Transcripts For CSPAN3 Officials Testify On Legislative Branch Entities Fiscal Year 2017 Budgets 20170221

Testified on capitol hill recently regarding budgets for 2017 and 2018. Modernization and cybersecurity efforts from the Top Priorities for all these agencies. This House Administration Committee Hearing is about an hour and a half. I now call to order the committee on House Administration for the purpose of starting todays hearing on the operations and priorities of the house officers and legislative branch entities. Aquorum is present so we may proceed. I would like to start off by thanking my colleagues and our witnesses for your attendance today. I know how busy everyone is and we appreciate your flexibility and willingness to appear this afternoon. I would also like to thank our witnesses for hard work and assistance during new member and a smooth transition for staff into the 115th congress and especially for the incredible amount of work that went into securing and hosting the president ial inauguration. We know many months of preparation went into insuring our government carried out the sacred peaceful transition of power from one administration to another. 2017 mark the 70th years of existence. We are holding this hearing earlier than usual because i felt it was prudent that we as a committee had the opportunity to hear from each of you as we start this congress. We serve a common goal of serving the public and members and staff. I believe this committee and your agencies will only be auk saysful at accomplishing that goal if we Work Together. We want to know your priorities, needs, and expectations for 2017 and 2018. We also want it heto hear from about any issues that may be pending or come up to this congress. I look forward to putting it all out on the table so we can speak and have this discussion. Each of you plays a unique and Critical Role in serving the public as well as members and staff. For example, the architect of the capitol maintains buildings and grounds across the capitol complex and Supreme Court so that we can conduct business on behalf of the american people. Library of congress is the collector and protector of the Worlds Largest asem blassembly catalogs, books, films, sheet music aeb mo music and more things they we can mention. The United States Capitol Police is charged with keeping our nations democracy safe. We must meet the demand of today, that includes among other things protecting it against ever evolving technologies. Like Many Organizations you have to protect your infrastructures from those that wish us harm. Your agencies are forced to meet their missions in a very difficult budget environment. This is when priorities become esent shl as well as using the resources allocated by congress wisely. Again, i look forward to hearing from you today. Working with you in the future and i thank few are your appearance before our committee today. I would now like to recognize my colleague, and Ranking Member, mr. Brady for the purpose of providing an opening statement. Mr. Brady . Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you for holding this hearing. I would like to introduce congressman jamie ras kin, our new member. He has big shoes to fill. Jamie is a great as set to this committee. During his decade in the maryland senate. And to our Witnesses Today a word of caution, jamie is a local member sew represents many of your employees so i expect him to pay very close attention to how your agency runs. Welcome congressman karas kin. Chief be your team did an excellent job with the inauguration and all of the activities surrounding the start of new congress. Job with the in all of the activities surrounding the start of new congress. Shawn gallagher did a great job on inauguration day. And the city philadelphia made me proud. Under tough circumstances, hardest to be, did their best at the checkpoints and really did a professional job and made everybody made me proud of the job you do and everybody knew you do the same exact job in d. C. Thank you for that. To the librarian, look forward to seeing you in d. C. Soon. And david did a great job as acting librarian. Im sad to see him go, and i know have you your work cut out for you. Steven, your team did a great job on the moves, and always as solid job as someone who is a new in the office, kick me out, but thats okay. I like the room better now. Im continually impressed with your organization. I know it was a tough time because members being moved and they have to move because of the remodeling but it fit in well. Thank you for that. Thank you for my office. They are doing a great job with that too. Thank you to always being available to me and my team and working through issues. I want you to know that i appreciate how difficult your job can be. Thats all to say, mr. Chairman. We are looking to have these witnesses working for us. I look forward to hearing from them. Thank you, mr. Brady. New members to the committee, not new to congress but new to the committee, welcome and we are glad to have you here. Im glad you mentioned david mall who we will miss. I cant believe he is having to work laid on his last day at the library of congress. But youre very much appreciated for all your hard work, dr. Mall. And we wish you the very best in the future. Does any other member wish to be recognized for the purpose of an eeping statement . As a housekeeping matter the hearing record will remain open for five legislative days so members may submit any supplemental materials they wish to include. I would like to introduce our witnesses for today. First, Stephen Ayers serving as architect of the capitol in 2010. Making him the 1 17b8 architect of the capitol. Mr. Ayers is responsible for the entire capitol complex Facility Management operations and including reasonable and responsible renovation and sustainability programs. He is also responsible for all the works of art in the capitol, maintaining and restoration of the murals, outdoor sculptures, and other architecture elements throughout. We welcome you, mr. Ayers. Dr. Carla hayden, sworn in as 14th library of congress on september 14, 2016. Her appointment to this position also marked the very first time that our Nations Library that we have had it led by a woman. And africanamerican. She is a librarians librarian, kedcating her entire career to accessing libraries in community. In her short time leading the l library, dr. Hayden is continuing the tradition of collecting, preserving and making available a vast collection of educational resours and pr teblotecting ther future generations. The Committee Welcomes you, dr. Hayden. Davita vancecooks came to the Publishing Office in 2013. Ms. Vacecooks is the first woman and First American to serve the agency and has add variety of roles since 2004 i believe. As director she cut costs while at the same time modernizing gpo to improve services. Specifically, gpo has focused on expanding the electronic availability of government information via public apps, bulk data down loads and of course ebooks. Welcome back ms. Vancecooks. On march 21, 2016, Matthew Verderosa was sworn in as chief as u. S. Cap itll police. Chief verderosa is ninth chief and served in numerous roles with the u. S. Capitol police since, i believe, 1986. Including positions in uniform and patrol division, internal Affairs Division and Training Services bureau. As chief of u. S. Capitol police, chief verderosa is responsible for commanding a force of sworn and civilian personnel dedicated to providing comprehensive Law Enforcement, security and protective Operations Services to the u. S. Congress, members, staff, millions of annual visitors, and the surrounding complex. Welcome back, chief verderosa. Again, we thank each of you for joining us today. The committee has received your written testimony. At the appropriate time i will recognize you for five minutes to present a summary of that information. Of course you know how the light system works. When it goes yellow, you have one minute. Then red, means bring it in for landing. At some point. The chair now recognizes the architect of the capitol, Stephen Ayers for five minutes. Thank you, chairman happener, mr. Brady and i appreciate the opportunity to be with you today to provide an overview of the architect of the capitols operations achievements and goals. In 1793 George Washington laid the corner stone of the United States capitol and construction began on dr. William thortons winning design. Dr. Thorton is known as the first ak tekt of the capitol and today nearly 225 years later our Capitol Campus has grown to more than 17. 4 million square feet of space, spanning 36 fa sills and 570 acres of ground. Today the campus is home to more than 30,000 daily occupants and millions of visitors throughout the world and the United States. In fiscal year 2016 we inspired more than 2. 2 million visitors to the Capitol Visitors Center to explore the roots of our countrys government through stories and handon activities. In addition, 1. 2 million visitors to the United States bo tannic garden were informed about the importance often irreplaceable value of plants to the wellbeing of our society. A irreplaceable value of plants to the wellbeing of our society. Our mission to serve the congress and Supreme Court preserve americas capitol and inspire memorable experiences recognizes the trust placed in us as the builder and steward of our countrys most iconic landmarks. The 2100 talented and dedicated men and women of the aoc proudly work 24 hursours a day, seven d a week, and 365 dayes a year to ba balance the responsibility of preserving Historic Buildings while meeting demand after modern work force. Viewed from a distance our buildings are inspiring and impressive. But up close they are distressed. As weather and age and deferred maintenance have destroyed their stone exteriors. The integrity of our buildings is threatened by water infiltration which can have disastrous consequences. Congress continues to make Good Investments in stone preservation our top priority to reduce the risk for which we are extremely grateful. We have been able to make Good Progress to improve our infrastructure and recently completed several Major Projects across the campus including the first restoration of the United States capitol dome and rotunda in more than 50 years. The initial phase of the Cannon House Office building renewal and the United States capitol stone preservation project. The successful conversation of the ulysses s. Grant memorial just to name a few. The eyes of the nation and the world are upon us each and everyday and were honored to support so many high profile event including the 58th president ial inauguration where our team of professionals completed all of the necessary construction well ahead of schedule. The police play an Important Role in welcoming each new congress. This year our teams managed moves for 199 house members in just 24 working days with not a single injury and we are very proud of that. Our project prioritization process allows us to maximize each and every taxpayer dollar as we go about executing these essential project. Yet risk remains. And we look forward to continuing to work with congress to address the growing backlog of preventive maintenance projects. Today estimated at more than 1. 5 billion. Improving Energy Efficiency of our campus, is also a central concern. And over the last ten years, we have achieved a 30. 9 reduction in energy usage. Further reducing Energy Consumption we mans an Agency Priority and we established a new tenyear goal of achieving additional 20 reduction in Energy Consumption by the end of 2025. We strive to be a World Class Organization providing superior service to our client and we appreciate this committee and the Congressional Community for your continued support. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Ayers. The chair now recognizes the librarian of congress, dr. Carla hayden for five minutes. Dr. Hayden. Thank you. [ inaudible ] chairman harper Ranking Member brady, members of the committee, id like to start by thanking each of you that ive had an honor to meet for your warm welcome, offers of support and commitment that youve expressed for the library since ive been in a position. You and your predecessors in this body built the library and it remains one of the greatest gift and legacies that congress has given to the american people. Id also like to recognize Deputy Library dr. David mao. As you know, david served as acting librarian of confrence for an entire year and he led many efforts to improve Library Management and operations. David accepted leadership position at Georgetown University and will be leaving the library later this month. So i wanted to personally thank him for his service and thank him for making my transition so much easier. [ applause ] i was asked recently what my favorite thing is about being the librarian of congress. And what it is, is that everyday i have the opportunity to discover something new. From letters written by rosa parks, to photographs of early inaugurations through history, to a letter that Albert Einstein wrote to significamund freud. These are rivalled only by the staff. I conducted a listening tour, meeting with staff and learning about our operations. It has been the highlight of my first four months to meet these incredibly dedicated and skilled public everyone issants. Im asem belled my Leadership Team so we can work effectively for the institution. Ive met with congress to learn more about your perspective on the library and ive met with dozens of groups and individuals in the Creative Community and other users of the Copyright Office. Finally i have taken initial steps to increasing the librarys accessibility both onsite and online. We have opened the Librarian Ceremonial Office and expanded hours of our Young Readers center. We have a new home page that is more dynamic. As many of you now im now sweeting. Allowing know interact directly with Library Users around the globe. It has been a stimulating and energizing four months and it is just the beginning of, i hope, a very exciting dynamic time. The library has undertaken a visioning effort that involves analyzing trends at other informationbased organization. I have been working with our new Strategic Planning officers to strengthen how we plan develop goals and track progress. We are also formulating a library wide Digital Strategy. Of course a Digital Strategy hinges on good i. T. Information Technology Information fundamentals. The library has had challenges in the iarea of Information Technology. Im pleased to report that important progress is being made. Among the recommendations the library received was it hire chief information officer. In september of 2015 bernard barredon, bud, began as cio. He joins me today. Under his leadership we have steady progress in implementing information by the gio to improve Information Technology service answers most important in the areas of better defined investment planning, cybersecurity and centralization. I appreciate all this mr. Barton and his staff have done and i look forward to reporting in the future not just on improvements but also on i. T. Innovations at the library of congress. Another critical priority is collection stewardship. The library opened in interim Storage Facility this year and high on my priority list is also the modernization of the Copyright Office. As always, service to congress is the core mission of the Library Congressional Research Service and law library stand ready to serve you. Thank you very much and im delighted to be here today. Thank you, dr. Hayden. The chair now recognizes the government Publishing Office director, davita vancecooks for five minutes. Thank you. Good evening. Thank you for inviting me to address priorities for fy18 and beyond. I am pleased to state that today the gpo is in a good place. We are a Digital Publishing operation with a diversified product and Services Portfolio and we have won multiple Digital Innovation awards. We have a wonderfully engaged workforce committed to the mission of keeping america informed, and it is because of them that we have achieved so much. In the results of the fy16 Employee Viewpoint survey, gpos engagement score was 9. 3 points higher than the governmentwide score. Our finances for fy16 as confirmed by our annual audit were the strongest theyve ever been in the past five years. Our congressional appropriation requests over the past five years have been relatively flat. We have successfully halted growth of our overhead spending costs and our budgeting staffing level of 1,750 employees is the lowest this century. This our productivity exponentially increased because we embraced digital equipment, Digital Products and digital processes. For example, mr. Chairman, with your approval as the chairman of the jcp, we put into operation a zero make ready press called a zmr. It allowed us to, a, phase out three outdated a presses installed back in 1979, and, b, it allowed us to cut the page rate for publishing congressional hearings, the first such rate reduction in memory. Our digital repository database and its newly introduced successor . Beat that called governinfo supports openness and transparency. This database now holds more than 1. 6 million titles in the federal government information, and we now have retrievables of nearly 40 million documents per month. As we look into the future we will continue to focus on modernizing our operations and providing value to our stakeholders. I want you to know that we are strategically positioned to meet the demands of 2018. First, we will continue to implement strategies to improve our employee engagement, because our employees are the best assets we have. Second, we will implement the first phase of our new digital composition system that composes bills in xml. It will also include a feature for modernizing the publishing of hearings as requested by this committee. Third, we will develop a new Cost Accounting system to simplify the rate making process and provide visibility and transparency to our costs and billing. Fourth, we will continue to strengthen our partnership with the network of 1,148 federal depository libraries across the nation by collaborating on projects which will improve program flexibility. By the way, there are 34 federal depository libraries in the districts represented by the members of this committee. Fifth, we will continue to strength. Our partnership with the private sector Printing Industry by automating our print procurement program. This program produces threequarters of all the orders we handle, provides highly competitive prices, and supports tens of thousands of jobs nationwide, primarily in the Small Business sector. In fy16, the dollar value of the awards for the states represented by the members of this committee was 197 million. Sixth, we will release govinfo from beta and we intend to earn designation as the First Federal agency to meet the International Standards of a trusted digital repository. And lastly, after five years of collaboration and cooperation with the department of state, we are ready to launch the u. S. Government passport, the next gen. Now as you can imagine, Cyber Security is a challenge, and we are a member of a committee on Cyber Security to look flu it. Thank y thank you for the millions of dollars to look into that issue. I respectfully ask for a change in the jcp rule that requires the gpo to request approval before making an expenditure over 50,000 or an Interagency Agreement over 20,000. These thresholds were set over 30 years ago, long before we had financial controls and an ig and annual audits. The other legislative Branch Agencies dont have this requirement, and im asking for parity. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member beret d brady and members of the committee, this concludes my opening remarks. On money. Outstanding. Thank you so much. The chair now recognizes the chief of the Capitol Police, Matthew Verderosa. Chief . Thank you, sir. Good evening, mr. Clarm. Ranking member brady and members of the committee. Thank you for this opportunity to discuss the United States Capitol Police and our mission to protect congress. It is moo i honor to serve as chief of police and i i am honored to be with you here today. Im joined by my executive Management Team including our chief Administrative Officer richard braddock, general counsel gretchen de mar and our new chief of operations, assistant chief steve son. Steve son comes to us from the metropolitan police after serving 25 years bringing significant senior command and operational experience to the department. Also joining me today is the department of departments Inspector General and the fraternity order of police chairman. Mr. Chairman, id like to begin today by thanking the committee for its steadfast support of the United States Capitol Police and its mission. The regular discussions that weve had with you and your staff are greatly appreciated as they allow us to provide the committee with important updates on our challenges and areas of focus. In addition i am grateful for the committees engagement and feedback so the department can continue to meet the needs of the department of representatives and congress. Id like to thank you the United States Capitol Police board for its support as we carry out Law Enforcement operations. I would like to recognize the women and men of the United States Capitol Police. On a daily basis they demonstrate how the american freedoms we hold dear are carried out in our nations capitol. We work tirelessly to ensure congress is able to conduct its legislative responsibilities without disruption all the while exhibiting utmost respect for the constitution and protection of First Amendment liberties. Im impressed with the performance and commitment and to constantly arise to the occasion and handle whatever comes our may. Last year i appeared before the committee to provide an overview of the departments Management Plan for fiscal 2017 and beyond. It is the responsibility of the usgp to do Everything Possible to protect and safeguard members, staff and visitors each other. As threats and risk we face today are increasingly sophisticated and dynamic. In coordination with the Capitol Police board and oversight commits, weve developed a Multiyear Strategy that provided for growth of the department to fulfill enhancement of the house garage security, addition of prescreeners an overwatch personnel at various Building Access points, and continued use and enhanced portal scanners. I am pleased to report that after reallocating internal resources to begin to address these emerging priorities the department has deployed the house garage security Screening Initiative for approximately 60 of the house buildings by working in concert with the architect of the capitol, rayburn garage renovation projects, the garage is expected to complete the final stage of this initiative when specific security milestones are accomplished with the rayburn garage redesign and buildout in fiscal 201819. Additionally the department has begun to increase its capacity for prescreeners and overwatch personnel at various Office Building Access Points by leveraging our new canine teams and subject an addiction officer capabilities. This initiative will become more visible to the Congressional Community in the coming months. To complete the list, the departments had Great Success in utilizing the enhanced portal screeners on visitors wishing to enter the House Chamber during major events such as the state of the union and joint meetings of congress while Additional Resources are necessary in the out years to complete these initiatives and to provide necessary stationary posts, i remain confident in the departments ability to meet these new mission sets within the next several years and continued support of the Capitol Police board and congress. I do want to note that the new responsibility assigned to the department of protecting and securing the oneal House Office Building which will take effect later this spring will likely impact the overall schedule to complete these other efforts. This new responsibility requires significant resources and was not anticipated at the time the department established the three primary security initiatives in 2016. With this in mind we have been working closely with the tap toll police board, sergeant at arms and oversight commits and others to help develop a plan to ensure this mission is successful enacted as well as receive necessary resources for implementation. Once the department has had the opportunity to benchmark and analyze the relevant data and trends following the addition of the new new House Office Building, well it to inlook for efficiencies and examine the potential for reapportioning personnel as appropriate. I look forward to discussing many of these new initiatives with you and am happy to answer any questions you should have. Thank you very much, chief verderosa. Committee members will now ask questions of the witnesses. Each member is allotted five minutes to question the witnesses. To help each member track the times, well use the same timing devices with and ill begin by recognizing myself for five minutes. Dr. Hayden, if i can start with you, i want to again thank you for taking the time to meet with us this afternoon, and im always amazed by the librarys statistics. 164 million items in all formats and languages. 1. 8 million onsite visitors. And 93 million visits to your website. I mean the numbers are go on and on and theyre very impressive. Your testimony describes a number of initiatives that the library will be focused on during the remainder of this fiscal year and into 2018. What do you anticipate as your challenges as you meet those goals . In meeting the increasing demand for the librarys resources, the challenge that i share with some of my colleagues here in fact have quite a bit to do with the technological capacity, as well as the modernization of many of our operations. I mentioned that mr. Barton has joined us and quite of bit of progress has been made. So that will be a continuing need, as well as Storage Capacity for those collections will remain something that the library has a major responsibility for these unique collections and items that make up quite a bit of that 162 million items. The other challenge is to concentrate on making sure that the library is run efficiently and effectively centralizing a number of operations, particularly Information Technology. And also to and this challenge is actually an opportunity to make more people aware throughout the nation in particular of the resources that are available already and digitized for use in k through 12 classrooms, teacher education, outreach, and letting people know about what the library already has. Weve been called one of the best kept secrets, and we dont want to be secret anymore. Well, i can assure you, you are known by the members and our staffs. Coming off what was a very successful new member retreat in january, how will crs continue to support our new members and their staff and other members, of course, that have been here . And if you could just talk for a moment about how you are planning on improving the crs to better assist members and staff . The Congressional Research service, ive often called it the special forces of the library. Their primary mission is to serve congress and its staff with the best analysis on policies and topics up to date. The strengthening of the subject suppressi specialists in Research Operation services is key, and we are working to make sure there is successful recruitment and retention of those specialists, as well as making sure that the Congressional Research service has the Information Technology capacity to serve congress and star ff i the latest ways. You know, you talked a lot already about Information Technologies and what youre doing to invest in that. And so as we look at that, of course, ive got one example here in my hand. The library is partnering with the bureau of engraving and printing to help provide u. S. Currency readers to sightimpaired individuals to help identify their currency. Unbelievable. Are there other initiatives that perhaps you can highlight today . And thank you for demonstrating a wonderful device that is allowing people who are visually challenged to operate seamlessly in the world. And the National Library services for the blind and physically handicapped is an important smaller part of the library, but so important. The Library Services for the blind operation is looking at even even more capacity and handheld devices that will allow braille on demand. Right from an email, the braille will be touchable and instantaneous. So instead of working and waiting for the translation, it will be instantaneous. Thats just an example what technology in the library will be allowed to do for all citizens. Thank you. Ill now recognize mr. Brady for five minutes. I just have two quick questions id like to ask all four panelists and you each respond briefly. Information is power. Computer systems and networks are under attack every day. Briefings from the cao and sergeant of arms. Before you submit your budget request id like to know what you need to protect your Information Systems and do you have all money and people you need to protect them while you are protecting us . Unrelated but equally important, id like to get a snapshot of your relationship with your respective unions. I hear from them if things are not going well and its been relatively quiet. Im a little worried about that. But i want to know from each of you that you are committed to a Good Relationship your organization and workforce. Mr. Ayers, i know you have a great relationship. Dr. Hayden, weve talked in the past. Done a lot of work with your stua security people. Worked well with them. Director cooks, they seem to be happy. I hope you are working well with them. Chief, we have a new gus papa back there, a new minted chairman, you call him. I call him president of the union. And i probably shouldnt say this but he says some nice things but. So i think that but thats not a real big deal because your predecessor nobody said nice things about, including me. But you are doing an excellent job there it. The proof, you have all your job security behind you all so i guess i hope you continue to have a Good Relationship. Real briefly if you could respond, all four of yous, just briefly. Well, im start because im the newest. Ive been able to have several meetings and establish regular meetings with the librarys three unions. They have been very productive because we are working on things that will allow us all to Work Together and be proactive. There have been some exciting things coming. I was even invited to the holiday party. So i think thats a good start in terms of that. But we are working very much together on that. With Cyber Security, the library is participating in the legislative branch Cyber Security working group and has an fy17 in for strengthening Cyber Security capacity. Okay. Lady next . Okay. Two things. In terms of Cyber Security, we recently had approval of 2 million to address that issue and were using it to address it in terms of enhancement programs, as well as implementation. To give you an example for an enhancement, were going to truly try to strengthen our fire wall configuration and our router configuration and our ddos configuration as well. Then in terms of implementing new things we are looking at the inside threat capacity, as opposed to just the outside threat. Because it does matter. You can get it from both the outside as well as internal. In terms of the unions, we have 13 unions. And the good news story is that our unions and our management work well together because we want the same thing. We want the gpo to be a good place to work. Im proud to say that just last week we signed another wage negotiation. Were in the middle of Wage Negotiations for a fiveyear period. We work well together. I would characterize it as productive. Thank you, sir, for the questions. In terms of Cyber Security, my cio has direct access to me and the executive team. We participate actively in the leg branch organization. We also are going to focus in this fiscal year on vulnerability and risk Threat Management training, threat assessment and sharing with our partners, not only in the. Will eg branch but with our federal partners. I think we have a great plan and will leverage some cross surfacing within the lege branch. I think throughout the course of my career ive always had a good working relationship with both unions. The officer and i go back a long time in terms of working the House Division together. We see opportunities rather than impediments. I think we work wherever we can to come to Common Ground and fix the issues and, frankly, i value the working relationship because at the end of the day, were both in this for the same thing, to get to have the best treatment for our employees and get the most effectiveness and efficiency from the workforce. I think we both are aligned very closely on that goal. I have a great working relationship with karen green thomas whos our spokesperson for the teamsters. Frankly we have a great wo workforce. I look forward to continue working with both unions. We, too, have an i. T. System that is backed up at the alternative facility. We use an active active system. Throughout the day our network may be run out of a building here on campus or a building there, and no one knows the difference. Its quite amazing to me. From a Cyber Security perspective, we have done multiple penetration tests. Weve had the house ig review our system. Were implementing the National Security agencys top ten mitigation strategies. Were pretty comfortable with where we are on that. Like miss vancecooks, we, too, have multiple unions that care for our employees and we have collective bargaining agreements in place with them. I meet, and my deputy meet, quarterly with all of our unions. Our unions are staffed with really topnotch officers and we have a great working relationship. Open, honest and transparent and respectful discussions. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, mr. Ayers, for bill weidemeyer. Im going to regret that, mr. Brady. Thank you, mr. Brady. Chair now recognizes the vice chairman for the committee, mr. Davis for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Chief verderosa, i know you mentioned in your testimony about the new security protocols and screening in and around the House Office Buildings and the garages. Id like your little more if you could go into a little more of what that has meant to our ensuring that there is a secure perimeter around our Capitol Buildings and in the garages, and i want to know if are there some standard security protocols that you guys follow at the Capitol Police at these screening checkpoints . And, also, are we achieving consistency throughout it the capitol complex and vehicle entry points with this screening process that you guys have extended . Certainly ill answer the second part first, if i may. We strive for consistency in everything that we do. I want the staff and the members to know what to expect when they enter into the buildings. We have been training we actually several years ago revamped our entire security screening process to a unified approach so the way you get screened in the house buildings is the same as you get screened at the senate Office Buildings as well. That entails looking at best practices in the industry. We partnered with tsa and the Marshal Service and we looked at what we had already been doing to develop our protocols. Weve standardized this process. Its quite a lengthy we have a 40someodd page directive that deals with virtually every scenario that you could have in screening. So its obviously closely held, but we look at the Division Level supervisors going out and ensuring that they provide the feedback necessary for the officers in the field. We also bring our officers in for periodic retraining and recertification and security screening. It is the same with the automobile checks. Though the closer you get to the capitol, the more stringent the checks become. We want to keep we want to keep the threat as far as way as we can. Speaking of that, chief, what is your current Security Posture look like within the Capitol Police . We are always operating at a very high level. When we have major events around the world, obviously we have are closely connected in the intelligence side, on the high side. Were also working with our partners at various other institutions to determine what in fact the known intelligence is, what are the best practices that they are seeing, and we leverage all that information and provide that information through lookouts, intelligence bulletins and all other various means of Intelligence Communications to all of our other employees. When we see events around the world, obviously we are looking for copycat and other types of information that may lead us to believe that a threat may be imminent, warranted to take additional information. Thats particularly when you see a show of force, a more intensive show of force. But were always operating at a very high level. We have assets in and around the perimeter, both physical security assets, Operational Assets in terms of personnel that are assigned to various Access Points. Some are seen and some are not seen. We are employing additional as one of the initiatives with the board, the Capitol Police board, we are applying additional assets outside of Access Points for the next several years, well be building up our team to be eyeson outside doors instead of having the fight the at door. Well try to keep the battle outside the buildings. Thats here or around the capitol. Thats correct. Can you give an assessment of how is your team working with increased threat levels, maybe out in the rest of the country and members district offices . How do you coordinate any activity that could be viewed as a threat that you hear about . How do you coordinate your activities with local Law Enforcement . Thats a great question. We have a very active protective services bureau. I have approximately 35, 40 investigators that look at intelligence and threat assessment. What they do is they have outreach through the sergeant at arms office for not only planned events, but we are also monitoring active social media. Were monitoring all sources of both classified and unclassified information to determine whether or not a member of congress or senator is a target of demonstration activity, is a target of a nefarious effort, a criminal act. And we also provide on the positive side, we provide we go out and actively do Security Awareness briefings. We coordinate threat assessment briefings for not only staff here on the hill but district offices as well. Thank you, chief. My times up but i do want to come to that shooting range, too. Absolutely. Weve been operating for about six months. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Davis. Chairman now recognize miss lofton for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Im glad to be getting an early start on oversight this year. I think its a good thing and it seems that some of the issues in past years have been resolved in many cases so thats very encouraging. Well continue to work with these wonderful leaders as the year goes on. Dr. Hayden, it is a thrill to see you here. The new librarian of congress. You were introduced as the first female librarian of congress, first africanamerican. But i think you are the first libraria librarian librarian of congress. Maybe not. But its been a long time. In 50something years. Yes. Its been a long time. It is great to have a librarians librarian there. Thank you. You, in your testimony, identified the need for i. T. Upgrades. Im so appreciative that that is a focus that you have. The staff works very hard. At least the staff i met over there love the library. They are dedicated to it. But the technology is antiquated. In particular, im interested in the Copyright Office which has antiquated i mean there is a lot that needs to be done in terms of upgrading that technology. Do you feel you have the resources at this point necessary to do those upgrades, or do you have a strategy to get to where we think we need to be there . Theres definitely a strategy, and i want to emphasize the helpfulness of the gao reports and Inspector General recommendations that provide the road map and help with our strategy and overall i. T. Strategy. The Copyright Office has a number of unique i. T. Needs that can be supported. And mr. Barton, whos here with me today, the cio for the library, has been able to really coordinate the library strengthening infrastructure, technology infrastructure, with the special needs of not only the Copyright Office but crs, for instance, that has specialized needs. And so the support and there are fy17 and will be 18 requests to make sure that the modernization i. T. Modernization for the Copyright Office continues, particularly in the areas of registration, copyright registration, and a searchable copyright database of the records. Thats a major focus. There are 32 million copyright records. This is getting a little in the weeds. Like a car catald catalog that been digitized but theyre not searchable. So this will be making sure the librarys i. T. Can support those that would be a major advance in terms of protecting intellectual property, for which this office is key for that. Yes. I think people might not realize how vital the Copyright Office is to the creative input, and output, of the nation. Speaking of that, i know youre in the process of hiring a new permanent registrar. Any timeline on that process . The library asked for Public Comment on the aspects of the registrars not only qualifications and what might be needed in the next few years, but also the office itself. We received almost 5,000 Public Comments in little over five weeks. And so were reviewing those and will be working to incorporate some of those comments and suggestions in to the formal opening up of the position. So very shortly you should be seeing something. Very good. I see my time is almost up. Let me just close by talking to the chief. I think when we talked, i had a complaint that the screening on the sflat a the senate and house side seemed d disorganized. Its improved. It is nice to have consistency in both bodies and i appreciate that very much. Mr. Chairman, i would yield back. Thank you, miss lofgren. The chair will now recognize mrs. Comstock for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I wanted to also thank dr. Hayden for her interest in the online work with the library and i wanted to i know thank you for coming by with your staff and discussing that and our shared interest in how we can use technology to really make the librarys best collection more available. Just for the benefit of those who might. Watching cspan, but also could you maybe paint a little better picture on how we can use this from the childrens events that you have and the collections available there, on up . And just maybe give a little bit more vivid picture of how the possibilities of how we can utilize that going forward. As a former childrens librarian, i have to say my eyes light up when i think about the fact that we are now able to livestream programming from washington, d. C. To anywhere in the world, and we just started that this past saturday when we opened the Young Readers center in the Jefferson Building on saturdays. We livestream to four states and had direct responses from the young people in the audiences. They asked the author questions and they were able to get responses. And the children, in the Jefferson Building, were able to wave and do all kinds of things with the others. So that was an experiment and were expanding that. We already have so much online for k through 12 educators, teaching with primary sources. One of my first experiences in i mentioned earlier that ive been amazed at all of the wonderful things that are available at the library. A scanner thats the size of a queen size bed that can scan rare and old maps that could never be put on display or used, that are now able to be scanned and then downloaded and printed out and used by anyone. Also traveling exhibits are coming and downloading all types of photographs. And my most recent experience was with the inauguration display that we had where we had the inauguration route of abraham lincoln. That. Only comes out every five years. We were able to duplicate that and touch and trace the route. So there are so many possibilities that Technology Makes possible to spread the library of congress throughout the world. But definitely throughout the nation. Thank you. As a doubter of a librarian, i do appreciate having a librarian in this position. Now you said it was the program was shared with four states and you are expecting to grow that . If people want to participate oh, yes. They contact you . Yes. Schools, community centers, rec centers and particularly in rural areas that might not have the opportunity to have newbury and caldecott, Award Winning authors that are there. So we really want to focus on rural areas and making that also connect to our traveling 18wheeler that im working on now. Library on the move. That will be on both coasts and in the middle that can just pull up bakersfield, anywhere, and you can interact with Library Materials and have dedicated staff that can explain things, too. So it is an exciting time. Libraries are thank you. Thank you. I really appreciate those efforts. I yield back my time. Thank you very much. Chairs happy to recognize our new member to the committee and congress, mr. Raskin for five minutes. Mr. Chairman, thank you for your very warm welcome. Thank you, also, to mr. Brady for his very warm welcome as the representative of the 8th congress at district which borders the district of columbia and a native to this area, it is quite an exceptional thrill and honor for me to be on this committee overseeing our extraordinary Capitol Campus. Im delighted to say ive been able to draw on the resources and work of all of your various offices already ain just about month in office. All of you i want to thank for being very responsive. Special hello to dr. Hayden who was in maryland before she came to the library of congress and my fatherinlaw, who was a librarian for a long time, got the chance to meet dr. Hayden and described it as like meeting the beatles. Ive got one very quick pretty much a yes or no question for all of you. Then a couple questions for dr. Ayers. So as a local representative, ive been hearing from a number of my young constituents who have been disappointed in the last several weeks that they had jobs they thought they were going to get in different parts of the federal government but because of the hiring freeze theyre now closed out. I just wanted to make sure that each of your offices is actually open for young people who are looking to be in the Public Service now and i dont know if you could just go down the line. Perhaps, chief, you could start. Yes. We are hiring, as needed, based on our position availability. Terrific. We are very interested in hiring pathway interns. Okay . And i notice in the latest document on the hiring freeze that we can do that. So you will see that. Terrific. Very similar. And also volunteer opportunities that will lead and position young people to be right there and have the experience when the positions are open. So we also have internships and fellowships. Gotcha. You mean when the hiring freeze is lifted. When there is an available position, they have already have experience and have worked in the library. Gotcha. Yeah. We are continuing to recruit new employees and, also we have a Summer Intern Program where we recruit about 100 or more summer interns to work for about 12 weeks for us. That program is usually announced in the month of february, as well. Well start them in may or june. Terrific. Dr. Ayers, let me stay with you for a second, if i could. Im so impressed by the work of your office and all of us get to enjoy working in this awesome and most beautiful Capitol Campus of any democracy or any nation on earth. It is really extraordinary. I regret that i have to raise a matter with you thats an issue not of your own making but i wanted to take this opportunity to ask you about this whole incident thats taken place with the removal of one of the paintings that a member of congress brought forward as part of the congressional arts competition. I want to know whether, first, is it correct that this is unprecedented, that theres never been a removal of a piece of art from the Capitol Campus on political grounds before . Thats my understanding as well. Okay. And so so my understanding again, correct me if im wrong up until that removal, we basically had the american rule of free speech. If you look at a painting or sculpture and you dont like it, you just go to the next one. Maybe you like that one more, you go to the next one. But you dont remove it or petition for its removal. Was that basically the rule up until this took place . Again, im not familiar that a piece of artwork was ever moved. Theres been Public Perceptions about pieces of artwork. I can recall a statue of it George Washington by gorino more than 100 years ago that was placed in different places in the Capitol Building because publics perception of president washington. And ultimately that sculpture was moved out of the capitol and today is in the smithsonian. So but are you now supposed to be regulating the potential political incorrectness or offensiveness of art because of this incident . No, i wouldnt say that. I think this particular artwork competition that happens on an annual basis, there are a set of rules that it is my responsibility to enforce those rules. And so just that narrow focus. I think if you are talking a broader view of sculpture or artwork, that really comes under the joint committee and the library. I see. Because my Office People have raised with me questions of other works of art now as being offensive or politically incorrect in the wake of the removal of that piece of art. So i appreciate it. Thank you very much. I yield back, mr. Chairman. Thank you very much, mr. Raskin. And again, welcome. At this time the committee will recognize mark walker for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you to our panel for being here today. Little bit late in the day but appreciate your willingness to come out. I have a few questions, if i could direct them to the director of the gao, miss vancecooks, if thats okay, just for a few plnts. Imminutes. Looks like from your resume, if it doesnt work out here, we could use you in the industry industry. It is quite impressive. I have a few questions regarding the printing office. We hear a lot about openness and transparency on both sides really as far as that being our goal, certainly striving to do so. Is there anything concrete or something that you would hope to do this coming year that would promote those transparency goals . Anything in the works would you be okay to speak to those . Sure. Thank you for the question. In fact, there are several things we are doing right now that i would like to highlight. The first has to do with digitization of content, especially historical content. This is critical for openness and transparency. As we sit here today i am proud to report we are collaborating with the library of congress, friend right here, to digitize the bound congressional record all the way back to 1873. Were also working and collaborating with the ofr to digitize the federal register all the way back to its inception in 1936. So right away you can see that we have a lot of historical digitized content thats about to go out into the public. Secondly, with our govinfo digital database, it is important to remind everyone that this is a huge repository database that we build every single day. Every time we publish a document, we feed it into the fdsysgov database. As we sit it has 1. 6 million titles. Over 40 million of those documents are retrieved and downloaded every month across the world. So you can see that when we start to increase that database were also increasing openness and transparency. Then we also are doing a lot of work with xmlable data. We are actually a member of legislative Branch Bulk Data Task force, we and worked very diligently with members to make some of this Data Available in xml. Specifically the bill text, bill summary and bill status information. Beauty of this is simple. When you have xml Data Available, transparency advocates love it because they can take that data and repackage it, they can repurpose it and create a different product. That, too, allows us to go into openness and transparency. And last, but not least, is the fact that were working diligently with a lot of libraries across the nation in our fdlp program to preserve some of the historical collections actually in tangible format. We have what we call preservation stewards. We are working with them. We have they already. One is in kentucky. They have agreed to preserve, for example, all of the documents where for the wpa. Thats major. Thats going to be wonderful when we can really spread it out across the United States. So i hope thats helpful. Sure. I promise we didnt rehearse this before. Very good answers there. You really touched on the second one, my question, as far as how often do you maybe review this process to make sure you are doing the digital role. Any work being done as far as projected cost savings by moving this from the paper world to the Digital World . Have you looked into that at all . We are starting to look. Thats a great question, too, because were starting to look into it to figure out how to monetize digitized content. But what we can see is that when we no longer print the tangible copy, were having great savings. A good example of course is when we talked about a zmr press, for example. When we actually installed that press and we started to realize that we were printing faster and having less waste, we realized that we could reduce the rate that we normally would charge. We reduce the rate by 7 . Thats an example of how we can attempt to monetize the savings. Let me squeeze one more thing in here just for time purposes. If were reduciing cost savings it may be i know people have been scoping out the property over there. Is it possible at some point this would be a reduction in size as well . That would be my last question. Let you wrap it up there. You mean reduction in employees . The actual physical property, actual employees, et cetera, yes. Right now we are sitting with 1,750 employees, the lowest weve had in a century. But what weve been doing with the space is consolidating our members or our employees into certain areas of the building and weve been renting out the rest. In fact, we rent out space to the architect of the capitol and we rent out space to chief of police. We rent out space to the International Commission on religious freedom and the Senate Sergeant at arms. Later on this year, ofr is going to move into our building which is great, because we do a lot of work with federal register and also nara has asked for quite a bit of space for their archive. Were going to archive their sla legislative documents. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you for the agency heads here today. I appreciate your service. Not only to those of us here on the panel or even all of congress but the american people. Mr. Ayers, thank you for outlining in your testimony. I was wondering if you could perhaps elaborate on maintenance needs, obviously preferred maintenance. We have some projects under way now, whether its rayburn parking garage, that maybe separated itself from other preferred maintenance projects and how you are going to prioritize addressing these projects especially as it relates to health and safety issues . A great question. We have a really mature project prioritization process in place that helps us distinguish and bubble up the most important priorities to the top of our Capitol Improvement project list. We will look at deferred maintenance and capital renewal, Capital Investment in capital construction. Our algorithm moves deferred mint maintenance to the top of that list. So the theory that you want to take care of what you have when you build new holds true in our project prioritization process. But not only that, we look at mission and economics and energy and environmental stewardship, historic preservation, regulatory compliance, all of that comes in to this prioritization process and we then will filter those projects out by whether we can do them. Are we ready to execute them. How critical they are to the functioning of the congress. And the like. And this has been in place for a number of years and its really been a fantastic tool, both for us to be able to put forth to the congress what we believe are the most important projects. But also for the congress to use to validate a process that weve gone through to ensure theyre making the right investments. Today our deferred maintenance or backlog of deferred maintenance stands at 1. 5 billion, and continues to grow each year. Obviously from a strategic perspective, weve got to continue to work to drive that down. Deferred maintenance should never be zero, nor should it be 1. 5 billion. Sure. Can you give us an update on the rayburn parking and cannon re w renewal, are you on time . We are on time with both. We are looking forward to continuing to work with this committee thats been really helpful in kicking off that first phase, the first of four phases in the ray burn garage, and each of those will take a year to yearandahalf. So this is a multiyear more than 100 Million Investment in that building. The ability to reach out to members and communicate whats going on has been really invaluable for us working with this committee. Similarly on the cannon renewable project, we have another eight years to go in that in the renewal of that building. We remain on budget. We remain on schedule. And looking forward to continuing to work with this committee to keep members informed of the progress of that work. All right. Thank you. I yield back. The chair will now recognize mr. Lauterman. Thank you, mr. Chair, and thank you to all of our panel for being here. Spending 32 years of my life in the i. T. Sector, i have concerns like many of you do with Cyber Security. Our jobs, thats the balance. Providing access to public and transparent information but at the same time protecting the information that should be protected. Unfortunately, the federal government has become notorious throughout the nation as being the most insecure of the most major organizations in this nation. Prior to this committee i served on the science, space and Technology Committee in which we conducted several investigations into Cyber Security breaches. I remember asking the Inspector General after one, how would you rate the federal governments Cyber Security posture . On an Elementary School grading scale. He said dminus. Which was a great concern. So i know we do have a lot of work to do there. Most of the my questions will be geared around that. I do have a lot of questions. What i dont get to well submit for the record, if thats all right. I know many of you are making strides in that direction. Dr. Hayden, thank you for coming by our office. I really enjoyed our chat. Really excited about you being on board. I know that you are already taking steps in moving in the right direction following a lot of the igs initiatives or recommendations. I got a couple of questions though just for clarity. Just so i can understand. I understand the centralization that youre going through with the i. T. And i commend that. I think thats very important. A lot of organizations get into trouble because they dont centralize. But in the memorandum that was sent out recently, you stated that top level supervisors of staff conducting i. T. Activities throughout all Service Units will report through the cio. Those not currently reporting to the cio will be placed on a detailed assignment to the cio. My question is what type of activities are those that youre realigning or restructuring to the cio . Centralization, especially in an organization like the library of congress that has several very missionoriented areas copyright, crs, Library Services, National Library for the blind and physically handicapped. Those missioncritical aspects will be protected and maintained with i. T. Centralization. The centralization centers more on security and making sure that there is cross departmental coordination of security, as well as procurement and coordination of general effort. There are opportunities for lapses in security when you have siloed i. T. Departments that are not even working together. And so the library of congress in that memo that you referred to really and this was a very pointed gao recommendation needed to centralize i. T. Aspects of operation without physically, in some instances, removing the people from their actual the crs people are still in located in crs and copyright, they report through functionally they are working for right. Operationally they report to the cio. Right. And also an important aspect and this was another gao recommendation was a project management unit, so that if, for instance, crs has a specialized i. T. Need and theyre contracting out for a project that there is a centralized project Management Office that is overseeing all i. T. Projects and just be Quality Control on that. I appreciate that. Working in this field we worked a lot of businesses that did not have centralization and you had aspects, i. T. Resources in other departments, that werent under the direction of the cio. Therefore, it is hard to implement Cyber Security and updates and those things that are important. So i think i see your cio nodding in agreement. Yes. I agree with that. Thank you so much. Look forward to working with you. Chief. Yes, sir. Similar type questions but i know that from a from my experience in working in the i. T. Field, everything is risk management. You can put the most secure Network System in the world, but its unusable until you have this balance. How what role that you can speak of does the Capitol Police play in our i. T. Infrastructure, predominantly for the house of representatives . In reference to the house, we are more of an enforcement when there is a violation. The house has chief Administrative Officer who controls the i. T. Areas and how they interact with each individual employing office. So we do partner on the legislative branch Cross Committee in terms of sharing information, looking at ways to combine efforts in terms of security, training. Of course were always our worst enemy when it comes to our weakest links are our employees that are falling victim to phishing expeditions and those types of things. So i think that across the enterprise, the entire lege branch, we have a very good working group. We control our own and our own infrastructure both classified and unclassified. And we work very closely with our Inspector General to close audit recommendations in terms of whether its a system issue on our Financial Statements or whether its an i. T. Specific enterprise. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, may i close with one quick question for the chief just to bring closure to that . Unless mr. Brady objects, you may ask the question. Understanding you have an investigatory role there, does Capitol Police have investigators that are Forensic Experts in the i. T. Field for Cyber Security . Or is that something that we do. You do. We do. Thank you, mr. Chairman and Ranking Member. Thank you very much. I want to thank each of you for coming today. This is a special place, and i know everyone in here is an institutionalist and respects it and loves this what we do. The only thing i would say is, were all in this together. So we really dont want we dont like surprises, do we, chief . Nobody likes surprises. So if there is a problem or something is coming up, talk to us about it and give us that advance notice. But again, thank you. Thank you to the members for being here. Without objection, this hearing will recess until tomorrow where we will hear from our second panel of witnesses and we will also have a markup. Thank you. Announcer every night this week while congress is on break were showing American History tv programs normally seent weekends. Tonight the internment of japanese americans starting at 8 eastern with a news reel on relocation. Followed by a tour of the Japaneseamerican National Museum and a discussion about the japanese American Experience during world war ii. Tonight at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. In case you missed here are some clips of consider spans programming last week. Senator rand paul spoke at the republican News Conference about the gop plan to replace the Affordable Care act. Its going to legalize the sale of inexpensive insurance. Its going to expand Health Savings accounts so people can save to buy their insurance. They can use it for their deductible or their premiums for vitamins, weight loss, you name it, exercise. And it also allows individuals to join in association so that theyre not left out in the cold by themselves to buy insurance in a small insurance pool. Actor Ashton Kutcher shared his incites on modern slavery with the Senate Foreign relations committee. Ive been on fbi raids where ive seen things that no person should ever see. Ive seen video content of a child thats the same age as mine being raped by an american man that was a sex tourist in cambodia and this child was so condition by her environment that she thought she was engaging in play. From the senate floor, senator Charles Grassley on gun background checks for mentally ill citizens. The government is essentially saying that a person with a disability such as an eating disorder is more likely to be violent and should no longer be allowed to own a gun. There is no evidence to support that general idea. At a News Conference, House Minority leader nancy pelosi spoke out against president trumps policy agenda. It is take vision that disdained hard working lawabiding immigrants and embraces vladimir putin. The disgraceful new i. C. E. Raids are deeply upsetting, cruel and designed to spread fear. It is a vision that makes america less safe, less strong and more fearful. Sim ma ver ma nominee for administrators for the senators for medicaid services. Im extremely humbled as a first generation american to be sitting before this committee after being nominated by the president of the United States. It is a testament to the fact that the American Dream is very much alive for those willing to work for it. All consider span programs are available at cspan. 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