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HRG. 109–154 LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2006 HEARINGS BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION ON H.R. 2985 AN ACT MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2006, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES Architect of the Capitol (except House items) Capitol Guide Board Capitol Police Board Congressional Budget Office Government Accountability Office Government Printing Office 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.gpoaccess.gov/congress/index.html U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 99–872 PDF WASHINGTON : 2005 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402–0001 COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi, Chairman TED STEVENS, Alaska ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri TOM HARKIN, Iowa MITCH MCCONNELL, Kentucky BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland CONRAD BURNS, Montana HARRY REID, Nevada RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama HERB KOHL, Wisconsin JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire PATTY MURRAY, Washington ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota LARRY CRAIG, Idaho DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois MIKE DEWINE, Ohio TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana WAYNE ALLARD, Colorado J. KEITH KENNEDY, Staff Director TERRENCE E. SAUVAIN, Minority Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH WAYNE ALLARD, Colorado, Chairman THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois MIKE DEWINE, Ohio TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia (ex officio) Professional Staff CAROLYN E. APOSTOLOU TERRENCE E. SAUVAIN (Minority) DREW WILLISON (Minority) NANCY OLKEWICZ (Minority) Administrative Support CHRISTEN TAYLOR (II) CONTENTS WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 2005 Page U.S. Senate: Office of the Secretary ....................................................................... 1 Architect of the Capitol ........................................................................................... 71 TUESDAY, APRIL 19, 2005 Library of Congress ................................................................................................. 121 Government Accountability Office .......................................................................... 169 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2005 U.S. Senate: Office of the Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper ............................. 209 Capitol Police Board ................................................................................................ 241 Capitol Guide Board ................................................................................................ 261 WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 2005 Government Printing Office .................................................................................... 265 Congressional Budget Office ................................................................................... 285 Office of Compliance ................................................................................................ 293 MATERIAL SUBMITTED BY AGENCIES NOT APPEARING FOR FORMAL HEARINGS Joint Committee on Taxation ................................................................................. 303 Joint Economic Committee ..................................................................................... 314 Nondepartmental Witnesses ................................................................................... 317 (III) LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2006 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 2005 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met at 10:30 a.m., in room SD–116, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Wayne Allard (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Allard, Cochran, and Durbin. U.S. SENATE OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY STATEMENT OF EMILY REYNOLDS, SECRETARY OF THE SENATE ACCOMPANIED BY: MARY SUIT JONES, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE SENATE TIM WINEMAN, FINANCIAL CLERK OF THE SENATE OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR WAYNE ALLARD Senator ALLARD. The Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch, Committee on Appropriations, will come to order. We meet today to hear testimony from the Secretary of the Senate and the Archi- tect of the Capitol on the fiscal year 2006 budget requests. It’s my first hearing as chairman of this subcommittee, and I look forward to learning about the key issues and budget priorities within each of the legislative branch agencies. Overall, the request for the legislative branch totals $4.03 billion, an increase of $482 million, or a 13.5 percent increase over the fis- cal year 2005 level. Clearly, in the constrained budget environment in which we will be operating, an increase of this level will be dif- ficult, if not impossible to provide, so we will be seeking to ensure that all agencies have prioritized their budget requests, are taking steps to operate as cost effectively as possible, and are eliminating wasteful or unnecessary spending. Welcome to our witnesses this morning. We will hear first from Emily Reynolds, Secretary of the Senate, who’s accompanied by the Assistant Secretary of the Senate, Mary Suit Jones, and the Finan- cial Clerk of the Senate, Tim Wineman. Ms. Reynolds, your budget request totals almost $23 million, an increase of about 7 percent over fiscal year 2005, primarily to ac- commodate routine pay and inflation-related increases, as well as to make some upgrades in a few areas. (1) 2 Following the Secretary of the Senate, we will take testimony from Mr. Alan Hantman, Architect of the Capitol. The AOC budget request totals $506 million, an increase of $157 million over the current fiscal year. The increase is largely associated with several construction projects, including completion of the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC), construction of the Library of Congress storage mod- ules at Fort Meade, Maryland, and a new offsite delivery facility for the Capitol Police, as well as startup costs and new personnel for the CVC. Your budget office is to be commended for putting together a budget justification which is transparent and thorough and ex- plains all increases concisely, and we certainly appreciate that ef- fort. There are a number of issues I’d like to explore with you today. Most important, of course, is the schedule and budget for comple- tion of the Capitol Visitor Center. As I understand it, while much progress has been made, there’s still a long way to go before the facility can be opened to the public, and the schedule remains un- clear. There have been significant difficulties with this project, in- cluding coordinating two major construction contractors, weather- related delays, unforeseen site conditions, and, frankly, serious management problems. While it is too late to make major changes to how the project is being run, it is my expectation that you will make every effort to demand the best from your contractors, pro- vide the Congress with a balanced assessment of progress as the project continues, and accept the counsel of the Government Ac- countability Office (GAO), which has been monitoring the project, providing recommendations from the start. GAO has done a very professional job in this oversight effort, and we appreciate this. Their projections on cost and schedule have been accurate, and their recommendations have been good. In addition to the CVC, there continues to be much construction activity around this campus. One of the primary reasons is secu- rity-related work that will continue even after the CVC is complete. All of us have construction fatigue and look forward to when this complex can be returned to a state that we can all be proud of, free of construction activity, dump trucks, jersey barriers, and torn-up streets. So we will be urging you to accelerate these efforts, which have been in the works for many years now. The perimeter security project and the visitor center seem to be emblematic of problems this agency continues to have with project management. As I understand it, about half of the major projects AOC has underway at this time are behind schedule, and too many are over budget, as well. We look forward to hearing what you’re doing to improve project management. There are also concerns with the morale of your workforce. High- lighted in an article a few weeks back in The Hill newspaper, it seems that communication with employees is not as good as it should be. So we look forward to an update on how you’re improv- ing communication and employee morale. Finally, the AOC has been working to develop a long-range mas- ter plan for the Capitol complex, as well as condition assessments of each of the buildings. This should lead to a plan for prioritizing spending for both capital projects and deferred maintenance over 3 the next 5 years. The master planning effort has been underway for some time, so we look forward to understanding when we will have a final product and a roadmap for future budget require- ments. We will now turn to the Secretary of the Senate. I welcome you to the subcommittee and look forward to your testimony, Ms. Rey- nolds.