CRS-6 Footnotes: "Benefits available to executive branch employees covered by FERS. 'Health care account is used for tax-advantaged payment of medical expenses not covered by other group insurance. (Unused amounts are forfeited.) *Federal employees may be eligible for the Federal income tax credit for dependent care expenses. 'Less than 1 year, 100% for 15 days and 66-2/3% for 16 to 26 days; after 1-2 years, 100% for 6 weeks and 66-23/% for 7-22 weeks; 2-5 years, 100% for 15 weeks and 66-2/3 % for 16-22 weeks; and 5 or more years, 100% for 22 weeks. Includes Social Security, Workers' Compensation, State disability laws, and other benefits provided by or through company. 'Additional salary continuance death benefit of up to 4 months' salary paid fully by employer if death occurs while active employee. "Additional employer-paid benefits in the event of death or injury resulting from an accident while on company business. *Federal Employees' Retirement System (FERS). The before-tax plan is a 401(k) arrangement; the after-tax plan is a 401(a) arrangement. Employer contributions are based on age and years of service. Basic contribution of 2-9% of earnings below the Social Security taxable wage base ($60,600), and 4-18% of earnings above. Account balances credited with annual interest of 5.25%. 'Since workforce is predominantly young (about age 30) with short job tenure (about 3 years), the employer contribution as a percent of payroll is currently 1.56%. If plan demographics change, plan costs would change accordingly. Thirteen days if fewer than 3 years' service; 20 days from 3-14 years' service; and 26 days for 15 or more years' service. "Vacation days based on an accrual rate that yields 10 vacation days for between 1 and 4 years' service' 15 days for 5-13 years' service; 20 days for 14-20 years' service; and 25 days for 21 or more years. CYBERCONGRESS PROJECT Mr. PACKARD. Let me ask one more question, and that is with regard to the CyberCongress project again. We reprogrammed a sizable amount, what was it, $20 million or so last September. Could you give us an accounting of that reprogramming? Mr. KENNETH MILLER. There are two pieces to it: A communications piece, and there are three parts to that. One is infrastructure development, where we are, in effect, rewiring Cannon and other House office buildings at this point in time. Mr. FAZIO. Does the term "rewire" include fiber optics? Mr. KENNETH MILLER. Exactly. And it is also the equipment associated with that wiring. It allows us to increase the bandwidthand that is ongoing. That represented about a third of the $8.9 million that was reprogrammed for communications. Then the second piece is a new switch, telephone switch which allows digital communications, and that will go in during the August recess, and then the third piece was the beginning of the flagship services, the $3.2 million, which will become the $5 million in 1996 and 1997, and that is operational now. As I said, there are over 100 Member offices that have raised their hands already on that one. That is a move toward standardization which is what this whole CyberCongress drives towards as well, and that is to get standardization in the information systems, in the equipment, in the software so that the support is better and that we can really take full advantage as we move on and not be tied to proprietary software and proprietary solutions. INFORMATION SYSTEMS Then on the information systems side, there were two pieces. One was software getting site licenses for all of the Member offices, committee offices, and for the CAO offices, and that was providing the Microsoft Windows '95 capability. The site license for 7,000 is approximately $700,000. The other part was the introduction of Pentium class machines, whether they be PCs or Macintosh Power PCs, in each of the offices and into the offices of the CAO and House Information Resources, and that represented, with the fileservers and the printers and the scanners, the other part of that $7.8 million. So the money has been committed; the installations are under way, and in fact, the installations in the Member offices will begin in the April time frame, and one of the advantages of the contract that we have signed is that we are able to take advantage of upgrades. When we initially started back in October with this, the basic machine was a 100 megahertz machine, and because of the way we have the contract written, we are able to take advantage of improvements in performance. Well, now the equivalent machine is 133 megahertz. Starting Monday we will be able to deliver those. So the Members are going to get 33 percent more performance in the machine that we will deliver to them, and that is a very positive step. |