Last year, three primary areas of legislative information generation and transfer were identified as part of this long-term plan. These include the compilation of the Congressional Record, the creation and finalization of bill text, and reports to accompany legislation and complete electronic versions of committee hearing transcripts.

IMPLEMENTATION OF CONGRESSIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY ACT

On January 23rd, 1996, a new era of professionalism and employee management arrived on Capitol Hill with the implementation of the Congressional Accountability Act, primarily the implementation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and other measures. While I share the belief that this law greatly improves the image and the future operation of the House, I raised to the Committee on House Oversight several legal and operational concerns regarding the formulation of the Office of Compliance regulations and, more importantly, the need to create the Office of House Employment Counsel.

As legal scholars and other labor specialists began to analyze the impact of the CAA on the House and the potential for litigation in this area, concerns quickly arose in light of the Office of General Counsel's traditional role in handling such matters as well as representing the institutional position of the House in all legal matters. Simply, it became apparent that both responsibilities could directly conflict. As an alternative structure, it was agreed that a separate office should be created to assist in the counseling, support and representation of employing authorities in employment matters. The creation of the office was strongly advocated by the Office of General Counsel and in mid-December the Committee on House Oversight quickly adopted its creation.

NON-PARTISAN NATURE OF HOUSE EMPLOYMENT COUNSEL

In my letter to the Committee on House Oversight, I noted the need to move slowly on the creation of this office in light of the unknown workload it would face. In addition, I must stress the nonpartisan nature in which the office is being created, will operate, and my recommendation for bipartisan review by the Chairman and Ranking Member prior to the official appointment of key personnel. Candidates are currently pending before the Committee on House Oversight.

There have been other accomplishments during the last 12 months, including the first competitive bid process regarding the award of a closed-captioning contract. While the process concluded with the retention of the same private contractor, it resulted in a 3-year, annually renewable contract at tens of thousands of dollars less than what the House had previously spent. I was pleased that such a large contract could be competitively bid and I hope this competitive process will be continued in the future.

In the testimony I submit to the subcommittee about my several other accomplishments and future goals for the Offices of the Clerk, I hope the subcommittee finds my further comments of benefit.

In closing, I want to thank all of you for the support that you have given me during the last year, and I, of course, seek your continued support for my fiscal year 1997 request. I welcome any of your suggestions and obviously I stand ready to answer any questions or provide any further details you wish regarding our operations.

[The information follows:]

HONORABLE ROBIN H. CARLE

STATEMENT BEFORE THE HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE ON
THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH -- FY97 APPROPRIATIONS REQUEST

February 27, 1996

Chairman Packard, Mr. Fazio and other members of the subcommittee, I appreciate having the opportunity today to appear once again this time to present the FY97 appropriations requests related to the operations of the Offices of the Clerk. Time has passed so quickly in the 104th Congress. I find myself now counting the limited number of legislative days remaining in which to accomplish so much more in order to meet this Congress's goals.

Before I present a general outline regarding the FY97 requests, I must first state that certain significant expenses of the House that are now contained in the Clerk's budget were previously not itemized or assigned to this particular budget. Now, as requested by this subcommittee last year, several of these expenses have been eliminated from the House's Administrative Account and have been transferred into this FY97 request. Items included in this category include the closed captioning services of the House Floor proceedings and private stenographic services of committee hearings.

Like all of you, I believe in complete disclosure and itemization of these House expenses. In that vein, you should see a "cause and effect" with the transfer of such itemized expenses to

my budget and there should be a like reduction in other areas of the House budget. While these costs have increased the overall size of the Clerk's budget request, these are not new expenses for the House and should not increase the House budget as a whole.

With the exception of the creation of the new Office of House Employment Counsel and the new add-in costs I have mentioned, this request is modest in size and growth.

The FY97 request for the Clerk's Office is $15,370,000. This figure appears to be an 11.32% increase. However, with the removal of $2,146,000 in new funds for the Office of the House Employment Counsel and other House expenses which were previously reflected in the House's Administrative Account, it is a simple request of $13,224,000, an increase of 2.12% when compared to the FY96 appropriations for personnel and nonpersonnel expenses.

I have already submitted to the committee a detailed table regarding the office by office budget targets I am recommending. However, I wish to highlight the creation of the new OHEC and several accomplishments and goals established within my operations.

First, I should begin by congratulating the House membership on the robust and aggressive first session of the 104th Congress. During the first session, the House was in session 167 days for a total of 1,525 hours. There were 885 recorded votes, the second most in the history of the Congress. There were also 2,191 House committee hearings producing 1,666,528 pages of testimony and 3,430 bills and other legislative measures were introduced into the

House. All these figures are increases over the last session of the 103d Congress and-I would anticipate will continue into the 2nd Session of the 104th Congress. Simply, such increased activity comes at a cost in my offices' personnel and support costs. I am very pleased with the performance of my offices during this period and am seeking to continue to maintain the quality in services and support.

Since my previous appearance before this subcommittee, the Offices of the Clerk have been reorganized to focus on the current and anticipated future legislative needs of the House.

As I outlined in my earlier testimony, computerization and the updating of communication equipment within the Offices of the Clerk is our primary and long-term goal. In many areas of legislative information generation, management and transmittal the House is sorely lacking. The Clerk's offices are central in the creation and handling of this information and I believe what must evolve are processes and procedures to rely more on computer and other advanced technologies. I have not lost sight of House traditions and the need to allow the House flexibility in the legislative arena --- however, I will be recommending in the near future, changes in some of the procedures to help advance our electronic venture.

Essential to the upgrading of my operations was the centralization of equipment into the Office of Legislative Computer Systems and the acquisition of new equipment to enhance information management.