Legislative Branch Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1998

S. HRG. 105±264 LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 1998 HEARINGS BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED FIFTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION ON H.R. 2209/S. 1019 AN ACT MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 1998, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES Architect of the Capitol (except House items) Capitol Police Board Congressional Budget Office General Accounting Office Government Printing Office Joint Committee on Printing Joint Committee on Taxation Joint Economic Committee Library of Congress Nondepartmental witnesses Office of Compliance U.S. Senate Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 39±862 cc WASHINGTON : 1997 For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office, Washington, DC 20402 COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS TED STEVENS, Alaska, Chairman THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico ERNEST F. HOLLINGS, South Carolina CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont SLADE GORTON, Washington DALE BUMPERS, Arkansas MITCH MCCONNELL, Kentucky FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey CONRAD BURNS, Montana TOM HARKIN, Iowa RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire HARRY REID, Nevada ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah HERB KOHL, Wisconsin BEN NIGHTHORSE CAMPBELL, Colorado PATTY MURRAY, Washington LARRY CRAIG, Idaho BYRON DORGAN, North Dakota LAUCH FAIRCLOTH, North Carolina BARBARA BOXER, California KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas STEVEN J. CORTESE, Staff Director LISA SUTHERLAND, Deputy Staff Director JAMES H. ENGLISH, Minority Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah, Chairman TED STEVENS, Alaska BYRON DORGAN, North Dakota LARRY CRAIG, Idaho BARBARA BOXER, California ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia (ex officio) Professional Staff CHRISTINE CICCONE JAMES H. ENGLISH (Minority) (II) CONTENTS TUESDAY, MAY 6, 1997 Page Joint Committee on Printing .................................................................................. 1 Joint Economic Committee ..................................................................................... 7 Joint Committee on Taxation ................................................................................. 13 TUESDAY, MAY 20, 1997 Capitol Police Board ................................................................................................ 45 Congressional Budget Office ................................................................................... 91 THURSDAY, JUNE 5, 1997 Library of Congress ................................................................................................. 105 Government Printing Office .................................................................................... 199 General Accounting Office ...................................................................................... 227 Nondepartmental witnesses .................................................................................... 243 TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 1997 Office of Compliance ................................................................................................ 249 U.S. Senate: Office of the Secretary of the Senate .............................................................. 265 Office of the Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper ............................................ 299 Architect of the Capitol ........................................................................................... 315 (III) LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 1998 TUESDAY, MAY 6, 1997 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met at 10:05 a.m., in room S±128, the Capitol, Hon. Robert F. Bennett (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Bennett and Dorgan. JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN W. WARNER, CHAIRMAN ACCOMPANIED BY ERIC C. PETERSON, STAFF DIRECTOR OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT F. BENNETT Senator BENNETT. The subcommittee will come to order. This is the first of four hearings that the Legislative Branch Subcommittee will hold on the budget request for the fiscal year 1998. I am the new chairman of this subcommittee. I welcome the opportunity to participate in the oversight responsibilities of the committee as they pertain to the appropriations programs and activities of the legislative branch of our Government. I understand Sen- ator Dorgan, who is the new ranking member, will be along short- ly. I have been privileged to serve on this committee under the chairmanship of Senator Mack, and will do my best to carry on in his tradition. We welcome Senator Warner here. He is chairman of the Joint Committee on Printing, and our first subject this morning is the budget request of the Joint Committee on Printing. The request in fiscal 1998 is $804,000, which is a $27,000 in- crease from the 1997 level of $777,000. Senator Warner, we welcome you, and we will be happy to receive your testimony. INTRODUCTION OF STAFF Senator WARNER. I thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. May I first introduce Col. Grayson Winterling, who is staff director of the Rules Committee, which has sort of ancillary responsibility, and Mr. Eric Peterson, who is the staff director of the Joint Committee on Printing. I will submit my entire statement for the record, Mr. Chairman, and cover some of the high points. (1) 2 OPENING STATEMENT The point I wish to make is under the leadership of Senator Ste- vens, my predecessor on the Rules Committee as chairman, we have been looking at title 44. Title 44 is an interesting piece of leg- islation. However, over a period of years there has been a creeping tendency on the part of a number of departments and agencies of the Federal Government to violate it. Now, the degree to which it is violated, that is maybe lost in se- mantics, but I say there is certainly a technical violation. It is not good, honest Government employees trying to break the law, but for various reasons practices have grown up whereby the departments and agencies have made in-house printing facilities which now serve their needs and have not gone through the Government Printing Office, so I am continuing the work started by Senator Stevens on what we call title 44 reform. LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL TO REVISE TITLE 44 From a concept paper, a legislative proposal has been drafted, and that proposal has been the subject of one hearing before the Rules Committee, and there is another one planned here in a few days. Based on the recommendations received during these hearings and other comments submitted for the record, the staff of the Joint Committee on Printing in cooperation with the Senate Rules Committee will redraft the legislative proposal. It is my hope to introduce a reform bill in a matter of months, and do it on a bipartisan basis. There is really no politics at all involved in this thing. It is just a question of what is the intent of the legislative branch and the executive branch to solve the problem. That problem is a constitutional one that is involved with the separation of powers. It stems from a 1983 Supreme Court decision in the case of the Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha. I mention that because it is quite well-known through Govern- ment circles, and everybody sort of looks the other way, but it is the responsibility of both the legislative and executive branches to solve this tough problem. Now, the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel wrote an opinion last year which construed the committee's involvement with the Government Printing Office to be the equivalent of exer- cising a legislative veto over the printing activities of executive branch agencies and thus a violation of the separation of powers doctrine. In the face of that opinion, it is difficult for the committee to ob- tain executive branch compliance with title 44. Some executive branch agencies either are procuring printing without going through the GPO, or doing printing for other agencies, or doing theirs in-house, and a mix of all of the above. As I say, at the moment I describe these practices as a technical violation of title 44. Now, the question before the Rules Committee is whether these are violations costing the taxpayers added dollars? Are they costing the taxpayers a reduced accessibility to a lot of the information cre- ated by the Government? 3 So I just urge the committee to approve this budget. Hopefully, we will answer these questions this year, Mr. Chairman. I am de- termined to do so. I view this budget as in the public interest because it funds the committee that must resolve this public policy question between the legislative and executive branches. It cannot go on. PREPARED STATEMENT So with that, I will just submit the balance of my testimony and I will be happy to respond to your questions, Mr. Chairman. [The statement follows:] PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR JOHN WARNER Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today on behalf of the Joint Committee on Printing, and its budget request of $804,000 for fiscal year 1998. Rather than reiterate the testimony I pro- vided the House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee in February, I will give you an update on the Joint Committee's initiative to reform Title 44.

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