MR. CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE, I AGAIN WANT TO EXPRESS MY GRATITUDE FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO TESTIFY BEFORE YOU TODAY. I ALSO WANT YOU TO KNOW HOW MUCH I APPRECIATE THE SUPPORT AND ADVICE YOU HAVE GIVEN ME AS YOUR POSTMASTER. I HOPE THAT I MAY CONTINUE TO COUNT ON YOUR GUIDANCE IN THE FUTURE. WITH YOUR HELP, I FEEL THAT WE HAVE MADE THE HOUSE POST OFFICE, THE MOST EFFICIENT ORGANIZATION OF ITS KIND IN THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. AGAIN, THANK YOU FOR PROVIDING ME WITH THIS OPPORTUNITY TO PRESENT THE BUDGET FOR THE HOUSE. POST OFFICE FOR FISCAL YEAR 1980. STATEMENT SUMMARIZED Mr. ROTA. With the committee's permission, may I just follow my statement in outline? Mr. BENJAMIN. Fine. Mr. ROTA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee: The total appropriations requested by the House Post Office for fiscal year 1980 is $1,284,700. This is an increase of $107,600 over last year. This increase is primarily the result of mandatory cost of living and longevity increases, and 5 additional employees. Due to the substantial increase in the volume of mail last year combined with the expanded services to the House Office Building Annex, it was necessary during 1978 to request 5 additional employees. As you may recall, the 5-employee addition we made last year was the first increase in the number of mail handlers since I became Postmaster. The House Post Office has steadily increased the amount of mail processed-estimated to have tripled in volume since 1972-without any additions to the staff. The volume of mail has increased over 300 percent in 6 years, with only a 9 percent increase in personnel which was requested last year. In addition to increasing the amount of mail processed by each House Post Office employee, we have been able to expand and improve the services offered to the members and will continue to do so. STATISTICAL TABLES In order to evaluate the performance of the House Post Office, we have compiled statistics which are set forth in seven tables. Table No. 1 demonstrates the volume of mail being processed by the House Post Office. Table 1 reflects letter mail, what we call a No. 10 letter envelope, received only from the Postal Service. It is estimated that these figures represent less than half of the total amount of mail received. In addition to the mail received through the U.S. Postal Service, we receive a large volume directly from private organizations. I should note that lobbying groups or other large organizations which have mass mailings that they want members to receive on any one particular day, may bring mail in by the thousands or even a half million pieces directly to the House Post Office and we deliver this. For instance, during the consideration of the situs picketing bill, 55,000 pieces of mail were received by the Speaker in less than 2 hours. Various State governments, Federal agencies, and departments also deliver mail in bulk to the House Post Office. We also accept bulk delivery of newspapers. I have had the cooperation of the large newspapers in this regard. Rather than sending in newspapers addressed separately, we have been able to have them sent to the Postmaster in one unit, and by doing this we have been able to get the newspapers to the members immediately. They will airlift them to us and then deliver to the Postmaster. We have a list and deliver them as soon as they are received rather than having you receive one newspaper today at 9 o'clock and then having the chairman receive the same newspaper tomorrow. This way we can control the newspapers and have them delivered the same day. Mr. MICHEL. That doesn't include the local papers, however. Mr. ROTA. Yes, sir. We have been able to work it out with the Post. Mr. MICHEL. We are having a problem of ours being stolen every morning. Mr. ROTA. You have? Mr. MICHEL. Yes. Mr. ROTA. How do you receive it? Mr. MICHEL. Openly. Mr. BENJAMIN. Likewise. Mr. MICHEL. Maybe it is too much to ask to put it into the slot, because I know that takes all that additional time. Mr. ROTA. No. Mr. MICHEL. I was wondering how we could do that. Mr. MICHEL. Admittedly our office is just opposite the elevator, so the paper could easily be taken. [Discussion off the record.] Mr. ROTA. With further reference to the mail we deliver which is not reflected in the tables presented today, we have the "Dear Colleague" letters, inside mail, daily legislative calendars, Congressional Records, metropolitan area telephone books and congressional telephone books, correspondence from the Library of Congress, White House mailings plus many other types of mail that are delivered but are not reflected in the the US Postal Service fig ures. In total, it is estimated that the House Post Office delivers well in excess of 100 million pieces of mail per year. I will ask unanimous consent to correct Table 1. These figures reflect the incoming letter mail; this is your only mail from constituents. That is a small portion of the total mail handled. Table No. 1 also compares our staff over the past 6 years as well as the number of stops served and the volume of mail handled. You can see that mail volume and number of stops served have continued to increase over the years. In 1973 we served only 630 stops-that would be your offices and other committees and subcommitteesand the volume of letter mail was 20,599,253. In 1978 we have a total of 87 employees processing 28,017,000 pieces of mail to 1,016 stops. This is 386 additional stops being served with a greatly increased volume of mail-all being handled by our employees with only three additional mail handlers over the period of time that I have been Postmaster. CRS MAIL TO CONGRESS To further explain how we arrived at these figures, a 1977 letter from the Honorable Gilbert Gude, the Director of the Congressional Research Service, stated that his office alone sent some 93,000 pieces of mail to House offices. This CRS mail more than doubled in 1978. None of this CRS Mail goes through the Postal Service and is not reflected in Postal Service figures. By following our direct delivery procedure, we can have mail from the Library or Congress over to our shop within the hour. If our car goes over at 10 o'clock and picks up the mail, the messenger is back before 11 o'clock and Members will receive that mail at 11:00 o'clock. Without this direct delivery, the mail would be handled by the Postal Service, routed through the City Post Office, and it could take as much as 3 days to get here to the Capitol from the Library of Congress just across the street. At the present time we have 98 full-time employees. Of these 98, 3 have administrative duties, 12 provide stamp counter services, 8 operate the X-ray machines, and 75 are involved in mail processing. At the present time we have 6 vacancies. Mr. BENJAMIN. Let me stop you at this point. Do you have any questions of the Postmaster? [Discussion off the record.] BULK MAIL HANDLING PROCEDURES Mr. MICHEL. Qn the record. You mentioned earlier these different groups that will dump just a jillion tons of mail on you that you then in turn guarantee delivery. Mr. ROTA. Yes, sir, we deliver it that day. Mr. MICHEL. What does that mean, that that mail was postmarked then? Mr. ROTA. Yes, sir. The House Administration Committee in 1972 studied the problem, and at that time said if there weren't some rules or regulations governing the mass mailings coming in, at the rate they were being received, that the Post Office would just be overwhelmed. [Discussion off the record.] Mr. MICHEL. On the record. You don't accept anything directly from a group in your shop and then distribute it to the members, do you? Mr. ROTA. Yes, sir. Mr. MICHEL. You do? Mr. ROTA. Yes, sir. Mr. CONTE. It has got to have postage. Mr. ROTA. That is correct. This is the procedure cleared by the House Administration Committee. [Discussion off the record.] Mr. BENJAMIN. Back on the record. Are there other questions? ORANGE-BAG MAIL Mr. ROTA. Responding to the question raised while we were off the record, we guarantee next-day delivery of "orange-bag" mail if dispatched by 2 p.m. Mr. MICHEL. One other question. On this system that you guarantee what, pickup at such and such an hour and delivery back in our district for next day service? Mr. ROTA. Yes, sir. Mr. MICHEL. Is that thing working all right? Mr. ROTA. Yes, sir. If the "orange-bag service doesn't work, you let me know. Once in a while a district will be confronted with a problem-a delay caused by routing. What we do when we find out what really happened to cause the delay is to reroute the mail. Mr. MICHEL. Is that just an individual service for the Congress between Washington and our congressional district office? Mr. ROTA. Yes, sir. Mr. MICHEL. And it does not cost us? Mr. ROTA. No, sir, it is first-class mail. Mr. MICHEL. It is not like one of these guarantees-— Mr. ROTA. No, sir, it is not like express mail. Mr. MICHEL [continuing]. By the regular Post Office Department for $8 or whatever it is. Mr. ROTA. I have figures in my statement on express mail. Mr. MICHEL. But it is limited to the congressional office in Washington and anyone of whatever offices he has officially in his district. Mr. ROTA. Yes, sir, and the Postal Service has agreed within the past year to permit certain pre-cancelled stamped mail along with franked mail going to a member's district to be dispatched by "orange-bag". Now if the member for some reason doesn't want to send a franked envelope but would prefer to put postage on his envelope, we will precancel it and send the precanceled letters in the bag also. It can then go to his district. Upon request we have recently set up "orange bag" service for mail from some Congressional district offices to members' offices here in Washington. We have set that up for members who have requested such return service. Mr. BENJAMIN. Are there other questions about the entire postal account? Mr. ROTA. Should I continue with the summary of my statement. Mr. BENJAMIN. We have it for the record, Mr. Postmaster. I do want to thank you on several counts, one, that your level of employment is the same, even though your workload has continuously increased. I want to thank you on the account that since the beginning of this decade you are one of the few agencies if not the only one on this Hill that hasn't more than doubled the size of their budget and I want to thank you on a final account that your average salary appears to be $12,354 compared to the astronomical figures we see. Thank you for a fine statement which will be included in the record. Thank you for the fine performance during the course of the year and we wish you well during the next fiscal year. Mr. ROTA. Thank you, sir. |