years and was not followed then subsequently, 

what would you do as administrative officer coming in and seeing 

that? 

Mr. HOECKER. I would certainly ask a lot of questions as to why 

didn’t we and how are we going to—and if I thought that that was 

not a good answer, I might say that well, we are going to use it 

this year. 

Mr. LUNGREN. Chief, you have heard the testimony here of the 

Inspector General. It seems to me we have got some real problems 

on the administrative side of the house so how—look, I know you 

are burdened—let’s see, not burdened. I know you are constrained 

by certain requirements with respect to personnel decisions. I realize the system and the way it works, but what is your response to 

what appears to be some real problems, insufficiencies, difficulties 

on the administrative side of the house? 

Chief MORSE. Well, I think also in the audit report, and I just 

want to focus on this a minute, is that when I became Chief I had 

a vision and a challenge to the organization that we would have 

repeatable business practices, that we would be transparent, that 

we would validate everything that we would do. We built that into 

our strategic plan, we built that in as we developed our Human 


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Capital Plan. We put in an internal program called Force Development, which helps us formulate a budget that is specific to the 

threats that we face so that we have the adequate resources and 

personnel and technology to address the critical needs of the campus, to keep it safe, and to keep our personnel well equipped and 

well trained. 

So we had those processes in place. Those processes were used 

to help us develop a clean financial statements. They helped us 

achieve a 2009 budget that was a good budget and that focused on 

all those issues. So we were very pleased in the direction that we 

were going, how we had incorporated this into our overall strategic 

plan, our Human Capital Plan. It was the practice of the agency. 

And as you have noted, our operations side has worked extremely 

well. We have had tremendous successes with that, as well as the 

administrative side with leasing vehicles as a new type of program 

where we save money and we recycle vehicles. The truck interdiction program to keep the campus safe. 

So those are all programs that come from an assessment of how 

we can do better, how we can enhance what we have, how we can 

save money doing it and how we can be at most efficient. I don’t 

know why someone chooses at any level to not follow the direction, 

the business processes that have made us so successful. 

Mr. LUNGREN. Should it take us having hearings for 2 years to 

get to this point? 

Chief MORSE. No. This is very disappointing to me as well. 

Mr. LUNGREN. Well, it is more than disappointing to me. You 

know, to use an old football analogy you can have the best Xs and 

Os in the game, if your team can’t execute it, it doesn’t do a doggone bit of good. And no one has executed the Xs and Os on the 

administrative side. I mean that may be simple language but it 

looks to me that is how I would summarize Mr. Hoecker’s report. 

Would you agree, Mr. Hoecker? 

Mr. HOECKER. Yes, sir. 

Mr. LUNGREN. So with all due respect, knowing what the rules 

are and knowing you have to be careful of what you say and knowing it takes a long time to make changes, frankly this report cries 

out for change on the administrative side. And I hope that will take 

place sooner rather than later. And I hope that the tried and true 

practices that Mr. Hoecker has outlined that you took pride in putting in place will be followed. 

Goodness, it would be really tough if we were standing here and 

you would be with a great big question mark over your head and 

so would Mr. Hoecker, gee, we don’t know what to do, there has 

been a screw up but we don’t know what to do. And yet we know 

what to do. It is what you did before apparently. The practices they 

had in 2009 were good ones, Mr. Hoecker. Am I stating you correctly? 

Mr. HOECKER. 2009 worked, yes, sir. 

Mr. LUNGREN. Okay. Well, I think that is all I have to say. 

Mr. CAPUANO. Thanks. 

Mr. Hoecker, I just want to follow up on something that you 

mentioned to Mr. Lungren in response to one of his questions. If 

I heard you correctly, I think it was 4 or 5 years in a row there 

was material weaknesses in the annual audit? 


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Mr. HOECKER. Yes, sir. 

Mr. CAPUANO. Were they the same material weakness? 

Mr. HOECKER. It started out with two and that was financial 

management has always been a material weakness, and the second 

one that was always consistent was payroll processing. Those were 

consistent among all those years, sir. 

Mr. CAPUANO. And just though you understand and I think I understand, I want to be clear, in my experience material weakness 

is a professional term of art used by accountants. What it really 

means to me at the end of the annual audit it is the auditor basically saying, hey, you have a problem, red flag warning, do something about it. 

Mr. HOECKER. That is very fair. 

Mr. CAPUANO. And in my experience if you get the same, I mean 

there are different things you can do, you can get a different material weakness for something new, but if you get the same one for 

2 years in a row, that generally ends up in a—if not that year at 

least in the third year, generally ends up in a qualified report, is 

that not your experience? 

Mr. HOECKER. Well, it depends if they feel comfortable about the 

way the financial statements are represented. If they feel comfortable, they will render the opinion that is clean as we call it as 

unqualified. But it is entirely possible that because of material 

weakness it could cause errors and mistakes in the financial statement reporting. That is exactly right, sir. 

Mr. CAPUANO. And these annual audits were done internally or 

by external auditors? 

Mr. HOECKER. They were done by an external audit firm that 

works under contract for my office, sir. 

Mr. CAPUANO. Same external auditor for those 5 years? 

Mr. HOECKER. Yes, sir. 

Mr. CAPUANO. In today’s world don’t we generally change auditors on a regular basis? 

Mr. HOECKER. We do. Yes, sir, we do. However, USCP has only 

had one clean opinion. So I think where that really comes into play 

is where you wouldn’t want 5 years of a clean opinion or 6 years, 

whatever the magical number is, and then you would probably 

switch. 

Mr. CAPUANO. So we are pretty much due for a switch? 

Mr. HOECKER. We are, sir. And I think we are going to a single 

legislative auditor; it has to with the migration of the financial system to the Library of Congress. 

Mr. CAPUANO. All right. Thank you, Mr. Hoecker. 

I don’t think I want to pursue today the current radio situation, 

but it is my understanding we have had one major outstanding 

issue now for 6 months, that every time my office asks about this 

issue we get told we are right on the verge of getting it fixed or 

getting it addressed, and yet it is not addressed. 

Chief, just on the one issue on the backup location, are we any 

closer to resolution than we were 6 months ago? 

Chief MORSE. My most recent briefing on the leasing negotiations 

is that they have addressed all issues and will have some sort of 

resolution with—on paper with regard to negotiations this week or 

as late as Tuesday. Now, I don’t want to misrepresent any facts 


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there. There is a representative from my—who is the Director of 

the Office of Information Systems, who is in the audience, but that 

is where I think we stand now on those issues—— 

Mr. CAPUANO. I respect that, but I have heard something similar 

to that now for week after week after week after week and just 

note that not now, but when we get back in September if this issue 

is not resolved I am going to expect a plan B. I think that is a reasonable expectation after 7 months because I still believe based on 

your recommendations that I still trust that the radio program is 

absolutely essential and it has to get done, and we can’t allow lease 

negotiations to hold us up much longer. Is that fair? 

Chief MORSE. Yes, sir, that is. 

Mr. CAPUANO. Chief, I am going to end with one simple question. 

With all the financial issues that you have, again I have made myself clear and Mr. Lungren has been clear as to where we want to 

go, but I want to be very clear for the record, in your opinion, even 

with the financial problems you face this year and next financial 

fiscal year, do you believe that Capitol Hill is safe? 

Chief MORSE. Yes, I do. 

Mr. CAPUANO. I do, too, but I just wanted to hear you say it. 

We are all set. Thank you, Chief and Mr. Hoecker, very much. 

[Whereupon, at 11:43 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 


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