| <html> | |
| <title> - TREASURY, POSTAL SERVICE, AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 1998</title> | |
| <body><pre> | |
| [House Hearing, 105 Congress] | |
| [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] | |
| <DOC> | |
| TREASURY, POSTAL SERVICE, AND GENERAL | |
| GOVERNMENT APPROPRIATIONS FOR | |
| FISCAL YEAR 1998 | |
| ======================================================================== | |
| HEARINGS | |
| BEFORE A | |
| SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE | |
| COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS | |
| HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES | |
| ONE HUNDRED FIFTH CONGRESS | |
| FIRST SESSION | |
| ________ | |
| SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE TREASURY, POSTAL SERVICE, AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT | |
| APPROPRIATIONS | |
| JIM KOLBE, Arizona, Chairman | |
| FRANK R. WOLF, Virginia STENY H. HOYER, Maryland | |
| ERNEST J. ISTOOK, Jr., Oklahoma CARRIE P. MEEK, Florida | |
| MICHAEL P. FORBES, New York DAVID E. PRICE, North Carolina | |
| ANNE M. NORTHUP, Kentucky | |
| ROBERT B. ADERHOLT, Alabama | |
| NOTE: Under Committee Rules, Mr. Livingston, as Chairman of the Full | |
| Committee, and Mr. Obey, as Ranking Minority Member of the Full | |
| Committee, are authorized to sit as Members of all Subcommittees. | |
| Michelle Mrdeza, Elizabeth A. Phillips, Jeff Ashford, and Melanie | |
| Marshall, Staff Assistants | |
| ________ | |
| PART 5 | |
| TESTIMONY OF MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND OTHER | |
| INTERESTED INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS | |
| <snowflake> | |
| ________ | |
| Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations | |
| ________ | |
| U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE | |
| 40-085 O WASHINGTON : 1997 | |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | |
| For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office | |
| Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office, | |
| Washington, DC 20402 | |
| COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS | |
| BOB LIVINGSTON, Louisiana, Chairman | |
| JOSEPH M. McDADE, Pennsylvania DAVID R. OBEY, Wisconsin | |
| C. W. BILL YOUNG, Florida SIDNEY R. YATES, Illinois | |
| RALPH REGULA, Ohio LOUIS STOKES, Ohio | |
| JERRY LEWIS, California JOHN P. MURTHA, Pennsylvania | |
| JOHN EDWARD PORTER, Illinois NORMAN D. DICKS, Washington | |
| HAROLD ROGERS, Kentucky MARTIN OLAV SABO, Minnesota | |
| JOE SKEEN, New Mexico JULIAN C. DIXON, California | |
| FRANK R. WOLF, Virginia VIC FAZIO, California | |
| TOM DeLAY, Texas W. G. (BILL) HEFNER, North Carolina | |
| JIM KOLBE, Arizona STENY H. HOYER, Maryland | |
| RON PACKARD, California ALAN B. MOLLOHAN, West Virginia | |
| SONNY CALLAHAN, Alabama MARCY KAPTUR, Ohio | |
| JAMES T. WALSH, New York DAVID E. SKAGGS, Colorado | |
| CHARLES H. TAYLOR, North Carolina NANCY PELOSI, California | |
| DAVID L. HOBSON, Ohio PETER J. VISCLOSKY, Indiana | |
| ERNEST J. ISTOOK, Jr., Oklahoma THOMAS M. FOGLIETTA, Pennsylvania | |
| HENRY BONILLA, Texas ESTEBAN EDWARD TORRES, California | |
| JOE KNOLLENBERG, Michigan NITA M. LOWEY, New York | |
| DAN MILLER, Florida JOSE E. SERRANO, New York | |
| JAY DICKEY, Arkansas ROSA L. DeLAURO, Connecticut | |
| JACK KINGSTON, Georgia JAMES P. MORAN, Virginia | |
| MIKE PARKER, Mississippi JOHN W. OLVER, Massachusetts | |
| RODNEY P. FRELINGHUYSEN, New Jersey ED PASTOR, Arizona | |
| ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi CARRIE P. MEEK, Florida | |
| MICHAEL P. FORBES, New York DAVID E. PRICE, North Carolina | |
| GEORGE R. NETHERCUTT, Jr., Washington CHET EDWARDS, Texas | |
| MARK W. NEUMANN, Wisconsin | |
| RANDY ``DUKE'' CUNNINGHAM, California | |
| TODD TIAHRT, Kansas | |
| ZACH WAMP, Tennessee | |
| TOM LATHAM, Iowa | |
| ANNE M. NORTHUP, Kentucky | |
| ROBERT B. ADERHOLT, Alabama | |
| James W. Dyer, Clerk and Staff Director | |
| TREASURY, POSTAL SERVICE, AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT APPROPRIATIONS FOR 1998 | |
| ---------- | |
| Tuesday, April 8, 1997. | |
| TESTIMONY OF MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND OTHER INTERESTED INDIVIDUALS | |
| WITNESS | |
| HON. EARL BLUMENAUER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF | |
| OREGON | |
| Mr. Kolbe. The Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service, | |
| and General Government will come to order. This is our last | |
| public hearing of this season, so to speak, and today is | |
| devoted to testimony by Members of Congress and outside groups. | |
| We have a lot of people that, of course, always want to | |
| testify with regard to the various agencies that are under our | |
| jurisdiction or various parts of our appropriation bill, and so | |
| I would urge everybody that is here already listening to me | |
| that we would like to please keep the testimony to 5 minutes. | |
| The full statements will be placed in the record. | |
| We will go--we have an order here; but we will go, of | |
| course, in the order that people actually show up here. I don't | |
| see Peter here to begin with, and so we will begin here with | |
| the second one that is on our list here, Earl Blumenauer. Earl. | |
| Mr. Blumenauer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate your | |
| courtesy, and I will attempt to take less than the 5 minutes. I | |
| have submitted testimony in advance. | |
| Basically, the reason I am here today is there is a great | |
| deal of interest in Washington, D.C., of late of those of us in | |
| the Federal Government walking our talk. The post office, | |
| although a quasi-Federal agency, still represents the Federal | |
| Government for many people. It is the heart and soul of many | |
| small communities, and it is part of the heritage of every | |
| community. | |
| Last week--last year, rather, this subcommittee gave policy | |
| direction dealing with the closures of small rural post | |
| offices. I am here today seeking your assistance in helping | |
| make sure that the post office is a good neighbor. It is | |
| important to make sure that it--we build on a concept of the | |
| Federal Government through the post office, following local | |
| land use regulations. | |
| I have a number of examples in Mr. Hoyer's district and Mr. | |
| Forbe's district where local communities are very concerned by | |
| the inability to be able to work in a constructive fashion with | |
| the post office to make sure that the post office plays by the | |
| same rules. | |
| The language that I have proposed is to make sure that in | |
| the areas of renovation, closing and consolidations that the | |
| post office must abide by local zoning and building code | |
| requirements and to make sure that the local community is given | |
| meaningful input into those decisions. | |
| As you may be aware, currently the post office is required, | |
| under U.S. Code, to have input in areas of closure or | |
| consolidation but not in decisions that actually many times | |
| strike more at the fabric of community when you are talking | |
| about renovation and relocation; and I would ask very simply | |
| that this committee consider adding this directive to the post | |
| office in this year's bill. | |
| I am happy to answer any questions. If you wish, I can give | |
| examples of where it is issues of following local planning | |
| relating to roads, historic preservation. But, as I say, I | |
| provided that in the previous testimony, and I know time is at | |
| a premium. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. I thank the gentleman from Oregon for his | |
| testimony and for this suggestion. I think it is an interesting | |
| one and certainly one that we will want to take under | |
| advisement. If we do have any other questions, we will | |
| certainly be in touch with you on that. | |
| Mr. Blumenauer. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you very much for coming and testifying. | |
| [The prepared statement of Congressman Blumenauer follows:] | |
| [Pages 3 - 4--The official Committee record contains additional material here.] | |
| Tuesday, April 8, 1997. | |
| WITNESS | |
| HON. CARLOS ROMERO-BARCELO1, A RESIDENT COMMISSIONER IN CONGRESS FROM | |
| PUERTO RICO | |
| Mr. Kolbe. We will go next to Carlos Romero-Barcelo1, the | |
| gentleman from Puerto Rico, Commissioner from Puerto Rico. | |
| Mr. Romero-Barcelo1. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate | |
| the opportunity to testify today. I have submitted a longer | |
| statement for the record. | |
| The purpose of my appearance here today is to discuss the | |
| University of Puerto Rico's interest in acquiring a land site | |
| located in Sabana Seca, Puerto Rico, for scientific research | |
| currently being conducted by the University on the site with | |
| the support of the National Institutes of Health. The site | |
| consists of 270 acres owned by the NIH and an additional 5.6 | |
| acres of land that is currently leased to the Navy by the NIH. | |
| For nearly 30 years, the National Institutes of Health has | |
| leased this site to the University of Puerto Rico. The | |
| University's Medical Science Campus currently uses the site to | |
| support the research of the Caribbean Primate Research Center. | |
| The Center is world-renowned for its research resources related | |
| to the studies on the behavior, biology, genetics and the | |
| spontaneous diseases of non-human primates. | |
| The origins of the Center date back to 1938, when the Cayo | |
| Santiago rhesus monkey colony was established to provide a | |
| field site for behavioral studies and to supply rhesus monkeys | |
| for biomedical and anatomical research. | |
| In 1956, the NIH laboratory for Perinatal Physiologyopened | |
| in San Juan and the Cayo Santiago site became the Library's primary | |
| ecology section. When the Library closed in 1970, the University of | |
| Puerto Rico formally established a Caribbean primate center and has | |
| since leased the property at the Sabana Seca site from NIH in an effort | |
| to continue primate research. Much of the support for the University's | |
| research at the site comes from the NIH. | |
| In 1996, following a review of the NIH's Space and Facility | |
| Management Division, the agency made a determination to surplus | |
| the land. The NIH is in the process of disposing of the | |
| property through ordinary GSA processes, and NIH has advised | |
| the GSA and other appropriate Federal agencies that NIH has no | |
| objection to the University obtaining ownership of the | |
| property. | |
| NIH and Navy officials have expressed their support for the | |
| University's acquisition of the Sabana Seca property. In | |
| addition to continued use of the site as a primate facility, | |
| the University proposes to establish a new University Science | |
| Park and Ecological Research Center. This plan includes | |
| development of the area to support short- and long-term | |
| ecological research of the flora, fauna and rare species of | |
| animals unique to this area of the Caribbean. | |
| The University of Puerto Rico's Science Park and Ecological | |
| Research Center will pool the scientific talent and know-how of | |
| a number of existing research centers in Puerto Rico, the U.S. | |
| mainland and throughout the Caribbean and Latin America to | |
| foster collaboration and joint research projects. | |
| Mr. Chairman, the transfer of the Sabana Seca land to the | |
| University is essential for the continued operation and success | |
| of the Caribbean Primate Research Center. It is my hope that | |
| you and the other members of the subcommittee will support this | |
| effort, and I am requesting that language be included in the | |
| fiscal year 1998 Treasury, Postal Service and General | |
| Government Operations appropriations bill to authorize this | |
| transfer. I will be submitting a bill to that effect, Mr. | |
| Chairman. I would appreciate it. | |
| Thank you. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you. Thank you very much, Carlos. We | |
| appreciate your testimony, and we will certainly take this | |
| under consideration. This is not a normal precedent for this | |
| subcommittee to do this but certainly one that we will want to | |
| consider, and we will be in touch with you. | |
| Mr. Romero-Barcelo1. Thank you very much. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you very much. | |
| [The prepared statement of Resident-Commissioner Romero- | |
| Barcelo1 follows:] | |
| [Pages 7 - 11--The official Committee record contains additional material here.] | |
| Tuesday, April 8, 1997. | |
| WITNESS | |
| HON. PETER VISCLOSKY, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF | |
| INDIANA | |
| Mr. Kolbe. We will go back now and take Mr. Visclosky from | |
| Indiana. | |
| Mr. Visclosky. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. | |
| I understand my statement will be entered in the record. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Yes, the full statement will be entered in the | |
| record. | |
| Mr. Visclosky. I would like to start out by saying that I | |
| was lonely not being on the subcommittee any longer and | |
| couldn't wait to get back. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. We are happy to have you back with us here. We | |
| would encourage you to come back often. | |
| Mr. Visclosky. Thank you very much. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Not often with requests necessarily, but at | |
| least you are always welcome to sit up here. | |
| Mr. Visclosky. I misunderstood the Chairman. | |
| Mr. Chairman, again, I thank you very much for the | |
| opportunity to present testimony today and am here to ask that | |
| the subcommittee consider continuing the support for the Lake | |
| County, Indiana, High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area at the $3 | |
| million that the subcommittee provided for the current year. | |
| What we tried to do with the Lake County HIDTA is not to | |
| reinvent the wheel but to continue support for the Lake County | |
| Drug Task Force, the Gary Response Investigative Team and the | |
| Northwest Indiana Investigative Support Center. | |
| The head of ONDCP, General Barry McCaffrey visited our | |
| HIDTA this past week, and we want to continue that cooperation | |
| with ONDCP and try to use the HIDTA funds as efficiently and | |
| effectively as possible. I appreciate the subcommittee's | |
| support, Mr. Chairman. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you very much. We appreciate the brevity | |
| of your testimony, and we certainly have the whole thing here. | |
| I know you and I have talked--actually, we haven't talked | |
| about this particular issue before, but I appreciate your | |
| bringing this to our attention here. We have been spending a | |
| lot of time in the last few days or last couple of weeks doing | |
| a tour of the southwest border dealing with some of the HIDTA, | |
| and so we appreciate the work that they do and note that they | |
| can be very successful in their effort--in our efforts to help | |
| counteract drug trafficking. So we appreciate your interest in | |
| this. | |
| Mr. Visclosky. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you very much, Mr. Visclosky. | |
| [The prepared statement of Congressman Visclosky follows:] | |
| [Pages 13 - 15--The official Committee record contains additional material here.] | |
| Tuesday, April 8, 1997. | |
| BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO AND FIREARMS, RELATED MATTERS | |
| WITNESS | |
| ERIC LARSON, COLLECTORS ARMS DEALERS ASSOCIATION | |
| Mr. Kolbe. I don't believe we have any other Members here. | |
| Mr. Shays was here a minute earlier. We will go to the outside | |
| witnesses, and as these other Members show up here we will come | |
| back to them. | |
| Let's see who we have got here. Is Mr. Larson here? | |
| Yes, Mr. Larson, if you would like to come on up. | |
| Mr. Larson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for this opportunity | |
| to speak with you. | |
| My name is Eric M. Larson. I testified---- | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Would you pull the microphone closer and speak | |
| up a little bit? | |
| Mr. Larson. How is this? | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Just pull it towards you. Thank you. | |
| Mr. Larson. All right. Thank you. | |
| My name is Eric M. Larson. I testified before this | |
| subcommittee last year about certain curio or relic firearms | |
| manufactured in or before 1934 that have special value to | |
| collectors at the request of the Collectors Arms Dealers | |
| Association. I am here to do so again this year and thank you | |
| for this opportunity. | |
| But, first, before making my statement, I hope that the | |
| subcommittee will continue to prohibit the Bureau of Alcohol, | |
| Tobacco and Firearms from spending any government funds to | |
| change the curio or relic definition, to remove any firearm | |
| from the curio and relic list or to change the law regarding | |
| the importation of curio or relic firearms. | |
| Last year, at the hearing, Chairman Lightfoot said, | |
| ``Occasionally, one of these old relics that you are talking | |
| about shows up, that has been in a drawer that grandma or | |
| grandpa stuck there 50 years ago or whatever. This is an area | |
| we need to look at, too, I think.'' | |
| These old animal trap guns and gadget-type items like knife | |
| pistols, unique or strange firearms such as wrench guns and | |
| relatively low-powered small-game guns were, for largely | |
| technical reasons, classified as firearms subject to | |
| registration under the National Firearms Act of 1934, although | |
| they were not commonly used by criminals. | |
| Most of these guns were already obsolete before 1934. | |
| Today, they are historical artifacts. They are very highly | |
| prized by collectors. | |
| At the request of the collecting community, I would like to | |
| respectfully ask the subcommittee to take administrative action | |
| and, if necessary, legislative action to remove the following | |
| firearms from the purview of the NFA and reclassify them as | |
| conventional firearms--that is, as ordinary rifles, shotguns, | |
| pistols or revolvers--as defined in Title 18, United States | |
| Code, Chapter 44: | |
| Any firearm classified as ``any other weapon'' under the | |
| National Firearms Act of 1934, as amended, which was originally | |
| commercially manufactured in the United States in or before | |
| 1934, but not replicas thereof. | |
| There are three basic reasons: | |
| Number one, in 1960, the Congress determined that these | |
| pre-1934 ``any other weapon'' firearms are mainly collectors | |
| items and are not likely to be used as weapons. I estimate that | |
| fewer than 17,000 still exist today. | |
| Reason number two: Last year, a Federal court dismissed | |
| five criminal convictions for nonregistration because ATF | |
| employees have thrown registration documents away rather than | |
| do the work to enter them into the NFA firearm registration | |
| database. If ATF loses the registration document and a person | |
| who owns a pre-1934 AOW can't find his copy, current law does | |
| not allow him to reregister the gun. | |
| Under the law, ATF must confiscate the firearm, even if it | |
| may never have been used in criminal activities. The owner is | |
| also subject to a $250,000 fine and 10 years in prison. I | |
| believe these penalties are unfair, inappropriately harsh and | |
| unwarranted. | |
| Now, I would like to distinguish the problems I have | |
| identified with the NFA firearm registration data base as a | |
| product of my individual research and not as the policy or | |
| position of the Collectors Arms Dealers Association. The reason | |
| is that my research is, in a way, simply a detail and intended | |
| as something from me to the subcommittee--a statement by a | |
| concerned private citizen backed up by what I believe is valid | |
| and reliable evidence, virtually all of it obtained from ATF | |
| itself. | |
| While the NFA database problem is an important and perhaps | |
| critical detail, I believe that the major case for removing | |
| these ``any other weapon'' firearms from the NFA lies in and | |
| has been presented in the law and legislative history relevant | |
| to these firearms. | |
| Last year, I reviewed this evidence in considerable detail. | |
| I have summarized it in my detailed testimony this year and am | |
| revisiting the concerns that I expressed last year regarding | |
| special and more lenient treatment for these ``any other | |
| weapon'' firearms on behalf of the collecting community. | |
| Reason number three: No change in any law is required. All | |
| of these pre-1934 ``any other weapon'' firearms may simply be | |
| administratively removed from the NFA as collector's items. On | |
| a case-by-case basis, ATF may already have removed between | |
| 50,000 and 100,000 individual firearms, such as Winchester | |
| trapper carbines and Luger and Mauser shoulder stock pistols | |
| from the NFA. | |
| This subcommittee has the power to grant this request by | |
| taking administrative action, and it is my sincere hope that | |
| you will do so. | |
| Finally, I would like to say the main benefit of taking | |
| these weapons off such strict controls would be to benefitthe | |
| individual collector, not really dealers. The individual people who own | |
| these guns as prized family heirlooms, I think, would be eternally | |
| grateful to the government for doing this for them. | |
| Mr. Chairman, this concludes my prepared oral statement. I | |
| will be glad to answer any questions that you may have. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you, Mr. Larson. | |
| Let me just ask you one quick question here. Have you had | |
| discussions with the authorizing committee about this? Have you | |
| approached them about legislation in this area? | |
| Mr. Larson. Legislation isn't required. It is an | |
| administrative action that can be taken without any change in | |
| the law. But, no, I haven't talked with the committee. | |
| The reason that I am testifying here this year is that I | |
| did so last year because of concerns about ATF changing the | |
| curio or relic definition. These firearms fell under that, and | |
| the Collectors Arms Dealers Association asked me to do so again | |
| this year. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. All right. Thank you very much. I appreciate | |
| your testimony. | |
| [Clerk's Note. Due to the volume of additional background | |
| information provided by the witness, these documents are being | |
| maintained in the Subcommittee's official files.] | |
| [The prepared statement of Mr. Larson follows:] | |
| [Pages 19 - 139--The official Committee record contains additional material here.] | |
| Tuesday, April 8, 1997. | |
| WITNESS | |
| HON. CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF | |
| CONNECTICUT | |
| Mr. Kolbe. We will go back and take Mr. Shays, Chris Shays | |
| of Connecticut. | |
| Mr. Shays. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Good morning. | |
| Mr. Shays. Good morning. | |
| Mr. Chairman, first, it is great to see you in this | |
| position taking care of our government's expenditures in the | |
| Treasury, Postal Appropriations Subcommittee; and I am here to | |
| request support for the Federal Election Commission's, the | |
| FEC's, request for the $34.2 million appropriation in your | |
| fiscal year 1998 budget. This includes the $29.3 million that | |
| was their original request, plus their additional request of | |
| $4.9 million. | |
| I am also here to request that you appropriate $1.7 million | |
| in the supplementary appropriation for fiscal year 1997. | |
| Mr. Chairman, I am a strong fiscal conservative. I usually | |
| show up in the top 10 of the Taxpayers Association and other | |
| organizations that tend to see what our fiscal policy is and | |
| our votes are. But I am absolutely convinced, as is my | |
| colleague, Marty Meehan, who has--who I am working with in the | |
| companion bill to the McCain-Feingold bill in the Senate--Marty | |
| Meehan who is not here today. | |
| His first three paragraphs say, Mr. Chairman, I want to | |
| deliver two simple messages today. First, our election laws | |
| must be enforced; and, second, in order for that to happen the | |
| Federal Elections Commission must be fully funded. | |
| We have a meltdown in our election system. We literally | |
| have a meltdown. And we have a system where the participants, | |
| elected officials, those seeking office, know that by the time | |
| people determine their wrongdoing the election will be well | |
| passed. It might be months later, it might be years later, and | |
| then the impact of a fine, the impact of even something more | |
| serious, has no impact. Because they know by the time it is | |
| discovered they may already have been elected, and it is a | |
| story in the back page. | |
| The FEC needs the money to properly investigate on a timely | |
| basis and hold people accountable on a timely basis, or else | |
| the election laws we have simply become a joke. And frankly, we | |
| who are advocating reform of the election laws have to | |
| acknowledge something, and that is not only do we need to | |
| change the law, but we need to enforce the laws that exist. And | |
| those who oppose reform point out that, hell, we are just not | |
| even following the laws that exist. Let's at least do that. | |
| Well, frankly, let's at least do that by funding the FEC, | |
| giving them the money they need to do their job, giving them | |
| the money to do the proper investigation and to properly hold | |
| people who aren't abiding by the law accountable. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you, Mr. Shays. | |
| Mr. Shays. I would just say that I do have a full statement | |
| which I would like in the record. I know Marty Meehan has a | |
| statement as well, and I was to be joined by Marge Roukema and | |
| Mr. Barrett. Both of them are in transit, so they just wanted | |
| me to relay their support. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you for telling me then that neither Mr. | |
| Meehan nor Mr. Barrett are going to be here this morning. | |
| Mr. Shays. Nor Ms. Roukema as well. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. We didn't have Ms. Roukema on the list today | |
| anyhow. | |
| I appreciate the testimony. Do you have their statements as | |
| well? | |
| Mr. Shays. I think Marty Meehan was submitted. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. We already have the statements. | |
| Mr. Shays. Are you all set? | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Yes, we are. I appreciate you coming and | |
| testifying on this issue. As you know, we have had the FEC | |
| before us and have had some discussion with them about their | |
| workload and about how they are allocating their resources. I | |
| very much appreciate the issues that you have raised, and I | |
| quite agree that given what has happened in this last election, | |
| there is certainly going to be a real need to give adequate | |
| resources to the FEC to cover all the investigations. | |
| Mr. Shays. Can I make one final point? | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Yes, of course. | |
| Mr. Shays. This wasn't my idea, but I would like to adopt | |
| it as my idea. It was pointed out by one commentator, he said, | |
| let me get it straight, Congress. You don't fully fund the FEC, | |
| and people basically skirt the law and break the law, and then | |
| you spend $10 million to investigate why people have broken the | |
| law. Wouldn't it be better to put the money up front, enforce | |
| the law, than to have to come after the fact, spend the same | |
| amount of money to investigate why people didn't follow the | |
| law? And I think that commentator is right on target. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. I appreciate that thought and that testimony. | |
| Mr. Shays. Thank you. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you very much, Mr. Shays. | |
| [The prepared statement of Congressman Shays follows:] | |
| [Pages 142 - 144--The official Committee record contains additional material here.] | |
| Tuesday, April 8, 1997. | |
| U.S. CUSTOMS SERVICE RELATED MATTERS | |
| WITNESS | |
| ROBERT F. REITER, ANALYTICAL SYSTEMS ENGINEERING CORPORATION | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Maxine Waters is not here. Ms. Maloney is not | |
| here yet. | |
| Let me ask--we are well ahead of schedule here, which is | |
| very unusual in congressional testimony--if we have Mr. Reiter, | |
| Robert Reiter, from Customs here? | |
| Mr. Reiter. | |
| Mr. Reiter. Good morning. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Good morning. | |
| Mr. Reiter. I need to correct you slightly. I am not with | |
| Customs. I am here to talk about---- | |
| Mr. Kolbe. I am sorry. Not with Customs. I was looking | |
| under my topic, talking about an issue on Customs. | |
| Mr. Reiter. I don't want to give anybody the wrong idea. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you. This is the day for outside | |
| witnesses. I knew you were not with Customs. | |
| Mr. Reiter. Thank you. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you. You are with Analytical Systems | |
| Engineering Corporation. | |
| Mr. Reiter. Yes, thank you. | |
| I would like to talk about cost-effectiveness analyses for | |
| nonintrusive inspection systems at ports of entry. The use of | |
| high-technology systems for detecting illegal drugs, explosives | |
| and other contraband is necessary to effectively pursue the | |
| goal of keeping these materials out of the United States. | |
| However, these systems are expensive to buy, maintain and | |
| operate. Therefore, intelligent acquisition decisions must | |
| include assessments of the cost-effectiveness of such systems. | |
| Cost-effectiveness in this situation does not mean should we | |
| buy any or should we buy none, but rather which are the most | |
| effective at finding illegal substances? | |
| There was a recent study completed by ONDCP, I think was | |
| reported to this subcommittee, that evaluated just such cost- | |
| effectiveness issues. To summarize their results, for ports, | |
| seaports, they recommended automated targeting systems as the | |
| highest priority; high-energy imaging X-rays as the next | |
| priority; and Pulse Fast Neutron Analysis as their third | |
| priority, assuming that technology can ever reach a fielding | |
| point. | |
| For border crossings, they recommended automated targeting | |
| systems, high-energy X-ray, low-energy X-ray and Pulse Fast | |
| Neutron Analysis. However, the recommendations of ONDCP have | |
| only partly been followed. An automated targeting system | |
| program is in progress, and there is an initial deployment at | |
| Long Beach, I believe it is. And several low-energy X-ray | |
| systems have been deployed; however, no high-energy X-ray | |
| systems have been deployed. | |
| High-energy imaging X-ray systems have been tested by the | |
| United States Government and found to be extremely effective in | |
| detection of illegal substances, with a rate of over 92 percent | |
| correct. They are currently in use in seven locations overseas, | |
| indicating, I believe, acceptance by a number of Customs | |
| services and governments as being effective. | |
| The criticisms of high-energy systems have been in the | |
| past, number one, they are too expensive; number two, they take | |
| up too much space; and, number three, they are too dangerous to | |
| use. | |
| Technology has advanced. Engineering designs have changed. | |
| As a result, the costs have been significantly reduced. The | |
| amount of land required has been significantly reduced, and I | |
| personally disagree that they were never too safe--too unsafe | |
| to use. | |
| Using the results from the ONDCP study, based on tests done | |
| at Otay Mesa, California, using low-energy X-ray, and Tacoma, | |
| using high-energy X-ray, I have done a quick cost-effectiveness | |
| analysis for you using the data that is in that report, looking | |
| at a 2-, 3-, 5- and 7-year period of operation, and | |
| specifically looking at finding drugs. | |
| The results of this analysis are that at the 3-year period, | |
| the high-energy imaging X-ray effectiveness offsets the | |
| increased initial acquisition costs and operations costs, and | |
| by the 7-year period they are more than--they are six times as | |
| effective. | |
| In spite of this data, there are questions that still | |
| remain that continually are asked: What is the true cost and | |
| effectiveness of these kinds of systems? How do we establish a | |
| nonbiased way of evaluating these systems? What are the | |
| detailed specific expective results in drug reduction and cost | |
| of savings associated with the drug reductions? And can high- | |
| energy systems be as effective at border crossings as they can | |
| at ports? | |
| While we are debating this in the United States, systems | |
| have been deployed at ports, border crossings, rail lines and | |
| airports, in England, France, Germany, China and Qatar. High- | |
| energy systems are also being considered in Saudia Arabia, Abu | |
| Dhabi, Dubai, Malaysia, South Africa and South Korea. The only | |
| known low-energy X-ray site outside of the United States is a | |
| border crossing in Abu Dhabi. | |
| Based on this data, collected and evaluated by the United | |
| States Government, high-energy X-ray systems are a cost- | |
| effective and highly efficient method of detecting illegal | |
| drugs into the United States. Why haven't they been implemented | |
| and integrated into our drug-fighting strategy? | |
| In order to resolve these issues and make recommendations | |
| based on cost-effectiveness, I would like to ask or suggest | |
| that a panel or group be chartered to review completed tests | |
| and analyses, to evaluate current claims, and to recommend | |
| cost-effective solutions to this subcommittee for the | |
| nondestructive inspection of containers, trucks, cars, | |
| etcetera, into the United States for detecting illegal substances. | |
| I also believe this panel should be representative of the | |
| cross-section of technologies and include industry as well as | |
| the United States Government. | |
| One final recommendation I would like to make is that it | |
| not be under the specific control of the United States Customs | |
| Service. | |
| Thank you for your time. | |
| [The prepared statement of Mr. Reiter follows:] | |
| [Pages 147 - 149--The official Committee record contains additional material here.] | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Mr. Reiter, thank you very much. We were just 2 | |
| weeks ago on the border at Otay Mesa and also over in Nogales | |
| where they are testing a gamma ray, portable gamma ray unit, | |
| which would--that would also be low-energy, I believe; is that | |
| right? | |
| Mr. Reiter. Yes, sir. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. And we are certainly very impressed with what we | |
| are seeing. But this subcommittee has agreed with you in urging | |
| the Customs to move faster in their deployment--development and | |
| deployment of the high-energy systems. We agree with you that | |
| they are--they are safe, that they certainly have--that they | |
| are very effective. I think that is the bottom line. They | |
| really work. They are very, very effective. | |
| So your testimony will be very helpful to us, and we will | |
| take that under advisement as to how we will proceed to get our | |
| Federal agencies, Customs in particular, to move faster in this | |
| field. | |
| Mr. Reiter. Thank you, sir. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you very much. | |
| We are going to go ahead here and proceed. I am trying to | |
| get somebody to sit in the chair for me. I have a group that I | |
| need to meet with for just a couple of moments. Since we are | |
| running a little ahead, we will have a recess at the | |
| appropriate moment, but they are not here yet. | |
| ---------- | |
| Tuesday, April 8, 1997. | |
| FEDERAL EMPLOYEE RELATED MATTERS | |
| WITNESSES | |
| BOB TOBIAS, NATIONAL TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION | |
| JIM CUNNINGHAM, NATIONAL FEDERATION OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES | |
| DAVID SCHLEIN, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Bob Tobias is here with National Treasury | |
| Employees Union. | |
| Bob, we will take you at this time. Thank you. | |
| Mr. Tobias. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good morning. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Good morning. | |
| Mr. Tobias. We really appreciate the opportunity to talk | |
| about the Internal Revenue Service and the Customs Service | |
| appropriations. These two agencies are key to this country's | |
| financial well-being. | |
| First, the IRS, we believe the President's proposal is a | |
| bare bones proposal. It does not provide the funds to | |
| significantly enhance the IRS's ability to provide the level of | |
| customer service that I believe is needed. A planned 60 percent | |
| level of access for 1998 is not enough. | |
| The compliant American taxpayer deserves a better than 6 in | |
| 10 chance to reach the IRS to have a question answered. | |
| Compliant American taxpayers deserve a faster refund than 40 | |
| days when they file a paper return. More funds solve both of | |
| these problems. | |
| The compliant American taxpayers also deserve a far more | |
| vigorous compliance effort by the IRS. The people who earn | |
| wages are 95 percent compliant. 75 percent of the taxpayers | |
| take the standard deduction. These people are compliant. They | |
| pay their taxes timely, and they have a reasonable expectation | |
| that those who don't pay their taxes will be made to pay. That | |
| belief is at the heart of our voluntary tax-compliant system. | |
| Yet we have a tax compliance gap, which was last calculated | |
| in 1992 at $129 billion, $22 billion more than the deficit of | |
| $107 billion last year. | |
| The largest group of noncompliant taxpayers are sole | |
| proprietors, 29.2 billion; and the next largest are large | |
| corporations, 23.7 billion. | |
| Congress conducted an experiment in 1995 which proved IRS | |
| could reduce the noncompliant population and increase revenue | |
| for deficit reduction. Congress appropriated the revenue. The | |
| IRS increased its enforcement efforts. The IRS promised 300 | |
| million marginal return as a result of its first-year efforts, | |
| but actually returned over 800 million. | |
| Those who pay their taxes deserve to have those who don't | |
| pay pursued. And, Mr. Chairman, NTEU believes that Congress is | |
| responsible for allocating sufficient funds to enable the IRS | |
| to do the job compliant taxpayers expect and deserve. | |
| We also urge, Mr. Chairman, that the IRS be directed to | |
| stop its proposed reduction in force which will have a very bad | |
| impact on taxpayers. | |
| For example, the IRS imposes liens on taxpayer property, | |
| and they will not be released as timely. Interest cost to | |
| taxpayers will be increased because cases will not be processed | |
| as timely. Taxpayers will not receive as timely a notification | |
| that their case is closed, making them a target for continued | |
| unwarranted notices of deficiencies. There will be | |
| significantly less experienced problem resolution personnel. | |
| There will be fewer people performing taxpayer outreach | |
| efforts, and less assistance will be provided to those who want | |
| to file their returns electronically. | |
| As you know, Mr. Chairman, based on the report IRS | |
| submitted to you, they plan to perform the work of 2,371 | |
| experienced employees with 1,312 inexperienced employees, and | |
| no plan exists today concerning how the work will be | |
| accomplished with these fewer employees. | |
| The IRS plan, if allowed to be implemented, will harm the | |
| credibility of the IRS with those it needs most: compliant | |
| taxpayers and those seeking to be compliant. We urge that the | |
| proposed RIF be cancelled and that the $97 million IRS has not | |
| spent in fiscal year 1997, because of the cancelled TSM program | |
| and a cancelled RIF among IRS personnel, be reprogrammed to | |
| front-line taxpayer services and enforcement work. | |
| Finally, Mr. Chairman, I would like to briefly mention the | |
| U.S. Customs Service. The Customs Service is the first line of | |
| defense with respect to drug interdiction and ensuring | |
| compliance with U.S. trade laws. The Customs Service is seizing | |
| more drugs, discovering more discrepancies in claimed value of | |
| goods coming into the United States than ever before. The | |
| Customs Service is doing a terrific job byany measure, yet | |
| those who perform the work in the Customs Service, inspectors and | |
| canine enforcement officers, do not have law enforcement status. They | |
| carry weapons, effect arrests, detain prisoners, get shot at, yet they | |
| are not classified as law enforcement officers. We believe, Mr. | |
| Chairman, that this injustice should be changed. | |
| Thank you for allowing me to testify, and I will be very | |
| pleased to answer any questions you might have. | |
| [The prepared statement of Mr. Tobias follows:] | |
| [Pages 153 - 168--The official Committee record contains additional material here.] | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you very much, Mr. Tobias. I appreciate | |
| particularly the statement in your submitted testimony where | |
| you pledge your support to this subcommittee to work with us to | |
| try to bring about a reorganization of the IRS that will work | |
| to benefit both the taxpayer, as well as the compliant | |
| taxpayer, and get after the noncompliant taxpayer, and we | |
| certainly appreciate the support that you have given us. | |
| We have been talking, as you know, with the IRS about the | |
| reduction in force, and this is one of the issues that this | |
| subcommittee has dealt with as to how much more effort we are | |
| going to put into customer service and how we can reallocate | |
| these resources. So I think your testimony as a front-line-- | |
| representing the front-line workers is very important and very | |
| helpful to us, and we appreciate it. | |
| Mr. Tobias. Thank you. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you very much, Mr. Tobias. | |
| ---------- -- | |
| -------- | |
| Tuesday, April 8, 1997. | |
| WITNESS | |
| HON. MAXINE WATERS, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA | |
| Mr. Kolbe. We will go back now and take the Honorable | |
| Maxine Waters from California. Maxine. | |
| Ms. Waters. Thank you very much. | |
| Mr. Chairman and Members, I really do appreciate the | |
| opportunity to appear before the subcommittee today. I have | |
| written testimony that if, in fact, I can submit it, I will do | |
| that. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Yes. | |
| Ms. Waters. But let me just try and communicate to you the | |
| very real concern of the Congressional Black Caucus. We have | |
| made our number one priority the eradication of drugs in our | |
| society, and we are working very closely with our drug czar and | |
| with the White House to support efforts to really get at | |
| dealing with the drug problem. | |
| The budget that you must consider for them, for the Office | |
| of National Drug Control Policy, is a budget that basically | |
| must support the staff. In addition to that, we are interested | |
| in the media campaign and the High-Intensity Drug Trafficking | |
| Areas program. Now, in two of those areas, I think the staff in | |
| the High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program, they are not | |
| really asking for increases, but they are asking to be able to | |
| maintain their effort. | |
| The increase really does come with the media effort. The | |
| idea that we focus a lot of attention through the print and | |
| electronic media directed at our young people to, basically, | |
| try and send home the message that drugs are dangerous and that | |
| they cannot be involved in drugs is a very important effort | |
| that must be made. | |
| They are proposing, I believe, about $175 million, and it | |
| is based on a careful reading of the experience of advertisers | |
| which indicates that to advance a specific message, a media | |
| campaign must provide a minimum of four exposures per week, | |
| reaching 90 percent of the target audience. | |
| We believe that using the right kind of consultants, | |
| putting together the right kind of program and the right | |
| images, be it athletes, entertainers, CEOs, it does not matter, | |
| if they put together the right message, we believe that it can | |
| be very, very effective in getting at the drug problem that | |
| confronts this Nation, and particularly getting at the problem | |
| of our young people, who increasingly appear to be involved in | |
| drugs. | |
| So we are here, basically, to send the message that the | |
| Congressional Black Caucus believes that it is very important | |
| to fund the drug czar and the efforts that are identified in | |
| the President's budget, and that we will be supporting these | |
| efforts each step of the way and working with the White House | |
| and others in a bipartisan effort to try and get something | |
| done. | |
| [The prepared statement of Congresswoman Waters follows:] | |
| [Pages 171 - 173--The official Committee record contains additional material here.] | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you very much, Mrs. Waters. I really | |
| appreciate your testimony. I couldn't agree more with you about | |
| the need to really tackle the drug problem. No group in our | |
| society is more devastated than blacks and other minorities in | |
| the inner cities, by drugs and what they have done to our | |
| society. And we really, as a Nation, need to face up to this | |
| and do something about it. And I am really appreciative that | |
| the Black Caucus has decided to tackle this as a number one | |
| issue. | |
| We have been talking obviously with ONDCP, as well as the | |
| other agencies that come under our jurisdiction that have | |
| responsibility in this area, about how we can best allocate the | |
| resources, and we have had discussions with General McCaffrey | |
| about the advertising campaign that is being proposed. | |
| We want to make sure it is done and done in a thoughtful | |
| way and in a way that will really have an impact, and I am sure | |
| that you would agree with that. | |
| Ms. Waters. I certainly do, and what I hope is that the | |
| drug czar will allow for a lot of input from the Members and | |
| others who have ideas. We want to make sure that we don't | |
| fritter away dollars, but the dollars are targeted, they are | |
| well spent, with the right kind of images that will connect. | |
| And I think we all have a responsibility to just get in there | |
| and work with them and make sure that they spend these dollars | |
| in the most cost-effective way. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you. I quite agree. | |
| Ms. Waters. You are welcome. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you very much for testifying, Mrs. Waters. | |
| Thank you. | |
| Mrs. Maloney is not here, and we are still now 20 minutes | |
| ahead of schedule, so I don't feel badly about taking a couple | |
| of minutes to recess here to meet with a group that I need to | |
| just say hello to for a few minutes. We will resume in about 5 | |
| or 10 minutes here. Thank you. | |
| [Brief recess.] | |
| ---------- | |
| Tuesday, April 8, 1997. | |
| WITNESS | |
| JIM CUNNINGHAM, NATIONAL FEDERATION OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES | |
| Mr. Kolbe. The subcommittee will resume here. Is Mr. Jim | |
| Cunningham here? Mr. Cunningham of the National Federation of | |
| Federal Employees. | |
| Go ahead, please. | |
| Mr. Cunningham. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. I am Jim | |
| Cunningham, President of the National Federation of Federal | |
| Employees. On behalf of the 150,000 Federal employees | |
| represented by NFFE, I am pleased to be here with you this | |
| morning to present our views on Federal employee pay and the | |
| current state of affairs at the General Services | |
| Administration. | |
| The President's fiscal year 1998 budget contains only a 2.8 | |
| percent pay adjustment for Federal employees. This is | |
| unacceptable to the members of NFFE. This minimal adjustment is | |
| far short of the 6.6 percent pay adjustment that employees | |
| should be receiving under the provisions of the 1990 Federal | |
| Employees Pay Comparability Act, FEPCA. | |
| Not only has the failure of the administration and Congress | |
| to provide the full pay adjustments called for by FEPCA | |
| inflicted severe financial hardship on Federal employees, but | |
| by consistently underfunding the raises mandated by FEPCA, the | |
| administration and Congress are endangering the future ability | |
| of the Federal Government to provide citizens with high-quality | |
| service and assistance they have come to expect. | |
| NFFE maintains that Federal employees should receive fully | |
| funded locality pay raises and national comparability | |
| increases. Over the past 14 years, Federal employees have | |
| shouldered a disproportionate share of the cost of deficit | |
| reduction. Through cuts in Federal pay and benefits, the | |
| Federal work force has contributed more than $200 billion to | |
| deficit reduction since 1981. | |
| NFFE is aware that in order to fund full pay raises for | |
| Federal employees, Congress is required to find offsetting cuts | |
| for these expenditures. NFFE asserts that the solution to the | |
| dual concerns of Federal pay comparability and deficit | |
| reduction lies in reducing the level of contracting out. | |
| At a time when the structure and size of the Federal work | |
| force is being reformed, a similar reform effort should be | |
| aimed at Federal contracting out practices. Specifically, NFFE | |
| urges this subcommittee to adopt the provisions of H.R. 886, | |
| which would cut $5.7 billion from agency service contracting | |
| funds and make the money available for pay raises that are due | |
| Federal employees in 1998. | |
| NFFE believes that the adoption of H.R. 886 provisions | |
| would correct the injustices of requiring Federal workers to | |
| give up part of their statutory pay increases, while contract | |
| employees, who are paid from the same coffers, remain | |
| untouched. | |
| I would like to address the situation at the General | |
| Services Administration. Currently, the GSA is attempting to | |
| contract out many of its functions to the private sector. GSA | |
| is taking this action despite numerous studies that have | |
| clearly shown that the current employees can perform their | |
| duties at a lower cost than private sector contractors. For | |
| example, GSA was unable to implement a pilot project utilizing | |
| private sector leasing contractors in Philadelphia because it | |
| found the cost for performing identical functions increased | |
| significantly under the private sector contractors. | |
| In light of this evidence, NFFE is concerned that this | |
| contracting out effort is not being driven by a desire to lower | |
| GSA cost, but rather by the desire of the administration to cut | |
| Federal jobs in order to meet their arbitrary downsizing goals. | |
| In fact, the chart included in my written testimony from GSA's | |
| fiscal year 1998 budget clearly shows that over the last 5 | |
| years, GSA's budget has dramatically increased, while at the | |
| same time, its FTE level has plummeted. | |
| Specifically, GSA's fiscal year 1998 budget calls for a | |
| record low number of 14,403 FTEs, and this is a decline of | |
| 5,845 FTEs or a 28.9 percent decrease since fiscal year 1993. | |
| Obviously, if the costs are increasing while the work force is | |
| declining, budgetary citings are not driving the substantial | |
| staff reductions. In fact, according to NFFE's GSA counsel, GSA | |
| is about to award a contract that is intended to augment this | |
| existing staff while it continues to encourage its Federal | |
| employee work force to accept separation incentives. | |
| Ironically, GSA justifies this course of action by stating that | |
| its self-imposed hiring freeze prevents it from hiring | |
| additional workers. | |
| In light of this information, NFFE urges the subcommittee | |
| to carefully examine GSA's operation and contracting out | |
| proposals. The Congress and taxpayers need to be sure that the | |
| administration is pursuing a rational, cost-effective | |
| reorganization plan, and not haphazardly slashing Federal jobs | |
| and opening the door for private sector contractors to | |
| overcharge the American public in a frenzied effort to meet | |
| downsizing targets. | |
| Before I conclude, I would like to address one final item. | |
| Recently, NFFE's GSA counsel learned that GSA management had | |
| unilaterally suspended the labor management partnership that | |
| had been in place between NFFE and GSA since October 15, 1993. | |
| As disturbing as that decision was, even as disturbing to NFFE | |
| was the manner in which our GSA counsel learned of this | |
| decision. Our locals were not notified of this decision | |
| directly by GSA management, but, rather, they had to find out | |
| about it from a letter GSA sent to Senator Mikulski. | |
| In fact, the relationship between NFFE and GSA has | |
| deteriorated almost to the point of complete communications | |
| breakdown. There is no union involvement or input in any | |
| decisions regarding reform of GSA business practices and | |
| adequate notification of proposed personnel moves and | |
| reassignments and no respect for the statutory rights of GSA | |
| employee unions. | |
| In spite of this breakdown, NFFE's GSA counsel remains | |
| willing to work with GSA management in an effort to reform GSA | |
| operations. However, the relationships will only function if | |
| GSA management is open and honest with its partners. | |
| NFFE urges the subcommittee to take whatever action it can | |
| to help reestablish the partnership agreement and end the | |
| contracting out practices. | |
| I thank you very much for this opportunity to give my | |
| testimony. Thank you. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you very much, Mr. Cunningham. We | |
| appreciate the testimony of your organization. We will | |
| certainly be taking that into consideration here. Thank you. | |
| Mr. Cunningham. Thank you. | |
| [The prepared statement of Mr. Cunningham follows:] | |
| [Pages 177 - 191--The official Committee record contains additional material here.] | |
| Tuesday, April 8, 1997. | |
| WITNESS | |
| DAVID SCHLEIN, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES | |
| Mr. Kolbe. David Schlein, AFG. Please go ahead. | |
| Mr. Schlein. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is David | |
| Schlein. I am the national Vice President with the American | |
| Federation of Government Employees, which represents 700,000 | |
| Federal and D.C. Government workers. I appreciate this | |
| opportunity to share our views with the subcommittee, and we | |
| look forward to establishing a cordial and productive | |
| relationship with you, Mr. Chairman. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you. | |
| Mr. Schlein. I will address two topics today, Federal | |
| Employee Union busting and fair compensation for government | |
| workers. H.R. 986, introduced recently, would effectively | |
| outlaw Federal employee unions at all agencies, and deprive the | |
| working and middle-class Americans who make up the Federal work | |
| force of effective representation in their offices and plants. | |
| Although this bill has been referred to the Government | |
| Reform and Oversight Committee, I raise this issue here because | |
| the bill is an outgrowth of last year's unsuccessful effort to | |
| use the Labor-HHS appropriations bill to bust Federal employee | |
| unions and the Social Security Administration and the Health | |
| Care Financing Administration, an effort which could be mounted | |
| again this year. | |
| AFG strongly opposes this legislation, and we would | |
| naturally oppose any amendments to the Treasury, Postal | |
| appropriations bill, which resembles H.R. 986. | |
| Official time is used by Federal employee union | |
| representatives to fulfill statutory obligations to members and | |
| nonmembers alike. That is, Federal employees, who arealso union | |
| representatives, can use official time to engage in negotiations and | |
| representation while on duty status; that is, on the clock. H.R. 986 | |
| would bust Federal employee unions by so greatly restricting the use of | |
| official time as to all but eliminate it. | |
| This actually is a complicated issue, Mr. Chairman, one not | |
| easily reduced to tiny sound bites. By law, representatives of | |
| Federal employee unions can use official time only for those | |
| activities which are reasonable, necessary, and in the public | |
| interest, such as negotiating collective bargaining agreements, | |
| handling employee grievances, conducting and receiving | |
| training, and working with management to improve the delivery | |
| of services. However, any activities performed by an employee | |
| relating to the internal business of the labor organization | |
| must be performed while in a nonduty status. This includes | |
| solicitation of membership, elections of officers and | |
| collection of dues. Contrary to much misinformation that is | |
| circulating, Federal employee representatives are also | |
| forbidden to use official time for any partisan political | |
| activities. | |
| Official time is necessary because Federal employee unions | |
| are required to represent all employees in their bargaining | |
| units, even those who don't pay dues. Federal employee unions | |
| have been forbidden to charge fees for the services they are | |
| legally obligated to provide to nonmembers. | |
| In exchange for being saddled with these additional | |
| responsibilities, the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 allowed | |
| Federal employee unions to bargain with agencies over official | |
| time. Of course, official time is not restricted to the Federal | |
| sector. Many private sector companies pay their employees | |
| official time for official union activities during the work | |
| day, including General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Inland Steel and | |
| Armco Steel. Official time is also used by State and local | |
| levels of government. | |
| Official time is used to make the delivery of services to | |
| the American people more effective, more efficient, and more | |
| reliable. Emulating the example of enlightened private sector | |
| firms like Saturn, Corning Glass and Harley Davidson, the | |
| President issued an executive order in 1993 that established a | |
| cooperative relationship between managers and rank and file | |
| Federal employees, often referred to as partnerships. | |
| Managers can now finally take into account the expertise | |
| and experience of those resourceful men and women working on | |
| the front lines of the Federal Government when making important | |
| workplace decisions. Partnerships between labor and management | |
| are a practical, bottom-line approach to the public's demand | |
| for better, more effective, more efficient and less expensive | |
| government. | |
| This embryonic attempt at reinventing the government | |
| through partnership would be nipped in the bud if anti-official | |
| time legislation is passed. | |
| Official time is also used to improve labor management | |
| relationships and preclude the need for costly unnecessary | |
| litigation. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Mr. Schlein, let me interrupt you. You are on | |
| the top of page 4 of an 18-page statement here. | |
| Mr. Schlein. I have it summarized here. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Well, you have been going through it word by | |
| word so far, and we are going to have to wrap it up in about 2 | |
| minutes. | |
| Mr. Schlein. Thank you. Finally, official time is used to | |
| ensure the effective representation of Federal employees and | |
| their offices and plants. Union representatives also use | |
| official time to ensure that members and nonmembers alike are | |
| effectively represented in the workplace, whether it is | |
| representing a few of the employees in their bargaining units, | |
| even those who don't pay dues, through the grievance process, | |
| are all of the employees, again, even those who don't pay dues, | |
| through the collective bargaining process. The loss of official | |
| time would smash and bash Federal employees unions with a one- | |
| two punch. | |
| Again, AFG urges the members of the subcommittee to oppose | |
| any legislation that would eliminate official time in all | |
| Federal agencies, as H.R. 986 does. Needless to say, Mr. | |
| Chairman, this will be a most important issue for AFG | |
| throughout the 105th Congress. | |
| I would now like to turn your attention to Federal pay. | |
| Under the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act, all general | |
| schedule Federal employees should receive a 2.8 percent raise | |
| based on documented increases and the cost of labor nationwide | |
| as determined by the Employment Cost Index. | |
| The President's fiscal year 1998 budget is consistent in | |
| that it provides for a 2.8 percent nationwide adjustment. A | |
| further salary increase is due to Federal employees because of | |
| measured gaps between Federal and non-Federal pay on a local | |
| basis. For 1998, the law authorizes three-fifths or 60 percent | |
| of the target gap, which would require a 14.3 percent average | |
| locality increase. However, the fiscal year 1998 budget | |
| proposes no locality raises. | |
| Following passage of FEPCA in 1990, many thought that the | |
| pay increases due Federal white collar workers would no longer | |
| be cut back or held up by the President and/or the Congress. | |
| After all, a careful, painstaking and bipartisan reform of the | |
| pay system, 2 years in the making, has been accomplished by the | |
| Democratic-controlled Congress. Under FEPCA, the pay rates | |
| would be based on comparability with those found in the private | |
| sector, and raises would consist of both nationwide and | |
| locality components. | |
| The result of the past few years of low balling on Federal | |
| pay increases is that the effort to close the pay gap with a | |
| non-Federal economy is lagging. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. We have gone almost twice the normal time. The | |
| full statement will be placed in the record, and if you would | |
| like to make a closing, I don't want to cut you off in the | |
| middle of a sentence. | |
| Mr. Schlein. Well, basically, as you know, we believe FEPCA | |
| is very important to the future of the Federal service, and we | |
| hope that your committee will look at providing the full pay | |
| raises in the full amount under FEPCA. Thank you very much. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. We appreciate your comments with regard to the | |
| pay raises, also with regard to H.R. 986. Let me just say that | |
| whatever the personal views of this Member or other Members | |
| have been, that has not been a part of our appropriations bill | |
| in the past, and I have no reason to think any of that would be | |
| in our appropriation bill this time. | |
| Mr. Schlein. Great. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you very much. | |
| [The prepared statement of Mr. Schlein follows:] | |
| [Pages 195 - 218--The official Committee record contains additional material here.] | |
| Tuesday, April 8, 1997. | |
| GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION RELATED MATTERS | |
| WITNESSES | |
| BERNARD H. BERNE, M.D., PH.D. | |
| WILLIAM BURKE, INTERNATIONAL WINDOW FILM ASSOCIATION | |
| Mr. Kolbe. We are going to turn to some people talking | |
| about General Services Administration. Dr. Berne. | |
| Dr. Berne. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Good morning. | |
| Dr. Berne. I am a resident of Arlington, Virginia. I serve | |
| the Food and Drug Administration as a medical officer who | |
| reviews medical device approval applications. I am testifying | |
| as a private individual. I am not on official time. | |
| GSA is planning to consolidate most of the FDA at the | |
| former White Oak Naval Surface Warfare Center in Montgomery | |
| County, Maryland. This is a very poor location for a Federal | |
| headquarters facility. This location will cause me and other | |
| FDA employees a hardship. Metrorail is 3 miles away. Buses run | |
| infrequently to the site. The nearby beltway and other roads | |
| are already congested. This is one mile outside the beltway. | |
| FDA and GSA are planning a country club in the White Oaks | |
| affluent suburbs. FDA's 130-acre campus will have a visitors' | |
| center and other amenities. Adjacent Federal property will | |
| contain a public golf course and a woodland. Congress must stop | |
| this extravaganza. | |
| The 104th Congress wisely rescinded funding for the | |
| Montgomery County phase of the FDA consolidation. There are no | |
| funds available to proceed with the project at this time, | |
| except for those that GSA has diverted from other projects. | |
| I work in an excellent building, which is only about 10 | |
| years old. I see no reason to build an expensive new facility | |
| when Congress is trying to balance the budget. Some FDA units | |
| occupy older buildings. However, most of these are already | |
| moving to a new facility in College Park, Maryland. | |
| The administration has not requested any funding for the | |
| consolidation in the fiscal year 1998 budget. In addition, the | |
| project presently lacks an approved prospectus. President Jimmy | |
| Carter's Executive Order 12072 requires Federal facilities and | |
| the Federal use of space in urban areas to serve to strengthen | |
| the Nation's cities and make them attractive places to live and | |
| work. The Executive Order requires Federal agencies to | |
| economize on their use of space. FDA's 130-acre campus does not | |
| economize on the use of space. | |
| Last year, President Clinton issued Executive Order 13006, | |
| which states, ``The administration reaffirms the commitment set | |
| forth in Executive Order 12072 to strengthen our Nation's | |
| cities by encouraging the location of Federal facilities in our | |
| central cities.'' White Oak is not in any city, and it is | |
| certainly not in any central city. It is certainly not in | |
| Washington, D.C. | |
| Congress should not fund projects that violate Executive | |
| Orders. The Southeast Federal Center in downtown Washington, | |
| D.C., is now available for a major Federal headquarters | |
| facility. Adjacent to it is the Metro station, and it is close | |
| to the Capitol building. The Southeast Federal Center is ideal | |
| for FDA's facility. You may have seen this discussed in | |
| yesterday's Washington Post in the Business Weekly. | |
| Unlike affluent White Oak, southeast D.C. urgently needs | |
| redevelopment. The consolidation at Southeast Federal Center | |
| could revitalize a decaying neighborhood that is not far from | |
| the Capitol building, Maryland, and Virginia. The consolidation | |
| can help President Clinton's plan to revitalize D.C's failing | |
| economy. Part of Clinton's plan is that federal workers should | |
| not be leaving the District of Columbia. The entire FDA | |
| consolidation, which is in several places, is actually removing | |
| 1,000 workers from the District of Columbia. The Southeast | |
| Federal Center does not have 130 acres and a nearby golf | |
| course. However, the FDA does not need 130 acres and a golf | |
| course. It can occupy high-rise buildings on a smaller site. | |
| Two Executive Orders require GSA and FDA to give the | |
| Southeast Federal Center preference over the White Oak site. | |
| However, because of past actions by conference committees on | |
| appropriations, GSA and FDA refuse to evaluate the Southeast | |
| Federal Center and continue to look at White Oak. I therefore | |
| ask your committee to take the following four actions: | |
| Number one, please do not appropriate any funds to support | |
| an FDA consolidation at White Oak. These issues generally start | |
| in the Senate, from the Maryland delegation. Please appropriate | |
| $5 million for a GSA study of a major FDA consolidation in the | |
| District of Columbia, with an initial focus on the Southeast | |
| Federal Center. I am just asking for $5 million so they will | |
| change their direction. That is the main purpose of this and | |
| the only purpose. I don't want it built at this time until we | |
| balance the budget. | |
| Please ask GSA to appraise the value of the White Oak site. | |
| A sale of the site can help fund an FDA consolidation | |
| elsewhere. It would also support the Navy Base Closure Act, | |
| which was really designed to close bases and save the | |
| government money, not to convert them to something else which | |
| is not really appropriate on that site. It was a Navy base, | |
| which required weapons facilities and large open spaces, but | |
| this doesn't. | |
| Please do not appropriate any funds to prepare or acquire | |
| any site for any part of the FDA consolidation until a | |
| prospectus for the entire consolidation is approved in | |
| accordance with the provisions of the Public Buildings Act of | |
| 1959. This involves the Transportation and Infrastructure | |
| Committee. This project has no prospectus, and, in the past, it | |
| was approved without a prospectus. But with a provision put in | |
| the law, you didn't need a prospectus. The rescission, however, | |
| removed that. That was one of the biggest things about the | |
| rescission, that it took away the projects that didn't have | |
| prospectuses. This has no prospectus. They shouldn't be | |
| preparing to build on anything that isn't in the District. | |
| [The prepared statement of Dr. Berne follows:] | |
| [Pages 221 - --The official Committee record contains additional material here.] | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you very much, Dr. Berne. We appreciate | |
| your testimony. As you probably know, this year's budget does | |
| not have any request for anything to consolidate at White Oak | |
| Naval. | |
| Dr. Berne. It comes out of the Senate, generally. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. I understand that. We certainly appreciate you | |
| alerting us to that. | |
| ---------- | |
| Tuesday, April 8, 1997. | |
| WITNESS | |
| WILLIAM BURKE, THE INTERNATIONAL WINDOW FILM ASSOCIATION | |
| We will go to William Burke of the International Window | |
| Film Association. Go ahead, please. | |
| Mr. Burke. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for allowing me to | |
| present testimony on behalf of the International Window Film | |
| Association pertaining to the Treasury, Postal Subcommittee | |
| consideration for the fiscal year 1998 General Services | |
| Administration budget. | |
| Mr. Chairman, my name is Bill Burke, and I am an active | |
| member of the AIMCAL Window Film Committee and former Executive | |
| Director of the International Window Film Association, the | |
| IWFA. The IWFA, headquartered in Phoenix, consists of more than | |
| 1,500 members internationally, including manufacturers, | |
| distributors, professional dealers of security window film in | |
| 39 countries. Over 25,000 individuals are employed actively in | |
| the U.S. in this industry. It is essentially all mom-and-pop | |
| businesses, we might add. | |
| The Association acts as a cohesive voice for the window | |
| film industry and does not represent one brand of product, but | |
| offers training, support, maintains industry ethics and | |
| standards, encourages research and development, and functions | |
| as a conduit for information to consumers and those who have | |
| requirements. | |
| Over the past two decades, the security window film | |
| industry has interacted with various government agencies, | |
| including USIA, FEMA, the DEA, FBI, all American embassies | |
| abroad. These relationships have generated a wealth of accurate | |
| scientific evidence which demonstrates the effectiveness of | |
| window film for security purposes. | |
| I would like to briefly give you the historical background | |
| and the issue that I would like to bring to your attention | |
| today. Immediately following the bombing that occurred at the | |
| Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City, President Clinton | |
| issued a memorandum directing the GSA to upgrade all Federal | |
| facilities with minimum security standards that were outlined | |
| in a report recently completed by the Department of Justice | |
| entitled, ``Vulnerability of Federal Facilities.'' | |
| The report noted one standard was the installation of | |
| security window film. Post Oklahoma City, a number of occupant | |
| agencies of GSA properties had funding in place to upgrade the | |
| building security, including a number of day care centers | |
| located inside these facilities. | |
| Due to the GSA's desire to conduct further performance | |
| testing, funding lapsed and the proper protection was not | |
| provided. As we have stated before, we have made every effort | |
| to work with GSA and will continue to do so in order to develop | |
| the appropriate protection for glass on government buildings. | |
| Because we represent the industry, as opposed to | |
| onemanufacturer, the window film industry has gathered information from | |
| a variety of sources globally and has the ability to provide access to | |
| a variety of experts on the testing and studies that have been | |
| conducted on security window film in the past. | |
| One year after the President issued his memorandum on | |
| security upgrades, your subcommittee and your companion | |
| subcommittee in the Senate stepped in and included language in | |
| the fiscal year 1997 appropriation report directing GSA to | |
| develop a budget and a plan to protect government employees | |
| with the installation of security film. The language, as you | |
| know, instructed the GSA to submit this plan, along with the | |
| President's fiscal year 1998 budget submission. This is still | |
| pending. | |
| Mr. Chairman, there have been several studies conducted by | |
| the State Department, Department of Justice, Corps of | |
| Engineers, FBI, the Department of Navy, all recommending the | |
| use of window film as a cost-efficient and viable security | |
| device that saves lives. | |
| The most recent study was conducted in the wake of the | |
| Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia in which 19 American | |
| servicemen were killed, and 500 others injured. The study | |
| conducted by the Department of Defense entitled, ``The Downing | |
| Report,'' notes that the security experts had recommended 5 | |
| months before the bombing that the apartments at the Khobar | |
| Towers be coated with security window film, what they referred | |
| to as Mylar coating, which is just a brand of base film, to | |
| minimize the shattering that occurs from blasts. This was never | |
| done, and it was concluded that blast shards was the major | |
| factor in 12 of the 19 deaths. | |
| In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, I hope you and the members of | |
| the subcommittee will assist in expediting the upgrade of | |
| security of buildings that house government employees as | |
| directed by Congress and the administration. | |
| President Clinton issued his memorandum directing GSA to | |
| begin this activity in June of 1995. We believe that these | |
| minimum security upgrades should be adhered to immediately to | |
| protect the lives of government employees. I urge you to help | |
| expedite the GSA's development of the budget and the plan for | |
| security film as outlined in your fiscal year 1997 | |
| appropriations report. Further, I urge Congress to begin to | |
| provide funding for this year for this very important safety | |
| measure. | |
| Thank you very much for providing me with this time, and if | |
| there is anything I can answer, I would be delighted to do so, | |
| sir. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you very much, Mr. Burke. I think you | |
| have given us some very interesting testimony on an issue which | |
| I was not aware of before, so I appreciate you bringing it to | |
| our attention. It is certainly one of the things we want to | |
| talk to GSA about, as well as the other agencies. | |
| [The prepared statement of Mr. Burke follows:] | |
| [Pages 278 - 280--The official Committee record contains additional material here.] | |
| Tuesday, April 8, 1997. | |
| INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE RELATED MATTERS | |
| WITNESS | |
| ROBERT BYRNE, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF RETIRED PERSONS | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Our next individual is Mr. Robert Byrne, AARP, | |
| Tax Counseling for the Elderly. | |
| Mr. Byrne. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. On behalf of the | |
| American Association of Retired Persons, thank you for this | |
| opportunity to testify concerning appropriations next year for | |
| tax counseling for the elderly, otherwise known as the TCE | |
| program. | |
| My name is Robert Byrne, and I am a volunteer Congressional | |
| District Coordinator in AARP's Voter Education Program. The | |
| Association supports the administration's proposal to freeze | |
| TCE's appropriation next year at its current level of $3.7 | |
| million. The Association deeply appreciates the subcommittee's | |
| continued support of tax counseling for the elderly, which is | |
| targeted to low and moderate income older Americans. This cost- | |
| effective program improves taxpayer compliance measurably for | |
| the Internal Revenue Service by helping to insure that more tax | |
| returns are prepared completely and accurately. | |
| The agency reports that many taxpayers with incomes below | |
| the minimal required level needlessly file tax returns each | |
| year. This results in unnecessary costs to both the taxpayer | |
| and the Federal Government. TCE helps prevent such occurrences. | |
| TCE has enabled the IRS to assist older minorities more | |
| effectively, as well as hard-to-serve taxpayers, such as the | |
| rural elderly and shut-ins, especially those residing in | |
| nursing homes or senior citizen housing. | |
| In 1996, the program offered assistance in 25 languages, | |
| including American sign language. The AARP Foundation, a | |
| separate 501(c)(3) corporation, operates the Tax Aid Program, | |
| which is by far the largest of the TCE programs. The value of | |
| TCE has been amply demonstrated over the years and is reflected | |
| in growing demands for assistance. | |
| A report issued 4 years ago by the General Accounting | |
| Office indicates that in 1992, TCE accounted for the | |
| preparation of more than four times the number of returns | |
| prepared at IRS walk-in sites. More than 33,000 volunteers are | |
| involved in TCE services, at approximately 11,000 sites across | |
| the country. I would also like to point out that in 1996, | |
| according to IRS records, a 95 percent mathematical accuracy | |
| rate was reported. | |
| While over 1.6 million people receive tax counseling | |
| annually, and we do not have complete data for the current tax | |
| season, but we expect TCE to continue to grow in the future. | |
| There are several reasons why this is likely to happen. | |
| First, the elderly population is increasing. Secondly, the | |
| complexities of our Tax Code cause many older taxpayers | |
| particular problems in computing their tax obligations. | |
| Moreover, many older citizens are not aware of the changes made | |
| in our tax laws over the past few years. Third, the IRShas | |
| increasingly turned to TCE to provide assistance, in large part because | |
| budgetary constraints have stretched the ability of the agency to | |
| respond directly to numerous public inquiries. Volunteers are | |
| contributing over 2.8 million hours annually in direct public service | |
| to older taxpayers. | |
| When Commissioner Richardson testified before the | |
| subcommittee last month, Mr. Chairman, she reported tax | |
| counseling for the elderly along with a similar initiative, and | |
| I am quoting, ``Increased taxpayer assistance by giving | |
| taxpayers the opportunity to have direct contact at almost | |
| 20,000 sites with volunteers trained by IRS personnel. Last | |
| year, over 80,000 volunteers served almost 3.5 million | |
| taxpayers through both of these programs''. | |
| TCE volunteers are dedicated to the program, and are | |
| committed to helping others. The people they assist would | |
| otherwise be forced to pay a professional consultant to prepare | |
| their tax returns, which could result in an exorbitant cost for | |
| anyone living on the low or moderate income. | |
| Tax counseling for the elderly will continue to participate | |
| in successful IRS efforts, such as the reduced unnecessary | |
| filing initiative. In 1996, 1.8 million taxpayers were notified | |
| by the agency they may not have to file a Federal return. | |
| Three-fourths of the letters went to taxpayers who were at | |
| least 61 years old. Many of these older individuals | |
| subsequently enlisted the help of a TCE volunteer in order to | |
| confirm they did not need to file a return that year. | |
| Thank you again for this opportunity to comment on funding | |
| next year for the Tax Counseling for the Elderly Program. | |
| [The prepared statement of Mr. Byrne follows:] | |
| [Pages 283 - 290--The official Committee record contains additional material here.] | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you very much, Mr. Byrne. Thank you for | |
| the testimony of the AARP on this program. It is certainly a | |
| worthwhile program, as you pointed out, and it helps us very | |
| much with tax compliance and we certainly appreciate talking | |
| about it. | |
| Mr. Byrne. Thank you. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you. | |
| ---------- | |
| Tuesday, April 8, 1997. | |
| MERIT SYSTEMS PROTECTION BOARD RELATED MATTERS | |
| WITNESS | |
| JOHN F. MARKUNS, ADMINISTRATIVE JUDGE, MERIT SYSTEMS PROTECTION BOARD | |
| PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Judge John Markuns, Administrative Judge John | |
| Markuns, on behalf of the Merit Systems Protection Board. Mr. | |
| Markuns, please go ahead. | |
| Mr. Markuns. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Again, let me just remind those who may have | |
| come in after the time I said this, full statements will be | |
| placed in the record so we can keep on track and get everybody | |
| in that has come here to testify today. Keep your testimony to | |
| 5 minutes. Thank you. | |
| Mr. Markuns. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is John | |
| Markuns. I am Chairman of the Merit Systems Protection Board | |
| Association's Special Committee on Legislation. I am here | |
| representing judges that are represented by that Association, | |
| and, again, thank you very much for the opportunity to present | |
| our views before the subcommittee. We do have a written | |
| statement for the record and we ask that you please accept it. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. It will be placed in the record. | |
| Mr. Markuns. Thank you. Just to provide you with some brief | |
| background regarding our presence here today, we were here last | |
| year before Chairman Lightfoot, regarding a problem that has | |
| developed since 1993 at MSPB, which is an agency which hears | |
| and decides employee appeals of adverse actions taken against | |
| Federal employees. | |
| We also hear a wide variety of other employment-related | |
| matters. We came before the subcommittee last year because we | |
| were facing a growing backlog of cases, and mostly as a result | |
| of losing a large number of experienced judges to other | |
| agencies. The reason we lost those judges was because a pay | |
| disparity had developed between our class of judges and judges | |
| in our agencies, particularly, administrative law judges and | |
| the Social Security Administration. | |
| That presented a situation where judges are now essentially | |
| performing triage on their case loads. We are trying to keep up | |
| with the cases that we have in, and we are finding ourselves | |
| increasingly unable to do so. This year, we come before you and | |
| our backlog has increased by some 40 percent, and essentially, | |
| it is like at this point, we suggest you think of it as a rock | |
| hitting the pond, and the ripples are now starting to spread | |
| throughout the Federal system. | |
| Over two million Federal employees have the right to appeal | |
| to the Merit Systems Protection Board from adverse actions. To | |
| the extent we can't timely process our cases, it has the effect | |
| of deterring agencies from taking actions that should be taken | |
| and also discouraging employees who may have just appeals from | |
| filing those appeals with the Board. | |
| It is a problem for us, and we would ask that you take | |
| cognizance of it, and we have some solutions that we have | |
| proposed in our written testimony for your consideration. We | |
| understand that Congressman George Gekas is in the process of | |
| submitting a statement for the record, and he has been very | |
| supportive of our concerns in the past. | |
| We thought that perhaps in the last session of Congress, | |
| that Congress had come up with a potential solution to the | |
| problem that we were facing through an administrative | |
| reorganization, through the judiciary. Congressman Gekas worked | |
| very hard on that bill. | |
| At this point, we don't know where that legislation may go | |
| in this session, but we ask that the subcommittee take note of | |
| the fact that we do save money for the government when we | |
| timely process our cases. To the extent that we have the | |
| backlog that we do, it is costing the government millions of | |
| dollars in potential back pay liability and attorneys' fees. | |
| There are a number of hidden costs that inure to agencies | |
| because we are unable to do our job in a timely fashion, and we | |
| just ask that the committee perhaps consider that it is now | |
| time, finally, to afford the judges at MSPB pay equity in line | |
| with the latest group of judges, who received a pay schedule, | |
| immigration judges who are being paid the same rate. We already | |
| lost a judge to immigration in December. It is a practical | |
| problem for us. We are trying to keep our finger on the dike, | |
| but we really just ask that the committee take a look at our | |
| problem and see if they can help us. | |
| I would also point out that the Chairman of our agency, in | |
| a letter to you, pointed out that if he doesn't receive | |
| supplemental funding, that there is a possibility of a | |
| reduction in force of judges, which is only going to make | |
| matters worse from our standpoint. It is only going to | |
| encourage judges to continue to look elsewhere. We do have some | |
| concern that we are caught in the middle in this situation. | |
| We understand that last year, Congress only allotted half | |
| of the money that MSPB requested to fund its studies function | |
| and that this year, the administration or our agency, through | |
| an O&B-cleared budget, has again requested the full amount for | |
| studies, but kept the ceiling at last year's level. | |
| As a result, it looks as though we are now losing | |
| additional funds that we desperately need for our adjudications | |
| function. I just ask you take a look at the whole situation, | |
| and if you could give us some consideration, we would | |
| appreciate it. | |
| [The prepared statement of Mr. Markuns follows:] | |
| [Pages 293 - --The official Committee record contains additional material here.] | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you very much, Mr. Markuns. We appreciate | |
| you calling this to our attention because it is something I was | |
| not personally familiar with. | |
| Mr. Markuns. Thank you. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you very much. | |
| ---------- | |
| Tuesday, April 8, 1997. | |
| NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION RELATED MATTERS | |
| WITNESSES | |
| DAVID HOOBER, STATE ARCHIVIST/ARIZONA | |
| PAGE PUTNAM MILLER, NATIONAL COORDINATING COMMITTEE FOR THE PROMOTION | |
| OF HISTORY | |
| LESLIE ROWLANDS, PROFESSOR/UMCP | |
| Mr. Kolbe. We have several people to talk about the | |
| National Archives. First, David Hoober, a State archivist from | |
| Arizona. Welcome. | |
| Mr. Hoober. Mr. Chairman, members of the subcommittee, my | |
| name is David Hoober. I would first like to explain my attire. | |
| Apparently, my luggage bonded with my airline more than I did | |
| and it is somewhere on the Southwest system. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. That is all you needed to say. I could have | |
| loaned you a U of A championship T-shirt to wear. | |
| Mr. Hoober. I considered bringing you one but I thought you | |
| probably would have to put an addition onto your home if you | |
| got one more. | |
| I am State Archivist of Arizona, a former President of the | |
| National Association of Government Archives and Records | |
| Administrators, a former member of the Governing Council of the | |
| American Association for State and Local History, and currently | |
| that association is representative to the National Historical | |
| Publications and Record Commission, whose planning and budget | |
| committee I have chaired. | |
| I am delighted to offer testimony about the importance of | |
| the National Archives and Records Administration and the NHPRC | |
| to this committee, chaired by a fellow Arizonan, who is blessed | |
| with a keen sense of our State's history, and to a House | |
| subcommittee with an equally deep commitment to our Nation's | |
| documentary heritage. NORA and the NHPRC share complimentary | |
| missions. The National Archives preserves Federal records and | |
| the NHPRC makes grants to help archivists, records managers and | |
| others in the States' care for non-Federal records, which help | |
| tell the rest of America's history. | |
| I ask that this subcommittee provide at least the level of | |
| funding that the President has requested for NORA, and I ask | |
| that you provide more than requested in the White House budget | |
| for the NHPRC. | |
| The commission is authorized to receive up to $10 million, | |
| and it badly needs an appropriation of at least $6 million if | |
| it is to implement, even partially, its strategic plan for | |
| documenting American history. | |
| The NHPRC has strengthened that plan by giving in it a | |
| priority to two things, the research and development program | |
| and a State partnership program. Let me explain briefly why the | |
| archival community welcomes these priorities. | |
| The biggest current threat to our documentary heritage is | |
| our growing reliance on electronic record keeping systems, | |
| systems that lack sound approaches to managing the archival | |
| records in those systems. So much of our history, now and in | |
| the future, will be recorded in electronic format. | |
| The research and development projects in which the NHPRC is | |
| investing visiting will help archivists overcome obstacles to | |
| preserving and providing access to computerized records. | |
| Increased NHPRC support is essential if we are to master | |
| these technologies before we lose the important records they | |
| create. Additionally, the NHPRC State Partnership Program is | |
| helping archivists across the country save many kinds of | |
| records and provide public access to them. | |
| As partners, State historical record's advisory boards make | |
| grant contributions to meet the needs that are identified in | |
| State documentary plans. This results in efficient grant making | |
| and good decisions about which records are saved and how they | |
| are made accessible to the public. | |
| For example, the Florida regrant program, to which the | |
| NHPRC contributed only $150,000, enabled 23 archives, | |
| universities, and historical societies to improve local records | |
| programs, to provide archives and records management education | |
| and process for access, collections of historical papers | |
| already in custody, including a collection on black education | |
| at Florida A&M University. | |
| The NHPRC program, to which New York contributed $150,000 | |
| in State funds, helped 56 projects to survey and process | |
| historical records and to ensure automated access to | |
| institutions' documentary holdings. An NHPRC program in | |
| Kentucky led its State legislature to appropriate $950,000 for | |
| a comprehensive program of local records management and | |
| preservation, which subsequently continued. So far, States with | |
| regrant programs have contributed slightly more funding to them | |
| than has the NHPRC. | |
| The partnership between the commission and the States is | |
| real. I would be remiss if I did not touch briefly on the | |
| positive effect of the NHPRC in Arizona. | |
| Since 1976, 18 grants have been made to our State's | |
| archives, historical societies, universities and museums. Early | |
| grants ranged from helping guarantee preservation and access to | |
| glass plate negatives, documenting Tucson and southern Arizona, | |
| to caring for the Emory Kolb Photo and Manuscript Collection, | |
| the most complete visual record of the Grand Canyon from 1902 | |
| to 1976. | |
| Ongoing archival programs for the city of Tucson and for | |
| the Arizona State Museum, the latter being the leading | |
| Southwest repository of anthropological collections, were | |
| started with seed money from the NHPRC. The most recent grant | |
| from the NHPRC is now making possible a new strategic plan for | |
| preservation and use of historical records in Arizona. | |
| In conclusion, let me comment that an investment of just $6 | |
| to $10 million to help secure America's history will pay off in | |
| better record keeping nationwide and a better historical | |
| understanding of localities, our States, and our Nation, for | |
| generations to come. | |
| Thank you for letting me explain the value of the NHPRC | |
| partnership for those of us who are trying to preserve our | |
| history in all the States. And, Mr. Chairman, please come visit | |
| us at the State Archives sometime when you are home in Arizona. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you very much, Mr. Hoober. I will take you | |
| up on that. | |
| I have been hearing from a lot of people in Arizona that | |
| have an interest in the archive projects, and I am very | |
| interested in learning more about it, so I will take you up on | |
| that and we will make a visit. Thank you very much. I | |
| appreciate you coming all this way. I hope your luggage catches | |
| up to you before you are back in Phoenix. | |
| [The prepared statement of Mr. Hoober follows:] | |
| [Pages 327 - 332--The official Committee record contains additional material here.] | |
| Tuesday, April 8, 1997. | |
| WITNESS | |
| PAGE MILLER NATIONAL COORDINATING COMMITTEE FOR THE PROMOTION OF | |
| HISTORY | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Page Miller, National Coordinating Committee for | |
| the Promotion of History. | |
| Ms. Miller. Thank you very much. I appreciate the | |
| opportunity to be with you. I was also here for the agency | |
| hearing, and I was a witness to your friendly bet with the | |
| archivists about the basketball. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Oh, yes. | |
| Ms. Miller. And I want to congratulate you on winning that. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. I haven't heard anything from them, yet. I | |
| thought of that a few days ago. | |
| Ms. Miller. Yes, because you are to get a steak dinner, as | |
| I recall. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. That is right. | |
| Ms. Miller. I am here on behalf of a coalition of 53 | |
| historical and archival organizations to urge you and the | |
| committee to appropriate $206 million in operating funds for | |
| the National Archives. I would like to talk about that part of | |
| the budget first. This is almost a $10 million increase over | |
| last year for the National Archives' operating budget, and we | |
| support this very strongly. | |
| The Archives has a mandate to appraise and describe and to | |
| service and preserve the records of the Federal Government, and | |
| I would like to talk about three of those components. | |
| The appraisal. The appraisal is working with the various | |
| agencies to decide which records are worthy to take to the | |
| Archives and to preserve and which should be destroyed. Only | |
| about 3 percent of what the agencies create are actually | |
| preserved and retired to the Archives. But developing the | |
| schedules that determine this 3 percent is called the | |
| appraisal, and the developing of these schedules is crucial and | |
| agencies need assistance with this. | |
| They are just about 2 dozen employees at the Archives who | |
| actually have hands-on work with agencies in determining these | |
| appraisal schedules, and we feel that they sorely need to beef | |
| up and have more people working with agencies. Agencies are | |
| eager for more guidance, particularly in this area of | |
| electronic records. | |
| A second area that is crucial is the describing of records. | |
| If you put all the records in the National Archives that are in | |
| Washington, and College Park, on a shelf, that shelf would be | |
| 240 miles long, and so we feel that describing these records so | |
| that users can actually use the finding aids is crucial. But 20 | |
| percent of the records in the National Archives do not have | |
| adequate enough descriptions so that researchers can come in | |
| and use finding aids. | |
| The Archives is in the process now of developing an | |
| electronic finding aid, and so they are transferring existing | |
| information from their finding aids into this large | |
| computerized finding aid, but for this 20 percent of the | |
| records that do not have adequate descriptions, there is | |
| nothing there to be transferred into this new electronic | |
| finding aid, so we are really concerned about this descriptive | |
| work. It is very labor intensive and that is another reason | |
| that the Archives sorely needs this $10 million increase. | |
| The third area is the servicing of records. Here I would | |
| like to talk a little bit about the State Department's central | |
| file. The central file are the cables that go back and forth | |
| between the Washington State Department and the Embassies and | |
| consulates abroad. This is heavily used by diplomatic | |
| historians, probably the richest collection in the Archives, | |
| heavily used. | |
| Now the State Department has digitized this collection, | |
| beginning in 1973, and from 1973 to the present, these are now | |
| only in digitized form. They are about to transfer next year | |
| the central file for 1973 to 1975 for the State Department to | |
| the National Archives. | |
| Now this is a watershed event for the National Archives | |
| because they receive a lot of computerized records, but this is | |
| the first time it has been a textual record, memos and cables, | |
| that had been transferred. Before it has been data sets. | |
| Now, if you go back into the Archives and you want to use | |
| records that are computerized, you generally have to buy the | |
| electronic tape, which is about $100, and then take it home and | |
| use it either at your home or at your office. There is no | |
| facility in the National Archives' central search room for the | |
| hardware and the software for using these electronic records. | |
| So when the central file arrives for the period 1973 to | |
| 1975, there is going to need to be an infusion of money for | |
| software, hardware, technical expertise, so that the diplomatic | |
| historians and others who come to use these very important | |
| State Department files will have access to them in the central | |
| search room, that they will not have to buy the electronic tape | |
| and use it at their office. I think the Archives has to in this | |
| reference and servicing area provide for the use of these | |
| records in the search room. So this is just an idea of some of | |
| the very pressing problems that certainly warrant this increase | |
| of $10 million. | |
| Now, one reason I have talked at length about this is | |
| because there is a practice, I think, of robbing Peter to pay | |
| Paul, and we are urging, as did your last witness, David | |
| Hoober, for there to be $6 million for NHPRC. And we are | |
| concerned that extra $2 million for NHPRC be on top of the | |
| President's request and not come out of the National Archives' | |
| operating budget. | |
| So we are now turning to the issue of NHPRC. | |
| I would just like to say that there are many areas of | |
| grants that are needed and people that apply to NHPRC for | |
| funds. We certainly support, as historians and archivists, the | |
| electronic records projects. The NHPRC, in the last 3 years, | |
| has funded 31 electronic records projects, and we think that | |
| should continue. But we also think it is very important they | |
| continue to fund the documentary editing projects. | |
| As I was driving over this morning, I was listening to NPR | |
| and there was a rundown on the Pulitzer prize winners, and one | |
| of the winners was Jack Rackoff, whose book on the original | |
| intent of the Constitution relied heavily on the documentary | |
| editing projects of the ratification of the Constitution and | |
| the first Federal Congress. | |
| So we hope that there will be a balanced approach to grants | |
| for NHPRC and that there will be enough money, $6 million, so | |
| that both the State programs, the documentary editing programs, | |
| and the electronic records programs can be funded. Thank you | |
| very much. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you very much, Ms. Miller, for that | |
| testimony. | |
| [The prepared statement of Ms. Miller follows:] | |
| [Pages 336 - 338--The official Committee record contains additional material here.] | |
| Tuesday, April 18, 1997. | |
| WITNESS | |
| LESLIE ROWLANDS, REPRESENTING THE ASSOCIATION FOR DOCUMENTARY EDITING | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Last in this area is Leslie Rowlands. | |
| Ms. Rowlands. Thank you very much. I am Leslie Rowlands. I | |
| teach history at the University of Maryland, and I am a | |
| documentary editor of a project that I will say a little more | |
| about as I go on. | |
| Now, since I am an historian, I want to begin with a little | |
| story from the past, and this is a story about a man named John | |
| Boston, who was a slave in Maryland, who, during the first year | |
| of the Civil War, escaped from his owner and took refuge with a | |
| regiment that had been recruited in Brooklyn, New York. | |
| As soon as he was safe, he took the occasion to write a | |
| letter to his wife, and I want to read you just a few lines | |
| from that: | |
| (Original text.) | |
| ``My Dear Wife,'' he wrote, ``it is with grate joy I take | |
| this time to let you know Whare I am i am now in Safety in the | |
| 14th Regiment of Brooklyn this Day i can Adress you thank god | |
| as a free man I had a little truble in giting away But as the | |
| lord led the Children of Isrel to the land of Canon So he led | |
| me to a land Whare fredom Will rain in spite Of earth and | |
| hell.'' | |
| After describing more about his circumstances, he then | |
| turned to personal comments. ``My Dear,'' he wrote, ``I Cant | |
| express my grate desire that i Have to See you i trust the time | |
| Will Come When We Shal meet again And if We dont met on earth | |
| We Will Meet in heven Whare Jesas ranes.'' | |
| ``rest yourself Contented i am free,'' he concluded, | |
| signing himself, ``Your Affectionate Husban,'' and then adding | |
| two postscripts, ``Kiss Daniel For me,'' and ``Give my love to | |
| Father and Mother.'' | |
| Now, this letter is part of a story that is being | |
| documented by the Freedmen and Southern Society Project, a | |
| historical editing project that I direct. John Boston's letter | |
| is one of thousands that my coeditors and I have discovered and | |
| are publishing in a multivolume edition entitled ``Freedom: A | |
| Documentary History of Emancipation,'' in 900 page volumes that | |
| look like this. | |
| Now this documentary edition, like many others, would | |
| simply never have come into existence without grants from the | |
| NHPRC, whose appropriation for fiscal year 1998 you are | |
| considering. | |
| During the initial years of our research, the NHPRC | |
| constituted our principal source of funds. Now as we | |
| transcribe, annotate, and index the documents, prepare them for | |
| publication, NHPRC grants generally constitute about one-third | |
| or less of our total budget. That is, we have used that money | |
| to generate other funds, but we could not generate that | |
| remaining support without the stable foundation that the NHPRC | |
| funds provide. In that regard, I think this is typicalof most | |
| editing projects. | |
| Since 1964, which is when the NHPRC first acquired grant- | |
| making authority, it has played an absolutely critical role in | |
| democratizing access to our Nation's documentary heritage, that | |
| is, making it available to all the American people. | |
| With really only very small appropriations from Congress, | |
| it has achieved remarkable success. To date, there are nearly | |
| 800 NHPRC volumes in print, not to mention thousands of reels | |
| of microfilm. Recent years have been especially productive, as | |
| we witness the published results of earlier investments in the | |
| very time-consuming process of locating documents in | |
| repositories and private collections across the country and | |
| abroad as well. Just from 1992 to the present, I count 117 | |
| volumes that have been published by NHPRC-sponsored documentary | |
| projects. I appended to my prepared statement a list of those | |
| volumes published since 1992. | |
| Now if funding is sustained for NHPRC, this record can | |
| easily be matched and even exceeded in coming years, as past | |
| investments reach the pay-off stage, but unfortunately, those | |
| investments are in increasing jeopardy because the NHPRC is | |
| being strangled by stagnant appropriations, and now, still | |
| worse, by a threatened 20 percent cut, if the amount proposed | |
| by the administration is granted. That $4 million recommended | |
| by the administration would return the NHPRC's appropriation to | |
| the same amount it received almost two decades ago in 1979, and | |
| in real dollars, that of course is a cut of enormous | |
| proportions. So I strongly urge you to support funding the | |
| NHPRC at the level of $6 million for fiscal year 1998. | |
| Now the impact of that $6 million would be widespread | |
| because the NHPRC-sponsored editions are bringing within reach | |
| citizens, students, and scholars nationally significant | |
| documents of the American past, of which they would not have | |
| otherwise accessed. | |
| You are probably aware of the use of these editions by | |
| scholars, and Page Miller has just cited one recent example. A | |
| vivid number that I think illustrates this results from a 1992 | |
| study that the NHPRC conducted with the American Council of | |
| Learned Societies, which found that more researchers used | |
| NHPRC-sponsored documentary editions than used all the | |
| Presidential libraries combined, and think of the Federal funds | |
| spent on the Presidential libraries. | |
| What may be less well-known to you, and what I would like | |
| to note before concluding, is the use of documentary editions | |
| beyond the academy and outside the classroom. That is, for | |
| example, the words of John Boston, with which I opened, have | |
| been part of dramatic readings performed by theater companies | |
| and on radio programs. In 1993, the National Black Theater | |
| Company of New York alone performed 20 dramatic readings for | |
| hospital workers in auditoriums and hospitals for workers | |
| during their lunch breaks. The Prenumbra Theater Company of | |
| Minneapolis/St. Paul performed dramatic readings from Freedom | |
| the following year. One radio station in New York devoted a | |
| whole evening to readings, almost 5 hours. I can't imagine that | |
| any one listener heard all of them, but for 5 hours, they did | |
| readings from Freedom. Legislators, like yourself, rely on | |
| documentary editions. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Let me just ask you to finish up as soon as | |
| possible. | |
| Ms. Rowlands. All right. As well as museum curators, | |
| filmmakers, the Arizona State Museum in Tucson, for example, | |
| has created a division that is dedicated to contact history in | |
| the greater Southwest, made possible by the documentary | |
| relations of the Southwest. | |
| Finally, students are using these, particularly in National | |
| History Day projects. Federal Congress papers and sites of | |
| editions on the World Wide Web are receiving numerous | |
| inquiries. The George Washington papers web site, for example, | |
| is visited more than 4,000 times a month. | |
| Stagnant funding, I think, threatens this access and I | |
| would call upon you to appreciate the ways in which editions | |
| are used, not only by scholars, but by the American people in | |
| general and fund the commission at $6 million. | |
| Thank you very much. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you very much for your testimony and for | |
| the stories that you told. We appreciate hearing that. | |
| [The prepared statement of Ms. Rowland follows:] | |
| [Pages 342 - 350--The official Committee record contains additional material here.] | |
| Tuesday, April 8, 1997. | |
| WITNESS | |
| RALPH BROWN, NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR MODEL STATE DRUG LAWS | |
| Mr. Kolbe. We have three more. We are falling a bit behind, | |
| but we will try and wrap this up as quickly as possible here. | |
| Next is Ralph Brown, speaking on behalf of the National | |
| Alliance for Model State Drug Laws. | |
| Let me repeat again, the full statement will be placed in | |
| the record, and we ask that you summarize this in the time | |
| allotted. | |
| Mr. Brown. Mr. Chairman, I am Ralph Brown of Dallas Center, | |
| Iowa, and I am Chair of the National Alliance for Model State | |
| Drug Laws. Thank you for this chance to share with you the | |
| successes of our model State drug law conferences. | |
| Under the leadership of this subcommittee and your former | |
| Chair, Jim Lightfoot of Iowa, the Congress appropriated $1 | |
| million for each of fiscal years 1996 and 1997 to allow the | |
| Alliance to provide model State drug law conferences. | |
| We work with State leaders to review the model laws drafted | |
| by our predecessor, the President's Commission on Model State | |
| Drug Laws. In doing so, we are carrying out the sense of the | |
| Congress in the legislation that created this commission. That | |
| commission set out to accomplish the mission of developing | |
| model laws for the States to use in addressing drug and alcohol | |
| abuse problems. | |
| Misperceptions and skepticism gave way to understanding and | |
| consensus. As a consequence, on the commission, those in law | |
| enforcement became convinced that good treatment works and | |
| enhances public safety. Those in treatment came to better | |
| appreciate the role that law enforcement must play in tackling | |
| alcohol and other substance abuse. | |
| Mr. Brown. From a new understanding, the Commission drafted | |
| 42 model laws that combine a carrot-and-stick approach to | |
| reducing alcohol and other substance abuse. Tough sanctions are | |
| used where appropriate. Equally important, the sanctions are | |
| designed to be constructive, to promote prevention and to | |
| attempt to leverage alcohol and other drug abusers into | |
| treatment. | |
| To continue the Commission's work, we then formed the | |
| National Alliance, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. | |
| By your appropriations, you have allowed States to recreate | |
| for themselves some of the educational and consensus-building | |
| processes we experienced on the Commission. | |
| To date we have held eight conferences, in Oregon, Georgia, | |
| Louisiana, Utah, Mississippi, Nevada, Iowa and Oklahoma. | |
| Tomorrow we go to New Jersey. Each conference is a day of | |
| intense hands-on sessions, dedicated to hammering out which of | |
| the model laws that State should pursue. | |
| We have active participation from law enforcement, | |
| treatment providers, judges, State legislators, education and | |
| prevention specialists, schoolteachers, administrators, | |
| corrections officials, Governors' staff, business and labor | |
| leaders, community advocates and parents. | |
| The model law gatherings are more than what we | |
| traditionally think of as conferences. They are forums in which | |
| individuals, whose lives are touched by alcohol and other | |
| drugs, can begin to reshape their State's alcohol abuse | |
| policies. State individuals use these conferences to share | |
| concerns, to hear different disciplines' perspectives on the | |
| issues, flesh out problems, identify priorities and needs, | |
| foster cooperative efforts among professions and agree on | |
| coordinated system-wide responses to the problem. | |
| This freedom of discussion flows from the nature of the | |
| conferences themselves. The ultimate decisions of what to do in | |
| each State rest with the conference participants, but States do | |
| look to the Alliance to help fine-tune these plans and turn | |
| their suggestions into reality. | |
| States depend upon the Alliance's analysis of legislation | |
| and existing statutes. This is especially true of hot topics | |
| involving system changes and delivery of services, such as | |
| managed care. By relying upon the Alliance's services, State | |
| leaders strive to prevent some age-old problems: Inconsistent, | |
| temporary statutory solutions; needless mistakes in application | |
| of laws; and a lack of reliable information regarding the | |
| effectiveness of laws. They want to avoid wasting time and | |
| resources on a legislative treadmill which can only keep them | |
| in the same place. | |
| The Alliance will continue to work hard to help State and | |
| local leaders take positive steps toward enacting strong, | |
| effective laws on alcohol and other substance abuse, tobacco | |
| issues. Just as General McCaffrey has lent his encouragement to | |
| the Alliance's efforts, it is our fervent hope that the support | |
| shown by this subcommittee and the Congress for our current | |
| activities will continue into the coming year. | |
| Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you very much. And we certainly agree that | |
| the work of the Alliance on this model drug law is a very | |
| important project and one which I had some knowledge of when I | |
| was in the Arizona State Legislature working on similar kinds | |
| of projects on model State laws. Thank you very much for your | |
| testimony. | |
| [The prepared statement of Mr. Brown follows:] | |
| [Pages 353 - 373--The official Committee record contains additional material here.] | |
| Tuesday, April 8, 1997. | |
| GSA RELATED MATTERS | |
| WITNESS | |
| MICHAEL SHEHADI, BUILDING OWNERS AND MANAGERS ASSOCIATION | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Michael Shehadi, representing the Building | |
| Owners and Managers Association International. Mr. Shehadi, | |
| please. Welcome and thank you. Please proceed. | |
| Mr. Shehadi. Thank you. Mr. Chairman and Members of the | |
| committee, my name is Michael Shehadi, and I am Group Senior | |
| Vice President for the Charles E. Smith Companies. We are a | |
| full-service real estate firm located here in Washington, and | |
| we are the largest provider to the Federal Government for at | |
| least office space here in the National Capital region. | |
| This morning I am speaking with you as a member of BOMA, | |
| and as former Chair of its National Advisory Council. Our | |
| 16,000 members develop, own and manage over half the commercial | |
| office space in the United States, and the Federal agencies | |
| make up a considerable portion of that space. | |
| BOMA is pleased to have a constructive working relationship | |
| with GSA, especially with officials of the BPS, the Public | |
| Buildings Service. The BPS is a member of BOMA's National | |
| Advisory Council, which is a group composed of the largest real | |
| estate companies in America. | |
| Agency officials are members of BOMA committees, and BOMA | |
| has testified before Congress to encourage the reevaluation of | |
| restrictions that hamper GSA's operations. | |
| In the past few years, there has been tremendous change in | |
| the Agency's direction, and as commercial owners and managers | |
| we have witnessed the transformation firsthand. GSA has made | |
| tremendous strides to become an agency that, in the | |
| administration's words, works better and costs less. At a time | |
| when other Federal agencies are requesting higher funding | |
| levels, GSA's cost to the taxpayer, whether operating | |
| appropriations or through the Federal Buildings Fund, continues | |
| to decrease. Moreover, the Agency functions not only with less | |
| funding but also with fewer employees as the Agency's total | |
| manpower has decreased by 29 percent since 1993. | |
| The GSA clearly desires to fundamentally alter the way it | |
| conducts its business. As indicators of this commitment, let me | |
| offer the following initiatives, each of which have been | |
| enacted in the last year: First, the Can't Beat GSA Leasing | |
| Program. By instituting more cost-effective and timely leasing | |
| practices, the Agency now activity competes for the leasing | |
| business of Federal agencies. As a result, and utilizing | |
| streamlined procedures, industry benchmarks and universal | |
| standards like the BOMA Floor Area Measurement Standard, the | |
| Agency makes it easier for private commercial companies to | |
| interact with the GSA. | |
| Second, the National Real Estate Service Contract. Under | |
| this new program up to eight different private sector | |
| commercial brokers will provide leasing services for GSA's | |
| tenant agencies, covering all functions from initial space | |
| requests to postlease services. By contracting withcommercial | |
| brokers, GSA will augment its staff with the skills and expertise of | |
| the private sector. | |
| Third, the Good Neighbor Policy. GSA seeks to be a full | |
| partner in local affairs by actively participating in Business | |
| Improvement Districts, which are private sector initiatives | |
| created to resolve community problems. Thus, the cost of | |
| security, maintenance and cleaning within these districts can | |
| now be shared equally without others covering Federal | |
| structures' costs. | |
| And fourth, the Private Sector Cooperation. GSA now | |
| actively seeks greater private sector interaction for its | |
| employees. Thus, helping to improve performance. GSA's | |
| employees are enrolled, through BOMA International and real | |
| estate educational programs, which update their skills and | |
| foster interaction with private sector professionals. Thus, the | |
| GSA continues to advance as an organization for transforming | |
| the way it performs. | |
| For some ``business reinvention'' is merely a popular catch | |
| phrase, but for GSA we are witnessing that they really do mean | |
| it. | |
| The GSA has come a considerable distance in reinventing | |
| itself, but the larger question remains is what should the | |
| Agency's future role be? BOMA believes that the appropriate | |
| approach for Congress is not to radically alter the GSA. BOMA | |
| maintains that opportunities exist for the private sector to | |
| assist in improving service and cutting costs, an example being | |
| the National Real Estate Services Contracts. | |
| However, we caution against indiscriminate cuts that would | |
| undermine the Agency and decimate its ability to carry out its | |
| functions of real property oversight. Thus BOMA urges this | |
| subcommittee not only to provide the necessary funds for GSA's | |
| business operations, but also to support the Agency's efforts | |
| to reshape itself and better serve its customers and the | |
| taxpayer. | |
| In summary, BOMA is pleased with the dramatic changes being | |
| implemented by the GSA. We are particularly impressed with the | |
| efforts of David Barram and Bob Peck and their employee teams. | |
| Their initiatives have helped to facilitate greater and more | |
| efficient interactions between private and public sectors. Yet, | |
| of greater importance, these efforts allow GSA to better serve | |
| its primary customer, the Federal Government, and the user | |
| agencies. | |
| Thank you for your time. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you very much, and I certainly share your | |
| enthusiasm for the work of David Barram and Bob Peck. I am very | |
| impressed with them as I have gotten to know them. Thank you | |
| very much for giving that testimony. | |
| [The prepared statement of Mr. Shehadi follows:] | |
| [Pages 376 - 382--The official Committee record contains additional material here.] | |
| Tuesday, April 8, 1997. | |
| FLRA RELATED MATTERS | |
| WITNESS | |
| RALPH STRNAD, WASHINGTON AREA METAL TRADES COUNCIL | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Our last statement this morning or this | |
| afternoon now is for Ralph Strnad. Welcome. | |
| Is that the correct pronunciation, sir? | |
| Mr. Strnad. Good morning. No, sir. It is Strnad. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Please go ahead. | |
| Mr. Strnad. Good morning, and thank you for the support of | |
| your staff in seeing that I was able to do this this morning. | |
| Mr. Chairman and Members of the subcommittee, I appreciate | |
| this opportunity to appear before you this day and express our | |
| views and concerns relating to the continued funding of the | |
| Federal Labor Relations Authority at the proposed budgeted | |
| levels. The point of my appearance here is that I and my | |
| colleagues believe that to allocate funds for this Agency, | |
| uncritically, without specific direction, is to sanction | |
| pernicious conducts, practices and policies of its leadership | |
| and other agents over the past few years, at least in the | |
| Washington regional area. | |
| My name is Ralph Strnad. I am the Secretary of the | |
| Washington Area Metal Trades Council and the Chief Steward at | |
| the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. | |
| I am here with the approval of the WAMTC, as well as the | |
| Goddard Engineers, Scientists, and Technicians Association, | |
| GESTA, which is an IFPTE Local 29, whose president, Dennis | |
| Olivares, could not be here today. Between these two unions we | |
| jointly represent nearly 2,000 Goddard employees. | |
| Our experiences with the FLRA are as similar as they are | |
| disappointing. The FLRA is simply too politicized and | |
| operationally too pro-management. They seemingly have no | |
| expertise nor even the requisite bare sensitivity to the | |
| potentially oppressive working conditions visited on our | |
| bargaining unit members. | |
| In any kind of a generic adjudicatory body whose operations | |
| are objectively viewed as fair, legal and equitable, the | |
| direction of the decisions and judgments are usually somewhat | |
| balanced, which is to say, in FLRA terms, about half the | |
| decisions would be pro-management, and about half would be pro- | |
| union. But with the FLRA, the decisions are grossly and | |
| disproportionately lopsided in favor of the agencies at the | |
| expense of the unions. | |
| We are lucky to prevail at a rate of 16 percent of filing | |
| unfair labor practices, and those victories are frequently | |
| tainted with face-saving compromises such as innocuous | |
| statutory language in notice-postings on Agency bulletin | |
| boards. | |
| Their investigations are slipshod, and, along with the | |
| tortured logic of their so-called legal analyses, are largely | |
| boilerplate and forced to a preordained conclusion. Labor is | |
| wasting its time in this forum. | |
| Customer service ratings must surely be high for the FLRA, | |
| but only because their obvious customer is agency management. | |
| This Agency does not even provide an internal complaint form | |
| for the innumerable problems we have encountered during the | |
| handling of a ULP or a petition. | |
| Individuals fare even worse in ULP decisions than unions. | |
| Agency brutality in this era of Federal downsizing knows no | |
| bounds, and far too many of our victims are exposed to | |
| irreparable harm as a consequence of trumped-up charges by | |
| desperate managers. Many heated arguments have failed to | |
| persuade the FLRA general counsel to follow their own | |
| regulations and honor petitions for temporary restraining | |
| orders and other injunctive relief in plain compliance with 5 | |
| U.S.C. 7123(b-d). | |
| For the past 2 years the general counsel has been busy | |
| eroding what few pro-union doctrines the FLRA has managed to | |
| put in its books during its more enlightened past. Things have | |
| gotten to where we dread the publication of the next issue of | |
| the FLRA NEWS. Their new ``Covered-by Doctrine'' is a needless | |
| cruelty and serves no purpose but to crassly clear caseloads | |
| and accelerate the rate at which our ULPs are dispatched to the | |
| dustbin. | |
| We are not merely complaining that we want to win more or | |
| that we are tired of losing so many meritorious cases in what | |
| at best seems a capricious game at the taxpayers' expense. | |
| Rather we want a more level and equitable playing field ofthe | |
| sort Congress envisioned when it enacted Title 7 of the Civil Service | |
| Reform Act and established the independent FLRA. | |
| If you fully fund these people, thereby reinforcing their | |
| biased behaviors, and things proceed as they have been going, | |
| you will actually be placing that Agency at an increasing risk | |
| of totally losing its adjudicatory credibility and respect as | |
| an impartial government entity, and we have suggested three | |
| recommendations. | |
| One: Instruct the entire FLRA to implement and follow to | |
| the letter the plain-language meaning and mandates of their | |
| enabling statute and their own regulations published in Title 5 | |
| of the CFR. Eliminate their reliance on unpublished or secret | |
| local practices of any kind, especially those which diminish | |
| the letter and spirit of the statute. | |
| Two: Mandate a customer satisfaction system for the FLRA | |
| where serious mishandling of cases can be registered and | |
| measured and monitored by the public and by Congress. Order the | |
| Government Accounting Office to help set up this system and | |
| require the FLRA to submit semiannual reports to this | |
| subcommittee evidencing compliance with the system's procedures | |
| and with the instruction requested above. | |
| Three: Instruct the FLRA to amend its regulations and other | |
| internal directives such that notice-postings that can be made | |
| into a meaningful remedy; i.e., notices should generally | |
| contain an admission clause on the part of the agency found in | |
| violation of the statute. Language should not be negotiable by | |
| or on behalf of the violator in so-called ``bilateral | |
| settlements,'' for which the FLRA is notorious, despite | |
| contrary instruction from its own general counsel, and see | |
| general counsel's memo entitled ``Settlement Policy May 25th, | |
| 1994.'' See that all unilateral settlements are eliminated and | |
| expunged as an adjudicatory option for the FLRA casehandlers. | |
| Thank you very much for this opportunity to--this time to | |
| express this important issue. | |
| Mr. Kolbe. Thank you very much, Mr. Strnad, for that | |
| testimony. We appreciate it very much. | |
| Mr. Strnad. Thank you, sir. | |
| [The prepared statement of Mr. Strnad follows:] | |
| [Pages 386 - 387--The official Committee record contains additional material here.] | |
| Mr. Kolbe. We have another written testimony that will be | |
| placed in the record here from Mr. Maldonado, University of | |
| Puerto Rico. | |
| [The statement of Mr. Maldonado follows:] | |
| [Pages 389 - 391--The official Committee record contains additional material here.] | |
| Mr. Kolbe. No further testimony, this subcommittee stands | |
| adjourned. | |
| [The following statements were submitted for the record | |
| from Congresswoman Maloney, Congressman Jenkins, Congressman | |
| English, Congressman Meehan, Congressman Gekas, and Mr. Sharpe | |
| follow:] | |
| [Pages 393 - 425--The official Committee record contains additional material here.] | |
| W I T N E S S E S | |
| ---------- | |
| Page | |
| Berne, B. H...................................................... 219 | |
| Blumenauer, Hon. Earl............................................ 1 | |
| Brown, Ralph..................................................... 351 | |
| Burke, William................................................. 219, 276 | |
| Byrne, Robert.................................................... 281 | |
| Cunningham, Jim................................................ 150, 174 | |
| English, Hon. Phil............................................... 405 | |
| Gekas, Hon. G. W................................................. 412 | |
| Hoober, David.................................................... 324 | |
| James, Sharpe.................................................... 424 | |
| Jenkins, Hon. W. L............................................... 394 | |
| Larson, Eric..................................................... 16 | |
| Maldonado, Dr. N. I.............................................. 389 | |
| Maloney, Hon. C. B............................................... 393 | |
| Markuns, J. F.................................................... 291 | |
| Meehan, Hon. Marty............................................... 407 | |
| Miller, P. P................................................... 324, 333 | |
| Reiter, R. F..................................................... 145 | |
| Romero-Barcelo1, Hon. Carlos..................................... 5 | |
| Rowlands, Leslie............................................... 324, 339 | |
| Schlein, David................................................. 150, 192 | |
| Shays, Hon. Christopher.......................................... 140 | |
| Shehadi, Michael................................................. 374 | |
| Strnad, Ralph.................................................... 383 | |
| Tobias, Bob...................................................... 150 | |
| Visclosky, Hon. Peter............................................ 12 | |
| Waters, Hon. Maxine.............................................. 169 | |
| I N D E X | |
| ---------- | |
| U.S. Postal Service Related Matters: | |
| Page | |
| Honorable Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)............................. 1 | |
| General Services Administration Related Matters: | |
| Honorable Carlos Romero-Barcelo1 (D-PR)...................... 5 | |
| Bernard H. Berne, M.D., Ph.D., Private Individual............ 219 | |
| International Window Film Association, William Burke......... 276 | |
| Building Owners and Managers Association, Michael Shehadi.... 374 | |
| University of Puerto Rico, Dr. Norman I. Maldonado........... 389 | |
| Honorable William L. Jenkins (R-TN).......................... 394 | |
| Honorable Phil English (R-PA)................................ 405 | |
| City of Newark, New Jersey, Hon. James Sharpe, Mayor......... 424 | |
| Internal Revenue Service Related Matters: | |
| American Association of Retired Persons, Robert Byrne........ 281 | |
| Merit Systems Protection Board Related Matters: | |
| Merit Systems Protection Boards Professional Association, | |
| John Markuns............................................... 291 | |
| Honorable George W. Gekas (R-PA)............................. 412 | |
| Office of National Drug Control Policy Related Matters: | |
| Honorable Peter Visclosky (D-IN)............................. 12 | |
| Honorable Maxine Waters (D-CA)............................... 169 | |
| National Alliance for Model State Drug Laws.................. 351 | |
| Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Related Matters: | |
| Collectors Arms Dealers Association, Eric Larson............. 16 | |
| Federal Election Commission Related Matters: | |
| Honorable Christopher Shays (R-CT)........................... 140 | |
| Honorable Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY).......................... 393 | |
| Honorable Marty Meehan (D-MA)................................ 407 | |
| U.S. Customs Service Related Matters: | |
| Analytical Systems Engineering Corporation, Robert F. Reiter. 145 | |
| Federal Employee Related Matters: | |
| National Treasury Employees Union, Bob Tobias................ 150 | |
| National Federation of Federal Employees, Jim Cunningham..... 174 | |
| American Federation of Government Employees, David Schlein... 192 | |
| National Archives and Records Administration and Related Matters: | |
| State of Arizona, David Hoober............................... 324 | |
| National Coordinating Committee for the Promotion of History, | |
| Page Miller................................................ 333 | |
| The Association for Documentary Editing, Leslie Rowlands..... 339 | |
| Federal Labor Relations Authority Related Matters: | |
| Washington Area Metal Trades Council, Ralph Strnad........... 383 | |
| <all> | |
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