[House Hearing, 108 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
MARK-UP OF THE OMNIBUS COMMITTEE FUNDING RESOLUTION, AND OTHER PENDING
ITEMS
=======================================================================
MEETING
before the
COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, MAY 6, 2003
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on House Administration
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COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION
BOB NEY, Ohio, Chairman
VERNON J. EHLERS, Michigan JOHN B. LARSON, Connecticut
JOHN L. MICA, Florida Ranking Minority Member
JOHN LINDER, Georgia JUANITA MILLENDER-McDONALD,
JOHN T. DOOLITTLE, California California
THOMAS M. REYNOLDS, New York ROBERT A. BRADY, Pennsylvania
Professional Staff
Paul Vinovich, Staff Director
George Shevin, Minority Staff Director
MARKUP OF OMNIBUS COMMITTEE FUNDING RESOLUTION, AND OTHER PENDING ITEMS
TUESDAY, MAY 6, 2003
House of Representatives,
Committee on House Administration,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to call, at 5 p.m., in room
1334, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Robert W. Ney
(chairman of the committee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Ney, Ehlers, Linder, Doolittle,
Larson, Millender-McDonald and Brady.
Staff present: Paul Vinovich, Staff Director; Fred Hay,
Counsel; Channing Nuss, Deputy Staff Director; Jeff Janas,
Professional Staff Member; George Shevlin, Minority Staff
director; Matt Pinkus, Minority Professional Staff Member;
Keith Abouchar, Minority Professional Staff Member; and William
H. Cable, Minority Special Counsel.
The Chairman. The meeting will come to order on Congress's
omnibus committee funding resolution, a separate resolution
funding the Committee on Homeland security, and finally a
committee resolution establishing the 108th Congress frank mail
allocation for committees. The committee is meeting today to
consider H. Resolution 148, the omnibus resolution providing
for the expenses of certain committees of the United States
House of Representatives for the 108th Congress; also we will
be considering H. Res. 110, a separate resolution authorizing
funding for the Select Committee on Homeland Security as well
as House Administration Committee resolution providing frank
mail allocations to the same committees.
As everyone is well aware, we have the task this year of
funding a newly created committee, Homeland Security, that will
be done in a separate measure due to the fact it is a brand new
authorization of a committee. In February of this year the
Chair and Ranking Member of each committee presented a budget
request to the Committee on House Administration and introduced
individual resolutions to support their funding requests.
H. Res. 148, the omnibus primary expense resolution,
combines all of the individual resolutions into one bill. These
resolutions, along with the committee resolution setting the
frank mail allocation, will finally fund committees for the
108th Congress. The mark is an amendment in the nature of a
substitute outlining each committee's authorized spending
levels for 2003 and 2004. Therefore, this is a biennial
operating budget for these committees for the Chairs and the
Ranking Members. A separate amendment in the nature of a
substitute will be offered authorizing funds for the Select
Committee on Homeland Security, and the Appropriations
Committee has already authorized the actual spending amount for
that committee.
So I am pleased to put before the committee a Chairman's
mark that can be supported by a majority of Members on both
sides of the aisle. I feel that both the Chair and Ranking
Members will agree that this carefully crafted agreement will
provide sufficient funding for them to carry out the duties and
responsibilities with which they are charged.
As we all know, the Select Committee on Homeland Security
was created at the beginning of this Congress. That committee
will provide an important oversight function of the newly
created Homeland Security Department, and ensuring that the
combined agencies are doing their job we all expect of them
with regards to protecting our homeland. The Select Committee
on Homeland Security submitted a budget request of just over 11
million; however, due to the fact that the Homeland Security
budget represents a special situation with regard to this
funding cycle, we have not included them, again, as I mentioned
earlier, in the Chairman's mark of the omnibus expense
resolution. As I also stated earlier, we will instead today
pass an amendment in the nature of a substitute to the
resolution introduced by Select Committee on Homeland Security
authorizing their funding for the 108th Congress.
Committees of the House requested a total of 252.5 million
in spending for the 108th Congress. This is a $49 million
increase over what was authorized in the 107th Congress, and
represents a 24.1 increase in the amount of moneys that they
requested. Removing the Homeland Security from the equation,
the request by committees totaled 241.5 million, a 37.9 million
increase over the 107th authorized levels, or 18.6 percent
increase overall for committee funding. Further, the Chairman's
mark reduces the amount requested by those committees that I
just stated by 18.8 million, or a 7.8 percent decrease.
The amendment in the nature of a substitute providing
expenses for all committees other than the Homeland Security
authorizes 222.7 million, a 9.4 percent increase. I would note
that is 9.4 percent, and if you divide that by the 2 years, it
comes to--my math is not really good, but it comes to around
4.5, I assume, somewhere near that. Our scientist tells me 4.7
per year, which is very reasonable and very responsible. This
is a 19.2 million increase over the 107th Congress at the
authorized levels.
It should be noted that the 108th Congress funding level of
222.7 million excluding Homeland Security is still lower than
the funding levels in the 103rd Congress in both constant and
actual dollars. The mark for the 103rd Congress was 223.3
million. When adjusted for inflation, it amounts to 252.3
million in 2003 dollars. This means that while 10 years have
elapsed since the beginning of the 103rd Congress, our funding
levels are just reaching the levels authorized in that Congress
on a real-dollar basis because of the drastic cuts that were
instituted in the 104th Congress, the year I came into the
Congress. On a constant dollar basis we are significantly under
the adjusted amount by approximately $29.6 million. I am proud
of the numbers.
During the process as well as in the 107th Congress, the
committee identified two special categories of requests that we
felt needed to be addressed separately from the regular funding
process. It is important to ensure that we put forth the most
accurate reflection of the amounts we are providing to
committees, and those numbers should not be distorted and
inflated with other special needs.
Here, our further requests to upgrade committee rooms and
requests for disaster recovery equipment. As we did the
previous session of Congress, we do in a separate measure the
upgrades. We are attempting to upgrade every hearing room. This
will allow the public to have more access to the Congress. If
they are not coming to Washington, D.C., it can be seen over
the Internet. We have had, in our own House Administration
Committee, a broadcast of witnesses from Prague who have been
able to testify on election reform. We are attempting to
modernize the committee hearing rooms, and it is a process that
has been going on for quite a few years, but we hope to have it
done in the near future.
And also, the second process would be to have disaster
recovery equipment. In the 107th Congress, we removed hearing
upgrade requests from the normal committee funding process as
those costs would have severely distorted the actual amounts it
takes to run committees, because these are one-time shots that
should not be included in these committee funding resolutions.
It was also felt that the hearing room served an institutional
function, and therefore, upgrades should be paid for out of a
centralized House fund where appropriate.
Hearing rooms were in desperate need of refurbishing. Most
have not seen an upgrade in decades. Having removed the
upgrades in the process--from the committee funding process, we
were able to proceed and make significant progress towards
bringing our hearing rooms to the 21st century standards. While
we have not finished all of our main and subcommittee hearings
rooms as yet, we are well on our way to making the proceedings
of committees more accessible and user-friendly to the general
public not only across the Nation, but across the world.
On a different but related note, the 108th Congress has
seen a substantial but understandable amount of requests from
committees with regard to disaster recovery equipment directly
related to the events of September 11 and subsequent biological
attacks that were directed to the Capitol complex with the
anthrax. The hearing room upgrades, the protection of committee
data was thought to serve an institutional function. Therefore,
the costs for providing a mechanism that gives committees an
alternative off-site storage site for data in the event of a
debilitating or catastrophic event should be borne by the House
and not by the committees individually. Further providing
enterprise solutions for off-site data storage ensures that a
common standard will be applied for the equipment purchased and
used to provide backup storage for committee data.
As we all know, we have had to undertake and will continue
to undertake as a committee different ideas and approaches that
we never thought we would be talking about since 9/11. At one
point in time when our buildings were shut down, and we could
not get into the computer equipment--water had leaked down
through, and some of the equipment was possibly going to be
compromised--the U.S. House would have been faced with the fact
that we would not have had access to data. This will allow
these committees to have basically a backup that will ensure
that the work of the committees and the U.S. House will still
be available to the public, as it should be.
There is no way these committees could pay for this
individually, for these costs. That is why we will follow up
with another measure. In response to the situation, the
committee, in conjunction with the Chief Administrative Officer
Jay Eagan and the Architect of the Capitol, has already begun
work on an alternative computing facility, ACF, that will allow
committees to store their data in a protected off-site facility
outside of the metro Washington, D.C., area. This facility is
expected to be completely operational in the mid to later part
of this year. In the interim, some committees have used funds
to purchase disaster recovery equipment from previous years'
funds.
The House is also offering committees a centrally funded
option of having data tapes collected by a courier on a weekly
basis where they are delivered to an alternative site until
this is fully up and operational so the committees are still
able to take their data off site as we speak. Committees will
continue to work with the proper entities in the House and
consult with other committees to ensure that a secure standard
enterprise system is instituted that will satisfy the needs of
the committee.
I will say in closing, I want to thank the gentleman from
Connecticut Mr. Larson, also the members of both Minority and
Majority on the committee. Gentleman had the tough duty to be
able to sit down and piece a budget. This is not an easy thing
to do. We took a lot of time with it, deliberated on the
budgets to make sure that these committees have enough
effective operating money to carry out the tasks which are
important to the constituency across the country. I appreciate
his patience and appreciate the working cooperation. I
appreciate his tenacity for the Ranking Members and fighting
for the moneys they need to operate, and also the tenacity that
Mr. Larson and the Members have had to make sure that the one-
third/two-thirds is intact. We appreciate it. I know the
Ranking Members appreciate it, and the chairman of the
committees.
And with that, I thank all the Members for being here, and
Mr. Larson.
Mr. Larson. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Let me at the outset ask unanimous consent to revise and
extend my remarks and submit on behalf of myself and Juanita
Millender-McDonald and Robert Brady the response of the
Minority on this committee. And I am sure they will have
comment as well, but I just want to start by thanking you and
your staff for the cooperative effort that was put forward to
ensure that the business of our body gets done. I mean, at the
end of the day, when you take a look at the various budgets
that we have put together, they are for the specific purpose,
as we heard from the various Chairs who came before this
committee, to continue to do the outreach, to collect the data,
to go through the public hearing process that enables us to
come closer to our constituents and perhaps even move outside
the Beltway in terms of our thinking. If we heard that from
one, we heard that from several different Chairs.
And this budget is tight, but it fairly addresses the
concerns that were put forward by the various committee Chairs.
As the Chairman has indicated, committee funding obviously was
uppermost in everyone's minds, and especially as it relates to
funding of COLAs for people who work here on a day-in-and-day
out basis, who work extraordinarily hard and oftentimes don't
get the kind of credit that perhaps their executive branch
counterparts do in terms of both their work ethic and their
professionalism and the amount of time they spend working on
behalf of the citizens of this great country. So I am pleased
again and can't thank the Chairman enough and his staff for
understanding those specific work-related concerns of those who
work on all of our behalf and make our job that much easier.
The whole issue of homeland security, as the chairman
indicated again, is an extraordinarily important issue given
the events of September 11, and one that I believe has been
handled appropriately and, again, fairly. Your chairmanship and
your leadership in this area especially in guaranteeing the
one-third/two-thirds split--and it should be known for the
record that that wasn't always the case, and it wasn't the case
when the Democrats were in control. And I think it is even more
incumbent for a Democratic Ranking Member to acknowledge that
and to acknowledge the effort that has been made by you and by
the Speaker. And it was duly noted by Juanita Millender-
McDonald especially, serving on the Small Business Committee as
well, that you are stepping up and making sure that not only is
it a one-third/two third split, but the splits are made in such
a manner that the Minority determines how their money is spent
as well. That has not gone unrecognized and is duly appreciated
on behalf of the Ranking Member and all of the Minority, which
you have so valiantly stood up for in making sure they had an
equitable means and manner in which to present their concerns
in the various committees that serve this great body of ours.
So I want to thank you for that as well.
I know that we are also voting on the internal operations
of our franking, and again, I thank you and your staff for the
work there. I would also like to acknowledge the staff on the
Minority side who have done a great job working very closely
with your staff and putting together this document and
assisting in the amendment.
Much needs to be done. There are great concerns for more
outreach and hearings in the aftermath of September 11, the
current war that is going on, the shuttle disaster, just to
name a few. So I think the Congress as a body has been well
served by this budget, and clearly we are asking and
encouraging Democrats to support this resolution. And you have
our support and our unending thanks for the quality and
equitable manner that you have chaired this committee and put
forward legislation that assists the entire body in a
bipartisan fashion.
The Chairman. I thank the gentleman.
Mr. Ehlers.
Mr. Ehlers. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate all your
work on this, and both the Ranking Member and yourself, and I
am very happy that we finally achieved the one-third/two-
thirds. It is high time, and it should have happened long
before, but because it was so outrageously distorted under the
previous Majority, there were some very bad feelings that we
couldn't overcome. But we have done it now; that is all behind
us.
I also want to put on the record and hope that the Ranking
Member will agree with me in this, I don't anticipate the
Republicans ever losing the Majority.
Mr. Larson. I might disagree with you there.
Mr. Ehlers. And it certainly won't happen in the near
future, and I hope not when I am here. But if it happens
sometime in the future, I would like to ask Mr. Larson that you
go on record as supporting continuation of this fair treatment.
Mr. Larson. If the gentleman will yield, I will absolutely
go on record stating that and have said so to our leadership
and to all of our Ranking Members.
Mr. Ehlers. I thank the Ranking Member, and I appreciate
that. And since he is likely to be the Speaker if we were to
lose the Majority, that is a good source to have that
commitment from.
With that, I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. The gentleman from Michigan makes me think
maybe we should go up a little higher than one-third just in
case.
Ms. Millender-McDonald. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman,
and let me echo the comments and overtures of my friend Mr.
Ehlers, that the work that you and the Ranking Member have done
to try to bring a budget to this House that is fair and that is
reasonable for the committee Chairs and Ranking Members. And,
Mr. Ehlers, I hate to think you are leaving after the 108th
Congress, but nonetheless, I do want to echo what the Ranking
Member has said in terms of your leadership not going unnoticed
in terms of the one-third/two-thirds and to ensure that the
Ranking Member on Small Business has the autonomy to use her
one-third in the fashion that she sees fit. So I applaud you
for your leadership on that and to ensure that that continues
to be a practice in this House. And I am just happy to be a
part of this budget that we are bringing forth today to help
our colleagues to further the business of the people of this
great country.
The Chairman. Thank the gentlelady.
The gentleman from California.
Mr. Doolittle. Mr. Chairman, you and the Ranking Member
ought to be commended for your leadership. It is remarkable to
the degree of consensus we seem to have on this and will look
forward to voting to approve it.
The Chairman. Thank you.
Mr. Brady.
Mr. Brady. Just all sorts of thank you for your leadership
and for the leadership on both sides. And I feel like I am on
some kind of time warp or something with all this camaraderie
going on. I wonder if we took a walk across the street, I
doubt, but it feels good here. So thank you.
The Chairman. Maybe we can take this feeling to the floor.
In all seriousness I want to commend the members of this
committee. This will be the second time I think in decades we
have had a bipartisan vote, and it says something, I think, for
all of you and the institution. It is--it is easy to disagree
on these. And, of course, everybody had different opinions of
where we would go on this, but having a bipartisan vote to have
that trend out there on something that could be very difficult.
I think says a lot for the character and integrity of each and
every member of this committee. So I want to thank you for
that.
The Chair lays before the committee House Resolution 148
open to amendment. And the Chair offers an amendment in the
nature of a substitute. Is there any discussion?
And on--the question is on the amendment in the nature of a
substitute. Those in favor of the amendment will say aye.
Those opposed will say nay.
And with that, the amendment is agreed to.
Chair recognizes Mr. Ehlers for the purpose of offering a
motion.
Mr. Ehlers. Mr. Chairman, I move that the committee order
House Resolution 148 as amended reported favorably to the House
of Representatives.
The Chairman. Question is on the motion. Those in favor of
the motion will say aye.
Those opposed will say nay.
The motion is agreed to, and the committee orders that
House Resolution 148 be reported favorably, as amended, to the
House of Representatives.
The Chair lays before the committee House Resolution 110
open to amendment, and the Chair offers an amendment in the
nature of a substitute. Is there any discussion?
Question is on the amendment in the nature of a substitute.
Those in favor of the amendment will say aye.
Those opposed will say nay.
Amendment is agreed to.
Chair recognizes Mr. Ehlers for the purpose of offering a
motion.
Mr. Ehlers. Mr. Chairman, I move that the committee order
House Resolution 110, as amended, reported favorably to the
House of Representatives.
The Chairman. The question is on the motion. Those in favor
of the motion will say aye.
Those opposed will say nay.
The motion is agreed to, and the committee orders that
House Resolution 110 be reported favorably, as amended, to the
House of Representatives.
The Chair leaves before the committee a committee
resolution establishing the 108th Congress frank mail
allocation for committees, and I think the Members have that
allocation. Is there discussion?
The Chair recognizes Mr. Ehlers.
Mr. Ehlers. Mr. Chairman, I don't have any discussion on
this motion per se, but I want to just mention an issue that
has troubled me, and I hope you and the other members of the
committee will join in addressing it, and that is with the
advent of e-mail, we are applying the same franking regulations
basically to e-mail as we have always applied to snail mail.
And I think it is just inappropriate, and we have to as a
committee rethink that.
And I am raising that issue even though it doesn't pertain
directly to this resolution because I think the committee
should start thinking about how we could adapt the franking
regulations to better fit with e-mail, which is a totally
different situation. And we send it out at basically no cost to
the taxpayers. I believe it is simply inappropriate to treat
the two the same way, and I hope members of the committee will
begin thinking about that and we can have some discussion about
that.
Mr. Larson. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. Ehlers. Yes.
Mr. Larson. I couldn't agree more with the gentleman, and I
think it is a salient point. And having said that, Mr.
Chairman----
The Chairman. If the gentleman could yield, I wanted to say
something on this. Last year this issue was raised. At the time
the issue was raised after a Democrat primary had occurred. And
I can't remember which State it was, but a Democrat primary had
occurred. At that time I communicated with Minority Members
because once the Democrat primary had occurred, if this had
changed or had it been subject to change, we would have changed
the rules after a primary. Whether it was a Democrat or
Republican, it would have been irrelevant, but we would have
changed the rules. And that Member in that primary could have
rightfully said, I could have used this. So we let it sit as a
result; actually about a week ago have started to look at it,
and we are working on it to the point we will come to the
gentleman from Connecticut.
So we are trying to get to that point to analyze it, but
that is why I wanted to tell you the history of this. Once the
one primary occurred, to change the rules after that would have
been unfair to that Member.
Mr. Ehlers. Mr. Chairman, that is why I am raising it now.
I have a weekly e newsletter, and I am amazed of how many
citizens ask me, why don't I get that newsletter anymore. And
it is very factual and no propaganda of any sort, no
partisanship, just to simply report on what happened. And our
citizens are deprived of that news, which we send out at no
cost to us. It doesn't help us in our campaigns, and it is
simply inappropriate to apply that standard to something like
that.
The Chairman. The Chair recognizes Mr. Ehlers for the
purpose of offering a motion.
Mr. Ehlers. Mr. Chairman, I move the committee resolution
establishing the 108th Congress frank mail allocation for
committees be adopted.
The Chairman. Question is on the motion. Those in favor of
the motion will say aye.
Those opposed will say nay.
The motion is agreed to, and the committee resolution
establishing the 108th Congress frank mail allocation for
committees is adopted.
I ask unanimous consent that Members have 7 legislative
days for statements and materials to be entered in the
appropriate place in the record. Without objection, the
material will be so added.
I ask unanimous consent the staff be authorized to make
technical and conforming changes on all matters considered by
the committee at today's meeting. Without objection, so
ordered.
And having completed our business for today, the committee
is hereby adjourned, and I want to thank the Members.
[Whereupon, at 5:30 p.m., the committee was adjourned.]